Heard from Jeremy Adam Smith: “just tried to google ‘profeminist fatherhood’–to which google responded, ‘Did you mean profeminist motherhood’? As in, what the hell are you talking about?” (Read Jeremy’s blog and his book The Daddy Shift.)
Archive: Jun 2010
Pink viagra (chemical compound to the left!) was voted down, 11-0, by the federal advisory panel that was reviewing it last week (background here). The recommendation goes to FDA to make the final decision. Meika Loe recommended this article by Susan Perry titled, “Hunt (and hype) for a ‘pink Viagra’ continues despite advisory panel’s rejection of flibanserin.” The article offers details of the comments from Amy Allina, program director of the National Women’s Health Network, but one highlight is here:
The “failure to show that [flibanserin] increases desire highlights the trouble with the push to put a label of disorder, dysfunction or disease on women’s problems with sex,” said Allina in her statement to the FDA’s panel. “There is no empirical evidence to establish a single, normal level of sexual desire for women….
Our next webinar at She Writes is one that many GWP readers might find useful. It’s a great way to get a taste of Women’s Media Center-style training, geared specifically for writers. Here are the details – and I’ll be hosting. Hope to perhaps see some of you there!
MEDIA MESSAGING FOR WRITERS
June 23, 1-2pm via phone and login
REGISTER HERE for the live event or to order the download
Are you the next Barbara Ehrenreich, Farai Chideya, Rachel Maddow? Do you want to leverage your writing to position yourself as a thought leader in your field? Are you planning the release of a book or significant report? Do you want to feel confident and prepared for media opportunities? Have you realized that writing a book or an article is just the beginning to developing your media platform? Are you wondering how to jump in?
In this webinar, the Women’s Media Center will offer a brief training on how to give the pieces you have so skillfully developed a life beyond the page. You will learn to master effective presentation techniques and develop messages that resonate with an audience in a way that brings your work to life and makes you the go-to source on your issue.
The Women’s Media Center is a nonprofit organization working to amplifying women’s voices. We run a competitive media and leadership training program that helps women master effective interview presentation techniques and improve their media skills. These women – who represent diverse backgrounds, areas of expertise, professions, ethnicities, ages, geographical regions and levels of experience – are becoming part of a powerful network of women leaders who are changing the conversation on the important issues of the day.
Webinar takeaways will include:
· An understanding of how to connect with an audience
· Tips on how to prep for a radio or tv interview
· Tools for crafting strong media messages based on your written work
INSTRUCTORS
Rebekah Spicuglia
As Program Director for The Women’s Media Center, Rebekah Spicuglia coordinates the WMC’s media training and spokesperson programs, advocacy campaigns, and web content, combining her dedication to feminist, progressive values with her film production background to create and advocate for representative media.
Previously, Spicuglia served as a Media Field Strategy Fellow at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), where she contributed to GLAAD’s Media Essentials guide for community organizations, developed a media toolkit for immigration equality for same-sex couples, and worked extensively on GLAAD’s “Announcing Equality” program in coordinating a national survey of newspaper policy and creating toolkits to encourage people to share their personal stories in visible ways.
Through her NonCustodial Parent Community blog, Spicuglia also serves as a spokesperson on parenting issues. MSN highlighted Spicuglia as one of eight “Moms Inspired to Change History,” and Spicuglia has been featured in or written for the NYTimes, Slate, Huffington Post, About.com, Brain,Child magazine, WBAI, Feministing, Feminist.com, MomsRising, Mamapalooza, Wikipedia, and the WMC website.
Originally from Virginia, Spicuglia grew up in California, where she worked on several film and television projects before attending the University of California at Berkeley, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications.
Jamia Wilson
After growing up as an expat-brat in Saudi Arabia, Jamia Wilson graduated from American University in 2002. Following graduation, Jamia worked for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and later managed their youth outreach arm Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood. At Planned Parenthood Jamia served on their national Structure and Governance Committee.
