Greetings! I've been working with Women's Health Specialists since college. I now sit on their board of directors. Women's Health Specialists is truly a non-judgmental, non-profit, women-centered health organization. Not only do they provide direct health services to anyone who needs them but they also have a number of educational and advocacy based programs. For example, the Young Women's Leadership Program--truly remarkable! Our program was chosen by the Global Living Challenge to receive matching funds of anything we raise online by Monday. And if we get 50 donors we receive an additional $5000 dollars--oh the women and girls we could serve! Please help up take advantage of the matching funds and bonus--make an online gift by MONDAY!!! Click below:
See this link for more on Women's Health Specialists
Fight Like a Girl is for anyone who has ever asked, what can I do? Fight Like a Girl details the issues facing women and girls today, addresses the relevance of feminism today, and serves as a call to action to any who want to make a difference.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Repeal Proposition 8!!
I just signed a pledge to repeal Prop 8 and I thought you might be interested in joining me and over 100,000 Courage Campaign members across California.
We have to come together right now to say that we refuse to accept a California where discrimination is enshrined in our state constitution.
Please sign the "Repeal Prop 8" pledge now and forward this to your friends as soon as possible:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/RepealProp8
Thanks!
We have to come together right now to say that we refuse to accept a California where discrimination is enshrined in our state constitution.
Please sign the "Repeal Prop 8" pledge now and forward this to your friends as soon as possible:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/RepealProp8
Thanks!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Mixed emotions...
Don't get me wrong, I'm elated that Obama is our president-elect. What a thrilling time in this country. So much talk of hope and progress. I am in awe of the history that was made on November 4th.
In California, we defeated Prop 4 and guaranteed young women access to safe and legal abortion...at least for a bit longer. Similar initiatives and propositions were defeated in Colorado and South Dakota. We have much to celebrate.
But my celebration is hampered by the numerous anti-gay propositions and initiatives that did pass around the country on Tuesday. From Arkansas' ban on adoption among gay couples to Arizona, Florida, and California's ban on gay marriage I find myself struggling to embrace the progress and hope the nation is talking about. I do get it, the first bi-racial man, the first black man elected to the presidency...huge historic event. But how does this country celebrate when we continue to disenfranchise some of our people? When we called out throughout the campaign, "Yes, we can" who did we mean? I thought we were fighting for us all but these state initiatives seem to suggest otherwise.
I look forward to the day we can fully celebrate--all of us, standing together truly as one nation, equal in this land. We need to pass a Constitutional equality amendment--let us build upon the efforts of the ERA and incorporate not just women, but guarantee equality regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Let that be my generation's legacy.
In California, we defeated Prop 4 and guaranteed young women access to safe and legal abortion...at least for a bit longer. Similar initiatives and propositions were defeated in Colorado and South Dakota. We have much to celebrate.
But my celebration is hampered by the numerous anti-gay propositions and initiatives that did pass around the country on Tuesday. From Arkansas' ban on adoption among gay couples to Arizona, Florida, and California's ban on gay marriage I find myself struggling to embrace the progress and hope the nation is talking about. I do get it, the first bi-racial man, the first black man elected to the presidency...huge historic event. But how does this country celebrate when we continue to disenfranchise some of our people? When we called out throughout the campaign, "Yes, we can" who did we mean? I thought we were fighting for us all but these state initiatives seem to suggest otherwise.
I look forward to the day we can fully celebrate--all of us, standing together truly as one nation, equal in this land. We need to pass a Constitutional equality amendment--let us build upon the efforts of the ERA and incorporate not just women, but guarantee equality regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Let that be my generation's legacy.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
VOTE!!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
New resources from Michael Moore
Two new resources have come out recently from Micheal Moore--his free & downloadable film, Slacker Uprising and his new book, available now, Mike's Election Guide. Check 'em out soon!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Local Eating!
Yesterday, officially kicked off the Eat Local Challenge! Hope you join in!
I started preparing my challenge a few weeks ago, scouting out local food resources in the Sacramento area. I already go to the local farmer's market so that was an easy commitment but I started to pay attention to the other places I shop. I've stopped going to some of my regular haunts and now try to shop at local marketplaces--the Sacramento Co-op, Taylor's (which I can walk to...definitely an added bonus!), and the Nugget. In addition to accessing locally grown products, it also feels good to support non-corporate (or less corporate) options for where my dollar is spent!
However, what I am finding utterly fascinating is how many products are stocked in California stores that come from far away lands! I began to wonder, other than bananas and exotic fruits, chocolate (although check out Yummy Dummy), and coffee, what would I need/want that isn't produced in California--or better within a 150 mile radius of Sacramento? I am so very lucky to live in California! I've found local sources for most of what I stock my frig...thank you Strauss, Clover, and of course, the farmer's market. But I was shocked in looking at labels these last few weeks, that despite the abundance of California agriculture so much of what our stores stock is from New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Colorado...The carbon footprint for the travel of these goods alone is crazy! And even locally owned stores are partipating in the import of simple goods--cheese, chicken, milk, etc.--from other states. Although I recognize that they are probably responding to what sells, but as we raise awareness can we change the demand?
I'm thankful to stores, like Taylor's Market that posts little maps next to their local products to identify that which comes from within 100 mile radius. And I'm thankful to organizations like the Eat Local Challenge and Locavores who are raising the issue and encouraging folks to change their habits. I love what I have learned and how it is changing my approach to what I buy and where I shop. I've told everyone I can get a hold, including my students! And I offer you the same challenge I offer them...check labels, pay attention to where your favorite products come from, and eat locally!
Bon Apetite!
