feminist blogs

Ta-Nehisi on the Sprite Step Off National Step Competition in Atlanta.

A review of Wrench at Postbourgie by slb. I really want to read this book.

An excellent piece in Newsweek about why we must fight for the idea and identity of feminist. I do feel like she overlooks young feminists a little bit in the beginning of the article, but overall sentiment is awesome.

Glad to see others getting hip to Solange Knowles, Beyonce's (much cooler) younger sister. She was a hit at SXSW Music last year.

Why are there so many birth defects in Fallujah?

The Sexist on "contraception awareness syndrome."

It is that time of year again for SXSW! For those of you that have been reading the blog for a while know that Feministing is part of the SXSW community and has been since my first very exciting (some may say mind-blowing) experience there my first year and then again last year, and has helped me in thinking about the line between identity and the internet. This year they have kindly asked me to do a solo presentation as part of their diversity series on "Asians and the Internet." Since I don't do anything text-book I decided to switch it up calling my session, "Redefining Asians and the Internet: I am not your fetish."

"Chances are if you google "Asians on the Internet," you are not going to get a list of the unique and cutting edge ways that different Asian communities interact with online environments. The Asian community in all its diverse and diasporic formations has a long trajectory of interacting with online environments, both in how they interact and how they are interacted with.

Amongst the questions covered in this Future15 will be: How are Asians perceived with regard to the internet? How are they represented online? What are critical ways that Asian communities are interacting with online communities that either exemplifies their lived reality or exists in opposition to it? What would a redefinition of how we understand Asians and the Internet be? What can we expect in the next few years?"

Also, I am very excited to announce that Jessica will be at SXSW this year as well and is currently one of the featured speakers on the conference site. She is on a panel about commenting culture called, "From Trolls to Stars: The Commenter Ecosystem."

This panel will explore the fascinating and often bizarre world of commenter culture. From trolls on 4chan to Star Commenters on Gawker Media blogs, panelists will discuss: - The nuances of commenter/blog symbiosis (including the benefit/detriment to the business side of ad-supported blogs) - The nature of commenter hierarchies - The sociology of self-policing/group determination of community standards of behavior - The implications of the shift from handle-based identities to real-world identities (Facebook Connect)

You can get all our panel information from the links provided and stop by and say hi if you are at the conference.

I have to say I was touched by this interview that Jessica Simpson did yesterday with Oprah (yes I just typed that line, I too am shocked), until it got to the part where she talks about her new special on VH1, "The Price of Beauty."

If you can sit through both parts she touches on not forgiving John Mayer, which I think is an awesome statement since he kind of gets d-bag of the year award. She also talks about how the "mom jeans" controversy was the most upsetting spectacle for her since for an entire year all people talked about was her weight, including people coming up to her in public saying, "you are not that fat!" Which, to me, is just so dehumanizing. She also goes on to talk about how much she celebrates women of all shapes and sizes and that she will never be as thin as the media expects her to be. And let's remember that what is being considered "fat" by the media is her at probably around a size 4. You can see why I kind of liked this interview right?

Well, that said, Simpson has a docu-series coming out with VH1 called, "The Price of Beauty," and I must say in terms of intention, I actually really like where she is trying to go with it.

The new VH1 docu-series, produced by RDF USA (Wife Swap, Secret Millionaire), takes Jessica all over the world to meet every day women. She may also discover some local pop culture icons on their own quests for beauty along the way. Jessica will study the local fashions, dietary fads and beauty regimes and even participate in some of the extreme practices she discovers.

"When Chris approached me with his idea for a show about true beauty, I was immediately intrigued," Jessica stated. "I have always believed that beauty comes from within and confidence will always make a woman beautiful, but I know how much pressure some women put on themselves to look perfect. I am really looking forward to discovering how beauty is perceived in different cultures and participating in some of the crazy things people do to feel beautiful. I know we will all learn a lot on this journey and I am so excited that VH1 is coming along on what I'm sure will be a wild ride."

This sounds good in intention but then I watched the trailer and it kind of smacked of that all too familiar trap of cultural relativism and Western desire to understand the "other," not as a way to communicate across difference, but as way to understand yourself better, a fundamental problem historically with white women entering other cultures for inquiry and self exploration. And given the limited capacity the media has in dealing with issues of cultural difference, using the example that in India they drink cow urine to look young (something I have NEVER heard of), feeds into the "weird thing those others do," especially when those others are known for their "cow worship."

