Understanding Feminism

By Mandi Samara


I have had, and still have, many chats about feminism. Back in the day BEFORE I grabbed a self esteem, and decided as a woman, no man has a right to jerk me around, I thought feminism was stupid. I didn't understand it, and like many others, I figured it was about women trying to get the upperhand; man bashing, and becoming above equal. When I DID stand up for myself, and was called a feminist, I'd quickly retaliate.. "I'm NOT a feminist!!" 

Wrong!! 

I AM a feminist, and damn proud of it too! Now I'm told it would be more appropriate, and less offensive, to claim that I'm an 'advocate for gender equality'. Well, yeah.. that too.. but what's so wrong with the word 'feminist'? Is it MY problem that many choose to remain ignorant, and come to conclusions on what feminism is about? I decided to look it up, and research this a bit. After all, I know how I FEEL about gender equality and feminism, I know what I stand up for, but maybe there IS some negative about being a self-proclaimed feminist? 

Here's some of what I found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism

"Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women.[1][2] In addition, feminism seeks to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. A feminist is a "person whose beliefs and behavior are based on feminism."[3]"

Well, Okay.. I don't see anything wrong there. I totally agree with that. But there's more!

"Feminist activists campaign for women's rights – such as in contract law, property, and voting – while also promoting bodily integrity, autonomy and reproductive rights for women. Feminist campaigns have changed societies, particularly in the West, by achieving women's suffrage, gender neutrality in English, equal pay for women, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives andabortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property.[7][8] Feminists have worked to protect women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault.[9][10][11] They have also advocated for workplace rights, including maternity leave, and against forms of discrimination against women.[7][8][12] Feminism is mainly focused on women's issues, but because feminism seeks gender equality, some feminists argue that men's liberation is a necessary part of feminism, and that men are also harmed by sexism and gender roles."

Woah!! Stop! Rewind.. kay what? - "but because feminism seeks gender equality, some feminists argue that men's liberation is a necessary part of feminism, and that men are also harmed by sexism and gender roles."

If THAT is what you call man-bashing.. I think you're just a tad bit confused. 

Now, I totally agree with that. A lot of men probably wouldn't feel threatened by their spouses success if he wasn't raised to believe that he MUST be the bread winner, in order to a real man. Some men probaby wouldn't feel the need to brag about the women he's slept with, and men would most likely be more loving in relationships, if he wasn't called down for respecting women. (Pussy whipped, Pansy, Metro, Gay, Mangina, ect) Men DO have pressures by society to behave a certain way, and to appear a certain way. I'm pretty fed up with the whole, "Men don't cry!" attitude. Yes, yes they do. Everyone has emotions, and expressing your feelings is natural and healthy. It's no wonder a lot of men seem so angry. 

At the same time though, it's all a matter of choice. No one HAS to give in to societies pressures, and what we're taught as children is a guide for our lives when we enter the adult world; a guide to survive. We don't HAVE to follow those rules once we leave home. It's fear, and insecurity that keeps us ignorant. A man can easily choose to be good to his wife, to respect women, and be a decent man. The way I see it, those people on the outside looking in don't know you. You don't NEED their praise. If you're secure with yourself, the only person you need love and praise from, is yourself. At the end of the day, YOU are the one who has to live with the consequences, and YOU are the one who has to live your life. 

BUT, that's just my opinion from a feminist's point of view. I have many opinions, and I'm proud of it!

This is My Body

By Li Longo

This is my body. It is not a platform for GOP political pandering. There are no jobs hiding in my uterus, so why is the GOP intent on spending so much time there?

Considering that conservatives are constantly going on and on and on about how our President is trying to take away their rights, it is very ironic that in the last few months the only legislation the GOP wants to champion has to do with taking away a woman’s right to reproductive health services.

Little by little, over the last decade, the GOP has been trying to overturn Roe v. Wade on a state-by-state basis. Cutting funding here, over-regulating there, turning a blind eye to domestic terrorists who bombed clinics and, ultimately, calling the man who murdered a doctor a “hero.”

