January 2009 Archives

From the moderator: Even looking for panelists was hard, because some people I reached out to, who I thought would be masculine or butch identified, and then they weren't.

This panel was made up of reflections from 6 butch identified women. Notes from their remarks are below the jump. I really appreciated that there were two Latina butch-identified woman on this panel. I think race plays a big role in the formation of these identities and I appreciated seeing that reflected.

Lisbeth Melendez-Rivera--
Being Puerto Rican is a big part of my journey into butchness. The first time that I was called masculine, I was four years old and my mother told me I had "blue balls." In Latin America, the idea of female masculinity is an immediate isolating factor. The main word for gay men in PR is "pato" (duck). A person who is seen as male identified is called "pata" (female duck). As a child, you look at that and ask do I want to be the point of ridicule? Because of all of those questions I left PR and landed in Boston, where I lived for 16 years. Don't believe the hype, it's not a liberal place. To be lesbian and to be of color, the good jobs came very hard. You were held to a different standard. For 16 years I struggled to survive. It has impacted where I went to work. I still know that I will never be the executive director (maybe a gay org, but definitely not a straight one). You struggle with what it means to be a masculine identified dyke. I live in a level of comfort with my body as a woman that our trans brothers don't feel and I respect that. I would also ask that our trans brothers respect my relationship with my femininity as well. The fact that I have longer hair again, it does not mean that my masculinity is changing. My wife tells me that I am her big rainbow sign. We honor the invisibility of our femme sisters. "How I live is comfortable, how you live is brave."

More from Lisbeth Melendez-Rivera here.

Carmen Vasquez--
I've been talking and writing about this for a very long time. I am butch, as I am lesbian, as I am Puertorican. Dress me up or dress me down I am still the captain of the rocketship. The emergence of a more public butch identity happened at a time when the intersections between class, race, gender became more clear to me. These things are about autonomy. It's when I understood that I could no longer address racism in white communities, or homophobia is straight communities of color, or classism without embracing my butchness. I was a butch at 6 when I threw my dolls out. I had to defend that identity in a white led feminist movement that saw that identity as sexist. It is NOT sexist. I'm not a boy anymore, at 60, Sir is more appropriate. I was never a stone butch but I was definitely someone very afraid of the vulnerability that comes with surrender. This butch has been flipped by a beautiful femme top whom I've learned to trust. What I've learned is that part of pleasing your partner is allowing for the full range of her desire and expression of it. A really difficult two years have taught me to learn to cry, within this very male identity. I think butch is always redefined, by race, class, age, cultural change. Every generation's expression of female masculinity changes. But butch remains.

More writings by Carmen here.

Organized by the Two Spirit Society of Denver.

Some thoughts from the panelists of the Two Spirit Society about what it means to be Two Spirit:

Two-spirit is a universal term we have adopted. In the early 80s, there was a group of Native Americans who wanted to change the perspective of what two-spirit meant. It used to be known as "berdache" in academic communities, and Two Spirit was a new word that could be accepted. That's where the two-spirit term came from. Two spirit people did exist within our cultures and we want to go back to that. It's about going back and relearning traditions.

Some of the native communities didn't support two-spirit people within the communities. Many of the two-spirit people would leave the reservations and flee to the cities. Two Spirit is different than gay or lesbian.

Two Spirit is life. Before I had a word for it, it's me. Even as a kid I was a mediator between the sexes, between genders. I was raised--I can lay cement and shingle a roof with the best of them. I can also wear a suit and high heels with the best of them. Tradition says that we have been touched by the grandfather, the great spirit, to be who we are. This is not something we chose. It is a deep responsibility. It's not something that is taken lightly. It doesn't mean that some of us don't identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender.

Two Spirit people exist everywhere. We were the people who held the community together. We were more concentrated on the community--carrying on the songs, the stories, the cultural ways.

Film: Two Spirits about Fred Martinez, a young two-spirit person who was murdered. He identified as gay at the time of his passing.

It is amazing the parts of our cultures that have been robbed from us by colonialism. There are many examples from history of this type of gender variance in other cultures--primarily indigenous communities. What is so difficult is that these oppressions, gender oppression, heteronormativity, have been forced on us by our colonial history. And now, gender non-conformity, queerness, is seen as a "white" thing. It's seen as a "white" movement, and there is resistance among some communities of color to these supposedly new movements of gender liberation and sexual openness. We've so internalized the oppression of colonialism and now we are using it on each other.

Rea Carey, head of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, gives the annual "State of the Movement" address.

Kate Clinton, lesbian comedian and emcee for the conference, informs us that the Republicans can't find anyone to chair the RNC. (Lots of laughter and clapping)

Award for Uncommon Leadership--Patty Burns, activist in San Francisco, National Director of Sins Invalid

Rea Carey, NGLTF:

We now have a "community organizer in chief."

It's not biology that makes a family, but love.

A lot of progress in the middle part of the country. This weekend we will be asking you to share your achievements, large and small.

• Amendment 46--anti-affirmative action, failed.
• Protections for LGBT in housing and public accomodations
• Non-discrimination laws all over the country upheld and created.
• Connecticut--Freedom to Marry State
• 18,000 couples legally married in California
• Many new domestic partnership expansions and the creations of new registries.
• New York decided to respect out of state same sex marriages
• A record number of openly gay and lesbian elected officials all over the country--450.

What we continue to accomplish as a movement is electrifying. The anti-gay, anti-family initiatives are temporary barriers to our success. Just four years ago we lost 13 anti-marriage ballot measures. We lost by much larger margins four years ago then we did today. That is progress.

More after the jump.

Elana Schor at Talking Points Memo updated us yesterday on the dismaying news this week that the family planning revision has been removed from the economic stimulus:

A source present at today's White House signing ceremony for the Lilly Ledbetter bill tells me that President Obama gave assurances that the family planning aid would be done soon -- perhaps as soon as next week, when the House is set to take up a spending bill that would keep the government funded until October.

Obama emphasized that the family-planning aid "makes the budget look better, it's a money saver," the source said. In fact, removing the need for Medicaid waivers for family planning saves states an estimated $700 million over 10 years.

By removing the family-planning aid from the stimulus at Obama's request, Democrats "were giving a nod to the Republicans, believing they would act in good faith," the source added. And given how many GOPers voted for the stimulus bill, sounds like the family-planning aid is back on track.

I certainly hope so.

On Monday, Yes Means Yes co-editors Jessica and Jaclyn Friedman will be livechatting on Feministing with contributors Miriam, Samhita and Cara from the Curvature and Feministe about the book.

The chat begins at 3 pm EST. Make sure to check it out!

What is up with all the sexist airlines?

While Southwest Airlines prefer to harass its customers, Spirit Air opts to feature sexist ads and debase their flight attendants. The image provided is one of their many heinous marketing ads they've been criticized for in the past - M.I.L.F. conveniently means "Many Islands Low Fares," as well as an ad that says, "We're proud of our DDs" (which stands for "deep discounts"). Their latest plan? To force their flight attendants to wear aprons with alcohol promotions on them.

Luckily, the Flight Attendants-CWA union is taking some action on both offenses. President Pat Friend, has been sending letters to CEO Ben Baldanza:

I feel as though I have entered a time warp and am reliving the battles for respect and justice for women that we fought 40 years ago. Several promotional fare ads...are demeaning not to just the hardworking flight attendants at Spirit Airlines but to all of America's professional flight attendants.

...

Flight attendants have a statutory obligation to enforce Federal Aviation Administration regulations regarding intoxicated passengers. In-flight aprons that prominently display a logo from an alcoholic beverage company sends the wrong signal to passengers and diminishes the ability of Spirit flight attendants to enforce vital safety and security regulations and procedures onboard.

Even AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker is calling on folks to call Spirit out on this bullshit, "With the recent focus on the heroic actions of the US Air pilot and crew whose experience and expertise saved the lives of the passengers, I think it is most appropriate that we speak out on this. Airline safety should certainly sell over sexual innuendos."

Indeed. Email their CEO and let them know what you think.

h/t to Tula!

Longtime reader and fave commenter SarahMC has started a new blog with some friends, and we wanted to spread the love. And I'm sort of in love with the blog title and tagline:

The Pursuit of Harpyness: As narrated by six of the most charming and vicious broads on the internet.

Blog on, ladies!

Algeria's top CIA operative has been accused of drugging and raping two Muslim women in his home, who after nearly two years of investigation, has been returned home to Washington, DC. Since Andrew Warren wasn't just an officer but headed the entire CIA office of security services in Algeria, the case is being perceived as potentially damaging to the U.S. as the new administration makes attempts to wipe clean our Bush-dirtied image in the Muslim world, according to the Washington Post.

While a CIA spokesperson claimed that they "would take seriously, and follow up on, any allegations of impropriety," Warren has yet to be officially charged. I hope this happens soon, considering there's videotaped evidence; apparently Warren has several videotapes of him "having sex" with women, including a tape of him raping one of the accusers, who is shown in a semi-conscious state.

Pretty much everyone else is declining to comment on the case, although WashPo managed to get a jackass to very clearly confuse rape with romance:

Mark Zaid, a private attorney who represents current and former CIA officers, said the case raises questions about the adequacy of the agency's self-policing of its senior officers. All CIA officers are required to report any unofficial contact with foreign nationals, although in practice, the agency sometimes looks the other way when its employees engage in romances overseas, Zaid said.

While cases of rape would be "unbelievably rare," the reality is that some agency employees "are sleeping around while posted overseas -- sometimes brazenly -- and no one does anything about it," he said.

The U.S. government is no stranger to sexual assault accusations, whether as a weapon of war or within the military, and also in cases like this where a top official feels entitled to women's bodies in his stationed country. One of the survivors told investigators that she briefly became conscious during the attack, asking Warren to stop, in which he said to the effect, "Nobody stays in my expensive sheets with clothes on."

However, the Department of Defense has a history of downplaying the existence of sexual assault by their folk. So while we worry about this case and how it's going to effect our relationship with Muslim nations, it also wouldn't be a bad idea to start paying attention to the larger problem surrounding it.

This is good news and will ensure coverage for immigrant children. Previously, these children have been denied adequate healthcare and had to wait 5 years to get any medical coverage. Bush had vetoed the expansion to the bill.

Senate Democrats moved one step closer to handing President Barack Obama an early health care victory Thursday, passing a bill extending government-sponsored health insurance coverage to about 4 million uninsured children.

The bill, which was approved 66-32, authorizes an additional $32.8 billion over the next 4 1/2 years for the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The House plans to take up the same measure next week.

Even with the added spending, an estimated 5 million children still would be without health insurance. During his election campaign, Obama called for requiring all children to have health coverage.

"When President Obama signs this bill, the real victory will belong not to politicians, but to kids," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

Wow, a step in the right direction. I don't know what is going on, what does the government exist to ensure the health of its people? I forgot about that.

via AP.

Hello from the Mile High City! I'm here for Creating Change 2009, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's annual conference. It's essentially the largest queer activist gathering. This is my second year here (you can find last year's blogs here and here).

I'll be posting some of my thoughts and reflections about the conference over the next few days.

PETA's incredibly ridiculous ad trying to convince all those hot wing munchers to convert to vegetarianism during the Super Bowl has been rejected. Shocker. It contains thin white woman prancing around in their underwear rubbing vegetables all over their perfectly toned bodies. I'm not even going to post the video, cause it's, well, inane. Suffice it to say that, once again, PETA proves it has no notion of intersectional exploitation.

Thanks to all the readers who let us know. Why can't PETA spend some of that money hiring community blogger lorenc to talk about his actual experience being a dude vegetarian? See his smart post below.

And other community posters take:
Peta's New Strategy
Peta Denied Commercial Airtime

The only Jewish kid I knew growing up in Colorado Springs, CO was a nerdy guy whose mother sued the neighborhood elementary school when she realized we only sang Christmas carols around holiday time (this was in the mid 80s). I felt bad for him, even though I thought it was very brave of his mother. It must have been a pretty alienating childhood.

But then I moved to Barnard and lived in New York City and I was actually the one who sometimes felt alienated from Judaism--the thing that gave the other girls on my hallway an immediate social circle when school started, the thing that made my roommate wait for me to turn on the bathroom light on Saturday mornings, the rich tradition of valuing education, telling moving stories, of doing good for others. I was, to put it plainly, a little jealous.

I felt that again while reading Danya Ruttenberg's beautiful memoir, Surprised by God. In it, Ruttenberg, who is still fairly young--though a rabbi, a theologian, and an accomplished writer--traces her own path from atheist Brown undergrad to Rabbinical school student. After a Jewish-ish growing up, she wholeheartedly embraces philosophy and the heady side of religion while in college, but when she loses her mother to a painful cancer, things start to unravel. Moving to the west coast during the dot com boom, she's introduced into a world of excess, glitter, and individuality. She falls in step--making costumes for the upcoming theme party, scraping by on freelance writing, and getting, well, drunk a lot. But there is just something missing. And before long, she goes seeking for just what that is...

I won't give away the rest, but I really recommend this book for anyone who has that same inkling (as in, there must be more than this) or has wrestled with organized religion (it doesn't have to be Judaism). Ruttenberg does a masterful job of weaving in quotations from religion's greatest thinkers while taking us on her contemporary pilgrimage of sorts. It's entirely relatable, which in my experience, is unusual for a religious text. It's young. It's hip. And it's still profoundly serious.

The added bonus is that Ruttenberg is a committed feminist, so her gender lens is used throughout. She writes:

...feminism was important to me because it gave me space to be who I needed to be; it, like punk, saved me from having to fear my intelligence or my strength, and it helped me to articulate why I was so repelled by what I perceived to be the pretty girl aspirations of so many of my classmates. Simply put, I wanted more than that.

So remember awhile back when I asked for your advice on sharing space with a partner and not losing your mind? Well, I'm happy to report that it's been about three months of cohab-ing and things seem to be going along swimmingly. I think in my effort to make sure that my body wasn't invaded by sexist body snatchers (laundry, dishes, dinner oh my!) the second he moved in, I forgot how much fun he is, how much I adore watching TV with him, and telling one another jokes while we try to fall asleep. We just make a lot of sense, which, it turns out, is one major protection against stupid gender role defaults.

Having said that, I do have to admit that, from time to time, I'm watching myself fall into what feels like a pretty common struggle. Case in point: the box.

Nikolai left a cardboard box filled with "the etcetera" of his move sitting on the floor of our bedroom for awhile. It was on the floor on his side of the bed, hidden from view. If I was careful about it, I could almost forget it existed, even in our 700 square foot one bedroom apartment. But instead, I thought about it frequently.

I had asked him, with all the nonchalance I could muster, if he wouldn't mind cleaning it up. Sure, he said. Soon. We took the train to his mom's house in Brooklyn for a meat-filled Thanksgiving and returned. It was still there. We went away and visited my parents in Santa Fe for Christmas and returned. It was still there.

I felt anger at Nikolai creep up. I felt the urge to unpack the box myself but quickly slapped the impulse away. I expended Herculean energy trying not to say anything, trying to ignore the box and pretend it didn't matter. And, in fact, to him, it didn't matter.

He eventually cleaned up the box in anticipation of a house guest. And like that--poof!--it was gone. But I can't help feeling like I'm left with the first taste of a struggle I will be battling for years to come.

The box today is a baby tomorrow. He means to get up for the 2am feeding, but he's just so exhausted from work. Next time, he tells me, I should shake him harder until he wakes up. But I don't. He looks peaceful. I enjoy the time with the baby even if I'm catatonic. The baby tomorrow becomes a pimply tween in ten years. We were so determined to split parenting responsibilities 50/50, but his workplace is more traditional than mine; slowly my writing time gets eroded and we both shrug and fall asleep watching The Daily Show. I miss my work but I love the kid. I'm good at being a mom. The pimply tween in ten years becomes a know-it-all college kid in twenty. The empty nest is more like an echoing cavern. Twenty years of sacrificed sleep and shrugged-away work opportunities and lost autonomy wake me up in the night and I look over at him, sleeping soundly, and feel righteously angry. The kid is amazing--more dynamic and courageous than we ever could have imagined. But where did my--not ours, but my--life go?

I know. I know. It's just a box. As Nikolai rightly pointed out, he would treat an unpacked box far different than a living, breathing baby. But it's brought up new ideas for me about what I value vs. what he values and how we can negotiate common space and a common life when those contrasts get in the way. I want to learn how to let go when it doesn't matter. And how to own my choices wholeheartedly when it does. I don't want to resent him. And I don't want him to resent me. Is that possible?

Woo hoo! Obama has officially signed, The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, fair pay legislation! In Obama's own words:

It is fitting that with the very first bill I sign ... we are upholding one of this nation's first principles: that we are all created equal and each deserve a chance to pursue our own version of happiness. If we stay focused, as Lilly did, and keep standing for what's right, as Lilly did, we will close that pay gap and ensure that our daughters have the same rights, the same chances, and the same freedom to pursue their dreams as our sons.

Full remarks here.

Check out two quick versions of a trailer for this amazing movie my friend Claire told me about.

The website explains it thus:

Pariah is a coming-of-age drama about a lesbian teenager who unsuccessfully juggles multiple identities to avoid rejection from her friends and family.

Set against the kinetic and incongruous social landscape of middle class New York City, Alike vacillates between being a proud and sexually independent woman amongst her openly gay friends and being the feminine, obedient girl that her strict Christian upbringing dictates she be.

Torn by mounting pressure from home, school, and within, the line between her dual personas wears thin with explosive consequences.

