My mom had a blood test a few weeks ago and it revealed that her kidneys were weak. They took it again last week and her kidneys were a little weaker. My mom went to her doctor this past Monday morning. He told her she needs to see a doctor that specializes in kidneys. Today, My mom went to see the kidney specialist and he told her that her kidneys were functioning just 28%. Oddly, My mom goes to the doctor quite often and they are just now finding this. (after all the blood tests she has had throughout the years) He told her it was kidney failure and that it was in stage 4. (out of 5 stages) They told her that she wouldn’t have to start dialysis until her kidneys are functioning at 15%. Either way, Kidney failure is still bad news and deadly. He also told my mom that someone in the family could give her a kidney transplant or she could be put on a waiting list for one, whenever it gets worse. My mom is only 60 years old…She just turned 60 on July 15th. My mom’s sister, also my aunt, died a couple of years ago and she had kidney failure too and took dialysis. (That’s not what my aunt died of though and she was in her late 50′s.) My mom hasn’t been in good health for about 3 years now because she can barely walk. Her legs and feet bother her/hurt her and turn color. When she goes out, She has to go out in a wheelchair because she cannot walk, unless it is a short distance. My mom has been diabetic since 1993 and she has type 2 diabetes. (not sure if that is the right year, but she has had diabetes since the early 90′s I know) I have been so sad ever since hearing the news. I just break down and cry at times as well. (so does my mom) I was hoping it wasn’t kidney failure. It’s the thought of knowing she has kidney failure that makes me sad. I know my mom could live a long time or not, but it makes me sad knowing that she has kidney failure.

11 July 2008 – Family planning is a critical element to improving maternal health, one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or global targets world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015, senior United Nations officials said today, urging that women everywhere have access to this vital service.
In messages to mark World Population Day, which is observed annually on 11 July, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) noted that improving maternal health – MDG 5 – is lagging the furthest behind among all the targets.

“The rate of death for women as they give birth remains the starkest indicator of the disparity between rich and poor, both within and among countries,” Mr. Ban said.

He noted the three basic interventions necessary to improve maternal health: skilled attendance at the time of birth, facilities to provide emergency obstetric care and family planning.

“Studies show that family planning has immediate benefits for the lives and health of mothers and their infants,” he stated. “Ensuring basic access to family planning could reduce maternal deaths by a third and child deaths by as much as 20 per cent.

“And yet the benefits of family planning remain out of reach for many, especially for those who often have the hardest time getting the information and services they need to plan their families, such as the poor, marginalized populations and young people,” he said.

6/27/2008 – A proposed ballot initiative to amend the Montana state constitution to define a fertilized egg as a person failed to qualify for the state’s 2008 November ballot. Supporters of the initiative failed to gather even half of the required 44,000 signatures required to qualify the measure, reports Montana’s News Station.com.

Abortion opponents have pushed these so-called “personhood initiatives” in several states. These measures declare that a fertilized egg is a “person”" who enjoys “inalienable rights, equality of justice, and due process of the law.” They would threaten not only abortion itself, but IUDs, emergency contraception, in vitro fertilization clinics, and stem cell research. The measures failed in Georgia and Oregon. Signatures have been submitted for the Secretary of State to validate in Colorado, and a petition drive is still underway in Mississippi.

Media Resources: Montana’s News Station 6/26/08; Daily Women’s Health Policy Report 6/27/08; Feminist Daily Women

This story was taken from the Feminist Majority Foundation.

The Riot Grrrl Retrospective series has 11 parts to it and it tells all about riot grrrl. Feel free to watch all 11 videos, which I will be posting up some. This is Part 5 of the series.

By Kanae Doi, Japan Consultant for Human Rights Watch

Each day brings news of a new human rights crisis. Even focusing only on our Asian neighbors, countless civilians are being killed in conflicts in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka; governments are crushing protest movements in Burma, Tibet and Uzbekistan; security forces and armed groups are abducting, torturing and killing people in Sri Lanka, North Korea, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines, while the military government is compelling people to vote in Burma with no respect for the rule of law. Japan’s goal to make the 21st century “a century of human rights” seems wishful thinking.

And how is the Japanese government responding to these human rights crises all over Asia? The Japanese government’s position has often been vague and slow when it does raise its voice about human rights concerns in other countries. Japan has rarely demonstrated leadership in the international community to speak up for those being oppressed by their own governments. Only in the case of North Korea has Japan certainly taken the lead in pressuring the North Korean government on abductions of Japanese nationals. But this has more to do with protecting Japanese nationals than protecting universal human rights. Proof lies in the fact that we hardly ever hear about Japan speaking out about ordinary North Koreans who face every day abuses of human rights.

The Japanese media often nonchalantly reports on “Western governments” protesting human rights violations abroad. Broadcasters report on such acts as if protesting human rights violations were a duty reserved solely for the West, and not Asia. True, Japan is not alone in its relative reticence to speak about human rights violations in other countries; it is a common trait found in almost all Asian governments.

Being Japanese, we are quick to count ourselves among Western democratic nations as far as the economy is concerned. Yet why are we so indifferent and allow ourselves to lag behind in the area of human rights? It’s not as if Japanese people do not possess a basic sense of social justice.

Respecting human rights is not only about asserting social justice for all, but it is also in Japan’s national interest by promoting regional stability. For example, many foreign affairs experts say China and North Korea pose the biggest threat to Japan’s security, because these countries do not share basic values with Japan and their governments lack stability, which in turn makes it difficult to predict their future stance towards Japan.

But what if China and North Korea were rights-respecting nations where the rule of law protected the interests of all individuals without fear of oppression and societies in which people had the freedom of expression to openly discuss their problems and seek solutions even on politically “sensitive” issues? China and North Korea would then become genuinely stable societies, and neighbors in which Japan could place greater trust.

Japan has the potential to be a leading Asian nation that advocates the protection of global human rights. Certainly that leadership comes with a responsibility to clean its own slate, too. The human rights record of the Japanese government will come under scrutiny. But that is an honor. It is more dishonorable to maintain relationships with other countries when neither party ever brings up their shared stake in human rights, or their roles in preventing human rights violations.

This story can be found here.

What does everyone think of the idea of having a feminism forum? The forum would be about feminism, the many different types of feminism, will be for discussion of ALL types of feminism, discussion of women’s rights, discussion of women’s studies, etc. Yes, I am very aware that livejournal, myspace, last.fm, etc. have groups or coumminities as forums for feminism, however, there are more people interested in feminism out there that are not on those websites. If I get enough heads up for the idea, I will make the forum. If I don’t get many replies to this post, then I will NOT make the forum.

I am thinking of using proboards or invisionfree for the forum provider. If anyone is interested in helping me out with the forum: layout, ideas, or being a moderator on the forum, Please let me know by replying to this post. Also, The forum will be discussed by email, so if you really want to help out or be a moderator, please leave your email address in a reply to this post OR you can email me here: grrrlsvomitcandy at hotmail dot com Thanks!

CHAPTER IV

THE LEGACY

In this final chapter I would like to discuss what remains here in 2008 in terms of
female resistance through the means of music. In this final chapter I would like to
discuss the issue of whether we can find evidence of what I have described as ‘female
resistance’ in the contemporary music scene. I have broadly elaborated in the
previous chapters, two of history’s major movements that were made by women and
for women. The Punk movement being some what of a foundation for women to
begin to resistance in music and certainly how the influential Patti Smith inspired
women to do so. I have also examined the way in which the Riot Grrrls were a much
more overtly political force in terms of a feminism perspective. So essentially this
final chapter will discuss how these two movements have opened up a door for
women in music 2008. I shall discuss the self-professed feminist and lesbian Beth
Ditto of the Indie/Rock group The Gossip, Tarrie B of the heavy metal group My
Ruin, the Spice Girls and finally I shall briefly look at Riot Grrrl and where it is
positioned today. In looking at these figures I shall make note of aesthetics, lyrical
content as well as media intervention. I am limited here by a current absence of
critical work on these groups (although not doubt there is a wealth of ongoing
research waiting to hit the presses) and will be relying on some small scale
ethnographic work, some lyric analysis and the analysis of current journal and
newspaper articles.

THE SPICE GIRLS

I discussed in chapter one that I would include ‘Pop’ music and not predominately
‘Rock’ music as a way of being unbiased, this is why I felt it was important to also

incorporate ‘Pop’ in the final chapter, in this case the Spice Girls. In many ways the
Spice Girls are complex. They discuss the notion of ‘Girl Power’ (more so back in
1996 and their rise to fame) and use it as a force. (Note: ‘Girl Power’ was used in the
early 1990s by Riot Grrrl).

                                     Spice Girls (1996) promotion poster

The lyrical content in the song ‘Wannabe’ is quintessential ‘Pop’ as well as
conforming to dominant heteronormative ideals (as established earlier in the
comparison between the songs of Kylie Minogue and Bikini Kill). Note: I am not sure
that this song is as straightforward as that – it is also about an unthreatening version
of sisterhood – i.e. friends are as important as boyfriends etc. The objective of the
Spice Girls is complex- they aim and are seen by the public to resist the status quo
and live wild lives. Aesthetically each member of the pop group is made to appear as
sexual – each Spice Girl are also stylized specifically, which gives a potential male
audience a position to negotiate which style is sexual to them. For example Sporty
Spice may attract a person who prefers that ‘athletic’ type. “Are the Spice Girls
marketed as different flavours of sexual opportunity – versions of what a girl would
be like in bed? They certainly could, I would even say surely do, appeal to many
forms of voyeurism and desire” (Driscoll, 1999:212). This argument by Driscoll as
well as my argument becomes problematic in regard to strictly being sexually
‘available’ to the male gaze as they also offer a plurality of feminine types rather than
a singular normative model – including a lesbian group member (Scary Spice).

                    An example of the spice girls as ‘sexually available’ (2007)

The commercial side of the Spice Girls is also of interest. During December of 2007

the Spice Girls acted on a Tesco commercial, this itself supporting capitalism, the

commercial itself also portrayed the girls in a stereotypical sense of ‘women should

attend to the shopping’. The Spice Girls evidently and heavily rely on the media and

thus commercialisation in order to gain recognition in the world of music. This is

evident in their latest single entitled Headlines:

“Let’s make the headlines, loud and true
I wanna tell the world I’m giving it all to you
Let’s make the headlines, loud and clear
The best things suddenly happen when you are here
And if I lost my way you’d carry me home
Take me all the way to heaven, never leave me alone
And it’s just like everything matters when you are near”

                     Still image of Posh Spice on the Tesco commercial (2007)

Drawing back from chapter two and Hebdige’s critique on social class, Driscoll

looks at a potential social class audience by comparing both Spice Girls and Bikini

Kill “the Spice Girls direct their slogans and appeals very broadly, certainly with the

intention of including ‘domestic’ or home-oriented teenagers and preteens, while

Bikini Kill has primarily a college/university or adult audience, and market
themselves with specific reference to this delimited rather than general audience”
(Driscoll, 1999: 211). What Driscoll critiques here then is ‘college/university’ being
educated people – which traditionally defines as middle class. Driscoll (1999) also
states that there is a conflict going on between the Spice Girls and Riot Grrrl “While
Riot Grrrl zines and sites decry such pop phenomena as the Spice Girls, some of the
Spice Girl fan material describes the Riot Grrrls as dull and dour, whining, self-pitying and sexless –

which are, interestingly enough, some of the same accusations Riot Grrrls have

levelled at ‘second wave’ feminism.” (Driscoll, 1999:209). This indicates that rather

than women challenging and resisting men in 1991, women are now resisting women.

