In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Month: August 2008

Breaking through the “Celluloid Ceiling”

I haven’t been posting as much as I’d hoped to these past two weeks, but I have really enjoyed guest-blogging and participating in the Feministe community. Part of my distraction from blogging is my commitment to volunteer work in my community. One of my newest and most time-consuming endeavors has been joining the executive board and heading the special events committee of ImageOut:The Rochester Gay and Lesbian Film and Video Festival. I absolutely adore this film festival and am so thrilled to be immersed in (and sometimes overwhelmed by) it. We are the 2nd largest queer film fest in New York (second only to NYC) and one of the best in the country, in my opinion. If you live in or near Rochester, NY, I really suggest that you make the trip OUT to see us this fall (October 10-19, Save the Dates!). Clearly, I love this fest. Shameless self-promotion aside, I am blogging about ImageOut as an example of my disappointment with the lack of representation and participation by queer and allied women in the work of our festival and the greater film community internationally.

For example, on our board, there are currently four seats out of thirteen held by women. I’m one of them and two of them are ending their board term next year. I hope we will try to fill those seats with women and people of diverse cultural backgrounds (There are two people of color on the board, both Asian-American, and there are no reps of the low-income or deaf communities that we do our best to reach out to during the festival.). I have faith that we will and you better believe I’ll be encouraging it. Our membership is also fairly homogeneous, with middle-upper class white gay men taking the lead both in membership/sponsorship and event turn-out. And the lack of participation by queer women in ImageOut is not for a lack of “women’s” programming. ImageOut tries to keep an even balance of movies about queer men and queer women. (Last year, Itty Bitty Titty Committee was one of our opening night films.)

Our programming chair is constantly whining about the lack of good films by and about LGBTQI women. And while he is probably being a snotty brat (just kidding, MG), he is speaking to a serious inequity between male and female filmmakers. While women are doing better in the indie and queer film industries, there are truly fewer films out there by and for women than by and for men. This is greatly because it’s much harder for women to break into the film industry than men.

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Can Sparkle be Feminist?

There have been so many posts out there in the past few weeks about sparkle that I don’t know where to start. I’m using “sparkle” as a catch-all for burlesque, sex work, fashion, any kind of sexy display or fashion statement. Here are just a few of them.

As I said in my whack at the subject, the discussions have centered around whether it’s (a) an empowering and feminist choice, (b) harmless fun that’s not meant to be either feminist or antifeminist, or (c) patriarchy-compliant antifeminism.

I came out (b) there, for reasons you can check out if you like.

I don’t want to rehash that question, but to mention a question that doesn’t get asked nearly as often and try to figure out why, now that I have the benefit of all these great Feministe commenter minds to think on it.

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Quarter-Life Crisis Time

So I’m 25 today, and I finished the New York Bar Exam on Wednesday (yay!). I’ve been working on destroying my liver since 4:30 on Wednesday, but today is extra-special, so I’m celebrating by going to my favorite steakhouse for a porterhouse and some red wine (when your boyfriend asks you what you want for your birthday and you respond, “A steak and a blowjob,” you know he’s a keeper when he books lunch at Peter Luger).

And then on Tuesday I’m leaving for Southeast Asia for five weeks. I’ll be popping in to put up some posts and say hi, and I’m hoping I’ll have time to post a bit before I leave. But for the most part, the regular Feministers and the guest-bloggers will be holding the place down. So enjoy!

I would also love any SE Asia travel tips that you all have. I’m starting in Bangkok, then going up to Chiang Mai, then down the Mekong into Laos and staying in Luang Prabang for a few days, then Hanoi and the surrounding area, then to Cambodia (Angkor and Phnom Penh), then back to Thailand and down to the islands. Any suggestions of what to see, where to eat (and what to eat), where to stay, where to go (especially which islands to hit up), etc would be very welcome.

I’ll put up a few posts tomorrow before I depart. And I’m also heading out to get myself a new camera this afternoon, so I’ll be sure to post travel photos. Be good to the guest-bloggers while I’m gone.

Guest Blogger Intro

Hi Feministe readers!

My name is Octo and I blog at Astarte’s Circus. I am very excited to be chosen to be part of such impressive company for the next two weeks.

My blogging is kind of an odd mix with very little rhyme or reason. I like to blog about women and work – balancing family and work, balancing desire for money and desire to make a difference. I’ve had a lot of jobs and blog a bit about some of them more so than others. Among other things, I’ve been an engineer, auto company drone, lawyer, internet exec, and stripper. Now I’m a legal recruiter, a partner in a small search firm. I’ve been doing it eight years, and it’s what I’ll be doing for the next ten plus. After that I’d like to start a nonprofit focusing on career counseling and school counseling targeting low-income women and girls.

Of course, one of my jobs never made it on to my resume, so everyone thinks my current gig is my first sales job. But hey, I’m a formerly shy tech geek. I’d never be able to sell lawyers on the idea of uprooting themselves if I hadn’t had that two year stint selling dances. It’s much easier to be told “no” and get the phone slammed down than to be called fat, anorexic, bitchy, slut, and prude… sometimes all by the same customer! Sun Tzu of “Art of War” fame could have learned a few lessons from Vegas strippers. I don’t think stripping is feminist or antifeminist – just a job – but some of these lessons have feminist implications so I may be posting a few here.

I’ve lived in NY, Detroit, Cambridge and (briefly)Tokyo, and now live in CA . I’m married with a four year old daughter. I’m frustrated at the sneaky infiltration of Disney Princesses into our house. I can handle Ariel and Mulan, both of whom saved their kingdoms, but the rest? I don’t want rescue fantasies for my little one.

