classic video: “Single Girl” by Lush
May 26, 2012
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Music, Visual and Performance Art, Women/ feminism | 
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Posted by Amy Steele
classic video: “Beautiful Girl” by INXS
May 22, 2012
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Posted by Amy Steele
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: SEE, HEAR, READ
March 8, 2012SEE: Searching for Debra Winger [written and directed by Rosanna Arquette]
–honest, refreshing examination of women in entertainment
purchase at Amazon: Searching for Debra Winger
HEAR: Oumou Sangare
download: Seya
READ: All the Stories of Muriel Spark by Muriel Spark
purchase: All the Stories of Muriel Spark
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Posted by Amy Steele
Women’s History Month: focus on 19th Amendment
March 3, 2012
Ratified August 18, 1920.
Section 1. The right of the citizens of the United States to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
account of sex.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
in 1838, Kentucky allowed women to vote in school elections.
in 1889, the Territory of Wyoming gave women equal voting rights to men.
In July 1890, the Territory of Wyoming admitted as a state.
By 1900, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho joined Wyoming in allowing women to vote.
–in 1848, at the Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, women’s voting proposed on a serious level.
– 19-year-old Charlotte Woodward attended Seneca Falls and in 1920 was the only participant in the 1848 Convention still alive but unfortunately too ill to vote.
–Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul also very active in the suffrage movement.
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Posted by Amy Steele
Women’s History Month: quotes on feminism
March 2, 2012
The result is that we all know what feminists are. They are shrill, overly aggressive, man-hating, ball-busting, selfish, hairy, extremist, deliberately unattractive women with absolutely no sense of humor who see sexism at every turn.
Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are
I told the women I did not believe in women’s rights or men’s rights but in human rights.
–Mary Harris Jones
Women want the seemingly impossible: that men treat them with the respect and fair-mindedness with which they treat most men.
– Joyce Carol Oates
I define as “feminist” any attempt to improve the lot of any group of women through female solidarity and a female perspective.
–Marilyn French, The War Against Women
Never met a wise man
If so it’s a woman
–Kurt Cobain
I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is; I only know that people cal me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that distinguish me from a doormat.
–Rebecca West
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Posted by Amy Steele
CELEBS: Catherine Zeta-Jones and others can reduce stigma of mental illness
April 14, 2011
On Monday, Catherine Zeta-Jones’s publicist announced that she’d been hospitalized for treatment of bi-polar disorder. She has bi-polar II disorder which means she has more periods of depression than mania. She’s had a stressful year and external situations take a toll on anyone and particularly those who already have a mental illness. The best part of this is that Catherine Zeta-Jones can provide a high profile example that mental illness is a disease like alcoholism that needs constant monitoring and treatment but shouldn’t mean that people feel the need to keep the person at a distance.
according to the CDC, 1 in 10 Americans reports depression at some time during their lives.
Although Tom Cruise disastrously stole away her true message, Brooke Shields wrote a wonderful book about her post-partum depression called Down Came the Rain.
Ashley Judd has a new memoir, All That is Bitter and Sweet, where she discusses her battles with depression.
Judd also stars in the film Helen [available via netflix instant] where she plays a woman who hides her depression and has a major breakdown. It’s an excellent performance and quite a good film. I have depression and I thought the depiction very accurate. Although depression manifests itself differently in everyone.
The rich and famous aren’t immune.
Comments Off | Celebs, Women/ feminism | Tagged: Ashley Judd, bipolar, Brooke Shields, Catherine Zeta Jones, depression, mental illness | Permalink
Posted by Amy Steele
CELEBS: Gwyneth, Scarlett stand with Planned Parenthood
April 12, 2011Congress is trying to cut federal funding for women’s health services with Title X.
According the Department of Health and Human Services:
The Title X Family Planning program ["Population Research and Voluntary Family Planning Programs" (Public Law 91-572)], was enacted in 1970 as Title X of the Public Health Service Act. Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated solely to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. The Title X program is designed to provide access to contraceptive services, supplies and information to all who want and need them. By law, priority is given to persons from low-income families.
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Posted by Amy Steele
Women’s History Month: focus on Jane Addams
March 30, 2011Jane Addams [1860-1935]
–Founder of the Settlement House Movement in the United States.
–Established Hull House in an abandoned Chicago mansion. It offered medical services, child care, legal aid, clubs, and classes to teach English, vocational skills, music, and drama.
–Elected as first president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919.
–She also founded the American Civil Liberties Union.
–Wrote several books including the well-known memoir Twenty Years at Hull House [1910]
–In 1931, she was the first American woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Posted by Amy Steele
Women’s History Month: focus on Anita Loos
March 23, 2011Anita Loos [1893-1981]—screenwriter
–born in California
–by 1919, Loos had written scripts for 200 silent films
– The New York Hat, starring Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore and directed by D. W. Griffith, was her third screenplay and the first to be produced
–Loos was one of the best paid people in the film industry in the 1920s and 1930s
–kept her name when she married a colleague in 1919
–best known for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes [1926], San Francisco [1936] and The Women [1939]
–Loos also lived in New York and wrote for Broadway–plays she wrote included Gigi [1951] and Cheri [1959]
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Posted by Amy Steele
World Poetry Day, March 21: Dorothy Parker
March 21, 2011
Men
by Dorothy Parker
They hail you as their morning star
Because you are the way you are.
If you return the sentiment,
They’ll try to make you different;
And once they have you, safe and sound,
They want to change you all around.
Your moods and ways they put a curse on;
They’d make of you another person.
They cannot let you go your gait;
They influence and educate.
They’d alter all that they admired.
They make me sick, they make me tired.
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Posted by Amy Steele
