Updates to Intergenerational Brouhaha

Two quick hits:

Amy Tiemann interviewed me for the MojoMom Podcast this morning. Here's the link.

Courtney just published a response to Linda Hirshman's critique of her in The American Prospect today.

And ok ok, I take back "brouhaha." Totally just playing into the sentiment that it's a mini-war. In all honesty, I wish we could see MORE media stories about the kinds of conversations we WomenGirlsLadies have been seeing take place from Ypsilanti to Cambridge. And in our own backyards. Or the kind Amy and I--who are on opposite sides of the Clinton/Obama divide--had this morning.

Empathy, people, empathy. Eyes on the prize. I know our politics are intensely personal, but can we please start cutting the noise and get ready to get behind the notion that we'll need to unify in order to successfully do battle with McCain??? I'm getting nervous. Though I KNOW we can win.

Happy Belated Passover!

A belated Happy Passover to those who celebrated this weekend! I spent the first seder at my aunt and uncle's (who I learned are readers of GWP!) and the second at a dear friend's dear parents' house. Among the attendees at the latter was an Iraqi refugee, peace activist, and school teacher who arrived in New York from Baghdad about 8 months ago. I'll call her S.

My friend's dad is a linguist (and also a blogger!), and we asked the 4 questions in 7 different languages. Marco read them in Spanish, and S. read them in Arabic. I felt very verklempt at the whole thing, and proud to be part of a tradition that requires us to invite people who aren't Jewish to the seder, in the spirit of being "welcoming to the stranger in your midst". May this season usher in a time of renewal, rejeuvenation, and true freedom for all who remain in chains, whether enslavement be internal, external, or both.

Last Week's Intergenerational Recap

I'm back from a WomenGirlsLadies event at Harvard, orchestrated by the Harvard Women's Center--a center which didn't exist, we learned, until just 2 years ago. Not that Harvard hasn't been in need of this center or anything before then (ahem). Shout outs to Susan Marine, Sandra Ullman, Natasha, Annemarie, Andreas, and the rest of the crew over there for bringing us to town (we had a blast!), but mostly for the important work you do on campus all year long.

We always try very hard to turn the panel (subtitle: A FRESH Conversation about Feminism across Generations) into audience conversations, and after our presentation this time a very interesting Q&A ensued. Courtney is writing about it in her column today over at The American Prospect, so stay tuned.

And ohhh but it's been an interesting week in the land of intergenerational feminist convo around the election! In case you missed it, here's a quick recap:

Amy Tiemann in Women's eNews (with a follow-up on her blog)
Amanda Fortini in New York Magazine
Rebecca Traister in Salon
Linda Hirshman in Slate

Commentary to follow--I'll be doing a podcast this morning over at MojoMom.com with my 2cents on it all and promise to post the link.

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: OMFG

The following is a post from GWP's newest regular, Elizabeth Curtis. I'm forever grateful to E, as we call her, for teaching me the latest tricks of the trade--in blogging, of course. I love E's voice and I bet you will too! And btw, the new season of GossipGirl premieres April 21. - GWP

The Gossip About Those GossipGirl Ads

I was taking a leisurely jaunt in Manhattan when I first came across the controversial GossipGirl ads that have created so much buzz for this CW show. Promoting this TV series based on the popular teen books about an elite prep school, the advertisements I saw were poster-size and plastered all over a construction site. My response? OMFG, for sure. And WTF, too.

Now my reaction to these ads is not negative because I am prudish or "sex-shaming." I'm just struck by how "soft-core" these mainstream images are. Like Ariel Levy, I'm concerned about how "pornified" society seems to be these days. But my take on the consequences of this "pop culture gone wild" is more in line with the views of Jessica Valenti. As Jessica smartly states in her book Full Frontal Feminism,

I think that while the fast-growing focus on sexuality [in popular culture] certainly has the potential to be dangerous for young women, it's not necessarily all bad. What is bad is that young women seem to be confronted with too few choices and too many wagging fingers...We're all trapped by the limiting version of sexuality that's put out there - a sexuality that caters almost exclusively to men.

Jessica goes on to make a call for young women to critically engage with mainstream images promoting an impossible and often unattractive version of female sexuality and to then make informed decisions about their own sexual lives.

