LEMME TELL YA ‘BOUT SPORTS

Posted on February 2, 2012 by carolinecameronb

John Walker is a Sarah Lawrence graduate who really likes the internet a lot.

So, sports.

Yeah, so, bring a book. I was gonna write something that would oh-so-subtly lead you from the theme of sports to the actual subject of my post: halftime shows. Then, I realized that I was really down to the wire in getting this piece in. Ok, so whatever, I still was totally set on my theme! AND THEN Gawker, by way of Deadspin, decided to rank every halftime show EVER on the Kinsey scale, as in assigning it a 0-6 as determined by its dad-rock to sequined riffs quotient.

Brilliant! Unless you’re me, right now. So basically, I’m not gonna fuck around with you. I’m gonna get right to the point and state loudly and clearly: I’M WRITING ABOUT MADONNA, AND YES, IT’S RELEVANT TO SPORTS. OH, AND, LET ME COUNT THE WAYS.

*ALSO I JUST NOTICED THAT I’M REALLY INTO COMMAS ATM [at the moment, not automated telling machine, IF THAT'S EVEN FOR WHAT IT STANDS #whatsgoogle]. FOR THE SAKE OF THIS PIECE, LET’S JUST SAY IT’S MY “STYLE.”*

Let’s begin:

1. Coming off of her Golden Globe win for Best Original Song, Madonna continues her comeback at the Super Bowl halftime show. Along with a medley featuring her classic hits “Ray of Light,” “Vogue,” “Music,” and “Holiday,” “The ‘Donz” [as nobody calls her] will publicly premiere her soon-to-be released single, “Give Me All Your Luvin’,” featuring Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.

This combo intrigues me, as the ~~minaj~~ ménage evokes 21 flavors of nihilism in quite unique ways. Madonna’s, while originally landing on the more hedonistic side of things, has, since 1998′s pivotal Ray of Light, performed in a cool and almost emotionless persona. M.I.A. is quite similar in her delivery, never seeming to be “trying,” so to speak, when she approaches the listener. It’s in her musical composition, especially on MAYA, that she speaks to a certain destructive quality, what with chainsaws as actual instruments and the like. More performative in her nihilism is Minaj, at least when in her Roman persona. Hers is a much more literal interpretation of destruction, which when coupled with such stony personas as Madonna and M.I.A., makes for quite the intriguing grouping.

2. As for the single itself, “Give Me All Your Luvin’” is still givin’ me 21 flavors of tingles [is this my "thing" now? ugh fml whatever I stand by it], even nearly four months following its unofficial leak.

In case you don’t know the full deal, here’s a super brief summary: someone fan in Spain leaked the song in November, litigation ensued, and most importantly John’s had a demo copy of the single to jam to since late fall.

Caught up? Good.

While not a revolutionary new step in her musical evolution, I feel like “Give Me All Your Luvin’” expertly blends together the first two periods of Madonna’s career in a seamless, effortless way. When I listen to the song, I hear hints of “Burning Up” couple with an overall undertone of “Beautiful Stranger,” and yeah, perhaps the kinetic feeling of “Ray of Light.” Using “Madonna” as a framework through which to create new work, the eponymous songstress is thrillingly post-modern, or rather, post-Madonna.

Ok, yeah, that was awful. Sorry. Ugh.

3. Maybe I’m just 8 years old (or, uh, 19) but Madonna’s new album is called M.D.N.A.

lolz.

4. Madonna’s probably going to wear fingerless gloves and/or long sleeves, because the world can’t handle the fact that she has really veiny, “unfeminine” arms. It’s really quite silly, because these underlying aspects of her physique are only visible because A) she’s in really good fucking shape, and B) the cul-tcha DEMANDS that she be so toned in the first place simply to remain relevant. It’s like, nobody would care about her if she didn’t keep herself in a sinewy state, and yet all she gets in return is: “GO HOME GRANDMA GAGA FOREVSTAT!!!!”

I would love to have that kind of muscle definition, but eh, I’m pretty happy with most of my arm-lifting being related to pouring more cabernet.

Whatever, what I really wanna talk about is: FINGERLESS GLOVES AT SUPER BOWL HALFTIME SHOWS. BECAUSE. It reminds me of what Britney Spears wore at the 2001 extravaganza, AND BY EXTENSION, what was considered cool to don at the time. I’ve been cooking this in-retrospect theory about popular fashions from late 2000 to mid-2002, and it goes something like: “DON’T WEAR ANYTHING ON YOUR DECOLLETAGE, CLEAVAGE, OR MIDRIFF. INSTEAD, DO WEAR FABRIC OVER YOUR ANKLES, WRISTS, AND ARMS.” Here are some visuals.

