Guess Who?: Audacia Ray and The Red Umbrella Project

Tags

$pread magazine, audacia ray, current-events, feminism, NYC condoms, politics, Sex Out Loud, sex work, sex workers, stop and frisk, The Red Umbrella Diaries, The Red Umbrella Project, Tristan Taormino

“Writing is a form of social justice, and writing can be a powerful vehicle for social change.  We hope that giving sex workers the skills to tell their own stories will have the longer term effect of reducing stigma attached to people who do transactional sex.” — Melissa Petro, former sex worker and workshop instructor at The Red Umbrella Project

Audacia Ray, Founder of “The Red Umbrella Project”

Audacia “Dacia” Ray has quite the stacked resume.  Former sex worker, one-time executive editor of $pread magazine, author of books illuminating the culture of sexual commerce (such as 2007′s Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing in on Internet Sexploration), and activist for sex worker rights (among other issues of sexuality), Ray’s most noteworthy accomplishment is perhaps her 2010 founding of NYC’s The Red Umbrella Project, which merged with the Sex Work Awareness organization in 2011.

Driven by a mission that first aims to provide a safe space for sex workers to share their real stories, in the face of denial and erasure in mainstream media, The Red Umbrella Project incorporates a monthly storytelling series called “The Red Umbrella Diaries” in New York where people (either currently or formerly involved in the sex industry) recount their personal experiences — for better or for worse.  A weekly podcast collects the stories of everyone who agrees to have their stories documented and is available on multiple outlets for free.

Free eight-week long creative nonfiction writing courses and improv storytelling workshops are also available for individuals with experience in the sex trade and The Red Umbrella Project publishes a literary journal entitled “Pros(e)” with the writings produced in these classes.

Pursuant to The Project’s secondary goal of harm-reduction, they also provide training in advocacy and media messaging and have produced a 50-plus page training manual accessible free to the public on how sex workers can engage with the press to raise awareness for the issues that affect their community.

One recent and substantial such matter is NYC’s “Condoms as Evidence” law, under which police and prosecutors can collect condoms during a problematic and highly-biased “stop and frisk” and either confiscate them or use them as evidence of prostitution-related offenses in court (often leading sex workers to eschew the use of protection altogether).

 

Ray and her Red Umbrella Project deserve recognition both for their passionate and unapologetically controversial work, but also for their place in history for what will become undoubtedly a significant part of intersectional feminism in the coming decades.

Further reading:

“Sex Out Loud” podcast’s Tristan Taormino interviews Audacia Ray.

“Getting Away With Hating It: Consent in the Context of Sex Work” by Charlotte Shane. (A fascinating discussion on how the concept of “enthusiastic consent” fails sex workers)

“What You Will Be When You Can’t Help It”: March 2013 Feminist Book Review

Tags

beauty, Book review, eating disorders, feminism, feminist book review, Naomi Wolf, Open Books Chicago, sexual harassment, The Beauty Myth, Vagina: A New Biography, women

“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” — Oscar Wilde

 

March 2013: The Beauty Myth, 1991; 1st Anchor Books Paperback Edition

Author/Editor: Naomi Wolf

Purchased: Open Books, Chicago, IL (signed copy for $4.00!  It’s made out to a man called Tim, but hey!)

 

The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf’s best-selling 1990s feminist manifesto on the ways in which female behavior is constrained in the pursuit of “beauty,” is so powerful and absolutely spot-on that it makes it hard for us to pan her 2012 book, Vagina: A New Biography even though the text stinks of gender essentialism and new-agey yoni worship best left to the coffeehouse open mic night.  So, for the purposes of this review, let’s pretend The Beauty Myth, Wolf’s first novel for which she gained international fame as a spokesperson of third-wave feminism, is all we know about her.  Because in the beginning were these words and these words are good indeed.

“The beauty myth is actually prescribing behavior and not appearance.”

Wolf asserts throughout Beauty Myth that as women gained power outside the home as a result of second-wave feminism and began to enter the workplace in droves, more exacting standards of appearance were imposed upon their further success.  Want to get hired?  Land an important client?  Snag a promotion?  Simply keep your job? Better have your hair, nails, skin, weight, and wardrobe in flawless condition.  A set of constantly-shifting standards combined with a no-win balancing act between looking “too attractive” and opening oneself up to legally-protected sexual harassment and “not attractive enough” to keep one’s job is the result.

