Mordant Belle

In the spirit of Tax Day, where everyone begins to wonder where all their money goes…watch an introduction to a simple but excellent 20-minute movie on the sources and solutions to consumption and sustainability: The Story of Stuff!

It’s smart, funny, and informed; Annie clearly knows her stuff. [Horrible pun horribly intended. Ha!] I love it when smart women give us such smart material; we hear too much bullshit from overblown PR spokespeople. She explains both simply and intelligently (how many people successfully pull THAT off???) the historical, political, economic, and biological facts about consumption, as well as providing solutions to help keep us from…you know…sucking the life out of our planet.

Watch!

For me, at least, this is just an excellent explanation of everything that is so fucked up with capitalist/corporate America today. It is the first, but certainly not the last, in the “Dumb USA” category, reserved specifically for examples of uniquely American stupidity, self-centeredness, and greed.

You can view the whole movie and download it for free from storyofstuff.com, as well as see her blog, source material, and other resources.

Thanks to the amazingly hilarious blog, Stuff White People Like, for the lead to this most excellent video.

Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild
by Deborah Siegel, 2007, Pallgrave Macmillan, 240 pages
Mel’s Reading Status: READ

Commentary:
This book was assigned as a textbook in my “Sex, Power, and Politics” Women’s Studies class, and I loved it. Deborah Siegel does a great job of describing the history of the “mainstream” feminist movement, the one that immediately springs to mind when you hear the words “suffrage”, “women’s rights” or “women’s liberation”.* Which most people think they have a pretty good grasp on, and which most people really don’t.

And don’t discount the importance of history; as Siegel points out, many young feminists like me end up reinventing the wheel all over again because we know so little about the reality of this movement that has completely and utterly impacted every area of our lives. When the progress feminism made begins to break down, or when we seek to raise our consciousness or explore our sexuality, we do so without realizing that the trails have been blazed before, and we could learn from seeing where they went, rather then trying to break new ground to end up in the same place.

Reading this book, in combination with my amazing professor’s wealth of knowledge, helped me understand the real history of feminism, where it’s been, where it’s broken down, where it’s been effective and where there is still work to do. I especially love the list of links and resources in the back. As far as I’m concerned this is required reading for anyone who is interested in feminism, but most especially for anyone interested in making feminism part of their activism and daily life.

Additional Comments always welcome.

* I say mainstream because there is/was actually an equally powerful, and some argue more effective, feminist movement among communities of people of color, both before, during, and after the rise of the second wave. Siegel touches on this briefly, and I actually learned quite a bit from her about the movement of women of color, but that’s mostly because I was completely and utterly ignorant that there WAS such a movement, so her few paragraphs were a revelation. She makes clear in her introduction that her book that her history is not meant to address the issues, progress, and history of the feminist movement in communities of people of color.

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From the author of The Macho Paradox comes Tough Guise, a great documentary which I watched during one of my Media Studies classes.

Here’s an excellent preview; more embedded below the fold.

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The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls
by Joan Jacobs Brumberg, 1998, Vintage, 336 pages
Mel’s Reading Status: UNREAD

Summary, Description, and/or History:
This book is both historical and sociological, exploring the ways in which perceptions of the female body (and it’s importance to a girl’s self-worth) have changed over time. Not only has the development of girls’ body changed — menstruation and sexual activity begin much earlier — there is also much greater emphasis of the body as defining your self. Girls grow up believing that “good looks”, rather than “good works” — personal, communal, and professional accomplishments — are the highest form of female perfection. It includes previously unpublished entries from the diaries of girls across America, as well as a photo essay with photographs, advertisements and postcards that show how girls and their bodies have changed since the nineteenth century. Per the book’s web site:

From corsets to body piercing, The Body Project demonstrates how the preoccupation with the body has intensified and why adolescent girls and their bodies have born the brunt of social change in the twentieth century.

Additional Comments always welcome.

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I am devastated today. I look up to Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon, and I am heartbroken to learn of her appropriation of RWOC brownfemipower’s work, which ultimately resulted in the removal of bfp’s powerful and wonderful blog.

