As readers know, I just can’t seem to stop writing about this recession — ever since hubby got laidoff last week.

A piece I wrote in response to that NYTimes article from Sunday (“Daddy’s Home, and A Bit Lost”) is now live at the Women’s Media Center site. It’s called “Masculine Mystique, Meet Feminine Mistake”. Thanks for passing it on!

First, thanks to Aviva over at Fourth Wave for posting a roundup of links to the Great Ms. Cover Debate of 2009 (“Super-Feminist Obama to the Rescue!“), and to Yondalla, who writes in reference to the image of Obama as Super-Feminist-Man in comments here at GWP, “A man who is a feminist would not be someone who would rescue us. It would be someone who walks beside us.”

Having read the critiques, I get it now.  And I respect the dissent.  But I stand behind my original praise of the cover.  I agree with Jill over at Feministe, who writes,

“Obama has reportedly self-identified as a feminist, and has the legislative record to back it up. Is he a perfect feminist, or a perfect progressive? Not by any stretch of the imagination. Is he going to disappoint us over and over? Yeah, he’s already started. But he’s still pretty damned good, especially for a mainstream, center-left politician elected to the highest office, and I don’t really see the point in kicking him out of the club just yet.”

The brouhaha over this cover is not generational, nor is it necessarily PUMA-related (as Megan at Jezebel snarkily and dismissively asserts). The controversy is over the rescue narrative, and how one reads visual imagery, which is often more polyglot than it seems.

Looking at the current cover next to the famous 1973 cover featuring Wonder Woman, a bunch of questions come up for me.  First, wasn’t this cover perhaps intended as satire?  Because next to the cartoonish Wonder Woman cover, the current one certainly strikes me as having an element of fantasy to it too.

Second, Ms. is a magazine that has tried to reinvent itself over and over again.  Its current readership skews older, and I imagine engaging younger readers is now key.  In putting Obama on the cover in this way, are the publishers sending a message that the feminism of Ms. is big-tent enough to encompass younger Obama-supporting feminists?  Was this a move to get beyond the stereotype of Ms. as “your mother’s magazine” that some younger women continue to hold?  If so, I laud the extending of this generational olive branch.

In the end, I get the critiques about how men can’t save feminism.  I really do.  But bottom line over here: I like the playful, subversive idea that inside the most prominent man in the world right nows lies a feminist ready to more publicly engage.  Time will tell whether or not it’s true.

(Paging Marco, my laid-off graphic designer husband who thinks a lot about superheros and blogs about the narratives behind images!  Weigh in, my dear Clark Kent?!)

Last night I went to see a screening of Last Chance Harvey, a new film starring the ever-classy Emma Thompson as Kate and the inimitable Dustin Hoffman as Harvey in a mature romance about a Brit and American who meet and fall in love over one whirlwind weekend in London.

During the film, I found myself trying to count the number of other Hollywood movies that involve a man and a woman falling in love when they’re middle-aged. I don’t mean a second-love romance occurring after both have already been through their first loves, nor a film about late-life, sustained love, such as On Golden Pond, but a romance that portrays two people finding each other and love, as if for the first time, when they’ve already crossed the 40-year mark. In today’s society, it’s not unusual to see an independent, smart, and attractive 50-ish woman finding love for the first time–look at the New York Times Wedding section on any given weekend–but it is astounding to find it at your local movie theater.

The characters Thompson and Hoffman play are flawed. So used to the filmy, bubbly romantic comedies of our day, which elicit guffaws and chuckles and knowing smirks, I was surprised to find myself cringing at various moments: at Harvey standing to give an unexpected speech at his daughter’s wedding, at Harvey’s first attempts to hit on Kate at the airport bar, at Kate sitting and waiting for a Harvey that failed to show. At a certain point I realized I was cringing because of how close it felt to home. “Don’t hit on her!” I thought, because I’d seen men hit on women in the exact same way before, and sometimes failing to elicit such happy results. “Careful with your hope,” I mouthed, because who hasn’t been disappointed in love?

It’s refreshing to see such a film come out of Hollywood. While European movies often portray men and women who haven’t been airbrushed and readjusted to spectacular, non-human qualities, it’s rare to see this in a mainstream American movie. Thompson has a muffin top, Hoffman is wracked with wrinkles, yet they are (surprise!) still able to fall in love and stage a sweetly romantic kiss just like any other Hollywood star and starlet.

