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Happy Thursday everyone! I hope this week has treated you all well! I encourage you to take a look at the conversation happening at my post about how men cannot be feminists and join in, there's some really great stuff going on over there! Here are some of my favorite posts over the past couple days. Don't forget to leave what you have been writing and reading in the comments!!

The 5 Ways Glamour Undermines Its Size-12 Self-Acceptance Message [Glossed Over]
All of the uproar over Glamour's size 12 model didn't quite sit well with me and didn't really know why, but Wendy has explained my uneasiness about it very well.

Bros before Hos: A Post Ted Kennedy Story [Recursive Paradox]
After Sen. Ted Kennedy's death, everybody was quick to praise his contributions to women's rights. But Recursive Paradox pointed out a not very well-known story about Ted Kennedy that should also be remembered!

Will Kate Gosselin EVER get a date? [Salon Broadsheet]
How the media has been portraying Kate Gosselin as lonely.

The Feminist Lens: The Yellow Wallpaper [Small Strokes]
A look at how to teach a feminist text in a high school setting. And make sure you check out her Teaching Feminism in Schools series.

Campaigning for What, Exactly? [this ain't livin']
A critical look at Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty.

Are Animals and Humans the Same? [Womanist Musings]
PeTA's advertising techniques and how black people are often portrayed as animals.

Manmade Breast Cancers [Women's Studies Wednesday]

Manmade Breast Cancers by Zillah Eisenstein

I first read Manmade Breast Cancer for Intro to Women's Studies, but it was so good that I have read it again since then. This book is all about how the environment, politics, race, and culture intersect on women's bodies in the form of breast health.

From the back cover:

A new understanding of humanity and feminism from the starting point of breast health is the ultimate goal of Zillah Eisenstein's political memoir of her family's experience with breast cancer. The well-known feminist author brings together a critique of environmental damage and the health of women's bodies, gains perspective on the role race plays as a factor in breast cancers and in political agenda, links prevention and treatment, and connects individual support and political change.

I was not expecting to be reading a book about breast cancer in my intro to women's studies, I was thinking that would be more of something that would be covered in a women's health class. But after reading the book and seeing the intertwining of personal/family stories with the intersectionality of breast cancer, I realized why our professor had us read this book. This book shows the many ways in which sexism (and other forms of oppression) work their way into the very personal -- the body -- and how different forms of oppressions are intertwined.

This is not just a read for people interested in breast cancer, but for people interested in seeing how women's lives are affected by all of these intersections. It's a great book that is well written by incorporating different kinds of writing -- from personal stories to political investigations.

Taking on the Big Boys [Women's Studies Wednesday]

Taking on the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism is Good for Families, Business, and the Nation by Ellen Bravo

As many of us are all too aware, women are no where near equality in the workplace. Women are still paid statistically less than men, sexual harassment is still prevalent, there is a lack of child and family care options, and there are still stereotypically "women's jobs."

Women in the workplace is an issue that Ellen Bravo is all too familiar with. She founded the Milwaukee chapter of 9to5, National Association for Working Women in 1982. She also served as the national director of 9to5 until 2004. She is currently a Women's Studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

I read Bravo's book Taking on the Big Boys for Intro to Women's Studies. It is a great book about how women are oppressed in the workforce and what to do about it. From the back cover:

Enough about breaking the glass ceiling. Here are blueprints for a redesign of the entire building, ground up, to benefit women and men - and even the bottom line. Ellen Bravo reports what's really happening in today's workplace with stories from offices, assembly lines, and schools. She unmasks that patronizing, trivializing, and minimizing tactics employed by "the big boys" (the powerful people who maintain the status quo) and their surrogates.

Bravo argues for feminism as a system of beliefs, law, and practices that fully values women and the work associated with women. She spells out activist strategies to achieve fair pay, flexibility for family care, and a real voice at work.

One of the things that I really liked about this book was that it wasn't just exposing the truth about women's oppression in the workplace, but it also showed ways to go about changing it. It provides activist tools as well as knowledge about the situation.

