…to Clarence Thomas. Again. Don’t miss this.
Says Hill on the op-ed page of the New York Times, “I will not stand by silently and allow him, in his anger, to reinvent me.”
Meanwhile, check out these savvy responses on HuffPo–from Ann Friedman and Rachel Sklar–to that inane Times article about how Hillary cackles. Like a witch. Says Ann, “I’m betting that the next time a woman runs for president, her laugh won’t sound so strange.” Take that my pretty.
Three quick hits before I dash off to a Girls Write Now meeting tonight:
Camille Paglia sounds off on “the sisterhood myth” over at The Guardian, while six leading feminists sound off on the books that changed their lives.
Molly Bennett interviews feministing.com’s Jessica Valenti in The Nation.
And last weekend Smith College celebrated the 65th anniversary of its renowned Sophia Smith Collection with history, art, feminism and the vivid voices of women across decades. Headlining the festivities was “Voices of Feminism Oral History Project,” a four-year initiative highlighting the stories of women overlooked by the longstanding notion of feminism as a white, middle class movement. Happy anniversary, archives!
So tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Rosaura “Rosie†Jiménez, the first known victim of the Hyde Amendment in the United States. And the amazing Gloria Feldt is going to be joining MarÃa Luisa Sánchez Fuentes (executive director of Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida) for a cross-border dialogue about the recent gains and losses in the reproductive rights movements in the United States and Mexico over at the Women’s Media Center. Check out what Gloria has to say about it all today on HuffPo.
Journalists welcome:
9:30-10:30 am EST
The Women’s Media Center
350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 901
New York, New York 10118
RSVP by email (kathy@womensmediacenter.com) or by calling the Women’s Media Center at (212) 563-0680. A call-in option is also available.
Let’s make this news.
For those not in the know, Halo 3, which launched in the U.S. on September 25th, is the latest in an extremely popular series of “first-person shooter” video games which are the cornerstone of Microsoft’s XBox 360 empire. Microsoft has declared Halo 3 to be “the biggest entertainment launch in history.” And just who exactly plunked down the bucks? Well, I haven’t yet found hard numbers, but there seem to be no surprises on the gender front — at least according to the amusing video below from online pop magazine JetSet, wherein an intrepid (and exasperated) girl reporter goes on the hunt for gamergrrls at a Halo launch event.
It’s quite likely you are sitting there thinking “Well, thank God there aren’t more young women wasting their days and brain cells on such violent, proto-jingoistic tripe.” Ah, BUT… as reported just a couple of weeks ago by The Economist and then by Jezebel, a study conducted by the University of Toronto demonstrated how women’s spatial acuity (i.e. spotting “unusual objects … in [one’s] field of vision,” etc.) is dramatically and permanently improved after playing ten hours of Medal of Honour: Pacific Assault. “Join us or DIE!” seems to be the subliminal message to women here; but doesn’t the market support other types of games, with all the benefits and none of the (virtual) bloodshed? After all, there may actually be more women gamers in the U.S. than men: according to an online survey conducted early last month by the J. Walter Thompson ad agency (JWT), out of over 1000 respondents 44% of women said they owned a gaming console vs. 39% of men. These include owners of Wii, a platform known for broadening the gaming market across genders and generations.
There are definitely popular alternatives to the first-person shooters: you can improve your physical dexterity with say, “Dance Dance Revolution” or “Guitar Hero.” And for those who still prefer a good fight there is the intriguing strategy game A Force More Powerful. An interactive teaching tool developed by The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, it “simulates nonviolent struggles … against dictators, occupiers, colonizers, and corrupt regimes, as well as campaigns for political and human rights for minorities and women.” Now that frankly sounds kick-ass enough for most men and women I know.
Re. the pic at the top of the post: in a bid to corner the homebound nerd market, SuicideGirls reveals Halo hunk Master Chief to be… the lovely “Alaina.” (Thanks to BoingBoing Gadgets).
Anita Hill is responsible for getting me my first job. Well, indirectly. I was first hired by the National Council for Research on Women in 1991 to write a report synthesizing current research on sexual harassment. And I’ll never forget standing on my chair at a fancy luncheon along with women state legislators at a CAWP-sponsored conference held the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego soon after the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings were over. Anita Hill was the speaker, and as she made her entrance, the legislators, my boss, and I waved pink napkins high in the air and hooted and hollered like banshees. It was a highpoint of my early twenties.
Now, sixteen years later, Supreme Court Justice Thomas has a new book out, and over at the Women’s Media Center, Freada Kapor Klein responds. Klein, an expert in issues of sexual harassment and founder of the Level Playing Field Institute, argues that Thomas is still trying vindicate himself at Hill’s expense. She notes that every employee in the United States whose workplace has policies about a harassment-free environment owes a debt to Anita Hill, who had the courage to speak up about unfair treatment when her attempts to lodge a confidential complaint were denied.
I’ll swing a napkin to that.
My blogger friends in Chicago are asking folks to please visit the new Planned Parenthood Aurora blog and comment. The blog should be a place where pro-choicers can gather to discuss the situation not just in Aurora but around this country. Please join me in passing on the blog to friends & other pro-choice allies. Psst – pass it on!
One more related to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s new book, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. Loved Kathryn Harrison’s review of it in the NYTimes Book Review this weekend, especially this line:
Hillary Clinton, who famously refused to “bake cookies” in the background of her husband’s career, is an Amazon, destined to be as much the property of myth as of history, between which lies a vast and unfixed common ground.
(Pic is of First Ladies in 1994, left to right: Nancy Reagan, Lady Bird Johnson, Clinton, then the current First Lady, Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, and Barbara Bush.)
I’m on a panel with Ulrich next week – details here. Do come!
I’m back from my dear friend Rebecca Wallace-Segall’s wedding weekend — at a bonefide dude ranch in upstate New York! I love weddings that draw on tradition and simultaneously subvert. Groom Jeremy rode in on an ATV, his long hair flying in the wind. Rebecca rode in on a horse, and the horse bolted. Instead of wedding cake, friends baked pies. This is a pic of me and Katie Orenstein (the same Catherine Orenstein who teaches the fabulous op-ed writing classes for women) pretending we are a two-headed buck.
Mazel tovs and dude-like high fives to Rebecca and Jeremy (aka Rebeccemy)! Sending you both tons of love, always.