Driscoll also states that if ‘Girl Power’ is feminist, does this imply that a feminist

minority has now become popular culture than renders it as majority? Fay Weldon, a

British feminist essayist is furious over the come back of the Spice Girls. She openly

accuses them of killing feminism and thus a very bad influence on people. In her two

paged article that was placed in the Daily Mail she states that “a generation of our

young womanhood has taken to binge drinking, Saturday night sluttishness and

‘happy-slappings’, I blame the Spice Girls. There are one or two other factors, I dare

say, such as the cult of consumerism, the decline of religion … morning-after pills

and the rest: but, if we’re going to look for scapegoats, Posh, Ginger, Sporty, Baby

and Scary are, surely obvious candidates.” (Weldon, 2007)

BETH DITTO

During my research findings I found that Beth Ditto of Indie/Rock band The Gossip

would be a crucial figure to discuss in relation to female resistance in contemporary

music. Ditto has the characteristics of Riot Grrrl in terms of subversion as I shall state

below. Ditto herself is a self-professed feminist and also a lesbian, as I mentioned in

the previous chapter, I shall not specifically look at lesbianism but certainly look into

her feminist interest and lyrical content as well as her potential connection with Riot

Grrrl. Respondents to my research have suggested that Ditto belongs within the Riot

Grrrl trajectory stating: “I consider myself a ‘Riot Grrrl’, but I can’t answer all the

questions, but I do believe Beth Ditto is one of the only true ‘Riot Grrrls’ in the music

industry to this date … It is also difficult for a women in the music industry not to fall

into the trap of having a good media image. We’re expected to have perfect bodies,

skin, hair, dress sense, and the papers will rip into you if there’s the slightest thing not

up to scratch. The only person I’ve seen who doesn’t care about that is Beth Ditto.”

(Online interview with member of Riot Grrrl Online, interviewed on 17.01.08).
Dittos performance is consistent with the Riot Grrrl approach; she subverts the

dominant norms of femininity in terms of her appearance and her actions. That of a

Riot Grrrl performance, she subverts what the media portrays as what a ‘woman’

should appear to look and act. There was a recent interview conducted by Microsoft

Network that asked Ditto a series of questions that are relevant to this context. The

author of the interview introduces Ditto in a positive way. “In a world used to seeing

‘perfect’ looking celebrities – where size zero is the ultimate accolade in every
celebrity hungry magazine, Beth’s laid-back attitude to her body is a refreshing

change” (Harvey, 2007)

Further into the questions, the interviewer asks “Have you ever tried to conform or
diet?” Ditto answers with “Still to this day I have to battle with ‘oh should I be on a

diet? It’s not that easy but it’s about confidence. I can’t shut off the entire world. I
feel

how I feel, but it’s not like it used to be. I challenge myself and no matter what I am

right. I’m the one who’s accepting myself and not trying to change myself. It doesn’t

mean people are f***ed up or wrong it means I’m just not going to let it work on me.

Life is too short.” (Harvey, 2007)

                                      Ditto and her perfect ‘size’ resistance

I find the question of “conformity” contradictory, Microsoft itself is a corporation –

capitalism’s godfather, and so isn’t this interview itself “conforming” to a norm? Like
I have stated, at this stage of writing I only find mainstream media articles on this
subject which can be misleading. The interview also suggests that Ditto is borrowing
the ‘Punk’ DIY ethic of self-made clothing. As one of the questions asks “What’s it
like being considered a style icon?” This is responded with “It’s hilarious, I have
stylists who bring in ridiculous things that don’t fit – they just don’t get it. Me and my
friends make things ourselves.” (Harvey, 2007)

             Ditto in performance at the Camden Bar Fly in London (May, 2007)

Dittos lyrics to Standing in the Way of Control are controversial and focus on positive

cultural and social change with regard to gay rights in America. As the MSN
interview questions “Can you tell us about the song ‘Standing In The Way Of
Control’?” Ditto replies with “Standing in the Way is about gay marriage and about
sticking together. There are a lot of violations of civil rights in America now…”

(Harvey, 2007)

“Standing in the way of control

You live your life

Survive the only way that you know”

TARRIE B

Although not commercial nor classed as a celebrity in terms of the media, Tarrie B

(front woman) of the American heavy metal band My Ruin is an interesting figure to

discuss in terms of women in resistance through the means of music. The band played

a show in Bristol at the beginning of February in which I asked their UK tour
manager

for a potential interview for the purpose of this dissertation, although I was refused an

interview with Tarrie B – I was advised to send her an email to conduct an online

interview (at this moment of time, she has failed to send me any form of response).

Nevertheless I studied the performance and found it very relevant to my research. The

lyrical content that contains criticism on media representations links very finely with

the work on Bikini Kill who also discussed that media notion of how women should

appear to be. For example the My Ruin song Made to Measure features the bridge

lyrics:

“I’m so fat…I’m fucked up
I’m so skinny…I’m sick
I’m so tired of those magazines
Talkin’ that bullshit
I’m not fat…they’re fucked up
I’m not skinny…they’re sick
I’m just tired of the critics
Talkin’ that bullshit”

It is evident here that there is a lot of anger for women in music here in 2008. The

performance of Tarrie B entails her frequently ‘gobbing’ which is itself an element of

Punk which I discussed in chapter two. The music video that accompanies this song

also encompasses a Patti Smith style, the idea of challenging gender roles. Certain

segments of the music video depicts Tarrie B dressed in a non-feminine way. As the

video progresses she gazes at us making sarcastic gestures that signify ‘Am I perfect

enough to be the front woman of a band?’ The title of the song itself is a critique upon

how adolescents and women are encouraged by the media to maintain a standard of

how they represent what a ‘perfect’ female should look like. Particularly in relation to

‘body size’.

Tarrie B anger is evident in this photo (taken from the Bristol show)

NEO RIOT GRRRLS

During my initial research of the previous chapter I found that the Riot Grrrls

continue to be active here in 2008. The symbolic bands of 1991 such as Bikini Kill

broke up in 1998. However there are a variety of MySpace profiles on the World

Wide Web such as Riot Grrrl UK, whose profile slogan states ‘Your Body is a

Battleground’ this slogan is placed on an image of a female’s face, aesthetically the

woman’s face appears to be resemblance of 1950s. I found Riot Grrrl UK particularly

interesting to look at after reading how the media intervened and disrupted a once
small community and now the result of this has made Riot Grrrl a world-wide
commodity. As a member of MySpace I immediately joined as friends with Riot
Grrrl

UK as a means of research and essentially to obtain ‘one on one’ online interviews to

learn where Riot Grrrls lie at this time and do these people follow the same principles
as in 1991? I posted a message on the profile and introduced myself as a student

researching into the movement’s theoretical side, although I only had two members

that replied to further my knowledge, I began to think that due to such bad publicity

that Riot Grrrl has had imposed on them, perhaps members were reluctant to answer

my questions in conscious fear that I am a potential critic. Although only two people
did respond, their answers were incredibly enlightening as one interviewee discussed
her personal perspective on why Riot Grrrl in the early 1990s was an important
movement. I am including a full online interview with another member of Riot Grrrl
Online as it answers and clarifies what this dissertation has been concerned with.

1)Why would you say the Riot Grrrls of the early 1990s was important?

It was another way for feminists to get their message across, without taking on the
persona of a men-hating masculine looking stereotype that the media has portrayed.

2)Do you think that perhaps, the feminist approach that they presented through
their music may have excluded the masculine?

I think it has.

3)If so Isn’t the concept of ‘feminism’ about equal rights? So why the exclusion?

It is about equal rights for the liberal feminists, but for example radical feminists believed
men were biologically unfavourable, so this could be an explanation for the exclusion of
men.

4) Would you consider the Riot Grrrls as a neo-punk movement to some extent?

It has the same sort of DIY ethic borrowed from the original punk explosion so in some
aspects it is like a new punk revolution for the 90′s.

5) Do Riot Grrrls still exist today with the traditional ethics?

I think that the newer female fronted indie/electro bands are trying to recreate the riot
grrrl movement, but I don’t think that they have the same effect now.

6) Do you believe that the 1991 movement had a long-lasting impact on the
music industry?

I think it did more in America, until the Britpop came along.

7) Would you consider figures such as Beth Ditto to follow similar principles of
Riot Grrrls? After all Ditto is a self-confessed feminist and she preaches that
looks do not matter

I think they do, but as I said in question 5 I don’t think that they are as influential now as
the original riot grrls were.

As this questionnaire states from a personal perspective of someone who considers

herself as a Riot Grrrl, 2008 also provides a host of female fronted bands that resist

but no longer have the same effect as they once did. The women in resistance today
resist the pseudo media representations and how they portray how a woman is
supposed to appear in public. Beth Ditto and Tarrie B continue to do this through their
music and what seems to be clear with the Spice Girls come back is nothing but
conforming whilst endorsing capitalism once again. It is indeed a complex issue of
mainstream versus marginal/elite/subcultural audience within contemporary music.

I’m Sorry….No I’m Not

I’m sorry I don’t believe it.
I’m sorry that I care.
no i’m not.
I’m not sorry that i still believe we are capable of creating something. that i don’t think punk is just a big joke and that we should be little and make fun of ourselves for still believing that everything we do makes a difference
i don’t care that it’s no longer punk to have fun anymore. that it’s no longer punk to criticize the society we live in.
so
what if i keep talking about abolishing wage-slavery while i keep working. it fucking beats the hell out of writing songs or zines about how we are all hypocrites and all our actions are worthless.
we are all hypocritical superwimps (?). we are never (?)
SO IF YOU’RE BEING ALL PUNK AS FUCK AND TALKING SHIT ABOUT PEOPLE AT LEAST TRY TO DO SOMETHING THAN I’M (NOT) SORRY BUT I GUESS THAT MEANS I’M NOT PUNK ANYMORE AND IF THAT’S WHAT PUNK IS I’M FUCKIN GLAD I’M NOT AS PUNK AS YOU
[Kathleen]
I am a fucking idiot. I still think we can change the world.

“Every girl has a large store of vital and nervous energy upon which to draw in the great crisis of motherhood. If the foolish virgin uses up this deposit in daily expenditures of energy on the hockey field or tennis court, as a boy can afford to do, then she is left bankrupt in her great crisis and her children will have to pay the price.”  –New York Times, 1921 as quoted in Women in Sport: Issues & Controversies.

“Everyone wants girls to have as many opportunities in sports as boys. But can we live with the greater rate of injuries they suffer?” –New York Times, 2008.

 Michael Sokolove *could* have written an important piece for the New York Times. It could have been a piece exposing sports culture as potentially hazardous to the lives of young athletes. It could have been an article stressing injury prevention tactics. It could have been a wake up call for young athletes, parents & coaches.

Instead, his article was part fear tactic that screamed at readers: “LOOK WHAT TITLE IX IS DOING!!! IT’S HURTING OUR DAUGHTERS!!!”

His piece focused on a high school soccer player, Janelle Pierson.  For Janelle, as the article paints it, soccer is more than just a sport. It’s her daily breath, her entire life summed up in one game. When she tore her anterior cruciate ligament (A.C.L.) in her right knee, she went back to the game five months after the reparitive operation. And just 20 months before the operation, she’d had the same injury on her other knee.

No pain no gain.

Sokolove details the parental angst of the Piersons. Maria Pierson, watching her daughter at a game and worried sick that her daughter would get injured-again. When Janelle and an opposing team member were going for the ball and collided, Mrs. Pierson lost it; “‘No! No! Oh no!’ she yelled. She jumped up from her seat and her sunglasses went flying off her head into the row below. Janelle emerged unscathed. Her mother retrieved her glasses and exhaled. For the moment, Janelle was fine.”

Janelle’s dad, on the other hand, was worried more about ‘philosophical’ aspects of Janelle’s choices, and worried about what impact Title IX has on Janelle’s injuries. As Sokolove writes: “Title IX, the federal law enacted in 1972 mandating equal opportunity in sports has helped to shape a couple of generations of girls who believe they are as capable and tough as any boy. With a mix of resignation and pride, Rich Pierson said to me: ‘We’ve raised these girls to be headstrong and independent. That’s Janelle.’”

The article goes on to say that girls-especially the girls involved in sports like soccer and basketball-have a higher risk of tearing their A.C.L’s, that the physical differences between girls and boys contribute to the problems girls face on the field/court/rink/etc,  that tournament schedules play hell on a teenage girl’s body and that girls may well be trying to tough it out just to prove to boys, so often thought of as the “strong” sex, that they can do it.

What the article should say is that sports have a tendency toward injury, especially when the no pain, no gain motto is followed. Especially when teams have hectic tournament schedules that play them hard and often in a short period of time. Especially when coaches don’t do the coaching they should be doing–if a student athlete falls wrong and gets hurt because of a lack of training-that’s a problem. And especiallywhen there’s no injury prevention. While Sokolove says many of these things, it’s all with the gender card highlighted. Instead of shining the spotlight on athletic problems, he’s shining it on the “weaker sex”–so physically different that our athletic abilities are impaired and we place ourselves in danger every time we get on that field.

