Archive: Nov 2008

One of my favorite moments during last Wednesday’s National Feminist Town Hall –somewhere between the pizza and the ice cream Gloria Feldt served Kristen Loveland and I as we all tried to figure out that newfangled Mogulus video/livechat thingy–was when participating bloggers started using the chat feature to throw out suggestions for President-elect Obama’s cabinet. We probably won’t know for sure about many of these appointments til after Thanksgiving, but it sure was fun to speculate.

But what’s even MORE fun to think up right about now are all the new offices and agencies we’d like to see–like the visionary ladies who participated in NCRW’s Transition Forum on Friday were asked to do. WHP President Marie Wilson thought there should be a Presidential Commission on Women and Democracy. NWSA Executive Director (and GWP blogger!) Allison Kimmich called for the creation of a Federal Department of Women’s Affairs. Women’s eNews founder Rita Henley Jensen threw in for an Office of Maternal Health, a Title IX Taskforce, and a Special Advisor on Judiciary Appointments.

During the next 11 weeks, we’re gonna hear a lot of names thrown out. Here’s a cheat sheet, courtesy of Yahoo News, and another via CBS, listing some of the names currently being floated around. (Thanks, Lucinda Marshall, for the heads up.) While you’re at it, be sure not to miss GWP blogger Veronica Arreola’s post over at the WMC, , titled “Larry Summers Was Not the Change I Was Expecting.” aHEM.

So…what kind of change are we expecting? I say we all weigh in, and dream large. Who do you want to see as Cabinet members, and what new offices, task forces, and commissions do you think there should be? Below is a list of currently available cabinet positions, but don’t feel constrained–feel free to make up your own, cause things are just way more fun that way:

Secretary of State Secretary of the Treasury Secretary of Defense Attorney General Secretary of the Interior Secretary of Agriculture Secretary of Commerce Secretary of Labor Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Secretary of Transportation Secretary of Energy Secretary of Education Secretary of Veterans Affairs Secretary of Homeland Security

Our new President (hallelujah AMEN!) is looking like a kid on Christmas in this pic in The New York Times today.  I am utterly excited, please please don’t get me wrong.  But I spy only one chick at this table.  I’m optimistic that Obama’s emerging transition team will include a few more!

And in that spirit, I bring you this STELLAR (if I say so myself!) forum convened by the National Council for Research on Women, over at their new blog The REAL Deal.  Check out these messages to the Transition Team now up at their site:

Women Leaders Dream Big and Urge Transition Team to Bring Women and Women’s Issues to the Center of the New Administration, Notes Council President Linda Basch

Says Women’s Media Center President Carol Jenkins, “Our Work Has Just Begun”

Women’s eNews Founder and Editor-in-Chief Calls for Office of Maternal Health, Title IX Task Force, and More

Women’s Funding Network President and CEO Urges New Government to Embrace Women as Experts and Decision Makers

White House Project President Calls for Presidential Commission on Women and Democracy

National Women’s Studies Association Leader Calls for Federal Dept of Women’s Affairs

National Women’s Law Center Says The Nation Has No Time to Spare

Excerpts are also posted at Huffington Post. Feel free to add messages of your own in the comments section over at HuffPo!

I’m pleased to bring you Laura Mazer’s monthly column on publishing in the trade world, particularly if you’re an academic. This month she gives important tips on translating your style and structure for your popular audience. –Kristen

Hi all,

Good to be back up here on GWP! I’ve been getting a lot questions lately from academics who want to write for a trade audience but aren’t sure how to translate their scholarship into a style and format that’s suited for a wider audience. Here are few things you can expect to hear from your editor should you decide to publish your book project with a trade house:

— Be sure you’re writing in a plainspoken, accessible voice. That does not—repeat not—mean “dumb it down,” I promise! It means write conversationally, intimately. The academic world, understandably, pays a great deal of attention to precision in accuracy—in the trade world, you’ll need to find a way to be accurate but without using insider terminology or complicated concepts. Example: You may be writing an auto-ethnography, but you’ll need to call it a race memoir. And if you’re thinking of writing a book about longterm neurologic transformation, try saying that you’re writing a history of the brain.

— Show how your expertise is relevant to the life of today’s reader. How does your topic play out in the world of 2009? Find something current from which to launch your own findings. For example, if you have studied the rise of prostitution in 17th century France, start with an examination of
the sex trade today, and then connect the contemporary state of affairs with those in the 1600s in a way that reveals something fascinating.

— Convert your footnotes into endnotes. A trade book can’t be weighed down with long lists of small type at the bottom of each page, so you won’t be able to use footnotes to clarify and augment your narrative. If readers want to know your sources and read your comments, they’ll find them in the back.

