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Letters to the Editor
March 22, 2011
To the Editor:
It was lovely to receive this unexpected tribute to my sister. However I have one caveat, not to the article, but Cindy Pearson's essay. I went to almost every doctor's consultation with Barbara. Needless to say, it was a very intense, demanding and upsetting time as it probably is for everyone going through anything similar. Barbara did decide on one surgical intervention and after much thought and many consultations with varied cancer doctors, she decided against further treatment. However her feelings, thoughts and opinions were much more nuanced and personal than simply restating the old standard (if justified, in the past) feminist negative arguments against doctors, in general, of decades gone by. And actually as Pearson points out herself, that movement helped to change the medical world, so I feel strongly that Cindy Pearson is speaking for herself not for Barbara and I strongly object to this and want to take this chance to make my objections known.
I think the striking thing about all these consultations was that there was no standard treatment offered, of either surgery or chemotherapy. occasionally radiation was thrown in as well. Each oncologist offered a different treatment and each surgeon seemed also to have a different idea. Not that they were being "patriarchal" or looking down at their patients, in my opinion, but were offering their best. Perhaps if Barbara had lived she could have helped straighten out this muddle, but I don t think the old stereotyped thinking offered in Barbara's name helps this confusing situation or is correct.
Yours
Jeri Drucker
I am a New York City Artist and a grandmother, also, and as most of the family, live on the upper west side of Manhattan.
November 23, 2010 at 12:39pm
Subject: your on the issues article
Hi Eleanor,
I read your On the Issues article about Feminists for Life and found it to be much fairer than many prochoice feminist accounts. I used to be a member of FFL, and still am glad for its work on behalf of those who have already conceived. I did leave the group and cofound All Our LIves (http://www.facebook.com/l/276eflyi81520P5CxTjNcmADAnQ; www.alllourlives.org) with Jen Roth because of FFL's persistent refusal to advocate for all means of voluntary pregnancy prevention.
I do think that you do not go deeply enough into the question of early feminists' stance on abortion. Yes, this history has been misused by some.
But after 20 some years of researching primary source texts, I still conclude that early feminists opposed abortion as a form of prenatal lifetaking and supported every possible means of preventing and reducing it, including in many cases contraceptives.
All best,
Mary Krane Derr
Thursday, November 11, 2010
I just read the article on FGM. It is an important subject that needs to be discussed, but why aren't we also outraged at Male genital mutilation? Circumcision is a barbaric and unnecessary procedure, yet we almost never discuss it and when we do, usually the men are trivialized and ridiculed.
Posted by: JJ
Sunday, August 29, 2010
With great respect for the legendary Sonia Fuentes, a friend and mentor, her marvelous article here on the progress we women have made for equality, she makes a good point: we vote but we are not treated equally. So, to call it Women's Equality Day is a grievous mistake.
It's a mistake that six states are struggling to correct by finally ratifying the ERA. It's NOT dead and it's NOT about same-sex and abortion for ERA does not regulate them.
ERA directly affects the number of sex discrimination cases, codifies protection against sex discrimination along with that of race, religion or national origin. Until 1971 sex discrimination wasn't even illegal! It is still practiced wherever it can exist. Even the Equal Pay Act signed in 1963 is ignored, or else why are American women still paid, on average, only 77% of a man's salary for the same job! Also always under the gun are Affirmative Action and Title IX protections.
We have a long way to go, Baby. All are warmly welcomed to www.RatifyERAflorida.net where we of ERA Inc. post our ratification progress, plan our future, blog our thoughts, map the UNratified states, and speak ERA for Men, for Women, for Moms, for the Economy, for the Wary, for Legislators (as we help mentor 5 other states), and en Espanol. Meet us there and check off What YOU will Do for ERA, please.
Chat with us at SandyO@FairShake4All.org. Let us know how YOU feel about being a woman today. The following words should buoy you, for We WILL do this. Absolutely!
Thank you, dear Sonia!
"Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex [gender, in today's parlance)."
Posted by: sandy oestreich, founder/pres., ERA Inc., for 6 states' ratifications of the Equal Rights Amendment; Prof. Emerita; fmr elected offical; co-author, internationally distributed pharmacology texts; certified nurse practitioner; mother of two; wife of a genuine man--a feminist
Monday, August 16, 2010
Subject: I was once-- how long ago?-- a subscriber to the print version of "On the Issues". I can't imagine how it came about that I only discovered today that it exists on line! (I followed a link from Hufpo in the article about Catholic women fighting their exclusion from power and voice.) As a life-long feminist with an MA in Women's Studies (1976) I rejoice that the magazine lives and look forward to reading it regularly. And perhaps helping to spread the word? I'm currently VP of the International Centre for Women Playwrights, dedicated to increasing the number and quality of women's plays on the world's stages and to treating female characters as intrinsically valuable and not merely supporting players in the lives of men.
Geralyn Horton
Monday, August 16, 2010
I seem to be encountering "dear," "hon," "young lady," etc., less frequently these days. Perhaps I'm just noticing less; as I get older (71), some things bother me less. I have been able to respond with some replies of "sweetie" or "kiddo," and Marie's article is a good reminder to be ready at all time to answer "sweetheart" for "dear."
The usage is objectionable because it emphasizes the otherness of the person addressed, denying our common humanity as well as presuming intimacy. Would the pharmacist call me "dear" if my husband were with me? (Of couse, he'd probably ignore me and and talk to him.) Although our difference in gender is a fact, it is usually not relevant to the transaction (boarding a bus, looking for something in a store).
