Yesterday marked the 90th anniversary of the passing of the 19th amendment – you know, that little law that gave women the right to vote.  There were some great posts celebrating this fact, as well as critiquing the methods and shortcomings of the heroines that fought for our rights.  A good feminist is always critical and willing to take a look at where we need to improve, so I send out kudos to all of those women out there who continue to fight the battles within while striving to foster an effective and efficient sisterhood.

Shoutouts to feministing for the awesome old school vid!

Young Women and the Battle for Women Suffrage [the ms. education of shelby knox]

‘Battle’ is the correct word to describe the 100-year campaign to get women the right to vote. Sadly, many American school children never learn about the courageous activism waged by the many women and men of all races it took to make the 19^th amendment the law of the land. If they get any information on the topic at all, they leave the classroom thinking Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton simply asked for the vote and it was kindly granted! The lack of women’s history education in schools leaves young women without a true understanding of all the women have done and become before, making it harder to do and become today.

I consider myself to be relatively knowledgeable about a lot of things.  In particular, among a lot of my peers I’m sometimes considered the “women’s issues” expert, and people come to me specifically for my opinion “as a feminist.”  But I don’t know everything.  I have friends I can turn to for questions about ethnic diversity, multicultrualism, GLBQ understanding, and so on.  However, I’ve only begun learning about each of these.  And that pesky little “T” is often left out of these discussions (for instance, the Allies training at my university held a separate session on trans issues rather than covering them in the initial training).  So I am doing my best to become educated about the experiences of trans individuals.  And I will admit that that meant that the first thing I did was wikipedia the word “cis” that I kept seeing around.

Cisgender is an adjective used in the context of gender issues and counselling to refer to a class of gender identities formed by a match between an individual’s gender identity and the behavior or role considered appropriate for one’s sex.^[1] Cisgender is a neologism that means “someone who is comfortable in the gender they were assigned at birth”, according to Calpernia Addams.^[2] “Cisgender” is used to contrast “transgender” on the gender spectrum.

This is how we learn.  It can be embarrassing, nerve-wracking, and above all humbling to admit when we don’t know and ask for more information.  It can feel almost shameful to stumble around looking for answers to questions we feel like we should just understand already.  But I encourage each of us to keep searching, keep learning, and keep asking (sensitively) so that we can become better friends, allies, and general human beings.  Here are some other great articles on trans issues that I’ve come across this week.

Who am I? [feministing]

I am tired-tired of my transgender identity being pushed aside by my LGBT people, by my brothers and sisters- the organizations, groups, and individuals pushing us-the T aside- in order to push their agenda further. Telling me, telling us that our time will come, that we will have a way, an option, a fight, an ally. I am the one who is tired and refuses to wait for that time, but one of many who makes their own time!I am one of many who will take our place in the struggle for equality. Not jogging behind, or stepped on, but standing next too our sisters and brothers fighting for equal rights- in addition to trans rights- not in lieu of them. I am the pissed off transgender womyn-with a y- who will forcefully take my place in the front line, not as a token, but as a warrior for peaceful means for equality.

You don’t get to out me [feministe]

When I out myself, or am outed, I never know what the reaction will be. Before hormones, and early transition, my transness was noticed quite frequently. Now, I have to be outed—by my documents most often, or by my friends, family and acquaintances. Which is where y’all come in. So here’s the deal: if you out us, you can do more damage than you can possibly imagine.

The Term Same Sex Marriage = Cissexist [amplify]

We have done something right by framing the issue as “marriage equality” or “civil marriage”. But the term “same sex marriage” simply creates a binary of cisgender male marries cisgender female, cisgender male marries cisgender male, or cisgender female marries cigender female.

So there are undoubtedly quite a few members of the Colbert Nation out there (although I myself am not one of them)…  This is for you.

The following is a guest-post from Cheyenne Smith, a college student from Texas majoring in journalism/magazine design. She’s also a slam poet and nationally recognized editorial cartoonist – a firm believer in the power of words and image (check out her work at tumblr).  She pays the bills as a barista and is trying to tackle the publishing world one rejection letter at a time If you are interested in cross-posting or guest-posting at feministhemes.com, please contact me with your ideas at misswizzle@feministhemes.com. We always welcome new voices!