It doesn't currently have any theater distribution deals, but you can see it on iTunes and Netflix. The folks behind the film are working on getting funding for a full length feature now, so the more enthusiasm people show for it, the better!

Check out smarty pants Linda Holmes interesting research on the legitimacy of lack there of, of the DABA ladies on NPR.

Warning: best read on an empty stomach. This one is a puker.

The New York Times rounded out its seemingly never ending informal series on how the economy's downturn is affecting wealthy white people with a special little story yesterday entitled, "It's the Economy, Girlfriend." It turns out that women accustomed to dating men with lots of money (Do these women have jobs? Is heterosexuality a prerequisite for making it into the series?) are gathering online and in hot spots around New York City to commiserate about these tough, tough times. An excerpt:

In addition to meeting once or twice weekly for brunch or drinks at a bar or restaurant, the group has a blog, billed as "free from the scrutiny of feminists," that invites women to join "if your monthly Bergdorf's allowance has been halved and bottle service has all but disappeared from your life."

Theirs is not the typical 12-step program.

Step 1: Slip into a dress and heels. Step 2: Sip a cocktail and wait your turn to talk. Step 3: Pour your heart out. Repeat as needed.

About 30 women, generally in their mid- to late-20s, regularly post to the Web site or attend meetings.

"We do make light of everything on the blog and it's very tongue in cheek," said Laney Crowell, 27, who parted ways with a corporate real estate investor last month after a tumultuous relationship. "But it all stems out of really serious and heartfelt situations."

Prepare for feminist scrutiny ladies. Here's the thing: humor is good. I'm glad that you're poking fun at yourselves (I have to believe this is the case or I would lose a lil' bit of my faith in humanity). I also understand that privileged folks feel pain too. I consider myself one of them in more ways than one and I bleed red like my less economically stable, less educated, less supported friends and allies.

But here's the other thing. Commiserating about the new lack of bottle service in your life is not going to make you feel any better. It's going to perpetuate your psychology of deprivation (an ironic state for a group of women who can still afford to sip cocktails). What will actually make you feel better, I promise, is to get sober about who is most deeply affected by economic downturn in this country and start seeking justice more sustainable than getting rich dudes to take you out to dinner at fancy restaurants. Here are a few stats to start you off:

Women make up 30% of borrowers for mortgages, but are 32% more likely than men to receive sub-prime mortgages, despite slightly higher credit scores (682 versus 675).
-The National Council for Research on Women

The gender wage gap is now 22.2 percent.
-Institute for Women's Policy Research

Annual earnings for young men who are employed full-time year round are about 10% higher
than for young women who are employed full-time year round -- $30,786 compared to $28,008.
Annual earnings for all other young men with earnings, which include part-time and/or part-year
earners, are about 32% higher than for all other young women with earnings, $15,033 compared
to $11,393.
-Legal Momentum

In other depressing news: word on the street is that ex-Lucky Beauty writer Dawn Spinner, Laney Crowell, a beauty editor at StyleCaster, and lawyer Megan Petrus (the shallow minds behind DABA) are getting a big juicy book deal. This from an industry that consistently tells brilliant, hardworking women that there's no market for books on feminism, class etc. Ugh.

Thanks to J. Courtney Sullivan for the heads up.

I guess Dick is, well, a dick. Check out Dick Armey, Texas Republican and former Majority Leader, stoop to the most unoriginal sexism ever on Hardball with Salon's Joan Walsh:

Congrats to Joan Walsh for maintaining such composure and even going on after Armey's "prattle" to make a really solid point about the Earned Income Tax Credit. And thanks to feminist ally and New York Times columnist Bob Herbert for calling Armey out in the next segment.

It's amazing that pundits like Armey are still falling back on such blatant sexism in an effort to intimidate women who speak out, especially after the last election season--where the issue of women's treatment in the media was such a hot topic. I mean even Chris Matthews pseudo-defends Walsh.

But I suppose it should be expected from ol' Dick. He also said President Barack Obama's name could "give people concerns that he could be or have been too much influenced by Muslims, which is a great threat now." Classy. Now he's alienated all Muslim Americans, all women, and anyone who cares about the fair treatment of either.

Walsh, on the other hand, is even more justified in her reputation as a fierce, savvy debater and Bob Herbert even more worthy of feminist celebration. If you don't read Bob's consistently feminist columns, start today.

Looking for some fun feminist activities? Make sure to check out the Feministing Calendar. Some upcoming events....

Tomorrow
Yes Means Yes reading in Cambridge, MA
6pm, Cambridge YMCA Theater, hosted by Center for New Words
You'll get to hear from me, Jaclyn Friedman plus fantastic contributors Kate Harding and Toni Amato.

Feb 2
You're Invited to Talk About Choice in Alexandria, VA
7pm, Durant Center, 1605 Cameron Street
Join NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia for an activist training where you'll learn strategies for effectively talking about your pro-choice values - to your friends, neighbors, and even legislators.
RSVP to Gwen at gemmons@naralva.org.

Athens Boys Choir at MU in Columbia, MO
8:00pm, University of Missouri, Neff Auditorium on the Quad
Athens Boys Choir, aka solo hip hop, spoken-word artist Harvey Katz, will bring his witty, gender bending wordplay to Mizzou. Athens Boys Choir has been touring nationally since 2003, releasing four albums along the way. This show is free and open to the public .

Meet Johanna Sigurdardottir, Iceland's next interim prime minister.

Iceland's next leader will be an openly gay former flight attendant who parlayed her experience as a union organizer into a decades-long political career.

..."Now we need a strong government that works with the people," Sigurdardottir told reporters Wednesday, adding that a new administration will likely be installed Saturday.

Unless you're a homo.

This is just unbelievable.

A private religious high school can expel students it believes are lesbians because the school isn't covered by California civil rights laws, a state appeals court has ruled.

Relying on a 1998 state Supreme Court ruling that allowed the Boy Scouts to exclude gays and atheists, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Bernardino said California Lutheran High School is a social organization entitled to follow its own principles, not a business subject to state anti-discrimination laws.

"The whole purpose of sending one's child to a religious school is to ensure that he or she learns even secular subjects within a religious framework," Justice Betty Richli said in the 3-0 ruling, issued Monday.

If that wasn't horrible enough, this case is based on two girls who were harassed by their principal, and expelled simply for being perceived as lesbians.

Via Seal Press.

A few months ago, Courtney blogged about news that health-insurance providers are charging women more for the same coverage. (No, this isn't about pregnancy care -- that costs women extra.) Now, the city of San Francisco is bringing a lawsuit against the board that regulates California insurers, to get them to stop the discriminatory practice.

This is especially relevant now, when so many employers are making lay-offs and cutting benefits, because the price difference mainly affects individuals purchasing health insurance. Says SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera,

"A lot of times, women are priced out of private health coverage because of the discriminatory practices by insurance companies," he said. "This means women have to rely on public hospitals and clinics, and over the last few years we've seen an influx of women who can't afford insurance come into San Francisco General Hospital."

As the economic downtown worsens and the costs of healthcare rise, Herrera said, the numbers of those who can't afford healthcare will grow.

"Our state is really behind the curve on this one," he said. "When women can't afford healthcare because they're priced out of it, they're not the only ones who pay for it. These women have to turn to the public health system, a system that is already strained as it is, and every taxpayer ends up paying for it."

For more discussion, see the comments on Courtney's previous post.

I really like what my colleague Adam had to say about Juan Williams' comments on Michelle Obama:

This isn't an isolated statement about something someone said last year, it fits into an established narrative of who black women are. Rather than being the hyper-sexualized Jezebel popular in rap music, she's portrayed as the masculine ball-buster, the kind of women ignorant men write "why I don't date black women" essays about, trying to convince themselves that there's something rational about hating the kind of woman who gave birth to you. Williams' statement makes me angry not because it's about Michelle, but because it's so manifestly not about her, but about black women in general. And maybe with some kind of messed up, terrible rationalization I can divorce myself from what happens in Hip-hop because I know Jeezy isn't talking about my mama. But when people talk about Michelle like this, they're talking about this universe of brilliant, accomplished black women who never seem to get their due. They're talking about the women I know; my mother, my aunts, my cousins. And it makes me furious.

Check out one of the bullet points:

8.9" screen does not affect the overall weight of the Eee PC™ 900A, which remains below 1kg - allowing children and women to carry it with ease.

Ya huh.

Thanks to Ashley for the link.

Here's a charming little story from George Bush, Sr.:

One time we thought we'd outsmarted the crowd. We sent a decoy limosine off in one direction while I snuck out the back entrance. And we rounded the corner -- I'll never forget it -- and I saw one of the ugliest and angriest women I have ever seen in my entire life. Boy, she was really bad. And she charged my car with a sign... and came up right next to the window: "Stay out of my womb!" No problem, buddy.

Yes, anti-choicers and conservatives are STILL making the played-out "argument" that feminists are ugly. Sorry, my feelings still aren't hurt.

Disappointingly, Bill Clinton -- a pretty reliable pro-choice ally -- wishes he could tell jokes about ugly, threatening pro-choicers, too: "You know, he tells jokes that I just couldn't get away with telling. Can you imagine what they would do to me if I told that joke he told?" Um, yes. Yes, I can. We'd call you a sexist asshole.

I was really glad to see that The New York Times picked up on the misplaced moral panic over teenage sex.

Parents have worried for generations about changing moral values and risky behavior among young people...

...The talk show host Tyra Banks declared a teen sex crisis last fall after her show surveyed girls about sexual behavior. A few years ago, Oprah Winfrey warned parents of a teenage oral-sex epidemic.

The news is troubling, but it's also misleading. While some young people are clearly engaging in risky sexual behavior, a vast majority are not. The reality is that in many ways, today's teenagers are more conservative about sex than previous generations.

But what reporter Tara Parker-Pope left out is that this isn't just about panic over teen sex - it's about about panic over girls having sex.

After all, it's not boys who are being called prostitots and "girls gone wild." It's not boys who are targeted by abstinence only education and purity balls. And it's definitely not boys who have been the subject of books like Prude, Unhooked and Girls Gone Mild. It's us.

But that aside, it was refreshing to see a story about how well young people are doing. And they are. Teenagers are using contraception more (if they haven't been privy to abstinence only education, of course, in which case they don't use contraception and have increased rates of oral and anal sex) and more effectively.

Now if we could just get the media (and conservatives, and anti-feminist authors) to stop obsessing over young women's sex lives...

Well, this is great.

House Democrats have removed a provision from their stimulus bill that would exempt states from the need to get waivers for covering family planning under Medicaid. The family-planning aid has been the subject of repeated Republican attacks over the past few days, and health care advocates were dismayed by the Democrats' decision to give in on its removal.

The revision the Dems have caved on would have merely allowed states to continue doing what they already do. As I mentioned this morning and Ann mentioned in her column at Tapped,

Not only will this expand health care services and take some burden off states, it will eliminate the need for states to go to the federal government and obtain a waiver.

Apparently, caving on provisions that are commonsense and make the government more efficient is how we will win the support of the right, especially when it compromises reproductive services and health care access to poor women and women of color.

I agree with what Elana Schor says at TPM,

I'm certainly receptive to the argument, relayed by Matt Yglesias and others, that the family-planning provision wasn't genuinely stimulative, making its removal from the bill a minor decision. And I'm not accusing the Obama team of getting rolled by the Republicans on flaps like this one.

But other aid provisions in the recovery bill, not directly targeted to women's reproductive freedom, do not create jobs or boost GDP -- yet are meeting with less agitation from Republicans and remaining intact.

So why was this provision rallied against so hard?

Speaking of the stimulus package... check out this excerpt from a Family Research Council action alert:

Exactly what kind of stimulus did Speaker Nancy Pelosi have in mind? That's a question more Americans should be asking now that details are trickling in about the controversial $825 billion "economic recovery" package. $200 million for lawn care in Washington, D.C., $360 million to potentially be used to put on transsexual beauty pageants and erotic art shows.

Sounds pretty awesome. Sign me up!

UPDATE: As I wrote in comments:

The Family Research Council basically looked at a line in the stimulus bill that mentioned funding for the arts or something, and chose to describe "arts funding" in a way that would be most upsetting to its base. There are most definitely not line-item appropriations for trans beauty pageants and erotic art shows.

Um, so no, I don't think erotic art shows are an essential part of economic stimulus.

Yes, I was making a joke and mocking the FRC. (This is why they need to make HTML tags for /HUMOR/.)

I completely forgot that back in November on election night, someone was taking video of our reactions to Obama winning and to Prop 8 failing. I was in CA for the historic election this year and I felt this video captured the moment so well and the tension in all our hearts that this moment was so great and so tragic at once.

Read more about it here.

NPR's Juan Williams went on Bill O'Reilly's show and said this about Michelle Obama:

WILLIAMS: Yeah. And let me just -- let me just tell you this: If you think about liabilities for President Obama that are close to him -- Joe Biden's up there -- but Michelle Obama's right there. Michelle Obama, you know --

O'REILLY: But it's not her fault in the sense that --

WILLIAMS: -- she's got this Stokely Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress thing going. If she starts talking, as Mary Katharine suggested, her instinct is to start with this "blame America," you know, "I'm the victim." If that stuff starts to come out --

O'REILLY: Yeah, it'll be death.

WILLIAMS: -- people will go bananas --

O'REILLY: Right.

WILLIAMS: -- and she'll go from being the new Jackie O to being something of an albatross.

As dnA points out, sounds like somebody took that New Yorker cover to heart. Clearly, in the cable news world, an outspoken woman of color is downright militant when she's anything more than demure arm candy. There's no middle ground: she's either a passive object or an active threat.

And in what world is Michelle Obama a potential "albatross"?! The fact that Barack Obama's partner is a strong and outspoken woman is a good thing. Where Juan Williams sees a militant, a victim, an albatross, most women see dignified strength, intelligence, grace, and independence. Talk about going bananas.

Video is below the fold.

The book, He's Just Not That Into You, inspired me to write a book about dating, because I was deeply disappointed in the messaging geared at young women on what they should be doing to meet a guy, the games we are taught to play and the constant stream of sexist rejection we have to deal with. I realized that there was no language for young feminist women that want to date, but think heteronormativity is bullshit. The most frustrating part of the-he's just not that into you-attitude is that the author of the book, Greg Behrendt, believes he is helping women by reinforcing women's ongoing desire for heteronormativity and men's constant asshole-like tendencies. I guess for some the book is like a bible, but the entire market of books and magazines geared towards young women telling them what they can and should do to meet the "man of their dreams," is at best annoying and at worst leads women to live really unfulfilled lives.

But all of that aside, I am even more shocked that He's Just Not That Into You, has been turned into a movie.

Latoya has more on the reliance of black women's stories as the backdrop of telling the story for the lives of white women.

You best believe I will be writing a long, long review. Will keep you updated. Has anyone read the book? Thoughts?

I am glad that Obama said something about Rush Limbaugh. I know it is usually "classier" to ignore someone as ridiculous as Limbaugh, but as myself and others have reminded readers before, Limbaugh has a pretty serious following and while I am sure a percentage of his listenership is for shits and giggles, I think it is telling that he has so much support. I do believe that he is considered right-wing thought leadership, which I think further highlights the need for the right-wing to reassess what types of thought they support. But I digress, these two gems really take the cake.

The first is that he hopes that Obama fails and secondly, he made the sexist statement that if you want pregnancy rates to go to down to post a picture of Pelosi in your bedroom. His "bully in the schoolyard" speak is not political punditry, it is frat-boy-esque humor and shows that he has no arguments left that actually counter logic. Someone needs to let him know it is the era of the nerd! We prefer evidence and science to prove the things that wing-nuts bullshit and evangelize.

House Minority leader Boehner is at it again, only this time him, along with his conservative colleagues, are suggesting that since the stimulus bill has a section about state coverage of family planning, this somehow translates to, "hundreds of millions on contraceptives." The actual text published originally at Think Progress reads,

State Option to Cover Family Planning Services. Under current law, the Secretary has the authority under section 1115 of the Social Security Act to grant waivers to states to allow them to cover family planning services and supplies to low-income women who are not otherwise eligible for Medicaid. The bill would give states the option to provide such coverage without obtaining a waiver. States could continue to use the existing waiver authority if they preferred.

As Pelosi explained, covering family planning services will actually reduce costs in the state since it will increase the effectiveness with which states can address the needs of their residents, along with bypassing excess administration. It appears that one of the main differences in what is considered effective cost cutting between the right and the left is that the right believes that just denying those that "haven't worked hard enough to deserve it" will save the economy, where as it is seems liberals recognize the governments responsibility in providing for its people in the most efficient way possible.

Pelosi's comments were grossly misinterpreted as suggesting that, "birth control will help the economy" and Rush Limbaugh even had the audacity to suggest that if we want to keep pregnancy rates down to, "post a picture of Pelosi in every motel room in America," but more on that later. Apparently, the GOP is hanging on to every last argument they can, no matter how banal and imprecise. It is clear that state spending on family planning services not only save the state money and time, but have greater long-term benefits for the health of our people.

UPDATE: Obama might drop funds for family planning from the economic stimulus package. Argh!.

So, I am late to this since I have been on the road for a few weeks, but I wanted to point your attention towards a week long blog-a-thon at Amplify, that is ending tonight to celebrate the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I must say it is full of really compelling pieces by a diverse group of men and women on why Roe is so important for us.

Check it out and if you decide to post something to it please put the link in comments. Also, if you have any posts you have done in the last week about Roe v. Wade, feel free to promote them here as well.

