Most of you know this since I mention it once a week or so, but I moonlight as the Reproductive Justice and Gender editor over at AlterNet, and I put all kinds of interesting articles up over there that I rarely have time to write about here. So you should head over and check it out — and sign up for my weekly newsletter. Here are a few of my recent favorite pieces, all worth a read:
-The American Health Care System is Failing Women of Color. Not surprising, but the statistics are nonetheless abhorrent. Just stay out of the comment section — I think my personal favorite note (and one that’s particularly representative) says, “hello…um…its failing us ALL… don’t make it about race and/or gender!” Uh, ok. Except that when it’s failing some of us a whole lot worse than others, and those failures are often drawn along racial and gender lines.
-Are Modern Women Miserable? Don’t worry — it’s not another backlash piece arguing that women are unhappy because we have too many rights and we should get back in the kitchen. The author posits that many women are unhappy because the promise of gender equality is dangled in front of us, but not yet fulfilled. Another one to skip the comments on, as the MRAs are out in full force.
-Poverty has a woman’s face. And the lack of political representation is fueling it.
-Horton Hears a Wingnut. Anti-choicers demonstrate at a children’s movie to send the message that “a person’s a person no matter how small.” Unless the person has a uterus. In that case, fuck her.
-Iraqi women hit hard by occupation. Hey, remember when Iraqi women actually had rights? You know, before we brought them “freedom”?
-Women as weapons of war. The Western media depicts women’s bodies as war tools as deadly as guns.
All of these articles look really interesting!
So far i’ve only read Are Modern Women Miserable and I thought it was really insightful. I agree that on some level, women are raised with this pressure to achieve some ideal in every area of life. Just the other day when I was trying to convince myself to go work out, I found myself thinking “my body is a constant work in progress. why?”
RE: Anti choicers and “Horton”…when I first saw the trailer at the theater I kind of thought to myself half jokingly , “gee the anti choicers might try to exploit this”. What a way to screw up an afternoon for a bunch of innocent kids >:(
Re. “Are MOdern women Miserable”: as usual, there’s some highly suspect anecdotal evidence trotted out – and this one is more suspect than usual:
Sorry about the italics tag, the quote should end at “until almost dark”.
Sure, i buy that. So shouldn’t the answer be to keep working for gender equality? Seems straightforward to me. :)
Uh…Brisbane, California.
Actually I was disappointed by the “Are Modern Women Miserable” article. The article seems full of stereotypes that women are expected to get married and have children. The only examples of women given in the article are of middle aged married women with kids and a career. I didn’t see one example of a single and/or childless women. Furthermore the article seems to be talking about how these women feel guilty for not fulfilling their duties at work/ as a wife/ household chores/ kids / husband etc. – so it still centers are some of the same gender stereotypes that we hear over and over, namely that women need to be married with kids (and maybe a career) in order to be a “real woman”. If not only that, the article also seems to play on the whole kids vs. career dialog. That the two are not compatible with happiness. And thus the women at the end of the article, conclude that they just wish they could stay home with the kids (and then they stipulate that they don’t want to give up all these choices won by the women’s movement). Sorry, but I heard it all before. I don’t know, did anyone get the same feeling from reading this article as I did?
Nic:
I actually thought it was pretty well rounded, she did include the woman who waited until she was 50 to get married and thought it was better she waited. My guess is that the women who struggle most with depression b/c they are unhappy with their lives are those who have been second guessing their choices, struggling being in the sandwich generation and/or wishing they could get away from the society entrenched be the superwoman and have it all (inlcuding proof of material success) to find some simplicity and balance in their lives.
I find it very interesting that there are a flood of comments on the “Are modern women miserable” article and only one on the “Iraqi Women Hit Hard by Occupation” article. The latter article definitely suggests that limiting the choices/equality of Iraqi women has not been a positive thing at all, but the MRAs and whatnot would rather jump on the possibility that choices and equality are a bad thing. Not that the former article paints them as negative, but that such people will find negativity in it regardless since that reason fits their world view.
Since Brisbane is a long haul away from San Francisco by plane, I call shenanigans. There is no WAY someone could fly to SF and backbefore lunch. And if she gets to go back home in the middle of the day to drop off her daughter (physically impossible, I know, due to the fact she’s on the plane to SF), then she’s actually having more contact with her than most F/T mums.
Uh…Brisbane, California
You have a BRISBANE?!?!?!?!
Yet again I do not close the italics tags. *grovels*
The article on “Women as Weapons of War” is an interesting concept, but the fact-checker needs fired.
If such a simple fact as the A-bomb that ended WWII was “Fat Man” is missed (the author says “Gilda” was the name of the bomb – actually “Gilda” was the name of the first bomb detonated at Bikini), I’m a little iffy if other facts are accurate. I find that distracting, if nothing else.