Archive for category Women/ feminism
Women’s History Month: focus on 1930s
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on March 24, 2010
Frances Marion
1930–screenwriter Frances Marion wins her first Academy Award for The Big House
1933–actress Katherine Hepburn wins her first Academy Award for Morning Glory
1934–jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald wins talent contest at Apollo Theatre in Harlem
1934–actress Rosalind Russell debuts onscreen
1935–poet Muriel Ruheyser wins Yale Series of Younger Poets award for Theory of Flight
1935–Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder gets published
1936–entrepreneur Margaret Rudkin starts Pepperidge Farm bakeries
1937–author Margaret Mitchell wins Pulitzer Prize for Gone with the Wind
1938–author Pearl S. Buck wins the Nobel Prize for literature for The Good Earth and also received the Pulitzer Prize in 1932
1939–photographer Berenice Abbott earns four patents for photographic devices
1939–Grandma Moses exhibits paintings at the Museum of Modern Art
painting by Grandma Moses
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Women’s History Month: focus on Beatrix Jones Farrand and Ella Fitzgerald
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on March 22, 2010
Beatrix Jones Farrand [1872-1959]—landscape architect
–niece of Edith Wharton
–grew up in New York society during the Gilded Age
–studied with landscape architect who designed Boston’s Arnold Arboretum
–started taking gardening commissions in 1897 and worked for J.P. Morgan, Abby Rockefeller, Princeton, Yale and Vassar
–designed Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. [If you’ve never been, go. It’s magnificent.]
–co-founded [with Wharton friend Frederick Law Olmstead] American Society of Landscape Architects in 1899
–in 1913, married Yale historian Max Farrand
–honored with the Garden Club of American Medal of Achievement in 1947
Ella Fitzgerald [1918-1996 ]—jazz singer
–grew up in New York orphanage for blacks
–at 16, performed at Harlem’s Apollo Theater
–sang works by George Gershwin and Irving Berlin
–recorded with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington
–youngest person admitted to American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers in 1943
–in 1947, married and kept her name, adopted a child
–she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums
–awarded National Medal of the Arts by the White House in 1987
official website
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Women’s History Month: focus on 1920s
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on March 19, 2010
And in the deep night
I felt my mother rise,
And stare down upon me
With love in her eyes.
I saw my mother sitting
On the one good chair,
A light falling on her
From I couldn’t tell where.
Looking nineteen,
And not a day older,
And the harp with a woman’s head
Leaned against her shoulder.
Her thin fingers, moving
In the thin, tall strings,
Were weav-weav-weaving
Wonderful things.
Many bright threads,
From where I couldn’t see,
Were running through the harp-strings
Rapidly,
And gold threads whistling
Through my mother’s hand.
I saw the web grow,
And the pattern expand.
— from The Ballad of the Harp Weaver by Edna St. Vincent Millay
1920–Edith Wharton– first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, Age of Innocence
1921—Fanny Brice– becomes Broadway star in Ziegfeld Follies
1922—Emily Post– published first edition of etiquette book
1923—Edna St. Vincent Millay– first American woman to win Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, The Ballad of the Harp Weaver
1924—Edna Ferber– wins a Pultizer Prize for So Big
1925—Carole Lombard– has first starring role in a film, Love Before Breakfast
1927—Martha Graham– founds the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York
1927—Dorothy Parker– becomes staffer at New Yorker
source: Herstory by Charlotte S. Waisman and Jill s. Tietjen
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Women’s History Month: focus on Georgia O’Keefe and Zora Neale Hurston
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on March 16, 2010
Georgia O'Keefe, photo by Ansel Adams
Georgia O’Keefe [1887-1986]– artist
–most known for pictures of flowers influenced by her time spent in New Mexico: particularly red poppies
–studied at Art Institute of Chicago and Art Student’s League of New York
–worked in advertising and teaching until 1916
–photographer Alfred Stieglitz, with whom she had a three-decade open marriage beginning in 1924, arranged O’Keefe’s first art showing in New York
Oriental Poppies
–after Stieglitz died in 1946, O’Keefe moved to New Mexico permanently [she had been visiting since 1929]
–between 1946 and 1971, O’Keefe mounted major expos at national galleries. She got elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1969 and received the Medal of Freedom in 1977
–O’Keefe painted into her nineties
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston [1901-1960]—author
–grew up in all-black community of Eatonville, Fl
–Hurston attended Howard University and then won a scholarship to Barnard College [she was the first black woman to attend]
–At Barnard, Hurston developed literary connections in New York and garnered an interest in recording folklore by studying anthropology. After graduation, she collected folk stories from the American South, the Caribbean, and Honduras.
–Hurston wrote plays and novels
–her best known novel is Their Eyes Were Watching God [1937]
–other works:
Jonah’s Gourd Vine [1934]
Mules and Men [1935]
Moses, Man of the Mountain [1939]
Seraph on the Suwanee [1948]
Mules and Men (folklore collection)
Tell My Horse [study of Caribbean Voodoo practices, 1939]
Dust Tracks on a Road [autobiography1942]
–accused of sexual abuse in the late 40s, although in Honduras at the time, Hurston never recovered from the scandal and lived quietly and with little funds in Florida
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Women’s History Month: Great memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies
Posted by Amy Steele in Books, Women/ feminism on March 13, 2010
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In the realm: female condoms
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on March 11, 2010
As a feminist, I look at the entertainment world with an undeniably feminist perspective.
I had a site where I could discuss more serious/ non-entertainment issues [such as female condoms] but as I discontinued that site, I have to cover some women’s issues here.
Of course sex is well within the realm of entertainment.
Always ahead of us with sex and drugs but fortunately NOT rock n’ roll, female condoms [FC] have been available in Europe since 1992. Our FDA approved the FC in 1993. I was two years out of college and still hadn’t had sex at that time.
Of course I’ve heard about the female condom but I’ve only bought male condoms at CVS [but I’m going to check]. Just as I have a standing script for Emergency Contraception [EC] aka the morning after pill, I feel I should check out FC especially as its in the news lately. Newsweek recently reported that the female condom is “better.” I didn’t like the quote in the piece where a woman compared the FC to “two sandwich baggies rubbing together.” Sexy time for sure.
U.S. Health officials are pushing the use of the female condom and it makes sense. I’m single and 40 and before sex, many guys have thought that a condom would not be needed. Right. I do not think so and therefore always carry condoms with me.
The FC look a lot like the cup things that I tried to use for my period but I just didn’t like it all that much. I’m not sure I’m a huge fan of putting latex inside my vagina when I don’t want to keep a tampon up there for hours on end either.
I will admit that I’d be more likely to try female condoms if the names weren’t so feminine and lame: Reality, Femidom, Dominique, Femy, Myfemy, Protectiv’ and Care. C’mon! On the other hand condoms are from Durex and Trojan. Disparity? Of course!
More information on female condoms at Planned Parenthood and AVERT.
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Women’s History Month: Focus on Clara Bow and Frances Hodgson Burnett
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on March 9, 2010
Clara Bow [1905-1965] – silent screen star
–Grew up in Brooklyn.
–Made a dozen films within first year of being signed in 1923.
–Embodied that flapper, “IT Girl” style—The “Clara Bow haircut” emulated by many women.
–By 1933, Bow’s career had ended [her Brooklyn accent may have prevented her transition to the now popular “talkies”].
–Spent the rest of her life in Nevada and Los Angeles.
Frances Hodgson Burnett [1849-1924] – author
–After her father’s death, Hodgson’s family emigrated to Virginia from England during the last year of the Civil War.
–Though uneducated, Hodgson started to make money selling stories to magazines.
–In 1873, Frances married Dr. Swan Burnett.
—That Lass o’ Lowrie’s was published in 1877.
–In 1886 she published Little Lord Fauntleroy.
–Best known for two of my favorite children’s books:
A Little Princess [1905]
The Secret Garden [1911]
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International Women’s Day
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on March 8, 2010
One of the things about equality is not just that you be treated equally to a man, but that you treat yourself equally to the way you treat a man.
–Marlo Thomas, actress/activist
According to the U.S. Census:
MORE WOMEN IN U.S. THAN MEN.
155.8 million females in the United States as of Oct. 1, 2009. The number of males was 151.8 million.
WOMEN ARE MORE EDUCATED THAN MEN.
