Viva la Feminista

You would think that I wrote Pink Brain , Blue Brain the way I'm obsessed by it. But I just had to share with you the fact that Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers, authors of Same Difference: How Gender Myths Are Hurting Our Relationships, Our Children and Our Jobs , have an excellent review in Women Review of Books . AND I got special permission to share it with you! It's a PDF file , but it's well worth the download and read. Enjoy.

After I posted about the Census and Dept of Ed boxes that don't properly include Latinos & Latinas, I received some comments & emails about this blog. Comments from Latinas about how they felt like they were raised in a feminist way, but without knowing or learning the word feminist. Comments about struggling with feminism as a Latina. Comments about feeling shunned in women's studies courses (as someone who has two women's studies minors broke my heart). So it's been stewing...What can I do about this? The Summer of Feminista (or so I'm calling it now, other suggestions much appreciated!) was born. If you are a Latina and have issues with feminism, things you want to discuss about feminism or merely reflect on how your abuelita raised you in such a radically feminist way despite the fact that she never uttered the word, then I am asking you to submit a guest blog post between the June 29th and Sept 14th, in other words, the rest of the summer. While I

Remember my challenge to you my dear readers? The one where I asked you to pledge to attend ONE professional women's sporting event in 2010?   Well Chicago friends, July 25th is a wonderful chance to fulfill that pledge! Chicago Red Stars vs Boston Breakers July 25, 2010 3 PM Toyota Park $19 per ticket For $19 you get discounted Harlem End tickets with a hot dog or pizza, dessert/fruit cup, and drink during a pre-game tailgate lunch at the stadium. You will be placed in seats with the “I Pledge to Attend a Women’s Sports Game 2010” group. If we purchase 50 tickets in this section, 11 lucky kids, age 11 and under, will be selected to be player escorts for the Chicago Red Stars, leading WPS players onto the field during introductions. Use our super special ticket portal to purchase your tickets! If you haven't been to a Red Stars game, let me tell you that it's awesome. The crowd is super family friendly, parking is right outside the stadium and the game i

When my daughter was old enough for chapter books, I couldn't wait to get her a Nancy Drew book, specifically a young readers version of Nancy called " Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew ." She fell in love! It's precisely this handing down of Nancy Drew from mother to daughter, aunt to niece and super cool friend of Mom's to a young girl that has allowed Nancy Drew to remain one of the best selling children's book series of all time. In Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her, Melanie Rehak does an excellent job at outlining the birth and rise to world domination of our beloved Nancy Drew. The birth of Nancy Drew came from a combination of "father of only daughters finds feminism" and a new found attention of the massive buying power of teens. In 1922 "the Stratemeyer Syndicate [which birthed Nancy Drew] earned $9.1 million, $1 million of which was from [one of their girls series] (page 98)." Which leads to one of the themes

I'm pretty sure I've noticed this before, but it wasn't until a co-worker sent me a list of free days of Chicago museums that it dawned on me again. There are not many free days for Chicago Public School kids. The last day for CPS is not until this Friday, June 18th. The Adler Planetarium doesn't have one free day between June 21st and September 6th. In fact they have a free day on the FIRST DAY for CPS. There is a free week two weeks before CPS lets out for the summer. The Field Museum has three free days during the CPS summer break. It also has three free days in June before CPS kids are off for the summer. The Museum of Science and Industry has one free day during CPS summer break. There is a free week two weeks before CPS lets out for the summer. The Shedd Aquarium has ZERO free days during CPS summer break. There is a free week the last week CPS is in session (this week!). I think that most of us would consider these four museums the four of the big five or m

Stella looks like and usually acts like your run of the mill grandma. But she has a secret that is protected not by her, but also by the women she helps. Stella spent years in an abusive marriage and busted out of it in the most literal sense. Now she dedicates her life to busting other women out of abusive relationships. A Bad Day for Pretty by Sophie Littlefield held my attention like no other mystery novel. Not only did I want to learn the conclusion of the murder mystery, but I also wanted to know more about Stella. I wish we all had a Stella in our lives and not just because she kicks ass. I want to share a beer with her. This book was pitched to me as a feminist mystery novel and there are certainly a lot of feminist messages. What I loved even more was a debate between Stella and her partner-in-crime in training, Chrissy about which women deserve to be saved. There's even an awesome scene where Stella goes off on Working Mother magazine. But in the end, I'd say it

