Thrilled to announce that a handful of previous GWP guest posters will soon be guest blogging on a regular monthly basis over here. The regulars will include the venerable young’un of WomenGirlsLadies, Courtney Martin, and my feminist dude Marco Acevedo. If you’re interested in being a monthly guest blogger (Virginia? Rebecca? Cathy? Heather? Elizabeth? Jackie? Mel? Elline? Others?), please contact me and we’ll go from there!

When I came home from Michigan this week, a beautiful book–a gift from a publisher in hope of a review–awaited me, to my surprise. It’s called HER STORY: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America, by Charlotte S. Waisman and Jill S. Tietjen, and it’s coming out in April. A rockin Mother’s Day gift for sure.

An illustrated timeline featuring the lives of almost 900 women, with color photos and brief summaries highlighting their achievements, the book highlights women you expect and women you don’t. “Sometimes we chose a woman because her influence and values touched a great number of people; sometimes we picked her because of the reverberations of her accomplishment.” Madeleine Albright wrote the foreword. Thank you, HarperCollins, for sending. I covet this book. I tell you, blogging has its perks.

We had this amazing realization on our tour launch about the book The Bluest Eye by the always deep, complicated, and imaginative novelist Toni Morrison. It turns out that it had a huge impact on three out of the four of us (we’ve charged Gloria with reading it immediately) and our paths towards feminism(s). Here’s a reflection I did on Morrison, her work, and its interaction with feminism over at feministing.
Our realization is complicated, as even Morrison herself doesn’t identify with the feminist label and, in fact, loathes it.

Gorgeous shot of Gloria asking Courtney a tough question about women’s voting power on our panel this week! Lindsay Knake of the Central Michigan Life newspaper wrote a great article about the event (though please note that I said “economic opportunities”; not sure what “racial opportunities,” as the reporter writes, actually means!) The piece begins:

Writer Deborah Siegel and the other panelists of “WomenGirlsLadies” are looking to change the way people view feminism.

And as Courtney notes over at our group blog (WomenGirlsLadies), “Knake’s article was a great improvement over the pre-event coverage which lead with the cringe-worthy: ‘Students can take part in a university-sponsored ‘girl talk’ tonight.’ Pass the nail polish and don’t you dare freeze my underwear girlies!”

But seriously, a thousand thanks to everyone at CMU, especially Jill Taft-Kaufman who made it all happen. It was an absolute pleasure! We’ll soon have a podcast version of the panel, and I promise to post it when we do.

Tonight at 6:30PM, the National Organization for Women-New York City Service Fund is hosting an evening of authors, activism, and feminism. Join a great group of women writers as they “discuss their unique contributions of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction work and the ways in which it inspires, mobilizes, and sparks debate on today’s pressing issues.” Featuring:

Felice Belle РPoet, Playwright, Former Curator and Host of the Friday Night Slam series at the Nuyorican Poets Caf̩, and author of poetry for the play History of the Word

Courtney Martin – Reporter, Professor on Gender Issues, and Author of
Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters

Sofia Quintero – Screenwriter, Activist, and Author of Divas Don’t Yield

Hosted by Revolution Books
9 West 19th Street (btw. 5th & 6th)
Take the 4, 5,6, N, R,Q, W, to 14th Street Union Square
Or Take F to 14th Street and 6th Ave

Please RSVP 212.627.9895

Thanks to Lindsay Knake of the Central Michigan Life newspaper who did a great piece on our recent panel at her school. The lede:

Writer Deborah Siegel and the other panelists of “WomenGirlsLadies” are looking to change the way people view feminism.

Notice this great pic, which captures the moment Gloria nailed me with the hardest question of the night about women’s voting power. Gees, that lady knows her stuff.

I have to say that Knake’s article was a great improvement over the pre-event coverage which lead with the cringe-worthy: “Students can take part in a university-sponsored ‘girl talk’ tonight.” Pass the nail polish and don’t you dare freeze my underwear girlies!

But seriously, thanks to everyone at CMU, especially Jill who made it all happen. It was an absolute pleasure!

