Interviewed by Cherie Hannouche

Senior Editor of Ms. Magazine since 2003, Michele Kort has been a journalist for over 25 years writing for publications such as The Advocate, Redbook, and The LA Times Magazine.  She is also the author of three books including a biography of the late musician Laura Nyro (check out her new Laura Nyro-related blog).  In this interview with the Daily Femme, Michele discusses the goals of the magazine’s recently launched blog and shares her views on the effectiveness of online feminism. She also addresses the claim that feminism is still a middle class white woman’s game and speaks about the double standard facing women artists in the music industry, at the time of Laura Nyro and today.

You have been a journalist for over twenty-five years and the Senior Editor for Ms. Magazine since 2003; how did you become a feminist?

Oh, I think I was always a feminist. I couldn’t understand why boys could play in Little League and I couldn’t—didn’t I just play ball in the street the day before with Ricky and Henry and Eddie? Why did they get to join Little League when I was just as good? Why could boys earn “letters” for sports participation in school and I couldn’t? (Can you tell that I was a jock?) And then I didn’t understand why I had to wait for a boy to open the door for me—I wasn’t helpless about opening my own door! When the Second Wave began, I was at first a bit scared by the radical feminists I’d see in their camouflage and hiking boots on TV. But then…. in walked Gloria Steinem. I read her writing in New York Magazine, I saw her on TV, and I thought, “If that’s what feminism looks like and sounds like, sign me up.” I even wrote her a fan letter when she was still at New York Magazine, asking her how I could somehow join the feminist movement—and she wrote me back with the suggestion that I check out the Women’s Herstory Archive in San Francisco. I lived in Los Angeles, but I guess that’s the closest feminist thing she could point me to at the time. Of course 15 years or so later I was writing for Ms. magazine and on a first-name basis with Gloria—but I’m still awed by her.

The shorter answer to the question is that I came to feminism through the arts and through sports. I’ve mentioned sports above; I studied art history in college, and our textbook—Janssen’s History of Art—only mentioned, like, one woman in the entire history of art. I went to grad school in arts management, and after I did my internship at the Whitney Museum in New York I came home to a changed world—The Woman’s Building, a feminist cultural center, had opened in L.A. At UCLA, an art historian named Ruth Iskin was teaching “Woman as Image and Image Maker.” I took her class, I went to work at The Woman’s Building, and the rest is feminist history …

You began your work as the senior editor at Ms. a couple of years after 9/11 and into the Bush presidency; how did this affect what you set out to do at the magazine?

During the Bush years, we were very engaged in “calling” the Bush administration on all its devastating policies, from the global gag rule to inserting politics into science to its warmongering. We were also concerned globally about the plight of women in the places where Bush had started wars, Afghanistan and then Iraq.

Looking back what are you most proud of and where would you like to see the magazine go?

I’m proud of the global gag rule piece I wrote—actually, my first assignment after I was hired—and I’m also particularly proud of the investigative piece we did about the garment factories in Saipan, which was researched and written by Rebecca Clarren, with additional in-house research on the nasty web woven by Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff and others who lobbied for the factory owners. I like the direction the magazine is going in terms of investigative reports, and I’m really enjoying the new Ms. Blog—I hope we continue to find the right balance between our daily web reporting and opinionating, and our deeper quarterly articles in print.

Your piece on the global gag titled “Global Sex Rules: The Price of Silence” discussed the tragic consequences of the Bush administration’s global gag rule on reproductive health information; the Obama administration has lifted this ban but what else would you like to see it do in order to improve the lives of women here or abroad?

Abroad, it could provide more funding for international family planning, maternity care and education. And Hillary Clinton can keep using the bully pulpit at the State Department, as she has, to point out that women’s rights are human rights and crucial to the development of nations and their well-being. Oh yeah, and Obama could get us out of the various wars we’re engaged in—that would certainly improve the lives of women (let alone men and children). At home, keep plugging away for health care, pay equity, LGBT rights and keeping abortion legal and safe—how about starting with those things?

Ms. Magazine-both the website and the print magazine, does not accept ads; can you explain the reasons behind this policy and do you think that a women’s magazine that carries ads can still be feminist?

