feminist blogs in english

So I was checking my mail on Yahoo like I normally do the other day and I was intrigued by a video titled “Desperate Women Turn to the World’s Oldest Profession During Economic Downturn”. Unfortunately I can’t embed this video so you’ll have to click on the link.

Basically this video looks at the trend of women applying to brothels because of the economic downturn. I find that this is extremely disturbing. Mostly because these women are being forced, they say “choose”, but with only one viable option there isn’t much choice involved. This is rape for money.

This video really makes me mad because it only focuses on a legal brothel. It disregards the fact that there are many much dirtier scarier brothels in the world, without doctors and condoms.

It also focuses on the economic aspect of prostitution. That the Johns are not able to pay the women as much. Thus the women make less money.

This disregards the emotional damage that can be caused. It also disregards the possible violence these women face on the streets.

This disheartens me. I cannot believe that the only work that women can do and be pay very well is prostitution. In any other profession women make 30% less than men.

I can’t believe that a news program would broadcast this so non-chalently. It is almost as if they are closing their eyes to the fact that this is no more than paid for rape

So yeah, I had a birthday. As with most other anxiety-engendering processes, I live-tweeted the whole mess, with nervous observations ranging from the mundane to bemused/bitter to the semi-scandalous. Occasions of this nature can be a bit loaded for me, owing to frayed and/or volatile relationships with some members of my family, so all my other relationships: familial and otherwise, online and off, are all the more significant to me as I do my best to face down all the usual fears about mortality (or, more precisely, about fulfilling my life’s purposes – from my babies to my books – before I finally keel over).

But in dropping those first nervous messages into the Internet’s often weirdly benevolent tubes, I never expected to be all but pummeled by the collective wonderfulness of so many people in various forums, known to me “in real life” and otherwise, wishing me a happy birthday. It became enough that it was impossible to thank everyone individually, hence this humble blog post, which will still fail to convey the depth of my gratitude, but it’s what I’ve got.

Nor is this a complete accounting of all generosities received. My teenager made me a beautiful scarf; her sister made me a collage; their dad made me this cake (and, in general, simply made me happy; see above link at “semi-scandalous”). My aunt sang the birthday song over the phone from Idaho – which was hilarious – while my stepmom and dad apologized for not having anything in the mail yet, which was funny, since it turned out to be untrue; the mail was late on my actual birthday, but when it got here, there was a card and a poem from my dad that was nothing short of astonishing. (And not only because he’s finally moved on to wordprocessing from his ancient typewriter. The guy can write.)

And, at a party thrown together with so little forethought, I didn’t manage to invite anyone (while my husband invited a few, mostly via phone while transporting the kids to his folks for the night, while I frantically attempted to clean the house; indeed, when the first guests arrived, I was sweeping into our dustpan enough cat hair to comprise a whole cat) – those who did make it on such short notice brought food and cards and stories and laughter and even, from this lovely person, flowers. (Apologies to the numerous local people we ought to have invited; rest assured it was an exceedingly small, chaotic affair that almost didn’t even happen; we’ll try to do much better next time.)

Further, cards and gift certificates were received from lovely friends and family members who probably wouldn’t want to be mentioned on this blog; my BFF surprised me with some long-pined for schwag from my Amazon wish list; and my dear pal Randy, while in New Hampshire doing the last recordings for Wrath, went to this indy bookstore to get this awesome book for me, because he’d bought a copy for himself and, reading it later in the studio, knew I had to have one too. (And then of course put me on the guest list for Lamb of God’s last Richmond show before their national tour, and gave me a birthday shout-out from the stage. Dude. That is a friend.)

But through all that, I really was dumbstruck at the number of people I know online in various capacities (mostly through Twitter and/or Facebook) who sent the kindest and sometimes most hilarious messages, some of which are excerpted below for your enjoyment. If I skipped anyone, God help me, and know I didn’t mean to! Just: thank you. It meant a lot.

A partial registry of awesome birthday greetings received (persons also met “IRL” are in bold, though with plenty of you, I expect it’s just a matter of time until that happens):

abigvictory (“May your birthday be devoid of cute animals and soul-shredding wordplay”)

abonsig

aedison

ahtitan (“Happy Birthday! You are now three years younger than me. You bitch. You young, young bitch.”)

ajinnashville (“Happy B-Day tomorrow, V. And happy hunting tonite”)

Akelaa (“HIPPO BIRDIE TWO EWES!”)

andersonscooper

Ayse E. (“38’s going to be even more kick-ass.”)

badkitty_ (“I’ve been trying to think of a suitable present but can’t seem to get it off my chest.”)