Sokolove’s article brought up some interesting questions on gender difference. I’ve been used to women in sports and have never thought “hmm, what could the way the female body is formed change athletic ability? Is there really a huge difference? and does it really affect our performance in sports?”

The answers, according to Gloria Beim, MD (physician to the US National Track Cycling Team) and Ruth Winter, M.S.–there are differences, they aren’t huge and they can affect a sport in both positive and negative ways, but either way–the differences are no reason for discouragement from a sport. Just because an athlete happens to be female doesn’t mean she can’t succeed.

The Role of Sex in Sports Performance

The intro to The Female Athlete’s Body Book: How to Prevent and Treat Sports Injuries in Women and Girls (2003), is telling.

“Our female bodies are constructed and function differently from men’s, and that gives us both advantages and disadvantages. Unfortunately, many coaches, physicians, and athletes have not recognized the differences; as a result, female athletes often have inadequate training, suffer unnecessary injuries, and may not reach their full potential.”

In The Stronger Women Get, the More Men Love Football: Sexism and the American Culture of Sports (1995),Mariah Burton Nelson (lead basketball scorer at Stanford in ’78, a pro-basketball player in France and on the first Women’s Basketball League) also notes that there are differences.

Men, she says, have more lean muscle mass (convenient in sports requiring explosive power–aka most of the sports men have invented…shocking, isn’t it!) Meanwhile “less muscle-bound, women generally have better flexibility, useful in gymnastics, diving, and skating. Our lower center of gravity can help in hockey, golf, tennis, baseball, and even basketball.” With that said the question remains: does sex then influence victory?

Not so much, says Mariah. For most sports, success is determined by physical/mental preparation, competitive spirit, self discipline and other non-gendered factors. Men’s strength advantage is marginal…in other words, there’s more variation among individual men than there is between the average man and the average woman.

In the Body Book, Beim &Winter explore women’s strengths and weaknesses in each individual sport. If you turn to the chapter on soccer (chapter 2), you’ll find that the dreaded A.C.L’s are included among the most frequent injury list, in addition to sprained ankles, muscle cramps, broken legs, hurt heads (thanks to the head butting of the ball or other collisions) among others. Unlike Sokolove, the authors do not place fault of injury on the idea that “girls are going to get hurt like this because they’re designed to get hurt that way…” Instead, the authors say “This (insert injury here) could well happen to you. Here’s what to do so you can prevent it. and if it does happen, here’s how you can get past it.”

And they’re happy to add the benefits of a game like soccer, which Sokolove so easily forgets:

•  
  • Playing any position (minus the goal keeper) is to have a complete lower body and cardiovascular workout-soccer involves all muscles of the lower body and promotes good eye-foot coordination
  • anyone can play (size isn’t as important as it is in sports like basketball or football)
  • Specialized positions encourages teamwork and participation
  • As a sport, soccer helps improve self-esteem and body image.

 In “The Uneven Playing Field,” Sokolove quotes Sandra Schultz, an A.C.L. researcher who teaches graduate courses in athletic training and sports medicine at UNC-G as saying that advocates for women in sports and Title IX will ignore the injuries that come from the battlefield..oops, field, rather…or court… In her view the people that support organizations like the Women’s Sports Foundation are going to encourage sports at the expense of individual players.

Well, isn’t it nice to know how critics of girls in sports get to say that while they go on to ignore the benefits of sports and–in addition–the benefits derived from Title IX.

Let’s forget about how after Title IX was implemented, girls in the high school level sports went from 7% participation pre-Title IX to 41.5% in 2001. On the college level, women made up 2% of the athletic participants. In 2001-43%

And from 1987-1999, the number of girls aged 6 and over playing basketball increased 15% to 12.67 million while the number of girls of the same ages increased by 20% to 7.3 million. (numbers from the Feminist Majority Foundation)

Let’s face it. Girls (like boys) just wanna have fun.

Anti-abortion extremists are targeting states with ballot initiatives for November. A South Dakota initiative banning abortion garnered enough signatures to be placed on the state’s November ballot. The measure has only a few minor modifications from the abortion ban pro-choice activists defeated in 2006.

Anti-abortion groups are also pushing so-called “personhood initiatives” in several states. These measures declare that a fertilized egg is a “person” who enjoys “inalienable rights, equality of justice, and due process of the law.” They would threaten not only abortion itself, but IUDs, emergency contraception, in vitro fertilization clinics, and stem cell research. The measures failed in Georgia and Oregon. Signatures have been submitted for the Secretary of State to validate in Colorado, and petition drives are still underway in Montana and Mississippi.

A parental notification initiative, which California voters rejected in 2006, will again be on the ballot in November. In Missouri, both anti-abortion ballot initiatives failed to gather signatures to qualify for the November ballot, according to NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri release. In essence both initiatives were abandoned.

Media Resources: Feminist Majority Foundation; Feminist Daily Newswire; NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri release 5/13/08

This news story was taken from: Feminist Daily News Wire.

Faith Nolan and Sisterhood for Feminist Friday

You see, in my undergraduate degree, I did a subject entitled ‘Feminism and Ethics’, which I actually quite enjoyed, lest this post lead you to believe otherwise. My lecturer (Who we’ll call C) was rather tops and I enjoyed her classes, and well, I’m currently doing a Masters in Professional and Applied Ethics, so that should tell you something.

However, shortly into aforementioned subject, C made the claim that any feminist theory requires a clear, measurable vision of what a society with gender equality or without sexism would look like. Her stated intention was to makes us think about what we believed that vision to be (or, for those in the class who believed sexism of over, of which there were a few, on what basis they could declare that vision presently realised). And initially, I sort of did, but then I kind of stopped, and realised that I found the very notion of ‘measurable feminist utopia’ as a requirement for feminist theory rather strange.

I suspect some folk might believe me a little pessimistic, or overreaching, when I say that I’m just not sure I’m capable of so clearly and comprehensively imagining a world where feminism is no longer required. For one, the needs of feminism are (or should be) tied up far too closely with the needs of various other social and political movements; anti-racism and anti-imperialism to name just a couple of examples. For another, I do actually think that the historical roots just go too deep (and I’m not optimistic enough about the likelihood of revolution) – I honestly think there’s too much kyriarchal history, and too much tendency to try and isolate the present from that history, to try and obscure the present’s investment in that history for its foundations, for feminism to be rendered irrelevant and unnecessary in a world that I can imagine. Also, perhaps I’m simply insufficiently imaginative, and I’m okay with that possibility, but there it is.

And I guess part of my skepticism is linked to the fact that much of a feminist utopia I see, which is often in sci-fi/fantasy, not only often fails in that the women in them tend to be remarkably similar in other status markers, but tends to (and this isn’t a flaw so much as part of what makes them sci-fi/fantasy and not handbooks for social change) hand-wave past the historical problems by bypassing our history altogether (i.e, the alien feminist utopia).

I suspect this sort of ‘figure out vision -> build theory to get there’ concept comes from (particularly Western) philosophy’s origins in mathematics, because it really does read like “We should have 5 apples. We have 2. So we need another 3.” This works fine (most of the time), provided you assume society is really analogous to a mathematical equation. However, part of the reality of a theory of society and social change is that a theory requiring social change needs to take other changes into account. Whilst you’re working on something, other things change, and that alters the present and often makes visible other issues that may not have been visible in the original formulation.

On top of that, such a conception of theory requires an assumption that it’s possible to take a view of society from outside of it. Perhaps objectivity is a noble goal, but it’s rooted in the idea of striving for something that’s not actually possible. Part (and a rather large part, in my opinion) of our investment in social change comes from the fact that we are embedded in societies; imagining that we can step outside of them and completely strip ourselves of those investments is rather strange, to me. Even a hermit is a product of sets of social relationships that acknowledge and allow for their hermit status; a society that is ordered in such a way that allows them to take to some remote area and never speak to other people. And we can’t stand outside others’ societies, because our view of them is shaped by the societies we’re embedded in. So, in a bit of tangent, I think we can safely say that I’m rather uncomfortable with objectivity.

But lest, dear readers, you think I’m not fond of feminist utopia at all, I wish to be clear that my objection is to the idea of a ‘measurable’ utopia. Thinking about how you think the world would look if the kinds of goals you have are achieved isn’t a bad idea; it’s a motivating force, and a way of thinking through whether your goals are really what you thought they were. But that view needs to be flexible, and very much so, for a number of reasons. Firstly, because each of us alone is not an expert on the world. There will be things we miss; privilege that obscures our visions, so we need to be flexible to have those discussions with each other. And secondly, because so much of the world we’re trying to change is contingent on so much else. That’s actually something I’m rather fond of about the world, so I like to keep it in mind, because it’s something that’s a feature of my vague and fuzzy utopian vision.

I suppose, after all that long-windedness, you could wonder whether my issue is with theory in general, or at least with theory about social change, and perhaps that’s true. Maybe I want ethics and philosophy to look too much like activism. I’m not sure – I still love a good brain-wrenching theory, I’m just not sure it needs to look like this, and I wonder if changing its shape, even just sometimes, will help us change the world with it.

“People talk about my image like I come in two dimensions, like lipstick is a sign of my declining mind, like what I happen to be wearing the day that someone takes my picture is my new statement for all womankind.”–Ani DiFranco
“When I was like sixteen, I was a total chick I had big hair. I was seen as this attractive girl, and I would get all this attention. And then I just cut off my hair, and I quit playing that game.”–Ani DiFranco
“When I was four years old they tried to test my IQ, they showed me this picture of three oranges and a pear. They asked me which one is different and does not belong, they taught me different was wrong.”–Ani Difranco
“Any tool is a weapon if you hold it right”–Ani Difranco
“Why do our kids have to show us what gun control is all about?”–Ani Difranco
“If you’re not angry, then you’re just stupid, you don’t care. How else can you react when something’s so unfair?”–Ani DiFranco

“I am murdering me where I kneeled at your kiss.”–Anne Sexton
“The tongue, the Chineses say; is like a sharp knife: it kills without drawing blood.”–Anne Sexton
“Take the face of the man I love and squeeze my foot into it when all the while my heart is making a museum…”–Anne Sexton
“I am stuffing your mouth with your promises and watching you vomit them out upon my face.”–Anne Sexton
“Urine and tears pour out of me. I’m the one you broke.”–Anne Sexton
“His mouth and his anus are one.”–Anne Sexton
“The more I write, the more the silence seems to be eating away at me.”–Anne Sexton

“For years, I hated myself. I covered the mirrors in my house. I literally couldn’t have a mirror in my room. I still can’t sit in a restaurant or someplace where I can catch my reflection. I get so paranoid.”–Christina Ricci
“You have to excuse me because I AM a teenager, so I’m allowed to sound illiterate and make stupid comments like ‘I’m not into hard-core feminism.’”–Christina Ricci
“I don’t know who Peter Lorre is. Pathetic right? It shows you how completely gross and uncultured my generation is.”–Christina Ricci

“I’m an only child and I’m just a real loner kind of person… and yeah, kinda dark. But I’m happy. Not sad. I’m just shy and nervous.”–Clea DuVall
“My whole life is working out and shooting guns right now. I’m learning how to fight people with, like, sticks in my hands and disarm 6’5″ men.”–Clea DuVall
“Because I think they’re insecure. And I think they don’t know themselves that well. And whatever they don’t know about themselves, they’re scared of.” – on homophobia–Clea DuVall
“I think bisexuality is frowned upon for a lot of different reasons. But I don’t like any of those words. I don’t like any of those labels. I think they’re limiting.”–Clea DuVall

“I don’t want to have a penis, I want to be a girl and I want to wear dresses and have nice perfume and do things that girls do. So I’m not interested in looking like a boy or playing like a boy. That sounds like a really obvious, blatant thing to say, and I shouldn’t have to say that to anybody.” —Courtney Love
“I want every fucking girl in the world to pick up a guitar & start screaming!”—Courtney Love
“I rely on a lot of sexual metaphors-food as sex, music as sex, fucked-up weird insane sexual vistas that haunt me and make me feel as though I were going insane.”—Courtney Love
“If you treat a girl like a dog, she’s going to piss on you.”—Courtney Love
“If you write anything nasty about me, I’ll come around and blow up your toilet.”—Courtney Love
“I may lie a lot, but never in my lyrics.”—Courtney Love
“How can I rock in a Versace gown? Well easy-let me show you.—Courtney Love
“Dont be bitter and mean cos you don’t fit in, it’s a GIFT. Look at you. you’ve got your individuality, you don’t have the herd instinct, you can read Neitzsche and understand it. Only dumb people are happy.”—Courtney Love
“Unless there are pictures, I don’t admit to anything.”—Courtney Love

