Woman of Steele

If this conversation about me is going to be had, I will do my part to insist that it is a feminist one, because it has been misogynistic from the start.

“

—	Ashley Judd in the Daily Beast responding to recent criticisms over her appearance.

Women, like everyone else, have been duped. We have been persuaded over the past 50 years to settle for a bland, neoliberal vision of what liberation should mean. Life may have become a little easier in that time for white women who can afford to hire a nanny, but the rest of us have settled for a cheap, knock-off version of gender revolution. Instead of equality at work and in the home, we settled for “choice”, “flexibility” and an exciting array of badly paid part-time work to fit around childcare and chores. Instead of sexual liberation and reproductive freedom, we settled for mitigated rights to abortion and contraception that are constantly under attack, and a deeply misogynist culture that shames us if we’re not sexually attractive, dismisses us if we are, and blames us if we are raped or assaulted, as one in five of us will be in our lifetime.

“

—	-Laurie Penny in The Independent. (Thanks to Amy Klein for sending this to Permanent Wave listserve)

Le Tigre- FYR

“Feminists I’m calling you!”

It’s International Women’s Day, but I don’t feel all that celebratory. FYR (Fifty Years of Ridicule) is about the backlash the follows women’s progress, and my goodness if we aren’t in the midst of an incredibly awful period of backlash right now. And there’s no guarantee that the backlash loses.

Why I’m I a feminist? Because This is How my Friends’ Show was Written up by NYULocal.

from NYULocal’s showlistings:

Amy Klein and the Blue Star Band at the Hive

8:30 p.m., Free All Ages
Amy Klein, former member of the intense and beloved Titus Andronicus, will be playing some feminist benefit. Amy Klein is one of those people who can be all bra-burning and feminist, but not annoying about it. The show is technically free ($5-10 suggested donation) so there’s really no reason not go.

First of all, the show is not a benefit concert, but if it was (the band plays many), I’m glad you trivialize the idea of people giving back to their community by donating their time and art. Secondly, sliding scale is not free, so you are wrong again.

But most of all, that is an incredibly sexist description of an incredibly talented all female rock group. What exactly is being all bra burning and feminist mean to you? Are you referring to the time Amy organized a rally to protest the acquittal of Officers Franklin Mata and Kenneth Moreno? Or maybe last week when the band’s cello player Heidi organized a benefit concert for Sister Somalia, the only organization in that country helping survivors of sexual violence. Or is it that keyboard player Kiri tirelessly works to book shows showcasing female musicians in an effort to create a space for woman that is supportive and not sexist, a space, unlike your column, where they be will taken seriously for their craft. You are right. These things are feminist, and they are important and necessary.

Does my standing up against your sexist, trite cliches annoy you? If so, I’m not sorry.

PS. I’m not even wearing a bra today, so bwahahahahaha. (But if I was, I wouldn’t burn it. That shits expensive!)

PPS. tweet @NYULocal if you don’t think sexist show listings are okay either.

Recognize that you are not the center of the universe.

Figure out how the idea of winning and losing fits into your relationships.

Recognize vulnerability and empathy as strengths.

Don’t allow the fact that other people have been assholes to you make you into a bitter and abusive person.

Commit to the revolution as a method of psychological and physical survival.

“

—	riot grrrl zine #2, 1991 (reprinted in Girls To the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus)

Via Nancy Pelosi’s Facebook:

“Right now at a House Oversight Committee hearing, House Republicans have called five men to testify on women’s health. My colleague Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) who is on the committee, looked at this panel (from which a woman who was the Democratic witness was excluded by the GOP) and asked: where are the women? That’s a good question.”

And I would like to add, GET YOUR LAWS OFF MY BODY!

Vernacchio explained that sex as baseball implies that it’s a game; that one party is the aggressor (almost always the boy), while the other is defending herself; that there is a strict order of play, and you can’t stop until you finish. “If you’re playing baseball,” he elaborated, “you can’t just say, ‘I’m really happy at second base.’

“

—	New York Times Magazine article, “Teaching Good Sex” about sex positive, non-abistence only sex education.

Look who showed up to the Permanent Wave Halloween’s Covers Show! The Guerrilla Girls!

Suzy X. isn't real: "An Open Letter to SlutWalk NYC and its Critiques, from One of Your Own," by Anoushka Ratnarajah »

slutwalknyc:

This is an individual response.

*When I refer to women I am referring to all self-identified women.

Dear Community:

An Open Letter to SlutWalk NYC and its Critiques, from One of Your Own.

First, let me situate myself. When I say I am one of your own, here is what…

Want this awesome Tshirt? Donate to the Hanna Watches a Porno Kickstarter Campaign!

Also, check out the trailer for the film. We can’t finish it without your help!

Want a signed copy of The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women by Jessica Valenti? Then donate to the kickstarter campaign for my film Hanna Watches a Porno!