EqualityQuilt

Economic Stimulus - Education vs. Underwear

My name is Bharti Wahi and I work at the MN Women’s Consortium.  This is my first time posting anything on the blog, but the irony of my situation was so great that I felt compelled to write.  In during these tough economic times of the $4 a gallon gas prices and a $4 dozen of eggs, money is tight for all of us.  In the last years governments (local, federal, and state) have been unwilling to invest in infrastructure in the communities we live in.  And the thing of it is, we may pay less in taxes, but in the end we all pay.  Let me share my story

I am the mother of two, which is often a strange, difficult and wonderful thing.  My oldest has just turned 5 and it is with great pride and trepidation that I am sending him off to kindergarten this coming fall.  My family and I live in Minneapolis and my son will be attending Minneapolis Pubic School.  Not to bore you too much, but I have sweated and cursed my way through the school selection process in Minneapolis and finally in February decided upon our neighborhood school – just three blocks from our house.  My partner and I have always been strong supporters of public schools and are so happy to have our son attend.

On Franken, Reasonable Feminists Can Disagree

Former Saturday Night Live satirist Al Franken recently received the Minnesota Democrats' nomination as their candidate for the U.S. Senate, challenging incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman.   In the week before the endorsing convention, several past Franken writings were widely publicized:  an article he wrote for Playboy including satiric references to, for example, a school called Minnesota MIT - the Minnesota Institute of Titology; and a sketch he proposed for SNL including a "joke" about Andy Rooney intending to rape Leslie Stahl.  Both comments were made at least a decade ago, and Franken apologized (click here to read an excerpt in the UPI story) at the DFL convention.  Below we'll summarize comments from NOW leaders Shannon Drury and Erin Matson (Erin is on the left above), Congresswoman Betty McCollum (on right above), and former president Mari Pokornowski of the DFL Feminist Caucus. 

But first, a few of my own thoughts (it's me, Bonnie Watkins):

* As a nonpartisan 501c3 organization, the Consortium cannot endorse candidates or engage in any form of "electioneering," so this article does not endorse or electioneer - just passes on info.  Neither I nor the Consortium will ever tell you how to vote.

* In the spirit of full disclosure, candidate Al Franken was one of many political candidates (including his then-opponent Mike Ciresi) who was listed as a paid sponsor of the Consortium's 28th birthday party in January 2008.

*  In the aftermath of Franken's endorsement, it has seemed to me that the media dismiss the critique of his satire by calling it "bawdy" rather than "sexist."  Combined with a million other things including the treatment of Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate, I believe the entire women's movement has been ignored and dismissed of late.  But maybe that's another article or 12.

* In assessing Franken's comments, I have not seen analysts talking about the incredibly male culture of comedy.  In the past decade, on family vacations I've visited comedy clubs in San Diego, Chicago, and New York, and in every case the vast majority of standups were guys, and the vast bulk of their humor

The "chickosphere" on Hillary continued...

Yes, we did say that EqualityQuilt would not devote a large amount of cyberspace on the presidential elections, because EQ (like the Minnesota Women's Consortium), does not endorse candidates or specific legislation. However, Rebecca Walker wrote a post for The Huffington Post in response to Gloria Steinem's op-ed in the New York Times. Check out the articles and let us know what you think.

EqualityQuilt is a place for your voice and we want to hear what you think!

The "chickosphere" on Hillary

In case you are wondering, EqualityQuilt will NOT be spending a large amount of cyberspace on the presidential elections, in part because EQ (like its mom, the Minnesota Women's Consortium), does not endorse candidates or specific legislation.  Please note tho that several member organizations of the Consortium do endorse, and you are much encouraged to click here to browse the list of "Member Groups" and check them out.

But above the fray tho EQ is, we can't ignore the excitement around a viable female candidate for the presidency, the excitement around several viable people of color also running (though  Gov. Bill Richardson has now dropped out), and the important discussion of media treatment of Clinton and her campaign.   We're reprinting here  a good summary of  discussion among feminist bloggers. Thanks to Chris Halvorson our blogging guru, for sharing it.  And please let us know what YOU think.  - Bonnie

WOMEN VOTERS & HILLARY   by Laura McKenna:

What do women voters think of Hillary Clinton? That’s the question of the moment, though it has been kicking around for some months.

The polls show that women voters in Iowa went for Obama, but in New Hampshire they voted for Hillary. Did she gain some new traction with women by misting up on the campaign trail, by seeming vulnerable, or by talking more about the economy?

It’s insane to make generalizations about American women as a whole based on the primary elections in New Hampshire. There was an 8,000 vote difference between Obama and Hillary. We have to use caution when examining the poll results in these states for clues about the nation at large. 

Instead of trying to understand the female primary voter, let’s look at women pundits and the feminist blogosphere. The chickosphere is a smaller sample than primary women voters (though not by much).

