Thank Your Lucky Stars

Gloria Steinem for T Magazine

Gloria Steinem for T Magazine today on women in politics - the main event versus side show acts (or to some freak shows).

We all too often hear about the CRAZY Michele Bachmann's and Sarah Palin's who are fiercely anti-female and little about the Nancy Pelosi's (who has been named by some scholars as the greatest Speaker of the House the US has yet to have) and Gabrielle Gifford's (before she was shot).

Read more from Gloria: http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/page/2/

Women Don't Choose A Leader And Follow Her Blindly

"Women don't choose a leader & follow her blindly; we question all the time & we don't like to follow orders." - Philippa Gregory

We've Been Robbed: Who Stole Feminism?

Jessica Valenti's recent article from The Nation addresses the appropriation of feminism by the Right. Historically, conservatives have been anti-choice, anti-equal rights, anti-any policy that guarantees women an equal playing field. So why is the Right embracing feminism or the women's movement? The answer rests with the female candidate. Falsely described as feminists simply because of gender, not because of their political philosophies, these female candidates loosely use the term damaging the movement's historical and present day relevancy.

Here's a sample of Valenti's article:

Sarah Palin opposes abortion and comprehensive sex education. While mayor of Wasilla she made sexual assault victims pay for their own rape kits. She also calls herself a feminist. Delaware GOP Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell has said that allowing women to attend military academies "cripples the readiness of our defense" and that wives should "graciously submit" to their husbands—but her website touts her "commitment to the women's movement." Pundits who once mocked women's rights activists as ugly bra burners are abuzz over the "new conservative feminism," and the Tea Party is lauding itself as a women's movement.

Read the entire article here:

http://www.thenation.com/article/155109/who-stole-feminism?rel=emailNation

Valenti offers a solution to the misappropriation of feminism:

If the new wave of feminists—the leaders of small grassroots organizations across the country, the bloggers who are organizing hundreds of thousands of women online, the advocates for reproductive justice, racial equality and queer rights—aren't recognized as the real advocates for women, then the future of the movement will be lost.

So instead of wringing our hands every time a new female candidate with distinctly antiwoman policies pops up, let's use it as an opportunity to re-establish what feminism is about and to support the up-and-comers in our midst.

Read it, post it, pass it along. It's high time we start our own wave of feminism.

Hump Day Humor: Penis Envy

A little hump day humor. Smile :)



http://whi.s3.prod.lg1x8.simplecdn.net/images/3304167/tumblr_l2y2ykaEA91qzmlaco1_500_large.jpg?1281345208

Because I Am A Lady, That's Why

Adorable. Fierce. Reality.

http://whi.s3.prod.lg1x8.simplecdn.net/images/3946171/tumblr_l8xo2ceVct1qcpylbo1_500_large.jpg?1284797639

Strange Girls...

http://thisisnthappiness.com/post/229874102/baby-blue

Flashback: Who Took the Bomp?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU1CDSP7FRk

Deceptacon by LeTigre*

*The first time I heard this song I nearly fell out of my seat. I was working at a feminist publishing company and Kathleen Hanna was one of my favorite icons. Do you have any stories about this flashback?

"We'll Be Right Back After Jane Takes a Cry Break"

Thanks to our lovely beauty blogger, Betsey McLain, for tipping us off. A provocative piece on one of our favorite media outlets, Jezebel.

"We'll be right back after Jane takes a cry break"

See what that statement is all about. Watch it for yourself -

http://jezebel.com/5626523/ice-queens-gold+diggers-and-fascist-feminists-unite

Gender on The Web

"Forty years ago feminists banished "woman's pages" that featured cooking and other highlights from U.S. newspapers, calling them sexist. But now, 40 years later, they have returned. Long time feminist and regular contributor Ruth Rosen, of the website Talking Points Memo, says the resurgence of the women's sections in modern-day media amounts to "gender apartheid online." Host Michel Martin speaks with Rosen, a journalist and professor at University of California Berkeley, about women's presence in news media today." - NPR

Listen to the broadcast or read the transcript here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128215434

You're Wondering NOW

Since its creation in 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) has been on the forefront of the feminist movement. NOW's focus is on securing reproductive rights, creating a fair and equal environment for women to work, play and live, and much more. It's the largest organization of its kind in the United States, with members spanning all ages, races and socioeconomic strata.

