YOUR INK is a feature of GWP that brings readers’ comments and guest posts to the front page.  This edition is brought to you by Kris De Welde, an assistant professor of sociology at Florida Gulf Coast University.  Let’s give it up and spread some link love for Kris, who is fulfilling GWP’s mission to bridge feminist research and popular reality. Here’s Kris! -Elizabeth

We are in the midst of an economic crisis, that much we know.  October is national Domestic Violence awareness month, something fewer Americans know.  And, we are poised to elect a new President who will address our social and economic needs.  Are these related?  Absolutely. 

Earlier this month, my local abuse shelter and resource center, Abuse, Counseling & Treatment (ACT), did something it has never done before.  The center’s director approached the local media, pleading for donations of food and other goods.  Their shelves had gone empty by the second week of the month.  My suspicion is that they are not the only community organization in this predicament.

As the economy continues to unravel, we can expect women and children to become even more vulnerable than they are right now.  Women are more likely to live in poverty, work minimum wage jobs, work part-time, and thus receive fewer benefits despite also shouldering childcare and eldercare responsibilities.  To boot, women overall earn less than men for the same work, and Black and Latina women earn even less (Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S.: 2007)…. 

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From Sarah Palin’s wardrobe to sex on college campuses…Hmm, not sure how to make the transition here, so I won’t try. But I’ve been wanting to share this list of some of the latest on the college kids and the sex. A couple of my brilliant colleagues at the Council on Contemporary Families recently pooled suggestions of books on a related subject and came up with the following list, some of which I’d heard of, some of which I hadn’t:

Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America’s College Campuses, by Donna Freita
Hooking Up: Sex, Dating, and Relationships on Campus, by Kathleen Bogle
What Women Want–What Men Want: Why the Sexes Still See Love and Commitment So Differently, by John Marshall Townsend
Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties, by Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner

And on the guy side of things of course:

Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, by Michael Kimmel
Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School, by CJ Pascoe

Are we missing anything?

It was revealed this week that McCain’s campaign spent $150,000 to outfit Sarah Palin for the campaign. Given the fury of feminists over the attention paid to Hillary’s outfit, and that little hint of cleavage she once showed, should any attention be focused on how much Palin’s wardrobe has cost?

You could say that the price tag doesn’t matter–that campaigns are all about image, that Obama spends millions on TV commercials, so what’s the difference? I would say that the wardrobe expenditures are significant because they reveal the bankruptcy with which the campaign approached Palin from the get go: All image, no substance. TV commercials may be all gloss, but they purport to represent larger ideas in a campaign, which are then backed up in interviews, speeches, and debates. With one debate, very few interviews, and speeches meant to rally rather than inform, it’s hard to understand how Palin’s wardrobe might connect to a larger vision. Except it does tell us one thing: For all the cries (sometimes deserved) about sexism against Palin, her own campaign was treating her like a dress-up doll from the beginning.

Image Credit

A friend sent this post from Slashdot.

Friend sez: Didn’t we invade Afghanistan, in part, to liberate the women there from the grip of the Taliban? Didn’t Laura Bush tell us how important this was? Will someone please ask Laura Bush to comment on this?

–Virginia Rutter

Girl with Pen, a group blog that bridges academic and popular feminist spheres (YEP, THAT’S US!), is seeking an intern to help with outreach. Founded by author and Woodhull Fellow Deborah Siegel , Girl with Pen is at an exciting moment as it transitions to a group blog comprising diverse voices of all stripes: psychologists, sociologists, women’s studies scholars, book editors, historians, and well-known feminist bloggers. Girl with Pen is seeking to expand its presence in the web through Web 2.0 social networking tools and listserv use, and we need someone to help us do this. We are seeking someone who is a self-starter, tech-savvy, and interested in getting involved in the feminist blogosphere. While we cannot offer to pay at this point, working at Girl with Pen will allow you to network, network, network. The internship, which involves 5 hours/week of work and weekly call-ins with the GWP team, will take place over a 3 to 4 month period.

And thanks for spreading word!

Nice new site up over at The Feminist Majority, complete with requisite pink background (sorry, Veronica, who I know hates pink!). Check it out, muse, share, etc. Just VOTE, early and often, as those of us from Chicago like to say. Ok, ok, I shouldn’t joke, I know.

(Thanks to Jackie for the heads up.)

Yep, that’s right, it’s Health Education Week–and Healthcare Quality Week as well.  If you’re looking for material to blog about, here are some orgs and blogs I’ve recently learned about (thank you, Ejima!).  Just wanting to spread the word:

National Women’s Health Network
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
RHReality Check
University Coalitions for Global Health blog
BlogHer Health and Wellness
Women’s Health News
ACLU’s reproductive rights blog

Has anyone heard of any blog actions on health taking place this week? If so, please share in comments!

Two fast things that make me smile: One, this photo of Marco shaking the lulov on Sukkot (thank you, Segalls!) and two, this poem from Visala, age 13 and a student at Writopia Lab, where I teach sometimes:

Recipe for Hope
By Visala Alagappan

Push your feet in the soft sand
let the water’s foam bleach your skin
Allow the embracing breeze to tickle your face
Smile, laugh, let your lips stretch
Sit in the water
let it kiss your skin
Now stand up
Look at the waves
Realize they will be back tomorrow

Fresh from the hypocrisy file: Now we know how Palin thinks government can help people solve work and family conflicts! Just bring ’em along and bill the government. It will be just great to get my travel with my stepkids covered by my employer as a way to help me manage my work/family conflicts. According to the Associated Press:

Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business.

Read all about it.

There’s more: “The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.” More at Politico. (Thanks talkingpointsmemo.)

-Virginia Rutter

We had an interesting inquiry from a reader about recommendations for female-friendly MFA programs. We were wondering what our readers thought–have any of you been in MFA programs that you would especially recommend?

Also–on a larger point, it’d be interesting to hear what our readers think constitutes a “female-friendly” program? The students, the teachers, the training itself?

I know my viewpoint: no Philip Roth. But maybe that’s just me. 🙂