Women's equality in the workplace is something that was fought for by feminists in the 70s. Many people have claimed that equality has been achieved. But all you have to do is look around to see that women are still less than men in the workplace. Bravo does a great job of exposing the lie of equality and ways to actually achieve this equality that has been fought for for a long time.

I Don't Want To Be a Hepburn or a Hilton

Yesterday I heard about the book How to be a Hepburn in a Hilton World by Jordan Christy. This book is all about how women nowadays are waaaay to accessible and that women should let men chase them instead of the other way around.

To me, this just sounds like the same old thing: the virgin/whore dichotomy. Men don't want women they can get too easily (aka "whores" or women that are too accessible); men want the pure virgin that they have to fight for. Yawn. How many times have I heard this? It's amazing that people still make money off of this tired thought

But what's really amazing is that people still think that women have to be one or the other, one of two extremes: the virgin or the whore. Women can't be anything but pure or dirty -- there is no in-between space. As soon as women do the tiniest little thing that isn't "pure," they are automatically labeled a "whore" or "slut."

This is no new thought. It's just a shame that it's still around. This unrealistic and oppressive dichotomy of virgin/whore is indoctrinated into women (and men) and functions to make women feel ashamed of themselves. If you are interested in learning more about this dichotomy, I suggest you read The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti.

Relationship advice books like How to be a Hepburn in a Hilton World, thrive off of the continuation of this dichotomy. Relationship books are meant to make women feel ashamed of themselves or that they are less than. This makes their sales go up, because after all it is all about sales. If women feel bad about themselves, they are going to buy more dating books.

Further Reading:
To snap a man, let him do the chasing [Today Show]

This Week in Blogs: August 2 - 8

My has this been an eventful week. On the good news, Judge Sotomayor was finally confirmed to be a justice on the Supreme Court. A definite piece of history. Then there were the misogynistic and racist shooting in Pittsburgh. Horrific. And the loss of one of my favorite 80s icons, John Hughes. Bloggers have been busy this week, reporting and analyzing this news as well as creating fantastic blog posts. Honestly, posts from everywhere this week were fantastic (not that they aren't always). I had a hard time choosing posts to feature here. The list is especially long this week, but these are some really great posts, so make sure to read through them! And leave links to what you have been writing and reading this week!

50 Books for Problematic Times - Deeply Problematic
There has also been some other great things going on at Deeply Problematic this week, so I suggest that you just go on over there and read through her posts. If I had to pick one to display here, I guess I would pick her feminist defense of Megan Fox. But seriously, just go over there

Movie Posters: A Bitch Flicks Verbal Beatdown - Bitch Flicks
Stephanie R looks at how women are represented in movie posters.

Am I a"good woman"? - Choice Campus Blog
Ellen asks what it means to be a "good woman" and why people can't just be "good people."

Girl Politics - Small Strokes
A new series examining why girls (and women) often "turn on" the most successful one of their peers.

The 20 Life-Changing Lessons in September's Cosmopolitan - Glossed Over
What you can learn from reading Cosmo.

Esquire Writer Explains It's Okay To Watch Chick Flicks - Jezebel
While I have objections to the term "chick flicks," do you think that men can enjoy them? Esquire and Jezebel do!

Race and the White Man - Womanist Musings
All about racism

Breastfeeding doll will lead to horny 5 year olds, pregnancy - Feministing
Because about caring for a baby can lead to 5 year olds having sex. Have these people ever played with a doll, that's what they're all about.

EWW! Is That Period Blood? - Jump Off the Bridge
About the creation and beauty that can come from menstrual blood.

Another magazine another photoshopped woman - Feministe
Self magazine photoshopped Kelly Clarkson to make her more skinny.

On Hollywood's Strong, Self-Hating Women - NPR
Strong business women in movies still hate themselves because they are unsuccessful in their love lives. Heaven forbid a woman succeed in business and be happy in her personal life.

