Hey all, these are the notes I took at the Feministing talk at Haverford College last night. I hope they are useful, or at least amusing.

1st speaker:

• Australian
• "stealth feminism"
• feminism that doesn't call itself feminism
• BAGGAGE --> some is completely deserved
• Doesn't deserve baggage by those who want to see it fail, who don't want to see women have equal pay, etc (right of who to have sex with/how often, right to have children, etc)
• Poverty, democratic representation, sexual assault
• STEP ONE: Pop culture
• The Ugly Truth: "No one wants to fuck comfort and efficiency" (re: clothes that feminists wear"
• View with a critical eye
• Meeting people where they are and using language they understand (re: stealth feminism/how to explain feminism)
• If you need proof that sexism is "alive and well" in America, look at pop culture
• "You take [pop culture] too seriously"
• Pop culture is a gateway drug to feminism
• Start with: Dancing with the Stars, rap songs, romantic comedies (romcoms) --> very clear to see faults
• Then move to: politics, literature, own relationships
• Feminism is alive and well and it needs you

2nd speaker:

Today’s class, (well it’s 12am, so technically, yesterday’s class) is still spinning through my head. I am not a silent person, and I can’t stop wondering why I was so quiet during class. The answer I’ve come up with is, that although I’m not a silent person, I definitely am a fixating one, as in I have a fixating personality. When I hear something that strikes me differently, I fixate and think-it to death, and thinking something to death takes a lot of effort- how could I have strength to speak?

So now that I have had some time to let my fixation formulate, I can talk. The fatherly advice froggie generously shared with us yesterday got me thinking. I’m paraphrasing, so forgive me, but it was something to the effect of, “you don’t have to work in a corrupt system.” I don’t think the word corrupt was used, but it was something like that.  This advice struck me as odd, because it is the opposite of what I’ve been taught, that is not a judgment on the advice, it’s just a noting of difference.

This week has been one of my favorite weeks at college, ever.  I think it has a lot to do with the conversations we’ve been having in class.  I’ve been connecting things from this class to lots of things in my life outside of class, I’ve been reading more, thinking more, smiling more, and writing.  I feel really lucky to have been a part of reading what we’ve read and saying what we’ve said this week, and I feel sad to be saying goodbye to this unit.  I hope that we can make graphic novels as exciting as academic writing (I’m laughing at myself because the response to that seems so glaringly obvious to me: YES! OF COURSE WE CAN!)  

Anyways...

With all of this talking of "Breast-Giver," I thought it would be relevant to reference Jess Dobkin, a performance artist.

The Lactation Station

Note: the image for the ad is not an accurate representation of the exhibit. It was not as if people were coming up to women and receiving breast milk directly from them. I think that one of the reasons why this exhibit was so impressive was because of the formality of it. Dobkin got several women to donate samples of their breast milk, which was then pasteurized. Samples were given to visitors of the exhibit. Sometimes a woman would offer commentary on her diet throughout pregnancy, as some noticed differing subtle tastes.

Rethinking the Future of Learning Institutions....

Reading “Goblin Market” as a Feminist Text

            With its rhyming cadence and fable-like narrative, “Goblin Market” might easily be interpreted as a children’s poem. However, it is also the tension between these two elements—form and content—that evokes the question of whether or not “Goblin Market” might be considered a feminist text. Despite the cadence and use of a tone often found in children’s literature, “Come buy, come buy: /…Bloom-down-cheeked peaches, /Swart-headed mulberries, /Wild free-born cranberries,” (4-11) the protagonists in this fable-like narrative encounter mature and sexually suggestive situations. When Laura and Lizzie encounter the goblin men and their fruit, the language of the poem maintains its child-like tone but the words are also sensual and mirror the sexuality that emerges as a reaction to the fruit. It is this sexuality that is at stake throughout “Goblin Market”. By choosing to create tension between form and content, Christina Rossetti highlights female sexuality and desire in her poem. Doing so in a form so closely resembling a fable allows Rossetti to discuss female sexuality and desire in a public forum, which her position as an English female writer in the 1800s would not have allowed her to do more explicitly. Subsequently, “Goblin Market” functions as a feminist text through its acknowledgement of female sexuality and desire.

I was recently asked to post about assessing the impact of NGOs in Ghana.  Here are some resources that I found:

Be sure to check out the Institutes, Think Tanks and Reports section of your course guide.  It lists several websites that will have reports from major non-profits in West Africa.

In addition to the general social science article resources (e.g. JSTOR, ProQuest, Google Scholar, etc.) two databases that will have international NGO reports would be:

• Columbia International Affairs Online
• PAIS International

Search these databases for keywords like (NGO or non-governmental organization or intergovernmental organization) and (accountab* or monitor* or evaluat*).  Here are links to two productive searches I ran in Google Scholar's Advanced Search screen: