Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2011)

#inspirationalmovies

For a culturally stimulating watch that familiarizes you with one of the icons of the men's men's men's world that fashion was and still is to a large extent, get Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2011).

Introducing Diana Vreeland (1903-1989) - especially to those that were born after her epoch in Vogue had already ended - and through archive footage and people that knew her showing that:

You don't have to be conventionally pretty to have fun with dressing-up and to become a style paradigm on your own.

You don't necessarily need a formal education to be good at something and get a job that you are passionate about (although this part is clearly much harder than it was in the 1930's).

You may realize and act upon the fact that family life may just not be for you. Nevertheless - and as the children of Diana confirm - would be nice to realize that before actually bringing any children into the world.

You should be able to express yourself and speak clearly and loudly from your most authentic self. This is not a victimless advice, of course, but the clear satisfaction you can see in Diana's face when commenting on how she perceived the world is priceless. (Again, this is not to promise that just anybody can become the editor-in-chief of Vogue, but to encourage to practice creative self-expression whenever and however you feel it to be adequate. And maybe a bit over the top too.)

You should - to the extent that's possible, obviously - surround yourself by things and people that entertain, educate, and inspire. Because the eye (and the mind) has to travel.  

  

Inspirational women taking pictures

A 19th century photographer, found on Pinterest.

Instead of talking again and again of how women are so often objectified by media and the popular culture, let's look at women who have literally objectified others and made art out of it. This is a mini compilation that brings together some that dedicated their skill and film to capture conventional beauty for mainstream culture (and did it very well!) and some that observed the real life passing by, even shifted through the darker aspects of the reality.

Regina Relang (1906-1989) was an artist and a self taught photographer from Munich, Germany. She began working for Vogue in 1938 and became one of the leading German fashion photographers in the 50's and 60's.

Diane Arbus (1923-1971) was a photographer that went from a family commercial fashion photography business to a full-fledged passion for the weird, the raw, the hidden.  A version of her artistic journey is developed in Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus.

Karen Radkai was a freelance photographer that worked primarily for Vogue in the 50s and 60s. Internets know little more about her, but offer her work though.

Vivian Maier (1926-2009) was a nanny who lived in Chicago for most of her life and passed away in 2009 at the age of 83. Little more is known about her, except that she was an avid street photographer. Her work was discovered at an auction in 2007, more than 100,000 negatives and undeveloped rolls of film, sold by a storage facility who were cleaning out her locker for delinquent rent. Cannot wait to get my hands on the documentary that tells more about this thrilling discovery.

Annie Leibovitz (1949) an American portrait photographer, doing mostly very glossy celebrity photos. Many of them very good and already iconic, though.

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)

#inspirationalmovies

Cha-chan! Here you have a series (well, 13 times 44 minutes) that are breathtakingly inspirational on several levels: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014). It's a work of many people, including the antifeminist-but-rich-enough-to-fund-science-communication-projects Seth MacFarlane and the amazing Ann Druyan and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Love for science and Carl Sagan has already been expressed on this blog, so now we just have to convince about the added extras that the new Cosmos includes.

Verónica Bayetti Flores has already done that in her Feministing.com article Five times Cosmos’ Neil deGrasse Tyson stole my feminist heart that captures very well how at times the new Cosmos goes even further than the Carl Sagan's one in criticizing the harm that we humans do to each other and other species. Some of the obstacles in our way to well-being and harmony that Cosmos identifies are lack of knowledge, of course, but also the predatory capitalism, religious dogmatism, human pettiness and the structurally discriminating hierarchies of knowledge that have left and keeps leaving behind many people... including women, of course. This Cosmos does introduce you to many females science pioneers you had no idea about. Plus, the discrimination and ridicule suffered by them is also very clear. And the determination and lucky circumstances needed to succeed in the men's world that science was is.

Among others, you'll get to know Ms. Annie Jump Cannon, Ms. Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Ms. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Ms. Marie Tharp. And there are so much more of them! For more inspiration (for a Wikipedia research, at least), look at the poster they're selling at A Mighty Girl.