I didn't write anything new this year, but this is my piece last year about why I believe in a woman's right to choose, published at Wiretap Magazine.

An excerpt about why I vote pro-choice.

I vote pro-choice because I believe that women have the right to choose what happens to their bodies. I vote pro-choice because I love myself, my friends, sisters and my communities that would be deeply hurt by any more cutbacks to their reproductive rights. I vote pro-choice because I believe that women have the right to live healthy lives and be treated as citizens that get basic human rights. I vote pro-choice because I believe women should not have to die from lack of access to reproductive health care. I vote pro-choice because I believe we can win, because I believe we can take the debate back and we can organize a successful movement for reproductive justice. I vote pro-choice because I am sick of women having to continue to stay poor and if one choice can help them get out of the cycle, I support it. I vote pro-choice because I believe government that doesn't allow half its constituents basic human rights--is not a democracy--and therefore treats women as second class citizens. And finally, I vote pro-choice because I don't believe we live in a time we can afford to not be pro-choice.

Why do you vote pro-choice?

No comment.

Via svgreen on the Community blog.

marriedtothesea.com

My coworker Veronica had this cartoon from Married to the Sea shared on her google reader and it reminded me about my obsession with Craigslist's Missed Connections.

Maybe it's the secret romantic in me, or just my super-nosy side, but I love having a sneak peek into other people's lives and lusts. If you aren't familiar with Missed Connections, it's where people can leave posts for someone they might not even know, but who caught their eye. For example, if you see a really cute girl on the metro on your way to work, but can't get up the courage to talk to her? Post a missed connection, describing yourself and her, and tell her through the anonymity of the internet what you really think. Maybe if you're lucky she'll respond and you can live happily ever after.

And then there is always the secret hope of finding a missed connection post about you! It's kind of like the modern day love note.

In the New York Times Sunday magazine cover story yesterday journalist Daniel Bergner goes in search of female sexologists who are asking the question, "What do women want?" in a variety of clinical trials and philosophical posturing. It's all, of course, very confusing and mysterious. But for starters, I thought I'd let Bergner know a few simple things that women DON'T want:

• Misleading and even inaccurate subtitles, like "A postfeminist generation of researchers discovering things Dr. Freud could never have imagined." The very researchers featured in the article identify as feminists. I understand that the NYT wants to sell papers, but these kinds of sensationalistic headlines undermine their integrity as a news organization purportedly trying to attract more and maintain their current feminist readers.


• Photo illustrations that, once again, indicate that the New York Times Magazine thinks that all women are white. Seriously? It's 2009 people.

Now that we've gotten those obvious offenses out of the way, let's look more closely at the piece itself, which is actually quite fascinating. Bergner hangs out with a few really interesting, fairly young scientists and psychologists who are trying to understand what it is that really turns women on. As you might imagine, it's more complicated than any of their academic fields have historically let on.

Lisa Diamond, author of Sexual Fluidity, explores her theory that women generally tend to experience sexual arousal across a spectrum, rather than identifying as hetero, homo, or bi, and that it has a lot more to do with emotional intimacy than the gender of the human being dishing it out. To me this is all sort of "duh" but I understand that the mainstream media, and to much of America, this, in itself, is a shocking take on female desire.

Meredith Chivers, a researcher from Ontario, finds clinical results that jive with Diamond's ethnographic research: women, regardless of sexual orientation, are turned on my just about anything and everything, including a pair of apes fucking. The surprising and important thing about Chivers' research is that she found that there was a larger gap between women's self-identified arousal and their physiological actual arousal (tested by "a little plastic probe that sits in the vagina and, by bouncing light off the vaginal walls, measures genital blood flow"...cool right?!).

Lots of discussion follows about why women wouldn't know when they're turned on. Is it socialization--girls taught not to pay attention to their own desire? Is it something anatomical--it's not like we have erections to give us the loud and clear signal? Chivers sums it up smartly: "The horrible reality of psychological research is that you can't pull apart the cultural from the biological." So there we are.

Another researcher Marta Meana of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (the one who identified as a feminist, despite the article's framing), has another interesting theory that flies in the face of stereotypes about women:

"The generally accepted therapeutic notion that, for women, incubating intimacy leads to better sex is, Meana told me, often misguided. 'Really,' she said, 'women's desire is not relational, it's narcissistic'--it is dominated by the yearnings of 'self-love,' by the wish to be the object of admiration and sexual need.

Wowzer. I think this is fascinating. In a world where women are often objectified against their will, is the ultimate turn on being able to control and even illicit our own objectification? This line of thinking also holds up when considering the number of women who have fantasies of being dominated, and sometimes raped. Is it sexually arousing to feel a sense of power over your own decision to submit in a world where you feel vulnerable to others domination against your will? (See Stacey May Fowles' essay in Yes Means Yes.)

And if this is the case, is it something we should problematize (i.e. why should my sexuality be determined by my experiences of a patriarchal society? what would it look like if it was truly created from my own original physiology, emotional states, and ideas? is that even possible?) or should we embrace it and get off, counting it as sweet revenge on a half-changed world?

All fascinating questions, not really explored in much depth by Berger, who by virtue of writing this piece, controls how the researchers' voices and ideas get organized and communicated (interesting parallel to how female sexuality gets processed through a male lens so often).

Check out these great takes from our community bloggers:
Why does it have to be either/or...?
I Don't Know What All Women Want--But I Want My Sexuality Respected!
Reconceptualizing Sexuality

Kay Steiger has an interesting piece up at RH Reality Check about her day spent at an anti-choice conference. She gives us an inside look into the strategy discussions of the anti-choice movement, including a possible new tactic using defining personhood beginning a fertilization.

On Friday, dozens of pro-life activists gathered at the Personhood Conference in Washington, D.C. On Thursday, the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, they had marched with the tens of thousands of anti-choice activists, but today these activists were talking about personhood, a new plan of attack for the anti-choice movement. These activists are frustrated and tired of incrementalist approaches to abortion. "It's not working," announced Shaun Kenney of the American Life League. "It's failing."

The Personhood Conference, organized by the American Life League, enlisted speakers from a variety of segments of the pro-life movement, including a rising star, Kristi Burton. Burton is a 21-year-old woman who spearheaded the campaign for a state constitutional amendment in Colorado that sought to define life as beginning at fertilization. Burton says the Colorado personhood movement projects a "positive message," unites pro-lifers, and doesn't personally attack pro-choice activists.

Check out the full piece here.

Last week was an absolutely insane time to be in Washington DC. To be completely honest, if I didn't live here I never would have come for the inauguration madness.

One of the unusual things about being in DC during the inauguration were all the fancy events that were going on all week. There were ten official inaugural balls, and countless other similar black tie events throughout the week. I somehow found myself with tickets to two of them.

For me (and maybe many of you) the first thing that comes to mind when I think about a black tie event is what the hell am I going to wear? I even wrote a piece recently that was published in the latest edition of Sinister Wisdom: Latina Lesbians entitled Black Tie Blues.

What I've learned from my limited experience with black tie is that there isn't much in-between when it comes to black tie. It's pretty standard: girls wear dresses (fancy preferably long ones) and men wear tuxedos. Period. For me, a woman who hasn't worn a dress in almost three years and has no plans to in the future, it's a definite predicament.

This time around I decided to bite the bullet and rent a tux. There are so many criticisms to be made about these kind of events, about the standards created by "black tie," how they reinforce gender norms and we should get rid of the practice all together. How it's extremely classist. But the bottom line was that I wasn't willing to miss out on celebrating the Obama victory at these events (which I didn't have to pay to get into, thanks to my job) and I wanted to feel comfortable. That's what these kind of anxieties boil down to, wanting to feel comfortable in whatever I'm wearing and appropriately dressed.

Renting the tux was definitely an experience to remember. Unfortunately for me I don't know of any tux rental places in DC that cater to queer people so I had to go the conventional route. I picked the Mens Wearhouse near my job. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, so I asked my girlfriend to come with me, which definitely helped. The employees at the store were overall more accommodating than I expected. I had to go back numerous times for different issues and by the last time I went they all knew me by name. For someone with my frame (I'm 5'2" and not skinny) it wasn't easy to find a good fit. What I ended up with was rather boxy/baggy but I felt good.

At both events, the most me and my girlfriend got were a few double takes and sideways glances. Nothing too terrible, much tamer than some of my previous experiences. The only other women wearing tuxedos were the servers. I found one other woman (shout out to Melissa!) at the second event we went to who was also wearing a tux and she awesomely came up and introduced herself, giving me props for also wearing a tuxedo. Solidarity!

Have any of you readers had similar experiences?

Over the last eight years, on each anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, former President Bush would declare his support for the thousands of anti-choice activists who rally in Washington DC each year on that day.

This year, the White House sent a different message.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release January 22, 2009

Statement of President Obama on the 36th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we are reminded that this decision not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman's right to choose.

While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue, no matter what our views, we are united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make. To accomplish these goals, we must work to find common ground to expand access to affordable contraception, accurate health information, and preventative services.

On this anniversary, we must also recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights and opportunities as our sons: the chance to attain a world-class education; to have fulfilling careers in any industry; to be treated fairly and paid equally for their work; and to have no limits on their dreams. That is what I want for women everywhere.

THE WHITE HOUSE, January 22, 2009.

For all of us who barely remember a time before the Bush government, it is SO refreshing to have these statements coming from the White House. Seriously.

h/t to Jessica G.

I have to say that when I heard Congresswoman Hilda Solis had been nominated by President Obama for Secretary of Labor, I had a mixed reaction. I was super excited for such an amazing Latina woman to be given such an opportunity, but I was sad to see such a powerful reproductive rights advocate leave Congress.

Now Republicans are trying to delay her nomination. From TPMDC:

Technically, Solis' nomination isn't being "held" -- that occurs when a nominee has won committee approval and a senator tries to delay a full vote. Solis has not received a vote yet in the Senate labor committee, chaired by Ted Kennedy (D-MA), but GOPers are slowing down her confirmation over the so-called "card check" bill, a major priority of the labor movement that would allow workers to organize more easily.

She would be an amazing Secretary of Labor and I hope these tactics don't prevent her from taking the position.

The Audre Lorde Project, an amazing organization for LGBTQ People of Color, put out this statement on the morning of President Obama's inauguration. An excerpt from A Different Kind of Morning:

We noticed that we were juggling multiple emotions - amazement, fear, skepticism, visions of a different future, and anxiety. We know that President Obama will inherit impossible expectations, the worst conditions that the U.S. has dealt with since the Great Depression, and the current versions of white supremacy which have never gone away. We also know that Obama ran as a centrist, and as someone who believes in neoliberal economic strategies.

As a result, we write this statement as a commitment to not be paralyzed by disappointment and disillusionment, but to organize more strongly, deeply, and strategically from this day on. We acknowledge that this statement strays from the traditional policy agenda of the LGBT movement in the U.S., and that is because Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming (LGBTSTGNC) People of Color are everywhere - in refugee settlements and prisons, in factories and board rooms, in the service sector and the unemployment line, the picket line and protests in the streets. We are putting this out as in invitation to move forward on the lessons of the election, to continue to build local community spaces and transnational movements powered by the energy of many more people than we have seen before.

Read the whole piece here.

What a week! Obama does away with the Global Gag Rule and announces plans to do the same for Gitmo. Isn't winning elections fun??

Roe v. Wade was decided 36 years ago. Jamelle writes, "I'm not terribly interested in living in a world where women die for the "crime" of trying to control their own futures." earlgreyrooibos asks Obama to make contraception and sex education more accessible. Cara on how abortion intersects with the issue of sexual violence. Over at her place, Shark-Fu writes, "The existence of Roe v Wade doesn't automatically make pro-choice activists out of everyone. It does, however, give those of us who do give a damn something to fight for...to build on...and to defend." PLUS, Our Bodies, Our Blog has a link roundup, and Broadsheet has Obama's statement.

MADRE has a 12 month plan "to address massive medical and humanitarian crisis left by invasion."

Sybil at BitchPhD asks why we gender-segregate film awards. (Also see the Friday Feminist Fuck You I did on this topic...) via PostBourgie. Plus, Tammy Oler at Bitch on the Academy Award nominations.

On women entrepreneurs in Rwanda. (video)

Will Michelle Obama, in her role as first lady, push for a new national work/family policy?

Renee has some data on the issue priorities of LGBT folks, and writes, "just like any other social grouping in the GLBT community, whiteness seeks to lead and make its issues primarily the focus for organizing."

The latest Carnival Against Sexual Violence is up at abyss2hope.

Yes, domestic violence is a human-rights violation.

Sasha and Malia Obama are already being commodified. (More at Sociological Images and What Tami Said.)

On the awful new ABC show, Homeland Security, USA.

Sarah Haskins takes on Ann Curry.

Tami is worried about what Chris Rock is going to say about hair.

Hall of Fame women's basketball coach Kay Yow has died.

Muslimah Media Watch on single mothers in Morocco.

Kay Steiger infiltrated an anti-choice "personhood" conference.

Carlin Ross asks, "Is it possible that one legacy of this recession is that women become a majority of the work force for the first time in American history?"

Take it from the abstinence-only clown: sex is just as dangerous as juggling machetes.

Watch "I Am Sean Bell: black boys speak."

Get Involved

We've got a new events calendar! So I'll no longer be listing upcoming events in this space. However, I'll continue to post online actions, calls for submissions, etc.

The Break the Silence project is looking for your creative submissions (art/music/writing) on silence and sexual violence. Submission deadline is March 15.

Submit to the new Tell It WOC Speak blog carnival, started by Renee of Womanist Musings. Click here to submit a link!

In case you missed her remarks after entering the State Department yesterday morning, it looked quite exciting - over a thousand employees from the State came to greet her. Full transcript here.

Via the Gothamist.

It's official, Obama has signed an executive order to overturn the global gag rule. Thank god for responsible leadership that doesn't turn reproductive health into a political issue. May this be the first in a long series of positive changes for our government.

What reproductive rights change would you want to see next? I'm thinking getting rid of abstinence-only funding and the Hyde amendment, for starters.

The awesome Melissa Silverstein has an interesting post up about the 2008 box office. Turns out that, in an industry where four out of four of the Academy Award nominated directors are men (again), it was an incredibly lucrative year for women. Silverstein says that the fact that four films in the top 20 have women leads is a "big f**king deal!"

But before you go throwing your overpriced movie tickets up like confetti, be forewarned, the content of said films is not the most exhilarating news. Among the big profit "female-friendly" movies this year: 27 Dresses, Sex and the City, Twilight, and The House Bunny. Now we don't have to get into a big conversation about whether these films have feminist content; I'm sure each of them have some redeemable qualities. But wouldn't it be great if the contemporary equivalent of Boys Don't Cry or The Piano could
make big box office news again?

I want movies about courageous women in everyday circumstances, movies about social issues that affect women's lives everyday, movies that awknowledge the complexity of sexual politics, movies that challenge anxious masculinity and traditional gender norms, movies about real women's lives. Not more movies about weddings, sororities, and celibacy.

Also in interesting movie news, some folks in Mumbai are protesting the name of the movie everyone is talking about: Slumdog Millionaire. The director, who grew up in a slum, told reporters, ""The film is going to be a terrific inspiration to kids around India. It's a feel-good film, a film of hope...Children from the slums are actually called much worse names."

Your thoughts?

I forgot to cover this after seeing its commercial, but luckily reader Saira reminded me today. One A Day vitamins are marketing their new product, Teen Advantage for Him and Her, and it ain't pretty.

It's not even the gendering of vitamins in general or even the pink and blue bottles they come in that really get me, but their contention of what's important for teen boys' and girls' growth:

Complete Multivitamins for Teen Boys & Girls to Support:*

* Healthy muscle function with Magnesium (for Him)
* Healthy skin with Vitamins A and C, Copper, and Iron (for Her)

That's right ladies. Who needs muscle function when you have the clear skin to attract strong boys to pick stuff up for you?

This is a couple of years old, but just too good to ignore. The Gunn Brothers - a devout duo that produces Christian films - created this masterpiece, The Monstrous Regiment of Women. The title really says it all.

You'll see in the trailer that our favorite female misogynist Phyllis Schlafly kicks things off with her wisdom on feminism, saying the movement tricks women into thinking that they're being victimized. (You know, like women who only think they've been raped by their husbands!)

A couple of other titillating teasers:

• That Hillary Clinton's decision to have one child means she has no sympathy for stay-at-home moms
• Sexual assault in the military means women shouldn't be in the military to begin with
• "Loose"-dressing women shouldn't be surprised they're perceived to be "loose" (my response here)
• The Quiverfull argument that we're children haters for not being willing to offer our uteri to harbor God's army

Can't wait for my copy! By the way, you must see the website banner. Classic.

Kirsten Gillibrand

The news today is that New York Governor David Paterson is set to name Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to Hillary Clinton's former Senate seat. Caroline Kennedy is out of the running.

So, what's up with Gillibrand? As Dana Goldstein writes,

...if you delve deeper into Gillibrand's record, you'll find there are some red flags in terms of civil rights issues.

It is no surprise that Gillibrand identifies as a Blue Dog and voted against the Wall Street bailout; those positions, while hardly courageous, are to be expected from a Democrat who narrowly won a district that voted 54 percent for Bush in 2004. But Gillibrand's careful centrism goes beyond mere signals of economic populism. She opposed former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to offer driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, and supports proposed federal legislation that would require proof of citizenship to obtain a license. On gay rights, Gillibrand scores 80 percent according to the Human Rights Campaign, the lowest score of any New York Democrat.