Monday, September 8, 2008
L.A. Times article from Gloria Steinem on Sarah Palin
What a turn of events! Palin for vice president? Really, McCain? Who do you think you are fooling? Are we supposed to believe that you, or the Republican party for that matter, has had a change of heart and now believes in women's equality? What a thinly veiled stunt!
And if I hear one more person tell me that now Hillary voters have someone to throw their support behind, I'm gonna...I don't even know what! What a joke! Do people actually believe that Pro-Choice, Pro-Woman, Feminist fighters for equality are actually going to be duped into believing that Palin is a legitimate alternative? Excuse me, but one woman does not equal another--Hillary Clinton and Sara Palin could not be further apart on issues. I guess women really are interchangeable in the minds of Republican strategists!
Here is a link to a great article in the L.A. Times by Gloria Steinem-- "Palin--wrong woman, wrong message"
And if I hear one more person tell me that now Hillary voters have someone to throw their support behind, I'm gonna...I don't even know what! What a joke! Do people actually believe that Pro-Choice, Pro-Woman, Feminist fighters for equality are actually going to be duped into believing that Palin is a legitimate alternative? Excuse me, but one woman does not equal another--Hillary Clinton and Sara Palin could not be further apart on issues. I guess women really are interchangeable in the minds of Republican strategists!
Here is a link to a great article in the L.A. Times by Gloria Steinem-- "Palin--wrong woman, wrong message"
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Media, Girls, and what to do!
Forever in the quest of building my repertoire of information I recently discovered that Jean Killbourne (of the Killing Us Softly films) , along with Diane Levin, has a new book coming out. And ever so timely! So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids looks great. And while it is not out until August 5th, Jean Killbourne is a resource I trust. I've already pre-ordered my copy.
In a related note, I just came across this organization--"Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood" Diane Levin is on their Steering Committee and their founder, Susan Linn has a new book entitled The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World Check them out!
Finally, to encourage play and make-believe, the last resource I'll share for now is Sarah's Silks. My cousin just started working for them and loves her job. Sarah's Silks are primarily made by women working from home in Sonoma County, California. The idea behind Sarah's Silks is to allow children the freedom to create their own worlds, enjoy and expand their imaginations, and to "capture the magical soul that lives in young children." So we can combat the bombardment while encouraging our children's imaginations and supporting women's work! Sounds like a win, win...win!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Yummy Dummy
I happened upon these amazing girls this morning at the Davis Farmers' Market (in California). These seven girls created, and manage, their own chocolate company, Yummy Dummy. They are remarkable... they created a company, learned to work together, and personally design, create and sell their product. But most impressively, they also live a socially conscious life, choosing organizations and efforts to which they donate 10% of their proceeds. In a sea of corporatized business and the rapidly shrinking local merchant, Yummy Dummy was a sight for sore eyes.
And...after partaking in the sweet wonder of their dark chocolate, marshmallow, and almond bar...I must say a very rewarding company to support!!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
the passing of Barbara Seaman
Veteran Feminists of America Announcement
February 27, 2008
Remembering Barbara Seaman
We are sad to report that Barbara Seaman, founder of the National Women's Health Network, noted feminist, women's health activist, and author, died this morning. Seaman's life and work leave much to be celebrated, as she was a tireless advocate for informed consent and exposing information on hormonal medications, including publication of the breakthrough 1969 book "The Doctors' Case against the Pill," which led to Congressional hearings on oral contraception and ultimately to the first safety warning on the drug.
Barbara's Memorial Service will take place on Thursday March 6th, 2008 at the Riverside Memorial Chapel. 180 West 76th St NYC at 5:30pm.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
I "Heart" Consensual Sex
Join California NOW's new campaign!!
On their website, they explain "Here’s our definition of consent: To actively and willingly participate in any given activity, without coercion or force. Consent is a powerful way to say, 'This is my body and I have the right to decide with whom, how, where and when I choose to have sex.'...
So, join our "Sex Drive" to bring our consensual sex campaign to college students throughout the state."
Turn it off!
Join me for "Earth Hour" on March 29th!!! For one hour--between 8-9pm--let's turn off all our electricity (you can find many ways to turn up the heat...be creative!) We all have a role in promoting, protecting and extending sustainability. Join me, and many around the globe, in making a difference and raising awareness. For more information and/or to formaly sign up visit my page at Earth Hour
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Had to share this message from Robin Morgan
FEEL FREE TO SHARE WITH YOUR NETWORKS AND LISTSERVS, TO POST ON YOUR WEBSITES, TO PASS IT ON . . .
GOODBYE TO ALL THAT (#2) by Robin Morgan
"Goodbye To All That" was my (in)famous 1970 essay breaking free from a politics of accommodation especially affecting women (for an online version, see http://blog.fair-use.org/category/chicago/).
During my decades in civil-rights, anti-war, and contemporary women's movements, I've avoided writing another specific "Goodbye . . .". But not since the suffrage struggle have two communities--the joint conscience-keepers of this country--been so set in competition, as the contest between Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) and Barack Obama (BO) unfurls. So.
Goodbye to the double standard . . .
--Hillary is too ballsy but too womanly, a Snow Maiden who's emotional, and so much a politician as to be unfit for politics.
--She's "ambitious" but he shows "fire in the belly." (Ever had labor pains? )
--When a sexist idiot screamed "Iron my shirt!" at HRC, it was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted "Shine my shoes!" at BO, it would've inspired hours of airtime and pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor.
--Young political Kennedys--Kathleen, Kerry, and Bobby Jr.--all endorsed Hillary. Sen. Ted, age 76, endorsed Obama. If the situation were reversed, pundits would snort "See? Ted and establishment types back her, but the forward-looking generation backs him." (Personally, I'm unimpressed with Caroline's longing for the Return of the Fathers. Unlike the rest of the world, Americans have short memories. Me, I still recall Marilyn Monroe's suicide, and a dead girl named Mary Jo Kopechne in Chappaquiddick.)
