Monday, August 30, 2010
Women's Center Internet Survey
We hope everyone is having a great summer! We're working hard to help everyone have a great year back at school and we can use your help. The Women's Center Internet Survey will help us learn what can we do to improve our website, Facebook profile, Twitter presence, and email newsletters. It should only take 5-10 minutes of your time. Thank you and see you soon!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
It's Official
OK, it is totally offical. Girl Crush on Amy Klobuchar. She just SHUT DOWN Senator Coburn (R-OK) and his snotty remarks about personal freedom by pointing out that personal freedoms for women are totally different than his version. And then asked Solicitor General Kagan to talk about bringing women up in the legal professions. I am so proud to be married to a Minnesotan (Michelle Bachmann aside...)
CSPAN is NSFW
elle
I still can't decide if it's a good thing that I can stream CSPAN's coverage of the Kagan confirmation hearings at my desk; I'm sure my co-workers are a bit concerned about the seemingly unprovoked bursts of invective coming from my little corner of the WC. Really, this ridiculous political posturing is not good for my blood pressure. Pretty much everyone has agreed that she will be confirmed, meaning that for the first time in history there will be 3 women concurrently serving on the court. Hurray! I am a bit afraid, however, that Justice Ginsburg will retire soon (I was terribly sorry to hear about the passing of her husband on Sunday) and will be replaced by a man to avoid the perception that it's a 'woman's seat'. I guess we will just have to see, but hopefully RBG won't retire any time soon, she is BY FAR my favorite justice. I sat 30 feet from her once and it was one of the greatest moments of my life.
Well, I haven't heard that a vote has been scheduled so until we can watch it at the WC--we had boos and cheers during the Sotomayor vote--there were a few highlights from today:
Diane Feinstein D-CA (girl crush!) closed her questioning with a wonderful wrap up on gender discrimination and Solicitor General Kagan's career of busting glass ceilings
Amy Klobuchar D-MN (potential girl crush) asking Solicitor General Kagan to weigh in on the essential question: Vampires or Warewolves. Priceless!
I still can't decide if it's a good thing that I can stream CSPAN's coverage of the Kagan confirmation hearings at my desk; I'm sure my co-workers are a bit concerned about the seemingly unprovoked bursts of invective coming from my little corner of the WC. Really, this ridiculous political posturing is not good for my blood pressure. Pretty much everyone has agreed that she will be confirmed, meaning that for the first time in history there will be 3 women concurrently serving on the court. Hurray! I am a bit afraid, however, that Justice Ginsburg will retire soon (I was terribly sorry to hear about the passing of her husband on Sunday) and will be replaced by a man to avoid the perception that it's a 'woman's seat'. I guess we will just have to see, but hopefully RBG won't retire any time soon, she is BY FAR my favorite justice. I sat 30 feet from her once and it was one of the greatest moments of my life.
Well, I haven't heard that a vote has been scheduled so until we can watch it at the WC--we had boos and cheers during the Sotomayor vote--there were a few highlights from today:
Diane Feinstein D-CA (girl crush!) closed her questioning with a wonderful wrap up on gender discrimination and Solicitor General Kagan's career of busting glass ceilings
Amy Klobuchar D-MN (potential girl crush) asking Solicitor General Kagan to weigh in on the essential question: Vampires or Warewolves. Priceless!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Check Us Out!
Video from the OSU Women's Center's triumphant dance debut! Thanks to Neha for her patience and clothes...
Who Said Feminism Was Dead?
elle
A wake up call from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
And I have two things to add (big suprise)
1. Note that childcare responsibilities are not listed here. Add in "carpool", "Halloween costumes" and "baking brownies for your 7 year old's class" and the gap will widen even more.
2. Let's not forget that things like cooking and dishes, laundry, and picking up all the junk on the floor are pretty much constant jobs-done every day. Lawn care, once a week most likely.
A wake up call from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
And I have two things to add (big suprise)
1. Note that childcare responsibilities are not listed here. Add in "carpool", "Halloween costumes" and "baking brownies for your 7 year old's class" and the gap will widen even more.
2. Let's not forget that things like cooking and dishes, laundry, and picking up all the junk on the floor are pretty much constant jobs-done every day. Lawn care, once a week most likely.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Check it out!
I don't usually do this, but another OSU Women's Studies student just posted this song:
Fat Grrrls
and it was so remarkably apropos I just had do share. Enjoy!!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
A Fat Feminist Fashionista on a Rampage!
elle
Fat is the news today
I've been wanting to write a bit of a "fat rant" (check out the excellent YouTube videos by that name here)for a while now--particularly since the State of the Union Address when Michelle Obama's campaign against childhood obesity was rolled out--because I am sick and tired of all the misconceptions running around about fat. Then, like a piece of cake on a platter (yes, that was deliberate imagery), today had 2 news stories about size and discrimination; one all bad, one so-so.
First to recap the news:
1. Kevin Smith, director of Clerks and other such defining films of my generation, was removed from a flight for being fat. There are lots of details to the story, and you can read them here, but I want to state here, this was not some 4 seater plane that you have to balance the weight on both sides so you can fly kinda plane, it was a regular ol' flight. A shout out to Mr. Smith for shouting rather than slinking away in humiliation.
2. Fashion week! I have also been wanting to write a fashion post for a while, 'cause some feminists love fashion despite its major issues. Anyway, NPR had a short blurb today on the growing number of 'plus size' models in the shows. It's an interesting read--people know that they should be saying the 'right' thing, but they manage to neatly pass off the responsibility each time. Editors say they would print pictures of larger women if the designers would make the sample sizes to fit them, etc. etc. Then comes the fall from grace--apparently showing women who are not a size 00 would be celebrating an unhealthy lifestyle--i.e. it would be making it OK to be larger. GASP! We certainly can't have that!! ACK!!!
