Girls Fight, We Watch

As Marco noted below, I was slated to speak on MSNBC this afternoon and got bumped. So instead, I'm posting some of my thoughts about the YouTube video of two middle-school girls fighting in a school locker room here and will just pretend that I said them on tv. (Sorry Mom, false alarm!)

As an astute observer noted in response to a previous girl fight also posted on YouTube, meanness and occasional violence among teenage girls is nothing new. The voyeurism around it is. American culture is obsessed with the girlfight—-think about the popular obsession with female mud-wrestling. Images of grown women fighting are often sexualized, staged, and designed to scintillate. Like porn. The girls are getting younger. And the fights are getting real.

But what’s really new (again, with homage to said astute observer) is the speed with which actual bad behavior is becoming entertainment. All it takes is a click of a phone. Notice that the girl who shot the clip with the camera on her cell phone made no attempt to break the fight or run to get adult help. Maybe she thought she was watching reality tv. Whatever the case, she was a spectator. Just like the thousands of spectators who then viewed the clip on YouTube. And the tv viewers (like me) who stared in awe as FOX News rolled the clip over and over again this morning on the air.

The YouTube clip is part of a trend. There are entire sites now, like www.girlfightsdump.com and www.fightdump.com, virtual repositories of girls behaving badly. I'm terrified at the way this has become entertainment. The violence in the video is scary. And so is the Cleveland school shooting for which I got bumped.

(An early plug for my friend Jessie Klein's excellent book on school shootings, coming from Rutgers UP. The book, The Gender Police, focuses on boys. But Jessie has a chapter on girl fighting, too. Thank you, Jessie, for prepping me today. This post's for you.)

GWP in NYT!

Girl with Pen in New York Times blog today! In response to questions I've been getting, there ARE a few slots left in my "Making It Pop: Translating Your Ideas for Trade" webinar this fall. Please see this post and this one for more.

GUEST POST: Girl Fights and Boy Toys

Suggestion: for a quick, deep glimpse into the heart of the beast, go for half-hour treadmill workout at your local gym where you can gaze at a battery of overhead flatscreen TVs, each tuned to a different channel.

A random sequence of images from this morning's visit:
—an endlessly repeated video clip of a vicious girl fight in a high school locker room
—a promo for the Bionic Woman (much running, jumping, drop-kicking of bad-guys)
—a music video of Jennifer Lopez beating the crap out of more bad-guys in a brothel or something, setting an example for the oppressed sistahs
—a Hummer barrels menacingly towards the viewer through a nighttime wilderness, scaring off would-be attackers (wolves, scorpions); in a second ad the Hummer is shown from a gamer's POV, barreling into a morphing sequence of rough terrains (desert, arctic, tundra).
— yet another news story on a private "security" firm killing more civilians in Iraq, two women shot dead in their car

What seems to be the signal cutting through all the media noise? Is it that it's OK now for women to be violent, because, hey, we all get to watch, while men have ramped up to the next level and gone invisible (and unaccountable), inside our all-terrain, obstacle-and-reality-proof paramilitary vehicles? We can't be sure. But let wolves, scorpions, the environment and helpless civilians beware.

[UPDATE: Deborah Siegel was originally slated to appear on MSNBC this afternoon to comment on the Ohio middle school girl fight video mentioned above, but the story was preempted by the tragic school shooting in Cleveland. With shock and sadness we recognize that the two events are part of a broader ongoing crisis — rage and violence amidst our children — which seems to compound itself day by day. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims in Cleveland and their families.]

Talkin It Up from LES to Hudson Valley...

Just a quick reminder about tomorrow's panel...Come one, come all! It's free, there's food, and there's feminists.

The Tenement Museum presents…

Feminist New York
Thursday, October 11
6-8 PM

Lower East Side Tenement Museum Shop
108 Orchard Street at Delancey

I'll be moderating the discussion with Pamela Thompson & Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, authors of the recently published Every Past Thing and Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. RSVPs requested (Bookclub@tenement.org). Check out Megan Marshall's review of the latter in Slate, and Kathyrn Harrison's review in the New York Times.

And next Wednesday, I'll be speaking about Sisterhood, Interrupted at a private salon hosted by the illustrious Heather Hewett--the Gertrude Stein of the Valley (Hudson Valley). The same Heather Hewett who organized that fabulous conference on girlhood last weekend at SUNY-New Paltz, the one that featured "my gal" Courtney Martin. Can't wait to see what Heather does next!

When Breadwinning Is Not Enough

Did ya'll see that article in Newsweek from Sept. 30, "Father Time"? Well, I just caught it and the most interesting finding, I thought, was this: The researchers expected that the dads who were really involved were going to be the dads who had working spouses. But that wasn't the case. "In fact," explains University of Maryland sociologist Suzanne Bianchi, "dads are more involved over time whether their spouse is working outside the home or not.”

And why are dadly responsibilities changing? Says Bianchi,

"Dads had a clearer message in the 1960s about how they were supposed to behave: they were supposed to earn a living. Maybe now it’s less clear that breadwinning is enough. We still expect dads to be good breadwinners, but it’s not sufficient: you’re also supposed to be caring and nurturing your children. I think men are also taking cues from their wives. Just because moms go to work doesn’t mean they lose the feeling they should be involved moms. And dads are also picking up the message."

(Hey Paul, dude, fatherman, when are we going for lunch?!)

This Book-and-Blogging Life...