Goodbye to the toxic viciousness . . .
Carl Bernstein's disgust at Hillary's "thick ankles." Nixon-trickster Roger Stone's new Hillary-hating 527 group, "Citizens United Not Timid" (check the capital letters). John McCain answering "How do we beat the bitch?" with "Excellent question!" Would he have dared reply similarly to "How do we beat the black bastard?" For shame.
Goodbye to the HRC nutcracker with metal spikes between splayed thighs. If it was a tap-dancing blackface doll, we would be righteously outraged—and they would not be selling it in airports. Shame.
Goodbye to the most intimately violent T-shirts in election history, including one with the murderous slogan "If Only Hillary had married O.J. Instead!" Shame.
Goodbye to Comedy Central's "Southpark" featuring a storyline in which terrorists secrete a bomb in HRC's vagina. I refuse to wrench my brain down into the gutter far enough to find a race-based comparison. For shame.
Goodbye to the sick, malicious idea that this is funny. This is not "Clinton hating," not "Hillary hating." This is sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about Jews, we would recognize it instantly as anti-Semitic propaganda; if about race, as KKK poison. Hell, PETA would go ballistic if such vomitous spew were directed at animals. Where is our sense of outrage—as citizens, voters, Americans?
Goodbye to the news-coverage target-practice . . .
The women's movement and Media Matters wrung an apology from MSNBC's Chris Matthews for relentless misogynistic comments (www.womensmediacenter.com). But what about NBC's Tim Russert's continual sexist asides and his all-white-male panels pontificating on race and gender? Or CNN's Tony Harris chuckling at "the chromosome thing" while interviewing a woman from The White House Project? And that's not even mentioning Fox News.
Goodbye to pretending the black community is entirely male and all women are white . . .
Surprise! Women exist in all opinions, pigmentations, ethnicities, abilities, sexual preferences, and ages--not only African American and European American but Latina and Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, Arab American and—hey, every group, because a group wouldn't be alive if we hadn't given birth to it. A few non-racist countries may exist--but sexism is everywhere. No matter how many ways a woman breaks free from other oppressions, she remains a female human being in a world still so patriarchal that it's the "norm."
So why should all women not be as justly proud of our womanhood and the centuries, even millennia, of struggle that got us this far, as black Americans, women and men, are justly proud of their struggles?
Goodbye to a campaign where he has to pass as white (which whites—especially wealthy ones--adore), while she has to pass as male (which both men and women demanded of her, and then found unforgivable). If she were black or he were female we wouldn't be having such problems, and I for one would be in heaven. But at present such a candidate wouldn't stand a chance—even if she shared Condi Rice's Bush-defending politics.
I was celebrating the pivotal power at last focused on African American women deciding on which of two candidates to bestow their vote--until a number of Hillary-supporting black feminists told me they're being called "race traitors."
So goodbye to conversations about this nation's deepest scar—slavery—which fail to acknowledge that labor- and sexual-slavery exist today in the US and elsewhere on this planet, and the majority of those enslaved are women.
Women have endured sex/race/ethnic/religious hatred, rape and battery, invasion of spirit and flesh, forced pregnancy; being the majority of the poor, the illiterate, the disabled, of refugees, caregivers, the HIV/AIDS afflicted, the powerless. We have survived invisibility, ridicule, religious fundamentalisms, polygamy, teargas, forced feedings, jails, asylums, sati, purdah, female genital mutilation, witch burnings, stonings, and attempted gynocides. We have tried reason, persuasion, reassurances, and being extra-qualified, only to learn it never was about qualifications after all. We know that at this historical moment women experience the world differently from men--though not all the same as one another--and can govern differently, from Elizabeth Tudor to Michele Bachelet and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
We remember when Shirley Chisholm and Patricia Schroeder ran for this high office and barely got past the gate—they showed too much passion, raised too little cash, were joke fodder. Goodbye to all that. (And goodbye to some feminists so famished for a female president they were even willing to abandon women's rights in backing Elizabeth Dole.)
Goodbye, goodbye to . . .
--blaming anything Bill Clinton does on Hillary (even including his womanizing like the Kennedy guys--though unlike them, he got reported on). Let's get real. If he hadn't campaigned strongly for her everyone would cluck over what that meant. Enough of Bill and Teddy Kennedy locking their alpha male horns while Hillary pays for it.
--an era when parts of the populace feel so disaffected by politics that a comparative lack of knowledge, experience, and skill is actually seen as attractive, when celebrity-culture mania now infects our elections so that it's "cooler" to glow with marquee charisma than to understand the vast global complexities of power on a nuclear, wounded planet.
--the notion that it's fun to elect a handsome, cocky president who feels he can learn on the job, goodbye to George W. Bush and the destruction brought by his inexperience, ignorance, and arrogance.
Goodbye to the accusation that HRC acts "entitled" when she's worked intensely at everything she's done—including being a nose-to-the-grindstone, first-rate senator from my state.
Goodbye to her being exploited as a Rorschach test by women who reduce her to a blank screen on which they project their own fears, failures, fantasies.
Goodbye to the phrase "polarizing figure" to describe someone who embodies the transitions women have made in the last century and are poised to make in this one. It was the women's movement that quipped, "We are becoming the men we wanted to marry." She heard us, and she has.
