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Johanna Kruppa thinks feminists are too uptight in their denouncement of "nudey pics" in Playboy.

"I think they suffer from lack of knowledge and tunnel vision. How many of those self-important, so-called 'feminists' have been on the set when a celebrity shot a Playboy spread? There you go. What is feminist about discriminating a photo shoot just because it involves female (partial) nudity that happens to give men pleasure? Pathetic," Krupa told Tarts in an exclusive interview.

Well, let me unbunch my panties so I can effectively debunk this idea that feminists are too uptight to see how empowering posing for magazines like, Playboy and Maxim are for women.

Feminists have opposing view points on pornography and other forms of erotic art, that is not a new story, but suggesting that feminists don't get how "empowering" it is to fit into society's standards of able-bodied, white, cis-gendered, thinness, well let's just say we totally get that. I am not saying the act isn't empowering for her, like she said, I wasn't there, but the process that empowers her is embedded in a really specific idea of what a woman should look like and the kind of woman that "turns men on." It is not the function of turning men on that is the sexist part to me, but the unrealistic expectation put on women through the production and proliferation of images like Kruppa's and the corresponding value put on women's bodies through this very same process. And the corresponding sexist vitriol spread in magazines like Maxim. Put a big girl on the cover of Playboy. Just once. Prove me wrong.

What is interesting is that Kruppa combines her criticism of feminists with America's inability to embrace sexuality over violence. She has a point there, it is true that in many ways violence is more acceptable in popular culture than sexuality, but that is not a problem of feminism, that is a function of sexism. Feminism can only make that better.

Related:
Sex and the Simpsons: Marge's Playboy cover

Poet Joan Kane, an Inupiaq Eskimo woman, received the prestigious Whiting Writers' Award. (It comes with $50,000!)

"My husband jokes that he's probably the only start-up lawyer whose practice is being kept afloat by his poet wife," she said.

Some of the money will buy health insurance, she said.

She'd also like to take her children and her mother to King Island, an expensive and difficult proposition.

The remote settlement in the Bering Sea was abandoned under pressure from the government in the 1950s. Memories of the deserted village contribute to overtones of loss and change that haunt Kane's poems. King Islanders retain a strong sense of identity with the place, though members of the younger generation -- including Kane herself -- have never been there.

Kane hopes to visit small communities in the future, to talk about writing and "bring books to others."

"As a writer, you have to be concerned when you see all of these towns without bookstores," she said.

Read some of Kane's poetry here, here, and here.

Via Reihan.

It's been a spell since I last posted, y'all!

I caught one of those wicked flu bugs and this illishness has lingered for weeks.

Ugh.

Anyhoo, I'm finally feeling like myself again and glad to be back on the internets.

Shall we?

Cool!

September was National Literacy Month. I had planned to post about literacy, but caught the flu-plague and...well, yeah. This message isn't month specific, so...

I couldn't read until I was in the second grade. I'm not dyslexic. Rather, I was one of many people who don't respond to the traditional methods of teaching folks how to read.

My inability to read wasn't discovered until midway through second grade and, in keeping with the tone of things throughout my grade school career, the discovery was theatrically humiliating and took place in front of the entire class.

My second grade teacher, who I remember as an absolute horror who only spoke to me twice and smelled sharply of bleach (don't ask, 'cause I sure as shit don't know why she smelled that way), hauled me in front of the class to read something or other. Trapped, I confessed that I couldn't read the material. After some grilling in front of my peers, she then half dragged half hauled me out the door and yelled at me for lying to her for most of the year. She sent me to the principal's office and my mother was called up to the school and then all hell broke out as my mother went off on every adult present for failing to teach her child to read.

She pulled me out of that school and then spent two weeks teaching me how to read...the hard way.

Pause...wince at the memory...continue.

Basically, my mother taught me to read through threats, yelling and humiliation.

She checked Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak out of the library and told me that if 3 year old chil'ren could read it so could I. Since she used the term "dumb ass" liberally throughout her speech, it wasn't exactly inspirational. I sat there, mortified and nauseous, staring at those damn wild things and the strange groupings of letters on the page and was convinced I'd never understand how they all fit together.

So. Incredibly. Moving.

The International Center of Photography has an amazing exhibit up right now called Dress Codes. While the framing is technically fashion, the show is really about image--chock full of interesting art about gender, beauty, race, and the body, among other favorite feminist topics. They describe its range:

The theme of fashion encompasses a diverse range of practices and ideas, including explorations of identity and affiliation; the production, distribution, and consumption of images and goods; contemporaneity; age; gender; and global industry. The themes of the Triennial express the exuberance, wit, and astute social observation taking place within contemporary image-making. These artists variously explore fashion--whether in everyday dress, haute couture, street fashion, or uniforms--as a celebration of individuality, personal identity, and self-expression, and as cultural, religious, social, and political statements.

The most compelling piece, in my opinion, was a video installation done by Australian artist David Rosetzky in which the amazing Cate Blanchett talks about performance while doing various physical movements in a big, open warehouse. She dresses and undresses, dances with the knowledge that she is being watched, moves her hands in a sort of beautiful interpretative swirl, walks and pauses, walks again etc. All the while, she talks about her approach to performance in truly surprising ways. For example, she admits that doesn't really fall in love with the characters she portrays, as so many artists claim to, that in fact she finds that her best work comes when she is a bit indifferent to them. There is something so vulnerable, so artful about the whole piece. She ends by talking about the "constant pull between wanting to be seen and not wanting to be seen."

Other artists to watch who are included in the exhibit: Miyako Ishiuchi, Pinar Yolacana, Mickalene Thomas, Olga Chernysheva, Lorna Simpson, Cindy Sherman, and good ol' Barbara Kruger.

Tonight, I am headed to the 2009 production of Sins Invalid: An Unshamed Claim to Beauty in the Face of Invisibility, and I can't wait.

Chloe interviewed the Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Patty Berne, last week, and in another interview, Berne explained what audience members should expect:

"In the theater, the audience seems to go through a kind of transformation as they bear witness, there's a real paradigm shift happening in the room. On stage, all these people that are considered somehow non-normative, expressing their power, sexually and politically, in a beautiful loving way. We're used to people who look like Paris Hilton saying they are hot. But we're not as used to us, the majority of humankind, being proud of our bodies. Most of us live with shame in our bodies. So when somebody that has a non-normative body expresses love and sexual power on stage it opens up an opportunity for audience members to claim their bodies are beautiful as well."

The show is hot and thought-provoking. You can still buy tickets for Saturday's and Sunday's shows!

Patricia Berne is the Co-Founder and Director of Sins Invalid, a San Francisco theater company that blends performance and art with the political vision of a more just and equal world. The goal of the company is to challenge and reshape the public's ideas about people with disabilities and other traditionally marginalized groups. Focusing particularly on disability justice, their performances resist the framing of the company members' bodies as "less-than," simply by putting those bodies on stage. "It's the most basic claiming of voice and claiming of space by creating beautiful work with political grounding," Berne says.

Berne, who believes that performance and other forms of cultural work play a crucial role in movement building, has dedicated her life to social justice, a dedication that has taken many forms. Currently, Berne also chairs the board of San Francisco Women Against Rape. Clearly, her role as Director of Sins Invalid is only one piece of a life devoted to giving voice to the voiceless and empowering the invisible. When I observed that the mission of Sins Invalid sounds both challenging and crucial, Berne's matter-of-fact reply was, "It's challenging, but life is tough."

If you're building a social justice movement, this is the woman you want in your corner. That said, as her answer to question number two reveals, she is a (self-professed) total geek.

And now, without further ado, The Feministing Five, with Patricia Berne.

Photo credit: Richard Downing

I wanted to give a shout out and a heads up that Sins Invalid has announced the dates for their 2009 series. I've heard great things about them, although I haven't been able to see a performance live. About Sins Invalid:

Sins Invalid is a performance project on disability and sexuality that incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and queer and gender-variant artists as communities who have been historically marginalized from social discourse.

Unfortunately their performances are only in San Francisco, but if you're in the Bay Area you should check it out, October 2-4. You can also check out their blog and videos from their performances.

I wanted to introduce the feministing community to one of the amazing artists that I had the honor of being in residency with while in Italy last month. Her name is Sharlene Khan--a young South African artist who wrestles with themes of identity, work, race, class, gender, community, and so much more in the many genres that she works in.

Her work, in her own words:

My work (which comprises of oil paintings, installations and mixed media drawings) hopes to bring to the fore this sector of society that is so sadly ignored, to depict the 'humanness' of these people we pass by daily - their dreams, hopes, struggles, wit and dignity. My work also combines oil painting and ink drawing to portray this 'lower class' society in what once was an upper class indulgence and to continue to question these attitudes towards the 'fine arts', by turning oil paintings into functional everyday objects e.g. clothes, bedspread, curtains, haircut salons. My work is a visual representation of my identity and all the influences upon it. Needlework in my paintings, as well as the depiction of Indian mehndi designs, biblical scriptures and poetry are meant to reflect my African, Indian, Chrisitan, female identity as well as my early apartheid education, and later tertiary education.

Khan describes her distaste with the word diaspora: "It chiefly recognises similarities at the expense of equally important localised differences. I don't really consider myself as part of such a diaspora, I am a South African Indian who is very located in this specific country at this specific juncture in time. And while I realise that the sense of 'Indianness' is probably a valid one among many migrant communities, in South Africa it was promoted by the apartheid government to ensure that Indians in this country were made to feel like outsiders. Indians have been in SAfrica since the 1820's."

Her work is bold, controversial, deeply emotional, and truly original. A couple more examples are featured after the jump.

Is anyone else having a really hard time waking up this morning? (Yes, I may still be recovering from my sis throwing me a bachelorette party Friday night.) I figure there's nothing like a never-ending slide show of feminist graffiti to put in a little spring in one's step...

They have a sense of humor.

You may remember a while back I wrote something about getting married for The Guardian. In it, I mentioned that some super cool dude online called me a "ball-cutting cybersuccubus" - and wondered if I could get that descriptor on a business card.

Well, thanks to the awesome Maia at Dandy Lion Press, I have the calling card I've always wanted.

Amazing, no?

Okay, here's the thing. This New York Times Magazine article about men in Japan who have romantic relationships with imaginary characters inspires nothing if not pity.

These 2-D lovers, as they are called, are a subset of otaku culture-- the obsessive fandom that has surrounded anime, manga and video games in Japan in the last decade. It's impossible to say exactly what portion of otaku are 2-D lovers, because the distinction between the two can be blurry. Like most otaku, the majority of 2-D lovers go to work, pay rent, hang out with friends (some are even married). Unlike most otaku, though, they have real romantic feelings for their toys. The less extreme might have a hidden collection of figurines based on anime characters that they go on "dates" with during off hours. A more serious 2-D lover, like Nisan, actually believes that a lumpy pillow with a drawing of a prepubescent anime character on it is his girlfriend.

That's sad, undoubtedly - and the men profiled in this piece are clearly very lonely, so it's difficult to begrudge them a fantasy life with an imaginary character. But here's the thing - not only are the men who indulge in these "relationships" lusting after characters that are supposed to be somewhere between 10 and 12 years old, one of the reasons they like them is because they're devoid of annoying things like opinions and personality. So is the perfect woman a blank-slate little girl?

Much like the Real Doll enthusiasts who tout sex with their "girlfriends" as "just like sex with an organic woman...who doesn't say anything and is brimful of Quaaludes," much of the attraction here seems to be the ability to imbue any kind of personality (or lack thereof) onto an inanimate object. And then believing that object is better than real human interaction.

"I was steps away from getting married," he explained earnestly when prodded about his experience. "You have to make sure you don't hurt a real person; you have to watch what you say, and you have to keep your room clean. In Japan, it's not O.K. to like another person if you're already with somebody else. With an anime character, you can like one character one day and a different character the next."

But this is all stuff we've discussed before (in fact, I discuss it in my book!). In this particular piece, it was the age of the characters that really got to me.

When Momo talks about Karada-chan, his mousy face lights up like a kid opening Christmas presents. "Her existence to me is like daughter, younger sister and bride all put into one."

Not. Okay. Assuming these men develop relationships with real women - will it be women that they're actually looking for, or little girls?

Related: She's Twelve, She's Scantily Clad, And a Thirty Year Old's Dating Her. She's a Pillow.

Gay Icons explores gay social and cultural history through the unique personal insights of ten high profile gay figures, who have selected their historical and modern icons.

The chosen icons, who may or may not be gay themselves, have all been important to each selector, having influenced their gay sensibilities or contributed to making them who they are today. They include artists Francis Bacon and David Hockney; writers Daphne du Maurier and Quentin Crisp; composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Benjamin Britten; musicians k.d. lang, the Village People and Will Young; entertainers Ellen DeGeneres, Lily Savage and Kenneth Williams; sports stars Martina Navratilova and Ian Roberts and political activists Harvey Milk and Angela Mason.

Their fascinating and inspirational stories will be illustrated by over sixty photographic portraits including works by Andy Warhol, Snowdon and Cecil Beaton together with specially commissioned portraits of the selectors by Mary McCartney. McCartney. All are set in a striking exhibition design conceived by renowned theatre designer, Robert Jones.

I'm sad this one is in London and I can't check it out, but it sounds like an amazing exhibit! More information here.

Check out Jonathan Torgovnik's amazing collection of photographs of the children of rape victims in the Congo. I became aware of his work because of a devastating photo essay in this month's Mother Jones Magazine, which you should all check out if you get a chance (it's not available online).

Whatever you might think about Code Pink or direct action, you can't argue with how incredible this quilt is. Thousands of women from over 11 countries sent in these little cozies to be stitched together--the resulting quilt reads "I will not raise my child to kill another mother's child." It's an enormous, gorgeous spectacle if there ever was one. I'm just wondering which museum is going to snap it up.

Check out the books: Returning to My Mother's House, Feminist Art and the Maternal, and In Her Own Sweet Time.

Approximate transcript after the jump.

From AfterEllen.com:

Carol Ann Duffy, 53, has been appointed poet laureate of Britain, a prestigious 341-year-old position previously held by men like John Dryden, Alfred Tennyson, William Wordsworth, Cecil Day-Lewis and Ted Hughes.

Not only is Duffy the first woman to hold the position, she is the first Scot, the first mother, and the first lesbian.

The British monarchy chooses a new poet laureate every 10 years, with the advice of the government. This time, the public was also consulted in making the appointment, although the decision was ultimately Queen Elizabeth's.

In announcing the decision, Culture Secretary Andy Burnham called Duffy "a towering figure in English literature today and a superb poet" who has "achieved something that only the true greats of literature manage -- to be regarded as both popular and profound."

You can see more about Carol Ann Duffy at her website.

Jess, the super awesome rocker Kathleen Hanna, and I went to the Whitney Museum to see the latest exhibit of Jenny Holzer, titled Protect, Protect, last week.

If you don't know Holzer's work, you should definitely check out her stuff online. In short, she does a lot of interesting installation and text work, often on themes dealing with security, leadership, morality, and happiness. She likes to infiltrate public space, and see how words and ideas are changed by their contexts. She works in a variety of media, including LED signs, plaques, benches, stickers, and T-shirts. I first learned about her from my brother, who told me about her truisms (the girl in the shirt pictured here is sporting one).

This latest exhibit is very focused on security (thus the title) and includes provocative truisms running on LED screens and poster-sized redacted reports from the military in Iraq, as well as a table of bones and some amazing looking redacted hand prints blown up to a freakish size. It was an overwhelming exhibit--both physically and emotionally. Taking in all of the horrific redacted material brought the war home in a soul crushing way, and keeping up with the LED work had our eyes blurring and a touch of a headache.

In other words, expect to leave with broken heart and brain, but also enraged and inspired. If you're not in the NY-area, her work is very assessable all over the interweb so have at it through the cushion of the screen.

My friend Ben Brown has been on a very unique road trip. Essentially he is traveling around the country with a bombed out car from Iraq, parking it, and recording folks' reactions. Here's the summary from the site:

He [artist Jeremy Deller] will travel aboard an RV with Esam Pasha, artist and formerly a translator for the Chief Advisor in the British Embassy of Baghdad and for American forces around Iraq; and Jonathan Harvey, a veteran of the Iraq war and recently demobilized PSYOP specialist. They will park in public sites to hold conversations about Iraq. Visitors are encouraged to bring objects related to Iraq, and to participate in conversations with Pasha and Harvey.

Esam Pasha and Jonathan Harvey were selected by the artist, Creative Time, and the New Museum from a wide pool of applicants interested in the project. The destroyed car on view during the project's installation at the New Museum will be placed on a flatbed trailer and hitched to the RV. As an artist who consistently privileges the concerns of social history, Deller is interested in providing a platform for discussion. The car on view in New York and on the road will be a visual aid to prompt open dialog and unrestricted conversation. When the project arrives in Los Angeles, it will be on view at the Hammer Museum until mid-May.

Here's a video that Ben made along the way:

They're nearing the end of their adventure, so be sure to check out the work. It's an amazing and, in a lot of ways, overwhelming model of bringing many different art mediums, community dialogue, and documentary work together. It's got my feminist wheels churning...what would it be like to do a similar road trip with an artifact from a bombed abortion clinic or a giant container of the 13,000 rape kits still untested in LA County?

Today, Kai Wright has a great piece in The Root about Lorraine Hansberry -- and how "she engaged both a personal and a political search for sexual freedom and articulated a still-urgent understanding of its relationship to gender equality." Kai writes,

It's unclear whether Hansberry would have called herself a "lesbian," primarily because she and others were still in the process of developing the concept of such a clearly defined sexual identity. But she dated women and, more strikingly, joined the country's first-ever lesbian political organization, the now-defunct Daughters of Bilitis, at a time when doing so made you a target of federal law enforcement.

After joining the group, Hansberry wrote a series of provocative letters to two gay journals. Daughters of Bilitis began publishing its journal, the Ladder, in 1956. Hansberry chimed in to it in May and August of 1957, while she was writing A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry is known for her drama, but she was a prolific political writer and speaker, dating back to her early 1950s activism and editorial work for Robeson. And in her essay-length 1957 letters to the editor, she challenged members to consider the feminist case against homophobia.

"I think it is about time that equipped women began to take on some of the ethical questions which a male-dominated culture has produced," Hansberry wrote in one letter, explaining, "There may be women to emerge who will be able to formulate a new and possible concept that homosexual persecution and condemnation has at its roots not only social ignorance, but a philosophically active anti-feminist dogma."

As Adam writes over on TAPPED, A Raisin in the Sun is a play that most of us read in school. It's undeniably a classic. But that's not all Hansberry wrote. We remember her for her anti-segregation activism and anti-racist writing, but not so much her bold statements (oh, and you better believe they were bold!) on gender inequality and homophobia. As Adam puts it,

When Hansberry was taking on the evils of segregation and "we just want to be left alone" white racism, we applauded, but when she started talking about "homosexual persecution" we stopped listening.

Props to Kai for getting us to listen.

These are just a few excerpts from some of my favorite poets. I thought I'd pass them along as a bit of a break from your undoubtedly harried Thursday:

"You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves."
-Mary Oliver, "Wild Geese"

"One day I'll give birth to a tiny baby girl
and when she's born she'll scream
and I'll tell her to never stop

I will kiss her before I lay her down at night
and will tell her a story so she knows
how it is and how it must be for her to survive

I'll tell her to set things on fire
and keep them burning
I'll teach her that fire will not consume her
that she must use it"
-Nicole Blackman, "Daughter"

"the cab driver asks
what my favorite position is
no tip given"
-Felice Belle, "true story"

"i see you blackboy
bent toward destruction watching
for death with tight eyes"
-Sonia Sanchez, "haiku"

"I may have lost

My attention for Logic
But I see beautiful
Children circumventing cruelty

Nearly every day and it raises
The question--what have you done
Lately for the safety

Of our feelings? Have you offered your seat on a crowded
Downtown subway car

To a man in perfect physical health
Because he had tears in his eyes? Neither
Have I, not yet, but at least

I considered it in writing."
-Chris Martin, "Jokes for Strangers"
(Yes, he's my big brother.)

Feel free to leave your favorite lines in comments!

Sean Penn won the Oscar for his portrayal of Harvey Milk. Check out his acceptance speech below.

Related:
Milk: I sure didn't learn about this in high school.
Harvey Milk Deserved a Better Film than Van Sant's Low-fat Biopic.

And it took a white director to make sure we got there! OK, OK, I will try to be less cynical. I know, I should be totally psyched that Slumdog Millionare won so many Oscars, including best picture. Any visibility for South Asians is good right?

Right. And wrong. I personally didn't think Slumdog Millionare was an Oscar worthy movie. I thought it was creative, beautiful, interesting and had a great soundtrack, but I didn't understand how it was Oscar worthy. Where was the complexity of the characters? Where was the deep cross-cultural analysis that helps us understand the South Asian condition? Where was there any agency displayed in the character of Latika? How did this story help the plight of the South Asian national citizen outside of reinforcing stereotypes of India?

I guess I have more questions than I have answers. And the questions I ask were certainly not the ones considered by the Academy in choosing this film. To be clear, I loved this movie and I saw it twice. The second time I brought my family, and my father a staunch Indian nationalist, hated it. He didn't like the way it portrayed India. I do not hold the same politics as my father and I felt that it actually held more truth about poverty and corruption in India than we would like to admit. But once you sift through the amazing imagery, adorable kids and soundtrack you are left with a coming of age story, only the story is not really for Indian audiences.

And despite its attempt at a narrative of social progress, Slumdog reinforces that which is hopes to ameliorate. Mitu Sengupta has an excellent piece up at Alternet about the policy implications of films like Slumdog Millionare that lump together the stereotypes of the poor.

It is ironic that "Slumdog", for all its righteousness of tone, shares with many Indian political and social elites a profoundly dehumanizing view of those who live and work within the country's slums. The troubling policy implications of this perspective are unmistakeably mirrored by the film. Since there are no internal resources, and none capable of constructive voice or action, all "solutions" must arrive externally.

After a harrowing life in an anarchic wilderness, salvation finally comes to Jamal, a Christ-like figure, in the form of an imported quiz-show, which he succeeds in thanks to sheer, dumb luck, or rather, because "it is written." Is it also "written," then, that the other children depicted in the film must continue to suffer? Or must they, like the stone-faced Jamal, stoically await their own "destiny" of rescue by a foreign hand?

Go read her whole piece, it gives a vastly different view on the film than what has been discussed in the mainstream media.

Finally, as a feminist, I had a really hard time with the character of Latika. I understand that in Boyle's imagination, Latika was like any third world woman. A helpless victim that can't speak up for herself and stays in an abusive relationship, until she is saved by another man. Outside of oversimplifying the complex ways that women of color experience AND resist violence within their own communities, it reinforces stereotypes of helpless third world women. I must say, I tried to ignore this plotline in the beginning. Perhaps if I thought about it too much, I would come out against a film that is supposed to "help" my people or because I just wanted to enjoy something for once without the nagging reality that this story doesn't make sense without the depiction of a violent patriarchy. But the unfortunate reality is that in order for South Asians to make it into the mainstream, they have to cater to the lowest common denominator of universal experience. And that is of course one where women have no agency, especially in the context of the third world. I mean that is why we are fighting all these wars right? To save women!

So yes, of course I am excited that Slumdog did so well at the Oscars. It makes me happy that all these South Asian actors are in the spotlight along with the genius of AR Rahman and MIA. However, it is only one step and we must resist the desire to homogenize the Indian experience that we know so little of in actuality, based on a fictitious film directed by a white man.

I suppose it is asking too much that when we cover the politics of complicated artists such as M.I.A., we not call them terrorist. In last week's NYTimes Thomas Fuller calls her politics "dissonant" and implicates her with supporting a well-known "terrorist" organization. Being a transnational feminist is exhausting since you have to problematize everything with quotations. Ha!

Let me not pretend I know any more about the conflict in Sri Lanka than you do or this reporter. But, in general, when a group is marked as "terrorist" by Europe and the United States, I read that implication with a grain of salt, feeling the need to hear both sides of the story. It has been a long time since we have actually waged a just war and have frequently labeled groups fighting for their own land, rights, freedom and resources as terrorist. This is not to suggest that the Tamil Tigers, who Fuller claims that M.I.A. supports, haven't been ruthless in their tactics, but to ask us to read both sides of every story.

And perhaps all of this would be more serious if M.I.A. were a politician, not a recording artist, but I can't help but see irony in implicating a woman-that performed on stage at the Grammies 9 months pregnant, has made clearly feminist statements about the recording industry and its sexism and has discussed intersectional identities within the context of Eurocentrism-with support of "terrorists." M.I.A. already pushes the average viewer out of their comfort zone, calling her a terrorist empathizer is the next logical step.

Would a white male folk singer be labeled the same if he were to show direct or indirect support for an international cause? Is M.I.A. only legible as an "other" because she is foreign and South Asian? Can she not have complicated political analysis without being implicated in supporting terrorists? I mean, seriously.

Boondoggle has more.

UPDATE: More from Amnesty International on M.I.A. and her criticism of the Sinhalese government and how this criticism does not make her a supporter of the Tamil Tigers. Furthermore, this assertion has led to a decrease in the attention genocide in Sri Lanka is getting from the international community.

I really just love her.

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

Via Womanist Musings.

Transcript after the jump.

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?

Since we were on limited posting last week we missed the boat on posting about the monumental loss of Eartha Kitt. The infamous singer of Santa Baby passed away on Christmas Day this year. Eartha was a legend in her own right and a visible woman of color in a time where there weren't many. Furthermore, as I learned recently she was also an advocate for the rights of inner city youth and openly opposed the Vietnam War right on the steps of the White House.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson shares via New American Media,

The smile on Eartha Kitt's face was unforgettable. It belied the pain, ridicule and turmoil that she had endured after she was unceremoniously placed near the top of then President Lyndon Johnson's enemies list. But that seemed to be the furthest thing from her mind that late spring afternoon in 1978 when she greeted me at the old Aquarius Theater in Hollywood. Kitt was in Los Angeles starring in her tour production of the musical Timbuktu. I was assigned to do a brief interview and a review of the production.

Kitt's smile and infectious energy melted the awe and nervousness that I felt at being up close too and actually talking with an entertainment legend. Then there was the "incident." That was the furor that Kitt ignited when she denounced the Vietnam War and poverty to Johnson at that White House luncheon in January 1968. A decade after the controversy still got the tongues wagging.

Her performance in Los Angeles was in part Kitt's American comeback after being virtually banned in the United States after her White House outburst. Her performance was also in part a brash effort to reclaim the luster that had made her virtually a household name and an icon in the entertainment world in the 1950s an early 1960s.

Eartha might have sang about old fashioned girls, but she couldn't have been further from that. I keep thinking in light of current events how few celebrities stick their neck out and actually take a stance on unjust wars. She will be missed.

Trigger Warning

Apparently there's a comic called Rapeman that features a superhero who sexually assaults women who have "wronged" men. Anyone know anything about this craziness?

Thanks to Maddy for the link.

Nerve.com has a book out documenting their first 10 years which is a series of their best erotica. I have liked Nerve for years and although I haven't agreed with every single story they have put out and I am definitely not turned on by all their stories, I applaud their effort.

As Tracy says at Salon,

Beyond just bringing legitimacy to sex writing and online photography, Nerve has turned the sex-segregated worlds of erotica and pornography into one coed Brooklyn-hip orgy -- and the nauseating clichés and mechanical in-and-out of either genre are not welcome. (Neither are the trite Carrie Bradshaws or Julia Allisons of the world.) The site has given birth to Nerve Personals, a matchmaking service for urban singles that helped make online dating cool, and the über-hip parenting site Babble. The magazine has also launched several media careers, like those of former sex and relationship columnists Em & Lo and writer Grant Stoddard (whose memoir "Working Stiff" is based on his popular sexual guinea-pig column "I Did It for Science").

In the rest of her piece she has an interview with co-founder Rufus Griscom that speaks to this art of balancing writing about sex that is also meaningful and smart, not just to turn men on. I don't always agree with Nerve's content and am a little over the "shock" factor of hipster culture, but I do think they are creative and some of the best sex writing out there that doesn't just hinge on degrading women.

via Salon.

One of my fabulous students at Rutgers put this video together for his final project. I think it's great so I wanted to share...

And on another note: teaching is awesome. More on this later.

Via the f word, we find out that Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls fame has left her record label after they refused to promote her new single and video (above) because of her "fat" stomach. Seriously.

[Palmer] refused to let them remove shots of her "fat" belly from the video for Leeds United (see above), and is therefore "uncommercial". This comes from a metal label where, I have it on good authority, "you can count the number of women on the fingers of one hand and most of the people on the label are decidedly chunky hairy dudes".

Amanda's fans are quite rightly outraged by this shoddy, sexist behaviour and have begun a Rebellyon, posting pictures of their own bellies on fan forum Shadowbox and sending them to Roadrunner in protest.

Too ridiculous for words - but you've gotta love awesome fans taking action.

P.S. Community poster lefthandedpenguin beat us to this punch on this last week!

UPDATE/CORRECTION: Palmer has not left her label - they won't let her. She gives the full story here.

The late Herb Ritts' piece with Derek and Drew Riker.

I went to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) OUTAuction 2008 earlier this week, and it was pretty damn awesome. In fact, it was so awesome it raised over $135,000!

I've always been a huge fan of (and occasional attempted maker of) art, so this was quite the treat for me. While the auction had pieces by the famous Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall, some of the newer artists were pretty phenomenal. Check out the winners of the Best Emerging Artists on GLAAD's blog.

Last week I had the good fortune of going to see the play, "Angry Black White Boy," based on the Adam Mansbach novel of the same title at the Intersection of the Arts. If you are in the Bay Area, I strongly recommend you try and check it out. It is pay what you can on Thursdays.

It looks into the world of a young white man from the suburbs who becomes obsessed with black culture and overturning racism, only to find out that it in an effort to make whites pay for historical racism, he ends up caught in a self serving cycle. And watches the world around him collapse around his poorly thought out, yet bizarrely revolutionary, racial awareness.

It is excellent and if you are not in the Bay, pick up the book. That is what I am going to do.

I have a piece up at The Guardian that takes a look at some of the fab feminist comedians out there and how they're debunking the whole "women aren't funny" myth.

So who is your favorite funny feminist?

Cartoon by Mikhaela Reid.

There's no question that being an artist in this culture--which does little to support the creative impulse and its contributions to society--just ain't easy. As if it wasn't hard enough just to make art, believe in yourself, and pay your rent, imagine also being a mother.

That's the life that five amazing women lead in Pamela Tanner Boll's new film, Who Does She Think She Is? Pamela, a friend and awesome feminist, also co-produced Born Into Brothels, which won an Academy Award for best documentary in 2005.

This film explores work/family balance, but with a particular lens on mother artists, who struggle to find a balance between what they love and who they love. Full self disclosure: I'm featured as an "expert" in the film. There's even a scene where I'm blogging for feministing! Bonus points for noticing the hilarious title of the post I'm working on if you see the film.

Anyway, check out the blog, watch the trailer below, and, if you're in the New York area, come check out the film at Angelika Film Center starting on Friday, October 17th. On opening night, the 17th, I'll be moderating a post show panel that includes Elizabeth Sackler, Pamela Tanner Boll, and one of the artists from the film.

So the last time I wrote about American Apparel's use of mock tribal prints and the name, "Afrika" for a line of clothing, it was a little bit controversial. Some folks didn't understand why putting thin, white models, in faux tribal and animal prints with the title, "Afrika" was racist. So be it.

UPDATE: I think one of our commenters put the argument for why the use of "African" symbolism is problematic and racist best here.

She says,

For people who have not been exposed to critical race theory or the study of colonialism and cultural appropriation, the new Afrika line probably doesn't look racist to you. The reason it doesn't look racist to you is because the attractiveness of the line is meant to play on the unconscious attitudes that non-African westerners have about Africa. Here's a set of association words:

exotic
primitive
tribal
jungle
wild
animalistic
hypersexual

I can go on, but you get the point.

Pic uploaded by Flickr user augenbach

Here's the artist's statement:

(Here is) Where I Come From: (Here is) What I am Getting At

When I was a student at Texas State I wrote a paper on the subject of feminism in contemporary art for Pat Taylor. I chose the subject and there were an abundance of resources with queries about the place of feminism within the practices of such artists as Cecily Jones and Sara Lucas, so on and so on. I spent many hours trying to find a young, successful female artist working today that would answer even the simple question, "do you consider yourself a feminist?" in the affirmative. That particular resource was never found. It exists. Somewhere. It has got to.

Feminists raised me. Some of these women would never identify themselves as such. My grandmother for instance, but luckily there were others, my aunt Noemí López, my principal Mary Ashley, my mentor Sue Robertson who all identified themselves as feminists. My aunt Noemí has been or still holds office or sits on the board of The Texas Women's Political Caucus and Planned Parenthood. She took me to every feminist rally, conference, meeting, debate, fundraiser that she was attending to fulfill her responsibilities as my God Mother. She also took me to mass on Sunday.

On April 25, 2004 hundreds of thousands (some reports say over a million) people participated in the March for Women's Lives in Washington, DC. It was the largest protest in our nation's history, though many do not know it happened. One of the participants was Ashley Judd. She wore a T-shirt that read, "This is what a feminist looks like." This glam gal movie star is not what the public identifies as a feminist. She is beautiful, wears sexy gowns on the red carpet with non-sensible shoes. There are a lot of girls that want to be just like her. Another day I saw a guy exiting the grocery store with his cart with the same shirt on (I mean, it said the same thing. I don't think it was the same shirt). He was attractive, well groomed, wore a wedding ring and wasn't driving a hybrid. I didn't see his wife around. Maybe she was at home or maybe she was at work, working at an equitable job, or maybe she is deployed to Iraq, or possibly drafting legislation, or is a Union Pipe Fitter for a local in Chicago, or maybe she is meeting with her editor or she is finishing the work for her exhibition that opens in Berlin next month.

This work that I have produced is meant to instigate an everyday agency. Personal agency begins with identity. My part in an everyday revolution toward change begins with how I see myself.

One step in becoming an artist is calling your self one.

Jen López

Chicago, IL
February 2007

The latest from Feministing friend Mikhaela Reid.

If you didn't listen to WBAI's Hip-Hop Takoever-Election Style this weekend, you definitely missed out. But lucky for you, we have a segment that you can listen to right here: "Politics for Goddesses Rising: Our Relevance in Election '08."

Hosted by Feministing friend jaz and Nida Khan, the show featured Rosa Clemente, VP Presidential Running Mate of Green Party and Presidential Nominee Cynthia McKinney and Kevin Powell, who is running for a Congressional seat in Brooklyn. The show takes on how women's issues are being addressed in this election; the importance of local politics and politicians, the media's lack pundits who are women of color and more...

WBAI 99.5 FM's Hip-Hop Takeover was 17 hours of non-stop hip-hop programming - but this is definitely the hour to listen to!

'

From the NYTimes City Room:

Paratroopers are drifting down to earth -- well, down the side of a Brooklyn apartment building -- and slowly being helped back on their feet. This scene has finally come into full view in Sunset Park, where a group of young women this summer painted a mural that was their response to military recruiters in their schools and neighborhoods.

The mural project was sponsored by the Groundswell Community Mural Project.

Badass.

Thanks to Veronica for the link.

Via.

From the always incredible Alix Olson.

Check out this spoken word performance from Sonya Renee; towards the end my jaw was dropped and I was near tears. (And I'm not that big of a softie, believe me.) Just amazing.

Via KaeLyn at Feministe.

UPDATE: Get the transcript here.

When I first strolled by Ghada Amer's huge canvases with acrylic paint and embroidery at the Elizabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art last weekend, I just took a casual look--the string seemed to hang like so many spider webs chaotically snuggled into a long-abandon cabin wall. But when I moved closer, really focused my eyes--like one of those Magic Eye things I never seem to be able to do--I discovered that I was looking at intricate, erotic images of naked women, repeated over and over in your grandmother's own craft.

That's not all this Egyptian multi-media artist does. She takes photographs, paints, sculpts, even does installations in college cafeterias.

If you're not in the New York area, I suggest you check out links to her work here. If you are, you have no excuse not to make it to the Sackler Center on your next free Saturday and be ridiculously inspired/amazed/impressed. If Judy Chicago's Dinner Party is property of the 70s feminist art movement, I want third wave dibs on Ghada Amer. (She was born in 1963, so it might be pushing the generational envelope?!).

By famous British art critic Brian Sewell:

"The art market is not sexist. . . The likes of Bridget Riley and Louise Bourgeois are of the second and third rank. There has never been a first-rank woman artist.

Only men are capable of aesthetic greatness. Women make up 50 per cent or more of classes at art school. Yet they fade away in their late 20s or 30s. Maybe it's something to do with bearing children." (Emphasis mine)

Um yeah. I guess we can't surprised, since he's compared women's apparent incapacity to drive well with their artistry in the past.

I'd like to see him try to paint a fucking picture next to some great women artists of our time, like Frida Kahlo or Mary Cassatt. Anyone have favorite greats they'd like to share?

Thanks to Lynne for the link!

Photo of Diane DiMassa by Love Alban

Photo of Cristy C. Road by Amos Mac

Diane DiMassa and Cristy C. Road are contributors of the new anthology, Live Through This. Edited by Sabrina Chapadjiev, Live Through This is a collection of original stories, essays, artwork and photography that explore the use of art to survive many of life's lows, traumas and struggles. Both illustrated and contributed real-life personal pieces to the anthology.

Diane DiMassa is best known as the creator of the comic heroine Hothead Paisan, Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist. She recently illustrated a graphic novel written by Daphne Gottlieb called Jokes and the Unconscious, and regularly contributes to anthologies.

Cristy C. Road's works and publications include the punk rock zine, Greenzine; illustrated storybook, Indestructable; a series of illustrated novels based on filmmaker Esther Bell's upcoming film, Flaming Heterosexual Female; and is currently working on Bad Habits, an illustrated love story.

Here are Diane and Cristy...

My first big-girl bicycle (one without training wheels) was a Strawberry Shortcake bike - it was red and white and had sayings like "Have a berry nice day" printed across it. I loved Strawberry Shortcake.

So imagine my distress when I read that Strawberry and friends had gotten a cartoon character "facelift."

She is not the only aging fictional star to get a facelift. An unusually large number of classic characters for children are being freshened up and reintroduced — on store shelves, on the Internet and on television screens — as their corporate owners try to cater to parents’ nostalgia and children’s YouTube-era sensibilities. Adding momentum is a retail sector hoping to find refuge from a rough economy in the tried and true.

Warner Brothers hopes to “reinvigorate and reimagine” Bugs Bunny and Scooby-Doo through a new virtual world on the Internet, where people will be able to dress up the characters pretty much any way they want. American Greetings is dusting off another of its lines, the Care Bears, which will return with a fresh look this fall (less belly fat, longer eyelashes).

Of course, by checking out the pictures accompanied with the article, it becomes clear that this "makeover" seems an awful lot about making the characters thinner. I guess even fictional characters aren't allowed any baby fat. Sigh.

Thanks to Hex for the link.

I love NYC in the summer. There's always a ton of amazing feminist events going on, and it seems to have begun. This weekend kicks off with Rock for Young Women, an event to support the New York Metro Chapter of the Young Women's Task Force.

Then Monday, the amazing Girls for Gender Equity will be partnering with HollaBack NYC for a post-show talk back about subway harassment after a special showing of the play Standing Clear, described as "an ensemble piece that digs deep into the personalities we commute with each day."

Support and enjoy three awesome organizations in one week. If you're in the NYC area, be sure to check em out.

Well wonder no more. My only question is - how does she possibly see riding around in that thing?

From the fabulous Jessica Hagy at indexed. You can buy her book here.

The International Museum of Women continues to do amazing work online. This month the exhibit is Women, Power, and Politics and there is no shortage of inspiring art to check out. I'm especially interested in the Body as Art section, where artists from around the globe consider ways that our forms can be our medium of expression.

Image by Drew Burrows

NYU student Drew Burrows showed off his new girlfriend at the Tisch School of the Arts show, in which she was the art, via the Daily Intel:

It's simple to behold — a single mattress, tucked into a dark, curtained back room of the showcase space. On it: a lithe brunette. She's perfectly quiet, but once you sit or lie down, she responds to your every move. Lie on your back, she snuggles up right next to you in a log position. Curl up in the fetal position, she spoons. The only hitch: She's 2-D. 'Yeah, you can't feel the girl. That's the thing,' Burrows explained as he demonstrated his invention, an "infrared sensitive" light projection (meaning it reacts, and the projected woman moves, based on an infrared sensor) called INBED. 'Still, it's so nice if you're tired and worn out to have someone to curl up with.' (Emphasis mine)

Shudder. And that's just the tip of the iceberg:

Burrows suggests his new alternative to a full-body pillow or (ugh) blow-up doll could provide late-night comfort for traders, lawyers, or any other single guy in Manhattan who simply works too hard to keep a girlfriend.

Just...wow. Some are defending this as a simple art project addressing intimacy and loneliness, but Burrows seems to have created this - and is blatantly pitching it - not as art, but seriously as an adequate substitution for a woman. Not okay.

Via Boing Boing. (h/t to reader Austin)

Can we please stop calling every attempt at analyzing pop culture "outrage"? Kthx, moving on.

Annalee Newitz's piece from the San Francisco Bay Guardian last week embarks on the task of justifying the violence and misogyny in Grand Theft Auto 4.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving is lobbying to get the video game rated "adults only" (effectively killing it in the US market, where major console manufacturers won't support AO games) because there's one scene in the game where you have the option to drive drunk. Apparently none of the good ladies of MADD have ever played GTA, since if they had they might have discovered that when you try to drive drunk, the video game informs you that you should take a cab. If you do drive, the cops immediately chase you down. Which is exactly the sort of move you'd expect from this sly, fun game, which hit stores last week.

I actually stand at a different point than MADD and I don't necessarily support the censorship of the game, I don't really think censorship works. The more ratings and labels you put on something, the edgier and sexier it becomes. Censorship doesn't change the fact that violence and misogynist sex scenes make up the bulk of edgy popular culture or that violence is a serious problem for youth today and so is the sexualization of women, along with violence against women.

