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

Month: June 2011

The 10 Most Powerful Female Authors

A pretty solid list, including some I wish would go away (Stephenie Meyer); some whose sales are largely in the grocery store circuit (Danielle Steele, Mary Higgins Clark); and some heavyweights (Toni Morrison, Jhumpa Lahiri, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Joyce Carol Oates). It’s also a notably diverse list, with the white authors skewed heavily to the side of “commercially successful” and the authors of color skewed more towards the anthologized end of the literary spectrum. And it’s a welcome reprieve from the Best Writers of All Time lists which inevitably include only one or two women.

Syrian blogger Amina Abdallah kidnapped

Horrible news:

A blogger whose frank and witty thoughts on Syria’s uprising, politics and being a lesbian in the country shot her to prominence was last night seized by armed men in Damascus.

Amina Arraf, who blogged under the name Amina Abdallah, holds dual Syrian and American citizenship and is the author of the blog A Gay Girl in Damascus, which has drawn fans from Syria and across the world.

She was kidnapped last night as she and a friend were on their way to a meeting in Damascus. The kidnapping was reported on her blog by a cousin.

“Amina was seized by three men in their early 20s. According to the witness (who does not want her identity known), the men were armed,” wrote Rania Ismail.

“Amina hit one of them and told the friend to go find her father. One of the men then put his hand over Amina’s mouth and they hustled her into a red Dacia Logan with a window sticker of Basel Assad.”

Basel is the brother of president Bashar al-Assad, and was being groomed for the presidency until his death in a car crash in 1994.

The Syrian government is holding some 10,000 people prisoner in reaction to the protests that began this spring. The regime is one of the most brutal in the world, and many detainees have been tortured and/or killed. I’m not really sure what else to add, other than I hope Amina is ok, and I would encourage you all to spread the word and keep the spotlight on this kidnapping. Maybe some international pressure will help to secure her release.

Thanks, Lauren, for the link.

Sexting is now a national scandal

This is a pretty solid summary of the Weiner press conference last night. I am still unclear on (1) why anyone cares, and (2) why Weiner didn’t just come out from the beginning and say, “Yeah, I sent some sexy photos to women on the internet, which was hugely stupid and has now bitten me in the ass.”

Yes, Weiner cheated, even if he never met the women he had “relash- communications” with. And cheating is bad. But Weiner isn’t a Defense of Marriage conservative who seeks to police everyone else’s sex lives. There isn’t the same kind of hypocrisy here as we see from anti-choice anti-gay politicians who get caught with their pants down.

And the whole thing is just kind of… sad:

During an extraordinary 27-minute appearance, Mr. Weiner went on to describe a side of his life that he had kept secret from his closest confidants and family members, befriending young female admirers over the Internet and engaging in intimate sexual banter with them, sometimes sending them racy self portraits taken with his BlackBerry.

Oh, Weiner.

But also? It’s weird behavior. It’s not clear to me that the women on the receiving end of the Weiner pics actually asked for them, or that there was ongoing banter before Weiner sent his sexy photos (having seen a handful of the photos, I use the term “sexy” loosely here). If these were ongoing relationships, I understand it a little more. But if they were largely unsolicited dick pics? That’s another basket of weasels.

I won’t even speculate how this would have been received if it were a female politician sending photos of herself in her underwear, even to someone with whom she was romantically involved.

Slutwalks and the Future of Feminism

Jessica Valenti has a great piece up at the Washington Post about sexual assault, feminism and how Slutwalks are doing their part to counter victim-blaming. But what Valenti finds most exciting about the Slutwalks — and what I do, too — isn’t the content as much as the grassroots activism and the offensive (as in playing offense) posturing:

Feminism is frequently on the defensive. When women’s activists fought the defunding of Planned Parenthood, for example, they didn’t rally around the idea that abortion is legal and should be funded. Instead, advocates assured the public that Planned Parenthood clinics provide breast exams and cancer screenings. Those are crucial services, of course, but the message was far from the “free abortion on demand” rallying cry of the abortion rights movement’s early days.

