August 2009 – Page 12

Misogynists are Cads, Racists are Monsters.

Jeremy Levine and Latoya Peterson, friends of ours over at PostBourgie, are both winding their ways through the second season of “Mad Men” ahead of the coming third season premiere. (It’s about time, y’all. Damn.) There are articles clogging up my Google Reader ahead of the show, so I’m feeling the crush of media hype for the new season even though I don’t have a TV.

“Mad Men” is, obviously, a fantastic show (still not “The Wire ,” though) but I’m having a hard time figuring out if the way issues about race are generally handled really intelligently — there’s something pretty spot-on about the fact that for these upper-middle class white businessmen and their families, black people are pretty much invisible, not worthy of much discussion or consideration — or whether that’s just a dodge.

You could read the way the writers are hedging on the main characters racial animus — and I’d argue they’d probablyhave to be bigots — would make them too unlikeable. The shit Don does to Betty (and every other woman on the show who isn’t Peggy) is boorish and cruel. He shoves her around. He condescends to her. He’s vicious to his mistresses, as well (notably, in that scene where he grabs his lover and forcibly shoves his hand into her vagina). By any measure, this cat is a misogynist. But this deep misogyny comes across as a necessary part of his alpha male cool. But to make Don or Pete or any of the Sterling Cooper gang seem to be active racists and still portray them empathetically might be too difficult a needle to thread, because we still tend to think of racists as unambiguously evil and morally bankrupt.

(x-posted)

Taking the Erotic Out of Sexual Culture

I’ve worked in and around sexuality for the past 8 years of my life, in capacities ranging from researching the history of gay bathhouses in nineteenth century New York to touching stranger’s penises for money to editing and producing blogs and video podcasts about sexuality. I’ve been around the block and then some. This means, among other things, that thinking about sexuality on a daily, hourly, minutely basis doesn’t have an erotic charge for me – I don’t feel titillated by sitting in a meeting and talking about comprehensive sexuality education, I don’t get turned on when I edit a writer’s tale of a night in a strip club. Thinking about sexuality is my career, it’s my life’s work. This doesn’t, of course, mean that all things sexual elicit no response for me – but it does mean that I have a clear sense of when things are sexy or sexual and when they are not.

This sense, however, doesn’t seem to be one that a lot of other people have.

For example: I’m co-hosting a new reading series in NYC called Sex Worker Literati, which features stories and performances by people who’ve worked in the sex industry. These stories are sometimes about some kind of sex taking place, but they are frequently *not* sexy. Because really, the act of providing an erotic experience for a living is not always that arousing to the person doing the providing. It’s a job.

So of course I rolled my eyes at this obnoxious comment on our Facebook event page:

Is anybody putting out, or all talk, no action.

Maybe I’m a cranky feminist who needs to get laid more, but I think it is really important to have language to talk about sexuality that isn’t itself coded as sexual. So no, dear douchebag commenter, no one is “putting out” (and that phrase is such a lovely way to frame the female experience of sexuality. shudder). And, dear douchebag commenter, you’ll probably find that these stories are not good masturbation fodder either.

In my 7 Key American Sex Worker Activist Projects post last week, I briefly mentioned that I think it’s important to cast salacious representations of sexuality in a different light than representations that attempt to get at the depths and complexities of sexuality.

Unfortunately, as much as sexsexsex is all over our culture in neon lights, the discussion often leaves something to be desired (pun intended). This means that, among other things, people who attempt to discuss sexuality in serious, non-erotic ways get mocked or dismissed or encouraged to sex it up. And while there certainly is a place and time for sexuality to be sexy (there is, after all, nothing *wrong* with enjoying an erotic turn-of-phrase), it’s crucial for there to be spaces where sex talk doesn’t have to be sexy or sexual.

Salutations…It’s my fancy way of saying hello.

Who can name the movie I just quoted?

