The XVI Carnival of Feminists is here!

Disability Feminism

On the issue of disability and coming into puberty, maman poulet writes beautifully of her own experiences. The lack of a period that usually enables us to distinguish between the transition from girlhood to womanhood was lacking in her life and she tells us why it really is a big deal. I think it goes well with the debate at Alas a blog and Pandagon with regards to “natural” vs. “unnatural”.

Another original post by Lingual Tremors! In it, she describes how the education her younger brother and sister with special needs are getting differs from her own educational experiences. Comparatively speaking of course, it's nil. If you are surprised then you haven't been paying close enough attention.

Blue from The Gimp Parade tells us pro-choice feminists it's not that simple to compare an adult with a disability to a fetus with a potentially disabling condition when talking about abortion. Plus some very good points are brought up from its resulting discussion, mainly, who is going to care for the fetus once it is born?

Disability Studies, Temple U.: Disability Blogs Roundup, #10 has not much to do with feminism but everything to do with everyday life and accessibility issues, even something as simple as going to the Dr. More experiences that we should all be aware of in order to better include into the larger feminist movement. Ahistoricality brought my attention to this post which is also a great read.

In March, I created a self-imposed theme of Disability Awareness Week. I covered a lot of information and most of it was research I had done for other papers and presentations. I learned a lot and wanted to share.

Political/Religious Feminism

Coming from Irrational Point's Soapbox, One Step Forward, Three Steps Back analyses Kenya's new sexual assault law, where apparently the Parliament thought it okay to put the punishment of false rape accusations on par with the actual penalties of the rape itself. And no, I'm not kidding.

Socialist feminism is something I strongly align myself with at times and Volsunga addresses the decision made by the NSU Women's Conference to decide in favor of Object's campaign to ban Page 3 under the guise of political and degradation issues. I agree with Volsunga in that I'm highly uncomfortable with any government deeming what should or should not be included in any political discourse.

Has anyone studied up on Marxism and Marxist Feminism lately? Have no fear, Le Revue Gauche fills you in and furthers the words of Carl Marx (who I swear is my hero).

Eve from Feminist Mormon Housewives writes of class issues within Mormonism. She says the religion in general frowns on excessive consumerism yet asks, "Would I be willing to arrive at church dressed not immodestly, not too informally, but completely unfashionably?" It really is a good read.

Mensa Barbie Welcomes You wanted to know if women were discussed at the first Islamaphobia conference in Denmark, so she did a little research. In her post, "Islamophobia: Missing the Mark" she tells us nope, they were not.

Ahistoricality takes on the notion of self-pity (or other-pity) in an essay that criticizes the way western feminists view Islamic women and the way western feminists tend to lump all Islamic women into one "poor them" category. Honestly, on my first read, I don't necessarily agree with Ahistoricality because I think s/he is being too Americentric, but I haven't read the essay in question yet, so I could very easily change my mind. Having read such essays as "The Bikini and the Burqa" and a few essays (from women in Afghanistan who live in the war) from a book I can't remember the name of now, I can't help but sympathize with the woman Ahistoricality is disagreeing with.

Lis Riba of Riba Rambles gives us a historical look at The Radical Feminist vs. The Flapper and how the same argument that is used today existed during the flapper era. You will enjoy it as much as I did, I promise.

Then Heart takes it one step further (Without trying mind you. I doubt she knew of Lisa Riba's post before it being published just above hers in this carnival. Isn't it cool how these things work?) and addresses Radical Feminism is her post, "Radical Feminism: What it is and what it isn't."

Feminism and the Comics

There is so much wrong with the original post Kalinara is responding to here that I couldn't even leave a coherent comment. So I'm leaving it to you, dear readers, to go over and set that other woman straight, she who suggested "manly" women in comics equates to butch lesbianism. I'm sure you won't let me down.

Kalinara also put up a post that discusses She-Hulk at length. I don't like the fact "She" had to be put in front of an already non-gendered name, but hell, the world isn't perfect. I do like that my son might be able to have his comic experiences balanced out a little so I was glad she submitted this post (which is why it was included, hehe). Ragnell chimes in with more discussion on the She-Hulk topic, too.

