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

Shameless Self-Promotion Sunday

Jill

You know what to do.

69 thoughts on Shameless Self-Promotion Sunday

  1. In aid of offering a feminist take on film, I started a Mini-Marathon of Cult Horror Movies about Female Monsters — because it occurred to me that in Hollywood, even most of the monsters are male.

    In watching a lot of very cheesy films, I started to uncover fascinating themes — a subgroup of Bitchez From Outer Space who all want to have sex with men from Earth; yet another subgroup of films about women whose desire for youthful beauty leads them to experiment with questionable quack science experiments. Each of these plots says a lot about 20th century ideas about women, and offers reasons why men need to be on their guard.

    But without a doubt, my favorite subgroup has proven to be films about how My Mother Made Me A Monster. Not only are these revealing of deep antifeminist anxieties, but they’re actually pretty good films. Please read more and tell me what you think!

  9. I am co-organising an event for ‘Clit Rock’ which is on Sunday May 27th in London, UK; a night of music, education & fun at The Lexington in Islington.

    Clit Rock’s mission is to raise awareness and funds for Daughters of Eve (who are committed to preventing and eradicating Female Genital Mutilation aka FGM), we are an artistic and celebratory show of support and solidarity with those affected by FGM. Clit Rock aims to put on regular events to educate and entertain (whether via music, spoken word poetry, or drama), as well as raise money for Daughters of Eve to help them continue with the vital work they do. Their and our ultimate goal is to help bring about an end to FGM.

    WHEN: Sunday, 27 May 2012 :: 19:00 until 23:00

    WHERE: The Lexington :: 96-98 Pentonville Road, N1 9JB

    Raffle and Merch Stall! Dancing! Stomping good live music! Spoken word poetry! Clit Rock introduction from Daughters of Eve! More details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/307711645966488/

    BUY TICKETS HERE: http://daughtersofeveclitrockepisode2.eventbrite.com

  11. Today was a busy week in blogging! I had a giant SQUEE reaction to both of my countries of citizenship getting something right in the same week (France electing a socialist president, and Obama endorsing same-sex marriage).

    Then I tried to figure out why, if I never buy books, I now have so many book that I have to hide them in my closet (complete with bonus cat pictures, because I have no shame).

    I wrote a letter to Roger Ebert explaining why his “Women are Better than Men” blog post was not only incorrect, but highly problematic.

    In the past few weeks, I have discovered that yes, in fact, American Idol is still biased towards men. So in preparation for next week’s finale (where a woman might win for the first time in four years), I wrote a post about it.

    Finally! Anyone going to WisCon? (the Feminist Science Fiction convention). Here’s my schedule! (with bonus remarks about what WisCon is and why it is awesome).

  12. What You’re Really Saying When You Say that Suicide is “Selfish”–http://brutereason.net/2012/05/16/what-youre-really-saying-when-you-say-that-suicide-is-selfish/

  13. The Problem with Female Werewolves: In this piece we look at the way gender is treated when the supernatural in question is a female werewolf.

    Review of Dark Shadows : This week we look at the latest vampire movie starring Johnny Depp. By doing so, we have saved you time and money if you were considering seeing it in the theater.

    Game of Thrones, Season 2, Episode 7: A Man Without Honour : A recap and review of the latest episode of Game of Thrones.

    Review: City of Lost Souls, Book 5 of the Mortal Instruments Series : Cassandra Clare has released her latest book in the Mortal Instruments series and so of course we have thoughts on it.

  16. This week at re:Cycling,
    Chris wonders if the menstrual revolution has stalled;
    I wrote about how the FDA has appropriated the work of women’s health activists in its self-congratulatory celebration of National Women’s Health Week;
    guest writer Dr. Jerilynn Prior explains why it’s important to own the naming of women’s midlife reproductive transition, a.k.a. menopause;
    and in our regular weekend links, we’ve got how to be gynecologically prepared for the zombie apocalypse, an awesome fashion photoshoot with periods, and more.

  17. It’s Just Me [diet talk, fat shaming] — I kind of hate it when people assume: 1) that because I am fat, I am trying to lose weight; 2) that there is something wrong with me because I’m not actually losing weight.

    I’m also getting ready to start a Summer DVD Review Series… And Giveaway, focusing on yoga and fitness videos that are body-positive and (reasonably) fat-friendly.

    Athletes, Pain, & Stating the Obvious — Reacting to an article on athletes and pain tolerance as someone who is both an athlete and a person with chronic pain.