29.4 million women 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more education in 2008, higher than the corresponding number for men (28.4 million). Women had a larger share of high school diplomas, as well as associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees. More men than women had a professional or doctoral degree.
WOMEN MAKE LESS MONEY THAN MEN.
$35,745= The median annual earnings of women 15 or older who worked year-round, full time, in 2008, down from $36,451 in 2007 (after adjusting for inflation). Women earned 77 cents for every $1 earned by men.
MORE WOMEN VOTE, YET ARE LESS REPRESENTED IN CONGRESS.
66% of female citizens 18 and older who reported voting in the 2008 Presidential election. Sixty-two percent of their male counterparts cast a ballot. Additionally, 73 percent of female citizens reported being registered to vote.
from The Center for Women in Politics:
Women hold 90, or 16.8%, of the 535 seats in the 111th US Congress – 17, or 17.0%, of the 100 seats in the Senate and 73, or 16.8%, of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives.
72 women hold statewide elective executive offices across the country; women hold 22.9% of the 315 available positions. Among these women, 50 are Democrats, 21 are Republicans, one is an independent, and 1 was elected in a nonpartisan race.
INTERESTING PIECES TO READ:
Woman in Saudi Arabia sentenced to 300 lashes and 1 ½ years in jail for appearing in public without a male chaperone.
Business Week
Nicholas Kristof
New York Times
Childhood marriage
The Woman Behind “My Sharona”
NPR
Women’s Lives at the Heart of Our Collection of Programmes
BBC
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Women’s History Month: re-Focus on Kathryn Bigelow
Posted by Amy Steele in Film, Women/ feminism on March 8, 2010
Kathryn Bigelow (1951- ]
Bigelow and Streisand
–First woman to win Academy Award for Best Director [only four women have been nominated in 81 years]for The Hurt Locker.
–She is the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures. In addition, Kathryn Bigelow won Best Film and Best Director at the 2010 British Academy Film Awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe.
–Bigelow was born in San Carlos, California and is an only child.
–She was a painter and had a fellowship at the Whitney Museum in New York.
–Bigelow earned a masters degree from Columbia University, where she studied film theory and criticism.
Filmography:
1982 The Loveless
1983 Born in Flames
1987 Near Dark
1990 Blue Steel
1991 Point Break
1995 Strange Days
2000 The Weight of Water
2002 K-19: The Widowmaker
2008 The Hurt Locker — winner of Best Picture, Academy Awards
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Women’s History Month: Focus on Mary Cassatt and Sarah Caldwell
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on March 5, 2010
Mary Cassatt [1844-1926]
–Cassatt lived most of her life in France although she has been credited as the first American woman artist to achieve success.
–She grew up in a wealthy family in the Philadelphia area and had the means to travel.
–She studied for a short time at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts but soon decided to move to Paris in 1866 where Edgar Degas became her primary supporter.
–Cassatt became part of the French impressionist artists of the time.
–Her exhibit for the Society of American Artists became the first impressionism Americans had seen.
–After the 1880s, Cassatt began painting mother and child themed paintings, veering away from the impressionists. She is best known for those paintings today.
Sarah Caldwell [1924-2006]
–Caldwell grew up in Arkansas. A child musical prodigy, she gave public performances on the violin by the time she was ten years old. She also graduated from high school at age 14.
–In 1944, Caldwell graduated from Hendrix College and soon moved to Boston to study at the New England Conservatory of Music.
–Caldwell became head of the Boston University opera workshop in 1952 and started the Boston Opera Group in 1957 [that became the Opera Company of Boston].
–In Boston, Caldwell conducted and/or stage directed included La voyage de la lune, Othello, Command Performance, Manon and Faust, Intolleranza, Hippolyte et Aricie [U.S. stage premiere, with Placido Domingo] Norma [with Beverly Sills]
— In 1976, Caldwell became the first female conductor at the Metropolitan Opera.
–She was also a leader of the 1970’s feminist movement.
I’m getting most of my information on these women for Women’s History Month from
American Women’s History by Doris Weatherford
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About Me
covering mostly music and books. focus on alternative/indie and women in music, literature and the arts. feminist. vegan. mostly alternative, a bit bohemian. Masters in journalism from Boston University. BA from Simmons College.
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