Thompson (God, how I adore her) wrote a blog post about the movie, which I think sums up better than anything the uniqueness of the movie, despite following a typical cute-meet-fall-in-love storyline, and the power of it, despite its quiet and contemplation:

If you see the picture, and I hope you will because I love it very much and am moved by it every time I see it, you’ll notice I am decidedly unglamorous and at least size 16. I really wanted to look like a “normal” woman, I mean in terms of body size.

Actresses seem to be getting tinier and tinier and I do wonder how we think we can present really powerful women, matriarchs and the like, when we seem to insist upon having such attenuated physiques.

So Kate is solid – probably worries a bit about her muffin-top (mine is more like a desk-top these days if you must know) but can’t find the energy to worry enough to go to the gym and can’t find the time either.

She’s a real sort of person, someone I could relate to entirely and I hope you enjoy her. If you do, tell your friends because the more we can get films like this well distributed the more films we can make about (for want of a better epithet) real women as opposed to (let’s face it) pretend ones.

The film opens up around the country this weekend. The trailer is available here: http://www.lastchanceharvey.com/.

Hells yeah!  It’s high time we include worthy men in the visual iconography of feminism.  The question of whether Pres-Elect Obama is such a man remains, fully, to be seen.  But I’m banking that he is.  And if he’s not, then I’m banking on Michelle and Hillary–and all the rest of us–to keep him in line.  More than any president in our past, this man has got serious feminist potential.

But apparently, the cover of the special inaugural issue of Ms. magazine is generating a whole lot of buzz. In a HuffPo piece yesterday, publisher Eleanor Smeal stands by the magazine’s choice, noting:

“It’s not every day Ms. puts a man on its cover. In choosing the cover for this special Inaugural issue, Ms. wanted to capture both the national and feminist mood of high expectations and hope as the 44th President of the United States takes the oath of office.”

She adds,

“But we are not giving President-Elect Obama a blank check. For our hopes to be achieved, we must speak out and organize, organize, organize to enable our new president’s team to achieve our common goals. Ultimately, we must hold our leaders’ feet to the fire or, to put it more positively, uplift them when they are caught in the crosscurrents of competing interests.”

Personally, I think the cover is FAB.  I haven’t yet read the commentary by those who find it–what, offensive, I guess?  Have you?  Is this a generational thing?  A Hillary thing?  And regardless, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

From time to time, we put your comments into posts. Here’s one I couldn’t pass up, from Girls Education and Mentoring Services’ (GEMS) Patti Binder, who blogs at What’s Good for Girls. Patti’s resilience story inspires me right back. –Deborah

Hey Deborah!

I have been thinking of you– your honesty about what’s happening and your ability to write about it on a day to day basis are really amazing and inspiring. No doubt you and Marco are resilient and will have what it takes to get through this on the other side, perhaps even in a better position. If I can do anything– let me know! I’d be happy to!

The recession sucks– and it amplifies everyone’s fears. In the non profit world, where I live, the loss of state contracts in the wake of Paterson’s proposed budget, the increased competition for foundation dollars as their endowments take hits, or close all together in the case of Picower and Jeht– (all of their money was tied up in Madoff) we are now all “bunkering down” in your words, running numbers, strategizing, crying, hoping, praying, and as always, working, working, working, and remembering the reason we do the work– the girls we serve.

Sometimes I feel my mind running all of the terrible what if scenarios..and I feel like its what people used to say about terrorism, you know, if you are afraid to go outside then “they’ve won already.” I wasn’t one to be wrapped up in fear and paranoia around the terrorism thing, but I do feel that its good to stop obsessing and worrying (but thinking and strategizing) or “they will have won already.” I refuse to let the Madoffs and the Bushes and the Cheneys win in my personal world–

ramble, ramble…at any rate, thinking of you!

Patti

“It’s not rocket science.”

The old saying is supposed to put one at ease when attempting to solve a problem. But it also is our way of elevating rocket scientists as the epitome of intelligence. Thus we are left with the image that only the most intelligent people can be scientists and engineers. Please note that I said “most” intelligent because obviously you need to be intelligent to do science.

That said, people have often pointed to the fact that there are more male geniuses or, more recently, that boys make up a large majority of those in the 99% percentile in math:

At the very highest level, the 99.9th percentile, this difference meant 2.15 males for every female. This difference was large enough that, in an occupation requiring math skills at that level, the job ranks could be expected to be filled 68 percent by men, 32 percent by women — enough to explain, as Summers suggested, part of the gender gap.

While I have not seen the breakdown of what people, men and women, who score in the 99th percentile do with their lives, I doubt we can focus on this slim slice of the population to increase the number of scientists and engineers in the United States. Thus the idea that because we currently have more male geniuses is a reason to just accept that we will always have more male engineers is hogwash. Thankfully others see through this flawed logic.

