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…)

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…)

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…)

Interviewed by Ashleigh and Cherie

Jessica Wakeman is only twenty-six but you wouldn’t know it judging by her prolific writing career. A former contributor to The Huffington Post, Radar, New York Press, and The Street.com, she is now a blogger for The Frisky covering pop culture from a feminist’s perspective. Not afraid to speak openly about sex, Jessica discusses in this interview whether women should use their own sexuality for power. Living her own life “as an open book,” Jessica also explains why her article about the relationship she had as an intern with a 37 year-old magazine editor was never a “sex with the boss” tale.

You have a very impressive and varied writing portfolio; for everyone who wants the career you have, tell us how you broke into writing for such publications as Radar, The Huffington Post and New York Press.

Aww, thank you. I’ve been working on my writing career since I was 14 or 15, starting with an internship at my rinky-dink local newspaper as a high school sophomore. I had written a bunch of letters to the editor and she invited me to intern, which I did until I graduated. I studied journalism at NYU and wrote for the school newspaper as a features writer and then an op-ed columnist. I also started freelancing for the New York Press just by pitching them ideas. Then during my senior year, I interned at New York magazine for one semester and the media watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting another semester, both of which opened up a lot of doors for me.

I guess my varied writing portfolio comes from being at this for a long time. I’ve just pitched like crazy to all kinds of places! These days, my hands are full blogging for TheFrisky.com every day, so I don’t do much freelancing at all. But that’s a nice reprieve from the way I used to be.

Can you talk about one of the highlights of working at the Huffington  Post and was it an easy transition into your role at The Frisky?

The highlight of working at Huffington Post was bringing more women bloggers to the site, such as Cristina Page, a reproductive rights advocate who has become a good friend, and Gloria Feldt, who used to run the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. All the networking and making connections and contacts was fantastic, too. I feel lucky and privileged for everything that having worked at HuffPost has given me.

As for the transition, I actually didn’t go straight from HuffPost to The Frisky. In between I was a personal finance reporter at a new startup run by TheStreet.com for a brief period of time — which paid well, but was really not the right job for me — and also I edited a few days a week for Scholastic’s magazines while freelance writing full-time. That lifestyle was so financially perilous, though! Freelancing full-time is not easy, especially when you’re 24 (like I was at the time.) It’s scary to think, “oh man, I might have to move back home with Mom and Dad if it turns out I can’t actually do this!”

When I heard about a job opening at The Frisky in winter of 2008, I pursued it like crazy. I really loved the blog and I wanted to be on staff someplace again. I’d say The Frisky was a perfect fit! It really is the best job I’ve ever had.  I can’t imagine going anywhere else.

An article you wrote on The Frisky entitled “First Time For Everything: A May-December Romance” that caught a lot of attention was about a relationship you had with a 37 year-old magazine editor for whom you had been an intern. How did things change for you after publishing that article? What did you think of what was written about this on sites like Gawker.com?

That one article got more press attention than anything else I’ve written — because of the salacious nature, I’m sure. I was contacted by a writer for Marie Claire to be interviewed for a “sex with the boss” type of piece, which I participated in. A morning talk show wanted me on as a guest to discuss it, too, but I declined to do that just to preserve some privacy. As far as I’m concerned, it wasn’t a “sex with the boss” story; the man was my superior when I was an intern, but he was never my direct boss. He was actually my mentor and my friend long before anything sexual happened between us. He just so happened to be 15 years older, which is why, to me, it was a “May-December romance” story.

The commenters on Gawker.com and even my site, TheFrisky.com, didn’t seem to understand that he was my mentor/friend, not my boss. I guess it’s just easier to call someone a whore or a slut and insinuate that they must have slept their way into their job. Name-calling and stuff like that hurts my feelings a lot, but I’m slowly becoming desensitized to it. I can also laugh at it more now. Sometimes the way people misconstrue things is just funny.

Given that you self-identify as a feminist and also cover pop culture on The Frisky, do you feel that women who use their own sexuality as a form of power are beneficial or detrimental to the women’s movement?  For example Madonna, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé are considered powerful and strong women and yet sex is crucial to their presentation of themselves.

