Recently in Feministing Category

Don't let her celebrate alone, folks! Wish that girl a happy birthday!

My wonderful sister and partner in feminist crime, Vanessa, is turning 28 today. I'm so proud and happy - not just to have such an amazing friend and sister in V, but also that we've gotten to take this feminist journey with the site together. Love you, sis.

Our NYC Feministing Happy Hour starts in just an hour, so if you're in the area and want to join some friendly neighborhood feminists for some end-of-the-summer cocktails, we'll be at Dove Parlor from 5 - 8 pm. You can see details also on our Facebook event page.

Hope you can make it!

For those in NYC, our summer happy hour will be at the fabulous Dove Parlor in the village tomorrow from 5-8pm. That'll give you plenty of time to get home or to your watch party to see Obama's acceptance speech for the nomination! Some of us will be heading to NARAL Pro-Choice New York's Watch Party at The Skinny afterwards. RSVP here if you're interested in going!

Check out our happy hour on Facebook!

Hope you can join!

We had a server glitch late last week and it's effecting logging in for some people. If you're having a problem, please email me all your info (username, the error message) here and our tech guru Matt will fix it up for you.

Thanks for your patience!

So, folks - discover us!

We know there are a couple of advertisements up right now that don't belong (cough, Dino Rossi, cough). We're working hard to get them down ASAP - thanks to everyone for the emails letting me know that they were there. Your support and concern about what goes on the site means a lot to all of the editors, and we take your input seriously.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled feminist blogging...

So this might be a little bit shameless, but hey it is for a good cause. I have submitted a panel to the annual interactive conference in Austin called South by South West. It is where creative tech people, bloggers and other web folk get together and share some of the brightest, newest and innovative ideas in technology and how to apply it to the work we do. I have gone before and it was great, but it was also clear that there needs to be more conversations about the way that women are treated online. So I put a panel together about best practices of beating down online misogyny and you can go vote for it so it is approved. It is pretty competitive so the more votes we get the better. Support women's voices! You know we should be there!

You can vote here!

/shameless promotion

Thanks to readers of The Frisky for voting us "the hottest blog!" Woo hoo!

Note: In our recent Feministing retreat, we decided that some back and forth dialogue between editors would be a cool thing, so every once in a while you may see a post title with "re:" in it - that's how you'll know it's us doing some good old fashioned feminist debating.

Miriam, I'm so happy that you posted this amazing video of An Open Letter to Alix Olson. I thought it was just incredible and I really appreciated your take on MichFest.

I have to say, though, that it really bothers me when MichFest is framed as a feminist "controversy" rather than straight up discrimination. This isn't a controversy - it's deliberate exclusion and it's shameful.

I also find the "Oh, but we're not doing genital checks"(!) just as offensive as a stated and enforced womyn-born-womyn policy. There doesn't have to be a written policy on the website for the discrimination to still be there. If MichFest wants to do the right thing, they'll be proactive and have a statement denouncing their womyn-born-womyn policy and stop hiding behind their silence on the issue.

I personally think the festival should be open to people who identify as women (or womyn), and if there are issues with safety or harrassment (which seems to be a fear) then they should be dealt with directly, not via discriminatory policies.

I totally agree, though I wanted to just point one thing out. I find the "safety" issue really uncompelling - as did Carasande in comments. Not only because it's not just penises* that rape women, but also because it uses rhetoric of the Right. As thebeatles11 noted on the Community blog, the latest anti-trans campaign (tellingly called "Not in My Shower") cites the fear that women will be assaulted as the reasoning behind their discrimination. Feminists shouldn't resort to the language (or actions!) of fear and discrimination - we're better than that!

You mentioned Julia Serano--who I think is probably the most brilliant feminist writing today--and I think that no one talks about trans woman exclusion better than she does. So I thought it fitting to end my post (though hopefully not the discussion!) with her words:

*Because the fear here does seem to be about penises, rather than "men."