Once more with feeling: Media Must Report Gender Motivation for Mass Shootings - WIMN's Voices
Some more on the misogynistic shooting in Pittsburgh.

Who's your favorite John Hughes heroine? - Salon Broadsheet
Pretty self-explanatory and and read through her posts.

Books for the Anti-Princess Girl-Feminist - Bitch Blogs
A list of children's books for the feminist-minded girls.

New Hosts for At the Movies - Another Couple of Guys - Women & Hollywood
Why is that movie critics are generally male? Women know stuff about movies too!

Liar Publishers "Fix" Their Lies

A couple weeks ago I learned of the book Liar by Justine Larbalestier, to be released in October. The book is about a young African American woman who is a compulsive liar. In the book she is described as an African American with short, nappy hair. But would you think that by looking at this cover?

The cover shows a young, white woman with long hair that covers her mouth. Picking a white model to portray a black character does not make sense and is downright offensive. Larbalestier talks about how authors actually get very little say in their cover art:

The US Liar cover went through many different versions. An early one, which I loved, had the word Liar written in human hair. Sales & Marketing did not think it would sell. Bloomsbury has had a lot of success with photos of girls on their covers and that's what they wanted. Although not all of the early girl face covers were white, none showed girls who looked remotely like Micah.

I strongly objected to all of them. I lost. (via Appetite for Equal Rights)

Bloomsbury (the publisher of Liar) obviously thought there was no problem with having a white girl portray a black character. Really? You can't see the problem?

Well, apparently they have "learned their lesson." I put this in quotes because I don't think that they really have realized what's wrong, they are just responding to the backlash. Via a tweet from @ameyawarde, I was tipped off to this article from Publisher's Weekly, that talks about how Bloomsbury plans to change the cover art to a woman who more closely resembles the character in the book.

From this article, Bloomsbury representatives had this to say about the decision to change the cover art:

“We regret that our original creative direction for Liar—which was intended to symbolically reflect the narrator’s complex psychological makeup—has been interpreted by some as a calculated decision to mask the character’s ethnicity [...] It is our hope that the important discussions about race and its representation in teen literature continue. As the publisher of Liar, we also hope that nothing further distracts from the quality of the author’s nuanced and accomplished story, and that a new cover will allow this novel’s many advocates to celebrate its U.S. publication without reservation.”

I can't really see how a white woman reflects "the narrator's complex psychological makeup" if the narrator is black. Maybe I'm just missing something, but I don't think so. I think the publisher just thought that the book would sell better if there was a white woman on the cover.

I applaud Bloomsbury's decision to change the cover. It's the right thing to do. But it never should have happened in the first place.

We All Need a Little History

There is a common belief among feminists today (the Third Wave, I dare say), that the women's movement of the 70s was a monolithic entity that was solely for white women. The "second wave" of feminism is often critiqued for this fact, among others. It should also be pointed out that many people have this same belief about feminism today. But feminism today is certainly NOT monolithic.

But this is not necessarily the case. The view that feminists today have of "the" women's movement of the 70s is more to serve themselves than an accurate view of what feminism is the 70s was like. While there are certainly things that feminism in the 70s can be criticized for, it wasn't this monolithic entity that it is perceived to be.

And no one points this out better than Ruth Rosen in her book The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America. I read this book for my feminist theory class my senior year of college. It's a great history of "the" women's movement and how "the" women's movement still affects the world today. From the back cover of the book:

Rosen's fresh look at the recent past reveals that feminists never burned their bras but were haunted by aprons; that black women supported the movement more than their white counterparts; and that the FBI hired hundreds of women to inflitrate the movement. Using extensive archival research and interviews, Rosen challenges readers to understand the impact of the women's movement and why the revolution is far from over.

I am firm believer in the old adage that you need to know where you have been to know where you are going. I think it is important for feminists today to fully understand how the movement has progressed to get us where we are today and to where we want to go in the future. We have to know what techniques have worked in the past and how we can modify those techniques to work today.