Whoa, that’s a heavy question that requires a book-length answer! Let me see: I think whether women who use their sexuality as a form of power are beneficial or detrimental to women in general is something that needs to be handled on a case-by-case basis. Generally I think American culture is prudish and Puritanical and that there isn’t as much harm as we’ve been told in seeing some skin in an artful way. I am probably more liberal than some other feminists when it comes to that.

I do feel strongly, though, that sex appeal should not be the ONLY thing a so-called creative woman has to offer. The folk singer Ani DiFranco, for example, has several songs about her bisexuality and relationships with women-”In Or Out”, “Two Little Girls”, etc, which are thoughtful and considered. Juxtapose that with the many, many music videos and ad campaigns where two women kiss each other and everyone makes a big fuss about the “lesbian” imagery of it. Or when, say, a beer or soft drink company just uses a woman’s butt to advertise their product. To me, that’s gratuitous because it’s not actually contributing anything. That’s the kind of stuff I mock on The Frisky.

As a writer who uses social media to connect with your audience, do you think social media–especially sites like Facebook and Twitter, is creating a “TMI” (too much information) culture? Why do we care about what our Facebook friend ate for dinner, and why are we so willing to offer up personal information via the Internet?

Of course social media has created a “TMI culture.” It’s all relative, though. To me, it’s not a big deal that I share personal stuff about myself on Facebook or Twitter or in my writing because (more…)

Interviewed by Cherie

As Holly Kearl celebrates the upcoming release in August of her first book, “Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women”, the activist and legal advocacy fund program manager for the AAUW (formerly known as the American Association of University Women) discusses the findings of the formal and informal research she did for her book and shares with us her thoughts on why street harassment is still a widespread but ignored or trivialized problem that the mainstream media rarely addresses as a serious issue. Holly also explains the connection between street harassment and the perception of women as sexual objects which is why she believes that “educating young men about healthy definitions of masculinity is number one.“  As she continues to create awareness of the problem through her blog Stop Street Harassment, Holly looks forward to a day when street harassment laws are in place and women can walk down the streets without fear of being harassed or assaulted just because they are female.

You have worked in various positions at the Natural Women’s Museum and at the AAUW before writing your master’s thesis on street harassment. What made you decide to make the transition into activism and writing about street harassment?

I started working at AAUW two weeks before I turned in my master’s thesis and, now, three years later, I still work there full-time. I wrote my street harassment book and run the blog and website in my spare time. At AAUW some of the programs I work on address sexual harassment at work and school as well as sexual assault on campus, so my street harassment efforts are related, and my coworkers are supportive of my street harassment work.

Your book, “Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women” will be released in August, can you explain how you conducted your research on the subject?

In the first six chapters of the book, I examine various aspects of street harassment. To write them, I researched every existing study on street harassment that I could find. I also conducted an informal, online survey about people’s experiences with strangers in public and specifically with street harassers of the opposite sex. I conducted it across four weeks in the fall of 2008 and about 1300 people took it. Once I weeded out people who only answered questions like their age and race and not any of the substantial questions, I was left with 916 respondents, 811 were women. In my first six chapters then, I pulled from the formal and my informal studies to create my points and then used news stories, responses to the short answers in my survey, and stories submitted to my Stop Street Harassment Blog to illustrate my points.

In the last four chapters of the book, I look at how we can end street harassment. I interviewed more than 20 activists around the world and researched a dozen others’ experiences and advice to write these chapters.

What was the most surprising fact that you found out in the course of writing your book?

Many facts and stories I came across surprised me. For example, I was horrified and surprised by how pervasive groping is on the trains in Tokyo. I was also startled and dismayed when I realized that of the 811 women I informally surveyed, 75 percent had been followed and 57 percent had been touched or grabbed in a sexual way by a stranger in public. It makes me so mad when people dismiss street harassment as complimentary behavior or not that big of a deal because it is, if for no other reason than because so many of us have had men grope and follow us.

Do you think this issue has been addressed adequately in the media and if not then why?

Absolutely not. I am tired of seeing street harassment – when it is covered by mainstream media – so often framed as a debate, such as asking, is catcalling creepy or complimentary? Such discussions reduce the range of street harassment to only whistling and positive sexual comments, which some women do find complimentary in some circumstances. The news articles do not touch on the reality of how many women and girls are followed, touched, assaulted, and have negative and threatening comments made to them. They do not put the harassment into the context of rape culture, gender inequality, patriarchy, the sexualization of girls and women in the media, and victim blaming, which are all factors impacting why street harassment happens and why women don’t like it. The news articles too often make it seem like women just can’t take a compliment.