Also,

According to the Human Rights Campaign, she voted against the repealing of "Don' Ask, Don't Tell" legislation, opposed legislation that would grant equal tax treatment for employer-provided health coverage for domestic partners, opposed legislation to grant same-sex partners of U.S. citizens and permanent residents the same immigration benefits of married couples and opposed legislation to permit state Medicaid programs to cover low-income, HIV-positive Americans before they develop AIDS.

While, on some level, I'm happy that Clinton's seat will go to another woman, I'd much rather have seen this seat awarded to someone who shares Clinton's progressive views rather than just her gender. Overall, I'm pretty disappointed.

Related:
The Caroline Kennedy Question
Caroline Kennedy and "Experience"

Plus, more from Pam Spaulding, Scott Lemieux, Eve Fairbanks, and rikyrah at JJP.

The bill passed last night. That didn't take too long after the House's passage, although it still needs to be signed by President Obama (damn it feels good to write that). He strongly supports the legislation so that we should be in the clear.

However, the Paycheck Fairness Act still waits in the wings for Senate's passage. Kia Franklin at Tort Deform reminds us why both the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act are critical:

The passage of Ledbetter as written will be a significant victory, but it puts us back to square one. To give the new administration the tools to end wage discrimination, a second comprehensive law - also passed last week by the House - is essential. The Paycheck Fairness Act would update the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Shepherded by departing Senator Clinton, it would create incentives for employer compliance with equal pay laws, rearm federal enforcement and outreach efforts, and encourage programs to help eliminate the persistent wage gap.

This is pretty interesting. A Dubai organization combating intimate partner violence created these make up kits with a message. Specifically, each color in the palette represents a different kind of abuse.

The brush in the kit says: "Don't cover up injustice. Speak." Along with City of Hope's hotline number. The kits were given out at shopping malls in Dubai.

I like it.

Via.

Check out this piece at RH Reality Check today. Emily asked two questions of reproductive rights and justice advocates about the Roe anniversary. The first, what does Roe mean to you and the people you work with, and the second, is Roe enough?

Here are my answers:

For the women we work with, many of whom come from countries in Latin America where abortion is still criminalized, Roe has the potential to have a huge impact on their lives. Roe has the potential to make reproductive health services just like any other healthcare need a woman has, it has the potential to make a usually clandestine procedure safe and accessible. Unfortunately for them, the Roe decision has been weakened and diluted by subsequent legislation. The Hyde Amendment, in particular, has seriously stunted the potential of Roe. Because of these laws, we have a long way to go for low-income and immigrant women to really feel the full affects of this historic Supreme Court decision.

Roe isn't enough because privacy is not enough. That narrow legal framework has only barely protected our legal right to access the procedure. It says nothing about access, about funding, about autonomy and barriers. It says nothing about justice. It has not addressed those who based on moral and religious convictions try to limit the health care women can receive. It has not addressed those who want women's bodies to be manipulated in service of a religious agenda and who want the fetus's rights to be placed above those of the mother. We need a lot more than a shaky legal framework to stand on if we want to achieve reproductive justice.

Read the other answers here.

I've written about the Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) before, but I really had no idea how moving their work was until I watched the documentary about it, Very Young Girls.

The film weaves together the stories of about half a dozen teenage girls who have been sucked into "the life"--as they call it. "The life," as described through these vibrant, wounded girls is one typified by family insecurity and few resources, leading these girls to be incredibly vulnerable. In most cases, some guy with fast talk and some cash lures the girls in--telling them that he loves them and will take care of them like the father they never had--and before long has asked them to do "their part" by prostituting themselves. It's amazing to hear these young women describe the process of getting into "the life" because it sounds so incredibly cliche. It's stunning that it still goes on just this way, that these preying men (sometimes decades older than the girls) use just these lines, and that it works to systematically dismantle these girls' self esteem and sense of what is right for them.

Some of the most stunning scenes for me were those that involved men. In one, a packed room of men listen to a female police administrator explain the process of arrest for those soliciting prostitution. Presumably all of the men in the room--including young and old, Italian and African-American, Orthodox Jews, and everyone in between--have been arrested for just this crime. One asshole raises his hand and asks, "When do we get a break?" and the room erupts in laughter. I felt such a sense of repulsion, such a wave of anger, come up in me at that scene. I felt, I have to admit it, violent. I wanted to trap these guys in a room and make them watch themselves in the context of the rest of the documentary. I wanted them to have one-tenth of the pain and manipulation and imprisonment that the young girls sucked into "the life" feel.

The film engenders these kinds of feelings because it is just that powerful. The most redemptive part is, first and foremost, the girls. They are incredible, resilient, fighting, inspirational. And they are lead by the center of the film and the Executive Director and Founder of GEMS, Rachel Lloyd, who was once in "the life" herself and now dedicates herself every single day to getting other girls out of it. She is a force, an absolute model of what it means to seize your purpose and live it every day.

When the film was done, I felt such a deep sadness, but also the sort of outrage that is incredibly motivating. I immediately donated online (if the Facebook cause recruits 3,653 members in the next 98 days, there is a $5,000 pledge). I started telling everyone I know about it. I read up on the issue and promised myself that I'd write more about it.

The average age that young women become prostitutes is 13-years-old. You can't not learn more about this issue. Watch the film on demand on Showtime through March 3rd or hold a screening in your home. The GEMS site tells you how.

President Obama signed the orders to close Gitmo as one of his first acts in office. An excerpt from the New York Times:

Saying that "our ideals give us the strength and moral high ground" to combat terrorism, President Obama signed executive orders Thursday effectively ending the Central Intelligence Agency's secret interrogation program, directing the closing of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp within a year and setting up a sweeping, high-level review of the best way to hold and question terrorist suspects in the future.

About frickin' time we had a president that honored the rule of law, the Geneva Convention, and due process.

For more:
Military Pimping?
Four Years and Counting

Both the LA and SF happy hours were a tremendous success and thanks to everyone that came through! You are what makes it worth it to blog and it is so flattering and impressive that so many of you not only read and keep up with feminist news, but are so supportive and actually come out to meet and greet. I will definitely continue to have parties when I am visiting your city! And a special thanks to the staff at Lazlo and Akbar who were amazingly hospitable and both great places to have feminist meet-ups!

Some pics (and apologies for not getting names, so please please put them in comments!)

Bay Area Feministing Happy Hour

Sorry ladies, you know I had to put this picture up!

More after the jump!

I love this forum of the staff at the National Council for Research on Women reflecting on their experiences of the inauguration. An excerpt from Shyama Venkateswar, Director of Research and Programs:

As a woman and an immigrant, I felt that Obama's inauguration was finally an invitation to an equal partnership in creating a vision, for this society and beyond, that was based on fundamental principles of equality, justice, sharing, and rights for all. And if these core values did not actually exist among classes of people who have been historically marginalized or left behind in participating or having a voice in decision-making, either here or abroad, then there was hope that it might actually be realized through a spirit of idealism and commitment to change. I felt a part of his warm embrace of diversity when he stated that the "patchwork heritage" that defines America included Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindus and nonbelievers.

On the 36th Anniversary of Roe, there is really no way to articulate all the gratitude that women feel across this nation. It seems most appropriate to try to thank the unseen, the folks who day in, day out, do what must be done to ensure that women are able to make the best choices about their own reproductive health.

We want to thank the abortion providers, the Planned Parenthood nurses, the lawyers who continue to defend our right to choice on the state and national levels day in and day out, the older sisters and aunts who make sure we get the care we need, the strangers who offer their homes as refuge, the policy makers and politicians who have us in mind, the executive directors of nonprofits and community organizations, the partners who support us through our reproductive health choices, the scientists who continue to fine tune contraception, the parents who understand, the pastors who understand, the organizers of the March for Women's Lives, the fundraisers who make sure that abortions are funded for those who can't afford them, the writers and filmmakers and artists who raise awareness about this issue, and on and on and on...

On a personal note, I just want to give thanks for the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood. When I went there as a high school student so that a friend of mine could get an abortion, we were scared, but we were safe. I also want to thank my mom for helping us afterwards. I'll never forget what it was like to know that my friend had a choice. It was a profound feeling, a knowing that though the world consistently told us otherwise, our bodies were our own, our destinies were our own, and only we could know--intimately--what was right.

Feel free to share your thanks--political, personal, or otherwise--in comments.

Join Gloria Feldt and Sarah Stoesz in honor of the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, today from 3-4pm EST, for a live blog discussion about messaging and the reproductive rights movement.

Gloria Feldt is a leading women's activist and best selling author. She is a former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Her much-quoted Heartfeldt Politics Blog offers a unique take on current events from where the political and personal meet.

Sarah Stoesz is President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. Stoesz was a leader in the campaign against South Dakota's Measure 11 working tirelessly to defeat the proposed abortion ban in November 2008.

In this small but deep memoir by journalist Michael Greenberg we get a bare-all look at his experience of his daughter's first psychotic break, leading to her bipolar diagnosis and years of struggle for sanity. Greenberg, in the style of the great Joan Didion, sticks to the facts, but manages to make them starkly beautiful even while they are truthfully mundane. His daughter wants artichoke and chocolate in the psych ward. His mentally ill brother drinks Lipton tea out of the same pickle jar for twenty years. Greenberg edits a perfectly good novel into smithereens in an attempt to just do something that doesn't involve intense emotions.

For anyone who has been close to someone with mental health issues, which I imagine, is everyone--this is a really normalizing reading experience. Greenberg doesn't glamorize his daughter's illness, nor does he pretend there is no beauty in it. Somehow he strikes a very honest, very self-revealing chord that reminds me--once again--how much a psychotic break can resemble the truth, however scary the mania.

Case in point: his daughter, Sally, believes that:

Everyone is born a genius, but it is drummed out of us almost from the minute we open our eyes. Everyone possesses this genius. It's our unmentionable secret. When childhood is over we are afraid to salvage it from without ourselves, because it would be too risky to do so, it would rupture our drone's pact with society, it would threaten our ability to survive.

This is what leads to her break with reality. Doesn't sound half crazy.

Also, I LOVE Amy Sedaris.

There are a ton of great events listed on our new calendar...here are a few that are happening tonight!

"This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor"
05:30 PM to 08:30 PM
Trinity Cathedral Commons
Cleveland, OH

Screening of Speak Out: I Had an Abortion
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
07:00 PM to 10:00 PM
People's Lounge
New York, NY

For full details, check out the calendar. Add you own event in here.

This is the point in the day when I go hide under the covers, and pretend that technology doesn't exist.

Via TechCrunch.

The fabulous magazine Teen Voices had a chance to interview poet Elizabeth Alexander - who read yesterday at the inauguration. Check it out!

Because of massive disorganization and huge, huge crowds, my tickets to the swearing-in ceremony were useless. So I didn't get to see whether people turned their backs on Rick Warren. I ended up watching from a nearby bar, where Warren was loudly booed. I heard there was some quiet booing from the Mall, but that was it. The invocation itself was pretty anodyne. What did you all hear/see?

Also, I was talking about Warren with some friends yesterday, who reminded me that choosing Warren for the invocation wasn't necessarily an olive branch to evangelicals. That his and Obama's views on gay rights are not all that far apart (i.e. neither one supports marriage equality). So I wanted to elevate this comment from meeneecat on my previous Warren post:

I don't really understand how Obama gets so much praise by the media and supporters for how "gay-friendly" he is. Personally, I don't feel that Obama is "gay-friendly". In fact I would go so far as to say that he is "anti-gay"...the reason is simply because, he opposes gay equality. When you oppose gay equality and/or endorse separate but "equal" policy for gay people (note that "separate but equal" is inherently UNequal) than the underlying message being sent, is that gay people are NOT equal, and shouldn't be treated as full citizens/human beings. So I don't really understand, how can this attitude be described as anything but anti-gay!

Yet, it always seems that I get many people really offended when I explain my opinions on Obama and gay-equality. They reply with things like "stop whining", "stop accusing people of being homophobes/bigots", and "just be happy with how 'gay-friendly' Obama is compared with past presidents". Again, I just don't see the Obama administration as supportive of gay equality. However, I would gladly eat my words if he proved me wrong, basically though, I'll believe it when I see it.

As we get used to the idea of Obama as president, it's tempting to get really excited about how much better he is than Bush (or other previous presidents, for that matter). I know that was a big part of what I was feeling yesterday as I watched TV footage of movers packing up Bush's belongings outside the White House, and later as I watched Obama deliver his speech: RELIEF. However, it's our challenge in the coming months and years to not just be satisfied with "better than before," but to push Obama to really fulfill the ideals of equality and justice that he speaks about so eloquently.

Folks are already talking about the new administration's (I love saying that) website on women's issues.

The agenda takes on reproductive rights, pay equity, health care, protecting Title IX, reducing domestic violence, among numerous other issues.

What do you think of it?

This ad from CatholicVote (a project of the Fidelis Center) is the tackiest, most offensive thing I've seen in a while. And I come across a lot of tacky shit.

Colorado State University Police Chief Dexter Yarbrough was suspended on a litany of charges, like falsifying police documents - but it was this quote that stuck with me:

Yarbrough told students in a class lecture that "women want the dick, even when they say 'no.' They want the dick."

Ah rape culture, enforced by media, education and police alike!

Thanks to Brad for the link.

So you probably already know where you are going for tonight's festivities. And while many of us are cynics and we still have a lot of work ahead of us-tonight we have a lot to celebrate. So please consider this a party open thread and promote your inauguration event!

Where will I be? I am currently in LA and I am attending, "Obamas and Beer!"

Details:
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 6:00pm
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 2:00am
Senor Fish
422 E. 1st Street
Los Angeles, CA

Where are you going to be?

Obama just said in his inaugural speech, "We wil restore science to its rightful place!" It is clear that the sustainable development of science is key to our future and Obama has made it clear that it is important to him. But the NYTimes asks, will this lead to an increase in women in science?

Researchers who have long promoted the cause of women in science view the incoming administration with a mix of optimism and we'll-see-ism. On the one hand, they said, the new president's apparent enthusiasm for science, and the concomitant rise of "geek chic" and "smart is the new cool" memes, can only redound to the benefit of all scientists, particularly if the enthusiasm is followed by a bolus of new research funds. On the other hand, they said, how about appointing a woman to the president's personal Poindexter club, the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology? The designated leaders so far include superstars like Harold Varmus, a Nobel laureate, and Eric Lander, genome meister.

What do you think? Will conditions for women in science improve now that there will be a critical focus on science?

I'm torn here--so proud to be included in the Daily Kos Pundit Round Up of writing reflecting on what today means to the country and the to the world, so irritated to be the only woman included. An excerpt of my column:

It is the beginning of a more engaged, more hopeful citizenry. With leaders that treat us as more than a 300-million-person focus group, we can effectively hold those leaders accountable. We are no longer a manipulated mass, a nation of children embarrassed by our father's simple-mindedness and impulsive rage. We have stepped into our own power through this election process, grown wiser and more informed than any electorate in decades. Like the wide-eyed children who have found a new hero, we will inevitably be disillusioned, but at least we will be passionate. Indifference and apathy have been replaced with investment and the related risks. I'd much rather live in a country in danger of disappointment than in a nation of indifference.

There are no words, just joy.

You can find the text of President Obama's inaugural address here and below the jump.

Pic via CNN.

Today is the day! What are you doing?

Image via Jack and Jill Politics.

I am in the LA area and myself and a couple of Feministing readers are getting together. If you haven't heard here are the details and please stop by if you are in the area!

Monday, January 19, 2009
7:00pm - 10:00pm
Akbar
4635 Sunset BLVD
Los Angeles, CA

Along with millions of other people, I plan on braving the cold, the crowds, and the security checkpoints to witness Obama take his oath of office tomorrow.

And despite all the logistical obstacles, I'm really looking forward to it. Well, everything but Rick Warren. Which is why this letter to Savage Love struck a chord:

I'm going to Barack Obama's inauguration in Washington, D.C., on January 20. I've spent eight years, one month, one week, and one day waiting for this. (But who's counting?) However, I am looking for suggestions for a respectful way to protest the participation of Rick Warren. [...]

While my friends want me to throw shoes, that ain't gonna happen. Ideally, I'd like a peaceful, gracious way to protest Warren's participation that won't undercut this great day, a way that can be picked up (and publicized) by folks on the Mall. Any suggestions?

The first thing that came to my mind was how Washington University students expressed their opposition to Phyllis Schalfly's speech at their graduation. As Schlafly stood up to speak, thousands of students turned their backs on her in silent protest. It made for a great image -- they literally turned their backs on her hate-filled rhetoric and anti-feminist bullshit.

It's probably too late to organize this sort of widespread effort now, but how amazing would it be if thousands of people on the National Mall tomorrow turned their backs on Rick Warren? I know that at least I'll be turning around when he stands to give the invocation.

Alternatively, Dan Savage suggests:

[...] borrow a page from those long-suffering gay Catholics. To register their displeasure with the pope's revealing obsession with gay sex, gay marriage, and gay shoes (the douchebag wears Prada), some gay Catholics wear rainbow sashes to mass. Perhaps folks disappointed by Warren's participation could coordinate a similar sartorial protest? Everyone wear a button with that rainbow-striped version of the Obama logo? Wave little rainbow flags during Warren's remarks? Head to the Mall in nothing but rubber chaps?

What are your protest suggestions?