Goodbye to some women letting history pass by while wringing their hands, because Hillary isn't as "likeable" as they've been warned they must be, or because she didn't leave him, couldn't "control" him, kept her family together and raised a smart, sane daughter. (Think of the blame if Chelsea had ever acted in the alcoholic, neurotic manner of the Bush twins!) Goodbye to some women pouting because she didn't bake cookies or she did, sniping because she learned the rules and then bent or broke them. Grow the hell up. She is not running for Ms.-perfect-pure-queen-icon of the feminist movement. She is running to be President of the United States.
Goodbye to the shocking American ignorance of our own and other countries' history. Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir rose through party ranks and war, positioning themselves as proto-male leaders. Almost all other female heads of government so far have been related to men of power—granddaughters, daughters, sisters, wives, widows: Gandhi, Bandaranike, Bhutto, Aquino, Chamorro, Wazed, Macapagal-Arroyo, Johnson Sirleaf, Bachelet, Kirchner, and more. Even in our "land of opportunity," it's mostly the first pathway "in" permitted to women: Reps. Doris Matsui and Mary Bono and Sala Burton; Sen. Jean Carnahan . . . far too many to list here.
Goodbye to a misrepresented generational divide . . .
Goodbye to the so-called spontaneous "Obama Girl" flaunting her bikini-clad ass online—then confessing Oh yeah it wasn't her idea after all, some guys got her to do it and dictated the clothes, which she said "made me feel like a dork."
Goodbye to some young women eager to win male approval by showing they're not feminists (at least not the kind who actually threaten the status quo), who can't identify with a woman candidate because she is unafraid of eeueweeeu yucky power, who fear their boyfriends might look at them funny if they say something good about her. Goodbye to women of any age again feeling unworthy, sulking "what if she's not electable?" or "maybe it's post-feminism and whoooosh we're already free." Let a statement by the magnificent Harriet Tubman stand as reply. When asked how she managed to save hundreds of enslaved African Americans via the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, she replied bitterly, "I could have saved thousands—if only I'd been able to convince them they were slaves."
I'd rather say a joyful Hello to all the glorious young women who do identify with Hillary, and all the brave, smart men—of all ethnicities and any age--who get that it's in their self-interest, too. She's better qualified. (D'uh.) She's a high-profile candidate with an enormous grasp of foreign- and domestic-policy nuance, dedication to detail, ability to absorb staggering insult and personal pain while retaining dignity, resolve, even humor, and keep on keeping on. (Also, yes, dammit, let's hear it for her connections and funding and party-building background, too. Obama was awfully glad about those when she raised dough and campaigned for him to get to the Senate in the first place.)
I'd rather look forward to what a good president he might make in eight years, when his vision and spirit are seasoned by practical know-how--and he'll be all of 54. Meanwhile, goodbye to turning him into a shining knight when actually he's an astute, smooth pol with speechwriters who've worked with the Kennedys' own speechwriter-courtier Ted Sorenson. If it's only about ringing rhetoric, let speechwriters run. But isn't it about getting the policies we want enacted?
And goodbye to the ageism . . .
How dare anyone unilaterally decide when to turn the page on history, papering over real inequities and suffering constituencies in the promise of a feel-good campaign? How dare anyone claim to unify while dividing, or think that to rouse US youth from torpor it's useful to triage the single largest demographic in this country's history: the boomer generation--the majority of which is female?
Older woman are the one group that doesn't grow more conservative with age—and we are the generation of radicals who said "Well-behaved women seldom make history." Goodbye to going gently into any goodnight any man prescribes for us. We are the women who changed the reality of the United States. And though we never went away, brace yourselves: we're back!
We are the women who brought this country equal credit, better pay, affirmative action, the concept of a family-focused workplace; the women who established rape-crisis centers and battery shelters, marital-rape and date-rape laws; the women who defended lesbian custody rights, who fought for prison reform, founded the peace and environmental movements; who insisted that medical research include female anatomy, who inspired men to become more nurturing parents, who created women's studies and Title IX so we all could cheer the WNBA stars and Mia Hamm. We are the women who reclaimed sexuality from violent pornography, who put child care on the national agenda, who transformed demographics, artistic expression, language itself. We are the women who forged a worldwide movement. We are the proud successors of women who, though it took more than 50 years, won us the vote.
We are the women who now comprise the majority of US voters.
Hillary said she found her own voice in New Hampshire. There's not a woman alive who, if she's honest, doesn't recognize what she means. Then HRC got drowned out by campaign experts, Bill, and media's obsession with All Things Bill.
So listen to her voice:
"For too long, the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words.
"It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls. It is a violation of human rights when woman and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution. It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small. It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war. It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide along women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes. It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.
"Women's rights are human rights. Among those rights are the right to speak freely--and the right to be heard."
That was Hillary Rodham Clinton defying the US State Department and the Chinese Government at the 1995 UN World Conference on Women in Beijing (the full, stunning speech: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/hillaryclintonbeijingspeech.htm).
And this voice, age 22, in "Commencement Remarks of Hillary D. Rodham, President of Wellesley College Government Association, Class of 1969" (full speech: http://www.wellesley.edu/PublicAffairs/Commencement/1969/053169hillary.html)
"We are, all of us, exploring a world none of us understands. . . . searching for a more immediate, ecstatic, and penetrating mode of living. . . . [for the] integrity, the courage to be whole, living in relation to one another in the full poetry of existence. The struggle for an integrated life existing in an atmosphere of communal trust and respect is one with desperately important political and social consequences. . . . Fear is always with us, but we just don't have time for it."
She ended with the commitment "to practice, with all the skill of our being: the art of making possible."
And for decades, she's been learning how.
So goodbye to Hillary's second-guessing herself. The real question is deeper than her re-finding her voice. Can we women find ours? Can we do this for ourselves? "Our President, Ourselves!"