While you are thinking about it or web searching (aka cheating), allow me to introduce myself. I’m Veronica and I have a fairly neglected blog called Viva la Feminista. But don’t let that fool ya, I’m a writing machine! haha…I contribute to Kenneth Cole’s AWEARNESS blog, Girl w/Pen and WIMN’s Voices. You might also recognize me as the woman holding a mic on page 3 of the current issue of Ms. magazine. I’m a mom blogger. Not mommy cause as a friend of mine says, “Only my daughter calls me mommy.” And really, my 6-year-old daughter calls me “mama”.

Thanks to Jill for inviting me over here for a summer guest blogging appearance. I’ve been reading Feministe since it’s infantcy, so it’s an honor to be asked to vacay over here for two weeks. I don’t have a plan on what to write on over here, so enjoy the blogging salad I’m about to throw at you.

But today I want to share with you a story about mom bloggers, swag and how we are using it for good.

What do sex workers think about the ethics of biomedical research studies that are done on them?

Last year, researchers Dan Allman and Melissa Ditmore started a project asking sex workers about their experiences with and opinions about clinical trials, which they’ve turned into a 65 page report, Good Practice for Sex Workers’ Participation in Biomedical HIV Prevention Trials. The main mission of the project was to get feedback from sex workers about their experiences with researchers, and to encourage researchers to examine their practice and involve sex workers in the process. This is great stuff – I would love to see greater integration of communities in the process of research done about them. The Institutional Review Board, as much as anyone doing human subjects research bemoans the process, is a step in the (general) right direction, but community input is so important to creating sound research.

Here’s some of what the researchers learned from the project:

One important finding: Sex workers are not usually familiar with documents about trials and ethics. This is not obvious to researchers. And it means that a lot more education about research is critical to ‘good participatory practice’.

Many sex workers had recommendations for researchers hoping to work with sex workers such as involving stakeholders from the outset, explaining procedures in non-technical terms and translating all materials and information into local languages. More recommendations are in the report.

One of the ten recommendations is to consult local sex workers at each proposed location before beginning a trial. Acceptance and use of recommendations of local sex workers, and consideration of accommodations necessary for the lives of local sex workers will facilitate the research. Some sex workers are against any cooperation with clinical trials and in some cases, all forms of invasive research, most were not. Indeed, many wanted to learn more about research and would consider involvement in research providing they were confident it was ethical and participatory.

Download the PDF of the report here.

Working with the Media

So yes, I’m aware that I’ve been missing in action for a while. Between starting a new job, the toddler at home, preparing for a new baby, and being 8+ months pregnant in a DC summer… you know, it’s a lot. But I’m redoubling my efforts to post more. You’ll recall perhaps that my raison d’etre here is to serve as an “organizational liaison” with the myriad groups that work on issues of interest to this community. So to that end, I urge you to let me know if your group has announcements, events, campaigns, etc., you want to share. Obviously you can post in the comments, or email them to me. I’m especially interested in things outside DC/NYC. (The DC/NYC stuff is easy for me to find.)

Speaking of events in DC, the Planned Parenthood here is hosting a brown bag next week on communicating effectively with the media. I’m biased because I work in communications, but I’m a strong supporter of media training. Knowing what to say and how to say it when a reporter approaches you at a rally, staying calm and on message – this is good.

Bring your lunch and join us from 12 – 1pm in our satellite office:

1001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 410

Wednesday, August 12th – Working with the Media

Diane Quest, National Media Director, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Got the message? Learn the ins and outs of working with the media, and how the national office works to convey its messages across the country.

AND MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR NEXT MONTH’S:

Wednesday, September 16th – Education in the African American Community

Irwin Royster, Director of Community Education, PPMW

Learn how PPMW provides DC-area African American youth with the tools they need to stay healthy.

Call 202-347-8500 x6300 or e-mail events@ppmw.org to RSVP, submit suggestions for additional topics, or invite PPMW staff to conduct similar lectures for your organization.

Like Jill said, I’m a cowboy.

No but really, who are you?

Hi, my name is Scott, and I have too many blogs. In addition to my personal blog, Acephalous, I also edit a literary theory blog, The Valve, and contribute to a history blog, The Edge of the American West.

That’s a list of where you write. It doesn’t tell us who you are.