Barb Adams

bcompton

Ben Jordan (“Ben *TackleHugs* Victoria screaming Haaaapyyyy fuuuuckkkkking Biiirrrrtttthddddday the whole time”)

Bill Griggs

BradHart (“my son’s baby sitter nearly lost her job when she said it was cool I was old enough to heard Nirvana before Kurt Cobain died”)

brettp

bsheepies (“Dear @vmarinelli and @girlmonkey, I’m sorry that your birthday is also a Monday. I’ll wish extra hard that it’s awesome.”)

califmom (“Had hoped to locate that thing you lost in the sand to give it to you for your birthday. Turns out you can’t regift virginity.”)

caprice_b (“We 60-somethings are laughing at you”)

CcSteff

ChrisClarkeCRN (“Gets off of @vmarinelli’s lawn”)

cjereneta (“Hippo birdie. Er… TJ Hooker… Mott the Hoople. Welcome to 38. [I'm 32 days away from 40. Not that I'm counting.])

clapifyoulikeme (“Happppppppppppppppppppppy birthday wooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!”)

Clayton Diggs

cleversimon

crispycracka

D.L. Hopkins (”Merry annual birthing celebration!”)

dani3boyz

detweiler (“Was trying to think of a joke, but I think I’ll skip it and wish you a sincere happy birthday.”)

Doug Burton

eatfoss (“Happy birthday! I think. I was never any good with time zones.”)

EffingBoring

emilybrianna

expat_erin (“Shame I wasn’t online yesterday, as that was your Australian birthday! Many happy returns!”)

FanEffingTastic

FarkerPeaceboy (“Hey, it’s birthday excitement! Woo-hoo! Have a great one… poo with a bow on it is being flung your way!” 1)

fncll (“ Look young lady, I turned 38 exactly a month ago. You have a lifetime of whippersnapperishness to go!”)

frageelay (“Happy Birthday!! You’re younger than me. Bitch.” Bwahaha.)

Gail M. Witte Anderson (“¡Feliz cumpleaños! Mwah! Mwah! Double-Mwah! [I'm limiting them because reading Mwah! 38 times could get annoying!]”)

girlmonkey (“WHOO HOOO! Happy birthday, mon ami! May the next year of your life be filled with good food, great friends, and hard laughter.”)

glucas (“38 is the new whatever”)

Gwen Wolverton-Diggs

Hello_Nurse

hoosiergirl (who promises to eat an excess of cake in my honor)

IanGraham

indefensible

jackholt

jagosaurus

Jessabelle207 (“Happy freakin’ Birthday, @vmarinelli!!!!! I hope you have a fabulous day, my dear!”)

Katrina Cauble

kayhan

kellydeal (“Happy soon to be awesomer at 38!”)

Kenya Watkins

Kimmy Certa (“Wishing you many more happy and healthy birthdays!!”)

kmwalsh

lindstifa

lonelysandwich

MikeTRose

Moeskido (“Happy 38th, young lady. Oh, I see you’re busy. Pardon me.”)

mogrify (“You must be excited about tomorrow. And not only do you get to meet me in person, but it’s your birthday and there’s a concert!”)

MsNovember

natthedem

peeppeep

phaedral (After I’d posted, “Working on blog post thanking every one of you who wished me a happy birthday. Thanks for making this extra-time consuming, sheesh! <3,” replied “Me too, I want to complicate your task too!”)

phyllisstein

Riskin (“enhappified is best new word of the month – many happy returns”)

Robguy

Robsama (“I hope @ThunderDolt gave you everything you wanted.”)

ronbailey

Samantha Emswiler

savoytruffle

schmutzie

SeoulBrother

sflovestory

shoesonwrong (“Congratulations on making it out of a vagina in 1970!”)

smartasshat (“And here I was trying to think of something clever. No luck. But I hope you get lucky! Happy Birthday!”)

spdracerx

Steve Whitaker

Steven Saus

tdavenport (“hope you get whatever you want [and didn't get last night])”

tehawesome (“Happy Birthday! Kickin’ 38 off by offering sex. I like it. Though you ARE the birthday girl. You could be demanding it…”)2

texburgher (“Happy Birthday. Remember 3+8=11. A PRIME NUMBER.”)

thedayhascome

Tinu (“Had to say Happy Birthday before I leave. Here’s to 27 more years. You *are* 27, right?”)

toldorknown (“Congrats @vmarinelli and @girlmonkey on your new bidets. What?”)

twoname (“Happy bday @vmarinelli, even tho she doesn’t follow me.” 3)

Vanessa Lane-Griffith

Virgotex (“hippie birthday”)

wakitu (“Happy last day of being 37! My last day being…a little older than 37…was yesterday. TraLa! May our next be our best year yet!”)

weselec (Who, addressing both me and @girlmonkey, wrote: “happy birthday, ladies. I’ll be in the back room when you’re ready to claim your seven minutes in heaven”)

wryredhead (“Happy birthday to yooooooou!”)