“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”–Emily Dickinson
“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.”–Emily Dickinson
“Surgeons must be very careful. When they take the knife!, underneath their fine incisions, stirs the Culprit – Life!”–Emily Dickinson
“Anger as soon as fed is dead – ‘Tis starving makes it fat.”–Emily Dickinson
“Beauty is not caused. It is.”–Emily Dickinson
“After great pain, a formal feeling comes. The Nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs.”–Emily Dickinson
“A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.”–Emily Dickinson
“A wounded deer leaps the highest.”–Emily Dickinson
“Because I could not stop for Death; He kindly stopped for me”–Emily Dickinson
“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.”–Emily Dickinson
“I imagine, therefore I belong and am free.”–Emily Dickinson
“Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell.”–Emily Dickinson

“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.”–Emma Goldman
“The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.”–Emma Goldman
“Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name!”–Emma Goldman
“The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.”–Emma Goldman
“Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labeled Utopian.”–Emma Goldman
“Free love? as if love is anything but free. Man has bought brains, but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love.”–Emma Goldman
“The most violent element in society is ignorance.”–Emma Goldman
“If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.”—Emma Goldman

“I’m bi everything; sexual, coastal, political, controversial. I think if you find your comfortable sexual preference then that’s excellent. Everybody knows that I’m a huge fan of gay men and drag queens and would not be who I am today without their help, support and make-up tips. “–Jessicka Fodera
“I’m religiously celibate except in LA, NOLA, FLA, because there is certainly no God in any of those places. So unless you live in one of those places I’m really no good to you.”–Jessicka Fodera
“The first time I ever saw Lydia Lunch perform it was a religious experience. Not only is she intelligent and beautiful but she actually understands how “my” brain works. This almost rivals my first concert- Cindy Lauper when I was 12. She was so fascinating to me at the time. She made me want to dye my hair pink and start a band. (SO I naturally did)… All Cure records have had a great effect on me musically also. “–Jessicka Fodera
“There are plenty of female artists that I consider feminist, Le Tigre, Peaches, The Gossip, Sleater Kinney, PJ Harvey- the list is endless. I think there’s certain stigma attached to the word “feminist”. I feel a lot of people confuse feminist with MAN-HATER which is not the correct definition by any means. Webster’s defines it as such – 1 : the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes 2 : organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests So until people see the difference between a feminist and a man-hater I think there will always be a certain assumption when a female artist considers herself one and says it in print. & Yes, I do consider myself a feminist and I am saying it in print.”–Jessicka Fodera “Everyone has personal insecurities I know I sure do and everyday it’s an uphill battle to do my best to practice what I preach. I’ve definitely been guilty of having cocaine confidence and then the next day hate what I see in the mirror. Ask yourself what is the source of my self hatred? If you think the source of the so-called flaws you see are based in prejudice then recognize that and don’t give it credit it doesn’t deserve. “–Jessicka Fodera
“I like Le Tigre a lot and listen to many riot acts ( Bikini Kill, Oiler, Huggy Bear, Slant6, Tribe 8, Cold Cold Hearts,Bratmobile, 7 Year Bitch, Babes- Although I think Babes are as riot as JOJ was) though I don’t consider myself a riot grrl I believe in a lot of the same things they do. “–Jessicka Fodera

“I was 19 when I started playing guitar and bass. I’ve been playing music though, (violin, clarinet, piano) ever since I can remember.”—Kathi Wilcox
“We’re all strong personality types, which anyone who knows us will testify as truth, it’s hard for any of us to sublimate our natural contrary anti-ness reactions, but ultimately I think that’s our real power. We’re not afraid to be bitchy , which is an important skill to have sometimes, to fight so you get your way. We have respect for each other so that we can disagree and it’s not a big deal.”—Kathi Wilcox
“I think it freaks people out. People always come up to me after a show and go, ‘why didn’t you turn around once?’ Why should I face the audience because everyone else on stage does?”—Kathi Wilcox
“There’s this whole thing about ‘here I am.’ But no, I’m just here on the stage.”—Kathi Wilcox
“Girl culture.”—Kathi Wilcox
“The whole girl thing, Tobi told me about when we were first starting the band. When girls are growing up, they hang out together. But at some point, 12 or 13 it depends, something happens. Boys come in and it all gets fucked up because of the boy-girl thing. Then girls can’t hang out with girls. “—Kathi Wilcox
“I don’t know how many friendships have gotten fucked up for me just because of dumb boy things. It’s totally unnecessary.”—Kathi Wilcox
“Or you can’t be calling boys to task at the same time as you’re making out with them. Give me a break. Or something like, ‘But I thought you hated all men? Like if you don’t hate all men, then what are you talking about?’—Kathi Wilcox

“What (some) bands do is go, ‘It’s not important that I’m a girl, it’s just important that I want to rock.’ And that’s cool. But that’s more of an assimilationist thing. It’s like they just want to be allowed to join the world as it is; whereas I’m more into revolution and radicalism and changing the whole structure. What I’m into is making the world different for me to live in”—Kathleen Hanna
“I hate the attitude of, ‘oh we already have a Lydia Lunch, so we do we need a Bikini Kill.’ Well, there’s like 2 hundered million all-male bands writting ‘baby baby I love you, let me drag you around on my ankle.’ Is that enough already? Duh!”—Kathleen Hanna
“We need each other. Discouraging words, belittling other girls in front of boys, laughing looks…have no place here. Dialogue does. Let’s make girl love real, okay?”—Kathleen Hanna
“You try to make me crazy, you try to make me scared, you try to make me crazy. I think you’re a fucking drag”—Kathleen Hanna
“I won’t stop talking. I am a girl you have no control over. There is not a gag big enough to handle this mouth.”—Kathleen Hanna
“I don’t want to write songs about rape and male domination for the rest of my life. Yet people expect the same thing over and over. And if you stop doing it, you’re called a sell-out.”—Kathleen Hanna
“Drugs keep us thinking about scoring-not thinking about fucking this society up. Why not fuck up the government instead of fucking up yr body?”—Kathleen Hanna
“Why yes, I feel like I’m being gawked at live. Part of the thing that is really weird for me is that I used to be an exotic dancer and I find that sometimes there’s not really that much of a difference between playing in a punk bar and being a stripper except for I have my clothes on. A lot of men come with the same exact attitudes that guys do that come to a strip bar. They think, “Oh, it’s a girl band, we’ll go and watch their butts and their tits or something like that.” They don’t don’t think of us as performers they just think of us sorta like seals that jump through hoops that have tits. Like the guys tonight saying ‘take your clothes off.’”—Kathleen Hanna
“It’s not taking my perspective into account cause I did that shit for fucking seven years and it’s not funny to me. I have to deal with sexism every day so it’s like maybe boys can find that really funny and humorous, I don’t have the luxury to find that humorous. I live it every fucking day. That’s not funny to me, and if I say it’s not funny, it’s not funny. You know what I mean? It’s like there’s no argument there, whether it’s funny or not, if I say I don’t find it funny it means, ‘hey, be cool to me and respect me, your joke is not my joke.’—Kathleen Hanna
“Fuck yeah, do you feel like a freak show ever? Riding on the bus, fucking guys calling you fags and shit, I’m sure that happens doesn’t it?”—Kathleen Hanna
“So what? Boys should touch each other more, I mean, they don’t fucking have to beat each other up. It’s the only reason they beat people up is because they want to fuck each other.”—Kathleen Hanna
“There’s a lot of trust. If Tobi sang something that seemed a little weird, I would assume that there was a really good reason for it. I’d assume she knew what she was doing.—Kathleen Hanna
“I think that party in Oakland was totally fun. The thing that was cool this time was that there were so many dyke girls there. So many right in the front that were totally yelling. I felt like I could do anything that I wanted because they were totally right there. I felt really protected. I felt like I could fuck with people a lot more. I felt really comfortable.” —Kathleen Hanna
“It’s one of the only times when it’s supposedly okay to touch each other. Like to touch each other’s hair. It’s one of the only time I thought it was safe to not be heterosexual. We’ve all been dealing with issues of our heterosexuality.”—Kathleen Hanna
“They’re wearing their “I hate girls” t-shirts, riding their bikes. We spend all this time trying to convince them that we’re cool rather than hanging out with each other. That’s something that I’ve learned from being in Bikini Kill. I was really nervous about being onstage with the band that I was in before. We toured and I spent a lot of time explaining to boys that what I was going was valid instead of really getting in touch at shows with the girls who were there. Guys would come up to me and ask me if I was a man-hater. I would sit there and explain and explain. Really I was wasting my energy. I still get really nervous before we have to play. So we came up with four points that we use to respond to guys. If they’re cool, then maybe a dialogue will happen. But id they’re not cool, they get all four answers.”—Kathleen Hanna
“We’re pro-violent revolution. We’re also pro-revolution everyday.”—Kathleen Hanna
“It’d be like saying girls aren’t okay just for being girls, which is what people are always telling girls – that they’re dumb and their opinions don’t matter. We want to be empowering and encouraging, and how can you do anything if you feel like shit about yourself and like what you say doesn’t matter?”—Kathleen Hanna
“I think one things that’s really important in the boy community or whatever, or the boy things, is like, to realize that oppression is a two-way street. You know what I mean? That it’s like, white men are really missing out – I don’t wanna say white men are oppressed but…”—Kathleen Hanna
“What I’m saying is that I think that way that masculinity has been constructed in our society is fucking boys up. Because, even if you just look at it on a personal level, it’s like, I can’t hang out with boys who haven’t educated themselves or been educated in some meaningful way about sexism. And so it’s like, the guys who wanna be friends with me are just gonna miss out, you know? And I happen to think I am a pretty cool friend to have, you know what I mean? The way I look at it, it’s just a lot more complex than saying white man equals evil (although that is a perfectly fine thing to say sometimes). “—Kathleen Hanna
“You guys are seriously missing out unless you all start listening to girls.”—Kathleen Hanna
“To me, people have to be aware that to be gay or queer or whatever in this world right now means that you’re basically being given shit all the time. You know, constantly. And in a different way than if you’re black. You’re dealing with a certain non-stop discrimination that really dictates their behavior. Like, I know plenty of gay women who won’t kiss in public. You know what I mean? Well, I wanted to ask you about how Riot Grrrl deals with the male, white person. Like how you want to see males get involved in terms of forwarding what you want to do, and actually bettering the situation overall.”—Kathleen Hanna
“Oh yeah, we should get back to the original question, of like what can the boys do to help or something? Well, personally I think it’s crucial that boys talk to each other about their own sexisms, their own experiences as oppressors, and get used to recognizing how their behavior/action may be affecting women. And there’s all sorts of ways they can get information about what all different kinds of women/ladies and girls think. Like aside from just vampiring the females that they might know. Like there are lots of books and records and fanzines that they can seek out. Plus guys have to realize that their very presence may be censoring and demanding to women, so there are gonna be times when they just shouldn’t be around, you know? And bitching about this just adds to the whole problem anyways, cos it’s not about exclusion. It’s about safety.”—Kathleen Hanna

“I wasn’t nervous when I started playing. I’d already been stripping! If I could take my clothes off, I could definitely play this guitar in front of people.”—Kat Bjelland
“All I watch is ‘The Simpsons’, & that Nothern Exposure Show, I’d like to be that Indian lady on that.”—Kat Bjelland

“I always wanted to rebel.”—Kim Gordon
“Women are natural anarchists.”—Kim Gordon
“Are you gonna liberate us girls from male white corporate oppression?”—Kim Gordon

“A man who correctly guesses a woman’s age may be smart, but he’s not very bright”–Lucille Ball
“The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.”–Lucille Ball
“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”–Lucille Ball

“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”–Maya Angelou
“If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.”–Maya Angelou
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”–Maya Angelou
“Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.”–Maya Angelou
“I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.”–Maya Angelou
“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.”–Maya Angelou