There are so many things going on here that you will have to please pardon me if I miss a few. There was a nice response to the Kevin Smith article from a personal standpoint published today on Slate, but among all the buzz there has been little discussion of the social issues here. We'll get to those in a different post, right now I just want to say fa few things. In no particular order:
1. Fat does not necessarily equal unhealthy
2. Just because you're not saying fat-phobic things doesn't mean that you're a great person, it just means that you're not overt about it (this means you Ms. Givhan).
3. Fat does not necessarily equal unhealthy
4. Fat people are not fat because they're lazy, over-consuming, idiots who are oblivious to their situation. Believe me, they are more aware of it than you are.
5. Fat does not necessarily equal unhealthy
6. The fashion industry can kiss my bootay. According to Robin Givhan from the Washington Post, it's just as bad to glorify larger bodies in our obese nation. Guess what Ms. Givhan I wear those sizes and my BMI (which is a crap measurement we all know) puts me squarely in normal. That's right, not obese, not even overweight, but NORMAL. I say there is nothing wrong with glorifying everyone!
There's a part of her message that really bugs me (and that's not even counting the incredibly unnecessary horizontally hostile comment about Mariah Carey that does nothing to forward her point). It's when she says (in the NPR article): On one end, the fashion industry is showing us these very thin 14- and 15-year-old girls and portraying them as women...On the other hand, there's the unhealthy nature of obesity and the politically correct aspect of saying, "You should be happy with who you are," she said. Guess what, YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY WITH WHO YOU ARE!! For a variety of reasons, one of which is that if you are trying to loose unhealthy weight you will NEVER do it with self-loathing and a desire to look like a model.
So, listen up Ms. Givhan, Ms. Obama, and all the rest of you out there. If we don't work on making people happy with the bodies they have right now, they will never have healthy bodies, fat or thin. In a society rampant with eating disorders (and disordered eating), depression, and an understanding of how dangerous yo-yo dieting is perhaps we should be focusing on what's on the inside.
Stay tuned for a more academic discussion of obesity as a social justice issue--it is.
Fat is the news today
I've been wanting to write a bit of a "fat rant" (check out the excellent YouTube videos by that name here)for a while now--particularly since the State of the Union Address when Michelle Obama's campaign against childhood obesity was rolled out--because I am sick and tired of all the misconceptions running around about fat. Then, like a piece of cake on a platter (yes, that was deliberate imagery), today had 2 news stories about size and discrimination; one all bad, one so-so.
First to recap the news:
1. Kevin Smith, director of Clerks and other such defining films of my generation, was removed from a flight for being fat. There are lots of details to the story, and you can read them here, but I want to state here, this was not some 4 seater plane that you have to balance the weight on both sides so you can fly kinda plane, it was a regular ol' flight. A shout out to Mr. Smith for shouting rather than slinking away in humiliation.
2. Fashion week! I have also been wanting to write a fashion post for a while, 'cause some feminists love fashion despite its major issues. Anyway, NPR had a short blurb today on the growing number of 'plus size' models in the shows. It's an interesting read--people know that they should be saying the 'right' thing, but they manage to neatly pass off the responsibility each time. Editors say they would print pictures of larger women if the designers would make the sample sizes to fit them, etc. etc. Then comes the fall from grace--apparently showing women who are not a size 00 would be celebrating an unhealthy lifestyle--i.e. it would be making it OK to be larger. GASP! We certainly can't have that!! ACK!!!
There are so many things going on here that you will have to please pardon me if I miss a few. There was a nice response to the Kevin Smith article from a personal standpoint published today on Slate, but among all the buzz there has been little discussion of the social issues here. We'll get to those in a different post, right now I just want to say fa few things. In no particular order:
1. Fat does not necessarily equal unhealthy
2. Just because you're not saying fat-phobic things doesn't mean that you're a great person, it just means that you're not overt about it (this means you Ms. Givhan).
3. Fat does not necessarily equal unhealthy
4. Fat people are not fat because they're lazy, over-consuming, idiots who are oblivious to their situation. Believe me, they are more aware of it than you are.
5. Fat does not necessarily equal unhealthy
6. The fashion industry can kiss my bootay. According to Robin Givhan from the Washington Post, it's just as bad to glorify larger bodies in our obese nation. Guess what Ms. Givhan I wear those sizes and my BMI (which is a crap measurement we all know) puts me squarely in normal. That's right, not obese, not even overweight, but NORMAL. I say there is nothing wrong with glorifying everyone!
There's a part of her message that really bugs me (and that's not even counting the incredibly unnecessary horizontally hostile comment about Mariah Carey that does nothing to forward her point). It's when she says (in the NPR article): On one end, the fashion industry is showing us these very thin 14- and 15-year-old girls and portraying them as women...On the other hand, there's the unhealthy nature of obesity and the politically correct aspect of saying, "You should be happy with who you are," she said. Guess what, YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY WITH WHO YOU ARE!! For a variety of reasons, one of which is that if you are trying to loose unhealthy weight you will NEVER do it with self-loathing and a desire to look like a model.
So, listen up Ms. Givhan, Ms. Obama, and all the rest of you out there. If we don't work on making people happy with the bodies they have right now, they will never have healthy bodies, fat or thin. In a society rampant with eating disorders (and disordered eating), depression, and an understanding of how dangerous yo-yo dieting is perhaps we should be focusing on what's on the inside.
Stay tuned for a more academic discussion of obesity as a social justice issue--it is.
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