After today, there can be no doubt as to my love for Monty. Explanation is after the jump, but I warn you - if you are easily grossed out, are eating, or find simply the idea of a story primarily about poop unsavory, stop reading. Seriously.

A nurse in New Mexico is being sued after removing a woman's IUD without her permission and then refusing to put it back in. Why? Well this is what nurse Sylvia Olona told her patient:

"Having the IUD come out was a good thing [because] I personally do not like IUDs. I feel they are a type of abortion. I don't know how you feel about abortion, but I am against them. ...What the IUD does is take the fertilized egg and pushes it out of the uterus."

Lovely. And apparently, this isn't the first time Nurse Olona violated women's rights and bodily integrity:

"Everyone in the office always laughs and tells me I pull these out on purpose because I am against them, but it's not true, they accidentally come out when I tug."

Yeah, sure they do. Olona's former patient is suing for battery, constitutional violations and negligence.

Via Feministe.

Prepare to be pissed. Nick Coles at Spike thinks that women like Salma Hayek and Mandy Moore have bodies that have "gone to butter." Frankly, I think we get all we need to know by checking out Coles' other articles, like "The Top 13 Hottest Dead Girls."

As the reader who emailed the link in said, "Spike TV still exists?"

Let's jump right on in, shall we?

The Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday has special meaning for me. I remember the battle waged to get a national holiday honoring King and how much it meant to my parents. They were in their 20s during the 1960s and active in the movement. They watched segregation laws crumble and communities rebel in the face of change. They watched cities burn when Dr. King was murdered in 1968. And they passed that history on to their children along with the knowledge that many sacrificed much so that we could have the opportunities we do.

For me the MLK holiday is a day to remember the movement and all the extraordinary ordinary people who made it possible.

I tend to avoid the brunches and services and parades. I prefer to watch episodes of Eyes on the Prize and ponder the power of people...regular people...working to make a positive difference.

It is their normalcy...so easy to forget...that is so extraordinary. Too many of us put activists on pedestals and speak of their actions as if quoting scripture...particularly Dr. King.

But, in doing so, we lose the beauty of their accomplishments and the meaning of our inheritance just when we need to understand it most.

The struggle for social justice is anything but history. Poverty, separate and anything but equal education, laws that protect discrimination instead of people, an unjust war and I could go on and on.

There is much work to be done.

Miles and miles yet to go.

And we can take some encouragement from the words of Dr. King...

If you can't fly, run; if you can't run, walk; if you can't walk--CRAWL.

By all means, keep on moving...

It seems the American Life League has discovered the Feministing Community site and, shockingly, isn't a fan. (Granted, this post was a controversial one - but hey, that's what community discourse is about!)

Thanks to evilslutopia for the heads up!

Happy Birthday, Dr. King.

More at Jack and Jill Politics, NewsOne, The Kitchen Table and Gothamist, which has MLK Day events from around NYC. Also, if you've never watched this, you should.

I generally can't take these shows. But I couldn't help but watch this episode of Wife Swap that reader Angela emailed us. First of all, one of the women featured was a bad ass doctor/roller derby player. Add in all of the mouth-dropping moments from the husband of a beauty-obsessed pageant mom - like when he says he hopes his daughter will be a man's "accessory" one day - and I was pretty much hooked.

Maybe this can be my unfeminist guilty pleasure...

I've had a busy weekend here in DC -- the whole city is abuzz in anticipation of the inauguration on Tuesday. Plus, some sort of internet hiccup managed to swallow my working version of today's links.

So forgive my laziness, and consider this an open thread. What have you all been reading and writing this week? Leave your links in comments.

So, I'm getting married. To this guy. There, I said it. I've been putting off writing about this for a while now (as somewhat explained by the hilarious someecard that Amanda sent to me above).

Being that most of us here blog about our personal lives quite a bit - from birth control and Spanx to body image and pets - it seems only natural that I would write about getting married. Especially given how political marriage is, especially right now.

But there was something nice about having this be private and not for public blogging, flickring, Facebooking or commenting. (After all, you don't have to be a blogger to have your personal life on display!) And I was feeling all romantical, certainly not like debating and politicizing my relationship decisions. But shit, that's what I kind of signed up for, right? Well...maybe.

I think that blogging about your life as a way to talk about politics can be a powerful tool; it's one I've used often and find effective. It humanizes experiences that are so often talked about as statistics and develops a sense of community that can be powerful when called to action. But political and media strategies aside, I like that when I meet readers in person they feel as if they know me and other editors on the site (and if they're a commenter, I feel as if I know them!). It's a lovely feeling of connectedness and solidarity that's unlike anything else, and I value it deeply.

But I also think that what we - as bloggers, writers or just folks with an online presence - put out into the public sphere should be up to us. I don't want to feel that I must blog about getting married because it relates to the work that I do. I want to be able to have things that are just for me and not be judged poorly because of that. (Whether or not these are realistic wants remains to be seen!)

After thinking about this for a while, I realized that I don't feel like I had to blog about getting married - I wanted to. I wanted to share some good news with a community that I love and am proud to have had a hand in creating.

I'm positive you'll be hearing more from me on the marriage front: Like how to do it while shirking patriarchal tradition? Or why I decided to participate in an institution that still (for the most part) excludes same-sex couples. And I'd love to hear back from you as well - what your experiences are with marriage, not-being-married, etc. I think it could be a great conversation.

But for right now, I'm just going to be glad that I've finally shared this news with all of you, and start to think about subversive wedding favors...or something.

The Center for Emerging Media's Marc Steiner Show aired a talk with our girl Jill from Feministe, the amazing Latoya from Racialicious and Danielle Citron from the University of Maryland (whose research is on online harassment) to discuss the ways that the blogosphere has been extremely hostile to female bloggers and what can be done to create a safer environment.

I'd bet every blogger who is a woman has experienced some form of online harassment. This is definitely a necessary discussion to be had. Click here to listen to the show, I'm waiting on the transcript.

Miriam and I bring you a very presidential "fireside chat edition" of the Friday video. (Yes, we are total dorks and vlogged in front of Miriam's fireplace.) Today, we say good riddance and FUCK YOU to George W. Bush by listing some of his offenses.

Transcript after the jump. Oh, and pardon our poor production quality.

In comments, add your own reasons for saying "fuck you" to Dubya.

Reader Shena caught eye of this lovely flyer walking to work the other day. Here's a larger image.

I love how it says "McFadden's proudly presents." It seems bar ads bring out the very worst of sexist ridiculousness like this, and is only more convincing of how fucked up drinking culture is in this country.

Al Sharpton:

"There is something immoral and sick about using all of that power to not end brutality and poverty, but to break into people's bedrooms and claim that God sent you," Sharpton told a full house on Sunday.

"It amazes me," he said, "when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being [relegated] into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners."

via Harriet's Daughter (via Pam's House Blend)

Related:
Justice for Oscar Grant-Please spread widely!
Justice for Oscar Grant: Update on Fruitvale BART Protest
Quick Hit: Why Prop 8 Won
Prop 8 Aftermath

As we said buh-bye to George W. Bush while he made his last presidential address last night, we also find that he managed to squeeze in a new day - he declared January 18th as "Sanctity of Human Life Day."

A snippet:

"All human life is a gift from our creator that is sacred, unique and worthy of protection. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, our country recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has a special place and purpose in this world,"

"The most basic duty of government is to protect the life of the innocent. My administration has been committed to building a culture of life by vigorously promoting adoption and parental notification laws, opposing federal funding for abortions overseas, encouraging teen abstinence and funding crisis pregnancy programs."

(Emphasis mine)

An interesting "holiday" considering all the innocent lives that have actually been lost under his presidency. This "culture of life" bullshit makes me sick to my stomach, but at least he's owning up to the fact that he has, in fact, worked vigorously to wage a war against women's right to control their bodies.

This day is like your typical crisis pregnancy center - the title itself is deceiving. What do you think would be a more fitting name for Bush's day?

Yesterday Miriam and I were chatting about some of the awesome women Obama has appointed to his cabinet -- namely Hilda Solis and Hillary Clinton. These women have been strong voices in Congress on issues like reproductive rights and violence against women. But, we wondered, are they going to have the same amount of power to enact positive change on these issues once they're part of the cabinet?

I think the answer is that their roles will change, obviously, but I'm pretty sure we can expect great things from Solis as Labor secretary and Clinton as secretary of State. At her confirmation hearings this week, Hillary Clinton said the following when Barbara Boxer asked her about slavery and trafficking of girls and women:

CLINTON: ...I want to pledge to you that as secretary of state I view these issues as central to our foreign policy, not as adjunct or auxiliary or in any way lesser than all of the other issues that we have to confront.

I, too, have followed the stories that are exemplified by the pictures that you held up. I mean, it is heartbreaking beyond works that, you know, young girls are attacked on their way to school by Taliban sympathizers and members who do not want young women to be educated. It's not complicated: They want to maintain an attitude that keeps women, as I said in my testimony, unhealthy, unfed, uneducated.

And this is something that results all too often in violence against these young women, both within their families and from the outside. This is not culture. This is not custom. This is criminal. And it will be my hope to persuade more governments, as I have attempted to do since I spoke at Beijing on these issues, you know, 13 and some years ago, that we cannot have a free, prosperous, peaceful, progressive world if women are treated in such a discriminatory and violent way.

Will we miss her advocacy in Congress on behalf of reproductive rights, equal pay, and other issues? Absolutely. But I'm excited to see how her views translate to her role at State. Same goes for Solis at Labor.

That's right! If you are in the Bay Area or in LA come say hi to me. I will be having 2 happy hours to celebrate in a time when we could all use some laughs, drinks and like-minded folks around us. So please come join me.

Bay Area Feministing Happy Hour
Date: January 16th
Time: 6-9pm
Place: Lazlo
2526 Mission ST
San Francisco, CA 94110
RSVP on Facebook and invite your friends!

LA Feministing Happy Hour
Date: January 19th
Time: 7-10pm
Place: Akbar
4635 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
RSVP on Facebook and invite your friends!

Let's meet, greet, chat and feminist!

The Atlantic's Special State of the Union Issue is chock full of interesting racial analysis, first and foremost, Hua Hsu's "The End of White America?" In it, he pulls together The Great Gatsby, P. Diddy, William Wimsatt, Nascar racing, and so much more to take a look at the anxious state of whiteness. I've got plenty o' criticism about the piece itself, but am enamored with the awesome visuals by Felix Sockwell, clearly a tribute to Kara Walker.

First and foremost, Hsu weaves an intersectional analysis of race and class deftly into the entire piece, but entirely misses the intersection of race and gender. In fact, there is nary a woman even mentioned in his piece--black, white, or otherwise. It's as if he just assumes that men alone determine race consciousness and culture. Not a very intelligent analysis for such a seemingly intelligent dude.

I found the exploration of white culture, or lack thereof, especially interesting. Hsu writes:

Matt Wray, a sociologist at Temple University who is a fan of Lander's humor, has observed that many of his white students are plagued by a racial-identity crisis: "They don't care about socioeconomics; they care about culture. And to be white is to be culturally broke. The classic thing white students say when you ask them to talk about who they are is, 'I don't have a culture.' They might be privileged, they might be loaded socioeconomically, but they feel bankrupt when it comes to culture ... They feel disadvantaged, and they feel marginalized. They don't have a culture that's cool or oppositional." Wray says that this feeling of being culturally bereft often prevents students from recognizing what it means to be a child of privilege--a strange irony that the first wave of whiteness-studies scholars, in the 1990s, failed to anticipate.

Of course, the obvious material advantages that come with being born white--lower infant-mortality rates and easier-to-acquire bank loans, for example--tend to undercut any sympathy that this sense of marginalization might generate.

I think this issue of self-perception and collective identification is at the heart of some of the stagnation around race politics today. White folks voting for Obama felt like they were allowed into a sort of "culture of hope" (NOT a "culture of blackness" or "radical politics" mind you) that felt uncomplicated and comforting. As my friend Charlton McIlwain said on a panel we did together a few months ago, Obama's team strategically prevented Americans of all ethnic backgrounds from feeling like they had to vote for him because he was black, but also allowed them to feel okay about the idea that they might vote for him, first and foremost, because he was black. A brilliant and election-winning paradox.

Growing up with hip hop in the suburbs shaped my idea about what a "culture" even was. I actually felt like I could identify with it, not out of a sense of similar biography to the artists I was listening to, but out of a mutual commitment to storytelling and brutal truth. (Not that it wasn't hellishly complicated, too.) I knew that there was deep pain and secrecy and fakin' in the mostly white suburbs I lived in, but I didn't quite know how to square that up with who I was becoming.

It wasn't until I went to Barnard and lived in New York City, that I started to think a lot more about the culture I had come from, which I define, for the most part, by my family and its traditions, my feminism, the mountains, my grandmothers and their very divergent lives. Whiteness is part and parcel of that, but not something I foreground when I'm considering my culture, which I recognize, is a privilege in itself. Or, as Hsu tries to point out, maybe its also a source of pain. Or maybe that's just guilt and unconsciousness manifesting as denial of the existence of a unified white culture...

Your thoughts?

More Yes Means Yes this week!

This time in Philly, tonight at Robin's Bookstore. Come check it out if you're in town. Also, Robin's is closing down next month (after 73 years!) so you can visit the store for one of the last times.

Robin's Bookstore, 6pm
108 S. 13th St, Philadelphia PA 19107

Jessica and I will be there along with Jaclyn and contributor Hanne Blank. Hope to see you!

I've been reading so much lately about lay offs and bail outs and the general state of panic everyone seems to be in (has anyone else had friends blame ridiculous shit on the recession? I'm late because...well, you know, this recession.). It sucks. I'm with you. I'm really sad that some of my friends have lost their jobs, that my parents--who are on a fixed income--are worried about making ends meet for the long run etc.

In any case, I just wanted to say a few thank yous to the cosmic economic gods (not Milton Friedman, mind you, but some force more benevolent and wise).

1. Thank you for exposing the corruption and hubris of so many at the top of the economic food chain in a way that is undeniable and forces us, as a country, to face our own problem with greed that leads to so much inequality.

2. Thank you for making us re-examine our consumption practices. I hope that more Americans will realize that the explosion of storage spaces, consumer debt, and existential angst are not disconnected.

3. Thank you for the innumerable people who will be forced out of jobs that didn't fulfill them and inspired to creatively reinvent their lives so that, ultimately, they can be happier and contribute more to the world.

Got any thank yous you'd like to put out into the economic ether?

My writer's group and I will be hosting a panel next week that I wanted to make sure the feministing community was aware of, since it seems like many of our readers and contributors are weathering the ups and downs of a freelance lifestyle:

How to be a Professional Writer, Create Community and Still Pay Your Rent

Yes, it IS possible for writers to succeed in New York. By cobbling together their passions, and supplementing their income with teaching, speaking, editing, consulting and blogging gigs, our panel of five young New Yorkers have been able to make it as writers - and still pay the rent.

Acclaimed writer Courtney E. Martin (Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters) will be joined by journalist Kate Torgovnick (Cheer!), author and performer Kimmi Auerbach, author Theo Gangi (Bang bang) and author Joie Jager-Hyman (Fat Envelope Frenzy). The writers will give you the real deal on issues like creating and maintaining a writing group (check out theirs at http://www.crucialminutiae.com), successful pitching and networking, the highs and lows of the freelance lifestyle, transitioning from a traditional job to the self-employed lifestyle and much, much more.

Date & Time: Wed, Jan 21, 2009, 7:30pm
Location: 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street Directions

Get a ticket here.

Okay, I admit it. I was watching the Real World again.

My excuse this time was that I worked hard all day, then came home and had to clean up the apartment for a guest, and I really needed some mind-numbing chill time with my pasta dinner. Just nod your head and humor me, okay?

In any case, the Real World is in Brooklyn (Red Hook) this time around and exploiting every stereotype therein (stick ball! hip hop! pizza!). But what really caught my attention was that there is a transgender roommate (M to F). Kat is post-op, having just returned from Thailand, where she got her surgery, and in the episode I saw, she slowly comes out with each roommate that she grows to trust in the house. Meanwhile, of course, there are lots of offensive comments in the confessional and panning in on her in her underwear. Lots of speculation, like this:

The show this iteration is chockfull of sexual identity "scenes." One of the most bizarre happens when one roommate, Ryan, an Iraq veteran who wants to publish a book, is dared to kiss a performer at a gay bar in Chelsea for $100 and he ends up being kissed on the mouth and freaks out to the point of vomiting (or was that his copious drinking?). When he tells his girlfriend she screams, "Grossssss!" into the phone.

I am so torn about all of this. On the one hand, I know that the Real World is a whole lot more widely distributed than Anne Fausto-Sterling or Susan Stryker. I know that watching this kid have his little transformation from self-proclaimed ignorant to having some empathy and understanding of LGBTQ issues could really make a difference in a lot of Americans lives. Seeing Kat deal with the transition into her post-op body, telling people about her own story and the larger struggle for transgender rights etc. could enlighten so many young people across America who might otherwise have no exposure (or at least, exposure that they knew about) to transgender folks or an entre into LGBTQ issues.

On the other hand it's reductive, given very little analysis or context, and how do we know some kid doesn't tune in to watch Ryan vomit because he's been tricked into kissing a, yuck, gross, transvestite and then doesn't learn a damn thing? In fact, that viewer's discomfort with anything outside old paradigm heterosexual gender binary is reinforced.

Your thoughts?

