My Blog, My Self

So, you might have noticed that there's been a change or two recently regarding the picture that's displayed in my blog's header.

A few weeks back, the blog was chugging along with the header graphic I chose on New Year's Day, a bit of commercial art from the forties named "Who me?". It's nice; I like it; it's just fine. Problem was that by the third week in January I was bored with it. I decided I'd change to something else for February. Hey yeah, that's it: I'll change the header picture every month. So, what should I put up for February?

First I went, as I often do, to a very cool site called World Wide Retro, which has mass quantities of clip art, pinups, pulp covers, vintage erotica, etc etc. Gacked an item or two, including this nifty cover of Flirt magazine from, oh I dunno, probably the forties, don't think it could be from later than the very early fifties. Look at it. It's gorgeous. Somebody painted a pinup of a very curvy redhead wearing a tight sweater, a skirt that seems to be falling off, nylons with very visible garters, and not much else. Except earmuffs, because it's cold, you see? It's February! It says so right in the top righthand corner. This also explains why Curvy Red is sitting on a radiator. Lastly, she's giving us that pouty, clueless, requisite pinup look. You can almost hear her saying:

Gee, I'm so cold! WhatEVER can I possibly DO to warm up?

Oh you mean like putting on long pants and a parka and some fur-lined boots?! Well, where's the fun in that? This is not serious art. It was never meant to last through all eternity. It's a little cheesecake for the cover of a magazine called "Flirt" , fer cryin out loud. I just love it. I think Curvy Red's a knockout.

Knowing, as you probably do by now if you've read my blog for any length of time, that I'm constantly honing what I laughably call "my skills" with Paintshop Pro and Photoshop and MS Paint, you won't be surprised to read that I altered Curvy Red's pic a little bit -- here's my paintshopped version -- and put it up as my new header picture. Woo hoo! I was very happy with the whole thing. For about a day.

I wish I could tell you that I received lots of feedback about the new pic from many of my regular readers. I actually do have some regular readers out there. You know who you are. The truth is that I didn't receive lots of feedback. To be precise, I didn't get any feedback at all. Well OK, you say. Everybody probably thought the picture was nice and went on with their lives. No big whoop. So what's the problem?

I'll tell you what's the problem. The problem's me. Every time I looked at my Curvy Red header picture I felt twinges of anxiety. What is my blog header picture saying about me? What am I saying about me? Am I saying that I look like Curvy Red? Am I saying that's me sitting on a radiator like a complete idiot in my suburban Minnesota home in February 2005, displaying a creamy expanse of thigh with the fuck-me-now garters and wearing the Little Annie Fanny expression?

[Jebus H Christ the Baron Krauss Von Espy! she exclaims, invoking Coen Brothers phraseology as she so often does in times of horror or astonishment, when no other filmmakers' dialogue is adequate.]

Oh come now, you say. People who read blogs are an intelligent, cosmopolitan group, fully capable of discerning multiple nuances of meaning in all aspects of life including blog graphics. People who can't, don't read blogs. Or, not my blog anyway. People like that are probably all Freepers, and therefore only allegedly people, so to hell with 'em.

Okay, but what about the fact that I chose the pinup picture because I like it? A minute ago I was saying that I think Curvy Red's gorgeous. A knockout. Is this a long-hidden lesbian persona of mine coming to the fore? Well, no. Because I don't have a lesbian persona, hidden or otherwise. Really. I'm just plain boring old hetero me. Nothing to see here, folks. I'm not the dyke you're looking for. Move along. Do you think it's impossible for a woman to find a female pinup attractive or appealing or just plain sexy and yet not have a homosexual orientation? If you do, please please PLEASE take my word for it: it's possible.

But if I did have a lesbian aspect would that be so bad? I have often thought about a photo I once saw of a woman marching in a gay pride parade somewhere. She carried a sign that said I AM NOT GAY BUT THESE ARE MY FRIENDS. Nice sentiment. Solidarity and all that. It's a message we all need to see -- that gays and straights can and do coexist in the world in friendship and love. But at the same time I looked on that woman as a coward. Well-intentioned, but still a coward. What if she just marched in the parade without her sign? What would happen then? Would some spectators think that she must be gay? Probably. And what would be so bad about that?
There's a true litmus test for us all.

