Politics and Sensibility: More on Morgan

Sex Politics and Sensibility: More on Morgan
by Kristen Loveland

Robin Morgan wrote an anti-Palin piece a couple of days ago entitled, "When Sisterhood is Suicide," which initiated a debate both on Girl with Pen between Deborah and Courtney, and at Feministing between Deborah, Courtney, and the wide feminist world. Deborah loved the content of the piece, but Courtney argued that its sarcastic, snarky tone was alienating. First, let me say that tone matters. I watched the debates last night in a Brooklyn bar with nary a McCain supporter in sight. In that setting there wasn't a doubt about it: Biden won. He was calm, substantive, and authoritative in his knowledge, and never once attacked Palin personally. The Brooklyn crowd laughed at Palin's folksky "darn its." "Gosh darnit gee golly joe," mocked the guy at the end of the bar. Folksy and "nice" and not snarky, Palin's tone may have been endearing to some crowds, but it wasn't to mine.

So tone matters-- but audience matters more. Who was Robin Morgan addressing in her piece? I didn't get the sense that she was trying to reach across the aisle, that this was the opening salvo in a conversation that would end with some congenial beers at the local bar between Morgan and Joe Hockey Mom McSixpack. This is Robin Morgan, after all.

I don't even think she's talking to a younger generation of feminists, to my generation. Here's why:

Sure, we wanted to vote for the right woman. Sure, we’ll have to wait a bit longer for her. Meanwhile, in Obama we can have a chief executive who reflects our politics, and who—especially since he may have both houses of Congress behind him—just might turn out to be one hell of a great president.

and:

Do not cut off your womb to spite the Democrats. (Also do not sit this election out or play write-in-vote games. And tempting though it may seem, do not blow a vote for the Green Party.)

Morgan sure is rabble-rousing, but she's rabble-rousing to a generation that came of feminist age in the '70s, when the sides were more clearly cut ("us" vs. "the patriarchy"), to whom such angry, snarky speech will hardly be unusual or unwelcome, and who embody the imagined fears of Democrats everywhere. But are these fears real? I've yet to meet a Hillary supporter who has said she will vote for the Green party, or God forbid, Palin, because Hillary didn't get the nom. As a young feminist who is cocooned within a certain generational worldview, I'd really like to know if this phenomenon does exist. And if it does, please watch this.

What I found most effective about Morgan's piece was that she destroys her mantra: Sisterhood is powerful. Sisterhood, after all, is very much a straw man that ignores the realities of how fractured the idea of "woman" is. It's all in her title: When Sisterhood is Suicide. The 1970s idea that all could be solved through coming together and sisterhood ends up being as cynical an idea as McCain thinking he could net a bunch of Hillary supporters by choosing a Woman as VP. First, we realized that there exist racial, sexuality, and economic issues that cannot be brushed under the rug in the name of sisterhood. Now, we realize that there are ideological and policy issues--the right to our bodies, the right to an experienced Vice Presidential candidate--that cannot be ignored in the name of sisterhood.

So is Morgan's rant destructive? Yes. But is it alienating? Well, it won't do much for my generation of feminists, who prefer a more conciliatory and reasoned tone. Then again, there's never been much fear that we're heading the Palin way. And some conservative commentators might love to wave this piece around as evidence that those crazy Feminazis are at it again and don't understand Palin's version of "nice," non-pay-equity, non-choice feminism. But if it does stay within its intended audience, then it could be very effective.

Of course, given the internet, the chance of it hitting only its intended crowd is... next to none.

Revisiting The Feminine Mystique

Just when you thought that with the interesting yet complicated angle Palin is injecting into red state feminism, we might onto something new, Christina Hoff Sommers is back fanning the flames of the mommy wars by arguing that in building her case, Betty Friedan made a fatal mistake that undermined her book's appeal at the time and permanently weakened the movement it helped create.

According to Sommers in a New York Sun article titled Reconsiderations: Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, Friedan not only attacked a postwar culture that aggressively consigned women to the domestic sphere, but she attacked the sphere itself - along with all the women who chose to live there.

I seriously can't wait for Stephanie Coontz's reconsideration of TFM (which is in the works). We need it, bad.

And while we're at it, Newsweek reports that a new study finds that children of privileged families fare worse when the mother works outside the home--but what does the research really tell us? Read it and see.

(Thanks to Steve Mintz and the Council on Contemporary Families--on whose Board I now sit!--for the links.)

Save Bitch!

SOS from my friends at the fabulous magazine Bitch: Feminist Critique of Pop Culture:

The print publishing industry as a whole is staring into a void. Across the board, newsstand magazine sales are in a slump, subscriber numbers are down, and paper and postal costs continue to rise. But it's not magazines like US Weekly or Vogue that you'll see disappearing from the newsstands—they have the parent companies and the resources to weather industry ill winds. It's the small, independent magazines like Bitch that will disappear, because the odds are already stacked high against us. And simply put: We need to raise $40,000 by October 15th in order to print the next issue of Bitch....

Read the rest.

We Will Miss You, Stephanie Tubbs Jones

I really can't believe she's gone, just like that. Many of my colleagues have worked with her office. Among other contributions, she was a staunch supporter of women's rights. She will be very sorely missed.

Life is precious. Live every minute, my mother always says. I have a feeling Stephanie did. And she should have had many, many more.

The Dinner Party, Take 2

My intergenerational feminist panel went out together to see Caryl Churchill's play, Top Girls, the other night. Courtney wrote it up over at feministing yesterday, and hence I point you over there. C writes that it got her thinking about women's lives, childbirth, sacrifice, our feminist legacy--and it got me thinking too. This pic is from the first scene, which is a nutty dinner party with women from different points in history. And speaking of dinner parties, I'm going to see Judy Chicago's version at the Brooklyn Museum in a few weeks. In lieu of a "bachelorette" party, my friend Rebecca arranged a private tour. I'd love to hear what other brides-to-be out there have done to revamp the ole "bachelorette." Share?!

COMING SOON: New Book on the Block

I'm a little slow getting back here today, but just wanted to post a heads up on an anthology I just learned about and will be talking about soon. It's called Feminist Coalitions: Historical Perspectives on Second-Wave Feminism in the United States, edited by Stephanie Gilmore, Asst. Prof of Women's Studies at Dickinson College. Sara Evans wrote the forward. The book comes out June 2. More soon!

Happy Jewish American Heritage Month

So I didn't know this til just now (whoops, bad Jew!), but May is Jewish American Heritage Month. And for this third annual celebration, the Jewish Women's Archive is partnering with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) to launch This Day of Jewish American Heritage, a daily online feature that connects every day in May to significant moments in American Jewish history.

Not surprisingly, the month of May encompasses a broad range of achievements of American Jewish women including: 19th century stage performer Adah Isaacs Menken, Beverly Sills, Ayn Rand, Susan Sontag, labor activist Bessie Abramowitz Hillman, pioneering political advisor Belle Moskowitz, and comedian Gilda Radner. And, yes, the birth of The Settlement Cookbook--a book my mother gave me, if I recall, when she packed me off to college.

The Jewish Women's Archive and JTA will be featuring This Day of Jewish American Heritage on their websites and are also offering its content as a badge (pictured left) that features each day's historical event. This badge can be placed on your personal or organizational website/blog and will link back to the Jewish Women's Archive's website for a full description of each date's event. Cool, huh? I had the chance to meet Judith Rosenbaum, Director of Education at the JWA, when I spoke in Cambridge earlier this month and she's, as the kids say, the bomb. Love what they're doing over there.

To find out more, contact Ari Davidow: adavidow@jwa.org, 617-383-6766.

Feminist Apologies

There's been a lot of discussion around feminism and racism in the feminist blogosphere of late, and for those wanting a primer on what's been going on, you can check out Jessica Valenti's apology over at feministing, Seal Press editors' apology over at the Seal Press Women's Interest blog, and important commentary from women of color bloggers including Racialicious, The Angry Black Woman, for starters.

While the issues are REAL, many who know Jessica (myself included) feel that she has been the target of some undue criticism (though also some that's merited, as she herself acknowledges). While the context is different, I still can't help but think about the trashing that went on in the 1970s when a "leader" in the movement emerged.

It's complicated, I know, but oh how history repeats.

Bella to Hillary...and Beyond

I've spent much of April saying yes to saying no. After a grueling (but wildly fun) March, April 1st commenced my month of slowing-it-down. I said no to coffee, no to many events, and no, ultimately, to all the things that distract me from getting my writing done. But when my colleagues at the Women's Media Center sent over a comped invite to a panel at The Paley Center for Media last Thursday, I jumped. Just couldn't pass up a chance to hear ladies like Gloria Steinem, Suzanne Braun Levine, Mary Thom, Patricia Mitchell, Carol Jenkins, and Marlene Sanders pontificate on women, media, and politics, "From Bella to Hillary," as it were.

Listening to the panel was a great cap to the speaking I've been doing of late with my fellow WomenGirlsLadies. It confirmed and inspired.

Confirmed: Women in this country have a long, long way to go. (We're 71st in the world in terms of representation of women in positions of political power; we occupy a whopping 3% of the clout positions in media over here, oh boy.) The program included a clip from an early women's movement documentary, "The Hand That Rocks the Ballot Box," and much of the cry then is the same as it is now. As Lily Tomlin proclaimed in another clip from a 1992 PSA that was shown, women in this country have a better chance of getting into another galaxy then Congress--where, in 2008, we're still only at 16%.

