Posts Tagged Michelle Obama

How to be a feminist, according to Politico

What’s your personal feminist nightmare? The Handmaid’s Tale? A meeting of the Texas GOP, circa 2013?

According to Politico’s Friday cover (which we won’t link to and satisfy their troll-baiting thirst), the true “feminist nightmare” is Michelle Obama. Yes. That Michelle Obama. Rather than focus on actual feminist critiques of the First Lady, Politico tore down her work for failing to look like either Big Macho Male Politics or the magazine’s blurry vision of grassroots feminist organizing. (It also attributed a quote to the Feministing staff that we didn’t write. But whatever.)

The article boils down to four Politico criteria for being a real feminist. Here they are:

What’s your personal feminist nightmare? The Handmaid’s Tale? A meeting of the Texas GOP, circa 2013?

According to Politico’s Friday cover (which we won’t link to and satisfy their troll-baiting thirst), the true “feminist nightmare” is Michelle ...

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How to deal with rude people and command respect starring FLOTUS in GIFs

So by now you’ve heard that First Lady Michelle Obama has a somewhat different strategy for dealing with hecklers than President Obama.

This week at a DNC fundraiser in D.C., Ellen Sturtz of GetEqual interrupted the First Lady’s speech yelling out demands for the president to keep his promise and sign an executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation and gender identity. A valid critique, to be sure, but the yelling was off putting to the First Lady and her allies, and the way she handled it has been analyzed ad nauseum.

I fiercely defended the First Lady’s response to the heckler and have since seen her reaction as instructive. The First ...

So by now you’ve heard that First Lady Michelle Obama has a somewhat different strategy for dealing with hecklers than President Obama.

This week at a DNC fundraiser in D.C., Ellen Sturtz of GetEqual ...

Michelle Obama on gun violence, opportunity and possibility

If you thought you couldn’t love Michelle Obama more, listen to her choke back tears as she says important things about gun violence to an audience in Chicago.

Exhibit of awesomeness a) “Resources matter, what it takes to build strong successful young people isn’t genetics, pedigree or good luck — it’s opportunity.” and b) “I started with the same aptitude and intellectual capabilities as so many of my peers and the only thing that separated me from them were a few more advantages.”

The first lady talking about class and opportunity and it’s relationship to violence in low-income communities — never seen that one before.

 

If you thought you couldn’t love Michelle Obama more, listen to her choke back tears as she says important things about gun violence to an audience in Chicago.

Exhibit of awesomeness a) “Resources matter, what it takes to ...

FGC cartoon

Weekly Feminist Reader

Egyptian cartoonist Doaa Eladl publishes a controversial cartoon criticizing FGC.

The North Dakota Senate has approved a ban on abortions after six-weeks of pregnancy, the most restrictive in the country.

Both cops involved in Kimani Gray’s murder had already been named in federal lawsuits.

The Middle East’s first women’s museum has opened in Dubai.

Domestic violence is four times as prevalent in police offer families as in the general population.

Ugandan girl chess genius Phiona Mutesi invited to play against Bill Gates (who is arrogant enough to think he stands a chance).

How has social media changed the way we talk about rape?

Senator Feinstein won’t stand for mansplaining.

On

Egyptian cartoonist Doaa Eladl publishes a controversial cartoon criticizing FGC.

The North Dakota Senate has approved a ban on abortions after six-weeks of pregnancy, the most restrictive in the country.

Both cops ...

Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet

An epidemic of female suicide is sweeping Afghanistan.

Hunter “Most Hated Man on the Internet” Moore is being sued for his “revenge porn” site.

The Steubenville rapists’ super predictable defense? “She wanted it.

Jessica on why Zerlina’s stance against rape as natural and inevitable is so important.

After you’ve read that, thank Zerlina for her work.

A Twitter conversation with the FLOTUS attracts enough bigotry to make you sick.

A bunch of important ladies talk about “having it all” on CNN.

A great take from xoJane on rape culture and Sunday’s Girls.

I think the word you were looking for is “protest,” not “riot,” to describe the Brooklyn ...

An epidemic of female suicide is sweeping Afghanistan.

Hunter “Most Hated Man on the Internet” Moore is being sued for his “revenge porn” site.

The Steubenville rapists’ super predictable defense? “She wanted it.

Jessica ...

President Obama’s second inauguration speech

There’s no question that Michelle Obama’s reaction to Speaker Boehner was the highlight of this year’s Inauguration Day. But President Obama also gave a pretty great speech…

Here’s the full transcript.

What did y’all think? And, most importantly, how can we hold Obama to the strong progressive ideals he articulated so beautifully yesterday?

There’s no question that Michelle Obama’s reaction to Speaker Boehner was the highlight of this year’s Inauguration Day. But President Obama also gave a pretty great speech…

Here’s the full transcript.

What did y’all ...

Quick Hit: Why a black “mom-in-chief” is revolutionary

Tami Winfrey Harris has an important response to the sighs heard ’round the white feminist blogosphere when Michelle Obama noted in her convention speech that her most important role is “mom-in-chief.” Tami notes that in our eagerness to make Obama “emblematic of modern woman, some mainstream feminists unwittingly erase a key part of her identity–her blackness.”

After all, the devoted mom is not one the sexist stereotypes typically applied to black women–who’ve historically rarely even had the privilege to choose motherhood over career.

While white women have historically been thought, by default, to be possessed of ideal femininity, (sexistly) defined as demure, sacrificing, quietly strong, beautiful and maternal. Black women have not. The picture of black woman as Sapphire; welfare ...

Tami Winfrey Harris has an important response to the sighs heard ’round the white feminist blogosphere when Michelle Obama noted in her convention speech that her most important role is “mom-in-chief.” Tami notes that in our ...

What We Missed

Michelle Obama breaks a record by delivering a speech written at a twelfth grade level. It makes sense, since she and her husband treat women like adults, while Ann and her husband treat us like children.

A gay veteran busts Mitt Romney.

In a Tennessee county, defunding Planned Parenthood caused women’s services to drop by 93%.

A federal judge approves Arizona’s “show me your papers” measure.

Michelle Obama breaks a record by delivering a speech written at a twelfth grade level. It makes sense, since she and her husband treat women like adults, while Ann and her husband treat us like children.

A ...

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