If you are trying to sell yourself to advertisers, you often have to sell your soul as well. Fashion magazines are really just a thin shell of content that wraps up a big feast of advertising about fashion and “beauty”. But (more…)

Interviewed by Cherie

Founder of Astrea Media Inc. and director of the acclaimed documentary Orgasm Inc., Liz Canner turned a job filming the process of developing an orgasm crème for women into an opportunity to make an insightful film on how female sexuality is being commoditized and exploited by the pharmaceutical industry for the sole purpose of making money. Although it’s been difficult to distribute it in the US given the power that big pharmaceutical companies wield, Orgasm Inc has received much deserved critical praise wherever it was showed. In this interview, Liz discusses the danger to women’s health represented by the so-called “Female Sexual Dysfunction” disorder manufactured by big pharma and shares her views on how couples can enhance their sexual experience without resorting to pharmaceutical products and surgical procedures.

You are an award-winning filmmaker and the recipients of many prestigious awards and fellowships, what led you to making documentaries and what did you work on before Orgasm Inc?

I started making documentaries when I was an undergrad because I saw it as using a medium that could effectively reach people on an issue, which had tremendous value. Because the media does not always give you everything you need, I knew that the way to deal with human rights issues was through good investigative journalism in documentaries. After a decade of making documentaries, I started to get burnt out. After watching the same footage over and over again I would get nightmares from the genocide and police brutality I had filmed so I became depressed. I had decided to cover something pleasurable so my next film was about what scientists had said historically about women and pleasure and how that has changed over time. While I was making this experimental film I was offered a job at a pharmaceutical company to film the process of developing an orgasm crème for women. During this I realized that these companies are not just developing drugs but also diseases and disorders. My film definitely changed direction after that and became Orgasm Inc.

Orgasm Inc has garnered a lot of attention and received much praise; what did you want to achieve through this movie and do you think you’ve been successful?

The difficulty has been getting it viewed in the United States. A lot of stations are dependent on ad revenue from pharmaceutical companies such as Procter & Gamble and since we critique them in the film they are hesitant to bite the hand that feeds them. Consumer advertising has really consumed our culture since it took off in the late nineties. Since the US along with New Zealand are the only countries that allow pharmaceuticals to advertise, we are the largest consumers of pharmaceuticals in the world and so we are really the ones who need to see this film.

What was the reaction of the pharmaceutical industry to your documentary?

Well [laughs] we have had some of their representatives attend the screenings and some of them have made statements while pretending they were not part of such and such corporation. I wouldn’t say they have been particularly aggressive towards us but at the same time their influence is so strong, it has been difficult to distribute the film.

What do the terms “Female Sexual Dysfunction” used by the pharmaceutical industry to push products such as the so-called “female Viagra” refer to? Is this a real disorder? What should we make of the survey that said that 43% of American women suffer from it, leading Oprah to call it “an epidemic” on her show?

In order to develop a drug, you need to have a disease so when Viagra became a blockbuster for Pfizer selling much better than expected, the pharmaceutical industry sought out to find a disorder that they could use to test their own drugs for women. 18 of the 19 doctors that came up with “Female Sexual Dysfunction” had ties to 22 drug companies. In addition, the disorder was extremely broad so that it was easier for the drug companies to test. Any sexual complaints such as difficulty of having an orgasm, problems with lubrication, and pain during intercourse were all considered part of this disorder. Because it was so broad and undefined, healthy women without a real issue were categorized as having this disorder, which is where the 43% statistic came from. It is unfortunate that Oprah has promoted this figure and issue on her show because she has a huge influence on women. I also think other media personalities such as Mara Berman who is set to have a show on the Oprah Network has promoted the dysfunction while receiving a lot of money from companies like Pfizer. I truly believe that she should disclose the fact that she is being paid to promote this by the drug companies themselves.

Is the increase in the number of women seeking vaginal rejuvenation surgery a result of the hyped notions of normalcy surrounding female desire and pleasure?

