Disgusting Display of Misogyny for the Day

Here's a little scenario for you. Tania and I are cruising through the town of Greenville, SC, on our way to meet with some folks at Furman College.

We reach a stoplight, and I hear Tania say "Oh no, that's disgusting." I look up, and on the rear window of the SUV right in front of us is this horrifying vinyl sticker, pictured at the right.

It made my stomach turn. We sat there, staring in abject horror, and finally the light changed. When we got stopped at another stop light, we pulled up NEXT to the SUV this time.

Driving the car was a man. Seated next to him in the passenger's seat was a woman. "Don't you know you're a participant in your own oppression?" I rhetorically asked as we pulled away.

Take away message - Feminism is certainly not dead. There's a reason we're organizing in the South. Even if sometimes it makes my heart sink with disgust, it's vital that we remember the importance of getting up every day and LIVING OUR POLITICS. There is always - always - something to organize around, and we need your help doing it.

Want to start a campus group? Are you a feminist in NC, SC, or GA and want Val and Tania to come by while we're in the area? Email campusteam@feminist.org. No matter where you are, in what climate, we are more than happy to help you get started. Drop us a line!

Joss Whedon is My Hero

Hello feminists of the blogosphere! I have been a very strong supporter of cyber-activsm and blogging as tools for the feminist movement. Yes, I guess that makes me sort of a computer nerd, but I've come to terms with that. Anyways, I regularly keep my own personal blog for self-reflection, journaling, and general musings on the world. I wrote a post this morning for my blog, Writing With Lipstick, on a really great video and post that I saw on a fellow feminist bloggers blog, the fbomb. I think the rest of my original post explains why this video is so awesome.

For any of you who know me personally, I am a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. Always will, always have. Even though True Blood comes in a close second in the "favorite TV show about vampires" category, nothing will top Buffy.

While perusing the feminist blogs this morning looking for new blog post to feature on Majority Speaks, I came across a speech given my the creator of Buffy and several other TV shows, Joss Whedon. He gave this speech back in 2006 an an Equality Now banquet in which he was honored for his excellence in writing and promoting equality among men and women.

This article and video were originally posted on the fbomb, which is quickly becoming one of my most favorite blogs to read.

Joss Whedon is the creator of such shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dollhouse. He’s also awesome. I’m not too familiar with his work, but I’ve always admired him as a feminist icon, as I know that he publically identifies as a feminist and tries to make a point of having strong female characters in his writing. His female characters are not strong because he’s pandering to female audiences; they’re strong because, like some men, some women can absolutely kick ass, yet you so rarely see female characters who kick ass and are still genuine.

Whedon made a speech at for Equality Now in 2006 after receiving an award from them. While his speech is a little over two years old now, it’s definitely still relevant. Watch and see why.

Let’s look at the kind of female characters we see on TV now. Are there more strong female characters now than there were in 2006? If there are, I definitely don’t see them. If anything has changed, it’s that there’s less strong female characters. Most women I’ve seen on TV nowadays seem to be written to be superficial, nagging or weak–the personification of stereotypes. And I can guarantee you that the writers for any shows who do have strong female characters are still being asked why they write women like that.

I have to hand it to Joss. As long as strong female characters are still seen as strange, we need people like him to make those characters exist.

While I do not go out at night and slay vampires and have super-human strength, I still find Buffy very identifiable. She is a strong, confident, independent woman who, despite all of that, still has human flaws and qualities that make her unique and beautiful, just like every woman. Joss eloquently explains why I have always been enthralled in watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I wish more people saw it this way.

Hair we go

So long, hair. With assistance from Tania, Val, and my new friend Ray, I'm the proud new owner of a mohawk.

It's surprisingly liberating.

As a college freshman, I read Jennifer Reid Maxcy Myhre's essay "One Bad Hair Day Too Many, Or the Hairstory of an Androgynous Young Feminist" in an intro to Women's Studies class [You can read the essay on p. 84 of the Google Books preview] .

Myhre's buzz cut was low-maintenance, so she had more time to change the world. And it presented a public challenge to traditional notions of femininity and gender.

Makes sense. Hair and hair removal is time-consuming and distracts us from the more important problems facing our society. But please. I have people to impress.

After I wagered my hair for a fundraiser, I was anxious about losing it. Long hair is attractive, sexy, and feminine, despite the long showers and chronic tardiness it begets. I'd look mannish without it. My long-suffering boyfriend would pretend not to know the hairless lady standing next to him. Any job prospects would wither away. Buildings might explode. The stars would misalign.

