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).