On the other hand, it is all about the framing and framing these moments as not different and weird, but as compared to the harmful things women do themselves in the US, well for Jessica Simpson and for VH1, that could be kind of cool. I don't have VH1, so hopefully it will be streaming online so I can give it a more thorough look.

(Most of) The Feministing Crew 2010

When Jessica first asked me to start blogging at Feministing in 2005, I posted one thing every Sunday, because I had a full time job. Back then, we felt that it was really important to have at least one post up per day and for me, I was thrilled if I got two comments. Oh my how times have changed. I didn't realize that after three years we would be writing eight posts a day and be one of the most important spaces for the changing face of feminism online and be part of a vibrant community of feminist blogs that work tirelessly to contest the boundaries of identity, activism and theory. And I certainly didn't ever think that after five years I would have the honor of being the face of Feministing.

Recognizing this huge network of bloggers, activists, thinkers and writers that have been integral in carving out the space for feminist voices online, I accepted the executive editor role with gratitude for the opportunity to potentially shape the direction of our community. It signals that we are learning from the past and pushing ourselves in our commitment to centralizing disenfranchised voices. My co-bloggers have given me a tremendous opportunity to not only boost my own profile, but the profile of the site and the profile of the issues that I am committed to, issues that I have consistently written about for 5 years.

Feministing is a collective, as can be seen by the diversity of names on the homepage. Behind the scenes, all members of Feministing contribute in profound and important ways, committing their lives to much more than putting up blog posts. Each editor has leadership over several key pieces of our work and collaborates on that work, carving time out of her personal life and often doing much more than is expected. If it were not for Vanessa we would not have such a vibrant local community of folks that get together for our parties, not to mention her consistency in blogging on hard-hitting issues, while constantly picking up little pieces of invisible work that make the site run. As many of you may know, Miriam is "the business" and has been integral to moving us forward with her strategic mindset, allowing us to implement policies that are the core of how we operate. Jessica has taken the helm on moving our technology forward (more to come on that later!) and it was her consistent hard work and high standards that made Feministing what it is today -- not to mention her humility in stepping back after all that hard work so other people can step up. Ann's impeccable eye to edits, advice on organizational structures and ability to make shit happen has been central in making Feministing so powerful. And Courtney's support, facilitation, relationship-building with the greater feminist community and ability to be compassionate in the most difficult of situations has helped boost our morale and commitment in new ways. Feministing has run on the backs of our other jobs, in the in-between spaces of lunch breaks and meetings. It has been a project run on passion and the tireless work of myself, Vanessa, Miriam, Courtney, Ann and Jessica. More importantly, we have all stayed friends or become friends through this process which has been the most cohesive element of the group.

And at our retreats and on editor conference calls we have talked about issues of privilege and how they effect our power dynamics internally, recognizing how external perceptions of us as individuals affect our group -- that is, after all, how oppression functions. Within our editorial collective, we have worked hard to make these moments of hidden privilege visible, sharing privilege when possible. But attempting to reflect that externally has been a completely different challenge. My acceptance of this role is a concrete way to push back against dominant ideas of leadership in feminism and a recognition that power and privilege impact who is considered an authority. In order to fight these imbalances we have to be strategic and definitive in how we see leadership and who we identify as leaders. And not just as a tokenizing gesture, but as an intentional decision to fight against prescribed ideas of leadership within feminism itself.

Externally, my commitment to you, our community, is to continue the quality and diversity of the content of this site. Marginalized issues in feminism are still marginalized, and the constant work of teasing out the tensions hidden in the erasures of a mythical monolithic "feminism" lies in the conversations and unique moments of activism that make Feministing what it is and what make the feminist blogosphere such an important place.

Internally, I am committed to sustainability. The hard work of activism, how we run our collective, and the impact Feministing has on feminists worldwide is both emotionally, psychologically and spiritually satisfying and, at the same time, a huge responsibility. So while I am committed to diversity and being the strongest feminist online resource we can possibly be, I do not think that is possible without a crew of folks that feel healthy, balanced and excited about the work. This reality is more so important with the addition of new members to our team who we are so so excited about (and would be the new faces in that picture up top!). I realize this can't be all the time. The work is hard, things will get us down, we can be (and often are) overwhelmed. But I want to push us to really try and institute a culture of sustainability -- the one thing I find lacking in so many activist-oriented intentions, so we can continue to be such an important part of feminism online.