As we've discussed in this forum before, I have pretty complicated feelings about Oprah. On the one hand, I so totally respect what she has done for books, reinventing a literary tradition in this country that every writer with an ounce of humility should be thanking her profusely for. On the other hand, I find a lot of her shows and comments contradictory (the weight stuff as of late has been driving me CRAZY), and I'm a little freaked out about one woman having that much power.

Janice Peck, professor of communications at the University of Colorado-Boulder, is freaked out too. Her book, The Age of Oprah: Cultural Icon for the Neoliberal Era, traces Oprah's rise to unparalleled fame within the larger context of our recent political, religious, and sociological past. Few of us probably remember that Oprah was once seen as just one of many trashy day time talk show hosts--parading a constant stream of dysfunctional Americans on national television to get good ratings. But in 1994, Oprah decided to really set herself apart from the pack. A week before her 40th birthday, she opened the show by introducing a new direction; she would stop "talking about how bad things are" and instead "bring more peace to the world." Oprah, as we all know her, was born.

Peck sees Oprah's rise as directly situated within two rising trends during the 90s: (1) the normalization of therapy and new popularity of new age psychology and spirituality, and (2) neoliberal political, economic, and social philosophies. If this is sounding heavy, it is. This book is not for the non-academic at heart. But it's also totally fascinating and well-written, so if you lean toward the wonky, you're going to absolutely eat it up.

See also:
Oprah and her weight

From the Associated Press:

Police have arrested a Greenfield man for allegedly arranging to sell his 14-year-old daughter into marriage in exchange for $16,000, 100 cases of beer and several cases of meat.

Police said they only learned of the deal after the 36-year-old man went to them to get his daughter back because payment wasn't made as promised. The man was arrested Sunday on suspicion of human trafficking.

What was that again about feminism being unnecessary? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Ms. is featuring quotes from feminists and activists - like bell hooks, Margaret Cho and Alice Walker - about what kind of change they'd like to see in the U.S. under the Obama administration.

We have a quote in there too, but it seems it was shortened significantly in the editing process. So here's our full vision for change!

The Obama administration alone can't do all the things we want it to -- it requires a vibrant and effective counterpart in the social-change sector. One of the most amazing things Obama could do is actively support the many grassroots campaigns for women's rights, low-income people's rights, queer rights, racial justice, etc., by redistributing wealth to non-profits and giving them the ability to continue the work they have already been doing in a sustainable fashion. We would like to think that as an organizer, Obama on some level understands the kind of support they need to make real and lasting change.

What's your hope for the Obama administration?

Photo by Ilana Panich-Linsman

If you're in New York and missed Monday's reading at Bluestockings, you should come down to KGB bar for the Yes Means Yes launch party!

7 to 10pm
KGB Bar
85 East 4th Street

I'll be there with Jaclyn Friedman and contributors Jill Filipovic, Brad Perry, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Anastasia Higginbotham & Thomas Millar.

Hope to see you there!

Ugh.

Transcript after the jump.

From the SF Chronicle:

The BART police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man on an Oakland train platform and then refused to explain his actions to investigators was arrested Tuesday in Nevada on suspicion of murder, authorities said.

Johannes Mehserle, 27, of Lafayette was taken into custody in Douglas County, Nev., said Deputy Steve Velez of the Douglas County sheriff's office. The arrest was also confirmed by David Chai, chief of staff to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.

Color of Change has more ways you can get involved.

Related: Justice for Oscar Grant-Please spread widely!
Justice for Oscar Grant: Update on Fruitvale BART Protest

Via zp27 on the community blog.

Sociological Images posts on these two stamp sets, and well...just check them out for yourself.

Lorë P, who alerted SI to the product, breaks it down:

One of the first things that struck me was that both of these is that they have stamps that mention dad -- "daddy's girl" and "like father like son" but only the female one mentions mom (I guess it would be considered too emasculating to have "mommy's boy?")

Another interesting part of these stamps is that the "Girl talk" emphasizes the sweetness of girls - their giggles, their silliness, their angelic qualities (not to mention princess..). On the other hand, the male version has more objects - trucks, rockets, robots and "strong" traits - being brave and embracing adventure (and what does "all boy" mean anyway?).

It's the so-called little things, folks. This shit is everywhere. Not to mention, I've been staring at this thing like a 90s era Magic Eye poster and I'm pretty sure I see a 3-D image of "daddy's girls" flipping the bird.

The stamps are made by Sassafras Lass.

In announcing new labeling info for the drug, Health Canada said that "the toxin in Botox products may spread to distant parts of the body, with potentially fatal consequences."

Thoughts?

Thanks to Elizabeth for sending along the pic.

I just wanted to pass this along...

Each girl has her own inner beauty: the beauty of action, caring, activism. Tell us about the inner beauty of your daughter, granddaughter, niece, neighbor or student and help us to inspire girls everywhere with their own unique inner beauty.

Every year, New Moon Girls magazine features 25 girls ages 8-12 who are beautiful inside. Our Girls Editorial Board selects 25 girls (from those who are nominated) who represent many different aspects of inner beauty. Those girls are featured in our May/June issue. And all the other girls who are nominated receive special recognition and are also honored at NewMoonGirls.com

Anyone can nominate a girl - her family, someone in the community, another girl. And girls can also nominate themselves!

I encourage you to nominate one or more girls by clicking here to download the short form. Then just complete the nomination form and and email it as an attached file to submissions@newmoongirlmedia.com. The deadline is midnight Central Standard Time on Monday, January 19, so act today!

Too often, girls aren't given props for their inner beauty, so please nominate someone you know (or yourself!) today.

Pic from Narcotic Coyote

There were some great letters to the editor published in the NYTimes this week in response to last week's article about self-induced abortion in the Dominican community. You can see my thoughts about the piece here, but I wanted to highlight some of the great responses.

From the letters section:

From Silvia Henriquez and Melanie Zurek:

Self-induced abortion does raise questions about women's experience, but glossing over the challenges of gaining access to abortion services does nothing to answer these questions. It neither reflects the reality of abortion delivery nor the reality of women's lives.

From Anne Davis:

As we approach the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, physicians need to remember that reproductive health care remains a challenge, even in New York City. We must work within our communities to ensure that women know how to navigate the health care system.

From David S. Cohen:

Your article is an excellent reminder of the struggles facing poor women who seek basic reproductive health care in this country. Because of a law called the Hyde Amendment, which was first enacted in 1976 and renewed each year since, women on Medicaid are not covered for the cost of an abortion.

Unlike other basic health needs for men and women, this procedure, which nearly one-third of all women in the United States will have by the end of their reproductive years, is specifically carved out of coverage. For poor women in Washington Heights, paying $30 for a risky and illegal drug is much more realistic than paying several hundred dollars (or much more) for a legal abortion out of their own pockets.

If President-elect Barack Obama is serious about improving the health of poor women, one of his first agenda items should be the repeal of the Hyde Amendment. In the meantime, poor women will, at best, turn to private assistance through local abortion funds, or, at worst, turn to risky medicine that is the modern equivalent of the back-alley abortion.

There is also an article at RH Reality Check with more on advocate's responses.

From a local Detroit TV station, a story about how female snow plow drivers hold their own.

Thanks to Cody for the link!

BBC News has a story about the effects of pink on young girl's development.

Some commentators now believe pink dominates the upbringing of little girls, and this may be damaging.

Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood, says the "total obsession" with pink stunts girls' personalities. "I am very worried about it. You can't find girls over the age of three who aren't obsessed with the colour. It's under their skin from a very early age and severely limits choices, and decisions.

"We have got to get something done about the effect marketeers are having. We are creating little fluffy pink princess, an image of girliness, that is very specific and which some girls don't want to go along with, but due to overwhelming peer pressure, are having to conform to."

The article goes on to overlook what I think are the important issues underlying this question. What we really need to talk about, which is demonstrated by the pink example, is how our society constantly polices gender roles. This policing starts at a young age and color preferences are just one of many examples we could use. While the article makes the point that exposure to pink itself is not going to seriously change a girl's life, what bigger differences underlie this superficial examples? We treat boys and girls differently in so many ways, many of which we don't even perceive. The cumulative effect of all these slight behavioral and social differences are what really has an impact on both genders, and continues to reinforce ideas about gender difference.

I thought this story was inspiring.

When immigration agents raided Smithfield Food's huge North Carolina slaughterhouse two years ago, union organizer Eduardo Peña compared the impact to a "nuclear bomb." The day after, people were so scared that most of the plant's 5,000 employees didn't show up for work. The lines where they kill and cut apart 32,000 hogs every day were motionless. "Workers think it's happening because people were getting organized," said Vargas at the time.

Yet on Dec. 11, 2008, when the votes were counted in the same packing plant, 2,041 workers had voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), while just 1,879 had voted against it. That stunning reversal set off celebrations in house trailers and ramshackle homes in Tarheel, Red Springs, St. Pauls, and all the tiny working-class towns spread from Fayetteville down to the South Carolina border.

Read the full article at The American Prospect.

Law Students for Reproductive Justice is accepting submissions for its 4th annual Writing Prize. The theme this year is "Seeking Reproductive Justice in All Places for All People."

LSRJ is looking for fresh student scholarship that a) focuses on marginalized individuals or communities, such as people of color, immigrants, minors, poor people, prisoners, and those who identify as LGBTQQI, and b) applies a reproductive justice lens in its analysis.

Papers may have a domestic or international scope. Authors are encouraged to focus
their research on issues or occasions of reproductive coercion or oppression: the political,
social, legal, and economic forces that limit or control the reproductive options of individuals and communities. A wide range of topics will be accepted, including but not limited to a particular community's unique struggle against reproductive oppression; environmental conditions causing reproductive harms; coercive or forced contraception, sterilization, or birthing conditions; the shackling of pregnant prisoners during labor and delivery; discrimination against non-traditional family formation; the impact of pharmacist refusals or abortion provider shortages in geographically isolated communities; or access to the HPV vaccine.

Send your submission as a pdf or Word attachment to info@lsrj.org by March 2nd!
Winning authors will receive $750 (1st place) or $250 (2nd place), get published on LSRJ's website, and perhaps be invited to present their papers at conferences.

For more info, see the LSRJ website.

I'll be at Bluestockings bookstore tonight reading from Yes Means Yes, along with my co-editor Jaclyn Friedman, writer Anastasia Higginbotham and Jill Filipovic of Feministe fame. Come and say hi!

Bluestockings
172 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington
7-9pm

(But of course, if you've checked out our brand spanking new calendar, you already knew all this.)

But here's the kicker: it's legal.

I'm super excited to announce the launch of our latest site tool - an events calendar! We get so many requests for posts on organizations' events, we figured it was about time we gave activists, orgs, and Feministing readers a place where they can promote their event easily. Anyone who is registered on the site can post to the calendar.

So now we not only have a separate calendar page, but we're also listing upcoming events in the right sidebar. (Check out, for example, my reading tonight at Bluestockings or Planned Parenthood's Bon Voyage Bush Bash!) And adding an event is super easy. Just enter your information, and a Feministing editor will approve it that day - much in the same way Community posts are approved.

This doesn't mean that we'll stop promoting events on the main page - but we wanted to ensure that anyone who had an event to share could do so.

So please try it out and let us know what you think!

If you have any trouble using the calendar/events page, please feel free to email me; just put "events" in the subject line.

One more reason to love Tina Fey.

Just wondering... And please, share your fave feminist new sources in comments. (Or shamelessly self-promote your feminist blog, mag, etc!)

This advertisement for Chaser clothing was featured in a not-so-recent issue of Flaunt Magazine; it's about a year old but I still think it's too egregious not to point out. (It was the open mouthed thing that really put me over the edge.)

Via Ad Feminem, who has the company and magazine contact info for complaints.

Check out this video from the change.gov website where Robert Gibbs says the Obama administration will get rid of the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. (It's the last question, at minute 4:17.)

Via Michelle Goldberg.

Ann's 27th birthday was this past Saturday - so make sure to leave her some love in comments!

Happy birthday, lady - you are so fabulous at 27, you make us all look bad. But we love you for it.

Just the headlines today, folks.

Sociological Images: Crossing Gender Lines: Boys Doing Double Dutch

Washington Post: Hollywood Wedded to The Formula: Bridal Films Ply the Same Scary Image

The Well-Timed Period: Increase in U.S. Teen birth Rate Due to Failure of Contraceptive-Focused Sex Ed

Questioning Transphobia: The Pope and teh trans

Womanist Musings: Sex Slavery

Dodson and Ross: At Birth, No Difference Between Male & Female Brains

Women's eNews: Casualties Replace Gaza's Maternity Ward Patients

BBC: Pakistan girl band creates a stir

The G Spot: In support of a feminist stimulus
Related: Robert Reich on How to Create Jobs Without Them All Going to Skilled Professionals and White Male Construction Workers

RHRealityCheck: Innovative Thinking In The Fight Against Gendered Violence

The Bilerico Project: Let's move beyond "marriage" in '09

Broadsheet: How the Madoff mess hits women

Muslimah Media Watch: Aliyah's Choice: The LA Times' Profile of a Lesbian Muslim

The Atlantic: American Girl (Ta-Nehisi Coates on Michelle Obama)

Yes Means Yes: Prop 8 Was A Matter Of Ideology, Not Race

The Black Scientist: Queering Black Politics: Reconsidering the Black Single Mother Argument (via PostBourgie)

Jezebel: Bobby Jindal Seeks To Stave Off Another Hurricane By Eliminating Gay Rights

Womanist Musings: When You Force Oral Sex You Might Get Bitten

Don't Gel Too Soon: Doubt - More than a Movie -- Also a Time Capsule

The Bilerico Project: A1 steak sauce: Sexism is that important

TransGriot: Why Some Black GLBT Peeps Hate the 'Q' Word

Finally, I'm sorry, but this is just hilarious.

Actions and Events

Chicago, IL: Catch a screening of Pray the Devil Back to Hell and a panel discussion on Wed, Jan 14.

Call for Submissions: An anthology about doulas.

Send a message to Obama on Darfur.

Cool photo project: What Does Feminism Mean to You?

All the living former, current and Presidents to be got together on Wednesday at an unprecedented White House gathering. It's hard to imagine these five men getting along, let alone making small talk.

Amen! Via AP:

Energized by the prospects of a pro-labor president, House Democrats marked the first week of the new Congress Friday by pushing through two bills to help workers, particularly women, who are victims of pay discrimination.

Unlike President George W. Bush, who threatened to veto the two bills when they came up in the last session of Congress, President-elect Barack Obama has embraced them.

"Today we face a transformational moment," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., chief sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act. "With a new Congress, a new administration, we have a chance to finally provide equal pay for equal work and make opportunity real for millions of American women."

The bill could reach the Senate floor as early as next week, so make sure your senator knows about your support. Here's more info about Lilly Ledbetter and read the whole AP piece for more details on today's passage.

Via Womanist Musings.

Transcript after the jump.

I found this while getting my friend a birthday card at my Rite Aid in Queens the other day and couldn't resist taking record of it. We all know that greetings cards themselves are gendered enough, but the actual card sections? Damn.

Six months after the FDA rejected Merck and Co.'s request to approve the distribution of Gardasil - the HPV vaccine - to women aged 27 to 45, they've sent a response letter to Merck requesting that they resubmit their request after a full 48-month study. Merck's original application included research from a 24-month period.

As Shark Fu noted, January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, so I'm not too surprised that this update is being released now. The good news is that the end of the 48-month study will be by the fourth quarter of 2009. Let's just hope this will be enough.

In the meantime, Merck also requested FDA approval for its use in males last month. I'm definitely curious how that's going to play out.

MSNBC discusses a growing trend of stockings for men which many call "mantyhose," as well as other "feminine" clothing that are renamed and altered in quality to dodge the stigma of being deemed feminine. On the one hand, they're making the hosiery as masculine as possible. On the other, the way the companies and their consumers humorously embrace its femininity is interesting.

Most companies name their stockings, girdles for men and the like almost indistinguishable from the "feminine version" of the product by completely omitting the use of words like "hosiery" or "stockings." For example, a product that's claimed to be "spanx for men" is called a Core Precision Undershirt. There's also a pantyhose for men called Comfilon's Activeskin Legwear for Men.

And while men's pantyhose is used for the same reasons anyone would wear hosiery, including support, comfort, and warmth and yes, aesthetics, the author makes sure to appease the reader:

European men have been sporting hose for several years, but the trend has been slow to catch on in the U.S. (It is important to note that the trend has no connection to men who wear hose to cross-dress, since they prefer to wear pairs that are more feminine.) The "mantyhose" is also part of a larger trend of untraditional men's underwear designed to lift, sculpt and suck in that beer belly... (Emphasis mine)

It's of the utmost importance you know that these are manly stockings! No cross-dressers here!

But while their makers and users try so very hard to distinguish themselves from women's stockings, girdles, what-have-you, they still manage to make a joke out of the fact that - whatever name you give it and whatever manly material you make it into - it's still women's clothing. The word "mantyhose" itself could make one chuckle. In fact, simply adding an "m" in front of many of these clothes masculinize but also mock them, like "mantyhose" or the "mirdle" (man girdle). Even the companies use humor in their marketing techniques; the tagline for Comfilon is, "This is NOT your mother's pantyhose."

This seems indicative of the general male hetero response to anything they do or wear that's "feminine" - if you mock it while you're doing it, you can get away with it. Same thing with male hetero friends who pretend to make out when they're hugging each other, or skip around the room in their face cream - it's more or less a way of defying gender norms without having to catch shit for it. And that makes me sort of sad.

