Archive for category Women/ feminism
CELEBS: Gwyneth, Scarlett stand with Planned Parenthood
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on April 12, 2011
Congress 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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Women’s History Month: focus on Jane Addams
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on March 30, 2011
Jane 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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Women’s History Month: focus on Anita Loos
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on March 23, 2011
Anita 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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World Poetry Day, March 21: Dorothy Parker
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on 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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Women’s History Month: focus on Willa Cather
Posted by Amy Steele in Books, Women/ feminism on March 19, 2011
Willa Sibert Cather [1873-1947]—writer
–grew up in as part of a wealthy family in northern Virginia
–went to the University of Nebraska
–in 1891, as a freshman at the University of Nebraska, Cather writes an essay about Thomas Carlyle. It is published without her knowledge in the Nebraska State Journal in March.
–Cather becomes literary editor of the Hesperian, student publication of the University of Nebraska. She holds this position from 1892-1893. She’s then managing editor until graduation.
–worked as a reporter in Lincoln, Neb. and then in Pittsburgh
–was an arts critic
–Cather meets and begins a relationship with Isabelle McClung in 1899.
–In 1901 Cather takes a teaching job at a Pittsburgh high school and moves in with Isabelle McClung at the home of McClung’s parents.
–taught high school from 1901-1906.
–At 40, her famous novel O Pioneers was published in 1913.
–also wrote My Antonia [1918], The Song of the Lark [1915] and the Pulitzer-prize winning One of Ours [1922] among many others.
–Cather wrote about independent female protagonists in her book and included themes of frontier development and explored the idea of the small town and what it did to crush individuality.
–In 1929, Cather was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
–On April 24, 1947 — Cather dies from a cerebral hemorrhage in New York City and is buried four days later in Jaffrey, New Hampshire.
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Women’s History Month: some of my favorite films by women
Posted by Amy Steele in Film, Women/ feminism on March 16, 2011
Grace of My Heart [1996]
written and directed by Allison Anders
–Loosely based on the tumultuous rise of singer/songwriter Carole King, Grace of My Heart is a tour-de-force and one of my favorite films ever. Starring Illeana Douglas, Grace of My Heart takes viewers through the music biz from the famed Brill Building to communes and the hip 60s and beyond as one woman strives to find her own voice in a male-dominated industry.
Waitress [2007]
written and directed by Adrienne Shelly
–a charming and heart-warming film about an independent, spirited small-town woman [Keri Russell] determined to leave her abusive husband and make it big on her own.
Monsoon Wedding [2001]
directed by Mira Nair
Away from Her [2006]
written and directed by Sarah Polley
–a graceful love story about a woman with Alzheimer’s
Searching for Debra Winger [2002]
directed by Rosanna Arquette
–documentary on women in film, which includes amazing and very honest commentary from stars from Gwyneth Paltrow to Whoopi to Vanessa Redgrave to Salma Hayek to Charlotte Rampling to of course Debra Winger. It’s great that these women feel comfortable with age but sad to see the frustration and that there still is the issue of great roles for women over 30.
Broken English [2007]
Written and directed by Zoe Cassavetes
— story of Nora [formidable, immensely talented Parker Posey], a 35-year-old who seems stuck in a rut—both personally and professionally. Nora has become complacent and settled at her hotel job. She is beginning to delve into the Bell Jar after years of seeming to know what she wanted and now being at the age where she feels she should already be there.
The Namesake [2006]
directed by Mira Nair
–the story revolves around Gogol [Kal Penn], a mid-twenties architect who has been fighting against his traditional Indian family and heritage. He gets pulled back in by an unforeseen family crisis and it changes his outlook and future forever.
Bright Star [2009]
written and directed by Jane Campion
–wondrously languid, romantic and exquisitely filmed. It tells the story of the tender and tragic love affair between poet John Keats [Ben Whishaw] and his muse and love Fanny Brawne [Abbie Cornish] as told through her eyes.
Come Early Morning [2006]
written and directed by Joey Lauren Adams
–a woman [Ashley Judd] who struggles with alcoholism tries to get her life on track
Fire [1996]
Earth [1998]
Water [2005]
written and directed by Deepa Mehta
scene from Water
2 Days in Paris [2006]
written and directed by Julie Delpy
–an American and a Parisian talk a lot, fight a lot
Girlfight [2000]
written and directed by Karyn Kusama
–focus on female boxers
Somewhere [2010]
written and directed by Sofia Coppola
–a wayward actor [Stephen Dorff] and his heartfelt relationship with his daughter [Elle Fanning]
The Parking Lot Movie [2010]
directed by Meghan Eckman
–three years following the ins and outs of the attendants at a parking lot in Virginia. truly riveting. really.
