2011 December Archive

The Feministing Five: Ina May Gaskin

As promised, this week’s Feministing Five is with the legendary Ina May Gaskin. Ina May is the famed “midwife of modern midwifery” and has revolutionized the way the world views this ancient practice since the emergence of her seminal book “Spiritual Midwifery.” This past month, Ina May was awarded the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize in Sweden called The Right Livelihood Award, which “honours and supports those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today.” And indeed, Ina May does. A pioneer in the natural birth movement, Ina May firmly places control back into women’s hands from what she calls “male-centered, misogynistic birthing processes” which views women’s bodies as defective designs and ...

By Samhita • 12 years ago

Feministing Year in Review: Samhita’s picks

It’s hard to just pick a few blog posts, since not only has Feministing been delivering super strong content for seven years, we kind of went next level this year with a slue of new writers that truly brought in a new era of feminist thought leadership. We are just so f-ing good you guys!!

We also had a year full of feminist wins and losses–high profile cases that needed dissection, analysis, story-telling and whistle-blowing, whether it be the head of the IMF being accused of a violent sexual assault or the importance of Slutwalk. What a year for feminism!

Some of our most important and critical work is calling out how the mainstream media represents things–whether that be claiming lady ...

By Lori Adelman • 12 years ago

Feministing Year in Review: What Lori Loved

2011 was an exciting year for feminist blogs, with more fresh feminist faces, productive dialogue and crucial reporting than ever before. Feministing was no exception, and while we lost the regular contributions of a few irreplaceable feminist friends of mine, I’m really excited about the new voices that joined the mix this year. It was really hard to choose, but two of my favorite posts from the year centered on false fatherhood and forced motherhood:

Jos deconstructs political paternalism

In my opinion, Jos has never written anything that’s not utterly brilliant. She has a way of presenting heady concepts like paternalism or gender as simple and straightforward, bringing the reader around to her way of seeing things without so much as a strain ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 12 years ago

Feministing Year in Review: Maya’s Top Picks

One of my favorite things about writing for Feministing is getting to discuss the issues I care about with a diverse group of incredibly smart ladies. And I think that some of the best posts from the last year have come when we’ve made that convo public–tackling an issue and teasing apart the nuances together. Whether it was teaming up with Lori to debunk some bullshit or mourning the end of Friday Night Lights with Jos and Chloe, it’s been a joy to chat with my fellow writers.

The group effort I was most impressed by was definitely “Slutwalk redux with Rebecca Traister and Feministing writers.” In this mega-post, several of us offered our thoughts on Traister’s ...

By zerlina • 12 years ago

Feministing Year in Review: Zerlina’s Picks

Two of my favorite posts from this year were about violence against women but dealing with two different stories in the news. One was Jos’ post about what we do when police are not the ones we can trust anymore to keep us safe and the second is a post by Lori about why despite a level of ambivalence she chose to participate in Slutwalk.

Jos on the police:

I noticed that the New York City “rape cop” case seemed to cause a shift in the thinking of some feminists, who saw police officers using their position of authority to do violence and basically get away with it. At around the same time, the SlutWalk movement caught on in a ...

Two of my favorite posts from this year were about violence against women but dealing with two different stories in the news. One was Jos’ post about what we do when police are not the ones ...

By Miriam • 12 years ago

Feministing Year in Review: Miriam’s picks

Two of my favorite posts this year were letters from Feministing contributors to public figures.

Maya hit it out of the park with her snarky yet sincere letter to Johnny Depp, when he compared having to participate in photo shoots to rape:

Dear Johnny,

Big fan over here. Your incredible acting skills and magnetic sex appeal made me fall in love with every single one of your characters–even that lovable, dirty scoundrel Captain Jack Sparrow. So kudos to you!

But, no. Being photographed is not like being raped. At all. I have not been professionally photographed or raped before, but I feel pretty sure about this one. As a general rule, you should just steer clear of rape metaphors. Comparing things that are

Two of my favorite posts this year were letters from Feministing contributors to public figures.

Maya hit it out of the park with her snarky yet sincere letter to Johnny Depp, when he compared having to participate ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Feministing Year in Review: Chloe’s top picks

I totally cheated. I’m a big old cheater. When I was asked to list my two favourite posts from this year, one was not so much a post as it was an event, and the other wasn’t a Feministing post at all. Like I said, I’m a big old cheater. But it’s cheating for a good cause, I promise, because my top picks this year aren’t just about Feministing – they’re about feminist activism, and about the role of feminist blogging in that activism and in the feminist movement more broadly. So, here we go:

Lori co-organizes the protest of the NYC “rape cop” verdict

In May of this year, as I’m sure you remember, two New York City police officers

I totally cheated. I’m a big old cheater. When I was asked to list my two favourite posts from this year, one was not so much a post as it was an event, and the other wasn’t ...

By Jos Truitt • 12 years ago

Feministing Year In Review: Jos spreads the love

Do you have any idea how lucky I feel to blog with such a brilliant, badass crew? I was supposed to pick two posts to highlight, but I totally cheated. As you’ll see this afternoon, cheating is the theme of the day. Anywho, here’s a few examples of times my fellow bloggers made my brain explode this year:

The limits of a WOC feminist stance within the context of global racism by Samhita

Samhita came back from writing a book and dropped this. I’m still in awe. Rather than continuing the back and forth conversation about the veil, Samhita uncovers why the dialogue’s playing out the way it does, and how racism, colonialism, nationalism and global capital, and choice feminism constrict ...

Do you have any idea how lucky I feel to blog with such a brilliant, badass crew? I was supposed to pick two posts to highlight, but I totally cheated. As you’ll see this afternoon, cheating is ...