Private Parts...all of them female

Just back from a week's vacation on the coast of Maine, near Acadia N.P. We didn't watch television at all. It was bliss. This afternoon, my husband sent this video and told me I'd "really appreciate it".

And I do.

Every time I see gratuitous female exposure, I rant "Where are the naked men for Chrissakes?" "WTF is with these male directors they can't show full frontal male nudity?" It isn't that I want to see fully exposed penises, etc. I just am sick to death of boobs and female genitalia with no equal time for the guys. We're women. We're not stupid. We don't run around naked in front of our fully clothed boyfriends, husbands etc. At least not all the time.

Apparently these ladies agree.

 

G-L-O-R-I-A

Anybody watch the HBO special "Gloria, In Her Own Words"?   It's a portrayal of Gloria Steinem as a feeling thinking woman who became the iconic public face of the Women's Movement.  The narration is hers.  It's intimate.  The details, in some of her stories, are ordinary and relatable.  For example, she developed her trademark hair coloring of streaky highlighted hair because she loved Audrey Hepburn's hair in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."  She said she identified with Holly Golightly.  (really?)

She believed her looks to be an advantage in the women's movement but she did not want them to get in the way of her seriousness.  Makes sense.  She was the antithesis of how women in the early days of the movement were portrayed in the press.   Many people, women included,  thought of womens' libbers as unattractive, man-hating, angry broads out to destroy the family unit and AMERICA.  Sound familiar?

The Woman's Movement was condemned for having an agenda.  It was a tall order.  Steinem, along with the foremost forward thinking women of her day rallied, marched and worked to ratify the  Equal Rights Amendment and Roe v Wade.  Roe v Wade passed in 1973.  The ERA still hasn't been ratified in all 50 states and it's been in play since 1923.

What particularly stood out in this memoir was the vitriol she faced; how maligned she was and still is.  There is video of a shrill, hateful exchange from a woman caller to "The Larry King Show".  There was an incident of public flogging when some pornographer had a graffiti like portrait of her painted on the wall of her office building.  She's naked, her labia exposed, with hairy penises surrounding her.  She is overwhelmed.  She cries.  She's vulnerable.

Her experiences informed her views, her journalistic talent led her to explore and test those views with her readers.  As founder of Ms. Magazine in 1972, she started the first women's magazine written and published by women for women.  Dismissed and discounted as a flash in the pan, Ms. Magazine is still going strong today.  As is Gloria.

Things to Come

First 2012 Republican Presidential Debate
June 13th 2010 New Hampshire
(AP photo)

You didn't think I'd let the very first Presidential debate go by without some kind of commentary, didya?

Held in our very own little "First in the Nation State" of New Hampshire last night at St. Anselm's College, the debate was moderated by John King who is excellent at keeping the talky talkers on point.  He did not allow diarrhea of the mouth or refusal to answer the question asked.  He was awesome!

Mitt did a good job.  He didn't talk too much and looked the part which is what everyone says about him anyway.  The big surprise to me was Michelle Bachmann.  I heard Joe Scarborough repeat someone else's comment along the lines of "...someone got her off the crazy juice" because she sounded reasonable.

Newt is toast.  Not sure why he showed up.  SNL did a great spoof of him leaving the debate a few weekends back after the moderator asked him, "You don't really want to be here do you?"

No reason to comment on the rest of the herd.  They stayed away from criticizing one another and stuck to a repititve onslaught of  Obama bashing.  It became just so much rhetoric.  

I lasted 45 minutes then turned to a much more interesting HBO movie called "A Matter of Taste" about Chef Paul Liebrandt.

Now that was theatre!   

 

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory: The Fire That Changed The Work Place

"It was the deadliest workplace accident in New York City’s history."  opening line of "Triangle Fire" on PBS' American Experience



Triangle Bldg burning





Today is the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a catastrophe which killed 146 workers trapped in the upper stories of a Manhatten garment factory building.  This disaster led to major reform on multiple levels, including establishing maximum working hours, child labor laws and safety regulations. 

Workers at the Triangle Shirt Company

Most of the people who died were young immigrant women.  The average age was 21.  They'd come to America, seeking a better life. Instead, they found a terrible death. 



I first heard of the Triangle Fire in a Women's Studies class in college.  It was where I learned about scurrilous  working conditions in general and tragedies in specifics.  Over the years I've heard it referred to in passing but it seemed to fade away.  This year, however, brings a renewal of interest with the 100 year anniversary.  I watched the PBS show a few weeks ago. HBO has produced a new documentary as well.  It airs tonight, 11pm, on CNN thanks to cooperation between the media entities. 

As horrible as it was, the backlash against so many heretofore unchallenged workplace practices began to take effect.  The public demanded accountability and safety precautions and protection.  The NY Tiimes has a wonderful photographic slide show with accompanying historical information as well as the memorialization and celebration of the victims today and every year.  Ironically, the building stands.  It was fireproof.  NYU uses it for departmental studies and the Times pictorial has a photo of the devastated room below  as it looks today.


Burned out room on 9th floor