I believe, however, to give them the benefit of the doubt, that many men have been told that using "honey" is a way to show friendliness to women, as a clerk or store owner would in order to promote business. To knowingly insult a prospective customer would be dumb. So in some cases we can assume innocence ignorance, and, if we had the energy and presence of mind, we could do some education. What to say? Any suggestions? I think of, "Oh, you don't often hear that sort of thing anymore." Too subtle?
Also, I think some women don't mind being "deared," or may even like it. Reactions?
Anyway, a thought-provoking article, and I'd like to hear other ideas from the writer.
Posted by: Mary Jo Nutt
See “Little Marie”: The Daily Toll of Sexist Language by Marie Shear in the Summer 2010 edition of On The Issues Magazine.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Goodness ! Somehow I was not aware until Marie's article of how all-encompassing these derrogatory monikers men use on us are. It's kind of a sad commentary on widespread ignorance in the male sector. "honey" is my hate-favorite for some reason. While I don't feel diminished by them (my usual thought is "what an idiot this guy is"), the annoyance does use up a certain amount of energy. I'm trying to think of some little comeback greetings for the guys who do it. Not a mini-lecture, just a nothing reply about the weather or the bus steps with a "dearie" or "little boy" attached might be satisfying. Who knows, might make them think.
Posted by: Susan Detrich
See “Little Marie”: The Daily Toll of Sexist Language by Marie Shear in the Summer 2010 edition of On The Issues Magazine.
Friday, August 13, 2010
As a younger feminist who gets sick of constantly educating men and women about the inherent anti-woman messages of using pejorative words associated with womanhood, I share Ms. Shear's exhaustion. One can either ignore the slight and carry on, bearing the straw of weight, or one can react and, no matter how professionally or well one speaks, usually be told, "Why are you making such a fuss, dear girl? I didn't mean any harm."
The whole adage of "stick and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me" is a crock. Kids get told that through school to help us not feel so bad when the bullies pick on us. The problem is, accepting those tiny insults, ignoring them, pretending they mean nothing to us, is nothing different than ignoring and pushing past the pain of carcinogenic toxins that slowly build in our body--only these insults are toxic to out emotions, our souls.
One need only look to the great "marriage" debate that keeps chosen spouses from their beloved's side in hospitals to see that the meaning assigned to words is powerful. What about the "gay" commercials trying to show the negative impact of using that term as an insult? And how quickly did the NAACP step in when Imus dared use racial slurs?
Obviously, enough people agree that words can do some damage.
Like when our immune system is tired of a constant onslaught of microscopic bacteria and viruses, it gives in and infection happens, the constant onslaught of negative words and phrases that assume an inherently evil, dirty, weak, useless, BAD denotation of that-which-is-female will eventually tire out our mental and spiritual immunity. Can we build up our immune system? Well, yes, but most people still get the flu every year, no matter how hard we try to prevent it. Irradiate an object enough, even if it's just a tiny dose every day, too small to count, cancer is likely to occur.
Can we ever be rid of these infectants and toxins in language that damage women - whether they mean to, or not. Bacteria have no "intention" of killing us, after all - or will they always exist, only mutate and become stronger, harder to detect? Some days, my mental and spiritual defense system is so exhausted that it thinks so. But since humans are more capable of intent and understanding than environmental toxins, bacteria, or viruses, I would hope otherwise.
In the meantime, Ms. Shear and I and the many other women who might be suffering an overwhelmed mental or spiritual immune system can sympathize with each other for now, and do our best to prepare for the continued threat.
Posted by: Trish Wooldridge
See “Little Marie”: The Daily Toll of Sexist Language by Marie Shear in the Summer 2010 edition of On The Issues Magazine.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Please print more articles by Marie Shear. Her take on the daily toll of sexist language was priceless and right on the money, so to speak. Who wouldn't identify with the hundred and one ways that our culture and the men who mostly control it find to put women in an inferior position symbolically patronizing if not demeaning language. With good humor and wisdom, both, Shear has illuminated the trials women are so used to we don't even notice them anymore -- it's too exhausting.
Thank you for providing this insightful article.
Posted by: Laurel Marshfield
See “Little Marie”: The Daily Toll of Sexist Language by Marie Shear in the Summer 2010 edition of On The Issues Magazine.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 -- Re "Little Marie": The Daily Toll of Sexist Language by Marie Shear
I agree (as another old feminist organizer from the early 70s) with the section of her article following her story about the misogynst surgeon that language is used to belittle and mock women and other minorities. However, they can only "demoralize and flay us," if we let them.
The tone of her article is too much victim for me. Short of violence, words are the method of aggression in human interaction. Men are aggressively still trying to keep women in their (mythical) place. But we don't have to internalize the comments, as she says she does. Women, especially young women, need to know how to recognize these sexist comments for what they are and reject them.
Ms. Shear gives another example of her being a victim: 'Special occasions bring no respite. In 1984, a few minutes after I wept joyfully at seeing Sen. Walter Mondale with his vice presidential running mate, Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro, on TV, I went downstairs, refreshed and proud. There, the letter carrier called me „sweetheart.‰ I shriveled, reduced from a grownup to a mushroom, a footstool.' Again, she allows a minor comment to "shrivel" and "reduce" her to a "mushroom." This is ridiculous and I hope only hyperbole. Who in her right mind would identify with this writer? I think her incidents and victimization are off-putting and the opposite of helpful to feminist action against that male mindset.