Inspired by Alex Juhasz (who is currently teaching a course on YouTube about YouTube), I've decided to teach my fall webinar "Making It Pop: Translating Your Ideas for Trade" as a bloginar. Meaning, the online part of the class will take place as--you guessed it--a blog.

What better way to learn about using the blogosphere as a platform for your books than by becoming more familiar with a blog, right?

So the class blog--private, of course!--will provide a forum where participants can post elements of their book proposals, or thoughts toward ideas, as we go along. And get feedback. I'll be walking participants through the mechanics on our first conference call (that would be Nov 6). We've got some great NYC-based agents and editors lined up for the calls. And while I'm at it, and for those of you who like to get ahead (you know who you are), the suggested reading for the course will be from: Thinking like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction and Get It Published. More info--dates, cost, rationale--here.

I think Marco took this (goofy) pic of me the day I got my current laptop. Boy, do I love me my MacBook.

Girl President Obsession, Continued...

I know I'm starting to sound like a Hillary supporter over here. Full disclosure: I am still undecided, as my feelings keep evolving. But I'm just riveted by the spectacle of her running. Not merely *her* running, but the fact that a viable woman candidate is.

So check this out: According to the most recent Newsweek poll (61,093 responses, 51% believe American voters would elect a woman to the White House in 2008, while 41% do not (8.4% aren't sure). Everyone I talk to around this town these days (and granted, I'm talking about a rarefied urban island) seems to feel a woman can't win. The Newsweek poll is (as they themselves note) not scientific. Has anyone seen a recent one that is?

Best Wedding Toppers Ever

These pics are from the amazing dude ranch wedding I went to the other week. (Congratulations, Rebeccemy!)

Must the Hillary Doll be Clothing Optional?

Now I know the good folks of Ratify ERA Florida are well intentioned. But the description of this "Hillary" doll that appears on their website is a bit...much:

This is the exclusive, celebrated President doll with the shirt that thrills us all, seen enlarged. You will not find “Hillary” anywhere else. She is 15 inches tall, finely-made, soft and completely undressable.

Meanwhile, the not-so-good folks at Walmart had a different objection:

“Hillary” announces that "Someday a Woman will be President" on her shirt that Wal-Mart banned from its shelves. They claim that having a woman in the White House "is against 'Family Values' ". We think it is most timely and just perfect.

Yeah, ok, I'll give it to them there.

And One More Feminist Response to 9/11...

As Elizabeth Curtis reminds me, Judith Butler's book, Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence, came out in 2005. The book begins, "Since the events of September 11, we have seen both a rise of anti-intellectualism and a growing acceptance of censorship within the media." Uh huh. And I also hear it's one of her more accessible ones.

Thanks, Elizabeth, for the heads up!

Bionic...Wha?

I recently got a "hey, how are ya" email from Elana Levine, a colleague of mine from grad school, who has written what sounds like a fabulous book. It's called Wallowing in Sex: The New Sexual Culture of 1970s American Television. Love the cover (left).

And meanwhile, Annalee Newitz expresses her disappointment at the remake of Bionic Woman over at AlterNet:

This time around, Jaime [Sommers, the bionic woman] isn't an independent career jock: she's a 23-year-old bartender and college dropout who has just gotten pregnant and is about to marry her surgeon boyfriend. When she asks said boyfriend why he likes her, despite her lack of professional success, he replies, "You're the one thing my father didn't plan for me."

Newitz says much more, and concludes that "there's something deeply wrong about a science fiction show, allegedly about a woman of the future, whose message seems taken from a past much further back than the show's origins in the 1970s."

Darn. I loved that show.

See you at HuffPo....

My HuffPo po is now live, here. Please check it out, and comment away! I'll be responding over there later today.

Watch HuffPo on Monday...

Moved by Naomi Wolf's talk on The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot on Friday at Labyrinth, and having finished Susan Faludi's Terror Dreams yesterday, today I wrote a post on them both that should go live in the politics section of HuffPo tomorrow.

If you like it, please click "I'm a fan of this blogger" (or whatever that button says) and post comments!

Jews with Tents

I love it when tradition meets practicality. Last weekend, at my friend Rebecca Segall's wedding on a dude ranch in upstate New York, some friends pitched a sukkah in celebration of the Jewish holiday, Sukkot. Now, "pitch" isn't usually the word you use to describe putting up a sukkah--that would be "build." But this one, no mistake, was pitched. The friends got it from a website, www.popupsukkah.com, and it was basically a tent with a bamboo roof.

Overheard, from the (Jewish) groom: "Is this so Jews can camp?"

Welcome East, Bitch!

The ladies of Bitch magazine are currently touring the East Coast...I'm off to a welcome party. Meanwhile, on the topic of feminist responses to pop culture (which is what Bitch does so well), I was thrilled to read Faludi's deconstruction of the opt-out media frenzy, from Sylvia Ann Hewlett (2001) to Lisa Belkin (2003) to Louise Story (2005). Basically, what most sociologists and economists have been saying all along. For those of you looking for a cheat sheet, it's on pages 141-45 of The Terror Dream.

GUEST POST: Terror Dreams and Awakenings

Like Dee, I'm really looking forward to reading Susan Faludi's The Terror Dream, which I believe is the first book to deal in depth with the psycho/sexual political/domestic alchemical reaction we had as a nation to 9/11. Her thesis, that we regressed to a kind of frontier mentality wherein men are the defenders of women, hearth, and home, seems broadly correct; but I may take issue with some of her specifics, based on what I've read leading up to the book release.