Jennifer Pozner at WIMNs Voices: It happened again . Another violent guy shot and killed his wife — and went on to gun down six other women unfortunate enough to be in his path before committing suicide. Four women are now dead; three others are in critical condition. And some media outlets (such as the AP story on Yahoo! News , “5 dead after shooting in Miami-area restaurant,”) are still failing to report this as a gender-based hate crime… echoing previous journalistic failures.  Me two years ago:  Friend of Viva la Feminista, Jennifer Pozner has been writing about the gender imbalance in school, now mass, shootings since Jonesboro in 1996. Heck, one of my first pseudo-blogs back then was the keep a running photo memorial to the women killed in the shootings from Jonesboro to Columbine. Yet time again, shooting after shooting, the media scoffs aside the fact that MEN do most of the killing.   Is there anything new to add to this conversation? Now go read the rest

A few months ago when a bunch of us Latinas and Latinos were discussing which box to check on the Census we came up with a good way to express our desire to be seen as Latino to the government. Not white. Latino. We would check yes for Hispanic/Latino and then write in Latino for other. The Department of Education ain't gonna play that game. Last month my daughter came home with a note asking us to re-identify her (our) ethnicity for school records [Link is not to her school, just an example]. There was no "other" option (see below). OK, I"ll just leave the second question blank and check the yes for Hispanic/Latino. Then I read further on that if I did that, someone at her school would check a box for us. WTF? The U.S. Department of Education is requiring this of all students, staff, faculty/teachers across the country. As someone who works in education, I had to do this for myself. Part One: Is this person Hispanic or Latino? (Must choose one) Hispanic or

Apparently "could" and "should" are being mixed up. The EPA has told Chicago that the Chicago River should be cleaned up to a level where people could swim in it.   The EPA didn't say we should all jump into the Chicago River, but Da Mayor told the Feds to go swim in the Potomac . Of course the EPA just wants the Chicago River, which is increasingly becoming a place for Chicagoans to canoe and kayak, to be clean enough for people to enjoy. I ran into a friend a few weeks ago and she looked amazing. Her secret? She's rowing. On the Chicago River. She said it stinks like hell, but her guns are loaded! Why is it such a terrible thing for the EPA, hell our own mayor to think that the river should be clean enough that we wouldn't need a series of tetanus shots if we fell in? For instance, Chicago is the only major U.S. city that doesn't disinfect wastewater before pumping it into waterways. As a result, wastewater pouring out of the district's

Action Issue Cover Originally uploaded by bitch_magazine It never fails. When I see Bitch magazine on the floor in the pile of mail, I squeal. And rarely does the issue fail me. I'm still getting use to the color thing and the yellow isn't helping, but hey, if that's the worst I can say about this issue... First, Andi Zeisler in her letter to the editor addresses the "we don't need feminism" bullshit from Venus. Gotta say that I never got into Venus. I have friends who lived by it, but I'm a music dork. And not even Venus could make me cool. There's an excellent interview with Heidi Durrow, author of The Girl Who Fell Out of the Sky on page 10. I read the few chapters in a book store and fell in love. I really need to get that book. There are awesome pieces on Italian TV and hip hop that acknowledges that us chicks have orgasms too. But the all out best piece in this issue is a kick ass essay about the hot mom phenomena and how it needs to di

For the month of May, I had a total of 26 comments and 8 were from me. So that's 18 entries for the Latino Book Giveaway! I'm going to number all the comments 1 - 18 in the order received... And now to go and count up to 10.... And that means that Shannon aka the Radical Housewife has won three books of her choosing: Try to Remember By Iris Gomez Hot (broke) Messes By Nancy Trejos Waking Up in the Land of Glitter By Kathy Cano-Murillo Little Nuggets of Wisdom By Chuy Bravo , Tom Brunelle Lone Star Legend By Gwendolyn Zepeda Into the Beautiful North By Luis Alberto Urrea Amigoland By Oscar Casares If Shannon declines or fails to respond to my email within a reasonable amount of time, I'll go back to Random.org and pick another winner. Thanks for commenting everyone!