As another example, Ms. Shear pointed out a 2002 incident on Face the Nation in which 'the chair of the joint congressional intelligence committee keeps referring to „this young lady"; the „young lady,"' without saying that is was Rep. Porter Goss, R-FL, to Colleen Rowley. He was doing the usual Republican war of words/word choice on someone he wanted to discredit politically because of the content of her testimony about the gross failure of the FBI to listen to her as FBI field agent regarding a terrorist. He was later tried, convicted and imprisoned because of her exposing his participation in the terrorist plot of 2001. The use of words to war against political opponents and others has been greatly heightened in the Gingrich and following years by Republican pols and 'pundits' and Fox News. That context is not insignificant, which she ignores in the article. Those of us who oppose the current regimes, political, as well as patriarchy in general, should know by now that we are in a long, long struggle, requiring internal strength and constant action.
In the current era of nearly no education, most young people of either gender seem not to even know what the word "seminal" means, so they use it generically. Though seminal means seed rather than necessarily referring to semen, which is from the word for seed anyway. I have tried to figure out what the alternative would be, but some variation on "egg" does not seem useful. It is not even logical as art critique, so a better word might be 'catalytic,' referring to the beginning of a new direction in art.
Ms. Shear ends her downer article with this "Bigoted usage makes us tired. We grow old early. Women spend our lives explaining the obvious to the uneducable. In the face of daily indignities and humiliations, why must we explain that we are neither prigs nor prunes ˜ just people?"
We cannot let every ignorant or hostile comment bring us down, and we don't have to explain anything to the sexists commenting. We can think up plenty of flip and funny and pointed responses to sexist comments. Such responses not only make the point to the male but educate some of the younger women who might overhear but not understand the level of put-down in these all too common comments.
Overall, I think this article was a long, useless whine. Let's get busy and counter the sexism instead.
Posted by: Margalo Ashley-Farrand
See “Little Marie”: The Daily Toll of Sexist Language by Marie Shear in the Summer 2010 edition of On The Issues Magazine.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
#1: Sorry Linda. It's a COMIC BOOK! Get a grip on yourself. Not everything is a deliberate slight against women. The notion that men should be ashamed for wanting to see women is ridiculous. If it were true you and I would not exist to complain about it. I've seen Old Spice commercials depicting the ideal man. I've personally watched women go home and sleep with my friend because he used a British accent when speaking to her. Men are objectified all the time, but we don't complain about it because it doesn't much matter. Women are in space shuttles now. My BOSS at a multimillion dollar company is a woman. Give it a rest.
#2: The major audience comic books are marketed to is. . . . . . . . . wait for it . . . . . . . . . young men! Surprise! Yes, females read comics to, however, they do not make up or come close to the major audience of the material. Sex sells and young men like developed females. Nobody is doing anything wrong by drawing buxom, scantily clad women because women are beautiful. Their bodies are not something to be ashamed of and whether or not they're exaggerated makes very little difference. Perhaps there may even be admiration behind the marketing when the artist draws his characters the way he does.
#3: Wonder Woman, the slight against all women everywhere, is now wearing more clothing (at least in the picture in your article) than she wore before the makeover. I'm not sure if I'm missing something here but if you could please explain to me how more clothing and less sex is more demeaning to women, I would be grateful. It seems to me that someone always needs to complain about something.
You're flogging a dead horse,
Male Chauvinist Pig
PS. Wonder Woman first appeared in All Star comics in 1941. Wonder Woman is an Amazon (based on the Amazons of Greek mythology) and was created by Marston (an American) as a "distinctly feminist role model whose mission was to bring the Amazon ideals of love, peace, and sexual equality to a world torn by the hatred of men.'
See: Wonder Woman Confronts a Makeover Moment: A Missed Chance by Linda Stein
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 --- 5:04
I remember the days that Carol Downer talks about in the 60s and 70s and also a movie by Amalie Rothschild called "It Happens to Us" which had women talking about their (legal and illegal) abortions. I wonder, though, if speaking out now would be as effective as it was then, when personal descriptions of back alleys, botched abortions, etc. were very effective. Most descriptions today would be of a relatively calm untraumatic experience in a clinic or hospital.
Posted by: Judith S. Weis
June 4, 2010 12:06:42 AM
I'm very happy to see you focusing on How to Keep Thinking Radically. I've submitted a few blog posts to Fem2pt0 that they've declined to publish because, I feel, I voice the radical imagination more than fits their comfort zone and more than they really understand. (I publish my controversial posts and videos at patriarchalDISORDER). I haven't yet read the pieces you're offering, but just the mention of the necessity of radical imagining makes me feel so much less alone. I spend a large percentage of my thinking on how to communicate a radical imagination in ways that are not overwhelming to non-radical women and, more importantly, act like a Pied Piper in communicating the very different tune we could all be singing post-patriarchy.
I'm sure I don't have to tell you that being radical is interpreted by too many people as having to do with Molotov cocktails and armed insurrection. But, the way I see it, that's NOT how the WRevolution is going to play out. Are we in a slow, quiescent WRevolution? I ask myself this question often, wondering if perhaps I should be reframing the now in these terms or if I should continue beating my lonely drum...
In Sisterhood,
Madama
June 3, 2010 11:55:27 PM
Thank you for the brave if not bold statements in the Dr. Tiller's memorial. I will dedicate (as I have since the 1973 decision) to the bottom line - reproductive rights for women. And I am not sure if I could pay the ultimate price as he did in his church no less. How very christian! anyway. Congratulations! He is probably watching you and no matter how long it has been time is not the same to those who have passed over.
Thank you,
Rose
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 --- 4:15
On A Feminist’s U-Turn: A Torrid Tale of Disappointment and Discovery by Megan Carpentier
As an older feminst (ack! its the first time I've described myself that way!) who came of age just as the big burst of 1960s women's liberation activity was ebbing, I felt that this article was a bit contrived-- I just don't believe that Megan ever lost her feminism, which the title seems to suggest. In fact, it appears that Megan fought for her feminism in the face of an overly rigid and static course!
I don't like these "hooks" whereby an author draws people in believing they are going to read how she "lost" her feminism. That seems to play into an unhealthy dynamic in my opinion. It would have been just as interesting and perhaps more honest if she wrote it as a straight up critique of the kind of course she found. I had a similar experience in the 1970s taking a course on black history-- from the only black professor at my institution-- where the importance of SNCC was denied and I was discouraged from doing my research paper on that exciting student organization. I chose not to make a public issue about it--even though I thought the course was terrible-- because I felt black studies and this professor's position were tentative and it was better to keep my criticisms more private. I was hoping that black studies would improve given the time.
I would have appreciated it if Megan had done some research and compared her experience with friends at other institutions and wrote an article sort of placing her experience in context. Maybe she would have come across the better courses that I know are out there.
When feminist studies aren't connected with action you get young women who feel like they know what happened and that it was all done in the past and they just missed it. I've met young women like this, they don't seem to think that there's anything left to do! Now that's a crime! I was happy to read that Megan's feminist conviction was energized by attending a big demonstration. Maybe we need more of these all across the country.
Kathy Scarbrough
Friday, May 14, 2010 --- 10:35
Your readers may be delighted to know about the new documentary on GRACE PALEY, writer, educator, and activist for social justice. We see Grace at her fabled readings, at political actions, in interviews, and at home reminiscing about her Russian immigrant family and her early literary and political influences. Friends and colleagues remember GRACE as a "writer of genius." For information and to see a trailer: www.gracevideo.com
Regards,
Sonya Friedman
Thursday, May 13, 2010 --- 4:15
On A Feminist’s U-Turn: A Torrid Tale of Disappointment and Discovery by Megan Carpentier
Whilst reading your journey on how you became a feminist I can't help but notice how different my own experience was. Though I don't think gender studies classes should be an all in all direct route to feminism, I think it helped me realize that there was a name for what I was. I grew up in a highly rigid religious environment, so most of my thoughts about women and their rights were taken as subversive and dangerous. Taking the gender studies class and also a human sexuality in art class, helped explain what sexism was to me in very real and
defining terms. This was a foreign realm to me. There was suddenly, not only a name, but a following of people that agreed with some of the ways that I felt about women in society. However, saying that, I want to stress that in the classes I took it was considered a movement, not a creed; and my teacher a describer of that movement and the tenets thereof, not a saint of the feminist gospel, as you describe. Throughout my self actualizing of being a feminist I was introduced to very different ideas of what feminism was supposed to represent. FMLA in my school was very obviously third wave and I did not agree with all of the ways that they conducted themselves. I thought of those girls as somewhat hypocrites of their own rhetoric. They would stand outside in mini-skirts handing out vagina pops whilst flirting with one another. I did not prescribe to that particular bent. However I did, in writing, sign-up for FMLA regardless, because they would support causes that I DID agree with, such as anti-rape benefits and violence against women rallies and events. Now I have grown to understand there is a berth of different ideas and concepts being tossed around by feminists all over the world that may or may not agree with my own. Women's rights has to do with a personal understanding of each individual situation. I think the thing that ties us together is that we want women to have the ability to do as they please regardless of whether or not we agree with what that is. And I think the similarity between one feminist and another ends there.
Posted by: Kathleen Quinn
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Marge Piercy Pens Poem on Heroines for New Issue
It's a great story, but I'm bothered by the fact that women .... particularly feminists .......are still using the word "heroines." The "ine," the "ess" and other such attachments to a word to make it be "female" are wrong wrong wrong, Those attachments are diminutives, subsets of the word, defining such as heroine as "a female hero." Aside from in this case Hero being a woman (Leander the man), why are we still being defined as subsets of men? I'm cc-ing Rosalie Maggio on this because she's written marvelous books on the subject of sexist vocabulary and I'm hoping we can get the word out.... maybe she'd write an article on the subject .... We've won lots of battles and lost a few. Language may just be our last uncharted frontier. best wishes and thanks for such an excellent publication.
Posted by: Joan Michel
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Betsy Hartmann's "The 'New' Population Control Craze: Retro, Racist, Wrong Way to Go" is way off base. Common sense tells us that more people means more demands on natural resources, and fewer resources left for other species.
If common sense isn't sufficient, the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change calls population growth one of the two main drivers of global warming. In their 2007 4th Assessment Report, they write:
"GDP/per capita and population growth were the main drivers of the increase in global emissions during the last three decades of the 20th century."
Crucially, the IPCC's projections for the next three decades see a continuation of this trend, under "business as usual."
Are the members of the IPCC "racists"? Or perhaps, do more people generate more environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions?
Posted by: Philip Cafaro, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Loretta Ross's article "Birthers and Birchers: Hiding Behind Stars and Stripes" is a malicious caricature of the John Birch Society and it contains malicious innuendo that the JBS is an organization with "nativist, racist tendencies."
It is obvious that Ms. Ross has no genuine factual knowledge about JBS beliefs or its membership characteristics.
For example:
(1) How does Ms. Ross explain the fact that hundreds of JBS members are African-American (or other minorities)?
(2) How does Ms. Ross explain the fact that the JBS Speakers Bureau has included such members of African-American OR latino descent as Rev. Steven L. Craft, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Andy Ramirez, Wilton Alston, Sam Antonio, Julia Brown, Lola Belle Holmes and Gerald Kirk?
