a little red hen

Last Year, 100% of Pregnancies Were Caused by Men…

 

Earlier today I lifted the headline and You Tube video from The Blog that Ate Manhattan.  Dr. Peggy (how I wish she had been my doc when I lived in NYC) is one of my role models as a blogger and has been on the list over at the left for some time.

The balance is just right between her cooking life, recreational outdoor doings, and her POLITICS (yes, the caps go against certain rules).  In another life I too would have it together in a similar manner.  Here's her own year-end summary of 2011 in The Year in Health Blogging--plus Two Songs on a range of medical thoughts from mammograms to how to get a doctor's appointment faster.  

And a delicious recipe, slightly over the top, Summer Corn Pudding.  Another younger feminist who gives me hope.  Thanks, Dr. P. for directing attention to the group we need to hear more from--"Stand Up, Men."

 

Sandra Fluke, law student & emerging feminist leader

With all the recent downers for women's reproductive rights, the appearance of Sandra Fluke, Georgetown University law student in Washington, D.C. offers us old lady feminists hope for a better future.**

Listen to her speak to this issue which goes far beyond reproductive ones.  The blog, this black sista's page, adds more to the conversation.   We're all in agreement:  Once women and men give decision-making power to politicians on related issues--end of life choices, for example--we might as well be receiving "care" from car mechanics.

 

Did your newspaper do a "not-in-our precious pages" on this Doonesbury cartoon?  For all the people who think PDX is a progressive, modern city, here is The Oregonian on March 9, in its own words:

Gary Trudeau, in our judgment, went over the line of good taste and humor in penning a series on abortion using graphic language and images inappropriate for a comics page. 

While we rarely pull strips for taste reasons, this was a clear call for the editors of the paper and for some other papers around the country, including the Los Angeles Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

Thanks to Feminema for posting this today under the title "Please take a seat in the shaming room."   

Received my order of ten more 17% buttons from the Feminist Marjority.  If there's a Democratic woman running for the House or Senate where you live, I'd be glad to send you a button.  I only ask that you wear it ALL the time.  Amaze family, co-workers, and friends who ask what that number represents:  the percentage of women in Congress.  Still amazes me!

**Following her Congressional testimony, Sandra Fluke was added to the speakers for  "Women, Money, Power Summit and National Young Feminist Leadership Conference" in Washington, D.C., March 29 to April 2. Timely that the Feminist Majority could add her voice to those of other young leaders-- the women us old ladies count on for an improved 21st century for our daughters and granddaughters.

Last month in my Cultural Geography class at PSU, a grad student used this womanpower image, new to me, in a presentation referring  to International Women's Day, March 8.  [Thanks, Blanca]  Dating back to the early 1900s, it was observed until recently mostly in Europe.  In the U.S., the official start of Women's History month was March 1987. 

When I started working on women's history about thirty years ago, the field did not exist. People didn't think that women had a history worth knowing.  -Gerda Lerner, Women and History: The Creation of Patriarchy, 1986

 

 

 

 

Mormon feminists + LDS Church: blog marriage

Thanks to Hattie's Web for inadvertently creating this post mash-up.  She mourned how feminists might respond to women followers of Ladies against Feminism, a Christian blog "under the oversight" of a male minister. Not content with its misleading title, its true spirit hides by only using the initials LAF in its banner.  Yes, pretty funny--and sad.

The War against Women has been alive and well while some too many women think otherwise.  Why the nasty turn in the public space of Congress without complicity by women?  A Facebook friend of Feminema wants us to use our inside voices about anti-abortion efforts: 

 “I don’t like to use hyperbole like ‘war on women, “I just don’t think liberals should respond with the same overwrought language as conservatives use.”

"Battered Barbie," commentary and image,** appeared in last week's Portland State student publication.  I was about to write about it when I read Hattie's post.   Unknown to those of us outside academe (because it had not been reported), a local community college experienced a creative effort to raise awareness about domestic abuse.  According to the article, Becca Ellenbecker, a student,

"...admitted she was looking to shock and awe her audience..by using abused Barbies and dispersing them throughout the campus."

Guestbooks for student and staff responses accompanied the Barbies.  The reaction at Rock Creek Community College was "the display was going too far.”  Becca was very courageous.  The Portland State Women's Resource Center could not give the columnist a "concrete answer" about doing something similar on the PSU campus.  What images will work?

