Rebecca Walker’s piece about her mother and feminism was disconcerting to say the least. Girl w/ Pen! and Feministing both posted tasteful disagreements with Walker’s assessments of feminism.  The part that caught me offguard that a writer like Rebecca Walker who avoided addressing such solid bifurcations or face and gender in her previous books like Black, White & Jewish, went ahead and claimed that feminism was a major reason why her mother was not their for her grousing up.

According to the strident feminist ideology of the Seventies, women were sisters first, and my mother chose to see me as a sister rather than a daughter. From the age of 13, I spent days at a time alone while my mother retreated to her writing studio  -  some 100 miles away. I was left with money to buy my own meals and lived on a diet of fast food. via 

If it weren’t for feminism Rebecca Walker wouldn’t have the opportunities she is able to take advantage of now. Her work wouldn’t be published as readily. Her diatribe on motherhood would be relegated only to kitchen conversations. Without feminism, Rebecca would still have her father’s last name. Without feminism, Walker wouldn’t be the person she is. I am sure her relationship with her mother is a difficult one, and probably Alice Walker took advantage of feminism to avoid being a proper parent. However, it is not feminism’s fault that the Walkers don’t have the best relationship. It is a combination of timing, ideologies, personality, the past, present, and future.

This Women’s History Month began with a bang with interesting news bits that hasn’t positively affected women.

On March 6, Samantha Power, key foreign policy aid to Barack Obama called Hilary Clinton a monster. Following the negative press, she stepped down from the campaign.

A similar story about a much more well established woman in the media and politics occurred a day later.

On March 7, news broke that Geraldine Ferraro made some unfortunate comments about Barack Obama:

If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept. via

She was then dropped by the Clinton campaign, and Hilary Clinton was accused of being racist among many other things.

On March 10, it was announced that Eliot Spitzer cheated on his wife with a prostitute probably more than once. And then begins the whole should she have stood next to her man questions about Silda Wall Spitzer.

Even better (worse) was the media breaking the myspace page of the prostitute he slept with.

Following these headlines, we saw plenty of Dina Matos McGreevy and with the latest revelation that the newest NYC Governor Paterson also cheated, we saw a lot of imagery of his wife as well.

All of these issues inspired a NYTimes article that I wrote about in this entry.

The rest of NWHM went by (unfortunately) quietly. With St. Patrick’s Day and earlier Easter a week a part, a lot of people stopped paying attention to women’s history in the middle of the month.

To celebrate the month, I attended two events put on by the National Women’s History Project. They honored women in the arts this year. The events finished up with a brunch at the Pen & Brush organization. The brunch honored Molly Murphy MacGregor who had the original idea for National Women’s History Month. She is a woman who I have been in close touch with for the past five years, as I wrote my M.A. thesis about the development of women’s history as its own academic field in the 1970s. MacGregor was one of the powerhouses behind that development.

It has been a hectic month. I wish I could have had more time to focus on NWHM but I had to attend to life’s matters.

I wonder what NWHM will be like next year when I am in graduate school again!

But this Bridge Club is super gutsy…

In a fight reminiscent of the brouhaha over an anti-Bush statement by Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks in 2003, a team of women who represented the United States at the world bridge championships in Shanghai last month is facing sanctions, including a yearlong ban from competition, for a spur-of-the-moment protest.

At issue is a crudely lettered sign, scribbled on the back of a menu, that was held up at an awards dinner and read, “We did not vote for Bush.”

Wow, that is pretty cool in my book, the women explained themselves via a comment from their team captain:

“What we were trying to say, not to Americans but to our friends from other countries, was that we understand that they are questioning and critical of what our country is doing these days, and we want you to know that we, too, are critical,” Ms. Greenberg said, stressing that she was speaking for herself and not her six teammates.

It is definitely reminiscent of the whole unfortunate, blown out of proportion Dixie Chicks scenario. Some popular culture pundits claim it is trendy to speak out against the war and Pres. Bush and that it is more acceptable to do so (See massive articles about the latest slew of “anti-war” movies). I always doubted this and this whole incident shows that it is not A-OK to use our free speech rights. Anyone who says this is NOT about free speech, is badly misinformed.

I hope these Bridge players go unpunished and our further lauded for their courageous behavior and encouraged to continue to speak/act out against actions and figures they believe are UnAmerican.

I also love how this references voting, showing that these women participated in their duties as American citizens.

It’s been a year since I first started blogging here. I thought about doing a recap of the last year but I think I’ll save that for another time.

Instead, I want to write about a movie I saw this weekend, My Super Ex-Girlfriend. From the beginning of this film, I started tot think about the representations of female super heroes we have in Western culture. There is Super Woman, Bat Woman, Wonder Woman, Shera Princess of Power and a few others. All of these super hero(ines) are seen in short skirts and high-heeled boots.

While these images are not realistic, neither is the idea of a super hero. My Super Ex-Girlfriend doesn’t disappoint in the unrealistic department. The film was funny in moments but what I found disturbing was the story behind the transformation of a normal adolescent to a super powered heroine. Uma Thurman plays G-Girl, a young woman who gained super powers when an asteroid hit the Earth. During the flashback of G-Girl gaining her power, she goes from thin, ungainly brunette to a busty, curvy blonde. That’s right as soon as you become a super hero, you get a sexier body. Or at least “sexy” as defined by Western traditions.

My first thought was how “sexist and typical” but then I started to think about how many young women go through that alteration every day by changing their looks through a bottle of dye or surgery. There are a lot of TV shows that revolve around these sorts of transformations. Are they sexist? Probably. But is also natural to doubt one’s appearance and wish to change it. It seems to be the means one goes through to change one’s appearance that defines whether the change is extreme. Is there a major distinction between a young woman getting highlights or getting a new set of breasts? Yes, I believe there is but I don’t think the thinking process behind the action is that different.

In the movie, Uma Thurman plays a neurotic woman looking to hold on to her man. What is funny about this film is that it abandons past stereotypes about super heroes being pillars of the society and using their powers for good only. Unfortunately, G-Girl uses her powers to scare her ex boyfriend after he broke up with her. She is also written as a crazy sex fiend who likes to use her super powers in the bedroom which in turn emasculates her boyfriend. This emasculation is, of course, used for laughs in the film. But it gets old when once the viewer realizes it’s a plot device that been used before.

As far as your average Luke Wilson romantic comedy, My Super Ex-Girlfriend is standard. What I don’t get is why Uma Thurman would agree to be in this. She usually makes pretty smart movies. It does bring up some valid issues about the unfortunate ways women and their desires are portrayed.

I hope the next film that features a super heroine is more intelligent and does not rely on old tricks and gender conventions and stereotypes to tell its story.

In the US media…until now

.
Iraqi women mourning for their lost, loved ones.

(via LATimes)

It’s a sad sad story
That a mother will teach her daughter
that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.
And how in the world
Can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Saying that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

- Dixie Chicks, Not Ready to Make Nice