As a female blogger who forged something amazing out of her righteous feminist anger, she was someone I had hoped to be. Her blog is one of those that I check every day, and I alway look forward to her humor and scathing commentary, her unabashed willingness to “call bullshit” when she sees it. Many say that being so caustic is damaging to “the cause”, but to the contrary, a perspective that is blunt, straightforward, rightfully angry, and unashamed is refreshing to me, since I’m so used to rhetoric, hedging, evasion, and empty words.

I’m not going to link to any of the multitude of the conversations taking place elsewhere, because they are too many and too confusing. I believe Amanda when she says she did not “steal” brownfemipower’s content, and it appears that she wrote every word of her original article herself. However, I also believe it is intellectually dishonest for her to claim no credit is due to brownfemipower, whose entire activisim and more importantly her blog was based on the topics covered in Amanda’s article, which Amanda has admitted is on her reading list. This is practically a textbook case of appropriation of WOC work.

I understand Amanda’s defensive stance, and her perception of being attacked…she IS being attacked. The question is whether the attack is warranted. Even if some of the accusations are overreactions - which brownfemipower’s was decidedly not, though some of her loyal friends went much more vocal and accusing - that doesn’t invalidate the original complaint. As a woman and a feminist, she knows and understands the effects of discrimination. She can understand what its like, for example, if a male colleague repeats a suggestion of hers and it receives consideration since it came from a male mouth instead of her own. She understands what its like to be ignored, dismissed, silenced, called “hysterical”. This makes her actions regarding brownfemipower all the more disappointing. I’m not sure how this will affect how I read her blog.

There is a simple solution, which I think could solve this, at least between Amanda and bfp. Amanda, apologize. Say you’re sorry for the lack of mention. Say appropriation was not your intention, and thank bfp for her blog, which you have read, which helps you track the discrimination and racism people of color, especially women of color, experience. Add a link in your article, either at the end or within the text, to brownfemipower’s work. Maybe even link to some other inspirations…you said you were inspired by speeches and texts not from brownfemipower. Acknowledge those too.

That’s all. That’s really all it would take. At that point it is not longer appropriation, but you adding your unique voice to the work of the RWOC. You would be defending WOC and their right to speak and be heard, rather than undermine those rights.

Your unwillingness to do that, for whatever reason, is what the uproar is all about.

The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and and How All Men Can Help
By Jason Katz, 2006, Sourcebooks, 296 pages
Mel’s Reading Status: UNREAD

Commentary:
This popped up on my Amazon recommendations, and it looks fascinating. Katz, who I never heard of before looking at this book, is a famous anti-sexist and anti-violence advocate, specializing in prevention. Once I started looking into him and his work, I realized I’d already seen some of it, as the man behind Tough Guise: Violence, Media, and the Crisis in Masculinity, an excellent documentary from the Media Education Foundation, who I hope to post on more in the future.

Summary, Description, and/or History:
From Publisher’s Weekly, via Amazon.com:

“Katz is cofounder of the Mentors in Violence Prevention Program (MVP), and his focus is on prevention—his intended audience is not violent men who need help changing their ways, but all men, who, he says, have a role to play in preventing male violence against women.
His basic assertion is that rape, battering, sexual abuse and harassment are so widespread that they must be viewed as a social problem rooted in our culture, not as the problem of troubled individuals. He urges men to directly confront the misogynistic attitudes and behavior of their peers.
Some men may find Katz’s advice occasionally baffling: he is full of directions about what not to do (such as paternalistic actions that deprive women of their autonomy). He wants to bring men into the larger discussion of pornography (which, he points out, has been dominated by women) and get them to look at its impact on themselves. Katz also presents eye-opening exercises and discussions from the MVP model that engender productive discussion among participants — usually high school or college students.”

A great excerpt from the opening page:

“Most people think violence against women is a woman’s issue. And why wouldn’t they? Just about every women in this society thinks about it every day. If they are not getting harassed on the street, living in an abusive relationship, recovering from a rape, or in therapy to deal with the sexual abuse they suffered as children, they are ordering their daily lives around the threat of men’s violence.
But it is a mistake to call men’s violence a women’s issue.”

Additional Comments always welcome.

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Up until last month, I worked at *local video rental store*, in what’s known locally as a “ghetto”, though it wasn’t really one - just a run-down, poor area, where lots of our customers were black, Latino/a, and rural white folks. I always closed, which meant that I was there til midnight or 1am

Sam worried for my safety all the time, for which I appreciated his concern, but I got increasingly annoyed that every day I worked, he would fret about my car being broken into or stolen, or my being assaulted/kidnapped/raped in the parking lot. Every day he would say something about it, and say, half serious, half in jest, that he would come escort me home.