You probably know me as the professor who caught random students having sex in his office, or the kid who first learned about rape from a comic book, because those were two posts that were linked here. As for the rest, all I’ll say is that I live a statistically improbable life.

Why are you here?

I’m here because I’ve always wanted to poach links from Shameless Self-Promotion Sundays, but knew that would be tacky. So I sent Jill an email saying, “I’ve always wanted to poach links from Shameless Self-Promotion Sundays, but know that would be tacky. Maybe I could collate them for you at Feministe?”

How exactly will this work?

I don’t exactly know yet. I’m going to try to parse the material out in readable chunks. I don’t want anyone to think that my not linking to them amounts to a silencing, when it is, in fact, a concession to our ever shorter attention spans. I may hold off on posting a link one week, for example, because I think it deserves a wider airing than it would receive were it the fiftieth entry on a seemingly endless link dump.

As a blogger myself, I’m sensitive to issues surrounding publicity. I know how gratifying it is to post something today and see it linked on some main page tomorrow; but then there might be a more substantial dialogue if posts on similar topics are collected, coordinated, and posted together at a later date. (Which has the added benefit of allowing me to cull the archives for brilliant posts that would be ignored simply because they were written last week or month or year.) As I’m terminally indecisive when it comes to administrative matters, feel free to voice any preference you might have.

What I will say is that I’m committed to being fair, i.e. that I will actively seek out and encourage new voices, and try to make sure each post is as representative as possible. I mean that both in terms of whose links I elevate and which subjects are addressed. If the majority of links address a particular issue, I may devote one post to links that address that issue, and another for all the subjects that might otherwise be drowned out by the thrum of the news cycle. As I said, this is a work in progress, and any ideas or advice you have is most welcome.

One last note: if you link to posts with substantial audio components, please do not lie about what is said in them. I’m legally (and sometimes disturbingly) deaf, and the combination of not being able to read podcasters lips and the low bitrates at which podcasts are recorded make it nigh impossible for me to understand them. I’ll be able to tell if you disguise a recording of your cat howling all the way to vet as an excellent lecture by an important person, but only barely.

Isn’t that an awful lot of prefacing for a first post?

Probably. But what else could I have done?

Incorporate some of the links into your introduction?

You mean I should said something about how I’m co-authoring a book about how to use comics in composition classrooms, then written something like, “And speaking of comics, s. tried to determine which circle of Hell the EA marketing department belongs in for their misogynistic promotion at Comic Con 2009.” Is that what you mean?

Maybe a little more subtle.

Subtle? I can do subtle. Let me see . . . I loved The Wire, which was on HBO. Natalie demonstrates that HBO executives might be unwittingly embracing homophobia; meanwhile, Sara Freeman writes about HBO’s decision to broadcast a sensitive, respectful portrait of a bipolar life cut short.

How is that any more subtle?

Good point. I should probably just get down to posting some links.

Probably.

Alright then, the inaugural wrangling of the links commences now:

RMJ—who changed her background since, I think, this morning—is still looking for contributions to her list of 50 Books for Problematic Times. I keep meaning to contribute forty or fifty, then I remember that nobody besides other literature professors wants to hear what literature professors have to say about literature. Speaking of literature professors, Faith reminds us that the most famous one, currently, once defended misogynistic lyrics as being hyperbolic parody, then busted out laughing at the thought of them.

But enough about literature professors. How about we return to talking about literature? Isabel responds to Steph’s post here with what I have come to call “the Faulkner defense”: “[S]o, Fitzgerald, obviously not a feminist, apparently got people well enough that when he was writing he couldn’t help but write his women as people.” A novelist might not be able to overcome their prejudices, but if they stay true to the complexity of their craft, they might accidently transcend them. (I named that defense after Faulkner’s portrayal of race in Light in August. The man was, clearly, a racist; but as a novelist, he captured the complexity of racial politics with such delicacy that his novels can overcome the prejudice of their author.)

One of the many Rebeccas writes two epic posts about dealing with trolls.

Mandy Van Deven calls out Hudson Jeans for manufacturing scandal, and Rachel Hillis tells us why the magazines in which such ads appear routinely suck.