At the same time, the article seems to imply that men aren't embarrassed, but their wives (of course they have wives!) are the skittish ones. Thoughts?

Ann Coulter says single motherhood is "a recipe to create criminals, strippers, rapists, murderers."

That is all.

Via Feministe.

After a long wait, requiring a lot of equanimity and patience, Mrs. Joyce Bamford Addo has just been appointed the third most powerful person in Ghana: Speaker of the 230 member of the 5th parliament of the 4th Republic. In more simple terms, she will be the first woman in the West African sub-region to hold such an honor, joining Betty Boothroyed in the UK and Nancy Pelosi of the US worldwide.

The coverage of her appointment on allAfrica.com, by the way, is sexist hilarity:

She retired to become an active grand mother superintending over her grand-children from her five children, who are in their late 30s. She was once married to one Mr. Abankwa, with whom she had three children and then the late Major General Addo, who also died a few years ago.

Sources who know her, say she is not a brainstorming Justice Kpegah look-alike, in terms of temperament, but a generally fair minded person, a lady who takes time to dust her nose and apply mascara delicately, before she goes to court. Apart from playing grandma, she now reads and occasional writes, until this unexpected job as the third most powerful person in the land.

Next time I'm "dusting my nose" I'll think of ol' Grandma Addo.

Thanks to the Women's Media Center for the heads up.

I'm moonlighting on the Thank You Thursday post today to take some time and give a shout out to a blog that Feministing just discovered our mutual love for: The Kitchen Table.

This blog is written in the style of letters/conversation between two African-American Princeton professors, Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell and Dr. Yolanda Pierce.

Today I want to say thank you to those two dynamic women for creating and maintaining a truly refreshing and cutting-edge blog. First off, I love the concept. Harris-Lacewell and Pierce utilize the importance of the kitchen table and its role in families to create this space for their dialogue. From their first post in July 2008, Yolanda explains:

I remember when I "graduated" from the kids' table to the adult table during family holiday meals. I was truly a "woman grown" in the eyes of my family, but in my heart, I actually missed the kids' table. Growing up, the kitchen, and particularly the kitchen table was a site of comfort, laughter, advice, gossip, and good food. Important family decisions were made at the kitchen table; elaborate Sunday dinners of candied yams, fried chicken, and collard greens were prepared. At the kitchen table, homework was done and bills were paid (and left unpaid). I grew up watching generations of Black women experience the sorrows and joys of life at the kitchen table.

I find myself dining at all types of tables now, but none of these tables elicit the acceptance I once experienced at the kitchen table. As a Black woman in the academy, I've been invited to sit and eat at the Ivory Tower table, but I have not felt welcomed as a full participant in the meal. It wasn't so long ago that someone like me would have only been allowed to clean the table.

So, my hope is that this blog creates a "kitchen table" in cyberspace for those of us who struggle with being on the inside of an institution, but still feel like outsiders. I hope that we can model what has been glaringly absent in our own professional lives: a place of refuge and acceptance for all the roles we bring to the table. We are scholars, activists, mothers, and public intellectuals. And we need each other to survive and thrive. I hope there are other folks out there who'd like to join us on this journey.

Melissa's response:

I have no doubt that I will learn a lot from you. We are both 30-something black women who are raising daughters while teaching, researching, and writing in the wilderness of Central New Jersey, and yet we are still very different from one another.

I hate how the media always trots out one sister to give "the black woman's perspective" as though we there is a single experience of being a black woman. We can challenge that assumption here by giving ourselves and our readers a chance to share a place at the table even if we don't always agree. I can't wait to explore our political ideas, religious commitments, personal struggles, and pop culture tastes together in this little corner of cyberspace.

I really appreciate the perspective of this two women, particularly as academics, mothers and women of color in a white-dominated profession. I appreciate when academics reach outside of the academy and communicate their views and passions. Their perspective is always valuable and sheds light on important issues in new ways. The Obama campaign and election was particularly near and dear to both their hearts, and they were the first blog I went to on November 5th. I knew they would have something important to say about that monumental day. Definitely a must-read blog.

You might remember Melissa Harris-Lacewell from her many news appearances over the last year, particularly her debate with Gloria Steinem about gender and the election.

If you missed journalist June Cross' amazing one hour special on Frontline about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and its affect on one extra/ordinary family's life, never fear. It's online. Out of all of the media that I've seen focused on this issue in the last few years, June's is among the most complex, clear, enraging, and inspiring (along with Trouble the Water). An excerpt of June talking about the women in the film:

I followed the travails of three generations of the Gettridge family for my film "The Old Man and the Storm" on Frontline. The men physically rebuilt their homes, but the actions of women--unseen because their pain was too private--allowed this family to survive. While the Gettridge men set up camp in trailers, their spouses and sisters, often living alone, reared children, fought with insurance adjusters, and in general stayed on top of the myriad shifting bureaucratic battles that have marked the city's first few years of rebuilding.

Go the Women's Media Center for the full text.

Lisa Belkin had a really interesting piece in Sunday's New York Times about the ways in which the public concern over New York Senator hopeful Caroline Kennedy's experience mirrors a much larger work/life issue. She writes:...

...women changed the culture of the workplace, not least when highly visible women began to leave it. The rhythm of office work -- its hours, its demands, its life cycle -- is designed for a man, ideally a man with a wife back home with the kids. Ever since the industrial age, career tracks have been built on the assumption that you can work around the clock in your 20s, shoulder increasing responsibility in your 30s and 40s and begin to ratchet down and move over for the next generation in your 50s and 60s.

That doesn't work for many women, who are apt to want to pause, physically and emotionally, for children, maybe slow down in their 30s, when men are charging ahead, and come back with a new energy in their 50s, when men are slowing down.

She goes on to talk about how work "experience" used to be defined, visually speaking, as a ladder. Just keep on climbing and hope for the rewards on your way up. But a new paradigm is taking over, one that looks less like a ladder and more like a "lattice"--a shape that allows for stepping off and stepping back on, caretaking for children and aging parents, working non-traditional hours, taking detours into various fields, developing various skills etc. In this paradigm, success would be less defined by one's years of experience or status within a particular linear framework, but the quality of one's work, the breadth of one's experience, one's capacity for reinvention and adaptation.

It's, undoubtedly, a very middle class way of looking at the problem of women and work (but what else would you expect from the Times and Belkin?!). I do find it interesting, nevertheless. Your thoughts?

Women involved in prostitution during the 60s and 70s are demanding that the U.S. and South Korean governments own their role. Previously both governments were eager to heap all the blame on the Japanese government. An excerpt:

While the women have made no claims that they were coerced into prostitution by South Korean or American officials during those years, they accuse successive Korean governments of hypocrisy in calling for reparations from Japan while refusing to take a hard look at South Korea's own history.

"Our government was one big pimp for the U.S. military," one of the women, Kim Ae-ran, 58, said in a recent interview.

Scholars on the issue say that the South Korean government was motivated in part by fears that the American military would leave, and that it wanted to do whatever it could to prevent that.

But the women suggest that the government also viewed them as commodities to be used to shore up the country's struggling economy in the decades after the Korean War.

Read more here.

Reading the journals and letters of Rachel Corrie was--hands down--one of the most profound reading experiences of my life. American-born Rachel was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003, at the age of 23 years old, trying to defend Palestinians' homes. Read more about the details here.

When I first heard that Rachel had been killed, I am sad to admit now, I assumed she must have been reckless. I don't know why. Maybe it was some defense mechanism for my own psyche. After all, I feel like I've never done enough. There is part of me that feels like I should be putting my body on the line, and every day that I don't, that I convince myself that writing is "enough," is one more day that I haven't really used my life. The fact that Rachel used her life--used it right up actually--threatened my only excuse...it's not sane to put yourself in harm's way like that. It does no good.

It may not have stopped the destruction of Palestinian homes or the loss of innocent lives, but Rachel's death did matter, and it still does. Even more important, she was absolutely not reckless, or at least not "crazy" by any means. She was incredibly, deeply thoughtful, and also a fiercely gifted writer. I learned this from her own words, which have been brought together in a volume by her family, and published under the title Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie. I'll let her brilliance speak for itself:

Thinking it over, I realized that the most powerful actions I can take toward societal improvement will have to start very close to home, arising not from the need to leave a mark on history, but from empathy and sincere understanding of the places in my life where neglect exists.

I can't cool boiling waters in Russia. I can't be Picasso. I can't be Jesus. I can't save the planet single-handedly. I can wash dishes.

Live for a long time in the place you were born and strange things will happen to you. You forget what it's like to discover. In order to survive, you seek out ways to discover things in miniature. Instead of becoming worldly you become intimate. You see every tragic refraction of the place and it sees the same in you.

She also loved making lists, something I used to do religiously in my journals when I was younger. Hers, of course, were far more interesting than "the five cutest boys in the sixth grade":

Five people to hang out with in eternity: 1. Rainier M. Rilke 2. Jesus 3. E. E. Cummings 4. Gertrude Stein 5. Zelda Fitzgerald... 6. Charlie Chaplin

As we face another deadly flare up of violence in the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, I am reminded of Rachel's spirit. Not because she was on the so-called Palestinian side. I think there is no good side in this horrific and ongoing conflict. Everything has been so muddled, so militarized, so dehumanized, that it's hard to even take a stand. But Rachel took a stand against death, against suffering, against unconscious or disconnected living. She took a stand against fear. That's something all of us can learn from, no matter what our political views.

We are all born and someday we'll all die. Most likely to some degree alone. Our aloneness in this world is, maybe not anymore, a thing to mourn. Maybe it has to do with freedom.

What if our aloneness isn't a tragedy? Tragic passing of love affairs and causes and communities and peer groups. What if our aloneness is what allows us to speak the truth without being afraid? What if our aloneness is what allows us to adventure--to experience the world as a dynamic presence--as a changeable, interactive thing?

Some weight-loss ads have snuck their way into our ad queue - we're working to get them down now. Thanks to all who sent emails alerting us!

This will be my last review from the road, as sadly, the road trip is over! Thanks again to everyone who posted suggestions of places to visit and sent me emails.

This review is not of a place, but a website and online community, Couchsurfing. From their website:

CouchSurfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit.

This trip was my first time ever trying Couchsurfing--I had never even heard of it. My travel companion had tried it though, so I trusted her judgment. Basically you set up an online profile on the site with information about yourself, and the idea is that the members will offer their homes (and couches) to surfers when they are traveling. People connect by emailing one another. There are built-in safety nets, which allow people to post reviews of one another (both the hosts and the surfers) so you can see how well-rated people are and look for any red flags.

We had a great experience couchsurfing in Asheville, NC. We connected with an awesome couple who let us stay with them, even offering us a bed in their roommate's room and feeding us a yummy home cooked meal. There is no money exchanged, and people only bring gifts or offerings if they so desire. We bought the ingredients for the meal we shared and left them a nice note.

I highly recommend it, you can find surfers all over the country. I definitely felt more comfortable doing it with someone else (both for the awkwardness factor and for safety), but I think it's a great way to travel on a budget and meet cool people.

Anyone else ever tried Couchsurfing?

There are no words for this. I feel so much rage and I can only send my support and encouragement to my Bay Area organizers and remind everyone that now is a time for non-violence. Yet another example of how gross abuse of power leads to the loss of lives for youth of color.

This is video from a camera phone of Oscar Grant being shot by BART police while he was handcuffed.

*trigger warning*

You can read about it more here and Postbougie has another video that is equally as stunning.

What you can do right now:

1. If you are in the Bay there is a march today at the Fruitvale BART, details here.

2. If you are not in the Bay here are 5 things you can do right now.

We must let the world know we will not stand for our youth being murdered senselessly.

It seems that trying to force women to view ultrasounds - because we're too stupid to know that when you get an abortion, you get an abortion - just isn't enough for some folks. Now anti-choicers want to decide where women view that ultrasound.

Seven S.C. House lawmakers have prefiled a bill that would require women seeking abortions to be given a list of clinics and other facilities that provide free ultrasounds. That list could include pregnancy crisis centers -- many run by antiabortion groups -- that actively discourage abortion and encourage women to choose other alternatives.

The bill expands upon the law the General Assembly passed this year that requires abortion providers to give women seeking an abortion the option of viewing an ultrasound beforehand. (Emphasis mine)

Lovely. South Carolina is terrible on reproductive justice issues in general (91 percent of the state's counties have no abortion provider and there are a ton of restrictions on access to abortion) so I guess this should come as no surprise. But it still irritates the shit out of me.

Related: The politics of "informed consent"
Mandatory ultrasounds and "informed consent"

Our gal Courtney has a great piece at TAP on dating violence prevention programs and how they rely on gender stereotypes. Check it out.

This made me really happy today.

In its new package of rule changes, the House has finally decided to make its official language gender neutral, recognizing the growing representation of women in Congress (including as Speaker of the House). Gone are references to "he," "chairman," and phrases such as "his duties."

I'm literally giddy. Melissa breaks down why this is so important:

[A]n inevitable effect of regarding "male" as the Norm is regarding "female" as the Other. Every time we engage in the little, unimportant thing of male-universal language, we are reinforcing the very foundation of inequality upon which the entire structure of institutional sexism rests.

In short, language matters.

The week before Christmas, one of the worst environmental disasters in US history occured in Roane County, Tennessee. From the Tennessean:

Millions of yards of ashy sludge broke through a dike at TVA's Kingston coal-fired plant Monday, covering hundreds of acres, knocking one home off its foundation and putting environmentalists on edge about toxic chemicals that may be seeping into the ground and flowing downriver.

About 2.6 million cubic yards of slurry -- enough to fill 798 Olympic-size swimming pools -- rolled out of the pond Monday, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Cleanup will take at least several weeks, or, in a worst-case scenario, years.

The ash slide, which began just before 1 a.m., covered as many as 400 acres as deep as 6 feet. The wave of ash and mud toppled power lines, covered Swan Pond Road and ruptured a gas line. It damaged 12 homes, and one person had to be rescued, though no one was seriously hurt. Much remains to be determined, including why this happened, said Tom Kilgore, president and CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

These photos really say it all, and it's hard to imagine the hardship the members of this community are facing. These kinds of disasters simply bring home the fact that we've been horribly managing waste and byproducts from industry for a long while, and the results are going to begin to catch up with us. It's not just about global warming anymore.

An anti-bulimia ad from Pro Mädchen in Düsseldorf, Germany has been placed in an...interesting location.

...through their WPP ad agency red cell, placed these splatter stickers (headline translates: Bulimia is curable) on the undersides of toilet lids in women's bathrooms at area colleges.

Now, I see what they're going for and part of me thinks its innovative. But another part of me finds it kind of offensive - a splatter ad? And let's not even talk about the fact that it's pink. But perhaps it's an effective way to reach young women.

What do you think?

Well, this is just rich. According to this commentary by Kathryn Lopez for the Washington Times, the reason abstinence-only education doesn't work isn't just because of our slutty, sex-obsessed culture, but because we don't respect teens enough to make their own choices. Because apparently, giving them only one choice is respecting their ability to choose. Huh?

But the problem goes beyond lumping in a simple, cut-and-dried oath with the complicated issue of abstinence education. The conundrum boils down to this: It's not all about sex. It's no shock to anyone who understands human nature, never mind kids, that any virginity pledge that fixates on brute carnal relations is not going to work. Repeating the mantra "Don't do it," even when you've got a teen doing the repeating, isn't enough. How could it work? Popular culture is obsessed with sex. We can't even manage a family dog movie ("Marley & Me") without Jennifer Aniston taking off her clothes. And until that changes, of course, a hormone-mad teenager will be sorely tempted to join in the seemingly ubiquitous fornication, pledge or no pledge.

So naturally, abstinence-only education and purity pledges that focus on brute carnal relations will work? Seriously, am I missing something? She is setting up the perfect rationale for why her agenda is failing. Failing, as in-it-has-been-proven-over-and-over-again, that is doesn't work. But I digress.

Does that mean we pass out condoms at school because we're not going to change the culture anytime soon? No. It means kids need support and reasons engage in activities other than sex. Abstinence has to be about saying "yes" to something in order to work. We need to focus on the idea kids can actually think, and should want more from a relationship than sex. We need to be open to programs that aren't all about copulation, but about character education.

What is up with the fear that passing out condoms in schools means all other extra-curricular activity will stop? That condoms are somehow promoting sex? Young people are having sex, with or without condoms.

Read the rest, mainly for the humor value and all the blatant contradictions.

RELATED:
One more time with feeling: Virginity pledges don't work.
Knocked up by Gossip Girl?
Abstinence shocker: Engaged couples don't want to forgo sex.
Pure lies: Inaugural Edition
Time Magazine hearts Purity Balls

I suppose in a world where your offline options are limited, as is the case for many, many young people world-wide, spending vast quantities of your time online seems like a pretty smart way to not only kill time, but to have all your desires met. Isn't that in many ways what most internet users do online? At least the ones that spend *most* of their time online-building relationships via social networking sites, blogging, playing games and instant messaging. Hey, I am 30 and have a multitude of options for offline activities, yet I chose the safety, anonymity and self creation allowed via the internet for much of my work and a good portion of my leisure time.

China has the highest number of internet users in the world and many of them are "internet addicts."

via CSM.

China has the world's largest number of Internet users - 290 million and counting, with 70 percent under the age of 30. And a recent survey of Internet use by global market information group TNS found that Chinese spend the highest proportion of their leisure time online - 44 percent - out of users in 16 countries.