“You don’t make movies to win awards. You make movies because you want people to see them.”–Robin Tunney
“I don’t know if directors go, ‘Hey! We’ve got another suicide–let’s call Robin Tunney! It’s weird, but they’re all different, and I guess it gives the characters some kind of power… At least I play women who are strong enough to take the power into their own hands! And kill themselves! So many women in films just shoot themselves in the head anyway, because they’re not really there for any reason.”–Robin Tunney
“I went to Catholic high school, so my being in this [the craft] is not going to make my grandmother very happy. It’s funny, because I was the only one who is Catholic in it. You have this thing in mass where you have to genuflect before you go into the pew, so I said you have to do this [for a scene] and they said why, and I said because you have to; I don’t know why, it’s a rule. Or like instinct. It’s funny they set in a Catholic school. I went to St. Ignatius College Prep – “Where Modesty is our Policy.”–Robin Tunney

“It’s my job to spread deviance to the American youth.”–Rose McGowan
“I always thought I was more satanic than Manson.” ( Discussing the sinister reputation of her ex-fiancé Marilyn Manson.)”–Rose McGowan
“I think if I had lived back in Salem, I would have been burned at the stake.”–Rose McGowan
“I am going to be pretty kick a$$ by the time I’m thirty, and I can’t wait!!”–Rose McGowan

“Your body hurts me.”–Sylvia Plath
“Jealousy can open the blood, it can make black roses.”–Sylvia Plath
“This is the room I have never been in, this is the room I could never breathe in.”–Sylvia Plath
“Their hands and faces stiff with holiness.”–Sylvia Plath
“Now I am silent, hate up to my neck.”–Sylvia Plath
“And my heart too small too bandage their terrible faults.”–Sylvia Plath
“The vivid tulips eat my oxygen.”–Sylvia Plath
“The tulips are too red…they hurt me.”–Sylvia Plath
“A living doll, everywhere you look.”–Sylvia Plath
“Like a cat I have nine times to die.”–Sylvia Plath
“I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern.”–Sylvia Plath
“I eat men like air.”–Sylvia Plath
“I think my poems immediately come out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have… I believe that one should be able to control and manipulate experiences, even the most terrific, like madness, being tortured, [that] one should be able to manipulate these experiences with an informed and an intelligent mind.”–Sylvia Plath
“Poetry, I feel, is a tyrannical discipline, you’ve got to go so far, so fast, in such a small space that you’ve just got to turn away all the peripherals.”–Sylvia Plath
“I much prefer doctors, midwives, lawyers, anything but writers. I think writers and artists are the most narcissistic people.”–Sylvia Plath
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”–Sylvia Plath
“dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call.”–Sylvia Plath
“How frail the human heart must be –a mirrored pool of thought…”–Sylvia Plath
“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born again.”–Sylvia Plath
“I talk to God but the sky is empty.”–Sylvia Plath
“I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am.”–Sylvia Plath
“If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I’m neurotic as hell. I’ll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.”–Sylvia Plath
“The blood jet is poetry and there is no stopping it.”–Sylvia Plath
“There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.”–Sylvia Plath
“Widow. The word consumes itself.”–Sylvia Plath

“People say I should shut my mouth. But fuck that, I am woman – hear me motherfuckin’ ROAR!” – Tairrie B
“In my other bands, it was all really macho, and I kind of had to be macho too – I had to be angry, tough and hard. But now, I can be vunerable if I want. I don’t have to scream all the time. Now I can like men!” – Tairrie B
“I don’t wanna be a role model. I’d like to be an inspiration.” – Tairrie B
“Don’t be like me – fuck, be like yourself!” – Tairrie B
“Stand in your own truth and you will command respect.” – Tairrie B
“If Robb Flynn speaks out, he’s a strong man. But when a woman does it, she’s a nightmare, big mouthed bitch. Its the same shit we’ve been fighting against the whole time and I’m sick of it. I’m not some psychopath. Its ridiculous.” – Tairrie B
“I don’t think there’s anywhere to draw the line sexually.” – Tairrie B
“I’m not a Jesus freak, I’m not a satan worshipper. I’m a contradiction, a juxtaposition.” – Tairrie B

“For girls to pick up guitars and scream their heads off in a totally oppressive, fucked up, male dominated culture is to seize power. We recognize this as a political act.”—Tobi Vail
“I understand why some women/girls/ladies don’t want to be women-identified ‘cuz it totally complicates your band identity and no one seems to pay much attention to the music or what you’re doing. We have chosen to be girl-identified (although Billy isn’t a girl!), because we want to encourage other women/girls to play music. When I was growing up, I found it discouraging to have all these women in bands not wanting to address the issue of gender…we’re interested in what women are doing.”—Tobi Vail
“Me and Billy don’t really talk a lot during our shows. Kathleen is putting herself out on the line a lot more than we are. We give her a lot of freedom even though we might not agree with everything she says, in fact we hardly ever do… Well no, it’s true, we give her a lot of freedom because she is putting herself in a position where she could get beat up at any moment. She can have full control of the stage while she’s on it. It’s just a matter of trust. We’re a lot more shy. That’s probably why she’s singer.”—Tobi Vail
“That’s what we mean by girl culture. There’s a whole girl culture that exists when you’re little. There girls have their own scene. And it always gets totally fucked up when girls start dating boys. Like two of them like the same guy. Or they just start dating guys and that becomes their life. Then they get married and that’s traditionally how women get into these situations where they are totally separated from each other in these domestic spheres. What we want to say is, ‘no, that’s not happening to us. This is girl culture and these are our rituals’.”—Tobi Vail
“A lot of cool girls won’t say a word to each other just because they’ve dated the same boy. We’re just saying that’s fuckin’ bullshit. In fact, by saying that, it’s totally affected people that we’ve met. “—Tobi Vail
“If girls are ever going to start to be in bands as the norm rather than as the exception. They need to see people up there that have just started playing. That’s something that had gotten lost. I think that’s why there are so many great girl punk rock bands now. It’s like you have to make up your own rules because the old rules don’t apply. You just have to start with what you have.”—Tobi Vail
“There aren’t enough girl drummers.”—Tobi Vail
“We’re for violent revolution.”—Tobi Vail

“In our minds, love and lust are really separated. It’s hard to find someone that can be kind and you can trust enough to leave your kids with, and isn’t afraid to throw her man up against the wall and lick him from head to toe.”–Tori Amos
“Some of the most wonderful people are the ones who don’t fit into boxes.”–Tori Amos
“Women must understand that simply attacking or hating men is just another form of disempowerment. A woman has to realize that when she makes a man crawl it doesn’t give her power.”–Tori Amos
“You have to really respect your path, or you will lose your mind.”–Tori Amos
“I hope that these songs will enter people’s lives and make them realize that they are not alone.”–Tori Amos
“You can’t change what happened. And nobody’s asking you to forgive. But you can’t associate all men with violence.”–Tori Amos
“You don’t have to justify everything. Being pissed off is just absolutely okay.”–Tori Amos
“Death is somewhere inside me. She was the kind of girl all the girls wanted to be, I believe, because of her acceptance of ‘what is.’ She keeps reminding me there is change in the ‘what is’ but change cannot be made till you accept the ‘what is.”–Tori Amos
“I’m a grown woman. I’ve earned my experiences, my scars.”–Tori Amos
“You have to crawl into the wounds to discover what your fears are. Once the bleeding starts, the cleansing can begin.”–Tori Amos
“if you allow yourself to feel the way you really feel, maybe you won’t be afraid of that feeling anymore.”–Tori Amos
“I think that the nightmares are telling me things about myself that I need to know. And I try to understand what they mean, so I can get to know something more about my soul.”–Tori Amos
“Sometimes those demons are frightening and sometimes they’re beautiful.”–Tori Amos
“You have to really respect your path, or you will lose your mind.”–Tori Amos
“The idea is to rescue myself from the role of a victim. That I have a choice left. Though I can’t change what has happened, I can choose how to react. And I don’t want to spend the rest of my life being bitter and locked up.”–Tori Amos
“I realized that what was most important to me was following my own path, and not the one laid down for me by others.”–Tori Amos
“People think I’m nuts because I can sit in a room and be happy by myself.”–Tori Amos
“I don’t see myself as weird, I just see myself as honest.”–Tori Amos
“I really respect anybody who stands by their truth.”–Tori Amos
“The last thing I want to be known as is ‘The Girl Who Got Raped’. The big turn around you make in your head is from victim to survivor.”–Tori Amos

“You get hot onstage and you take off yr shirt. Men have been doing that forever. I’m playing, I’m hot, I’m taking off my shirt!”—Lynn Payne, Tribe 8

“I cut off a rubber dick in context of talking about gang rape. It’s a cathartic ritual; it makes us feel like we are getting some kind of revenge. No, we’re not cutting off any real dicks.”—Lynn Breedlove, Tribe 8

The Runaways’ audience was 90 percent male. That was kind of depressing…Why don’t women-our own gender-come out and support us?—Joan Jett
“Girls got balls. They’re just a little higher up”.–Joan Jett

What characterized the whole punk scene for me in 1977 was there was no racism or sexism. It was an anarchy of -isms, and a matter of abolishing it all.—Chrissie Hynde
“Don’t think that sticking your boobs out and trying to look fuckable will help. Remember your in a rock and roll band. It’s not “Fuck Me”, It’s “Fuck You!”—Chrissie Hynde
“Look, as long as we can make records and sell enough so we can do some shows, that’s all I want. You know what? I just want to play guitar and be in a band. Same as I always did.”–Chrissy Hynde

I’m very much an advocate of women becoming familiar and comfortable with guns. They have every right to carry a gun and blow the motherfucking head off any guy who climbs in your window or fucks with you in any way.—Valerie Agnew, 7 year bitch

Shimmer like a girl should.—Nina Gordon, Veruca Salt

“I hate them. I think they’re evil. Just imagine if anyone ever tried to exhume your body in 20 years all that they would find is a pile of dust and two bags of plastic saline/silicone…gross. (feelings on breast implants)”–Fairuza Balk

“Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess.”–Margaret Mead

“They get you they stick your ass in pink the minute you’re born. I was redecorating my kitchen and it said,”The color pink inspires passivity” I damn near went through the roof on that one. They stick your ass in pink and give you a Barbie doll with fucking mutilated feet, that’s the first thing they stick in your head. They fuck with your head your whole fucking growing up years.”–Rosanne

“O, siren, with the mocking tongue! O beauty, lily-sweet and white! I see her, slim and fair and young. And ah! I cannot sleep tonight.”–Marie Madeleine

“I love my love with an a, Because she is a queen I love my love and a a is the best of them Think well and be a king, Think more and think again”–Gertrude Stein

“Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.”–Cheris Kramare, Paula Treichler

“Listen, I’m out of this system, man, I’m out… I’m doing better than ever. I couldn’t be more happy.”–Aimee Mann

“Being a female, the crowds tend to expect a little less. I come out in really tight clothing and lots of cleavage showing. So if anyone was going to get a beer or smoke a cigarette, they’re going to sit down. Two songs later they’re going to forget that I have tits and think, ‘Hey, great music.’ There’s a science to the whole thing.”–Lennon Murphy

“I was born into the body of an artist, a body of adversity. My body fights against itself and I fight against the world.”–Karyn Crisis

“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: ‘It’s a girl.’”–Shirley Chisholm

“The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it.”–Elaine Agather

“I’m more inspired by certain artists that I vibe with their space. I understand where they’re coming from, or they have a sort of honesty that I can relate to. That inspires me to be honest. Most of the stuff I write comes from my journal, and poetry, and personal thought experience. As far as writers, I’m very influenced by a lot of poets, and Malcom McLaren, ’cause they are extremely honest, and I love the way words can create such a visual image. The honest of some women have inspired me, such as Stevie Nicks and Annie Lennox, and more recently women like Tori Amos and Erika Badu are extremely honest where they’re coming from – at least to me. Very visual lyrically.”–Free Dominguez

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”–Eleanor Roosevelt

“Best be yourself, imperial, plain and true!”–Elizabeth Barret Browning

“Women with body image or eating disorders are not a special category, just more extreme in their response to a culture that emphasizes thinness and impossible standards of appearance for women instead of individuality and health.”–Gloria Steinem

