Ready for Action: tell us what you’re doing
December 8, 2008
by Sheryl Lee
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Last Wednesday, people responded to this post, noting their frustration with the slow pace of change, and talking about ways to cope with it.
Of course, we all get discouraged. Change takes place for women’s rights and women’s status at a glacial rate, and it’s hard to keep our momentum up when we meet such resistance, such entrenched attitudes and such determined adherence to the status quo as we do on a daily basis. When I get tired of fighting, when I feel burned to a crispy little ball of bitterness and frustration, I take a few days or a week off, and then I come back fresh—ready to keep working for the change that I can believe in.
Progress is slow, and we have to keep at it—it’s the only way we’ll ever get there—but we don’t have to do it alone. We can support each other. We can check in and share our efforts and our successes and our failures. We can meet up in person or online to talk about what we’re doing and what we want to do. We can help each other sustain morale and momentum by recognizing each others efforts and struggles.
Hence “Ready for Action.”
The thing is—what we’re doing is working. We’re getting a lot of press (even some we didn’t know about), and we hear fairly regular reports of tv and radio pundits mentioning The New Agenda; Larry Summers has launched a PR campaign to rehabilitate his image, and the Obama team seems very aware that they need to provide the appearance that they’re thinking about what women want.
What we’re doing is working. It’s not working perfectly, and much of the time it’s a day late and a dollar short—but it’s working.
There are many opportunities for action on the blog throughout the week. When we post about an issue, we try to suggest actions you could take. If we don’t, we trust that our members will—you all are great that way.
This week Anna drafted letters for members’ use, to protest about Chris Matthews and Jon Favreau, and ER provided these contacts and suggestions for reaching Obama’s team. Just look around any comment thread and you’ll see lots of suggestions and reports of actions taken.
It seems like a good idea to have a place designated for these things, so we’ll try this as a weekly feature for a while and see how it goes.
Every small and large effort helps, so let us know what you’re doing, and let’s encourage each other.
This work is difficult. We don’t need to do it alone.
Speaking of Progress: I picked TNA reference up this morning at Breitbart out of Washington Times out of Memeorandum!
Is that cool?!!!
…I knew them when…
Great idea for a thread….maybe this could be a weekly thing? A weekly “progress report” motivational thread.
OK…Anne Marie alert! I just saw this on craigslist. I’m going to submit and audition, but even those not in Boston and not into performance could submit written pieces. This sounds like a good avenue for certain New Agendites.
==============
Reply to: gigs-949636225@craigslist.org
We are now accepting original works to be staged and performed at the first (hopefully annual) performance of
“Pieces of She” in March 2009.
Pieces of She began as a grassroots evening of the performing arts in the mountains of western North Carolina. A few college ladies majoring in theatre were tired of the lack of roles and jobs offered to the female actors and technicians at their university. So after some brainstorming they began to work on what would become an annual fundraising and awareness event featuring new, original works written by women to be performed by women.
If you are a writer of plays, prose, poetry etc…we’d love to have you involved.
Currently we are accepting submissions, which will be reviewed by a reading committee mainly for the purpose of stage ability and content. Once the selections are chosen the writer will be contacted and any needed editing will take place. Auditions for performers will be held and then the pieces will be performed in a theatrical/performance art/short play format.
Ticket prices have not been set however, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to a local women’s shelter or organization. Performances will be held in Jamaica Plain.
This is great opportunity for any woman to get involved in their community. No experience is required, just a passion for celebrating women in the arts.
For more information about submitting a piece or auditions/getting involved with the show please email me and I’ll get back to you ASAP. Pass the word to your friends and family and lets make Pieces of She the best night of edgy theatre this side of the Appalachian Mountains.
Singers and songwriters as well as visual artist can contact me for additional information on how they can contribute to Pieces of She.
SUBMISSIONS DUE NO LATER THE 12 AM JANUARY 19, 2009
Dulcy, don’t get me wrong….but I can do without the Washington “Rev. Moon” cult Times notices. I mean, they can notice us, good for them…but it’s not a source I’d quote or call “progress.”
==================================
Now, Real Clear Politics is a source we can be proud of, especially the way they took notice of us! They’ve correctly noted that The New Agenda has taken the high ground from the Obama-besotten NOW. NOW not only endorsed the sexist swine ticket, they are also going to unbelievable lengths not holding the swine accountable.
Link and notable excerpt:
http://www.realclearpolitics.c.....ard_c.html
The National Organization for Women, which last struck issuing news releases on why Sarah Palin isn’t a real woman, refused to comment on the Obama speechwriter incident.
When NOW’s press secretary Mai Shiozaki was reached Friday, she first claimed not to have seen the Favreau photograph. But when called later, she offered two reasons for not weighing in: “I haven’t looked into it” and “I have a 5 p.m. deadline. … I am already late.”
The New Agenda, a new nonpartisan group for women’s rights, and perhaps a valid heir apparent to the dying NOW brand, did speak out: “These antics ought to be summarily condemned by President-elect Obama. He ought to fire Jon Favreau. If he does not fire Favreau, he risks fostering the perception that he condones Favreau’s disrespect toward Senator Clinton. He also risks encouraging this sort of behavior in other young men toward women who are not merely cardboard cutouts.”
But as it is, Mr. Favreau is primed to set the tone of the incoming president as he crafts Mr. Obama’s much-anticipated inaugural address.
Ironically, Dulcy, they are the same author…and possibly the same article. I just don’t like directing anyone to an enterprise owned by Rev. Moon.
