Welcome back from a deliciously long weekend!

While this author was busy blissing out in the country (thank you, Daph, Sacha, and Rena!), then in New Jersey (thanks, Schettinos!), then in Prospect Park, the New York Times ran two interesting articles on how industrious authors are using blogs and social networking to promote their books. Check out Kara Jasella’s informative article on the blog book tour (The Author Will Take Q’s Now) and Pagan Kennedy’s tongue-in-cheek back-page essay in yesterday’s Book Review on MySpace (A Space for Us). I’ve blog toured a bit and will be sharing more of what I’ve learned soon.

Oh – and Girl with Pen made the Chronicle of Higher Education last week, broadcasting (via Broadsheet of course) that study about the lack of women “Shouts and Murmur” authors in The New Yorker. (Thank you for alerting me, Steve!) Funny how people there all assumed that the scholar who did the count was female. He wasn’t.

These are my cousins, the Fisches. This is a pic from their canoe trip in the Boundary Waters (between Minnesota and Canada) this summer. Today, I am not fishing (nor fisching), but I am out in the country with my dear friend and collaborator Daphne. Wishin everyone a happy long weekend! I’ll be back on Monday. Til then, be good 🙂

Here it is, here. I’d like to note that the rest of the paragraph that ends with “shaving your legs” went like this, before it was cut AGAINST MY WISHES:

To Walker, “third wave” meant a feminism linked to her mother’s, but different. It meant continuing and improving upon the best that second-wave feminism had to offer – grassroots activism and critique of the media, for instance – but still shaving your legs. It meant embracing multiculturalism, contradiction, and, if that’s what grooved you, proudly sporting a thong. Soon after Walker’s rallying cry, author/activists Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards published their book, ManifestA, which provided analysis and strategy for the young women now poised to carry the torch. This was a propitious moment.

Just sayin. I did not want them to end with “shaving your legs” when there was so much more substance to the graf.

I just discovered this amazing blog, Jewesses with Attitude. Judith Rosenbaum, Director of Education at the Jewish Women’s Archive, is a Jewess this Jewess would love to meet. Ok, Judith posted a lovely review over there, but that’s not the only reason I want to meet her. I swear. She sounds pretty amazing. Definitely check out the blog.

I think I just made a new friend. I’ve met (and adore) Alison Peipmeier, but Marco and I just met her blogging and real-life partner, Walter. They live in South Carolina. Walter, upon learning that Marco is a graphic designer, posed to him the artistic challenge of the century: “Hey, can you design a butthole [sic] out of the Confederate flag?”

The backstory (sorry, bad pun), straight outa Wikipedia is this:

Originally placed [on top of the South Carolina State House dome] in 1962….[c]urrent state law prohibits the flag’s removal from the State House grounds without additional legislation. Police were placed to guard the flag after several attempts by individuals to remove it….In 2005, two Western Carolina University researchers found that 74% of African-Americans polled favored removing the flag from the South Carolina State House altogether. The NAACP and other civil rights groups have attacked the flag’s continued presence at the state capitol. The NAACP maintains an official boycott of South Carolina, citing its continued display of the battle flag on its State House grounds, despite an initial agreement to call off the boycott after it was removed from the State House dome.

I heart Walter. Nuf said.

1. A piece I wrote for the Guardian goes live tomorrow. Stripping poles, charred bras, third-wave feminism, fourth waves, and more. Plus, a photo of me that I haven’t yet seen. Let me know what you think. (Not about the photo, thank you, but the article!)

2. Come say hello next week if you’re in Brooklyn! I’ll be reading from Sisterhood, Interrupted at Barnes and Noble in Park Slope on Friday, Sept. 7 at 7pm. (Thank you, Sam! Karaoke, when?!) Come for discussion, come to say hi, or, come for chocolate. I recently learned there’s this place down the block, called Cocoa Bar, that has rather stellar chocolate cake.

I seem to have caused a little tussle over in Broadsheet’s comments section yesterday, resulting in another Anonymous (not the one I spent part of yesterday answering, I suspect) calling me “babelicious” and a “FILF” (Mom, Dad, please don’t ask), and the original Anonymous challenging my scholarly integrity. This is my first time being labeled with those monikers, and I’m not sure if I should be flattered or freaked. These semi-flattering, semi-lewd comments rarely come up about men who post. Officially irked on that. But challenging scholarly integrity is a trap we all fall into from time to time when we profoundly disagree with someone, so I’m just gonna let that one go.

On a lighter note, as Broadsheet’s Lynn Harris reminds us in her roundup today via AlterNet, it’s the 100th anniversary of the bra! Wait–again, do we celebrate, or curse?

Man, do I need a latte.

Phewph! After spending part of today conversing with Anonymous in the comments section at Broadsheet (love the broads over there!), I’m back here at Girl with Pen. A few quickie updates about two fellow crossover-y types I adore:

Megan Pincus Kajitani, who has participated as a story editor for the forthcoming Daring Book for Girls, has also started a really interesting blog project called Having Enough. Megan asked me to answer 4 questions about having enough in a having-it-all (and never enough) world. Our interview is up now, here. Thank you, Megan, for making me think!