Xytrex (“Oh no, no, no…if you have a b-day coming tomorrow, you have to suffer through it with the rest of us.”)

__

¹ Peaceboy and I have a running thing about being distant poo-flinging monkey cousins.

² This was in reply to my post, at exactly 12:00 AM on 11/24, addressed to my husband: Hello, midnight! Hey @ThunderDolt, wanna do it with a newly minted 38 year old? (What, too soon?)

³ This was all the more hilarious since he doesn’t follow me on Twitter, either. (Nor do many other people listed above, which is just fine! Indeed, I pray for a world in which Twitter users refuse to get butt-hurt over whether or not everyone they follow is able to follow them in return. We have these things called human limitations which are not personal, you know?)

Yesterday, I turned 38. (Am still somewhat in denial. For instance, I first typed that as “28.”) Among the festivities of the day was Lamb of God’s last show in Richmond, before they head out on their big tour with Metallica. It was a great show, about which more will have to be written at a later time. (I’ll also have to finish this later - hopefully tonight. Had no idea there’d be so many people to include. Damn, people can be nice. UPDATED: This is done.) For now, though, I must share this: when I came home from the festivities and looked in the mirror at the All-Access guest pass (thank you Randy!) attached to my dress.

Written on the pass was the date: “24-Nov.” But the reverse image, as reflected in the mirror, looked like it was spelling out the word, “Young.”

• Lew Rockwell’s recent interview of Naomi Wolf for his podcast — the scare quotes are there because it quickly turns into a very two-sided conversation, and works very differently from a conventional interview — is really remarkable, and a paradigm for the kind of engagement that could build a vibrant libertarian Left. Naomi Wolf is not my favorite feminist, and Lew Rockwell is certainly not my favorite libertarian, but this is great stuff. Naomi Wolf now says she thinks she’s been a secret libertarian for many years in many, many ways and mentions that she’s feeling increasingly sympathetic toward radical libertarianism; she insists on the importance of challenging both Democratic- and Republican-sponsored power grabs, and expresses sympathy for the libertarian case for abolishing federal control over schooling. Rockwell does a tolerable job of explaining the libertarian case against the Fed as a instrument of class warfare, does a good job of cautioning against premature jumps into statist political action, and comes out that the conservative movement has been an engine of fascism for the past 50 years. Also, Wolf has some great material at about 23:45 in the interview about the way in which media producers deliberately encourage false-alternative shouting matches and instruct their guests that serious deliberation is not good television.

• Socialist Alexander Cockburn writes a libertarian article for the Buchananite newsjournal The American Conservative, discussing the ongoing bipartisan assault on civil liberties, in which he points out the continuity between Clinton’s and Bush’s anti-terrorism and drug war rackets, decrying Social Security Numbers and the Kelo decision, while praising the defense of the individualist reading of the Second Amendment in Heller.

• There’s been a lot more discussion of Roderick’s Corporations Versus the Market piece on Cato Unbound. Roderick’s Keeping Libertarian, Keeping Left replies to the initial responses from the Danny Bonaduce of the Blogosphere, Steven Horwitz, and Dean Baker. Roderick’s Owning Ideas Means Owning People makes the case for libertarian radicalism against Intellectual Protectionism (indeed, for a position even more radical than those advocated by Cato minimal-statist Tim Lee and by anti-IP, but pro-governmental Leftist Dean Baker).

  Yglesias, in reply to Roderick and Steven Horwitz, says he is a bit puzzled by pragmatic arguments for left-libertarianism, based on the claim that markets do more for human flourishing than government programs, writing: If this means that the absence of governance à la Joseph Stalin is a more important determinant of our well-being than is, say, the existence of unemployment insurance then, yes, of course this is true. But the question facing government programs is not whether they are more or less beneficial than the existence of a market economy, the question is whether the programs are more beneficial than would be the absence of programs. Roderick does a great job of responding to Yglesias (as well as to some another reply by Dean Baker) here. Let me just add a bit more about the fundamental problem with Yglesias’s proposed methods for assessing whether or not a given government program is warranted.

  The problem here is that Yglesias seems to be treating this as a ceteris paribus comparison: as if the right question to ask is whether people would be better off with the government program in place or in a situation which is exactly identical, but without the government program.