Dee, in her post below on The Terror Dream, makes a case for authentic sentiment and emotion around some of the mythic tropes proposed by Faludi. As for myself, I personally don't recall any gender scripting by the media in the immediate aftermath of that terrible day, but maybe that's because being a New Yorker I didn't see how the story played out in the national media. What I do remember are the faces of lost loved ones covering the blank spaces in the city; the faces of men and women: husbands, wives, fiánces, mothers, fathers, sons, sisters, brothers, daughters. The city was in collective domestic shock and mourning. And while many Americans may have been shocked by inconceivable catastrophe into settling down ("life is too short") and adopting the American script, many have also taken the opposite trajectory, impelled to shake off lethargy and shelter and to discard scripts completely: the "You only live once" camp.

In any case, I'm sure Faludi's book will be rich in data and reflection on wounds which have barely begun to heal, and whose scars are only beginning to be revealed to light of day and reason.

2 NYC Events Coming Up...

WOMEN TAKING THE LEAD IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES
2007 Gruber Women’s Rights Symposium
On October 16 at New York University School of Law, Emmy-award winning filmmaker Anisa Mehdi will lead an exciting panel discussion about how women are breaking new ground in advancing their rights and roles in Muslim societies. Panelists include 2007 Gruber Women’s Rights Prize recipient Pinar Ilkkaracan of Turkey; Daisy Khan, Executive Director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement; Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International; and Sakena Yacoobi, founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning and 2004 Gruber Women’s Rights Prize Laureate.

The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation will present its 2007 Women’s Right Prize to Pinar Ilkkaracan of Istanbul, Turkey, and two organizations she helped establish. Ms. Ilkkaracan, Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways (WWHR) and the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR) will share the unrestricted $500,000 (US) award. The symposium will immediately follow the Prize ceremony. Video of the symposium will be available worldwide beginning Thursday, October 18, 2007 on the Gruber website

GIRLS WRITE NOW 10TH ANNIVERSARY FALL "FRIENDRAISER"
Come celebrate 10 years of bold, articulate chicks--and one of my favorite organizations, Girls Write Now--on Thursday, October 18th at Bluestockings Bookstore: 172 Allen Street @ Stanton & Rivington.

The fun starts with a Mentor-Mentee Pair Reading and Chapbook Showcase at Bluestockings, from 5:30-6:30pm, then continues across the street from 7-9:30pm with a party at The Slipper Room with author and "girlbomb" Janice Erlbaum, award-winning novelist Tayari Jones and hotshot indy rockers Royal Pink. (No cover!)

Welcome, Womenandhollywood blog!

A hearty blogospheric welcome to Melissa Silverstein, who has launched a blog offering news and commentary about Hollywood from a feminist perspective.

Says Melissa, "Hollywood is so male oriented that women and their stories and expertise get shunted to the side. This blog will focus on what's going on for women in Hollywood - what movies are being made; what directors are getting jobs; what actors are working; and anything else that will help tip the balance." Also helpful is Melissa's list of upcoming movies to check out. Welcome, Melissa!

The Happy Gap

Are women less happy than men? New research says "yeah." There's an interesting, researchy thread on it all over at Language Log. And do check out Marci Alboher's smart post over at her new New York Times blog, Shifting Careers. She quotes one of my favorite sociologists, Virginia Rutter. (Go Virginia!)

Beauty Myths, Dove, Naomi Wolf, and Woodhull

So Dove has a new spot--which, sorry, I think is pretty great--called "Onslaught." Broadsheet's Catherine Price thinks it's pretty nifty too:

The Dove ad team is at it again with this spot, set to a song called "Here It Comes" that starts with an innocent-looking young girl who is then subjected to an onslaught of images of models on bus stops, women binging and purging, plastic surgeries and TV commercials telling her to lose weight. The tag line? "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does" -- followed by the suggestion to download Dove's self-esteem kits. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's an attempt to recast skin and beauty products as "self-esteem boosters," but I'll admit it: I like Dove's ads.

What do you think?

And speaking of beauty myths, Naomi Wolf is having a book party tonight to celebrate her new one (which just hit the New York Times bestseller list), The End of America: Letter to a Young Patriot Congrats, Naomi!

Meanwhile, the Woodhull Institute's online trainings continue over at Dove's Real Women, Real Success stories site. Our "Financial Literacy" units are now all live, and next week begins "Authentic Voice and Advocacy." Spread the word!

Reading Diary: The Terror Dream

If you're a New Yorker reading Susan Faludi's The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America, you can't help but relive those first few days. So my question while reading it so far is this: Where do we draw the line between private expression and public expectation, between personal, psychological response and national script?

I was among that "mob of idle Good Samaritans," as Faludi calls it, who was turned away for blood donation. The profound sense of impotence after the towers fell -- it wasn't just a narrative script, it was a deeply felt emotion. (And the firefighters, as I don't think Faludi would negate, were heroes. I was living below 14th Street at the time, and I'd burst into tears on my morning runs through the frozen zone when I'd see their white-dust-covered engines drive by. For weeks, you couldn't walk past a fire station, invariably flanked by a make-shift memorial of candles and wreaths, without weeping. It's just how it was.)

I was also one of those women who got engaged soon after 9/11 in part out of the carpe diem spirit that overcame both my partner and me. Did we take refuge in the domestic, or did we follow our hearts?

