Nicaragua

At this time next week I will have spent my first night in Nicaragua. I have never been out of the country before. I was advised to bring "modest" shorts and that pants are appropriate for "most" occasions. It will be a completely new environment with strangers and strange food and no hospitals and I am incredibly excited. I am also terrified. I get to stay with a family for a few nights and I expect it will be an amazing change of scenery from what I am used to. I will report back on what I discover about women in Nicaragua. And of course coffee.

Power struggle (or If you bite me I'll bite you back)

While flipping through an old issue of Bitch magazine, I came across an article on a topic I have been meaning to write about for a while. I watched the film version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and was immediately interested in exploring the roots of the exploitation film genre, specifically the rape/revenge formula. Are Feminists right to begrudgingly admit that somewhere amongst the graphic violence and disgusting gore there is cultural validity and value?

Rape revenge films are not a recent phenomenon. In 1978, "I Spit of Your Grave" displayed a new type of horror sub genre. Rape revenge or exploitation films became popular in the 70's and 80's. "I Spit on Your Grave" originally called "The Day of the Women," included a brutal gang rape lasting 25 minutes. The movies heroine, Jenifer, goes off to a secluded cabin in nowhere USA in order to write her second novel. She later goes on a killing spree after she is gang raped and proceeds to cut of the penis of one of her attackers, hang another and hacks one to death with an ax. Time magazine listed the flick in its 2007 list of the 10 most ridiculously violent films. This film was redone and rereleased in 2010. The premise is much the same, only the way in which Jenifer kills and mutilates her attackers is altered.

The movie Teeth is a slightly different take on the same genre. A young women has fictional vagina dentata (teeth in her vagina)and the story follows her as her vagina deals out a quick bite of revenge to those that think to do her wrong whilst being inserted inside of her. This film takes a much lighter look at how a women may exact revenge when sexual abused but it fails to note that while the concept is original in the film world the reality of it is that it is all too familiar in the real world. Rapex, now called Rape-aXe (a device that acts as a female toothed condom)is called the "anti-rape condom." Created to deter the high number of rapes in South Africa, rapex marketers advise women wear one "should you have to travel long distances alone, on a train, working late, going out on a date with someone you don't know that well, going to a clubs or any situation where you might not feel comfortable or even not sure." Women are the ones responsible for preventing rape while the assumption remains that all men are rapist and should be absolved of any responsibility.

So, are rape/revenge plots empowering Feminist material? Not really. Are these films purely misogynistic crap? Not entirely. Is this genre abhorrently violent and difficult to watch? Yes. Is this type of entertainment baseless and without merit at all? No, it isn't.

Obviously it would be easy to go one way or the other. "This is just pretend and we are all desensitized anyway, get over it" or "Violence and torture against women cannot be justified with violence and torture against men even if it is in the name of revenge."

I find both of these options troubling. Rape is a terrible crime. Rapists are one of the lowest forms of life in my opinion and it sickens me that we live in a rape culture where a women can never feel or be completely safe. These films create an acute awareness of what it means to have power versus what it means to be powerless. Our culture is gendered and rape victims are often left without justice or any recognition that they have suffered great indignity. Often rape victims are blamed for provoking attacks by dressing in suggestive clothing or wearing "sexy" clothes.

Without the retribution portrayed in these films one is left to wonder what exactly can a rape victim hope to achieve without seeking their own revenge? On the cover of ISOYG, the print reads: "This women has just cut, chopped, broken and burned five men beyond recognition...But no jury in America would convict her." I find it incredibly disturbing that the premise behind rape/revenge mentality is that these women rape victims need to act as violently as their attacker did in order to earn acceptable justice. On the whole men are portrayed as inherent predators who maim and rape at any opportunity. Women need to act like men in order to gain the understanding of the audience. Answering violence with violence. Powerful with powerless.

Lastly I looked at "Descent" a film that came out in 2007. Rosario Dawson stars as Maya a young multi-ethnic college student who is brutally raped by a white college frat boy, Jarred. Maya enters a downward spiral of foggy nightclubbing coke binges and eventually meets a powerful sexy DJ, Adrian. The film touches on what it is to be a women of color in the aftermath of a rape. This film ends with Maya seducing Jarred and sodomizing him after tying him up and blindfolding him. Adrian also rapes Jarred while taunting and degrading him as he did to Maya. The last moment of the film shows a single tear falling from Maya's eyes after Adrian (whilst still raping Jarred) asks her if everything is all right now.