4. I’m really interested to see Madonna re-assert herself in a post-Lady Gaga music context. FIRST OF LET ME SAY NO DUH, LADY GAGA IS ALREADY ASSERTING, OR RATHER INSERTING HERSELF INTO A POST-MADONNA WORLD, WHICH IS A POST-THIS PERSON, POST-THAT PERSON WORLD ANYWAY. But come on. In a culture whose memory exponentially dwindles by the year, this is for all intents and purposes a “post-Lady Gaga era.”

Released in 2008, Madonna’s last album, Hard Candy was released four months, to the day, before Lady Gaga’s The Fame, at least according to Wikipedia. Gimme a break, I don’t go to school anymore. BYE BYE, CREDIBLE SOURCES TO BACK UP THE WORD COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH.

Especially considering Madonna’s recent 20/20 interview, during which she stated that comparing Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” with “Express Yourself” was, in her words, “reductive,” I’m interested how she fares.

About Madonna’s “reductive” comment, I can understand it two ways: A) Yes, “Born This Way” is a reductive reinterpretation of “Express Yourself,” seeing as how Lady Gaga is taking in many ways the rubric set forth by her predecessor and yet not quite delivering the punch; and B) The question itself – “Is Lady Gaga copying you, Madonna?” – is a reductive manner in which to view pop culture, female icons, and even interviews, seeing as how the interviewer [WHO DIDN’T EVEN KNOW WHAT REDUCTIVE MEANS] could have asked Madonna ANYTHING, and she focused on “Is Lady Gaga copying you?”

*PS – Can you tell how much I struggled not to say “Gaga” or “Madge?” I just don’t like “Gaga” minus the “Lady,” and who the eff calls Madonna “Madge” IRL??

5. I’ll work on being coherent, should we meet again.

6. GO PATS!

WELCOME TO THE SPORTS ISSUE!

Featured

Posted on February 1, 2012 by carolinecameronb

HELLO AGAIN!

I know it’s been a hot minute, but we are back from winter break refreshed and ready to explore all sorts of new feminist territory!

That being said –despite the risk of adhering to stereotypical gender norms by stating my truth—I don’t “do” sports. And when I say I don’t “do” sports, I mean I don’t watch, participate, or even think about them. It’s just not something that I’ve ever been interested in. That’s not to suggest I consciously reject all things athletic—in fact, some of my closest friends, both male and female, are athletes who live for their respective sports—it’s just not a part of my lifestyle. Well, not unless you count watching Basketball Wives as sporty, because I’d get the gold medal in that event.

Being an academic and a fashionist, I’ve managed to float through life relatively oblivious to what’s going on in athletics. However, SPORTS is all anyone can seem to talk about lately and this time it’s hitting close to home. Sarah Lawrence College—our predominately female, gender-integrated academic home base—has recently generated all sorts of controversy for its decision to enter the NCAA. It was a surprising move for a school that has built its tremendous academic caliber on, well, not being competitive outside of the admissions process. The school’s diminishing endowment and its notoriously high tuition have left the student body contemplating whether the $150,000 NCAA entrance fee is really money well spent for an institution that prides itself on scholastics. Or more confusingly, what does this imply about the type of prospective student the college is hoping to attract?

The logic seems simple to me: NCAA accreditation draws a more specific type of applicant, which in turn increases the college’s famously-low male population, and ends with the desired co-educational experience the school has been seeking since the late-1960s—when it began admitting men.

Because all of the student-athletes were admitted to the school on their scholarly merit, it was hard to imagine the effects of such a transition. One such athlete eloquently echoed the scholarly sentiment of the student body: “I understand that Sarah Lawrence is feeling the pressure to join from most of our academic competition. Bard, Vassar, and NYU all offer NCAA competition as a product of student demand . . . but none of those schools [entered] under the motivations that SLC has made clear to the public: money and applications.” In actuality, only time will truly tell the outcome of the school’s decision, and it’s way too soon in the game to be making foul calls, right?