  There are two problems with this. First, unless there is some strong reason to believe that ceteris will stay paribus in the absence of a government program, the real alternative is between a government program and market alternatives to that program. So, for example, Yglesias mentions ex ante environmental regulations. But he rigs the match by apparently comparing outcomes with ex ante environmental regulations to outcomes from a market situation which is basically the same as the present, but in which corporate polluters are free to go on polluting with impunity. An un-rigged comparison would be one between ex ante environmental regulations and free market means of addressing pollution that the ex ante regulations have either directly suppressed or crowded out — like the use of pollution nuisance suits or a more robust use of free market grassroots activism, through boycotts, sustainability certification, social investing, and so on. Maybe these kind of tactics would not be as effective as ex ante regulation, or maybe they would be more effective; but in either case, this is the comparison that actually needs to be made, and as far as I can tell Yglesias hasn’t given any argument to support a claim that market methods would do worse. Indeed, there’s some good reasons to think that they might do better. Since freed-market methods are by their nature decentralized, and not dependent on political lobbying or electioneering, they are also not subject to the same problems of regulatory capture by those who can put a lot of money and political influence behind their interests.

  Second, Yglesias also more or less explicitly suggests that, when you’re deliberating over whether to favor government programs or freed-market alternatives, any given government program ought to be assessed in isolation from all the others (on a case-by-case basis). But of course libertarian Leftists have repeatedly stressed the importance of seeing particular social or political processes in the context of how many different processes interlock and interact with each other. So, for example, as Roderick has repeatedly stressed, if you want to know about whether to prefer unfettered free markets or regulatory command-and-control in financial markets, it doesn’t make sense to compare a rigged market where finance capital is tightly regulated and can reasonably expect government bail-outs in case of failure to a rigged market where finance capital is loosely regulated but can still reasonably expect government bail-outs in case of failure. Whether the latter or the former turns out to have better results is a question we could debate, but the important point, from a left-libertarian point of view, is that it would be more interesting and fruitful to compare the rigged markets to a free market with neither ex ante regulation nor bail-outs. Similarly, if we are looking at environmental regulations then we have to consider not only market alternatives to ex ante environmental regulation; we also have to consider other government programs which may indirectly contribute to environmentally destructive practices — like subsidizing corporate centralization and capital-intensive production; or stealing land from homeowners and small businesses for large, polluting manufacturing plants, garbage incinerators, and other forced-modernization boondoggles; or subsidizing fossil fuel dependence; or highway-driven suburban sprawl — and whether the absence of those other programs, taken together with the absence of ex ante environmental regulation, would make freed-market alternatives to ex ante environmental regulation even more palatable than they would be when considered in isolation. (For some similar points in the context of health care, see GT 2007-10-25: Radical healthcare reform.)

  Meanwhile, Roderick’s article has also prompted a lot of discussion outside of Cato Unbound, most notably interesting but misguided replies from Peter Klein, Will Wilkinson, and an extremely ill-conceived response by Walter Block and J.H. Huebert. I’ve already discussed Block’s and Huebert’s comments, with a focus on their distortion of my own expressed views (cited favorably by Roderick) on radical labor unionism.. There’s a lot of fascinating exchange among Klein, some other right-libertarians and agnostic-libertarians, and a number of libertarian Leftists in the comments thread on Klein’s article; note especially the exchange among Araglin, Klein, P.M. Lawrence and others over the legitimacy and viability of the corporate form, limited liability, etc., under freed markets, and this short comment by Jesse Walker: It seems clear to me that, at the very least, the “more local and more numerous” claim is correct, if not in every sector than certainly in the economy as a whole. Removing occupational licensing laws alone would unleash such a flood of tiny enterprises — many of them one-man or one-woman shows, sometimes run part-time — that I doubt the elimination of antitrust law and small-business setasides would offset it. Especially when large businesses have proven so adept at using antitrust and setasides for their own purposes. […]. (Jesse promises a more detailed follow-up at Hit and Run; I look forward to it.)

  Meanwhile, as promsied, Roderick has added his own (detailed, excellent) reply on most of the points raised by Klein, Wilkinson, Huebert, and Block back over at Cato Unbound, entitled Free Market Firms: Smaller, Flatter, and More Crowded.

  Read the whole damn thread. It’s great.

