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| Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 | 9:44 am
[selfish]
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Magazine feature about women in metal music
Hola, hei, hello,
I’m a Seattle-based freelance writer, and I’m currently working on a feature-length piece for Bitch magazine about female metal musicians and fans. The article will discuss women’s history of influence in metal music across subtypes and scenes – from black metal to thrash and beyond – along with an analysis of critique in rock journalism, academic writing and fanzines. But, to make all of my analysis and history interesting and compelling, I really want to talk with musicians and fans. I want to know why you play or listen to metal, what it means to you and how it interplays with your experiences as a feminist. Maybe you have an anecdote that you’d love to share. Really, I’m open to most anything feminist metal musicians and fans would like to give voice to.
If you’re interested, drop me a line at jennyroseryan at gmail dot com and tell me a little about yourself: name, hometown, age, what bands you’re into and scenes you follow and what sort of experiences you’ve had where your fandom and musicianship mixed with your feminism. We'll go from there.
Thanks so much! | | Monday, February 25th, 2008 | 2:11 pm
[selfish]
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Thai feminists
I'm working and writing in Thailand in June, and I'm hoping to speak with one or two (or more, if a theme arises) Thai feminists. I don't have an agenda at this point, other than to start a conversation with Thai feminist activists about what that means to Thai women, to equality, to day to day life, etc. Once I determine a theme, I'm pitching story ideas to the magazines with which I work, and then, when there, I'll hopefully meet with the people with whom I've already spoken/emailed. While there, I will likely be able to provide a translator, too.
So, my question is, whom shall I contact? I could google for hours, but I'm always more keen on personal experiences and recommendations than the intarwebs. I'm hoping to speak with feminists of a broad breadth of ages and experiences and who would be open to talking with an american journalist.
Any suggestions or help will be considered and appreciated! | | Thursday, May 17th, 2007 | 12:33 am
[selfish]
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Sassiness
Sometimes I feel sassy. Sometimes I just want to say what I think about things: abortion, fertility, society, sexism, art, craftiness, DIY community, work-a-day crap....
This is totally off-topic... but I thought I might find company. Any of you just ever feel sassy? Sometimes I just want to start a radical sassiness group filled with tough women who know what they think, what they want and how they need to band together to get it...
Maybe this is all because I'm almost 30 and, while not ineffectual by any means, feeling a resurgence of radicalism in my veins. Who's with me? I'll start a community. We'll start with minor things. And we'll have pot-lucks and craft trades and meet-ups. Who's with me? | | Saturday, December 16th, 2006 | 3:23 pm
[gmalivuk]
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| | Wednesday, October 26th, 2005 | 6:30 pm
[godbecomeanimal]
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I humbly request your assistance
Hello, everyone. I beg your pardon but I'm in need of your help.
My sister is 13. After a relatively "normal" upper-middle-class
childhood she is now starting to get a lot of static from her mom (my
stepmom) for not being normal enough.
My stepmom used to encourage her to wear makeup, but now it's too dark.
She doesn't dress normal enough. My sister doesn't want to be a
carbon-copy of girls her age. She pointed out that her peers idolize
Paris Hilton, to which my stepmom replied, "what's so wrong with that?"
Though we live in separate provinces I talked to her tonight for a
couple hours and she seems seriously troubled about all of this. She
thinks life is infinitely screwed up and is getting no support
whatsoever from our parents.
I went though a similar thing at her age, but I had different issues. I
just read a ton of French Existentialism, and I don't want her to turn
out like me.
I think the members of this community can empathize with her. And this
is my change to show her some ideas that she's never been exposed to in
her bourgeoise upbringing. Keeping in mind her age, can anyone suggest any literature, music, websites, anything I can pass on to her to help her?
Topics ranging from feminism to activism to media, whatever you think
would work. A Google search for "feminism for girls" proved fruitless.
I don't want to tell her what to think, I just want to show her that there is more to the world than she has been shown.
Thanks in advance.
Dan. | | Monday, October 24th, 2005 | 9:27 pm
[loverain]
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menstruation articles Anyone have links to interesting articles on menstruation. Preferably through the feminist lens & that discusses the body as a site of alienation & socially constructed experimental medicalization. But anything do to with the menses is good too. Thank you so much. Also, any of you in the Toronto area wish to be in a documentary about menstruation please contact me & I'll give you more details ! | | Wednesday, September 14th, 2005 | 8:11 am
[chaizzilla]
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Canadian women fought the law, and won http://www.suntimes.com/output/hunter/cst-ftr-scribble14.html
September 14, 2005
BY S. JENNIFER HUNTER( . ) In 1991, the Ontario government passed the Ontario Arbitration Act, which allowed Jews and Christians to take civil and marital cases before religious arbitration. Rabbis could then adjudicate fights over inheritances and priests over disputes between parishes. Muslim groups in Ontario, quite understandably, wanted the same rights. Ontario had thus backed itself into a corner. It was forced to either undo the Arbitration Act or give Muslims the same latitude as Jewish and Christian mediators. In fact, the discussion about including Sharia law brought protests from Orthodox Jewish women who claimed the Arbitration Act took away some of their rights. So the government did the only right thing. Last Sunday, the premier of the province, Dalton McGuinty, said Ontario will ban all faith-based arbitrations. ( . ) | | Wednesday, June 8th, 2005 | 8:27 pm
[neitherday]
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| | Saturday, May 14th, 2005 | 12:33 pm
[spasticforklift]
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Just some thoughts.