And just for the dessert, Neil's response to the question on gender bias in science (from 1:01:31 in the video, although you might also enjoy the rest of it). So we know that he's with us...

 

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Julie & Julia (2009)

#inspirationalmovie

Looking for a lift-me-up? This is the right one. Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia (2009) is all you need if you're into cooking, blogging and inspirational role models.

In one movie you get the always amazing Meryl Streep being Julia Child and fighting with French cooks in 1950's Paris + an office clerk blogging away. We have to admit that the Julia Child part is much more delicious than the contemporary one, although both are based in real people finding their creative exit in cooking (making food can be liberating if that's your choice and resonates with your most authentic self, no doubt).

Can't help but love the way how her passion for food (not fat shaming to be found in her approach to munching!), her wish to do something instead of being an idle wife, her relationship with her husband are depicted... You end up believing and enjoying! Bon appétit!

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: V for Vendetta (2005)

#InspirationalMovies

Yes, yes, it has been too long since we have suggested a piece of very powerful fiction. V for Vendetta (2005, James McTeigue) comes directly from an eponymous dystopian graphic novel and follows the logic of inspiration-and-empowerment-through-frustration-and suffering.
Hear us, we do not suggest it as a baseline approach to your private life (there's too much suffering already, thank you), but there is no doubt that Evey Hammond is a role model on how to follow what you think is right and how to look for what may bee hidden from the eyes. And how you lose fear by actually doing things.  

Also, in order to continue with your work that may be challenging and solitary at times, it may be a good idea to give some though to legitimate civil disobedience and personal responsibilities we all have towards the place we inhabit, our home, our family, our communities. And the capacities - for somewhat limited that they tend to be - to improve some of that are what you have to be putting in action. Little actions matter. So take this as a manifesto to have a personal revolution first and then ask it from others. And to hold your representatives accountable. Yes, there is no conflict in that, it's complementary.

Sunday is for Horizons: The Guardian's Top 100 Women

#top100women

 For the afternoons that you would like to spend in the internets, wikipedia and youtube but don't know where to start from... and in case you already did you googling around the things mentioned in Makers: Women Who Make America (2013), here comes a considerable material to carry on investigating.

So the story is that in 2011 The Guardian made a list of 100 world's most inspirational women. The list is not an actual 1-to-100 list but a gathering of women according to the categories below: 

• Activists and campaigners
• Art, film, music and fashion
• Business and trade unions
• Law
• Politics
• Science and medicine
• Sport and adventure
• Technology
• Television
• Writing and academia

While you probably won't agree to all of them and won't even know many of them, this is a nice place to start to have a grasp on living, inspirational women. Learning and lots of clicking guaranteed.
This being pretty much - with formidable exceptions, thank you - an English-speaking/general culture exercise and the categories might seem somehow wacky (television? really?), feel free to make your own, more local (or more global) list, be it on a sheet of paper, on Pinterest, while having summery something with your friends or on your own.

All of this, of course, can serve also as a major downer when you realize that a 100 women exercise is still a marginal one due to the scarcity of non-males at the top of every wiki-worth field. The only consolation being the fact that this kind of project would be much harder (and whiter) as some 50 years ago...

+ Another cool list (very US-centered, yes) is this one by Hadley Freeman.

Sunday is for horizons: Martha Gellhorn

This is stuff for serious #Sundays.
We present you Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998), novelist, journalist, travel writer and a renowned war correspondent. And for us, snoops, the best thing is that both her professional and private life are depicted in her books (you don't go to interpretations of others, which in case of important female personalities seem to be a very slippery slope towards sensationalism and looking for weirdness).

Martha mostly wrote about people and places, not herself explicitly. But she is a reporter, so we see the places and the people through her eyes and experiences. She is a woman in 20th century going the most unwelcoming places of her time and getting to know war, misery, poverty and human suffering around the globe the old way - by seeing it herself and talking to people. And that hurts, even more than lack of running water and the eminent danger of falling bombs does.