(3) How does Ms. Ross explain the fact that JBS member Rev. Delmar Dennis infiltrated the White Knights of the KKK of Mississippi and Rev. Dennis played a major role in the convictions of several Klan members. After Rev. Dennis surfaced as an FBI informant and testified, he was hired by the JBS as a Coordinator for the Society.
(4) And how does Ms. Ross explain the fact that the famous African-American writer and intellectual, George S. Schuyler, was a JBS member?
(5) How does Ms. Ross explain the fact that the former Senior Editor of the Birch Society magazine, William Norman Grigg, is of Mexican ancestry. Why would he be interested in working for a "nativist" or "racist" organization?
(6) How does Ms. Ross explain the fact that over the past 50 years the JBS has been endorsed by such prominent Americans as shown on the list appearing below? Does Ms. Ross think these individuals would be receptive to "racist" or "nativist" appeals?
* lawyers and legal scholars such as M.T. Phelps (former Chief Justice of the AZ Supreme Court; Clarence E. Manion, former Dean of the Notre Dame Law School)
* Hollywood actors like Walter Brennan, John Wayne, Zasu Pitts, and Adolphe Menjou
* famous novelists, authors, columnists, such as Taylor Caldwell and George Schuyler
* prominent politicians such as Charles Edison (former Gov. of New Jersey), Meldrim Thompson (former Gov. of NH), J. B. Lee (former Gov. of UT), and, Congressmen John Rousselot, Edgar W. Hiestand, Thomas H. Werdel, and James B. Utt (CA), Ron Paul (TX), Howard Buffet (NE), James Simpson Jr. (IL), Kit Clardy (MI)
* CEO's of major corporations and prominent officials of the National Association of Manufacturers
* former FBI Special Agents such as Dan Smoot and W. Cleon Skousen
* former FBI informants such as Matt Cvetic, Delmar Dennis, Julia Brown, Lola Belle Holmes, Gerald W. Kirk, and Ruth Gordienko
* former high-ranking military officers such as Brig. Gen. Bonner Fellers, Brig. Gen. Richard B. Moran; Lt. Gen. Edward M. Almond, Brig. Gen. William L. Lee, Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer, Maj. Gen. Robert Blake, Lt. Gen. Sumter L. Lowry, Maj. Gen. Charles A. Willoughby, and Lt. Gen. Charles B. Stone; Col Laurence E. Bunker; Vice Admiral C.S. Freeman, Rear Admiral Paulus P. Powell, and Vice Admiral T.G.W. Settle.
* prominent U.S. diplomats and government officials including: U.S. Ambassador Spruille Braden, U.S. State Department historian Bryton Barron, and IRS Commissioner T. Coleman Andrews
* religious figures and editors of religious journals including Cardinal Cushing of Boston, Richard Ginter, Francis E. Fenton, and Mormon Church leader Ezra Taft Benson
So -- in view of all this data, I am curious how Ms. Ross arrived at her conclusion that the JBS has "racist" or "nativist" tendencies?
Posted by: Ernie Lazar
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Thank you for your profile(Fall 2009) of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. As a former Assistant Principal in the NYC BOARD of Education, and now an experienced Staff Developer training and coaching teachers in Morningside Center approaches to creating caring classroom communities, I have experienced first-hand the dramatic, measurable difference that social emotional learning makes in the lives of children, their families, and their communities. I think I can say that fellow staff developers also bring similar passion and tested strategies to our work with children, teachers, and parents. Your article honestly captures the vital vision and work of Morningside Center. Kudos!
Posted by: Cora
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
I loved Eleanor Bader's article Beginning with the Children! It does a great job of describing the work of my organization, Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. More importantly, it draws a vivid picture of what can happen when we give kids a safe place where they can tell their stories and learn skills to help them stand up for themselves and others. Every child should have this chance!
Posted by: Laura McClure
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
I am a gay man. I am on the Committee of the Eastern Cape Gay & Lesbian Association in South Africa. I recently encountered your magazine through the good offices of the President of ECGLA who is a TransSex woman and a dear friend.
Thank you for speaking out! The account of the life of Martha Coventry (Fall 2009) brought me to tears and they were tears of frustration because I felt that there was little or nothing than could be done to affect/alter/stop the process of what is being done to the young of so-called civilized nations.
But, of course, I am wrong! Every time someone like me speaks out against what is happening there is a minute pressure on the brake pedal. Enough pressure and such injustice can be halted.
We are taught right from wrong as children. Every time one encounters the "wrong" a woman or man has the duty to point out the "right" in a myriad of ways.
Thank you for teaching me not to be so complacent!
Regards
Alan Edwards
Posted by: Alan Edwards
September 4, 2009
Just now found On The Issues online!!
I was a subscriber to your print edition.
SO PLEASED TO HAVE FOUND YOU AGAIN!
Any way to contribute, too?
Posted by: Lauren Brightwell
September 1, 2009
Linda's interview with Elisabeth Sackler is excellent. I interviewed Sackler several years ago and was delighted to see that she has carried forward with her goals. I particularly enjoyed the Patricia Cronin exhibit and will be interviewing the artist for Gay and Lesbian Review in connection with her show and catalogue Raisaonne; Harriet Hosmer: Lost and Found. A fascinating exercise in linking lesbian art and artists across the centuries.
Linda's staticstics tell us all we need to know about NOT equal things are in the worlds of art and art history. Let's hope On The Issues and the Sackler Center can right some of these wrongs and give a fuller picture of feminism, art and history not to mention assure social justice.