If you haven't already, here's another request that you take a few minutes and answer our questions about how we can make Feministing better. To reiterate, this isn't a stupid advertiser-based survey about your online shopping habits. This is us wanting to hear from you about what you like and don't like about Feministing, and how you use the site.

Click here to take the survey.

Thanks!

Ann and I had a blast at the happy hour this past Wednesday. Thanks to everyone who came out, and we hope to make this a more regular occurrence. Special thanks to Latoya from Racialicious who made a surprise appearance. (There are plans in the works for a future combo Racialicious/Feministing happy hour in DC. Stay tuned).

The highlight of the night was when the bar manager came up to me and asked "How can we make this happen again?" Totally.

A few pics after the jump.

In our everlasting quest to make Feministing better, we've implemented a new function that allows editors to "front page" a community post. Basically, that means if we see a community post we really don't want readers to miss, in addition to recommending it, we'll reprint it on Feministing's main page. (It will stay on the Community page as well, of course.)

We'll be testing it out soon, so be on the lookout for some great posts from our amazing community bloggers.

Related: Don't forget that if there's a particular community blogger you like, you can subscribe to their RSS feed by clicking on their profile name!

At our retreat a few weeks ago, we talked a lot about what we (the editors) want for Feministing. But one thing we realized is that we don't have a good sense of what you like and don't like. So we created this short survey -- really, it takes less than five minutes to complete -- to ask you a few questions about yourself, how you use the site, and what you want more of on Feministing.

This is not one of those online surveys that asks you how many TVs you've bought in the past year, or how much you spend shopping online per month. Nope, these are just questions we have for you -- and none of the info is for advertisers.

Click here to take the survey.

We really, really appreciate your time.

Hope to see ya'll there.

Details after the jump

It's been over a month since we launched the community blog, and already you've written 400 entries! Because the blog is still kind of in experimental mode, we've got some bugs to fix and things to get it right. One thing we thought might be helpful was a more detailed guide to becoming a Feministing community blogger. If you've wanted to try it but been hesitant, or if you're already blogging but a little confused about how the whole thing works, below the jump there's a more detailed guide to using the community blog.

Thanks to some extra awesome feministing readers (shout out to the Feminist Majority Foundation interns), Ann and I decided it was time for another DC feministing happy hour!

So come next week to Chi Cha lounge and chat with the others readers, commenters and lurkers at Feministing. An extra special invitation to all the interns in DC for the summer, who can hopefully make it before they head back to their respective schools and cities.

(L-R) Jessica, Courtney, Samhita, Ann, Miriam, Vanessa

We had a fabulous time at the Feministing retreat in Woodstock, despite the insane thunderstorms, a power outage, and shaming game of "Never Have I Ever." (Okay, that part was kinda fun.) I'm sure the other editors had a good time for their own reasons, but I have to say that being able to work with such incredible feminists - not only on the site, but being able to just shoot the shit about anything from transnational feminism to queer theory to sex toys - is a ridiculous honor. So thanks, all, for being a part of this project and for being such amazing friends to boot. (Sniff.)

If posting is a little light today/this weekend, it's because all the gals are getting together for a super fun Feministing retreat at my parents' place in Woodstock, NY. It's rare that the lot of us gets together as a group, so we're all really psyched about it. We'll be talking about the new community site and how to make it even better, the future of Feministing, and our (eventual) transition to a nonprofit. (Also, we're going tubing!)

So be on the lookout for some updates next week (and maybe some video) on what we discussed, and what you can expect from the site in the coming months.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Pic from Alexiares.

Activate (of Flavorpill) interviewed me last week about feminism, blogging, politics etc. Check er out.

I will be repping Feministing at Y-Pulse today. If you are there please say hello! Here is the information and expect some live blogging.

My first ever print piece is up at the American Prospect about the blog Stuff White People Like. Enjoy!

Happy Monday, folks! So it seems that this week, nearly all of the Feministing editors are away on vacation. (Save for Samhita and Ann; sorry gals!)

It wasn't planned that way (wasn't planned at all, clearly) so I hope you'll be forgiving if we're posting a little slower than usual this week. On the upside, we'll be highlighting a lot of the community posts!

