women

Newsweek has a piece on their website right now entitled, "How To Get A Raise: Stop Being Good" by Jessica Bennett. In it Bennett reviews a new book, Rachel Simmons' The Curse of the Good Girl which is about how raising girls to be "good" can actually be, well, bad when it comes to their careers. The book sounds pretty great, though not necessarily surprising. (Guess what? Women are socialized to be too nice to be taken seriously in the workplace!) Still, it's nice that Newsweek is addressing these issues for the not-necessarily-feminist set.

However, a lot was missing from the article, and a lot was there that frankly shouldn't have been. For example, as a photo essay accompaniment to the piece, Newsweek gives us "11 Powerful Women That Make Men (and Other Women) Squirm". While writing about the problems of the "psychological glass ceiling" that keeps many women from feeling confident in the workplace, isn't Newsweek perpetuating that same shit by basically calling women like Hilary Clinton, Martha Stewart, and Anna Wintour (and yes, they are all white women except for Yoko Ono) terrifying?

image via The Guardian

Earlier this week in Bridgeville, PA, a 48-year old man opened fire on a fitness class and shot 12 women, killing three. As more information becomes available, it is clear that the shooter, George Sodini was motivated by a hatred of women (watch a video describing his diary entries here, and the full text of his blog is available here -- view/read with caution).

As coverage of this horrendous woman-hating event unfolds, it is important to continue to focus on the misogynist nature of Sodini's actions. This was a hate crime against women, and should be labeled as such. More coverage of the sexist nature of the shooting and the ways in which we as feminists can begin to process it (and encourage the media to do the same), as well as some historical context for gendered hate crimes, can be found by visiting the following links:

- WIMN's Voices
- Feministing
- The Pursuit of Harpyness
- Jezebel
- Feministe

This shooting (one of the many violent crimes targeting women over the past several years) is a tragedy, but also an opportunity for issues of misogyny and violence to be addressed in the media. How do you feel about the coverage of this event so far? Is the gender-based nature of Sodini's actions being properly highlighted? What are you hoping to see from the media in terms of future coverage? Please share your thoughts in the comments section, and continue to do so as more information is released.

Whether I'm checking out music blogs, browsing upcoming concerts in my local alt weekly, or trying to download songs illegally, I can't help but notice some of the names that indie rock acts (read: hipster bands) are coming up with these days, bands named Women, or Girls, which turn out to be more like dudes and bros. It's like having a lady-indicative word in your band name is the new having an animal-indicative word in your band name! Well, almost. I've compiled a short list of current, contemporary bands that err on the side of both misleading and not-so-misleading gendered band names to help you navigate the tides of new and upcoming music. (FYI, Queen = all dudes too)