Archive: Mar 2009

I’m THRILLED to announce that my nationally touring (whohoo!) intergenerational panel, “Women, Girls, and Ladies” will be appearing on MARCH 18 at the 92nd Street Y in Tribeca.

For a taste, you can check out the piece up today in honor of International Women’s Day over at the Women’s Media Center site, where Gloria Feldt (67), Courtney Martin (29), Elizabeth Hines (33) and I (40 + 3 weeks) each share personal reflections on the economic crisis from our generational vantage point and comment on some of the unfinished feminist business of economic recovery.  Hint: It’s a lot about work and life, life and work, work and life….

For more on the March 18th panel, see our WGLs blog or the 92nd Street Y.

Today being the day our monthly “Man Files” column posts and all, I thought I’d share this round-up of links on, well, MEN. Or rather, men and masculinity. From a feminist perspective. Definitely check out:

Our very own Shira Tarrant’s “Guy Trouble” in the current issue of BITCH in which she asks are young men really in crisis or are these boys just done being boys?

Rebecca Traister of Salon and Emily Bazelon of Slate discuss the recession’s effect on gender and housework in a New York Times bloggingheads video called “Unemployed Husbands”

And Tony Dokoupil has a piece in this week’s Newsweek titled “Men Will Be Men” in which he blows by some of the more progressive changes in masculine behavior and concludes that men continue to define masculinity in market terms.

This month’s guest post to The Man Files comes at us from Jonathan Felix — college student, drummer, sports fan, and astute social critic. In Jonathan’s words, “Me and my dad sarcastically laugh at the sequence of commercials during ‘guy’ shows on TV: beer, burgers, military. Beer, cars, televisions, military …” Here Jonathan takes on Carl’s Jr. ads asking why they portray guys as kind of stupid.

Masculine, Jr.

In true corporate marketing fashion, Carl’s Jr. depicts demoralizing stereotypes of men and women in efforts to attract consumers.

The fast-food chain’s current commercial shows a beautiful skinny blonde girl wearing make-up and a nice blue dress. She enters her boyfriend’s apartment expecting a classy night out, and finds him on the couch playing video games. The couple talks about a steak dinner, and the guy implies they are going to Carl’s Jr. for their new steak sandwich. The motto after the commercial is that Carl’s Jr. is “How guys do fancy.”

This is NOT how I do fancy.

Commercials like this give good guys a bad reputation. Hey Carl’s Jr. — Listen up! A lot of us actually have our lives together and enjoy taking women out to nice places and good dinners.

Or what about the ad with the guy and the avocado? It makes men look like total barbaric meatheads, who can’t even use a spoon to eat an avocado, and we somehow need Carl’s Jr. to make guacamole for us because we’re too stupid to figure it out.

Now I happen to like Carl’s Jr. But for them to portray guys as that lazy and ignorant is offensive. I can only hope my peers would agree that we have to do better than a #4 Combo if we plan on making good boyfriends and future husbands.

These commercials project a message to the world that men are lame and losers and unable to appreciate even the smallest bit of romantic effort. Far too often our society depicts “real” men as barbarians who love sports and beer and total sexual dominance. And although plenty of men have some of these traits, pop culture insists on exploiting our more obtuse characteristics to sell their products.

These ads completely ignore a man’s intellectual or emotional capabilities. This hurts men who actually have their lives somewhat together. It perpetuates negative stereotypes and affects women’s future opinions about men, be they Prince Charmings or Ronald McDonalds.

Show Jonathan some love and welcome him to Girl With Pen by posting your comments here. Or reach him directly at johnnylbeach at yahoo.com. Until next month! -Shira

The 53rd Commission on the Status of Women meetings began this week at UN Headquarters in New York and will run until the 13th of March. This year, the theme of the CSW is “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS.”

During this year’s events, I will have the privilege of working with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development’s (UNRISD) Gender and Development Programme. The Gender and Development Programme at UNRISD has been working on the Political and Social Economy of Care as one of its main research themes for several years now. [One of my favorite gender and development researchers, Maxine Molyneux, wrote the first paper in the series, titled Mothers at the Service of the State.] As part of the project, UNRISD led gender experts from around the world in an exploration of care issues, with research conducted in eight countries drawn from four different regions. Within its comparative approach, the project focused on the gender composition and dynamics of the multiple institutions of care – households and families, states, markets, and the not-for-profit sector – and their effects on poverty and social rights of citizenship. The implications of this research in tracking who gets paid for care work, who does not, who does the bulk of unpaid care work, and how this work contributes to overall economic growth is of great importance – particularly in the context of the current global economic crisis, as government programs are scaled-back and unpaid care work becomes more prominent.