After working with coalition partners and campus organizations to help bring thousands of students to the historic March for Women’s Lives, Jamia was honored as one of the “Real Hot 100” by the Younger Women’s Taskforce. Serving as one of the youth holding the banner leading the March remains one of her proudest moments.
In addition to being selected as a two year nominee for the Women’s Information Network’s annual Young Women of Acheivement Awards, Jamia has written for Alternet’s “Wiretap, Teenwire.com,GirlsHeadQuarters.org and Hampshire College’s Civil Liberties and Public Policy Project. In 2007, Jamia was selected to serve on the Ms. Foundation Advisory Committee, The Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom Youth Advisory Committee and worked for Young People For The American Way (YP4). Jamia recently received her M.A. in Humanities and Social Thought at NYU and worked for NYU’s Residential Education Department where she received their Fall 2007 Hallmark Award for Wellness, and The Center for Multicultural Education and Programs NIA Administrator Award.
Kristen Springer, a sociology professor at Rutgers, presented some very cool research on men’s health at the recent Council on Contemporary Families conference, and a related paper in the journal Gender & Society (abstract only) is out now. She was looking at men who earn less than their wives. You need to know what she discovered next time you are trying to figure out what to make of those articles in the New York Times or wherever about the “troubling impact” on the changing economic status of men and women. See this post for background in the “new economics” of marriage.
Springer asked if men who earn less (specifically less than half) than their wives have worse health than men who earn the same or more. The simple answer: yes. But hold up! Don’t go yet. There’s more, and it is important.
Because Springer asked why. She looked at whether it was because of who gets to make decisions in the couple, and came back with the answer NO.
She looked at whether it was because of marital unhappiness among these couples, and came back with the answer NO.
In other words, there weren’t couple issues or any kind of home front “war between the sexes” being played out here.
No, it looks like, instead, there is a war within the sexes going on.
She looked at a high fallutin’ but also very powerful concept that folks in the biz call “hegemonic masculinity” — that is, the “most honored way of being a man” in a given society (see Connell and Messerschmidt 2005 if you wanna read up). In the US, men’s breadwinning is a central component to this. This means that men’s earnings puts them on top of the heap, over other men (as well as over their women).
Here is what she found: For men who were not earning less, the more money he and his family earned, the healthier he said he was. This is your basic wealth equals health situation. (In the figure below, this means the blue bars are higher at the rich end, lower at the poor end.)
But for men who were earning less than their wives, the guys at the top of the heap were the only ones to report significantly worse health relative to guys earning the same or more than their spouse. The guys at the top, for some reason, were especially stressed by the inequality. The study didn’t have direct measures of men’s beliefs about the situation, but it looks a lot like only for men of the upper ranks is there a sense that earning less than their wives constitutes a failure. (In the figure the red bars are lower for the rich guys.)
Springer’s key graph looks like this:
(click here for the full version)
What’s the take home from this? First, beware of stories that bemoan what is happening to men in the face of women’s growing presence in the job market and the economy. The health hardships for the men at the bottom of the ladder are not about gender inequality, they are about the hardships of inequality, full stop (the blue bars). Second, recognize that when we are anxious for men (or they are anxious for themselves) about being breadwinners this isn’t about being a man; it is about social class. It is almost as if the better-off can “afford” to have gender strife, just as in decades past they could afford to have a stay-at-home wife when everybody else required two earners. Finally, don’t be taken in by the notion of the immutable organization of gender in families (nor by the notion that social class doesn’t exist or doesn’t have a meaningful cultural as well as economic impact).
Springer recommends a whole bunch of policies that create more economic justice for all by creating more family friendly policies that can in the end help to eradicate “hegemonic masculinity.” Well that won’t be a slogan you’ll use with your Member of Congress, but just wanted to call it what it is.
A long time ago I got a call from a reporter asking what I thought of “viagra for women.” I said a bunch of different stuff, but mainly I pointed out that any clinical trial on interventions for women’s orgasms really ought to include a men-doing-housework control group. My how times have not changed.