  20. My band is playing a fundraiser on June 2nd for the InTransit Empowerment Project. The show will be at the Lincoln Tap, 3010 N Lincoln Avenue in Chicago. We’re raising money for their awesome InTransit Youth Theatre, “a youth focused theatre group for young activists. It is a positive, identity affirming environment where immigrant and refugee youth can receive support, artistic training, and where they can express themselves through the arts.” For $30 you get a 4 hour all-you-can-drink wristband so you can support immigrant and refugee youth while you get drunk. They express themselves, you enjoy yourself! Not a drinker? Thats cool, too! C’mon out to the show, theres no cover but you can always make a donation to InTransit. Even if you can’t make it, invite your friends through the facebook link below.

    The bands are Sutured Psyche (hard drinking hard rock), The Peekaboos (laid back indie rock), and Grandpa vs. Grandma (groovy roots rock).

    In Transit’s Youth Program.

    Facebook Invite for the show. You can hear all the bands playing here, too!

  22. On January 8 of last year, we in Southern Arizona — and people all over the nation — were shocked when so many people were injured or killed during an assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Ron Barber, who headed Giffords’ office in Tucson, was among those wounded in the shooting, and now he is running in next month’s special election to choose a candidate to complete her term. Our exclusive interview with Ron Barber was posted on Wednesday, focusing mainly on where he stands on the “War on Women.” He will be an advocate for choice, and we hope to see him continue Gabby’s work in Washington while she focuses on her recovery.

    Yesterday, May 19, was National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day — we posted a piece in observance of the event. Some of Arizona’s first Asian Americans were Chinese immigrants who arrived in the late 1800s, often working as miners alongside European immigrants. Today, Asians and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing group in Arizona.

  28. In aid of offering a feminist take on film, I started a Mini-Marathon of Cult Horror Movies about Female Monsters — because it occurred to me that in Hollywood, even most of the monsters are male.

    In watching a lot of very cheesy films, I started to uncover fascinating themes — a subgroup of Women Monsters From Outer Space who all want to have sex with men from Earth; yet another subgroup of films about women whose desire for youthful beauty leads them to experiment with questionable quack science experiments. Each of these plots says a lot about 20th century ideas about women, and offers reasons why men need to be on their guard.

    But without a doubt, my favorite subgroup has proven to be films about how My Mother Made Me A Monster. Not only are these revealing of deep antifeminist anxieties, but they’re actually pretty good films. Please read more and tell me what you think!

  33. This coming Wednesday, May 23rd, I will host a free webinar called “Skinny dipping with snapping turtles: careers in academia.”

    This webinar is in general about challenges early career academics face and it will include some highlighting of gender specific challenges.

    If you’re considering an academic career, or if you believe your institution can treat its young researchers / assistant professors / phd students better, this webinar will include tips for you.

    Sign up for free and join the discussion. Hope to see you there!

  34. We’ve been having a debate about affirmative action for male students in Norway. Our national “Committee on gender balance in research” has recently come out in support of affirmative action for the under-represented gender in academic programs skewed worse than 30-70.

    The specific question that triggered the debate was weather boys should be given extra “points” for admission to nursing programs — just because they’re boys.

    This debate is discussed in “A sex point or two for male nurses.”

  36. I wrote a five-part series on The Modesty Myth, the myth that women can prevent men from lusting after them and that the state of a woman’s soul is partially determined by what she wears.

    Part I: I really struggled to write these posts with optimism on how we can redeem the good parts of modesty (self-respect, confidence, owning one’s body and style, etc.) with the horribly legalistic, judgmental, and incredibly body-shaming aspects of modesty, which gets even messier from the faith perspective with people shouting prooftexts at one another.

    Part II: How modesty is based on a shameful view of the female body and how it contributes to the sexual objectification of women and girls.

    Part III: How modesty upholds the double standard of sexual purity between women and men and how it contributes to unhealthy body image among women and girls.

    Part IV: How modesty seeks to police – and control – women’s bodies and how it negatively affects men, too.

    Part V: I share 6 potential solutions, including treating women as fully human, stopping slut-shaming, and encouraging both men and women to stand up against those in faith communities who teach that women can prevent men from lusting after them (which is undeniably false).

  37. So, this isn’t really *self* promotion at all, but in case you hadn’t heard, the perpetually awesome Anita Sarkeesian at Feminist Frequency is raising money to do a “Tropes vs. Women: Video Games” series, over at Kickstarter:

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/566429325/tropes-vs-women-in-video-games

    The response has been very good, and she’s just $92 away from having her 8th video funded! So, if you feel comfortable with donating & have the means, I thought I’d let you all know. (I’m not in any way affiliated with the project, just a random youtube subscriber.)

    In case some of you aren’t familiar with Anita’s work, here is one of my favorite videos:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrmRxGLn0Bk

    And here’s one from her Tropes vs. Women series for movies/TV:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnJxqRLg9x0

  40. Strip for This is my personal blog about stripping, anarchism, feminism, sex, etc.

    Disheartened with the stripping biz slowing down this Spring, and what financial failure sometimes does to my self-esteem; I must never fear, however, for goth night at a weird Steampunk bar will cure what ails me.