We have become very schizophrenic when it comes to our sexuality. On the one hand we teach abstinence in schools yet kids on average start watching porn on the Internet at the age of 11. We are bombarded by sexual images and advertising in the media telling us how our sex lives should be fabulous when that is not always the case. What surprised me the most when creating this film was how little women new about their own sexuality such as where their clitoris is or how often the average woman has orgasms during sex. It would be beneficial to have more discussions around female sexuality and any issues that come up but instead we put pressure on women that they have to perform in a certain way. We are told that we are supposed to be having this fabulous sex all the time and if we are not then there is something wrong with us. The onset of this creates a hyper commercialization of sexual products and when you consider vaginal rejuvenation surgery it becomes very problematic. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists came out with a statement that said doctors should stop these surgeries since there is no evidence that they actually enhance the sexual experience. So without even knowing if these surgeries work, these surgeries are performed and often women end up worse off afterwards. I remember speaking to a woman who had the surgery and had problems having sex and even one woman who almost died from excessive blood loss. These operations should not be happening unless there is a serious reason.

Is it fair to say that only a woman could have made this movie and why is it that there are so few women directors and producers?

I am happy to say that we received great feedback from both men and women audiences however I think there are elements of the film that uniquely come from my experience as a woman. In particular the fact that I am a woman interviewing women who feel conflicted for working at drug companies or are going through certain issues also made a difference and helped the dynamic. I will also say that we seriously need women filmmakers and more women contributing to this field. The fact that we are half the population but do not receive adequate support to make these films is a real issue.

In your view, what can women and couples do to enhance their sex lives?

Communication is key so that couples can learn about what they like and don’t like. Vibrators are also a wonderful thing to introduce into a relationship. I also think addressing issues such as violence against women, equality in the workplace, sharing of the household responsibilities will improve men and women’s sex lives. There was a study which said men who help around the house have more sex which makes sense to me! Women are less tired and there is nothing sexier than a man with a vacuum cleaner [laughs]!

Last year when you were in residence at Dartmouth College, were you able to show the film and if so what was the response of the students?

We showed the film at the school and had such a large turnout that we had to show it eight more times.  It was great to get that response and help answer some of their questions. It is really important to get young people discussing these issues and our focus has really been on distributing the film not only to the general public but also journalists who write about the pharmaceutical industry so that we can continue the conversation.

Contributed by Cherie

After three years at the Fawcett Society where she lead the campaign “Sexism in the City” which rallied against gender inequality in the workplace and exploitation in the sex industry, Kat Banyard realized how great the need for training was among those interested in fighting for gender equality and decided to launch UK Feminista, a “feminist hub” that also helps individuals and groups organize and prepare effective campaigns. In this interview, she talks about the goals of her new organization, discusses her book “The Equality Illusion,” addressing the widespread misconception in the UK that feminism is no longer needed and shares her views on  what needs to be done in order to change what she calls a “culture of hyper-masculinity” on the rise.

You were referred to as one of the ‘new feminists’ by The Observer, can you explain what this term means? How are “new feminists” different from preceding generations of feminists?

The term “new Feminist” which was used in the article was, I believe, more a media hook than anything else. I don’t think it was to address a phenomenon, or to refer to a particular group and in general I don’t find the wave terminology particularly helpful. It can be useful from a historical perspective to point out a certain movement or time but it is used differently by different people.  Feminism is about continuity and the people who are involved now are just picking up where others left off previously. Throughout the UK there are people of all ages engaged in feminism, men and women from different backgrounds and communities. What I think is great about feminism right now is that it is so diverse. There has always been feminism and we will always need it.

In the US, some young feminists of your generation left older feminist organizations to create their own because they did not think that their voices were heard; is this a situation you are familiar with?

The situation you described in the US is not one I recognize in the UK. For me in the UK, all people find it very difficult to have a voice within feminism. There is very much the idea that feminism is no longer needed and there is gender equality. But as a younger feminist in the UK I have felt completely embraced by women who have been part of the movement for decades. So in that respect I feel that feminism is a great place for young women.

Can you talk about the work you’ve done at the Fawcett Society? Why did you decide to leave this organization to co-found UK Feminista?

