Thanks to Hattie's Web for inadvertently creating this post mash-up. She mourned how feminists might respond to women followers of Ladies against Feminism, a Christian blog "under the oversight" of a male minister. Not content with its misleading title, its true spirit hides by only using the initials LAF in its banner. Yes, pretty funny--and sad.
The War against Women has been alive and well while some too many women think otherwise. Why the nasty turn in the public space of Congress without complicity by women? A Facebook friend of Feminema wants us to use our inside voices about anti-abortion efforts:
“I don’t like to use hyperbole like ‘war on women, “I just don’t think liberals should respond with the same overwrought language as conservatives use.”
"Battered Barbie," commentary and image,** appeared in last week's Portland State student publication. I was about to write about it when I read Hattie's post. Unknown to those of us outside academe (because it had not been reported), a local community college experienced a creative effort to raise awareness about domestic abuse. According to the article, Becca Ellenbecker, a student,
"...admitted she was looking to shock and awe her audience..by using abused Barbies and dispersing them throughout the campus."
Guestbooks for student and staff responses accompanied the Barbies. The reaction at Rock Creek Community College was "the display was going too far.” Becca was very courageous. The Portland State Women's Resource Center could not give the columnist a "concrete answer" about doing something similar on the PSU campus. What images will work?
This has been my own challenge. Unlike Becca, my choices are not dark, they're quirky--like this Bra Condom Amulet from my other blog, Knit a Condom Amulet. Does it matter, does the content skew the attention of our hoped-for audience more than the style used to craft our images? I'd once considered offering the PSU Women's Center a workshop on how to KNIT A CONDOM AMULET. The amulets started as my way to get conversation going around a difficult topic: HIV in women over 50. Of course, the notion works for all ages. Start with Princetonian from College Series, move on to regional
OSU (Oregon State U.) Condom Amulet from 2008, the one returned without comment when I entered it in a local yarn shop competition. Or update the old Condom Amulet Zine. Invent another for U of U (Utah).
"Mormon Feminists, LDS Church Unite" is a headline from last week's Salt Lake City Tribune. And I was reminded of another case of the "F" word being applied to women with no clue to the goals promoted by second wave and first wave Feminism. The story tells how Tresa Edmunds, "Mormon writer, activist and blogger" decided to engage the followers of the blog, Feminist Mormon Housewives, to raise money. To help a divorced Mormon mother of three finish her final term of college. She'd been abandoned by her LDS church's support--ended one presumes because her marriage did also.
"Terrific" you think. Have you ever read FMH? Few years ago I discovered it in the statistics for Knit a Condom Amulet. They seemed interested in these. Great. But when I read the blog, it was unclear why. Same as reading the Tribune story is confusing about how the LDS Church supports the fund-raising for a woman whose divorce it could not condone. Made my head spin. Similar to LAF, Feminist Mornons Housewives, an apparently well-educated group, live in some universe very far away. Tell me if you undertand the post, "13 Articles of Healthy Chastity."
There's also a blog called Feminist Ryan Gosling: more girls wasting time IMHO. How will we get your attention about the War on Women unless you give up your focus on men for a minute or two?
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**"Battered Barbie," PSU Vanguard, written by Emily Lakehomer, illustration by Elizabeth Thompson.