To wit: Meika Loe–a sociology professor at Colgate–posted at Ms. on “Female Viagra” Up for FDA Review. Loe, author of The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America, has followed the search for pink viagra since 1998 when Viagra was first approved by the FDA. Read her post: it gives background and context and a powerful argument about what this all means.
Want to learn more? Visit newviewcampaign.org. They are an organization founded in 2000 to counter drug industry efforts to simplify and distort women’s sexuality in order to sell drugs.
You can read/sign a petition against FDA approval here.
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The amount and length of graduation ceremonies has proliferated a great deal since my days in K-12. Not only are 5th and 8th grade promotions growing ever more elaborate (with increasingly questionable choices of attire), now there are even kindergarten and pre-school ceremonies.
A friend recently shared with me that her eighteen-month-old was put in a cap and gown at his daycare graduation. What’s next, popping a miniature tasseled hat on newborns to honor their graduation from womb to non-umbilical-cord-dependent-existence?
Another acquaintance noted he has twenty-two graduation ceremonies to attend. Twenty-two??? I hope he is flush considering each graduate likely expects a gift!
I get the importance of honoring achievements and communally celebrating life’s passages, but our culture’s graduation overload runs the risk of cheapening worthy accomplishments. When you get photos, gifts, and pomp starting with “daycare graduation,” might’nt the allure of a college graduation have a been-there-done-that type of feel by the time one gets there?
The popularity of graduation ceremonies and parties in our culture is further evidenced by the endless consumer opportunities: Buy professional photos of your three-year-olds pre-school graduation! Purchase a kindergarten-promotion DVD! Get your hummer limo rented now for 5th grade graduation Pay for a select group of your classmates to have exclusive entry into an amusement park! Get your graduating 8th grader a new laptop or designer purse! Or, as this mom suggests, offer a trip to wherever they want to go in Europe! For your high-school graduate, how about a new car or new boobs? What better time to surgically alter yourself “for the better” before you head off to college?
From the cards to the flowers to the photos to the gift certificates, if you are not spending on your young grad, the message is that you must not care. And this – the conflation of achievement with expenditure – is problematically championed from birth on.
This commodification of achievement is further evidenced via the fashion at such events. At my daughter’s 5th grade promotion, high heels adored the tiny 11-year-old feet and some of the dresses rivaled those seen at Hollywood awards ceremonies.
When young people are schooled to believe achievement is consecrated via consumerism, academic accomplishments go by the wayside. Instead of celebrating brain power, dedication, and hard-work, graduates are encouraged to focus on the cut of their dress, the height of their heels, the size of their after-graduation party.
Whatever happened to good-ole graduation certificates/diplomas and perhaps a few flowers? Those days are gone it seems in this culture of consumerized kids…
Sexy geek. Sexy nerd. Tina Fey.
Lately it’s been just fine that women are smart…as long as we’re also smoking hot.
In a recent article at WomeneNews, Danica McKeller revealed the name of her upcoming and third in a series of math books for girls – “Hot X: Algebra Exposed.” Oh my.
At the 2010 Chicago Women in Science symposium a speaker’s talk was about how women can use our womanly skills to get ahead in science. It wasn’t a talk about wearing short skirts, but rather embracing ones femininity and the apparent skills that go along with that like multi-tasking. One of my former students told me she was offended by part of that presentation. Another student told me she felt that if she emphasized her girlishness, she would be kicked out of her lab for not being serious or at least not taken seriously. Both agreed that there were some excellent points in the presentation as well.
On one hand, there is still a strong stereotype of who does science and math: a nerd. There are some people who believe that this stereotype is one reason why we don’t have more women in science, technology, engineering and math. Even if this is 10% of the reason, is the answer calendars of nude students? What about model engineers?