Anyway, back to my discomfort with the Curvy Red pinup picture in my blog header. What to do? What to do?
A) I leave it there, because I'm a rational adult and even tho the picture is what it is, I know that I'm not a deliciously pneumatic tart sending out a come-hither message to guys and gals everywhere. To be exact, I am a 52-year old woman living and blogging in America in the year 2005. Some other words that describe me are: white; fat; and pretty much asexual.

Or B) I change the picture to something else; to an image that's safely in my comfort zone.


To see what I decided, go on over to Tild~ and take a look.

A Call for Causes

Jeneane, Roxanne, and myself are looking for new Burning Issues to feature in the Blog Sisters sidebar. We would like to encourage you to send us info on any causes in your area you think are worthy of attention & linkage (and hopefully some spare $).

We would like to rotate that particular column several times throughout the upcoming year, so don't be shy. Tell us what's burning you. Feel free to use the comments or email one of us with your favourite cause.

New Site Design

Hi everybody,

As you can probably see already, Blog Sisters has been given a site redesign (to avoid gender stereotyping, I'll omit any metaphors about makeovers or facelifts here) ;-)

As usually happens in the wonderful world of web development, there may be some bugs in the way the new site looks in certain web browsers. I've checked the site in Firefox and Internet Explorer for Windows. If any of you viewers have feedback or corrections for other browsers and platforms, please email me (Andrea) with a description of the issue and a screenshot. Any general feedback is more than welcome in the comments below.

A "Culture of Life"? Are Ya Sure Ya Wanna Use That Term?

This morning, there was a report of Bush calling a Pro-Life rally and urging them to promote a "Culture of Life."

Seems ironic coming from a President who wholeheartedly and unabashedly supports the death penalty.

However, I'm sure that the phrasing "Culture of Life" is a turn on the Pope's indictment a few years ago of American culture as a "Culture of Death." If Bush is going to crib from the Pope, he should take a look at Catholic teaching and then fully model what he describes as a Culture on Life on what Catholic teaching might consider a Culture of Life.

A Catholic Culture of life would most certainly include a halt to the death penalty, which is something the Bush administration would never consider. A Catholic Culture of Life would also include many more social programs than the Bush administration would allow, thus fully supporting all children born to mothers denied abortion and lifetime counselling for those who commit murder. More money would be funneled into Social Security because it would be considered inhuman to reduce or privatize benefits paid out to the elderly and infirmed.

And a Catholic Culture of Life would be none too happy with Bush's idea of giving illegal immigrant workers of rich American families special "right to work" status so that those families would not be penalized for virtually imprisioning and actually underpaying people who want to follow the vaunted American Dream.

But, then again, Bush follows some fundy Methodism that seems to want to take its inspiration from revisionist interpretations of the Old Testament without ever consulting the Abrahamic traditions of Old Testament interpretation that have existed for centuries.

Like any under-achieving intellect, Bush likes to crib from other sources without giving them credit, without following an honest interpretation of the original source, and resorts to revisionism to support his far-flung and iconsistent opinions.

Kind of scary when you think about it. More like a Culture of Mediocrity than a Culture of Life.

--Tish G.
(whose blog is here)

President Boxer blog launches

Usually when I post here, it's to tell you about one of my new political poems or song parodies at Mad Kane's Notables. But not today.

The purpose of today's post is to lure you over to the newly launched
President Boxer. It's a group blog which I started in "honor" of Bush's 2nd inaugural.

It features commentary, news, and humor championing Senator Barbara Boxer as our next U.S. President. Additionally, it's a forum where we can hold Democrat lawmakers accountable and let them know that (1) they need to have a spine and (2) there's support for Democrats who courageously stand their ground on liberal issues.

So please stop by President Boxer and let us know what you think. And if our topics interest you, perhaps you'll even want to join our group of (so far) eight bloggers.

Narcissism, But Substitute Loathe for Love

The Good Body by Eve Ensler. In this play, the narrator/author first launches into a monologue about what it is to be good. For Ensler, good is all about the perfect body. Her stomach, on the other hand, is the representation of bad because it is not as flat as the models she sees in the media. Unfortunately, her preoccupation with her stomach drives her partner away because she has placed more importance on her appearance than their relationship.

Her obsession with physical imperfection isn't unique. We read about a variety of other women with the same problem: the exercise-fanatical editor of Cosmo, a teenaged girl sent to fat camp, a Puerto Rican woman dominated by her mother's ideal of beauty, a model who lets her husband/plastic surgeon sculpt her body, a body-piercing lesbian, a middle-aged Jewish woman who gets her vagina tightened by laser surgery, a woman who got seduced by a pedophile when she was younger, a seventy-year-old African woman crusading against female mutilation, an Indian woman who has learned to love her body, Afghanistan women who eat ice cream even though it is punishable by death.