The Super Bowl is this month (thanks for letting me know, Beth K.) and despite knowing very little about what that really means (except that Velveeta cheese will be on sale everywhere) I feel it’s due time for the SPORTS ISSUE of Re/Visionist! This month we tackle (pun intended) everything from female marathon runners to the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre, with a whole lot of healthy athletic debate in between. So let’s warm up those extraocular muscles and on your mark, get set . . . you know the drill.

Oh, and speaking of drills, CHEERLEADING IS A SPORT, asshole. Obviously.

Caroline

THE RE/VISIONIST SPORTS ISSUE:

The Women Who Endure x Emma Staffaroni

I Love That You Hate Me for Being a Cheerleader x Brianna Leone

Screw You, Tim Tebow x Katy Gehred

Ten Question with Carolyn Miles

Intercontinental Musings x Kelly Banbury

The Only Thing Chuck Bass Has to Say About Sports x Jamie Agnello

LEMME TELL YA /BOUT SPORTS x John Walker

Weekly Feminist Smorgasbord: Vanity Fair, Anti-Choice Race for the Cure, & Jay-Z’s Political Correctness

Posted on February 1, 2012 by staffarizzle

Happy 2012! We’re back after a long winter break. Here’s a little of what has been going on in feminisms around the web.

Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue emphasizes fresh white faces. via Jezebel

Vanity Fair has done it again–as per their tradition, they have relegated actresses of color to the hidden fold on their “Fresh Young Stars” of Hollywood cover. Jezebel spells out their egregious trend.

This piece is a few weeks old, but it is an excellent analysis of the parallels between female genital mutilation (FGM) and breast augmentation surgery. via RH Reality Check

The Globe and Mail explores the politics of the b-word, imagining Jay-Z’s lyrics without it after his statement that having daughter means he will no longer use the word. Samhita Mukhopadhyay from feministing.com is quoted:

“There’s an idea that being politically correct ruins art. You don’t want something raw like the lyrical mastery of Jay-Z to be diluted by these PC notions – that women are humans too. … But if we think of the basic reality that women are humans as ‘politically correct,’ we’ve got a major problem.”

Colorlines investigates Microsoft’s new app that provides pedestrians with the “safest” route through neighborhoods–unofficially known as the “Avoid Ghetto App.” It has raised a major controversy over the source of its (racialized) stats on violent crime. As Jamilah King puts it, this app “begs the larger question of how and why technology perpetuates systemic racism, and why consumers should care.”

Mother Jones reports that the founder of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is a major Republican donor, lobbyist, and member–she even served as an ambassador under George W. Bush. Surprise, surprise–she and her organization are staunchly anti-choice.

Jeffrey Goldberg tells us how to spot racism in the Republican campaigns. According to him, “This presidential election will be one of the most race-soaked in recent history.” Here’s a little sample of the kinds of assessments of the black community we can expect from the GOP [trigger warning]:

“[T]he pathologies afflicting black Americans are caused partly by the Democratic Party, which has created in them a dependency on government not dissimilar to the forced dependency of slaves on their owners.”

And here’s why Caitlin Flanagan’s should make you shudder. Her new book, Girl Land, proposes 19th-century notions of gender roles as a way to save girls. Bitch magazine makes quotes from the book mildly tolerable with cat photos. Here Flanagan is on the Colbert Report in 2006. via Feminist Ryan Gosling.

Keep your eyes out for the February Issue of re/visionist, coming very soon!

Weekly Feminist Smorgasbord: All-American Muslim, Victim-Blaming Ad Campaign & “Muscular Empathy”

Posted on December 15, 2011 by staffarizzle

via feministryangosling.tumblr.com

In an attack on women of color’s reproductive freedoms, anti-choice members of Congress have pushed for a bill called the “Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act,” which seeks to prevent women of color from attaining abortions in the name of “civil rights.” Clarification: Neither Susan B. Anthony nor Frederick Douglass would have supported this BS.

In some of the most public displays of Islamophobia in recent months, companies pull their advertising from a new reality show, “All-American Muslim,” after the Florida Family Association (FFA) campaigned about the “dangers” of depicting Muslim Americans living normal lives. Colorlines indicts the bigotry of the association and the companies who support the campaign, including Lowe’s.

Feministing breaks down the victim-blaming and just downright disturbing “rape prevention” campaign at “ControlTonight.org”, targetting — you guessed it — young women victims. Same old ridiculous narrative: the raped person should control the rapist’s urge to rape by NOT going out and drinking. The ad’s image itself is a trigger warning, so be prepared to fume with anger.