Back to McKeller’s book title. She’s making a career out of pinkifying math and making, like, math all girly with questions about text messages and shopping. So what does it mean that she’s making a sexual innuendo in the title of a book aimed at the algebra set? Nowadays, high schools expect kids to be taking algebra freshmen year, if not sooner. So that’s what, 14-15 years in age? Grown women with PhDs modeling is one thing, hell even college students stripping down for a calendar (which will haunt their Senate campaign one day) is a different discussion. They are adults. But should a math book for teens be sexualized? Aren’t their lives sexualized enough?
We have a lot of issues to tackle on this road to fairness and equity. Do we really need to add sex into the mix?
The Intersectional Feminist proudly presents June’s guest writer, Jillian Schweitzer. Jillian is a writer and photographer, currently pursuing graduate work. She is working on a book of poetry and lives in Maryland.
Everyone has seen the media reports alerting us to the fact that feminists and the feminist movement is out to destroy families, cast children out in the street and encourage government handouts.
Safe to say that I was worried.
Then I picked up the latest from Seal Press Studies, Motherhood and Feminism by Amber E. Kinser. Kinser, a mother herself, sets out to debunk myths about feminism and motherhood and get the conversation started about mothers today. The book starts with the Industrial Revolution and continues up to present day, all the while describing how feminists have a long history of fighting for mothers and mothers’ rights, as well also helping mothers fight for themselves. Of course, feminism hasn’t always been accommodating to every mother, which is why Kinser also highlights many groups or individuals that sought to help everyone regardless of race, class, ability or sexual preference.
Motherhood changed dramatically with the start of the Industrial Revolution, with the “shift…from an agrarian and domestic economy to an industry based one.” Men went to work and women were at home; dualism between private and public spheres had begun. Kinser neatly divvies up the next two hundred years into easy-to-digest chapters, which includes Seneca Falls, Black Women clubs, both world wars, the oft nostalgic 1950’s (which, interestingly enough, was the decade with the highest rate of teen pregnancy to date), the Civil Rights movements, the bloated and consumer driven 1980’s with Reagan at the forefront, then moving into the late 20th century and finally, the blogging world. Her research is extensive, including many areas of intersectionality, such as race, class, ability, gender and sexual orientation. Admittedly, able-bodied privilege and LGBT issues are not mentioned as much as I would have preferred, but she does touch on them periodically throughout the book. While the book does mention activists and movements that range internationally, the book does have a Western slant to it, although admittedly it would be difficult to do a starter book globally about motherhood and its history.
The reader does get a good grasp on both motherhood’s recent history and how feminism has helped with the progression of the movement. One of the big themes in the book is how motherhood and the mothers involved challenged the aforementioned dualism between the public and private sphere to push for social and economic justice. In the later chapters, several organizations are mentioned, including United Mothers Opposing Violence Everywhere (UMOVE), The Motherhood Project, Mothers on the Move or Madres en Movimiento (MOM), INCITE! Women of Colors Against Violence, Ariel Gore’s Hip Mama community, Family Equality Council, and Mothers Ought to Have Equal Rights (MOTHERS). These are just some of the many groups advocating and providing resources for mothers and children.
The book wraps up with a long quote from theorist and feminist writer Patricia DiQuinzio, stating six concerns that the motherhood movement must contend with — readers will note that her critique, in a more broad sense, applies to contemporary feminist movements:
“Resisting the mass media’s tendency to use stereotypes of mothers that divide and pit them against each other… stretch the movement so that every kind of mother can fit comfortably… the movement must refuse to adopt a good mother/bad mother dualism… movement activists must work to bring young women into the movement… to be vibrant and promising movement, a mothers’ movement must forge alliances with mothers and others who do different kinds of caregiving work… finally, the mothers’ movement must support reproductive and abortion rights as part of the movement agenda.”
Kinser has delivered another great addition to the Seal Studies library, examining a history which many of us do not stop to consider as being important. While feminist movements have certainly not been perfect or completely inclusionary, many activists throughout history have continued to make great strides for mothers. Perhaps more importantly, these movements have helped mothers to make their own strides. Motherhood and Feminism is an enjoyable and informative read and one that I would recommend.