Lauren O. thinks that “feminists should just shut up, because there is no such thing as gender inequality or patriarchy, and it’s actually men who are oppressed.” That, or she’s damn sarcastic. Read her post on catcalling and decide for yourself.

Stephanie R. bemoans the fact that 500 Days of Summer violates The Rule.

Miranda questions the viability of “TV show with a strong female lead” as a Netflix category, seemingly unaware that the first iteration of that category was “TV show with a strong female character,” which Netflix dumped after realizing that the only shows with strong female characters were those with strong female leads. (That last clause is a lie, invented by me; but sadly, it’s so plausible you might not have caught it had I not confessed.)

Jasper Gregory provides a thoughtful critique of brain sex theories of gender, then models how to discuss sensitive issues with strangers on the internet. (Not that I need to tell anyone here how difficult it is to do so.) [UPDATE: It figures that I would make at least one awful error my first post, and it appears I have: it seems that the reason that Jasper’s discussion is so civil is because he’s silencing commenters he’d rather not respond to. That, obviously, is not modeling how to discuss sensitive issues with strangers on the internet. Had I known he was doing that, I wouldn’t have held him up as such. I apologize for the error, and promise to make many more in the future. Not that I plan to, mind you, but I’m human and it happens.]

Adventures in medicine are had by The Czech, during the course of which we learn that, for doctors, the operative phrase is “making AIDS.”

Finally—and in what I hope will be a regular feature—I want to welcome some newcomers to the blogs: this week we have Katie at Kataphatic, who focuses on fat liberation theology.

That’s not all for this week, but that’s all from me tonight, as I don’t want to hog the front page. Future editions will be more coherent, I promise. (I actually have a monstrous post cobbled together from the past few month’s worth of material, but it resides on a laptop that refuses to boot since I moved from the OC and into Riverside County. I suspect snobbery.)

Introducing Myself.

Hi, there. I’m Plain(s) Feminist (or PF, for short), a Women’s Studies prof, activist, and now breast cancer survivor (and breastless woman, which I am finding to be an interesting change after my DD days). I have just returned to the land of DSL, and I have been on dial-up for so long (visiting parents) that I feel alienated from the interweb and have to think for a while before I post. I have been thinking a bit about mothering and sacrifice and the breast-feeding debates, so you might get something about that to begin with. We’ll have to see.

I’m at Blogging While Feminist, and like Sally, I don’t do much modding at my place (but I also don’t get many comments). My general rule is, “don’t be an asshole” (can’t remember who I’m copying that from, but it works). Other than that, respectful comments of all flavors are welcome. I will not police anyone’s politics, but I might not let through comments that are obnoxious.

I still call myself a feminist, but I do this while recentering my feminism to focus on issues that have frequently been at the margins of feminism – poverty, racial profiling, and other issues many/most women face but that are often seen by middle-class white feminism as being about something other than middle-class white women and, therefore, as not women’s issues, after all. This broadening out of “women’s issues” is also how I try to teach Women’s Studies, which is a field I continue to have faith in (whether we call it Gender and Sexuality Studies, Women’s Studies, Feminist Studies, or whatever). I know we can do this better.

I’m also a mom, and it’s bath time at our house, so I will catch you later.

Shameless Self-Promotion Sunday 2.0

Exciting news: The very gracious SEK from Acephalous is joining the Feministe team in a position that I think is best described as our Shameless Self-Promotion Cowboy. He will round up some of the SSP posts and put them in their own post, creating a handy link farm highlighting amazing work from around the feminist/lefty blogosphere. So thank you, SEK, for this great idea, and for seeing it through. And welcome!

(Almost) Everything You Need to Know About Me

Hi lovely people! It is I, frau sally benz, here to enthrall, enlighten, and entertain. Okay… probably just entertain, but we all need to aim high in life.