You have said that gender equity cannot happen until men stop harassing women in public spaces, what are some strategies that will help achieve this?

Educating young men about healthy definitions of masculinity is number one. Right now, masculinity means aggressive, powerful, violent, and getting with a lot of women and treating them like objects. Masculinity also means demonizing feminine characteristics, whether they’re exhibited by men or women; this contributes directly to gay bashing, gender patrolling among boys and men and harassing girls and women. Men Can Stop Rape has programs at U.S. high schools and colleges that focus on healthy definitions of masculinity and the International Center for Research on Women’s program Parivartan works on it in India. We need more groups like them.

Focusing on making men part of the solution is another strategy. Men listen to other men, so if men who don’t harass can try to be a good example to others, call out their friends who harass, and help a woman out (if she wants it) when she’s being harassed, those are useful roles for them in helping to end street harassment. The University of New Hampshire has a wonderful bystander campaign for men and women called “Know Your Power” and Jackson Katz, a leading anti-sexist male activist, has a great bystander-training program for men as part of his Mentors in Violence Prevention.

Culturally, we need street harassment taken seriously and not portrayed as a compliment. I can understand how it would be confusing to a young man to know how to treat young women when so many schools give no sex education and in music videos and in porn and on TV they see men harassing women and most women enjoying it or at least tolerating it. I love the new government-sponsored television ad campaigns in Wales and Scotland called “One Step Too Far” and “Not Ever,” which were targeted at men by being aired during the World Cup. They focus on showing why women don’t like to be harassed and how a woman’s clothes do not ever mean she’s “asking” to be raped. I’d love to see similar campaigns in the US during our football games. It would be so powerful if an ad about respect aired during the Super Bowl instead of the numerous commercials that are so disrespectful to women and men and reduce women to body parts and mock men who aren’t “macho” enough.

Are you ever worried that when women who talk back to or take a photo of their harasser may find themselves in an unsafe situation?

I always worry about women’s safety in street harassment situations. I’ve read news stories where women ignored a harasser or just said, “No,” or “I’m not interested” and the men turned around and stabbed them or shot them or threw garbage at them. Women can ignore them and men may escalate. Women can say, “Stop harassing me” and men may escalate. Women can curse and flip out and the men may escalate.

At the end of the day, we never know how our harasser will respond and that’s why it’s essential to get men who harass to stop. In the meantime, women do have to respond someway, so I advise them to quickly assess their feelings of safety and then do whatever feels the most empowering. Usually ignoring the harasser and doing nothing is not empowering and women wish they had done something or at least taken the harasser’s photo. So when they feel safe, I think they might as well respond that way. It’s always a gamble as far as how the harasser will respond so, being empowered and safe is all we can try to do as women.

A video game titled “Hey Baby” that just came out on the market allows you to gun down harassers who say all sorts of creepy and threatening things. Would you say that this game represents a positive contribution to the fight against street harassment?

Yes, I think it has had a positive contribution because it has received lots of attention in the news, including on NPR and in the New York Times, and generated discussions about street harassment. Street harassment is so rarely acknowledged as a problem in the news and this game prompted many journalists and bloggers to acknowledge that it is one, and not in the “women can’t take a compliment” way. I was pleased by the New York Times review of the game, particularly at the end of the article when the male author said that playing the game made him understand women’s experiences more and that, while he’s never street harassed a woman, after playing the game, he never will.

How does one respond to men who claim that women who dress provocatively are asking for attention?

The way a woman is dressed does not tell him if she wants to be commented on. If she looks dressed up, do not assume it is to gain the admiration of all men she sees and that he should say something to her. She may enjoy dressing up, she may be dressed up for an event, or she may be dressed up to gain the admiration of a specific person or persons. Everyone should always treat women – and men – with respect, no matter what they are wearing.