“One cannot consent to creep when one has an impulse to soar.”–Helen Keller

“Our Situation was different to the one the American Riot Grrrls were responding to. The Underground in London had deteriorated totally, there wasn’t really much of an alternative… ‘indie’ just became an abstract term for a style of music, not ideas or values, ’cause they were all signing to major labels. The notion of selling out wasn’t important. Punk rock wasn’t important. Fanzines were seen as a sad joke so we had to explain stuff that might have been obvious to American kids but was alien to young British kids. The reasons for being independent were snorted at.”–Jo Of Huggy Bear

“The best conversation I had after a show was about astronomy, which has inspired me to learn about the stars… Y’see we are capable of talking without it being overtly sexual or political.”–Karen Of Huggy Bear

“We did women-only shows to challenge the acceptance of violence against women on all levels. The women as the centre of things. Seperatist shows do not revolve around stopping boys from coming to shows- they are a way of bringing women/girls together and actually feeling different for our pleasure.”–Niki Of Huggy Bear

“Here in Portland, OR we have witnessed a historic gay civil rights movement in the form of gay marriage. Basic Rights of Oregon, a gay civil rights group, pressured the city council to issue same sex marriage liscences, and they legally found they were bound to do so. So far over 1,000 gay couples have been married here, despite the fact that anti-gay protesters harassed them as they waited in line for their liscences. It was a beautiful thing so see so many gay faces simply lining up for one of their basic civil rights – I think it put a very positive image for the world to see.”–Corin Tucker

“How things aren’t what they seem. During the early riot grrrl ’90′s, a lot of people i hung out with, we talked about privilege and oppression alot, which is important.”–Allison Wolfe

“To be a revolutionary you have to be a human being. You have to care about people who have no power.”–Jane Fonda

“Violence commands both literature and life, and violence is always crude and distorted.”–Ellen Glasgow

“The intellectual is constantly betrayed by his vanity. Godlike he blandly assumes that he can express everything in words; whereas the things one loves, lives, and dies for are not, in the last analysis completely expressible in words.”–Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.”–Abbie Hoffman

“The world that lies behind the strangeness of your eyes”–Charlotte Mew
“A purple blot against the dead white door In my friend’s rooms, bathed in their vile pink light, I had not noticed her before She snatched my eyes and threw them back to me: She did not speak till we came out into the night, Paused at this bench beside the klosk on the quay. “–Charlotte Mew

“We do not fall in love with the package of the person, we fall in love with the inside of a person.”–Anne Heche
“Are we changing the idea of what beauty is? Let’s hope so. I’m not the typical Hollywood beauty. Let’s hope we’re looking at the insides of people a little more.”–Anne Heche

“If I ever start talking to you about my ‘craft’, my ‘instrument’, you have permission to shoot me.”–Drew Barrymore
“Life is very interesting… in the end, some of your greatest pains, become your greatest strengths.”–Drew Barrymore

“I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I wasn’t trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn’t think of myself as liberated, and I don’t believe that I did anything important. I was just myself. I didn’t know any other way to be, or any other way to live.”–Bettie Page
“I never was the girl next door”–Bettie Page

“There is a dark side. I tend not to be as optimistic as Mary Richards. I have an anger in me that I carry from my childhood experiences — I expect a lot of myself and I’m not too kind to myself.”–Mary Tyler Moore
“Diabetes is an all-too-personal time bomb which can go off today, tomorrow, next year, or 10 years from now – a time bomb affecting millions like me and the children here today.”–Mary Tyler Moore

“[to a heckler] Stop at a drug store, buy a condom, and put it over your head. If you act like a dick, you might as well dress like one.”–Rosie O’Donnell from her stand-up routines
“I find this proposed amendment very, very, very, very shocking. And immoral. And, you know, if civil disobedience is the way to go about change, then I think a lot of people will be going to San Francisco.”–Rosie O’Donnell

“I don’t want to change. I don’t ever want to be a stuck-up asshole. I mean, some people probably think I am now, but I don’t care what they think, because I know I’m not. I’m a down to earth person. I always have time for my fans. I don’t care who they are, what they look like, if they’re rich or poor, pretty or ugly. I always have time for them. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for them, and I’ll never forget that.”–Lita Ford
“To this day my favorite albums are heavy metal albums.”–Lita Ford

“Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard…OH BONDAGE UP YRS!”—Poly Styrene

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”–Frank Herbert

“The future of rock belongs to women.”–Kurt Cobain

“The basis of optimism is sheer terror.”–Oscar Wilde

“Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people.”–André Dubus

“We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love on another.”–Jonathan Swift

“The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance… logic can be happily tossed out the window.”–Stephen King

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”–Dalai Lama

“I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.”–Mohandas Gandhi

“Man has no greater enemy than himself.”–Francesco Petrarch
“Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.”–Francesco Petrarch
“Suspicion is the cancer of friendship.”–Francesco Petrarch
“Five enemies of peace inhabit with us – avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.”–Francesco Petrarch

A panel of judges for the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on Tuesday in the case of three women who were denied asylum by the Board of Immigration Appeals after undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM) in Guinea. According to the Associated Press, the judges were disturbed by the Board’s decision to allow the women’s deportation back to Guinea since the mutilation had already occurred and therefore the women could not suffer further persecution.

One woman testified that she feared her daughters would face FGM if they are forced to return to Guinea, where, according to the women’s lawyer, as many as 95 percent of women are subjected to the practice, reports the Daily Women’s Health Policy Report.

The UN launched a campaign through UNFPA and UNICEF in February to combat the prevalence of FGM. UNICEF defines FGM as partial or total removal of external genitalia. The UN News Centre says that FGM leaves “physical and psychological scars” and increases health risks especially during childbirth. The UNFPA program works to eradicate FGM through educational programs in schools as well as training for health and social workers. The program also advocates reform on the government level.

Media Resources: Associated Press 4/29/08; Women’s Daily Health Policy Report 5/1/08; Feminist Daily Newswire 2/22/08

The riot grrrl movement is an alternative subculture that was extremely popular in the 1990s, but still remains active in some areas of the United States today. Riot grrrls, sometimes referred to as riot grrls or riot girls, are often considered to be part of third wave feminism. However, many people believe the riot grrrl emphasis on a universal female identity is more closely aligned with the philosophy of second wave feminist activities.

Indie-punk music that addressed issues of sexuality, rape, domestic abuse, and female empowerment was a primary key component of the riot grrrl movement. Many of the original riot grrrls were teenagers and college students who felt left out of the existing music scene. By joining together, they created an independent female-centric subculture.

In addition to attending concerts and music festivals, active members of the riot grrrl movement were heavily involved in feminist political causes and social activism. Riot grrls also published a number of underground fanzines providing details about their favorite bands and leftist political views, as well as an opportunity for aspiring writers and artists to showcase their creative talents.

The origin of the term “riot grrrl” is still unclear. However, the Riot Grrrl fanzine started by Allison Wolfe, Molly Neuman, Kathleen Hanna, and Tobi Vail may have been responsible for popularizing the usage of the term to describe this female-centric movement. Vail also used the term “angry grrrls” extensively in her fanzine Jigsaw .

Although one might assume all members of the riot grrrl movement were female, it is interesting to note that there were plenty of men involved in riot grrrl activities as well. Bikini Kill and Huggy Bear, two of the most popular riot grrrl bands, both had male musicians as active performers. There were also a number of men who could be seen attending riot grrrl events with their girlfriends, sisters, or female friends. Although riot grrrls were often mistakenly characterized as “anti-boy” in the mainstream media, most considered themselves to simply be “pro-girl.”

In popular culture, references to the riot grrrl movement have appeared in movies such as All Over Me and Tank Girl, as well as the book Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing . The legacy of riot grrrls can be seen in the continued popularity of Ladyfest and other female-centric music festivals that combine music with a feminist philosophy. In addition, there are a number of websites still active today that offer forums and message boards for visitors who identify with the subculture of the original riot grrrls.

Key Riot Grrrl Bands:
Bikini Kill
Bratmobile
Sleater-Kinney
Huggy Bear
Team Dresch
Excuse 17
Slant 6

Riot Grrrl-Like:
L7
Babes In Toyland
Heavens To Betsy
Lunachicks
7 Year Bitch

Post-Riot Grrrl:
Le Tigre
Peaches
Chicks On Speed
The Donnas
The Gossip
The PeeChees

Other Bands Considered Riot Grrrl:
Bitch Alert
Candysuck
Dominatrix
Erase Errata
The Frumpies
Hang On The Box
Hole
Partyline
Patti Smith

Manifeste Anarchoféministe
Anarchafeminist Manifesto
Translated from French (Bulletin C.R.I.F.A. No 44 mars -avril 1983 p. 12)

The Anarchafeminist Manifesto

All over the world most women have no rights whatsoever to decide upon important matters which concern their lives. Women suffer from oppressions of two kinds: 1) the general social oppression of the people, and 2) secondly sexism – oppression and discrimination because of their sex.

There are five main forms of oppression:

- Ideological oppression, brainwash by certain cultural traditions, religion, advertising and propaganda. Manipulation with concepts and play upon women’s feelings and susceptibilities. Widespread patriarchal and authoritarian attitudes and capitalistic mentality in all areas.

- State oppression, hierarchical forms of organization with command lines downwards from the top in most interpersonal relations, also in the so-called private life .

- Economic exploitation and repression, as a consumer and a worker in the home and in low-salary women’s jobs .

- Violence, under the auspices of the society as well as in the private sphere – indirectly when there is coercion because of lack of alternatives and direct physical violence.

- Lack of organization, tyranny of the structurelessness which pulverizes responsibility and creates weakness and inactivity.

These factors work together and contribute simultaneously to sustain each other in a vicious circle. There is no panacea to break the circle, but it isn’t unbreakable.

Anarcha-feminism is a matter of consciousness. The consciousness which puts guardians off work. The principles of a liberating society thus stand perfectly clear to us.

Anarcha-feminism means women’s independence and freedom on an equal footing with men. A social organization and a social life where no-one is superior or inferior to anyone and everybody is coordinate, women as well as men. This goes for all levels of social life, also the private sphere.

Anarcha-feminism implies that women themselves decide and take care of their own matters, individually in personal matters, and together with other women in matters which concern several women. In matters which concern both sexes essentially and concretely women and men shall decide on an equal footing.

Women must have self-decision over their own bodies, and all matters concerning contraception and childbirth are to be decided upon by women themselves.

It must be fought both individually and collectively against male domination, attitudes of ownership and control over women, against repressive laws and for women’s economic and social autonomy and independence.

Crisis centers, day care centers, study and discussion groups, women’s culture activities etc. must be established, and be run under womens’s own direction.

The traditional patriarchal nuclear family should be replaced by free associations between men and women based on equal right to decide for both parts and with respect for the individual person’s autonomy and integrity.

Sex-stereotyping in education, media and at the place of work must be abolished. Radical sharing of the work by the sexes in ordinary jobs, domestic life and education is a suitable mean.

The structure of working life must be radically changed, with more part-time work and flat organized cooperation at home as well as in society. The difference between men’s work and women’s work must be abolished. Nursing and taking care of the children must concern men just as much as women.

Female power and female prime ministers will neither lead the majority of women to their ends nor abolish oppression. Marxist and bourgeoisie feminists are misleading the fight for women’s liberation. For most women it is not going to be any feminism without anarchism. In other words, anarcha-feminism does not stand for female power or female prime ministers, it stands for organization without power and without prime ministers.

The double oppression of women demands a double fight and double organizing: on the one hand in feminist federations, on the other hand in the organizations of anarchists. The anarcha-feminists form a junction in this double organizing.

A serious anarchism must also be feminist otherwise it is a question of patriarchal half-anarchism and not real anarchism. It is the task of the anarcha-feminists to secure the feminist feature in anarchism. There will be no anarchism without feminism.

An essential point in anarcha-feminism is that the changes must begin today, not tomorrow or after the revolution. The revolution shall be permanent. We must start today by seeing through the oppression in the daily life and do something to break the pattern here and now.

We must act autonomously, without delegating to any leaders the right to decide what we wish and what we shall do: we must make decisions all by ourselves in personal matters, together with other women in pure female matters, and together with the male fellows in common matters.

***********

The origin of the Anarchafeminist Manifesto.

