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Why I’m angry

I have been saying for years that Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” is one of the best feminist texts. I also think that Virginia Woolf, like all great geniuses, didn’t understand just how wise her words were. In her “Chapter 2,” her elegant pen writes:

“When an arguer argues dispassionately he thinks only of the argument; and the reader cannot help thinking of the argument too. If he had written dispassionately about women, had used indisputable proofs to establish his argument and had shown no trace of wishing that the result should be one thing rather than another, one would not have been angry either. One would have accepted the fact, as one accepts the fact that a pea is green or a canary yellow. So be it, I should have said. But I had been angry because he was angry.”

Being able to argue dispassionately is indeed the best way to get the audience to consider the merit of the argument and not of the orator. And yet, as a feminist, I often found myself getting angrier and angrier during my discussions. The always on-point and smart and hilarious Jessica Valenti recently discussed the anger in a Planned Parenthood luncheon and I agree with her wholeheartedly but after a recent spat with my brother I ended up wondering again about this topic. Here is what I came up with as a response for the next person that asks me, “Why are you ...

When rising isn’t enough!

In opening the homepage of one newspaper, I found an informative article on The 1 Billion Rising Project. I had already read about it but given the importance of the event, it was nice to be reminded about its existence. It’s not lost on me why it’s fundamental to dance and shout against violence. It’s not lost on me why public awareness is central to solve the problem. It’s also not lost on me that many people consider the event just a bit of theatre in order to create a nice youtube video and congratulate each other for the nice attendance.

It’s not lost on me because, today, for a second, I was one of them.

You see, right next to the ...

In opening the homepage of one newspaper, I found an informative article on The 1 Billion Rising Project. I had already read about it but given the importance of the event, it was nice to be reminded ...

Of sexism and race cars

I know, I know. This topic has been explored countless times before.  Last year, that excellent episode of Mad Men (even if I still have qualms on the whole plausibility of the Joan situation) called “The Other Woman” showed perfectly the correlation. The tagline “Jaguar: Something beautiful you can truly own” shows sexism in its purest form and the whole pitch scene should have made even willfully ignorant people aware of the clear connection between sport cars and sexism.

But I digress, Mad Men is set decades ago, the situation must have changed. Everyone that reads this blog knows that this change is as true as Don Draper’s name. So why am I wasting your time? Because, at times, I am ...

I know, I know. This topic has been explored countless times before.  Last year, that excellent episode of Mad Men (even if I still have qualms on the whole plausibility of the Joan situation) called “The Other ...

Some French words of wisdom on marriage equality

Paris on January, 13 was invaded by what has been called the “Manif pour tous”  (March for everybody) which means that all the people that oppose the new law that will open the possibility of marriage and adoption to homosexual couples got to get together from all France and have a party about their bigot views. I was reading about the event on the French version of the Huffington Post and the website seemed to be on fire with thoughtful blogs.

In one of them (Marriage for everybody, women will wake up with a “sacred” hangover), Christine Pedotti, wonders about how this topic is able to magically bring together ...

Paris on January, 13 was invaded by what has been called the “Manif pour tous”  (March for everybody) which means that all the people that oppose the new law that will open the possibility of marriage and ...

Goodbye, Rita

Today we say goodbye to one of the most kickass women I have ever read about. Her name was Rita Levi Montalcini and she was a 103-year-old feminist.

A daughter of a man she herself defined as Victorian, she got a degree in Medicine without his consent and she pursued her studies, racial laws against Jews be damned!

At 20, she had decided not to be a wife or a mother and when asked whether she regretted her choice, she answered “Never”. Science was her calling and even after her Nobel Prize, she never stopped studying. Her niece, commenting on her death, told the press that “she studied till the very end.” As with most great people, other than her inspiration and ...

Today we say goodbye to one of the most kickass women I have ever read about. Her name was Rita Levi Montalcini and she was a 103-year-old feminist.

A daughter of a man she herself defined as Victorian, ...

“Bad” Feminists Anonymous

Hi, my name is Monica and I am a “Bad” Feminist.

Do you ever have moments like that? In which your actions or thoughts contradict your feminism?  Don’t you wish at times that there was a club in which one could whine about society programming our brains and how difficult it is to reprogram them?

If there were such a club, my confession would go more or less like this: Hi, my name is Monica and I am a Bad Feminist. A few days ago,  I watched Hugh Jackman’s interview on 60 minutes and I have discovered that Mr Anything-you-can-do-he-can-do-better has been abandoned by his mother when he was a child. My immediate reaction to this particular passage was “Now I finally ...

Hi, my name is Monica and I am a “Bad” Feminist.

Do you ever have moments like that? In which your actions or thoughts contradict your feminism?  Don’t you wish at times that there was a club in ...