The overarching structure of the rape/revenge genre is power and violence. Who is attacked, how, their race, socio-economic standing, education, age or gender is left up to which film you look at and what if any point lies in telling the same story over and over again expecting a new result.This obsession with normalizing and fixating on retribution and absolution seems to be a factor in the inability to break the cycle of sexual assault and violence. Preventing rape and violence should be target, not giving women victimized by sexual violence empowerment after the fact by watching them act like men.

Here is a list of some other films taking a spin on or fulfilling the traditonal rape/revenge equation.

Straightheads (2007)

Monster (2003)

Baise-Moi (2000)

Hard Candy (2005)

The Brave One (2007)

All I want for Christmas...Part I.

Giving gifts can be difficult. Giving responsible gifts can be really difficult. While there are many options for giving environmentally friendly and fair trade gifts, especially within the last few years; I am having a hard time coming up with gifts for Feminists.

I am not talking about a t-shirt with the ever popular "If I had a hammer...(I'd smash patriarchy") or "Pro-choice not Pro Abortion" scrawled across the chest. I want more than "The Second Sex" and a poster with a clenched fist. Don't get me wrong, there are options to purchase products that have something to do with improving the lives of women through one avenue or the other and often donations made to a cause that's pro-women can do good in a tangible manner. I have looked through web sites like Bitch or Bust magazine and they do have merchandise (mugs, t-shirts and hats) which make for a decent stocking stuffer for your favorite Feminist.

I am on the look out for the perfect Feminist gift(s). Stay tuned for detail about what I can find.

Whats a Feminist to be thankful for?

It's a tough question. This year has been disheartening to say the least, what with the conservatives claiming the term "Mama Grizzlies" and Christine O'Donnell's existence. I worry everyday about the slow and sometimes not so slow erosion of what progress women have made so far. My own generation seems compliant to shrug off feminism in all its messy connotations and I myself think sometimes the harder I fight the more radical it seems to even say you're a feminist. I worry most when women conservatives talk about the women who have "hijacked" the term Feminist to mean equal rights, the right to choose, the right for safety and equal pay and the right to fight patriarchy; which is what Feminism is.

But, hopelessness is not productive and one has to believe that the movement for the rights of any oppressed group is always alive; sometimes just below the surface waiting for the spark that will ignite a collective consciousness to make actual change.

I am thankful that I was in a position to receive reproductive care when I needed it. I am thankful that I have had an education denied to so many other women just because of where they were born. I am thankful for the "right" to question authority, for the right to protest injustice and the hope that women will someday achieve the post feminist mentality when the current patriarchal society comes to an end.

Bikini Barista

As the manager of a small busy coffee shop I have a plethora of stories about burning myself, spilling a latte down the front of my jeans and sticking a thermometer half an inch through my palm. These fun filled accidents all occurred while I was fully clothed and properly shod. Sorry to shock but in some places a fully covered coffee server apparently isn't a given anymore.

Besides the fact that scalding hot coffee and bare flesh don't mix; it seems that no area of service can be safe from the quick gimmick of putting women in a bikini. This current craze apparently started in Seattle (surprise) around 2007 and quickly spread to other west coast areas like L.A. and Washington State. These coffee shops are usually stand-alone shacks along roadsides or in parking lots, often noticeable for their signs and suggestive names - "some like it hot," for example at "Java Jugs."

This summer in Denver a coffee shop called "Perky Cups" drew boy cotters after the owner sent bikini clas women workers out into the shopping center that housed them. In Everett, Washington, several baristas were charged with flashing customers and striping while preparing drinks. One of the ideas behind these stands are to stand out amongst the tough competition with more traditional business models like Starbucks. These drive through shacks span a wide range of risque to down right disgusting. First of all, I am surprised that Health Inspectors or regulators have not pointed out the fact that walking around in a g-string making a latte with your long hair flowing down your back doesn't sound like a sanitary way to pull espresso shots. Far from the main point you should at the very least have your hair tied back.

Also, is it really believable that the same pick-up driving "gentlemen" pulling through the "Grab n Go" espresso stand would saunter into a Starbucks for their Au lait if not for the scantily clad female workers? I'm sure these girls are judged by the micro foam of their lattes and not the buoyancy of their upper halves.

