Welcome to the 11th Carnival of Feminists. Glad you found us, so sit down, make yoursleves comfortable, grab your favourite beverage and get ready for some wonderful readings.
I was at times both overwhelmed and excited about hosting the carnival. I got such great submissions and read so many posts that I may not have normally that I would find myself refreshed by some brilliant writing when the daunting task of organising and coding the post overtook me. Also the idea that I should write some eye-catching, witty introduction to each blogger and post. It's difficult so let's make a deal: I will try my best and when I miss the mark and am not witty we'll just pretend I was, ok?
To all of you wonderful posters: thank you so much. It is truly beautiful to see all these voices out in the blogosphere. Unfortunately I've been so busy I haven't been able to do more the post quick, less in depth things then I usually do, but I have many ideas coming off of this carnival, all I can say is THANK YOU!
On a side note: The themes 'Radical Feminism' and 'International Feminism' are themes that spread across all issues so I did not make a separate section just for each of them, instead I included many of the wonderful entries that have been submitted in other sections where they are most appropriate. I wanted entries that would reflect these two things and hence the call out for them. They are reflected in theis entire Carnival, just they way it should be. SO with that said, ENJOY!!
I can't think of a better way to kick off the rad fem edition of the Carnival, then to start by defining who has Control over Reality and Space brought to us by Joida at Buried Voices.
Questioning our Privilege
New blogger earl becke at Definitionwho believes in the (shouldn't be) radical notion that Trans issues are women's issues. Hell friggin' yeah! The rest of this brand new blog is just as amazing, go check it out!
spotted elephant at The Bipolar View takes an intimate look at how we can easily overlook our own privilege in Feminism, Racism, and Privilege.
What the hell is wrong with you?
Terry at I See Invisible People writes about problems overcoming our conditioning not to speak up and call people out on their sexism in Why is it so hard?
Ann Bartow, at Sivacracy.net, asks why some people think sexist comments are somehow funny when leveled against conservative women in Humorless Feminism.
Dark Daughta, also known as One Tenacious Baby Mama comes with a hard hitting look at the popularity and prevelance of male bloggers in the feminist blogosphere. Are we giving the too much credit for not very much work? (I agree with her.) You can hear her very perceptive view of the situation On Patriarchal Male Feminists.
Veronica, at aldahlia, discusses the difficulties of discussing revolutionary thought with some (ok, most) men in Revolution.
Ann Bartow, at Feminist Law Professors, discusses the case of a female felon who was included at The Smoking Gun for looking "foxy" “Foxy Felons” and the Unexpected Consequences of Crime.
Choice
Sheezlebub, at Pinko Feminist Hellcat, presents the increasing insanity that not only is unavailable abortion and birth control, but the men who don't want to be responsible for their offspring in Boys will be boys, and sluts and their bastard children will be pilloried.
The Nut over at The Nut House brings us an update and a break down of what's going on in the abortion/birth control front covering many different states in It's time to cry now.
Pornography
Another Radical Feminist brings us the story of how porn is put down at eye level with little kids in It's a lifestyle choice
Andrea over at Vociferate brings us a post about searchers true intentions behind looking for porn in Men to Andrea, we want Germaine Porn.
Laurelin in the Rain discusses free speech and porn in Here's my freedom of speech, now I've heard yours
Now I know that trolling is at the back of *most* of your minds, but we ask that you take special care when replying to the following two entries as they are very personal and it took a lot of guts to post these things in such a public arena. Thank you for your care.
Kat at The Geeky Feminist The Geeky Feminist brings us her personal experience with porn in Confessions of a porn user.
From this very blog we have Fear of White Panties which is about my personal experience in the porn industry.
Violence Against Women
From Climacteric Clambake, manxome's powerfully moving story about sexual assault Strength comes from Refusing to Be Shamed
The UK blogger at Feminist Figure discusses the UK government's new anti rape campaign, which *gasp*targets men!
Winter at Mind the Gap also talks about the campaign and deconstructs just what is wrong with the 'sexy' anti-rape posters in Campaign in need of some awareness.
Skylanda at Avast! Feminist Conspiracy! brings us an update about the women of Juarez in Out of sight, out of mind, out in the desert. I really cannot do it justice in a blurb.
Le Lyons from Femivist explores Rape as the Pinnacle of Sexism. Damn good post.
flea at One Good Thing scripts a letter to be read by her children in the future which includes a powerful story about sexual assault in Letter to Alex and Chris, Twelve Years in the Future.
