Body Image, Magazines, Tyra Banks

July 31, 2008, category

Okay, so I love Tyra Banks. I have seen every episode of every season of America’s Next Top Model several times, I have seen quite a few episodes of her show and would probably see all of them if they were available online, as I don’t particularly spend much time out of my office and there’s no television in here. All things considered, I think that Tyra Banks is a feminist role model, so this isn’t an un-feminist guilty pleasure.

And with that, this is perhaps my favorite clip of Tyra–Ever.

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Day of Blogs Was a Whopping Success!

July 29, 2008, category

random acts of activism

I always end up missing some amazing news when I pull a disappearing act and this time was yet another one of those cases.

RAINN Day of Blogs took place on July 26th to the 27th to raise money for RAINN.

If you don’t know anything about RAINN, it is the rape, abuse, and Incest National Network, the nation’s largest anti-sexual assault organization and also one of America’s 100 best charities. The work RAINN does is absolutely amazing. They operate the National Sexual Assault Hotline (1.800.656.HOPE) which puts survivors and victims of sexual assault and abuse in touch with trained volunteers spanning over 1,100 local rape treatment hotlines. Since the hotline opened in 1994, RAINN has helped over 1 million people and counting. They also recently launched an online hotline, for those people who feel more comfortable opening up and talking about what is bothering them online, rather than on the phone. Their website gives survivors and friends and families of survivors information and statistics on sexual assault and healing, information on how to reach out and get help through local crisis centers near to you, how to support RAINN and also information on how to get involved yourself with sexual assault awareness and prevention.

RAINN has helped, like I said, a million people and counting and the reason why so many people support RAINN and their efforts to help survivors go on to lead fulfilling lives is because of how RAINN helps people. As a woman who has called RAINN myself when needing someone to talk to about my personal life experiences or just someone to help keep my mind off the bad stuff, just by calling RAINN, I was put in contact with my local Women’s Resource Center and it is through them that I began to heal and become a survivor, rather than a victim. It’s no wonder why RAINN has such astounding support; it’s because they care about people and want to make the world a better place.

The Day of Blogs was an amazing effort to raise money for RAINN needed to run their 24/7 hotline and online hotline, as well as to educate the public about sexual assault and prevention. Like I said, the work they do is amazing and bloggers helped spread the word about RAINN and the work they do and about sexual assault awareness through a one day blogathon! Blogging every half hour for 24 hours, these bloggers helped raise over $11,000 for RAINN, which is kick ass!

One blog in particular that I just finished reading through was the Day of Blogs by Cara over at The Curvature who raised $444 for RAINN with 17 contributors. As a devout reader of her website, I expected brilliance reading her 24 hours of posting and was not let down in the least, so I am urging everyone out there who missed The Day of Blogs, like me, to head on over to Cara’s Day of Blogs and realize why sexual assault prevention and awareness is much needed today. You rock, Cara!

If you’re a bit disheartened that you missed Day of Blogs and wish to donate to RAINN to help their efforts, you can do so right on their website.

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Super Cool New Look!

July 28, 2008, category

Menstrual Poetry

I had started a very small project a few days ago that was supposed to take about an hour or two, tops. However, because this always seems to happen at the most opportune moments, simply changing the theme here up a little bit proved to be a little more difficult than I had first anticipated.

Instead of Menstrual Poetry being the feminist/political/what-have-you blog of me, Holly, the chick who writes this stuff, I really wanted this website to be mine, as well as yours. Yes, yours!!! Menstrual Poetry could not, would not, ever ever ever survive without the support of the people who visit this site and comment. We are sadly living in a world that frowns upon our basic rights and freedoms and because of that, now is the time to truly start a revolution and get as many people as possible who have minds of their own and want to voice their opinions and concerns in a platform that will respect what you have to say. Your freedom of speech is important and must be celebrated and because of that, I really want Menstrual Poetry to come across as a platform for me to not only speak my mind, but for respectful visitors to do the same. Following this thought, I have added a great deal of links in the right hand side of the sidebar to be used as resources for all things women, violence awareness and prevention, as well as a ton of great, super awesome blogs that I read and think you should too.

So here it is, the new look with a ton of great resources and blogs and happy, happy stuff. From this point forward, I promise to update more. Promise!