I think that the GossipGirl ad campaign is a perfect example of the type of analysis Jessica advocates. What is going on in these ads? Is it just a shameless use of sex to sell an already racy series? Is female pleasure exploited or privileged by featuring an actress's "o-face"? What's up with the social mores contradiction of this television show being marketed to the very same American teenagers who are being taught abstinence-only sex ed. in school? WTF, you know?

Luckily, feminist thinker/scholars like Levy, Valenti, and Kathleen Sweeney, and our very own Girl With Pen are writing about these issues - and bringing more to the conversation than just WTF.

Some Recommended Reads:
-On "raunch" culture: Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs
-On feminism and activism today: Jessica Valenti's Full Frontal Feminism
-Girls, girls, girls: Kathleen Sweeney's Maiden USA: Girl Icons Come of Age
-Blogging about girlhood: Patti Binder's What's Good for Girls
-For some female-friendly, sex-positive inspiration: Rachel Krammer Brussel's Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women

Share your recs and takes in the comments section, too!

Cross-posted at A Blog Without a Bicycle

Image Cred

Pay Gap? What Pay Gap?

Quick note, late to the table: As Gordon E. Finley of the Washington Times reported a while back, a headline by Reuters on Nov. 7 was startling and certainly newsworthy: "Female U.S. corporate directors out-earn men: study." And empirically incorrect. What gives? Read the rest.

Power Women Caught on Tape

This just in from the International Museum of Women:

Women, Power and Politics global online exhibition debuts its top 10-plus recommended films by and about powerful women. Through documentaries, features and even a TV miniseries, you'll meet everyone from presidents to factory workers and show-stopping great-grandmothers. Grab some popcorn. Invite some friends. Start renting the top picks in our Film List.

If you love film, don't miss the unprecedented footage of two Iron Ladies in action now playing in our April focus What does Power Look Like? Watch Chile's Señora Presidenta Michelle Bachelet in Spanish as she puts critics in their place. Be inspired to Follow the Leader of Liberia: the no-nonsense Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Let the inspiration continue through the stories of five women across the globe who gained First Money, Then Power with the assistance of CARE microcredit programs. CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty with a special focus on working alongside poor women. To learn just how economics affects women's power, tour this month's map Working for Wages.

Book Smarts - This Week's Q&A

I'm subverting blog post/comment convention in order to share the Q&A that's been going on in comments on Laura's inaugural post here this past week (Book Smarts), because the questions GWP readers posted so far are ones I hear a lot, and I know everyone's going to benefit from Laura's responses. Have at it! And please feel free to post in comments book publishing industry related topics you'd like to Laura to address in a future post. - GWP

Blogger Ralphie said...
That marketing thing is difficult. Is it really true that the authors of all those terrific, sensitive, gorgeous-writing-filled books I read were out there "selling themselves" to get their first book published? I guess so, but it all just seems so... sad.

Blogger LauraM said...
I entirely agree, Ralphie. Marketing CAN be hard, and luckily for all of us, there are still editors and agents in this industry who are committed to finding those terrific, sensitive, gorgeous-writing projects without needing all the buzz. But the reality of book publishing is that it's a narrow-margin enterprise. Want to guess how many books actually earn a profit for the author and publisher? It's fewer than you think, and the pressure is on editors to champion the books that will make money, not lose it. So if you can offer your editor terrific, sensitive, gorgeous writing AND a solid marketing pitch, then you’ll have a huge advantage. And take heart—these days, having a web presence is very easy, and that’s a great first start to creating a platform for yourself. Start a blog, post on others’ blogs, be active in your writing. Let the rest follow from there. —Laura

Blogger Jay said...
Great advice, thanks! It's a bit daunting to go back to my proposal and give it the overhaul you suggest but I can see how your suggestions will make it so much better. Do you think it's worth hiring a professional look over/edit the proposal before I submit it?

Blogger Ericka said...
My problem has been Right Freeway, Wrong Lane. I've been in the "industry" a long time, a solid midlist nonfiction writer. And, I'm good at the marketing thing -- I have website, blog, lots of PR experience and reading experience and radio and even TV -- but my career has largely been for my non-fiction. And now I'm about to send my LITERARY NOVEL out there (in a month or so) and I fear that all that experience in the non-fiction realm won't translate to the literary world. My "platform" has been parenting writing, and my novel is not that. (Though it is family-based.) Suggestions for how to spin my experience? I'm afraid it will seem like Apples and Oranges.

