Thursday, March 31, 2011

Power from within

Last night at the Mary Daly discussion group at the Church of the Open Arms, part of our discussion involved pagan and goddess spirituality.

Later, I was working on finding information for a library science class online discussion about power and information. The definition of power used in the textbook seems to be all about power-over, but I know that among feminists there is also the concept of power-from-within, power that heals, achieves, nurtures, and cooperates, power that is so powerful that it does not need to dominate.

While I was searching, I ran across this biography of Starhawk and was reminded of the discussion we'd had earlier.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.  Live streaming of commemorative events can be viewed here.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A piece of women's history

I found this video on YouTube, showing a newscast of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp right before Christmas 1982:

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The story of the Feminist Peace Network

Feminist Peace Network is consistently one of my favorite blogs. As part of FPN's celebration of Women's History Month, this post shares the story of FPN's founding as it appeared in an article published in 2003 in Expository Magazine.

Feminist artist Lucinda Marshall founded FPN in the sad and confusing days following the terrorist attacks on the US in September 2001 and the invasion of Afghanistan shortly thereafter. A few months later, Marshall visited an FPN member in Washington, DC. After eating dinner in a restaurant one night, they realized that neither one felt safe walking to their separate destinations. This brought the realization that all of the mainstream news coverage about "terrorism" ignored the terrorism against women that goes ignored day after day. FPN's Statement of Conscience was the result.

Feminist Peace Network also has a Facebook page, and Lucinda Marshall has another wonderful feminist blog at Reclaiming Medusa.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

After everything we discussed last night, some good news

The effort to defund Planned Parenthood is faltering according to National Partnership for Women & Families. Even some conservatives are starting to recognize that cutting family planning, cancer screening, and HIV prevention services to poor women is a bad idea. For instance:
Mark McKinnon, a former adviser to former presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), wrote in a Daily Beast column that the proposal to cut funding for Planned Parenthood is "shortsighted political posturing," adding, "It's overreaching, and it's why Republicans get a bad name with many independent voters and women. ... Republicans would be well advised to keep their focus on real economic issues that have impact, like entitlement reform."
Entitlement "reform" is just one more trick to take funding away from important programs like Social Security. But if some conservatives are getting a clue that cutting services for poor women is a bad idea, that is a good thing.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Happy International Women's Day!

I don't think that I'm the only woman in our discussion group who has been inspired by the democratic uprisings taking place in the Middle East and North Africa. Here are some feminist links related to that situation:

A few days ago, Naomi Wolf's opinion piece on The Middle East feminist revolution was posted by Al Jazeera English. Al Jazeera also has a feature on Women of the revolution.

Truthout has cross-posted an article from Ms. on the role of  women in the uprising in Bahrain.

Back in February Democracy Now! posted an inspiring interview with Nawal El Saadawi. And finally, while it's not specifically about the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, here is Democracy Now's feature on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day:

Friday, March 4, 2011

Where to find it

I keep thinking back to the discussion we had at the Mary Daly discussion group this past Wednesday, and thinking how great it was. We talked about local politics, about whether male (and female) behavior is biologically caused or socially conditioned, and about activism. It was much better in real life than the way I've been able to describe it.

Anyway, one question that came up was whether there is a place to find posts about local activist events of all kinds. And the answer is, at least in theory, yes. It's called Oklahoma Citizen, and they have an events listing here. You might also want to check out the Oklahoma Women's Network Blog.