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

Month: March 2011

Feministe is looking for a good intern.

Please spread the word and apply!

Feministe, one of the oldest and most widely-read feminist blogs, is seeking an intern to assist with posting feminist content, reaching out to writers, organizing our social media strategy, working with advertisers and managing our online community. We needs someone who can dedicate 3-6 hours per week (preferably two weekdays during set times), and can be available for a weekly in-person meeting (if in New York) or a weekly phone call with the Feministe editors (in addition to being available by email outside of meeting times). This is a paid internship; we anticipate that the internship will last 3-6 months, but the duration is negotiable.

Feministe is looking for someone who is well-versed in feminist theory, and who is knowledgeable about feminist blogging specifically. The ideal candidate would be an avid reader of feminist and social justice blogs, a strong writer and a passionate social justice activist. The candidate would also be willing to think creatively and outside of the box, and be able to work professionally with guest writers, advertisers and readers.

Responsibilities will include putting up two posts per week rounding up links and stories; monitoring blogs and online forums for stories to put in these link round-ups; checking the Feministe email box and responding to readers; working with advertisers to make sure the Feministe is appropriately monetized; managing Feministe’s social media presence; and completing other administrative tasks.

We’re specifically seeking an intern with the following qualifications:

* Outstanding writing skills
* Excellent administrative, organizational and communications skills
* Significant experience with various social networking platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, etc.)
* Proficient knowledge in blogging and online writing — must read blogs (and particularly feminist blogs) regularly
* Familiarity with online feminist communities and social media campaigns
* Blog writing and publishing experience (including basic knowledge in HTML)
* Online marketing skills, including online advertising and search engine optimization (SEO) a plus
* Must be able to dedicate 1.5 – 3 hours per day, two days per week, to the internship
* Must be able to work independently
* Must have consistent access to email and internet during internship hours
* Must be passionate about and committed to social justice issues

To apply, email feministe@gmail.com with a resume and a cover letter explaining your qualifications and your relationship with feminist blogs. We will be accepting applications through March 14th.

Where are you from? Part 1

I want to begin a project about, for lack of a term, what I’m calling “fromness”. That is, the sense that you belong somewhere, there is a beacon calling out to you, a sense of home. Perhaps you don’t have that sense, perhaps you crave it, perhaps you miss it, perhaps it doesn’t really figure large in your life.

I’m constantly preoccupied with longings for home. My family has a rather transnational history and, although I personally have lived in Australia all my life, it’s a foreign country to my family. I don’t think I could belong anywhere else, either. Even if in fragmented, alienated ways, this country is what I’ve grown up with. But Australia is never going to be a good enough answer to ‘Where are you from?’. I don’t belong here – and never will – because I’m not accepted here, because this is not where my familial history has been, and always, always because my being here is predicated on the deaths of people who were here before me, and the continued marginalisation of Indigenous Australians.

I dream of being from somewhere, of being comfortable, of being at home. Not being from anywhere, never being able to belong anywhere: that’s something that makes me feel fundamentally insecure.

I want you to begin thinking about what the question ‘Where are you from?’ means to you. And we’ll go on a journey.

Westboro Baptist Church protests are protected speech

Look, I hate these guys so so so much, but this is the right decision. And it makes me nervous that any Supreme Court justice (here, Alito, who was a one-man minority) would think otherwise. Free speech cases have often come down to speech that is unpopular, or, here, the definition of cruel and evil. But just because something is wrong or hurtful doesn’t mean it should be illegal. And it’s troubling, to me, that Alito thinks we should be able to limit protests based on their content.

“Speech is powerful,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. “It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and — as it did here — inflict great pain.”

But under the First Amendment, he went on, “we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker.” Instead, the national commitment to free speech, he said, requires protection of “even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.”

That’s right. Westboro Baptist Church is made up of some of the ugliest, most hateful and vile people on the planet — but even they have a right to put that vileness in words. And we all have the right to speak out against them and challenge their ideas. What we don’t have the right to do is insist that our government step in to shut them up.

Posted in Law

A fetus will “testify” about abortion bill

Oh wow. I would LOL because, seriously? But this is actually pretty fucked up:

A fetus has been scheduled as a legislative witness in Ohio on a unique bill that proposes outlawing abortions after the first heartbeat can be medically detected.

Faith2Action, the anti-abortion group that has targeted Ohio to pilot the measure, called the in-utero witness the youngest to ever come before the House Health Committee at nine weeks old.

Faith2Action president Janet Folger Porter said the intent is to show lawmakers who will be affected by the bill, which is opposed by Ohio Right to Life and abortion rights groups as unconstitutional.

An aide to committee Chairman Lynn Wachtmann said a pregnant woman will be brought before the committee and an ultrasound image of her uterus will be projected onto a screen. The heartbeat of the fetus will be visible in color.

“The youngest ever.”

(Until I show up swinging a bloody tampon. YOU THINK YOU’RE YOUNG, FETUS? MEET A FERTILIZED EGG. BAM. OWNED).

Escapes and Ensnarement

Did you miss me? I decided to enjoy the last of my holidays engaging with such fun activities as reading books (because you just know I don’t have to read enough of those as an English major). Now, with books, enjoyment is a risky prospect. You might end up with some really bad writing, or something that simply doesn’t appeal, or, occasionally, a fabulous book that ends up disappointing you with a flat ending. Perhaps, as happened to me the other week, you borrow that book you’ve had on your reading list only to find that the first sixty pages of the library’s copy are missing.

One of my favourite things about reading books is the chance to escape from whatever’s going on for me in my own life and into worlds of other kinds, the places pulled out of other people’s heads. I love books for lots of other reasons, too: the way they can help one work through one’s own experiences and ideas, and even the weight, feel, and smell of them. However, reading books while being progressive is, as I said, a risky prospect. I might be off in my own little escapist world when boom! The author presents his readership with something awfully misogynistic, making it clear that he thinks his only readers, or the only ones worth pleasing, are his fellow men.

After all, books are a cultural product, and their authors draw on material from the world, in which inequalities abound. Reading books doesn’t get to be an escape or an entertainment if you’re trying to relax away from the bigotry in the world around you. Books certainly aren’t going to help you develop your inner life or help with your personal dilemmas in those instances! Power structures always seep through. One’s reading can’t be a place of fantasy or an escape into someone else’s life, or not thoroughly, if it keeps replicating the bits of one’s own one would rather not deal with just then. At the end of the day, books are never really an escape into other worlds because they are intertwined with this one.

I love books for the potential of other existences and realities, even if sometimes we can’t get there. I also love them for reflecting the world we have, good points and bad, as layered commentary in the text or a simple replication of oppressions on the authors’ parts. Even if it’s unpleasant to be jerked out of your enjoyment, at least here, captured on the page and irrefutable, is evidence of the way bigotry works into everyone. It’s well worth unravelling the oppression in our imaginations.