Some of these women have their body altered and others have eventually come to grips with their corporeal selves, learning to accept rather than hate. But one pervasive theme running through these vignettes is the want to be desired. In this case, the kind of desire Ensler wants to illustrate is strictly physical and sexual. Women today are confused--is desirability and femininity as depicted in the media and culture really the same thing that their partners want? Has society turned women into self-loathing maniacs because we're conditioned to believe that only the body matters and not intelligence or personality?

On one hand, I see the truth of these anecdotes. Who hasn't thought about a part of their body that they didn't like very much? Who hasn't had someone make snide remarks about their appearance? It hurts, and the first emotional reaction is that one is less of a person because of it. On the other hand, The Good Body doesn't cover any new ground. Feminism has been blabbering about body image issues for years. A preoccupation about appearance isn't going to disappear soon--biologically, attracting and finding a mate probably won't change as long as humans are still reproducing in the usual way--although society has certainly made it a problem. The Good Body outlines a solution: personal acceptance. But again, this is not new. The publication of this play only indicates that all the self-esteem classes that have been doled out for the past decade haven't been working.

(Cross-posted at Syaffolee.)

Slamming

When I was a pre-teen, we girls had a thing we used to do called "Slam Books." What they were was notebooks (they had to be spiral) where you would write on the top of each page a question. Then, you'd pass the books around to your friends, really to any girl in the class who would want to write in it, and they would answer each question. It would be things like "Who do you like" and "Does he know you like him" and "What's your favorite color?" On the cover, if you were really creative, you would cut cool pictures and phrases out of your sister's magazines and tape them all over the cover (it had to be the shiny tape). The more cool phrases you had, the better. Advertising equals cool. It was sort of like a ransom note gone teen.

Boys were sort of allowed to write in them, if they were the "right boys." But for the most part, it was a secret way to find out more information about your friends and possibly blackmail them in the future about the "boy they like". I recall being brutally (to myself) honest and putting the names of the boys I had crushes on, risking them finding out, I guess cause I half wanted them to know.

There are emails that are quite popular going around that remind me of Slam Books. You know the ones, they have the same kinds of questions and you're supposed to forward the completed email to all of your address book. I have one sitting in my inbox right now, even with my aversion to spam and chain email and all those sorts of things being well known by my friends. I don't really mind one of these Slam E-mails because I usually just answer the questions and send it back to only the person who sent it to me. I just don't like to pass them around to a bunch of people who didn't ask-- if they want to know whether I like chocolate or vanilla better, they should ask me. I'm not just giving this info out for free, you know.

One thing I was remembering this morning at 5:00 when I did my current pregnancy "wake up with pain in hip and can't go back to sleep" trend was how I used to like to put the phrase that used to be part of a Virginia Slims ad campaign on my Slam covers: "You've Come a Long Way Baby." Virginia Slims quite cleverly used the historic tie between smoking & feminism to imply that smoking their cigarettes was a path to girl-power. You might remember this campaign if you're as ancient as I am. They would have cute women in old-fashioned clothing getting in trouble for smoking, usually with some fat old policeman with handlebar mustaches looking on disapprovingly. Or they'd be loaded down with laundry, or show the uncomfortable corsets women had to wear. Some sort of discomfort that used to be associated with women would be featured in a small, sepia colored inset photo. Then they'd show the liberated modern woman happily holding her "slim"* cigarette with no fear, smiling smugly cause she's "come a long way."

I liked the idea of being an independent, liberated woman, even way back before I had hit puberty. Girls could do anything they wanted to do. So I would include this phrase on my notebooks. People often looked at me, puzzled, and said "Do you smoke?" So quite clearly, the idea of "coming a long way" was, for many, firmly tied to that cigarette. I figured I could divorce its commercial meaning and still keep the liberated woman part of the phrase. Even though back then all I really had to look forward to was going a long way in my future. I had big plans, and they didn't involve smoking.

I have, in fact, come a long way, from a stringy-haired, freckled poor kid who secretly wanted the boy I liked to find out about it and declare his undying love back for me to a woman who has a soul mate who regularly declares his undying love for me, and it's not a secret at all. I have two university degrees of which I am very proud, and will get the third before this year is out darn it. I can bring home the bacon, but if you ask me to fry it up, I'll probably get a little woozy cause the twins-to-be-named-soon don't like bacon. I live in a great little "nest" of a home and have great friends and family.