I am not opposed to women choosing to work in the sex, stripping, pornography or adult industry if they are opting in by their complete free will. I wouldn't go so far as to say that its empowering but that is one of the reasons that I don't pursue a career in that field. I also, fortunately have a choice.I don't believe that women are so repressed as to be unable to make decisions for themselves but I do believe it is a product of supply and demand. As long as their are men who want their lattes, beer, liquor, rented movies, dry cleaning etc... served up by a barely dressed young lady, there will be women to fill those positions and make good money while working with minimal clothing. I don't believe those men are going anywhere anytime soon and I don't think the logic behind making money off of you looks from those who are willing to give can be entirely faulted.

Personally, as a barista, the idea of attracting customers by wearing a bikini makes me gag in the back of my throat. I don't think that the technical aspects of being a barista is rocket science but I do think you should buy your coffee based on taste not by the amount of flesh bared through a drive through window. Given that my trusty black tank top is the skimpiest thing I rock behind the counter, I am left to believe even in my case the new customers and regulars who don't quite look me in the eye when ordering (think lower) are there not just for the fair trade coffee. Of course, some do a better job at concealing that fact than others.

Coffee shops are one of the many places where creepy people ogle fully dressed female baristas. In the last three years I can count at least a dozen "creepers" who make transactions awkward and uncomfortable. Leering old men, assholes on their phones who literally throw money at you and sometimes ask the mind boggling question of "do you want to go out for coffee sometime?"

So boo bikini baristas, you're burning yourselves, irritating communities, getting treated like shit by some and mocked by others. Good luck with this ridiculous craze. I'm sure you're making great tips but I'd rather focus on serving great coffee.

Fighting back (Hollaback NYC)

http://www.ihollaback.org/

This international movement started in New York City in 2005. Started by a group of women who were sick of being verbally harassed on their way to work or walking home at night; Hollaback, an imperfect but productive and progressive forum was born.

Emily May, executive director of Hollaback! states in the groups testimony that: "when we walked on, we felt weak. When we yelled at the guys, the situation escalated, and the police didn’t care. The most common suggestion for dealing with it was to plug our heads with earphones and pretend it wasn’t happening. But something inside us told us this wasn’t enough—we wanted to share our stories".

Hollaback depends largely on mobile technology but has other options for telling your story and getting it posted if you aren't smart phone equipped. The "harassee" is encouraged to take a picture of the harasser and send it to the site along with a description of the incident. Some of the incidents seem mild and distasteful, some are seriously terrifying and upsetting. All in all the idea of "Hollaback" is one that seeks to empower women to stand up for themselves when possible and when not possible encourages them to write about the experience. The site explains that most types of harassment has nothing to do with sex, and everything to do with power.

Obviously as in most cases this site has a few questionable quirks to it. One being that they actively discourage describing the race of harassers. It is better explained through the FAQ's on the site but it seems that the idea is to keep the focus on historically marginalized groups such as women and LGBTQ individuals without replacing sexism with racism. I have mixed feelings about the outcome of this. Is the site really trying to prevent stereotypes and generalizations by asking writers to with hold statements on race? Does this feed into the already prevalent preconceived notions on the race and gender of those who harass women and LGBTQ individuals?

I still think that Hollaback! is headed mostly in the right direction. Exposing men who feel no shame in verbally, physically and psychologically damaging women is completely justified in my opinion. From my own experience I will share one recent incident. Going to the goodwill on a main street I passed two older men sitting on a bench outside. As I passed by I heard one say to the other "she has a nice big ass." Without pausing I turned around and promptly shouted "Fuck You." Passerbys looked at me and shook their heads. One of the men shouted back, "I'm homeless." I skipped my shopping trip that afternoon.

Bitterness (Which backlash is this?)

The 2010 midterm elections have come and gone. The political backlash moves to the other side now. We are not safe from the tea party people, the scary Republican mama grizzlies, the even stranger Christine O'Donnell and we will never be safe from the psychotic Ann Coulter.

It's frustrating that 18-29 year old population vote the least, especially when this countries voters are so fickle. The word backlash doesn't even mean anything anymore. The actual election process is frighteningly predictable when it comes to who controls the house and the senate. It didn't take the entire first two years of Obamas term for his approval ratings to plummet. Thinking back, it must have obvious that the elation felt after his historical victory was going to disappear after awhile. The way that Obama rose to popularity hasn't changed his ability to fall from Americas graces.

