http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/gender/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Fri, 22 Nov 2002 16:12:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/433/patriarchy_new_and_improved/ Any feminist, female or male, who has seen ABC’s The Bachelor was repulsed. For those who have missed this fine media offering, a carefully selected lunk of a guy—in the most recent case, Aaron—is presented with a harem of 25 also carefully selected young women, all slim, all conventionally pretty and most blonde. After sampling all the wares, he rejects them one by one until he has chosen the one he likes best. It’s not unlike a 4-H competition of prize heifers, except the women weigh less and get to go to fancy resorts. Nor is it unlike the inspections in 19th-century slave pens, except that the women are mostly white, privileged and, I’m sorry to report, there of their… gender social justice David Sirota Mon, 10 Feb 2003 11:00:01 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/424/the_real_american_taliban/ It is not surprising when The Nation features an article about the Bush administration’s assault on women’s reproductive rights. But when the New York Times prints a huge Sunday editorial titled “The War Against Women” that takes up two-thirds of the op-ed space, something is afoot. That January 12 piece gathered together a range of seemingly minor items—who was appointed to such-and-such unheard of commission, what was the U.S. position at a U.N.-sponsored conference held on the other side of the planet—and showed how, when put together, they constitute a domestic and international offensive against the health and safety of women and children. Remember when Laura Bush (who may be—I am very sorry—the most cynically deployed first lady in our… gender medical and health politics social justice David Sirota Fri, 28 Feb 2003 15:38:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/434/technical_foul_against_title_ix/ Every weekend, like millions around the country, I witness a revolution. I go to a sports facility, outdoors or in, and watch girls and young women flex their muscles, sweat and compete to win. On the sidelines, family and friends passionately cheer on the girls. When I was in high school and college, this was unheard of: Girls sat on the sidelines while the boys got to play. And then in 1972, as a result of the women’s movement, came Title IX, the law that banned sex discrimination in schools in both athletics and academics. This legislation was signed into law by none other than Richard Nixon. Here are just a few measures of the law’s impact: In 1971, fewer… gender politics social justice David Sirota Tue, 17 Feb 2004 15:11:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/705/judicial_disappointments/ With a stalled economy and ongoing attacks against U.S. troops, judicial appointments seemingly lack the immediacy and scope to register among Americans’ concerns this election season. But relegating the president’s power to make lifetime appointments to the lower tiers of political consideration sets dangerous precedent—and could impact the rights of ordinary citizens for decades to come. Federal judges play a critical role on such issues as civil rights, reproductive rights, and environmental and consumer protections. And as the recess appointment of Charles W. Pickering Sr. most recently demonstrated, President Bush is bent on packing the federal courts with ideological extremists who have shown a willingness to rewrite statues, distort precedent, and misrepresent facts to justify positions against many of our… civil liberties gender government: administration government: judiciary politics race social justice David Sirota Tue, 16 Mar 2004 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/151/doing_women_wrong/ The musical Hairspray, playing on Broadway for the past two years and now on tour, is about race relations and the growth of tolerance in 1962 Baltimore. It won a Tony Award for Best Musical, and its leading lady took home the award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical. More notably, Harvey Fierstein won Best Lead Actor for portraying the leading lady’s mother. A man winning plaudits for portraying a woman raises a few questions: Why do we celebrate performance in drag? Isn’t drag just yet another variation on a dominant group appropriating the identity of a disempowered group for its own ends? As Erika Munk pointed out in 1985 in The Village Voice, “Most men in drag are… gender LGBT social justice David Sirota Mon, 22 Mar 2004 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/524/bushettes_it_a_bad_thing/ Ah, the dreams of the women’s movement. We envisioned a day when there would be women in high places, and here we are, with a female national security adviser, a female Secretary of the Interior, a female Labor Secretary and even our latest female corporate felon. Now, I’ve never been a fan of Martha. Her elevation of domestic chores to an obsession, the profusion, in her magazines, of those dictatorial images insisting that your house be a sun-drenched, voile-curtained, neat-as-a-pin showroom, and her smug condescension while trimming the rough edges off poached eggs, all made me long to throw a cream pie at her. But like many, I see her prosecution and conviction as a cross between showboating by federal… gender media politics social justice David Sirota Tue, 13 Apr 2004 12:48:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/160/ask_emma_goldman/ Dear Emma, With his recent signing of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, President George W. Bush has taken yet another step toward outlawing abortion. John Kerry, however, is a staunch advocate for pro-choice. Aren’t you excited about electing a president this November who will help to insure that a woman’s body remains her own? Kerry-Crazed in Connecticut Dear Kerry-Crazed, “Women’s development, her freedom, her independence, must come from and through herself. First, by asserting