Monday, September 15, 2008

Interlude

I'm currently in my final week of preparations before I start university and start learning about exciting new things involving facts, instruments and bits of the human body I was previously unaware of.  So, in the spirit of broadening one's horizons, I present to you a video with nothing to do with feminism, which is quite good for a bit of mind-boggling during one's ten-minute study break.  Things start to get a bit odd by the 5th dimension.  Enjoy!



Just want something fun and cheerful? Never fear, for here are the guys who made diet coke and mentos into something infinitely more spectacular than we could have imagined, doing the same thing to post-it notes.



Friday, September 12, 2008

Women Against Sarah Palin

Proof that we don't just vote for vagina-owners.  A few e-mails asking for women's opinions of the American Vice Presidential nominee generated thousands of responses.  Here you will find lifelong Republicans who are withholding their votes, conservative and liberal women alike horrified by the policies and views expressed by Palin and McCain.  Go read it.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Phyllis Schlafly Sexism Watch

Inspired by the multiple sexism watches for Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton that have been running over at Shakesville, here's mine.  On Point Radio has a post on a call made about Ms. Schlafly's comments calling Democrats as 'pro-abortion' as opposed to pro-choice, and saying that all democrats would abort a child if it had Down's Syndrome.  The host didn't call her out for this, but an hour later a caller did.  Phyllis' reasoning was that there's a 91% abortion rate for children with Down's Syndrome in the USA, but of course this statistic doesn't say what the political affiliations of the women having the terminations are.
Now there are a lot of things I could say about Schlafly.  She is anti-choice, anti-feminist, opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment and a firm believer that all women should abandon any thoughts of careers and stay home making babies, unless those women happen to be her (she is a lawyer, editor and activist).  She shouts down the very movement that fought for the privileges she now enjoys.  She will also support a woman in a public role if they happen to have almost exactly the same views as her, as shown in her support for the ultra-conservative Palin.  She is, in short, the kind of person I despise.  HOWEVER!  That doesn't mean that the following comments are valid or warranted:

Phyllis Schlaffly [sic] is an ignorant, bigoted slut - a total warrior whore for the Republican party.

I'd say she was ignorant and bigoted, both descriptions are as justified as they are harsh.  But... 'slut'?  'Whore'?  Translation: Oh hey guys, there's a woman, and the worst thing a woman could do is have sex with people.  For money, no less!  Let's denigrate women everywhere along with the subject by demonising female sexuality and equating prositution - something that millions of women worldwide suffer through every day and try to escape from - with 'women saying things I don't like'.  And you know, a male politician saying the same thing would not have such gendered insults hurled at him.  Criticise the remarks and context, criticise the politics and speaker, but do NOT insult her gender - it has nothing to do with what she said.  Insults like this show possibly as much ignorance as Schlafly's comments.

76 and counting!

The bloglist at the side is getting longer by the day.  To your right you will find radicals, liberals, activists, theorists, columnists, different religions, nationalities, skin colours and, importantly, views.  It's not entirely representative of the online world of feminism but hoepfully it'll get better with time.  As always, if you spot a feminist blog (or even a blog which ties in with the issue without being devoted to the subject) then drop me a line and I'll check it out and, most likely, have it up shortly.  

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

New Look

Having got started shifting things around and doing minor changes to layouts and code during the blog move, I thought I might as well continue flying on the wings of motivation and spruce the place up a little. Hence: the new banner! It's a bit wonky as I had to use a permanent marker (having lost my fineliner) and all the ink leached into the paper, but I like it so far.

An explanation

Me and My Army has moved without warning.  Something -not sure what, mind - went oddly wrong with my old blog at apparentlyequal, and I've spent the last few hours getting everything up and running on a new account and deleted the old blog.  I'm sorry about the inconvenience of it all - whilst I doubt I had that many regular readers, I know that plenty of people had linked to me a few times and will now have to seek me out and change their links.  
I'm still typing!

Ain't That Fancy?

The blogroll now shows you exactly when each blog updates, so the old list and asterisk system is now out the window.  The exceptions seem to be Pandagon and the actual blog on the F-Word (though for reviews and features it's fine), for which I can't seem to get a feed.  Both sites still have a link up, though.  Hope you all like the new look!