A plus sized model dances with a “normal” sized model in PLUS Model Magazine’s January issue. Twenty years ago the average fashion model weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today, she weighs 23% less.
genfem
A fair question. Two quick answers:
1. Those of us lucky enough to live in the most progressive parts of the world tend to focus on how good we have it, and yet we still haven’t achieved true gender equality.
2. I’m over trying to pitch women’s magazines. If the story isn’t about slimmer thighs for summer, they’re just not interested.
This stuff is important, I’ll try not to make it too dry.
Happy 39th Birthday Roe Vs. Wade
It’s Blog for Choice Day 2012.
Reproductive rights are some of the most important rights American women have but the war on women has shown us that they are not guaranteed.
If you haven’t been keeping up, here is a list of ten ways in which Republicans are attacking women.
And here is a simple chart explaining why the right to have an abortion is still so important. Short version: Women will get abortions whether or not abortion is legal. But illegal, unsafe abortions will kill them. (We know this to be true from all the years that abortion wasn’t legal and safe.)
Caring about life means caring about women’s lives.
Relatedly, I really wish that any American who identified her/himself as “pro-life” would prove it by adopting a starving child. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, one in eight children dies before the age of five due to malnourishment. Imagine how much of an effect pro-lifers could have on human life worldwide if they spent their money feeding impoverished children instead of attacking American women.
Sign the petitions, elect pro-choice candidates, stay informed. Keep abortion safe and legal.
The Magical New Beauty Product That Fixes All Flaws and Solves All Problems.
What’s Wrong With “Marrying Down”?
Sady Doyle wrote a great article about the ways in which women journalists writing about feminism, like The Atlantic’s Kate Bolick, still do so from a wealthy, white perspective. They “focus on the ladies’s-magazine variety of female concerns,” she writes, “motherhood, marriage, dating.”
Doyle takes issue with Bolick’s idea that only wealthy women are “literate” enough to care about women’s progress. She also takes issue with the idea that working class women are the enemy of wealthy women because their lack of ambition might be less intimidating to successful men.
Bolick seems concerned not that straight women will miss out on marriage, but that upper-middle-class women will have to “marry down.” She equates job attainment with desirability. She tells us what “we” could learn from “the African-American community” (implying that “we,” her readers, aren’t part of it).
I agree with Doyle’s points, but can’t help wondering why “marrying down” is still a thing. It reminds me of an article I published in YourTango almost two years ago now, called “Skip the Soul Mate, Find a Trophy Husband.” In a world with true gender equality, it doesn’t matter who makes the money or takes care of the kids. Successful women would choose their mates for the same reasons that successful men choose theirs. From my article:
Men who are accomplished will often settle for a wife who is attractive and pleasant, but not an intellectual match. A man doesn’t need a partner to validate him, so it doesn’t matter if her brains don’t measure up to his… Women want their partner to have it all. If [they] were to look for a less significant significant other, might [their] dating pool widen?
The feminist movement never equated “having it all” with having a wealthy spouse. If anything, we were supposed to replace the need for wealthy spouses with our own hard earned cash (see Gloria Steinem’s quote on becoming the men we wanted to marry). Men don’t fret about marrying down. Even if it’s obvious that a guy’s hot wife is only with him for his money, he’ll somehow turn it into a source of pride.
The idea that, across classes, women have to compete for the same “good” men or else they’ll have to (shudder) marry down means that no matter how accomplished a woman is, she still needs a man to validate her.
Jessica Valenti: Why The Washington Post's new lady blog is wrong for women
Here’s the thing: I will always want more women’s (and feminist) voices in the mainstream media, particularly in politics. There’s an overwhelming byline gender gap and that needs to change. But The Washington Post’s new lady blog, “She the People,” is not a step in the right direction….
Depression and Anxiety
Giulietta Masina in Federico Fellini’s “Nights of Cambria”
Women are more likely to experience depression and anxiety than men. One theory about this is that women are more likely to express these feelings than men. My personal theory is that men have lower standards for happiness than women so they’re less likely to think of depression as an abnormal negative emotion. But that’s a different blog post. Whatever the reason, at some point most women will deal with feelings of depression and anxiety, and when that happens, the following links might be helpful:
Six tips on how to stop feeling super anxious and worried about everything all the time
I love the idea of creating a set “worry period” everyday.
This covers everything from how much sleep to get to what kind of food to eat to how to challenge negative thinking.
How to talk to someone who might be clinically depressed
This is an important one for friends and family members of depressives. One tip for dealing with a depressed person is to be specific about a way in which you’re going to help her. For example, instead of saying, “Please let me know if there’s anything I can do for you,” try saying, “I’m going to bring dinner to your house at 7:30pm tonight.”
Depression and anxiety aren’t all or nothing states of mind, so learning how to cope with negative feelings can keep us on the positive side of the mental health spectrum.
A 2012 New Year’s Resolution: Help Three Women
My New Year’s resolution is to help other women.
Just about every woman on the planet needs help with something, I’d like to aim to help at least three in the month of January and keep that trend going for the rest of the year.
If you want to join me, start by sharing this post. Let’s all get in the habit of thinking of how we can better help each other. Women who ask for our help and women who don’t, women we know personally and women we don’t.
This help could take the form of tweeting about something women are doing, giving them legitimate feedback on a project, forwarding them an opportunity or making an introduction on their behalf. It could take the form of overtipping waitresses, hotel housekeepers and bathroom attendants, volunteering at or donating to a women’s organization, or signing and promoting petitions to protect women’s rights.
Let’s start saying yes to other women instead of saying no, which is something that we all seem to hear all the time. Let’s become aware of our power to help others, which is a lot greater than any of us realize. There are a number of reasons to help women, but karma is one. When you help people, others help you. I don’t know why, it’s just a thing that happens.
Happy 2012! Here’s to the best year for women yet…
11 Funny Tweets from 2011
@mollymcnearney I don’t like that my mom has updated her Facebook page 3 times in the last two days but has not returned my phone call.
@kellyoxford My daydream solution to organizing my house is always arson.
@shinyunicorn ”I’m not sure you should admit that out loud” is probably one of the top five most common things people say to me.
