Viva la Feminista

From the defunct Babes and Books blog where a bunch of friends challenged each other to read twenty books in one summer: I finished Sisterhood Interrupted Friday morning and Borderlands last night before I went to sleep. Both thumbs up books. Sisterhood Interrupted was way better than I thought it would be. As someone who has 2 minor degrees in women’s studies, I’ve read a lot of feminist history, especially second wave history. That’s also due to my obsession with the 60s and early 70s. I really didn’t think I’d learn too much new in it and while the book is NOT a history book, I did learn some new tidbits. Seigel does an excellent job at framing the intragenerational fighting during the second wave (Betty Friedan-ists vs. radical feminists) and the third wave (post-feminists vs. third wavers) AND the intergenerational fighting between second and third wavers. I went way into this with Cinnamon and wish I had recorded it because now I know I can’t do it justice again, ...

Reposed from my old blog: OK, maybe not a full wrap up as the weekend flew by in a blinding flash. Instead, highlights: * Meeting Jessica from Feministing with the always "WTF" question: "Can I take a picture of you with my Pooh Bear?" She asked if I would send her the photo and I said, "It'll be on Flickr." Yes, I'm a smart ass. * As I walked away, Amanda from Pandagon said to Jessica, "See her bag!?" Jessica said, "Oh, the woman who made that is one of the Hot 100." And I got to retort, "Yup, she's my best friend." Yes, I gloat as well. * Meeting Ani and again, asking the "WTF" question. I guess because I'm not as big of a fan of Ani as I am of Dar, I neglected to ask her for a beer. 20 minutes later, I learned that she would had said no for a whole different reason that 'who the fuck are you?' Waking up at 3:30 am to take cab to Midway = $50, Flight to Albany = $200, hearing Ani DiFranco an...

reposted from my old blog I have to admit that I've never read Daily Kos. I usually shy away from the A-listers as a habit. It's kinda like shunning the cheerleaders & the real nerds in high school. I went to a weird high school where the A-listers were either cheerleaders or the National Merit folks. I was neither. Anywho, so I got word that Daily Kos was in town and headed out to check out the new savior of the Progressive movement. You can identify the saviors by the book tours they travel on. I also wanted to ask him "THE QUESTION" in person. Yup, I did. First, Kos started in on why he wrote his book, why he has his blog, why we need a new way of looking at politics, and of course, a new way to organize and elect Democrats to office. Again, I've never really read his site, but I heard about his dismissal of feminists and abortion rights as a key issue over the summer. As Kos says , "Why do groups like NARAL and HRC have a hard time gr...

Reposted from my old blog... Even as a child I watched the news and followed some things as closely as possible. Certain things stick out in my head. Obvious ones like the Challenger explosion, but less obvious ones like Jeanine Nicarico's murder. Maybe it was because we were close in age. In 1983, she was 10 and I was 8. Maybe it was all the media hype around it. Maybe my mom said something about it. I'm sure she did, I just don't recall what. But her murder left a deep impression on me. I've blogged many times that my introduction to grassroots organizing came from Amnesty International. It was in that classroom that I also learned more about the death penalty and how unjust it had been doled out in this country. I went to a AI student conference that talked about all the stats on how racist and classist it was. Then someone talked about Rolando Cruz . All the evidence made sense to a 15-year-old. That Cruz had been framed by over eager (with justification) prosecutor...

Maybe I won't have a ton of time to go on and on about the conference, but here are some highlights: * The main reason to be in Nashville was to vote on senior leadership. The Kim Gandy's (i) slate vs. Rosemary Dempsey's slate. Both are great speakers and honestly if either of them won, I wouldn't worry too much about either kicking ass. Kim Gandy & her slate did win thou. * Rosemary and her slate did congratulate Kim & her slate on Sunday morning during a resolution hearing. * I met a ton of fab women including another Veronica from Chicago. I totally freaked her out when I found her since I guess I was kinda stalking her for 24 hours. But now we're buddies. She also said that she's always felt a psychic connection with Frida and then we debated if Frida was just a representation for me. We're both totally into the whole "we're here, meeting for a reason" train of thought. * I got to see Ellie Smeal, Patricia Ireland, Carol Moseley Bra...

From my old blog...on honor of the 10th anniversary of the March. Well if Ella had cooperated, I would have partaken in what I'm sure most of my feminist sisters are doing this morning. So, ready for the low-down? Fasten your seat belts, grab a mocha, and let's dive right in. Saturday Cinnamon & I hit Chicago Midway with a vengence. We used the new express check-in at Southwest and headed right to our gate. There we found a few other women on their way to DC for the March, another girfriend of mine was also on our flight with her husband and twin 2-year-old daughters. The twins were FAB on the flight. And they were cute to boot. After a very funny flight into BWI we went in search for Rachel. I've never seen a picture of her & I suddenly realized I didn't have her phone number! I knew I had given her mine, but where was she? I should have trusted my gut cause she was the cute girl in the sandels. The three of us chatted it up like old friends a...