feminist blogs

Cassandra writes:

You might remember that I sent in a Feministe Feedback two months ago. If you don’t, the basic background is that I am a seventeen year old Canadian with a budding interest in feminism and human rights and nowhere to channel it. I began to read back in the archives of your blog to learn more and followed links and read. I eventually read about grassroots movements and so on. I reached out and networked with some girls at my all-girls Catholic school during a history class as we talked about race relations in North America. I learned a lot from them. We went to the administration to try to set up a “feminist club”, but we were rejected.

So we took our fights outside. We handed fliers outside off school property, and organized independent meetings across the Toronto Catholic District School Board. This March we organized events for Eating Disorder Awareness Week and raised $2,000 across Toronto for charity and granted bursaries from our donations to young girls who have experienced, struggled with or survived an eating disorder to help them with future education.

I know that this is, on a larger scale, quite small and probably just a drop in an ocean. But I wanted to thank you for helping me find my voice as a young feminist. I have started an internet blog and am currently heading a council made up of TCDSB students to provide a meeting and speaking space for young women to discuss and learn from each other.

That’s what we love to hear, Cassandra! Keep up the good work. And leave a link to your blog in comments so others can check it out.

Elizabeth Edwards responds to a McCain campaign spokesman’s dismissive assertion that she “did not understand the comprehensive nature of the senator’s proposal.”

And these are the people who like Obama.

Holy crap.

It seems that Barack Obama’s performance during a recent campaign stop at a bowling alley wasn’t manly enough for Joe Scarborough:

During the March 31 edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist repeatedly mocked Sen. Barack Obama’s bowling performance — which Scarborough called “dainty” — at a March 29 campaign stop at Pleasant Valley Lanes in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Deriding Obama’s score, he said: “You know Willie, the thing is, Americans want their president, if it’s a man, to be a real man.” Scarborough added, “You get 150, you’re a man, or a good woman,” to which Geist replied, “Out of my president, I want a 150, at least.”

Later in the show, after NBC political analyst Harold Ford Jr. said that Obama’s bowling showed a “humble” and “human” side to him, Scarborough replied, “A very human side? A prissy side.” Ford asserted that Obama, who reportedly plays pick-up basketball, is a “heck of an athlete.” Later, Scarborough acknowledged: “I’ll challenge him to a bowl-off. But basketball — he looks like he’s in pretty good shape. I would just have to post low.” Switching to football, Ford also said to Scarborough: “I’d throw him a pass on you, too. I’ve seen you. I think he could probably take you down the sideline on a post route.”

I was not aware that one’s manhood was dependent on one’s ability to hit the requisite number of pins with a big ball while wearing rented shoes. (more…)

Lauredhel from Hoyden About Town informs us that she and sajbrfem have just launched Hollaback Australia!

Now you antipodeans have another tool for fighting back against harassment.

Also be sure to check out sajbrfem’s Watching Women art project, related to the Hollaback idea.

I’ve gotten a lot of criticism lately whenever I do a post about the primary, and, specifically, about misogynistic language or sexist framing used to tear down Hillary Clinton. Invariably, someone accuses (and it’s always an accusation) me of being a Clinton shill, or grills me about why I don’t write a whole bunch of balancing posts about racist language and framing being used against Obama, or tries to dismiss what I have to say because Clinton did X, Y or Z that the commenter found offensive.

I’m focusing on the misogynistic stuff thrown at Clinton because this, as you may recall, is a feminist blog. And while there are hundreds if not thousands of other blogs as well as entire networks and mainstream media outlets rushing to the defense of Obama (thus rendering anything I have to say pretty well redundant), there are few outlets calling out misogynistic attacks on Clinton and/or on her supporters. And it matters that somebody’s calling it out. It’s got nothing to do with who’s the better candidate, who should win, the “delegate math,” or what have you. Vote for whomever you feel like voting for; I’ve been on record from the beginning of the primary that feminists don’t have to vote for Clinton to be feminists, since feminists get to make up their minds the same as anyone else does. Of course, I’m also on record for letting the process play out, which seems to equate in some people’s minds to being pro-Clinton.

