Category Archives: Feminismism

Zooey Deschanel: My Feminist Icon

Posted on by
3

photo of zooey deschanel pictures photos
Zooey Deschanel has a new hit show, her own band, is co-owner of a brand-new website for women that focuses on being positive, is an actress who has starred alongside the likes of Jim Carrey (and was able to hold her own when it came to comedy), and is – undeniably – completely adorable. So why is there a bunch of Zooey backlash?

Zooey has been called a “hipster queen” – at least that’s how she’s been packaged – and a lot of folks will scoff and roll their eyes at the mention of her name. Part of this, I believe, has to do with her amazing turn as Summer in the indie flick ’500 Days Of Summer’. This is a common thing that happens to actors and actresses – they are so heavily identified to a character that people believe they are that person. People confuse Zooey with Summer and think Summer was kind of a bitch. To those people I say: you clearly did not understand ’500 Days Of Summer’, and that is all.

The film is about Tom, who falls for Summer, then becomes hurt when she ends their causal relationship. Throughout the whole film, Tom is portrayed as someone who is a hopeless romantic and he believes Summer is the one. Summer clearly states over and over again that she is not a romantic, Tom is not one, and this is just fun. But Tom is wrapped up in their time together and is hurt and blindsided when Summer moves on and marries someone else. The problem in the film is Tom. ’500 Days Of Summer’ turns the romantic comedy formula around and makes Tom the typical swoony girl and Summer the boy who will never be tamed. That’s why people have a problem: Tom is not the sweet guy you want to end up with. He is a whiny, selfish boy who doesn’t listen to what she is saying because he can’t believe he would be wrong about this girl. He feels that there’s no way she wouldn’t fall for him, but it’s meant to be according to him. It’s hard to see women in masculine roles, instead of your non-stereotypical swoony dames. So poor Zooey …

Continue reading →



You Might Also Like ...

40 Years Of Feminist Journalism Courtesy of Ms. Magazine

Posted on by
Reply

photo of ms magazine pictures photos
A panel discussion with editors, activists, and bloggers was complied to pay tribute to Ms. magazine. Ms. was co-founded by the feminist icon and activist Gloria Steinem and founding editor Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and together they, along with editors Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, and Mary Peacock, brought together the first truly liberal feminist magazine, which first appeared in 1971 as an insert in New York magazine. They were standing alone by 1972, and even in this day and age of self publishing and blogs, that’s hard to do. They most definitely earned a panel discussion.

With 40 years of journalism, Ms. has had many historic moments in it’s history: in 1972 it published the names of women admitting to having had abortions when the procedure was still illegal in most of the United States. It was practically unheard of, and you didn’t speak about such things, but Ms. did. They were the first fearless females. A 1976 cover story on battered women made Ms. the first national magazine to address the issue of domestic violence. The issue’s cover photo featured a woman with a bruised face, proving that Ms. would not shy away from any story. However,  it wasn’t all good and forward moving – in the 1980′s and 1990′s, Ms. magazine’s credibility was called into question and was subsequently damaged when it became swept up in the day care sexual abuse frenzy and moral panic about Satanic ritual abuse.

But after all this time, what has changed, really? The feminist movement is a slow-moving battle. As I mentioned, in 1972 Ms. magazine broke ground by publishing the names of women who had abortions, but the subject was still taboo and garnered even more attention on the topic again in 2006 when they printed the “We Had Abortions” petition. The petition was part of a cover story that contained signatures of over 5,000 women declaring that they had an abortion and were “unashamed of (the) decision”, including actresses Amy Brenneman and Kathy Najimy, comedienne Carol Leifer, and Steinem herself.

