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Feminism at its Finest: March 2008

March 31, 2008 · Filed Under Feminism at its Finest ·  

blog carnival Welcome to Feminism at its Finest, March 2008 edition. This is by far the largest edition we have had to date and I am very excited for this carnival to keep building awareness and momentum. So let’s get to the submissions.

Blue presents Hotties On TV Sell Get Rich Scams, a post talking about an infomercial that I have seen on some lazy late nights that used women who are depicted as brainless and naive while objectifying women and using the “sex sells” mentality and sadly, they are selling to millions of people using this mentality. This post can be seen at Money Blue Book.

Carol presents What Kind of Feminist Am I? posted at Can’t Holder Tongue.

Christine presents Is Marriage Outdated?, which starts off with:

“The marriage ritual is Anglo-Saxon in nature and archaic in today’s society. Marriage for tax break reasons is not a very romantic notion nor should it be a reason for two people to stay together.”

Posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France.
She also presents Think Before You Vote,posted at Me, My Kid and Life.

Clever Elsie presents a few posts, first off we have “Marry Him” by Lori Gottlieb: A Singletude Response and How Single Men Make Women Settle, which is a followup on the “Marry Him” post about how Lori Gottlieb says that women settle, but men don’t have to and Commit to Yourself, a great post on a tongue in cheek idea of self-commitment parties, which I find to be a refreshing new look on being a happy single. All of these posts can be seen at Singletude: A Positive Blog for Singles.

Edith presents How to Succeed Without Being a Man, an interview with Kerrie Halmi, posted at Edith Yeung.

Greg Laden presents Board Room Gender Gap posted at Greg Laden’s Blog.

Katie presents Powerful Speech: Suggestions For Feminist Media, saying:

“This lets feminist media makers (like we bloggers!) one of the most useful things we can do right now (and, I suppose, forever?) to end sexual/gendered violence against a huge population of women.”

This post can be seen at Brown Femi Power.

Lori Jewett presents Ending Violence Against Women, saying:

“Strong, confident women everywhere are making themselves heard, but violence against women still threatens us. Learn more about women’s struggles against this plague of violence and what you can do to help.”

She also presents Coming Together for Change, saying:

“What the world needs now…is a woman in the White House. Rational, compassionate thinking, the ability to bring people together, the creation of consensus, real change…isn’t it about time?”

These posts can be seen over at Between Us Girls.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Hysterical Lefty Bloggers Whine For Clinton To Leave Obama Alone, a great limerick, as well as Ode To Eliot Spitzer, posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.

Marcella Chester presents Socialization Which Sets Up Sex Predator/Passive Victim Model posted at abyss2hope.

Tina Su presents A Gift That Wows!, saying that the best gifts we can give another person are appreciation and open communication, posted at Think Simple. Be Decisive.

Tracee Sioux presents a few posts, Girl Characters and Geena Davis, saying:

“Girl characters are outnumbered 3 to 1. Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media is trying to change that. A look at some studies and what you can do to help.”

Posted at So Sioux Me.
She also presents Mood Shaper, a post on how a full-body girdle made her feel about herself, including adjectives such as angry, moody, irritable, cramped, shoved in, judged, restricted, oppressed, repressed, hostile, wrong, fat, unacceptable, picked apart, flawed, pinched, unworthy, squished and frustrated, as well as Stop Abortion Vote Healthcare!, saying:

“With healthcare for disenfranchised women on the table we have an unprecidented opportunity to drastically reduce the abortion rate without criminalizing women in poverty.”

These posts can be seen at Blog Fabulous.

And that’s it for this edition! Make sure to submit your feminist posts for next month, which will be up on Wednesday, April 30.

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Instant Messages and Life-Long Friends

January 20, 2008 · Filed Under Society ·  

internet friends We meet a variety of different people online. With the recent hype of social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook, we certainly have the pipelines and capability to connect with thousands, perhaps even millions of different people from all around the world. The problem with the internet, in many cases, is that the people you connect with so closely online start to become real to you. While yes, they are real people, the question most often asked when it comes to “online friends” is do you really know them?

In many cases, if you’ve been communicating with someone long enough on the internet, you start to refer to them as your closest friends, the people you can go to when you just need to get things happening in your life off your chest; sometimes they even become your safe haven. In the same sense, these people become as important to you as the people you see on a regular basis, go shopping with, and other friend-like activities; and on that note, it’s as confusing when someone you’ve spoken to online for years springs the friend breakup on you.

Lines that would most resemble cliche breakup lines are all of a sudden sprung on you. Lines such as “It’s not you, it’s me,” or in many cases because of people who refuse to let go of personal pride and what is most often true in a traditional relationship breakup, “It’s not me, it’s you.” And for what, really? Because you couldn’t instant message them as often as you would have liked? Because that person feels as if you don’t have much in common anymore because you may focus on your personal life, career, family, or your need to pay the bills more often than you may be able to sign onto AIM?

But I suppose that is the difference between the “online friends” you acquire in your time on the internet and the ones who you see on a regular basis or have been your friends for quite a long time. The first feel as if you don’t have much to talk about anymore and in turn, stop all contact and feed you overdone lines while the latter grow with you, understand you, go through life with you.

This really raises the question–Do we grow apart from our friends or do we simply grow while we know our friends are always going to be there for us? My guess is that while it should be the latter, it not always is and that is unfortunate.

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