Six years later (and one husband down), I'm still not sure that I could write neutrally about 9/11. Faludi is one of my favorite cultural critics, and, as to be expected, she does it well. So I'm not sure if my lingering question comes as the question of someone who still feels too close, or if it's a larger critique. I'll let you know when I finish the book! For now, I'm feeling a little un-ironic. Then again, perhaps that's exactly her point.

The Personal Is Political Is Personal Is...

I love it when there are enough books by feminists hot on the popular radar that I have a hard time deciding which to think/write about first. I'm thinking of course of Faludi's The Terror Dream, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History, and Katha Pollitt's Learning to Drive and Other Stories. Since I'm still in the middle of them all, I'll just point to an interesting convo that's going on.

Over at TMPCafe Book Club, Garance Franke-Ruta, Jessica Valenti, Amanda Marcotte, Chris Hayes, and Todd Gitlin are collectively offering their takes on Katha's book. Katha kicks it off with a post titled "When the Political Can't Be Personal," in which she expresses her surprise at some of the indignant, misogynist public response to her getting personal, particularly the New York Times review by Toni Bentley--which I agree was energetically negative and over the top.

But I remember Katha's 1999 review, in the same venue, of three books from the 1990s that seemed to use an n of 1 to make sweeping and often misguided claims (what my sociologist friend calls "me-search"): Wendy Shalit's A Return to Modesty, Danielle Crittenden's What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us, and Katie Roiphe's Last Night in Paradise. Her review was titled "The Solipsisters" and began,

Surveying the recent spate of books about women, even the most dedicated feminist might find herself muttering, ''Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.'' I'm thinking of the way ''the personal is political,'' that watchword of 1970's feminism, has morphed and mushroomed into something quite other than originally intended -- indeed, almost the opposite.

Katha went on to take these young writers to task for assuming that "personal testimony, impressions and feelings are all you need to make a political argument." I couldn't agree more, and my distaste for these particular books (well, Shalit's and Crittenden's for sure) is and was strong. Katha also noted how some of the most influential texts of feminism (like The Second Sex and The Feminine Mystique) have actually been rather un-self-revealing.

So my question becomes, where and how do we draw the line? And what's most effective in terms of affecting readers and changing minds?

I'm thinking my next book may have more of "me" mixed in with the commentary this time--but I'm wary. I'm going to a feminist salon later this month where the topic is "Writing in the First Person" and can't wait to mull over the question with the pros.

Meanwhile, I loved Katha's retort to Bentley:

[I]t is a strange experience to be accused of telling too much by the author of an 'erotic memoir' about sadomasochistic anal sex, in which she describes, among many other graphic details, saving her used condoms in a box. I'm no Freudian, but the concept of projection does come to mind.

HAHAHAHA!

"We're at War, Sweetheart"

Quit hit: Check out Rebecca Traister's take on Susan Faludi's new book, The Terror Dream. Ok, I want to read this book so badly, I'm going out to buy it. Right now. Watch, now the review copy (which hasn't yet arrived) will be waiting for me when I get home. Either way, watch for more on it all here soon!

Gangster Feminism and Gaskets

From the academic forefront come some very cool resources, of course, these days. In case you missed it(!), the Summer 2007 issue of the journal Feminist Studies focuses on Feminism and Mass Media. It includes an essay on the feminist cultural work of The Sopranos by my gal Lisa Johnson ("Gangster Feminism"). And on a very different subject--so different that I can't even think of a way to link other than the fact that I admire all the authors--the University of Michigan Press is coming out this month with a book on everything you need to know about advancing academic women in science and engineering, Transforming Science and Engineering: Advancing Academic Women, wouldn't you know. Take that, Larry Summers ole pal.

(So Marco and I were trying to figure out what a gasket was last night, so I looked it up and had to use it somehow in a post. A gasket, for the record, is a mechanical seal that fills the space between two objects, generally to prevent leakage between the two objects while under compression. You don't want to "blow a gasket," if you know what I mean.)

Anita Talks Back. Hillary Does Not Cackle.

...to Clarence Thomas. Again. Don't miss this.
Says Hill on the op-ed page of the New York Times, "I will not stand by silently and allow him, in his anger, to reinvent me."

Meanwhile, check out these savvy responses on HuffPo--from Ann Friedman and Rachel Sklar--to that inane Times article about how Hillary cackles. Like a witch. Says Ann, "I'm betting that the next time a woman runs for president, her laugh won't sound so strange." Take that my pretty.

Roundup: Feminism Old, New, and Right Now

Three quick hits before I dash off to a Girls Write Now meeting tonight:

Camille Paglia sounds off on "the sisterhood myth" over at The Guardian, while six leading feminists sound off on the books that changed their lives.

Molly Bennett interviews feministing.com's Jessica Valenti in The Nation.

And last weekend Smith College celebrated the 65th anniversary of its renowned Sophia Smith Collection with history, art, feminism and the vivid voices of women across decades. Headlining the festivities was "Voices of Feminism Oral History Project," a four-year initiative highlighting the stories of women overlooked by the longstanding notion of feminism as a white, middle class movement. Happy anniversary, archives!

Repro Rights, Past and Present

So tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Rosaura “Rosie” Jiménez, the first known victim of the Hyde Amendment in the United States. And the amazing Gloria Feldt is going to be joining María Luisa Sánchez Fuentes (executive director of Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida) for a cross-border dialogue about the recent gains and losses in the reproductive rights movements in the United States and Mexico over at the Women’s Media Center. Check out what Gloria has to say about it all today on HuffPo.