Pink viagra (chemical compound to the left!) was voted down, 11-0, by the federal advisory panel that was reviewing it last week (background here). The recommendation goes to FDA to make the final decision. Meika Loe recommended this article by Susan Perry titled, “Hunt (and hype) for a ‘pink Viagra’ continues despite advisory panel’s rejection of flibanserin.” The article offers details of the comments from Amy Allina, program director of the National Women’s Health Network, but one highlight is here:
The “failure to show that [flibanserin] increases desire highlights the trouble with the push to put a label of disorder, dysfunction or disease on women’s problems with sex,” said Allina in her statement to the FDA’s panel. “There is no empirical evidence to establish a single, normal level of sexual desire for women….
Our next webinar at She Writes is one that many GWP readers might find useful. It’s a great way to get a taste of Women’s Media Center-style training, geared specifically for writers. Here are the details – and I’ll be hosting. Hope to perhaps see some of you there!
MEDIA MESSAGING FOR WRITERS
June 23, 1-2pm via phone and login
REGISTER HERE for the live event or to order the download
Are you the next Barbara Ehrenreich, Farai Chideya, Rachel Maddow? Do you want to leverage your writing to position yourself as a thought leader in your field? Are you planning the release of a book or significant report? Do you want to feel confident and prepared for media opportunities? Have you realized that writing a book or an article is just the beginning to developing your media platform? Are you wondering how to jump in?
In this webinar, the Women’s Media Center will offer a brief training on how to give the pieces you have so skillfully developed a life beyond the page. You will learn to master effective presentation techniques and develop messages that resonate with an audience in a way that brings your work to life and makes you the go-to source on your issue.
The Women’s Media Center is a nonprofit organization working to amplifying women’s voices. We run a competitive media and leadership training program that helps women master effective interview presentation techniques and improve their media skills. These women – who represent diverse backgrounds, areas of expertise, professions, ethnicities, ages, geographical regions and levels of experience – are becoming part of a powerful network of women leaders who are changing the conversation on the important issues of the day.
Webinar takeaways will include:
· An understanding of how to connect with an audience
· Tips on how to prep for a radio or tv interview
· Tools for crafting strong media messages based on your written work
INSTRUCTORS
Rebekah Spicuglia
As Program Director for The Women’s Media Center, Rebekah Spicuglia coordinates the WMC’s media training and spokesperson programs, advocacy campaigns, and web content, combining her dedication to feminist, progressive values with her film production background to create and advocate for representative media.
Previously, Spicuglia served as a Media Field Strategy Fellow at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), where she contributed to GLAAD’s Media Essentials guide for community organizations, developed a media toolkit for immigration equality for same-sex couples, and worked extensively on GLAAD’s “Announcing Equality” program in coordinating a national survey of newspaper policy and creating toolkits to encourage people to share their personal stories in visible ways.
Through her NonCustodial Parent Community blog, Spicuglia also serves as a spokesperson on parenting issues. MSN highlighted Spicuglia as one of eight “Moms Inspired to Change History,” and Spicuglia has been featured in or written for the NYTimes, Slate, Huffington Post, About.com, Brain,Child magazine, WBAI, Feministing, Feminist.com, MomsRising, Mamapalooza, Wikipedia, and the WMC website.
Originally from Virginia, Spicuglia grew up in California, where she worked on several film and television projects before attending the University of California at Berkeley, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications.
Jamia Wilson
After growing up as an expat-brat in Saudi Arabia, Jamia Wilson graduated from American University in 2002. Following graduation, Jamia worked for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and later managed their youth outreach arm Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood. At Planned Parenthood Jamia served on their national Structure and Governance Committee.
After working with coalition partners and campus organizations to help bring thousands of students to the historic March for Women’s Lives, Jamia was honored as one of the “Real Hot 100” by the Younger Women’s Taskforce. Serving as one of the youth holding the banner leading the March remains one of her proudest moments.