Blogger Caroline said...
This is so helpful to read right now, Laura, and I'm sure I'll have questions for your future posts! As you know, I sold (modestly) one book, but now I'm working on something I'm hoping will have a broader audience, and your tips about presenting the proposal are perfectly timed for me. I'll keep checking in for more!

Blogger LauraM said...
Hi Caroline, I'm so happy you posted! How are you, and how is your book coming along? I'd love to hear. And do ask any questions, I promise I'll answer them if I can.

Ericka, hi! You know, I think you're underestimating the value of having had previously published books, even if they are in a different category. The trick is to use those books to show that you have a solid foundation as a publisher writer. Make sure that your bio includes any and all positive reviews, blurbs, and media coverage for anything you've published before. And keep in mind that unless it's a very high-level editor who is looking at your work, it's not likely anyone is going to expect you to have had previous bestsellers. Midlist is a good place to be ... dependable, successful. Just replace "midlist" with "backlist" (read: My books are STILL selling even after several years!), and you'll be surprised what kind of attention that can get you. —L

Image cred

Generational Stretch Marks

Blogger Amy Tiemann (aka Mojo Mom) has an excellent piece up over at Women's eNews this week, titled "Obama v. Clinton Puts Stretch Marks on Sisterhood", which beings:

"Sisterhood" bound women together during the second wave of feminism in the 1970s.

Fast-forward three decades, and it is time to start asking ourselves what happens when you try to stretch sisterhood across a generational divide and then push and pull it between the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Answer: serious stretch marks.

I couldn't agree more (and kinda wish she had cited my book or Courtney and my WaPo oped somewhere--oops--down ego, down) when Amy writes:

Ten years from now we could look back on the arguments about Clinton v. Obama as the wedge that emphasized a generational divide, to the detriment of all women.

The Mother-Daughter dynamic illuminates a power differential. In many ways the Mothers have the upper hand. They control the largest established organizations, the purse strings of foundation grants. By excluding younger women's definitions of feminism, however, the Mothers are short-circuiting their power.

The Mothers need to remember that they need the Daughters as well.

Gen-Xers such as myself are no longer children; we're reaching our 40s now. Not only do we represent the future, we are the bridge to the millennial generation who will clean up after all of us.

And speaking of intergenerational, the WomenGirlsLadies crew can't wait til tomorrow, when we'll be conversing on this very topic and more over at Harvard, on the heels of that interesting conference on feminism over there the other week with Camille Paglia, Katie Roiphe, Christina Hoff Sommers and others. Perhaps we might all be together on a stage sometime cause that sure would be an interesting conversation.

(Thanks to Joanne over at PunditMom for the heads up on Amy's piece!)

Homage

I'm posting this cause I dig the cover. It's a book published in 2006 called A Woman for President: The Story of Victoria Woodhull, and it "brings a fascinating character from history to schoolchildren." And in case folks are wondering who the Woodhull Institute is named for and all.

Leading Like a Girl

Check out this must-read piece from Marie Wilson over at HuffPo, called "Leading Like a Girl: For Men Only?", which concludes:

I am on a crusade to have women risk revealing their authentic selves. As a group who bring important attributes to leadership, who can also be tough and in control, women's leadership, having been honed at the foot on the table, has lessons and positive possibilities for us all. We have made it safe for men to play like the girls. Now is the time to claim our own ability to do the same.

Along the way, Marie touches on men's and women's investing styles and the gendering of political leadership styles. One of the smartest slants on these topics I've read in a while. Thank you Marie. (And thank you to Catalyst's Laura Sabattini for the heads up!)

EVENT: What-is-Feminism Conference @ Columbia

The Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Columbia University announces a fall conference:

"What is Feminist Politics Now? Local and Global, "19-20 September, 2008

The conference will explore:
- The changing meanings of feminism, and its goals (intellectual,social and political) in a global context: to examine whether these meanings can any longer be contained within the rubric of common social agendas.
- Emerging social movements within the United States and beyond, including those that foster the collective interests of women across national, class, religious, and racial borders; the common interests of women and men; and those that call for greater individual autonomy.
- Questions about how women within the post-industrial west can effectively relate to, and remain engaged with, issues that arise from diverse locations and affect differently situated women in different ways.

More info coming soon here.

