Quote of the Week(end): "Zombie Feminists"

From Rebecca Traister over at Salon.com:

The pro-woman rhetoric surrounding Sarah Palin's nomination is a grotesque bastardization of everything feminism has stood for, and in my mind, more than any of the intergenerational pro- or anti-Hillary crap that people wrung their hands over during the primaries, Palin's candidacy and the faux-feminism in which it has been wrapped are the first development that I fear will actually imperil feminism. Because if adopted as a narrative by this nation and its women, it could not only subvert but erase the meaning of what real progress for women means, what real gender bias consists of, what real discrimination looks like.

I'm torn between terror that she's got it right and thankfulness that so many feminist writers and activists are speaking out on behalf of a feminist ethic that encompasses all women's human rights. Go read the whole thing.

Quote of the Week: Politics & Privacy

From this week's RhReality Podcast, hosted by Amanda Marcotte:

I can't reiterate enough---every single person declaring that the Palin family deserves privacy on this needs to answer for the privacy of all other women in this country. Do I have privacy? Do I get a right to make my own decisions about my body away from the prying eyes and grabby hands of right wingers? Anyone who supports restrictions on women's access to birth control and abortion has forsaken the right to hide behind privacy on this. I'm sorry, but that's how it is. Anything short of that is saying that people in power have privacy and rights, but the rest of us don't, which is un-American.

I really have nothing more to add, except go listen to the podcast, which is excellent as always.

The Politics of Maps

God, I miss the West Wing.



I'm doing an exercise with the undergraduates in History 100 this Thursday to help them think about using maps as historical sources. As an introduction to my little preliminary talk, I plan to show them one of my favorite clips from The West Wing (Season 2; Episode 16). Thanks YouTube for having just what my geeky little heart desired!

Dahlia Lithwick on Republicans & Choice

There's so much great stuff out on the 'net being written about Sarah Palin and her stance on issues important to feminist activists that I can't hope to link them all here. But I can't resist posting a note on this column from the ever-insightful Dahlia Lithwick of Slate on republicans and the illusion of reproductive choice. I think it's important to respect Bristol Palin's personal privacy when it comes to her pregnancy, but as many feminist writers have been pointing out, it's a personal privacy that the Republicans don't want any other woman to have. That's what makes the Palin's family decisions worthy of political attention.

First online finding aid!

This morning I finished and published my first online archival finding aid as part of my internship at Northeastern Archives. It involved a lot of fancy footwork with Microsoft Word macros and Dreamweaver . . . but the important thing in the end was that it worked and the papers of one Albert Hale Waite (graduate of Northeastern's School of Law, class of 1933) are now fully processed and accessible for research. You can view the finding aid for Mr. Waite here.

Teen Sexuality & Agency

This weekend, while Governor Palin's nomination as Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate, her hard-line conservative positions on human sexuality, and her daughter's pregnancy were making headlines, I was reading sociologist Jessica Fields' insightful new book Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality. As Courtney Martin posted over at Feministing (in a review that prompted me to run out and buy the book), Fields "basically lays out a liberation philosophy for sex education." Reflecting on the fieldwork Fields conducted in sex education classes during the mid-1990s, Courtney writes:

Young women learn to see their bodies as ticking time bombs and young men to see theirs as the uncontrollable fire that could lead to explosion. Instead of promoting self-awareness, responsible exploration, respect for the diversity of sexualities, or compassionate communication, we teach them that their bodies are dangerous. Conservatives want that danger staved off until marriage, where it suddenly becomes holy, and liberals want it staved off along the way -- through the use of accessible contraception.

While I obviously advocate safer sex, I also feel like progressives have let ourselves (as per the usual) be only reactive, instead of re-authoring the questions. We must not only ask how we can protect young Americans from unwanted pregnancy and STIs, but how we can encourage them to be self-aware, healthy, and happy. How can we inspire them to author their own questions?

As political commentators discussed teenage pregnancy, marriage, and parenthood, comprehensive vs. abstinence-only sex "education" (I offer a few examples here, here, here and here for those interested), Fields' book offered a what I thought was a fascinating counterpoint to the conventional wisdom. What struck me most about the political coverage was that the majority of Americans -- whether they identify as liberal, conservative or somewhere in between -- assume teenage sexuality is something dangerous, unhealthy, morally wrong. To be a sexually aware and engaged teenager in America is to be held suspect by the majority of adults as irresponsible and the result of bad parenting. As previously noted on here at the FFLA, this isn't the only attitude adults can take about teenage sexual expression, and (in my opinion) far from the ideal. In Risky Lessons, Fields prompts us to re-visit this common-sense assumption and ask ourselves how we might better support young peoples' exploration of the physical, emotional, and political pleasures and perils of their emerging adult sexuality.

In the early 21st century, "Sex education" has been reduced to risk reduction (if you believe in "comprehensive" sex ed) or eradication (if you believe in the abstinence-only doctrine). Young people deserve sexuality education that provides them with intellectual and emotional resources for making sense of their adult bodies, relationships, and agency in the world as sexual beings. And I hope that (if anything good can possibly be said to come from a Republican ticket so deeply opposed to providing those resources to all of America's teenagers) the Palin nomination and the resulting debates over teenage sexual expression can provide us a critical moment of reflection on these issues and a chance to consider the liberatory potential sexuality education.

Grad School: Year Two Begins

Here we are again, the first week of September; this time last year I was in the midst of GSLIS orientation, still unpacking in the dorm, and figuring out where to buy groceries. Today, I'm sitting here in my flat in Allston, having just come back from a grocery run at the Harvest Co-op, planning dinner for my roommate's return from vacation tomorrow and enjoying the creep of the afternoon sun across the hard-wood floors. Yep, a lot has happened in the past year. And now with a new semester beginning, I'm looking ahead to year two . . . the same, with changes.

Work and school will definitely keep me busy this fall. I have on the docket:

• Classes. I am taking two classes this term, Reference Services (a library science requirement) and American Renaissance (a history seminar). I'm particularly looking forward to the history class, which focuses on the Boston-area transcendentalist set: Emerson, Alcott, Hawthorne, Mann . . . I plan to do my research paper on the trans-Atlantic exchange of ideas on pedagogy during the early 19th century.
  
• Teaching Assistantship. I have been awarded a teaching assistantship with Steve Ortega, who teaches world history, and will be working with him on the World Civilizations I course for undergraduates. Simmons is a small enough school that I won't have a class of my own to lead, but have plans in the works to run some lessons over the course of the semester, including a workshop next week on using maps as historical sources.
  
• Internship. After returning to Boston from Michigan a couple of weeks ago, I started an internship at Northeastern University's archives processing collections that have not yet been opened for research. This is something I don't get a chance to do at my regular job at the MHS, and I'm finding I enjoy the intellectual occupation it demands.
  
• I'll also continue to work at the Mass. Historical Society part-time through the school year and look forward to occasionally taking advantage of its seminar series offerings and other events -- not to mention the kick-ass Christmas party the hold every year.
  

On the leisure side of things, I'm a firm believer in continuing to have a life while in graduate school. Since I now have an apartment with a fully functional kitchen and a roommate, this "life" thing means cooking meals, enjoying Tuesday night British Comedies with Hanna, Sunday strolls along the Charles (as long as the weather holds), and of course Thursday night episodes of a new season of The Office! Not to mention watching the political circus in the lead-up to November's election and posting regularly on my blog.

Happy fall, one and all . . .