In addition to being selected as a two year nominee for the Women’s Information Network’s annual Young Women of Acheivement Awards, Jamia has written for Alternet’s “Wiretap, Teenwire.com,GirlsHeadQuarters.org and Hampshire College’s Civil Liberties and Public Policy Project. In 2007, Jamia was selected to serve on the Ms. Foundation Advisory Committee, The Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom Youth Advisory Committee and worked for Young People For The American Way (YP4). Jamia recently received her M.A. in Humanities and Social Thought at NYU and worked for NYU’s Residential Education Department where she received their Fall 2007 Hallmark Award for Wellness, and The Center for Multicultural Education and Programs NIA Administrator Award.
Kristen Springer, a sociology professor at Rutgers, presented some very cool research on men’s health at the recent Council on Contemporary Families conference, and a related paper in the journal Gender & Society (abstract only) is out now. She was looking at men who earn less than their wives. You need to know what she discovered next time you are trying to figure out what to make of those articles in the New York Times or wherever about the “troubling impact” on the changing economic status of men and women. See this post for background in the “new economics” of marriage.
Springer asked if men who earn less (specifically less than half) than their wives have worse health than men who earn the same or more. The simple answer: yes. But hold up! Don’t go yet. There’s more, and it is important.
Because Springer asked why. She looked at whether it was because of who gets to make decisions in the couple, and came back with the answer NO.
She looked at whether it was because of marital unhappiness among these couples, and came back with the answer NO.
In other words, there weren’t couple issues or any kind of home front “war between the sexes” being played out here.
No, it looks like, instead, there is a war within the sexes going on.
She looked at a high fallutin’ but also very powerful concept that folks in the biz call “hegemonic masculinity” — that is, the “most honored way of being a man” in a given society (see Connell and Messerschmidt 2005 if you wanna read up). In the US, men’s breadwinning is a central component to this. This means that men’s earnings puts them on top of the heap, over other men (as well as over their women).
Here is what she found: For men who were not earning less, the more money he and his family earned, the healthier he said he was. This is your basic wealth equals health situation. (In the figure below, this means the blue bars are higher at the rich end, lower at the poor end.)
But for men who were earning less than their wives, the guys at the top of the heap were the only ones to report significantly worse health relative to guys earning the same or more than their spouse. The guys at the top, for some reason, were especially stressed by the inequality. The study didn’t have direct measures of men’s beliefs about the situation, but it looks a lot like only for men of the upper ranks is there a sense that earning less than their wives constitutes a failure. (In the figure the red bars are lower for the rich guys.)
Springer’s key graph looks like this:
(click here for the full version)
What’s the take home from this? First, beware of stories that bemoan what is happening to men in the face of women’s growing presence in the job market and the economy. The health hardships for the men at the bottom of the ladder are not about gender inequality, they are about the hardships of inequality, full stop (the blue bars). Second, recognize that when we are anxious for men (or they are anxious for themselves) about being breadwinners this isn’t about being a man; it is about social class. It is almost as if the better-off can “afford” to have gender strife, just as in decades past they could afford to have a stay-at-home wife when everybody else required two earners. Finally, don’t be taken in by the notion of the immutable organization of gender in families (nor by the notion that social class doesn’t exist or doesn’t have a meaningful cultural as well as economic impact).
Springer recommends a whole bunch of policies that create more economic justice for all by creating more family friendly policies that can in the end help to eradicate “hegemonic masculinity.” Well that won’t be a slogan you’ll use with your Member of Congress, but just wanted to call it what it is.
A long time ago I got a call from a reporter asking what I thought of “viagra for women.” I said a bunch of different stuff, but mainly I pointed out that any clinical trial on interventions for women’s orgasms really ought to include a men-doing-housework control group. My how times have not changed.