Also, no matter what women wear, there are men who will harass them. It is not about what we wear, but about the fact that we are women in public, usually alone. Further, men in countries like Egypt and Yemen still harass women even though they are very modestly dressed and sometimes even completely veiled. In Egypt, a study showed 83 percent of women had been harassed and in Yemen, it was 90 percent. I’ve read articles where men justify their behavior by saying the women shouldn’t be out in public alone or by saying they think the women must have something to hide and must be very beautiful if they’re covered.

Do you think it is important to consider men’s stories of street harassment as well?

At this point I have not asked for men’s street harassment stories for my blog unless they were bystanders or with women being harassed. Men are more often harassed for their race, class, sexual orientation, disability, disability, or nationality, and usually by other men, and I think that people generally understand that to be wrong behavior. Women are also harassed for those reasons, but I found in my survey that they are harassed most often because of their gender. And because right now most people don’t realize that or care and dismiss such behavior as complimentary, flirting, and harmless, I am focused on (more…)

Contributed by Cherie

A poet who has also written for magazines including Maxim and CosmoGirl, Lisa Marie Basile discusses the importance of making poetry accessible to a larger community while still recognizing that it is not for everyone and must remain  “challenging and honest, not lazy.”  Although she long questioned womanhood and feminism, when she founded The Caper Literary Journal, Lisa took her inspiration  from the rebellious  Flapper era when women challenged society’s expectations in order to get closer to gender equality. With her first book published, a collection of vignettes about New Mexico in progress and a successful collaborative writing effort that raised money for Haiti under her belt, Lisa is now heading to Mexico to continue to probe what she considers to be a major aspect of her work: the relationship between writing and environment, people and culture, location and self.

Your writing experience is quite varied: magazines that range from Maxim to CosmoGirl, poetry, a book and founding the Caper Literary Journal; what form of writing do you enjoy the most and do you find it difficult to switch between genres.

I love to write for any reason, but my real love is for poetry. Switching between editing and writing is difficult, though. When I write my own work and edit it, I am coming from the perspective of myself. I never write for readers. When it comes to journalism, I do write for the reader—that is where editing is necessary but also trying. Because journalism is so straight-forward, it trains me to think of sentences in one very particular kind of way. When I sit down to write, those same boring ghosts come out and can keep me from being creative. I suppose, though, when the time comes to creatively write, it finds a way. Writing poetry and fiction is infinitely rewarding than other sorts of writing. Feelings are harder to write than facts but that is never a bad thing.

How important do you feel it is to make poetry more commercial? For example poetry has been used in advertising, featured on MTV, and sold on Itunes. Is that good or bad for poetry?

I think it’s divinely important to spread the word about poetry. It’s wonderful that mtvU promotes poetry with their Poet Laureate program and that MTV airs spoken-word shows. Poetry, to me, is a safe temple. I come and go as I want, always welcome and inspired. Keeping poetry sacred is important. If people want to promote it and earn money from it, they need to understand its many facets: it goes well beyond Hallmark cards and beyond the words of the 19th Century white man. Poetry is humanism. It should be read and written by people who want to understand the world and its many people. It should always be part of a constant state of renewal and growth, and so long as people keep it fresh and undefined, it will keep blossoming. Anything that can be done to keep poetry alive is essential, so long as (like some music and like some film) people don’t tolerate the bare minimum. Poetry should always be challenging and honest, not lazy. But, I’ve never seen poetry as a high money-making field so it may never be commercialized or dumbed-down. And, because it is my temple, I like that.

As a young person writing poetry, what do you think are some ways to engage young audiences?

When I was younger, I was engaged through mere exposure. Some people aren’t as fortunate. There are people who have never truly read poems or don’t know that modern day, young people are still writing them. I think it’s key for educators at the high school and junior high school levels to engage students in writing and poetry. Not only does this expose them to great work, it could trigger the writer in them.

It’s important, too, to go beyond John Keats or Robert Frost. Students need to know that poetry is a form of expression happening in their neighborhoods and in their cultures and in their households. While, for example, the Romantic poets are masters of their craft—and should be read—there is so much more going on. There is a road not taken, and that is the road where many educators never walk, ironically. I spent many years being taught the same poems by the same (white male) poets. What about Gwendolyn Brooks? Pablo Neruda? Cornelius Eady? I think it’s important to be exposed to and write the poetry that makes people think about things they encounter every day: race, truth, loss, the urban, the suburban, the rural and the foreign. This of course can be done in literal and metaphorical ways.