This has been my own challenge.  Unlike Becca, my choices are not dark, they're quirky--like this Bra Condom Amulet from my other blog, Knit a Condom Amulet. Does it matter, does the content skew the attention of our hoped-for audience more than the style used to craft our images? I'd once considered offering the PSU Women's Center a workshop on how to KNIT A CONDOM AMULET. The amulets started as my way to get conversation going around a difficult topic:  HIV in women over 50. Of course, the notion works for all ages.  Start with Princetonian from College Series, move on to regional

 

OSU (Oregon State U.) Condom Amulet from 2008, the one returned without comment when I entered it in a local yarn shop competition.   Or update the old Condom Amulet Zine.  Invent another for U of U (Utah).

"Mormon Feminists, LDS Church Unite"  is a headline from last week's  Salt Lake City Tribune.  And I was reminded of another case of the "F" word being applied to women with no clue to the goals promoted by second wave and first wave Feminism.  The story tells how Tresa Edmunds, "Mormon writer, activist and blogger" decided to engage the followers of the blog, Feminist Mormon Housewives, to raise money.  To help a divorced Mormon mother of three finish her final term of college.  She'd been abandoned by her LDS church's support--ended one presumes because her marriage did also.

"Terrific" you think.  Have you ever read FMH?  Few years ago I discovered it in the statistics for Knit a Condom Amulet.  They seemed interested in these.  Great.  But when I read the blog, it was unclear why. Same as reading the Tribune story is confusing about how the LDS Church supports the fund-raising for a woman whose divorce it could not condone. Made my head spin. Similar to LAF, Feminist Mornons Housewives, an apparently well-educated group, live in some universe very far away.  Tell me if you undertand the post, "13 Articles of Healthy Chastity." 

There's also a blog called Feminist Ryan Gosling:  more girls wasting time IMHO.  How will we get your attention about the War on Women unless you give up your focus on men for a minute or two?  

___________________

**"Battered Barbie," PSU Vanguard, written by Emily Lakehomer, illustration by Elizabeth Thompson.  

 

 

Don't Tell ME What To Do!

Swell way to start the day.  Read Feminema's blog, found image and followed her link to Keep Boehner Out of My Uterus where a comment led to today's Washington Post (local) article, "Women's PAC Formed Following Abortion Legislation." 

Missed Rachel Maddow Show last night or I'd have learned about that PAC in Virginia:

 

Will women in other states start a similar, bi-partisan Women's Strike Force?  The brand new group raised $10,000 in its first day of operation.

 

Alabama could use one.  Today legislation similar to the one that claimed everyone's attention in Virginia, a “State Mandated Rape” Anti-Abortion Bill , will be debated in the state senate.  The anti-choice, Republican governor of Alabama could be looking toward some challenging days ahead similar to Virginia's governor.

But it is scary that so many of these keep popping up.  The anti-abortion "Heartbeat Bill" in Ohio .  A woman state legislator, hoping to fool who [?], has sponsored  another fetal ultrasound bill under the title, "Women's Right to Know" in Pennsylvania.

There are others-- Oklahoma and Georgia.  Little of this has been covered in what I read.  Only through Google searches about "states with anti-abortion legislation" did I discover much of what's posted here. 

Most hidden and most disturbing is a bill in Congress, "District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act," pushed forward by an Arizona congressman.  Where did it come from?  It is modeled on legislation promoted by the National Right to Life organzation.  Mike DeBonis has a blog on the WaPo, that describes the bill while reminding me that D.C. needs statehood for crying out loud.

What is this? 

Women are only 17% of members in Congress.

Wearing it every day so you will ask me!

Thanks to the Feminist Majority who had the idea.

 

UPDATE 2/29/12

 

Condom Amulets Startle Knitters!

Knitters, concerned and good-natured women with a sense of the humor, contributed to an the idea I had pre-Portland, when I lived in New York.  When I finish this post, I'll contact them with the surprisng proof it worked: use provocative knitting  to raise awareness about HIV.  Like this one, The Princetonian, the first of my college amulet series.**

Knit a Condom Amulet,  the title I'd been using for a little paper zine give-away, became my second blog -- 7 amulets by 5 knitters.  It was beautifully designed by a woman in New Jersey I only knew online and the phone.

The debut post featured my friend Annette's hand adorned with Lisa Daehlin's copper wire Condom Amulet Bracelet.  It appeared Decemer One, 2007, to highlight that year's    World AIDS Day. 

