I Enjoy Being a Girl

Today two things happened that I want to write about, but I just can’t quite articulate.  One was when a friend of mine was going on about how she was ten pounds overweight for her height and how she was determined to lose that weight, you know, for her health.  She’s not the kind of [...]

No Matter How Many Times You Say Women Can’t Be in Combat, War Doesn’t Seem to Care

The military serves a couple of important functions in our culture, aside from the ones it’s officially charged with.  One is giving poor folks a way of seeing the country and the world and encountering a lot of different people and cultures and the other is revealing stupid bullshit between groups in our own society [...]

Minor Changes and Reasons for Them

I haven’t spoken specifically about the whole BfP/Amanda Marcotte situation because I figured my readers who gave a shit about it already know about it and my readers who don’t would find it to be too inside baseball.
Suffice to say, I thought that BfP was exactly right.  It seemed to me that what she was [...]

Good for You, Miley Cyrus

Folks, here’s why I can’t get too worked up about Miley Cyrus posing for supposedly scandalous candid pictures: Miley Cyrus is being marketed as that weird sex-tarty “good” girl crap thing that we seem to require of our young pop stars.  She’s dressed up in skimpy shirts and tight pants and good bras and make-up [...]

Come Over to the Dark Side, Marsha

You’re so close to being a feminist bitch; all you have to do is embrace feminism!

In Which I Defend Marsha Blackburn, a little

As we have discussed before “man” is a perfectly fine, gender neutral term, has been for most of its life and should continue to be used as such.  Insisting that there’s something wrong or suspect about Marsha Blackburn wanting to be called Congressman is stupid.  It’s practically anti-feminist.  It’s as misanthropic as “womyn” which should [...]

Putting Men Between a Rock and a Hard Place

So, I’ve been mulling over the exchange between Say Uncle and KAG about the new hair salon designed for [straight] men, Gentlemen’s Top Cuts.  I like both of them and I find that KAG has a homey kind of feminism that appeals to me, so when Uncle starts throwing around accusations of misandrist behavior on [...]

The Crazy, Feminist Bathroom

Oh, I forgot to tell you about the craziest thing I saw yesterday (not counting Mack’s driving, which I would like to let pass without comment, though word of warning, not much passes Mack on the interstate without comment from him, the kinds of comments that would make a sailor blush, the kinds of comments [...]

We’re Not Family, So Don’t Call Me Sister

Over at Slate.com, they’re talking about race and gender and such on their blog The XX Factor and Melinda Henneberger, in her entry, is wondering why some black women reject this notion of sisterhood with white women.
Anyway, what Donna said was, you know, women don’t vote as a block because we never had to go [...]

Is Erica Jong on Drugs?!

Sincerely, America.  I had to get up out of my sick bed and come here to ask you “Is Bill Maher writing Erica Jong’s columns for her while she is in a coma or something?”
If this had been in The Onion verbatim I would have laughed until I cried.
First, let’s just overlook the ridiculousness of [...]

That’s Not Her Arm, That’s Not an Arm that Exists in Nature

I found this over at Perez Hilton’s–a photo of Britney Spears from the new TV Guide.

You can, if you like, head over there to read all the comments about how good Spears looks.  I, myself, feel like screaming, “That’s not her arm!”  Because, it’s not her arm.
That’s not what Spears’ arm looks like and that’s [...]

Patriarchy as Usual

Just as a reminder, the patriarchy as usual, as practiced in our country, has been about propegating rich, white male hegemony.  In order for the rich, white men to maintain their hold on money and power, the system is set up to keep the rest of us fighting over the scraps handed to us under [...]

But Don’t We Have an Imperative to Learn to Be Comfortable in Our Bodies?

So, I’ll just say up front that, yes, I’m fat and yes, I have mixed emotions about it, because, yes, I, too, wish I had a tiny smoking hot body and that when I walked in the room, people quivered just looking at me and I wish my dog could talk to me, too, but [...]

Good Thing Fourth Wave Feminists Are Too Young to Vote

Shorter First Wavers: We’re dead, so we can’t be president.
Shorter Second Wavers: Now’s our chance to be president!
Shorter Third Wavers: Who do you mean by “our”?
Shorter Fourth Wavers: Bwah-ha-ha!  Soon, it will be my chance to be president!

For Whom are We Fixing Things?

When I don’t pay attention, I feel pretty good about the Democrats and this election.  We have two interesting and compelling candidates, both of whom have devoted and excited bases.  And it seems like, no matter who we end up with as a candidate, it’s going to be pretty okay.
Which is why I am growing [...]

Werman

Tiny Pasture reminds me of a question that cannot be asked enough:
Since ‘man’ is historically gender neutral, and it’s only because the werman have decided that they represent all of mankind that we associate ‘man’ with only the wermen, how is further retreating from “man” a better strategy than just calling the wermen wermen?  Why [...]

Starting From the Position that Tennessee (and North Carolina) Women are Just Lying Liars Who Lie

I know we already talked about this, but it makes me so mad that I wanted to do it again.
Making women pay to process their own rape kits is beyond the pale, even if you reimburse them.
The Vol Abroad makes this important point:
If I were one of those angry, radical feminists - I might say [...]

Thanks

Hey, here’s something cool.  You may recall how I was all “Wait!  The point is not that Henry’s an idiot, it’s that he’s an idiot with an agenda” and linked to Feministing and Pandagon?
Well, Amanda has been running around the internet giving Henry hell in the more nuanced way he deserves and Ann at Feministing [...]

Dad Gets All Feminist on Jeopardy’s Ass

My dad has to watch Jeopardy at 4:30 every day.  You don’t get in the way of his Jeopardy watching and, if you don’t play along like you’ve got money on it, you best leave the room.
My dad is also not what you’d call an ardent feminist, but today’s Teen Jeopardy had him hopping mad.
First, [...]

I’m Beginning to Suspect that the Tennessee Legislature Thinks Women are Just Naturally Lying Liars who Lie

Via Whites Creek Journal, we learn that, on Tuesday, a state house subcommittee will be discussing this nasty piece of legislation, which would require that all babies have DNA tests to prove who their fathers are before the state will list a father on a birth certificate.
It’s an adventure to live in a state in [...]

A Good Evening for a Good Cause

Check this out:
A MEMORY, A MONOLGUE, A RANT AND A PRAYER edited by Eve Ensler

A fundraising performance for Act Like a GRRRL
Part of V-Day’s 10th Anniversary Celebration
Feb 22-23 – 2 nights only!!  
8 p.m.  $18
Belmont’s Black Box Theater (Compton Ave. near Belmont Blvd.)
Tix: 341-0300 or actorsbridge.org

Actors Bridge Ensemble is pleased to present the Nashville Premiere [...]

Good Work if You Can Get It

I went over to see the College Professor yesterday and she was telling me the craziest story, about how the woman who used to be the English Department secretary when I was there has gone on to write a book and become a famous Christian self-help author.  We went to look at her book’s website [...]

I Change My Mind Again!

Let’s arm college-age women.
Just think about it.

Way to Miss the Point

Rachel alerted us to Senator Henry’s idiotic definition of rape, which she heard about from the Scene, last week.  It seems now that the big kids have discovered it (see Feministing and Pandagon) and commenters are contacting the Senator in outrage.
My fellow feminists, I have to beg you, please do not miss the forest for [...]

Getting Off On Hurting People

Grammy asks some excellent questions here and I have some thoughts, but maybe no good answers:
What I wonder (Hi, Aunt B.! Love your stuff -just love it.) is: what can we do to address this hideous internalizing bullshit? I’ve heard that line before, about blaming the victim because she was dressed a certain way, or [...]