"The Last Amazon"

"Superman débuted in 1938, Batman in 1939, Wonder Woman in 1941. She was created by William Moulton Marston, a psychologist with a Ph.D. from Harvard. A press release explained, “ ‘Wonder Woman’ was conceived by Dr. Marston to set up a standard among children and young people of strong, free, courageous womanhood; to combat the idea that women are inferior to men, and to inspire girls to self-confidence and achievement in athletics, occupations and professions monopolized by men” because “the only hope for civilization is the greater freedom, development and equality of women in all fields of human activity.” Marston put it this way: “Frankly, Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world...

Superman owes a debt to science fiction, Batman to the hardboiled detective. Wonder Woman’s debt is to feminism. She’s the missing link in a chain of events that begins with the woman-suffrage campaigns of the nineteen-tens and ends with the troubled place of feminism a century later. Wonder Woman is so hard to put on film because the fight for women’s rights has gone so badly...

In 1944, Wonder Woman became the only superhero, aside from Superman and Batman, to make the jump from the pages of a comic book to daily newspaper syndication as a comic strip. Marston had so much work to do, writing Wonder Woman stories, that he hired an assistant, nineteen-year-old Joye Hummel. She’d been a student in a psychology class he taught at the Katharine Gibbs School. (Hummel, now ninety, still has the exam that Marston gave in class. It reads as though it were written by Sheryl Sandberg. Question No. 6: “Advise Miss F. how to overcome her fear of talking with the company Vice President who is in charge of her Division and whom she has plenty of opportunities to contact if she chooses; also tell Miss F. why these contacts are to her advantage.”) To help Hummel write Wonder Woman, the family gave her copies of Marston’s “Emotions of Normal People” and Sanger’s “Woman and the New Race.”...

Wonder Woman ran for President in a comic book written by Marston in 1943; she ran for President on the cover of Ms. in 1972. She’ll run again; she’s never won. The Equal Rights Amendment never became law; in 1982, the deadline for its ratification expired. A century after Sanger started The Woman Rebel, even the fight for birth control isn’t over."


http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/last-amazon

The origins of wonder-woman! I mean the exceptionalism is in the name I suppose, but that was before exceptionalism was even a problem I guess...

And all these details -

"Lewis Terman, who helped develop the I.Q. test, also helped create a test to measure “masculinity” and “femininity”: its purpose was to identify deviance."

"Is It Time To Reappropriate Pink?"

"It isn't just young boys who eventually come to reject pretty pink frills and — by extension — girliness. By elementary school, PFD is no longer the norm among girls.

In a review of research on the development of gender identity, May Ling Halim and colleagues write that only about 30 to 40 percent of girls in the post-kindergarten years identify as "traditional" girls or as having interests that are typically associated with girls or women. Many instead reject the girliness they'd once embraced, with up to half labeling themselves as tomboys... The trouble is that "pinkifying" the nonfrivolous (think pink power tools and pink Legos) merely marks the hers, in some ways confirming that "neutral" was his all along."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/11/10/362980907/is-it-time-to-reappropriate-pink

This makes me think about what makes having an oppressed and disrespected identity so, so, daily and long-term exhausting is that there are all sorts of social pressures encouraging you to push it away and claim to be something else, and then political pressures to hold it close and pridefully and despite-fully, and the being-you-as-you-are gets so buried in all that that it can be impossible to ever know. It's this constant personal evolution toward a place in which one's identity can be stable while feeling safe and true and nourishing.

This is also why I love Dear White People, because it taps into that struggle.

"Climate change could affect the ratio of human males to human females that are born in some countries, a new study from Japan suggests. The researchers found that male fetuses may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change."

http://www.livescience.com/48070-male-fetus-climate-change.html

Related to: “Are Men the Weaker Sex?” (shitty title but interesting content)

"The Herculean Effort Taken By One Group To Show Hollywood Is Sexist"

"In dissecting the top 100 grossing films each year, Smith and her team have analyzed a total of 26,225 characters in 600 films for gender, body type, age, race and more. In theirmost recent annual review, released in July, they found that in 2013, only 29 percent of characters were female, and a mere 28 percent of the films had a female lead or co-lead."