It's a long way from there to here. And I'll tell you a secret that isn't ever asked in the Slam Books or E-mail Slams. I'm loving every single minute of it.


*Another catch-- the cigarettes imply you'll be skinnier if you smoke them too... see. They're clever, these tobacco folks.

Also posted at Kim Procrastinates

"Running of the Brides"

This is just embarrassing. When I was getting married, I was on the look out for bargains. I bought my wedding dress at a consignment shop for $200 and was very happy with it. (Just this last year, trying on wedding dresses at Goodwill for my Hallowe'en costume I was admonished by a strange woman that I couldn't buy a used wedding dress. Not that it was any of her business. And not that I hadn't already done it and have had a happy marriage for almost 12 years now. Luck shmuck. You make your own luck) And I understand how someone would want to get a good deal on something that can be outrageously expensive: the wedding dress.

Just now on CNN they showed the above footage of an Atlanta store that offers dresses at something like a 75% discount with brides racing, pushing, and literally screaming as they ran into the store through a banner and I'm sure pushed and pulled frantically to find their "dream dress." The anchors playfully joked about how dangerous the place must have been. Yes, it looked like people were having fun, and there were a couple of grooms in there. In fact, late in the video there is a man running with "swishy" hands screaming and making fun of the whole thing with a big grin on his face. BUT the anxiety clear on the faces of many of the brides shows how seriously they took this event, how important this dress thing is to them. For the majority of the women, it was NOT a laughing matter.

Okay, fine. Let's not focus on our marriage, our spouse to be, but on the dress we'll wear. The issue is somewhat humiliating, and has granted me a rant for the day.

This is all part of the Cinderella syndrome. Even Cathy the cartoon strip is going through the same issue right now-- perpetually worried neurotic Cathy is finally getting married, and very day there's a wedding cliche played out in the comic, supposedly for funny effect. We saw Monica on Friends go insane, (and drive her friends that way too) with a huge scrapbook of the "dream wedding" plans she had been making since she was a little girl. Many women seem to think that on their wedding day everything must be PERFECT and they have to live a fairy tale, or else life is just not worth living. It's a major cause of anxiety and debt.

Is it just me, or is this a really sick precedent? A wedding is a really special moment, but middle-class people spend sometimes as much as 50 grand on weddings-- FOR ONE DAY. It can be just as special for a heckuva lot less money. Don't even get me started on what rich folks pay. Little girls should not be raised with the idea that the most important day of their entire life will be the wedding day. Yes, it's a big event. But I see it as a lot like "The Prom"-- you get a nice dress, you have some nice food and pictures, and the rest of your life and marriage is what is important. The MARRIAGE-- that is what is the most important thing. NOT the dress, the cake, the flowers. Not even the tiara.*

I don't mean to belittle or insult anyone's dreams by any means--but reasonableness really needs to prevail here. For the price of many folks' single day, one can put a substantial down payment on one's first house! Or put aside money for one's children's education! Or even go on a long vacation! To freakin' Europe for weeks!! Andrew bought me my first car with part of the money we could have spent on a fancy wedding. And we still had enough money in bonds to save to buy our first rental property, which we still have invested and is still making us money.

I just can't believe this sort of mindset still exists and is thought to be a quirky human interest story where women race screaming and pushing into a store FOR A DRESS. A Thing. A pretty dress is nice, yes, but you could get married in a pair of cutoff shorts and a sparkly tube top (and if you do, please please please invite me to the wedding.) :) The dress has nothing to do with your marriage; it's a fun part of a fun ceremony, but not something worth devoting this much energy to. I was both embarrassed and saddenend by this story, and the attitude about how women have or have not come so far in the last 30 years.

My wedding probably cost a total of about 5,000, and I had a very nice, small, simple wedding with family & friends. I was very happy with it, and lucky to have a sister who was a catering person who got some great deals on the equipment and prepared all the food for me (which was low-key anyway.) I've been to some extravagant wonderful weddings in my time, and they were really neat. But even those were just one day in the life of the couple. The rest of the days are the important part, and I guess my concluding moral is that if you can't afford the dress of your dreams, perhaps your dreams are beyond your means. My friend with the extravagant wedding could afford to spend more-- she didn't have to belittle herself racing screaming into a store for the amusement of the cameras, standing in line for hours, for a dress at 75% off.