herself as a personality, and not as a sex commodity. Second, by refusing the right to anyone over her body; by refusing to bear children, unless she wants them; by refusing to be a servant to God, the State, society, the husband, the family, etc.,… activism gender social justice David Sirota Thu, 15 Apr 2004 08:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/161/who_afraid_of_theory/ Ivory-tower feminism has a bad rap: It’s perceived as convoluted and theoretical, mired in jargon and intellectual elitism and, frankly, a big bunch of mumbo-jumbo. Compared to the vigorous, policy-changing, dynamic nature of grassroots activism, theory seems constipated, static and pretentious. Clearly, the woman’s movement is advanced more by volunteering as an escort at an abortion clinic or participating in the exuberance of the March for Women’s Lives in Washington than by spending an agonizing afternoon deciphering paragraph-long sentences. Or is it? Disdain for academic feminism reached its apogee during the 1998 Bad Writing Contest. Sponsored by The Journal of Philosophy and Literature, this annual (but now defunct) tongue-in-cheek competition recognizes “the most stylistically lamentable passages found in scholarly books… gender social justice David Sirota Mon, 19 Apr 2004 07:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/722/how_to_live_on_577_a_month/ The Social Security Administration recently informed me that I’ve earned enough “credits” for my child to receive $577 per month in benefits “if you die this year.” Five hundred and seventy-seven dollars a month. It’s funny. I used to get exactly that on welfare: a young broke single mom with her sweet fat baby. Five hundred and seventy-seven dollars. But that was a long time ago—before Newt explained to me “personal responsibility”; before my 21-year-old self was blamed for everything from economic decline to the moral decay of Western Civilization; before Clinton signed welfare reform while getting a blowjob from an intern; before Bush Jr. stole the White House; before my baby morphed into a teenager. Five hundred and seventy-seven… gender government: agencies social justice David Sirota Mon, 19 Apr 2004 08:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/530/the_women_have_it/ This November, female voters in the United States will affect the lives of millions of women around the globe. ¶ While this may ring of American megalomania, it’s distressingly true: Pundits have zeroed in on single women voters under age 65 as the demographic most likely to turn the tide against George W. Bush. Pollsters Stan Greenberg and Celinda Lake suggest that these historically low-turnout voters—who skew Democratic and vote less frequently than their married counterparts—could have made a crucial difference if they had cast ballots in 2000. Several groups, such as Women’s Voices Women Vote, are working to bring out the country’s disparate single women on Election Day. Possible lures? More female politicians, equal pay initiatives, better retirement plans,… civil liberties gender politics social justice election 2004 David Sirota Mon, 19 Apr 2004 08:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/723/confronting_the_mommy_myth/ As I write this, much of the country is focused on the 9/11 hearings and revelations about Team Bush’s destructive obsession with Saddam Hussein. We also are witnessing the fruits of that obsession as Iraq spirals down into a firestorm, rent by fervid anti-American hatred. These issues—that Team Bush misled the country about weapons of mass destruction, that Team Bush was so fixated on avenging Bush the First, that Team Bush has fostered increased terrorism by invading Iraq—coupled with this administration’s disastrous economic and environmental policies, will, and should, dominate the presidential campaign. But Team Bush also has been conducting another war, here and abroad, a war against women. Currently they are seeking to invade, with considerable success, the private… gender politics social justice David Sirota Wed, 21 Apr 2004 08:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/725/transfeminism_let_her_rip/ It’s been in the New York Times, so it must be official: Transpeople are here in number and they’re here to stay. Transsexuals (those who medically change the hormonal and/or anatomical aspects of their biological sex) and transgendered people (those who change or redefine their gender that may not include any medical change) are, as illuminated in the March 7 Times article “On Campus, Rethinking Biology 101,” increasingly visible and vocal, and they’re out there doing shocking, subversive things—like going to college and working for appropriate living conditions on their campuses. These efforts bring up any number of issues about equal access, but also about the nature and meaning of personal attributes we’re taught to think of as fixed and… activism civil liberties gender LGBT social justice David Sirota Wed, 21 Apr 2004 08:01:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/724/feminism_future/ When San Jose State University senior Erika Jackson tried to recruit fellow women of color for a new feminist group on campus, the overwhelming reply was the sneer: “white women.” Those words were code for another term: racist. Many women of color, like their Anglo counterparts, eschew the term “feminism” while agreeing with its goals (the right to an abortion, equality in job hiring, girls’ soccer teams). But women of color also dismiss the label because the feminist movement has largely focused on the concerns of middle-class white women. This has been a loss for people of color. Likewise, it’s a loss for the movement if it expects to grow: the U.S. Census projects that the Latino and Asian- American… activism gender politics race social justice David Sirota Fri, 23 Apr 2004 07:43:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/727/coalition_to_community/ Second-wave feminism always had to grapple with questions of inclusion, democracy and power. The writings