Inspired: Gloria Steinem spoke of the variety and differences within the women's movement, and how we're still dealing with a lack of full and nuanced tellings when it comes to telling the story of that movement's past. "First a movement is a hula hoop," she said. It's ridiculed by the press, and then it quickly becomes Not News. What was missed in that cursory coverage, she noted, was the role women of color played in shaping the movement of the '60s and '70s. Take Fannie Lou Hamer, a founder of the National Women's Political Caucus and the first woman to come forward against forced steralization. While Hamer is remembered as a Civil Rights movement champion of voter registration, her role in the women's movement is underplayed.

"Whitemiddleclass became like one key on the typewriter, used to devalue the women's movement in the media at large," said Steinem. And that's the version we next-generation feminists imbibed wholesale too, I might add. I'm looking forward to the forthcoming scholarship that's bound to unleash a wider range of tellings, scholarship I know from various sources is well underway.

During the Q&A, I asked panelists for their thoughts on how we might capitalize on the outrage women feel about how Hillary has been treated by the media. It's an outrage transcends candidate support and transcends age. No clear answers emerged, but all agreed that we need to channel it into harnessing votes against the hardly-woman-friendly John McCain. I look forward to figuring that out together as the general election nears.

Musical Girls Gone Grandmas

Interesting review this weekend by Janet Maslin in the NYTimes of a book called Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon — and the Journey of a Generation ,
by Sheila Weller. Maslin calls it "a strong amalgam of nostalgia, feminist history, astute insight, beautiful music and irresistible gossip about the common factors in the three women’s lives." Most interesting to me of course:

[I]t also has a point to make about sexual inequality in the era when these three women came of age. The ambition and posturing that turned middle-class Robert Zimmerman of Minnesota into Bob Dylan, Ms. Weller argues, were much more costly for women, no matter how freewheeling those women seemed. This book illustrates how Ms. Mitchell’s long-held secret about the baby she gave up for adoption was infinitely more punishing than the rambling, gambling male singer-songwriter’s stock way of paying his dues.

And most amusing:

There is something irritating about the very premise of “Girls Like Us,” Sheila Weller’s three-headed biography of legendary singer-songwriters. Maybe it’s the instant-girlfriend tone of the title. Maybe it’s that at least one of Ms. Weller’s subjects, Joni Mitchell, objected to being lumped into the same book with the other two, Carole King and Carly Simon. Or maybe it’s the euphemism. Her book is about women whose musical careers took off in the 1960s, and all are now in their 60s. They aren’t girls. They’re grandmas.

Go grandmas :)

GUEST POST: Obama v. Clinton--Back to the Future?

WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH GUEST POST: With 1st-wave feminism on my mind this morning, I'm thrilled to bring you a guest post that connects current goings-on to the past, by May Sinclair PhD, author of Infamous Eve: A History. May asks, "Are Clinton and Obama giving us an opportunity to re-live a version of the events that surrounded the 14th and 15th Amendments?" A California Real Estate Broker, May earned her doctorate in the Philosophy of Metaphysics soon after her 50th birthday. She's an award-winning author, has written extensively about ancient disciplines connected with symbolism, and teaches private workshops on Dream Interpretation and Analysis from a Jungian perspective. She is someone I seriously hope to meet in real space one day! May blogs at My Thoughts on History. Here she is! - GWP

Back to the Future?

Is the grand Universe offering us an opportunity to deal with a lesson in our history not previously understood? Are we re-living a version of the events that surrounded the ratification of United States Constitution's 14th and 15th Amendments? Those events greatly concerned and involved two of our most important historical figures. Elizabeth Cady Stanton is the woman responsible for initiating women rights in this country and Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery, is a major figure in the effort to release the United States of America from the horrors of slavery. They worked closely together, but in July, 1868 they had to face the fact that their primary objective of freedom for all did not survive when the legislators of the day banned together to block the powerful union of women and black people to only offer males the vote.

The 14th amendment said: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The idea was to make sure freed slaves were not prevented from voting, but it only gave franchise to males rather than all citizens.

But then the Supreme Court case of Minor vs. Happersett allowed the individual states to determine which males got to vote anyway.

The cause of the amendments failure:
-1. The rights of women were not included.
-1. The Federal government did not prevent the individual states from initiating voter qualification laws like literacy tests and pole taxes.

Are we being beguiled into allowing the seemingly towering objective of gaining the highest office in the land by either a black man or a woman to deflect away from the primary objective and divide us so that no one really gains anything and those of us in this country who love it and care about equality are again torn apart in an attempt to undermine the power women and blacks exhibit together?

May Sinclair can be reached at infamouseve@msn.com.