And for the interest in emancipation and feministing, she is known for A) by choice prioritizing her professional vocation over family life and B) trying the achieve the maximal level of objectivity, knowing that her work was under more scrutiny than that of her colleagues. Also, her writings are good. If we don't convince you, read this.

In case you want a cinematographic teaser before you read her work, here you have the rather mediocre Hemingway and Gellhorn (2012, Philip Kaufman). See it but then go get her books, they are worth it.

Sunday is for horizons: Makers (2013)

#Feminism #MakersChat #InspirationalMovies

Again, a #SundayIsForHorizons slightly out of what it was conceived to be. Perfect and extremely educational, though. The three-hour PBS documentary Makers: Women Who Make America (2013) is a very well done account of the history of feminism and empowerment of women during the second half of the 20th century.

While there is some (rightful) criticism regarding the portrayal of the current movements among women and feminisms, this is a very solid work of documentation on how the feminism (the second wave, that is to say) we know as such started. Even if you are not that into women studies. Even if you are not that into the history of the U.S. Even if you don't identify as a feminist (ouch!)... these are things every person to some extent involved in the social movements, social justice, and living in a society should know this story of empowerment and enormous (although not as big as hoped for) success.

And while not a feature film as #InspirationalMovies tend to be, still full of very real testimonies and able to push for change (even if those are baby-steps and very basic awareness raising).

+ The greatest thing is that you can streamline it for free right now! All three episodes.
Go! Take notes and expand your role model list. And your reading list. Revolutionize your own life. Build a movement.

Sunday is for horizons: Eve Ensler

We have already talked about Eve Ensler. Truth be told, her Embrace Your Inner Girl, was one of the sparks that started this project of ours. Her work on female genitalia as symbols of vulnerability is widely known (Vagina Monologues, anybody?). So is her power in movement building. We just experienced the One Billion Rising campaign all over small local groups and the internets.

As reading matter we suggest you get your hand on:

I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World is exactly what the subtitle says it is. Let go of the slight uneasiness that her idea of a "girl cell" provokes in every equality-feminist. And live through the way it feels to be a teenage girl. Also, there is a movement around this work, too: the V-Girls.

The Vagina Monologues. The classic that comes from a time (1996, mind you) when gender based violence wasn't a generalized awareness thing. So go back and read it.

Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security Obsessed World is what she is talking about in the video above. Advocating for letting go of certainty of (normalized) oppression and embracing the emotional (and very harsh) realities of uncontrollable world full of both violence and compassion.

Ensler's writing is easy and emotional. These are (real life) stories, not academic treatises. Do not expect more or less of  them. But get to know them.

Sunday is for horizons: Jaclyn Friedman

#Sunday #Learning

This Sunday we start a new tradition. From now on Sundays will be for learning and for widening the horizons. Every Sunday we'll suggest an author that you might want to get to know in order to grow as feminist, as a SRHR activist, as peer educator, as person...

And we start with writer, performer, and activist Jaclyn Friedman. Her work is mostly centered about the themes of enthusiastic consent, slut-shaming, rape culture... very important and omnipresent things that (somehow) go beyond the basics of the (orthodox) sexuality education, even when the CSE is trying really hard to be sex-positive.

So Jaclyn does make it sex- and people-positive and real life-based. Very relevant also for people beyond their adolescence (oh, yes, sexuality education is a life-long learning process!).

We suggest two ways to get to know her work: 

1. Read her books: Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape (co-authored together with Jessica Valenti) and What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl's Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety. Coming to terms with your own sexuality and realize your needs, while being safe and able to agree enthusiastically to be sexual with people included!