Since the 1992 Supreme Court decision that ruled states could pass restrictions on abortion, as long as they “did not create an undue burden on a woman’s access to abortion,” we have seen this gradual restriction and defunding of reproductive health services. Now, in Michigan, North Dakota and other state legislatures, we see omnibus bills seeking to defund all clinics in a backdoor attempt to shut down reproductive health clinics. We cannot stand by and allow this. it is time for women to insist our rights be protected. It is time to tell Congress that we will not allow the GOP to use our wombs for political pandering.

In Michigan HB 5711, 5712 and 5712 will do the following:

• Enact mandatory “coercion screenings” for all abortion-seeking women
• Prohibit the telemed prescription of medical abortion, often relied upon by low-income women in rural areas
• Prohibit all abortions after 20 weeks, except to save a life, even in cases of rape and incest, even if there is a risk of suicide
• Impose a number of additional restrictions on abortion clinics and providers, making it more difficult and cost-prohibitive for clinics and doctors to continue providing their services
• All of this in a state that already has a 24-hour waiting period, parental notification requirement, and no abortion providers in 83% of its counties.

Any one of these places a burden on a woman’s access, but together, they are more than a burden: they are a barrier to our right to reproductive health services. What can we do to fight this? Look to our history.

From the NOW website: “In 1992, 750,000 women, men and children turned out for a NOW-organized march inWashington, D.C.They massed behind a banner that declared "WE WON'T GO BACK! WE WILL FIGHT BACK!" It was the largest march and rally ever held in the nation's capital. In addition to the leadership and delegations from every pro-choice organization and hundreds of celebrities, thousands of students from 600 campuses across the country participated.”

There were so many of us there, that when those of us who started early finished the march, there were still people waiting to start.

We need to do that again. Several state legislatures are considering bills that will, in essence, take away a woman’s right to reproductive health services. We cannot allow this. It is time to make our voices heard again. We ask you to join us at the Women’s Strike for Equality, on August 26th.

In 1970, the Woman’s Strike for Equality was held in New York City, Washington, D.C. and cities nationwide. Hundreds of thousands of women marched. In 2012, we strike again. It is time to fight back, and insist that Congress pass federal legislation to protect our rights, and limit the ability of state legislatures to defund clinics in pursuit of the GOP’s religious zealotry.

This is my body, and I will not allow the GOP to use it as a weapon in their political war. Some people say this is a war against women. I say that does not go far enough: this is a war against reason. A war against common decency. A war against our Constitution.

And I promise you, it is a war the GOP cannot win. I will not allow it. We cannot allow it.

This is my body, and I will use it as my own weapon. I will use it in Michigan. North Dakota. Pennsylvania. Wherever the GOP attacks me, I will fight back. I will vow to work against any candidate who votes for this type of anti-woman bill. I will contribute my time and money to candidates who protect my right to reproductive choice. I will educate myself and others on the issues, and I will help women run for office.

This is my body and my promise. The GOP may have started this war, but I promise this: they will not win it!

Please, take a minute to act. To join the fight: https://secure.ppaction.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=14951 


For more information on the Strike contact 3WF-Third Wave Feminism, on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/events/320339018031451/

The Women's Liberation Movement

1950s Housewife to Women's Activist: Betty Friedan

History of Second Wave Feminism

U.S. Nuns Face Vatican Rebuke for "Radical Feminism" in Stances on Church Teachings, Social Justice

U.S. Nuns Face Vatican Rebuke for "Radical Feminism" in Stances on Church Teachings, Social Justice

Feminism Survey: Men on the Street

Join the Revolution for a Family Friendly America

When I was a radical young feminist in the late 60s and early 70s, I was profoundly disturbed by the middle-class nature of New York feminism. Only a tiny minority of women could afford to become doctors, lawyers, college professors, corporate executives. The needs of women of color were ignored. African American women had always worked and taken care of their children. They were more dubious about abortion, since the babies of teen mothers were often cared for by relatives.

