feminism

A hearty welcome to a brand new blog by Julie Zeilinger, a 16-year old from Pepper Pike, Ohio and a colleague of mine at the National Council for the Research on Women, where she is currently an intern.

According to Julie, Thefbomb.org aims to demystify “Mean Girl” image of young women — that “f”, of course, standing defiantly for “feminist.”  She’s got some great content going on, including this exclusive interview with Gloria Steinem.  Says Julie of her blog: “It is loud, proud, aggressive, sarcastic…everything teenage feminists are and should be today.”

Hells yeah to that.

Chest hair, growth spurts, voice changes, lust! In this edition of The Man Files, Rebekah Spicuglia writes about the challenges of feminist parenting when boys start coming of age.

My 11-½-year-old son recently announced that he is going through puberty.

My usually obsessive preparations for Oscar’s visits now have a new urgency. I find myself planning discussions I somehow never thought I would need to have. When kids grow up it’s an exciting — but scary — time for any parent. And as a noncustodial, long-distance mom, the challenges and opportunities for me are unique. Over the years, lots of conversations with my son have been held over the phone. Lately, we’ve had some incredible talks about more adult things (you know … coffee, sex ed). more...

Please help me welcome an awesome new addition to the feminist blogosphere: Laura Sundstrom, who just recently graduated from Beloit College in May 2009 with a B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies, can now be found musing at: Adventures of a Young Feminist.

I’m always psyched to see more young feminism out there online. And hey, Laura just joined SHE WRITES, so extra props for her! There’s now a few different bloggers groups over there and I’m jazzed….

You may have noticed that it’s been a little quiet over here.  I’m finally resurfacing–breathlessly!–to tell you why.

On Monday, Kamy Wicoff, Nancy Miller, and I launched a new social networking site for women writers called SHE WRITES. You can find us at: www.shewrites.com.  OMG.  I’m struck with how fast this is catching on.  We just hit 400 members and it’s only been 48 hours!!!!!

If you are a woman who writes (and that means MANY of you!!!), please join.  It’s easy, it’s free, and it’s an enactment of the philosophy that I’ve always subscribed to here at Girl w/Pen: a woman writing need not write alone.

I’ll be migrating much of the consulting I’ve been doing — writing coaching, workshop leading, etc — to SHE WRITES.  Look for future workshops under the SHE NEEDS HELP tab.  The site is changing every minute, as more and more people sign on and get active over there.  I hope you’ll join us and come see what it’s all about.  The GWP community has been so sustaining for me over the years it’s been here, and in so many ways, YOU, the GWP community, are what led me to want to throw my all into the creation of an even wider community of women writers.

There’s so much more to say about this exciting new project, and I’ll share it all soon, but in the meantime, let’s just say I’ll see you there!   And, of course, here at GWP.

There’s so much Father’s Day goodness out there today I don’t know where to start.

Former NYTimes blogger Marci Alboher asks “Are Dads the New Moms?” over at her new Yahoo blog, Working the New Economy.

Lisa Belkin conducts a two part interview with The Daddy Shift: How Stay-at-Home Dads, Breadwinning Moms, and Shared ParentingAreTransforming the American Family author and Daddy Dialectic blogger Jeremy Adam Smith

Michelle Goldberg of ABCNews.com tells us What Laid-Off Dads Want

And I offer “Findings from from the Layoff Lab”— a Father’s Day assessment of recession-era dads — over at The Big Money! 

You can bet we’ll touch on many of these themes — and more, and from a fresh and feminist perspective — at the Brooklyn Museum tomorrow when the WomenGirlsLadies talk about “Dads, Dudes, and Doing It.” Event is free!  We’ll be giving books away!  I’ll be wearing straight-up maternity wear!  This is one you won’t want to miss 🙂

PS. Time Out New York just listed us as one of the “Ten Best Father’s Day events” in town!

Check out this amazing interview over at ForbesWoman, “Iran and the Woman Question”. Roya Kakakian, an Iranian poet and author now living in the United States, talks about feminism in Iran, and the climate over there right now.  A brief excerpt:

Forbes: What was your first reaction to seeing women among the protesters in the streets of Iran?

Hakakian: The presence of women is not a surprise to me at all.

Iran has had a robust women’s movement for several decades now. But in the late 1990s, a new generation took charge; and in the early 2000s, they managed to organize and unite in ways that women had not since the revolution in 1979. It started as petition movement to collect signatures to ban stoning women to death and has spun out to become the “One Million Signatures Campaign.” So this is precisely what I expected.

Read the rest.

I’ve been busy working up my comments for this Saturday’s 2pm panel at the Brooklyn Museum, billed as “a fresh conversation among feminists in honor of Father’s Day.” We’re an editor’s pick over at the Daily News and Time Out is supposed to be featuring us too!

We’ve been launching a multimedia publicity attack, so if you receive email from me and another from Facebook, please bear with us.  As always, it’s one great experiment in getting the word out in the age of social media.  (Learning lots along the way!)

For a taste of WomenGirlsLadies, you can check out this YouTube video from one of our past events:

My fellow WGLs Courtney Martin, Gloria Feldt, Kristal Brent Zook, and I REALLY like to make these talks interactive, so it’d be so great to have YOUR voices there! And if anyone’s game for liveblogging it here on GWP, the door is open!  Just email me and let me know.  K?

Tis the season of awesome events here in NYC, if you’re into next-generation feminism that is.

On THURSDAY, the National Council for Research on Women will hold a special session as part of their Annual Conference on Igniting Change, called “Youth: Opportunities and Challenges for Building Leadership Pipelines”. The session takes place from 9:00 am – 10:30 am in Room 9205 at CUNY Graduate Center. Here’s the descript: As tomorrow’s voters and leaders, young women need to be vital partners in advancing the movement for social justice. This means working in partnership with young women, recognizing and valuing their diversity, to understand their perspectives and concerns and foster programs that emphasize both their rights and civic responsibilities. The panel will highlight current issues facing young women and address structural and cultural factors that support or hinder their empowerment. Attention will also be given to strategies for working across generational and cultural differences to build a viable movement.” Speakers include Rosalina Diaz-Miranda, Medgar Evers College, CUNY; Supriya Pillai, Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing; Kim Salmond, Girl Scouts of the USA; Ellen Silber, Graduate School of Social Service, Fordham University; Sally Stevens, Southwest Institute for Research on Women, University of Arizona; and Liz Abzug, Bella Abzug Leadership Institute.

On FRIDAY, the blog of all blogs, Feministing, is throwing a 5th anniversary fundraising bash. Even if you can’t go, you can still contribute!

On SUNDAY, Girls Write Now will hold their Annual Spring Reading from 4-6pm at The New School, Tishman Auditorium, 66 W. 12th Street. Some of NYC’s best teen writers will showcase original work, and keynote speaker Amy Robach and featured reader National Book Award Nominee Jean Thompson will be there too. The event is FREE and open to the public.

And that’s just this week!

We’ll be at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday, June 20 at 2pm for what promises to be one of our liveliest versions ever. There’s more over at the WomenGirlsLadies blog, and on a YouTube channel coming soon. Please spread the word!

DADSDUDES_F

The question: Why is the media talking about Sonia Sotomayor’s tongue or temperament?

In a recent New York Times article, Sotomayor’s Blunt Style Raises Issue of Temperament, journalists Jo Becker and Adam Liptak write that President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee “has a blunt and even testy side.”

There’s way more to this story! Read about it at Huffington Post with my latest piece,

Sonia Sotomayor: The Answer Rhymes With “Fender.”

Cross-posted at http://shiratarrant.com