8 March, International Women’s Day, is a special relevant day to remember the Anarchafeminist Manifesto. The origin of the Anarchafeminist Manifesto is in Norway. The Anarchafeminist Manifesto is the summary of the feminist political program unanimously agreed upon by the third congress of the Anarchist Federation of Norway 1 – 7 of June 1982. The manifesto was first published in Norwegian in Folkebladet (IJA) no 1 1983 pp. 4-5. Soon after the Manifesto was published in CRIFA-Bulletin no 44 mars-avril 1983 in French (p. 12) and English (p. 13) language. Later on the French version was used as the basis for a translation to English that was published on the Internet, see above. The Manifesto is also translated to other languages.

Today we cover those invisible little nasties, Sexually Transmitted Infections. (or Diseases, if you prefer) Following the news that one in four girls in the USA has an STI, naturally the feminist community was in a bit of an uproar. It’s worth explaining why.

This study is the first to focus on the entire range of STIs, and it includes relatively common ones that may or may not be benign. Much of the commentary has also implied that this is somehow girls’ fault- as if boys weren’t also involved in the transmission of STIs. Unless of course these same quarter of girls were all lesbians, which would be a remarkable coincidence.

The USA has a very unhealthy view of STIs- conservative politicians there like to paint them as punishment for extra-marital sex. The fact of the matter is that there is, for an example, an STI out there that is transmitted from mother to child, is relatively common, and potentially has serious health consequences for women- including cancer. I’m talking about HPV. The good news is that it has a vaccine. The bad news is that politicians are framing this as women being too promiscuous, and many states in the USA are not prepared to make the vaccine compulsory, or fund it for people who can’t afford it. The even worse news is that proper condom use doesn’t prevent the transmission of this one.

Fortunately in New Zealand, we actually believe in some small amount of sex education, (as lame, outdated, and unengaging as it might be, at least we have it) so the spread of STIs in general is likely to be a bit curtailed. But we’re still effected by the other problem that this issue raises- that HPV can’t be reliably detected in men, and that because almost all men aren’t symptomatic when they have the virus, it’s viewed as wasteful to vaccinate men and boys for it.

Which is total rubbish, even disregarding the crucial little factoid I mentioned above that proper condom use doesn’t prevent the spread of HPV. STIs are called sexually transmitted infections because they spread between sexual partners. Vaccinating men for STIs that usually only effect women will potentially protect their partners and children from said STIs- a man only needs one previous partner who was infected to potentially put all of his subsequent partners at risk. Given that you can be a complete virgin yet have inherited some of these conditions from your mother or grandmother or so on, it is ridiculous in the extreme not to protect yourself from the chance that the same has happened to any of your sex partners. Vaccines are good. Condoms are good. STI checks before sex, especially of the unprotected variety, are great.

At best, contracting an STI will make you uncomfortable and less attractive. At worst, it will put you or your partner at risk of serious health conditions. You have no real reason not to protect yourself from these consequences if you’re having sex.

Put up flyers announcing the formation of a riot grrrl chapter in your area. Include contact information like phone numbers, mailing addresses, e-mail addresses if you have them, and a website URL if available. Leave them in coffeeshops, record stores, hand them out at shows, and if you have the nerves, get up and announce that you are starting a chapter at shows and public events. You may also want to decide if you will allow men in your meetings. Some chapters do, some don’t.

Wait for people to contact you. Make sure you get all their contact information, like name, address, phone number, e-mail address, etc. Once you feel you have enough people, get in touch with everyone and plan a meeting.

Meetings can take place almost anywhere. You can do it in a public place like a coffeehouse or a park, but there may be a lot of outside distractions and people will find it hard to stay focused. You can also have meetings in people’s houses, if everyone is comfortable with the idea. Have people bring snacks to munch on and drinks. Tell them to bring a friend who might be interested.

The first meeting is always a little slow and you don’t do many activities. It’s good to go around and introduce yourselves, like name, where you’re from, how you got involved with riot grrrl and what you hope to get out of the group. You may also want to explain why you are starting a chapter in the first place. You may then want to discuss what you’d like to do, whether you want it to be just a discussion group, or if you’d like to do other outside activities. If you are in a public place you might want to collect donations and give them to the people who run the place as a thank you for letting you meet there. Some places might even require that you do it. You also might want to ask people to donate money to the chapter so you have spending money if you need it. But be sure to put it in a safe place and don’t spend it on anything except what’s agreed on as a chapter.

Some ideas for things to do as a chapter are to hold a convention featuring girl/queer-positive bands, workshops and speakers. This takes a lot of planning though. You should hold off on this until you get things really organized. You can also have slumber parties and dance parties, as a way of bonding and getting to know each other. You can hold workshops in meetings about topics like self-defense, abortion, sexism, the media, equality, rape/sexual assault, girl love/sisterhood, racism, classism, gay/lesbian/bisexual rights, eating disorders and the internet. These can also be topics for workshops in your convention if you decide to hold one. You can put out a chapter zine and distribute it through your area and let people know what your chapter is all about. You can print up pamphlets on rape statistics, eating disorders, etc. and give them out. You can volunteer in women’s shelters (providing that you are the proper age, it all depends on the shelter). Some other ideas would be to write in bathroom walls (if you’ve seen Girls Town, this is just like that), girl-positive messages and lists of rapists in your area. You can place flyers in fashion magazines and diet products like “Is this how you measure your self-esteem?” See below for a list of things you can put in them. You can have spoken word nights where people just get up and read stuff they have written, and you can even record it and sell it. If you notice some people are more talkative than others, you may want to hand out cards (5 per person?) and everytime someone speaks they have to give up a card. That way everyone has a chance to talk. Consider helping out other local organizations like the Anti-Racist Action and Food Not Bombs. It will help bring all the groups together.

There are endless things for chapters to do, all of which can help promote the idea of riot grrrl and do something good for the community.

Here are some things you can put inside fashion magazines and diet products:

“This product contains unrealistic images”
“This product is nothing more than an attempt to cash in on your fantasies”
“Diets deprive our bodies of healthy food and our minds of healthy thinking”
“FACT: Every year, the U.S. spends more money on trying to lose weight than we do preventing child abuse, where are YOUR priorities?”
“If diet pills really work, why are there so many overweight people?”
“Diets starve the body of healthy food and the mind of healthy thinking”
“The Diet Industry: Sex, Thighs, and Measuring Tape”
“Intelligence never goes out of fashion: BOYCOTT STARVATION IMAGERY”

You can put these in dressing rooms:

“these clothes are made to fit you, not the other way around”
“don’t weigh your self-esteem”
“don’t judge your personal worth on your dress size”

Riot Grrrl began in 1991 at Olympia Washington, when a few girls (mostly from Bikini Kill and Bratmobile) decided to get together and talk about their main interests..feminism and punk rock. The first time they met it was all fun, they put up posters to get attention of other open minded girls. Then they found out they had other things in common: they were all vegetarians; against drugs; and had been molested as children. At one meeting a very smart girl took notes, photocopied them and turned them into a cool fanzine. That’s how it all began. Some people think that Bikini Kill started it all, in my eyes they did. Bikini Kill, however does not think of themselves as starting the riot grrrl movement. In Bikini Kill’s songs, they sing about different women issues such as: rape, incest, and other issues that some women face. Some people think that bikini kill, riot grrrls, and feminists are ‘man-haters’. They’re not. They just want to be equal to men, not better to them. Zines are a BIG part of the riot grrrl scene. Most riot grrrls believe in DIY. (do it yourself) That means that they start riot grrrl chapters, zines, etc. of their own around the riot grrrl movement.

The answers to this question are below. The 7 answers were taken from: WikiAnswers.

1.) Females (half the population) still do not have equal access to society’s resources.
2.) Women need an identity that is not dependent (or compared to) the identity of men.
3.) Women need their own sphere so that they have the freedom to develop a sense of self-worth and utilize strengths/abilities which are undervalued or looked down upon by patriarchal society.
4.) Women need to educate each other about their bodies, away from the patriarchal assumptions of modern medicine.
5.) Women need to keep a check on modern ideologies and theorizing by doing critiques and holding patriarchal society accountable for its political, economic, and moral decisions.
6.) Women in developing countries continue to need support in many areas from women in more developed countries.
7.) Generally speaking, men still don’t really understand women…

Here are 3 of my answers to this question. I would like to add my own answers onto these good answers. I could add more answers, but perhaps in the future I will re-write this entry with mine and everyone’s answers to this question and not WikiAnswers answers to the question.

8.) Women all over the world still aren’t treated equally to men. Some countries do not realize or care about this. If your a woman, you should care.
9.) Women’s studies should be in all colleges and universities, so women can learn more about feminism. (past and present) Women’s studies take a look at feminism, women’s issues, and other stuff affecting women.
10.) Women’s issues such as rape, incest, abortion, etc. (and more!) aren’t treated as important as they should be treated. There are certain issues pertaining to women only, such as those listed above.

Let’s interact on this entry. I want you to answer the question, “Why Is Feminism Important Today?” with your own answers/opinions. I would like you to add your answers to this list by commenting on this post. The first person to comment will start at number 11. When someone else comments after you do, they should start at whatever number the previous person wrote to. (For example, Let’s say that you are the 5th to comment and the person above you ended at number 49, You will start at number 50.)

Let me clarify something. I don’t think anything deserves the death penalty. But the law, as it stands, says that the ‘rarest of rare cases’ do. And to make sure that the death penalty is rarely awarded, the law says the trial court can’t award it by itself, the High Court has to agree. So, in this case, the trial court found this chap guilty. Then the High Court confirmed his sentence. And the Supreme Court,

Though it agreed with the trial court and the HC on the guilt of Singh, it said this was not a fit case for awarding death penalty.

Fair enough, they aren’t bound to accept the sentence along with the finding of guilt. But let us see why the Hon’ble Justices S B Sinha and Markandey Katju disagree with the sentence (emphasis mine):

we reduce the sentence to life imprisonment since it appears to us that the crime was committed in a fit of passion and does not come within the category of ‘rarest of rare’ cases.

I’m quoting from the Times report here, of course, since the judgement isn’t yet online. But I don’ think that’s actually a misquote. This is a man who killed two women after raping one of them. The Supreme Court of India thinks those are crimes committed in a ‘fit of passion’? It thinks that such a ‘fit of passion’ extenuates the crime some extent?

I think the Hon’ble Supreme Court is very male.

My first reaction to Pratibha Patil’s nomination was, of course, “Oh, wow! A woman President, finally!” And over the past few weeks, I’ve read quite a bit about her in the papers: all her faux pas, all the reasons why she should not be our next President. There’s even a blog campaign demanding she provide some answers to all the allegations against her: it starts “Not for President!”, and says “India demands answers first.”

But I want to go back a bit further, to the initial announcement of her nomination. The Congress wanting to capitalise on her being a woman, accusing the NDA of being anti-woman because it didn’t support her, and liberal voices going “So what if she’s a woman? That shouldn’t be a consideration in choosing her for President!”

And so very few voices saying “But it should!”

First, because it takes strength and courage and hard work and sacrifice for a woman to make it in politics**, and the fact that she got this far is testimonial to all of that. As Vidya Subrahmaniam pointed out:

even the bare facts impress: a practising lawyer before she joined politics, five consecutive terms as MLA, a clutch of portfolios in the Maharashtra Government, member of the 10th Lok Sabha, deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, and Governor of Rajasthan. All this topped by untrumpeted, constructive social work: engineering college for rural students, hostel for working women, development fund and cooperative bank for economically depressed women, schools for the poor and the disabled, and so on

Second, because having a woman president sends a message. Not the message that every Indian ‘respects women’, as the Congress would like to claim, but that collectively, as India, we don’t judge people by their gender alone.

Sounds like I’m contradicting myself? That’s because male privilege is mostly invisible. We don’t see our biases till we look for them, and so, the default men-as-public-leaders doesn’t seem to reek of discrimination. If we stop to think, we’d realise it can’t be ‘natural’ to have so few women in public life. So the ‘default’ is because of discrimination, because we are taught to value people according to their gender. Having a woman in the highest public office is a statement that we refuse to accept this default. That we see the discrimination in our society, and we appreciate and reward those who fight it.

Third, because the fact that she covers her head doesn’t stop her from speaking out against purdah. The office of President is a largely ceremonial one, that of the Government’s conscience, one might say. And a conscience that understands the difference between wearing a veil and requiring someone to wear it seems like a good start.