 

The image at left is a screen shot of the statisitics for the blog that I check once in a while to see if it still has visitors all these years later.  After the initial outing, viewership has been low.  Once a very kinky crowd, definitely not fiber folks, were entranced by some of the content.

A couple of the amulets ---Man Thong, Bra & Breast Pouch (pink one here by Lisa Daehlin) -- are especially so.  Comments on the blog are closed; simply out there hoping to be discovered.

October 13, 2011, was the all-time big bump of  2,356 visitors, October 14 another 564, October 15, 223, the next day, 296.  And another 192 for the finale.  Five days, close to 3,000 hits on a blog that usually has 20-30 daily visitors!  Turns out this time it was by our target  group--knitters.  These were from Knitting Paradise^SM - Knitting and Crochet Forum whose membership is in the thousands.  [We also started a group on  Ravelry, an even larger online knit and crochet community.]

It began with "Deb," an active Forum member.  She linked to our site and noted, "No, I'm not kidding. Hey, someone might want one of these!"  And then the deluge.

Culturally the Forum knitters appear different from those on Ravelry but, without a rigorous study, who knows?   Judging from their photos, they are generally older women than most on Ravelry.  Many were shocked:  should this even be happening?  Some, amused.  Others thought it just might be a way to "...begin talking with my granddaughter..."  That's it, ladies!  Referring to Michelle Edwards' beaded amulets from corn silk yarn, one poster was ambivalent:

  first amulet is very pretty & COULD be used for something else...but someone might recognize it from this site. LOL   

I plan to  join Knitting Paradise (could use some extra magic with current projects on the needles) to thank "Deb" for introducing our site to her fiber friends.  Forum member "Jenna" the Ball Band Condom Amulet (Kay Gardiner design)  would be just the thing for people she knew,  "Christmas gifts  for single girlfriends,  holds at least three condoms."

In the past, when I've heard from an knit amulet enthusiast, the knitter wants   to find out if their creations could be sent to me:

"I work for the AIDS Resource Group in Evansville, IN and love your idea... inspired by  patterns and made a few amulets for the "environmentally concious" condom user out of "plarn" (plastic bags made into yarn). Is there an address that I could send them to?" 

My response is that we hoped the person's own circle would provide ideal recipients, that the primary idea behind our project was more personal:  gift someone close to you--like "Deb" and "Jenna."  You know, the personal is always political, as we used to say back in the day.

** College series includes:  Oberlin, Columbia & Oregon State Universities, send in yours for posting here.

UPDATE...On December One, 2011, an email arrived with a reminder.  Here's a poster you might copy to your own blog and a plea you can sign from The Feminist Majority.

Ask President Obama and Congress to fight AIDS with science and medicine, not ideology. Condoms must not be an afterthought.  Click on the link below to sign.

Ask US Leaders to Stop Abstinence Only Programs

 

"A Knitter's Home Companion," my snowy day read

In the last couple of days, we've experienced snow-panic in Portland.  We're too new here to know how to assess the weather.  Yesterday, when many spoke of snow coming, the sky was so pretty in the late afternoon.  Why did Bob's Red Mill cancel our Cooking with Kamut class for today?

Because it was snowing early this morning.  Just enough to be picture-worthy.  Then we heard about people living north of us who'd had to wait hours for buses struggling with serious accumulation.  By 11 a.m., what appears in the photo at the right (from my window) was gone.

But wait...early afternoon and here it comes again.  As I write, snow and sun, nothing seems to stick on the roads.  But who can tell?  A good day to think about cooking and knitting and talk about my friend's new book, "A Knitter's Home Companion: a heartwarming collection of stories, patterns, and recipes." [*updated link shows color photos not in review copy]

Michelle Edwards and I met (in the internet sense) via her knitting essays for Lion Brand's online newsletter.  Her thoughtfulness and her rounded, engaging illustrations, both evident at that link, led me to write her.  A conversation began and took several turns over the past six years.  I discovered her childrens' books, favorites of my grandchildren now, and she joined a project of mine.

But back to her new book.  When Michelle first talked to me about what she planned to write, I was intrigued--yarn and food.  But how to bring it off?  She has taken her time and produced a small book I'm glad to own and would be pleased to give as gift to another knitter--or someone who wants a recipe for potato latkes or roasted root vegetables.

When the book first arrived, I was struck by its difference from  most contemporary knitting books.  It's a bit old-fashioned,  takes time to lead the reader along the paths of Michelle's life from upstate New York to kibbutz to wife and mother of three mostly grown children in Iowa City.  Reading along, trying to be disciplined and go page by page, I was distracted by the "Good Karma Slippers."  She wrote the pattern to problem-solve for a friend who wanted to duplicate knit ones  bought in India.

