Feminism Is For Everyone

Dec 29, 2008,1:18 AM

It's like a century in girls' years

Wow... just wow. With nothing else to do over break but watch loads of TV, this preview for Bride Wars has come up again and again. My mother has expressed interest in seeing this. I have even tried to explain how this movie is indoctrinating women to fight each other rather than focus on the patriarchy. And then there's the issue I have generally with the institution of marriage. I would prefer not to enter into an institution if the whole thing is unequal from the start with something as gendered as a wedding. But I guess we all deserve our tax breaks from the government! However, the marriage dilemma is inherent in many romantic comedies. Mostly I am concerned about the implications of woman vs. woman. Even best friends forever can be pitted against each other in a second if a wedding is at stake!

Lately I have been absorbing myself in bridal TV shows as well. The whole "bridezilla" stereotype leaves me feeling frustrated. Having this stereotype in the media is only positive reinforcement. We emulate media influences, and the bridezilla concept is just another attempt at invalidating women. "If we can get them to argue pettily amongst themselves, they will never focus on the larger inequality issues at hand," says the patriarchy.

Dec 21, 2008,7:19 PM

Diva Cup

So I'm sure most everyone here has heard of the Diva Cup. But it wasn't until I unwrapped a Kotex pad this semester and saw this that I actually considered buying one:

Now, I had been used to the blue liquid on commercials, and the picture Kotex provides online makes it seem like a drawing. But Kotex has actually decided to draw a blue outline of liquid on their pads. First, I would like to thank Kotex for telling me exactly where to bleed. Before that blue outline appeared, I never knew what to do. Second, I have to wonder what is in that ink. Just like we have a right to know what is in our clothes, and many people prefer natural fabrics like cotton, we should know what is in our "feminine products." Doing a quick search on Google, I found this blog entry where the blogger had to email Kotex to ask about what they use in their products. This person only asked about a couple of products (none of which have the ink printed on the actual pad, however), but the picture doesn't look too bright. Wood pulp? Polypropylene? Polyethylene?

But to get to the point, I am seriously considering a Diva Cup (and I heard you can fertilize your plants every time you empty it!).

12:54 AM

Fem 2.0 Conference

It would be great if FIFE could participate in this conference.

Dec 10, 2008,2:10 PM

The Feminist Issue For Our Time

Hello all, I hope exam week is treating you well. Thank you for letting me blog with you. I am a CLAS '99 grad (Math major, Classics minor) and have found my way back to the feminist movement (or at least, labeling it as such) only recently. I live here in Cville and hope to see more young feminist energy at the NOW meetings (one tonight, 7 p.m., downtown library).

Recently I saw that you had a meeting to discuss what you perceived to be the feminist issue(s) of our era. I am very curious what you came up with in that discussion. Wish I could have been there myself. Maybe next semester.

This morning I was meeting with a group of women and we discussed the notion, or perhaps, the presumption, that career is of primary importance in your (our) lives and that family will be added on, if it gets added on at all. Many women I consider to be in my peer group (women with young children, which means they age from 25-40 or so) feel that society has swung the pendulum far from one expectation (homemaker) to the other (career focus) and has yet to find the right balance. We mused that we may not be providing realistic expectations of the real world to younger women. I have to wonder if this feeling is the same on college campuses today as it was for us. It is this topic, a feeling of being "duped" by society, that many women I know see as a feminist issue of our time. We were told that we could have it all and all at the same time. None of us agreed that that message was correct. Certainly this is not the only issue, but one that is newer to our generation perhaps than in years' past. Perhaps women who never wanted children or wanted to enter previously male-dominated careers were the voice of feminism of the past, but where is our voice for women who plan to have children "someday"? I am 31 years old and am not the only one looking for a mentor. Isn't there something wrong with that picture?

I would love to hear what you feel is the dominant pressure on Grounds today. I know they may be very different than those of my peer group but even that fact may require some examination. Your issues may not be "to work, to work part-time or to stay home" or "to have children young or to wait." These are questions that, if you do not have an opinion on now, I promise you will have an opinion on by the time you are 40. I do not think older alumnae are doing their part by keeping mum on how their perspectives change after they graduate. But we cannot do our part if we don't know what gets you fired up as well.

Thus, a procrastination project for you ;-) is to comment away on what you feel are issues for the college-aged woman and what you perceive to be issues for the future. Look forward to getting to know you! You can get to know me better via my personal blog (attachedfeminist.blogspot.com). Have a great break!

Dec 4, 2008,4:12 PM

"Post-Abortion Syndrome" A Figment of Anti-Choicers' Imagination

MSNBC reports that (gasp):

"No high-quality study done to date can document that having an abortion causes psychological distress, or a "post-abortion syndrome," and efforts to show it does occur appear to be politically motivated"