sisterhood is…

You MUST check out this piece by Kristal Brent Zook over at the Women’s Media Center, titled “Hillary Gets Down.” Seriously, it’s too good to miss. Go read it – go read it now!

Kristal is an award-winning journalist and author of Black Women’s Lives: Stories of Power and Pain. Keep an eye out for her forthcoming book, I See Black People: Interviews with African American Owners of Radio and Television, which will be published by Nation Books in February 2008.

I can’t wait to hit the road with Kristal this March. The two of us, Courtney Martin, and Gloria Feldt are becoming a traveling foursome that I’ve started referring to in my head as the womenladygirls. Marco thinks we need a psychedelic sisterhood bus and, of course, a logo. More on that soon.

This year’s Book Festival in Edinburgh seems to be inspiring a number of “dead feminism” articles in the UK press. There’s one in The Herald (Thirty Years on from the Glory Days of Feminism: How Have We Changed?) and not one but two in The Scotsman (“Feminism is Dead for Most Women Today, Says Its High Priestess” and “We Gave Men a Hard Time”). I don’t know about you, but that photo attached to the Festival’s logo up there sure don’t scream “postfeminism” to me….

Memoirs by movement veterans Lynne Segal (currently professor of psychology and gender studies at Birkbeck University, London) and writer Michele Roberts along with comments from writer Fay Weldon seem to be sparking the not-so-novel headline. Says Roberts in The Scotsman,

“There isn’t a public feminism supporting women in the way there was, because feminism has become discredited as a sour-faced, curmudgeonly set of ideas. Young women don’t want to be associated with it. I don’t think the culture as a whole represents the strength and beauty of female friendships and how those relationships save you from going mad. Women are portrayed as sitting around giggling together in wine bars. I’m not saying that that’s what young women are like, but that’s what the culture is describing: you’re allowed to have female comrades but only if you’re discussing stilettos.”

These women have excellent points, but the emphasis of these articles is just so, well, predictable. Over and over, the death of feminism seems a juicier story than stories about its life. But don’t people get tired reading the same ole story? Don’t journalists get tired of writing them? For vibrant signs of life among our sisters across the sea and other tales yet to tell, of course, see The F-Word and the women’s page of The Guardian.

This morning I was a guest on the final airing of The Lisa Birnbach Show, along with Gloria Feldt, Courtney Martin, and, by phone, Gloria Steinem. I was honored to be flanked by the Glorias and Courtney, and our intergenerational conversation about feminism was a great practice run of the panel we’re putting together and taking on the road. I accidentally said “damn” (as in “Women become more radical with age, but I also know lots of damn radical young women”) on the air and then immediately wondered if you are allowed to say “damn” on the radio.

Though we all looked hot in our celebratory pink feather boas, it was a sad sad day, as GreenStone Media, the show’s short-lived parent company, is closing down. Lisa (pictured above) is a witty, wise, charismatic talk radio host who makes you feel like you’re chatting in her living room. She’s had some incredible guests, mainstream and radical activisty alike, and she has great shoes. The idea and existence of GreenStone — talk radio for women — held such promise. I know Lisa will land on her feet, and wherever she goes will be damn lucky to have her. Oops. There I go again.

Goodbye, GreenStone. Thank you for having me, and thank you, most of all, for trying. We’ll miss you like crazy.

Just found a review of Sisterhood, Interrupted by Eryn Loeb on my number one favorite book site, Bookslut! As Daphne, who is sitting across from me with her computer, Battleship-style, can attest, I am literally jumping out of my seat.

I just learned that the forum that Demos, NCRW, Woodhull, and Ms. Foundation sponsored last week on my book will air this Thursday (Aug. 2) from 9:30AM to 10:30 AM ET on Truth For A Change, Time Warner Channel 34, and streaming simultaneously 9:30 AM ET here: http://www.mnn.org (select channel 34).

I’m back in NYC, trying to remember why I love it here, when California has the sun, the surf, the fresh air…

Well, yes, here is one reason: Four of my favorite organizations — Demos, the National Council for Research on Women, the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, and the Ms. Foundation — are cosponsoring a forum on my book next Thursday. If you’re in the NYC area, please come! The event will take place at the NYRAG offices located at 79 Fifth Ave (betw 15th and 16th Sts), 4th floor. It’s free and open to the public, but registration is required. You can also register by calling 212-633-1405 x533. Please spread word by forwarding the invite, found here:

file:///Users/deborah/Desktop/sisterhood%20interrupted%20invite.htm

(Or this link: http://www.demos.org/events.cfm)

I’ll give a talk based on my book, and panelists Desiree Flores and Dr. Mary S. Hartman will respond with discussion of the experiences of younger and older feminists in relationship to the movement and each other, how multiple generations of women can learn from one another’s activism to bridge generational differences, and what the future of the feminist movement looks like. The event will be moderated by Shari Cohen, Director of the Demos Fellows Program and a very savvy lady. Refreshments provided!

A must-read by Rebecca Traister appears in today’s Salon: “Katie Roiphe’s Morning After”. Katie’s new book, Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in Literary London, is being met with rave reviews. And in her profile of feminism’s enfant terrible, Rebecca does a trademark excellent job of deconstructing a grown up and somewhat reconstructed Katie Roiphe. She asks a telling question: Is it Katie, or her critics, or both, who have grown up?

Rebecca and I share something massively in common: Katie Roiphe is part of the reason we do what we do. (Check out page 3!)

Bear with me – one more post about book coverage. (And I promise, musings to follow soon…!)

I am humbled and thrilled that the savvy momthinkers/writers out there are taking an interest in my book. The current issue of Mothers Movement Online (love that tagline – “Resources and reporting for mothers and others who think about social change”) features an excerpt of Sisterhood, Interrupted — and a review by MMO editor Judith Stadtman Tucker!

This week Mojo Mom Amy Tiemann features me on The Mojo Mom Podcast. Mojo is my new bloggy heroine. Not only does she do podcasts (check out her recent interviews with Arianna Huffington, Lynn Harris, Gail Evans, Pam Stone, Leslie Bennetts and the like), she’s also written a fabulous book that is on my summer reading list, called, yep, Mojo Mom. Amy has some serious mojo, and doing this podcast with her has been one of my favorite talky experiences so far. So thank you, Jan Brady – I mean, Amy! To get the reference, go visit Amy’s page 🙂

I love this magazine:

Skirt

And be sure to check out the column by Alison Piepmeier, director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the College of Charleston and coeditor of Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century and Out in Public: Configurations of Women’s Bodies in 19th Century America. Oh yeah, and author of great hair.