Have a fun week...

We just approved a whole load of community posts (sorry for the delay, too many of us are on vacation this weekend!) - and they are fantastic. Make sure to check them out; maybe they'll inspire you to start writing as well!

Jessica's new book, He's a Stud, She's a Slut, is reviewed in tomorrow's New York Times -- alongside Kathleen Parker's ode to gender difference, Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care. (Not familiar with Parker? She's said that women having sex without going through courtship rituals first is a "mental health crisis." And she looooves to talk about how women in the military should expect to get raped.) It makes for quite the contrast:

Both of them cite a study that shows that women are "biologically" programmed to like housework more than men do. Ms. Valenti denounces it as rank anti-feminism. "In our happy little sexist world, things run much better when women are relegated to the home," she writes.

Ms. Parker applauds it: "Allow me again to translate. There's no way to make men into women."

Read the rest here. You can buy Jessica's book here.

Link: sevenload.com

Sing it with me, now! (And the hammer-heading hitting thing? That's been me for this past week.)

I think the nightmare is over! The new site is up, it's moving super fast, and I feel like I can finally relax on my vacation. Thanks to Matt for all of his hard work and sleepless nights. And to our guardian angel, Destiny from MediaTemple, who swooped in when things were crazy and lifted us out of the tech muck. Amazing.

And thanks to all of you for the ridiculous amounts of patience you've shown. If you have any problems, email us or leave it comments...

Yay!

Our apologies to anyone having problems commenting as we're in the process of switching to the new site. You can email us with your thoughts or wait a couple of hours until we have the new site up.

Thanks to all for your patience!

UPDATE: They should be all good. Comment away.

Hey all, I hope everyone had a fun weekend. Just wanted to give folks a heads up and let you know that it looks like we got all the bugs out of the new design (and went back to our old fabulous server MediaTemple and left evil, evil HostGator). We'll most likely be switching over tonight. Thanks again for your patience - we really hope the wait and inconvenience will be worth the kick-ass version that is the new site...

We're taking the rest of the day off to venture off to roof parties and such; everyone have a fantastic weekend! Anyone doing anything special for the long weekend?

Hey folks, clearly we're having LOTS of site problems. Send good tech vibes our way while I pull my hair out.

Thanks.

This is what you'll be missing if you don't sign up to receive our new and improved weekly newsletter (put together by the fabulous Ann, who is currently on vacation):

Hey fab feminists,
We're relaunching our newsletter in the mold of the Harper's Weekly (if you're not familiar, check out their archive here). Basically, it's going to be a recap of the feminist news of the week, with links not only to the goings-on at Feministing and our community blog, but to other feminist blogs as well. Sorry for our hiatus -- and welcome back to the weekly newsletter!

xo,
Feministing

THE FEMINISTING WEEKLY

We launched the new community site!

It was a week of BOOBS. Boob-shamer Ann Althouse and cleavage-spotter Robin Givhan discussed Michelle Obama's arms on Bloggingheads. A former top McCain strategist blamed a campaign gaffe on "tremendous reporter cleavage or something." A new online meme features womens' breasts being slapped and punched. And, contrary to what some online publications told us this week, advancing your career does not depend on your ability to toss "gold-flecked body powder on your cleavage."

And speaking of boobs of a different sort, Don Imus continued his racist assholery. Unsurprisingly, the racist and sexist chatter about Michelle Obama continues... ThinkGirl posted a petition: Stop the False Race/Gender Divide. Sign it!

Female pro golfers are getting the WNBA makeover treatment... because what good are female athletes if they aren't sexy? Oh, and happy birthday, Title IX!

A Marie Claire beauty editor warned us that shaving your face will seriously throw your whole gender identity into question. Commenter ellestar echoes that emotion: "Yeah, ladies! Don't use the cheap, harmless method of removing hair from your face with tools you already have. Use the painful, expensive procedures using products you have to go out of your way to buy or you'll think you're a dude."