Ta-Nehisi Coates responds to the Forbes article, “If I Were A Poor Black Kid.” It’s entitled, “Muscular Empathy,” and explores one of the greatest challenges an historian faces, let alone a human being: empathy with people from very different circumstances than ourselves. Here’s an excerpt:

This basic extension of empathy is one of the great barriers in understanding race in this country. I do not mean a soft, flattering, hand-holding empathy. I mean a muscular empathy rooted in curiosity. If you really want to understand slaves, slave masters, poor black kids, poor white kids, rich people of colors, whoever, it is essential that you first come to grips with the disturbing facts of your own mediocrity. The first rule is this–You are not extraordinary. It’s all fine and good to declare that you would have freed your slaves. But it’s much more interesting to assume that you wouldn’t and then ask “Why?”

An excellent book review of Melissa Harris-Perry’s book, Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America, at the literary blog Isak. Anna Clark writes:

Harris-Perry is at her strongest when she breaks down the devastating and unseen culture of shame that is put upon and often internalized by black women; it is fed by a dangerous form of misrecognition that harms both individuals and societies. Harris-Perry is nuanced in her understanding of shame not only manifesting as a sort of shrinking-away, but in the compensating “strong black woman” stereotype that seems positive, but leaves little room for the full scope of human vulnerability. Shame, then, serves as a kind of social control.

Robin Lim, an American midwife who has served thousands of Indonesian women in their births, is CNN’s Hero of the Year.

Check out Katha Pollitt’s analysis of the HHS Secretary’s decision to limit access to the Plan B emergency contraceptive.

Sebelius claims that her reason is that the FDA didn’t show that 11-year-old girls, some 10 percent of whom are fertile, understand how to follow the EC directions….If a sixth grader can’t understand those elementary, crystal-clear instructions, we should just move back to the caves, because civilization is finished.

Weekly Feminist Smorgasbord: Plan B, Feminist Art, & “Gaslighting”

Posted on December 8, 2011 by staffarizzle

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Hair Cut Off, 1940.

Bitch media does a series on feminism in art: they ask, “How did you discover Feminist Art?” Frida Kahlo (<3) and Judy Chicago get shout-outs! Go and post your own feminist artists of choice.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius meddled in the FDA’s decision to make emergency contraception, Plan B, available without prescription to all women of childbearing age. Without a prescription, young women younger than 17 will not be able to access this vital health service. No health secretary has done something like this before, and it will surely have negative ramifications in the upcoming elections. Read the FDA’s statement here, and Sebelius’ statement here.

The best thing I’ve read this week: social critic and feminist Yashar Ali published his “Message to Women from a Man: You Aren’t ‘Crazy’” at Huffington Post. He recoins the psychological term “gaslighting,” or manipulative behavior that causes others to think they are crazy when they are not– this, he says, is what men do to women when they tell them, “Calm down,” “Relax,” “You’re overreacting.” Brilliant.

A study finds that abstinence-only education does NOT work. In case it wasn’t already obvious, here are some statistics of all the damage done by this unhealthy and unscientific mandate. via Slate.

At Jezebel, Hugo Schwyzer explores the stereotype that “sisterhood is easier in the winter.” It is all based, he says, on the “myth of male weakness.”

Here’s some warped logic for you: right-wing group “Concerned Women for America” has announced that they do not support abortion access for women in the military who have been raped–because– the abortion will just “distract” from the crime. Huh? Here’s a direct quote from the organization: “Women deserve better than simply being given an abortion as a ‘cure-all.’” Read Amanda Marcotte’s analysis.

The newest development in the Occupy movement: Occupy Our Homes. Since December 6th, activists across the country have been focusing their protests on the mortgage crisis and foreclosure. From The Nation:

“To occupy a house owned by Bank of America is to occupy Wall Street,” said Ryan Acuff, who has been working with Take Back The Land in Rochester, NY doing these kinds of actions since Sept 2010. “We are literally occupying Wall Street in our own communities.” The reclamation of foreclosed homes and defense of individuals facing unfair eviction helps make arcane economic issues like deregulation and securitization, local and personal.

Let’s banish the word “bossy” from our vocabulary.

Weekly Feminist Smorgasbord: An Anti-Racist Dating Book, NPR’s “Living Large” Series, & Brave Uses of Free Speech

Posted on November 30, 2011 by staffarizzle

photo credit: Bitch media

So much feminist news to catch up on! Enjoy.

