“Through the pink ribbon, corporate America has embraced cause-related marketing — reframing shopping as a way to fight disease…In terms of visibility, the campaign has been a colossal success. What it is doing for women’s health may be harder to quantify. For one thing, the pink ribbon is unlicensed and unregulated. Which means not only that any company can use the symbol to sell its products, but that those companies don’t actually have to commit a dime to breast cancer research.”–Read Jennifer Lunden’s PSA to women everywhere HERE.
“I want to see a naked woman who isn’t even aware of her nakedness…And men are gonna do what they do — and I am gonna do what I do.’’–From Miranda July’s “Very Revealing Conversation With Rihanna”
“From a public health standpoint, I don’t think criminalizing drug use in pregnancy is the best approach, because it can take away our opportunity to intervene at a very important point, when they may be the most motivated to seek treatment.”–From “Relief For Woman Sentenced To 20 Years For Using Meth While Pregnant“
“You only have to look at the language leveled at people like Justine Sacco [the PR rep who was fired for a racist tweet] versus someone like Jonah Lehrer [the New Yorker writer who was caught self-plagiarizing]. Justine gets, “I’m going to cut out your uterus,” and Jonah gets, “this man needs to be fired.” But…to say that men [in general] survive shaming just fine, that’s not true. Justine pulled herself back together after a year and she’s got a new job…where three or four men killed themselves because of the Ashley Madison hack…Of course there’s systemic misogyny in certain parts of our culture and systemic racism and a wider range of insults women have to face. But I think if you go on about that too much, it does a disservice both to women like Justine who are able to pull themselves together against the odds, and the men who killed themselves.”–Author Jon Ronson on gender and public shaming
“The Final Girls is a brilliant, hysterically funny riff on the camp slasher subgenre and on the innate sexisms of horror movies in general, but it’s also a sneakily touching film about nostalgia and grief and what happens when you allow those things to stop you from living.” = I can’t wait to this movie! I’m also digging this piece which describes the film’s grieving female protagonist as recognizing “herself in the resilient women of slasher films.”
I also can’t wait to see Ixcancul, Guatemala’s first ever Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film entry! This film explores gender and race and…I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE IT.
“I just find it very sad that things have to almost crash completely before people get off their backsides and do anything positive. And that’s the saddest thing about humans really. Whilst we are comfortable, we don’t think of doing anything that moves us forward.”–Do you agree with industrial music icon, Cosey Fanni Tutti?
While Taylor Swift’s, “Wildest Dreams” video reaches over 100 million views, others see it as a video of her romping around in an African savanna, devoid of Africans. “There are black people in this image of Africa, but they are in the background, serving.“
Did any of you go to Geek Girl Con? Let us know how it was.
East coast friends: Weird Sister is turning ONE! Mark your calendars! There will be a feminist Halloween costume contest! Maybe come dressed as your favorite Weird Sister? Hope to see you there!!
Weird Sister Halloween Party!!
What did we miss this week? Let us know in the comments! <3