 Unlike many women with my intellect and education, I stayed home with my four children full-time for 14 years. I also cared for my mother in my home 24/7 during the last four years of my life. Both my husbands and I made career and financial sacrifices to make that possible. Certainly my career has not been the success I dreamed about. But I am not sorry. I involved myself in nonsexist childrearing, childbirth education, breastfeeding counseling, parent education, toddler playgroups, babysitting cooperatives, cooperative nursery schools, school libraries, a campaign to save the local public library, the nuclear freeze movement, mental illness support and advocacy, parent advocacy for playground upkeep and a preschool playroom, the War Resisters League, Pax Christi (Catholic anti-war group)--the list is endless.

When I made the mistake of attending library school and social work school, I naively assumed my qualifications would be obvious and no one would dare to treat me like a beginner. Instead, I was given the the salary, benefits, authority, and respect of a beginner and the responsibilities of a long-term employee. Several bosses seemed threatened I wanted their jobs. I recall one infuriating incident during my first social work placement; my childless supervisor earnestly instructed me how to interview a client with her two year old present. I had frequently run La Leche Meetings with 20 moms and 30 babies and toddlers. Women social workers who had taken very short maternity leaves and worked full-time during their children's childhood too often acted like all my knowledge and wisdom had been attained by cheating. I got more respect from male professors.

 The situation has worsened; women are terrified of taking only a few years off from work. And yet the men who fought World War II left their jobs for several years and did not suffer economic consequences. The government even paid for their college and grad school education. When my mom went back to college in 1963 and work in 1968, after having raised 6 children, she was accorded more respect and her experience was more honored than mine was 20 years later

Women's Strike for Equalilty 1970

I am not happy with the tone of the press coverage, but still this is very interesting.

Calling All Crows

March for Women's Equality, 1989

Li Longo--My Feminist Journey

To Be, or Not To Be. All I know is, I am a feminist.

If you went back to my high school, perhaps even to my grammar school, and asked who was most likely to grow up and be a feminist, I’m pretty sure my name would get the most votes. Right next to the “Class Flirt” and “Most School Spirit” awards my classmates bestowed upon me, this one would have been treasured. I was born in 1964, grew up wishing I’d been old enough to be part of the Civil rights movement. Idolizing Martin Luther King, President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert Kennedy.

Growing up as I did, in a true blue democratic political family, my grandfather had no doubt, it would be politics or law for me, he would proudly tell the rest of the family, I could convince the birds to sing and  argue with the “best”.  I have a clear memory of one such argument with my father. I wanted to take typing in high school. “Why?” he asked, “You are going to have a secretary, not be a secretary.” 

And so it was that from a young age, I was told I would be a leader, not one of the led. I was expected to honor that responsibility, to serve my community, care for my family and remember it was my duty to take part in public service.

I entered early adulthood, earned my degree in Accounting and had some fun doing it. My friends and I made good money, we enjoyed our lives, going out, and how we loved to dance. We would go clubbing, and in the summer rent houses at the beach, in the winter travel to Vermont to ski, and basically enjoyed were the hip young Yuppies the ‘90’s were all about.

At some point, I must have let my membership to NOW expire. I remember how proud I had been when I first became a member, and I don’t remember when I decided the “war” on women had ended and I no longer needed to be a card carrying NOW member.

3rd Wave Feminism and Quantum Consciousness

This is an excerpt of a letter that I sent to my spiritual teacher, Leslie Temple-Thurston (www.corelight.org) Leslie is on retreat in Egypt and unable to access much news from the states at this time. She is a fully enlightened being and works with global issues on a quantum level. (More on that later.)

3rd Wave Feminism and Quantum Consciousness. 

I feel like a war correspondent reporting from the front lines of the War on Women; not caught up in the polarities but reporting from the field.  It makes sense in a 3D way that the media keeps using the words "War on Women" in so many headlines and stories.  While on one hand it appears that the words create  more division and polarization, it's actually created much raised awareness, communication and unity between men and women here in the states and this is showing up all over. 