  43. For everyone worried about comments getting stuck in moderation: It happens a lot on Shameless Self-Promotion Sunday, since the comments tend to be more link-heavy and thus more spam-looking to our filters. As always, we try to get in and clear out the filter promptly, but it doesn’t always happen as promptly as we’d like. Your patience is appreciated. – Mgmt.

  45. This week Oklahomans for Reproductive Justice wrote about:

    Unlearning all the toxic things we were taught about STDs in sex ed: http://ok4rj.org/2012/05/stds-a-public-service-announcement/

    Periods! : http://ok4rj.org/2012/05/good-lorde-enough-with-the-periods-already/

    Medication abortion restrictions and anti-gay happenings in our state, including Congressman James Lankford being a-ok w/ employment discrimination: http://ok4rj.org/2012/05/rodeo-round-up-the-one-where-we-push-back/

  47. “Wonder Woman Wields A Speculum,” “Fifty Shades of Healthy Sex,” and “Chloroform, Cocaine, Dilators, and Electricity: The Medical Profession and the History of “Fixing” Female Sexual Dysfunction”

    Just three examples from our blog, Nursing Clio. A site written by gender and medicine historians. Check us out at http://nursingclio.wordpress.com/ and like us on Facebook!

  48. At Keep Your Bridges Burning I posted a couple quotes from Samuel Delany’s Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, about sexism in seventies porn films (his arguments aren’t the obvious ones) and about the way porn seems to have broadened the sexual horizons of the mostly working-class, mostly straight audience. It’s a great book, I think I have more quotes in the queue. I think there’s also a review of the new Stephen King book over there, too.

  49. I wrote a post about the intersection of my identity as a lesbian and a feminist. It’s a topic I hope to come back to to talk more about the objectification of women and the male gaze, but this first instalment focuses on why I identify as a feminist.

    when-feminists-attack.blogspot.com

  62. Ladies Rock Camp Vancouver

    I can’t help wondering whenever I see references to events like this, especially ones using phrases like “safe, supportive environment for women” — well, I think you know what I’m wondering.

  63. I wrote about abuse, transmisogyny, and dysfunction in Dating from the Margins: I don’t like sex.

    Thanks for this, gudbuytjane. I may be open in discussing many aspects of my life as a woman with a trans history, but not this one, so much. So I’ll just say that this really resonated with me, although I can’t even really say for sure that I don’t like sex, because it’s been so many years since I’ve had it — I’m too afraid of the process, and of the near-universal rejection I would encounter, to try anymore.

  64. Ladies Rock Camp Vancouver

    I can’t help wondering whenever I see references to events like this, especially ones using phrases like “safe, supportive environment for women” — well, I think you know what I’m wondering.

    I had a similar thought, Donna, and tracked down the main website for the event. On their policies page, I found this statement:

    Gender Policy

    Vancouver Rock Camp for Girls strives to create an empowering atmosphere for young women by challenging the stereotype that rock music is primarily played by men and for men. For this reason, it is important for our camp to create an environment where music is taught by women, for women, so that young women feel empowered to get involved in all aspects of music making. Our leadership positions are therefore open to individuals who identify as female, including trans women, in order to maintain this dynamic and present positive female role models.

    The organization welcomes the support of male-identified allies, and expects male-identified allies who would like to volunteer to respect the importance of leadership by women. Non-leadership roles are open to any individuals regardless of gender identity, and we are committed to maintaining an atmosphere of diversity, inclusion, and respect for all individuals throughout the camp.

    How well they actually do at including trans women is not clear, but there’s no explicit ban, as has happened so often.

    It might still be a good move on their part to be more proactive about advertising their trans-women-inclusive policy and ways in which they’ve lived up to it, given the nasty history of similar projects, if they really want to make sure than trans women and girls know they are included. Not knowing anything about this particular camp, it was definitely the first question that came to my mind.

  66. In re: Ladies Rock Camp Vancouver, I was not sure at first what DonnaL was wondering about, but when I saw her second comment, I started to get the idea. And then Jadey helpfully quoted from our gender policy.

    I don’t know how to prove how well we do at inclusion. People would have to see and experience it for themselves, I imagine. All I can say is that our gender policy isn’t just talk. We put it in action. I’ve seen it in action at the Portland, Oregon, camps as well.

    I didn’t write the policy, and since I have a degree in English and am an editing nerd, I might be tempted to rewrite that paragraph. I don’t think the “therefore” makes sense, as though that sentence were an inevitable consequence of the sentences before. It might make sense to have an entirely separate paragraph to state what we mean by women.

    Thanks for the feedback!

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