After a morning attempting to navigate barricades and checkpoints we were beginning to feel like rats in a maze, so we entered Teaism, at 400 8th St. SW (www.teaism.com), which was the closest we could get to the swearing-in. The staff, Kim and Terry, graciously let us watch the ceremony on their Mac. By the end of the inauguration, the room was full, and tears and shouts of joy were abundant.
So my friend and I have driven 765 miles from Milwaukee to DC to soak up some history in the making. We're swinging it ticketless-style, attending whatever is free and indiscriminately mixing MLK commemorations, Obama celebrations, and site-seeing.
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. day, and our Adventures in Feministory takes us to Fannie Lou Hamer, who like many women activists of the American Civil Rights Movement (and social movements in general), is often overlooked despite her staggering contributions to social change.
It's so interesting to listen to this last speech of MLK's right now, while we're in the middle of the time we're in. It's interesting how similar the message MLK is giving to Obama's--and many people are making quite a show of connecting the two (ahem, mainstream media??). But what I find even more interesting is the differences. Both MLK and Obama talk about making the U.S. a better nation--but there are important differences that each man takes to get there.
For some reason I was expecting a Tracy Ulman type one-woman-show when I saw the ads for Showtime's new show: The United States of Tara, starring Toni Collette. I was excited because Collette never seems to disappoint (Little Miss Sunshine, Murial's Wedding).
In the history of family sitcoms, has there ever been a woman so intelligent, so poised, and so willing to deliver impassioned monologues about gender equality as Clair Huxtable?
As a kid watching The Cosby Show -- the only primetime program my parents permitted back in the ‘80s -- I was completely in awe of her. As an adult who’s watched many, many hours of TV since (I do what I want!), I’m more impressed than ever. 20 years after The Cosby Show’s peak, Clair is still more progressive than most of the TV moms who’ve succeeded her.
The interwebs are a-buzzin' with talk of 22-year old Natalie Dylan and her plan to sell her virginity online
to pay for a master's degree. The bidding on the women's studies
major's "maidenhead" (and yes, Fox News called it that in all seriousness) is up to 3.7 million, and the um, transaction, is
set to take place at the Bunny Ranch in Nevada. It seems that people can't wait to ask questions about this situation like, Is this legal?Is the price too high?Can Dylan do this and still call herself a feminist? The blogs and articles go on and on.
Obviously
these are valid questions to ask of this situation. But I think that to
get to the root of this issue the question we should really be asking
ourselves is, Why do we care so much about this in the first place? Is virginity really THAT important? And why is everyone being so creepy about it?
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