My favorite story of the week: Fox News is apparently worse than no news at all. via GOOD magazine.

The wonderful Samhita over at Feministing wrote an unconventional and feminist dating advice book. Racialicious applauds her deconstruction of exoticism, anti-interracial dating narratives, and the pressures on cis-gendered men. (There’s a long excerpt in the review, too.)

American-Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy courageously shares her story of being sexually and physically assaulted by Egyptian police in Tahrir Square. via The Guardian [trigger warning]:

“I was taking pictures and covering events on the frontline of confrontations between protesters and the police and the military and a group of five or six riot police beat me, and surrounded me and rained their big sticks down on my arms. I was trying to protect myself.

“They also sexually assaulted me. They dragged me to the ministry of the interior. They dragged me by the hair and called me all sorts of insults. And this all happened in about seven to eight minutes.”

Another, quite different, brave use of 1st amendment rights: Emma Sullivan, an 18-year-old high school student from Kansas, overtly and shamelessly criticized her state’s Republican governor, Sam Brownback, for his homophobic and anti-choice politics. She was sent to the principal’s office for her comment made on Twitter that he “sucks”– but as she says, “I wasn’t sorry for what I said because I meant it.”

NPR has a series called “Living Large: Obesity in America.” Let me just list you a few of their headlines, all cringe-worthy for the fat-positive and body-positive community:

-Losing Weight: A Battle Against Fat and Biology
-One Woman’s Struggle to Shed Weight, and Shame
-Why Doctors and Patients Talk Around Growing Waistlines
-For Obese, Intimate Lives Often Suffer
-Corporations Offer Help in Trimming the Waist

Notice any patterns? Shame, lose weight, trim your waist, waistline, suffer, shame, shame, bad, bad. Might as well read Cosmo. Read Tiger Beatdown’s excellent analysis of the lack of critical treatment of body size in this series.

credit: feministryangosling.tumblr.com

Can’t believe I haven’t posted this here yet. Feminist Ryan Gosling, created by a PhD candidate in Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of Wisconsin. It’s FLASH CARDS of dense feminist theory, in a cute package! Here’s an interview with the creator, who responds to the question, Why do you think this is so popular?

Feminists are apparently not supposed to have a sense of humor. I think people are really liking the fact that this site is intelligent while simultaneously silly, and obviously self-referential. A lot of my followers are women’s studies majors, or people who have taken women’s studies classes, and love seeing inside jokes presented in this way. For example, if you’re a women’s studies major, you’ve probably read “The Yellow Wallpaper” at least 18 times. Now matter how much you like that story, it gets a little ridiculous.

A little politics-of-the-c-word action for ya! Comedian Sarah Mathews writes about her mixed (but ultimately positive) feelings in Guernica magazine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 23, 2011 by staffarizzle

The OWS kitchen group at Zuccotti Park will be serving over 3000 Thanksgiving dinners tomorrow.

Although the smorgasbord is on break this week, here are a couple of articles for Thanksgiving preparation: how to talk to your relatives about feminism, anti-racism, and other related subjects.

Planned Parenthood has some tips on how to have a conversation, not a shouting match, with your anti-choice family member(s).

Colorlines aptly notes that it is certain folks’ privilege that allows them to “avoid” certain topics at the family dinner table:

If you identity with the ubiquitous 99 percent, you’ve probably come to realize that you’re not well served by all the silence. In fact, this Thanksgiving, you may actually want to ruffle a few feathers. Or at least, not let anyone ruffle yours and get away with it.

Read their guide to rewriting the etiquette on discussing race this Thanksgiving.

I know I personally am grateful for feminism this holiday; thanks to our foremothers, the women AND men in my family will be contributing to our big Thanksgiving meal–and they’ll both be doing the dishes. Woot!

Weekly Feminist Smorgasbord: Shame-Free Sex, Katie Roiphe (Eye-Roll), and Twilight

Posted on November 20, 2011 by staffarizzle

The brilliant Jaclyn Friedman, feminist activist and writer, has finally come out with her new book, What You Really Really Want:The Smart Girl’s Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety. Read a review at Where is your line? and an interview with Friedman at Feministing. Now I know what I’m getting everybody for Xmas/Hannukah.