I was at the Fawcett Society for three years and I lead a campaign called Sexism in the City which highlighted the ongoing inequality between men and women in the workplace in London. I also focused on the impact of the sex industry on the contemporary workplace. What we found was how the sex industry started to become a part of other workplaces for example business lunches or meetings occurring in strip clubs and how that affected the female employees and the women who were dancing and being exploited in the clubs. When we started, lap dance and strip clubs were able to open up as restaurants and cafes which made it very easy for them to grow in numbers. We worked to change the licensing of these clubs so that there were stricter rules to open them up and it became easier for local authority to regulate them as well. In April this past year the law finally changed so that they could no longer open as restaurants but as sex shops which made them much more accountable. 

What led you to co-found UK Feminista? What are some of the ways this organization supports individuals and groups campaigning for gender equality?

My colleagues found that when it came to running campaigns such as Sexism in the City, there were a lot of people agreed with us but did not know how to organize and campaign effectively. Many feminist organizations were campaigning on a widespread array of issue, but as whole we found that they were largely unsupported and so we wanted to bring it all together and act as a hub for feminists in the UK. That is how in March we launched UK Feminista in order to help mobilize people. We also want to make feminism in the UK more visible within the media and different communities and so it was important to bring different groups together and serve as a platform for their causes. This summer, we are launching UK Feminista summer school, a two day program of training for activists which will give them the tools to maximize their efforts; it is the first program of its kind. They will be training for everything from how to lobby Parliament to how to engage the media. It really covers the nitty gritty of how to organize creative and effective campaigns. With very little promotion, in the first 24 hours that registration was open we received requests from over 100 people which really showed us the hunger out there for this type of group.

You mentioned earlier that in the UK many believe gender equality has been achieved. Your book, “The Equality Illusion” argues that the widespread belief that we live in a post-feminist era is a myth; how did this belief come about and why do you say that it is a fallacy?

If you take one look at the statistics about women’s lives, it is quite clear that we are far from a post-feminist society. For example in the UK alone over 100,000 women are raped every year.  Also, women get paid on average 22% less per hour than men and most people in top positions are men. Somehow these things have become the norm for our society, but the reality is that none of these things are inevitable. They all come down to the fact that (more…)

Contributed by Annamarya

When Tanis Miller started her blog, Attack of the Redneck Mommy, in 2006, it was her way of dealing with the grief of losing her son, Shale, just four months before. But now, four years later, what started as a means to connect with people and find support while working through profound heartache has become a soundboard for Miller’s life—the ins-and-outs of parenting, marriage, personal experiences and fierce activism for children with disabilities. From dying her pubic hair to lecturing readers on why the R-word is derogatory and (shouldn’t be used), there is no topic this Canadian mom/writer won’t touch. And it’s those witty, candid words that have gotten the attention of the world over–in addition to being featured in The Globe and Mail, various Canadian Dailies, and on CNN, Attack of the Redneck Mommy won the Bloggies’ 2008 and 2010 Best Canadian Blog awards, was named one of RotorBlog’s 7-Must Read Mommy Blogs, as well as one of Babble’s Top Fifty Mommy Bloggers, and has over 10,000 Twitter followers. In this interview, Miller discusses the power of blogging, her efforts to make life better for disabled children and why the term “mommy blogger” is offensive.

Tell us more about your blog, Attack of the Redneck Mommy. How did you come to call it Attack of the Redneck Mommy?

I’ll be honest, there was little to no fore thought about what I named my blog. I was sitting alone, in the dark, staring at my computer when I set up my blog, trying to think of something clever to title my site and I was coming up absolutely blank. The only thing I could think of was how my uncle always had a red neck and I used to ask him if that meant he was a redneck.  I never quite understood what he meant when he always replied, “Nope, it just means I’m a hoser.”  In a fit of nostalgia, I decided to name myself the redneck mommy as homage to my uncle and my childhood innocence. Looking back now, I wish I had googled “Redneck Mommy” before I named my blog that. I’d have discovered that rat farmer in Alabama and wisely chose differently. Ah, blogging innocence…

You started the blog in 2006, four months after the death of your son, Shale. Did you find writing a blog helped you deal with that grief? Do you think that you would have started a blog if Shale had not passed?