Posted by: Dr.Cassandra Langer
August 19, 2009
I had a conversation with a young woman who is expecting twins...her long term relationship with the father ended at almost the same moment that the pregnancy began. She has a decent job in an area where good pay for women is $11 per hour. Average rent for a small apt. or house is around $800. This young woman has crunched the numbers in every way she can and has come to the realization that even with the $500 per month child support the father will be required to pay she will not be able to support herself and two children. Childcare alone would break the bank.
She asked me what feminist have achieved...certainly not equal pay and certainly not the choice of joining the workforce or staying home to raise her children....today women are expected to work to help
support the family and that it isn't just an expectation it is a necessity. She went on to say that before women entered the workforce, men were paid a wage that allowed them to keep a roof over his family's head and that for most men the American Dream was a reasonable expectation. But now, she went on, it is expected that a woman work because men no longer make a wage that will allow for achieving the American Dream without a two worker household. She then pointed out that if indeed feminist had fought for affordable, good, childcare they had failed. Childcare for infants is almost non-existent and childcare in general is expensive and good childcare very hard to find.
I had no good answers for her, at least none that I could point to that would alleviate the financial problems she is facing. The real sad part of this story is that she is looking at adoption -- giving her children to another couple because she can't afford them and can't foresee her things changing for herself unless she meets a man who will help support her and her children -- and she asks, doesn't that just lead us back to the same place we were in the 50s & 60s?
I wonder.
Posted by: Julie
August 18, 2009
Few could imagine how tired I am of reading mindless repetition of the party line "subordinated the female to the male," as Mahin Hassibi did in his (her?) editorial "Bogus Beliefs ...." This axiom would be laughable were it not for it's wide acceptance, reminiscent of the phrase I heard about half a century ago, "negroes are inferior to Homo Sapiens." The simple fact is that some people dominate other people. The perception Hassibi uses as foundation is fed by our putting domination of a person who happens to be female by one who happens to be male on the front burner while putting the reverse on
the back burner. We also have a cultural expectation that domestic or sexual violence is shameful if the woman is hurt, but cometic with the shoe on the other foot.
If we were to restrict the discussion to Western Civilization and set aside non-social activities such as work or the sciences, a naive observer would see something completely different from the expectations expressed here. Take the beach, for example. Look at what the men are wearing and take away color and pattern. The result is a virtual uniform, short trousers. In formal wear, essentially all we have is the Tux. In the social world, where we spend our most important personal time, the domination is the reverse of what Hassibi
presents.
Further, it isn't even about sex, in my opinion. Sex in social situations is more kin to money in poker; it's a way of keeping score. The underlying need is for validation. In particular, it is validation with respect to sexuality, sensuality, desirability, vulnerability and innocence. In these aspects of the human condition, women are the gatekeepers of validation for men. While we men might well be a validator to a certain extent for women, we shower with praise even while receiving virtually nothing back. We men are buyers in a sellers' market; concentrating on the supposed domination of men over women leads to a blissful ignorance of the concerns of half our population. If you prick us, do we not bleed?
Posted by: Jim Nibblett
August 7, 2009
I must commend Eleanor Bader on her excellent article entitled "Trans Health Care Is A Life and Death Matter." It was refreshing to see someone tackle this subject.
In regards to prevalence of transsexualism based on actual numbers of gender reassignment surgeries performed, though, I would encourage the author, researchers, and readership to look to the research of Lynn Conway, summarized here, and with a published report presented at WPATH.
These articles show through simple mathematics that the prevalence rate of MTF transsexuals is much closer to 1 in 2500 rather than the oft quoted 1 in 10,000.
I also challenge personally the assumption that the prevalence rate of transsexualism among XX bodied individuals is lower than that of XY bodied individuals. To be honest, surgeries for men in this community including mastectomy and genital restructuring are barbaric at best and are not at all comparable to the much better female surgeries such as vaginoplasty, breast augmentation, etc (which themselves could be so much better). This combined with other factors make our transmasculine community seem smaller than the transfeminine community, which I personally believe is a falsehood.
Anyway, I hope that readers and researchers will carefully consider Lynn Conway's work as it sheds new light on prevalences that we need to take to heart.
Posted by: Katy Stewart
See editors response, below the letters
August 2, 2009
I think OTI is marvellous and rely heavily on it - but it is a shame it is no longer available in hard copy not just for the pleasure of it but for the visibility and passing on quality of it and its issues. What I mean is that it has become easier and easier to ghettoise issues into internet corners that preach to the converted. It is harder and harder to find gendered content in national mainstream print or broadcast media. I know I now go to 2 or 3 key feminist blogs/websites for my gender content. They are great but only 2 or 3 years ago, limited as it was, I could find some gendered content in national broadsheet media. If we had On the issues in hard copy we could read it in public places, leave it on trains and at bus stops, hand over a copy of the magazine for someone to skim an article right there and then. A web reference is not the same as it has to be sent and accessed by technology and is likely only to be accessed by someone who really wants to read it and is interested in it. Hard copy is much easier to force something into someone's consciousness and visibly demonstrate that, in the case of feminism, people are feminists, are reading it, are concerned and are not ashamed - vital in a climate that uses feminism as a dirty word. We can make it easier for people to engage with feminism if we are visibly engaging it with ourselves - hard copy print media is marvellous for this.