On some level, I do agree with proponents of GTA 4. Several of my friends have said, "but it is just fun." I don't deny that advances in video game technology are in fact mind-blowing and down right incredible and the they are fun. Hello, I am a blogger, I get the nerd new-cool-fun-fangled-technology thing.

What I can't get down with is justifying blatant misogyny by calling it art.

If GTA4 were a movie, it would have been directed by Martin Scorsese or David O. Russell, and we'd all be ooohing and aaahhing over its dark, ironic vision of immigrant life in a world at war with itself. But because GTA4 is a video game, where players are in the driver's seat, so to speak, it freaks people out. Earlier installments of GTA-inspired feminist and cultural-conservative outrage (you have the option to kill prostitutes!), and concern over moral turpitude from Hillary Clinton (you can beat cops to death! Or anybody!).

I think it is really problematic to lump all criticisms of GTA4 together. I believe at some point, I was written about along with a conservative writer (shudder to think) and that is not giving the full range of view points space to air their concerns. I am pretty sure if a movie had prostitute killing in it, I would write about it, but that is besides the point. GTA4 is not a movie, it is bigger than a movie. In fact, movies switched around their release dates for the release of GTA4. In the first week out it has grossed 500 million dollars. Furthermore, it is played, repeatedly and it is a role playing game, where you are the person engaging in violent acts. It is a fantasy, your fantasy. Perhaps there is a moment of identification like this with movies, but it is different then actually acting something out yourself.

Because this weekend, my friend Sara Bacon is coming over to install these awesome pieces: An investigation of boy doll accessories and An investigation of girl doll accessories. SO excited.

Sara is probably my oldest friend (we chilled in diapers together), and I'm just amazed by her work and just generally proud to know her. That is all.

From a recent performance at The Whitney Biennial. Photo by Eduardo Aparicio.

Coco Fusco is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist and writer. She is the author of English is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas, and editor of Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas, and Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self (with Brian Wallis). Her work on military interrogation was selected for the 2008 Whitney Biennial.

"In the guise of a CIA manual, Coco Fusco's provocative A Field Guide for Female Interrogators offers an unflinching look at women's role in the military and at America's use of torture in the War on Terror"-- (from the book's back cover copy).

Here's Coco...

Aliza Shvarts writes,

As an intervention into our normative understanding of .the real. and its accompanying politics of convention, this performance piece has numerous conceptual goals. The first is to assert that often, normative understandings of biological function are a mythology imposed on form. It is this mythology that creates the sexist, racist, ableist, nationalist and homophobic perspective, distinguishing what body parts are .meant. to do from their physical capability. The myth that a certain set of functions are .natural. (while all the other potential functions are .unnatural.) undermines that sense of capability, confining lifestyle choices to the bounds of normatively defined narratives.

Just as it is a myth that women are .meant. to be feminine and men masculine, that penises and vaginas are .meant. for penetrative heterosexual sex (or that mouths, anuses, breasts, feet or leather, silicone, vinyl, rubber, or metal implements are not .meant. for sex at all), it is a myth that ovaries and a uterus are .meant. to birth a child.

When considering my own bodily form, I recognize its potential as extending beyond its ability to participate in a normative function. While my organs are capable of engaging with the narrative of reproduction . the time-based linkage of discrete events from conception to birth . the realm of capability extends beyond the bounds of that specific narrative chain. These organs can do other things, can have other purposes, and it is the prerogative of every individual to acknowledge and explore this wide realm of capability.

Thanks to Sarah for the link.

Previous post on the subject is here.

Tons of readers wrote and asked us to address this article in the Yale Daily News about an art student who, supposedly, artificially inseminated herself and then had multiple abortions -- and taped the whole thing and called it art.

When I read the article, I was totally shocked it was in a student newspaper, not on an anti-choice website. I mean, it sounded like a crazy hoax (like the abortion providers who eat fetuses) designed to perpetuate all the worst stereotypes about women who choose abortion and people who protect their right to do so.

Well, turns out it the art project isn't real:

"Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art," a Yale spokeswoman, Helaine Klasky, said. "She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body."

Ah, but rather than spark a discussion about the "ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body," this really just propped up a lot of ridiculous anti-choice talking points, like women have abortions just for the heck of it, because they're bored on a Saturday night or something. I imagine we'll be seeing this story cited as fact in anti-choice Power Point presentations for decades to come...

UPDATE: Ok, so it now appears the artist is disputing the university's claim that it was a "creative fiction."

But Shvarts reiterated Thursday that she repeatedly use a needleless syringe to insert semen into herself. At the end of her menstrual cycle, she took abortifacient herbs to induce bleeding, she said. She said she does not know whether or not she was ever pregnant.

“No one can say with 100-percent certainty that anything in the piece did or did not happen,� Shvarts said, “because the nature of the piece is that it did not consist of certainties.�

This afternoon, Shvarts showed the News footage from tapes she plans to play at the exhibit. The tapes depict Shvarts — sometimes naked, sometimes clothed — alone in a shower stall bleeding into a cup.

Well now I don't know what to think.

ANOTHER UPDATE: To clarify for those who may be confused, she didn't take any abortion-inducing drugs that are available from a doctor only (mifepristone/RU-486 or misoprostol), and because she never took a pregnancy test, it's my strong suspicion that she merely gulped down a lot of EmergenC and videotaped herself menstruating. (Over the course of her nine-month project, she would have had nine opportunities to film herself bleeding.) Of course, the concept is still interesting to discuss. Just wanted to point that out... (Skeptical commenters have said similar things.)

I like LindaBeth's comment:

I'd really love to see her artist statement or even talk to her...there is likely mush more thought than is being told here. And I think people maybe a little too quick to jump all over her for the possible political fallout. And while I understand the very real threats we face, can you honestly say we (as feminists, as a culture) couldn't also use some deeper discussions about the body?

Yes! I also want to flag this provocative question from Jess in comments:

Would it be different if she was having sex to get herself pregnant?

Oh, hells yeah.

Thanks to Gabrielle for the link.

PS 1, an affiliate of MoMA and the venue for ridiculously fun and famous summer parties (it's in mine and Jessica's hood in Queens), is holding "the first comprehensive, historical exhibition to examine the international foundations and legacy of feminist art. "

WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution is running through May 12th, and it looks pretty damn cool. So if you're around the New York area, definitely check it out. I know I will.

Miki Fujiwara, aka Urban Envy, is a self-employed visual artist/community activist based in New York City.

Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Miki is known to be one of the original members of the New York Tributary Art Movement. The majority of her work, mostly paintings, has been categorized as "Cultural Surrealism," often said to be in the "tradition of Cynthia Tom and Frida Kahlo."

Urban Envy's works can be seen in local galleries of New York City.

Here's Miki...

Or so proves this cartoon from xkcd, which is so funny. And so (sadly) true.

Thanks to the (many!) readers who sent this along.

What do you get when you combine the "lazily sensual harem woman reclining on a couch" stereotype with the "cowed housewife bullied by her religion and the men in her life" stereotype? Veil fetish art. Zeynab at Muslimah Media Watch breaks it all down.

And in a follow-up post, Zeynab writes about the art of Makan Emadi, and how it deals with issues of concealment and exposure of Muslim women's bodies. Is it a powerful critique of both Eastern and Western sexism? Or is it just perpetuating the worst Eastern and Western sexist stereotypes? She has some interesting thoughts.

Katori Hall is a playwright, performer and journalist from Memphis, Tennessee. Her award-winning play, "Hoodoo Love" received its world-premiere at the Cherry Lane Theatre November 1, 2007. Her other plays include: "Remembrance," "Hurt Village," "Saturday Night/Sunday Morning," "The Mountaintop," and "Freedom Train."

She is a recipient of numerous writing awards including the 2007 Fellowship of Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama, 2006 New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting and Screenwriting, 2006 Royal Court Theatre Residency, 2005 Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. Recently, she was nominated for the Wendy Wasserstein Prize and the Susan Smith Blackburn Award.

As a journalist, her work has been published in The Boston Globe, Essence, Newsweek and The Commercial Appeal.

These are just some of the highlights of Katori's career. Here's Katori...

From our gal Mikhaela, who was inspired by a proposed law in Colorado that would give constitutional rights to human eggs.

Sister Outsider is the latest project of novelists, screenwriters, and entrepreneurs Elisha Miranda and Sofia Quintero who have been collaborating since 2000. They co-founded the nonprofit Chica Luna Productions and its project, The F-Word, that is working to train the next generation of women of color filmmakers.

Julia Carias is an actor, educator, filmmaker, and Sister Outsider's Director of Operations and Productions.
Among her list of works and activism, Julia co-wrote, produced and directed her first play in 2002, "Roots," a production by La Casa Latina, an organization dedicated to promoting Latino culture throughout the college community.

Here's Julia...

Check out the latest from our fave cartoonist, Mikhaela Reid: Your Yucky Body: Why You Need a Mommy Job!

Editor's Note: When I got an email from Jaclyn yesterday with the subject line: "the antidote to the chubby-bashing asshole," I knew I was in for some good shit. So instead of me posting about her work at Big Moves, I asked Jaclyn to write about it herself...

Contributed by Jaclyn Friedman

I created the Big Moves calendar not just as a much-needed fundraiser for our tiny, broke-ass, volunteer-run organization, but also as an antidote to the narrow (pun-intended) images of beauty I'm bombarded with every day. In a world where Glamour sees fit to photoshop America Ferrara down to a size-nothing (and has the nerve to run the headline "1st Annual Figure Flattery Issue" right next to it), where images of "fat" women are used as sure-thing motivation to get you to buy whatever it is that will make you Not Like That, I wanted to reclaim the glamor of the Calendar Girl and make it something new and powerful. I wanted to glamorize the kind of real beauty that has nothing to do with what you weigh.

That's not just a cliche -- the women in this calendar are beautiful because they're confident, because they're brave enough to insist on being artists and performers against all social messages, because that's what makes them feel alive. It's an honor to perform with them, and it was a true privilege to shoot them for the calendar. These are my compatriots onstage and off -- my fatties, as we've taken to calling each other with pride, no matter what our size.

We are women mending what's broken in our lives, and my hope is that this calendar will mend some of what's broken in all of our lives. I can't wait to spend every day next year with this kind of beauty, and I hope that you will, too.

Note about the calendars: The slides how has lo-res versions of the pictures for quick-loading purposes. The actual pics are gorgeous high res and color saturated.

After graduating high school, Michelle Walker left NYC for the UK to spend years singing in renowned clubs like The Limelight and Ronnie Scott's. After moving to the D.C. area to study voice, she spent graduate school at American University, and continued her jazz studies privately with Madeline Eastman, Jay Clayton, Nancy Marano, Pam Bricker, Dena DeRose, Rhiannon and jazz vocalist Mark Murphy. Michelle also studied at the Amsterdam Music Conservatory in Holland and the Stanford Jazz Summer Workshop in Palo Alto, CA.

Some highlights of her work include opening on tour for jazz vocalists Mark Murphy, Rene Marie, Chris Botti, George Benson, Spyro Gyra, Terrell Stafford and opening for Wynton Marsalis. Michelle currently teaches privately and conducts workshops on musical performance and career management when she's not on stage. Here's Michelle...

Anti-choice comic strip gone wild. Didn't anyone tell this guy that someone is already on the creepy cartoon fetus thing?

I don't know much about this comic, Crankshaft, in general--but I do know this above one is pretty fucking heinous.

Not only does it attempt to make a joke out of rape, it also plays on the gross myth that only young, "attractive" women get sexually assaulted. Which, of course, is a version of "rape is a compliment."

Anyone know how to get in touch with the cartoonists?

Thanks to SecretMargo for the link.

Listen to Rhodessa Jones of The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women on NPR. I read Rena Fraden's chronicle of the collective, "Imagining Medea" in grad school, which was awesome; it's good to see such an amazing project get this exposure.

Ren Jender is a writer/performer who for eight and a half years was the host and founder of The Amazon Slam, a Boston-based all woman poetry slam that won "The Best Poll" of The Boston Phoenix from 1998-2003 and was named "Best of Boston" in Boston Magazine in 1999. Her work has appeared in Bitch Magazine, Bay Windows and Spare Change. She has been profiled in The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Boston Metro, The Boston Phoenix, Curve and Teen Voices. She was the co-curator/co-producer of the Lisa King Memorial show in Boston in May of 2006.

She's currently working on a new creative and community project. Here's Ren...

Elizabeth Dahmen front; Photo by Liz Liguori

Elizabeth Dahmen is a comedian, actor and singer who's performed in countless productions in NYC over the last 10 years. She's been featured in The L Magazine, and in GO Magazine’s “100 Women We Love.� She also hosted karaoke at Meow Mix for three years before it closed down and starred in the hit lesbian short "Bar Talk " directed by Cheryl Furjanic. She starred in "Ex-Antwone" a controversial play directed by Juan Souki that had an English language world premiere at PS 122 last fall, and just recently shot a scene in Madeleine Olnek's upcoming film.

She's also Terry Tone of The Lesbian Overtones. Here's Elizabeth...

Check out this collection of Wonder Woman interpretations. Interesting stuff. And as Zuzu points out, the art really runs the gamut (and not all of it fantastic). Which is your fave?

Thanks to John for the link.

Gawd, I love the Guerrilla Girls.

Remember how the new Batwoman was going to be a lesbian? Well, she's not.

When it comes to portraying characters as gay in comics, Devin Grayson admits the amount of editorial latitude she's given depends upon the legacy of the character in question. “The Powers That Be are pretty good these days about letting you choose to make a character of your own design homosexual or bisexual, but the closer you get to an established character, the harder it becomes,� Grayson said.

...In fact, Grayson was eight months into the development of the proposed “Batwoman� title when she found out from a newspaper article that the project was dead, and to this day, the writer has not received so much as a phone call from upper editorial on the matter. “That reversal really surprised and disappointed me,� Grayson admitted.

I'll second that disappointment. Boo.

This is just frigging awesome. Seems that Spiderman teamed up with Planned Parenthood back in the day to create a comic about the importance of sex education--complete with an anti-choice villain who wants teens to get knocked up!

Kind of sad though that this comic is probably more progressive (and factual) than what kids are actually being taught in school.

Thanks to Norbizness for the link.

Taking the foot fetish to the next level of nasty.

Shoes have never been so sexy sexist.

via V Magazine.