Before my son passed away unexpectedly, I didn’t even know what a blog was. We didn’t even have a computer. It was only weeks after he died that my husband surprised me with a computer. I started googling Moms+grief, looking for some kind of support while I was hip deep in grief and that is when I discovered what a blog was. The ability to connect with other people while working through my grief online, was and still is very cathartic. Losing a child is very isolating and the online community I found when I started my blog helped save my sanity. If Shale hadn’t passed I likely would be one of those annoying people who scoff at the idea of anyone reading a blog on a computer (who would waste their time?) while I shook my cane at them and yelled at them to get off my lawn.

Your blog deals with other topics, such as parenting and marriage. What has been the one piece you’ve written over the four years on those topics that has garnered the most attention?

It’s been a mixed bag really. The two posts that seem to have garnered the most attention have been polar opposites in subject matter. One post was talking about my child’s disabilities and the other post was a humorous account of when I dyed my pubic hair blue. One is slightly more respectable than the other, you could say.

Do you ever find yourself getting into battles with your readers over the contents of your blog or is the readership response overall positive and supportive?

There has been a handful of times when a reader of mine has publicly argued with me about the content of my posts. But for the most part, I try not to turn my comment section into a battlefield. Luckily for me, my readers have been really supportive and receptive to my content and the naysayers are few and far between.

With that, do you think it’s important for bloggers to developed some type of relationship with their readers? Have you developed any first-name-basis relationships with your readers?

I can’t speak for all bloggers, but for me, it is important to develop a relationship with my readers, especially since I started blogging due to my personal tragedy. My blog is my online home and I like to know who is visiting. I’ve not only developed real relationships with some of my readers but some of my bestest friends are people I met in my comment section.

I know you recently adopted the adorable Jumby, who is disabled, and your late son, Shale, I believe, was born with disabilities;  you are also, to use your words, a “fierce advocate” for children with disabilities. Other than through your blog and by supporting a number of charities, in what other ways do you advocate for children with disabilities?

In my life offline, I am on a provincial government committee that continually reviews the benefits and supports available to parents who have children with disabilities. I speak at a rehabilitation hospital to a rotating group of new parents to children with disabilities and I make public appearances to talk about how to advocate for special needs children as well as how to survive losing a child. I also like to bust the balls of the local school system to ensure they are constantly improving the quality of education and services not only for my child, but every child that enters the system with a disability.

As a mother of children with disabilities, do you think enough is being done to help/support/advocate for children with disabilities?

I don’t think there can ever be enough done to help support and advocate children with disabilities. Our family is lucky to live in a province that is incredibly generous with its support for families with special needs but I believe it is an ongoing battle to protect those supports and encourage new ones. There will always be children with disabilities and there will always be stigmas and children slipping through the cracks. Until Utopia exists, (more…)

Taking TheDailyFemme to the streets, coffee shops, libraries, art galleries, sports games, buses,  trains, and using e-mail, we ask women (and this time men as well) all over the country (and sometimes the world) one simple question. What we get in return is a lot of insight, advice, some nervous confusion and even a hug or two.

Interviews were contributed by Annamarya Scaccia, Maria Rubio, Kate Friedman, and Cherie Hannouche

This week’s question: A feminist Swedish group protested the gender pay gap by burning 100,000 kronor ($13,000). The Feminist Initiative party says the money set ablaze on the Swedish island of Gotland on Tuesday represents the amount of money the country’s women miss out on every minute in comparison to men. Do you think this move was effective activism or just a ridiculous statement?

Clelia – Philadelphia, PA

The point of activism is to bring about change. Bringing attention to an issue is not enough in order for change to occur. Did the Feminist Initiative Party bring the issue of the gender wage gap to the forefront? Yes; but the act of burning money alone, I do not see as activism. I don’t see it as a ridiculous statement either. It was indeed a statement- a strong statement – and for activism to be effective sometimes a strong statement, such as burning money, is a catalyst for further activism. I hope that the Feminist Initiative Party has taken other steps to not only bring this issue to the forefront, but to validate the importance of this message where it matters and where a difference could be made.

Christina – Salt Lake City, UT

I think we sometimes forget that in order to create changes and address certain issues, we have to think outside of the box. This is certainly a radical idea but I think other radical ideas have instated real change for example at the time Sylvia Pankhurst’s Women’s Suffrage Federation took certain actions during World War I that many thought went too far and were ridiculous given the confines of war and yet they made strides that have brought women to where we are today. I just think we need to keep an open mind when it comes to these types of actions.

