Feminism, Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 10/25/2009
Support Women Artists Sunday: Kissing Cousins
Kissing Cousins front-tress Heather B. Heywood grew up in the ghetto-rural outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama in the home of her step-father, a charismatic Pentecostal preacher. Most of the congregation was black and Heywood was influenced by soulful and woeful music in addition to witnessing some most confusing situations like exorcisms, speaking in tongues, and parishioners being “slain in the spirit.”
Heywood was tormented as she grew older and realized her normal life wasn’t so normal and that there were a myriad of ways of to understand life. This wounded spirituality was her muse as she fronted bands around Birmingham. Heywood relocated to LA and played guitar in a couple of bands, Map and Summer Darling.Wanting to do more than play bass for the boys, Heather founded Kissing Cousins in the …
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Creative, Feminism | Posted by Lauren M on 10/23/2009
Femininity
I am the clatter of stilettos on concrete,
The sheen of glittering clothes,
Bathrooms foggy with hairspray and perfume,
The pink ribbon tangled in your hair,
Threaded between your teeth.
I am your arms the color of the moon,
Your eyes the color of the rain,
Your shaking bones disguised by sunlight.
I lurk in the shadowy corners of the makeup aisle,
In the dark recesses of the scale,
In the hidden folds of closet and catalog.
I am the five pounds
That, if lost, would make you so much more attractive.
I am the five pounds
That, if gained, would make you so much healthier.
I am the beautiful pale boyfriends you crave,
The guilty indulgence of chocolate,
The worn pages of Cosmo and Seventeen.
I will not kiss …
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Feminism | Posted by Nellie B on 10/22/2009
It’s a Woman’s College, Not a Girl’s School
In the fall of my senior year, as I fill out the endless applications, I can look back on those endless college visits and breathe a sigh of relief at being done. No more awkward waits in reception areas with other nervous teens. No more interviews in which one must brag about superior academic, leadership and social skills. And best of all, no more tours.
I’ve been privileged enough to look at and consider several small liberal arts schools. As the archetypal teenage feminist, I tended to gravitate towards either very liberal schools or women’s colleges (the two often go together). On the tours, I stood out as the weird girl who kept asking about the libraries and double majors rather than the partying opportunities. On a memorable tour of …
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Awareness | Posted by Julie Z on 10/21/2009
Artificial Virginity?
In this nation so full of blatantly sexualized imagery, it’s hard not to feel numb when talking about sex. From the pretty graphic jokes that circulate through my high school (and, of this I’m sure, every other high school in America), to the nearly naked women routinely featured on widely available magazine covers, I haven’t been truly shocked by sex since I was pretty young.
In fact, virginity (or purity…what a truly terrible word) in this country is a burden. It’s something to get rid of. We are amazed when we hear that Tina Fey was still a virgin at the ancient age of 24, and wonder why people would ever in their right minds wait that long.
So, when I read an article describing how women in Turkey …
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Feminism | Posted by Kate S on 10/20/2009
Painting Pastel
I attend an independent boarding school with some caliber. Wait, I lied. I attend a set of schools: one for the boys, one for the girls. Students are admitted through an application process. The tuition resembles that of Ivy League schools and in return, the school offers academic, leadership, and social opportunities.
As a second-year immigrant from Korea living in a heavily Asian-immigrant-populated city, I decided to apply to this school. It seemed to have an abundant amount of diversity. I applied with my poor English and I was ecstatic to find out that I had gotten in with financial aid. But, imagine my surprise on the first day of my freshmen year. I walk into my first class and there are no y-chromosomes.
Soon, I learned that freshmen and …
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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 10/19/2009
Support Women Artists Sunday (On Monday!): Chix 6
Okay, I keep dropping the ball on Sundays. It’s mostly because that’s when I get more than 4 hours of sleep and do work for SCHOOL (not the fbomb...school…weird).
Anyway, I’ve been following this amazing new musical called Chix 6.
Their MySpace describes Chix 6 as:
A rock opera written and composed by Lourds Lane (lead singer and multi-instrumentalist from the national touring rock band, Lourds), made up of an uber-talented all-female cast of diverse singers and instrumentalists. Chronicling the journey of one self-effacing young woman and super-talented comic book artist as she struggles to get out of an abusive relationship and grow to love herself, Chix 6 features an all-star female cast of rockers hand-picked by Lane from the indie rock and roll scene in …
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Pop-Culture | Posted by Magda K on 10/17/2009
Mookychick Banned For Adult Content
Three years ago, I founded Mookychick.co.uk as an alternative online finishing school. I believed that, hey, all alternative girls are linked by curiousity, intelligence and a tiny feeling of ‘the outsider’ – somone who watches, and doesn’t always want to leap into whatever the crowd’s doing.
Alternative girls and women have more in common with each other than the various separationist labels give them credit for. By labels, I mean ‘goth’, ‘emo’, ‘burlesque’, ‘geek’, ‘kinderwhore’ and of course ‘shy girl who always sits at the back and never gets picked for the team and wishes she could figure out a way to get people to talk to her about stuff she’s actually interested in’. A feminist site? Well… I’m more than happy to classify myself as a feminist. I think …
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Feminism | Posted by Julie Z on 10/16/2009
Julie Z on Feminist Magazine Radio
Wednesday night, I was a guest on Feminist Magazine Radio! Feminist Magazine Radio is “on the air to educate, advocate, inform, and entertain through a variety of feminist lenses. We provide the tools necessary to implement feminist analysis and action via interviews, commentaries, performances, news, open dialogues and other features involving activists, intellectuals, and artists, etc.”
The link to the program is below if anybody is interested in listening. We talked about everything from Gossip Girl to Gloria Steinem, and of course the FBomb! It was very cool.
Listen here: Feminist Magazine Radio
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