Thanks to Jessica for the link.

Good stuff. This has apparently been an ongoing story in Trudeau's most recent strips.

Big ups to Sarah D.

Maribel Ortega is a fashion designer whose about to open up her first shop featuring her clothing line, LANENA, in Madrid, Spain. Right now you can get her T-shirts online.

LANENA comes from a nickname her family and friends call her—"La Nena"—meaning "Little Girl" in Spanish. Here's Maribel...

Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer, authors of How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time, have penned a piece for The New York Times about Jane's demise. Check it out. And not just because Feministing gets a mention (yay!).

I am here repping Youth Media Council and Feministing at the Allied Media Conference and can I just say, wow. I have been to so many conferences this year, and they are always inspiring, but not always in a positive way. Usually, I get mad and have to write scathing reviews about the lack of vision from or understanding of disenfranchised voices.

This is not the case at the Allied Media Conference. After getting in late to Detroit last night and getting over some jet lag, I made it over to the opening ceremony. The strong presence of radical thought filled the air around me and was only heightened by the powerful words of the presenters. Three Detroit activists--Grace Lee Boggs, Charles Simmons and Elena Herrada--discussed the role of media in activism, but also focused on what is happening on the ground in Detroit. I was so inspired I wanted to just move on in to the D.

Following this included some profound spoken word poetry by Versiz, Angela Jones and D. Blair. If you don't know, get familiar.

For a minute the MC passed the mic around for youth voices to speak about the media that they want to see. Most of the folks that spoke out were from Detroit Summer (please get familiar) and spoke about a media that needs to highlight their voices, educate future leaders, train youth to feel comfortable in front of the camera and to feel confident about their voice and their communities. Some folks talked about how the media needs to highlight local activists and local artists and a media that tells the truth.

What do you think? We are all clearly not happy with the way the media treats our respective communities and organize in a variety of ways to fight misrepresentation, that is probably why you are here reading at all. What kind of media do YOU want to see?

update: Check in through out the weekend for more updates. I am here with Kristina of Wiretap Magazine and Jessamyn director of Future 5000. Both amazing so please check out and get in touch if you want more info.

My workshop is on Sunday, if you are around and want to stop by and say HAY!

Via the incredible Mikhaela Reid. Click on the image for a bigger version...

Good stuff. (If you go to the YouTube page, try to ignore all the misogynist douchebaggery.)

And not just because it's by Feministing contributor Courtney Martin. Buy it cause it's damn good.

Publishers Weekly on Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body:

It is no longer enough for girls to be good, says journalist and teacher Martin in her debut book. Girls must now be perfect, and that need for perfection is played out in women's bodies. But beneath the high-achieving 'perfect girl' surface, seven million American girls and women suffer from an eating disorder; 90% of high school–aged girls think they are overweight. Drawing on more than 100 interviews with women and girls ages 9–29, Martin constructs a cultural critique of a generation of girls steeped in the language of self-control.

On a personal note: Courtney is literally one of the nicest people I've ever met. Being the ever-skeptical New Yorker, I'm always baffled by people who never have a mean word to say about anyone and who are genuinely just lovely. So congrats, girl. I'm looking forward to many more nights of feminist dance parties doing the running man and waxing philosophic about the superior fashion stylings of Cross Colors.

Faye Driscoll is a daring and thought-provoking choreographer who is currently an artist in residence at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange in NY. She has toured internationally as a dancer and has taken her choreographed shows on the road across the U.S.

Her new show, “Wow, Mom, Wow,� will make its world premiere at Dance New Amsterdam in New York City, April 26-29. Faye will also be performing the show at the Michigan Womyn’s Festival August 7-12.

I spoke with Faye over the phone. Here’s Faye…

Martha Diaz is the president of The Hip-Hop Association, and producer of the H2O International Film Festival and Hip-Hop Education Summit, amongst many other projects. An educator, organizer and filmmaker, her impact in hip hop can be traced to her early days as a young and aspiring production assistant for the late Ted Demme, the groundbreaking producer and director behind "Yo! MTV Raps. "

The H2O International Film Festival is taking place May 31-June 15, 2007 in New York City and its theme is "The World Is Yours?" It “highlights the Hip-Hop community of the early/mid 90’s; a time when youth in the community began demanding money, power, and respect.�

I caught up with Martha over email. Here's Martha...

Remember the short film, A Girl Like Me, by teenager Kiri Davis (above)? Well, along with two other films by young women, it's up for a $10,000 prize given my CosmoGirl.

So go watch the films and vote!

Despite the horrendously cheesy title and the not-so-fantastic review ("feminist art" is a faux genre?), I’m stoked to see that the Brooklyn Museum has opened the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, in which their new show, “Global Feminisms,� is running through July 1st.

The show consists of contemporary feminist art by close to 90 women from nearly 50 countries, and is featuring special events, talks by artists and curators, concerts and film screenings. One of the works, “The Dinner Party� by Judy Chicago (pic above), is thought by many to be one of the most famous feminist artworks out there.

Yet another reason to be thrilled that I moved to BK.

Photo by Patrick Bishop

When I think of Etta James, I think of her sultry and indescribably amazing voice singing the words to “At Last.� Then I think of Melissa Acosta. I saw Melissa sing “At Last� at a bar in Boston. I think Etta would have been proud.

Melissa has been climbing the music scene since as far back as she can remember. She’s now singing with the progressive hip hop/R&B/reggae/funk New York City-based band, Emergency Service. Melissa is currently on tour with them, so catch her if you can.

She took time to email me her answers to my questions. Here’s Melissa…

Helena D. Lewis is an actor, playwright, poet, and social worker. She performs her autobiographical one-woman plays across the country chronicling with humor her life as a certified alcohol and drug counselor and HIV/AIDS educator. Helena has appeared in multiple movies such as “Golddigger Killer,� TV shows, and slam poetry festivals. She is currently a member of the troupe, HerStory, a multi-cultural group of female performers who are touring the U.S.

Helena will be performing her play, “Call Me Crazy� at the Nuyorican Poets Café from March 22 to March 25th. Make sure to catch it. You definitely won’t forget it.

I interviewed Helena over email. Here’s Helena…

Photo by Kaya Nati

Hanifah Walidah is a hip hop artist, playwright, actor, music video maker, and filmmaker. Her list of accomplishments goes on and on, literally. Here are just a few of them: Her first LP, “A Headnadda’s Journey to Adidi-Skizm� was released in 1994 under the name Sha-Key. In the early 90s she was co-founder of two poet/performance collectives, The Vibe Khamelons and The Boom Poetic, both recognized as groundbreaking for fusing a hip hop approach to traditional beatnik rhythm. In 2002 she wrote and performed her one-woman show “Straight Black Folks Guide to Black Folks.� In 2006 she was the musical director of “What It Iz,� a hip hop/spoken word adaptation of “The Wiz.�

And thankfully, Hanifah is at it again. Hanifah’s new album, “Once Upon It Is� debuted this month. Check out her new song and music video, “Make a Move� on her website. Or better yet, vote to make it #1 on LOGO’s [LGBT-focused channel] “Click List.� It’s the first video that depicts gay women of color in a positive and celebratory light.

Hanifah will also be releasing an accompanying documentary to the video, U People, this June for Pride. The documentary features behind the scenes discussions on the video and a closer look at the women who make up the video. It will be debuting on LOGO.

You can also catch Hanifah on a European tour this spring. Here’s Hanifah…

NOT a hoohah.

Oh how I wish this one was a joke.

A theater in Atlantic Beach, Florida changed the name of The Vagina Monologues on its marquee after a complaint that the title was offensive.

"We got a complaint about this play The Vagina Monologues," said Bryce Pfanenstiel, of the Atlantic Theater.

The Hoohah Monologues is a replacement title for The Vagina Monologues -- a well-known play about that part of the female body.

"We decided we would just use child slang for it. That's how we decided on Hoohah Monologues," Pfanenstiel said.

They did this after a driver who saw it complained to the theater, saying she was upset that her niece saw it.

"I'm on the phone and asked 'What did you tell her?' She's like, 'I'm offended I had to answer the question,'" Pfanenstiel said.

Yeah, jeez, how offensive it is to have to explain what a vagina is. Just a thought—if this woman’s niece is old enough to ask about the marquee, than perhaps it’s time she knows what a vagina is.

What shocks me is that this kind disgust surrounding women and female anatomy is exactly what the play takes on! Isn’t it ironic? Dontcha think?

I wonder if Eve Ensler knows about this…

Check out video news coverage of the story here.

Need I say anything else? This is my girl, locally/self produced, diva songstress and aspiring film-maker. Just wanted to share.

Writer-filmmaker, Single Beige Female, human alter ego of extraterrestrial singer-songwriter-conceptual
designer, micropixie has made a cool "micro-fillum" on nationality, citizenship and skin colour called "My Beige Foot"which was recently screened at the 2006 Third I International South Asian Film Festival.

Check it.

And she is making more of them. . .

Artist Ming Yi Sung is showing her awesome nudie knitted art at the Nevin Kelly Gallery here in D.C. (Details below the fold, for those of you in the area. But you've gotta act fast! The exhibit closes at 8pm tomorrow...) A great example of "recasting traditional “women’s work� for the post-riotgrrrl era." Her stuff is awesome.

In 2005 when Sung exhibited her art in an office building, she was asked to cover up the knitted titties and crocheted cooches. Happily, there seems to have been no opposition this time around.

It's also a good time to plug the "Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting" exhibit going on now at the Museum of Arts & Design in New York. (Again, details below the fold.)

Noemi Martinez makes her Hermana Resist zine out of her South Texas home, usually when her son and daughter are sleeping. By day, she’s the human trafficking outreach coordinator at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.

She says, “Between 800,000 to 900,000 people are trafficked in the world every year, with an estimated 18,000 to 20,000 of those in the US. A trafficked person doesn't have to cross international lines, and it can happen to a US citizen not only to undocumented persons.�

I spoke with Noemi over phone and email about her zines. I plan to talk about her anti-trafficking work in an interview to come. Here’s Noemi…

The New York Times Magazine had a review of “femme brut(e),� a show of feminist artists in New London’s Lyman Allyn Art Museum.

While it’s great that the history of women artists is being discussed, the beginning of the last paragraph was a pretty off-putting:

Angry social and political protests about gender are largely a thing of the past. The new wave of female artists are working on issues and concerns similar to those of their male counterparts.

(Don’t you just love it when they have to throw a word like “angry� in there? Those angry feminists!)

This pisses me off to no end. I studied feminist art in college and beyond, and for the article to point out the historical pooh-poohing of women artists but deny the current existence of feminist “social and political art� is hypocritical and misleading.

Check out the recently launched Feminist Art Project for just one resource of proof that feminist art is still alive and kicking (and political!).

Linda Nieves-Powell is the president and CEO of the multimedia entertainment company, Latino Flavored Productions, Inc. based in New York, which she founded in 1995. As well as a playwright, author, mother, wife, and entrepreneur.

I spoke with Linda over the phone in November. Here’s Linda…

The fabulous Deanna pointed me in the direction of this poem. I love it so fucking much, I just had to repost it here.

It's after the jump. Sigh.

This may be my favorite feminist Flickr to date. A translation:

Careful! Women answer back

If you stupidly stare at a woman, talk rubbish or touch her, you have to be aware that she might insult you loudly, a glass of beer is emptied over you or you might be hit in the face. We strongly advise you to refrain from this kind of harrassments.

Women, migrants, homeless people, transgender people, gays and lesbians are often victims of assaults. Don't look away, interfere!

Pic from yog.

If you have the time, check out my interview with Rha Goddess and JLove Calderon, editors of We Got Issues! A Young Woman's Guide to a Bold, Courageous and Empowered Life. They have lots of powerful things to say. Happy Thursday!

UPDATE (Jessica): Hey, just wanted to say that I just started reading this book and it's fucking awesome. I'm planning on doing a full review, but just wanted to sing it's praises here as well.

Photo by Rosalia Rivera

Caridad De La Luz, whose name translated in English from Spanish means “Charity of Light,� is a slam poet, screenplay writer, actor, hip hop artist and reggaeton artist, and social justice activist. I saw Caridad perform as La Bruja this fall at a human rights forum provided by Breakthrough, an international human rights organization. She’s also married, and the mother of an 8-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl.

Caridad has appeared on HBO’s Russell Simmons’ “Def Poetry Jam.� Is the author of the highly successful one-woman comedy show, “Boogie Rican Blvd.� Was Cuca in Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled� in 2000. And played Lucky in the Sundance-winning 2004 film “Down to the Bone.� She just released her latest CD, “Brujalicious.� It’s all about hip hop, reggaeton, social justice, and good beats.

For non-Spanish speakers, “La Bruja� means “The Witch.� I’ll let her explain. Here’s Caridad…

“Fighting discrimination with facts, humor and fake fur!�—that’s the motto of the internationally acclaimed anonymous activist artist group, The Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls celebrated their 20th anniversary last year, and have no plans of stopping.

I spoke with Frida Kahlo, one of the founding members of the Guerrilla Girls, one early morning this summer. We also caught up a bit over email. The Guerrilla Girls are extremely busy with a lot of projects. Their next sighting will be at the Istanbul Modern Museum in Turkey, October 17 and 18.

Here’s Frida…

If you’re in NYC and feel like hearing some open mic poetry while supporting a great cause, check out the Bowery Poetry Club on Wednesday for “Rockin’ the Mic Against Rape.�

The event was organized by NOT IN OUR CITY, a grassroots project of the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault, and will be hosted by performance artist Piper Anderson. I can assure that you won’t be disappointed; Piper performed at Girls for Gender Equity’s Festival for Gender Equality this summer and can certainly get her mic on. Here’s the info:

Wednesday, September 20th
6 - 7:30 p.m.

All ages welcome - 21+ to drink alcohol - free - donations appreciated

Fashion never ceases to amaze me. But honestly, I don't need fake hair sewn on. I have enough of the real stuff, OKAY?!

via Boing Boing.

This is from a few years ago but still pretty funny and a little scary, considering they are actually real guns. I don't really think the combining of *male* and *female* things, likes guns and leopard print is that cutting edge. Butch lesbians have been doing it for generations.

Contributed by Jess Wakeman.