Iris – Hephzibah, Georgia

I have to lean toward this being a ridiculous statement. I do understand that the money was donated but at the same time I feel they could have put the money to better use then burning it. I don’t know the state of the country however I can’t help but feel that an amount that large could have gone toward helping the cause by funding work aimed a changing legislation. Simply burning the money, while a dramatic statement and one that drew attention to the problem as seen by the story being covered by the AP, won’t help bridge the gap between what men and women who are equally qualified are paid. Yes now the world is aware of the problem but awareness of an issue does not always translate into a government working towards a solution.

Meredith – Brooklyn, NY

This seems to me like a case of “cutting your nose to spite your face”. That money could have gone towards raising awareness in a very different way. Sure, now the problem is out there, and the Swedish government is in the spotlight, but that doesn’t mean that they’re going to DO anything about it. Governments tend not to listen to overzealous radicals, especially in comparison to more levelheaded groups.

Becky – Rice Lake, WI

I think it’s hard to gain respect for a cause if you do not act in a respectful manner. By burning money, it’s entirely possible to alienate some people who may have responded favorably to a different campaign. It certainly seems to be hypocritical on some level for a group of people to complain about a lack of money going to the women, and those same people actually burning money.

Richard – Philadelphia, PA

It’s a shame that this had come to pass. It’s not right that in this day and age that there is still such a gap in wages between men and women – that in modern times, you would think that modern pay and ethics would apply. I don’t feel it’s effective because there’s a chance people will just see it as a waste of money. There may also be negative backlash and because there is such sexism in the world, I feel that people would look at them as a bunch of crazy women. That is not right. I think they could have found a different way to get this message across, however, I am not there and (more…)

Contributed by Cristen

Der Spiegel recently published an interview with Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban president Raul Castro and Fidel Castro’s niece. In addition to her notable paterfamilias, Castro has also become a well known champion for gay rights in Cuba. As director of Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), Castro lobbied the National Assembly to adopt a gay rights bill. Cuba has been known for fierce homophobic policies, subjecting gays and lesbians to “reeducation camps” and violence at times. Even last year, groups of young homosexuals were arrested at different times based solely on their sexuality. That included the imprisonment of student Mario José Delgado Gonzáles, who was taken into custody for organizing the Mr. Gay Havana pageant, and even following his release, Gonzáles was banned from returning to university.

According to a 2008 BBC report, Mariela Castro’s proposed bill would’ve been one of the most liberal gay rights policies in Latin America, and included provisions to “recognize same-sex unions, along with inheritance rights. It would also give transsexuals the right to free sex-change operations and allow them to switch the gender on their ID cards, with or without surgery.”

Castro later withdrew the bill, but she noted that the opposition came from the Catholic Church and certain government factions – not her father, which is interesting. In explaining her reasons for withdrawing the bill, Castro told Der Spiegel:

(Cuban President Raul Castro) understood it and supported it. But there are people in his environment and in some governing bodies of the church who cannot understand it. We continue to fight. Where there are people there are sexual differences and homosexuality, even in the Communist Party. The opponents must recognize that our policy also benefits many party members by allowing them to have political careers.

She also called out the United Nations for not taking a more proactive stance on supporting gay rights as well:

For me, sexual identity and orientation is a human right, which should also be accepted by the United Nations. Of course, innovations in this area provoke contradictions, especially in a society like ours, which has so many revolutionary processes.

Cuba still has a way to go toward realizing Castro’s vision of equal rights for homosexuals. But for a country fraught with social problems whose living standards are far below those in the U.S., Cuba has managed to take more proactive steps toward legalizing same sex marriage than its northern neighbor. Today, the New York Times even noted that Argentina’s recent passage of same sex marriage legislation marks the ninth Latin American country to do so. Meantime, in the United States, a mere five states allow it. Maybe once Mariela Castro pushes equal rights through in Cuba, she can head our way.