Canadian Blogger Probes Manliness

Thanks to Broadsheet, I just discovered this new blog called Act Like a Man. by Edward Keenan, a writer for The Walrus (Canada's New Yorker). Here's his inaugural post, from March. And here's what Jezebel has to say. Thoughts? And hey, I'm currently compiling a list of "man blogs"--blogs by men, exploring masculinity--so if you see one you think I might not know about, I'd be so grateful for the heads up!

This. Pisses. Me. Off.

Nuf said.

Of Taxes and "Family Values"

HAPPY APRIL 15 everyone! So Americans tend to think we're better off than families in most other industrial countries because we pay lower income taxes. Right? NOT! As CCF reminds us today, when we factor in the higher amount Americans pay for health care, child care, and education, the comparison is not always in our favor. Where do American families' tax dollars go and what family "value" they get in return?

For every $100 in income tax:
* $32 goes to national defense
* $19 goes to interest on the national debt
* $15 goes to supplemental programs such as TANF, child tax credits, and
farm subsidies
* $14 goes to health
* $6 goes to education, employment, and social services
* $4 goes to transportation
* $2 goes to administration of justice
* $2 goes to environment and natural resources
* $2 goes to international affairs
* $1 goes to community and regional development
* $1 goes to agriculture
* $1 goes to science, space, and technology
* $1 goes to the commerce and housing fund

Even at their height, the financial benefits of the last decade's tax cuts for middle class families never equaled the financial benefits that citizens of many other countries receive in the form of monthly child allowances, universal health care, subsidized parental leaves and child care, and college assistance.

In most of Western Europe, citizens enjoy the right to near-universal health care. They do not have to forego routine care for financial reasons, and are not financially wiped out by catastrophic health emergencies. In America, this occurs frequently enough that one-quarter of financial bankruptcies originate in medical problems not covered by insurance. What's more, of course, every other industrial nation in Western Europe, and most of the rest of the world as well, provides paid maternity leave, and in some cases paid paternity leave as well. In Belgium, free early childhood education is available to all children starting at the age of 2 ½.

Now that's some family values. But wait--before we all head off to Canada or Sweden, I think we'd better stick around to see how our election plays out. One can still hope for a president who truly values families, which I think both the Democrats running honestly do. Did anyone hear the latest about McCain calling his wife a c---? Family values starts at home, John. Remember that, dude.

V-Day to the 10th

Sadly I couldn't be there. If anyone who was would like to blog about it here and tell us what it was like, send me an email at girlwpen@yahoo.com!

The Motherhood Penalty

The Guardian has a great piece up today by Polly Toynbee, "Girlification is Destroying All the Hope We Felt in 1968." By "girlification," Toynbee means pink princessification. I love neologisms on a Tuesday morning.

The article comes on the heels of an announcement from the UK's Office for National Statistics yesterday, which reported that UK women in their 40s earn 20% less per hour than their male counterparts. Explains Toynbee, "This is the motherhood penalty - and the more children a woman has, the wider the gap. Young women start out earning almost the same, deluded by beating boys at exams. Motherhood knocks most out of the running."

The piece goes on to ask, "so, what's new?," noting that 2008 is a year for reflection for her generation of women (aka second wave): "What happened in 1968? What really changed? The year of riots saw feminism ignite too, a year hazed in an illusory miasma that nothing would be the same again - but of course it was."

Depressing. But just in case you aren't depressed enough, Toynbee reminds us too that only 24% of parliamentary seats in the EU are occupied by women, 20% in the UK; and that 90% of top EU company boards are men. Women dominate primary school teaching, men run universities. The UK has the largest pay gap.

On the upside, Spain's new cabinet is 50% female. GO SPAIN! And for more on the connection between pinkification and the mommy gap, read the rest here.

Event: Girls Write Now Spring Reading

On June 8, the new Tribeca Barnes & Noble will become a teen literary hotspot as Girls Write Now - which, I kvell, is featured prominently in yesterday's New York Times - takes it over. Celebrity host Amanda Diva (Def Poetry Jam, HipHopNation, MTV2, Floetry), will turn the downtown bookstore into a showcase for a collection of powerful new poems, stories and essays that reflect an electrifying community of girl writers spanning often hard-and-fast lines of race, age, economics and geography in NYC. For those not yet familiar with GWN, they (we! I'm on the Advisory Board) are New York City's premier mentoring and creative writing organization for teen girls.