SherryBaby [2006]
written and directed by Laurie Collyer
–after serving a three-year prison sentence, Sherry [Maggie Gyllenhaal] returns to New Jersey to try to re-establish family ties, including one with her daughter
The Hurt Locker [2009]
directed by Kathryn Bigelow
–heart-pounding thriller about the guys who diffuse IEDs in Iraq
The Kids Are All Right [2010]
co-written and directed by Lisa Chodolenko
–the teenage children of lesbian parents decide to contact the sperm donor and meeting him has implications on the entire family
Please Give [2010]
written and directed by Nicole Holofcener
Winter’s Bone [2010]
written by Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini
directed by Debra Granik
–a teenager [Jennifer Lawrence] searches for her father in dangerous, bleak meth-country
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poem: EARTH by Amy Steele
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on March 14, 2011
The Portrait of Maud Abrantes, by Amedeo Modigliani
cool and damp
darkness surrounds me
claustrophobia engulfs me
but I don’t care anymore
I embrace it
Feeling the emptiness
my mind aches
my heart burns
my soul dissipates
Oxygen slowly escapes
this suffocating space
How did I get dirt caked under my fingernails?
Instinct
Because long ago I resigned myself to loneliness
To heartache
To disappointment
To an early, bitter, painful death
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Women’s History Month: Focus on Jane Russell
Posted by Amy Steele in Film, Women/ feminism on March 12, 2011
Jane Russell [1921 –2011]—actress
–born in Minnesota
–she had four brothers
–in the 1930s, the family moved to San Fernando Valley, California
–Russell attended Van Nuys High School where she participated in drama and also took piano lessons
–after graduating from high school, she worked as a receptionist but also studied drama and acting with Max Reinhardt’s Theatrical Workshop
–In 1940, Howard Hughes discovered Russell and signed her to a seven-year contract
–Her film debut was 1943’s The Outlaw
–She played Calamity Jane opposite Bob Hope in The Paleface [1948] and Dorothy Shaw in the hit film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes [1953] opposite Marilyn Monroe for 20th Century Fox.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes [1953]
–to compare to actress of today, Russell was 5’9″ and her measurements were 38D-24-36
–In 1955, Russell and her first husband, former Los Angeles Rams quarterback Bob Waterfield, formed Russ-Field Productions. They produced Gentlemen Marry Brunettes [1955], The King and Four Queens [1956] starring Clark Gable and Eleanor Parker, Run for the Sun [1956] and The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown [1957].
The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown [1957]
I’m just a simple business girl. I sell a funny, phony little commodity called sex and if customers are hungry enough to buy it, I run my own factory in my own way.
–Laurel [Jane Russell]
–In 1957, Russell debuted in a successful solo nightclub act at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.
Russell remarked in 1999: Why did I quit movies? Because I was getting too old! You couldn’t go on acting in those years if you were an actress over 30.
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Women’s History Month: focus on The Shirelles
Posted by Amy Steele in Music, Women/ feminism on March 8, 2011
–originally formed in 1958 in by four friends: Shirley Owens Alston Reeves, Doris Coley Kenner Jackson, Addie “Micki” Harris McPherson, and Beverly Lee. They were all students at Passaic High School in New Jersey
–The Shirelles debuted in 1958 at New York’s famed Apollo Theater
–first major female vocal group in the 60s
–first girl group to have a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100
–crossover phenomenon with white audiences
–successful in Britain with Will You Love Me Tomorrow (1960)
listen to: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
–wrote their own songs and also provided early hits for Brill Building songwriters like Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Burt Bacharach & Hal David, and Van McCoy
–hits include: Soldier Boy; Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow; Dedicated To The One I Love; Mama Said
—The Shirelles earned three gold records and were named Best Female Group in Billboard and Cash Box for five consecutive years.
–In 1983, for the group’s 25th Anniversary, The Shirelles received a citation in the Congressional Record.
–headlined the first integrated show in Alabama
–performed for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson
–The Shirelles work for AIDS and USO fundraisers and the Mental Health Association in Passaic (NJ) County for which Beverly Lee has served on the Board of Directors.
–inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996
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Women’s History Month: focus on Pearl Buck
Posted by Amy Steele in Women/ feminism on March 4, 2011
Pearl Comfort Buck [1892-1973]
–born to Presbyterian missionaries in West Virginia
–grew up in China where her parents served
–returned to attend Randolph Woman’s College from 1910-1914
–Buck returned to China to teach and met and married American agriculturalist John Lossing Buck in 1917
–she earned her masters degree in English from Cornell and continued to teach in China from 1925-1931
–her second novel, The Good Earth [1931], earned her the Pulitzer Prize and became a play and award-winning film
— champion of civil rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, and the rights of those with disabilities
–Buck divorced in 1934 and married her publisher Richard Walsh a year later
–Buck earned the Nobel Prize for her body of work in 1938
–other books include: Pavilion of Women [1946]; Angry Wife [1969]; Imperial Woman [1956]; and Of Men and Women [1971]
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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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