And the headline makes snide reference to “I believe Anita Hill” which I think sounds a bratty and dismissive, but ok…I will give Breitbart a pass on that because I’ll bet he didn’t write that headline.
Well said, Zee.
Thanks, Dulcy….I can see why you’d be excited about the content you saw. I do believe it’s true that The New Agenda is the heir to the discredited NOW.
Thanks for sharing this Zee. We had totally missed this!
CNN also asked us to be part of The Situation Room tonight on Favreau. We declined as the interview would not have been live. I have been cut and pasted before by CNN and refuse to participate in that way. We did offer a live interview for a later date. CNN did ask for our action alert and might be mentioning our organization tonight on their segment btw 5-6 p.m. EST.
What a joke that CNN is now interested in gender bias!! They were one of the worst offenders during the elections. I think they just want to spin this one to make Senator Clinton look bad for not screaming foul. They want to make her look like a hypocrite for working for the sexist Obama camp. Once again, they want to blame the woman of course. It is like blaming a woman who gets raped in a bar for having been in the bar. Lord knows if she wasn’t in the place this never would have happened. Meantime, the rapists are just being men!!!!!
I second Zee’s suggestion to make this a regular thread. I think it would be a great way to inspire each other, keep motivation high and share creative ideas.
Here’s what I’m doing, which is pretty much what I’ve done my entire adult life, with some things taking priority over others at various times:
Stay involved and linked into organizations that have a mission I believe in.
Write to the media often, with concise letters that get to the point.
Express my views to my elected officails, often.
Invest in the lives of women and girls by being a mentor, taking a child under my wing, etc.
Fulfill my passions and set an example for how a woman can live, what a woman can do, etc.
Be outspoken in situations when you hear untoward comments about women.
Avoid devolving into hypocrisy.
Speak truth to power. Often.
James Carville was on CNN today, and he was just yucking it up over the Favreau incident. Could not control himself.
According to Carville, Gropey is just a guy ‘having a good time!” He could not stop ridiculing the outcry over what it clearly the simulation of a sexual assault.
Gropey must be cut loose. Now. Let him return to the frat house where he belongs.
LETTER TO C. BROWN AT CNN; FEEL FREE TO ADAPT AND SEND ALONG TO MR. CARVILLE.
————————————————————————————
Dear Ms. Brown:
I read your recent piece regarding the photographs of Jon Flaveau behaving in a blatantly sexist fashion toward the life-sized cut out of Senator Clinton. I am writing to express my deep dismay regarding your shift of focus away from Flaveau and onto Clinton. You let Flaveau off the hook but suggesting that what he did was so obviously stupid that it was unworthy of additional comment. You then focused the bulk of your attention onto how Senator Clinton responded.
Jon Flaveau’s actions were and are terrible. Flaveau and his friend were miming getting Senator Clinton drunk while Flaveau groped her, a scenario that treads dangerously close to the beginning stages of date rape. And while Flaveau and his friend appeared to be having quite a bit of fun, there is nothing funny about what they were doing.
I find it curious that you felt no need to address the very serious nature of this. Do you find it of little importance that an individual with a prominent position with the incoming administration would act out what he did? Did you think about the message it sends to men and women, boys and girls, mothers and fathers of daughters in college where date rape runs rampant? Did you take even a moment to think about the millions of women who are rendered semi-conscious or unconscious by a man or men plying her with alcohol who then subsequently rape her?
Ms. Brown, I could not help but wonder, if the cardboard cut-out had been Michelle Obama or any other prominent woman who was black, if you would have been equally as unphased? Would that have received a mere paragraph?
Meanwhile, after letting Flaveau off the hook in your opening paragraph, you diverted the attention of your piece to Senator Clinton’s reaction, pointing out what you perceived to be a change in her position on sexism. Irrespective of how Clinton responded or what anyone may think of it, the heart of the matter remains Flaveau’s actions and Obama’s lack of comment. Rather than holding Favleau’s feet to the fire or Obama’s feet to the fire, it seems to have been easier for you to continue to find ways to provide negative coverage of Senator Clinton. I can only wonder if this is a coincidence or if there is another factor at play. I would call this factor a double standard regarding sexism and racism and how these issues play out in the media.
I wish you well and hope you have never been and never will be the victim of violence. Unfortunately, as women, we are all just a breath away from it due, in part, to our cultural acceptance of it, the media’s lack of attention to it, and to the likes of the Jon Flaveau.
Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. I always look forward to following how various media outlets evolve in their drive toward excellence in journalism. It seems we have a long way to go.
Sincerely,
Link to CNN site where you can voice your thoughts about what the incoming admnistration should take on first. Hozabout firing Jon Flaveau for starters?!*
http://theforum.cnn.com/
I’ll be there with a cardboard cut-out of Flaveau and a knife so those with real militant inclinations can symbolically castrate him. I will be way in the back on the right as you are facing the podium – look for the cut-out of Mssr. Flaveau with a bottle of beer in his hand and the big grin he displayed as he groped the cut-out of our Secretay of State.
Goesh, sorry, where will you be?
Goesh
Great to see you back. BTW, your post made me wonder how Flaveau would have reacted if some frat boys had a cardboard cut out of his Mom, or his girlfriend or wife they were miming getting drunk and groping. I wonder if he’d have some macho response.
The whole thing makes me sick.
Here’s a good website that lists articles about Favreau and provide links to where you can comment for on each article: http://pumaresponders.blogspot.com/
One good way to keep the pressure on.
[...] is the second “Ready for Action” thread (see the first one here), and it will also be the last, because Violet has created a terrific new Grassroots section, with [...]
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