Established organizations have good reason to do their work in a way that’s palatable to the mainstream. They need support on Capitol Hill and funding from foundations and donors. But a muted message will only get us so far.

“We called ourselves something controversial,” Jarvis says. “Did we do it to get attention? Damn right we did!”
…
Unlike protests put on by mainstream national women’s organizations, which are carefully planned and fundraised for — even the signs are bulk-printed ahead of time — SlutWalks have cropped up organically, in city after city, fueled by the raw emotional and political energy of young women. And that’s the real reason SlutWalks have struck me as the future of feminism. Not because an entire generation of women will organize under the word “slut” or because these marches will completely eradicate the damaging tendency of law enforcement and the media to blame sexual assault victims (though I think they’ll certainly put a dent in it). But the success of SlutWalks does herald a new day in feminist organizing. One when women’s anger begins online but takes to the street, when a local step makes global waves and when one feminist action can spark debate, controversy and activism that will have lasting effects on the movement.

Jessica also recognizes that Slutwalks haven’t been universally embraced by feminists, and are far from perfect feminist activism. But the key, I think, is recognizing that there is no one perfect form of activism, and no one-size-fits-all feminism. Slutwalks ain’t your thing? That’s cool! Think there are problems with using the word “slut,” and that it alienates some women? Yes, that is worth addressing. But we can recognize the imperfections of Slutwalk as a movement while also recognizing that for a lot of women it’s incredibly powerful, and it is pretty cool that these walks have been springing up all over the country, organized locally by grassroots activists in their particular communities. There have been Slutwalks in more than 75 cities across North America and beyond, and there’s no organization or central group being the phenomenon. That is pretty awesome.

Check out the whole article. My favorite quote:

Emily May, the 30-year-old executive director of Hollaback, an organization that battles street harassment, plans to participate in SlutWalk in New York City in August. “Nonprofit mainstays like conferences, funding and strategic planning are essential to maintaining change — but they don’t ignite change,” she says. “It’s easy to forget that change starts with anger, and that history has always been made by badasses.”

“History has always been made by badasses.” I want that embroidered on a pillow.

Shameless Self-Promotion Sunday

Post a short description of something you’ve written this week, along with a link. Make it specific — don’t just link your whole blog.

“Forty Beads; The Simple, Sexy Secret for Transforming Your Marriage” is not what it sounds like.

Yes, the book Forty Beads; The Simple, Sexy Secret for Transforming Your Marriage does involve forty beads as a way to improve your sex life. However, none of them go into anyone’s orifices. Fooled me!

Carolyn Evans’ book Forty Beads; The Simple, Sexy Secret for Transforming Your Marriage proposes that married couples save (or merely improve) their relationships by using a token system. According to Evans’ method, the man is given 40 beads which he distributes, one bead at a time, to his wife. Each bead means he’s in the mood, and the wife has 24 hours to respond with sex. One couple interviewed on Today this morning actually said that they love the 40 beads game because, “It’s an easy way without having to communicate.” The process will improve couples’ lives because, as Evans naively points, out, “There’s nothing to fight about when everybody is happy with their sexual situation.”

Oh, man. I can’t wait to get married and just never talk to my husband. Communicating with beads is so much sexier.

Posted in Sex

Fat, Gender and Achievement

File this one under “Fat is a feminist issue“:

MUCH of the debate about the nation’s obesity epidemic has focused, not surprisingly, on food: labeling requirements, taxes on sugary beverages and snacks, junk food advertisements aimed at children and the nutritional quality of school lunches.

But obesity affects not only health but also economic outcomes: overweight people have less success in the job market and make less money over the course of their careers than slimmer people. The problem is particularly acute for overweight women, because they are significantly less likely to complete college.