March celebrates the leaps and bounds made by women over the last few centuries, and with good reason. America in particular showcases the advancements made in feminine culture giving today’s modern woman a pertinent place in society. And though our country designates an entire month to shed the spotlight on once less-fortunate females, there still remains leagues of frenzied feminists standing up in protest to such an event claiming their “inferiority” in a “male-dominated” world. To these women, I roll up my Rosie the Riveter sleeves and ask, exactly what rights do you think we don’t have?

History shows us that a woman’s character is inherently linked to the image she projects. Though housewives, sex symbols and pinups used to rule the scene (visually pleasing men from coast to coast), an up rise in alternative lifestyles and appearances has caused gender lines to virtually disappear. With androgynous fashion rocking runways and same-sex parents in full attendance at their child’s PTA meetings, society’s’ cookie cutter view of the “perfect woman” mutated from a Marilyn Monroe super mom into an ever-changing idea of all that a woman can be: a multifaceted working girl with brains, beauty and sass. Especially considering American media, society’s rejection of the damsel in distress allows for females’ former weakness to become their source of power. Sex feels so mainstream now that any woman with the right amount of entrepreneurship can still run a fortune 500 company – even in a pinstriped micro mini and stilettos. Face it, sex doesn’t just sell, it commands.

With undeniable change in image comes an increase in power. Sure our salaries average out to 30 % lower than our male counterparts, but men automatically pay more for auto insurance – not to mention that filet mignon you ordered on last night’s date. Though the testosterone count sits lower, women’s hold on power in today’s world soars far beyond chauvinistic man’s expectations. Undoubtedly, men covet women as a source of power, but up until the late 1800s that power remained a source of fear that sparked the oppression of millions. One of the oldest games in the world, chess, exemplifies this “fear v. respect” relationship in its purest form. A 64 square board with32 pieces: two teams comprised of 16 male power roles- except for one – the queen. Able to movie in virtually any direction, the queen reigns as the most powerful piece on the board outranking even the king. For a once “gents only” pastime, the creators of chess sure acted upon the idea that behind every powerful man stands an even more powerful woman. Listen up ladies: don’t let men give you more credit than you give yourselves.

Between women’s’ suffrage and the right to choose, females proved totally competent in securing their authority in America. To hear young girls and grown women alike feign inferiority, using injustices of the past as an excuse to settle for less than their full potential in the future, completely negates all progress made by their fellow females. Next time you think you’re oppressed in a “male-dominated world” consider the shockingly low literacy rates for women in Afghanistan, the unmatched rape count in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and the sex trafficking lifestyles demanded of the women in Nepal. American women experience more opportunity, safety and privilege than any other group of females in the world, ad to take such an exalted state of living for granted is completely unacceptable. Once thought of as the lesser of two sexes, women should now hold themselves as not only equal, but elevated. After all, the male population’s signature Y chromosome is only an incomplete X, right?

Just about everyone’s seen a newsreel. Either in an old documentary, or in history class, or spliced into a period movie. But how many of us have heard a newsreel narrated by a woman? I know I never have, but it appears there were some women in the field, after all, and I have proof.

This is an article from the Hartford Courant originally published July 22,1938:

Woman Newsreel Commentator Finds Her Job Thrilling
Good Voice, Excellent Diction Won Job for Sue Read

Being a woman newsreel commentator is an exciting life, according to Sue Read, one of the few women holding such a position. Miss Read in an interview with Edna Gorman of the New York Sun says “I’ve never had a greater thrill from anything I’ve done than to see and hear myself describing some important front-page event, knowing that within four days 28,000,000 people all over the United States and in South America and Canada will be viewing these newsreels.

Miss Read was asked how it is possible to follow a news cameraman into all sorts of adventures and always have the right comments ready to synchronize with the picture as it is taken.

Everyone asks me that question, Miss Read replied. However, newsreels aren’t made that way. “Pictures are taken any place in the world and rushed to the studios, usually by plane. A short script is then prepared by the staff, and this is voiced on the sound track,” she explained.