However, I have also been on record, for a very long time now, that using misogynistic language and framing to dismiss and diminish a woman you disagree with on the issues is damaging to all women. And I’ve been on record (as have my cobloggers) for a very long time that using such language and framing (and any other identity-based language and framing, such as homophobic, transphobic or fatphobic) is unacceptable even if the person you’re attacking is a really, really awful person who holds really, really awful ideas. Yes, it’s wrong even if the person uses sexist, racist or similar attacks against other people. As I said on one such occasion in November 2006:

We’ve been down this road before, kids. With Ann Coulter. With Michelle Malkin. With “pussy.” For that matter, with fat jokes. [And, as Lauren reminds me, with blackface.] And those arguments are no more valid now than they were then.

If you can’t attack the positions of a rabid antifeminist commentator or a deep-in-the-pockets-of-Big-Pharma politician without resorting to insults designed to highlight not just their gender, but their relative worth as fucktoys, then you have no business writing what passes for commentary.

It’s easy to reach first for the gender-based insult. And it’s wrong.

And, seriously, how can you sit there and be shocked, shocked, that people you don’t agree with are attacking Nancy Pelosi for her femaleness and not realize that you’re contributing to the problem by portraying a United States Congresswoman as a cumguzzling two-dollar whore? By whining that women are too sensitive because they complain when you call a media figure a cunt?…

These insults aren’t meant just for the recipients. They’re meant for everyone else in that group, too. So detailed descriptions of your fantasy that “corporate whore” really means real whore doesn’t just hurt Tauscher, the intended target. It hurts Pelosi, too. And it’s meant to — that’s what insults based on a group characteristic or stereotype are for. They’re meant to convey the message to any member of a non-dominant group that they might be accepted for now, but we all know that they’re really just a cunt and a whore, like those women we don’t like.

(more…)

Let’s have it.

Spot the problems here:

l just spoke with a Democratic Party official,* who asked for anonymity so as to speak candidly, who said we in the media are all missing the point of this Democratic fight.

The delegate math is difficult for Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, the official said. But it’s not a question of CAN she achieve it. Of course she can, the official said.

The question is — what will Clinton have to do in order to achieve it?

What will she have to do to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, in order to eke out her improbable victory?

She will have to “break his back,” the official said. She will have to destroy Obama, make Obama completely unacceptable.

“Her securing the nomination is certainly possible - but it will require exercising the ‘Tonya Harding option.’” the official said. “Is that really what we Democrats want?”

The Tonya Harding Option — the first time I’ve heard it put that way.

It implies that Clinton is so set on ensuring that Obama doesn’t get the nomination, not only is she willing to take extra-ruthless steps, but in the end neither she nor Obama will win the gold.

* When I first looked at this story this afternoon, it said that it was a “DNC official.” As in, the people overseeing the primary. Indeed, in the URL, you can see the DNC official reference. But at some point, it changed (though Jake Tapper didn’t correct the story, he just changed it without indicating the change. Bad practice there, Jake). Did Tapper get it wrong? Or did the DNC official ask that the reference be walked back so it looked like just some random party official rather than someone who is overseeing the very process under discussion?

But whether it’s a DNC official or a Party official, there are many, many things wrong with this story. (more…)

Do yourself a favor and go read Lauren’s post about a Dear Prudence column that Emily Yoffe vomited up:

Judging from her latest piece, Emily Yoffe, Slate’s advice columnist, is going after Dear Abby’s job. Incensed that Dear Abby stole her advice thunder by insisting that the rape of one man’s sleeping wife is obviously a big ol’ lie, Yoffe tried to up the ante by writing a concern troll piece on single parenting, concluding that the real problem with single parents, namely single mothers, is that they don’t feel enough proper shame for their failed attempts at parenting, i.e. shame for their stupid, destructive children. Yoffe cushions her assertions with a bit of social science that leaves out wide swaths of information about the realities of why single parents opt to remain single, and tries to couch her concern in economic blither and psychobabble blather. There’s so much wrong with her essay that I sprained an eyeball by rolling them so hard, starting with the ever-present definition of “single parent” as “unmarried woman.”

I prefer “dumb whore” — it keeps things simple[.]

Lest you think this is some kind of aberration on Yoffe’s part, I invite you to take a trip through the archives here at Feministe. She’s got several opinions about children, namely, that if you’re married, it’s your duty to have them regardless of whether you want to have them or not (and Yoffe knows that you *really* do, no matter what you say), and if you aren’t married, you should be, you irresponsible slut. And while you’re at it, keep your husband happy by doing all the work without complaining and let him fuck you even if you don’t want to.

Posted without comment:

Start paying attention around 4:50.