Girl Sailor has recently posted an AMAZING series of narrative pieces by a female midshipman, Cpl Laura B. Ramsey, who was deployed in Iraq before coming to the Naval Academy. She wrote the pieces for a dramatic monologue show being put on earlier this month in the Naval Academy’s English Department, called “Forward Deployed.” Check out her poignant and amazingly crafted accounts: “Wadi Road,” “Nail Polish and Boots,” “Sweet Face and Bitter Future,” and “My Relief.”

(The author wishes to share the following disclaimer: “[These] pieces are true accounts of Cpl Laura B. Ramsey, USMC, while deployed to the Al Anbar Province of Iraq from January to June of 2006. They are not meant to harm, offend, or acts thereof any audience that may hear or read them. These experiences are simply informative first-hand accounts of a female Marine.-Laura B. Ramsey.”)

Well, it’s five years and counting and what is there to say.

A LOT.

Sara Gould of the Ms. Foundation, for one, has a great oped up at the org’s blog which begins with a good ole Albert Einstein quote: “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.” Yesss.

Over at Women’s eNews, there’s an interesting piece offering a women’s perspective on military service and its aftermath. One returning female vet offers advice to the next commander in chief: “I would request that they limit deployments and the time you have between deployments….That is really hurting morale.”

And MOMocrats are stirring it up today too. (Thanks, Joanne, for the heads up!)

Just in case anyone’s craving a refresher, here’s a lovely timeline of what’s gone down since we invaded. On Jan. 9, the World Health Organization estimated that the actual number of Iraqi civilian deaths due to the war lo these past 5 years is at 151,000. What’cha going to do about it, George, tough guy, huh? Man.

Well, Courtney pretty much summed up our travel adventures yesterday and I got nothin’ to add. Except that I think I may soon be offering seminars in the Siegel Slip, as I am more than happy to share my line-busting, rule-breaking tips for the good of well-behavin women waiting unnecessarily in lines at airports across the land. Oh–one more thing. Miss Courtney, tomorrow, *I* call the cute black sweater dress and boots.

Thank goodness our travel misadventures nevertheless got us to Mt. Pleasant this morning, because I loved loved loved our visit to Central Michigan University. The students we spoke to today are amazing, and inspire me. During the day, Gloria and I talked to a group of Honors students about the pressures facing “academically gifted” women, while Kristal and Courtney spoke to a journalism class. After the big evening panel, we asked the audience to fill out forms telling us what they, as younger women, would like to say to older women, and vice versa. And we asked the men in the audience to tell us what they think about feminism, or what they’d like women to hear from them. We’ll be posting some of the responses here, and my copanelists will be coposting at their various blogs as well. The responses are just too darn good not to coshare.

For more on today, here’s the take from our resident young’un over at feministing. And do check out another intergenerational conversation Miss Courtney is participating in–about the election–over on Jewcy, along with Wendy Shanker and Bitch PhD.

(Heads up Kristal and Gloria: I think Courtney may be intergenerationally cheating on us over there!)

Well, Courtney rather beautifully summed up our travel misadventures yesterday and I got nothin’ to add. Except that I think I may soon be offering seminars in the Siegel Slip, as I am more than happy to share my line-busting, rule-breaking tips for the good of well-behavin women waiting unnecessarily in lines at airports across the land. Oh–one more thing. Miss Courtney, tomorrow, *I* call the cute black sweater dress and boots.

Thank goodness our travel misadventures nevertheless got us to Mt. Pleasant this morning, because I loved loved loved our visit to Central Michigan University. The students we spoke to today are amazing, and inspire me. During the day, Gloria and I talked to a group of Honors students about the pressures facing “academically gifted” women, while Kristal and Courtney spoke to a journalism class. After the big evening panel, we asked the audience to fill out forms telling us what they, as younger women, would like to say to older women, and vice versa. And we asked the men in the audience to tell us what they think about feminism, or what they’d like women to hear from them. We’ll be posting some of the responses here, and my copanelists will be coposting at their various blogs as well. The responses are just too darn good not to coshare.

For more on today, here’s the take from our resident young’un over at feministing. And do check out another intergenerational conversation Miss Courtney is participating in–about the election–over on Jewcy, along with Wendy Shanker and Bitch PhD.

(Heads up Kristal and Gloria: I think Courtney may be intergenerationally cheating on us over there!)