To paraphrase Rachel Maddow, this is the Best New Thing this week. Maddow introduces us to the OWS “bat signal”:

Anti-feminist journalist Katie Roiphe reduces sexual harassment in the workplace to “dirty jokes and risque remarks” in her NY Times opinion column last Sunday. Tiger Beatdown aptly gives her a “slow clap” of disapproval:

At no point does she address how not fun and amazing sexual harassment is for people whose intersecting identities make them a target for harassers who want to exploit their lack of institutional power. The workplace Roiphe is commenting on is some fake workplace, in which sexual harassment never goes too far, never impedes anyone’s ability to do their job, and never creates collateral damage for those employees least able to fight back. She does not see fit to address the cost levied against the targets of sexual harassment, who are likely to see their creativity, productivity, and standing within the company deteriorate.

Sexist B.S. Award of the Week: A mother in Michigan was publicly shamed and asked to leave a courtroom because she was breastfeeding her sick 5-month-old son. When the judge condescendingly asked her if she felt it was appropriate to be nursing in the courtroom, she responded:

I said, “Considering the fact that my son is hungry, and he’s sick, and the fact that it’s not illegal, I don’t find it inappropriate … And the judge said something to the effect of ‘It’s my court, it’s my decision and I do find it inappropriate.’”

Raise your hand if Bella, the protagonist of the Twilight book and movie series, makes your feminist soul writhe in pain! GOOD magazine offers fans of young adult fantasy fiction a list of “what to read instead of Twilight.”

GOOD magazine's awesome "no charts" serve this topic well.

But Sarah Blackwood at The Hairpin has another view on the series in her piece “Our Bella, Ourselves.” She argues that Bella’s passivity and the “gothic” depiction of her pregnancy in the series “has the potential to revitalize a number of our larger conversations about feminism, especially those related to sex, pregnancy, desire, and autonomy.” She writes:

Gestation, birth, and motherhood are gothic emotional and physical states in which many of one’s most carefully considered intellectual stances and commitment to autonomy are challenged and often dismantled. Even more importantly, these are topics not much talked about in young adult fiction aimed at teenaged girls, which means that, perhaps in the name of empowerment and feminism, we have omitted a major aspect of women’s lives from the very narratives through which girls come to deepen their understanding of how to live in the world.

Here’s your new desktop background: Benneton’s new “UNHATE” campaign. Check it out.

Victory for a Roma woman who was forcibly sterilized in Slovakia and has been awarded €43,000 as a result of her human rights appeal. This is a huge step forward for global reproductive justice, as it is the first time Strasbourg’s European Court of Human Rights has taken up a case of forced sterilization.

Weekly Feminist Smorgasbord: ‘Fetal Personhood’ Voted Down, Penn State’s Shameful Rioting, and Women Speak Up

Posted on November 11, 2011 by staffarizzle

VICTORY in Mississippi! via http://www.urbanchristiannews.com/

A major victory for women’s right and anti-racist activism: Mississippi’s attempted “Personhood Amendment,” which would have defined a fertilized egg as a human being, was voted down on Tuesday. Woohoo!!! Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones tells us why it failed. President Obama publicly affirms the importance of this victory.

And another good move from our President: speaking at the National Women’s Law Center annual dinner, he openly criticizes Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood AND describes the reprecussion of the recession on women’s lives and jobs. Emily Douglas at The Nation quotes Obama saying:

“These issues that primarily affect women are not just women’s issues,” he said. “When women make less than men for the same work, that hurts the entire family. …When a healthcare plan denies woman coverage because of a pre-existing condition, that puts a strain on emergency rooms, drives up healthcare costs for everybody. When any of our citizens can’t fulfill their potential because of factors that have nothing to do with their talent, or their character, or their work ethic, that diminishes us.”

Courtney Martin writes about this disturbing new wave of sexual assault and harassment cases in the media. The silver lining, she says, is that women are speaking up.

The voters have spoken! Arizona’s anti-immigrant demogogue Russel Pearce has been recalled–the first time in the history of the state that a politician has been ousted.

An interview at The Rumpus with newly-wed New Yorkers Kelebohile Nkhereanye and Renee Boyd, originally from the African country of Lesotho, who are reaping the benefits of NY’s new gay marriage law. They answer the question, “What does marriage mean to you?”