In my career as a student, scientist and advisor, I have seen students who blow my mind with their genius trip on their laurels and ego to fall flat on their face. I have seen students who started their college careers in remedial math, yet worked hard and succeeded not only in passing Calculus, but continued on to graduate school. And yes, I have seen the stereotypes: Genius students sprint through college in 3 years and straight into medical school; others drop out after getting clobbered by Calculus. Having a solid foundation in math is obviously key, but in the end percentiles cannot predict creativity or aptitude for science and engineering.

In my opinion, this argument is merely another excuse to avoid the harder questions of discrimination, curriculum, and the lack of encouragement we give our girls to consider engineering and science. Given the need for more engineers in our society, we should be working to find ways to encourage as many students as possible, of both sexes, to turn to this field. It is a sad fact that even with a 3:1 advantage in math genius, our boys are not turning to engineering as a career and that spells trouble for the future of our economy.

“C’mon, Love, think about it,” he says in that adorable and sometimes impossible-to-comprehend British accent of his, “You can move in with me! Save loads of money, we’ll see each other every night…”

He looks at me with such certainty, such confidence in his proposition. I close my eyes and bury my face in his chest while I consider my options.

He has asked me this question four and a half times now. The first time, I could not suppress my dismissive laughter, as we had only just agreed to be exclusive, making the offer too impulsive to be taken seriously (the four vodka cocktails I’d consumed that night didn’t help, either).

The second and third time, I began to accept that he was serious and that I therefore needed to devote serious consideration to this prospect. I also separated from the Navy (and therefore gainful employment) around this point in the ongoing conversation. I had never experienced “broke” before, and the dwindling contents of my checking account (and slowly rising credit card debt) made the idea of rent reduction more and more alluring. But still, I had resisted in charming and sardonic ways, which he was clearly not accepting as my final answer.

Now, at the fourth mention, I am cognizant of the fact that I need to respond with seriousness, and that this will be a binding answer.

I imagine coming home, exhausted from a long day at my new job and the two-hours-each-way commute from Annapolis to Rockville, Maryland. I imagine slipping my shoes off at the door (his rule—to protect the white carpets in his spacious, two-bedroom apartment) and trotting over to him, cuddling in front of his flat-screen television in the adorable business casual ensemble I’d be able to afford, since I’d be living virtually rent-free. The amenities of his high-rise apartment building would make the now-daily headaches of finding a parking spot, doing my laundry, and maintaining my fitness regime virtually disappear. Staying with him every night without having to worry about whether I’d packed a comb and a toothbrush. . .

I can’t deny it. It’s a tempting offer.
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And GWP just became a media partner! What’s Fem2.0, you ask? Check it out, at their blog!

Some preliminaries:

Feminism 2.0–a conference slated for February 2, 2009 at George Washington University in Washington, DC–will bring together the leadership of major women’s advocacy organizations and online women’s communities, to “further the connection between the experience, knowledge, formidable real-world grassroots networks and online advocacy tools of women’s advocacy organizations with the powerful and growing communities of women online.”  How cool is that?

Among this gathering’s goals:

• To harness the power of women on the Internet to promote women’s issues.

• To create a forum – starting with the Fem2.0 website and continuing through the event – for women to discuss the issues that are of most concern to them today, and to encourage them to use the Internet to learn more, express their opinions about them and advocate for policies that benefit women and families.

• To create an opportunity for a “meeting of minds” across generations and media platforms.

• To unite women’s voices behind the issues that the vast majority of women support, such as education, healthcare, workplace fairness and economic security.

• To position women’s issues and their advocates for the incoming administration.

• To draw new audiences to women’s issues, especially those who are Internet-focused and can cross-pollinate to increase activism.

• Expand the audience of women engaged in online media activity and activism.

For more info, check out the Fem2.0 blog, email Gloria@fem2pt0.com, or call 703.304.5859.

A few quick hits:

A front page story in this weekends Style section titled “Daddy’s Home, and a Bit Lost”

Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon on “Rosies of the Recession

Barnard’s new President on “One Gender’s Crash” in WaPo

Former Sec’y of Labor Robert Reich on The Stimulus: How to Create Jobs Without Them All Going to Skilled Professionals and White Male Construction Workers

And for kicks (though not explicitly on recession), a new video from the YWCA’s OWN IT initiative on what young women want from the Obama Administration.

Seen more stuff on gender and the recession? I’m collecting links!

For those in NYC, an event to get one’s mind off the recession and onto…the future.  The last Girls Write Now event like this I attended pretty much blew me away. Here’s the story: