What We Missed

By Vanessa | Published: October 14, 2010

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Essence featured a lesbian couple, Aisha and Danielle Moodie-Mills, in their wedding column for the first time in the magazine’s history. “Essence.com aims to support and celebrate Black women in all their diversity,” says their managing editor. Pic via AfterEllen.

Wow: Another disgusting, racist anti-Obama billboard shows the president as a terrorist, gangster, bandito and gay man.

Bosnia revoked the rights for Angelina Jolie to film her directorial debut film on a love story during the Bosnian war due to one disturbing report: the film is about a Muslim women falling in love with her Serbian rapist. What. The. Fuck.

Check out our latest Campus News Round-Up at Feministing Campus.

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Christine O’Donnell Compares DADT Repeal to Adultery

By Vanessa | Published: October 14, 2010

o'donnell
Pic via WaPo.

Oh man. Via Think Progress, we find that at last night’s Delaware senate debate, O’Donnell took it upon herself to explain why repealing DADT is not okay: because they don’t condone other apparently comparable sins like adultery, after all:

O’DONNELL: A federal judge recently ruled that we have to overturn Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. There are a couple of things we need to say about that. First of all, judges should not be legislating from the bench. Second of all, it’s up to the military to set the policy that the military believes is in the best interest of unit cohesiveness and military readiness. The military already regulates personal behavior in that it doesn’t allow affairs to go on within your chain of command. It does not allow it you are married to have an adulterous affair within the military. So the military already regulates personal behavior because it feels that it is in the best interest of our military readiness. I don’t think that Congress should be forcing a social agenda on to our military. I think we should leave that to the military.

I guess O’Donnell didn’t get the memo that being gay isn’t a “personal behavior.”

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NYC event: More Magazine’s Reinvention Convention

By Chloe | Published: October 14, 2010

On Monday, More Magazine is holding its annual Reinvention Convention in New York. The convention, now in its fourth year, was born out of the magazine’s “Second Acts” section, about women who had started new careers mid-life or who had revamped their lives in other ways. On Monday, there will be workshops on making over your career, improving your relationships and taking care of your health.

Best of all, friend of Feministing Deborah Siegel is speaking on a panel about writing, which I predict will be fantastic. According to More Editor Judy Coyne, the writing workshop was included by popular demand – apparently, women want to learn how to write, about issues that matter to them, about what’s going on in the world and about themselves. And there’s no better person to teach that the Siegel, the creator of SheWrites and author of this fantastic book about feminism. On Monday, Coyne will be interviewing former news correspondent Rita Cosby about her book Quiet Hero, which is about re-establishing a relationship with her long-estranged father.

The rest of the speaker line-up includes Christiane Amanpour and Pulitzer Prize-winner Anna Quindlen. If you’re in town and are inclined to spend a day “investing in yourself,” as More puts it, it’s open to the public and registration is still open. You can find out more here.

I will be live-tweeting throughout the day and blogging about the event, so if you can’t make it in person, you can read me freak out, 140 characters at a time, about seeing Amanpour, who is one of my heroines, in the flesh.

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Philly transgender woman murdered on Monday, and her name was Stacey Blahnik Lee

By Vanessa | Published: October 14, 2010

Stacey Blahnik Lee was found murdered in her Philadelphia home on Monday evening, discovered by her boyfriend returning home from work, states the police. What’s also been stated by the media is that Stacey is not really Stacey but “Stacey.”

Apparently writers at Philadelphia Daily News haven’t been doing their AP stylebook homework and used her name in quotes. What’s just as bothersome is the cherry-picked comments from neighbors on Stacey and her death were pretty shitty and objectifying as transgender women often are in the media:

One of those men, who asked not to be identified, said “Stacey” was beautiful and could pass for a woman.

“She was pretty, but if you didn’t know what time it was, you wouldn’t know what she was,” he said. “She was built . . . and she drew attention from men just walking down the street.”

The last line of the piece, always meant to give the most impact when talking about someone’s death: “‘Whatever she was – transvestite, man, woman – she didn’t deserve to die like that,’ one man said.” Um, how very kind of you to be so open-minded to denounce her death, even though she’s a “transvestite” or whatever. Is this for real?

At least it’s good to know GLAAD is pushing the newspaper for accurate reporting in this case and future cases, especially considering this happens most often when a violent crime is committed against a trans person. Folks have got to be held accountable. You can help make sure of that too.

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Happy birthday to my “feminist spotter in action”

By Chloe | Published: October 14, 2010

When I was little, my father used to do my hair for ballet class. Every Saturday morning, Mom would get up and go to ballet, and when the adult class ended it would be time for the kids’ classes to start. So while Mom was dancing, Dad would get me and my sister into our leotards and tights, and then he would do our hair and drive us to the dance studio. To this day, he can do a better ballet bun than I can.

Now I’m 22, and for the last five years I’ve lived very far from home. My parents live in Australia and I live in New York, so I get to see Dad once or twice a year. I miss him a lot. But once a week or so, an email  from him will pop into my inbox with the subject line, “Your feminist spotter in action.” The email will contain a link to a sexist news headline, an article about feminism, or a review of a new book about gender.

I’m beyond fortunate to have grown up with a man who fell in love with a Second Waver and followed her career around the world for a decade, then had me and supported me in whatever I wanted to do, whether it was dancing around like a fairy princess in pointe shoes, or pulling a complete one-eighty on that dream and becoming a feminist blogger instead. I’m lucky to have grown up with a father who lives feminism, without ever really calling it feminism, taking it as common sense and teaching me and my sister to believe that, too. And, to be honest, some days I would run out of things to blog about if it weren’t for my feminist spotter in action.

Not every blogger is lucky enough to have a one-person tip line who also happens to give the world’s best hugs. Not every young woman is lucky enough to have a parent who supports of her dreams – even the ones that involve writing blog posts with titles like “fucking while feminist” or posting photos of him dancing where thousands of people can see them.

Today is my Dad’s birthday, and since I totally forgot to get him a card on Father’s Day, I want to take this chance to wish him a very happy birthday. I love you, Dad. Keep those emails coming!

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