Laura fromI'm not a Feminist, But brings us a very moving call to action in Protest. Now.
RJ from Bark/Bite asks why the same women hating bullshit in Holla Back and Fire Extinguishers.
Our Bodies
We all know them, we all deal with them. There insane beauty standards we're supposed to live up to has effected every woman I know, and I'd hazard to guess every woman and some men. Not only in does this category encompass this, but also things which we as women are taught to feel ashamed of.
Megha at A Day in a Punk's Life talks about what it's like being Hindu and menstruating in Blood, Gore, and Edicts
Sue Richards, at My Menopause Blog, talks about how she decided to deal with her fat issues (hint, it involved tossing her scale) in My Menopause Blog: Fat.
Liz, at Granny Gets A Vibrator, a look at who exactly might benefit from the neverending stream of articles about how washed up, undesirable, and worthless older women are. (and older apparently means 40) in Farm Fresh Eggs and High Happy Boobs!.
verbify from Signifying Nothing describes her anger and frustraion at the direction the US is heading in Della Reese is pouring another cup of righteous indignation. (Plus it quotes one of my favourite songs of all time in it.)
Pregnancy and Parenthood
Uma from The Other India discusses the dangers of being pregnant and poor in Pregnancy in India.
Meghan Townsend from Mommy Bloggers talks about her exasperation at trying to be what society calls the perfect mother in The Good Enough Mother.
Miriam Peskowitz at Playground Revolution discusses how she's fighting sexist ideas in schools on International Women's Day
KCB from Redneck Mother gives us an example of how spending cuts hurt women and the hypocrisy of Republicans that turn their backs on victims of family violence. Unfortunately the permalinks are not working, so you'll need to scroll down to the entry titled Keeping Americans safe.
Hollywood's Calling
Sometimes you just need a good laugh, or a good theme song:
Franken Girl brings us this glorious change to the *ahem* Oscar winning song It's Hard Out Here for a Feminist. It truly made my day to read it.
Really do we need anymore reasons to hate Colin Farrell? Well, Dr. Violet Socks at The Reclusive Leftist brings us Prostitutes=Pizza an amazing look at how men and especially Farrell and the ilk view women in the sex industry.
Here and There
Now this category is WIDE open. There are so many things to talk about in relation to this, and countless ways to interpret it. Here are some of the ways that it was interpreted. There are also posts that belong here as well as other categories.
The blogger at Irrational Point ponders how we can preserve our individual voices and issues in our own countries and also have a communal voice that speaks internationally in Ain't I a Woman.
The blogger at Blonde But Bright wonders how truly different misogyny is across the globe in Dialouges in the Dark.
Uma at Indian Writing brings us powerful examples of Caste as Woman
Natalie from Philobiblon compares the past with the present and the possible backslide towards the past in Is 'Red' America Ddestroying itself?
Muse from Me-ander brings us a little comic relief inThis is going to make a lot of women happy.
Miliana from What fresh Hell is this? recounts her experience as a white woman abroad in Morocco in American Woman in Morocco
Working 9 to 5
Paul Secunda at Workplace Prof Blog brings up a recent study done on the glass ceiling (or if your in science as my good friend/physics prof calls it the tungsten ceiling) in Worldwide Glass Ceilings at Work.
Bad Feminist questions the claim that women are no longer opting out of careers in The Opt Out Revolution.
Blog Against Sexism (i.e. posts that refuse to be categorised)
I was lucky enough to get the Carnival following the Blog Against Sexism Day and International Women's Day. As you should have noticed by now, a good number of posts came from this day, but as we all know everyday is Blog Against Sexism day on some blogs. Wherever they came from, I was blessed to read all of them.
soopermouse at I Hate People discusses the many ways in which women are oppressed and the many ways in which we are fighting the patriarchy in Blog Against Sexism Day.
Emma at Gendergeek brings home the point that equality cannot happen untill we have autonomy over our bodies in Blogging Against Sexism.
International Women's Day
Afrofeminista from Feminist African Sistercelebrates the achievements of other feminists in a post which helps us see just how important solidarity with other women is in International Women's Day 2006.
Jennifer Kennedy from Life in Cameroon recounts an uplifting IWD in International Women's Day.
In the News
The Happy Feminist answers the question of "Are traditionalists happier then feminists in Oh for Pete's Sake.