We arrived at this conclusion after examining data from a project that tracks more than 10,000 people who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957. From career entry to retirement, overweight men experienced no barriers to getting hired and promoted. But heavier women worked in jobs that had lower earnings and social status and required less education than their thinner female peers.

At first glance this difference might appear to reflect bias on the part of employers, and male supervisors in particular. After all, studies find that employers tend to view overweight workers as less capable, less hard-working and lacking in self-control.

But the real reason was that overweight women were less likely to earn college degrees — regardless of their ability, professional goals or socioeconomic status. In other words, it didn’t matter how talented or ambitious they were, or how well they had done in high school. Nor did it matter whether their parents were rich or poor, well educated or high school dropouts.

The solution can’t be just promoting more healthful behaviors (although that should be Public Health 101); promoting health has to be for the point of promoting health, not to “end obesity.” And schools should be making concerted efforts to take on anti-fat bullying and counter poisonous social narratives about weight and one’s worth.

I’ve long been critical about The Obesity Crisis(TM), but of course it’s worth promoting public health initiatives that focus on health eating, and particularly on getting health food into schools. Schools shouldn’t have to sign contracts with Pepsi in order to buy books; kids, and especially lower-income kids who rely on schools to provide some of their daily meals, shouldn’t be fed over-processed high-calorie low-nutrition slop. Public education funding should be sufficient to help pay for gym teachers and sports teams. Schools and teachers shouldn’t tolerate or promote anti-fat teasing or commentary. And health-promoting initiatives should be instituted because the point of public health initiatives is to help people be healthy — not to shame people for their physical size.

Fat-hate hurts everyone, but it particularly hurts fat women. And it’s hurting fat women in very real ways — they’re poorer, less educated and less successful in the job market because of the culture of shame and judgment we’ve created around weight.

Gluten-free dishes that sound… ok.

The Times is really excited about their gluten-free recipes, which they claim are actually flavorful. Maybe they are! I’ve had Babycakes and that shit is delicious. But oh man this gluten-free craze is the worst.

Don’t get me wrong: Some number of people have legitimate gluten allergies or intolerances (I actually suspect I am slightly gluten intolerant? And also lactose-intolerant? Whatever I eat cheese and pasta anyway and just deal with getting really sick every single day) and can become extremely ill if they consume gluten. That sucks! I am sorry for you people. And lots of people try to eat gluten-free food because it just makes them feel better or they like it. Great. But “I’m allergic to gluten” seems to be the new cover for women who are basically just seeking to limit their food intake, and is almost never mentioned in any articles covering the trend of gluten-free eating. For example, the Times says:

Gluten-free baked goods have become tastier as demand for them has risen. More Americans — about 6 percent of the population, according to the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland — have found that gluten, in wheat, barley and rye, causes health problems. What had been a niche market has become mainstream.

Notice the phrasing — “causes health problems.” Not that they’re allergic to it or even sensitive. Celiac Disease is a real thing, and it sucks. But only about 1% of Americans have it. And it’s unfortunate that a legitimate intolerance to certain foods is being used as an excuse to just not eat bread (it also makes everyone more skeptical of people who claim gluten allergies).

Obviously I can’t blame women — and it seems to usually be women, as I’ve met like one dude in my life who says he’s gluten-intolerant — who claim to have gluten sensitivities for using that as a convenient excuse not to eat. There is immense social pressure to go out and eat a lot, but also to not look like you eat a lot. “I’m gluten intolerant” is, in many circles, a much more acceptable reason to forgo bread or pasta than “I’m trying to stay skinny” or “I’m on a diet.” And that is very fucked. But we should maybe be casting a bit of a jaundiced eye on the gluten-free fad. It can be great, for folks who can’t consume gluten products without getting very sick; it’s also great insofar as it makes us more creative with the food we eat, and less reliant on the same old ingredients and recipes.

But it’s not great that it’s an acceptable cover for eating issues. It’s on the same footing as veganism and other dietary restrictions — great when done right, really less great in that a whole lot of people use it as a way to avoid eating.