Book 'em, Brontës!

If you don’t have a sense of humor, skip this post.  And stop being such a stick in the mud.

My favorite lines:

• “It's the Brontë sisters, super powered English authors from the nineteenth-century!”

• “Girls can't write books, ha, ha, ha!”

• Sisters: We're boys.

          Evil literary male critic: Guys, your books have revolutionized 

          the Gothic Romance novel!  They're awesome.

          Sisters: Well, the jokes on you, narrow minded cur.  We are women!

          Evil literary male critic: What?  No one wants to read books by girls, get out of here!

• “Book 'em, Brontës!”

• “Together the Brontës wrote books about confident, independent women.  Now they join forces again to become the all-powerful BRONTËSAURUS!”

• “Brontësaurus comes with barrier-breaking feminist vision!”

Tweet, Tweet

The following articles came from my Twitter feed, and are posted in no particular order.

• From Cat in the Stack: “Learn Intellectual Property By Doing It” by Cathy Davidson

• “That's a fabulous learning experience by any estimation, but the HASTAC way is to not just create new technologies but to think critically about those technologies, what they mean, how they apply to society or to individual rights and aspirations.   It is also important to transform creating and critiquing into pedagogical practice” (Davidson).

• From You Can Teach Writing: “When writing a literary analysis: Use thesis + support (persuasive pattern)” by Linda Aragoni

• From Stuff.co.nz: “E-book limit upsets apple cart for local iPad users” by Claire McEntee

• Just a quick reminder that the (technological) world apparently revolves around the United States, as illustrated by Australian and New Zealanders’ frustration over time lags for e-books.

• From StatesmanJournal.com: “Video: What eReader is right for you?” by Barbara Curtin

• From Doyce Testerman: “The Life of a Furtive Writer” by Doyce

• From The New York Observer (Media Mob): "Jane Pratt Teams Up With Teen Blogger For New Magazine” by Hunter Walker

• From The Spy Report (News from Media Spy): “US: Amazon to increase Kindle royalties to publishers” by bacco|007

• From Miami Herald: “In digital world, Miami’s book fair still bedazzles” by Connie Ogle

• From PCMAG.com: “Our Favorite Blogs: 2010” by Eric Griffith

• Sweet Valley Confidential (Book Excerpt – Chapter One) by Francine Pascal

• From copyblogger: “How to Put Yourself into an Effortless Writing Zone” by James Chartrand

• From Whatever: “The Man in the Frey Flannel Suit” by John Scalzi

• From New York Magazine (Books): “James Frey’s Fiction Factory: The controversial author is hiring young writers to join him in a new publishing company.  The goal is to produce the next Twilight.  The contracts are brutal.” By Suzanne Mozes

• From hindustantimes: “Is your child a hypernetworker?” by Sanchita Sharma

• From HASTAC: “Digital Humanities Sessions at the 2011 MLA” by Mark Sample

• I might have had to wipe the drool from my keyboard after reading through the panel descriptions.  And in the words of Liz Lemon, “I want to go to there.”

The following articles came from friends, Facebook, and my own web browsing.  These too are posted in no particular order.

• From MatadorNetwork: “20 Obsolete English Words that Should Make a Comeback” by Heather Carreiro (Thanks Jessica for the link!)

• From The Huffington Post: “An Appeal From Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales” by Jimmy Wales

• From Guardian.co.uk: “What’s on the next page in the great ebook race?” by Justin McGuirk

• From The New York Times: “Great Holiday Expectations for E-Readers” by Julie Bosman

• From Lost Angeles Times: “Libraries reinvent themselves as they struggle to remain relevant in the digital age: They’re preparing for a future in which materials can be checked out and read from a home computer, smart phones or e-reader.” By David Sarno

• From lifehacker: “Top 10 Tips for Better Writing” by Whitson Gordon

• From BitchMedia: “Past Imperfect: The Feminine Mystique and the persistence of nostalgia” by Eryn Loeb

• From BitchMedia: “House Proud: The troubling rise of stay-at-home daughters” by Gina McGalliard

• To quote Battlestart Galactica, “All this has happened before, and it will happen again.”  That quote was running through my head as I read this article, which provoked a riot of emotions and to be honest, made me queasy.  The attitude of the fathers (and husbands) in this article immediately made me think of Cotton Mather, feme coverture, and the idealized motherhood of the republican mother from post-Revolutionary America.  This is not good, not good at all.    

• From Jezebel: “Popular Female Evangelist Claims That What God Really Wants Is For Women To Shut Up” by Morning Gloria

It’s Complicated

Friendships are complicated.  

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I found these on today’s PostSecret.

• From Jezebel: “The Televised Guide to Teen Girl Friendships” by Ryan

I recommend reading through the user comments on this post, which expand upon the list by Ryan.  I love how people commenting are so willing to share their personal experiences – my cousin was a Rayanne, I was a Daria and my friend was a Jane, I love Buffy/Willow!, “His list is so limited…so…gringa upper middle class” etc.  Make sure you click on “earlier discussions” to get all the comments, they’re worth reading.