In the section entitled, “Work,” Wolf takes the reader through a number of American and British cases where this phenomenon demonstrates itself . . . such as Maureen Murphy and Eileen Davidson v. Stakis Leisure Ltd., where waitresses but not waiters were required to wear revealing uniforms, makeup, and nail-polish to, by the management’s own admission, “sexually draw male customers.”  The case was dismissed as de minimis — too trivial to consider.

And indeed, before reading through a book like The Beauty Myth, perhaps these considerations of whether a feminist shaves her legs, applies lipstick, or visits the salon seem trivial.  But Wolf’s goal is not to have her readers dump their make-up bags in the bin and ride happily into the clean-faced sunset.  She herself acknowledges the fun and frivolous quality of some beauty treatments.  I mean, who hasn’t applied hair dye after a breakup during a marathon of Real Housewives while eating ice cream out of the carton?  No one.

“‘Natural’ and ‘unnatural’ are not the terms in question.  The actual struggle is between pain and pleasure, freedom and compulsion.”

Rather, Wolf entreats us to examine the motivations behind our beauty rituals in an attempt to separate the diverting from the destructive.  On a practical level, we know that even today beauty products are not required to be F.D.A.-approved before market release and that pain or discomfort is seen as a natural price to pay for being a woman.  As Wolf says, “since there is a ‘background noise’ of harm around them, women aren’t seen to be hurt when they are hurt.”  We grit our teeth at waxing time, clench our fists when the gynecologist inserts the speculum, cut ourselves shaving our legs in the shower, our eyes tear when we pluck our eyebrows . . . but we always say we’re fine when someone asks.

Society’s tacit acceptance of our pain, our eating disorders, the structural and physical violence committed against us — all combine to drain women of their energy and desire to connect with other women in order to “get angry or get organized.”  The Beauty Myth, on the other hand, is a wonderfully-readable book that does just that — gets us just angry enough to, as poet Muriel Rukeyser says, tell the truth about our lives and split the world open.

“To the Library, and Step On It:” February Feminist Book Review

Tags

Book review, feminism, Germaine Greer, history, literature, menstruation, Open Books, politics, The Female Eunuch, trigger warning

“I do things like get in a taxi and say, ‘The library, and step on it.’” — David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

February 2013: The Female Eunuch, 1970; 2001 Farrar, Straus, and Giroux Edition

Author/Editor: Germaine Greer; Introduction by Jennifer Baumgardner

Purchased: Open Books, Chicago, IL

So, here’s the thing with the feminist manifestos of the Second-Wave. You know how literary hipsters quote one or two lines of Howl and think they’re well-read? Feminist hipsters do the same with their radical ancestors’ books. They demand to know why you’re not spending your weekends stitching your own reusable period pads out of organic cotton — because if you’re not, you’re out of touch with your body, and remember, Germaine Greer said that a real woman tastes her menstrual blood! (She didn’t exactly say this).

See, no one actually wants to read anything produced in the 60s and 70s. They want to have copies of The Feminine Mystique and The Female Eunuch on their bookshelves (preferably ones from a used bookstore with pre-broken spines and creased pages) so that when they’re having a Girls viewing party it looks like they casually read such things all the time.

And it is hard to read through some of these works. It is a commitment. They are heady and philosophical and written in a completely different style than more current popular titles such as Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Woman or Jessica Valenti’s Why Have Kids?. They are often embarrassingly products of their time — full of homophobic or transphobic assumptions (The Female Eunuch is particularly guilty in this regard, describing transitioning trans men as “mutilating themselves” and the lesbian who regards her sexuality as genetic/inborn as “apologist of her own way of life”). But to not read them is not only to work off of assumptions and second-hand knowledge about what they say but to disregard how immense of an impact their ideas have had on subsequent feminist works.