Broadway revived the musical comedy The Fantastiks recently, the story of young lovers Matt and Luisa and the rogue El Gallo. The original 1960 song version featured a song titled "The Rape Ballet," which is not actually about rape [or ballet], but about El Gallo's abduction of the fair maiden, Luisa.

If you read 18th century poem "The Rape of the Lock" in high school or college English, your professor likely explained to you that Alexander Pope's piece is about a man surreptitiously snipping a lock of his beloved's hair. Etymologically speaking, "rape" also can mean abduction of a female.

But songwriter Tom Jones no longer felt comfortable using the word so glibly and changed the lyrics, so the song is now titled, "The Abduction Song." Last week, he told NPR, "my consciousness was raised."

Here's part of the original lyrics:

"Rape! R-a-a-a-pe! Raa-aa-aa-pe!

You can get the rape emphatic.
You can get the rape polite.
You can get the rape with Indians:
A very charming sight.
You can get the rape on horseback;
They'll all say it's new and gay.
So you see the sort of rape
Depends on what you pay.
It depends on what you pay."

Gee, why would anybody have a problem with that?

So I've recently become obsessed with finding feminist-related graffiti on Flickr. I love it. It makes me happy. So if anyone has anything they want to share (pics, sites, whatever), pretty please send it my way.

H/t to dpwolf for the above pic.

Just a reminder to go check out Altar magazine's Her Voice, Her View film festival, which kicked off last weekend in NYC and will be featuring fantastic feminist films through this weekend and next.

If you haven't seen NO! The Rape Documentary, directed by Aishah Shahidah Simmons, (whom Celina had the pleasure of interviewing back in May), it will be featured tonight.

Thanks to all the people who sent me Sunday's Doonesbury, which implies that feminism isn't needed anymore. (Make sure to check out the whole strip.)

Now, it would be nice if no one needed to call themselves feminists because the world was a shiny happy equality-filled place--but we're far from there.

Amanda thinks that the strip is more wistful than anything else. What do you think?

This is a feminist film buff’s wet dream.

Altar magazine has organized a fantastic two-week long women’s film festival titled Her Voice, Her View, to kick off July 12th. Over 30 films have been chosen to be shown throughout the following two weeks as a part of the Pioneer Theater’s Female Film celebration.

The festival gives the opportunity for female writers, directors and producers (who are largely unrecognized), domestic and international, to feature their work in NYC. The films address a range of issues, including violence against women, b-girls, prison, eroticism, hip hop and reproductive rights.

I'll be putting up a reminder post closer to festival kick-off, but in the meantime click here for more details on the films and to order tickets in advance.

While this was back in 1939, it's notable nonetheless. This letter from Disney Animation Studios was sent to Lillian Friedman (the first female American animator) after she applied for a job there.

Via BoingBoing.

Regina Spektor
Begin to Hope
Sire Records (2006)

Some likened Regina Spektor’s previous work and success as an anomaly—cutesy music from a cutesy girl, a shiny new thing that would lose its appeal all too quickly once the “Next Big Thing� luster went bust. And ya know, who could blame them? Her last album IS titled Soviet Kitsch, after all. Well, tell them haters to shove it because Begin to Hope is auditory divinity.

The kookiness is still there, but Spektor has made it much more endearing, her lilting vocals sailing over punchy piano pieces, simple drumbeats and the occasional cameo from a backing band. “Better,� a series of coquettish conditionals, gets the album started proper, and “On the Radio� is curious and uplifting, a welcome change to the many pop songstresses out there who think they have to sing “sad� (and typically lyrically empty) songs to be taken seriously.

This isn’t to say she’s pitch perfect here. “That Time� does a superb job of making you sentimental over your own set of funny memories until Spektor asks “Remember that time you OD’ed?,� which left me feeling panicky, then cheated from some silly and overtly “bizarre� wordplay. Still, Spektor shows some range on her first major label effort, and that’s something to believe in. As she sings in “Hotel Song,� “Come into my world.� Begin to Hope is reason enough to do just that.

Apparently Wonder Woman is retiring...sad.

DC Comics has relaunched the star-spangled heroine’s monthly comic book, starting over with Wonder Woman, issue No. 1, now in stores. In the story, Diana Prince, who has been Wonder Woman for most readers since 1941, turns her mantle over to former partner Donna Troy, also known as Wonder Girl.

As Rebecca from Broadsheet points out, all I can think when I think Wonder Woman is the first ever Ms. cover.

For any of y'all that live in (or will be in) the tri-state for the next couple of weeks, make sure to check out V-Day's festival to kick off on Monday, Until the Violence Stops: NYC. The two weeks will feature of number of different events that will bring awareness concerning violence against women and girls to The Big Apple.

One of the many fanastic events V-Day has lined up is sponsored by the organization I work for, Girls for Gender Equity, titled, "Art Revolution: Girl Style." It will be a multi-media event featuring young women artists, including photography, spoken word artists, and a special performance by all-girl rock bands Hellish Relish and Magnolia from the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls. (Trust me, you want to see these girls rock out.) Here are the details:

Art Revolution: Girl Style
When: Friday, June 23 - 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Where: Stain - 766 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211
RSVP to mandy@gges.info or call 718-857-1393

Click here to check out the other events V-Day will be featuring.

Thanks to B-Shoot over at Modern Feminist for passing along her latest video blog, Male Feminists (Fe-men-ists?).

Click on the pic above to watch.

Contributed by Courtney E. Martin

I haven’t seen X Men III, nor will I unless I can sneak in a 40 and some Twizzlers, but I have a feeling that Halle Berry won’t have shit on Carrie Giver—the star of a new comic that arrived in my hot little hands this week.

The first edition of The Adventures of Carrie Giver, published by TR Rose Associates, is called “The Cost of Caring,� and you guessed it, is packed full of frightening statistics about women’s labor in the U.S. and beyond. When Carrie begins to “glow with the power of astral projection� you better watch out—she’s about to turn into a badass feminist avenger who saves babies and grandpas from speeding cars, testifies in court about the wage gap, and staves off a horny senator’s untoward advances.

The approach is certainly fresh; for too long the great idea of a caregiver credit has been marketed in stale, nonprofit speak. My only complaint is that Carrie doesn’t seem to acknowledge women who ain’t got a maternal bone in their bodies and does her waist have to be so damn tiny?

To get in on the supergirl action, go to www.carriegiver.com.

Check out the latest from cartoonist Mikhaela Reid, Your Yucky Body: Summer Swimsuit Spectacular!, a seasonal update to her classic Your Yucky Body: A Repair Manual.

The good news? It's Mikhaela's birthday!
The bad news? In lieu of a present, the Boston Phoenix is cancelling her cartoon. Click here to email the editors and ask them to keep publishing Mikhaela's strip!

Sonic Youth
Rather Ripped
Geffen Records (2006)

Indie rock legends Sonic Youth burst out of the summer music pack with their latest album, Rather Ripped, to be released June 13 on Geffen Records. Though predictably unpredictable in terms of musical experimentation, the group delivers its characteristic guitar renderings and thoughtful lyricism, appealing to devoted fans and new initiates alike.

The former five-piece has been trimmed to four, as producer and multi-instrumentalist Jim O’Rourke left the band to pursue his film studies. Over the final days of 2005 and into early this year, the band recorded and mixed twelve new songs, each with a touch of sonic splendor and liberation that SY is known for.

Rather Ripped begins with driving tracks “Reena� and “Incinerate� and quickly transitions to curious and midbeat “Do You Believe in Rapture?� The trademark guitar sound is present on “Sleeping Around� and “Turquoise Boy.� Quirky, art-punk verse is found throughout. On “Rats,� a song that speaks of closeness and separation with lyrics such as “You could be my open road/You could be the reason why/You could ease my heavy load/But I’m gonna freeze you out.�

For those familiar with Sonic Youth, the new album doesn’t map much new territory, but for newbies, the only thing you can expect about the noise rock troubadours is their inventiveness. The band’s appearance on the season finale of Gilmore Girls further confirms the group’s status in the mainstream. In sleepy album closer “Or,� co-vocalist Thurston Moore asks, “What comes first, the music or the words?� Thankfully for us, both aspects are present, strong and carry through to the end.

SY+YYYs in an empty Williamsburg pool this August = Y can't I be a New York girl? Presale tix start in mere hours, so get on with it here.

Peep the song titles and lyrics and stream the album here.

This is too cool.

Batwoman - real name Kathy Kane - will appear in 52, a year-long DC Comics publication that began this month.

In her latest incarnation, she is a rich socialite who has a romantic history with another 52 character, ex-police detective Renee Montoya.

52 will be published in the UK as a graphic novel by Titan Books in 2007.

I love it. And I don’t even read comics. (Though I may now.)

Random question: Why was it necessary for the above article to describe the new Batwoman as a “lipstick lesbian?�

Many thanks to Madeline for pointing me in the direction of this great documentary on abstinence-only education.

Abstinence Comes To Albuquerque takes a comprehensive look at abstinence-only ed through a controversy that sprouted up in a New Mexico school.

Parent Susan Rodriguez was outraged when she found out that a faith-based private group was being funded by federal dollars to teach her daughter that sex is bad and condoms don't work. Yeah, I'd be pretty pissed too.

There's a lot of interesting/scary stuff in the film, but nothing quite beats the craziness that is Leslie Unruh of the Abstinence Clearinghouse who talks about her "covert" efforts: "Kind of like with the CIA, they’re not going to tell you everything they’re doing...Well the abstinence community has its own war room and it’s own CIA." Um, ok.

Another thing that really struck me while watching the film was the insane race and class issues. It's basically a bunch of white, Christian women teaching young women of color--many of them poor--about appropriate sexual behavior and what constitutes a family. A lot of kids in New Mexico come from single-parent homes (bad!), some of them may have parents that aren't straight (sin!). You'll see what I mean.

It's a short film, so go watch it now. It's really amazing.

The New York Times has named Toni Morrison's Beloved the "The Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years." Dope.

Two of my favorite writers also made the list, Raymond Carver and Tim O'Brien.

Bernie at PopPolitics has an interesting take on the list, so check it out.

Via Pandagon and BoingBoing, we find out about my new hero: Karen at Oddity Collector.

Tired of hearing about how Superman's chest-bearing proves that male superheroes are objectified in the same way as female superheroes in comics, Karen took matters into her own hands. (Or her own Photoshop.) She created some images--like the one above--showing how male superheroes would look if they were objectified in a similar way to their female counterparts.

Amanda anticipates the argument that us damn feminists are just anti-sexiness:

We’re just wary of a world where one sex does the majority of the objectifying and the other has to do the majority of the posing with their asses arched and lips slightly parted, that’s all.

Indeed. Make sure to check out the rest of Karen's faux-comic covers.

Make sure to check out Mikhaela Reid's latest, Conservative Spring Fashion: Guzzle-icious!

My fave conservative fashion trend is above. Hymens are so in this year.

Make sure to check out the latest issue of Our Truths, Nuestras Verdades, the bilingual magazine which "seeks to reduce the stigma surrounding abortion in order to improve the physical, emotional and spiritual health and wellbeing of all people and strengthen their capacity to reach their highest potential."

This issue takes on abortion in pop culture and has articles like "Hip-Hop and Family Values" and "The Color of Choice: Breaking the Silence with Silent Choices." Great stuff.

Sublime Stitching has pretty bad-ass Roller Derby embroidery patterns for those who like being all artsy.

Unfortunately I am neither crafty or athletic. So I'll just have to get into Roller Derby from the comfort of my couch.

Via Boing Boing.

On Wednesday, the sex worker rights magazine Spread opened its first art exhibit titled, "Sex Worker Visions." Artists include former SuicideGirl and illustrator Molly Crabapple, sex activist Heather Corinna, exotic dancer and photographer Charise Isis, and former prostitute and filmmaker Anne Hanavan.

So if you're in or by NYC, get thee to the LGBT Community Center, where the exhibition is being held.

I'm sure you remember the lovely South Dakota senator Bill Napoli who said that the only women who should be able to have abortions are religious virgins who were "brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it."

Well so does the artist who did this comic strip, which encourages women to call Sen. Napoli whenever they need to make a decision. At work or at home. You know, since he clearly knows what's best for us silly gals.

Via Boing Boing.

Check out Pink's latest video, "Stupid Girls," a not-so-nice homage (a no-mage?) to performers like Jessica Simpson who Pink clearly thinks are sending the wrong message to young girls.

Some of the lyrics:

What happened to the dreams of a girl president
She's dancing in the video next to 50 Cent
They travel in packs of two or three
With their itsy bitsy doggies and their teeny-weeny tees
Where, oh where, have the smart people gone?
Oh where, oh where could they be?

I'm a little torn on the video--it's really strong, but I don't know how useful it is to call other girls stupid.

A warning before you watch: it's a bit graphic. There's even a bulimia interlude with puking and all.

Last night I had the tremendous pleasure of going to the NYC premiere of Taking the Heat: The First Women Firefighters of New York City, a film by Bann Roy.

The film, narrated by Susan Sarandon, tells the amazing story of the first female firefighters in NYC and their incredibly difficult journey.

The story focuses on the efforts of Brenda Berkman (above) who paved the way for women in the fire service through a discrimination suit against the Fire Department.

Obviously there’s a lot more to the story, but I don’t want to ruin it for you.

The film is premiering on PBS on March 28th (check for local listings); it’s a must-watch.

Make sure to check out the latest from cartoonist extraordinaire Mikhaela Reid, Every sperm is sacred!

You know, I had totally forgotten how much I liked Subversive Cross Stitch’s stuff. Glad I had Nerve to remind me.

I am probably the least crafty person in the entire world, especially among my friends (what is it about feminists and crafts?!). But when I made this for the boyfriend last holiday season, the pain of making it was worth the end result. Anything that validates my potty-mouth holds a special place in my heart.

Check out the Painted Bride, which will be presenting “Phresh: A Celebration of Women in Hip-Hop.”

The art center will be holding a number of workshops, a panel discussion, and film screenings addressing the issues of women in the hip-hop industry. There will also be entertainment, including a dance performance by Michele Byrd-McPhee’s (one of the organizers) dance group, rock-rap artist Malene Younglao (above) and wordsmiths Versus and DJ Sparkles.