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Missing My ‘Don’t Taze Me, Bro’ Moment

July 23, 2008, category

politics

It’s been way too long since I’ve had the time to sit down at the computer for more than a few minutes or haven’t been too overwhelmed with work that needed to be done for other people, so yet again, Menstrual Poetry has been neglected and for far longer than I had expected or anticipated for. To those who still visit, thank you, I love you and for those who have given up on Menstrual Poetry, well you won’t be reading this anyway so it’s all good.

I received an email last night from a friend of mine telling me that McCain was going to be doing a Town Hall Meeting only about an hour and a half away from where I live. Of course, as you can expect from a lot of the posts to grace this website, I was more than excited thinking of the possibility to be able to not only attend and see this hypocritical misogynist in person and know the truth about whatever he chose to speak about but to also ask a question of my own. Of course, this friend who had emailed me had only heard rumors that he would be in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and didn’t know exactly when this would happen and gave me the email address of someone who was spreading the word about the meeting. I emailed this person and got a response this morning and it just so happened to be a few hours before McCain was scheduled to speak and I ended up waking up to receive this email a half hour after he was supposed to go on stage. Just my luck! I missed my opportunity to see this poor excuse for a presidential candidate and I missed my opportunity to ask him a question.

I turned the television on and luckily, the local news was covering the town hall meeting so I was able to watch it on television. By the end of the meeting, I was beyond disappointed. He accepted questions from the audience and all the audience could think to ask him was about the war in Iraq, what’s going on with Israel, social security, education and No Child Left Behind and not one question on women’s rights or even women in general! I obviously needed to be at this meeting and was probably a little more disappointed than I should have been. Just watching it on television, I was yelling at the television screen more than a few times when he repeatedly contradicted himself and fed the public lies about the war and No Child Left Behind, so who knows what would have happened if I were to actually be there. Furthermore, I really wonder what would have happened if I did have the opportunity to ask a question.

After finding out about the meeting, I immediately went onto Plurk, which I am on a lot so if you want an awesome social networking site that is kind of like Twitter but actually works and is so much better, I recommend you join, and while talking with a friend of mine, calinazaret, I knew what question I wanted to ask:

Given your horrendous voting record on women’s rights, how do you expect women to be able to support you as a presidential candidate?

What was very interesting about this meeting was that he was giving people the opportunity to have a mini-debate with him. Two people had opposing views on the Iraq war and so they were able to go back and forth two or three times with McCain about his policies, what he would do if by some miracle he were elected into the presidency, and what he believes needs to be done to change what’s happening now, and thinking about my question and what McCain’s prior reactions to any question involving women’s rights, I wonder…Did I miss my ‘Don’t taze me, bro‘ moment?

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I Certainly Don’t Wanna Discuss that Issue–Birth Control or Women

July 12, 2008, category

health, reproductive rights

McCain was recently answering questions when something he hadn’t expected happened–Someone asked about the fact that many health care providers will cover Viagra but refuse to cover birth control. Apparently a man’s ability to get it up and have sex is great, just as long as the woman isn’t using birth control and exercising her right to safe sex.

Before the woman even finished asking the question, as soon as McCain heard the words birth control, he said that he certainly didn’t want to discuss that issue and hadn’t given the issue much thought at all. The woman then reminds him of the fact that he voted against a bill that would cover birth control on health care plans. The following video is of John McCain’s reaction to the question and how it took him over 2 minutes and a lot of awkward laughing to say that he had absolutely no idea how he voted, what he thinks about granting women the right to get birth control covered on their health care plans and really, that he doesn’t really give birth control or women, for that matter, much thought at all.

Glad he thinks it’s so funny.

Via Bitch Ph.D.

On a related note, I urge you to check out Feministing’s latest Friday Feminist Fuck You by Ann who covers another bill John McCain voted against because it would have benefited women and he’s a complete misogynist. But if you asked him about it, he would probably tell you he couldn’t remember.

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Fox News: Nothing But Racism, Sexism and Smears

July 12, 2008, category

2008 election, media, politics, racism, sexism

Obama As soon as Obama was even considered for the presidential candidacy, Fox had been showing their true, biased and racist colors by digging anything and everything up they could about him and when he landed the Democratic nomination, they went out in full force after him and his family. The smears against the Obama family have been so ridiculous that on Barack Obama’s website, a section titled Fight the Smears has been added specifically to fight the right wing smears that keep getting thrown into the mass media.