Jerin Alam, Co-Chair of the National NOW Young Feminist Task Force and NOW – NY State Young Feminist Task Force

As the organization grows and times change, new faces are taking their spots as the next leaders of the feminist movement. One of these women is Bangladesh-born, Jerin Alam. Jerin does double duty as the Co-Chair of both the National NOW Young Feminist Task Force and its New York State branch. NOW's Young Feminist Task Force has been responsible for protesting misogynistic films (Tucker Max, anyone?), collaborating with Emily Mays' Holla Back NYC, rallying with feminist icon Gloria Steinem, lobbying against anti-choice language in the healthcare reform bill and working with other organizations advocating for the rights and safety of women including Men Can Stop Rape. Jerin took time out of her busy organizing schedule to update us on what's going on within the movement and NOW.

How did you get involved in the feminist movement?

Feminism runs in my veins. My grandmother, a village woman from Bangladesh, betrothed at birth, married at 13, and mother at 16, was able to exert her will against a ruling authority – her husband. When my grandfather refused to allow my mother and aunts to continue their education, my grandmother told her daughters to go on [a] hunger strike until he caved in. She would feed them when he would leave for work. My mother and aunts followed her example and were, in their own ways, pioneering women in my home country.

My activism began in Bangladesh at the age of nine when I could not ignore the reality that children my age slept on the streets while I was able to have a home and attend school. With the help of my sister and friends, we met in the local park, and taught literacy skills to children. I continued this work until I left for America. The sexism, political violence and high crime in my beloved country alarmed my parents, and they eventually felt compelled to flee with their daughters when I was 11.

In America, I became the president of the Women’s Rights Coalition at Hunter College in 2007.

What role do you play at NOW?

I am Co-Chair of both the National NOW Young Feminist Task Force and NOW – NY State Young Feminist Task Force. I serve on the NOW NY State Council as part of my duties as the co-chair of the NOW – NYS Young Feminist Task Force.

How is the Young Feminist Task Force impacting the lives of women? How do you operate on a national and local level?

The national YFTF serves as a liaison to the National NOW Board, to advise the board about young feminists. We also present workshops during the national conference. The NOW-NYS YFTF has been involved with various projects involving everything from fighting intimate partner violence to health care reform and reproductive justice. Our 25 members reside all around the state, and range in age group from teenager to 30. Our diversity does not end there; we have members of all different religious and ethnic backgrounds, as well as members who identify as female, male and queer. We also differ in opinions, even within the feminist realm but all identify with the other f-word.

Currently, who are some of the key players in the movement?

I am hesitant to answer this question because as one of my mentors, Marcia Pappas, President of NOW-NYS states, the movement belongs to all of us; not only the famous ones. Obviously, I think the NOW national officers are key players. I had the pleasure of meeting Terry O’Neill, NOW President, at a breakfast for Congresswoman Maloney, who has been a long-time advocate for women’s rights herself. Terry is incredibly human and down-to-earth. Action VP Erin is only 30 years old, and is another down-to-earth young feminist who I predict will lead NOW one day. Ellie Smeal and her campus organizers at Feminist Majority do a great job of helping college feminist groups. Gloria Steinem is another down-to-earth icon who keeps on going strong. Liz Abzug, daughter of the legendary Congresswoman Bella Abzug, leads the Bella Abzug Leadership Institute to help young girls and women. She believes in and practices inter-generational dialogue and cooperation to benefit the feminist movement. However, for each Gloria Steinem, there are countless unsung feminists who spend their entire lives fighting for the cause.

What are some of the key issues women should be aware of?

NOW has been fighting for years to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. For 30 years women around the world have waited for our country to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This women's rights treaty has been used around the globe to help women claim property rights, address systemic sexual violence and increase our representation in both private and public leadership. The United States is the only industrialized country in the world not to have yet ratified CEDAW. Tell your Senators to ratify women without restrictions and no more delay.

Currently, I am concerned about the continuation of abstinence-only funding by Congress after repeated studies showed they do not work. Crisis Pregnancy Centers receive funding from these funding sources. These fake clinics tell women, “women do not enjoy sex before marriage, condoms don’t protect against STI’s, and contraception is abortion.” There are many of these clinics even in supposedly progressive cities like NYC. As I mentioned, two of the NOW-NYS YFTF members are working on exposing these places and enacting laws that would require them to list the services they provide. You can help.

My first passion within feminism is ending violence against women. That is why I worked over two years, even after graduation, to help pass the sexual-assault policy for CUNY. Rape is still the most underreported violent crime. I work with organizations like SAFER and RAINN to help fight the cause.

Is feminism for every woman? What about the woman who doesn't consider herself a feminist?

As Gloria Steinem said, “when people ask if I am a feminist, I answer, what’s the alternative? Being a masochist?” I cannot believe any intelligent woman would not consider herself a feminist. It was the “radical” feminists who gave us little rights like the 19th amendment and crazy things like being able to work and not be considered our husband’s property. I am so sick of hearing women say feminism is not necessary because we already have the rights we need. I would like to ask them why this post-feminism world still has women earning only cents to a man’s dollar, 1 out of 3 women in the world being victimized by domestic violence or sexual assault, and girls as young as 9 getting eating disorders.