Time is short and the contest tightening. We need to rise in furious energy--as we did when courageous Anita Hill was so vilely treated in the US Senate, as we did when desperate Rosie Jiminez was butchered by an illegal abortion, as we did and do for women globally who are condemned for trying to break through. We need to win, this time. Goodbye to supporting HRC tepidly, with ambivalent caveats and apologetic smiles. Time to volunteer, make phone calls, send emails, donate money, argue, rally, march, shout, vote.
Me? I support Hillary Rodham because she's the best qualified of all candidates running in both parties. I support her because her progressive politics are as strong as her proven ability to withstand what will be a massive right-wing assault in the general election. I support her because she's refreshingly thoughtful, and I'm bloodied from eight years of a jolly "uniter" with ejaculatory politics. I needn't agree with her on every point. I agree with the 97 percent of her positions that are identical with Obama's—and the few where hers are both more practical and to the left of his (like health care). I support her because she's already smashed the first-lady stereotype and made history as a fine senator, and because I believe she will continue to make history not only as the first US woman president, but as a great US president.
As for the "woman thing"?
Me, I'm voting for Hillary not because she's a woman--but because I am.
RM
February 2, 2008
New York City
[Also posted on www.womensmediacenter.com]
Official Site:
www.RobinMorgan.us
GOODBYE TO ALL THAT (#2) by Robin Morgan
"Goodbye To All That" was my (in)famous 1970 essay breaking free from a politics of accommodation especially affecting women (for an online version, see http://blog.fair-use.org/category/chicago/).
During my decades in civil-rights, anti-war, and contemporary women's movements, I've avoided writing another specific "Goodbye . . .". But not since the suffrage struggle have two communities--the joint conscience-keepers of this country--been so set in competition, as the contest between Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) and Barack Obama (BO) unfurls. So.
Goodbye to the double standard . . .
--Hillary is too ballsy but too womanly, a Snow Maiden who's emotional, and so much a politician as to be unfit for politics.
--She's "ambitious" but he shows "fire in the belly." (Ever had labor pains? )
--When a sexist idiot screamed "Iron my shirt!" at HRC, it was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted "Shine my shoes!" at BO, it would've inspired hours of airtime and pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor.
--Young political Kennedys--Kathleen, Kerry, and Bobby Jr.--all endorsed Hillary. Sen. Ted, age 76, endorsed Obama. If the situation were reversed, pundits would snort "See? Ted and establishment types back her, but the forward-looking generation backs him." (Personally, I'm unimpressed with Caroline's longing for the Return of the Fathers. Unlike the rest of the world, Americans have short memories. Me, I still recall Marilyn Monroe's suicide, and a dead girl named Mary Jo Kopechne in Chappaquiddick.)
Goodbye to the toxic viciousness . . .
Carl Bernstein's disgust at Hillary's "thick ankles." Nixon-trickster Roger Stone's new Hillary-hating 527 group, "Citizens United Not Timid" (check the capital letters). John McCain answering "How do we beat the bitch?" with "Excellent question!" Would he have dared reply similarly to "How do we beat the black bastard?" For shame.
Goodbye to the HRC nutcracker with metal spikes between splayed thighs. If it was a tap-dancing blackface doll, we would be righteously outraged—and they would not be selling it in airports. Shame.
Goodbye to the most intimately violent T-shirts in election history, including one with the murderous slogan "If Only Hillary had married O.J. Instead!" Shame.
Goodbye to Comedy Central's "Southpark" featuring a storyline in which terrorists secrete a bomb in HRC's vagina. I refuse to wrench my brain down into the gutter far enough to find a race-based comparison. For shame.
Goodbye to the sick, malicious idea that this is funny. This is not "Clinton hating," not "Hillary hating." This is sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about Jews, we would recognize it instantly as anti-Semitic propaganda; if about race, as KKK poison. Hell, PETA would go ballistic if such vomitous spew were directed at animals. Where is our sense of outrage—as citizens, voters, Americans?
Goodbye to the news-coverage target-practice . . .
The women's movement and Media Matters wrung an apology from MSNBC's Chris Matthews for relentless misogynistic comments (www.womensmediacenter.com). But what about NBC's Tim Russert's continual sexist asides and his all-white-male panels pontificating on race and gender? Or CNN's Tony Harris chuckling at "the chromosome thing" while interviewing a woman from The White House Project? And that's not even mentioning Fox News.
Goodbye to pretending the black community is entirely male and all women are white . . .
Surprise! Women exist in all opinions, pigmentations, ethnicities, abilities, sexual preferences, and ages--not only African American and European American but Latina and Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, Arab American and—hey, every group, because a group wouldn't be alive if we hadn't given birth to it. A few non-racist countries may exist--but sexism is everywhere. No matter how many ways a woman breaks free from other oppressions, she remains a female human being in a world still so patriarchal that it's the "norm."
So why should all women not be as justly proud of our womanhood and the centuries, even millennia, of struggle that got us this far, as black Americans, women and men, are justly proud of their struggles?
Goodbye to a campaign where he has to pass as white (which whites—especially wealthy ones--adore), while she has to pass as male (which both men and women demanded of her, and then found unforgivable). If she were black or he were female we wouldn't be having such problems, and I for one would be in heaven. But at present such a candidate wouldn't stand a chance—even if she shared Condi Rice's Bush-defending politics.
I was celebrating the pivotal power at last focused on African American women deciding on which of two candidates to bestow their vote--until a number of Hillary-supporting black feminists told me they're being called "race traitors."
So goodbye to conversations about this nation's deepest scar—slavery—which fail to acknowledge that labor- and sexual-slavery exist today in the US and elsewhere on this planet, and the majority of those enslaved are women.
