As Elizabeth Curtis reminds me, Judith Butler’s book, Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence, came out in 2005. The book begins, “Since the events of September 11, we have seen both a rise of anti-intellectualism and a growing acceptance of censorship within the media.” Uh huh. And I also hear it’s one of her more accessible ones.

Thanks, Elizabeth, for the heads up!

I recently got a “hey, how are ya” email from Elana Levine, a colleague of mine from grad school, who has written what sounds like a fabulous book. It’s called Wallowing in Sex: The New Sexual Culture of 1970s American Television. Love the cover (left).

And meanwhile, Annalee Newitz expresses her disappointment at the remake of Bionic Woman over at AlterNet:

This time around, Jaime [Sommers, the bionic woman] isn’t an independent career jock: she’s a 23-year-old bartender and college dropout who has just gotten pregnant and is about to marry her surgeon boyfriend. When she asks said boyfriend why he likes her, despite her lack of professional success, he replies, “You’re the one thing my father didn’t plan for me.”

Newitz says much more, and concludes that “there’s something deeply wrong about a science fiction show, allegedly about a woman of the future, whose message seems taken from a past much further back than the show’s origins in the 1970s.”

Darn. I loved that show.

My HuffPo po is now live, here. Please check it out, and comment away! I’ll be responding over there later today.

Moved by Naomi Wolf’s talk on The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot on Friday at Labyrinth, and having finished Susan Faludi’s Terror Dreams yesterday, today I wrote a post on them both that should go live in the politics section of HuffPo tomorrow.

If you like it, please click “I’m a fan of this blogger” (or whatever that button says) and post comments!

I love it when tradition meets practicality. Last weekend, at my friend Rebecca Segall’s wedding on a dude ranch in upstate New York, some friends pitched a sukkah in celebration of the Jewish holiday, Sukkot. Now, “pitch” isn’t usually the word you use to describe putting up a sukkah–that would be “build.” But this one, no mistake, was pitched. The friends got it from a website, www.popupsukkah.com, and it was basically a tent with a bamboo roof.

Overheard, from the (Jewish) groom: “Is this so Jews can camp?”

The ladies of Bitch magazine are currently touring the East Coast…I’m off to a welcome party. Meanwhile, on the topic of feminist responses to pop culture (which is what Bitch does so well), I was thrilled to read Faludi’s deconstruction of the opt-out media frenzy, from Sylvia Ann Hewlett (2001) to Lisa Belkin (2003) to Louise Story (2005). Basically, what most sociologists and economists have been saying all along. For those of you looking for a cheat sheet, it’s on pages 141-45 of The Terror Dream.

Like Dee, I’m really looking forward to reading Susan Faludi’s The Terror Dream, which I believe is the first book to deal in depth with the psycho/sexual political/domestic alchemical reaction we had as a nation to 9/11. Her thesis, that we regressed to a kind of frontier mentality wherein men are the defenders of women, hearth, and home, seems broadly correct; but I may take issue with some of her specifics, based on what I’ve read leading up to the book release.

Dee, in her post below on The Terror Dream, makes a case for authentic sentiment and emotion around some of the mythic tropes proposed by Faludi. As for myself, I personally don’t recall any gender scripting by the media in the immediate aftermath of that terrible day, but maybe that’s because being a New Yorker I didn’t see how the story played out in the national media. What I do remember are the faces of lost loved ones covering the blank spaces in the city; the faces of men and women: husbands, wives, fiánces, mothers, fathers, sons, sisters, brothers, daughters. The city was in collective domestic shock and mourning. And while many Americans may have been shocked by inconceivable catastrophe into settling down (“life is too short”) and adopting the American script, many have also taken the opposite trajectory, impelled to shake off lethargy and shelter and to discard scripts completely: the “You only live once” camp.

In any case, I’m sure Faludi’s book will be rich in data and reflection on wounds which have barely begun to heal, and whose scars are only beginning to be revealed to light of day and reason.

WOMEN TAKING THE LEAD IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES
2007 Gruber Women’s Rights Symposium
On October 16 at New York University School of Law, Emmy-award winning filmmaker Anisa Mehdi will lead an exciting panel discussion about how women are breaking new ground in advancing their rights and roles in Muslim societies. Panelists include 2007 Gruber Women’s Rights Prize recipient Pinar Ilkkaracan of Turkey; Daisy Khan, Executive Director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement; Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International; and Sakena Yacoobi, founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning and 2004 Gruber Women’s Rights Prize Laureate.

The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation will present its 2007 Women’s Right Prize to Pinar Ilkkaracan of Istanbul, Turkey, and two organizations she helped establish. Ms. Ilkkaracan, Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways (WWHR) and the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR) will share the unrestricted $500,000 (US) award. The symposium will immediately follow the Prize ceremony. Video of the symposium will be available worldwide beginning Thursday, October 18, 2007 on the Gruber website

GIRLS WRITE NOW 10TH ANNIVERSARY FALL “FRIENDRAISER”
Come celebrate 10 years of bold, articulate chicks–and one of my favorite organizations, Girls Write Now–on Thursday, October 18th at Bluestockings Bookstore: 172 Allen Street @ Stanton & Rivington.

The fun starts with a Mentor-Mentee Pair Reading and Chapbook Showcase at Bluestockings, from 5:30-6:30pm, then continues across the street from 7-9:30pm with a party at The Slipper Room with author and “girlbomb” Janice Erlbaum, award-winning novelist Tayari Jones and hotshot indy rockers Royal Pink. (No cover!)

A hearty blogospheric welcome to Melissa Silverstein, who has launched a blog offering news and commentary about Hollywood from a feminist perspective.

Says Melissa, “Hollywood is so male oriented that women and their stories and expertise get shunted to the side. This blog will focus on what’s going on for women in Hollywood – what movies are being made; what directors are getting jobs; what actors are working; and anything else that will help tip the balance.” Also helpful is Melissa’s list of upcoming movies to check out. Welcome, Melissa!

Are women less happy than men? New research says “yeah.” There’s an interesting, researchy thread on it all over at Language Log. And do check out Marci Alboher’s smart post over at her new New York Times blog, Shifting Careers. She quotes one of my favorite sociologists, Virginia Rutter. (Go Virginia!)