Another question every one asks Miss Read is: “How do you get a job like that, and how does it happen that even though there are a few girls doing this work, they are almost entirely limited to women’s fashions, while you have been doing horse races and ship sailings and similar news events?”

Well it seems that little Sue Read liked the idea. And being one who doesn’t let grass grow under her feet, she hunted up a man she had met who was somebody important in the business. But the important man only laughed at her. “Run along, child,” he said, “we don’t want any girls in this work.” But, eventually, he gave her a letter of introduction, and although his secretary insisted she was wasting her time, Miss Read got an audition. And they took her on just when they had definitely decided a woman would never, never do!

As for the rest, she has had a thorough training in dramatic expression, and both her diction and her speaking voice are charming.

She is a brunette, with eyes as expressive as her voice and a freshing, sunny smile. She believes that any girl who is planning her career should never limit it by patterning it after some one else. No two careers are alike, she says.

“And don’t believe people who say you must have ‘pull’,” she insists. “Pull can be such a harmful thing. It can get you in long before you are fitted for a place, and then you are let out, and have to start all over again.

Miss Read is a Quaker from Philadelphia, and was educated in Quaker schools. At a very early age she displayed more interest in dramatics than she did in regular school work. After inveigling her parents into letting her go to dramatic classes after school once a week, she was soon devoting all her time to dramatics, with a few special school subjects on the side.

She says she came to New York to study singing and, finding her voice wasn’t great enough for an outstanding vocal career, she made her interpretation the most important part of her singing. Her dramatic training has been of value to her here, so that she is able to give dramatic interpretations which have made her singing of box-office value and which has now landed her the enviable job of feminine news-reel commentator.

Her hobby, at the moment, is tap dancing.

Lately I’ve developed an affection for TV shows that aired on ABC between 1989 and 1993. Doogie Howser, and the Wonder Years have been faves for some time, and nostalgia has led me to add thirtysomething and Life Goes On to my Netflix queue. Most recently, however, I’ve fell in love with a show I’ve actually been hunting down for years: Homefront.

Homefront aired on ABC from 1991-1993. Its short run means it was rarely syndicated and no one has gone through the trouble to release it on DVD, so creative googling and luck are necessary to hunt down VHS recordings. It was rather critically acclaimed during its initial run but failed to pull in the ratings necessary to guarantee renewal. It seems a very similar story to my favorite show on TV these days, Friday Night Lights. Kyle Chandler stars in both, but whereas Homefront died due to lack of viewership, Friday Night Lights had the advantage of being produced in a more flexible era of television, allowing it to live 5 (short) seasons–for which I am eternally grateful.

But back to Homefront. It’s an evening soap that revolves around a town, River Run, Ohio, at the end of WWII. The first episode begins with the young soldiers returning home from overseas and begins to explore the early post-war era.

Read the rest of this entry »

With our boys off to war, American women stepped it up during World War II, represented by that iconic figure, Rosie the Riveter (check out this sweet post about Rosie at Bitch Blogs).  Ever wonder what Rosie had on under that blue work(wo)man’s shirt?

How about a plastic safety bra?

I’m not really sure what to say about this.  It seems that it would be equally sensible (if not more so) to wear something akin to a sports bra, essentially strapping those beauties down to keep them from harms way.

I mean, I’m not an expert on the manufacturing industry, but were men encouraged to wear jock straps and nut cups in order to protect their goodies?

Anyway, next time you’re admiring the safety goggles and hard hats of laborers, remember fondly this image of the plastic bra.  Gives new meaning to “save the boobies,” doesn’t it?

You can find more (and somewhat less confusing) images of women at work in the Records of the Women’s Bureau of the US National Archives on Flickr.  Shoutouts to io9!

I hope that you were able to take a moment today to think about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all the other civil rights and peace activists who have made our world so much better at the cost of their own pain, suffering, and sadly untimely deaths.  Feministing has a great list of links to posts about MLK and the importance of his memory, and F-Bomb has a great short bio posted as well.  In case you’d like a refresher, his “I have a dream” speech is below, in it’s entirety.

“Would men but generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers – in a word, better citizens.”

- Mary Wollstonecraft
From A Vindication on the Rights of Women
(1792)