Did you know the new Batwoman is going to be a lesbian? Me neither but hey, I'm all for it. The comics aren't my thang, just like NASCAR, because of their supreme lack of diversity, however, this might be a good starting point.

What most people, including me, didn't know I'm sure is that the original Batgirl got shot by Joker and was thus paralyzed. And then guess what happened? She became a superheroine with a disability! (tsk,tsk, she was not confined to anything other than her mind ;) Maybe I need to watch Teen Titans more. Much thanks to The Divine Ms. Jimmi for filling me in.

All I gotta say is wow to the article heykidzcomix takes on. A snippet from the original that I know you will just love: "If your creepy cousin Chester can get his rocks off to a Matt Baker drawing of a supple female in bondage as opposed to snatching somebody's daughter and hauling her into a darkened alley, then it could be argued that maybe ol' Matt was performing a public service." Anyone seeing a parallel argument for legalizing prostitution?

Dorian takes on the double-standard of rape in most comics (I say most because he even admits some might have been left out). And I don't think he disappoints either. Be sure to check out the discussion in comments, too.

If you are a feminist into comics, check out these new(er) sites made just for you:

When FanGirls Attack which I love because hey, what's not to love about sexist assholes being called out on their misogyny?

Girl-Wonder in their own words: "Girl-Wonder.org is a collection of sites dedicated to females in mainstream comics. Our goals are to foster an attentive, empowered audience community and to encourage respect and high-quality character depiction within the industry."

Ripping the Anti's

I wasn't going to include this post on monogamy because it is so anti-woman that it just pissed me off, but Charlie from Shades of Grey has taken it on, shredding its premise. Then, I got a submission from lost clown over at Angry for a Reason on polyamory that convinced me Brandon Peele's post had to be added so we could all see what an asshole he really is. Do notice that no comments have been made and please take it upon yourself to let him know I changed my mind *wink**wink*. (And hey, maybe he'll actually learn something in the process.)

Labels, labels and more labels. Abyss2hope writes of her struggles with anti's regarding their need to label her a man hating bitch, naturally. *snark* But she realizes their labels have not been about her, but about them. You know, when a mother defends her son, even after he was/is found guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law, even when the videotape of his atrocious behavior was shown multiple times during the trial, I have a hard time with that and it's something I don't think I could do. As a mother of a son, I can understand why gender segregation feminist's exist when you have women crying for their *lost* sons, which completely ignores the harm those sons have committed onto the world. It's a very touching, introspective post.

Shakespeare's Sister and Mad Kane take on John Aravosis of Americablog for his use of "big girl" when referring to Pat Robertson. John's response was to move his post so no more of us feminists could find it and vilify him for his obvious misogyny. SS and MK provide you with brand new links to his cover up so go join in the fun all over again! Seriously, this is exactly why I don't read the big A-lister bloggers that are male, not even Atrios or Kos (especially since I heard the latter on the Al Franken show and he wasn't very sympathetic to women's issues but was touted as an "expert" on the issues he has so pointedly made clear were of no interest to him).

Men in Feminism?

Kiki at Saucebox has an excellent post on men in feminism, their "natural" urges to fuck every woman they see, how society supposedly forces men to view every woman as object, therefore fuckable, etc. It's long but oh so very worth taking the time to read the whole thing.

Ever wonder about Men in Feminism and how come they (meaning men) largely lack from these Carnivals? Well, wonder no more as Charlie from Shades of Grey takes on both Chris Clarke's assertion that men cannot be feminists but only feminist sympathizers and Ampersand's decision to call himself a feminist. Charlie also refutes punkassmarc's critique that men should be feminist supporters so the risk of men taking over the feminist movement is lessened.

Hugo Schwyzer is finally starting to truly get it I think. He hasn't referred to himself as a feminist, yet he teaches Women's Studies classes. I choose to nominate this post because its main focus has nothing to do with Christianity and everything to do with how the young women and men in his classes end up relating to each other. I kinda like this one, too.