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-to-measure-women-film-annenberg/

I wished they talked more about race in this piece

"Consider the bra strap."

"During my lifetime, women were not allowed to show their belly buttons on TV. Mary Ann had to wear high mom shorts on “Gilligan’s Island.” Cher was the first in history to show hers in the early 70s, and the ban was not actually lifted till 1983. Barbara Eden had to wear a flesh-colored plug on “I Dream of Jeannie” — that doesn’t even make sense! And neither does sexualizing bra straps.""

https://medium.com/@tracyrkerievsky/consider-the-bra-strap-its-a-bit-of-elastic-on-your-shoulders-i-remember-when-you-didnt-want-f0c637bdcf5d

"Women, It's Time to Reclaim Our Breasts"

"From posing for post-mastectomy portrait photos to online comedy sketches about boob sweat, women are starting new dialogues about breasts that let women share their insecurities, revel in their sensuality, and laugh at the inherent silliness of having these things with nipples that drive so much of the male gaze.

No two women have the same feelings towards their breasts, but is almost always unique to how they feel to any other part of their body because they are so laden with social and, specifically, sexual significance. Breasts are serious business, and that’s because they are serious sexual business."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/09/women-it-s-time-to-reclaim-our-breasts.html

"15 Unflinching Photos Explore How We View Sexuality In Aging Women"

"As female bodies age, society views them as less and less desirable, less useful, less attractive; in fact, Schreiber says, people often stop looking at them at all. "Somewhere in my 40s," she shares with us, "I began to feel less noticed by others. My physical appearance changed, and there was also a shift in the way I thought about and carried myself." In her photo series "Pretty, Please," Schreiber explores these shifts, shying away from none of the physical aspects of aging: her ebbing menstrual flow, creases of fat, and crow's feet all take center stage. At the same time, she asserts her status — to herself and to the world — as a sexual, sensual, and middle-aged being. With her photos and the title "Pretty, Please," Schreiber seems both to ask herself for permission to feel sexy and to request that others see her as the same. Her work connotes insecurity, but not despair: You finish viewing the photos with the hope that the woman who took them will find joy in her body for as long as she lives in it — and that the rest of us will, too."

http://www.refinery29.com/andi-schrieber-pretty-please-aging-sexuality

"Women Feel Routinely Unsafe and You Can Change That"

"But I’m not into shaming men. I do, however, believe in taking responsibility for our role in the reality we’re living. And the reality we live in is women routinely feel unsafe in our society; they are constantly subject to behavior from men that devalues their worth as human beings with something meaningful to offer the planet beyond male sexual release and motherhood.

Women are unsafe and aggressed upon because so many men are stuck in a perpetual adolescence. As a male culture, we haven’t yet fully achieved the mature experience of our masculine nature. Too many men still demean “girls” by pulling on their pigtails, bullying and hitting them, tricking them into showing their boobs and calling them bad names. They just do it now wearing business suits and NFL uniforms, drinking beer instead of kool-aid."

http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/bnr-women-feel-unsafe-and-you-can-change-that/

Ummm yes to this part.

The article is a really interesting perspective into how a man experiences all of the quotidien violence and dehumanization of femininity, and a little call to arms to other men. I appreciate it because I am increasingly feeling as though street harassment is not something that I can do anything about, because harassers don't respect me so they aren't going to listen or be impacted by my negative reactions to them, so what is really needed is a set of very visible mascule men who come out strongly against bothering women on the street - and clarifying what is and is not a compliment (and when it is and is not appropriate to compliment a complete stranger).

This could be a great job for Bill Clinton when he is our first First Man.