Journalists welcome:
9:30-10:30 am EST
The Women’s Media Center
350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 901
New York, New York 10118
RSVP by email (kathy@womensmediacenter.com) or by calling the Women’s Media Center at (212) 563-0680. A call-in option is also available.

Let's make this news.

GUEST POST: Gaming — Where the Girls Are, and Aren't

For those not in the know, Halo 3, which launched in the U.S. on September 25th, is the latest in an extremely popular series of "first-person shooter" video games which are the cornerstone of Microsoft's XBox 360 empire. Microsoft has declared Halo 3 to be "the biggest entertainment launch in history." And just who exactly plunked down the bucks? Well, I haven't yet found hard numbers, but there seem to be no surprises on the gender front — at least according to the amusing video below from online pop magazine JetSet, wherein an intrepid (and exasperated) girl reporter goes on the hunt for gamergrrls at a Halo launch event.

It's quite likely you are sitting there thinking "Well, thank God there aren't more young women wasting their days and brain cells on such violent, proto-jingoistic tripe." Ah, BUT... as reported just a couple of weeks ago by The Economist and then by Jezebel, a study conducted by the University of Toronto demonstrated how women's spatial acuity (i.e. spotting "unusual objects ... in [one's] field of vision," etc.) is dramatically and permanently improved after playing ten hours of Medal of Honour: Pacific Assault. "Join us or DIE!" seems to be the subliminal message to women here; but doesn't the market support other types of games, with all the benefits and none of the (virtual) bloodshed? After all, there may actually be more women gamers in the U.S. than men: according to an online survey conducted early last month by the J. Walter Thompson ad agency (JWT), out of over 1000 respondents 44% of women said they owned a gaming console vs. 39% of men. These include owners of Wii, a platform known for broadening the gaming market across genders and generations.

There are definitely popular alternatives to the first-person shooters: you can improve your physical dexterity with say, "Dance Dance Revolution" or "Guitar Hero." And for those who still prefer a good fight there is the intriguing strategy game A Force More Powerful. An interactive teaching tool developed by The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, it "simulates nonviolent struggles ... against dictators, occupiers, colonizers, and corrupt regimes, as well as campaigns for political and human rights for minorities and women." Now that frankly sounds kick-ass enough for most men and women I know.


Online Videos by Veoh.com

Re. the pic at the top of the post: in a bid to corner the homebound nerd market, SuicideGirls reveals Halo hunk Master Chief to be... the lovely "Alaina." (Thanks to BoingBoing Gadgets).

Raise a Pink Napkin to Anita

Anita Hill is responsible for getting me my first job. Well, indirectly. I was first hired by the National Council for Research on Women in 1991 to write a report synthesizing current research on sexual harassment. And I'll never forget standing on my chair at a fancy luncheon along with women state legislators at a CAWP-sponsored conference held the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego soon after the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings were over. Anita Hill was the speaker, and as she made her entrance, the legislators, my boss, and I waved pink napkins high in the air and hooted and hollered like banshees. It was a highpoint of my early twenties.

Now, sixteen years later, Supreme Court Justice Thomas has a new book out, and over at the Women's Media Center, Freada Kapor Klein responds. Klein, an expert in issues of sexual harassment and founder of the Level Playing Field Institute, argues that Thomas is still trying vindicate himself at Hill’s expense. She notes that every employee in the United States whose workplace has policies about a harassment-free environment owes a debt to Anita Hill, who had the courage to speak up about unfair treatment when her attempts to lodge a confidential complaint were denied.

I'll swing a napkin to that.

Blogging Pro-Choice

My blogger friends in Chicago are asking folks to please visit the new Planned Parenthood Aurora blog and comment. The blog should be a place where pro-choicers can gather to discuss the situation not just in Aurora but around this country. Please join me in passing on the blog to friends & other pro-choice allies. Psst - pass it on!

The Hillary Files -- History and Myth

One more related to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's new book, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. Loved Kathryn Harrison's review of it in the NYTimes Book Review this weekend, especially this line:

Hillary Clinton, who famously refused to "bake cookies" in the background of her husband's career, is an Amazon, destined to be as much the property of myth as of history, between which lies a vast and unfixed common ground.

(Pic is of First Ladies in 1994, left to right: Nancy Reagan, Lady Bird Johnson, Clinton, then the current First Lady, Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, and Barbara Bush.)

I'm on a panel with Ulrich next week - details here. Do come!

Wedding Improv

I'm back from my dear friend Rebecca Wallace-Segall's wedding weekend -- at a bonefide dude ranch in upstate New York! I love weddings that draw on tradition and simultaneously subvert. Groom Jeremy rode in on an ATV, his long hair flying in the wind. Rebecca rode in on a horse, and the horse bolted. Instead of wedding cake, friends baked pies. This is a pic of me and Katie Orenstein (the same Catherine Orenstein who teaches the fabulous op-ed writing classes for women) pretending we are a two-headed buck.

Mazel tovs and dude-like high fives to Rebecca and Jeremy (aka Rebeccemy)! Sending you both tons of love, always.

Ask GWP...

So as promised, I'm occasionally posting readers' questions (and my answers!) about the intersections of feminist blogging, scholarship, and journalism here.

Q: I've been working on an essay I'm thinking about posting, but it's also one that I want to try and get published once I've had a chance to do some more research and polishing. In your experience, does publishing a portion or draft of a piece on a blog make it difficult to get that piece published in a scholarly journal later on?

