Remembering some unforgettable women:
(1) How we got Women’s Equality Day–August 26th or Betty’s bourgeois antics.
Frank Rich writes about Wendy Wasserstein’s desire for a private life and death, her powerful friendship and talent, and her contemplations about the “unfulfilled ideal of sisterhood among women of her generation” expressed through her exceptional and touching plays.
And because its news…
(1) Lawrence Downes writes “It’s my first suburban Long Island middle school talent show” in the NYTimes. He describes feeling uncomfortable while watching middle schoolers dance to lyrics like “Jerk it like you’re making it choke. …Ohh. I’m so stimulated. Feel so X-rated.”
The article is called “Middle School Girls Gone Wild.”
Indeed.
(2) The “blog slut” goes to battle in the courts.
(3) FEW LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL TEENS TELL THEIR DOCTOR
(4) “Coming out in Kansas” or “Up yours Rev. Phelps”
Ms. Slayton, the Mission Hills resident, likes to tell the story of the elderly lesbian aunt of a friend. When the woman died some years ago, Ms. Slayton said, the family learned for the first time that she had been in a long-term relationship with a woman. She came out at her funeral, through the medium of her tombstone. She requested that it read: “I didn’t miss half the fun you think I did.” From the article.
All My Children is setting a new precedent for daytime television and primetime television with their story about Zarf, a male who wants to become a female. AMC broke ground several years ago when they turned the character of Bianca Montgomery into a lesbian. She shared the first daytime kiss with a female. However since then, daytime has shied away from portraying full-blown homosexual romances.
In an article from today’s Baltimore Sun, Matea Gold discusses all of the planning that went into the storyline including consulting with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The ultimate point of the story is to perhaps turn Zarf (aka Zoe) and Bianca into a couple.
The most interesting point of the article for me was the idea that even though soap operas are not afraid to portray storylines that include DNA paternity tests, advanced plastic surgery and other controversial storylines, they avoid storylines that involve homosexual relationships.
The best line from the article is:
Carol Dickson, who runs the official All My Children fan club, is excited about the story line.
“They’re not playing it safe, which is what I like,” she said.
In the aptly titled USA Today article “Buoyed by Bigger Breasts,” Rita Rubin explores the world of soccer moms who want breast augmentation. She declares that breast augmentation is no longer just for strippers, movie stars, the wealthy and other select few but for the average middle class (probably Caucasian) women.
Nicole Cummings, a woman who had breast augmentation, created a website called implantinfo.com to provide a resource for women who wanted to know about their surgical options.
In 2003, Cummings featured a survey on her site. The survey was funded by the Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation. What surprised me were the results:
There are a few assumptions being made here: (1) the respondent of the survey is an average woman (2) there is commonly held belief that women who have breast implants/ breast augmentation are single, younger than 30, and not college educated.
Clearly, scholars, writers and researchers will need to take economic status, race, class, education level, age and relationship status when creating a profile of a woman with breast implants or breast augmentation. I know my image of the average woman with breast augmentations has slightly changed after reading this article.
(1) Term “sex worker” demeaning? USA says yes, so it must be!
“Of course, one can rationalize words such as ’sex worker’ and “child sex worker” in an effort to avoid a demeaning label such as ‘prostitute,” said John Miller, the office’s director.
(2) Forty-one percent of women surveyed said they eat for comfort during the winter holiday season
(3) Black women more likely than white women to die from breast cancer
(4) How Suite It Isn’t: A Dearth of Female Bosses (Actual title. The New York Times is always so clever with their titles!)
(1) Seriously!
(2) “Mary Cheney’s child will, in fact, have loving parents.”
(3) DUH! Homosexuality and Abortion are a Threat to National Security
(4) Men coming over to Women’s Studies classes for more than a date…maybe
Hewitt says he was “not interested in feminism before taking courses on feminism and women’s issues”. If he had not taken the courses, he says, he would not be so keen on teaching his pupils about women’s history. Thereby, a new generation of boys and girls will benefit from the knowledge and perspective that just one man picked up from a type of course that many would argue is going out of fashion.
When I was studying for my M.A. in history, I had the fortune of reading Other Powers by Barbara Goldsmith. It is definitely one of the best books I read while in graduate school. I would have to do a survey of all the books I’ve read to seriously determine this but it is possible Other Powers is one of my favorite books ever. Obviously, I recommend it.
It tells the story of Victoria Woodhull’s private life, professional life and delves into other key characters from her life. It is a historical book without being too stuffy, not bogged down with notes and nearly reads as a novel. Some historians don’t like this approach but Ms. Goldsmith’s book stands along other people’s work about Woodhull.
Victoria Woodhull is one of the women I chose to put up on my banner. I admire her because she was a true renaissance woman. She is mostly known as being the first female candidate for the US presidency but she also wore many other hats that set her apart. Instead of choosing one issue, she decided to take the world by storm.
Here is a highlight of some of her accomplishments:
I think I may reread Other Powers.