I am horrible at introductions, so let’s see how this goes…

I am Latina, an immigrant, a U.S. citizen, a New Yorker. I am currently non-disabled, physically at least. I am no stranger to anxiety attacks and have semi-diagnosed depression (long story…). I am a cis woman. I am a feminist who believes feminism (both as a label and as a movement) is terribly flawed. I am a writer, a reader, a lover of language. I am a non-profit professional.

I love music, singing, dancing, laughing. I love the Beatles. I love Harry Potter and I worship JKR. I love food and ice cream. I love yoga. I love walking and think a place is too far to walk to only if it will take more than one and a half hours (though I’ve been known to walk for over two hours to get somewhere). I love mental stimulation.

I love surprises, but I hate fruit at the bottom of the yogurt. I love the sun, but I don’t do long walks on the beach because I hate sand. I love grammar, but I have a habit of over-using exclamation marks, ellipses, dashes, and semi-colons.

I hate ignorance. I hate people who stifle imagination. I hate wearing pants. I hate lacy underwear. I hate being uncomfortable, physically at least.

I don’t trust people who don’t like to learn because I question how they make the right decisions. I don’t understand people who dislike reading because I think all that free time means they’re up to no good.

Other things that might be of interest: I blog at Jump off the Bridge about feminist issues, politics, activism, music, books, and a whole host of other things. During my time here, I’ll try to write about Latino issues, sexuality, polyamory, things I read/hear/say, etc. These are the things that consume my brain when I’m away from the internet and I rarely let out. As such, I might fail miserably at writing about them.

Oh, as for comments. I don’t have any rules over at JotB, but I average about one comment every two days there, so I have no idea how this comment moderation stuff will go. I don’t think I’ll stir up too much trouble while I’m here, so let’s just all agree to be respectful. I have an incredible amount of patience and enjoy being challenged with new perspectives, so I encourage everyone to comment often, even if you disagree. Apologies in advance if your comment isn’t posted right away, but I’ll put comments through as soon as I see them.

Until then, eat, drink, and be merry!

My week is up!

Hello everyone, again. My week here is just about up (although I still have about an hour and a half here on the west coast of the US.). I wish time and circumstance (a grueling heatwave) allowed me to post more, but I got a few good posts here. I probably should have signed up for two weeks because I’m a bit of a slow blogger in general. In any case, thanks again, everyone, for listening and sharing! I’ve had a great time! If you want to check in with me, I’m still blogging away when I’ve got something on my mind at From the Cracked Mirror.

To end with a fun discussion, and also because it’s good to start/end the week with a little bit of squee, I invite you to post your favorite feminist moments in fiction (of any medium) where a character says or does something, and it makes you think “Wow! They get it. They really get it.”

My current favorite is in Dorothy L. Sayers’ Gaudy Night (Despite my last post, I really adore that series, particularly the books with Harriet Vane.). There are so many awesome moments in this book, and the fact that it was written in the 1930’s and still manages to have so many relevant insights makes it even more fantastic. The part I’m going to mention, however, is a relatively minor moment in terms of the plot: In searching for the troublemaker who has been playing increasingly dangerous pranks at her old college (a woman’s college at Oxford,) she comes upon two of the male undergrads trying to sneak a very intoxicated female undergrad back into the college. In the context of the novel, it becomes clear that the male students aren’t intending to rape their classmate, thank god, but they did get her drunk for the amusement of seeing her drunk (This is ’30’s fiction; one can only go so far. Also, one of the men later becomes likeable, which would be impossible otherwise.).

Harriet catches them and instead of turning them in gives them a lecture of her own. She reminds them that if they break a rule such as being out after curfew or creating a drunken disturbance, they will get a slap on the wrist–a suspension at the very worst . The woman, however, would be expelled if caught, her reputation ruined, her academic career over (And she actually says, “Stop being an ass,” which makes me happy.). While part of me wishes that Harriet had been harsher with them (You should never ply anyone with alcohol for any reason,) I love how Harriet there, and consistently at other times throughout the series, is never afraid to call people out on their privilage. She does encourage the woman to take responsibility for her own academic career, of course, but I loved that she reminded the men of the double standard. It was such an awesome, and, well, badass (as far as anything is badass in the Wimsey novels) moment.