The other organizer, Maori Karmael Holmes, is a filmmaker who just finished “Scene Not Heard,” which is about the history of Philly women in hip-hop. The B-Girl Summit in Minneapolis this past summer gave Holmes the idea.

Let’s hope the inspiration doesn’t end here.

I have been a fan of the Guerrilla Girls for a hell of a long time, and their latest venture only makes me love them more.

In collaboration with MoviesByWomen.com, the Guerrilla Girls bought a billboard space in Los Angeles down the street from the Kodak theater (where the Oscars take place). The billboard--which is just bad-ass--features some pretty disturbing stats:

Women directed only 7 percent of the top 200 films of 2005. No woman has ever won the Oscar for best director. And only three have been nominated.

Those numbers aren't exactly award-winning. But perhaps what Lori at Broadsheet calls the "glare of Ms. Kong" will change some minds.

Wendy Wasserstein died yesterday at the age of 55 from complications due to lymphoma. She wrote a number of plays that approached feminist issues, and won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for “The Heidi Chronicles” (1986).

Her final play, “Third,” recently closed at Lincoln Center.

Contributed by Jess Wakeman.

Readers of Step Inside Design's December/January issue bared their claws when the magazine chose to illustrate their "women of design" issue with....kittens.

Wrote one angry reader:

"Congratulations on degrading your well-written, well-researched articles with a cover that portrays these hard-working, intelligent, and creative women as a bunch of adorable, cuddly and nonthreatening housepets."

Wrote a male reader:

"I'll bet a bag of cat litter that if it had been about leading men of design, you would've shown their faces or samples of their work."

Mag representatives wrote in their February/March issue that they were trying to "change connotations by re-appropriating them," pointing out that's why Spike Lee can make a film about minstrel shows and Mel Brooks can make a film about 'Springtime for Hitler.' But I still say...hiss!

Via Romenesko.

Our fave cartoonist Mikhaela Reid takes on the recent (bizarre) Barbie controversy in Talking Doll. Maybe we can get Barbie and SpongeBob together to "cure" them and they can become an "ex-gay" power couple!

Check out the latest from cartoonist extraordinaire Mikhaela Reid, 2005 in review. Just in case you forgot how fun the year was.

Check out the latest comic genius from Mikhaela Reid, It's Not Easy Being a College Gay-Hater!

While you're at it, pick up a signed copy of Reid's new book! It's only $3 and features 40 pages of her best cartoons.

Check out the rest of Mikhaela Reid's latest, Adventures in Republican Logic. Terrific, as always.

Goddamn, this woman likes vaginas! BadMimi, recently featured in The Chicago Tribune, has a whole website devoted to vagina-love.

While the commandment-style genital adoration is a bit much ("Thou shalt love your Vagina deeply and with reverence"), the products are pretty bad-ass.

So if you have a hankering to own a pussy pen or vagina candle, now you know where to go.

Personally I’m a big fan of the belt buckle (too tacky not to love) and this shirt. Cause really, who doesn’t heart vagina?

Check out the latest from Mikhaela Reid, What's Your Fantasy?

Mine involves a Ad Rock-John Stewart hybrid.

Love this. Beryl Tsang at Knitty talks about her problems finding a breast prosthesis after losing her right breast to cancer, and how she found an innovative way to solve her woes:

To cheer myself up, I rummaged through my stash looking for something luxurious to knit up. Then it hit me that I could knit myself a new titty; in fact, I had so much yarn I could knit myself a different titty for every day of the week, month, year!

I finished my first knitted titty an hour before the party and wore it with one of my favorite lacy underwires. When a friend, who had been following the whole titty saga, saw me she remarked, "You really did a great job! Your left breast looks almost as good as the right one -- a bit lumpy but very realistic."

"You know," I replied, "It was my right breast that was removed."

Via Boing Boing.

If you’re in New York City this weekend, make sure to visit the infamous Ladyfest*East, which will take place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn this year.

Ladyfest stemmed out of the Riot Grrrl movement, which originally focused on women in music, “setting themselves apart from the prevalence of bustier-wearing, hip-undulating pop tarts.” Ladyfest, on the other hand, organizes an annual weekend-long festival where women can exhibit a range of different work, which includes music, film, visual arts, performing arts and literature.

The activities vary from live music and film screenings to craft fairs and burlesque shows. I don’t know about you, but these ladies sound like some fun-ass feminists to me.

Also, check out Cristy C. Road, who’s responsible for the awesome drawing above.

I love love love these political cartoons from Mikhaela Reid; go check them out immediately. Above is a cropped section (got to leave you wanting more!) of Reid’s latest, Your Yucky Body: A Repair Manual. Hysterical.

I’m also slightly obsessed with Gay Marriage: The Sordid Aftermath. Find out more about Reid here.

You ever read a book and become convinced that if you met the author you two would become best friends forever? After reading Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants, that’s how I feel about Jill Soloway. I’m stalker numero uno.

Tiny Ladies is hysterical, smart, feminist and impossible to put down. (Yeah, you think I liked it much?)

A writer for Six Feet Under, the author of a story titled “Courtney Cox’s Asshole,” and the creator of a play “Not Without My Nipples,” Soloway is an unapologetic feminist but defies the stereotype of the dry academic feminist writer.

The book is part memoir, part cultural commentary, part I-don’t-know-what. But it works.

Just check out this excerpt from her chapter Diamonds:

According to the Washington Business Journal, XM Satellite Radio will launch a talk radio station solely for women in October 2005. XM, for those who don't know, is the largest satellite radio company in the world. Its most recent statistics showed 4.4 million subscribers, and the company expects to reach 5.5 million by the end of the year.

According to the article, "this new channel, called Take Five, will broadcast audio from 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show. It also will air a new syndicated show hosted by Tyra Banks and programming from the Food Network and Home and Garden Television (HGTV)... [and] produce its own programming...including a talk show hosted by Judith Warner, author of Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety, a New York Times best seller."

This could be cool - I love the idea of a station dedicated solely to providing women with helpful information and comedy. But I can't help but worry it'll end up like Lifetime. If Take Five ends up broadcasting radio shows about a bulemic cheerleader who kills her alcoholic boyfriend, I'm going to be sorely disappointed.

Stay tuned...

Women's eNews ran an interesting story today on the plight of the female DJ. Apparently, while hired less often and compensated less well, women are breaking into the DJing profession at a steady rate. The article states:

...[W]omen are heading to DJ school in record numbers. For example, when the pre-eminent Scratch DJ Academy opened in Manhattan in 2002, the male-female student ratio was 80-20. Now, says Mike Cannady, the academy's director, "Our courses are about a 50-50 split between men and women. We just opened up an academy in Los Angeles, which was about 50-50 from the start. I think this shows a major change in the DJ industry as a whole."

One explanation for the influx of women DJs is the creation of female collectives and support groups sprouting up in the community. Groups like Sister SF, Shejay, and Girlsdj.com help female DJs get gigs, vent their collective frustration at the sexism of the industry, and network with other like-minded women.

If you're interested in spinning records but not sure where to start, you're now a click away from finding hundreds of women to help.

Though their models never do...

I don't know how I feel about Cosmo and its big b-day.

No doubt that Cosmopolitan marked a change in the way that women were perceived (and the way they thought of themselves):

In 1965, writer Helen Gurley Brown broke ground with her sassy new version of a magazine created as a general interest publication in 1886. By the mid-'60s, Cosmopolitan was dying. Brown, author of the 1962 bestseller Sex and the Single Girl, was hired to resuscitate the moribund mag.

She was at times unsure of herself as an editor, weeping on the shoulder of her husband, David Brown, a journalist and later a Hollywood producer (Jaws, Chocolat, Angela's Ashes). But Brown had a mission: to show women they didn't have to be married to have sex and didn't have to be married by 21 to feel fulfilled.

...That gospel was: sex, beauty, sex, fashion, sex, relationships, sex, fun, sex. Brown's first issue included an article on birth control at a time when contraception was helping put women on an equal sexual playground with men.

"Within 10 years, the mystique of the single girl had replaced the myth of the happy housewife," says [Georganne] Scheiner [associate professor of women and gender studies at Arizona State University], who teaches the cultural impact of Cosmo.

Despite the boundaries that Cosmo broke back in the day, it seems that the mag hasn’t come very far since then. Just compare the magazine’s first cover to its most recent one. Not insanely different. Or is that the fun of Cosmo--that you always know what to expect? I’m not a Cosmo reader, so maybe I’m totally off on this one. Any thoughts?

New York’s Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls had their culminating show this past weekend, and from all accounts it was pretty bad-ass! I mean, just look at this girl--can you get any cooler?

Spin magazine online featured a story on the camp, and a NY Times story should be coming out this weekend.

In the meantime, check out a couple of pics after the jump (Spin has some more). My friend Kate was a counselor there, so the second picture made me a little teary. I, too, would like to be “realy cool.” Sigh.

Breaking political news? Definitely not. But still post-worthy.

Check out this slideshow from Yahoo featuring pics from the Hong Kong celebration yesterday.

Our Truths, Nuestras Verdades is a new quarterly online and print bilingual zine dedicated to bringing to light women’s (and men’s) abortion experiences.

I’m looking forward to getting my print copy of the zine, but I have to say the online version is pretty cool.

The magazine seeks to reduce the stigma surrounding abortion in order to improve the physical, emotional and spiritual health and wellbeing of all people and strengthen their capacity to reach their highest potential.

While we welcome all voices we strive to focus on the experiences of young people and people of color, since we know that in many cases they are the most marginalized from the mainstream pro-choice movement and that they often have fewer opportunities to see their abortion experiences reflected in public spaces.

This is great. An Israeli playwright has just created a one-man show--The Holy Penis--in response to the success of The Vagina Monologues. I always thought guys talked about their penises quite enough, but I guess one more play about genitalia can’t hurt.

Rafael Milo-Amar said on Tuesday that his one-man show, "The Holy Phallus", was inspired by a disparaging remark one of the Israeli actresses in the local production of Eve Ensler's celebrated play had made about the male member.

"She said there was nothing to say about the penis. I told myself, 'I have something to tell her about the penis'," Milo-Amar told the Jerusalem Post.

I'd actually be really interested to see this, it is described as an "extended monologue touching on rape, passion, handicaps, homosexuality and loneliness."

Make sure to check out the amazing riffRAG, a new queer feminist magazine that aims “to highlight the extraordinary work that people are creating which often slips under the radar of the art world.”

Created by a New York-based collective, riffRAG plans to use art as a catalyst for social change. Love it.

The first issue is chock-full of great shit, including the work of the fabulous Sara Bacon, whose work takes on “gender, consumerism and stereotyping linked to signals, subliminal and overt, that are sent to children.” (The pic above is hers, titled Excessive.)

If you’re in NY, riffRAG is having their release party tonight, so go show some love.

From Reuters:

A love poem written 2,600 years ago by Sappho, the greatest female poet of ancient Greece, was published Friday for the first time since it was rediscovered last year.

"They seem to have had some sort of society in which they could be in each other's company quite a lot, rather cut off from men," he said. "But they were clearly able to have plenty of fun."

I bet!

You must check out this awesome online magazine, The F-Word, just launched by a Women’s Studies major from Temple University, Melody Berger. The magazine’s audience? Teens and young women.

The very first issue has just been completed, and now open for viewers to read. It has a ridiculous amount of kick-ass essays, articles, and artwork. They even have a couple of interviews with some of our fabulous famous feminists, like Gloria Steinem, who discusses a range of topics, from the third wave to the war. (My personal favorite section of the mag was the “Howling Harpies.”)

The dope thing about this magazine is not only does it mobilize young women and cover a crapload of feminist issues, but also dissolves the line between feminist theory and activism.

So check it out and show some love!

A number of women artists from seven Asian countries are scheduled to come together in Seoul to present works that confront sexuality and the female body, reports the Korea Times.

The 3rd Women’s Arts Festival presented by the Feminist Artist Network is titled “Fantastic Asia -- New Relations Within the Invisible Borders” and will be running from June 16th to July 3rd at the Seonkok Art Museum.

The timing works well, for Seoul will also be holding the 9th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women. It’s the first time for the conference to be held in Asia.

Thirty different artworks ranging from paintings to videos to installations from China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand will be presented. The works will exemplify the effects that social powers, customs, and traditions have on Asian women’s sexuality.

Good luck, ladies!

As an update on the Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Oregon that we're a wee obsessed with, we had to spread the word and let y’all know that the bad-ass ladies have expanded to the big apple, and are ready to rock.

Here’s the New York camp’s mission statement:

The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls is a non-profit educational arts program serving girls ages 8-18 from a range of socio-economic, racial, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds in New York City. The program will offer girls the chance to learn how to play musical instruments, write songs, perform, and participate in team-building activities in a supportive environment that fosters self-esteem, self-confidence, creativity, tolerance, and collaboration.

The camp session is only a week long during August, but they put on a kick-ass show on the 13th so the girls can strut (or should I say, strum) their stuff.

So if you're in New York and have a little lady at home that might enjoy some rocking out this summer, or would like to volunteer and join the fun, click here.

I know I’ll be in the front row come August.

Make sure to check out SMUT, a Toronto-based queer, sex-positive magazine filled with all sorts of filthy writing, artwork, interviews and the like. And as you can see, it has the best logo ever.

And you really have to love their manifesto which, among other things, declares:

Fun, sin and smut will be essential elements of our magazine and parties!

We will support those committed to change, chance, discovery, and reinvention. Especially if they are wearing sexy underwear.

Go get a copy now.

A city manager in a county Administration Building in Florida had an abstract painting of a nude woman, breasts and all, removed over concerns that it would be "offensive." He later resigned. (Good.)

The new manager recanted and offered to display the artwork again, but the artist, Ed Johnson, said he didn't want to display the painting, "Royal Lady," again for fear of vandalism. It's a sad state of affairs we're in when a woman's breasts are considered offensive in abstract art of all places.

Kind of reminds me of when dopey John Ashcroft spent $8,000 to cover
up a statue in the Department of Justice that had one breast exposed, apparently because he didn't like the boob poking out behind him in photographs.

Sigh. When will women's bodies be considered beautiful rather than shameful?

Contributed by Jess Wakeman

Check out the Guardian's article on Vanessa Beecroft's latest work, VB55. As you can see, she likes her ladies in tights -- all one hundred of them.