One of the most important things to do, also, is to get students involved with literary journals and literary clubs starting in the junior-high level. Sports and drama clubs are so popular—and that’s fine—but what of those of us, sitting in the corner putting our literary journal together, that were saved by the words? Continue establishing literary journals and clubs.

Also, I’d encourage them to submit to my journal, Caper.

Do you think that poetry is more of an individualized practice or does it need to be community based? For example do you think programs like the People’s Poetry (http://www.peoplespoetry.org/) are important ways to build audiences or do they undermine the seriousness of poetry?

Poetry is very serious, and is very personal to the poet. I respect poets that do not share their work or need validation. I also respect poets who want to share their word. When groups of intelligent, poetry-loving people put community-based poetry programs together, the outcome is usually wonderful. I will be honest and say poetry is not for everyone and some people do undermine it by creating writers groups that tolerate weak writing and patronize their writers with “good job!” remarks that are painfully untrue. That doesn’t hurt anyone but the writer. And it definitely doesn’t make a good name for poetry.

But for the most part, poetry groups consist of people who truly want to become better writers and spread a good word. I think People’s Poetry is excellent and I respect their every move, including their virtual poetry gathering. Other websites I love that promote work are Redroom and She Writes, both of which I take part in when I can.

How does being a poet affect your view of the world?

I am not sure being a poet has affected my view of the world, but I am sure my view of the world has affected my being a poet.

Who is the “I” in your poems? Are they autobiographical?

The “I” in many of my poems is humanity, and that encompasses me, you and the people that we love and hate. I don’t always write true scenarios, but I always write true feelings. For me, poetry has always been autobiographical in some sense, whether I write about myself or the lives of others. Even if I am writing about volcanoes haunted by naughty dead children, there is truth to it.

You are the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Caper Literary Journal of which you once said that it is built around the concept of saloons and flappers, can you please explain this?

I created Caper’s aesthetic out of love for the Flapper era. It was a time when people were rebellious and challenged a lot of society’s expectations. Women weren’t afraid to cut their hair or speak their minds. This was one huge step in a long path toward some semblance of gender equality. I think writing reflects and inspires society. It should be challenging, willing to change, open-minded and socio-culturally conscious. That metaphor for Caper Literary Journal has really come across, and the submitting writers have beautifully represented the idea. I am truly lucky to read their work.

One of the initiatives you led was the “Vwa: Poems for Haiti,” which featured over thirty writers from different professions and from all over the world. Proceeds from the event went to help charities including the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and Yele. Can you explain how you put this group together?

When the Earthquake in Haiti happened, I wrote a poem called “In Pits, Bon Dieu.” I shared it with some literary friends and noticed that people were interested in writing as well. I put a call out for writers through Caper Literary Journal and had hundreds of submissions. It was glorious. While only some were chosen for the Vwa: Poems for Haiti anthology, everyone who submitted had a beautiful heart. The anthology was printed in March and consisted of dozens of poets’ work. It is available online for purchase, and I send the royalties to relief efforts. The writers involved were the most inspiring aspect: the whole project beamed with humanity. (The book can be bought at: https://www.createspace.com/3435289)

You have talked about the clichés in poetry and how the lack of attention to detail makes a poor poem. What are some of the things you look for when reading submissions for your literary journal?

Good poems are all different. Though some come along and stun me with two lines and some simple words, others tell haunting, grandiose stories. A stellar poem isn’t one with a specific structure (more…)

Contributed by Cherie

As the Global Programs Director at the Feminist Majority Foundation, Anushay Hossain is an expert on the impact of US foreign policy on the health and rights of women and girls in the developing world. She also covers these issues in publications including The Huffington Post, The Washington Examiner, Ms. Magazine, NPR and Feministing, and founded her own blog Anushay’s Point in an attempt to bring more people to the conversation about gender and help “take the fear out of feminism.”  Raised in Bangladesh where she was inspired by her mother’s work on behalf of  women’s rights, Anushay’s understanding of feminism and women’s issues is far ranging as it covers the Indian subcontinent, the US and UK.  In this interview, she discusses the development of her interest in gender issues and shares her views on a wide variety of topics including her reaction to her alma mater’s initial and subsequent handling of the murder of lacrosse player Yeardley Love.