of black feminists from bell hooks to Barbara Smith lamented the condescending, patronizing and sometimes outright racist treatment they experienced in predominately white feminist circles in the ’70s. Even when racism was not there on an interpersonal level, there was a political struggle to stretch the definition of feminism from a narrow set of issues that impact all women to include racial oppression and economic exploitation. Issues like poverty, the prison system, police harassment, economic injustice and welfare, for many poor women and women of color, had to be central to any movement for liberation. Over the past few years a number of writers have… activism gender politics race social justice David Sirota Fri, 23 Apr 2004 08:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/164/pink_bloque_party/ “2 Cute 2 B Arrested” blazed across the cotton candy–colored sweatshirts of the members of the group Pink Bloque when thousands of people gathered March 20 in downtown Chicago to protest the one-year anniversary of the war on Iraq. Pink Bloque joined the crowd in full fuchsia ensemble, dancing to the beat of Top 40 hit “Hey Ya” by Outkast. In the wake of 9/11, a group of Chicago-based friends formed the activist dance troupe to give the look of protests an extreme makeover. They use pink clothing and pop songs to spark political conversation and to challenge the stereotype of protesters as bandana-clad anarchists or peace sign–waving hippies. Since 2002 this group of radical feminists has coordinated actions to… activism gender social justice David Sirota Fri, 23 Apr 2004 08:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/726/a_crucial_coalition/ If there is anything that shows the power of progressive coalitions, it is the March for Women’s Lives. The progressive feminist movement will converge April 25 on Washington, D.C., for what will be a historic march for women’s reproductive rights and health. The March for Women’s Lives is co-sponsored by more than 1,200 groups, including women’s, civil rights, environmental, lesbian and gay rights, women of color, disability, labor, religious, civil liberties, peace organizations and more. This march represents a huge coalition of pro-women’s rights progressive forces coming together to say, “We won’t go back.” The threat of returning to the days of illegal, unsafe, back-alley abortions is very real. The recently released private papers of the late Justice Harry Blackmun… activism gender politics social justice David Sirota Tue, 27 Apr 2004 08:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/728/notes_to_a_young_feminist/ A few years ago there was a conference in Minneapolis on “Feminism and Rhetoric.” I went as a doctrinaire, whiny feminist. The focus of my rant was directed at younger feminist theorists who were using an arcane language that I found an obstruction to my understanding. I thought not only was it arcane, it was an act of cowardice because they were talking in such high falutin’ language no one knew what the fuck they were saying! So I did my rant about how, if you people don’t clean it up, we’re lost—you can’t keep talking in this language that none of us understands. I just laid into them. Then, feminist theorist Judith Butler gave her talk, and she changed… activism gender LGBT politics social justice David Sirota Thu, 01 Jul 2004 10:10:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/817/we_are_what_we_watch/ A few weeks ago, Fox-TV offered up the finale of “The Swan”—the mutant offspring of the Miss America pageant, Cinderella and “Extreme Makeover.” Women held up as “dogs”—whose supposedly oversized noses, flabby thighs and saggy breasts were scrutinized and pitied, even ridiculed—subjected themselves to multiple invasive procedures, including as many as 14 surgeries and psychological counseling, before a national viewing audience. The finalists then vied in a beauty contest complete with lingerie competition, and one was chosen winner, the Swan. As “The Swan” and a swarm of reality shows colonized primetime, the news media was consumed by repugnant images coming out of Abu Ghraib. All were appalling, but possibly the most disturbing were those of young women like Pfc. Lynndie… gender media social justice war in iraq David Sirota Tue, 20 Jul 2004 09:31:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/855/win_over_women/ I have one word for John Kerry: women. When you go to Kerry’s home page, women’s issues are not featured up front. You have to click on “more issues” to get there. This is not surprising for several reasons. Democratic pollsters like Celinda Lake have found that, at least by early June, the war had become one of the most important issues for voters, trumping even the economy. Lake and others also have noted that 16 million single women are not even registered to vote and that more than 15 million young women between the ages of 18 and 34 did not vote in the last presidential election. Nor do women constitute the large bloc of swing voters they did… gender politics social justice election 2004 David Sirota Fri, 17 Sep 2004 07:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/1086/pretty_effective_in_pink/ Organizers from Code Pink: Women for Peace were vibrantly visible during counter-convention activities in New York. Members handed out pink and white “Peaceful New York Police” buttons to bemused cops, sported pig snouts and feather boas for a “Halllibacon” demo and raised a rose-tinted ruckus at a FOX News Shut-up-a-thon. Not just in it for laughs, group members took their objections to the Iraq war to the floor of the Republican National Convention. For three nights in a row, Code Pink activists smuggled in banners, unveiled protest T-shirts and donned message-bearing pink slips, revealing themselves during key moments of high-profile speeches. Dragged away immediately by convention security, a few were subjected to questioning, while others like 40-year-old June Brashares, who… activism gender social justice election 2004 David Sirota