The subject of misogyny has been in the forefront of the news in this country for about ten weeks now and it's amazing how many men (and women) are grasping their silent participation and beginning to take action to unravel the twisted knots of legislation that would bind us in patriarchy and separation if we allow it..

Women who have been asleep for years are waking up and asking husbands and boyfriends, "don't you think I should have equal pay for equal work?" and, "isn't my body mine to govern? Yours is yours to govern. What's the difference?"   Women are demanding that their male partners recognize that women have fewer rights then men across the globe, from unequal pay to legalized murder and everything in-between. Men are being asked if discrimination is okay with them, and if not, what are they going to do about it?

This movement is very different than the last wave of feminism in the 70's. Now, as we shift into One Heart, men are truly questioning the patriarchal privilege accorded to them based on gender, and many of them don't want it,  and they're choosing to make a stand for a higher consciousness.  There are several actions coming up that will create more conversation and visibility of the inequity between the genders. There will be a national Women's Strike in August and another march on Washington in August and one in September as well.

First Women's Strike for Equality

From Wikipedia:


Women gathered on the streets around 5 pm (that specific time being chosen so that working women could attend) and began protesting. Methods of protesting in New York included chanting, speeches by prominent figures, including Friedan, and signs and posters reflecting their message. Estimates range that anywhere from ten to twenty thousand people, mostly women, gathered on Fifth Avenue in support. Police attempted to control the crowd and keep them on the sidewalks, but the sheer volume of people in the streets was impossible to control.^[1]

Their message was clear and evident through the various methods of protest implemented in the city. Thousands of politically and satirically charged signs dotted the crowd. “Don’t iron while the strike is hot” set the stage as the movement’s famous slogan. Other slogans included: “Hardhats for Soft Broads,” “I Am Not a Barbie Doll”, “Storks Fly – Why Can’t Mothers”, “We are the 51% minority”, and “We have the right to vote for the man of our choice”. Speeches were given to ignite the crowd and to inform bystanders of their mission. Friedan spoke of the strength and ability of women to rise above their oppression. The goals were to portray their movement and ideas in a politically determined light and expose the injustices experienced by women.

In conjunction with the women in New York City, individuals and groups throughout the nation staged protests, marches, and other various forms of revolt to honor the movement. 

Rita Lipshutz--Follow Up Action 8/27/12

Morning, or afternoon, all!

This thread is to begin discussion of the follow up action on 8/27/12: the day we put "General Strike" in "National Women's Strike."

I propose that as many of us who are able protest on Monday, 8/27 by saying "No work, in or out of the home, no school, and most especially, NO SHOPPING" for one symbolic day and use the day for educational and other actions tailored to the legislative situation in each state.

I have been floating this idea for awhile and a few women agree with me that the powers that be, at the moment, respond to very little but a perceived threat to their massive wealth. For reasons that are unclear to me, though, a surprising number of women have been defensive, or even hostile to this idea. Their response has basically boiled down to a) this is in competition to the 8/26 actions and/or, b) "Not everybody can afford to lose a day of work, ya know!"

In response to the former, it just could not be further from the truth. These actions dovetail beautifully and are in support of each other. The ferocity and rapid escalation of the recent attacks on our rights as American citizens (arguably, a partial manifestation of the death throes of the GOP as we have known it pre-Tea) is unprecedented and desperate times call for desperate, traditional, and every other kind of measure in between. In other words, this is not going to be about any one day or action, this needs to be the reawakening of a massive social movement for us to meet our goals.

Per the latter I would have to say "Big duh!" Nobody says everybody has to do or should do everything we propose. We each know what we are willing and able to do for a cause, but the implication by some that "I must be very privileged to propose such a thing" really made me laugh. Sadly, I am not but more importantly, the labor movement in this country, including the general strike, has a long and distinguished history and was a product of the working classes, obviously. Our forebears did this frequently at great personal sacrifice and it led to most of the rights that we take for granted in the workplace today.