GWP: I sometimes use blogging as a way to think through ideas I am writing about for publication elsewhere. More often, I'll do a post around links that I want to return to and mull over for a piece I'm working on. But here's the thing: When I rework an idea I've blogged about for the purposes of publication (ie, the non-blog variety), I will word the idea very differently. My blog voice is much more off-the-cuff and this-just-in sounding than anything I would write for a magazine or journal. Scholarly journals, like magazines, generally want proprietary content. But that doesn't mean that you can't do a post around an idea that's part of an article you are submitting elsewhere. I would argue against posting a large portion (ie more than 500 words) of something you will repurpose verbatim -- both because the publication may not favor that and because you don't want to be plagarized before you've published in the journal. But if you do decide to post a portion, I suggest being up front about it when you submit the article to the journal. Does anyone have additional thoughts, or experiences around this issue to share?

Very Smart Working Woman's Voice at NYT Blogs!

I'm late to posting today (meetings, meetings!) but I've got a good one for you. My friend Marci Alboher, author of the book pictured left, has launched a blog called Shifting Careers over at the New York Times. The tagline of the blog? "Smart thinking at work." With Marci behind it, smart it will be for sure. Heck, already is. Check out this post, on why the best-places-to-work for women lists matters. Or this one, on what Marci did when the Times designed a logo for her featuring a man. Or this one, on her writing mentor Susan Shapiro and how to be a good mentee. See what I'm sayin? This blog has become my new must-read. Do check it out, and if you like it, post comments and send Marci some love.

Misbehavin and History Makin - Panel Oct. 11

Ok, I know I'm all about the panels today, but here's another one -- save the date! I'm moderating :)

The Tenement Museum presents…
Feminist New York
Thursday, October 11
6-8 PM

Lower East Side Tenement Museum Shop
108 Orchard Street at Delancey

Join us for a panel discussion with Pamela Thompson & Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, authors of the recently published Every Past Thing and Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. Our panel will discuss the private and public acts of New York women during the late 19th and early 20th century. As the moderator, I'll put the issues in a contemporary feminist context, too. Free and open to the public – but RSVPs requested (Bookclub@tenement.org).

Backlash Sequel Pubs Next Week

Dying to read it. Here's Faludi in the Times today, sounding off on “an exaltation of American masculinity in an intergalactic crisis.” Cowboy president, anyone? (Actually, the book sounds like much more than Backlash sequel, but I loved me that book so much....)

Working Moms Panel Oct. 16

Sometimes there is just too much panel goodness going on in this town. I am SO going to this one. Join me?!

Tuesday, October 16, 7:00 p.m.
Wollman Hall
65 West 11th Street, 5th Floor
Admission: $8

Are increasing numbers of elite women voluntarily opting out of serious careers thereby betraying feminism, stalling their own development, and gambling with their own and their children's economic futures? Moderated by E.J. Graff, senior researcher at Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, Brandeis University. Panelists include Joan Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law, University California at Hastings; Heather Boushey, senior economist, Center for Economic and Policy Research; Ellen Bravo, author of Taking On The Big Boys: Why Feminism is Good for Families, Business and the Nation and Linda Hirshman, lawyer, professor emeritus Brandeis University. Sponsored by the Wolfson Center for National Affairs.

(Thanks to Anthony Deen for the heads up.)

Anthology Panel Thurs!

I'm back in NYC - whew - and wanted to send a shout out and a warm welcome to Marco (see post below)! And thank you so much to everyone who channeled good thoughts and sent the sweetest emails asking about my dad. His surgery went swimmingly, and he's back at work already. I repeat: whew.

And also just a quickie reminder. Come one, come all, to the Woodhull Writers Well tomorrow!

Ok, I'm hitting the hay now. It's been a LONG couple a days.

GUEST POST: With the Campfire Grrrls

This is guest blogger Marco with the first in a series of posts here on Girl With Pen where I aim to examine cultural and media-enabled myths and expectations regarding men — our desires, peeves, habits and obsessions, such as they are. But first, a few words to explain my feature title, lest I be confused with those oily, sarcastic, Coors-and-testosterone-addled shlubs who haunt the comment threads over at Broadsheet.

No sarcasm is intended. I've adopted the "good sport" moniker as a kind of badge of honor ever since it was bestowed on me by Nona Willis-Aronowitz at dinner. To explain further: after Dee's reading at New York's KGB Bar recently, we went out for a chocolate dinner reward at the Bald Man (aka Max Brenner) with Lauren Sandler and Nona Willis-Aronowitz (but you knew that already if you read this post). I'm a big fan of Broadsheet (and of course Girl w/Pen) because I happen to enjoy listening to smart, funny, sassy women, whether the subject is "the patriarchy" or relationships— and there was a whole lot of talk on the latter at this particular venue. To be fair, we also touched on Nona's upcoming road trip and Dee's traveling WomenGirlsLadies panel; it all coalesced around talking up, rediscovering and re-mapping the American Woman between the coasts, between cities and between easy polarities.

There's something cozily mesmerizing about following the Moebius loop of women talking about women talking; something also about the instant camaraderie of firing marshmallows over the table brazier and sharing dark chocolate fondue — probably the closest I've yet come to summer camp (not a typical option back in my 'hood, back in the day). Anyhow, when Lauren's husband and a buddy showed up it was suddenly three boys to three girls, and there was a palpable thump, like ballast shifting in the hold of a ship when it changes course. Nona sort of shook her head as if to clear it and smiled at me. "You've been a good sport for putting up with all the Sex-and-the-City stuff," she said. I smiled back and shrugged. "Not at all. It was fun." And it was. Now it was time for the men to high-five and reel out the batting averages... not. The new subject was Lauren and Justin's cool digs in Williamsburg— midcentury modern or New York eclectic?

