Women's Equality Forum

Just a quick jubilant heads-up that my post for The National Council for Research on Women's blog The Real Deal was quoted in Linda Basch's article over at The Huffington Post!

Check out the whole forum here (and comment!) and you can find my post here. A little excerpt:

I don’t know much about politics, but I do know a little bit about equality. And I know that right now the two terms don’t really mix. Still, I have this fantasy about the American political system, and I can’t decided if it’s more disheartening to think that it’s still a fantasy or more frustrating to realize that some people don’t see a problem. Is it too much to ask for a political stage on which candidates are challenged based on the strength of their ideas, not the strength of their jump shot; where debates are waged over the economy and health care instead of necklines, pant length and shirtsleeves? Is it so difficult to imagine a female politician holding political office without first weighing the advantages and disadvantages of having a woman in power? When we consider each new candidate, the question shouldn’t be, “Is this woman right for the job?” but “is this person right for the job?” After all, do we often consider the merits of a male politician’s manhood?

Check it out!

"The Streep Effect": Meryl Streep and Economics

In another of my series of posts wherein I throw short little tidbits at you to cover for the fact that I'm not really posting these days (it's a temporary hiatus, I promise!) due to my dissertation (oh, that old thing?), here's a great article from The Independent, which I found, as I often do, browsing Women and Hollywood.

The article, "The Streep effect: Why economists love her," expounds on Meryl Streep's recent "career renaissance," and then tracks the compelling economic effects her films have had, from increasing the sales of ABBA records (post-Mamma Mia) to pushing Virginia Woolfe's Mrs. Dalloway to number 1 on Amazon's best-seller list after her portrayal of Clarissa Vaughan in The Hours.

Streep, who turned 60 in June, has carried off a unique feat among contemporary Hollywood leading ladies: she has sustained a long, A-list career without a break, and moved into roles that have the authentic prestige of the grande dame without settling for matronly support slots. The achievement is all the more impressive considering how many of her best contemporaries have fallen by the wayside, suffered patchy careers, or bowed out, weary of sub-par roles...

Check it out.

The Rights 5: LGBT Rights in Colorado

A new-ish ad I just saw for the first time here in Colorado, made by Progress Colorado:



Bonus points for the racially-diverse cast of superheroes!

The website can be found here.

Women in Combat

Really interesting article in the NY Times today about women in the military, and their increasing roles in combat.

The article is accompanied by an equally compelling video essay.

What do you think about women in combat roles?

It's Complicated, the trailer

Melissa just posted this over at Women and Hollywood and seeing as I will happily watch Meryl Streep in anything and this actually looks like it'll be good, I had to re-post.

Enjoy!

Please say it ain't so, Colorado

"Colorado "Personhood" proposal's 2010 ballot title approved"

Am I losing my mind? Am I experiencing deja vu? Did we or did we not just shoot down this amendment last year?

Abortion opponents are one step closer to putting a "personhood amendment" on the 2010 ballot after the title of their proposal was approved Wednesday.

The next step is getting approval for the language on petition forms, and then gathering 76,047 valid voter signatures over the next six months.

The proposal differs from the failed 2008 "personhood amendment," said Leslie Hanks, vice president of Colorado Right to Life.

That proposal defined a fertilized human egg as a person, which proponents conceded confused the public. The new one refers to "the beginning of the biological development of that human being."

Sigh. At least this past year's amendment was defeated 73% to 27%, so I don't have to start glaring at all of my neighbors. Although I was stuck in traffic behind a car yesterday with the following lovely decorations: 1) a "right-to-life" pro-"personhood" bumper sticker, 2) an "America is number one" type sticker, 3) two American flags, one fluttering from each front window and, 4) the kicker, a bumper sticker which read "One Nation, One LANGUAGE, One God." Did I mention that there are a lot of Mexican immigrants in Colorado? Yeah.

Sotomajority!*

Congratulations to new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic person and the third woman to serve!


See the NY Times for more.

* Full credit for this term goes to my friend Jenny.