— If you have credentials other than your academic degree, highlight them.
A well-rounded author is one who’s more likely to surface from the slush pile.

— Make your title catchy and clever, and your subtitle simple and clear.
It should be immediately obvious from reading your title and subtitle exactly what the book is about, without excessive gravitas.

That should get you started! If you have specific questions about translating the technical into the trade, send ’em to me and I’ll do my best to answer them. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Cheers,
Laura Mazer

Well THAT was fun last night. And today, I’m going to be offline much of the day, gone consulting. Tallulah is coming with me. Thought I’d leave ya’ll with this pic.

Start watching at 7pm ET! And join us for a “chat” in comments, or on the mogulus site itself!

Ok Penners, we’re excited to try this newfangled technology out tonight! At 7pm ET tonight, we’ll have a MOGULUS video feed running the live panel of national leaders and feminists discussing what happened on yesterday, Election Day, and where we go from here. The panelists will be in Cambridge, we’ll be here online, chatting it up with each other in the comments section of the post, and posing our own questions to the panel. A few last-minute details:

1. As we watch, we’ll be chatting it up over here in the comments section. But we just learned, if you want to ask questions of folks at the live event, use the MOGULUS CHAT FUNCTION, not our comments thread, because the event has grown and the organizers of the panel (The Center for New Words ladies) can’t monitor all the comments threads. They’ll be monitoring the mogulus chat thread ONLY. Also, if folks are on the mogulus chat thread you can also chat with other readers on all the other blogs – everyone who’s watching the feed.

2. For Bostonians planning to attend the offline panel: The new venue is LESLEY UNIVERSITY AMPITHEATER, 1815 Mass. Ave in Cambridge.

See you online over here in a few hours!

I just can’t resist. Here’s one more, from dear friend of GWP Daphne Uviller:

Yesterday I threw together a ham sandwich, some coffee, and a bag of cookies and grabbed my baby boy and hopped in my car to drive two hours each way to pull the lever in my hometown. Currently in exile in suburbia, with McCain signs on either side of me (lovely people, though, I’ll be the first to say), I needed to go vote at the Gay and Lesbian Center in the West Village, my polling place since the moment I turned 18. The line was around the block; we waited 45 minutes and I loved every second. And can I just add, even more than the racial history we made, I’m thrilled that America elected a brilliant, erudite man, instead of someone they wanted to have a beer with. Perhaps the dumbing down of the this once-great nation can yet be stanched. I love Obama. I feel hope. And I feel proud of this nation again.

On a less sanguine note, Daphne’s and my exuberance is today mixed with heartbreak at the news of setbacks for gay and lesbian rights.  The following updates on ballot initiatives come courtesy of Ann from feministing. Writes Ann:

Proposition 8 in California: Passed. This is such a crushing loss. I went to bed last night before the final results were in, and woke up to the news that the people of California actually approved the gay marriage ban. So devastating.

Amendment 2 in Florida: Passed. Yet another gay marriage ban.

Proposition 102 in Arizona: Passed. As Dana noted previously, “Arizona became the first state in the nation to reject an anti-gay marriage amendment in 2006, but they’re likely to pass the measure this year, now that it has been stripped of language that also denied domestic partnership benefits to hetero couples.” Looks like that was the magic change to make bigotry palatable to Arizona voters.

Act 1 in Arkansas: Passed. Now gay couples are unable to adopt or foster-parent children. This from a state with 3700 children in the foster-care system, and only 1000 foster homes. Disgusting.

Steps forward, steps back. We have much work to do from here.

I woke up and turned on the radio to make sure it wasn’t a dream. I am so moved by this moment in our history, and, after eight years of mortification, proud once again to be an American. Can’t wait to confab with all of you tonight, online!

(Thank you for this amazing video, Jackie!)

After an unbelievable night last night, let’s keep the conversation going tonight. We want you to join us online here at Girl with Pen at 7PM TONIGHT to watch the first ever Feminist Town Forum.

The Center for New Words will be hosting a Feminist Town Forum of national leaders and feminists to discuss what happened on Election Day and where we go from here. We will broadcast the town forum here at Girl with Pen, starting at 7PM TONIGHT. In addition, I (Kristen Loveland), Deborah Siegel, and Glorida Feldt will be teaming up to give live commentary on the town hall, and we invite you to add your voices as well. Basically, we will create a post with the live broadcast and hold a discussion in the comments section. Looking forward to seeing you here tonight!

Full Details:

political campaigns , politics

O.M.F.G! I’m speechless. The cat, the kitten, and I are all doing a happy dance and listening to the roar of voices outside our window here in NYC.