I, with lesser means for the wedding, bought a used dress, not a used husband. The "bad" or "good luck" comes from your choice of mate, not your choice of a dress. (Besides, the wedding dress as we know it is a Victorian custom. It's certainly NOT something that is ageless and timeless. A tradition from the same people who renamed a male chicken "rooster" cause they didn't want to say "cock," and who put skirts on table legs so that one wouldn't become aroused by looking at the feet/legs of your dining set. We really should take all the Victorian traditions to heart. Yeah.)

Don't be part of the running of the brides. (Where, if you check your metaphor, you will realize that the comparison being made here is to the running of the bulls, where the bulls=brides, or a raging mindless animal who is about to be killed on a sword in a bullfight is compared to a bride.) Have some dignity. Plan a wedding within your means, and then focus on getting to know your spouse so that you're not part of the 50% of marriages that end. And for the goddess's sake, save me a piece of wedding cake.

*And for a drag queen crow who loves sparklies like me to say this, you gotta know something is serious. :)

Also published at Kim Procrastinates

Dubya's "He's Hiding" Song

By now you've heard Bush's explanation/excuse for not capturing bin Laden: "He's hiding." But you probably don't know about Dubya's "He's Hiding" Song.

Also, I'm pleased to announce my association with the newly launched HumorGuru.com, a humor magazine featuring eight professional humor columnists writing about every topic imaginable. (My own contributions will range from political satire to personal humor columns.) I hope you'll check it out and help spread the word about this spanking new and very entertaining humor pub.

Some voices of people of faith you may NOT have heard lately

Coming to the revolution a little late but still on time

This is the current From Where I Stand column written by Sister Joan Chittester for the National Catholic Reporter. Last time I posted about Sister Joan was when she was Bill Moyers' guest on NOW last November.

Hers is a powerful voice; an articulate voice; the voice of a person of faith who, remarkably enough these days, is not calling upon a vengeful deity to rain down damnation on all who are foolish enough to veer from the one and only one, true, correct faith that exists, i.e. [insert name of desired One True Religion here]. You know: a rational voice.

The Internet might even be a way to organize national conversations on current issues. We could start, for instance, by asking ourselves spiritual questions about political subjects -- like why it is that we are all so stunned, shocked, dismayed about the 150,000 deaths in Asia from a tsunami but we don't seem to be bothered a bit about the over 100,000 civilian deaths - most of them women and children - which, the Lancet study tells us, have resulted from our own invasion of Iraq?

Read the whole thing.


***

And, via the wonderful Newsfare , the text of a speech given by Dr. Robin Myers at Oklahoma University Peace Rally on November 14, 2004:

Arrogance is the opposite of faith

Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in power who claim moral values are on their side:

--- When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God's will, and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.

--- When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.

--- When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like that we must never return violence for violence and that those who live by the sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.

--- When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.

--- When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question the patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero, you are doing something immoral.

--- When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.

--- When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called "enemy combatants" of the rules of the Geneva convention, which your own country helped to establish and insists that other countries follow, you are doing something immoral.

Read the whole thing.


All I can say is: if you need to feel hope, as I do, that it's possible to affect the outcome of world events, then listen to these voices. We may be of many different Christian denominations, or non- Christians, or non-believers, but we can and must stand together against fundamentalist fascist oppressor powers wherever they may be, including the current US administration.

Also posted here.

Demand Accountability From WH Puppet-Parrot Condi Rice

* Scroll down for an update at the end of this post. 01/16/05

On Tuesday January 18, hearings begin re: Condoleezza "I have a PhD so I must be morally superior to you" Rice's confirmation as Secretary of State.

Senator Barbara Boxer [D-California] continues to take a stand for accountability to the American people. Join Sen. Boxer in holding the budding fascist theocratic regime of George W Bush accountable for their actions.

Dr. Rice's confirmation hearing must not be a rubber stamp of President Bush's appointment. The Senate must take its "advice and consent" role seriously.

That's why, as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, I intend to stand up and ask Condoleezza Rice the tough questions that Americans deserve to have answered. Questions like:

* Why did the United States go to war in Iraq based on misleading -- if not false and fraudulent -- evidence?

* Why did we divert valuable resources and intelligence personnel to Iraq, taking them away from Afghanistan and the pursuit of Osama bin Laden?

* Why did you mislead the American people into thinking there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida before September 11th?

