It’s a simple political calculation: If you want to stop women from getting abortions and you can’t ban abortions outright, then limit the number of people qualified to provide them. In Arizona, after clearing a legal hurdle in the Maricopa County Superior Court, a new law is poised to further obstruct access to abortion in […]
Month: November 2010
Separate But Equal? The Politics of Plus Size
When I opened my Gmail and saw the subject line of the weekly newsletter Forever 21 sends to its customers, I bubbled up with hope. “New Name: Faith 21 Will Soon Be Forever 21+.” Forever 21, a brand I’ve been addicted to since my tweens, was finally taking the admirable step of integrating their plus-size […]
Anti-Abortion Leader Convicted of Stalking Using WANTED Posters
Anti-abortion leader and head of Operation Rescue/Operation Save America Philip “Flip” Benham was convicted today of “criminal stalking with intent to cause emotional distress and disruption of domestic tranquility” for stalking a doctor with WANTED posters at his home. Benham had targeted several North Carolina doctors who work at abortion clinics in Charlotte, using old-West-style […]
We Heart: First Women in Hockey Hall of Fame
As a little girl growing up in Toronto, Canada, learning to ice skate was a non-negotiable–part and parcel of our below-freezing weather that lasted three to five months of the year. I took it one step further: Beginning at age 4, I was the only girl on a “co-ed” hockey team which practiced several times […]
Need Some Feminist Fun? Here’s Where To Find It This Week
Ready for all the great feminist events coming up this week? I know I am, as always. This week signals one of my favorite holidays (for me it counts as a holiday): the National Women’s Studies Conference. Difficult Dialogues II picks up the complicated conversations started in Atlanta last year, this time in Denver, Colo., […]
Can a U.N. Resolution on Women and Peace Transform Our World?
Ten years ago the United Nations Security Council passed UNSCR 1325, the first-ever resolution on women, peace and security. 1325 sets a new standard for how conflicts are resolved: Women must participate fully in peace negotiations and post-conflict reconstruction. If this really works, it will transform our militarized world. The hard part is implementation. Patriarchal […]
The Vagina Dialogues, Circa 1970
Before there was The Vagina Monologues, there were the pelvic instructors. These women, from Boston’s Women’s Community Health Center, were radical in not only instructing medical students in female sexual anatomy but in also using their own bodies as models. Their short-lived yet highly symbolic program took place from 1975 to 1976 at Harvard Medical […]
Vote No on Sexist Politics
“Man up,” “Get your man-pants on,” and “Whore.” These are some of the finer examples of sexist rhetoric that infiltrated the midterm elections. Though the media dubiously declared this political season the “Year of the Woman,” the midterms seemed to be a tipping point for public declarations and acceptance of sexism. The disturbing language wasn’t […]
For Colored Girls, When One Blog Post Is Not Enuf
We have had such a tremendous interest among our bloggers in Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls that we’ve posted a number of their analyses, both before and after the film’s premiere this past Friday. It’s not hard to understand why the hoopla: Ntozake Shange’s beloved For Colored Girls, Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, […]
For Colored Girls: When the Men Are Not Enuf
No one has ever accused me of being an apologist for men. But I felt like one as I walked out of For Colored Girls. Men don’t get a fair shake in the movie; they are bashed and trashed from start to finish. Of course this movie is not about them. It’s about a group […]