Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Year 2009 in Feminist Review  

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It's that time again. Another year is almost over, marked by the holiday I have such a love-hate relationship with, New Year's Eve. I love the Twilight Zone marathon and the cocktails, but I hate the pressure put on every breathing person to find someone to kiss at midnight... which this year, will most likely be my dog.

But New Year's is more than just getting drunk off champagne, it's also a time to look back. So let's put our feminist goggles on, and take a peek at the best and worst times had by feminists 'round the world.


2009's Most Deplorable Anti-Feminist Happenings

Let's start with the bad, just to get it out of the way.

Bush Senior publicly told a story about his encounter with an ugly angry feminist. His words: "I saw one of the ugliest and angriest women I have ever seen in my entire life... And she charged my car with a sign... and came up right next to the window: 'Stay out of my womb!' No problem, buddy." You are an ass, sir.

PETA continued to offend with their racist, sexist, and fat-shaming advertisements. More to come in 2010 for sure.

Protesters at the "tea party" rallies showed little class in displaying signs that compared Obama to Hitler and slave-owners.

iPhone applications made me angry. Want to objectify and offend women? There's an app for that!

The media so ignorantly mocked Mexicans for "spreading" the Swine flu.

I lost all faith in humanity when right-wingers attacked Sonia Sotomayor, accusing her of being a "reverse" racist, a Latino KKK member, and was only appointed by Obama because she's a woman, and no other reason.

Obama-hating activists and politicians found it hilarious to attack our president with racist "jokes."

Small-brained assholes criticized people like Sonia Sotomayor and Regina Benjamin for being TOO FAT to do their jobs. Methinks said assholes need professional help ASAP.

Magazines continued to photoshop and airbrush the hell out of models to give young women even more impossible standards to live up to.

Glenn Beck still won't shut up, even after receiving an enormous backlash for calling Obama racist towards white people.

Adults acted like children at the town hall health care debate meetings, where a white man ripped up a photo of Rosa Parks that several black women had brought in. Stay classy.

After a story broke about a black student beating up a white student on a school bus, Rush Limbaugh played the poor oppressed white man card.

And thanks to Senator Stupak and his anti-choice allies, our reproductive rights came under serious attacks during the health care reform debacle.

2009's Notable Activism

Maria Vieira showed immense courage by taking the story of her rape public to show the importance of doing something if you witness a sexual assault.

After word circled the blogsophere about the highly offensive "Tranny Alert" website, activists sent in angry e-mails, which led to the eventual shutting down of the website.

A website called Beautiful Just the Way You Are encouraged people who are sick of seeing beauty-obsessed magazine covers to, ahem, cover the covers with a positive message.

Former president Jimmy Carter, in a bold move, publicly left his church because he was fed up with religious sexism.

The "BMI Project" was put together at Shapely Prose, consisting of photos that illustrate how ridiculous and inaccurate so-called "BMI calculators" are.

Ms. Magazine highlighted the amazing plights of women in Iraq trying to escape violence.

Bryan Safi released several more installments of That's Gay, where he mocked the homophobic and heterosexist nature of our culture.

The New York Times put together a collection of reader-submitted photos that illustrated the importance of educating and empowering girls and women around the world.

Feminist organizations and individuals rallied together to send a message to Ralph Lauren: keep your photoshop off our bodies.

The activism that many say has revitalized the pro-choice movement: reproductive justice advocates fought against anti-choice politicians who sought to eliminate health insurance coverage for abortions. The fight will undoubtedly continue into 2010 and beyond.

2009's Notable Women

Diablo Cody and the rest of the "fempire" made news with their lovable movies and willingness to take on the male-dominated Hollywood.

Alysa Stanton became the first black woman rabbi.

Kathy Griffin rules for not only proving that women make great comedians, but also for fighting for queer rights.

Rachel Maddow kicked ass on MSNBC, giving queer activists a voice in mainstream media.

Women senators (e.g. Debbie Stabenow and Barbara Boxer) reminded their anti-feminist colleagues that women's health care matters too.

Caster Semenya wow'ed the world with her amazing athletic abilities, and perhaps even more miraculous, dealt with all the crap the public gave her regarding what her "real gender" is.

Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard, helped get a hate crime bill passed in the Senate.

Michelle Obama went above and beyond her first lady role by handling the nonsense the media gave her about her clothing with class, and doing great things for women everywhere, like working with breast cancer awareness.

Sarah Haskins continued to give us hilarious and extremely true installments of Target Women.

Sonia Sotomayor made it through the tough confirmation process and the bullshit thrown at her by her opponents to become our newest Supreme Court judge, making history in more ways that one.

2009's Losses

Some of those who left us this year. May their messages of equality and their fight for women's rights live on and continue to inspire us all.

Dr. George Tiller, long-time abortion provider and champion of reproductive justice.

Senator Ted Kennedy, the "liberal lion of the Senate."

Marilyn French, feminist activists and author of The Women's Room.

Eve Sedgwick, feminist scholar, author, and queer theorist.

Nan Robertson, journalist and author of "The Girls in the Balcony," about workplace equality.

Alice Rossi, sociologist and one of the founders of the National Organization for Women.

I definitely missed some events and people, so please comment with your notable happenings of 2009. I hope all of you had a wonderful year, and I wish you health and happiness in 2010.

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1 comments: to “ The Year 2009 in Feminist Review


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