History and Literature
at Black Looks blogs about 'Stagecoach Mary', a female 'cowboy' who is an inspiration to all women interested in breaking out of their moulds in I am Mary Fields.
Mysticgypsy at A Ramble in the Park posts her take on Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights (and more aptly media portrayl of Bronte's novel) in Cold in the Earth and Fifteen Wild Decembers.
Cassiphone at Velvet Threads has dedicated Women's History Month to bringing us 50 Ancient Roman women one such entry is (Roman) Women's History Month - Part VII - Sex, Scandal and Bloodshed. Very interesting entries, since someone submitted this I have been more interested in Ancient Rome then I ever was!
Ian Welsh at The Blogging of the President brings us a little socioanthropological insight into gender and the differences between hunter/gatherer societies and agriculturan socities and applies this to what we see today in Power and Gender.
And finally, on a parting note
The wonderful blogger Clare (formerly of Ink and Incapability) on her shiny new blog The Ninth Wave asks us all to please stop with all the infighting in Sorry ladies, but this isn't working.
Many thanks go out to Joida of Buried Voices and Andrea from Vociferate (however reluctant she was to help *nyah nyah*) for their helping me read and blurb posts. They saved me from going insane.
The next carnival will be hosted at Written World on April 5th. INfo can be found here.
Benjamin Dixon murders the Young Turks
15 hours ago
32 comments:
Hooray! It's here! :)
Thanks for putting this together, it looks great.
SD
thank you, my dear! Well done!
Well done for getting it all together, LC.
It's huge!
Wonderful selection LC! Now I'm definitely not going to get any work done today ;)
Hurrah! Well done. Thanks for including me.
Thanks for all your work on this collection! (Thanks also for the tip on my busted permalinks -- I've moved my featured post to the top of my blog.)
I second Laurelin - I am not going to get any work done today!
Fabulous job LC - and, thank you for including me!
Thanks so much for including me (although, slight correction: I never actually lived in Morocco, but have made many extended visits).
I can't wait to read all the submissions!
Wow - there's a lot of great stuff here! I'm working my way through it and enjoying every word. I'm honored to be included.
Oh, Fudge! I'm sorry that I didn't make myself clear when I sent my nomination in; Pinko Feminist Hellcat wrote that re: "Boys Will Be Boys...". I, Aeonsomnia, own Evil Li-brul Overlord, and probably couldn't write something as brilliant as what Pinko penned if I tried.
Sorry about that, LC *sheepish grin* Just wanted to make sure proper credit goes to the right person.
Yeah sometimes it was hard to find names, etc. Thanks for pointing that out all. I now love the carnival submission forms *hint hint* they make it so much easier. *wink*
You're all very welcome.
Nice job.
On your final note, a note of my own:
The Onion knows what happens when "feel-goody inclusiveness" overcomes any political movement that is struggling for true justice and not just individualistic feel-goodiness. People want rain without thunder sometimes, but just as some feminists' lines are drawn at a woman's right to choose abortion, other feminists' lines are drawn at rejecting men's "right" and entitlement to sexually access women's bodies.
Women Now Empowered by Everything a Woman Does
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38558
"OBERLIN, OH—According to a study released Monday, women—once empowered primarily via the assertion of reproductive rights or workplace equality with men—are now empowered by virtually everything the typical woman does.
"From what she eats for breakfast to the way she cleans her home, today's woman lives in a state of near-constant empowerment," said Barbara Klein, professor of women's studies at Oberlin College and director of the study. "As recently as 15 years ago, a woman could only feel empowered by advancing in a male-dominated work world, asserting her own sexual wants and needs, or pushing for a stronger voice in politics. Today, a woman can empower herself through actions as seemingly inconsequential as driving her children to soccer practice or watching the Oxygen network."
Klein said that clothes-shopping, once considered a mundane act with few sociopolitical implications, is now a bold feminist statement.
"Shopping for shoes has emerged as a powerful means by which women assert their autonomy," Klein said. "Owning and wearing dozens of pairs of shoes is a compelling way for a woman to announce that she is strong and independent, and can shoe herself without the help of a man. She's saying, 'Look out, male-dominated world, here comes me and my shoes.'"
Nice work indeed!
Very cool. Thanks for linking me.
Wonderful job, Burrow. Thank you so much for doing this. And thanks for including me!