We reported that Moon Duchin is a total badass. And we lost a different type of badass, George Carlin.

Rinku Sen discussed gay marriage and communities of color, while Lisa Jervis examines her mixed feelings on gay marriage. We talked about how marriage laws erase people who are transgendered. (And we celebrated the Trans Day of Action.)

The UN recognized rape as a weapon of war. And Jill reported that an 11-year-old Romanian rape survivor was finally allowed to have an abortion. Twenty "pro-life" groups have threatened to press charges.

The Supreme Court threw out a murder conviction because the victim -- a woman allegedly killed by her boyfriend-- was not present to testify against him. And some idiot made a list of products about "how to kill your wife" on Amazon.

Democrats refused to take a stand on making birth control cheaper and on abstinence-only education.

Sign up for the newsletter in the right sidebar!

Those of you who couldn't comment (either here on the community site) should be able to do so today. For those with TypeKey accounts: please remember when signing in o click on the TK option (where it says "Log in using..." when you're logging in.

If you're still having problems, leave a comment on this thread (if you can) or email us here.

When you click on a post (try this Quick Hit about home birth as an example), in the right sidebar related posts from Feministing and the Community blog will show up. Nifty, right?

We try something new and it all comes crashing in around us! So sorry for the site crash today, folks. Apparently, there are just a lot more of you than there used to be - so we have to get a dedicated server. (Don't you feel special?)

I'm going to assume that there will still be glitches over the next day or two, but it looks like we've been through the worst of it! *crosses fingers*

Thanks again for all of your patience and don't forget to leave questions about the new site on this thread.

So, ladies and gents, as you can see - the new site is live! A big thanks to Jen and Matt for all of their hard work...

Below is some info on the new site, how it works, and how you can get involved. There will probably still be some bugs that we have to work out over the next couple of days. If you're having any problems please tell me in this thread. If you can't comment, email here with the subject line "tech problem."

Commenting/Posting to the Community Blog: Despite trying very hard and annoying the Movable Type people, it seems that there is no way for readers to post to the community blog unless they register directly with MT. For those of you with existing commenting accounts through TypeKey, that means that if you want to blog on the community page, you're going to have to re-register (using a slightly different name) where it says "register" in the upper right hand corner of the site. I know that's a total pain in the ass, and I'm sorry. The MT people tell us that the next upgrade they do of the software will make it possible for those with existing accounts to post, but they're not sure when that will be. If you're not interested in posting to the community site, or having a profile (check out mine for an example), you can simply keep your TypeKey profile and keep on commenting as you have been.

Feministing Community: We've been really psyched about the level of posts that have already been put up on the community site, and we're looking forward to seeing more! For those of you who are posting, or who plan to, here's the deal. Right now when you put a post up, it goes into moderation until we have a change to check it out and publish it. Once you put up several posts and we recognize your name (and that you're not some anti-feminist wackadoo), we'll make you a trusted poster - which means your stuff will automatically go up. And of course, if you've been posting often and we haven't "trusted" you yet, feel free to email me to give me a heads up.

A lot of you have expressed concern about the sheer volume of content - how can you possibly keep up with all the community posts? Well, if you'd rather not read through them all, the most recommended posts will be highlighted on the front page of Feministing, as well as in the sidebar of the Community blog.

There are other ways to get involved in the Feministing community without posting. As you can see in our "Feministing As You Like It" sidebar section, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel, find us on Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, or join our MeetUp Alliance.

Relaunched Newsletter: After a long hiatus, our e-newsletter will be back! For those of you who have signed up yet - we're going to be posting what the new newsletter will look like on the blog today, so check it out. If you like it, please consider signing up!

I'm sure I'm missing something, so keep an eye on this post for updates. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the new site and that it gives you all sorts of new ways to get involved. Thanks again to everyone for their patience and support as we worked on the community site. We're so thrilled with the way it turned out (and the response we've gotten so far) - we hope you love it as much as we do...

UPDATE: There's a little rebuilding problem, so please forgive if you don't see your comments go up right away.

