Coming up for air (still high on cloud nine) to catch up on this and that and reality for a moment! I’m reading at Border’s in Marlton New Jersey on Monday at an event sponsored by the South Jersey Alice Paul Chapter of NOW. then heading to DC on Weds for a PBS taping and a reading at Olsson’s (1 DuPont Circle) on Weds night, so if you’re in Jersey, Philly, or DC, I would SO LOVE to see ya. More info bout upcoming events on my website.

So this just in from my hometown paper, The Chicago Tribune, sent via Laura over at Catalyst:

Like bickering relatives at the end of a long holiday dinner, women have been arguing about whether the gender revolution is over and more mothers are choosing to leave work and stay home with the children.

Now experts who shared their latest research at [the Council on Contemporary Families] conference in May say that far from reverting to more traditional sex roles, women and men are becoming more alike in their attitudes toward balancing life at home and at work.

Not crazyloving the bickering relatives bit, but, well, I can’t say it ain’t so. The article, by the very savvy Patricia Cohen, goes on to discuss how men’s and women’s desires when it comes to work/life negotiations are more similar than different, debunking the old Venus/Mars theory of gender that still dominate popular culture on this front. Explains Cohen,

Of course, most people recognize that mothers are working more and doing less housework, and men are working less and doing more housework and child care than a generation ago. But what much of the recent research has tried to tease out is more information on attitudes and desires. And so far, the evidence points toward men and women having increasingly similar goals.

Let’s hope this evidence, this reality, keeps making headline news. Glad it’s made its way, for instance, from the Times to the Trib of my heartland. As for the bickering, I know I’m not alone in longing for the day when women stop fighting each other, pop culture stops polarizing gender roles, and we all start fighting together for things like paid leave and subsidized childcare and eldercare and better healthcare and all that good shit. I mean, stuff.

The article originally appeared on May 31 in The New York Times. In case you missed it the first time, check the rest out here.

I am so excitedly overwhelmed at the response yesterday. Profound gratitude to all who have sent me such kind words of enthusiasm and support! People are starting to ask how I think we might foster better and rich conversations across generations of feminists. So here is my initial response:

1. Host or gather a group of women, girls, and grrls across the generations and use the DISCUSSION GUIDE in the back of the back of Sisterhood, Interrupted to spark conversations about our differences, our similarities, the unfinished business of feminism, and how we move forward from here.

2. Take a younger/older feminist to LUNCH! Do it today. Connections are far best when they’re one-on-one.

3. If you’re an academic wanting to join the more popular conversation about feminism and add nuance and you have a book that you think could go trade, take my online course this fall, “MAKING IT POP: TRANSLATING YOUR IDEAS FOR TRADE“ (more details on that soon, via Girl w/Pen email list)

4. If you can, participate in a LEADERSHIP RETREAT at the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership. I’m a Fellow there, and we offer leadership retreats for women in their 20s/30s, another one for women over 50, and many, of course, that are intergenerational. (Scholarships are available.)

5. Stay current and in touch by reading FEMINIST BLOGS (if unfamiliar, check out my blogroll, for a gateway). They provide to-the-minute coverage on wide-ranging topics and are places where rich intergenerational discussion, ideally, can begin.

6. Send me suggestions of your own and I promise to post them here. Or join my Facebook group and start dialogue there.

Thank you again, and happy reading!! I look forward to continuing the conversation.

Ok, I’m more than a little psyched – PUB DAY IS HERE!! This morning I was carrying a copy of Sisterhood, Interrupted (which Marco has started to refer to for some reason as “Sisterrupted”) as I was waiting in line at Starbucks and the woman behind me asked “Is that book good? I like the title” and I got to say, “I wrote it!” Very fun way to start the day. That, and with a link to the awesome Courtney Martin’s piece on my book in AlterNet today. Also going live today is an interview by the amazing ladies over at the Center for New Words.

I forgot to mention yesterday how inspired I was by the Annual Spring Reading I went to on Sunday for Girls Write Now. Those girls have got it going on. The store (B&N at Astor Place) was jam packed, and the girls–all in their teens–read their heartfelt, beautiful, painful, poignant, courageous writing to the crowd. The fearless and ever-inspiring Jessica Valenti kicked it off. Congrats Patti and Maya and all the others over at GWN on such a stupendous event! And thank you for giving this grown up girl renewed energy and inspiration as I launch into this week!

Sadly, I can’t make this reading (hey Marco, when it’s comics, is it a showing?) tonight at Bluestockings Book Store down there on the Lower East Side. But I urge those who can and are looking for fun to go. Congratulations, Mikhaela & Masheka! I can’t wait to get my hands on your new books.

My book Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild officially goes on sale tomorrow (gulp) and people have been asking (bless their hearts!) how they can help. Here are some suggestions:

1. BUY THE BOOK!

2. Tell someone else to buy the book, or buy it for your mother / daughter / sister / friend (it might make a strange Father’s Day present, but hey, why not! Hey Dad – guess what you’re getting this year!)