I tried to do a trackback to this but the mysteries of Blogger are too esoteric for the likes of me.
you and me both darling. SOmetimes it shows the links, sometimes it doesn't. SOmetimes it lets me commetn, sometimes it doesn't. Blogger will be the death of me.
And thank you.
Burrow, what a wonderful job! Thank you for including me. I'm humbled.
Actually, it's Sheezlebub over at Pinko Feminist Hellcat but whatever, as long as the links work right?
Hey! Thanks for including me! I'm glad something fit into the Carnival and that you were paying attention because I generally forget to send stuff in, lol.
I wasn't reluctant, I was snowed under with work! *cries*
oh hush you who refused to blurb. :p
Thank you! hurrah! the carnivals finally here!
Megha
Burrow:
I really enjoyed your contribution. It was poignant, yet the title alone confirmed my already existant impression that you are a strong, funny woman.
Eek! I didn't realize I was in your carnival. The last time this happened I had a tussle with the carnival organizer over not having emailed me to let me know and then having chosen a piece I felt was fairly limp and not representative of what I could write. It didn't go down well, at all.
In this scenario, I'm feeling okay about my work having been chosen and about the post that was included.
Still would have like to have known. But also would have liked to have been able to promote the carnival, too.
Well, I guess it's not too late to post info about your carnival.
Who are you anyway?
Thanks will.
dd: Yeah, it gets INSANE as a carnival host and I didn't get to email anyone. I guess that's just the nature of the carnival, someone submits a piece by someone else (though not always) we read it, think it's good and viola it goes in. I barely got to read the blogs I usually do to see if anything better came in. Sorry about that. If only I had co-hosts to help me. (recommended for future carnvial hosts btw)
Some places I'm Burrow and some places I'm Lost clown. I am a clown and a radical feminist among many other things.
(and never too late to post carnival info.)
Emailing people?! That would only have added another few weeks of work to the job!
Most of us are rather glad to be included at all.
Good god my head definitely would have exploded.
Submitters never include emails. Finding blog home page links and names of bloggers and emails.
*shudder*
I need whiskey just thinking about it.
No not really. A lot of people didn't know that they were going to get published in the carnival, and quite frankly no one's ever contacted me or my friends before. That added step might kill your lowly carnival host. Would have killed me. (I'm sticking with the no one else does it so I won't theory.)
I think if people don't want to be included they should let their readership know as they're the ones who nominate folks. There was no way I could have dug up everyone's contacts (whichh as you probably noticed were NOT included in submissions unless the submitter was the blogger themself and they had used the carnival submission form), read the entries, blurbed, and coded everyone in 2 weeks. No way in hell. I'd still be on part one.
Congrats to everyone!
Well done!
Ahhh! So happy to have found you! I am bookmarking this for later this evening. This looks like quite an empowering selection. I have a Hear Me Roar category on my blog that gets my readers riled up now and again, it's nice to know where to come to find reinforcements : )
Hi there,
I have quite a few thoughts on the strand of conversation in these comments about why it would be important to email/contact folks whose work you include in your carnival.
I think that it is very important to email/contact folks-- it brings up much broader and important issues around doing alliance work and defining feminism--
here is a post on the issue: http://pascasiasphoenix.blogspot.com/
2006/03/thoughts-on-feminist-alliance.html
solidarity,
Phoenix
When you host the carnival, you can. Seriously, it would have killed me. It is way too much work for a blogger who only has 2 weeks.
OK, I want everyone to host the carnival of feminists and then come back with your ideas about how we should contact the people who are submitted. A lot of people send you a link w/no name, no email, and no homepage. Just the permalink. I loved digging around looking for all that info. If I didn't have a job or anything maybe I could have found everyone's email, but probably not.
Seriously. I would have liked to, but I want all of you who think it's neccesary to host this carnival (some of the smaller ones may be less intense) and then tell me what you think. Just to let you know, I read over 70 entries.
Hosting a carnival is extremely time-consuming - more so than most people realise.
I discuss some of these issues in my Carnival Host Notes. The relevant sections to what's being discussed in this thread are:
Sour Duck's Carnival Host Notes: Technical Notes (Part II)
and
Sour Duck's Carnival Host Notes: Meta-Issues (Part III)
I have to agree with lost clown: that extra step of emailing people adds a lot more work. I only emailed people to let them know that a piece of theirs had appeared in the Carnival the day it was published. And that was in a mass email - I didn't email people individually.
Best,
SD
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