Did your interest in gender issues and women’s struggles for equality begin in Bangladesh? How did it develop?

Yes, it definitely developed in Bangladesh. My mother was very involved in the women’s rights movement in the country, and growing up she would always take me with her to all her activist events. This early exposure to the women’s rights world had a huge influence on me. It pretty much shaped who I am today. My mother showed me from an early age how difficult it is to access education and healthcare for the majority of women and girls in Bangladesh. She taught me about the violence women in my country endure. This had a profound impact on the development of my own feminist conscience, and it taught me never to take opportunities given to me for granted.

How did you decide to get a master’s in gender and development in the UK? What kind of work did you do/ are you doing in this area?

The experience of working with the Feminist Majority Foundation straight out of college confirmed to me that I wanted to cultivate a career for myself in this field. I knew that I needed not only more work experience, but that I needed to analyze the field through an academic lens. I knew I needed a Master’s in this area. The UK is really where anyone serious about Development Studies goes to pursue higher education in this field. At the time I wanted to get my MA, no University in the US was offering degrees in Gender and Development.

I have dedicated my entire career to this field. Right now, the majority of my work consists of monitoring and analyzing the impact of US foreign policy on the health and rights of women and girls in the developing world.

You recently wrote about the murder of Lacrosse player Yeardley Love allegedly by her ex-boyfriend George Huguely and criticized your alma mater, the UVA for as you put it in your post “skirting around the issue of domestic violence instead of confronting it.”  Why do you think that’s the case and what would you like to see academic institutions do in this regard?

I wrote that piece immediately after the murder, and my reaction to the University’s response was premature. I actually wanted and should have done a follow-up piece on that post. In the days and weeks that followed, UVA’s response has been adequate and I think I spoke too soon. For example, they had the White Ribbon Alliance present at Graduation, so many graduates were wearing the white ribbon, students are working on legislation to protect victims of domestic violence, and a fund has been established for Love. In addition, John Casteen, the President of the University, spoke at length about intimate partner violence and the Women’s Center has taken extraordinary steps in raising awareness and educating around this issue. Ultimately, we all have a role in shaping the conversation around domestic violence, and determining what it looks like.

How does media coverage of women’s issues and perspectives in the UK compare to US coverage? For example the Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Mail all have sections on their online sites dedicated to women’s issues which is something rarely seen in the states—do you feel these sections are important and progressive?

Yes. I have always thought that and it became especially evident when I lived in London. I think in America everyone is too caught up with the abortion debate and the abortion issue. It is holding the women’s movement in this country back. It is just frustrating because there are such larger issues we need to talk about that go beyond abortion. The American media has an important role to play here. Can you imagine what the world would gain from an American feminist movement that transcended abortion?

Why did you decide to create your own blog, Anushay’s Point?  What would you like to achieve through it?

I felt as though for a long time I was having conversations with my colleagues and my friends, with so many women and men about what feminism means, what development means, how women have such a critical role in achieving development goals, about the double-standards applied to women and what men can get away with… all these issues that people were interested with respect to women’s rights, but somehow all these ideas were not accessible to the masses. The majority of people were missing the message, missing the point.

Most people think that feminists are a bunch of angry, extremist, man-hating lesbians. They think the women’s rights movement is irrelevant in this day and age. But when you brought up issues like equal pay, access to family planning services, land rights, access to education I found the majority of people agree that equal rights should extend to women without question. People understand that women’s rights are human rights. I found that people across the board are feminists, but are terrified of that label, especially young women. This really bothered me and the misconception really frustrated me. It still does.

So I wanted to put “my feminism” out there through “Anushay’s Point.” Most of what I cover on “Anushay’s Point” comes from conversations I have with my family, friends, colleagues. And those were the people who really pushed me to start the site. I just wanted to bring more people into this conversation and take the fear out of feminism. I wanted to show people, “See, we are all feminists and there is nothing wrong with that.” I am really proud of this blog. It is so personal to me. It is my voice.

Speaking about the misconceptions around feminism,  what is something that you are particularly concerned about?

That women’s rights movements are only needed in countries like Afghanistan, in “developing countries.” This idea that the West has won the fight for women’s rights is very misleading and not true, but it exists because (more…)