Dr. K

Ladies, I'm so excited. My home institution's hosting a 3rd Wave Feminism Miniconference, and the guest speakers are Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, authors of Manifesta!

What's even more exciting is that I was offered a chance to speak at the conference, and I want to speak about All Girl Army. Now, sure, I have lots of things I'd like to share with the audience at the conference, but because this community is for you, I'm hoping to enlist your help.

For the Roll Call (and I know it's a busy month!), if you choose to write on this one, would you tell me what you think about AGA?

I've been thinking about this issue for weeks, now, and debating about how to raise it here on AGA. Ultimately, I decided, that it was important enough to include, even if no one chooses to write about it, as an old-fashioned (dare I say that?) consciousness-raising.

Since I moved, I've noticed a phenomenon that my friends tell me is far more widespread than I'd realized. In public- bars or coffeeshops- an older man, say, in his 50s or 60s, will be hitting on a girl who's clearly underage, or just barely into her late teens/early 20s.

Happy (nearly) Halloween, everybody! (Well, all who celebrate it. Also happy holidays to those w/other holidays coming up.)

My friends are big costume ppl, and although I never have ideas, somehow this year I do! It got me thinking- how does the way we dress for Halloween- a holiday all about fantasy and "dressup"- reflect our feminist beliefs? So I thought I'd ask y'all, as a fun, short, but reflective Roll Call!

Things to think about:
- lol what's your costume!
- if we dress up as something we're not- anything from 'hooker' to 'punkrockgrrl' to 'cowgirl'- do we do it in a way that's respectful to women who actually live those lives? Is it even possible to be respectful?

I just got back from the coffeeshop here, and got a chance to talk to Jayne. Jayne's a workingclass, 60something, matriarchal, peacenik feminist who does a lot of work w/the local homeless population. Last year Jayne came to the annual Women Studies party, and tonight she and I reminisced about how wonderful it was that she boldly expressed her opinions to academic, upper-middle class feminists, really exposing them to some of their unexamined class prejudice that, even as feminists, they didn't want to discuss. Jayne is a revelation and a national treasure.

And I was thinking how great it would be for all of you bloggers to take a minute and try to find a woman whose life you feel is totally different than your own, and write about how this is so. Now, it may be hard to do this in real life, so think about women and girls in the movies, tv shows, or in books that you're familiar with. Maybe she's from another country, or another class, or another agegroup- but somehow you feel that she's 180-degrees different from yourself.

I've been really interested lately in the development of a number of threads on the forum, from the body-hair thread, to the friendships-thread , to name just two. Because the blogs provide a different form of expression than the discussion-threads, I wondered if we might bring some common elements from those discussions into blog-entries, and see if, in carefully crafting these entries, our thoughts cohere at a deeper level even than in the forumn.

I left the club last weekend feeling old- also righteous in my feminist anger- but part of me worries that I'm just getting old.

The song that was playing was one by Dirty Sanchez, about people who make out in clubs. It's quite sarcastic, and I enjoy it, and like dancing to it.

But not everyone understood that it was meant as a slam; I'm afraid some people thought it was an invitation, or even a directive.

And when I realized that center stage, "dancing" behind me were two women who, if not in fact engaging in, were simulating, oral sex, I left.

I was so angry. I felt betrayed by fellow (possibly, although not undoubtedly, queer) women. My reaction to the situation, and the reaction of the women getting it on, demonstrate two very different approaches to living as a woman in public. I would argue that they were being disrespectful to each other by engaging in sex in public like that, and disrespectful to the rest of the club who didn't come to a club to watch sex (as I had not). Furthermore, it seems to me that by acting this way in public they were reinforcing hurtful stereotypes about queer women and our sexuality. Now, it is entirely possible that these women, if asked, would argue that they were good, sex-positive feminists, who were forcing an audience to recognize that queer female sexuality exists and is as valid as heterosexuality (to which the song refers).

Wow: you guys really dug into that forum thread about your favorite movie sheroes! That's fantastic!

I got thinking, though, that your posts expressed a range of ways of looking at cinema, and I thought it might be interesting to see some more formal essays about your favorite female characters.

So. Your assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to tell us about your favorite female film characters. However, make your essays full: tell us why they are your favorites, and because it is part of the goal of this site, consider to what degree these characters are feminists.

Just ripping a cd of mashups that a friend from the club made me this week- crazy stuff- "Pray for Pop" is a mashup of Duran Duran, Prince, Madonna, and MC Hammer!

Got me thinking. We are all literally immersed in pop culture. As feminists, how do you handle it?

For example, there's a lot of music out there that I love, and a lot that I hate; some of it's even offensive to me. Yet, I admit, sometimes I love to dance to a song when I know I probably wouldn't like the group if I ever met them.

What goes for music goes for tv shows, movies, and books, too.

I find it interesting that I've never been very excited by "feminist" media: Mists of Avalon does little for me, Ani & her ilk can be incredible singers, but I don't own the cds and haven't seen a show since 97, etc.

Just thought I'd get this out there so that you folks can get to know a little about me before we go live later this afternoon. (lol, and Heather can steal this & put where it needs to be, if this isn't it!)

(and I'm really bad at bios, so if anyone wants any more info about me, just ask! I'm happy to answer questions!)
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Dr. K is an assistant professor of English at a school in the wilds of Alabama. For an English professor, she is a computer genius, although compared to most techgeeks, she is a dancing bear. Her current book-in-progress explores how and when men and women had the power to say ‘no’...in medieval England.