We must hold Condoleezza Rice accountable for her misleading statements leading up to the Iraq war and beyond before we can even consider promoting her to Secretary of State.

Sign the petition.




This post also appears here.

*Update 01/16/05:

In an interview with the Washington Post, President Bush said that Americans ratified his Iraq policy on Election Day 2004.

Later, in a departure from the large-print red crayon text of his prepared remarks, the Preznit Dictator-tot said:

"Hey, we don't have to give anybody any of that accountabilitude crap. Amurca gave me a big thumbs up in the accountabilitosity department on November 2 when every Amurcan man woman and child rose up as one and with a deafening roar of unified approval unanimously voted me Most Totally Super Awesome Leader Ever. Heh. That's me."

He May Want to Marry Mommy, but Her Heart Belongs to Daddy

In her latest op-ed column in the New York Times, Maureen Dowd takes a bit of umbrage with men who marry below their social status--and she has some research to back it up. Overall, the reason seems to be that men are more interested in women who are subordinate to them and will serve them in the same manners that their mommies did.

But aren't women just a bit complicit, and of their own accord, in relationships of this sort? Isn't it a bit much to say that these powerful men of status are swooping in and taking women of lower status for the simple reason that they need a mommy rather than an equal?

Or is it maybe, like Marilyn Monroe once sang, that her heart belongs to daddy (of a sort)? Maybe it has to do with wanting a man who knows a bit more about the world than she does? And could it possibly be that the smart woman on the lower end of the socio-economic scale sees the advantages of marrying a socially better-situated daddy than a boy on her own social level?

Ms. Dowd's opinion also assumes that the women who appear to be lesser because of their social status actually are lesser--in intelligence, motivation, and will--than the powerful men who are proposing. Perhaps she is wrong in this account because she is watching too many movies and not talking with women who have actually done it. There are no statistics to show that the women who marry up, while not necessarily as formally educated as their higher-caliber mates, may actually be as smart as them...just not as credentialed.

It would be important for Ms. Dowd to also note that in much of the working class, whether they be fourth generationers or newly-immigrated, education for women is usually not a priority. Women's primary function still seems to be to bear the babies, cook the dinners and keep the houses for the glory of the men. And, from what I have observed, this has less to do with religious values inasmuch as it does with secular cultural values. In other words, smart women aren't needed in the working classes because they make the men look bad--and it has less to do with what Father So-and-So said in the pulpit than what Pop and Mom thinks at home.

So what's a poor, smart girl to go?

Sure, she can waive the feminist banner of independence, muddle thru, and get a big fancy education--bucking her family and her status on principle because she deserves the education. But if she doesn't know the social mores or the secret handshakes, and doesn't have the network for networking after graduation, she can find herself pretty much back where she started. And worst of all, far less desirable to the men she might have had a sliver of a chance with before she got the big education.

That still leaves the question of what is a smart, educated woman on the lower level of the socio-economic status to do? Perhaps she should set her sights on that perfect Daddy...ditch the Birkenstocks, wear some makeup, take up golf and skiing--and don't forget those old-fashioned family-style values because that well-situated Daddy will (according to Dowd anyway) still want to marry his Mommy.

--Tish G.
(crossposted on Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams where she contemplates her own lack of social status and Daddy fixation on a regular basis)

Women and the Media

That is the title of a sure-to-be fascinating conference taking place in Cambridge, MA, from March 18 through 20. The idea behind the event is best summed up by the event's woman-focused subtitle: "Taking Our Place in the Public Conversation."

Worthy topic, don't you think? Here is the thinking behind the theme of this year's conference, which is being presented and sponsored by the Center for New Words and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Program in Women's Studies: "Tired of what you hear on the nightly news -- and the absence of women sources, speakers, pundits, and subjects? Ready to see progressive women's ideas and lives treated as if we matter? Then don't miss these two days of workshops, keynotes, and connections. From the opening talk to the closing reception, you'll be taking your own place among women determined to change the conversation."

Keynote speakers at the weekend-long event include Medea Benjamin,
co-founder of Code Pink and Founding Director of Global Exchange;
author and journalist Daisy Hernandez; commentator Jill Nelson; and journalist/writer Maria Hinojosa. There is also a distinguished list of featured speakers and panelists including Heather Findlay, editor-in-chief of Girlfriends magazine; Ms. Musings' Christine Cupaiuolo; Alternet senior editor Lakshmi Chaudhry; economist and author Julianne Malveaux; Betsy Reed, senior editor at The Nation; activist Ann Northrop, and many others, including me. Among the media-focused topics of discussion: Lesbian Weddings and Culture Wars; Getting Women Heard - On Air, On-line, On Deadline; Feminists in the Media Reform Movement; and Taking Back the Language: Our Moral Values. If you have an interest in bring more progressive female voices into the national debate over media, government, and values, you won't want to miss this year's offering.