Did she know I wanted something lightweight, other than bedroom slippers, to wear indoors?   Turkish cast-on and knitting in the round on two needles are new challenges.  Time to go to my local yarn place because I want these; maybe  other knitters will want to knit them too.

In one of our earliest exchanges, Michelle shared her concern about her children's learning about safe sex.  Soon after, I asked her if she would add a pattern to the Knit a Condom Amulet project.  She surprised me with her yarn,  100% Corn Silk from Iowa.  Instructions for all seven are in the blog.

If I were still living in New York, I could finally meet Michelle Edwards on March 10 at her book signing in Lion Brand Yarn Studio on West 15th Street. It's a beautiful store opened three years ago by this 130 year old company known for its community-minded owners. I'll be with her in spirit with memories of generous people in the yarn world we share connections with--Melanie Falick, publisher of "A Knitter's Home Companion," whose interest generated enthusiasm about my Knit One Red Worm and David Bluementhal of Lion Brand who gave me many skeins of red chenille for that project.

Tomorrow--snow's melted again--I'm off to get cotton bamboo for those slippers.

 

 

 

 

Legal abortion to disappear in U.S.

YOU have been sleeping, yes, snoring away as women's bodies have been commodified and contained by the dominant culture.  I'm speaking to younger women who say, "I'm not a feminist!" and celebrate fashion over substance.  It is difficult to know what to say to you as in South Dakota, in Congress, in some nearby Catholic Church the frenzy grows to control women's bodies.

Perhaps you live in Florida. 

Maybe South Dakota.

Do you really believe that your Mommies and your Grandmas will make it all better for you?  Are you so busy with your jobs that there is NO TIME to preserve what so many fought so hard to obtain?

What about your own daughters' futures?

We who have so many, many memories of that brief time when we believed our efforts could bring about permanent change were naive:  why did we think it was possible that Roe v. Wade would last.

Fran, my far less militant friend, surprised me, "The fight will never end for us."  Hearing her say what I have not allowed myself to think was a shock.  My anger has been  replaced by sadness at the futility of our efforts.

It's time for young women to prepare for the return of Jane, the underground railroad for women seeking abortions.   I could support that. 

 

 

 

Corvallis Peace Vigil reminds us...

That would be Ron and me.  Driving to Philomath, Oregon for dinner on a farm, with extra time before our 7 p.m. reservation, we made a slight detour  to visit Corvallis, home of OSU (Oregon State University).  Another new Oregon city for us; we noticed a large bookstore still open after five.

Parked the car  in front of  a beautiful courthouse** and immediately saw a station wagon filled with NO WAR signs.   We had chosen the right time--five to six every evening  different community members stand tall for a peace vigil. 

 Every day for the past nine years. 

People in cars waved, honked in a friendly way.  Were the students at OSU active in anti-war efforts?  No, we were told they are a conservative group.

As usual, we fit in age-wise: most of  us gray hairs.  Except this young engineering grad student from Saudi Arabia.  He brought a sign made for the vigilers to show support in another language.  Often they are joined by the local Veterans for Peace chapter.

One of the women had moved to Corvallis from Queens, New York, a few years ago.  She agreed that nothing like this could take place back east, especially in front of a government building like the Benton County Courthouse.  Unlike the Corvallis group who do not have to get police permission for their vigils, in NYC the smallest street gathering with a sign (not to include any holder more rigid than a cardboard tube)  requires a permit.

We talked about Grandmothers Against the War HERE and HERE with whom I had vigiled at Rockefeller Center.  Recalled with the former-Queens grandmother how each of us had stood on the steps of the 42nd Street Library with Women in Black some time in the 1990s.  I told her that their behavior code was too militant for me.  Called me out for speaking to my neighbor.  Violated their rules:  wear black, do not talk. Wearing all black was a stretch for me, not talking even more so.  As in the familiar, often misquoted (see link)  Emma Goldman sentiment, If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.

  I hung out with the women, a couple of them knitters who were surprised to learn about the prevalence of HIV in women over 50 and my other blog about the   Condom Amulets project.    Later I realized that they would have appreciated that there was an OSU amulet in the school's colors that proved too political (?) for a Portland yarn shop.

