born of earnest struggle

Philadelphia - Tomorrow at the Rotunda
Andrew's Video Vault 2008
Free - 8pm
4014 Walnut St.
September 11, 2008 – Let Us Keep Abortion Safe and a Woman's Right to Choose Legal

Rain Without Thunder

(1993 / 93 minutes / 1.33:1) Cautionary direct address docudrama of a future where abortion is illegal. Stars Carolyn McCormick and Betty Buckley.

The Handmaid's Tale

(1990 / 109 minutes / 1.66:1) Natasha Richardson, Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway and Aidan Quinn star in Volker Schlondorff's film of Harold Pinter's adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel set in a future where reproductive rights lay in the hands of a Christian theocracy.

Thanks Margaret!

I must admit I have not seen these and don't know much about them, but we're going tomorrow so perhaps I'll update later.

Kilkenny's E-mail on Sarah Palin

photo of Anne Kilkenny

This is a very publicized email from Anne Kilkenny, resident of Wasilla Alaska, concerning Sarah Palin. I found it pretty insightful.
So, if you didn't already, this email provides a lot more reasons to hate Sarah Palin and fear the power she may gain with as a Vice President.

the knot

As a follow-up to our discussion on marriage last night, here's an article about a couple that did it a little differently, allowing Washington Post reporters to plan their nuptial ceremony. The ACLU was also involved.

The Anti Wedding

Palin's a M.I.L.F?

from feministing

Things that make you go...hmmmm

This is an interesting opinion article from Gloria Steinem on the nomination of Republican VP candidate, Sarah Palin.

"Palin: wrong woman, wrong message."

Everyone should read this book....

I just finished reading America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines, by Gail Collins. Not since Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States have I felt so deeply moved and satisfied by historical writing. Collins' book traces the history of women in this country, beginning with Eleanor Dare in 1587, one of the first European women to sail across the Atlantic.

She writes of the early hardships and housework of the colonial women, the Salem Witch Trials, infant textile workers, horrific medical experiments performed on slave women, opium addiction, corsets, the abolitionists, birth control, female soldiers, Hollywood, rape, bicycles, menstruation, etc, etc, etc... Collins touches on most aspects of the daily life of women, but also maintains a broad and coherent perspective.

Collins references magazines and journals commonly read by women of the day to help the reader understand the existing social and cultural pressures. The female authors of these publications usually promoted submissiveness, marriage, and the classic ideals that we still to read about in many women's magazines today.

The movement of women from the domestic sphere to the workplace is one of the more fascinating strands in the book. The acceptance of working women comes only when absolute necessity warrants it (although the women who lost their jobs after WWII were fired regardless of the needs of their families). Often, through nationalism and propaganda, the government determined and probably still determines, what the role of women should be.

The struggles and triumphs presented are moving: often tragic, but often empowering. Through Collins' amazing work, we can see that we have a multitude of rights, privileges, conveniences, and freedoms that the early colonists could not begin to imagine.

Yet we also have not achieved true freedom. I hope that in another 400 years a historian again writes of the progress of American women. Maybe our 21st century brains would be blown away!

Vox Populi Event

Thursday's show at Vox Populi was a great success!
Here are some pictures of the night.
sorry for the fuzziness and the dark. I'm not so good at photos, ok?!

Kassie Richardson

Rapidice

Lindsey Martin's Invasion

Faded Gory

The Suicide Machines

participants!