The other day we were watching a video of Hercules – yeah, I do stick her in front of the TV when I work out. I caught the tail end with her. It was Herc and two hot babes, both of whom seemed to be mainly spectating. My daughter typically picks one character and says “I’m that one.” I must admit it’s usually the “pretty girl” character. This time, she hesitated. The blonde and brunette were sitting and watching Herc lifting something. She said “I’ll be Hercules, and pretend he’s a girl.”

I was pretty psyched.

Feminist Population Policy?

I should start by apologizing for my absence last week. I ended up without internet access for much longer than I anticipated on my last field visit.

I wanted to post about something that came up in response to my post last week and which I keep thinking about. I was surprised to find some Feministe readers in defense of population policy and, I think (though I might be mistaken) even in defense of coercive policy as a necessary tool to reduce population numbers. I understand the powerful wish to avoid exporting Western values and I think some of the responses posted in defense of population policies here may have been rooted in the wish to convey disapproval of my working here on the belief that I am imposing my “Western” values against coercion upon Indian women and political leaders. Please be assured that there are many women and social activists here who are vehemently against coercive policy and are working hard to combat it where it exists in state and national level policy. My feelings of aversion to coercive policy are not new to India.

But back to the arguments posted, I was surprised to hear the concern over high population numbers in India and the need for punitive population policy being voiced as in line with feminist values. So many background questions came to mind afterward–With regard to the discussion that popped up about the world’s limited resources and growing population, I pose a question I have been asked here by social justice activists: Can the answer to the population problem be found in reducing the numbers of people in India who live on infinitesimal amounts of food and water a day, or is it possible that the answer is in changing the gross consumption rates and energy and resource- indulgent lifestyles of the West? To the concern voiced about growing population numbers in India, I’d ask another question that has been posed to me by study respondents here in India: Has science ever actually defined the number of people the world and it’s resources can support, or is this fear of a “population bomb” about something else, more to do with which babies are being born than how many are being born? I’d welcome feedback from Feministe readers about both of these questions, but the biggest one I’m eager to pose to you is this one: Is there such thing as a feminist population policy?

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Bush to Veto Equal Pay for Women

This week, the House passed the Paycheck Fairness act, legislation that sets precedents to close the wage gap between working men and women and attempts to close the loopholes that allow employers to get away with discriminatory pay practices. However, according to an official statement, the White House fully intends to veto the bill, saying,

The bill would unjustifiably amend the Equal Pay Act (EPA) to allow for, among other things, unlimited compensatory and punitive damages, even when a disparity in pay was unintentional. It also would encourage discrimination claims to be made based on factors unrelated to actual pay discrimination by allowing pay comparisons between potentially different labor markets. In addition, it would require the Department of Labor (DOL) to replace its successful approach to detecting pay discrimination with a failed methodology that was abandoned because it had a 93 percent false positive rate. Thus, if H.R. 1338 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.

W Stands For Women

Now be a good girl and make me a sandwich.

Via Think Progress

Elitism

I find that this charge, leveled against political candidates and other public figures, is not talking about the kind of elitism that separates a snob from “regular Americans” (you know, the white ones [/sarcasm]). When media figures and others of high stature complain of a figure’s “elitism,” they don’t mean, “He thinks he’s better than you” — what they actually mean is, “He thinks he’s better than us.” They are upset because a public figure dares think himself important without paying due respects to the other members of the upper classes.

John McCain and Barack Obama are both elites. So are all the media figures crying about elitism. Whether they sip wine or chug beer, the both of them are far removed from the sort of life I lead, you lead, your neighbors lead, your coworkers lead, your families lead. It doesn’t make a goddamn drop of difference to any of us whether either of them turns his nose up at other figures in the same high class they already occupy. It just hurts the feelings of those higher figures who have toxic levels of self-importance.

They think they can determine what matters to me. I have news for them — they don’t have a fucking clue.

Friday Catblogging

Yes, I know it’s only barely still Friday. It’s also earlier than I usually manage to get the pictures up!

Be warned; only two things (thus far) can be said to be my pride and joy in life: my cats and my camera. I absolutely adore photography, but my chances to go outside and take pictures are limited. Still, if you like cats and/or a little photographic playfulness, go right on ahead.

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Diminished happiness on Pride Weekend

It’s Pride Weekend here in Vancouver. Assuming it stops raining, there will be a parade, a festival, fireworks from the finale of the Celebration of Light, and general merrymaking as is wont to occur during a Pride Weekend. Yet this weekend, the celebrations will be diminished—not just by the terrible murder on the bus a couple of days ago, but also by the recent murder of a transwoman in Colorado. Angie Zapata went on a date with a man she had met over the Internet, and upon his discovery that she had personal bits that didn’t match up with what he thought should have been there, he brutally bludgeoned her to death.

On Passover, Jews recount the joyful story of the exodus from Egypt, the journey from slavery to freedom. Yet this freedom came at a price: in the story, God brought ten plagues on the Egyptians—even killing all the firstborn males in the kingdom—before Pharaoh would allow the people to leave the land. During the seder celebrations on the night of Passover, when the ten plagues are recounted, it is a custom among many Jews to spill a drop of wine from their cups, to symbolize the fact that we cannot celebrate with a full cup when that celebration is born of other people’s suffering.

This year, Pride will be celebrated with diminished happiness, with less than a full cup. And so must it be every year, until this kind of hatred is eliminated from the world. Homophobia, transphobia, gynophobia, racism, and all other kinds of intolerance must be swept away so that everyone may one day celebrate with a full cup.