In Memorium: Barbara Seaman

A beautiful remembrance of a beautiful person, by Jennifer Baumgardner. Barbara's loss will be deeply, deeply felt.

Glamour Magazines Seeks Historians

Attention historians: Glamour Magazine is seeking suggestions for "the greatest Mother-Daughter duos of all time" for their Mother's Day issue. Any takers?

Nobel awardees Marie and Irene Curie and literary giants Mary Wallstonecraft and Mary Shelly already top their list. But what of great queens and stateswomen? Heroines and pioneers? Inventors and moguls? Literati. Artistas. Revolutionaries. ... . and so on. They're looking for mothers-daughters famed in their own right -- who may have worked together or inspired (or even infuriated) each other.

If you've got a suggestion, please send your name and email (to be queried with similar women's history questions in the future!) to Jessica Seigel at JS@jessicaseigel.com.

(Photo is Anna Magnani & Marisa Pavan playing mother and daughter in the 1955 film, Rose Tattoo. Clearly my head is still in movieland, coming off the Oscars last night. Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn, anyone?)

The Feminine Mystique Survey (Take 2!)

Betty Friedan's classic started with a survey of her college classmates some years after graduation. Fortysome years later, a book about The Feminine Mystique is starting out with a survey too. This just in from esteemed marriage scholar and friend Stephanie Coontz. Please pass it on -- the survey is for younger women who came across the book in Women's Studies courses as well as for those who read it when it first came out!

Writes Stephanie:

Thank you for agreeing to help in my study of the influence of Betty Friedan's 1963 book "The Feminine Mystique." I am trying to get a feel for how people in different time periods and situations reacted to this book, or merely to the general idea of a "feminine mystique," whether or not they actually read the book. I have listed some questions below, but feel free to tell me anything you feel would be useful, and in as much detail as you choose.

If you heard the concept of "The Feminine Mystique" before -- or without -- reading the book, how and when did you hear of it? What did it mean to you? How did you react to the idea that there was a "feminine mystique"? Did a relative, spouse or friend read the book, and if so, what was their reaction? Did their reaction affect you in any way?

For people who read the book, can you tell me the year when you read it? Your age at the time? Were you married? Any children? Did you work for pay at the time? If so, at what? How did you come to read it?

Do you remember your overall reaction to the book? Did anything speak powerfully to you? Did anything anger you? What is your most vivid memory of reading it? Did it influence your life or relationships in any way?

Have you ever re-read the book? If so, why? Did your reaction change?

What is your ethnic or racial and socioeconomic background? Your current age and occupation? May I identify you by name if I quote from your response? Unless you explicitly give me permission to use your name in my book, I will not do so, nor will I offer details that might identify you.

I deeply appreciate any help you might give to this project. If there are questions I should have asked but neglected, please let me know that too. And if you have suggestions for other people I might contact, please let me know. You can e-mail your responses to coontzs@gmail.com

Do We Still Need Women's History?

Feminist historian Alice Kessler-Harris has an article provocatively titled "Do We Still Need Women's History?" running in the Chronicle of Higher Education (which I can't, ahem, read because I don't have a dang subscription). But here's a tease:

In the spring of 2007, the Organization of American Historians (the nation's premier body of professional historians, teachers, and public advocates of U.S. history) asked me to take a look at what had changed in the profession with regard to the history of women and gender over the 100-year life span of the group. My findings would...

I'm guessing Kessler-Harris' answer to the question is a resounding YES. But if any of you with subscriptions out there want to put me out of my misery, do share! Or, of course, I could just finally the bullet and subscribe :)

And speaking of Women's History of course, which I for one adamantly believe we still need, in addition to traveling with an intergenerational feminist panel alongside some of my favorite feminist colleagues, [Shameless Plug Alert] I am currently booking speaking engagements solo for March 2008 (Women's History Month) based on my book, Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild. If you are interested in bringing me to your campus or organization, please do get in touch soon, as my schedule is booking up! [Shameless Plug Ends]

Groovy Vibrations

Courtesy of Marco (always lookin out for me, that one!) comes this YouTube retrobite in which Moses Znaimer interviews Gloria Steinem in 1968 about being a "groovy chick" and an ex-Playboy bunny. Highlights:

Znaimer to Steinem: "You've been described as a chick with a good sense of the vibrations."

Steinem on reporting circa 1968: "To report with compassion is important now, because we've been so inundated by the statistics."

Life Magazine to Steinem: "We want a writer, not a girl.'"

Znaimer on Playboy Bunnydom: "I thought you had to be stacked to be a bunny girl."

Steinem to Znaimer: "A lot of that is plastic dry cleaner bags, really."

P.S. I just started a category called "feminist history." Were you there? Got pics to share? You send 'em, I'll post 'em!
(Photo credit)