Sorry I have to run out today. The Feministing folks are getting together this weekend and we are starting out with a training for our editors at the very awesome Women's Media Center. We'll be back on Monday!

Shani-O on the pro-life billboard in Atlanta that is targeted to black women.

Rachel Simmons on hook-up culture. I wish I had time to write a longer post about this (maybe next week). You may not agree with her, but give it a read, she makes some super valid points.

Jamie Foxx tells Kirstie Alley to stop it with all that diet bullshit. (He says it really nicely, I do not :)

And uh, did Governer Patterson aid in the suppression of this woman's story of being assaulted by one of his top aids?

Nothing says you should quit smoking like conflating sexual assault with the effects of cigarettes. Via the NYTimes, a feminist activist in France speaks out,

But the reaction on the Web site of Droits des Non-fumeurs has been mixed. One comment read, "The campaign trivializes sexual abuse -- worse, it implies guilt on the part of the abused."

Florence Montreynaud, the president of La Meute des Chiennes de Garde, or the Pack of Female Watchdogs, which opposes symbols of sexual violence in films and advertising, called the ads "unbearable" and said "what is most shocking is the banalization of sexual violence."

She is a feminist, she said, and a longtime member of Droits des Non-fumeurs. "But it is terrible to represent in the public space this kind of image restricted to pornography," she added. "I'm appalled. It's a poverty of imagination. When people have no ideas, they use female bodies."

These ads are not edgy to me at all. They are just gross.

Like several of my co-bloggers, I am of the anti-violence, de-escalation, anti-incarceration and anti-police industry camp. I think generally increased penalties on criminal behavior supports and reinforces more criminal behavior. I believe that a just criminal justice system is one that is fair, protects the interests of the people and is built through community organizing.

Having said that, my political beliefs about prisons, policing and law enforcement are often taken to task on the issue of domestic violence, stalking and other forms of harassment and assault. Calling the police may not always help, restraining orders are hard to obtain and even harder to enforce. But it is still an option that many women choose and one of the only that are available to them.

It is with this same ambivalence that I think about this law in France that will most likely pass, garnering unanimous support. Men who have a court order to stay away from their ex-partner will be electronically tagged and if they violate their court order police will be notified immediately.

The proposal is part of a draft law on conjugal violence. It has cross-party support and is expected to pass easily.

According to the government, around 160 women in France are murdered by their husbands or partners every year.

Parliament is also considering outlawing psychological violence in the home, because it is seen by many as a precursor to physical violence.

It is rare for the left and the right in France to agree on anything, says the BBC's Hugh Schofield, so the near unanimity in parliament behind this law comes as something of a novelty.

Everyone agrees that domestic violence is bad and getting worse.

Awareness on behalf of the government of the epidemic of violence against women is a good thing and will lead to more legislation that supports the rights of victims. Also, I think if I were one of these women, this would put my mind at ease on some level, knowing that police are being proactive about enforcing court orders. On the other hand, this is still part of the same cycle and system of violence. If someone wants to get to you, a bracelet that alerts your parole officer may not always stop them.

So while I am in support of this kind of legislation (even though the idea of "tagging" has a bit of a post-apocalyptic cyber realm thing going on with it), I think it should be paired with anti-violence and rehabilitation therapy and trainings to create long-term solutions to violence.

If you are living in NY than you woke up to several inches of snow outside. This is what my quiet Brooklyn street is looking like right now.

Posting might be limited today. Feministing is having a retreat this weekend and we are going to be getting ready to meet up this afternoon...assuming we can get our front doors open. There maybe some snowshoeing in my future.

If you are on the East Coast enjoy the snow today and hopefully whatever you were supposed to do was canceled. If you are not on the East Coast or in a place where it doesn't snow 12 inches all the times, well, be glad you don't have to deal with it. Or be jealous that we have an excuse to stay home :)

There will be no federal charges in the Sean Bell shooting.

TSA forces travelling policeman to remove his disabled four-year-old son's leg-braces

A must-read piece from Kate Harding on Kevin Smith, fat discrimination and flying.

Racialicious has a review of The New Jim Crow.

Well, you already know what I had to say about John Mayer, but uh...what Jay said!