• On the activist front, this past Monday, New Jersey ALLy Darian Worden announced a new series of Alliance of the Libertarian Left outreach flyers and subversion squares available from the NJ ALL website. Enjoy! (I also think there will be some interesting news in the near future about ALL in Southern California, England, Denver, and some new activities for ALL in Las Vegas. But I’m not going to tip my hand more than that in public, just yet. If you’re curious — and especially if you are in one or more of those geographical areas — drop me a line in private.

Where and When

February 2, 2009
Betts Theater, George Washington University, Washington, DC

Conference fees: $60.00 general; $20.00 student

Conference Goals

To harness the power of women on the Internet to promote women’s issues.

To create a forum – starting with the Fem2.0 website and continuing through the event – for women to discuss the issues that are of most concern to them today, and to encourage them to use the Internet to learn more, express their opinions about them and advocate for policies that benefit women and families.

To create an opportunity for a "meeting of minds" across generations and media platforms.

To unite women’s voices behind the issues that the vast majority of women support, such as education, healthcare, workplace fairness and economic security.

To position women’s issues and their advocates for the incoming administration.

To draw new audiences to women’s issues, especially those who are Internet-focused and can cross-pollinate to increase activism.

Expand the audience of women engaged in online media activity and activism.

We have one unconference, one competition and one networking conference all cooking in our burners. Come check it out!

Nota Bene : All text is taken verbatim from each event's site. I will be posting about each event shortly.  more this way»

So I`ve been thinking about education a lot. Well, I`m kind of forced to because I have so many things to do for school. It`s just that a lot of the time I forget how fortunate I am to even be able to not to school. Not just post-secondary education but any education at all. Especially since I am a woman.

How many places could I have been born where I would not have had access for education? How many places would have been too expensive for me to go to school? How many places where it would have been illegal for me to even go to school?

This really frustrates me because I feel like there’s nothing I can do to help women have access to education. I looked around online for things I could do.

The one I could afford to do comes from the Miss G___ Project right here in Ontario. I could write to my MPP and ask that Women’s Studies be added to the High school curriculum. An amazing cause. In fact I’ve previously taken part in their Valentine’s Day phone in.

Most of the other ones involved money, much more money than I have. For Example, through Plan Canada I could pay $100 to support literacy training to two women in Rwanda or for $1225 I could give a girl a scholarship in Burkina Faso. I don’t have that kind of money…

Certainly there is something that I can do, that will feel like I am actually making a difference. I just can’t seem to think of anything…

I've always been acutely aware of certain "isms" that plague our society and more generally aware that there are isms that affect others much more tragically or more constantly. These isms divide the people and keep us from working together to make this world a better place. These isms cause us to mistrust one another and even work against each other. These isms kill people, devastate communities and cause wars that never seem to end.

While Hip Hop may seem to innately tackle the ism of race and even class, Hip Hop has in many ways mimicked it's oppressor and perpetuated many other isms that exist to degrade humanity. And perhaps we could even say that Hip Hop is not merely mimicking the dominant hegemony but simply at this stage of the game, just being itself. It's not as though the other cultures from which Hip Hop sprang were highly progressive when it came to sexual orientation or gender relations.

We are all guilty of prejudice. Whether it's based on facts or stereotypes, we form opinions about people before we have even engaged them in meaningful or extended interaction. It's normal. We certainly shouldn't be afraid to talk about it. It's only hateful when we allow what we do not understand to become bigoted ignorance.

Many gay rights activists in California this November pointed the finger at communities of color with praise for electing Obama and with disappointment believing their vote took away the gay community's right to marry. They have rightfully said, in their plea to this conservative faction of people of color, that MLK Jr. was not offended by homosexuality and in fact had at least one key advisor who was such.

Given the history that informed Hip Hop at the foundation of its creation, I can see why we are still quite archaic when it comes to gender relations and sexual identity, whether that be within the revolution, at the video shoot, in the studio, in the academy or in our homes. When American citizens stepped up their level of humanity to show the world that we would not let prejudice and ignorance, the trajectory we were trapped onto by the Bush administration, be the course that we stay on, it spoke volumes to the social psychology of our nation.

I am elated by the contribution that Hip Hop, a worldview that seeks to look past race and class and expose why these isms were created in the first place, had on this evolved American social psychology. However, I am concerned that while we celebrate our victory, we will forget that other isms still exist to crumble our progress. Isms and phobias that deny rights to good, hard working people, who are apart of Hip Hop and our struggle as a whole; isms that still, in 2008! have me earning 75% of my male counter-part and being taken less seriously in the struggle because of my gender.

Therefore, I plan to grab the bull by it's nasty isms (versus riding the coatails of change) and tackle these issues of gender relations and homophobia within our community.

Hip Hop. It don't stop.

Another one from the archives:Baby girl.