Now this doesn’t mean you have to read all 370 pages of The Female Eunuch. You’re busy, you have a life (I don’t) — I understand. Get a copy from the library (or better yet, a used copy that you can mark up) and skim. Skip through some of the vaginal vs. clitoral orgasm sections in the beginning with the understanding that this kind of discussion was risky and progressive in Greer’s culture, but is less relevant to us today. Take your time instead on chapters like “The Psychological Sell,” which meticulously examines the way in which women are ‘othered’ in a patriarchy: “Psychologists can not fix the world so they fix women.”

The Love section is also filled with rich chapters that examine self-sacrifice, obsession, and passivity in romantic connection — all elements which unfortunately still plague our modern relationships: “Self-sacrifice is the leit-motif of most of the marital games played by women, from the crudest, (“I’ve given you the best years of my life”) to the most sophisticated (“I only went to bed with him so that he’d promote you”).”

Ponder over the chapters on family, in which Greer displays a strange bias against wives and mothers — advocating open-relationships in a militant manner and decrying family planning as classism: “‘We can only afford two children,’ really means ‘We only like clean, well-disciplined, middle-class children, who go to good schools and grow up to be professionals.’”

Take a massive trigger warning for the Hate section, and then marvel at Greer’s understanding of rape culture — what she believes to be a product of internalized misogyny. Here it is, right in print, forty-two years ago, and yet we still wrestle with a society that has to be constantly reminded that rape is a violent act based on power differentials rather than sexual attraction.

“The act is one of murderous aggression, spawned in self-loathing and enacted upon the hated other.”

“Punished, punished, punished, for being the object of hatred and fear and disgust . . . “

Commit to The Female Eunuch in whatever degree you can manage it, and by doing so connect to your feminist history.

(P.S. — the menstrual blood comment is in the Body section, the “Wicked Womb” chapter.  Read it for yourself!)

Book of Mormon Musical Haven For Racial Stereotyping

Tags

Book of Mormon, Chicago theater, female genital mutilation, feminism, FGM, LGBTQ, musicals, racism, Uganda

“Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel—it’s vulgar.” (Texan journalist and feminist Molly Ivins)

Last week, I gussied myself up and headed out to Chicago’s Bank of America Theater to see The Book of Mormon. Now, I was expecting the jabs at religion — in fact, that was a major selling point for this organized-religion skeptic. But my mouth literally dropped open at, oh, about minute twenty, when the protagonists, two white Mormon missionaries travel to Uganda to meet their new ‘flock’ and join in a song called “Hasa Diga Eebowai.” The song’s English meaning, “Fuck God,” was not a source of discomfort in the least. The ability of this setting, which is besieged by AIDS and gender-based violence, to challenge the Midwestern Mormon blind faith in ‘Heavenly Father’s goodness is a fantastic plot point . . . in principle. Rather, I was letting the flies in because the way in which the Ugandan culture and its problems were presented was Westernized in conception and simplified to the utmost extreme.

And eighty percent of us have AIDS (Hasa Diga Eebowai!)
When the young ones here get circumcised
Their clits get cut right off (Way oh!)

Basically, in The Book of Mormon, Africa is a homogenous country rather than a continent made up of diverse cultures (not kidding — they call it a country un-ironically and in defiance of grammar school geography class), a baddie militant general (with a silly side! He dances, he sings, his name is General Butt-Fucking Naked!) is the source of all genital mutilation, and AIDS is basically an African identity.

The facts about Uganda — notice how I didn’t say Africa — are that genital mutilation was outlawed four years ago, but it continues to be practiced in rural areas not by some imposing military coup leader as a method of imposing his power but largely by elderly females who have been performing the surgery as a cultural initiation for decades. In fact, genital mutilation of girls in most African countries (see, used it appropriately there) is often carried out due to a complicated mix of social, cultural, and religious mandates by these local practitioners, who also preside over other important rites of passage in the village — births, for example.

In Book of Mormon, the clumsy and under-achieving missionary Elder Cunningham knows just the remedy for this social ill — make up stories that explicitly forbid mutilation and pretend they are written in The Book of Mormon . . . problem solved. And because these ‘Africans’ are stereotypically portrayed as eager sponges willing to soak up anything and everything presented to them, not only do they forgo mutilation but they also stop “raping babies.” Yup, raping babies. Remember the very real and present danger that exists for virgins in some African societies where it is believed that having sex with a virgin can cure one of AIDS? Well, to get a hearty laugh, Book of Mormon throws in a line about there being no virgins left except babies. Hence, the need to rape babies, hence a running joke about raping babies. And if you were wondering, yes, that ‘joke’ got laughs every time.