Domicile trumps locker room. Almost always OK by me.

My next post: lock and load—— Halo 3 hits the streets and guy-outlets like Spike TV go into frenzy mode. Meanwhile that study on guys, gals and first-person shooter games surfaces in The Economist, and makes Jezebel go "Hmmm..."

Of Fishnets and Feminism

I'm quoted in a Reuters article posted today by Helen Chernikoff, "Burlesque revival: more nerdy than sexy?" I think Chernikoff did an excellent job portraying the nuance of new burlesque. And while I'm on it, the Spring/Summer 2007 issue of Women's Studies Quarterly puts the new burlesque in context. A quick summary of the issue, which is titled "The Sexual Body":

The mid-1970s feminist critique of the female body, sex, and pornography ignited a debate that has continued to this day. Through critical essays, fiction, poetry, and images, this provocative issue of WSQ probes this territory in the light of emerging areas of study. Engaging the fields of critical race studies, film studies, history, literary criticism, performance studies, and political theory, The Sexual Body energizes the debates on the status of sex, pleasure, power, and desire. Ranging from soul food to dance hall music to new discussions of female-and transgender-directed pornography, this issue mobilizes cutting-edge feminist, race, and queer scholarship to push critical theories of the body to their limits and anticipates where race and sex will inform the next generation.

Virtual Community, Virtual Movement?

Bonnie Erbe recently hosted a roundtable on feminism and Gen Y on PBS's To the Contrary. Over at feministing.com, Gen Y feminist Ann Friedman responds to the charge that Gen Y is not a movement generation, noting that the online feminist community is where it's at:

I think if the online feminist community has proved anything, it's that we are a movement generation. I participated in feminist actions on my college campus, but that felt more like a club than a movement. I worked for a women's rights nonprofit, but that felt more like a day job than a movement. I went to rallies and marches, but they felt more like one-off events than a movement. It took blogging here, and being part of a community of feminist bloggers, for me to really feel like part of a feminist movement. To feel I was part of a group of people, committed to a set of ideals, who are working day in and day out to advance those ideals.

So my question then is: When does a virtual movement become "real" in the eyes of those who have, in the past, done activism differently? Because it's not just about getting young women involved in feminism. It's about getting feminist organizations involved in online.

Scroll down here to see the video or just listen to the audio.

(I hear that a To the Contrary episode with clips from me and Jessica Valenti aired recently, but I can't seem to find the link! If anyone has seen it, please let me know? And shoot me the link? Many thanks.)

Writing about Parenting Panel - Oct. 3

If you're in NYC and write (or want to) about parenting, I strongly recommend this panel on October 3, sponsored by the Newswomen's Club. My friend Helaine Olen is moderating. Both she and Rachel are terrific -- and I'm sure the others are too. And if those newswomen don't have the damndest logo! Here are deets:

Join the Newswomen's Club of New York at 6:30 pm on October 3rd, when we discuss the world of writing for parenting magazines. Our five guests -- all editors at nationally known parenting magazines -- will offer an overview of how to pitch, research and structure articles ranging from service pieces to personal essays. They'll also discuss what kinds of ideas do and don't work for their publications as well as answer questions from those in the audience.

Panelists:
Ada Calhoun, Editor-in-Chief, Babble.com and AOL News Blogger
Judy Goldberg, Senior Editor, Parents
Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, Executive Editor, Plum
Jenny Rosenstrach, Senior Editor, Cookie
Joy Press, Culture Editor, Salon

Cost: $20 members/$25 non-members to be paid at door

Location: Playwright Act II restaurant at 732 8th Avenue bet 45th and 46th in the party room. 212-354-8404. Attendees can get food and drinks before and after the event. RSVP: olenroshkow@yahoo.com

And while I'm on the subject, don't forget to check out The Motherhood and Work It, Mom! -- the latest in online mommy networking.

Newsflash: Women Make Money, Have Babies, Work!

In response to Sunday's New York Times article featuring women in their 20s who outearn their dates and feel awkward about it, the Wall Street Journal's "Juggle" now asks:

Have other professionals out there faced awkwardness when one person earns far more than other? Or can love trump those kind of differences?

The comments are sooo very interesting.

Meanwhile, according to a new Accenture study, an overwhelming majority of working mothers say that if there were no obstacles, they would continue working. Here's the deal:

In an online survey of more than 700 working mothers in mid- to senior-level management positions, nearly 90 percent of the respondents reported that, if there were no obstacles, they would work either full-time, part-time or under a flex-time arrangement (reported by 31 percent, 26 percent and 33 percent of respondents, respectively). Just 11 percent said they would not work at all.

Take that ye opt-out-disaster headlines! Read more more here.

(Thanks to the Amazing Laura Sabatinni for the links. Photo cred.)

Professorial Squabbles

Well, at least it's not a "catfight" (hehe). Turns out the American Association of University Professors just shut down their listserv because folks couldn't play nicely with each other. (Read about it here, in Inside Higher Ed)

Over at MediaCommons, Clancy Ratliff offers a montage of visual representations of "The Internet Regression" (which is the cleverish name of an essay describing internet users’ tendencies to exhibit extreme rudeness and/or kindness.) Says Clancy,

I believe many scholars hear “online publishing” and think of [images of obstinate blowhard conversation -- like the one pictured above]. It may take a lot of counterexamples to dislodge those prejudices, especially since the behavior that prompts the prejudices still occurs all over the net every day.