Join us at MIT's Stata Center, won't you? Register via the CNW site. I'll look forward to seeing you there in March.

Have Miscarriage, Go to Jail?

I am so disgusted by this Virginia bill that I am having trouble typing a rational enough entry to get word out. The title is no joke, Republican Delegate John Cosgrove is trying to pass a bill which will essentialy criminalize women for having a sponteneous miscarriage and failing to report such a traumatic and intensely private experience to the police.

Failing to report a miscarriage to the police is to be classed as a class 1 misdemeanor. The article linked to above states:

"Does the punishment fit the “crime”?
Suffering a miscarriage is no crime, but Delegate Cosgrove wants to make it a crime for a woman to fail to violate her own privacy in the first 12 hours after a miscarriage, so let’s look at his proposed penalty.

Cosgrove's bill says, “A violation of this section shall be punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.”

Let's see. What other crimes are punishable as Class 1 misdemeanors in Virginia? A cursory Google search reveals just a few...

A person 18 years of age or older engaging in consensual intercourse with a child 15 or older not his spouse, child or grandchild (more commonly known as "statutory rape")

burning or destroying a building or structure if the property therein is valued at less than $200 (arson)

a bomb threat made by someone younger than 15

carrying a concealed weapon while under the influence of drugs or alcohol

possession or distribution of fraudulent drivers’ licenses or official identification

stalking

threatening any public school employee while on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity

purchasing or providing alcohol to minors

So, Delegate Cosgrove is basically saying that failing to violate your own privacy within 12 hours of a miscarriage is the criminal equivalent of statutory rape, arson, stalking, and other serious crimes.

The authorized punishments for convictions for a Class 1 misdemeanor in Virginia are “confinement in jail for not more than 12 months and a fine of not more than $2500, either or both.” "

Please, get the word out, if you know anyone in Virginia, tell them what is trying to be passed and ask them to call their senator. Do not let somehting like this happen in a country that claims to base itself on principles of freedom of individuals.

Right now I have to go talk to my husband, who was lucky enough to get yelled at for trying to make nice conversation with me when I was busy re-living my own miscarriage of a couple of years ago and filled with inarticulate rage at the state of reproductive rights in this country.

Cast a Vote for Blog Sisters

The "Bloggies of the Year" nomination forms have to be in by January 10. Go here and scroll down to "Best Group Weblog" and cast your vote for Blog Sisters. Pass the word around. We deserve it!

There Once Was A Year Named '04

Being a glutton for punishment, I've posted a review of the horror referred to in polite company as 2004. And I introduce it with this limerick:

There once was a year named '04
By Madeleine Begun Kane

There once was a year named '04,
Ruled by Bush and his cronies hard-core.
It's finally ended.
If I could amend it,
I'd show Bush and Cheney the door.

My 2004 year in review is here.

God Bless My Magnetic Ribbon, part deux

Hard to believe, I know, but my drawing talent is actually even worse than my photoshopping skills, so that cartoon I was envisioning in my previous post is never--alas-- gonna be drawn by me. Here's my alternative. *Sigh* You go to blog with the skills you have, not the skills you want or might wish to have.


Thanks, America! Keep 'em coming!

Also posted at Tild~.

God Bless My Magnetic Ribbon

Ha. I knew it was only a matter of time before a site like this popped up. And this site, which is even funnier. My favorite of all the suggested slogans: "More Patriotic Than You".

Any day now I also expect to see a cartoon showing US troops in Iraq "armoring up" their vehicles by applying layer after layer of these idiotic magnetic Support Our Troops ribbons. Jeez, if too many more days go by without seeing that cartoon I'll draw it myself.

And the caption will be: "Gosh! Thanks Mr. Rumsfeld!"

I don’t care if ol’ Dubya’s fibbin’

Long as I got my magnetic ribbon

Ridin’ on the backside of my car

On every mode of transportation

We support our army of occupation

With our ribbon magnets we’ll go far

[Look out, Mad Kane!]



Also posted over here.