MIDDALA
Ahh, this is bullshit! The story that I have been told is that the way to cure AIDS is by sleeping with a virgin! I’m going to go and rape a baby!

ELDER CUNNINGHAM
WHAT!?!! OH MY – NO! You can’t do that! NO!!!!

MIDDALA
Why not?

ELDER CUNNINGHAM
Because that is DEFINITELY against God’s will!

MIDDALA
Says who!? Where in that book of yours does it say anything about sleeping with a baby, huh?! Nowhere!

ELDER CUNNINGHAM
Uh, behold, the Lord said to the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, ‘You shall not have sex with that infant..!’ LO! Joseph said, ‘Why not Lord? Huh? Why not?’ And the Lord said, ‘If you lay with that infant you shall…Pghwwwww!…burn in the fiery pits of Mordor.

Eventually, the ‘Africans,’ led by the non-character of Nabulungi (the product of another running joke in which Elder Cunningham simply just can’t get her name right; I mean really who doesn’t find the blatant disregard for another culture hilarious?) put on a pageant for visiting Mormon dignitaries that reveals their misconceptions about the religion’s history. The pageant marks the pinnacle of the racial and cultural stereotyping that Book of Mormon leans upon for laughs — like children, the villagers are innocent in their mistakes and unintentionally, inappropriately, sexual in their expression (an echo of the “Baptism” number in which Nabulungi is baptized by Elder Cunningham in a pantomime of a sexual de-virginization). Horrified, the visiting elders must speak to their fellow Mormons separately (because the children can’t hear daddy yelling!) and as they leave, Nabulungi, in her manufactured innocence, proclaims, “I think they liked it!”

Finally, instructed in the deception that has been played upon them, the Ugandan villagers come to the realization that even if these stories that commanded them not to rape babies and not to commit FGM if they wished to please a greater power are fabricated, Elder Cunningham had given them what they had really been missing — hope. And . . . white savior trope complete.

Ultimately, while the audience is indeed encouraged to laugh at the bumbling and naive Mormon missionaries, they are equally if not more so led to laugh at what amounts to an egregiously stereotypical portrayal of a culture that is struggling to keep its head above water. As of 2010, there were 14.1 million Mormons worldwide, and that number is growing exponentially. The Church of Latter-Day Saints can take a bit of ribbing on what are largely factual representations of their beliefs and practices. But when 140 million girls and women worldwide are living with the consequences of FGM (which can include recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, cysts, infertility, an increased risk of childbirth complications and newborn deaths, and the need for later surgeries), the humor is lost on me — especially when Book of Mormon so conveniently solves this problem by scaring off the FGM-inducing General with threats of his being afflicted with lesbianism from ‘Heavenly Father’ should he continue his behavior. Tee-hee, lesbianism as a curse from God. You know what would make that even funnier? If Uganda had criminal punishments for homosexuality and had passed a so-called “Kill the Gays” bill in 2009 which allows for extradition back to Uganda for same-sex acts committed by citizens outside its borders. Now that would be hilarious.

The Book of Mormon has won three Tony awards and numerous other prestigious honors (Drama Circle, Grammy, etc.). Its Chicago production was so booked that it had to extend its run by two weeks. When I was there, and I’m sure at most if not all of the performances, it received a standing ovation. This feminist can take a joke, but this time she has to wonder what exactly it is audiences are laughing at.

‘Outside of a Dog:’ January 2013 Feminist Book Review

Tags

Book review, chicago, feminism, gaming, gender essentialism, LGBTQ, myopic books, myopic books chicago, video games, videogames

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”
― Groucho Marx

Now that ‘Half-Way’ is down the rabbit hole that is Tumblr, I’ve been noticing the sheer number of ‘Help me! Help me learn!’ book recommendation requests. Apparently, y’all are in the market for some of our favorite socialist, anti-family tomes that will help you figure out how to leave your husbands, kill your children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians. (This has been a Pat Robertson reference). I hear you, baby feminists, and Mama Half-Way is here for you. With a monthly book review. A monthly feminist book review.

