March 2008 Archives

So Women's History Month is coming to an end. But when the month is over please don't stop celebrating! Women and girls are creating change and making history every day.

I wanted to open this up for you to write about brave women and girls. Please post here about someone you know or someone you admire from a far.

On April 1st I'll pick one of the posts out of a hat and that person will get a free Brave Girl t-shirt!

Shirts come in kids sizes up to Adult XXL.

Free Rice is this vocabulary game where each time you get a word right they donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations Food Program.

I went to see what it was all about and next thing I knew an hour had passed. Thanks a lot Bitch Magazine!

Of course we should all be giving without expecting improved vocabulary or anything in return. I agree with Amy over at Bitch that "if this is the way we have to get people to give, we're all in some serious trouble."

But on the other hand, I would have been hooked on playing this game even if there wasn't anything philanthropic about it. So better that a rice donation was made than not.

Our Brave Girl Adventure Pack got written up on Feminist Review!

Here's a snippet:

"The products have broad appeal, as girls of all ages need shoelaces and the occasional boo-boo cover. I appreciated that you could order multiple items and have gifts for all the girls on your list, from daughters, nieces and students, to friends, co-workers, and your mom. Bonus points for the t-shirt being one of the softest in my closet, with the added perk of a printed-on label, so there is no pesky tag to cut out. The product slogans come across as more positive than militant, yet still hit the point home that being female is better than just acceptable, it's downright preferable."

You can read the full review here.

Over at Shameless Magazine they're talking about an article in the Toronto Star called "Why 'tomboy' remains a loaded word."

The article quotes a description in the NY Times of actress Ellen Page as "a tomboy - her on-screen persona is sharp, clear-eyed, determined and self-consciously original."

Apparently a Sarah Lawrence professor wrote a response saying:

"It is unfortunate that we have no other word available to describe this strong, independent young woman than to refer to her as a tomboy. This continues to convey to girls that growing up clear-eyed and courageous is being like a boy."

Well said!

I was the only girl on my baseball team when I was younger and have often been mistaken for a boy when I have short hair. But I can't think of an instance where I was directly called a tomboy. I definitely identified with boys when I was little and even wished to become one, but I never liked the word tomboy.

Were you ever called a tomboy? How do you feel about the term? What are other words we can use to describe strong girls? Does even having any word assume that it's unusual or unnatural for girls to be strong?

Just thinking today about how awesome Youth Radio is. Thanks to them, this morning on my drive to the day job, I heard some young people's reactions to the CDC study that everyone has been so shocked about the last few days.

The study claims that 1 in 4 teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease and that the rate is close to 50% among African American young women.

My first thought: Maybe people will finally wake up and realize abstinence only programs aren't working! Maybe this will encourage more honest sex education. Maybe our country will invest in tons of prevention services and will make sure everyone has access. Maybe young people will be showered with knowledge, condoms, and everything else they need for safer sex.

My second (more realistic?) thought: Uh oh we're about to get bombarded with headlines shaming girls and calling them sluts.

My third thought: I assume all these girls aren't sleeping with each other so aren't they getting the STDs from guys? So what about them? We definitely don't need any more "CDC Shocker" scare tactic headlines about guys either, but why is all the attention and burden on the girls?

I was watching the LA marathon on TV last weekend with my girlfriend because she's training for the San Francisco marathon in August. My first time watching a marathon and I got to see a woman win! Very cool.

But it was not cool what William Burke, co-founder and president of the City of Los Angeles Marathon, said about it. We're sitting enjoying the excitement of watching Tatiana Aryasova cross the finish line first and the station goes to Burke for a comment. "You can't keep those women down," he says. "You can't get them back in the kitchen." What?!?

There was so much shrieking coming from my house I didn't even hear the rest of the interview. For a few days I wasn't sure if I had dreamt that moment or if it really happened. Unfortunately, later in the week, Feministing (by way of the LA Times) verified that my ears hadn't deceived me. People commenting on Feministing have asked if maybe he was joking. It's possible, but I definitely didn't get that impression. He didn't smile, or wink, or laugh, or give any other clue that he was attempting to make a joke.

All I can say is keep running and let's leave this sexism in the dust!