Women have endured sex/race/ethnic/religious hatred, rape and battery, invasion of spirit and flesh, forced pregnancy; being the majority of the poor, the illiterate, the disabled, of refugees, caregivers, the HIV/AIDS afflicted, the powerless. We have survived invisibility, ridicule, religious fundamentalisms, polygamy, teargas, forced feedings, jails, asylums, sati, purdah, female genital mutilation, witch burnings, stonings, and attempted gynocides. We have tried reason, persuasion, reassurances, and being extra-qualified, only to learn it never was about qualifications after all. We know that at this historical moment women experience the world differently from men--though not all the same as one another--and can govern differently, from Elizabeth Tudor to Michele Bachelet and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
We remember when Shirley Chisholm and Patricia Schroeder ran for this high office and barely got past the gate—they showed too much passion, raised too little cash, were joke fodder. Goodbye to all that. (And goodbye to some feminists so famished for a female president they were even willing to abandon women's rights in backing Elizabeth Dole.)
Goodbye, goodbye to . . .
--blaming anything Bill Clinton does on Hillary (even including his womanizing like the Kennedy guys--though unlike them, he got reported on). Let's get real. If he hadn't campaigned strongly for her everyone would cluck over what that meant. Enough of Bill and Teddy Kennedy locking their alpha male horns while Hillary pays for it.
--an era when parts of the populace feel so disaffected by politics that a comparative lack of knowledge, experience, and skill is actually seen as attractive, when celebrity-culture mania now infects our elections so that it's "cooler" to glow with marquee charisma than to understand the vast global complexities of power on a nuclear, wounded planet.
--the notion that it's fun to elect a handsome, cocky president who feels he can learn on the job, goodbye to George W. Bush and the destruction brought by his inexperience, ignorance, and arrogance.
Goodbye to the accusation that HRC acts "entitled" when she's worked intensely at everything she's done—including being a nose-to-the-grindstone, first-rate senator from my state.
Goodbye to her being exploited as a Rorschach test by women who reduce her to a blank screen on which they project their own fears, failures, fantasies.
Goodbye to the phrase "polarizing figure" to describe someone who embodies the transitions women have made in the last century and are poised to make in this one. It was the women's movement that quipped, "We are becoming the men we wanted to marry." She heard us, and she has.
Goodbye to some women letting history pass by while wringing their hands, because Hillary isn't as "likeable" as they've been warned they must be, or because she didn't leave him, couldn't "control" him, kept her family together and raised a smart, sane daughter. (Think of the blame if Chelsea had ever acted in the alcoholic, neurotic manner of the Bush twins!) Goodbye to some women pouting because she didn't bake cookies or she did, sniping because she learned the rules and then bent or broke them. Grow the hell up. She is not running for Ms.-perfect-pure-queen-icon of the feminist movement. She is running to be President of the United States.
Goodbye to the shocking American ignorance of our own and other countries' history. Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir rose through party ranks and war, positioning themselves as proto-male leaders. Almost all other female heads of government so far have been related to men of power—granddaughters, daughters, sisters, wives, widows: Gandhi, Bandaranike, Bhutto, Aquino, Chamorro, Wazed, Macapagal-Arroyo, Johnson Sirleaf, Bachelet, Kirchner, and more. Even in our "land of opportunity," it's mostly the first pathway "in" permitted to women: Reps. Doris Matsui and Mary Bono and Sala Burton; Sen. Jean Carnahan . . . far too many to list here.
Goodbye to a misrepresented generational divide . . .
Goodbye to the so-called spontaneous "Obama Girl" flaunting her bikini-clad ass online—then confessing Oh yeah it wasn't her idea after all, some guys got her to do it and dictated the clothes, which she said "made me feel like a dork."
Goodbye to some young women eager to win male approval by showing they're not feminists (at least not the kind who actually threaten the status quo), who can't identify with a woman candidate because she is unafraid of eeueweeeu yucky power, who fear their boyfriends might look at them funny if they say something good about her. Goodbye to women of any age again feeling unworthy, sulking "what if she's not electable?" or "maybe it's post-feminism and whoooosh we're already free." Let a statement by the magnificent Harriet Tubman stand as reply. When asked how she managed to save hundreds of enslaved African Americans via the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, she replied bitterly, "I could have saved thousands—if only I'd been able to convince them they were slaves."
I'd rather say a joyful Hello to all the glorious young women who do identify with Hillary, and all the brave, smart men—of all ethnicities and any age--who get that it's in their self-interest, too. She's better qualified. (D'uh.) She's a high-profile candidate with an enormous grasp of foreign- and domestic-policy nuance, dedication to detail, ability to absorb staggering insult and personal pain while retaining dignity, resolve, even humor, and keep on keeping on. (Also, yes, dammit, let's hear it for her connections and funding and party-building background, too. Obama was awfully glad about those when she raised dough and campaigned for him to get to the Senate in the first place.)
I'd rather look forward to what a good president he might make in eight years, when his vision and spirit are seasoned by practical know-how--and he'll be all of 54. Meanwhile, goodbye to turning him into a shining knight when actually he's an astute, smooth pol with speechwriters who've worked with the Kennedys' own speechwriter-courtier Ted Sorenson. If it's only about ringing rhetoric, let speechwriters run. But isn't it about getting the policies we want enacted?
And goodbye to the ageism . . .
How dare anyone unilaterally decide when to turn the page on history, papering over real inequities and suffering constituencies in the promise of a feel-good campaign? How dare anyone claim to unify while dividing, or think that to rouse US youth from torpor it's useful to triage the single largest demographic in this country's history: the boomer generation--the majority of which is female?
