news roundup: sunday women's edition

i had recently been thinking about how i had not focused much on feminist discourse lately, which made me sad. last semester, i was sooo fasicnated, devouring books like betty friedan's the feminine mystique and bell hooks'feminism is for everybody. and now, inundated with the tasks of going to work and figuring out how to be an adult, my passion for women's studies had kinda fell to the wayside.
and then, i come across this commentary in the new york times that talks about how such a seemingly innocuous campaign like the miss subways campaign that ran in new york's subways from 1941 to 1977 was really a subversively feminist campaign. a lovely little piece of writing that shows that feminism isn't what it has been subverted to represent in mainstream america. ask any woman on the street what their view of feminism is and they're sure to relay some picture of a butch lesbian yelling that women don't need men because women are better than men. instead, feminism is more about empowering women and making them feel that they could be more than just a housewife, or, as ani difranco says, a "pretty girl."

my other entry in the news roundup vault is a story that gave me hope. the story of a family made up of two daughters and two mommies. the girls, fathered through sperm donors, were raised in a loving two-parent home and seem pretty well adjusted. a beautiful story that makes me want to send a copy to all those bastards who say that homosexuality and same-sex marriages will ruin the fabric of the american family.