The two party system does not allow for quick progress in any manner. Whenever we change from Democrat to Republican and then back to Republican to Democrats, is it not safe to say that the majority of time is spent trying to undo what the previous party accomplished? Fed up voters elect the man who will be blamed for doing nothing in six months because the last guy they put in office didn't accomplish anything.

Even the fact that America has still not had a women president is not as upsetting as it once was. Isn't the only way to get elected to become appealing to the largest amount of individuals possible thus eradicating any chance of making changes (radical or not) completely impossible? Hillary had to change her tune before she was seriously (arguably) considered as a nominee to run for President. You could never get elected into public office on a radical platform. Anything not fitting the status quo is dangerous. Okay, we passed a health care bill, super. Who did we inevitably have to sell out at the last minute in order to appease the conservatives? You got it, those damn abortion having liberals. Women are always last.

Hopefully this backlash will wake up those pacified liberals into taking back their victory. If you are doomed to failure to start with, maybe you should just go out swinging instead of inevitably conforming and selling out. Compromise is one thing but there really isn't very much that's open to discussion. There are those who believe in democracy and it sure beats the alternatives but sometimes I wonder if the short term memory doesn't have the capacity to think back more than two years at a time should we really be the ones choosing the individuals who we want to do nothing?

Ms. Magazine: The Clinic Across the Street

I don't always read Ms. magazine but will pick it up if something catches my eye. This years Fall issue is out and I quickly became absorbed in one of the cover stories about crisis pregnancy centers. A Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) is not an abortion clinic and it does not provide abortions. They do not refer women to places that provide abortions.

These aren't medical centers. Women are encouraged to make sure they are pregnant before making any decisions by coming in to take a free pregnancy test. They offer counseling, ultrasounds and adoption placement. Most CPC's set themselves in a helpful, caring and supportive light. They are run by Catholics, Anti-Choice groups and some are operated by well know anti-abortion extremists. The clinics don't say that they aren't abortion clinics but they will advertise "abortion alternatives"

In Wichita, Kansas, Dr. George Tiller was the provider of abortions at the Women Heath Care Services clinic. Dr. Tiller was shot multiple times by anti-abortionists who eventually succeeded in murdering in 2009. Tiller was killed while serving as an usher at his church.

My problems with CPCs are not particularly complicated. These are misguided, often federally funded groups that go so far as to lie in order to convince women not to have abortions. I obviously think pregnant women should be able to have every option available to them and that they should be given honest factual information. I'm sure that some CPCs don't lie to women outright but I'm also sure that they don't all tell the truth. Given the fact that they are more determined to just get women inside of their centers as opposed to providing them with quality care.

Let's look at what the names of some CPCs. Here are a few examples; First Concern, A Woman's Concern, Friends of the Unborn, Another way, A New Life, Life Saver and my favorite, Heartbeat. One CPC in Ghent, New York goes by the name We Care. Also in New York and many other states is a CPC called Birth right.

One CPC in Alaska states that while abortion may seem like the easiest way to take care of an unplanned pregnancy, "Most women who struggle with past abortions say they wish they had been told all of the facts before making their choice.” These places claim that abortion is the quickest and easiest decision to make when finding out you are pregnant unexpectedly. They also claim that moral and spiritual traumas await you if you decide to have an abortion. The contradiction of pushing "factual information" as well as biased and unfounded "truths" becomes very clear when reviewing the way CPCs advertise themselves as a caring, non judgmental place to turn to in a time of need. The CPC in Alaska tells you that while abortion seems like an easy choice (which it isn't) "most relationships don't survive an abortion". They assure that you could be making the biggest mistake of your life and not only that, you are going to be shunned by the societal stigma of being an abortion patient.

While there are states that have legal buffer zones that protect women entering clinics from being harassed by protectors many of them do not. Violence is not surprising when tensions are so high and so close. In Kansas, there exists a CPC directly across the street from one of the only late term abortion clinics in the country. Men and women calling themselves sidewalk counselors will often berate and ridicule women entering these clinics. One man can be heard shouting such disgusting things as "Mommy, I don't want to die, please don't kill me Mommy. I'll be a good child." This would be the extremist anti-abortionist Eugene Frye. This man has been arrested many times for super gluing clinic doors shut and defended Dr. Tillers assassin as a "justifiable homicide."