Posted by: xxmkn
Reply from the editors: We're delighted that you find provocative gendered content here. We also loved On The Issues Magazine as a print publication (1983-1999). Unfortunately, the costs became prohibitive. Printing and mailing were subsidized by a single health care clinic- Choices Women's Medical Center - but at half a million dollars per year with losses of $250,000 annually, the publication couldn't be sustained. Now, the Internet offers exciting opportunities for revival. While we still have many costs in maintaining the site and an editorial staff, it is possible to use new technology to keep strong feminist conversations thriving. And this way anyone with a printer is empowered to hand out her favorite stories to colleagues, classes -- and even at the bus stop. So take liberties ... we approve!
I am a UK based reader so this may be a naive point to make but it seems to me the US has to be made to engage with parental paid leave if we are to address feminist concerns in the US. On your broader question of feminist priorities I think we need to look at religious fundamentalisms of whatever faith and impact for women, LGBT, young people and secular members within religious communities, recession and gender, climate change/resource wars and gender. I am extremely conscious that in all areas women's rights are not mainstreamed and will not be addressed indeed will be traded off even though women will be disproportionately impacted by them.
Posted by: heather harvey
I appreciated Rhonda Copeland's article on DV as torture however I felt the tone of it was wrong. It read as though this was an argument yet to be made, whereas it is a well accepted doctrine already - the problem as with so many women's rights issues is how to implement it,make it stick and have it widely accepted and understood and enforced. State responsibiity for non state actor abuse relying on the due diligence doctrine has been used by womens' rights activists to demonstrate state responsibiity for DV etc since the early 90's. It was a huge achievement to make and have accepted that argument at that time. Indeed it was only after women's rights activists made this case successfully that Amnesty International, which targets state abuse, eventually started to include women's rights abuses including violence in the family and community in its reports and launched a stop violence against women campaign. Women's human rights victories are few and far between and easily retrenched upon. We do not need to present this as an argument to make, thereby allowing people to argue the principle back again from first base, rather we need to present it as an argument already made but requiring implementation otherwise we take ourselves back 20 years. Those in opposition to us will fight hard enough anyway without us giving them a space to re argue old battles we have already won.
Posted by: heather harvey
About equal pay, I agree with the letter writer who urged us to take up that struggle again. It should be with the same passion as some of us worked for it decades ago. BUT the goal should not be limited to attaining equal wages. We should revive the broader and more basic cause of equal pay for work of equal value.
Posted by: Ginny NiCarthy
I was relieved to read Lu Bailey's article on "self-objectification," chosen by young so-called feminists. I have fallen silent after too many discouraging arguments with young women, some of them close relatives, who refuse to see what I call their "hooker-style" dress as a cop out. They see my position as the sour grapes attitude of unsexy old age. It is discouraging to see the beneficiaries of our struggle take minor improvements in women's status for granted---and then
undermine them for the sake of a cheap, brief illusion of power.
Posted by: Dorothy Bryant
Please accept our deep and sincere condolences on the loss of Dr. Tiller.
You may wish to know that we have just registered the first and only national Family Planning Association in Somaliland and am sharing with you our website which is still under development : www.SOFPA.org
It took me two years to get it past the government formalities and had a lot of explanations to do. I used all my clout and connections to get it registered and approved.
Now that we exist, we have no funds to get set up and start activities. At present, I have given them space in our hospital and let them use our hospital equipment. We would also welcome technical support for conducting training for our staff.
With best regards,
Edna Adan Ismail
I agree completely. I did AB referrals and set up a Federal Court lawsuit in Oklahoma in 1970. It is just as true now as ever. I'm totally with you on this.
I'm a correspondent now in San Francisco covering the nuke weapons labs.
Resist. Fight. Win.
Never Quit.
Bob Nichols
Project Censored Award Winner
San Francisco Bay View newspaper
In this time of trouble when more men than women are losing their
jobs and the woman becomes sole support of the family, we need "equal
pay for equal work" more than ever. Or are we forced to believe that
the radicals among us are truly trying to supress the middle income
families until they become members of the working poor, earning
minimum wage, subservient to the wealthiest among us? Many women
would prefer to stay home and raise their children, and then return to
work when the children are grown. The current suppression of the
middle class makes this no longer a choice. A great number of women
must return to work to help support the family, and equal pay for
equal work should no longer be in question.
Sarah Murnen
Kalkaska, MI
May 27, 2009
You are doing a wonderful job writing about the many topics that women do not want to discuss. I applaud you
and I do discuss sexuality with women of all ages, I will also share you magazine with my business.If it were not for women the popluation would be zero so why not enjoy the gift.
Best Wishes
Rose Briggs
May 18, 2009
I live in Montreal and I've just discovered On The Issues online. It's really intelligent and fascinating, I'm so glad to have found it. Do you know if the magazine is stocked anywhere in my city? I can't find it. Or do you only publish online?
Elsa Panciroli
May 8, 2009
Ed: We’re online! From 1983-1999 On The Issues Magazine was a print publication and those archives are online, as well. The online edition began in April 2008.
As always "On The Issues" is informative , thought provoking, and a Feminist Voice that speaks loud and clear about the realities affecting Women's lives around the world. I read the acticle MOBILIZING FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE written by Loretta Ross and I am in total agreement. . Women Of Color will have to continue to organize our communities in large and significant numbers in order to influence and exercise our power.Plain and simple.
Sincerely,
Judith Freeman
He should have been in Zambia when I was, and 1 in 3 were dying from AIDS, and the only growth industry was coffins, and employers hired two people for every job because they knew one would die, and the streets were full of starving kids, many of them children of judges, lawyers, teachers, etc. all of whom had succumbed to this plague!
JanG
I send you greetings from Somaliland where we will also be celebrating the 7th anniversary of the opening of our hospital on the 9th of March.