January 2013: From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games, 1999
Author/Editor: Edited by Justine Cassell and Henry Jenkins
Purchased: Myopic Books, Chicago, IL

This book of essays may be a bit dated (a sequel is available), but its conclusions remain apt and its game references a nice trip down memory lane for children of the late 80s (Purple Moon, anyone?). With the overall thesis being that, in an increasingly technological age, isolating girls from an early familiarity with computer use can be detrimental to their careers as grown women, From Barbie combines research-based essays and interviews with game developers.

So what is the difference between ‘girl games’ and ‘boy games?’ The main conclusions of From Barbie seem to be that (a), girls dislike the overly violent content of boys’ games, (b), girls like to be involved in group-based problem solving or cooperation, and (c), girls enjoy games that provide them with a private space and options for non-rushed, un-timed exploration.

At times, the overly essentialist slant of the text can be off-putting to modern feminists. However, with the exception of assertions made in the interview portions, most of these generalizations are supported by focus group data and research. Rather, most of what dates the book remains its exclusion of LGBTQ children in its considerations (when it has been proven beyond a doubt that the brains of such individuals differ at least in part from heterosexual, cis-gender individuals).

Runaways, a game mentioned in the text that I have no recollection of (which is no condemnation — sometimes I live in a cave), appeared to be on the right track as far as LGBTQ representation goes — including a character creation mode that allowed for separate gender, sexuality, and biological sex choices. But the research provided in From Barbie still fails to imagine past what a successful ‘girls’ game’ would look like to discuss what a lesbian girls’ (or a trans, or an asexual or bisexual girls’) game might consist of.

Overall, Half-Way feels confident in recommending From Barbie for you dear readers . . . If only as the most basic jumping off point for your interests in media criticism.

2012 End-Of-The-Year Book Survey

Tags

books, female voices, feminism, literature, new year, reading, romance novel

For more information, and a complete list of 2012′s books, feel free to visit my GoodReads site.

*Thank you to The Perpetual Page-Turner and Aesop to Oz for the questions!

How Many Books Read in 2012?
101

Fiction/Non-Fiction?
33 Non-Fiction/68 Fiction

Male/Female Authors?
39 Male/62 Female (this is definitely conscious – I seek out female voices, especially forgotten/under-appreciated female authors in the canon/classics genre)

Oldest Book Read?
Love and Freindship (deliberate misspelling) by Jane Austen. Dated 1790 and unpublished in her lifetime, Austen wrote a few of these novellas in her youth for the entertainment of her family.

Newest Book Read?
I’ve read tons of books released in 2012. I like the feeling of going into a bookstore and seeing all familiar faces on the new releases shelves . . . It makes me feel like a reading connoisseur!

Longest Book Read?
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel

Shortest Book Read?
It would have been one of the plays again if not for my Dr. Seuss binge after seeing the Chicago MSI exhibit last Winter

Best Book You Read in 2012:
I refuse to choose!

Most Disappointing Book/Book You Wish You Loved More Than You Did?
I waited FOREVER for the second installment in the Discovery of Witches trilogy, and unfortunately, the second book was a let-down.

Most Surprising (in a good way!) Book of 2012?
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie. A fantastic romance novel with a curvy protagonist who has a career and a mind of her own!

Book You Recommended to People Most in 2012?
Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. Seriously, you know you’re obsessed with this study of hyper-masculinity when you find nothing wrong with soliloquizing about it on a first date. While using its full title every time.

Best Series You Discovered in 2012?
The Johannes Cabal Necromancer series. Unfortunately, since these are based across the pond, we Americans have a bit of delay in getting the newest titles in the series.

Best Book That Was Out Of Your Comfort Zone or Was a New Genre For You?
I read several textbooks this year (some for the purposes of a paper I am co-authoring). I’ve never done that outside of the classroom. A good one (because it’s broken into essays) is From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games.

Most Thrilling Book in 2012?
The Hunger Games series.