Their reaction to Hillary has also been less ambiguous and is easily Googled.

In the fall, many of the prominent feminist bloggers were supporting Edwards. The feminist bloggers are closely tied to the Netroots, the liberal wing of the blogosphere, and the Netroots were in the hot tub with Edwards....

Mommy Wars = Media Myth?

from Liz Palmer

There is an interesting buzz going on about Mommy Wars lately.  There is even a book by that title which has been published and shuffled along the media circuit.  Somehow the discussion about what concerns arise at the birth of a child regarding: food, shelter, personal care, health care, education, etc and how we as a society should create policy accordingly is sidestepped by many media sources in a mad dash to start/record a cat fight between stay-at-home-mothers and working moms. There has been a lot of discussion about that lately, again with no greater focus on the public policy issues that would actually address societal issues that all mothers face, and if one group of moms hates the other and who the virtuous group is and who the bad guys are. 

I had been hearing on the radio and on the news about the supposed battle between those of us who are working at home and those of us who are working outside of the home.  I have never found myself in a situation where an argument along those lines  

Riding and Falling Off the Third Wave

  There has been a lot of talk lately about young women- honoring young women, including young women and having young women around period. After all, the third wave is the future of the feminist movement- isn’t it? Well, I am a young woman who happens to be part of this so-called third wave. I happen to have only recently turned 25 years old and here is what I have learned- nobody wants to honor me until I reach the age range 28-35 years of age, often I am included only to show that older women like younger women and I am alright to have around as long as I am not too outspoken, maintain a level of submissiveness and am not too “outrageously” dressed.

Capitol Capers, Continued

The Capitol is STILL a crazy quilt, with good things happening, but many legislators not very available to meet with constituents. See an outrageous example at the end of this post, and click here for previous examples. They ARE working hard - witness a hearing of the Senate "Gov Ops" committee that heard 21 bills last Friday. They passed two bills of special interest to our member groups (Download pay_equity_bill.mht), and (Download domestic_partners_bill.txt).  For more info on pay equity: Download pe_contractors_testimony.pdf.  For more on domestic partners, visit OutFront Minnesota.   Our biweekly E-Consortium Notes and our biweekly newsletter the Capitol Bulletin are great info sources for

Are we serious about choice, or not?

Liz sent the following in response to Erin's "Childfree" rant ( (clickable here): I can not tell you how many rude comments I get about my larger family.  We have six children and people say the obvious:  "are they ALL yours?", "you must be Catholic!", "are you a day care?".  The comments can get even more personal:  "have you figured out how they get here yet?", "are your tubes tied yet?", "is he snipped?".  I am floored that people feel so invested in what I decide to do about my family size.  If they were all only just as willing to help me out as they stop me in the grocery store or on the street.  If I knew that there were that many adults prepared to be invested in our family, I would be happy to send them our clothing bills or ask them to start saving for college costs or maybe they would want to come over and do some laundry...I had heard that it takes a village but I thought that was about support, not criticism.  - Liz Palmer 
[That's Liz's family - well, 1 kid must be missing! - in the photo]

Capitol Capers

Oy Consortium staff have been running around like chickens with heads off.  Did you miss me (Bonnie) ?  Here are some highlights of goings-on at the state Capitol, which is a crazy quilt unto itself. But do come to Violence Against Women Action Day Feb. 28 and Women Come to the Capitol March 14 and see for yourself!

Some good parts, and some icky parts.  In recent weeks we've had the pleasure of escorting quite a few women who have never been inside the Big House before. It's wonderful to watch them learn that you don't need a PhD in political science to be there, or even to be elected and sit in the big black chairs yourself!  A friend from Women In the Trades figured that out at the hearing when a conservative female Rep suggested that maybe it's not so bad that family planning clients have to fill out a 12 page form (plus dig up many attachments like a copy of their birth certificate), and furthermore they must be welfare chiselers (OK, she didn't put it quite THAT baldly but still) if they have cell phones. 

Childfree! by Erin Parrish

About one month ago I participated in the ultimate heterosexual privilege - I got married. I attempted to uphold my feminist beliefs by doing away with many of the patriarchal traditions and I must say I made my feminist comrades proud. However, I was under constant stress explaining to others why I wasn’t “given away.” Much of this stress went away the minute I said, “I do.” Still, much to my amazement I had overlooked the stress of another heterosexual ritual, one that began just days after I arrived home from my honeymoon.

The matrimonial bliss and the proverbial urge to cook and clean for my big helpless man had not even begun to set in when I was bombarded with questions: “When are you going to have children?” “How many kids do you want?” “Are you beginning a family?”

Most conversations went like this: “When are you going to have children?” Me: “We have decided that we don’t want children.” Them: “But you would make a great mother.” One conversation went like this: “When are you going to have children?” Me: “We have decided that we don’t want children.” Them: “But we need more feminist mothers.” Me: “But I don’t want to be a mother."