A just quick note on Amanda Diva: talk about crossover. This accomplished poet, journalist, singer, rapper, and radio & television personality is also a scholar, with a Master's degree in African-American Studies. For more, check out DivaSpeakTV.blogspot.com and Youtube.com/ImAmandaDiva.

See you there!

June 8
4-6PM
Barnes and Noble
97 Warren Street, NYC

WomenGirlsLadies Take It to Harvard

A podcast of our panel at Central Michigan University ("WomenGirlsLadies: A FRESH Conversation Across Generations") is now live. And we're taking the conversation next to Harvard this Friday, so if you're in the area, please do come!

April 18, 3-5pm
Harvard Hall 20
For more info, please contact the Harvard College Women's Center. We'll also be posting notes from the road over at WomenGirlsLadies.

(The photo, L-R: Tara Sathoff-Wells, Central Michigan University Director of Women's Studies; the four WomenGirlsLadies--Gloria Feldt, me, Courtney Martin, and Kristal Brent Zook; and my new dear friend, CMU Professor Jill Taft Kaufman.)

Book Smarts - A New Regular Feature at GWP!

Hi, Laura Mazer here. As Deborah mentioned, I’m a longtime editor and book consultant, and I'm very happy to be joining the crew over here in the girlwithpendom! Deborah has asked me if I’d answer some questions for her readers, and I will do my best. Starting with this first one Deborah has tossed out, which is a great one: What do editors really look for in book proposals?

Well, let's start out with the obvious: gorgeous writing, a fascinating book idea, more gorgeous writing. But of course. However, before I let those things get me invested in your book, I’m going to want to know 4 things:

1. Are you a Mac or a PC? Or, what's your authorial sensibility, your creative look and feel? Consider: Your proposal is your client deliverable. Are you going to give it to me single-spaced, Times New Roman 10, no subheads, no cover page? I get word-wall weary really, really fast, so I love when authors take it up a level—by boxing essential facts and impressive quotes, using subheads to draw attention to important sections, and writing in a voice that represents the book's narrative itself. If I see that a writer has put creative energy into the complete development of her proposal, I'll know she understands (though she may not actually celebrate—fair enough) that to succeed in our contemporary marketplace of ideas, it takes more than interesting words, or smart words, or important words, or gorgeous words.

2. Is your bio degradable? Your author profile can be even more important than your pitch and your writing sample. It tells the reader if you've been test-driven in the marketplace. Have you been published before, either with a previous book or in magazines, newspapers, or visible blogs? What's the big picture of your career: Is your book topic a whim or a cause? Can you articulate your expertise and your ideas in an accessible, reliable manner? Impress me with whatever you've got that's impressive about you—even if it's not directly tied to your subject. Show me you’re worth investing in.

3. What's your mantra? What's your "thing," your sexy sell, your elevator pitch, your conceit? Put it right there at the top of your proposal in three sentences or less, in a way that can make me think right away: "Yeah, sure, I see that! Cool." If you can nail your book description, really Ezra Pound it into the ground, you'll have a much better chance of hooking an editor's attention from the get-go. Editors—and agents, for that matter—have scary-big piles of manuscripts to review, so it's not likely they'll stick around for Vague or Complicated. And yes, go ahead and get your Hollywood on, you can definitely compare your book to others, as in, "It's like Eat Pray Love but set in Canada and drawn as a graphic novel." "It's like Rebecca Walker's Black, White, and Jewish but funny and with a sub-theme about CIA corruption." Etc.

4. Where's the ammo? We eds need big guns. In other words, some serious data points supporting your project's creative and monetary potential. Your editor is probably going to have to champion you and your book to a whole lot of people before she can offer you a contract, so give her as many selling points as possible. What comparative books have performed well, proving this is a popular topic? How big is your target readership, and how will your publicist reach those readers? Examples: If you're writing a parenting book, include a complete list of parenting magazines, websites, specialty baby stores, and other outlets that reach your audience. If your book is a sci-fi novel, include a complete list of all sci-fi conferences where your readers will congregate. Think like a marketer, and help your editor to do the same on your behalf. (Here's one more tip: Make it clear you're willing to pound the pavement to promote your book. Plenty of authors go AWOL after the book ships to the printer, and that's a drag for the marketing department, which is counting on you to be out there advocating for your work.)

On that note, I'll sign off. Readers: Send me your questions in comments! I want to hear what you're thinking about.

Cheers til next time,
Laura