Book You Most Anticipated in 2012?
Are You My Mother?, Alison Bechdel’s second graphic novel. It wasn’t nearly as good as Fun Home.

Favorite Cover of a Book You Read in 2012?
Pilgrimage by Annie Leibovitz. I mean, it’s a photography book, so obviously.

Most Memorable Character in 2012?
Madeline Hanna of The Marriage Plot. I know, I know, Eugenides is one of the white, male literary darlings, but I really identified with the philosophies on romance.

Most Beautifully Written Book Read in 2012?
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Exceptionally well-crafted.

Book That Had The Greatest Impact On You in 2012?
The Feminine Mystique. It’s unbelievable (and somewhat tragic) how relevant Friedan’s work still is fifty years later.

Book You Can’t Believe You Waited UNTIL 2012 To Finally Read?
The Picture of Dorian Gray. There are serious gaps in this English Major’s classic books’ education.

Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2012?

“A woman didn’t tell hero stories, after all, only ghost stories.” (The Nightingales of Troy)

“The stork is the bird of war.” (A Margaret Sanger quote from the Life of Passion biography)

“It was as if he had inadvertently told her something essential about himself, a secret she would have to keep forever: ‘you can’t count on me.’” (The Bird Sisters)

“You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.” (A Colette quote from The L Life)

“‘A girl needs a husband, Peggy,’ she said. ‘Well,’ I said, “I’ve always been a terrible failure at being a girl.’” (The Giant’s House)

I was so never going to pick just one . . . )

Book That You Read In 2012 That You Would Be Most Likely To Reread In 2013?
The Portable Dorothy Parker

Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling And Dying To Talk To Somebody About?
Winnie the Pooh and the Angle of Dath (which you can buy here).  Thankfully, I can take my over-attachment to fictional characters straight to their author . . . benefit of dating a writer!

One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2012 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2013?
I have 48 of them waiting for me from the Open Books Open Boxes sale.

And now, a kitten with books. Happy New Year to all!

16 Days Campaign: How Are We Marketing Domestic Violence? (TRIGGER WARNING)

Tags

Avon Foundation, BETC Paris, domestic violence, feminism, rape, real men don't rape, United Nations, World Health Organization

According to a 2005 World Health Organization study, at least one in every three women across the globe will be abused physically and/or sexually at least once in her lifetime.  The UN designates November 25^th as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and December 10^th as International Human Rights Day.  Since 1991, the intervening sixteen days have been designated for the 16 Days Campaign, which focuses on awareness of gender-based violence.

The 16 Days Campaign, by its nature, is critical in thought and tends to focus on the specific factors that create a culture of violence.  This year’s theme, for example, “highlights the role militarism plays in perpetuating violence against women and girls” as the amount of small arms in private ownership rises and “research shows that having a small arm in the home increases the overall risk of someone being murdered by 41%; for women in particular this risk nearly triples.”

However, other anti-domestic violence projects are not always so evaluative.  Indeed, it seems that the trend is a troublesome commercialization and sensationalism.  The Avon Foundation, for all the awareness it raises around the issue, still maintains two product lines (No More and m.powerment by mark) as part of its fundraising initiative.

Much like feminist sentiment surrounding the ‘Pink-ification’ of breast cancer, Avon’s lines present a thorny moral dilemma.  On the one hand, there is a benefit to being able to contribute quickly and easily on a micro level (sometimes very micro – with certain products only bestowing cents of their total retail price to the cause) to larger social campaigns.  On the other, not only is the commodification of a social ill ethically questionable, it can contribute to a buyer’s sense of complacency.  Why, after all, if I’ve bought an m.powerment necklace or a pink vacuum cleaner, surely these ladies will be feeling better in no time!

Likewise, while it certainly raises awareness, sensationalizing gender-based violence can both turn the viewer away and instill him or her with a false sense of reality.  France’s ad agency BETC Paris recently launched its campaign, entitled “Bruises,” a combination performance art and print work.  On November 25^th, dozens of women painted with realistic facial bruises dropped to the floor near the Pompidou Center in Paris under a banner that read, “In a single year, 122 women die after experiencing domestic violence.”  The published images of the campaign that accompanied the performance depicted close-up views of bruises captioned in imitation of formal art pieces – “Grave Green,” “Booze Brown,” and “Rape Red.”