Do you believe women will ever achieve total equality?

Absolutely. Every day, more and more women and men join the longest revolution. I am proud to know quite a few wonderful male feminists myself.

How do you see ladies lotto's role in the midst? How can women who follow us be apart of the bigger plan? How can we all work together?

Ladies Lotto is a great forum to bring together women from around the world. I believe women can change the world if they just come together. I would love to see a closer collaboration between Ladies Lotto and NOW.

Click here to read more about how you can get involved in the feminist movement.

Stoned To Death in 2010

In Iran, a woman convicted of adultery can be buried up to her chest and stoned to death by her village... in 2010. We're not talking about being plummeted by a rock that would cause death instantaneously. We're talking about being pelleted by rocks that can inflict pain and physical damage, but nevertheless a slow, painful death. Since 1986, Iran has reported 26 cases of women being stoned to death- this does not included undocumented cases.

Such is the case for 42 year old mother of 2, Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani (pictured). Ashtiani, who does not speak Farsi but Turkish, was convicted of adultery in 2006 and received 99 lashes (after which a forced confession was taken). Recently acquitted of murdering her husband, she now faces the punishment of stoning.

Only international pressure can help Sakinah Ashtiani. Mina Ahadi, who heads the International Committee Against Stoning and the Death Penalty told CNN: "Legally it's all over. It's a done deal. Sakineh can be stoned at any minute." U.S. Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley said Thursday. "For a modern society such as Iran, we think this raises significant human rights concerns."

In 2008, the film "The Stoning of Soraya M." was released, gaining laurels from Toronto and Los Angeles film festivals. The movie was based on the true life events told to French-Iranian journalist, Freidoune Sahebjam, that surrounded Soraya Manutchehri, who was falsely accused by her husband and stoned to death by her village.

Sounds like Iran needs a Feminist movement to shake things up a bit. For now, reach out to organizations like Mina Ahadi's International Committee Against Stoning and the Death Penalty (http://stopstonningnow.com/) and Amnesty International (http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/campaigning-end-stoning-iran-20080115).

LLove it or LLeave it? M.I.A.'s New Video: Born Free

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

This is the first chance I've had to sit down and blog about M.I.A.'s new video (see above). For those of you who have seen it, it's fairly heavy content as it is supposed to echo ethnic cleansing and/or racial profiling. It's kind of like when you were a little kid in school and played the game in class where all the kids with green eyes had to sit in one corner with no participation- this exercise was supposed to help kids understand the Holocaust.

I have a personal bias that for all intents and all purposes makes me scream and cheer for the video - as a way to get youth and popular culture talking about exclusionary ethnic, racial, sex, religious, etc practice (i.e., The Holocaust, Sudan, Rwanda, Bosnia, etc).

The timing of this video could not be more impeccable. With the recent passage of Arizona's SB 1070, the Illegal Immigration Bill that allows law enforcement to ask anyone suspicious (with undetermined reasoning) to show documentation of citizenship, it begets the question of, is this the next step for those who are not in line with the law?

Yet, I digress, what do you think of the new video? The song off of her forthcoming album seems to be just background noise to the imagery.

What do you think of the song and video? Is it as controversial as some are saying? Does it hearken to historical fact? Is she bringing this to the attention of popular culture for any reason? Is there a message?

Kavita Ramdas at TED on Radical Women, Embracing Tradition

Can't see the video? Visit: http://www.ted.com/talks/kavita_ramdas_radical_women_embracing_tradition.html

Herstory: Emma Goldman

Goldman, above at an unemployed workers rally in Union Square NYC

Emma Goldman, born in to an impoverished Orthodox Jewish family in what is now Lithuania, emigrated to the US as a teen, has been described as—among other things—"the most dangerous woman in America". She was a staunch supporter of anarchism, a political philosophy most people know little about.

During her life, Goldman was lionized as a free-thinking "rebel woman" by admirers, and derided by critics as an advocate of politically motivated murder and violent revolution. Her writing and lectures spanned a wide variety of issues, including prisons, atheism, freedom of speech, militarism, capitalism, marriage, free love, and homosexuality. Although she distanced herself from first-wave feminism and its efforts toward women's suffrage, she developed new ways of incorporating gender politics into anarchism.

