Kate Fridkis: 'The Pretty One': An Open Letter To Families Everywhere. This is to families everywhere: I want to ask a favor of you.
All of you. Please stop deciding which girl in the family is the prettiest. Stop deciding when she's two, or four. Stop talking about her appearance when the family gets together. Please stop pointing this girl out in photos where she's standing with her sisters or her cousins. I know women who grew up as "the pretty one. " I know women who grew up as the sister or the cousin of the pretty one. Families take pride in the beauty of their little girls.
The Last Triangle · Hair and Blood. So I’ve been thinking about periods – and no, not the punctuation kind.
That’s because I spent some time on the weekend thumbing my way through an interesting little book on menstruation. Called ‘Capitalizing on the Curse: The Business of Menstruation’, the book explores the impact that capitalist forces have had on our monthly periods. It’s by Elizabeth Arveda Kissling, a professor at Eastern Washington University. Men’s Health: Women turned on by being date raped! « Rage Against the Man-chine. Wow.
You all know I’m not that into Jezebel, but a friend tipped me off to a story they’re running today that I had to comment on. Basically, some company is advertising a product in Men’s Health that, if it actually worked, would be a date rape drug. Why I Became a Feminist, Pt. 2 « Rotten Little Girls. Www.xyonline.net. I've been thinking about homosociality a bit these past few days.
Homosociality (as explained so well in Michael Kimmel's Manhood in America) is the principle that all men, including heterosexual ones, are raised in our culture to be more eager to please other men than women. It doesn't take much in my classes to get heads nodding as the subject comes up! To use one cheap and easy example, homosociality explains the function of catcalls and wolf whistles. I've often been asked by female students why men whistle and hoot at them from construction sites and passing cars. "Why do they do it? One of the most significant difficulties (and opportunities) about pro-feminist men's work is that it challenges homosocial norms. When I was an undergraduate, I quickly mastered the "talk" of feminism. This kind of double life left me feeling ashamed and fraudulent.
It wasn't until my thirties that I grew comfortable challenging men in single-sex environments. Personal Responsibility. I went for a run after dinner tonight.
It was a beautiful night. The moon was full and I wanted to unwind after a long week of work. Sexual assault prevention tips guaranteed to work! The Rape of Mr. Smith. The Feminist Summer Reading List. Last week, an interview with Senator Al Franken inspired a list of feminist fictional heroines in books and movies that sparked quite a debate.
But it’s summer now, and lots of people are looking for good books to wade into while they relax, vacation, or take in some sun. We’ve compiled a list of good feminist reads from the members of Women Action and the Media (WAM!) , who had enough great reads to keep us busy summer after summer for the next few decades at least.General Feminist Non-Fiction:Backlash: the Undeclared War on American Women – Susan FaludiThe Body Project – Joan Jacobs BrumbergCatfight! Not Your Average Feminist: It's About People, Not Breasts. 20 Posts All Women Should Read. 8 Real Women Who Deserve Their Own Movies. Hollywood, we have to talk.
I’ve spoken to every ticket-buyer in America and we’ve all decided that you need to make more movies about badass women. Like, starting yesterday. Oh sure, every now and then you will throw us a Salt or maybe even a Salt II, but face it, Hollywood, many of your attempts at a woman-driven action movies have been half-assed at best and soul-crushingly awful at worst (see Electra, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, or, dear God, Sucker Punch). It should not be that hard, Hollywood. All we, the ticket-buying public of America want is a good story about a woman or a bunch of women who fight and shoot and do other badass things badassedly.
Don’t know where to start, Hollywood? 8. Lozen was the sister of an Apache chief. 7. A wise man once said “ending a movie summary with the phrase ‘and then he stomps the living hell out of a bunch of Nazis’ automatically makes everything about your movie better.” Mental_floss Blog » The War on Suffrage. “Nine little Suffergets, Finding boys to hate, One kisses Willie Jones, And then there are Eight.”
Ten Little Suffergets tells the sad tale of ten little girls who lose their pro-suffrage leanings when they spy shiny objects like toys, men, and the Sandman. The 1915 picture book ends with the final baby suffragette cracking her baby doll’s head open.