One thing one can never have enough of, of course, is lunch with fine feminists. I’m taking time out tomorrow for lunch with Alison Piepmeier, English/Women’s Studies prof extraordinaire down in South Carolina, coeditor of Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century, and girl with excellent hair. Alison is one of my early bloggy mentors, and for that I’m forever grateful. In tribute, I stole (er, shall we say, borrowed?) the title of this post from her.

So just a quick update on that traveling panel I’m helping organize this year for Women’s History Month, cause I’m too darn excited not to share. As some of you know, I’m teaming up with three amazing women / girls / ladies this March:

Gloria Feldt, Kristal Brent Zook, Courtney E. Martin

We’re taking it on the road to continue the conversation that I started in Sisterhood, Interrupted, and that these women have been having of late too. Together, we want to spark discussion about women’s lives, power, entitlement, and the future of feminism, from a generational perspective. Sound good? If you’d like to bring us to your organization or school, please feel free to contact any of us (I’m deborahsiege AT gmail DOTCOM). But hurry — our schedules are booking up quickly!

One of the versions we’re offering is described thusly (is thusly really a word?):

We Won’t Always Have Paris:
A New Conversation about Young Women and Pop Culture

Why do teen girls dress and dance so provocatively? Do they really think that drinking and drugging at the club is empowering? How can they worship airheads like Paris and Nicole?

Why don’t older women see that there is more to our culture than Britney Spears? Have they ever heard of the World Wide Web? Was it really that different in their day or have they just romanticized it?

Sound familiar? Too often finger-pointing statements like these get thrown around by women of different generations when it comes to conversations about pop culture. With all the injustices yet to be challenged, it’s time that women of all ages talked and listened to one another instead of rehashing the same cliquish complaints. It’s time to reopen a dialogue about women’s lives, power, pop culture, and entitlement — from a generational perspective.

Issues that we’ll address include:
• Does liberated sexuality equal Paris Hilton? Madonna? Bisexuality? Girls Gone Wild?
• Are young women really charmed by today’s pop icons?
• Where are the strong, smart young celebrities without addictions or eating disorders?
• How can we get more positive images of women in the media?
• What do power and empowerment look like to women of different generations?
• What is the major unfinished business for women in the media and pop cultural arenas today?
• How do we keep our eyes on the prize of more complex, diverse, and healthy representation of women?

Another version we’re doing goes like this:

Womengirlsladies: A Fresh Conversation Across Generations

Many of the young female students in my classes seem to think empowerment means short skirts and high heels! Even young women who say they are feminists often don’t know what’s still at stake—from pay equity to Title 9 to reproductive justice– and they are unwilling to put in the hard work necessary to fight for change!

Older female professors act like it’s a crime against the Goddess to have a little fun! Women’s Studies classes are just too pc. I’m not a feminist but I totally believe in equality. Doesn’t everybody? And by the way, weren’t those battles already won by our mothers, so why do we have to fight them again?
Do these complaints sound familiar?

With all the injustices yet to be challenged, it is time that women of all ages talked and listened to one another. It is time to reopen a dialogue about women’s lives: our power, our entitlement, and our futures — the future of feminism. Among issues to be addressed:

•Power and Parity: What do power and empowerment look like to women of different generations, and to women of different races and cultural backgrounds? What can we envision achieving together for women in the future? What might a powerful woman look and act like twenty years down the road?

•Unfinished Business: What are the major loose (or lost) ends of the feminist movement today? And how can we get what we need now?

•The F-word: Why are so many younger women afraid of being identified as feminists? Do older women secretly resent the entitlement of their younger, female employees and students?

•A Stripping Pole in Every Living Room: Does liberated sexuality equal lap dances? Free love? Bisexuality? Are Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan good role models for sexual empowerment? Were Madonna or Lil’ Kim?

•The “Opting Out” Fiasco: How has the media slashed and distorted real women’s choices about balancing work and family? Could listening to popular myths about your options in the workplace and the home topple your career choices?

•Passing the Torch without Extinguishing the Flame: How can younger women learn from older women while speaking in their own language about the issues that matter most to them?

We’ll be offering these panels throughout 2008, but please do get in touch soon, as our schedules are filling up fast: taryn.kutujian@gmail.com

Would love to bring it your way!

I love this story. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune has a nice little feature by reporter Rohan Preston on Dorothy Marcic, a former a professor of management at Vanderbilt University, who quit her secure job to indulge her teenage passion: theater. The professor – turned – playwright then did something equally bold. She created a jukebox musical, “Respect: A Musical Journey of Women,” based on research she did for her book, Respect: Women and Popular Music. The show — which had its more humble beginnings as a lecture with music — has now played in more than a dozen venues in the United States and Australia and is currently playing in Minneapolis. The show’s music, which includes swing and jazz, show tunes, rock and country, “Respect,” and “I Will Survive,” tracks the evolution of the social consciousness of American women in each decade of the 20th century. Says the 58-year-old Marcic, “You have to go with your passion, no matter how long it takes.” Check out Dorothy’s blog here.

And here’s something to sing about:

This week marks the 87th Anniversary of women’s suffrage in the US. Yep, that’s right. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment of the US Constitution was ratified granting women the right to vote. (Hey – if you’re anywhere near New Jersey, go celebrate with a trip to Paulsdale!) Now, if we can just use that vote to get our country a real President next time.