Do you think that republican feminists exist?
I'm curious because when I was studying womens studies this past semester at college, we discussed how feminists support feminists causes...and if people don't support feminist causes, they are by default not feminists. It was in the context of a discussion about lifestyle feminism-whereby people think that just because they are women and they work and they support 'equal pay', they are feminists.
The example that was brought up was that some women will say they are feminists but they are anti-choice and do not support reproductive freedoms, etc.
Feminisms were born from liberal political philosophies. So does someone being politically conservative and trying to say they are feminists just because they are women hinder or help feminist causes? | | Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005 | 6:12 pm
[chaizzilla]
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Exterminate The Men Honoring America’s Only Genuine Feminist By John Dolan
http://www.exile.ru/2005-April-22/exterminate_the_men.htmlThe recent death of Andrea Dworkin didn't even make the small print news in Russia. Feminism, at least the feminism of the kind Westerners take for granted, never caught on. Patronizing Westerners often see that as a sign that Russians are culturally too primitive. Russians, particularly Russian women -- and particularly the Russian female intelligentsia -- literally laugh and roll their eyes when you mention feminism of the American or West European brand. The reason is fairly simple: Russians haven't quite learned the Western art of sloganeering for radical philosophy without meaning a word of what they say. A Russian woman would assume that if you're a feminist, you'd actually have to live out the philosophy. In that sense, Andrea Dworkin was, in her own way, the only "Russian" feminist in America -- and that is why she was so hated. ( Read more... ) | | Monday, April 18th, 2005 | 1:52 pm
[suu]
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| | Monday, April 4th, 2005 | 4:04 pm
[d_r_love]
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Hello!
I am in a 'social movements' class and have chosen the 'Riot GRRRLS' as my social movement, since I had a lot of info etc.
Here's what I need though.
I need to interview a riot grrrl
I would prefer to interview someone who was involved in the movement during its peak, while bikini kill was still together, maybe someone who went to the conference?!
It is due on THURSDAY
Yep. i'm a procrastinator who would have guessed.
So if you don't mind answering a few questions over the internet or by phone just drop me a line (before wed.)and include your email address.
Thank you sooo much!! | | Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005 | 5:43 pm
[prettykate]
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YEAH NEW JERSEY! MAN NEW JERSEY, WAY TO BE AWESOME! Yesterday, Governor Codey signed a bill into law requiring hospitals and satellite emergency departments to provide information on emergency contraception (EC) and the EC regimen to sexual-assault survivors. EC, also known as the morning-after pill, is a high-dosage of birth control pills that can prevent unintended pregnancy if taken within days of unprotected intercourse or sexual assault. Unlike the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which continues to drag its feet on making EC available over-the-counter, New Jersey has taken a leadership role in widening access to it, becoming the seventh state to enact this kind of law. Please thank Governor Codey today for supporting compassionate care for survivors of sexual assault in New Jersey. You can take action on this alert via the web at: http://prochoiceaction.org | | Sunday, March 20th, 2005 | 11:22 pm
[ms_sugarstar] |
Alice Walker's The Color Purple
Okay, so I've been given this coursework to do for my English Lit A Level and though I have my argument mainly sussed I'd appreciate a little help in expressing my viewpoint (particularly in the second point), if anyone's read the novel. Basically we were asked to respond to the following:
"Walker's message in "The Color Purple" has been summarised as "Sisterhood is beautiful, and Men stink". With reference to text and to other critics give your response."
Of course, I absolutely, categorically refute this statement and I will take great pleasure in dismantling this prick's criticism piece by piece. I have two major major bones of contention with it, as follows:
1. In the novel, Walker examines gender roles, and on many occasions and in numerous ways she dismantles them. Her message is pretty straightforward: men and women are not all that different, gender roles are restrictive and the tasks, activities and personality traits formerly attributed either to one gender or another exclusively can be enjoyed and shared by anyone regardless of gender.*
With this in mind (ie. Walker argues we shouldn't polarise the genders), for Walker to then turn around and imply that overall, women are completely one way (good) and men are the opposite (bad/evil) goes completely against her message in the novel and her political beliefs as a feminist.