Tao estimates that 4 to 6 percent of Chinese netizens, which includes more than 13 percent of Chinese college students, are addicts - a term he defines as anyone who spends more than six hours per day for three months or more on nonwork- or study-related Internet use. That amounts to as many as 17 million net junkies in China. By comparison, about 8 percent of college students in the US are addicted Web users, he estimates.

I see two sides to this, I think that the internet is good in developing certain skills in young people, but I can also see how we don't want all our young people online, all the time. But I don't think medication and rehabilitation are necessarily going to solve the problem. If young people are feeling constrained in their real lives, especially young girls who feel they can't express themselves as they want or live the lives they want, they will continue to find other outlets for it.

According to Boingboing, they are also using sex education to cure internet addiction using the example that one of the young girls aquired 68 husbands in an online Second Life type community. Another 60 percent are being treated with drugs.

I see the problem, I get it, but this doesn't seem like a very ethical or effective solution for the long-term.

Yeah, I had to write the whole thing out, since the news report calls her "beaten" which just doesn't site well with me as a headline or a way to describe someone who has suffered both from domestic violence and then job discrimination.

Let's face it, Hooters is one of my least favorite companies in America. They cater to the lowest common denominator of male arousal via normative white beauty standards and create spaces where women are objectified. They also serve crappy food. And while this story isn't surprising (unfortunately), it is disgusting.

A young women suffered a severe life threatening attack and since the physical signs of the attack were apparent, Hooters said she was not fit to work. The world according to Hooters, this is totally logical right? The world according to common sense, I think this is actually-inhumane.

A waitress was barred from working at the Hooters restaurant in Davenport after a violent physical attack left her bruised and unable to meet company standards for maintaining a "glamorous appearance."

The waitress alleges she was fired after taking time off to recover from the assault. Hooters officials say the waitress abandoned her job, but also say that the woman's bruised body made her temporarily ineligible to work as a "Hooters Girl."

You can read the rest of the story here. (Trigger warning)

In one of my original posts about feminist sex shops, a few of you mentioned Aphrodite's Toy Box (ATB) in Atlanta. I was intrigued by it when I went to the website, which had a very distinct feel from the other feminist sex shops I have visited. I made the trek to Aphrodite's when I was in Atlanta for my road trip, and it was definitely an experience.

I don't say trek casually, as it was really a hike to find ATB. This may be more about Atlanta than the store itself, but I have to give it a low score on the accessibility front. Wanting to avoid driving since we were spending most of our time doing just that, we ventured to ATB via MARTA (Atlanta's subway). It was a long unfriendly walk from the closest MARTA to ATB, about a mile and on roads that aren't very pedestrian friendly. So definitely take a car if you want to visit the store.

It's a welcoming place, occupying an entire little wooden building off a main road. The majority of their stock was lingerie, corsets and other sexy outfits. They had a good variety of sizes though, covering women from XS to XXXL. Definite bonus. They had a large sexy costume (Halloween style) section, as well as some leather items.

The sex toys themselves were in a separate room, divided by a curtain, which reminded me a bit of the porn section of the video store. I wasn't a big fan of the separation and asked the owner whether it was state law, but she said it was just her preference. There was a state mandated sign in the room "for novelty purposes only." The toys were generally pretty expensive (more than other stores I have shopped in) and there were quite a few that I won't want to sell in my store (like Anal Ease for example--check out what Tristan Taormino has to say for more on why it's not so great). Also, many of the toys were displayed in their original packaging, much of which is kind of gross and sexist. I've realized this is one of the main things that sets feminist sex shops apart--they take a lot of care with how they display things. All of the toys are out of their original packaging (which the stores have little control over) and it really makes a difference for me as a shopper.

The store also offers a bunch of classes, from things like pole dancing, belly dancing and stilleto fitness.

Aphrodite's Toy Box definitely isn't one of my favorite sex shops. I'm not sure if the owner would self-identify it as feminist, although it is definitely woman-owned and woman-oriented. The stock of lingerie and other clothing was impressive, but the toys left a lot to be desired.

Via San Jose Mercury News:

Local governments, led by San Francisco and Santa Clara County, filed their latest opposition papers to Proposition 8, describing the voter-approved initiative as a "dark moment'' in California history. The brief is an attempt to refute the legal arguments of Proposition 8 backers as the Supreme Court weighs a challenge from government officials, civil rights groups and same-sex couples who are seeking the right to marry

"Dark moment" would be an understatement. But I must say, I am impressed with Jerry Brown on this issue.

This video via Feminist Law Professors is an ad for Kotex in Australia that has gotten over 185 complaints. I think the beaver is cute and the commercial, annoying at worst. So why are people finding it so offensive? Must be because the beaver is so furry. Sorry, I had to.

(Whoops, Jessica has posted on this before, but we'll leave it up for funsies.)

A NYTimes article this weekend touched on the issue of Latina women and self-induced abortions.

The pills were misoprostol, a prescription drug that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for reducing gastric ulcers and that researchers say is commonly, though illegally, used within the Dominican community to induce abortion. Two new studies by reproductive-health providers suggest that improper use of such drugs is one of myriad methods, including questionable homemade potions, frequently employed in attempts to end pregnancies by women from fervently anti-abortion cultures despite the widespread availability of safe, legal and inexpensive abortions in clinics and hospitals.

This is not a new phenomenon. It's been written about before, including by our very own Ann Friedman, a few years ago in Mother Jones. My organization, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, has also been working on this issue for a while. The story is the same; immigrant women choose these do-it-yourself abortions for financial reasons, or out of fear of telling their family members, over safer procedures in clinics and hospitals.

It's also not news that regardless of the abortion climate, women will do what they need to do to get access to the procedure. When abortion was illegal, women went to great lengths to help one another find abortions other ways, including really unsafe ones.

It isn't all that different now, particularly for women who can't afford abortion procedures (averaging around $280 at the bottom of the scale). Thanks to the Hyde Amendment, women on Medicaid and Medicare can't get their abortions covered like any other medical procedure.

I think in some ways it's exciting that there are drugs and technologies that could allow women to be in control of their own abortion procedures, that could allow them to experience them in the privacy of their homes. But these should be choices women make, not compromises because the other options are out of reach.

I am getting SO fucking sick of seeing Vagisil commercials. Yes, Vagisil, I get it: you think vaginas are gross and smelly and that women spend all day trying not to scratch desperately at their shame-caves.

The above commercial isn't the latest one I've seen - I saw an ad not five minutes ago for Vagisil wipes that combined a cutesy colorful cartoon look with copy about feeling smelly.

Seriously, Vagisil, I know you're trying to make money by suggesting that women's bodies are in need of constant-deodorizing; but leave my vadge alone!

Just in case you didn't know...today is blog for Lesbian Health Day! Folks are blogging as a lead up to the National Lesbian Health Summit.

The summit will take place March 6-8, 2009 in San Francisco and its goal is "to rebuild a multi-issue, multicultural women's health movement focused on long-term strategic goals for lesbian/bi/queer women's health and wellness that is reflective of the diversity of our community."

From NPR: "Pastor Carnell Borden is changing the minds of conservative Christians about a topic usually kept behind closed doors. He says sex is good and God said so."

January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, y'all!

Each year in the United States, more than 11,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and close to 4,000 die as a result of the disease. As you probably know, certain types of the Human papillomavirus (HPV) are linked to cervical cancer. Vaccines such as Gardasil® and Cervarix™, which are designed to prevent infection with high-risk types of HPV, have the potential to greatly reduce the occurrence of cervical cancer.

Despite the amazing medical advances made, cervical cancer remains a serious threat to women's health...

...but 11% of women in the United States report that they do not have yearly pap tests which are crucial to early detection and treatment.

Blink.

I encourage everyone to remind a friend to schedule their yearly Pap test and health screening now...today...sooner rather than later, damn it!

Encourage each other to make the time to get to the doctor and help each other problem solve if y'all find that there are financial or logistical obstacles preventing screening.

Let's take our awareness and partner with our sisters - vaccinate early, Pap test regularly and HPV test when recommended!

Pause...consider...continue.

Confession - in my circle "tell-a-friend" turns into "fuss-at-a-friend" more often than not.

But what the hell, if cervical cancer screening isn't fuss worthy nothing is!

One of the less-discussed anti-gay ballot initiatives that passed in November was an Arkansas measure that bars unmarried couples from adopting or foster-parenting. Now the ACLU has filed a suit that says the law is not in the best interest of children -- which makes sense, because at a time when there are 3,700 children in foster care and only 1,000 foster homes, the state is further limiting the number of potential caregivers.

"Act 1 violates the state's legal duty to place the best interest of children above all else," Marie-Bernarde Miller, a Little Rock attorney in the lawsuit, told the Associated Press.

The group filed the suit on behalf of 29 adults and children from more than a dozen families. The families claim the act's language was confusing and voters were therefore misled.

The Arkansas Family Council, a group that campaigned heavily for the ban, admitted to targeting gay couples but said it will affect both gay and straight people.

To say that they're doing this on behalf of kids is just ridiculous. Laws like these are opposed by nearly every child welfare organization in the country. And don't you love that twisted line of argument? "We discriminate against gay people and unmarried straight people, so it's not actually discriminatory." WTF.

There's some minor comfort in the fact that the ban doesn't affect adoptions approved prior to November 4. I'm not sure about foster-care situations, though.

President-elect Obama has named Elena Kagan, Harvard Law School dean, as Solicitor General.

From Think Progress:

Kagan will be the first woman to serve permanently in this important post, which is tasked with conducting "all litigation on behalf of the United States in the Supreme Court, and to supervise the handling of litigation in the federal appellate courts. Kagan previously served in the White House during the Clinton administration, as Associate Counsel to the President, Deputy Assistant the the President for Domestic Policy, and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council. (Emphasis mine)

In an email to the law school community, Kagan wrote, "I have accepted this nomination because it offers me the opportunity, working under the leadership of the President-elect and his nominee for Attorney General, Eric Holder, to help advance this nation's commitment to the rule of law at what I think is a critical time in our history."

Related: Also note-worthy is that Dawn Johnsen, former legal director for NARAL, was named the new head of the Office of Legal Counsel. So we got another high-level female appointee - one with a strong reproductive rights background to boot! Sweet.

You can check out more of MC Flow here.

Via Queers United.

This is rich.

The contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said Saturday.

The pill "has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature" through female urine, said Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, in the report.

Your pee! It's killing the trees! Not to mention sperm. As if the fear of female sexuality wasn't obvious enough - best to mention that contraception is a total boner killer. Lovely.

Monty just loves spending time with Tweet. They're besties - even if Tweet bats him around the head every once in a while.

I'm back after a nice, refreshing, internet-free vacation, so some of these links may be a bit old. Bear with me! And, as always, leave your own links in comments...

The Israeli attacks on Gaza continue, and civilians are suffering. "We were sleeping. Suddenly we heard a bomb. We woke up and we didn't know where to go. We couldn't see through the dust. We called to each other. We thought our house had been hit, not the street. What can I say? You saw it with your own eyes. What is our guilt? Are we terrorists? I don't carry a gun, neither does my girl." More on Gaza from Israelity Bites, Bitch, Feministe, Muslimah Media Watch, and our archives.

The city of San Francisco is challenging insurance companies that charge women more for health coverage.

The Boston Globe blames girls for boys' violent behavior.

Remembering Latina feminist poet, author, performer, polio survivor and disability educator, Maria R. Palacios.

What Wall Street's gender gap may have to do with the financial crisis.

On the rise in dating violence, and what we should be doing about it.

Nancy Goldstein argues that Milk sanitizes the struggle for gay rights.

A woman launches a sex discrimination and harassment lawsuit against the Halifax Bank of Scotland.

The results of a YWCA survey on what women want from the Obama administration.

One health-care reform that isn't often presented? Rely more on midwives.

Indonesia recently passed so-called "anti-porn" legislation which also bans revealing clothing, censors literature, and further curtails gay rights.

Another transwoman, Lenneshia Edwards, was murdered in Tennessee. Questioning Transphobia has an action alert.

Should the first lady get paid for her work?

Some people still refer to female college students as "coeds"?

The Nation has a stomach-turning investigative report on how white residents of New Orleans attacked black residents in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Color of Change has an action alert.

The real-life ramifications of the ridiculous portrayals of relationships in romantic comedies.

Check out the latest Carnival Against Sexual Violence.

Our Bodies, Our Blog names Women's Health Heroes of 2008.

Actions and Events

Sign the petition asking Obama to ensure his job-creation efforts include non-male-dominated industries.

A project for the new year: Call your local pharmacies and ask if they dispense emergency contraception.

Register to attend the WAM! (Women, Action and Media) conference in March!

I just love these "educational" videos that classes were shown back in the day in efforts to keep The Sex from tainting young ladies' precious vagdes reputations.

My favorite line: "No, girls who park in cars are not really popular. Not even with the boys they park with."

Thanks to Sarah!

Hey all, I know a lot of folks have been having problems commenting (myself included!). I just wanted to assure you that we're on it. Apologies for the inconvenience!

This last year was an amazing year in art, music, literature and politics, not to mention some serious personal transitions including a 3000 mile coast to coast move back to my hometown in NY. Here are some of the things I loved this last year.

Favorite movie: Milk. You can read what I wrote about it here. I haven't felt so inspired by a motion picture since Ghandi. Honestly, Slumdog Millionare was a close second, but Milk was my favorite because it combined both great film and a brave and beautiful story.

Favorite Album: Benga, Diary of an African Warrior. For those of you who don't know me personally, you don't know that my other personality is that of an electronic music nerd that goes all over the place to dance to new and interesting forms of electronic music. My most recent favorite being a form of music called dubstep. This album got me up and out of my chair consistently and does what we would call, "bring the noise." Check it out if you dare and remember to keep an open mind.

Favorite art exhibit: Josue Rojas, Deporting the American Dream. Yeah, I know Josue personally, that might be part of it, but his short lived art exhibit in San Francsisco was hands down the best art I saw this year which mixed media, images and one of the most powerful stories, not being told in mainstream media.

Favorite book: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz. Diaz won the Pultizer for this this. I can't speak highly enough of this book, I have sat to write reviews about it time and again and I feel I have to read it again to do it any justice. If you are a fiction fan, it is a must read. You can also listen to an interview with him here. The man is an inspiration to the aspirations of immigrant writers and artists.

Favorite live show: Erykah Badu with the Roots. Do I really need to say more?

Favorite city: New York. After 7 years on the West Coast I made the move back to NY and fell in love with this city all over again. San Francisco will always be in my heart, but right now, New York is who I am dating.

Favorite moment of 2008: When it was announced that Barack Obama is to be the 44th president of the United States of America. Yeah, that is cheesy and everyone else's moment, but damn, it was pretty great.

What were your favorite things of 2008?

It looks like 2009 will be a very unchanged year for Fox News' bad habits.

On New Years Eve, Fox News Channel allowed folks to text in Happy New Years wishes to be scrolled at the bottom of the screen where news headlines are usually featured. One text I guess "slipped" through the screening process, where someone referenced to the racist "Barack the Magic Negro" song:

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND LET'S HOPE THE MAGIC NEGRO DOES A GOOD JOB. LOVE JEN AND JOHN C.

Via Think Progress.

A week after I blogged about the the recent case of a lesbian being gang raped right outside of San Francisco, we find that most of the suspects have now been found and arrested.

Two of those in custody are 15 and 16 years old.

This makes me a wee uncomfortable.

It's a shopping bag used by the German condom company Condomi, where the handle is conveniently placed right where peeps' genitals are supposed to me. (Although the bags are of women and men.)

What do you think - offensive or just tacky erotica?

ht/ to Helen!

This is upsetting. Yesterday, nine Muslims, including three children, were escorted off a plane after two passengers overhead them talking about airport security:

Members of the party, all but one of them U.S.-born citizens who were headed to a religious retreat in Florida, were subsequently cleared for travel by FBI agents who characterized the incident as a misunderstanding, an airport official said. But the passengers said AirTran refused to rebook them, and they had to pay for seats on another carrier secured with help from the FBI.

Kashif Irfan, one of the removed passengers, said the incident began about 1 p.m. after his brother, Atif, and his brother's wife wondered aloud about the safest place to sit on an airplane.

"My brother and his wife were discussing some aspect of airport security," Irfan said. "The only thing my brother said was, 'Wow, the jets are right next to my window.' I think they were remarking about safety."

AirTran is defending its decision, saying that they strictly followed federal rules. Spokesperson Tad Hutcheson said, "At the end of the day, people got on and made comments they shouldn't have made on the airplane, and other people heard them . . . Other people heard them, misconstrued them. It just so happened these people were of Muslim faith and appearance. It escalated, it got out of hand and everyone took precautions."

"It just so happened." The fact of the matter is that if "these people" weren't of Muslim faith and appearance, this wouldn't have happened.

UPDATE: AirTran's made a recent statement saying they were not notified that the passengers were cleared to rebook a flight, even though passenger Inayet Sahin said that was not the case: "The FBI agents actually cleared our names . . .They went on our behalf and spoke to the airlines and said, 'There is no suspicious activity here. They are clear. Please let them get on a flight so they can go on their vacation,' and they still refused." Hm.

We're actually a couple of days late on this due to the distraction of the holiday madness (forgive us Courtney!). This very special lady was, not surprisingly, born on a very special day: New Year's Eve. It is Courtney's 29th, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say we are crazy grateful to have this amazing woman as a part of the Feministing crew. Between her incredible writing and ability to dance a mean roger rabbit, what more could we ask for?

Send her birthday wishes in comments. Happy Birthday C, we love you!