The Sexist’s Amanda Hess went around and asked (what looks like) twentysomething DC dudes about birth control, and the results are hilarious/terrifying: they often don’t know shit.
My favorite is when a guy gets asked about the birth control pill and he says this: “I guess that’s the one I have most indirect experience with, and I guess that it would be my favorite.” I bet it is, buddy. (To be fair, some guys knew what they were talking about. The guy with the hat is pretty smart.)
But on a serious note: can I reiterate that sexual health knowledge is not just a woman’s realm? That men should know about birth control, the statistics on date rape, abortion access and other such essential life info? Cause I’m tired of being the only one who gets lectured on sex and how to protect myself. Throw us a bone, guys. (No pun intended.) It’s not cute when you don’t know anything about our lady parts.
That said, I’m wondering how women would fare with the same kind of experiment. Something tells me that a lot of us women don’t know what goes on with our bodies, either. What do you think?
I didn’t realize I was intelligent until college; even then, however, I still had my doubts.
In third grade I was diagnosed with a learning disability. According to LD Online, “Fifteen percent of the U.S. population, or one in seven Americans, has some type of learning disability.” It was absolutely horrifying to my third-grade-curly-haired-self. From the way it was presented to me, I knew it was something negative; something no one wanted. Some of you may not know what exactly a learning disability is.
Here’s a definition:
A learning disability is a neurological disorder. In simple terms, a learning disability results from a difference in the way a person’s brain is “wired.” Children with learning disabilities are as smart or smarter than their peers, but they may have difficulty reading, writing, spelling, reasoning, recalling and/or organizing information (LD Online).
I was diagnosed as having two types of learning disabilities, both of which are mild for the most part. One, which is quite common, is called Dyscalculia. This is a “mathematical disability in which a person has a difficult time solving arithmetic problems and grasping math concepts.” The second one I have is called Language Processing, which basically means I have trouble recalling information or retrieving words to express something. I fought with these disabilities long and hard when I was younger.
Immediately after this diagnosis, I was enrolled in special ed class. It was horrible. Us “special” kids would have to leave in the middle of regular class to go to “special” class and it was always so embarrassing. All of the students knew where we were going–they knew we were “dumb.” All through elementary school, I felt different and extremely stupid. In fact, I had many teachers who actually told me things like, “You’re not going to be able to do things like other kids”, or “We don’t expect you to do this that well, because you’re not as smart as the others.” Literally. Or, teachers would say, “Oh, that’s just a crutch.” No, it’s not a crutch–though, if I want to use it as a crutch, that’s my damn right.
Today is International Women’s Day, a holiday started in 1911 largely by Clara Zetkin, who pushed for it after a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen.
In my daily existence, I deal on a strictly local basis. My job as a reporter confines me to five towns in the Chicago suburbs. Even most of my freelance work and blogging intensely focuses on the uniquely American experience.
So I’m thankful for this day to jolt me out of my tunnel vision, especially since it’s easy to miss the dwindling amount of international coverage the media provides nowadays. And even though Girldrive is a truly American story, some womenwe talked to explicitly told me and Emma that feminism needs to get out of its Western bubble.
Here are some IWD events going on across the country. Also see Gender Across Borders’ International Women’s Day blog directory–many many feminist blogs are jumping on the bandwagon today and blogging about global issues.
The ladies from Seal Press and I took to the Berkeley streets last week, asking people to say the first word that came to their mind when they heard: “choice” “movement” “man” “woman” and, finally, “feminist.” The idea was to distill the concept of “Girldrive” down to one word, and also get some guys’ opinions while we were at it. We got some, um…interesting answers, especially with the last word. (One dude said “fucking ridiculous!” Another said “opposite of woman.” Ouch.)
Any good blogger might have done this yesterday, but better late than never. I’ll be doing two readings in the Bay Area today and tomorrow–stop by if you’re around!
Berkeley reading:
When: TONIGHT, March 4th, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley
What: I will be signing copies and reading from Girldrive, including profiles of some Bay Area ladies.
San Fran reading:
When: Friday, March 5th, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Modern Times Bookstore, 888 Valencia Ave., San Francisco
What: I, along with Girldrive interviewees Rebecca Rosenfelt and Bea Sullivan, will be reading from Girldrive. Famed ecofeminist Starhawk might make a guest appearance, too!
After I found this gem today, I decided to give a little blog love to a complex 15-year-old we all knew and loved: Angela Chase.
Anyone who knows me is probably surprised that this blog post hasn’t shown up earlier. I am lightweight obsessed with My So-Called Life, I’ll be the first to admit it. But it’s only because that show was the shit and so was its heroine. Angela was great because she was incredibly, discomfitingly real.
