Last night I had the distinct pleasure of watching my Dallas Mavericks polish off the San Antonio Spurs in Round One of the Western Conference playoffs. The Mavs won the best-of-seven series pretty decisively, this last game on the strength of the performance of their star player, Dirk Nowitzki.
The leaders of the [women's suffrage] movement trembled on seeing a tall, gaunt black woman in a gray dress and white turban, surmounted with an uncouth sunbonnet, march deliberately into the church, walk with the air of a queen up the aisle, and take her seat upon the pulpit steps. A buzz of disapprobation was heard all over the house, and there fell on the listening ear, 'An abolition affair!" "Woman's rights and niggers!""I told you so!" "Go it, darkey!" . . Again and again, timorous and trembling ones came to me and said, with earnestness, "Don't let her speak, Mrs. Gage, it will ruin us. Every newspaper in the land will have our cause mixed up with abolition and niggers, and we shall be utterly denounced." My only answer was, "We shall see when the time comes."
--First-wave feminist Frances Gage, reflecting on the occasion of Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech
My introduction to this week's sm[art]ist came from an exercise in a film class I had taken. The professor was having us list off as many female directors as we could think of and, as you could imagine, the list ended up being fairly short. In addition to Jane Campion, Amy Heckerling, and Julie Taymor, Maya Deren's name came up.
Although, like always, there is a lot of hard-hitting feminist news coming down the wire today (this New York Times article on women's studies programs comes to mind), sometimes it's nice to just kick back and watch some video clips. After all, it's Wednesday, and we could all use a media-fueled brain break every once in awhile.
In the interest of said brain break, here is a collection of feminist-themed internet videos. So put on your headphones, tilt your computer monitor away from your boss's line of vision, and prepare to be enlightened, entertained, enthralled, and maybe even enraged. (And if you can think of another adjective that begins with "en" you might be that as well.)
Remember Roy Den Hollander, the righteously antifeminst New York lawyer whose greatest hits of frivolous litigation include, "Ladies’ Nights Are Unfair to Men," "The Violence Against Women Act is Unconstitutional to ME!," and "My Mail-Order Bride Left Me to Become a Stripper, I’m Gonna Sue the Club Where She Works"? Well, you’ll be relieved to know that his most recent waste of a court's time and money — a lawsuit against Columbia University contending that their Women’s Studies curriculum violated Title IX and was unconstituional — was given a big thumbs-down last week.
While being a musical vagabond is in Ani DiFranco’s blood, the changing face of the music industry in a sinking economy has made touring for this feminist icon a financial necessity.
Just a reminder that our fourth and final lecture series is tonight! Visiting Guerilla Girl "Käthe Kollwitz" will speak on sexism in the art world and upcoming projects for the Guerilla Girls. Event sponsor the Willamette Week did an interview with Käthe earlier this week where she discusses the history of the activist group, the market of museums, and the reasoning behind her alias.
If you've noticed that our website looks a little snappier these days, it's not just your eyes playing tricks on you. We've added some new features that make it easier for you to interact with us, and vice versa! Let us direct your attention to the sidebar on the right side of the screen (---->) where you'll find our new Twitter feed, and an easy way to contact us with your blog tips!
Click through for some more info, and to let us know what other website upgrades you might like to see. Welcome to the 21st Century, Bitch!
Listening to Hunx and His Punx is kind of like listening to a sixties girl group--a really, really fabulously gay sixties girl group. Hunx is also a member of Gravy Train!!!!, which I first heard of when my bf at the time burned me a CD with this awesomely raunchy song on it. When I found these videos from his newest project, it felt like John Waters and the Shangri-Las had had a baby... and that baby was Hunx. It was garage rock meets trash culture at the local leather bar. They were just so... gay! And not "we wanna get married and be a little homo-sub-branch of heteronormative culture" gay... but just good, old-fashioned gay! We met up with Hunx while at SXSW, and he graciously agreed to send us a list of his ten favorite female musicians, which I'm going to reprint verbatim after the jump.
The Daily Beast posted a video today of Australian pageant contestant Stephanie Naumoska talking with Diane Sawyer about audience reactions to her physique (which is quite thin). Is it skinny-ism? Is that even a thing? Watch the video and let's discuss:
Is Naumoska a victim? Or is this just the Miss-Universe-contestant pot calling the kettle too judgmental? (Does that even make sense?) More after the jump!
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