In addition to the smears being put out by right-wing media and being eaten up by the right-wing population, when one person runs for president, not only are they a target of the media, but so are their families and the controversy that has been going on about Michelle Obama is astounding. But what scares the crap out of me on an even bigger level is that whatever is put in the media, people will believe and not even question it.

Fox News has a long and ugly history of racism and while throwing racist remarks and stereotypes left and right out there about Michelle Obama, they have also referred to a fist bump shared between Michelle and Barack Obama (which is nothing more than say, a high-five) as a “terrorist fist jab” and after Fox apologized for that story, they then referred to her as Obama’s “Baby Mama” because apparently, they didn’t feel as if they had enough to apologize for already. But to really see the shit that Fox News will let air, take a look at this video:

According to Fox, Michelle Obama is just an angry, bitter black woman who hates America; in fact, they even go as far as to say that all black women who are on the news, on television and in the mainstream media are all angry about something.

It’s time for Fox to stop talking shit and if you agree, go sign the ‘Stop Smearing the Obamas’ petition now!

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We Know McCain=Bush, So What’s the Problem?

July 9, 2008, category

2008 election, politics

Two days ago, a 61 year old librarian was escorted from a public McCain campaign event at the Denver Center of Performing Arts in Denver, CO. What was this woman doing wrong to get her not only escorted off of city property she had every right to be on, but also served with a court date (July 23, for those interested) for trespassing? Letting everyone know that McCain=Bush; but that was already common knowledge, wasn’t it? I don’t see the problem here and just as I thought–There really wasn’t one.

As a presidential candidate who has voted with bush 95% of the time in 2007 and 100% of the time in 2008 and who had even celebrated his last birthday with George Bush himself (Did I mention this was during hurricane Katrina? You know, the disaster that John McCain had said he would have landed his plane at the nearest Air Force base to help personally but didn’t because well, he was celebrating the day of his birth with George Bush! Yeah.) anyone can see that these politicians are buddies who agree on the issues. John McCain uses Bush’s agenda in his own presidential campaign speeches and agenda, he has built his politician standing on the same elements Bush had–So while it is obvious that McCain would indeed be another Bush, what’s the problem?

This woman was spot on in the end of the video when she asked who her sign would offend. It is a warning to liberals and democrats who refuse to accept another Bush in office and it is also a positive message to republicans and conservatives who had voted for Bush themselves the first(? and second?) times anyway.

This just shows yet another thing McCain has in common with Bush, since in 2005, the White House had three activists expelled from a Denver public forum with President Bush because it was the administration’s policy “to exclude potentially disruptive guests from Bush’s appearances nationwide.”

Politicians, just taking away your first amendment rights one event at a time. Heil America!

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India Gets It

July 8, 2008, category

health, humor, reproductive rights, sex

You go to great lengths to achieve sexual pleasure and with multiple partners, so never forget the friend that can keep you happy and safe–the condom.

Used as an educational video in the Telugu language from Nrityanjali Academy, Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, this absolutely hilarious video of several men dancing and singing dressed in cardboard cutouts of condoms is used to educate and prevent against sexually transmitted infections and diseases.

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Fox News is A Lot of Things

July 5, 2008, category

media, sexism, television

Such as “a parade of propaganda” and “a festival of ignorance” and not only I think so.

Don’t you just love how as soon as someone speaks up about the amount of one-sided news Fox delivers, they immediately turn your attention to something else so it doesn’t seep into your brain and you start to believe them–Just in case the amount of “McCain is good, Obama is bad” stories and the amount of coverage on Hillary Clinton eventually all leading to sexist remarks haven’t tipped you off yet.

I personally have very, very basic cable and the only news channels I get is Fox News and Cspan, so those channels are all I have to rely on while sitting downstairs waiting for my coffee to brew and just today, the boyfriend commented on how Obama is flip flopping about everything and how McCain has stayed true to what he has been saying while fighting for the presidency all along. I looked at him, dumbfounded, and said “You know, this is Fox News so take what you hear with a grain of salt.” If you also find yourself in this situation, look up the story you’re interested in on CNN or basically any other news channel except for Fox News. You’ll thank me later, I promise.