Pratibha Patil’s gender is one very good reason why she should become President; it shouldn’t be the only reason she doesn’t.  

**Yes, a lot more than it takes a man, do you even doubt it?

I’ll open with a quote from Robin Brontsema’s “A Queer Revolution: Reconceptualizing the Debate Over Linguistic Reclamation”:

Laying claim to the forbidden, the word as weapon is taken up and taken back by those it seeks to shackle—a self-emancipation that defies hegemonic linguistic ownership and the (ab)use of power. Linguistic reclamation, also known as linguistic resignification or reappropriation, refers to the appropriation of a pejorative epithet by its target(s).

As with just about any topic in feminism, when stripped to the bone, reclamation about power. The patriarchal position is that people with power get to set the agenda, control the discourse, define people in pejorative terms, and decide what is or isn’t offensive – not only to themselves, but to others. They place themselves firmly in the subject position, and unilaterally assume the role of making decisions for less powerful people – the objects.

Feminism is about turning that dominance model on its head in every realm, including language. One recurring feature of feminist discussion about pejorative speech is that the person with the lesser power gets to decide what is offensive to them, and that we should be listening to their voices, not those of the dominant group. In the case of sexist language, women have the voices that count, the voices that all need to listen to. For racist speech, women of colour. For classist speech, poor women. For disablist speech, disabled women. For anti-lesbian speech, lesbian women. Fattist speech, fat women. And so on, and so on.

Linguistic reclamation is the re-appropriation of a term used by those in power to demean and disparage those in a less powerful group. One way in which women refuse the object position and reclaim their subjectivity is to take back control of pejorative terms such as “bitch”, “slut”, “chick”, “crone”, and “harridan”. Defused, a reclaimed word can become an in-group identifier, with a positive, powerful spin. It’s all about who gets to define “us” – “them” or “us”? Reclamation is about refusing to let others define your group, set the parameters, or establish the meanings. In some instances, reclamation is about reclaiming not just an arbitrarily-defined pejorative word, but about proudly reclaiming the pejorative meaning, when it is based in the fear of women speaking their minds, defending themselves, not letting their personal value be defined by their sexual worth to patriarchy.

Examples

Here’s a smorgasbord of examples of reclamatory language. Going by the principle of “In their own words”, I’ve pulled out snippets of discussion about or explanation of the specific reclaimed terms in a few cases.

Bitch magazine‘s About page:

The writer Rebecca West, back in the day, said, “People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.” We’d argue that the word “bitch” is usually deployed for the same purpose. When it’s being used as an insult, “bitch” is an epithet hurled at women who speak their minds, who have opinions and don’t shy away from expressing them, and who don’t sit by and smile uncomfortably if they’re bothered or offended. If being an outspoken woman means being a bitch, we’ll take that as a compliment, thanks.

Linuxchix and its subgroups, “grrltalk” and “grrls-only” were the subject of a debate in which some interlocutors whined that reclamatory language was an inappropriate “Special Privilege!” for women:

I think it’s more about being ironic than about having special “privileges”. And the irony wouldn’t work if you aren’t a part of the group in question. [Cliff Crawford]

Insider language often can include the same words which when used by an outsider are derogatory but when used by an insider are a friendly sign of inclusion. [Shulamit]

The Ethical Slut author Janet Hardy takes this approach to defusing the word:

Slut has been used for many years as a way to shame women out of their sexuality. We think sluts are adults of any gender or orientation who love sex and welcome it into their lives in whatever form feels best to them.

And possibly the most taboo anti-woman expletive of all, “cunt”, commonly called just “the c word”, the one my grandmother steadfastedly refused to explain to my mother, has been reclaimed by feminists – including the author of Cunt: A Declaration of Independence, Inga Muscio. From the Library Journal review:

Muscio encourages women to reclaim the word “cunt”, rejecting its negative connotations and reincarnating it as a symbol of women’s power and strength. She invites women to disregard the derogatory messages they receive about their bodies and their womanhood: both “the anatomical jewel,” as she terms it, and the essence of femaleness.

Kate Townshend, in her War of Words article on The F-Word blog, discusses the reclamation of the word “Feminist”:

In order to effect a shift in the meaning of a particular word we need to use language in a more general sense to frame it. That we talk about feminism at all, that the debates still exist and are invigorated is a crucial and continuing victory. Male gaze has always positioned women as objects to be seen, decorative, visual creatures. Feminism and its associated movements announce women as creatures to be heard as well.

Blogger Bitch, Ph.D. explains her blogonym:

So I think that’s kind of the thing about bitching. If you’re doing it all alone, and it’s falling on deaf ears, and you feel powerless, it’s easy to feel like bitching is pointless. And that, of course, is why some people call other people bitches–to try to isolate them, marginalize what they’re doing, keep other women from joining them in bitching. But when bitchy women start bitching at each other, and then bitching together in a kind of bitches coven, it does make a difference. It makes you realize you’re not alone, and you do have the right to feel ticked off about whatever’s twisting your knickers, and hey, now that you mention it, my panties are in a bunch too, and why the fuck don’t clothing manufacturers make underwear that doesn’t ride up your crack? [...] And the cacophany of bitchiness gets so loud that everyone else finally hears it and realizes that they need to move the hell over to where we are and include us in their conversations, and join our conversations, bring us into the party, or else the party is effectively over.

Reclamation isn’t limited to nouns. Just as Bitch PhD is reclaiming the act of bitching, other feminists are reclaiming adjectives: “angry”, “uppity”, “fat”, and even “hairy”, all terms used to denigrate and dismiss women who aren’t adequately submissive or ornamental.

Angry Black Bitch:

For the record…a bitch doesn’t need permission, tolerance or acceptance to celebrate the wonderful diversity that is me.

Empowerment gave me that.

You feel me?

Fuck you if it intimidates you…if you anticipated gratitude…if you prefer submission…if you are more comfortable with Toby.

Yeah…fuck you.

I stopped trying to put The Man at ease years ago.

Uppity Women Magazine proclaims on its banner:

This is a place for uppity women. You know who you are. You are a woman who refuses to keep your place, to limit yourself in any way, to live down to others’ expectations. You are a woman who gets up again and again, every time life knocks you down. You’ve learned how to survive. Now it’s time to learn how to prosper.

“Uppity” isn’t confined to antifeminism; it has been used in attempts put activists of all kinds into place, including people of colour and disabled activists. Ragged Edge magazine reviewed Harriet McBryde Johnson’s Too Late To Die Young:

The chapter “Art Object” is the story of her contretemps with the New York Times Magazine photographer sent to record her image for the “Unspeakable Conversations” article. But in Johnson’s recounting of the test of wills between a New York artist used to seducing her subjects into pliability before the camera and the immovable object that is the attorney Johnson at her finest, we see both the mindset of the “uppity cripple” — which most of us will cheer — and its very unsettling effect on those not used to power in wheelchairs coming from driver rather than battery.

“Protesting is contrary to the teachings of Charleston’s civil religion, politeness,” she tells us. But she’s an uppity crip, and her book is a manifesto for uppity crips everywhere: “I believe that living our strange and different lives, however we choose and manage to live them, is a contribution to the struggle.”

Krista Scott’s thesis “Girls Need Modems!”: Cyberculture and Women’s Ezines quote a FaT GiRL ezine article, “A Fat, Vulgar, Angry Slut” by Betty Rose Dudley:

I usually tell people that I am a fat, white, working-class bitch who comes from a small town in the slightly southern, mostly midwestern state of Missouri…I am an angry woman, a very angry woman… I am a slut. A fat, lecherous, rude, crude, and very nice slut… I am tacky and vulgar. I wallow in vulgarity, consume it with the hunger fat girls are famous for… I make words and music my own. I take back my power… I no longer give you the power to tell me who to be or how to behave… I am a vulgar woman. I am a powerful female.

The book Fat! So? and Big Fat Blog are in the forefront of fat-reclamation. The Fat! So? tagline is:

for people who don’t apologize for their size.

Big Fat Blog has taken a slightly different approach to reclamation, arguing for a broad, society-wide reclamation of the word “fat” – one not restricted to use by fat people.

Fat is a descriptor. It is what it is. Fat is fat. Fat is not bad. What’s worse is that actions like this put fat people, collectively, in a bad position. The supposition here is that we’re so “offended” by the use of the word “fat” that we don’t want anyone to use it.

Truth be told, I say go for it. This is a word that we should own and ultimately is a word that should empower. It’s not something to be ashamed of. It’s not something that other people should get in trouble for – no. It’s ours.

controversies and debates on the reclamation of racist language.

lost clown, at Angry For A Reason, is pessimistic about all attempts to reclaim gendered language:

Men have defined our sexuality; they have defined words used to describe women’s sexuality and behaviors such as bitch, slut, whore, cunt, etc. Where are the positive words to define women’s sexuality? The lack of their existence is proof that women have never defined our own sexuality. When we attempt to “reclaim” these words, and give them a new meaning they remain hurtful to us, as they retain their original meanings and are still used negatively by others. An example: the American Heritage Dictionary defines the term bitch as “a female canine animal, esp. a dog” and “a spiteful or overbearing woman.” I am neither, and no matter how positively I use the term it will always mean a female dog and a spiteful woman. As long as we continue to use the words and behaviors defined by the oppressors we will never break the cycle of oppression; we will never truly be free. Female sexuality can never be reclaimed; it must be defined in the first place, something that has never happened. Reclamation is misleading, and an ultimate dead end. We can never reclaim anything that was never ours in the first place.

Dr. Crazy, at Reassigned Time makes the (rather obvious) point that changing language won’t put an end to oppression:

All language is gendered. All language regulates behavior, determines identity, and ultimately polices the individual. Claiming or reclaiming a particular word isn’t going to make language itself any less oppressive. At the end of the day, if we successfully “reclaim” Bitch, or Crazy, or Slut, or Whore, or Cunt, another word is going to crop up in its place to “oppress opinionated women and to marginalize stereotypically feminine behaviors in men and women.” The point in any project of reclamation as far as I can tell is not that it’s going to stop oppression. Rather, it’s to change the terms of the discussion.

This is, to at least some extent, an argument against a position that most reclaimers don’t take. The “strong”, deterministic version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in linguistics has been long since discredited. However, weaker versions of Whorfian linguistic relativism have retained currency and relevance under scrutiny, though they are the subject of many a late-night debate. In the words of Whorf:

We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way – an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language. The agreement is, of course, an implicit and unstated one, but its terms are absolutely obligatory; we cannot talk at all except by subscribing to the organization and classification of data which the agreement decrees.

(For a densely nuanced reinterpretation, read Mark Liberman’s take on Whorf here at the Language Log.)

Dr Crazy elaborates on her own moniker in the comments, hitting one of my pet peeves in the process:

my being “Dr. Crazy” is actually ironic, rather than some kind of meaningful appropriation. I mean, call me crazy, call me a bitch – whatever – don’t we have more important things to talk about?

Concerns have also been raised about commercialised corporate meta-reclamation: re-re-appropriation? Bitch PhD commenter Susan writes:

I love Bitch magazine, and am sympathetic to the goal of feminists’ reclaiming of the term bitch. However, I also know that the word bitch has been commercially appropriated as a “hip” fashion statement or as a “sexy” reference to being some man’s bitch. Kind of like the rhinestone-encrusted t-shirts I see with the words porn star emblazoned across the front. Either could be used as a reclamation of a term or as a questioning of ways women are stigmatized (for doing social critique or for ways we use our sexuality). But both could also be used to commercially co-opt that impulse in order to reinforce negative perceptions of “bitches” and porn stars.

I have my own issues with some “reclamations”. Women who are privileged to have never been involved in sex work commonly use the words “tart” and “whore”. They may have had these words used against them in anger as generalised misogynistic epithets – does this “lend” them the word for reclamation, or does their privilege, their position in the hierarchy allow them the unexamined use of these words? “Nazi” is my pet peeve – women labelled “boob nazis” and “feminazis” may be rightfully angry about being slapped with these terms by asshats, but are their reclamation attempts unproblematic in a post-Holocaust world?

Where are the reclamatory grey areas? What’s off-limits? Which words have you reclaimed? Have any of these examples made you think, challenged your assumptions, pissed you off? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.