If y'all don't know her, Beecroft is an arteest that has been staging nude tableaux vivants since 1993. Critics say her work exploits women, while fans call her a feminist icon. All I know is that I will never understand modern art.

Those of you in the Boston area might want to check out photographer Lauren Greenfield’s amazingly brilliant Girl Culture exhibit, on display until April 5th at the Tufts University Art Gallery in Medford, MA.

The exhibit, and much of Greenfield’s other photography as well, seeks to capture and illuminate the ways in which girls and women use the body as a site for the creation and performance of identity. As Greenfield states in her synopsis of the work:

The body has become a primary expression of individual identity for girls in contemporary American culture. Girl Culture investigates girl's relationships to their bodies and the ways in which they use body projects to establish their identities. The photographs explore the relationship between girl's inner lives and emotional development, and the material world and popular culture. They also reveal the exhibitionist nature of modern femininity through moments of vanity and performance in everyday life.

For some analysis of the themes of Greenfield’s work (as well as discussion of pieces by the gallery’s other featured artists, Alex McQuilkin and Barbara Zucker), check out Cate McQuaid’s review from the Boston Globe (again).

-- by Lauren

I’ll admit it—I am obsessed with Law & Order. All of them. So much so that I think I actually squealed with excitement when I saw that there was to be yet another spinoff, Law & Order: Trial by Jury. Terrifying, I know.

Disappointingly, I lasted about fifteen minutes watching the first episode. It was just borrrinng. What I failed to notice however, was the female factor on the show. Fortunately, Dahlia Lithwick of Slate was more observant:

It's probably a coincidence that the first legal show featuring almost universally unlikable attorneys is also the first legal show that features almost universally female attorneys. Trial by Jury scuttles the Law & Order casting formula (grizzled veteran cop/foxy male cop plus grizzled veteran prosecutor/foxy supermodel assistant prosecutor) to bring you a gaggle of cynical female defense attorneys, judges, prosecutors, and assistants. The show stars Cheers veteran Bebe Neuwirth as Assistant District Attorney Tracey Kibre ("Let's get someone bitter and emasculating. Like Lillith." "I know! Let's just get Lillith!"). Amy Carlson plays bored ADA Kelly Gaffney, and in last week's premiere, Annabella Sciorra was a defense attorney who nodded serenely as her client described strangling his pregnant girlfriend and chucking her down a well.

Yes, I've been spoiled rotten by the soft-spoken genius of Michael Moriarty in the first four seasons of Law & Order and by the controlled intensity of Sam Waterston in the seasons since, but why fall back into clichés of bitter '80s ballbusters?

Personally, I would love to be a bitter ‘80s ballbuster. I could even wear shoulder pads…hot.

An article called "Love Hurts", was recently published in Vibe magazine, discussing the occurrence of domestic violence within the hip hop community. The author, Elizabeth Mendez Berry (one of our readers!) asks several important questions about whether hip hop lyrics that condone/discuss violence against women, actually cause violence against women.

"When you get paid big money to call every women a ho, at what point do you start believing you're a pimp?" She also talks about many famous rappers, including Biggie, Dr. Dre, Busta Rhymes, Mystikal, and Big Pun, who have all been accused of violence against there partners.

Some other interesting stuff...

"Violence against women crosses class and racial line, but it affects certain groups disproportionately...

"Because of socioeconomic factors, African American men have a harder time fulfilling the protector and provider roles, so they overcompensate in other areas," says Flowers. "They focus on wielding power they can-in their own communities and in their intimate relationships." Author and activist Kevin Powell has called this "bootleg masculinity"-and hip hop's studio pimps and gangstas are it's poster children. "Of course hip hop didn't create violence against women, but it can endorse and accelerate it," says Powell, who admits that he has himself been violent toward women in the past. "If you listen to mainstream rap over the last 10 years, you would think that we men of color hate women."

Interesting stuff, check out the article. I am really glad this article was published in VIBE. This is a much needed discussion in mainstream rap media.

Thanks Elizabeth!

(Spoiler alert!)

Coming out of Eve Ensler’s new play The Good Body last night, I was speechless. It wasn’t until my friend Kate—who had accompanied me to the show—spoke up, that I felt a surge of relief:

“That woman is loathsome.” Thank god I wasn’t alone.

Now I know that everyone loves The Vagina Monologues—as do I. But The Good Body was nothing more than a masturbatory exercise in white upper-middle class feminism.

The entire play—touted as being a commentary on body image—is pretty much only about Ensler’s obsession with her stomach.

At first I thought maybe because I never had too many body issues, I just wasn’t connecting to what Ensler was trying to convey. But as the play went on, and her self-indulgent diatribe continued, I knew that it wasn’t just me.

Perhaps what both my friend and I found truly appalling was Ensler’s account of her international travels. Not taking any of her class privilege into account, Ensler talks about seeing maimed and starving locals and in the next sentence wistfully wishes aloud that she would catch a parasite to aid in her quest for a flat stomach.

Similarly, in her depiction of the women she meets in Africa and India, it’s as if she believes that they exist solely just to make her feel better about her “round belly.”

Her portrayal of one woman she meets reduces someone who I am sure was a very lovely person, to no more than an Indian mammy of sorts, just there to comfort the ever-nuerotic Ensler.

This attitude is fairly par for the course in terms of how mainstream American feminism views Third World women, but seeing it acted out on stage was more than disturbing.

What was also particularly scary was how my friend and I seemed to be the only ones in the audience with horrified looks on our faces. The (almost all-white) audience was just thrilled with the play, and gave Ensler a standing ovation.

I have to say that I was unsure on whether to post a negative review of the play—I would hate to add fuel to the fire of antifeminist bullshit. But at the end of the day, Ensler’s lack of any new or substantial insight into body image, coupled with her thinly-veiled racism and classism, convinced me that I needed to write something.

But I’m sure that disclaimer won’t save me from a barrage of angry emails. Let the massacre ensue...

It looks like Eve Ensler is coming out with a new play, and this time she’s not going to be obsessing over her vagina. This time, the fetish has moved six inches up. "

Yes, Ensler’s tummy has been the inspiration for her new 85-minute broadway play, "The Good Body," reported the New York Times yesterday. "It has become my tormentor, my distractor," she laments. "It's my most serious committed relationship. It has protruded through my clothes, my confidence and my ability to work....My stomach, is chicken wings, dipping butter, fried shrimp, fried zucchini, fried ice cream, fried dumplings, fried anything, fried right. My stomach is America.” I would be careful Eve, your vagina might get jealous...

There is a discussion in the article of how there seems to be a fad of shows concerning weight like "The Biggest Loser," where weight-challenged contestants compete to see who loses the most weight, “Fat Actress” on Showtime where Kristie Alley plays an actress struggling with her weight, and "Flab to Fab" from VH1 where peeps follow a weight-loss program inspired by their favorite celebrity. Ugh, when does it end??

What I found interesting was the question posed concerning social beauty standards and being overweight -- is Eve Ensler’s belly subversive to these norms? Is "fat" a feminist issue? I would say yes. But please, let’s not replace the vagina speak to tummy talk.

Was anyone in Pittsburgh on the 27th? Turns out Gloria Steinem introduced Le Tigre's show at Mr. Small's Theatre. Steinem discussed the political process, especially the importance of voting in the upcoming election. It's amazing that Steinem, second-wave extraordinaire, recognizes the influence music (Le Tigre, Ani Difranco, etc.) has on third wave women. "The ability of music groups of all kinds to go directly to the public without passing through the media is crucial," she recently told Billboard. "People know and trust musicians based on their records and their lyrics. In this age of pretty skewed media, that's precious." Right on.

Are you going to be in the NYC area the week of election day? Or do you feel like taking a celebratory trip to da big apple after Kerry is elected to be our next president? If so, you definitely want to check out the BUST Magazine Film Festival.

From November 4-7, BUST will be featuring documentaries, animations, full-length features and shorts in four nights o' fun.

Highlights include:

"YEAR OF THE WOMAN, the infamous 'lost' documentary about the women’s movement filmed during the 1972 Democratic National Convention; MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE, a coming-of-age masterpiece by the late filmmaker Sarah Jacobson; a night of shorts about girlhood featuring the emotional sports documentary GIRL WRESTLER; the controversial strip club expose STRIPPED followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Jill Morley."

You can buy tickets for individual shows for only nine bucks each or get a festival pass that will give you access to all shows, including an invitation of the opening-night partay with the filmmakers, a one-year subscription to BUST magazine, and a VIP gift bag with lots o' goodies.

Click here for more info and to buy tickets!

You absolutely MUST check out Guerilla Girls’ very own "Women’s Homeland Terror Alert System", it’s fucking awesome. The five levels of “terror” are as follows (since I don't think it's clear in the above pic...):

SEVERE: President claims women DO have rights: can join army, fight in unprovoked war, kill innocent people.

LOW: President rides around on horse clears bush on ranch.

I highly recommend you print the poster out immediately. Rock on, girls!

As Hannah posted last month, it seems that antiquated views of women is the new trend for television.

For a great analysis, check out the NY Times' Old-Time Sexism Suffuses New Season, which says that this season, "female empowerment is passé." Yikes, that doesn't sound too promising.

According to a new book, young women want nothing to do with feminism or politics. Here we go again…

“The F-Word: Feminism in Jeopardy—Women, Politics and the Future,” says that young women today don’t want to be labeled by their political beliefs, especially by being called a feminist.

A Seattle Times review of the book says, “It's a tough pill for some of us to swallow, but ‘feminist’ is a near-insult to many young women today.”

For fuck’s sake—what is so crazy about calling yourself a feminist?! I know the debate over young women shying away from the f-word has been done a million times over, but it never fails to baffle me.

Author of “The F-Word,” Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, seems to posit that it’s not anti-feminist views driving women away from “feminist,” but rather a disdain for being labeled at all—by “political party, sexual preference, ethnicity, religion, race or physical ability.” And that includes feminism.

Maybe so. But I still think that it’s the stereotypical notion of feminists that is scaring young women off. It pains me to say this, but it seems that so many young women are afraid of making waves, or of not being considered attractive to men that it’s keeping them from speaking out about their political beliefs. How many times do I have to hear, “I’m not a feminist, but…” followed by some insanely intelligent feminist perspective!

Ladies, I love you all—but what the fuck?! Why is “feminist” so off-putting? Please, someone tell me…

If you're a decent artist and looking to get active, you should check out the National Organization of Women's 2005 Love Your Body Campaign. It's a poster design contest with the intent of responding to society's negative body images that effect women's and girl's esteem and health. They are looking for the following in their art-eest:

"Winning images will provide a visual response to advertisers who attempt to link smoking, drinking, and dieting to women’s liberation; fashion magazines who imply that anorexia is the path to beauty; and marketers who tell us that more expensive cosmetics will improve a woman's sense of self worth."

The grand prize winner recieves $600, and a her/his poster with be part of a national campaign that challenges the industries that prey on women's insecurities with their bodies. Sounds dandy to me! (Now, if only I could draw...)

As the New York Post recently reported, a bunch of new magazines are debuting this season, and some of them target us ladies.

Many of you have heard about Suede, the "first-ever fashion and beauty magazine to be inspired by the young, contemporary woman of color". I am (cautious but) excited about this. It's about time someone recognized the women of color out there -- you'd think when reading Lucky or Jane (lets not even get started on Cosmo) that every young woman was white! It's also great that streetwear is being recognized as a legitimate form of fashion - it's already one of the most influential. (Suede is especially focused on what women wear "on the block"). But I really, really hope this magazine is run by intelligent people. The potential here for exploitation of an already exploited group is high. I also hope Suede capitalizes on its own great idea. Not all women of color are from "the block" -- some are from the suburbs, other countries, etc. If Suede is smart enough to touch on all these angles, I think the magazine could be an important and rad addition to the racks.

Then there's All You, Time Inc.'s new monthly women's magazine. According to Isobel "Bella" Price, the magazine's editor, All You "will talk to women as they really are -- recognizing all they accomplish every single day -- instead of telling them they could do better.... We want to inspire, not patronize, our readers with affordable, down-to-earth ideas tested by real women just like them. And because we also know that women are looking for quality as well as value, All You will feature the very best design and photography in a unique package to enrich every aspect of our readers' lives, no matter what their budget."

Now, that sounded good to me until I heard this: During its initial distribution phase, All You will be available at Wal-Mart stores only.

WAL-MART???? Has Time, Inc. been reading the newspaper? I am all for a magazine that recognizes women's tight budgets and inspires rather than patronizes. (I am also aware that many women in this country shop at Wal-Mart.) But I can't really get over the hypocrisy of selling a pro-woman magazine exclusively at a women-oppressing retailer. This seems to me the first sign that All You is not all that.

Let's keep a (critical) eye out for these and other mags coming our way this fall.

In relevance to a recent post on video game characters being debuted in Playboy next month, Women's eNews wrote a more optimistic article Sunday on the first women's gaming conference last week, which hopes to result in the recruitment of more female designers in the industry.

The five ladies that organized the conference last week in Austin, Texas believe that the more female designers there are, the less objectification of women will exist in video games. It can also increase the numbers of female gamers themselves, for the typical male designer primarily creates games that appeal to men.

For more feministing info on women gamers, click here.

If you don’t already know about Sarah Jones, you’re missing out. A fellow Bryn Mawrtyr, she’s been on the New York urban poetry scene for years (she won the Nuyorican Grand Slam championship in 1997) and has championed the young feminist cause throughout.

She’s also a free speech activist. In 2001, the Federal Communications Commission issued a a $7,000 fine to a Portland, Oregon radio station for playing Jones’s poem, YOUR REVOLUTION. The FCC characterized the poem, which is about misogyny in rap lyrics, as "indecent and obscene". Jones then counter-sued, claiming her first amendment rights had been violated, and she won!

It’s been a few years, and she’s at it again with her new, one woman play, Bridge & Tunnel. The show is produced by Meryl Streep, another badass feminista, and has opened to incredible reviews. If you’re in the New York area, check it out. If not, here are some Jones gems to tide you over.

http://www.sarahjonesonline.com/press/MS_Mag.html
http://www.sarahjonesonline.com/press/MotorMouth.htm
http://www.acfnewsource.org/art/women_cant_wait.html
http://www.immigrationforum.org/conf2001/dream.htm