In response to the news that Penn State students rioted to defend their football coach, who has been fired for covering up information about child sexual abuse, Jill at Feministe furiously reminds us that these egregious riots tell a much more disturbing, big-picture story about sports culture [trigger warning]:

It’s not just one guy raping little boys. It’s a culture that values a game over basic bodily integrity and physical health; it’s a culture that values that game over education, even at an institution of higher learning. Of course, in the context of that culture, a child rapist is going to get a pass if he’s integral to the game. Of course people are going to cover for him, or look the other way, or make small changes so that they can feel better but don’t actually go to law enforcement, which might threaten the game.

via Racialicious:

Kate Harding writes about fat acceptance and body love, recounting her own experience with the “fantasy of being thin.”

Weekly Feminist Smorgasbord: Remembering the Ms. Revolution, the History of ‘Personhood’, and Umbrellas

Posted on November 3, 2011 by staffarizzle

The first cover of Ms. magazine, Spring 1972.

In honor of its 40th birthday, a fabulous tribute to Ms. magazine at NY Mag. My favorite tid-bit: some of the proposed titles for Ms. included Everywoman, Sisters, Lilith, Sojourner, Female, A Woman’s Place, The First Sex, and The Majority. Plus the article is structured as an oral history, with insights from the pioneers themselves. From Mary Peacock, one of the founding editors:

When Ms. started, you couldn’t pick up the phone and say, “Ms. Magazine,” because what people heard was “Mmzzz” and they’d ask, “What are you saying?” This would happen 25 times a day. So when we picked up the phone, we said each letter separately: “M-S magazine.” But gradually something changed—I could shoot myself that I can’t remember when it changed, because it was a huge watershed: Suddenly you could say “Ms.,” and everybody knew what you were talking about.

And also at NY Mag – the feminist blogosphere! Holllllaaaa! Emily Nussbaum uses blogs to show how far the movement has come since the days of Ms.:

Subjects recurred from early feminism, including outrage at sexual violence. But there were also striking differences: While seventies feminists had little truck with matrimony, feminist bloggers lobbied for gay marriage. There were deconstructions of modern media sexism, including skeptical responses to the “concern-trolling” of older women who made a living denouncing the “hookup epidemic.” There was new terminology: “slut-shaming,” “body-snarking,” “cisgender.” And there were other cultural shifts as well: an acceptance (and sometimes a celebration) of porn, an interest in fashion, and the rise of the transgendered-rights movement, once seen as a threat, now viewed as a crucial part of sexual diversity.

Barbara Ehrenreich on OWS and homelessness–reminding us that the messy conditions faced by protesters are a daily reality for many Americans. She asks, why aren’t our cities legally required to find accomodations for homeless folks? It is a deeply troubling contradiction:

LA’s Skid Row endures constant police harassment, for example, but when it rained, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had ponchos distributed to nearby Occupy LA.

A recent history of the radical anti-choice movement from Pema Levy at The American Prospect. Her piece puts Mississippi’s possible “Personhood Amendment,” or Issue 26, into perspective, showing that while “personhood” was once something that divided “prolife” organizations, it is now a concensus. Read more about Issue 26 here.

Also, Nick Kristof breaks it all down and builds it back up with his defense of birth control and family planning in the NY Times. Here’s something to tattoo on yourself: “Contraceptives no more cause sex than umbrellas cause rain.” BOOM.

House Democrats have filed an amicus brief against the anti-LGBT rights Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), arguing that DOMA undermines the stable family structure that children need to thrive by denying married gay and lesbian couples federal marriage benefits. Hell yeah–but it’s not just for the kids’ sake, right Dems?

“I’ve been protesting what’s been going on on Wall Street for a long time.” -Elizabeth Warren showing her support for the OWS movement at a speech in Brockton, MA, Wednesday evening. Watch this video and read about how she eloquently handled some Tea Party b.s. during the speech. [Favorite part: As the Tea Party dude is leaving, members of crowd shout, "Thanks for coming!" as others boo.]

Courtney Martin (love her) writes brilliantly about the golden opportunity presented by this economic crisis– for gender interdependence and greater equity. While Americans may be putting together the pieces of the global puzzle on issues like globalization, economic inequality, and climate change, there is still little reference to gender liberation, Martin argues.

Of course men’s liberation is tied up in women’s. Men, particularly those operating within a traditional Western context, have missed out on some of the most exhilarating parts of being human for far too long—authentic expression of emotion, the joys of being a present parent, intimate relationships with other men in which they can show up as their whole, vulnerable selves. Likewise, they have suffered from tremendous pressure to make money, to appear eternally strong, to wedge their diverse interests, passions, and reactions into the narrow box of socially acceptable masculinity.

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