Ok ok. Full disclosure: This post began as an excuse to post the picture, which looks remarkably like, but is not, my cat. (But for the record, I am NOT cat blogging. Um, yet.

Wanna Anthologize?

Ever wondered what it's like to edit an anthology? Come to the Woodhull Writers Well this Thursday and find out! My friend and coeditor Daphne Uviller and I will be discussing both the content of our book Only Child: Writers on the Singular Joys and Solitary Sorrows of Growing Up Solo as well as the process, from proposal to publication, of putting together a successful (IOHO) anthology. We're hoping to give our audience a clear sense of the challenges and rewards of dealing with agents, contributors, purchasing editors, and publicists; the benefits of working with a co-editor; and the need to self-publicize. Participants will walk away with a timeline detailing the process by which one can reasonably expect to complete a salable anthology -- and a sense of what it's like.

When: Thursday, September 27, 2007
Time: 6:30PM to 7:30PM
Location: 32 Broadway, Suite 1801, New York, NY 10004

This is a FREE event open to women only. Reservation is required. Please call 646 435 0837 or email rsvp@woodhull.org to make your reservation.

Men with Truck

I'm sitting here in the hospital waiting room and got excited to learn this hospital has wireless. So now I can happily distract myself by catching up on blog reading. Check out the ever-clever Rebecca Traister on images of men in tv's fall lineup. And to go with your reading, here's a pic of Marco and Dad taken yesterday. Ok, even this girly girl has to admit it's a darn cool truck.

I Heart Katha Pollitt

So Nation columnist Katha Pollitt just published her first collection of personal essays, Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories Here are my favorite Katha quips from Deborah Solomon's interview with her in yesterday's New York Times:

Deborah Solomon: Do you think feminism has been disfigured by consumerism? To certain women out there, feminism seems to mean buying what you want instead of being what you want.

Katha Pollitt: Young women live these contradictions and everyone's down on them because their skirts are too short. I don't blame them if sometimes they want to go shopping. Women don't buy more junk than men.

DS: Are you a Hillary supporter?

KP: In this country we have a real problem with women and power. If people don't stop saying incredibly sexist things about Hillary Clinton, I may just have to vote for her.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it. (Katha: I'm starting to agree.)

She Works Hard for the Money...

The gals are catching up. Though I'm curious to learn more about *which* gals and *which* professions. In case you missed it, the New York Times reports today on a "historic" reversal:

For the first time, women in their 20s who work full time in several American cities — New York, Chicago, Boston and Minneapolis — are earning higher wages than men in the same age range, according to a recent analysis of 2005 census data by Andrew Beveridge, a sociology professor at Queens College in New York....The median income of women age 21 to 30 in New York who are employed full time was 17 percent higher than that of comparable men....Professor Beveridge said the gap is largely driven by a gulf in education: 53 percent of women employed full time in their 20s were college graduates, compared with 38 percent of men.

How long before we start with the "Girls-are-taking-over!" and "What-about-the-boys!" headlines? I'm guessing a New York minute.

Regardless, as Jessica rightly picks up on over at feministing today, the article's slant on the whole thing is rather, how do you say, annoying. The basic message? Beware the young woman with the earning power. Men in their 20s are running scared!

Windy City, Windy Post

Greetings from Chicago! My dad is going through a medical procedure tomorrow, so GWP will likely be slightly quieter than usual til Tuesday. Though I may have some pix to post. This here is a pic of me (looking rather dorky) with my dad, on an architectural boat tour today. Marco took the photo. Behind us is Navy Pier, where BlogHer took place. Ah, the memories!

So one thing I learned from the docent on the tour was that Chicago was apparently first called the "Windy City" by New Yorkers who were bitter that Chicago won the bid for the 1893 World's Fair instead of New York. According to Wikipedia, however, that's a popular myth. Wiki says that the earliest known references to the "Windy City" are from 1876, and involve Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. Cincinnati as a rival to Chicago? WTF!

A Heartfelt Welcome to Girl Sailor!

Ok - last one, then I really have to hit the road. I'm just too jazzed not to share this. Remember Melinda Parrish (pictured), the Guest Scholar Blogger who posted a most excellent post here the other week, titled "Sex Does Not Define Us" ? After posting here, she got inspired to start her own blog! It's called Girl Sailor. As Melinda describes it, "I am a female Ensign on Active Duty in the US Navy, and these are my thoughts." Says Melinda, "I graduated in May from the United States Naval Academy. My time in the military has caused me to question how my role as an Officer and my identity as a postmodern woman should coincide." She begins the blog with an INCREDIBLE manifesto, called "The F-Word," which I cannot wait to finish reading when I get off the plane.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Melinda. I absolutely can't wait to read your thoughts.

Woodhull Financial Literacy Module Now Online

Before skipping town, just wanted to share an update from the Woodhull Weekly. As I mentioned a few weeks back, the Woodhull Institute of Ethical Leadership has partnered with the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty to share success building tools through online training sessions that promote ethical development and empower women to act as agents of positive social change. Teachings on financial literacy by Woodhull Fellow Jacquette Timmons are now available via the Real Women, Real Success Stories area of the Campaign for Real Beauty site. The next module, Your Authentic Voice and Advocacy, will begin on October 8, 2007, and is taught by Karla Jackson-Brewer and Dr. Robin Stern