Ron stayed with the men  near the station wagon.  He learned about their rocky times as former professors at OSU.  We both did sign-hoisting and were grateful to the group for the opportunity to relieve a bit of our current-events-in-America angst on September 10. 

** Calvin Beale Senior demographer at USDA photo, one of a series of courthouses around the U.S.  

"ella," lower case contraceptive pill, tip toes here

How far did I have to go to find this picture?  To the UK where ella, the new "You have five days to take care of your unprotected sex encounter" pill    is now available.  Approved this week by the FDA as available by prescription in the U.S., none of the stories about it showed what its packaging looked like.

Call me paranoid, but this seems just another symptom of how frightened officials here are about making this breakthrough contraceptive pill available.  If you don't see it, will it go away?  Please.

In a braver time for women who demanded control over our own bodies, there's  this heartbreaking pin in my jewelry box.  Every now and then it appears on my shirt.  Probably has no meaning for women with no memory of time before Roe v. Wade.   Each time I look at it, I feel the sadness of my own experience and exasperation about the unwon battle for reproductive justice.  A recent find of a hangar slipcover left from our son's wedding in New Orleans (the year before Katrina) moved me to think about writing a post, "Meditation on a Hangar." But celebrating ella is more upbeat and hopeful for the future of my grandchildren.

My English friend Gillian who lived downstairs in my 4th apartment in Manhattan in two-year span and the one I returned to after my own illegal 1957 abortion, would  entertain as she described the dime store wedding band almost slipping off her ring finger during her visit to the NYC Planned Parenthood (link not historical indicates the ongoing struggle).  Why were we laughing?  We had cried so many times.

That was New York City in the 1950s when the only way a woman could get a diaphragm was visit to a gynecologist for a prescription.  Expensive.  The cheaper alternative was PP.  Gillian developed a complicated story for the doctor there.  At the time, the gyn would ask the patient supplicant to see if she could use the device properly.  And so the ring began to slip.  Her story became more hilarious when she returned to PP for a new diaphragm the following year and saw the same woman doctor who remembered her.  Gillian was seriously challenged to update her marital story.

All this to say, I wish the organizations that support CHOICE would spend some of our support bucks on powerful imagery.  Then get a couple of those "girls" on the TV show "Mad Men" to appear in national advertising with one on their breasts. From what I can see here of the ella pill, that would be a fine design, surrounded by the message, "Five days to Choice."  Sure, you can think up a better one but will the orgs listen to old ladies?

UPDATE:  The one place that gets my money in this never-ending struggle is the Center for Reproductive Rights.  Check their site for all their important legal work that could use your support .

Emma Goldman-- reassurance, 1917... a question, 1919

 

Keep the spark of liberty alive,

the night cannot last forever.

A bookmark from The Emma Goldman Papers, University of California, Berkeley.  On the reverse side, a contemporary message about the importance of remembering our history of struggle,  "Stirring the embers of the past to inspire the future. 

Emma Goldman (1869-1940) and Alexander Berkman in a "Farewell, [to] Friends and Comrades," wrote this line before serving almost two years in prison for opposing the conscription of young men into the First World War.

Partial to her feisty spirit, I once bought a 1916 issue of Emma's publication, Mother Earth News.  It includes a reminder of the upcoming "Mother Earth Ball" to celebrate the publication's 11th anniversary (Admission 35 cents, Hat Check, 15 cents). Somewhere in my photos, there's one of me standing in front of a brownstone where she lived near Union Square in New York City. 

In the Portland Red Guide, I learn she came here in 1915 to speak, was arrested for distributing birth control information. A Portland Circuit Judge dismissed the case with the words, "There is too much tendency to prudery nowadays."  She also spoke at the Portland Public Library on "The Sham of Culture." A local blogger last year named her Portland's Fairy Godmother. Her spirit lives on!

A few years ago, the bookmark on the right arrived in the mail.  I've saved it for its message and its different, gentler view of Emma--feminist, anarchist, immigrant--to share among ourselves.  In these days when it often feels as if the forces of evil have taken over reasonableness, I offer her words to recall that we have survived narrowness of thought in earlier times.  Her message, as always, is pertinent to 2010.

"Sooner or later the American people are going to wake up.  --Emma Goldman, Detroit, Michigan, 11/26/1919, on deportation to Russia" reads a cup (mug)  on my kitchen counter.  Make sure you click on this image from her  1901 arrest, a frequent happening.

Celebrate her birthday on June 27, with a contribution to the Papers so you too can be a part of the ongoing effort to write women back into history.