While extremely viscerally powerful, the BETC campaign remains simplistic and devoid of the complexities that surround domestic violence prevention strategies.  Where is the discussion on how to spot an abusive relationship before it turns physical, the resources to escape such a situation before it’s too late.  Reducing women and their stories to fodder for a shock campaign is, again, ethically troublesome to say the least.

So, are any campaigns getting it right?  While they can receive criticism (as we all know that men are not the only perpetrators and women not the only victims), the recent trend of targeting sexual violence prevention campaigns towards men (see the following campaigns: My Strength is Not For Hurting; Real Men Know The Difference; Don’t Be That Guy, etc.) is certainly a step in the right direction.  Here we do have an exploration of the ‘grey areas.’  Is drunken consent actual consent?  Is there such a thing as spousal/relationship rape?  Can consent be withdrawn?  (The answers, for all that are following along, are resounding (a) NO, (b) YES, (c) YES).

Confronting these myths by being brave enough to suggest that gender-based violence thrives on a culture of hyper-masculinity can be the beginning of a critical and crucial evaluation of the behaviors that have created a culture of placid acceptance of both the myths and realities surrounding this violence.

Are You Tired Too?

Tags

birth control, feminism, Kathleen Sebelius, margaret sanger, medicine, over the counter birth control, reproductive rights

“This incubator is overused

Because you’ve kept it filled

The feelin’ good comes easy now

Since I’ve got the pill”

Loretta Lynn, “The Pill”

‘The Pill’ was first approved for contraceptive use in the United States in 1960 and today is used by almost 12 million women in this country alone as their primary method of birth control.  So last week’s announcement from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that oral contraceptives are safe enough to be sold over the counter (without a doctor’s prescription) in drugstores has, needless to say, sparked lively response.

There is no doubt that, should the recommendation be implemented, oral contraceptives would become infinitely more accessible, especially for uninsured women and those who are unable to visit the doctor regularly.  Furthermore, the safety of hormonal birth control is comparable to drugs currently available OTC – including aspirin, which feminist voters may remember can be used as birth control in and of itself in a pinch.  (SARCASM ALERT.  DEAR READERS, DO NOT USE ASPIRIN AS BIRTH CONTROL.  THANK YOU.)

However, there are indeed drawbacks.  On a practical, cost-effective level, OTC drugs are not covered by insurance providers and therefore, women who do currently acquire their birth control with the help of their medical insurance plan would likely see costs rise rather than shrink.

But the more thorny issue remains the ‘well woman’ exam that accompanies a birth control prescription and renewal (and includes a pap smear to test for cervical cancer).  Many women’s health advocates see this required doctor’s visit as necessary – especially for the low-income women whose birth control exam may be their only form of preventative healthcare.

Others argue that the exam is an expression of a larger, sexually-repressive culture where women’s birth control is held hostage with medically-unnecessary procedures (the pap smear especially) and healthy women are given the message that they are engaging in risky behavior simply by being sexually active.

While there is merit in both arguments, it cannot be denied that adult women are forced to consistently jump the hurdles that our society sets for them in the name of ‘their own good.’

Remember Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius?  Flying in the face of an FDA ruling that Plan B, the emergency contraceptive pill, is safe enough to be available OTC to minors with her statement that she “do(es) not believe enough data were presented to support the application to make Plan B One-Step available over the counter for all girls of reproductive age?”

Again and again, science and common sense are trumped by hazy morality and political games.  And, simply for daring to have consensual, adult sex, a woman is expected to pay the piper.  Want to get an abortion but don’t want that medically unnecessary, costly, emotionally traumatizing ultrasound?  Grit your teeth, ladies — you shouldn’t have had unprotected sex.  Want to get your birth control prescription filled, but your pharmacist is a Bible thumper?  Sorry, his ‘constitutional right’ trumps yours.

