Hey, get this: I never finished GRL though many essays were written for it for a variety of reasons (e.g. lack of interest, lack of funding, lack of, well, variety). I didn't want to publicly post the failure of GRL for one reason: embarrassment, but I have fun news on the zine-front.
GRL, which will probably go through a name change, is going to be re-done and re-started by Sydney R and myself. We are going to have a different topic for each quarterly issue so the zine'll flow better, we'll both write for it, but we are going to hammer out the details soon of what we specifically want in the zine and then ask interested people to submit essays and such.
So, anyway, that's the plan and I am super-excited about it.
I have a lot of the essays I wrote for GRL in my backpack that I carry around everywhere. I think I have given everyone who could be slightly interested a copy of the essays, but if I missed someone be sure to say something to me about it, I'd love to share.
ON ANOTHER NOTE:
I recently read Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics, which easily a book written for bi-questioning, pro-women women who Baumgardner is urging to take up the feminist and gay right fight. This my not sound like an ideal premise for a high-profile book about bisexuality because it really isn't. Still Jennifer Baumgardner, along with Rebecca Walker and company, are pretty-faced, third-wave activist who personify sexual liberation and female power - ontop of this Baumgardner knows how to play into our generations obsession with gossip and naming names - which, for me, makes the book a successful read. Anyway, if you're on the fence about reading the book, I'll always just let you borrow my copy. Then you at least wont have to pay for it, if you don't like it.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Quick Look at ManifestA!
I recently completed ManifestA. I wouldn't suggest it for a first-time young-feminism read because Baumgardner and Richards have a lot of opinions I don't necessarily agree with and if I didn't know better it would be easy to mistake their feminist consciousness for the collective whole. This is to say I did agree a lot of opinions in ManifestA and I do not think that there is a collective feminist whole.
The book is a call to feminist action, but they analyze third wave (i.e. young) feminism in detail, which is something I enjoy - and have learned others do not. So there's the fair warning. I almost feel like Baumgardner and Richards captured our cultures love of gossip in this book - telling stories about Kathleen Hanna and Elizabeth Wurtzel.
I really did like the book. I think it is a little outdated and many of the young feminist references are more applicable to women ten years older than myself. (I would recommend you read an anthology like To Be Real or Listen Up before reading this book though. And it should be an objective read. The authors talked about restoring Second Wave (white women's) literature, but barely talked about disability-rights and its role in the feminist movement - I thought they were particularly insensitive to this topic during discussions of abortion) Jennifer Baumgarder and Amy Richards wrote a second book together Grassroots, which I have decided to skip over and go straight into Baumgarder's newest book Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics.
Oh, really I decided to include my thoughts on ManifestA because I ran across this really silly review of the book that I wanted to share: Bookslut: ManifestA Also if you want more information about the book here is its website: ManifestA, which actually has some really cool information available. And here is an excerpt that I got from feminist.com where Amy Richards is the columnist for Ask Amy.
And on the topic of buying books (as I am literally buying Look Both Ways right now) I am using Amazon.com instead of Barnes and Noble or Borders because the company owners are pretty sexists dudes. (I am getting a pretty good deal too.)
SRY this entry has not been edited!
The book is a call to feminist action, but they analyze third wave (i.e. young) feminism in detail, which is something I enjoy - and have learned others do not. So there's the fair warning. I almost feel like Baumgardner and Richards captured our cultures love of gossip in this book - telling stories about Kathleen Hanna and Elizabeth Wurtzel.
I really did like the book. I think it is a little outdated and many of the young feminist references are more applicable to women ten years older than myself. (I would recommend you read an anthology like To Be Real or Listen Up before reading this book though. And it should be an objective read. The authors talked about restoring Second Wave (white women's) literature, but barely talked about disability-rights and its role in the feminist movement - I thought they were particularly insensitive to this topic during discussions of abortion) Jennifer Baumgarder and Amy Richards wrote a second book together Grassroots, which I have decided to skip over and go straight into Baumgarder's newest book Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics.
Oh, really I decided to include my thoughts on ManifestA because I ran across this really silly review of the book that I wanted to share: Bookslut: ManifestA Also if you want more information about the book here is its website: ManifestA, which actually has some really cool information available. And here is an excerpt that I got from feminist.com where Amy Richards is the columnist for Ask Amy.
And on the topic of buying books (as I am literally buying Look Both Ways right now) I am using Amazon.com instead of Barnes and Noble or Borders because the company owners are pretty sexists dudes. (I am getting a pretty good deal too.)
SRY this entry has not been edited!
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Do It Yourself, GRL! DIY IDEAS.