To wit: Meika Loe–a sociology professor at Colgate–posted at Ms. on “Female Viagra” Up for FDA Review. Loe, author of The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America, has followed the search for pink viagra since 1998 when Viagra was first approved by the FDA. Read her post: it gives background and context and a powerful argument about what this all means.
Want to learn more? Visit newviewcampaign.org. They are an organization founded in 2000 to counter drug industry efforts to simplify and distort women’s sexuality in order to sell drugs.
You can read/sign a petition against FDA approval here.
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The amount and length of graduation ceremonies has proliferated a great deal since my days in K-12. Not only are 5th and 8th grade promotions growing ever more elaborate (with increasingly questionable choices of attire), now there are even kindergarten and pre-school ceremonies.
A friend recently shared with me that her eighteen-month-old was put in a cap and gown at his daycare graduation. What’s next, popping a miniature tasseled hat on newborns to honor their graduation from womb to non-umbilical-cord-dependent-existence?
Another acquaintance noted he has twenty-two graduation ceremonies to attend. Twenty-two??? I hope he is flush considering each graduate likely expects a gift!
I get the importance of honoring achievements and communally celebrating life’s passages, but our culture’s graduation overload runs the risk of cheapening worthy accomplishments. When you get photos, gifts, and pomp starting with “daycare graduation,” might’nt the allure of a college graduation have a been-there-done-that type of feel by the time one gets there?
The popularity of graduation ceremonies and parties in our culture is further evidenced by the endless consumer opportunities: Buy professional photos of your three-year-olds pre-school graduation! Purchase a kindergarten-promotion DVD! Get your hummer limo rented now for 5th grade graduation Pay for a select group of your classmates to have exclusive entry into an amusement park! Get your graduating 8th grader a new laptop or designer purse! Or, as this mom suggests, offer a trip to wherever they want to go in Europe! For your high-school graduate, how about a new car or new boobs? What better time to surgically alter yourself “for the better” before you head off to college?
From the cards to the flowers to the photos to the gift certificates, if you are not spending on your young grad, the message is that you must not care. And this – the conflation of achievement with expenditure – is problematically championed from birth on.
This commodification of achievement is further evidenced via the fashion at such events. At my daughter’s 5th grade promotion, high heels adored the tiny 11-year-old feet and some of the dresses rivaled those seen at Hollywood awards ceremonies.
When young people are schooled to believe achievement is consecrated via consumerism, academic accomplishments go by the wayside. Instead of celebrating brain power, dedication, and hard-work, graduates are encouraged to focus on the cut of their dress, the height of their heels, the size of their after-graduation party.
Whatever happened to good-ole graduation certificates/diplomas and perhaps a few flowers? Those days are gone it seems in this culture of consumerized kids…
Sexy geek. Sexy nerd. Tina Fey.
Lately it’s been just fine that women are smart…as long as we’re also smoking hot.
In a recent article at WomeneNews, Danica McKeller revealed the name of her upcoming and third in a series of math books for girls – “Hot X: Algebra Exposed.” Oh my.
At the 2010 Chicago Women in Science symposium a speaker’s talk was about how women can use our womanly skills to get ahead in science. It wasn’t a talk about wearing short skirts, but rather embracing ones femininity and the apparent skills that go along with that like multi-tasking. One of my former students told me she was offended by part of that presentation. Another student told me she felt that if she emphasized her girlishness, she would be kicked out of her lab for not being serious or at least not taken seriously. Both agreed that there were some excellent points in the presentation as well.
On one hand, there is still a strong stereotype of who does science and math: a nerd. There are some people who believe that this stereotype is one reason why we don’t have more women in science, technology, engineering and math. Even if this is 10% of the reason, is the answer calendars of nude students? What about model engineers?