Hey folks! Just want to give everyone a heads up - we're switching over to the new site tonight, so things may be a bit wonky until the morning. First thing tomorrow, I'll have a post up explaining the changes in the site and how to use it. In the meantime, thanks for your patience!

Some great stuff over there today...

Lissette calls our attention to the fact that LPGA athletes are getting the WNBA treatment.

erica asks, "Will someone tell John McCain that the wife beating jokes just aren't funny?"

And Josh O. of Planned Parenthood of South Dakota writes about how his state has failed to keep pace with declining teen birth rates.

The community blog is looking awesome, make sure to check it out and let us know how the experience is. I was particularly taken with this post today by zohramoosa. Great job, all!

Hey all! So yeah, we didn't switch over to the new community site. Unfortunately we're still figuring out how to resolve our commenter issue, and we don't want to launch the site until every thing is a-okay. But here's the good news: We're opening up the Feministing Beta site for our readers to check out, try out and report back on. Here's the main Feministing blog, and here's the Community Blog.

This way, you can check out the new design, see what the community blog looks like and test out some features before the site goes live! If you run into any bugs or problems, please tell us about them on this thread. (And of course, we'd appreciate it if you kept your suggestions to functionality, not design.)

If you're not already a commenter on Feministing, but want to be part of the community site, you can register on the beta site and start posting on the community blog. However, if you already have a user name (one that you'd like to hold onto), you can comment over there, but we're still working on an easy way for you to post blogs. Again, a tremendous thanks for your patience.

Please remember, the beta site is not updated, you can't go there for new content (yet). This is just a space for you to check things out and poke around. We're hoping to do the final switch by the weekend.

So...what do you think?!

That the new site hasn't launched yet. We've run into a few bugs and we're working tirelessly (seriously, our poor developer has had no sleep!) to fix them. Specifically, we want to make sure that when the site switches over, that all of our existing commenters will have an easy time becoming community bloggers and creating in-depth profiles if they want to. (Right now, folks would have to re-register and create new profiles, which just seems like an unnecessary pain in the ass to us.)

We're still aiming to get this thing up and running before tomorrow, but we want to make sure that when it does launch it's seamless - so please be patient with us!

Thanks and hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend...

I'm heading to Toronto next Wednesday for an event sponsored by the very cool Miss G Project.

I'll be at the Camera Gallery from 7pm till 10pm (more details here). Hope to see you there!

Just a little reminder that we're switching over to our new site this weekend, so apologies in advance if things are a little wonky during the transition.

We hope you're as excited as we are!

I did an interview with the charming Lindsay Campbell of MobLogic. It was a fun time. Though, not-so-shockingly, the comments devolved into how ugly I was. Fun, it's like junior high all over again! (It's hilarious, you look primped up in one appearance and you're a flighty hot feminist with nothing more to offer than your looks; you show up un-made up and you're nasty. There's just no winning.)

What really bothered me, however, was my own reaction to these particular comments. I get hateful, violent, sexist comments and emails every day - mostly about how I need to get back in the kitchen, I'm a stupid slut/cunt/whore. You know, your run of the mill misogyny. I can handle those pretty well. But throw a couple of comments about ugliness my way and I'm all upset, actually thinking to myself, "I knew I looked like shit that day!" It's amazing how women are taught to hate themselves, and how no matter what we do and what we look like, no matter how confident we are, how many compliments we get or how much we don't give a shit - there's always that creeping voice in there telling you that you are indeed an ugly, unworthy mess. (And then there's the feminist guilt, of course, for caring about what some idiot says.)

Self-loathing rant over. Now, back to your regularly scheduled sexism-smashing. (Random note: I was totally wearing my "end patriarchy shirt," even though you can't see it.)

In case you're wondering what you missed at our four-year anniversary bash, we got some cool local press from Chelsea Now. Check it out - maybe it will inspire you to come next year!