Older woman are the one group that doesn't grow more conservative with age—and we are the generation of radicals who said "Well-behaved women seldom make history." Goodbye to going gently into any goodnight any man prescribes for us. We are the women who changed the reality of the United States. And though we never went away, brace yourselves: we're back!
We are the women who brought this country equal credit, better pay, affirmative action, the concept of a family-focused workplace; the women who established rape-crisis centers and battery shelters, marital-rape and date-rape laws; the women who defended lesbian custody rights, who fought for prison reform, founded the peace and environmental movements; who insisted that medical research include female anatomy, who inspired men to become more nurturing parents, who created women's studies and Title IX so we all could cheer the WNBA stars and Mia Hamm. We are the women who reclaimed sexuality from violent pornography, who put child care on the national agenda, who transformed demographics, artistic expression, language itself. We are the women who forged a worldwide movement. We are the proud successors of women who, though it took more than 50 years, won us the vote.
We are the women who now comprise the majority of US voters.
Hillary said she found her own voice in New Hampshire. There's not a woman alive who, if she's honest, doesn't recognize what she means. Then HRC got drowned out by campaign experts, Bill, and media's obsession with All Things Bill.
So listen to her voice:
"For too long, the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words.
"It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls. It is a violation of human rights when woman and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution. It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small. It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war. It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide along women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes. It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.
"Women's rights are human rights. Among those rights are the right to speak freely--and the right to be heard."
That was Hillary Rodham Clinton defying the US State Department and the Chinese Government at the 1995 UN World Conference on Women in Beijing (the full, stunning speech: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/hillaryclintonbeijingspeech.htm).
And this voice, age 22, in "Commencement Remarks of Hillary D. Rodham, President of Wellesley College Government Association, Class of 1969" (full speech: http://www.wellesley.edu/PublicAffairs/Commencement/1969/053169hillary.html)
"We are, all of us, exploring a world none of us understands. . . . searching for a more immediate, ecstatic, and penetrating mode of living. . . . [for the] integrity, the courage to be whole, living in relation to one another in the full poetry of existence. The struggle for an integrated life existing in an atmosphere of communal trust and respect is one with desperately important political and social consequences. . . . Fear is always with us, but we just don't have time for it."
She ended with the commitment "to practice, with all the skill of our being: the art of making possible."
And for decades, she's been learning how.
So goodbye to Hillary's second-guessing herself. The real question is deeper than her re-finding her voice. Can we women find ours? Can we do this for ourselves? "Our President, Ourselves!"
Time is short and the contest tightening. We need to rise in furious energy--as we did when courageous Anita Hill was so vilely treated in the US Senate, as we did when desperate Rosie Jiminez was butchered by an illegal abortion, as we did and do for women globally who are condemned for trying to break through. We need to win, this time. Goodbye to supporting HRC tepidly, with ambivalent caveats and apologetic smiles. Time to volunteer, make phone calls, send emails, donate money, argue, rally, march, shout, vote.
Me? I support Hillary Rodham because she's the best qualified of all candidates running in both parties. I support her because her progressive politics are as strong as her proven ability to withstand what will be a massive right-wing assault in the general election. I support her because she's refreshingly thoughtful, and I'm bloodied from eight years of a jolly "uniter" with ejaculatory politics. I needn't agree with her on every point. I agree with the 97 percent of her positions that are identical with Obama's—and the few where hers are both more practical and to the left of his (like health care). I support her because she's already smashed the first-lady stereotype and made history as a fine senator, and because I believe she will continue to make history not only as the first US woman president, but as a great US president.
As for the "woman thing"?
Me, I'm voting for Hillary not because she's a woman--but because I am.
RM
February 2, 2008
New York City
[Also posted on www.womensmediacenter.com]
Official Site:
www.RobinMorgan.us
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
A message from the Feminist Women's Health Centers
The Feminist Women’s Health Centers of California Pioneered Women-controlled Abortion Services. We need your help to continue. Make a donation today: www.cawhs.org
What is the meaning of the historic Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision which legalized abortion across the country thirty-five years ago? Feminists working with Carol Downer started the first women-run clinic offering abortion. Across the country other feminists opened health centers responding to the needs of women to get abortion care with dignity. Women here in Northern California and across the country have benefited from this court decision, but the right of women to choose abortion is an uphill battle. In South Dakota, Georgia, Colorado and Montana there are proposed ballot measures that could outlaw abortion. If any one of these passes and goes to the Supreme Court, the Roe decision could be overturned outright.
In 2007, the Supreme Court decided (Gonzalez v. Carhardt) to criminalize a medical technique used for abortion services in a frontal challenge to women’s dignity and physician’s judgment. In a political move, they overturned their own precedent and significantly curbed women’s right to privacy.
The world changed for women when Dido Hasper and the founders of the Chico Feminist Women’s Health Center made abortion services available by opening a women-run clinic. Until then, the 1973 decision did not change women’s access to abortion locally. Modeled on a woman-centered, participatory, self-help approach, the goal has been offering respect, dignity and self-determination for all who came through the door.
This is the guiding vision of Women’s Health Specialists, the Feminist Women’s Health Centers of California. We continue to offer all options to all women and listen to each woman’s needs. Here in Northern California we serve 50,000 women and men a year in the eight sites that grew from the first one in Chico in 1975. Birth control, pregnancy testing, sex education, abortion services, adoption, sexually transmitted infection services, and pap smears offered with client-centered support. The attacks on women by politicizing health care are held at bay within our four walls. Thanks to the community, we make change together.