In conjunction with the CSW, UNRISD is hosting a conference to present its findings from this project. The Political and Social Economy of Care is free and open to the public, and will take place in the James Room (Barnard Hall 418) at Barnard College in New York City on Friday, March 6, 2009 from 9 am to 6 pm. Speakers at the conference will address the distinct economic, social and political conditions under which care is provided in developing countries, reflecting on a diverse range of country experiences that span Latin America, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and considering wider themes that emerge from comparative analyses, including comparisons with more developed countries. The conference will begin with keynote addresses delivered by two leading feminist thinkers — Joan Tronto and Elizabeth Jelin. Other experts in the area, including Shahra Razavi, Nancy Folbre (whose books Family Time and The Invisible Heart are classics on care from a feminist economic perspective), Rosalind Petchesky, and Kate Bedford, will also share their insights on the ethics and politics of care in an increasingly unequal world.

Please feel free to post any questions about the event in comments. You can also contact me at BeethamATunrisd.org

Hope to see you there!

(Crossposted at Recessionwire)

When Marco got laid off in January, friends who knew of our family-launching plans asked us whether we’d continue or put things on hold. I just turned 40. Marco is seven years older than me. Our biological clocks are not in sync with the dipping of the Dow.

Sure, it occurred to us for half a second that this might not be the wisest time to be spending my grandmother’s inheritance on fertility treatments not covered by health insurance, but it’s expensive to adopt, too. And we really, really want a child.

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(Is it still liveblogging if it’s the next day?!  I had no Internet access while I wrote this, so am posting it here today.  Crossposted soon at The REAL Deal, too.)

I’m sitting in a very crowded auditorium at 3 World Financial Center, home of American Express, and the sun is pouring in on one of the coldest days of the year.  We’re about to be warmed by the annual panel that takes place the afternoon of the National Council for Research on Women’s evening-time gala, the Making a Difference for Women Awards.

This year’s panel, “An Immodest Proposal: Advancing a New Era of Social Justice” (kudos on the title, NCRW!) features Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center Marcia Greenberger, Chancellor and President of Syracuse University Nancy Cantor, Accenture / Microsoft / PepsiCo Director Dina Dublon, and Columbia University law professor and Nation columnist Patricia Williams.  The Takeaway co-host Adaora Udoji, whose voice I wake up to each morning, will be moderating.

There is nothing modest about this crowd of female movers and shakers from corporate, academic, and nonprofit spheres.  The NCRW staff—of which I used to be part—has clearly done an excellent job spreading word.  It’s a dazzling lineup.  Let the conversation begin!

Adaora: First question is for Nancy.  What can you tell us about advancing a new era of social justice in education?

Nancy: The idea of the ivory tower as a monastic place is breaking down.  What that means is we have no understanding of the groups we’re leaving behind.  How do we level the playing field of education?  If we don’t find ways to strengthen our connections to our communities, cities, rural areas, and bring in the population, we’re going to be stagnant.

Adaora: Are we seeing that 50% female leadership in education yet?

Nancy: No, not at all.  What we are seeing at all levels is girls falling off the map as we go up.

Adaora: Why is that?

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No way!

“Over 40 and Over Men?” reads a headline gracing the cover of this month’s MORE magazine.  I’m intrigued.  I look inside and read: “More and more women are living the ultimate do-over: falling for another female.  Meet the gay and grey generation.”

That’s me.

While not feeling particularly grey, my family and I have been living “the ultimate do-over.” I buy the magazine and bring it home, compelled to devour every word of this narrative – a narrative that my family and I are living out, that is just now beginning to make its way into the cultural conversation.

“A normal part of coming out as an adult is the feeling of being an adolescent on fire, caught in the body of a 40 to 50 year old,” says my friend and colleague Joanne Fleisher, author of Living Two Lives: Married to a Man and In Love with a Woman.  Ah, the memories…I was that adolescent on fire (my friends will attest!) in my mid-40’s.

AND married. Just like the women profiled in MORE.

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This just in: the International Women’s Health Coalition just launched a blog called Akimbo about sexual and reproductive rights and health around the world.

They have a bunch of youth partners who are at the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations this week who will be blogging about their experiences there. Check out staff member Chelsea Ricker’s post, for instance, about the embarrassment of being a US-based activist.

The blog will be carrying input from feminist activists from around the world – including video interviews and posts by advocates from places like Nigeria, India, and Brazil.

A hearty welcome from this corner of the feminist blogosphere to new blog Akimbo! So very glad you’re here.

My fellow Progressive Women’s Voices-er, Deanna Zandt (also of WAM! fame) has some great posts up today on how–and why–to Twitter and tweet.  Definitely worth checking out.