This is a card I was sent by my friend Stephanie Aaron (of Aaron Design). It’s too pretty not to share. Wishing you all the sweetness of apples and honey all the year long!
I’m thrilled to be part of this dialogue. In my head I keep calling it “Sisterhood, UNinterrupted,” and I feel so fortunate to be working with my fellow womengirlsladies to foster some much-needed cross-generational talk. These wgls inspire the heck outa me. And Patti: you’ll be pleased to know, perhaps, that we decided against calling ourselves womenladygirls; we had different feelings among us, in the end, about calling ourselves “girls” 🙂
In addition to continuing the conversation I’ve been having at readings and talks around my book these past few months, the significance this dialogue has for me goes straight to my core. I’ve worked in the women’s movement and in academia for about 15 years now, and, like Courtney, I’ve watched some pretty rough dynamics play out between women of different generations at work. And I’ve often felt caught in between — the confidant of women on both ends of the age spectrum.
Old enough to sympathize, young enough to want things to change. Now that I’m working independently, I watch the chasm reflected — or rather, writ large — in our popular culture. Stereotypes of young women as apolitical bimbos (“Britney, c’est moi”??) and Boomer women as bra-burning throwbacks (“Hillary – so out of touch”) drive me insane. With so much unfinished business, so much still to be done to ensure that women across ages and classes and races have the opportunity to live safe and full lives, I’m convinced it’s time for a different tune.
And speaking of tunes, I love that Gloria has started us with a musical thread.
I recently learned of this jukebox musical that’s currently playing in Minneapolis, called Respect: A Musical Journey of Women. It made me wonder, if feminism today had a few contemporary anthems, what would they be?
One for each of our towers.
Kathy Rich, author of the forthcoming book Unspeakable: A Story About India and Life in Other Words and a writer in my authors group, wrote a beautiful, poignant essay for the Modern Love column in Sunday’s New York Times. Thank you, Kathy, for giving us your amazing tale.
And my guy Marco has a very astute post up today over at Hokum on the branding of OBL. Ok, so granted, I love the guy (Marco), but I objectively think this post is brilliant. See for yourself – go check it out.
Fellow writers Courtney Martin, Gloria Feldt, Kristal Brent Zook and I have launched, yep, a group blog which we hope will foster some FRESH conversation among intergenerational feminists about what matters: power, work, sex, motherhood, pop culture, the future, and everything in between. Since I temporarily can’t figure out how to post over there (doh), I thought I’d make my post live here for the time being. So here it goes:
Sisterhood, UNinterrupted
I’m thrilled to be part of this dialogue. In my head, I confess, I’ve been calling it “Sisterhood, UNinterrupted,” and I feel so fortunate to be working with my fellow womengirlsladies to foster some much-needed cross-generational talk. These wgls inspire the heck outa me. In addition to continuing the conversation I’ve been having at readings and talks around my book these past few months, the significance this dialogue has for me goes straight to my core. I’ve worked in the women’s movement and in academia for about 15 years now, and, like Courtney, I’ve watched some pretty rough dynamics play out between women of different generations at work. And I’ve often felt caught in between — the confidant of women on both ends of the age spectrum. Old enough to sympathize, young enough to want things to change. Now that I’m working independently, I watch the generational chasm reflected — or rather, writ large — in our popular culture. Stereotypes of young women as apolitical bimbos (“Britney, c’est moi!”) and Boomer women as bra-burning throwbacks (“Hillary – so out of touch”) drive me insane. With so much unfinished business, so much still to be done to ensure that women across ages and classes and races have the opportunity to live safe and full lives, I’m convinced it’s time for a different tune.
Check out what Courtney, Gloria, Patti Binder, and others have to say so far over at www.womengirlsladies.blogspot.com. And join the conversation!
And may they long be remembered in our hearts.
Here’s a preview (practice version?!) of something we prepared for the National Women’s Studies Association — complete with a goofy out-take at the end. (Hint: I cackle.) Thank you, Elizabeth, for leading the way!
As many know, I’m a Fellow at the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership. An exciting announcement: Woodhull and Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty have teamed up to offer “Real Women, Real Success Stories” . Over the next 16 weeks, Woodhull faculty and fellows will be teaching modules that are taught at the leadership retreats–online. Everything officially launched today, and you can get to it all by clicking here.
Congrats, Woodhull!
Ok, I’m on a roll this morning and really MUST get to work (um, paid work). But I just had to share this post from Jessica over at feministing, on some shoddy reporting about how feminism is responsible for the stripping poles some fraternities are apparently installing in their lust dens.
I saw over the weekend that my Guardian piece on why I hope the whole stripping pole business soon goes the way of the old charred bra was picked up by the Kuwait Times last week. Here’s a tidbit from it – I wonder how this reads in Kuwait??:
What the burned bra was to the second wave, the stripping pole has become to the third – a bogey that distracts us from the far less sexy reality that feminism is, and always has been, serious work. It is time to stop deploying rigid and vapid cliches – damsel, good girl and slut – and fixating on the alleged excesses of one contested aspect. We need to keep our eyes on the wider array of women’s issues. May the stripping pole go the way of the charred bra, a quaint reminder of how those calling it from the sidelines got it very wrong.
Two quick hits: Don’t miss this important piece by Courtney Martin on why men should be included in the abortion debate, posted over at AlterNet last week, and this post by Lauren at Faux Real on the usefulness (or not) of the new slang term, “baby daddy.”
A thousand thanks to everyone who came out on Friday night to my reading at Park Slope BN: mother/daughter teams Leslie and Clea Weber and Daph and Rena Uviller; father/daughter team Scott and Grace; Megan McKenna; Jean Casella; fellow Invisible Institute member Christine Kenneally; Susan Doherty; Iggy, all those I didn’t know but asked awesome questions (including Marjory and Sam, in the back), Eryka Peskin from The Red Tent, and, of course, Marco (who promises he’s not yet sick of my schpiel). Shout outs to Samantha for organizing it, and to the post-game crew for eating meat loaf and chocolate cake!
I was only sorry I wasn’t able to make it back on Sat. morning for Lauren Bank Deen’s reading for more on one of my favorite subjects: food. Congrats on Kitchen Playdates, Lauren, and those of you with kids, definitely check it out! Lauren was on The Today Show today, and for those who missed it, there’s a piece by her today on MSNBC.