Legislators at all levels have begun to note how CPCs operate in deceptive advertising. Some places have succeeded in getting laws passed requiring truth-in-advertising standards. Some places are legally required to post in English and Spanish that they do not provide abortions or referrals or birth control. The organizers behind CPCs are not complying without a fight and some Catholic organizations have claimed freedom of speech and or religion infringements.

Violence follows extremists in every regard. The "solders" of the anti-abortion army are no exception. These people have planned clinic bombings, trespassed, committed acts of vandalism, attempted and succeeded in committing murder and what incites me is that they do so in the name of "protecting life."

Woman are some of the most staunch anti-abortionists and the numbers increase when religion is a factor (which it frequently is).When it come to males the reasoning is often faith based as well. I will say is that men are absolutely entitled to voice their opinion in terms of what they think about abortion. But you may not decide it; only if they have sired the fetus should they object to a woman's choice to abort because ultimately it remains the choice of the women. However you look at it no man has any experience with the potential of bearing the entire physical consequences of an unwanted pregnancy and because of that the majority of anti-choice men should mind their own damn business. They can read about, research, perform, object and even witness an abortion but you will never need one and you will never know what it feels like. Crisis Pregnancy Centers are a dangerous instrument of extremists and a wealth of federally funded misinformation. Women should be wary of where they turn for facts should they find themselves unexpectedly pregnant.

The Feminist Majority Foundation runs a campaign to expose fake clinics. Check out feministcampus.org

Big Girls and Crying

The 2008 election was a historically significant one in several ways. Looking back is Rebecca Traister author of "Big Girls Don't Cry: The election that changed everything for women." A writer for Salon.com, Traister provides a thorough linear narrative of what was going on behind the scenes during her time on the campaign trail writing pieces for Salon. Traister starts out as an open minded supporter of John Edwards but by primary day the women who walks into the voting booth ends up struggling with who she is going to pull the lever for.

The book focuses primarily on Hillary Clinton. Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin serve as bookends to the recounting of the fiercely fought battle for the Democratic nomination. What is obvious from the beginning is that the examples of media sexism are applicable across the board. Double standards, sexist innuendos, gender stereotypes; it's all there and it applies to all three women.

As November 2nd draws near the obvious news is that Obama has not lived up to expectations. Of course during the election is wasn't necessarily about who was more experienced or who would have the highest approval ratings two years in. Hillary Clinton had to undergo a radical transformation to even be considered as a candidate for the Democratic nomination. Women who hated her when she was first lady may have had a change of heart when she moved from the outspoken spouse that people were threatened by to the more well-behaved feminist Hillary. Her long term supporters felt alienated as she became a poster child for bipartisan cooperation.

Even if you followed the election closely this book has something you didn't catch in it. We are still living through the ramifications of the elections outcome and in hindsight it is easy to see that the 2008 election did change everything for women. What we got wasn't all positive and on the whole the problems for American women are getting more intense and more divided. Sarah Palin is not the only Republican women who has claimed that Feminism doesn't mean you need to trust other women to make there own choices.

Traisters book provides excellent insight and does so with an even handed logical mind set. Her book flows and is easy to read without becoming boring. I suggest this book for supporters of Clinton and Obama. There is also something for the Kucinch supporter, the fans of Edwards, Michelle Obama and many others. Traister gives assurance that women will undoubtedly shatter the presidential glass ceiling and that it is only a question of when.

Was the 90's our Feminist glory days? Part I.

I served coffee to Susan Faludi Saturday morning and was inspired to talk about the current state of Feminism.

I found Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women when I was a teenager. I had only briefly pondered the chronology of how Feminism went from one extreme to the other between the 1960's to modern day. As a girl growing up in the 90's it seemed to me that Feminism had happened and while the mid 80's seemed like America was still trying to get the aftertaste of the prior decades out of its mouth, the 90's was when a more global Feminism began to take shape. I grew up when there was less focus on particular issues within Feminism. The cultural aspect of woman's rights were more apparent than the biological aspect. The first two waves had overarching themes that drove a particular issue to the forefront. The third wave of Feminism is about conflict and the reaction to the topics of the first and second waves. I hope to follow this post with a more in depth exploration of 90's Feminism and what is meant when the term "Post-Feminism" is used.

Faludi followed Backlash with Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Male in 2000. She most recently authored The Terror Dream: Myth and Misogyny in an insecure America in 2008. She lives in Cambridge Ma. and is very polite to her albeit quirky coffee servers.