I loved how she was dorky and awkward and wore brown overalls with a black shirt–yet was still so inexplicably cool that every teenage girl in America wanted to be her. I loved how she was insecure and stumbly and passive-aggressive, yet still stuck to her guns (remember when she went to that teacher’s house and demanded why he abandoned his family? Remember when she told Jordan she wasn’t going to lose her V-card in some skeezy abandoned house?). I love that she was unconventional-looking and had zits and compared her small breasts to the huge ones in the locker room, yet was also beautiful and confident at random times and had that awesome shiny red hair. I loved how all her statements were questions (“When you call someone’s name? Like, kind of loud? And they don’t hear you? It makes you feel really lonely.”) I loved how she was completely insightful and utterly oblivious all at once. I just love her and always will.
I got to hang out with Those Darlins the other day for a story in the upcoming VenusZine (a great Chicago-based feminist pop culture mag, recently resurrected!). The band–consisting of, from left, Nikki, Kelley, and Jessi Darlin, all in their 20s–are from Murfreesborough, TN, and their music has a versatile, poppy, countryish, rock vibe. I’m currently addicted to their self-titled album, and I’m not just saying that because I had a blast chilling with them.
Anyway, since clearly I have a one-track mind, we started shootin the shit about feminism, and damn did these ladies have something to say:
Debates about “hooking up,” swinging from genuine concern to hysteria on both sides of political spectrum, have been raging throughout the 2000s.* And this week, it’s seemed to bubble up to the surface again. I’ve spent the day reading ruminations by teen girl expert and Teen Vogue advice columnist Rachel Simmons, the always-thought provoking Kate Harding of Broadsheet, and Amanda Marcotte, who gives us a searing and passionate rebuff of any sort of nostalgia we might have about dating rules and traditions.
This rips open a wound for me–I spent most of 2007 contemplatingthisissue. But I’m gonna weigh in afresh now that I’ve just celebrated 2 years in my healthiest, post-high-school, Completely Committed Relationship (technically marriage, but that’s another story)–the sex-and-love “holy grail,” according to the many women’s and teen magazines Kate lists in her Salon piece. Before, it was my “sorta” this or my “fuck buddy” that or my “I wish I knew what he was thinking” friend-with-benefits. And I gotta say, no matter how much I railed against Laura Sessions Stepp and Dawn Eden and Miriam Grossman and all the other rightwing, anti-feminist cautionary matrons, the facts remained: I knew how it felt to agonize over a text message. I knew how much it hurt to hear that the guy I’d been hooking up with “didn’t do relationships.” And I knew what it was like to use sexuality to coax a guy into being with me, only to have it fail miserably.
Feminist or not, that shit sucks. And it happens a lot, to women and girls everywhere. And yet, if you consider me and the vast majority of America who eventually couple up, it seems to end up okay. What to make of all this?
Poet, professor and Girldrive interviewee, Jennifer Bartlett*, has been kicking ass on the blogosphere as of late writing on issues about feminism, disability and womanhood, and I wanted to make sure she got some spotlight. Check out:
Note: Lachrista is one of Girl-drive.com’s new guest bloggers, more of which will be trickling out in the next couple months. Got a great idea for a guest series? Email me at nona@girl-drive.com.
Hello Girldrive readers!
My name is Lachrista Greco, which literally translates from Italian to the “Greek female Christ,” which couldn’t be more appropriate (not because I’m Christ-like, but because of my strong feminist beliefs). Anyway, I am a 24-year-old grad student in the Women’s and Gender Studies program at DePaul University in Chicago. Aside from school, I have a Graduate Research Assistantship within my program, in which I am co-authoring a book about the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence with Dr. Irene Beck and Dr. Beth Catlett. I have many interests within feminism, including: violence against women, the links between domestic violence and pornography, Italian women’s visual culture and identity, feminist literary criticisms, young women and pop culture, the influence of Riot Grrrl and more! I have a website and blog where I discuss my feminist views at Eau D’Bedroom Dancing.
Thanks to my mom (and Bikini Kill), I have been a feminist for quite some time. I was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, which made it difficult to fully engage in my feminist identity, however, I was fortunate enough to meet a few great like-minded people whom I felt I could really explore my feminist consciousness with. I went to a private Catholic college for undergrad and started the first (and only) feminist group, which was basically a consciousness-raising group for feminist-identified students. I majored in English-Writing and minored in Women’s and Gender Studies. After undergrad, I moved to Chicago to start a Master’s program.
Feminism within the academic and activist realms is incredibly important to me. Since being at DePaul, I have been an active member in the campus group, Feminist Front, and I participate yearly at the Take Back the Night rally and protest. Once I graduate, I hope to stay in Chicago and increase my involvement with feminist activism.
I’m very thankful to Nona Willis Aronowitz and Girldrive for allowing me this guest-blogging opportunity. I couldn’t be more excited!
