I have been really into Tegan & Sara lately (in particular their fifth album, The Con), and I have always had a soft spot for Hayley Williams (Paramore).  So when I stumbled across this interview over at autostraddle it was a match made in heaven (there is also a fascinating bit about Lady Gaga at the link, which I’m sure I’ll address sooner or later).  Enjoy!

“I think I am a feminist in a way. It’s not something I consciously decided I was going to be; perhaps it’s because I grew up in a singing group with other women, and that was so helpful to me. It kept me out of so much trouble and out of bad relationships. My friendships with my girls are just so much a part of me that there are things I am never going to do that would upset that bond. I never want to betray that friendship because I love being a woman and I love being a friend to other women… I think we learn a lot from our female friends – female friendship is very, very important.”

- Beyonce

From Daily Mail.

Also, if you haven’t seen the Why Don’t You Love Me video, I recommend you check it out.  Discussion is welcome.

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.

Last week I was absent for very exciting reasons.  First, my mom came out to visit and then my partner and I headed over to Lyons, Colorado for Planet Bluegrass’s 20th Folks Festival.  And it folked my socks off.  Old favorites were there, like Ani DiFranco and Jenny Lewis, and I found some new favorites, too, such as Girlyman and Dala.  Consider the following to be souvenirs I brought back for you!

Ani DiFranco - Her new stuff keeps getting better.  Which is astonishing.  Check out this sweet folk ditty (sorry about the poor visuals, but the sound is great and this vid is from the festival!):

Jenny Lewis - Jenny had me at Rilo Kiley, and her solo stuff continues to win me over.  She played Silver Lining at the Folks Festival, but this clip is from a different performance:

New favorites after the jump!

I love Felicia Day.  I loved her as Vi during season seven of Buffy.  I loved her as Penny in Dr. Horrible.  I loved her as Mag during the postapocolyptic Epitaph episodes of Dollhouse.  And I love her as the star and creator of The Guild.

The Guild is an awesome internet series focusing on the in-game and real-life exploits of the members of The Knights of Good, a guild in an online RPG only referred to as The Game (it’s essentially World of Warcraft).  The series focuses on Day’s character, Cyd Sherman aka Codex.  The series pokes fun at stereotypes regarding online gamers, but is filled with enough in-jokes that gamers are the core audience and not just the butt of the joke (ahem, not that I’d know).

However, that’s not to say that it’s perfect (after all, nothing regarding MMORPGs is).  So allow me to express one (of many) of my concerns:

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I stumbled upon this short over at Sociological Images:

Girls suck at video games / Les filles sont nulles aux jeux vidéo from Stéphanie Mercier on Vimeo.

What do you think?

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.

Pat Robertson has made it into our archives of misogyny before, but this one is really something else.  Remember that time that Tina Fey hosted SNL and implied through her tear-down of “Bombshell” McGee that a husband’s cheating is more the fault of the mistress than the husband?  Pat Robertson takes it a step further and educates us all on how it’s the wife’s laziness that drives her husband to cheat.

E-mailed Question: “My husband has always been a flirt and loves to talk with other women he finds attractive.  He says he would never cheat on me, but his actions are starting to get to me.  What should I do?”

Robertson’s response: “First thing is you need to make yourself as attractive as possible and, uh, don’t hassle him about it.  And why is he doing this?  Well, he’s doing it because he wants affirmation that he is still a man, that he is attractive, and, uh, he gets an affirmation of himself.  That means he’s got an inferiority complex that’s coming out, and, uh, he’s not gonna cheat on you – he’s just playin.  But you need to not drive him away, start hassling and hamming on him, but make yourself as beautiful as you can, as fun as you can, and say ‘let’s go out here, let’s go there, let’s go do the other thing’ so…”

Co-host, laughing: “He has a lot more grace than I do.  Let me just say, we’d be having a serious conversation.”

Robertson: “Affirmation!  Affirmation, dearheart!”

Co-host: “Yeah, yeah. A little bit of affirmation goes a long way.”

Wow.  So much fail.  I need to take this apart, bit by bit. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is a cross post from Electric Emily over at Jukebox Heroines – be sure to check out all the other great music-based info she’s got at her blog!  If you are interested in cross posting or guest posting at feministhemes.com, please send your ideas to ms.wizzle@feministhemes.com.

Lady Gaga was on Larry King on June 1st, 2010. I just watched it, and once again, female artists have to defend themselves for their art, presentation, and politics.

Larry King asked if Gaga was a feminist, she said:

“Yes. Yes I am. I am a feminist. Does this settle the ongoing debate once and for all?”

Why is it so hard for people to believe that Gaga is a feminist? I have a few thoughts on the matter.

Is it because she is a pop-star, and somehow we have obscured pop music/stardom with instant sell-out status, misogyny, and manufactured faux empowerment?

That isn’t to say that there is some of that in music, and that pop music, like every other music genre has issues with gender, race, class, looks, etc, but presuming this of pop music limits one from experiencing some amazing talent. Just because you can dance to is, and it is accessible to the majority of people don’t make it lesser than. Pop music has a long-standing tradition of being seen as feminine, and as “of the body,” which is seen as less artistically sound and worthy than the masculine, “of the mind” rock or indie music scenes.

Is it because Lady Gaga is an attractive woman and hence, could never be a feminist, because you know, feminists are ugly, fat, hairy, bra-burners!

Ha, you know that one. All the myths associated with feminism, I’ve heard them all before! They never seem to go away. Let’s run them down: feminists are only women, they are not attractive (ugly), hate men (perhaps because their ugliness denies them a suitable mate), hate children, are lesbians, angry, don’t wear make-up, witches, choose career over family, cock-blockers, want to rule over men….did I get them all?  These myths serve in separating women from each other, and deter women from joining a movement that is about social, political and economic equality for not just women, but all.There is nothing wrong with that, except that it challenges a system of inequality in our culture that continues to keep women in a second class status. Challenging that is dangerous. Therefore these myths exist to maintain the status quo and silence any opposition.  And why would a beautiful woman want to get involved with any of that? She apparently has everything right? Oh, how wrong that assumption is, and Lady Gaga isn’t fooled by those myths. She smashes them with a sequined, flame-engulfed hammer.

You could say Gaga even makes fun of the whole bra-burner myth via her fabulous spark-bra. Read the rest of this entry »

As an anti-Twilight-ruining-classic-mythology tribute, here are a bunch of my favorite werewolf-respecting videos.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll

TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me

Michael Jackson - Thriller (Ok, so it’s more about zombies, but it’s classic.)

And finally, to remedy the damage done to your brain by Twilight, go watch Ginger Snaps.

I feel better now.  How about you?