This despite the fact that I repeatedly told him I felt quite safe at work - I knew the security guard assigned to the area, a short, middle-aged, fast talking black woman who was possibly the sweetest person I ever met, and who checked in with all the staff (most of us were in our early 20s) frequently.

I also trusted all my coworkers - we were all friends and we all watched out for each other. I frequently drove some of the guys home who only had skateboards or whose family had only one car, so they had to wait for their mom. My car is a piece of shit 2000 Saturn anyway, damaged by an accident that I didn’t fix. I hated that he would go on and on that I was in danger and my car was in danger, when I knew I was safe.

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This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color
By Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, 2002, 3rd Woman Press, 370 pages (3rd edition)
Mel’s Reading Status: UNREAD

Commentary:
I really want to read this book, but ran into several issues getting my hands on the 3rd edition, not the least of which being that my library’s copy is missing. Most of the copies of the 3rd edition that I find online are much too expensive; most were over $200, some were only $100. Anything less than $100 was very used. This is the second, and biggest, problem I ran into while trying to locate this book. The second edition, however, is much less expensive, though it lacks the newer material. Both of these editions seem to be out of print.

UPDATE: I finally got my hands on a gorgeous copy of the 3rd edition, by basically stalking the “New & Used” from Amazon.com and AbeBooks. It was awesome, I found one that was barely used, for only $42. If you want to get your hands on this book, I would recommend doing that.

Summary, Description, and/or History:
Originally published in 1984 (1983? ‘84? Sources vary!), this anthology, which includes poems, prose, and essays, was edited by two radical women of color (Chicanas, both). This Bridge Called My Back was groundbreaking, the first well-known book that really held white feminists’ feet to the fire, so to speak, about their deliberate ignorance of the racial disparities within the feminist movement, and called for a radical restructuring of America. This third edition contains all the original material from the first two editions, including their forwards, prefaces, and introductions, as well as a new forward by Moraga that she began writing on September 11, 2001.

Additional Comments always welcome.

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Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
By Susan Faludi, 2006, Three Rivers Press, 592 pages
Mel’s Reading Status: READING

Commentary:
This book is difficult to read so far, simply because of the sheer volume of information. But it’s absolutely crucial reading, for anyone, but especially feminists. I recommend you read it in small spurts — I’m taking it chapter by chapter, giving it time to digest.

Summary, Description, and/or History:
Originally published in 1991 (the cover I have here is for the 15th Anniversary edition), it’s a little out of date in terms of numbers. However, the phenomenon are still there, the analysis is still right on, and the truths it unveils are still disturbing at how much of the discrimination faced by women is part of a system. The book is INSANELY well-researched, literally TONS of numbers; Faludi is a Pulitzer-prize winning former Wall Street Journal reporter, and it shows. Feminist beginners should definitely read this as soon as they can stomach it; this is one of those texts that long-timers will refer back to again and again.

Additional Comments always welcome.

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The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women
By Naomi Wolf, 2002, Harper Perrenial, 368 pages
Mel’s Reading Status: READING

Commentary:
I am in the process of reading this book, and it’s so powerful. It’s one of those things that really wakes you up to how much of what we suspect, what we have this instinct is going on but can’t quite put our finger on because it seems so normal, so Just The Way Things Are, is a SYSTEM. It’s not an accident, but an institution, an actual system and process that was put in place to preserve the majority of people from having equal access to power.

Summary, Description, and/or History:
Summary Via Amazon.com: In a country where the average woman is 5-foot-4 and weighs 140 pounds, movies, advertisements, and MTV saturate our lives with unrealistic images of beauty. The tall, nearly emaciated mannequins that push the latest miracle cosmetic make even the most confident woman question her appearance. Feminist Naomi Wolf argues that women’s insecurities are heightened by these images, then exploited by the diet, cosmetic, and plastic surgery industries. Every day new products are introduced to “correct” inherently female “flaws,” drawing women into an obsessive and hopeless cycle built around the attempt to reach an impossible standard of beauty. Wolf rejects the standard and embraces the naturally distinct beauty of all women.

Additional Comments always welcome.

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