Ok – last one, then I really have to hit the road. I’m just too jazzed not to share this. Remember Melinda Parrish (pictured), the Guest Scholar Blogger who posted a most excellent post here the other week, titled “Sex Does Not Define Us” ? After posting here, she got inspired to start her own blog! It’s called Girl Sailor. As Melinda describes it, “I am a female Ensign on Active Duty in the US Navy, and these are my thoughts.” Says Melinda, “I graduated in May from the United States Naval Academy. My time in the military has caused me to question how my role as an Officer and my identity as a postmodern woman should coincide.” She begins the blog with an INCREDIBLE manifesto, called “The F-Word,” which I cannot wait to finish reading when I get off the plane.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Melinda. I absolutely can’t wait to read your thoughts.

Before skipping town, just wanted to share an update from the Woodhull Weekly. As I mentioned a few weeks back, the Woodhull Institute of Ethical Leadership has partnered with the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty to share success building tools through online training sessions that promote ethical development and empower women to act as agents of positive social change. Teachings on financial literacy by Woodhull Fellow Jacquette Timmons are now available via the Real Women, Real Success Stories area of the Campaign for Real Beauty site. The next module, Your Authentic Voice and Advocacy, will begin on October 8, 2007, and is taught by Karla Jackson-Brewer and Dr. Robin Stern

I’m headed to Chicago tonight, and here’s the stack of books I’m cramming into my carry-on:

Marci Alboher’s One Person/Multiple Careers: How “The Slash Effect” Can Work for You – because I embrace the slash and Marci has a ton to teach me (and because Marci is EXCELLENT on “a new model for work/life success”)

Naomi Wolf’s The End of America: Letter to a Young Patriot – because I’m perpetually freaked by the direction our country seems headed

Susan Falud’s, Stiffed – because I want to finally finish this one before I start her next

Barbara Ehrenreich’s The Hearts of Men – because Lori said I should, and because Barbara never lets me down.

I had never met anyone who tries to bring more books than I do for a short weekend, until I met Marco. Haven’t yet seen what he’s bringing, but I’m betting it’s more than four. I’m guessing neither of us gets much reading done, since we’ll be busy repenting, eating brisket, and schmoozing with family. But the security of bringing books, anyway, runs deep!

So it’s Fashion Week in London, and I just had to post this photo appearing in the New York Times cause I love me a cute hat. Meanwhile back in Kansas, as the Style section also reports, women are apparently flocking to get a not-yet-FDA-approved anti-fat injection called lipodissolve. Scary, because:

Neither the drug formula used in lipodissolve nor the method of treatment is standardized. And researchers disagree whether the shots eliminate fat cells, or merely liquefy fat so that it shifts around in the body, raising the possibility of long-term consequences such as the aggravation of heart disease.

Reminds me of that terrifying finding (which I first learned about in Courtney’s book) that showed survey respondents preferring thinness to long life. Ugh. Obsession with hats far safer than obsession with fat.

Just heard via PunditMom that the bloggers over at sister sites DC Metro Moms, Silicon Valley Moms, and Chicago Moms all turned over the blog reins to the dads for a day. So the dads were blogging about the challenges as dads raising kids — and about the challenges of being the spouses of mommybloggers. Hehe.

Meanwhile, speaking of sperm, over at feministing, Courtney Martin offers some very wise musings on that book I mentioned here a few weeks ago cleverly titled Sperm Counts. Miss C and I had fun “writing” together today (meaning, parallel play on our respective projects between chats) and caught up on everything over our respective cookies. Man, I just love that girl.

As many know by now, Sally Field’s acceptance speech at the Emmys this week recognized the mothers of U.S. troops. She ended her speech with, “Let’s face it: If the mothers ruled the world, there would be no [CUT TO SILENCE BY FOX CENSORS].”

The rest of line was this: “…goddamn wars in the first place.”

I found it rather satisfying to watch the uncensored version, here. Try it. You’ll see what I mean.

(The embedded video from YouTube in this post is the CENSORED version. Thank you, Jeff, for the clarification!)

The 45th Carnival of Feminists is now up over at Feminist Philosophers. For those of you still wondering what a carnival is, do check this one out. The philosophes have nailed it with a fabulous round-up of links from around the feminist blogosphere.

Many of you know “Marco” as the dude I refer to now and again, the one who sends me links and clips, comes to every last one of my readings, and made me my shiny GWP logo. Well, he’s emerging from the shadows. I’m thrilled to introduce him, officially, as a Guest Blogger here on GWP. Keep an eye out soon for his occasional posts! He’ll be offering his own observations on popular reality, in particular, myths about masculinity and boyhood, and he’ll also throw in on my favorite subjects here of course: feminism personal, political, and in public.

OMG – if the video below doesn’t work (trying to figure it out…) go here and hit play! Hit it!

Courtesy of Marco (always lookin out for me, that one!) comes this YouTube retrobite in which Moses Znaimer interviews Gloria Steinem in 1968 about being a “groovy chick” and an ex-Playboy bunny. Highlights:

Znaimer to Steinem: “You’ve been described as a chick with a good sense of the vibrations.”

Steinem on reporting circa 1968: “To report with compassion is important now, because we’ve been so inundated by the statistics.”

Life Magazine to Steinem: “We want a writer, not a girl.'”

Znaimer on Playboy Bunnydom: “I thought you had to be stacked to be a bunny girl.”

Steinem to Znaimer: “A lot of that is plastic dry cleaner bags, really.”

P.S. I just started a category called “feminist history.” Were you there? Got pics to share? You send ’em, I’ll post ’em!
(Photo credit)