While it’s easy to become overwhelmed, or better yet underwhelmed, with the slow moving change, Ms. has done a lot: ”I always say Ms. changed my life, I would have been a more ordinary person without it.” That quote comes from Suzanne Braun Levine who was the first editor of Ms. The fight must continue and its continuity is pretty inspiring to see and hear, as the people who lit the torch are still apparently running with it. While all those women sat on the panel, the ones who “birthed” this magazine, sitting next to them were bloggers, like myself. They lit the fire, and they continue to fan the flames and it’s spreading. It spread to me, and it spread to Miriam Zoila Perez who writes for feministing.com and is a frequent speaker on reproductive rights. It’s also our jobs to carry the torch and light up the next group. Hopefully, some day soon it’ll go like wildfire.



You Might Also Like ...

Au Revoir, Mademoiselle

Posted on by
Reply

photo of france french women brigitte bardot picsThey say the English language is one of the hardest to learn simply because we have so many words for one thing. Miss, Ms., Mrs. – all of these are prefixes for women, each meaning something different. Miss, unmarried; Ms.- could be unmarried, could be married; Mrs.- definitely married. Bottom line, Americans cover our asses when it comes to language. The French, on the other hand, do not, and this has been bothering some feminists of Cesson-Sevigne. Special corespondent for the LA Times, Kim Willsher, brought this issue to the attention of Americans with her wonderful, through article on Sunday.

“Mademoiselle,” which is the Gallic form of “miss,” and is normally used for young, unmarried women, and so, feminists say, openly declaring them either available or unwanted. But that’s not the only issue with the title, before the French Revolution, the use of “mademoiselle” had little to do with whether a woman was married; a laywoman or commoner was always called “mademoiselle” to indicate she was of lowly status. Only women of high birth were addressed as “madame.”

Feminists were fed up with marking “mademoiselle” on forms and so they they started making noise about it, and finally they were heard. “It’s about eliminating all terms that could be discriminatory or indiscreet,” the town hall at Cesson-Sevigne, a suburb of the western town of Rennes, in Brittany, said in a statement explaining that the title “mademoiselle” had been banished from all official forms since the beginning of …

Continue reading →



You Might Also Like ...

Is This the Best Way to Immortalize the Mother of British Feminism?

Posted on by
Reply

Picture of Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft, a major figure in British feminism, has been lighting up the circuits.

Literally.

In an attempt to raise money to erect a statue of Wollstonecraft, a hologram of her image graced a wall of the Palace of Westminster (a.k.a. “the mother of all parliaments”) as part of a campaign known as “Mary on the Green”.

From The Guardian:

Campaigners are aiming to raise £240,000 to pay for the statuary on Newington Green, in north London, near the site of Wollstonecraft’s former home and the school where the radical 18th-century campaigner taught. They also spent two hours handing out leaflets and promoting the fact that 77 supportive MPs have already signed a petition, including Jeremy Corbyn MP, who masterminded the turning out of the lights overlooking the Thames.

Whether or not a statue is the best way to memorialize the Vindication of the Rights of Women author has become significant as it underscores the lack of women literally captured in stone, evidently a worldwide problem.

Of the 5,193 public outdoor sculptures of famous people in the US, for example, only 394, or less than 8%, are of women, compared with 4,799 of men, according to the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Art Inventories Catalog.

Earlier this year, Lynette Long, a Washington area psychologist and founder of Eve (Equal Visibility Everywhere) told the Young Feminists network in the US that this imbalance had a negative impact on young girls and their sense of equality. “Humans tend to trust the nonverbal, and the statues send a very clear nonverbal message. Girls can’t be what they can’t see,” she said.

So why go to all the trouble to get Wollstonecraft’s image out to the masses?  It might be as simple as the fact that statues of women, such as they are, tend to be of a generic nature.  While there’s the odd Abigail Adams or Phillis Wheatley commemoration, in general men rule the stone world.

Oh, and as to why this is making headlines?  It might have something to do with this …

The last time an image of a woman made headlines for its projection on the House of Commons it was a naked Gail Porter to promote a poll to find the world’s sexiest women. At least this time it is to publicise a campaign to honour one of our most radical and important writers.

So, what do you think?



You Might Also Like ...