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By scottishtanningsecrets • 11 years ago

How do we encourage the men we care about to care about feminism?

Recently, several male friends of mine have gotten involved in Women’s Studies classes and other class discussions that involve feminism, and a few have mentioned that they have felt alienated or attacked in such classes because they are male. I have not been in the same classes, so I can’t say first-hand what is going on, but I worry that a feminism defined as women versus men is denying itself many more potential supporters than a movement defined as feminists versus anti-feminists.

As a person with white and economic privilege, I also recognize that my friends’ apprehension to call themselves feminists could have something to do with the difficulties of recognizing and disassembling male privilege in a society that strongly encourages privileged groups to ignore the unfair advantages they receive as members of that group. While acknowledging and disassembling privilege is small compared to the challenges faced by those without privilege, I suspect it will be to feminism’s advantage to help men and other privileged groups recognize and confront privilege in a way that is open and includes them. 
By scottishtanningsecrets • 11 years ago

The Wonder Woman Incident


“A SYTYCB entry”

My first contact with Wonder Woman came when I was in preschool. Upon hearing that many of the boys in my class pretended to be Batman during recess, I was upset that girls could not play too, and over the weekend my mother took me to the library to embark on my first quest to find a female superhero to embody. The graphic novel section obliged with a giant full-color anthology of Wonder Woman comics.

Being too young to delve into the words, I stuck to the pictures, but got the idea. By the time school started again on Monday I was ready to begin my days fighting crime.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, the earlier exploits of ...


“A SYTYCB entry”

My first contact with Wonder Woman came when I was in preschool. Upon hearing that many of the boys in my class pretended to be Batman during recess, I was upset that girls could ...
By scottishtanningsecrets • 11 years ago

Switched At Birth: A Review

A SYTYCB Entry

As a person with a disability I’ve taken a special interest in characters with disabilities and how well (or not so well) these characters portray life with a disability on television. Switched at Birth caught my attention because it excels at discussing disability in a complex and realistic way. Merely having a character with a disability onscreen is not enough—the character needs to have wants and ambitions equal to their able-bodied counterparts. The media should take note that including disabled characters in television is the equivalent of making a promise to the audience that the character’s storyline will explore disability issues well and be a character that viewers with disabilities can relate to. Switched At Birth has ...

A SYTYCB Entry

As a person with a disability I’ve taken a special interest in characters with disabilities and how well (or not so well) these characters portray life with a disability on television. Switched at Birth ...
By scottishtanningsecrets • 11 years ago

It’s A Wonderful Afterlife

Hey all,

Life has been busy so I haven’t done much posting of late, but I wanted to mention a movie I just saw on youtube called “It’s A Wonderful Afterlife” because I hadn’t seen much about it when it first came out and because it didn’t do very well at the box office it wasn’t promoted very well afterward. When I actually saw it, it blew me away.

There are other measures of success in the arts than how much money is made of a project. I think the movie does some really good things, many of which have been discussed on this blog. I’m including a few of them, with a link to the movie, on this post.

1. ...

Hey all,

Life has been busy so I haven’t done much posting of late, but I wanted to mention a movie I just saw on youtube called “It’s A Wonderful Afterlife” because I hadn’t seen much ...
By scottishtanningsecrets • 12 years ago

“Hot Coffee” and rape survival

I just saw a documentary called Hot Coffee on HBO that addresses the “McDonald’s hot coffee case” and others that have been called “frivolous lawsuits” and exposes how some of those cases were really used to benefit corporations over individuals.

Readers of this blog might be especially interested in a section that highlights a rape survivor trying to get her day in court after being raped while working for Halliburton. She was prevented from doing so because she unknowingly signed an employment contract with a mandatory arbitration clause (Which means you waive your right to go to the courts and go to a private arbitrator which almost always favors the corporation over individual clients). Thus the survivor was ...

I just saw a documentary called Hot Coffee on HBO that addresses the “McDonald’s hot coffee case” and others that have been called “frivolous lawsuits” and exposes how some of those cases were really used to ...
By scottishtanningsecrets • 13 years ago

Jon Stewart Sticks It To The Gender Police

I saw this on The Daily Show the other day. Really it’s incredible that this is even a story (don’t we have more important things to worry about?) Even more depressing is the fact that the only one who can cover this story with any integrity is a comedian. But it is still the Daily Show, which somehow manages to make our failing news organizations something we can laugh about, and this one’s hysterical. Enjoy!

And btw media, I think it’s about time transgender children were celebrated–just FYI


Toemaggedon 2011

I saw this on The Daily Show the other day. Really it’s incredible that this is even a story (don’t we have more important things to worry about?) Even more depressing is the fact that ...
By scottishtanningsecrets • 13 years ago

If Straight People Were the Minority

I found a really interesting episode of the U.S. sitcom “Ellen” on youtube.  The premise is a world in which straight people were the minority.  I thought it was really funny and in exploring LGBTQ the humor was really original and refreshing because fewer shows deal with these topics.

Part 1:

Part 2:

I was also comparing the episodes after Ellen (the character) came out to those before and I noticed that there was more kissing, sexual innuendo, etc. in the episodes where Ellen was assumed to be straight and had boyfriends than with her girlfriend in the last two seasons.  I was wondering if this had to do with not wanting to “offend” fans of the show or to avoid catering to ...

I found a really interesting episode of the U.S. sitcom “Ellen” on youtube.  The premise is a world in which straight people were the minority.  I thought it was really funny and in exploring LGBTQ the humor ...
By scottishtanningsecrets • 13 years ago

Romanoff on Women’s Issues

     I recently went to a house party for Andrew Romanoff and I think he has a really good stance on feminist issues, which is why I’m writing this post.  Romanoff is running for the U.S. Senate in Colorado; because he’s not taking money from corporations he needs lots of support from individuals.  (Similar to how Obama got elected.)  The problem is that Michael Bennet, the Republican candidate, has much more money because he is taking corporate money so it is more difficult for Romanoff to have his views heard.

I asked Romanoff personally about his stance on abortion–he is pro-choice.  He has also helped with several bills for people with disabilities in Colorado to get waiting lists decreased ...

     I recently went to a house party for Andrew Romanoff and I think he has a really good stance on feminist issues, which is why I’m writing this post.  Romanoff is running for the

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