CWLU Herstory Blog

Anyone who has ever had a conversation with a know-it-all knows how flustering and frustrating that can be. But somehow, the know-it-all man comes equipped his own special brand of arrogance and aggravation.

In her blog post entitled "Men Explain Things to Me" over at AlterNet , Rebecca Solnit relates her experiences with men who hold forth with great authority on subjects that they know nothing about.

Rebecca Solnit writes with an irony so wry that you don't know whether to laugh or cry, or as the old blues song counsels, laugh...just to keep from crying. But she takes it deeper than a few anecdotes about everyday sexism.

Every woman knows what I'm talking about. It's the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field; that keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men's unsupported overconfidence. -- from Men Explain Things to Me

She then goes on to show how this silencing of women's voices and women's perceptions has had catastrophic effects on human society.

Her thoughts provoked a large number of reader responses including a lot of angry rebuttals from angry men. Predictably, the women who disagreed with some of her points provided more nuanced and more thoughtful disagreements.

Feministing.com is a bold brash feminist blog site where many women and some men start their day by reading the articles and opinion pieces and then posting their comments.

The youngish organizers of Feministing represent a generation of women who are fighting the complex 21st century battle for gender equality. They are web-savvy, very smart and refreshingly outspoken.

Now they are trying to create network of likeminded groups through an online initiative called the Feministing Alliance.

According to Feministing.com:

Feministing has partnered with Meetup to form a Meetup Alliance - a tool that will help feminists all over the country meet and organize in person. Here's the cool part: it's all up to you, dear readers, to get this shit moving!

If you want to start up a feminist group in your area, or if you want to promote your existing local feminist group, this is your chance! Our new Feministing Meetup Alliance will act as a kind of umbrella for organizers of local feminist Meetups - connecting feminists who want to meet, talk and even organize.

As part of its Women's History Month celebration the Chicago History Museum will feature a program on March 6th called "Women On The Move: We Can Do It!" Among the presenters will be Suzanne Davenport of the CWLU Herstory Project . Suzanne was active in the Chicago Women's Liberation Union and has been a film maker and educational reformer.

Suzanne will be joined by Mary Ann Johnson of the Chicago Area Women's History Council and other presenters.

Thursday, March 6, 6:30–8:00 p.m.
Chicago History Museum
1601 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60614
312.642.4600

Visit the museum website for more info.

Faculty from nine universities and colleges will hold the largest ever conference on black and Latina/o sexuality on April 11-12 at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "Race, Sex, Power: New Movements in Black and Latina/o Sexualities," the culmination of more than two years of planning, will bring together academics, activists, and artists to address topics ranging from intimacy and desire to HIV/AIDS and teen pregnancy to humor and Hip Hop.

Organizer Cathy Cohen, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, calls the conference "a bold effort to rethink what sexuality means for the two largest racial minorities in the US." Dr. Jocelyn Elders, the former United States Surgeon General appointed by President Clinton, will open the conference on Friday morning, April 11.

One of the hallmarks of this conference, Cohen stresses, is its emphasis on collaboration and inclusiveness. The complex coordination of nine institutions permitted organizers to draw on a pool of expertise that no one college or university could hope to contain. The unusual blend of research, activism, and art encourages all participants to think outside their personal assumptions and the conventions of their fields.

Finally, the organizers hope to draw an audience of specialists and non-specialists alike. Asencio reminds us that knowledge about sexuality is hardly confined to those who make a profession of its study. Everyone, Asencio argues, is engaged in a critique of current sexual conventions. The conference is simply the space where such knowledge can be shared, rethought, and transformed.

LOCATION: UIC FORUM, 725 W. Roosevelt Rd., Chicago, IL



SPONSORING UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES:

Chicago State University
Columbia College Chicago
DePaul University

The Graduate Center, CUNY
Northwestern University
Roosevelt University
University of Chicago
University of Connecticut at Storrs
University of Illinois, Chicago



Conference Website

 

When did feminism become the "F" word in todays modern world? Film maker Therese Schecter tries to answer that question in her movie, 'I was a Teenage Feminist". Armed with interviews and music by Ani DiFranco, Gina Young, Moxie Starpark and Helen Reddy, the film has earned great reviews from Bitch Magazine, Yahoo Movies, Educational Media Review and our good friend Paula Kamen.

To view the entire film online, please visit Free Speech TV. For more info on how to purchase the film or to arrange a showing, please visit Trixie Films.

You can watch a preview clip below:

The Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls is a place where 8-18 year olds come from all over the country to learn Rock DIY-style--forming bands, writing songs and building community, and “Girls Rock !” is the movie about their journey.

Film makers Arne Johnson and Shane King have put together a story that focuses on 4 girls at the camp learning how to be the people they really are as they make a whole lot of joyful noise.

The film opens in Chicago at the Music Box Theater at 3733 North Southport.

Join the National Organization for Women Foundation, National Council of Negro Women, and the Institute for Women's Policy Research for the 2008 Summit on Economic Justice for Women, April 11-12 in Atlanta, Georgia. The summit is dedicated to "Bringing Together Research and Advocacy--from Local to Global--to Advance Economic Justice and Empowerment for Women"

Don't miss the reduced early registration fee. Make your plans now to join with grassroots activists, researchers, and academics to address the critical economic issues facing women in the U.S. and abroad.

Goals for this unique conference include expanding the body of knowledge on critical economic issues; increasing our understanding of the global economic challenges women face; building and strengthening alliances in the economic justice movement; developing recommendations and strategies for enhancing women's economic empowerment; and informing policies globally and locally, including helping to shape the 2008 U.S. presidential election debate.

Submit a workshop or research paper. Workshops will blend research and grassroots action, offering participants an opportunity to hear from experts and apply action strategies to address economic inequality. The deadline to submit a proposal is Feb. 15.

If your chapter or organization would like to be a sponsor, exhibitor or advertiser, learn more online or contact us by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or phone at 202-628-8669, ext. 117.

Some of you may remember when the Herstory Project was contacted about being on the ABC TV show Wife Swap, when moms get to change families. They wanted a "feminist" and we politely ignored them.

Well apparently they found their feminist if the season premiere is any indication. For the terminally curious, you can see a preview here. It's feminist mom vrs. spoiled teenage beauty pageant princess.

Oh joy.

I'm reminded of what Gandhi once said about Western Civilization,"I think it would be a good idea."

Beyondmedia Education is embroiled in a censorship battle with Chicago Public Television station WTTW over their refusal to air the documentary Turning a Corner. This video recently won the Chicago Reporter’s John A. McDermott Documentary (short) Film Competition. As part of the award, Turning a Corner was to be screened on WTTW’s Image Union program. The station is refusing to air the video, citing its sensitive subject matter.

Turning a Corner tells the personal stories of women formerly involved in the sex trade in Chicago – through their own voices – and follows their efforts to raise public awareness and promote legislative reforms.

 

If you are working in the fields of human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, and water sustainablity, PulseWire welcomes you to their founding online community.

Here, any woman with access to a basic computer, and eventually a cell phone, can speak her truth, ask for what she needs and share her solutions through pictures, audio, video and the written word.

Please visit Pulsewire to learn more.