From the men (and women) who run the organization Men Can Stop Rape, I bring you the Masculinities in Media blog. It's chock full of news articles on Trans Issues, LGBTQ critiques and more. A good read that I highly recommend. And, by participating, you can help it reach a wider audience.

Feminism in General

Verbify takes on the meaning of "maternal" and why women, with or without children, are supposed to inhabit some version of a "maternal instinct." When they supposedly don't, they are criticized sharply for it (like moms with tattoo's and piercings maybe?). This reminded me of Rachel's post about various forms of hormonal birth control that take away a woman's period. She decided against such because because it "isn't natural." Amanda definitely laid into that line of false argumentation in her rebuttal. All took on the idea of what women should and/or should not be.

Laurie and Debbie take on the"exotic as compliment" discussion that was originally talked about briefly by brownfemipower. Debbie also talks about the feminist one-uppers out there whose motto seems to be, "Asian women have it worse than you so quit your whining." Aren't one-uppers loads of fun to be around, hmmm? This is when it's important to remember that someone will always have it worse than you and someone will always have it better; your job as an individual is to get through your problems and hopefully help a few others along the way. This also goes for the, "If I can do it, so you can," attitude which even I've been guilty of at times.

First time Carnival submitter (but long-time reader) A Pang rants about chivalry and how its purported "niceness" is already covered under the word "polite." And there is a really cool 2 frame comic strip that greats you first. It's hilarious!

This post by FrankenGirl delves into the state of our undies and is humorously written. Thank goodness I was at home the first time I read it so I wasn't worried about guffawing to loudly, :).

Remember the Male Privilege Checklist? (Do click on the link to McIntosh's essay, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.") Well, it's been making the rounds again, this time in the Livejournal community and not in a good way either. So Ampersand, in an attempt to defend the Checklist, and because Livejournal kept saying the comments were too long, has created a post all his own as a response to ChuckDarwin and the many commenters who think Amp was talking out of his ass when he first created the Checklist.

SAM-I-am wants to know, "Am I the only feminist who has ever listened to country music? Why am I not reading more about the Dixie Chicks in the feminist blogosphere?" So in answer to her question, No, she isn't because I love the Dixie Chicks, Martina McBride and Gretchen Wilson to name a few and I know others do, too, as is evidenced by Zuzu's assertion that they rock (well, kinda). Now SAM-I-am's thoughts on the Dixie Chicks are officially out in the blogosphere.

Landis Mom of Bumblebee Sweet Potato informs us of a movement growing within the Hotel Worker's Union called "Hotel Worker's Rising." I had no idea. I do know that whenever the option to leave my towels and bed linens on for the duration of my stay is available, I take it. I also have been known to leave notes suggesting they leave my bed unmade since I'm going to mess it up again in a few short hours anyway. I've always been in favor of reducing their workload even before reading Nickel and Dimed. (Seriously, I've been known to clean the showers for them, empty my own trash and I love to leave the room the way I found it.)

Ann Bartow from Feminist Law Professors writes about her experience running in the Providence Heart and Sole Women's Five Miler. It's nice to see how women can truly join together in sisterhood even while sweating viciously.

Anti-Drown wanted to suggest additions to the Feminist Majority Foundation t-shirt, "This is what a feminist looks like." She said feminists are more than just their bodies so the t-shirt doesn't do full justice to the individual wearing it, especially on the blogosphere when we have no idea what each other looks like. Perhaps you will want to make your own additions in comments.
Lake Desire informs us of a new game, Maiden Love Revolution, coming from Japan where the main object for the lead female character is to lose weight, therefore being rewarded with a boyfriend when she gets down to the ideal "male gaze" slender-type body. And apparently, dieting in Japan is a big deal. 100LittleDolls, working off the comments on feministing, tells us all to beware are ethnocentric thought patterns when referring to those in Japan and to keep in mind Japanese culture and its differences from ours.

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And that is all my indelible carnival supporters. It was great fun hosting these most excellent posts and please, be sure to submit to the next one to be hosted at BitchLab June 17th.