Don’t you also love how the woman in the video is all “Uhh…But I love Fox News! I mean it, I really love you. I loooove youuuuu! Come on, please listen to me? Is that it? We’re all done? But I haven’t gotten to say how much I love Fox News yet. Oh, alright, we’re done.”

And in classic Fox News behavior, why not throw some sexism into the mix, too? Wouldn’t that be fun!? “Umm yeah, hopefully you missed that little demonstration of us ripping away someone’s free speech, here’s some sexy chicks to take your mind off of it. Remember folks, don’t hate Fox News, we show you chicks in bathing sui…I mean, dresses.”

Via Feministing.

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Sexy Nerd Girl Fanaticism

July 5, 2008, category

media, television

Nerd Girls The fanaticism surrounding “sexy nerds” is not new, however, it is more publicized and when I really got down to thinking about it, what exactly does it take to be a “sexy” nerd? And why are all of videos, blog posts and news stories I’m finding on the subject all making sure that you know that they’re talking about girls when they’re talking about intelligent people? And, as an obvious sidenote, why are they always referring to intelligent females as “girls?”

Wikipedia defines nerd girls as women who often wear eyeglasses with large lenses and thick frames, dresses unfashionably, wears her hair in unfashionable styles, is not popular, is not considered conventionally attractive, is shy and may be somewhat socially inept in groups and may be slightly overweight or notably thin.

The new sex appeal of nerdy women raises a few red flags for me. When the media refers to intelligent women as girls, I simply think that they are making light of the progress women have had over the years when it comes to earning degrees in fields most dominated by men. I say earning degrees in these fields instead of working in these fields because a recent Center for Work-Life Policy found that 52% of women who hold jobs in science and engineering fields, fields most dominated by men, leave their jobs after experiencing harassment on the job and more than half believing they needed to “act like a man” in order to succeed.

The Wikipedia definition, as it may have been true years ago and in the world of comic book and graphic novel cliches, such as Ghost World which was also turned into a movie starring Thora Birch, stereotypes in television and mostly reality television shows are alive and well, such as the nerd guy stereotypes and dumb blond, bimbo brunette stereotypes in Beauty and the Geek. Now, television reality shows are taking another turn–In the direction of nerd girls who have brains and are hot; imagine that.

There are a group of girls at Tufts University who are called The Nerd Girls and are also the subject of a new, reality television show. The girls of The Nerd Girls are engineer students who are changing the stereotype of what “nerds” of the female variety should look like. The Nerd Girls, as seen in a video done on who they are, what they do and how cool it is when they talk to men and receive an array of different responses, typically enjoy the fact that they are seen as hot chicks but know themselves that there is a lot more to them than just that and indeed, they have the intellect. But are they simply reveling in the fact that while they are attractive and while they are intelligent, are they feeding into society’s stereotypes and sexism of women? Are they contributing to this toxic way of thinking by being part of a reality television show that says “Look at these hot babes and you’re never going to guess what makes them so special!” By being surprised that women have looks and brains and making a reality show about how surprising it is that women have looks and brains, it makes me quite sad. I’m also quite glad that The Nerd Girls are engineers and not say, web designers because their website is quite hideous.

When it comes to “sexy nerd girls,” do men really find that, and everything about having a “sexy nerd” girlfriend attractive? You cannot simply put some thick, black rimmed glasses on an attractive woman and call her a “nerd.” Taking some anecdotes from my own life, how hot is it when your girlfriend wastes more time than you playing video games? How hot is it when the happiest day in a month in your girlfriend’s life is not when you made her a romantic dinner or when the two of you cuddled on the couch watching movies for hours, but when the new FireFox came out? How hot is it when you’re talking for literally 5 minutes or even more and your girlfriend looks up from her computer, the screen nothing but text documents of hundreds of lines of code and asks “Were you saying something?”

With the majority of the blogosphere and social networking sites being dominated by women, “nerd girls” are not hard to come by in the least and quite a few of them are indeed attractive; however, we have hit a road block when being tech and gadget savvy and being sexy at the same time is considered shocking. Intelligent women are attractive, so why make such a big deal about it?

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