Click here for the full Interview

Interviewed by Cherie

The minute I saw Melanie Klein’s photographs of students standing against a massive collage of models found in magazines, I wanted to know more about her work. As a Women Studies and Sociology lecturer in a Southern California College, Melanie Klein has been studying how the objectification of women in the media has a negative psychological, social, physical, and mental impact on the average woman. Covering the likes of Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears in her courses but also on her blog, Feminist Fatale, Melanie deconstructs media representations of women from a feminist perspective. In this interview she focuses on the dominant beauty paradigm in our celebrity-driven culture and explains what she means by the term “empower-tainment.”  She also tells us how reducing her own media consumption changed the way she looked at other women and gave her self-esteem a much-needed boost.

Can you share how you decided to create the project “What does a real woman look like?” with your students? What were their reactions to your idea?

I teach Women Studies and Sociology at Santa Monica College and this project came from a course I taught called “Women in Pop Culture” where we addressed representations of women in the media and discussed how a certain image of beauty affects women across class, weight, size etc.  We also discussed what George Gerbner of the Annenberg School of Communications called “cultivation” to explain how a media saturated environment impacts our perceptions, morals and values. Cultivation refers to the endless stream of repetitive images manufactured by the media. Millions of images that we view over our lifetime carry the exact same body idea and so we decided to cut out hundreds of them, paste them up on a wall and then take photos of the women against the collage to underscore the juxtaposition. The students were really moved by it and standing against this collage elicited a visceral and emotional response that illustrated how daunting and depressing these images can be.

Do you encourage men to join your class discussions and be featured as writers on your website?

It is interesting because while I encourage men joining my women studies courses and am happy to have men offering guest posts on my site, Feminist Fatale, I very much appreciate female only space. There have to be some cultural spaces that we distinctly set aside for women and so I am torn about the inclusion of males on blogs. I love some of the amazing men like David Dismore who is a regular contributor to Ms, Byron Hurt, and Michael Kimmel who make incredible additions to the movement. However women’s voices are underrepresented in mass media and blogs are a way to self publish and get the word out.  I don’t know if Feminist Fatale would feature a male blogger and I don’t know how I would react if I saw a permanent male blogger on some of the feminist sites that I read.

One of the focuses on your site is body image and how it is compromised in the media. You have covered celebrities such as Kim Kardashian who has used her body to express empowerment whether she is posing nude for Playboy or in an unretouched photo for Harper’s Bazaar and in an article for Ms. Magazine you refer to unretouched photos as “empower-tainment”; can you explain what you mean by this?

My post on the Kardashian family was a deconstruction of their interview with Nightline where they talked about the success of her sex tape and how almost immediately after, Kim did a photo shoot with Playboy. Kim’s mother Kris Jenner said she urged Kim to pose because all the iconic, beautiful well-respected women posed for Playboy. Well, when I actually looked up the list of who posed for Playboy I found women including Heidi Montag and Ashley Dupre so where are the iconic women? Kim Kardashian went on to say that it was an empowering feeling for her to show that she is not a stick figure and women with different types of bodies are beautiful. This idea of being empowered by taking off one’s clothes demonstrates that our culture has reduced female empowerment to being sexed up and naked. Girls and women have come to believe that objectifying ourselves and taking off our clothes equals empowerment? One of the most interesting things about Kim’s empowerment tweet when she posed nude and “unaltered” for Harper’s Bazaar is that while Kim Kardashian is not stick thin, she definitely does not represent most women out there. She is actually quite petite but because she has some curves, suddenly she represents change.

This reminds me of the current “plus size” trend that has been featured in a lot of magazines and ad campaigns.  The so-called “plus size” women are still photo shopped and while they may be a bit larger, they do not have an ounce of imperfection.

Absolutely, these plus size images in magazines are still manipulated via lighting and make-up to meet a certain aesthetic. Plus, these images are still rolled out with much fanfare and publicity and remain exceptions to the norm. I don’t want to dismiss them because there is a growing shift in consciousness but they won’t represent a revolution until they become expected and normative images.

Elle magazine’s editor-in-chief Robbie Myers recently said that women would not be happy if they saw images and representations of themselves in magazines because they want something to aspire to. What are your thoughts on this and do you agree?

I think the comment is misleading because it states that women want to aspire to these images they see in magazines. Who really wants that? The women or the advertisers who are trying to show them the next cool thing they can buy to make themselves look better. If women felt good about themselves then they would not be buying such (more…)