3. Write about it – on your blog, in a note to your mother/daughter, on the bathroom wall…

4. Come out to a reading, or tell friends, sisters, and aunts about a reading in the cities I’m going to (events posted here)

5. Host or gather a group of women, girls, and grrls across the generations and use the discussion guide in the back of the book to spark conversations about our differences, our similarities, the unfinished business of feminism, and what we all can do…!

And thank you, Girl with Pen readers, for all your support. It means the world to me that people are excited to read the book! You bigtime make my day. You do. I really mean that.

I’m staring down my pub date (JUNE 12!) and I spent the weekend doing all these online interviews – which was hugely fun! One interviewer asked me about the subtitle, and I thought I’d post my response here:

The radical women are the radical feminists who appear in the early chapters of the book—the ones who came of age in the Civil Rights and antiwar movements and the New Left, grew tired of pouring coffee and licking stamps (and, though I didn’t say this in the interview, licking other things) for the male heavies, formed a movement of their own, and gave voice to that transformative slogan, “The Personal Is Political.” Grrl is the young feminist appropriation of “girl” first voiced by the Riot Grrls—punk girls who grew tired of playing sexual side dish to the drummer and started creating their own scene, which included all-girl bands. This is just one example, but there are continuities here that I think are lost on women from both these generations. Sometimes older women today think the boob-flashing on the video series Girls Gone Wild is all there is to a younger generation’s so-called feminism, when really there’s SO much else going on.

Ok, I’m more than a little happy that the letter to the editor Daphne and I wrote in response to the New York Times June 3 story on only children made it in! (Happy dance image here.) Not that we’re bitter that the article didn’t mention our book cough cough. Nope, not at all.

Yep, you guessed it! It’s coming! And it’s going to be GOOD, cuz my friend and blogospheric idol Miriam Peskowitz is coauthoring it with her MotherTalk partner Andi Buchanan. Read more about it here.

Perhaps, finally, we’re beginning to see a reality check on the “opt out” mythology: witness the astute coverage of recent books and articles on mom professionals who opt back in. Don’t miss Helaine Olen’s interview with Pamela Stone (author of Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home) on Babble. And check out the excellent forum with Stone, Bennetts, and others in the current issue of More, and the accompanying article by Leslie Morgan Steiner titled, aptly, “Back in Business.”

Among the enticing stack of books currently on my desk is one called Back on the Career Track: A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work, by Carol Fishman Cohen and Vivian Steir Rabin–two Harvard MBAs who sucessfully relaunched after staying home full-time with their kids. And perhaps of greatest interest to Girl with Pen Terrified And Excited About The Concept of Motherhood is another one called Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation Can Balance Family and Careers.

These comments are just too good to leave as comments, so I’m elevating them to post status. Thank you, Veronica, Marco, and Feminist Review for weighing in on my recent post about Knocked Up! The points you all make are quite excellent and astute.

Veronica said…

I haven’t seen it, but I know I will. My lust for Paul Rudd aside…Isn’t it just horribly difficult to watch a movie without our feminist alarms going off? I try so hard to turn it off and enjoy a movie, but like you, after some time that ‘guilt’ creeps over me and I have to face the fact that if they had done this or that, well you get the picture. From 40yr Virgin to Ron Burgundy, we get just enough feminism to keep us smiling.

Marco Acevedo said…

OK, boyly-boy Marco here… I thinks it’s fair to say I loved the movie with some of the same reservations… it’s clearly a geek fantasy dressed as cautionary/coming-of-age fable, while managing to feel honest in its character interactions. But I resent the idea it’s an every-guy movie. We don’t all feel the need to bond by nesting together in our own refuse, or to be that crass in front of the ladies. The constant pop-culture-referencing, though, is pretty spot-on.

FeministReview said…

While I agree that the female anatomy (esp. when being used for procreation) should not be on par with fart jokes as a grossout gag, I think that some might be taking this a little too seriously. Your entry is a balanced review of this film (I viewed the film in much the same way), but the Slate review annoyed me. It’s not necessarily Apatow’s job as a director to address abortion as a viable choice for women. But he does. Katherine Heigl’s character considers it and decides that she wants to keep the baby. She made a choice. And it was completely her’s. That’s something. Just because the character doesn’t choose abortion doesn’t mean that she’s the product of a man’s misinformed imagination. And I also think that Apatow shows that even though his male characters are completely clueless, they are harmless schlubs. While much of the guy bonding is comprised of misogynist endeavors (porn sites, sex mimicry, blow job jokes), it’s not malicious. I am not saying it’s right and I don’t think Apatow is either. He’s not claiming that he or any or his characters are in touch with the female psyche. At least they are trying.