2. While the novel does explicitly highlight women's oppression at the hands of men, there are enough positive representations of men to counteract the impression that men "stink". Anyone who doesn't agree is ignoring the fact that the novel is written by a Black Women about a Black Woman who faces oppression on account of the fact that she is a Black Woman. As an activist in both the Civil Rights and Feminist movements, as well as being a black woman herself, Walker is extremely well placed to comment on the oppression of black women. As I have mentioned above, she already expresses the view that men are oppressed by rigid gender roles, and by liberating women from their gender roles she automatically liberates men as well.
However, she is not a spokesperson for men, black or white.
I see Walker as part of the Third Wave of feminism - tellingly, her daughter Rebecca founded the Third Wave Foundation - and she definitely seems to place herself within it too by calling herself a "womanist" ie. a black feminist, distancing herself from the 2nd wave's domination by white, middle-class women and the tendancy to lump together all women together. A key element of modern 3rd wave feminism is that you cannot act as spokesperson for anyone else - a white woman cannot speak on behalf of a black women, straight people cannot speak on behalf of gay people, etc. Given this background, how can Walker possibly be expected to act as a representative of black men?
Any help would be much appreciated folks! Any points to add, any way I could have expressed it better, etc...
*(A few examples: Shug and Sophia don't conform to traditional expectations of women - Shug is sexually confident and outspoken, Sophia is physically and emotionally strong; Harpo enjoys domesticity and suffers when trying to conform to traditional masculinity; Albert sews; and some women hate cooking (Celie) while others love it (Shug)) | | Wednesday, March 9th, 2005 | 10:48 pm
[chaizzilla]
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Cash offer to one-girl families http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4333159.stmWednesday, 9 March, 2005, 14:47 GMT By Omer Farooq, BBC News, Hyderabad Families having a single girl child in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh will be given 100,000 rupees ($2,300) in an attempt to boost the female population. The money will be given to the child when she turns 20 and both parents would have to undergo verified birth control operations. ( Read more... ) | 11:50 am
[chaizzilla]
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| | Monday, February 21st, 2005 | 4:53 pm
[gmalivuk]
|
Another letter, this time about the Vagina Monologues (x-posted) Victoria Edwards seems to have missed the point of the Vagina Monologues ( 'Monologues' shock and inform, 2/21/05). This is demonstrated most significantly in her statement that "the repeated images of sexual violence became...extraneous." How are images of violence extraneous to a program whose purpose is to raise awareness about, and help put an end to, violence against women? "My Vagina Was a Village" was not simply an attempt to shock viewers. It was an attempt to raise awareness of just how horrible the situation can be for women living in any war-ravaged area. Furthermore, the article was written as if the U of M students putting on the show decided to include that monologue on a whim in order to shock the audience. On the contrary, it was included in Eve Ensler's original book and has, to my knowledge, been performed at every single production of the Vagina Monologues that has been put on anywhere in the world since then. In addition to arguing that the images of violence were somehow extraneous, Edwards also claims that "the prevalence of the anti-male rhetoric diminished the credibility of the monologues". As a man who has seen the Monologues four times, I didn't find their credibility to be the least bit diminished by an apparent abundance of anti-male sentiment. (And while I doubt anyone would be un-PC enough to publicly suggest otherwise, the fact that I have repeatedly watched and enjoyed the Vagina Monologues does not in any way conflict with the fact that I am a heterosexual male completely comfortable with my sexuality and gender identity.) The vast majority of violence against women is done by men, as is the vast majority of violence of every kind. The men who are portrayed negatively in the Vagina Monologues are just those who perpetrate such violence or otherwise try to exert illegitimate power over women's bodies. If Edwards views the negative portrayal of men who do negative things as a portrayal of all men in a negative light, then it seems to me that she's the one making the extra leap of assuming that all men try to exert illegitimate power over women's bodies. It would then be her own credibility that is diminished by anti-male sentiment, and not that of the Vagina Monologues. Greg Malivuk LSA Senior | | Friday, February 18th, 2005 | 12:19 am
[waking_violets]
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Zero Tolerence Info needed
I am currently working to try to get a Zero Tolerance sexual assault policy instituted at my college. The current system just is not working. However, I have been looking for information on Zero Tolerance, without too much luck. Does anyone know the history of it? How are the policies at other colleges/universities? Any help about what steps to take or anything would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks! | | Wednesday, February 16th, 2005 | 11:25 pm
[d_r_love]
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I will possibly be eating with Barbara Smith tomorrow night! She is coming to do a lecture on Women & the Humanities at my university as well as stopping by my social movements class. We read a few of her writings, "Blacks & Gays: Healing the Great Divide" & "Doing It From Scratch: The Challenge of Black Lesbian Organizing" we are going to be able to ask her direct questions. If you do not know who she go here: http://www.blacklavender.com/speakers/barbarasmith/If your familiar with any of her works, and have a question you've ALWAYS wanted to ask her or any black lesbian feminist active in the movement, just let me know and I will try and ask her! | | Friday, February 11th, 2005 | 12:13 am
[d_r_love]
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