2. Listen to her podcast: Jaclyn does a weekly edition of about an hour long conversation with somebody relevant in the sexual rights/feminist activism and/or writing, etc. and answers real life questions. While it is pretty much US (geography=geography) and Internet centered, it will give you a taste of what's going on in the "sex-related news" while obliging to think about polyamory, internet misogyny, body-positivity, pornography, and other things you maybe wouldn't have noticed around. And it just might suggest new paths for your own activism.
+ It's very informal and nonchalant, perfect listening matter for commutes, dish-washing, taking baths and other drag routines.

Right to Eduaction: Malala

#girlwithabook

We have been talking about education and books before but this is different.

Suddenly EVERYBODY is concerned about the fact that so many girls in the world are out of school. Aha, much more girls than boys. And you know, if both Madonna and the UN Secretary General are talking about the same issue at the same time, it's important.

And the reason is a girl. Malala Yousufzai (and bunch of Talibans but they are the really-really bad guys in the story) is the reason. And so is her resilience.

We are celebrating her and all the activists fighting for access to education. And we are doing this by joining the #girlwithabook initiative.

Intimate bibliophile portraits of you and some books can be a part of the movement for Universal Access to Education.
Get your camera and your favorite book... 3, 2, 1, say "Malala"! 

Source: @Half

I ♥ Being a Girl: Make your day brighter while feministing around

...and an 8 year old wills how you how!

Via A Girl's Guide to Taking Over the World and Guerrilla Feminism comes the inspirational moment of the day:

 "This is how Stella Ehrhart, age 8, decides what to wear for school.

She opens her closet. She opens her book, “100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century.” And she opens her mind.

The Dundee Elementary School third-grader comes to school dressed as a different historical figure or character — Every. Single. Day. And she's done that since the second day of second grade, when this all started.

The budding actress with a social conscience came to school on the first day last year dressed like any other 7-year-old girl, in the outfit her grandpa had bought her: a Love T-shirt and leggings. The following day she was dressed as author Laura Ingalls Wilder.

From that point on, Stella decided that what she would wear to school would represent who she was trying to be. With no repeats, at least through second grade." (More here!)

So, while the geopolitical or whatever else importance of some of these women might be disputable, they are still powerful symbols, it's still so awesome + thrilling is the fact that she does that in a very DIY way, no posh pre-made costumes. And the fact that the school and her classmates are completely OK with it. You go, Stella!

That's her as:

 Grace Kelly

 Billie Holiday

 Elvis Costello (well, she does an "Old Turtle from a children's book by the same name" and her school principal, too)

 Helen Keller

 Joan Baez

 Aung Sang Suu Kyi

Women at AIDS2012: U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee: If We Don't End Discrimination, We Will not End AIDS

Although there are things that seem forgotten and overlooked in the global response to AIDS, like condoms that are present everywhere on the Conference venue but not that much in the speeches. The Pleasure Project shares their disappointment with it here, and we can only agree that condoms are still the very popular, accepted and cheap double protection device we shall keep working with...

Although the tensions between structural disadvantage women keep facing and shortcomings of health care providers failing to work in human rights framework are still piling up (today's workshop My Body, My Rights: Ethics and Human Rights for Women Living with HIV in Research, Care and Treatment Settings tried to shed light on these issues)...

Still, there are also a lot of very inspirational people in the Conference, not only among all the amazing activists but also among people holding offices. So, since yesterday U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee is our hero!

TEDxTeen: Tavi Gevinson on Still Figuring it Out

The most awesome rule-breaker Tavi Gevinson talking about being a teenage girl,

You can find her fashion blog The Style Rookie here, the Rookie Magazine she's talking about here, and the pop culture role models she's mentioning are Lindsay Weir, Angela Chase and Stevie Nicks.

Heroines (Ada)

This is an example of how we are capable to do many things at any age no matter how hard it may seem. It also shows the importance of having a mentor.

One day I would like to be a 91 year old just like Olga.

Madeleine Albright ♥ Being a Woman

Madeleine Albright on being woman and diplomat.

Gender, what?

Inspiring: CocoRosie bending the gender and we dare to guess that they quite ♥ being girls too.