So yesterday, Tania, Val and I grilled the hair stylist down the street about the ins and outs of mohawks. I decided to come in later in the afternoon, with many reservations. I envisioned myself panicking as the clippers made the first cut. Derelicts and basket cases do this sort of thing, I thought.

Several pounds of hairspray later, I walked out of the salon with a gravity-defying mohawk. Some folks were less than amused, but I did receive compliments from women on the street.

I welcome the change. It makes me reassess femininity and the way I feel about my body. Additionally, having funny hair makes everything a little more humorous (particularly for humorless feminists like myself). I am too Type A for my own good, and there's nothing like stubble on one's head to put things in perspective.

Remaining stylish sans hair will be a challenge. The next few months will come with their own hair troubles. But for now, I am pleased with my mohawk. It's a good learning experience, and I highly recommend it. And I'm now of the opinion that my feminist babies, should they ever materialize, would look terrific with a mohawk.

Photo credit: OakleyOriginals on Flickr

International Stage Making Breakthroughs for Women

Though many of us are a little bummed out with the loss of one of the world's greatest entertainers and a true global humanitarian, MJ's legacy in advocating for change in this world is not in vain. How so you might ask? Well lets take a look at some recent breakthroughs for women in the world:

Last week, Marrakech, one of Morocco's biggest cities and largest tourist sites, elected its first female mayor, Fatima Zahra Mansouri. She out polled incumbent Mayor Omar Jazouli 54 to 35 votes in the municipal council. This makes newly-elected Mayor Mansouri the second woman in the country's history to take up a mayorial seat. The 33-year-old lawyer representing the Party of Authenticity & Modernity (PAM) is looking forward to the challenge of leading one of Morocco's greatest cities and we applaud her strength and courage. ROCK ON MAYOR MANSOURI!!! Thanks for paving the way for women in the world!

Next up, in Uganda, the government is currently making plans to reintroduce and promote the usage of female condoms as a critical tool for HIV/AIDS prevention this coming fall. Two US-based organizations, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) and Global Campaign for Microbicides (GCM) met with some of Kampala's local leaders for "advocacy training targeted at donors and national government to ensure successful reintroduction of female condoms" in the country. Of the participants and those leading the training were Mr. Benard Mujuni of the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development, members of the Health Development Partnership Group and UNFPA, and the Ministry of Health.

In 2000, female condoms were first introduced into the country but was unsuccessful in sustaining support for distribution, education, and accessibility. Now governmental officials and local leaders are committing themselves to finding new solutions in promoting acceptibility and usage of female condoms and other methods of prevention. Two snaps and a fist bump for the Ugandan government placing reproductive health and women's rights in the center of their HIV/AIDS prevention efforts!

See, the world can get better...and it will get better--one person at a time.

Peace.

Let's Take A Trip Down The Cereal Aisle

Being a huge foodie myself, I love to go grocery shopping. However, every time I look down the cereal aisle, I become very disheartened when I take a look at the front of the cereal boxes that line the aisle. If you just think of all the cartoon cereal characters that are used as mascots by the leading cereal producers: General Mills, Kellogg's, Post, and Quaker, how many can you think of that are female? I've come up with zero.

I found this lack of female representation in cereal mascots upsetting for several reasons. The target consumers for many of these cereals are mothers who buy the cereal and children who consume the products that their mothers buy. When a little girl is looking at the covers of the boxes in the cereal aisle or the ones her mother has just purchased, what type of impression does it give her to find no characters that she can identify with? The major cereal faces that jump out at me are such characters as Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam, both with male names and characteristics. Why can't they be Tonya the Tiger and Toucan Samantha? Even the more androgynous characters like the Trix Rabbit and the Honey Nut Cheerios' Bee are described using male pronouns.

The cereal Wheaties, while it does not have a cartoon character as it's spokespersons, athletes are used to sell their products. Out of the 7 athletes that have been used to be the spokesperson for Wheaties since 1958, only one, gymnast Mary Lou Retton, has been female. She was also the first female athlete to be pictured on the cover of the Wheaties box in 1984. Golfer Babe Didrikson Zaharias was the first female to appear on the Wheaties box back in 1935, however she was not on the front.

And when we do think of the whole array of food product spokes-characters, only a handful of those are female. Mrs. Butterworth, Aunt Jemima, and the Land O' Lakes Indian are the only ones that come to my mind. And even with these female representations in the grocery store, they are highly racialized and stereotyped. Again, what messages does this send to these products' target audiences?

The types of representations of women and female characters within the whole spectrum of grocery store are few and far between and the ones that we do have are far from adequate. What this sends out to the major consumers of food products, mostly women, is that the producers of such products, mostly men, do not see using the female representation as worthwhile. This therefor gives the impression that the female image as something that the American public doesn't trusts.