Regardless of the Supreme Court’s new direction, we need your help right now. Even with the existing legal structure, there is no freedom of choice without services. What makes us all stronger? Expose anti-woman stigma by sharing your stories with other women. Join us in organizing against the California ballot measure seeking mandatory parental notification. Give time, talent and resources to support rural women’s health care and make women’s lives better right now. Support our Young Women’s Health Institute to promote leadership and self-power for teenage girls. Only with dignity and freedom of choice can women achieve their true potential. www.cawhs.org We are a non-profit 501 © (3) organization. Donations are tax exempt. Tax ID #94-2259357
Women's Health Specialists,
the Feminist Women's Health Centers of California
Celebrating Women's Health in Women's Hands since 1975
Chico . Redding . Sacramento . Santa Rosa . Petaluma . Grass Valley .
Rancho Cordova
What is the meaning of the historic Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision which legalized abortion across the country thirty-five years ago? Feminists working with Carol Downer started the first women-run clinic offering abortion. Across the country other feminists opened health centers responding to the needs of women to get abortion care with dignity. Women here in Northern California and across the country have benefited from this court decision, but the right of women to choose abortion is an uphill battle. In South Dakota, Georgia, Colorado and Montana there are proposed ballot measures that could outlaw abortion. If any one of these passes and goes to the Supreme Court, the Roe decision could be overturned outright.
In 2007, the Supreme Court decided (Gonzalez v. Carhardt) to criminalize a medical technique used for abortion services in a frontal challenge to women’s dignity and physician’s judgment. In a political move, they overturned their own precedent and significantly curbed women’s right to privacy.
The world changed for women when Dido Hasper and the founders of the Chico Feminist Women’s Health Center made abortion services available by opening a women-run clinic. Until then, the 1973 decision did not change women’s access to abortion locally. Modeled on a woman-centered, participatory, self-help approach, the goal has been offering respect, dignity and self-determination for all who came through the door.
This is the guiding vision of Women’s Health Specialists, the Feminist Women’s Health Centers of California. We continue to offer all options to all women and listen to each woman’s needs. Here in Northern California we serve 50,000 women and men a year in the eight sites that grew from the first one in Chico in 1975. Birth control, pregnancy testing, sex education, abortion services, adoption, sexually transmitted infection services, and pap smears offered with client-centered support. The attacks on women by politicizing health care are held at bay within our four walls. Thanks to the community, we make change together.
Regardless of the Supreme Court’s new direction, we need your help right now. Even with the existing legal structure, there is no freedom of choice without services. What makes us all stronger? Expose anti-woman stigma by sharing your stories with other women. Join us in organizing against the California ballot measure seeking mandatory parental notification. Give time, talent and resources to support rural women’s health care and make women’s lives better right now. Support our Young Women’s Health Institute to promote leadership and self-power for teenage girls. Only with dignity and freedom of choice can women achieve their true potential. www.cawhs.org We are a non-profit 501 © (3) organization. Donations are tax exempt. Tax ID #94-2259357
Women's Health Specialists,
the Feminist Women's Health Centers of California
Celebrating Women's Health in Women's Hands since 1975
Chico . Redding . Sacramento . Santa Rosa . Petaluma . Grass Valley .
Rancho Cordova
Celebrate the anniversary of Roe v. Wade!!
January 22, 2008--Thirty-five years of legal abortion! Roe v. Wade has always been a particularly special anniversary to me as I was born the year that the decision was won. And while Roe did not accomplish all our goals for accessible, affordable, politic-free abortion it is a significant statement respecting women to make the choices that are right for them. So today we take a moment to recognize the tireless work that has gone into winning this decision, protecting this decision, and providing the essential service of abortion. Blog for Choice is happening all over the country today. Check out the many who blogged today.
I have been a pro-choice activist for many years. And I have worked for, and now proudly sit on the board of, a feminist women's health center. I have done outreach, I have run education programs, I have talked to many women about abortion...from this and from the examples of countless women in the U.S. and around the globe, one thing that I know for certain is that women who want abortions will find a way to have them. Legality, and even safety, are neither a deterrent nor a motivator of abortion. Abortion is a truth in our lives as women. Indeed, not all women will choose abortion but many do. Each of these choices must be respected if women are ever to experience true self-determination. I believe we must not just advocate for the right to abortion, but the right to make that choice unapologetically, unashamedly.
In addition to celebrating this landmark decision, today (and every day) it is also important that we support our local, community, feminist health centers that provide our services. Their history is incredible and their daily work even more so. If you don't know already find out who your local & feminist provider is and thank them! Better yet, write them a check if you can afford to or volunteer your services if you have the time. Don't lose sight of the fight that continues every day to protect a woman's right to choose. It is a fight I certainly will continue so that my daughter, and the daughters of us all, grow up respected with options.
In choice!
Megan Seely
I have been a pro-choice activist for many years. And I have worked for, and now proudly sit on the board of, a feminist women's health center. I have done outreach, I have run education programs, I have talked to many women about abortion...from this and from the examples of countless women in the U.S. and around the globe, one thing that I know for certain is that women who want abortions will find a way to have them. Legality, and even safety, are neither a deterrent nor a motivator of abortion. Abortion is a truth in our lives as women. Indeed, not all women will choose abortion but many do. Each of these choices must be respected if women are ever to experience true self-determination. I believe we must not just advocate for the right to abortion, but the right to make that choice unapologetically, unashamedly.
In addition to celebrating this landmark decision, today (and every day) it is also important that we support our local, community, feminist health centers that provide our services. Their history is incredible and their daily work even more so. If you don't know already find out who your local & feminist provider is and thank them! Better yet, write them a check if you can afford to or volunteer your services if you have the time. Don't lose sight of the fight that continues every day to protect a woman's right to choose. It is a fight I certainly will continue so that my daughter, and the daughters of us all, grow up respected with options.
In choice!
Megan Seely
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