As an anarchist, Goldman championed numerous human rights causes, particularly the issue of free speech. Widely persecuted for her advocacy of anarchism and opposition to World War I, Goldman was active in the early 20th century free speech movement, seeing freedom of expression as a fundamental necessity for achieving social change. Her outspoken championship of her ideals, in the face of persistent arrests, inspired Roger Baldwin, one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Goldman advocated passionately for the rights of women, and is today heralded as a founder of anarcha-feminism, which challenges patriarchy as a hierarchy to be resisted alongside state power and class divisions. In 1897 she wrote: "I demand the independence of woman, her right to support herself; to live for herself; to love whomever she pleases, or as many as she pleases. I demand freedom for both sexes, freedom of action, freedom in love and freedom in motherhood.”

Goldman was also an outspoken critic of prejudice against homosexuals. Her belief that social liberation should extend to gays and lesbians was virtually unheard of at the time, even among anarchists. As Magnus Hirschfeld wrote, "she was the first and only woman, indeed the first and only American, to take up the defense of homosexual love before the general public." In numerous speeches and letters she defended the right of gays and lesbians to love as they pleased and condemned the fear and stigma associated with homosexuality. As Goldman wrote in a letter to Hirschfeld, "It is a tragedy, I feel, that people of a different sexual type are caught in a world which shows so little understanding for homosexuals and is so crassly indifferent to the various gradations and variations of gender and their great significance in life."

After decades of obscurity, Goldman's iconic status was revived in the 1970s, when feminist and anarchist scholars rekindled popular interest in her life.

Read Emma's writings here: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/

Via WIKIPEDIA

HerStory: Tina Fey

Funny girl Tina Fey has taught us all just what it means to transform our awkward teenage awesomeness into grown woman swag. Joining the cast of the infamous and iconic Saturday Night Live in 2000 only after a three year journey to head writer and dropping 30 pounds on her own accord, Ms. Fey now dominates the comedic and entertainment scene once reserved for a gentleman's post.

Winner of several Emmy's, Golden Globes, SAG and Writers Guild accolades, Philly native Elizabeth Stamatina Fey graduated from the University of Virgina in 1992 and headed to Chicago where she joined The Second City improv troupe. Here she worked like a dog to fully immerse herself in the art of improvisation "like one of those athletes trying to get into the Olympics," as she puts it. "I was so sure that I was doing exactly what I'd been put on this earth to do, and I would have done anything to make it onto that stage. It was all about blind focus."

She now sits atop such smash hits as Mean Girls, Baby Mama, and the sitcom 30 Rock (loosely based on her experience as the head writer on the aforementioned SNL sketch comedy show). In 2001, Tina became Mrs. Jeff Richmond, 30 Rock composer and longtime love, and welcomed daughter Alice Zenobia in 2005. Who says we can't have it all?

Kathleen Hanna's blog

Hello hello riot grrrls,

We just wanted to give props and shout outs to our latest discovery, Kathleen Hanna's blog! For those of you who don't know, Kathleen was the lead singer of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre - both are bands we grew up with and love(d). Find out what's catching her eye, making her laugh, and inspiring her.

Enjoy!

90's + Girl Power: A Discussion

Remember the 90's? Remember "Girl Power"? What happened to all of that stuff?
Read a recent discussion on SLATE with Marisa Meltzer (author of Girl Power, The Nineties Revolution in Music) & Sara Marcus. They talk about angry women, babydoll dresses & Beth Ditto to name a few...

Highly recommend reading it if you were alive during the 1990's.
http://www.slate.com/id/2244169

Bikini Kill Archive

Remember when...

Bikini Kill Archive (dying).
http://bikinikillarchive.wordpress.com/

13-Year Old Girl Gets 90 Lashes For A Concealed Cell Phone At School

image courtesy of daily mail uk

Here's the deal. Saudi Arabia is deplorable. Forget the term 2nd class citizen, the country treats women like 7th class citizens.

There is an extreme policy of "sex segregation" - often times women in their own homes have separate entrances, cannot be seen in public without a family member have an literacy rate of 70% and less than 5% make up the workforce. With a 2008 Royal Decree, the only requirement needed to allow women to enter hotels are their national ID cards, and the hotel must inform the nearest police station of their room reservation and length of stay, however this happens with everybody staying in the hotel not just women. Before that they were not allowed to enter a hotel or furnished apartment without a chaperone.

According to Daily Mail "a 13-year-old girl has been sentenced to 90 lashes and two months' prison in Saudi Arabia after she took a mobile phone to school.

The punishment is harsher than dished out to some robbers and looters!

Saudi Arabia, a leading US ally in the Middle East, is an absolute monarchy controlled by the Al-Saud ruling tribe, and lacks any legal code."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1244689/Saudi-girl-13--sentenced-90-lashes-took-mobile-phone-school.html#ixzz0dBWgSAVP

Why is the US allying itself with a nation that has little regard for the rights of women? We stood up to nations like South Africa with its apartheid policy, shouldn't we do the same for sex segregation? Double standard much?