Objectification, Your Honor
This is a guest post by Jessica Mack
Last week, there was a new and interesting twist to the Leveson Inquiry – the ongoing public trial of the British Press following last year’s phone hacking scandal. A handful of women’s rights and rape prevention groups in the UK are insisting that the media’s portrayal of women – namely its accomplice in sexism, objectification, rape culture, and misogyny – be investigated as part of its general scumminess.
WAM Prom: Be There.
On Friday Jan. 13th (oooh!) feminists, media-makers and their friends will be getting down at WAM!Prom 2: Electric Boogaloo, from BeeGees to Biggie. It’s at the Bowery Poetry Club and starts at 10 and you should be there (if only so I can judge you in the costume contest). Details are on the Facebook page. WAM!PRom benefits Women, Action, and the Media (WAM!), a national organization working for gender justice in media that is very dear to my heart.
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Filming Against Odds: Undocumented Youth “Come Out” With Their Dreams
By Anne Galisky, cross-posted at On The Issues Magazine.
“Papers”is the story of undocumented youth and the challenges they face as they turn 18 without legal status. More than two million undocumented children live in the U.S. today, most with no path to obtain citizenship. These are youth who were born outside the U.S. and yet know only the U.S. as home. The film highlights five undocumented youth who are “American” in every sense but their legal paperwork.
...read moreGirl-on-Girl Victim-Blaming Action (or, The Most Terrible Time of the Year)
This is a guest-post from Jaclyn Friedman.
[trigger warning for the text and the embedded links]
What is it about December that inspires mass breakouts of victim-blaming? Is it the darkness encroaching on our days? Is it the way the holidays make us all want to drink? Whatever it is, it’s happening again.
“Twilight” as a cautionary tale about traditional gender roles
The most tragic part of the whole story is that this empty shell of a person – which at this point is nothing more than a frozen echo of Bella, twisted and destroyed as she is by her co-dependence with Edward, fails to see what has happened to her. She ends the story in denial – empty, annihilated, and having learned nothing.
Amazing feminist history through the lens of “Ms. Magazine”
In the years leading up to the birth of “Ms. Magazine”, women had trouble getting a credit card without a man’s signature, had few legal rights when it came to divorce or reproduction, and were expected to aspire solely to marriage and motherhood. Job listings were segregated (“Help wanted, male”). There was no Title IX [...]
...read moreYeah no.
Look: I find Islamophobia offensive and disgusting. But no, it does not justify violence and bombing buildings: Okay, so can we finally stop with the idiotic, divisive, and destructive efforts by “majority sections” of Western nations to bait Muslim members with petulant, futile demonstrations that “they” aren’t going to tell “us” what can and can’t [...]
...read moreMarriage, Singledom, Social Evolution, and that Kate Bolick piece in “The Atlantic”
Okay, so. Since I am a Feminist Commentator ™, many folks have asked my opinion on a piece that recently ran in “The Atlantic” called “All The Single Ladies“, by Kate Bolick. Many of you have probably already seen Bolick’s piece — I’ve got a roundup of a few relevant links and snips at the [...]
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Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street
So, Steven Greenstreet, who describes himself as a “documentary filmmaker, video producer, 7D owner, comic book reader, sci fi nerd, atheistic troublemaker, and social media mercenary” but who I think is better characterized as a “creepy voyeur who is basically a more mainstream version of that guy who hid in a port-a-potty at a yoga [...]
...read more“Budrus” documentary on peace activism
Last week I saw a fantastic documentary: “Budrus“, an inspiring look at some of the non-violent activism that is shaping the Israel/Palestine conflict right now. Snip from the site: “Budrus” is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in [...]
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Roman Polanski apologies to the girl he raped. Kind of.
So Roman Polanski said that the woman he drugged and raped when she was 13 was “a double victim: My victim, and a victim of the press.” And good effort, I guess? But no. Let Gabe help you: Uh, hey Roman, let’s try that again buddy, cool? No, no, that was great, you’re doing great, [...]
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