By the way, that's me above with Gwynn Cassidy, Feministing friend, president of Girls in Government and director of the REAL hot 100. Gwynn was having contractions that night but still came to the party. She gave birth to the super adorable Gideon Jude that weekend. (Congrats, lady!)

Chelsea Now photos by Jefferson Siegel

Hey all, we're still working out the bugs in our upgrade and I believe some of you are still having problems commenting. If you are, please email me with "Comment Problem" in the subject and give me as detailed an account as you can of what's going on. Apologies for the inconvenience - we're hoping to have this fixed as soon as possible.

Yes, comments are screwy. Some of you are not having your comments go through and that others are getting error messages - we're hard at work trying to fix the problem. It should be taken care of by tomorrow. Thanks in advance for your patience!

I am thrilled to announce that we will be launching the new community site in two weeks - on the weekend of June 21. I know it's way overdue - and all of us at Feministing are incredibly grateful for your patience and support. I'm so happy with the new site, and I think you will be too. Below the jump are some screen shots of the changes on the site, including a test profile (which everyone can sign up for!) and the community blog.

So we're all on the same page, here are the changes to the site:

There will essentially be two Feministing blogs - the front page, which is what you're used to seeing now, and the community blog. The community blog will feature all the posts written by readers who sign up to create their own blogs. The most recommended community posts will be featured on the front page of Feministing.

Blogroll and Links - Instead of having an amazingly long list of links on the front page, we've fixed it so that in each category (blogs, news, organizations, etc) there will be a rotating list of three links. If you want the full list, there will be a separate page for that.

Profiles - Those who sign up will get their own profile page. This will include info about you, your picture, your posts, recent comments you've made, responses to the comments you've made, and posts that you recommend. So if you want to direct people to your Feministing blog, you can give them your profile url.

Community Standards - Our plan is to bring another editor on, a Community Editor, who will moderate the community blog and comments and make sure that the discourse is progressive and that the community standards are maintained. We'll repeat this when we launch the blog, but so you know, these are the guidelines for post and comment content: "In order to maintain a progressive and safe discourse on the site, anti-feminist comments, blogs, and profiles are not permitted; the Feministing editors believe that racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and hate speech constitute anti-feminism and have no place on the site."

I'm sure as we move forward, more questions (on both of our ends!) will come up, and we'll do our best to be available to our readers as we make the transition. We do ask for you patience, however, as we get the community site up and going. And, of course, we hope that you're as excited about this as we are!

Don't forget to check out the screen shots after the jump.

Hey folks, we're in the process of upgrading our blog software as part of our redesign efforts, so we're going through some changes with comments. Most comments will be held for moderation - this isn't because we don't love you, it's because we're trying to cut down on trolls and trying out some new stuff on the back end. We'll free up your comments as quickly as we can, and once we launch the newly designed and community-oriented Feministing (we'll announce the launch date on Tuesday, along with a sneak peak of the new site!) commenting will be back to normal.

Thanks for all of your patience and support...

I just wanted to say thanks to all of the amazing Feministing supporters who came out to our four year anniversary party last night. We packed the room, had some laughs, drinks, and chats - though not nearly enough dancing!

Seriously, it was so wonderful to see old friends and make some news ones. (Like the group that drove in from Philly, and the wonderful women of MADRE!) Thanks to all of you for your continued support -- I hope we see you all again at the next one.

More pics of the party to come...

Yeah, a bunch of misogynist trolls have swarmed the site. I'm sorry to Feministing readers for the nonsense. I'm going to shut down comments for the weekend until they find something better to do (because I just can't spend all weekend online deleting and banning). If your comment gets erased in the cleanup, apologies!

But in the meantime, this serves as a pretty good reminder as to why feminism is so needed! (Even if it does kill my Friday night occasionally.)

It's our 4th anniversary party and are celebrating Jessica's second book in NYC. Come show some love and indulge in the raffle prizes, book signings, good drinks, great music and even greater company - Samhita and Ann are taking the trip into NYC to celebrate! Huzzah! See details here.

And for those who can't make it or aren't in the area, we'll miss you and will be sure to put pics up next week...