"Shirtstorm"

"If you think this isn’t a big deal, well, by itself, it’s not a huge one. But it’s not by itself, is it? This event didn’t happen in a vacuum. It comes when there is still a tremendously leaky pipeline for women from undergraduate science classes to professional scientist. It comes when having a female name on a paper makes it less likely to get published, and cited less. It comes when there is still not even close to parity in hiring and retaining women in the sciences."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/11/17/casual_sexism_when_a_shirt_is_more_than_a_shirt.html

"15 Times When It's Totally Appropriate to Catcall"

"For some ungodly reason, sometimes your feline friend acts out and takes it out on you — maybe breaking the skin. When this happens, you've got to let it know that such swiping is not appropriate behavior. So before it makes a mad dash, call out that cat's name in righteous indignation."

http://mic.com/articles/104032/here-are-15-times-when-it-s-totally-appropriate-to-catcall

"AUSTRALIAN ARMY CHIEF TO MEN: STOP BEING BYSTANDERS TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN"

"Last year, as you might remember, Australian Army Lieutenant General David Morrison — the top ranked man in the Australian armed forces — made a video addressing sexual violence in the ranks. He famously urged men in the armed forces to stop being bystanders to sexual abuse among their colleagues, and told them that “the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.” ...This week, Morrison has made headlines again after his remarks at an annual White Ribbon Day breakfast. Morrison is a White Ribbon ambassador, and took the opportunity to talk about the role that culture — and particularly what some might call Australia’s toxic masculinity — plays in perpetuating domestic violence."

http://feministing.com/2014/11/26/australian-army-chief-to-men-stop-being-bystanders-to-violence-against-women/

I LOVE this - the standard you walk past is the standard you accept. Yesyesyes

I also want to learn about how this guy was educated, and what inspired him to action.

"7 Steps You Can Take To Address Street Harassment"

"People who often experience public sexual harassment, as well as those who have experienced public sexual assault, can become reserved and suspicious when they’re out in public.

They may avoid talking to their neighbors or miss opportunities to make genuine connections in their fear that the interaction might turn into harassment or assault. Their harassers’ attempts to intimidate and silence them can succeed.

That’s why it can be incredibly valuable for bystanders to stand up against the harassment they see taking place."

http://everydayfeminism.com/2012/11/7-steps-to-address-street-harassment/

"The new Hunger Games movie is a love letter to difficult women"

"Francis Lawrence makes their prickly demeanors unmissable, but he also makes it clear that one of the things that this dystopian world understands (that American society might still be missing) is that a woman doesn't need to be likable to be respected.

This trend is slowly taking hold in television — where women are just as morally tilted, complicated, and faulty as men. But this movie goes a step further than even those shows, with a canny commentary on celebrity, suggesting that the badass qualities that we love about women like Katniss (or Olivia Pope or Beyoncé) is only what they allow us to see."
http://www.vox.com/2014/11/21/7257601/hunger-games-mockingjay

"Why I'm Genderqueer, Professional and Unafraid"

"Professionalism is a funny term, because it masquerades as neutral despite being loaded with immense oppression. As a concept, professionalism is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, imperialist and so much more -- and yet people act like professionalism is non-political... As transgender, genderqueer and gender non-conforming people, we deserve better. We deserve to have our work ethic and intellect respected regardless of how we choose to express our gender identities. We deserve to be able to wear clothing and behave in ways that affirm our gender. We deserve to be treated fairly in the workplace."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-tobia/genderqueer-professional-_b_5476239.html

Yes. Yes yes yes. Professionalism means, as much as possible, be a straight, cis-gendered, white man with a sort of Northeast cultural bent. Have enough money and knowledge to buy the right suits, ties, and shoes. Be available to the judgments of the more "professional" people around you. Have a set of neutral conversation topics that are relatable to the other Professionals, can be believably chuckled at without threatening anyone or involving too much thought. Never, ever, ever make anyone uncomfortable/happen to have an identity that makes others uncomfortable.

"The Feminist Guide To Non-Creepy Flirting"

"Remember, some women may be on guard because women’s bodies are highly visible. A lot of men do feel entitled to a woman’s time, attention, and body without considering her feelings. Dealing with men like this on a daily basis leads some women to adopt a stony faced, disinterested persona to avoid being targeted for street harassment... So even when you don’t act entitled to a woman’s body, don’t take every cold shoulder personally. Whether you’re one of them or not, there are a lot of creeps in this world that she’s trying to protect herself from."

http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/01/feminist-guide-to-non-creepy-flirting

Ya, I keep on wanting to let passing men know that women can TELL when people are staring at us. We just act like we can't see you because we are afraid of what you might do next. Stop staring, stop staring?