Hanging Felt Heads
This craft is perfect for rear-view mirrors, door knobs, holidays trees & anywhere else you can hang them. Make felt head of all of your loved ones to keep around you, or make yourself as a gift.
supplies:
felt squares in various colors
thread in various colors
glue or pins
marker or chalk pencil
cotton
embroidery thread
With your future Felt Head in mind, go to a local craft stop & pick out three to five squares of felt. A felt square matching their eyes & hair. (You can just buy one if they are the same color!) Red for their mouth, another square for the skin & a favorite color for the back of the plush. A lot of craft stores have large selections of colors to choose from, so you can have an almost perfect shade of skin. If you go to a place with a more limited selection, however, pink, brown, yellow, or orange can always be cute, & slightly cartoonish substitutes.
First draw a roughly 6 inch circle on your skin-colored felt square & your hair-colored square. Then on your hair-colored square, draw the hair of felt look-alike, using the circle as your face shape. Cut both shapes out. Do not cut out the original circle you drew on the hair-colored felt square. Glue or pin the two pieces together with the hair on top of the head. I prefer glue when using this thick fabric because it will not move when you are sewing & the glue is undetectable. Now thread your needle with thread matching the color of the hair & sew small stitches along where the two fabrics meet. Draw two 3/4 inch circles on your eye-colored felt square & cut them out. First, glue or pin them on, then stitch with matching thread. Cut a red 1 in semi-circle out for the mouth & glue or pin, then sew.
Now that you've got your face finished, take your square of out colored fabric & trace the entire shape of the face onto it & cut it out. sew the two pieces of felt together, leaving a two inch hole. Stuff your cotton in the hole & sew the rest of the head up. For details like freckles or piercing use, a marker to decorate. Use a embroidery thread do stitch in details like glasses or highlights in the hair. You can also stitch your felt head look-a-like's name into the back of the creation. Lastly, get two pieces of embroidery thread & and spin them together, then stitch them to the top of your head about three inches apart. Shorter for things like doorknobs, longer for things like rear view mirrors.
Of course, any variation to this project is not only possible, but encouraged. The more you you put into your craft projects, the better they are. Also, have fun with your felt scraps: cut them into fun shapes & glue them onto paper, sew them on to t-shirt. Nothing looks better when you do it yourself!
-Lauren McGough
This craft is perfect for rear-view mirrors, door knobs, holidays trees & anywhere else you can hang them. Make felt head of all of your loved ones to keep around you, or make yourself as a gift.
supplies:
felt squares in various colors
thread in various colors
glue or pins
marker or chalk pencil
cotton
embroidery thread
With your future Felt Head in mind, go to a local craft stop & pick out three to five squares of felt. A felt square matching their eyes & hair. (You can just buy one if they are the same color!) Red for their mouth, another square for the skin & a favorite color for the back of the plush. A lot of craft stores have large selections of colors to choose from, so you can have an almost perfect shade of skin. If you go to a place with a more limited selection, however, pink, brown, yellow, or orange can always be cute, & slightly cartoonish substitutes.
First draw a roughly 6 inch circle on your skin-colored felt square & your hair-colored square. Then on your hair-colored square, draw the hair of felt look-alike, using the circle as your face shape. Cut both shapes out. Do not cut out the original circle you drew on the hair-colored felt square. Glue or pin the two pieces together with the hair on top of the head. I prefer glue when using this thick fabric because it will not move when you are sewing & the glue is undetectable. Now thread your needle with thread matching the color of the hair & sew small stitches along where the two fabrics meet. Draw two 3/4 inch circles on your eye-colored felt square & cut them out. First, glue or pin them on, then stitch with matching thread. Cut a red 1 in semi-circle out for the mouth & glue or pin, then sew.
Now that you've got your face finished, take your square of out colored fabric & trace the entire shape of the face onto it & cut it out. sew the two pieces of felt together, leaving a two inch hole. Stuff your cotton in the hole & sew the rest of the head up. For details like freckles or piercing use, a marker to decorate. Use a embroidery thread do stitch in details like glasses or highlights in the hair. You can also stitch your felt head look-a-like's name into the back of the creation. Lastly, get two pieces of embroidery thread & and spin them together, then stitch them to the top of your head about three inches apart. Shorter for things like doorknobs, longer for things like rear view mirrors.
Of course, any variation to this project is not only possible, but encouraged. The more you you put into your craft projects, the better they are. Also, have fun with your felt scraps: cut them into fun shapes & glue them onto paper, sew them on to t-shirt. Nothing looks better when you do it yourself!
-Lauren McGough
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