Thanks, DSK, we’ll take it from here

At least one positive note has come out of the whole DSK scandal—the new head of the International Monetary Fund is a lady!

Christine Lagarde is the first woman to head the IMF and is the 11th European to hold the top position. Fresh off of serving as the Finance Minister of France, (the first woman ever to serve in that role in a G-8 country) she is hoping to bring about change to the rigid institution.

“In my interview at the IMF with all the 24 administrators, there was not one single woman. So while I was being questioned for three hours by 24 men, I thought it’s good that things are changing a little.”

She has set a goal to have at least 25 percent of manager positions go by women by 2014. Currently, only 20 percent of managers at the IMF are women, compared to the World Bank, which employs 36 percent in management positions. Let’s hope that she advocates as a voice for women in the workplace and in the developing world. She definitely has a challenge ahead of her, but she was named the 17th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2009, so I’m sure she is up for the challenge.

This post is brought to you by Laura, who is, was, and always will be a birthday girl.

My Spiritual Awakening, or How Alexander McQueen reminded me of Art’s Power

Up until a couple of years ago, I’d never been really into fashion before and I hadn’t realized the art behind designing clothing. Then I learned about Alexander McQueen. I looked up images of his clothing, admired his work when Lady Gaga wore it, and was devastated that just as I was learning about this visionary he took his own life.

The official exhibit photo. Breathtaking.

Thankfully, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City put together a beautiful collection of McQueen’s work to highlight his accomplishments and honor his genius.

Bon Iver: A (pretentious) album review

You know what I love more than pretentious music? Pretentious music reviews.

For the last couple weeks, I’ve been taking in the new Bon Iver record, Bon Iver, via NPR’s first listen stream and have really fallen in love. I could write my own record review, but why do that when hundreds of people have taken the verbose words straight out of my mouth?

Well actually, I would have probably just explained that it is a hauntingly good album that should be played straight though, on repeat. But other people’s thoughts are way more interesting. I bring you a compilation of the most amazingly pompous Bon Iver reviews (my personal faves are the underlined ones):

States barge in on private decisions

Last fall, Danielle and Robb Deaver of Grand Island, Neb., found that their state’s new law intruded in a wrenching personal decision. Ms. Deaver, 35, a registered nurse, was pregnant with a daughter in a wanted pregnancy, she said. She and her husband were devastated when her water broke at 22 weeks and her amniotic fluid did not rebuild.

Her doctors said that the lung and limb development of the fetus had stopped, that it had a remote chance of being born alive or able to breathe, and that she faced a chance of serious infection.

In what might have been a routine if painful choice in the past, Ms. Deaver and her husband decided to seek induced labor rather than wait for the fetus to die or emerge. But inducing labor, if it is not to save the life of the fetus, is legally defined as abortion, and doctors and hospital lawyers concluded that the procedure would be illegal under Nebraska’s new law.

After 10 days of frustration and anguish, Ms. Deaver went into labor naturally; the baby died within 15 minutes and Ms. Deaver had to be treated with intravenous antibiotics for an infection that developed.

Ms. Deaver said she got angry only after the grief had settled. “This should have been a private decision, made between me, my husband and my doctor,” she said in a telephone interview.

-from the New York Times’ article on states’ limiting abortions.

Kansas uses bathrooms to shut down abortion clinics

“The new requirements require facilities to add extra bathrooms, drastically expand waiting and recovery areas, and even add larger janitor’s closets, as one clinic employee told me—changes that clinics will have a heck of a time pulling off by the deadline. Under the new rule, clinics must also aquire state certification to admit patients, a process that takes 90 to 120 days, the staffer explained. Which makes it impossible for clinics to comply. And clinics that don’t comply with the rules will face fines or possible closure.”

– From Mother Jones.

HUMP DAY: Shameless Plug

Sorry if I tricked you into reading a post about sex, and actually plugging a conference thing that I’m working on. But! It is about sex, a little bit. I promise!

For the past couple months, I have been savagely planning a reproductive rights panel for the 2011 Campus Progress National Conference (#cpnc11) and now I am going to tell you all about it! Because it’s going to be awesome!

Fighting for Reproductive Freedom in a Conservative Congress

Recent measures by the 112th Congress attempt to limit access to reproductive health and services. How will these measures affect women and families? What do they mean for access to reproductive services in various communities? The discussion will address the role social media has played and can continue to play in organizing activists and gaining support for reproductive freedom.

• Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin)
• Cecile Richards, President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund
• Jos Truitt, Contributor, Feministing.com
• Annabel Park, Co-director & Founder, the Coffee Party, Moderator (maker of the “I have Sex” video)

YES! Remember when Gwen Moore pwnd the Pence Amendment and defended Planned Parenthood against the anti-choice terrorism that claimed Planned Parenthood was leading the genocide of black babies?

 

Is reporting campus sexual assault a dead end?

The woman’s father called the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a high-ranking Notre Dame administrator, to express his anger. After listening to his concerns, Doyle suggested they pray together over the telephone, the father said.

“We’re as Catholic as they come,” the woman’s mother said. “But are you serious? Pray on this? That was not good enough.”

The woman now wonders if she should have ever reported the incident to police. An estimated 95 percent of college students who are victimized do not report sexual-related crimes to law enforcement, according to a study funded by the Justice Department.