Back to McKeller’s book title. She’s making a career out of pinkifying math and making, like, math all girly with questions about text messages and shopping. So what does it mean that she’s making a sexual innuendo in the title of a book aimed at the algebra set? Nowadays, high schools expect kids to be taking algebra freshmen year, if not sooner. So that’s what, 14-15 years in age? Grown women with PhDs modeling is one thing, hell even college students stripping down for a calendar (which will haunt their Senate campaign one day) is a different discussion. They are adults. But should a math book for teens be sexualized? Aren’t their lives sexualized enough?
We have a lot of issues to tackle on this road to fairness and equity. Do we really need to add sex into the mix?
The Intersectional Feminist proudly presents June’s guest writer, Jillian Schweitzer. Jillian is a writer and photographer, currently pursuing graduate work. She is working on a book of poetry and lives in Maryland.
Everyone has seen the media reports alerting us to the fact that feminists and the feminist movement is out to destroy families, cast children out in the street and encourage government handouts.
Safe to say that I was worried.
Then I picked up the latest from Seal Press Studies, Motherhood and Feminism by Amber E. Kinser. Kinser, a mother herself, sets out to debunk myths about feminism and motherhood and get the conversation started about mothers today. The book starts with the Industrial Revolution and continues up to present day, all the while describing how feminists have a long history of fighting for mothers and mothers’ rights, as well also helping mothers fight for themselves. Of course, feminism hasn’t always been accommodating to every mother, which is why Kinser also highlights many groups or individuals that sought to help everyone regardless of race, class, ability or sexual preference.
Motherhood changed dramatically with the start of the Industrial Revolution, with the “shift…from an agrarian and domestic economy to an industry based one.” Men went to work and women were at home; dualism between private and public spheres had begun. Kinser neatly divvies up the next two hundred years into easy-to-digest chapters, which includes Seneca Falls, Black Women clubs, both world wars, the oft nostalgic 1950’s (which, interestingly enough, was the decade with the highest rate of teen pregnancy to date), the Civil Rights movements, the bloated and consumer driven 1980’s with Reagan at the forefront, then moving into the late 20th century and finally, the blogging world. Her research is extensive, including many areas of intersectionality, such as race, class, ability, gender and sexual orientation. Admittedly, able-bodied privilege and LGBT issues are not mentioned as much as I would have preferred, but she does touch on them periodically throughout the book. While the book does mention activists and movements that range internationally, the book does have a Western slant to it, although admittedly it would be difficult to do a starter book globally about motherhood and its history.
The reader does get a good grasp on both motherhood’s recent history and how feminism has helped with the progression of the movement. One of the big themes in the book is how motherhood and the mothers involved challenged the aforementioned dualism between the public and private sphere to push for social and economic justice. In the later chapters, several organizations are mentioned, including United Mothers Opposing Violence Everywhere (UMOVE), The Motherhood Project, Mothers on the Move or Madres en Movimiento (MOM), INCITE! Women of Colors Against Violence, Ariel Gore’s Hip Mama community, Family Equality Council, and Mothers Ought to Have Equal Rights (MOTHERS). These are just some of the many groups advocating and providing resources for mothers and children.
The book wraps up with a long quote from theorist and feminist writer Patricia DiQuinzio, stating six concerns that the motherhood movement must contend with — readers will note that her critique, in a more broad sense, applies to contemporary feminist movements:
“Resisting the mass media’s tendency to use stereotypes of mothers that divide and pit them against each other… stretch the movement so that every kind of mother can fit comfortably… the movement must refuse to adopt a good mother/bad mother dualism… movement activists must work to bring young women into the movement… to be vibrant and promising movement, a mothers’ movement must forge alliances with mothers and others who do different kinds of caregiving work… finally, the mothers’ movement must support reproductive and abortion rights as part of the movement agenda.”
Kinser has delivered another great addition to the Seal Studies library, examining a history which many of us do not stop to consider as being important. While feminist movements have certainly not been perfect or completely inclusionary, many activists throughout history have continued to make great strides for mothers. Perhaps more importantly, these movements have helped mothers to make their own strides. Motherhood and Feminism is an enjoyable and informative read and one that I would recommend.