As a woman, as soon as we begin having sex, we begin being defined by it.  Our time and energy is spent pursuing our basic reproductive rights.  Talking about them.  Writing about them.  Lobbying for them.  Voting for them.  Here at “Half-Way” we’ve done nine whole posts regarding reproductive rights, when all that should really have to be said is the old stand-by, “my body, my choice.”  What could we do if we didn’t have to waste that potential fighting for what should be givens?  Gloria Steinem once said that “the future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving.”  And we’re not moving.  We’re stagnant.  One step forward, two steps back.  And it’s exhausting.

As third (or fourth, or fifth – depends on who’s counting) wave feminists, we’re no longer coming up with the next big idea, and this isn’t because we’re bad, leg-shaving, bra-wearing feminists.  It’s because we’re still fighting the battles of our feminist mothers and grandmothers (Margaret Sanger started campaigning for reproductive choice in 1914, when she began publishing her newsletter, The Woman Rebel) and it sometimes feels like we always will be.

You Like Us, You Really Like Us!

Tags

coding, feminism, gender gap, STEM, stereotype threat

“For whatever reason, I didn’t succumb to the stereotype that science wasn’t for girls. I got encouragement from my parents. I never ran into a teacher or a counselor who told me that science was for boys. A lot of my friends did.” — Sally Ride, to USA Today in 2006

We have had some phenomenal response to our June STEM and gender post.

Ms. Allison Morris has sent over the beautiful infographic below (take a special look at the “Are You a Girl?” section).

Ms. Kaitlyn Cole has contributed her article, “40 Important Online Resources for Women in STEM.”

We are so honored by the positive feedback, and as always, welcome reader suggestions for blog topics.

When I Grow Up . . .

Tags

adulthood, anxiety, career choice, media tropes, post-grad, relationships

When you move into your first apartment.  When you move in with a partner for the first time.  When you start grocery shopping for yourself.  When you start paying the utility bills.  When you finish your degree.  When you get your first job.  When you get a job in your chosen field.  When you have children.  When you decide you’re not going to have children.

When do we become adults?

As always the feminist media critic, I look to the influence of those mediums on our collective psyche.

We seem to have learned that the media tropes of other life stages (namely how we should be living our teenage lives and how our college experience should have been) don’t apply to reality.  We know that no one walks to English class clad in Betsey Johnson and that Jason from Chemistry is not interested in talking to us about his deep childhood traumas while shirtless-ly displaying his six-pack.

But when it comes to our adult lives, we still remain dazzled by the simplistic ways in which our favorite fictional characters transition from childhood.  Mary Tyler Moore is throwing her hat in the Minneapolis air because she’s ‘gonna make it after all’, damn it, and it’s as easy as that – buy a train ticket and go girl, go!

The thing is, those fictional characters always know exactly how they want their adulthood to look.  Moore is going to be a big-time television producer (and she’ll have to deal with some office politics along the way but so what).  They have well-defined dreams and paths – they know what kind of career they want, what kind of relationship they want, what kind of place they want to live in . . . and all they have to do is get going.

The reality is that no one is hiring and your career choice may entail hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of graduate school loans.  Are you hundreds of thousands of dollars sure that this is the right choice for you?

The reality is that, in your desire for stability, you wind up torturing yourself and your romantic partners with those unanswerable questions – “Where do you see this going?  Because I kind of have to make plans.”

It is terrifying to suddenly be in a place where we are letting life happen to us.  Maybe the committee will grant me the scholarship.  Maybe the boss will hire me.  Maybe my boyfriend will be with me for another six months.  Our lack of agency is combined with a sense that, when we are presented with the opportunity to make a choice, the impact of said decision will have far-reaching consequences.  No longer are we making small, and, in a sense, pre-determined decisions such as what class to enroll in this semester or how late to stay out at the bars the night before an exam.  This stage, the adult stage, and all its decisions are not for a semester or a year or four years . . . they number in the decades.

So what do we do with that? How do we not paralyze ourselves with anxiety?  Unfortunately, dear readers, I don’t have an easy answer for you.  When you wake up every morning and things are just the same as they were the day before and the day before that, you’re bound to spiral down into frustration and depression.  To pull yourself out of that – by dancing to a Pink song, keeping a gratitude journal, sending in another job application when your last twelve have been rejected – this may be what really separates the adult from the child.