“It’s a long, painful process, and in the end, nothing happened,” she said. “The only way a boy would be guilty is if he said, ‘Oh, yes, I did rape her.'”

– From the Chicago Tribune.

Pakistani Woman Kicks Ass, We Cheer

 
The beautiful and outspoken Pakistani actor Veena Malik defends her morality and deplores the double standard held to Muslim women in Pakistan. She’s been known to say other badass things, like

This is a male-dominated world and they try to cut to size all bold women. In Pakistan, it is a crime to be bold, beautiful and young. And I am all three.

Beauty: In the Eye of the Beehive

Last weekend, Tara, Ellen, and I visited my hometown for Bawlmer Honfest, an annual festival, “honoring of the working women of America.” In many ways, Honfest is a celebration of femininity and glamour, which is sort of interesting since Baltimore is hardly a glamorous city. Beauty is expressed and embraced differently on this weekend in downtown Hampden – something I tried to capture when I was photographing the crowds. Below are some images from our Sunday together

Let’s Discuss: SlutWalk and ladies’ personal choice

A couple days ago, Tara sent out an email to Mislabeled about the recent SlutWalk being organized in India, which Kelsey quickly followed with an opinion piece stating that “SlutWalk is repulsive not simply because it’s misguided.”

Women shouldn’t dress like “sluts” not only because it’s foolish, but more importantly, because it undermines so many of the educational and professional accomplishments women have made in recent decades and redirects the conversation back to women’s bodies.

The following debate ensued…..

We wonder why conviction rates for rapes are so low…

 

 

from nocopsinsight

The Infamous Mr. Tucker Max

While I may be a little late to jump on the Tucker Max bandwagon, my usually not-so-outspoken-self felt slightly compelled to address one of the most frequently asked questions I received after reading his book: isn’t it really degrading towards women?

The short answer to this obvious objection is yes, it is really degrading towards women if you consider the fact that he frequently references different women as a “fatty” or looking like she “ate a two by four.” But, beneath the objectifying misogynistic idiot is an ounce of comedic genius: taking a tape recorder out when blackout drunk and watch the alcohol-induced fireworks explode.

Sex addiction & feminism: Where’s the victory?

This morning, in light of Weinergate, Slate.com reposted an article from Feb. 2010 called, In Defense of Sex Addicts. Author Hanna Rosin, in originally discussing the Tiger Woods sex scandal, cites a couple of authors who have waited for this “sex addiction” thing to blow up. Her general claim is as follows:

 Not so long ago, there was no easy way at all to publicly shame a celebrity pig or even any ordinary pig. The term sex addict does some of that work, and its introduction into the psychiatric idiom could be considered an important moment in feminist history. Suddenly, certain brutish behaviors that used to be overlooked were exiled as abnormal. And in the clinical literature, the word promiscuous came to primarily describe not hysterical women but rather predatory men.

I see this as saying, Hey, men with mistresses and all that jazz, no need to feel bad. You were just a sex addict. This seems to go against everything I think the feminist movement stands for : creating equal rights and promoting respect for women and humanity as a whole. In fact, the creation of the term “sex addiction” actually hurts the feminist cause.

Why the female Anthony Weiner may not exist

It would be easy to file this under the category of “men behaving badly,” to dismiss it as a testosterone-induced, hard-wired connection between sex and power (powerful men attract women, powerful women repel men). And some might conclude that busy working women don’t have time to cheat. (“While I’m at home changing diapers, I just couldn’t conceive of it,” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the New York Democrat, once said.)

But there may be something else at work: Research points to a substantial gender gap in the way women and men approach running for office. Women have different reasons for running, are more reluctant to do so and, because there are so few of them in politics, are acutely aware of the scrutiny they draw — all of which seems to lead to differences in the way they handle their jobs once elected.

–When It Comes to Scandal, Girls Won’t Be Boys

Yo DC! Come drink with us on Tuesday!

We are taking the Mislabeled conversation to new places – happy hour! At a bar! In D.C.! I hope you live there so you can come!

Here are the deets.

Who: Mislabeled writers, and The American Association of University Women (our lovely hosts who hold a monthly D.C. happy hour called Cocktails and Convos).

What: Chocolate! Adult beverages! Good conversation (until the wine kicks in…)!

Where:  Co Co. Sala, a chocolate lounge located near the Verizon Center in Chinatown.

When: Tuesday, June 14^th @ 5 to 7:30 PM.

Why: As the editor of Mislabeled, a contributor to AAUW’s blog Dialog, and a lover of many lady blogs, I’m fascinated with the way the Internet opens doors for the women’s issues community to meet, greet, discuss, and make things happen. We can raise awareness of poor media coverage. We can talk with someone who lives in a different country or on a different continent. We can debate what it means to be feminist and how we should talk with each other. But those conversations don’t take place in a vacuum. They are about the real world, and so they (should) have an impact on that world. That’s why real-world events like Cocktails and Convos are just as important as blogs. And that’s why I really, really, really want you to come hang out with all of us on Tuesday.

So please join me, AAUW, and your favorite Mislabeled writers (we are your faves, no?) as we clink glasses, eat chocolate, and make new Facebook friends. Hope to see you there.

This post is brought to you by Rachel, who promises to buy you a drink if you come. Maybe.