Rosen's book is a great look at the women's movement from the 1960s to the present. If you are interested in the history of the women's movement, it is a must read. But even if you are a feminist activist but don't have a specific interest in history, it is still a worth while read because it helps us look at how we got to where we are today and where we want to go in the future.

How does history factor into your view and practice of feminism?

50BPT: Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Cross posted from Deeply Problematic by RMJ. I am a little biased because this is one of my submissions to 50 Books for Problematic Times which is still accepting submissions. Other posts from this series will be cross posted here, but make sure you check out the whole series at the link above.

RMJ (aka Rachel McCarthy James) is a 23-year-old feminist and recent Hollins grad who lives in Virginia with her man and cats.

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Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie


Rushdie, a British Indian (male) novelist, is best known for the controversy over his book Satanic Verses, but this is one of my favorite books. It is technically a children's story, but it is written as a novel. This books reaffirms the beauty and need for stories and storytelling in society. While Rushdie is well known in society, this book spoke to me and inspired me to continue to tell my stories, whatever they may be, because every voice deserves to be heard and storytelling is an integral part of society.

Check Out: 50 Books for Problematic Times

RMJ at Deeply Problematic has started a new series entitled "50 Books for Problematic Times" (50bpt). After reading Newsweek's "50 Books of Our Times," RMJ noticed that this list was a representation of something other than our "modern society"...white male privilege. RMJ counted and determine that of the 50 books on the list 84% were white, 78% were male, 96% were straight, and 66% were both white and male.

I'm pretty sure our society and world is not 66% white males. RMJ decided that what was really needed was a list of books that "shed light on society as it is today (its virtues and its flaws) without the benefit of bodies that fit into the canon." So who are these writers? This list will be comprised primarily of women writers, writers of color, LGBTQ writers, and trans writers.

RMJ comprised this list of by soliciting readers to make submissions (and possibly we'll get some reviews from RMJ herself). I submitted a few of my favorite books. And there is still time for you to make your suggestions! Click here for instructions.

This series kick off today with a review of Grapefruit by Yoko Ono submitted by Cara Kulwicki of The Curvature, Feministe, and Tangerine Dreams. This sounds like a really interesting book written by an awesome woman. I'm definitely adding it to my "to read" list. I'm excited to see what other books are going to be featured!

I will be cross-posting some of the posts from 50bpt here, but make sure you check them all out over at Deeply Problematic. RMJ will be posting one book a day until all 50 have been listed.

The Purity Myth

This is one of the best books I have read in a while. The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Women was written by Jessica Valenti, founder and executive editor of Feministing (one of my favorite blogs, you should check it out). So, how is the virginity movement harming women and girls? The virginity movement and the "purity myth" place women's value in their sexuality. Moral women are women who are pure (i.e. save themselves for marriage) and immoral women are dirty (i.e. have sex before marriage). Boys are taught to be respectful, strong, aggressive, etc. to be moral people where as girls are taught that their morality lies in their sexuality. Valenti offers many examples of this from purity balls (gag!) to Girls Gone Wild to abstinence-only education and everything in between. The book is very comprehensive in its argument and just overall a good read. It is easy to approach, funny and sarcastic, but obviously has valuable and credible research behind the argument.

So what needs to be done about the virginity movement's attack on women?

"Abstinence classes that tell girls they're dirty and used unless they "save it"; a culture that doesn't believe women who are raped; porn-based beauty standards for our genitals; a moral compass for young women that's based solely on sexuality...There's no doubt that we have a difficult fight ahead of us, but I know we're up for it," (203).

What we need is a more complex and comprehensive approach to sexuality. Should all teenagers be having sex? No, that is not what Valenti is arguing. She is simply arguing that we should teach our youth (through schools and cultural views and values) that sex is a natural thing, but you have to be prepared for it both in the way of protection and in the way of maturity. We cannot stop women from having sex. That is not what we want to do. Women's sexuality is a natural thing. We want women (and men) to be prepared for sex and not feel ashamed of their sex life.

I cannot not make this argument as eloquently as Valenti did, so I recommend that all of you read the book (and check out Feministing!).