During the seven years that we have been working, we have delivered nearly 9000 women and treated an additional 7500 other sick patients -- proof that you can serve humanity even under the hard situations that we ofetn have to work through.
-Edna Adan Ismail
Founder, Maternity Hospital of Somaliland
March 7, 2009
See: The Terror of Motherhood in Somaliland and Women's Rights to Safe Care by Edna Adan Ismail in the Fall 2008 edition of On The Issues Magazine.
A recent article by Diana Egozcue on a strategy to pass the ERA in Virginia said that a website would be up shortly. It would be good for your readers to know one already exists even though we're hoping to have a fancier one in the future.:
There is a website to support the ERA in VA. It's: http://sites.google.com/site/4erava/Home
There is also a networking yahoogroup for the ERA in VA. People can subscribe by sending a blank post to:
ERAVA-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
-Freeda Cathcart
Roanoke, VA
I enjoyed Frances Kissling's article on masculine-dominated religion, and have always admired her work.
However I was surprised that she didn't address the importance of revisioning the Divine in female form, when this form has been either forbidden as heretical or blasphemous, or defined down by male theologians.
Room for diverse divine images, oh yes. But not "gods" alone. As long as Goddess is unthinkable and unsayable, female power is ruled out from the very important realm of the symbolic, the stories we tell. For more on this, see my article "The Meanings of Goddess" online.
-Max Dashu,
the Suppressed Histories Archives
I am actually quite amazed with how much response the article (Anti-Immigrant Fervor Translates to Terror for Women) has received. So exciting! Thank you for the opportunity.
-Melissa Nalani Ross
Director, Campaign for a United America, Center for New Community
I'm so glad you're reviving OTI. It was an important documentation of what we did back in the "good old days."
I'm happy that you put the old copies on the Internet. It is important to preserve this history. I will send your memo to Oklahoma feminists, as well as feminists on a national list.
-Barbara Santee
So glad to see the return of On the Issues! As a little girl, I read the magazine every time I visited my grandmother's house. Occasionally, if the stars aligned, she was in a good mood, I had behaved, AND she had finished reading it herself, then she'd let me take the current issue home to keep and reread.
On the Issues was how I learned about poets like Marge Piercy, artists like Anke Feuchtenberger and issues like FGM. It was a very eye-opening magazine for me.
I'll be reading eagerly in the months to come. And I'll be spreading the word -- nay, proclaiming the good news! -- to all my friends.
-Stephanie Young Liederman
HURRAH! Like a phoenix, you have arisen!
-Ellen Snortland
How did I manage to get through the last 25 years without stumbling upon your magazine? I've been doing radical feminist work for all this time. I remember Sojourner and Off Our Backs among others. Anyway, I am sooooooooo glad to have found you now! Thank you!
-A Reader
I'm so glad On the Issues is back -- thank you Merle and all its parents!
Gloria Steinem
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CURRENT ISSUE
Winter 2012
Realities of The Waiting Room: Constantly Shifting by Lori Adelman
Anti-Abortion Harassment and Violence Still Stifle Access by Eleanor J. Bader
We're Not Sorry. Still. by Jennifer Baumgardner
The Poet's Eye From Poetry Co-Editor Sarah Browning
Calling Black LGBTQ Institutions: Where Are You? Where is Reproductive Justice? by Jasmine Burnett
Privacy at Stake: Patients, Clinics and Electronic Medical Records by Corinne A. Carey
Can We Choose Move Forward on Reproductive Justice? -- And How? by Ayesha Chatterjee and Judy Norsigian
"Love Means Second Chances": Reproductive Freedom in a Novel by Susan Elizabeth Davis
Satirist's View: Same Old Dilemma, or The Virgin Rebirth by Susie Day
As Access Slides, Feminists Need to "Extract" From Our Self-Help Past by Carol Downer
Abortion: On The Issues Magazine - by The Editors
How Anti-Abortion Protesters Got Me: Letter From a Young Activist by Sarah Flint Erdreich
The Grand Folly of Focusing on "Common Ground" by Gloria Feldt
Before "Roe": Legal Battles, Involuntary Servitude, My Mom by Justine Goodman
Next Generation Access: Medical Students Fill A Void by Mary Lou Greenberg
The Power of Theater: "Words of Choice" Touches Hearts by Alexis Greene
Where the Reality of Abortion Resides: Intimate Wars by Merle Hoffman
Gone Too Far? Reproductive Politics in the Time of Obama by Carole Joffe
Lila Rose: A Sweet Face to Accompany Extreme Anti-abortion Claims by Kathryn Joyce
Glorifying the Fetus While Ignoring the Fetal Environment by Margie Kelly
Reframing Compassionate Care: Of Madame Restell and Other Outlaws by Jeannie Ludlow
Helping Bloggers To Help: Tips for Reproductive Health Organizations by Amanda Marcotte
What To Do When They Say Holocaust by Carol Mason
"Silent Choices": African American Women Open Up on Film by Faith Pennick
Fine Thoughts On Fertilized Personhood by Marge Piercy
Heading Toward Menopause, Still Caring about Abortion by Andrea Plaid
Letter to a Young Activist: Don’t Drop the Banner by Barbara Santee
Redefining Chutzpah: More Bad Ideas to Burden Women by Aram A. Schvey
Sharing the Wealth of Knowledge on Abortion by Ria Sen and The Feminist Press
An Abortion Miracle? Let's Try the First Amendment by Priscilla Smith
Related Stories: Bold Discussions of ABORTION in On The Issues Magazine by The Editors
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