Oh Sucker Punch, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways….


But first, watch the trailer.

The movie is set up as quest: Baby Doll and her friends have to find map, fire, knife, and a key.  We are told, “the fifth thing is a mystery.”


Let’s take a closer look at the trailer.


Written words in the trailer: 

• “Reality is a prison.”
• “Your mind can set you free.”

Spoken words in the trailer: 

• “To reach your own paradise, just let go.  What you’re imagining right now, you control this world.”
• “I’m going to help you to be free.”
• “Begin your journey, it will set you free.”

I love it, absolutely love it.  Although, I have to admit, I’m a sucker for girls who kick ass, especially if they have guns, knives, and flame throwers.  I wonder if this film could serve as an example of the female homosocial – Baby Doll must work with her asylum inmates in order to achieve her quest – her freedom.  I guess we’ll have to wait until March 25, 2011 to find out.   


In the meantime, you can watch IGN’s Rewind Theater and see what they have to say about Sucker Punch.

Raise Your Glass

“So raise your glass if you are wrong in all the right ways” (Pink).

Let’s be honest.  Most little girls, teenagers, and women don’t learn how to be feminists from reading scholarship.  They learn from each other, from mass media (TV, movies, magazines, websites, radio, plays, etc), from their parents and family, and from social experience.  And while some girls and women do seek feminist scholarship to guide their experience, I venture that most don’t – academic scholarship is usually written in intimidating jargon and unless published as a book, is inaccessible to elementary, middle and high school girls.  


Of course, there are exceptions, especially girls who create their own zines and websites (think LiveJournal), or write for feminist sites like Bitch Media (established 1996) and Jezebel.com (established 2007).  But let me just say, neither of these existed when I was in middle school and high school (I graduated in 1999 – but I didn’t find out about Bitch until college*).  Instead, like I said above, girls and women learn from their social experiences, which for better or worse are highly shaped and influenced by social media.


*I bought my sister a year long subscription + a journal for her Christmas present after I discovered Bitch.

Growing up, I was influenced by female musicians – Madonna, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Salt-n-Peppa, TLC, Janet Jackson, En Vogue, and more.  Later in high school, I adored Gwen Steffani and despised The Spice Girls.  And if you told me back in 2000 when Pink’s first album debuted that I would tell you today that Pink is my new feminist hero, I’d probably laugh in your face.  


Here’s the deal.  I am obsessed with the song “Glitter in the Air” and I didn’t realize it was Pink who sang it – my sister clued me in.  So last week I purchased my first CD in roughly two years, Pink’s Funhouse.  I can’t lie – I’ve listened to the whole album, all the way through, at least four times in less than a week while driving in my car.  Last night I spent two hours watching all of Pink’s videos on her YouTube Channel.  I know, I have no life.  While watching her videos, I realized that Pink is a feminist, albeit a slightly unconventional one.  I’m going to direct your attention to two videos in particular, “Raise Your Glass” and “Stupid Girls.”      


Briefly, the issues raised/addressed in “Raise Your Glass” video: female obesity, gay marriage, feminist icons (Rosie the Riveter), animal cruelty (protesting of killing bulls, milking cows), race issues, outcasts, culture clashes (gangsters, skateboarders), beauty ideals, religion, sex, and education.  All of this in less than 3 minutes, 22 seconds.  Damn, she’s good.  


A portion of the lyrics:

So raise your glass if you are wrong

In all the right ways

All my underdogs, we will never be

Anything but loud

And nitty gritty

Dirty little freaks

Won’t you come on, and come on, and

Raise your glass

Just come on and come and 

Raise your glass

Watch it for yourself.

The “Stupid Girls” video cracked me up, I couldn’t stop laughing.  It’s rather scathing in its condemnation of stupid girls (Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, etc.).  My favorite part of the lyrics:

I’m so glad that I’ll never fit in

That will never be me

Outcasts and girls with ambition

That’s what I wanna see

I love the image of Pink, dressed in a rather conservative outfit with glasses, standing behind a podium – insinuating that our fight for a woman president is far from over.


Watch it for yourself.

So while academic scholarship might not agree with me, I think Pink can and does act as a feminist hero.  What do you think?  You can check out the rest of her videos on her YouTube Channel, or visit her official website to read through her song lyrics.  Let me know.

You Are Not Alone

Remember the Cosmo PostSecret card I posted about in October?  Apparently, it gets a lot of mileage.  This article at Bitch Magazine made me smile - I hope you enjoy it too.

• From Bitch Magazine: “I <3 Bitch For Creating a Community” by Sara Stroo

Bits and Pieces

Articles:

• From The New York Times Review of Books: “Toward ‘the Digital Public Library of America’: An Exchange” by Tony Simpson and Robert Darnton [original “Can We Create a National Digital Library”] 

• First of all, I love that Jessica saw this article and thought of me.  

• Second, yes, we can and MUST create a national digital library.  One thing that stood out to me, and maybe this is because I’m so incredibly immersed in women’s writing, the female homosocial, and the lesbian continuum because of this project, is that Robert Darnton only quotes MEN in his original article – Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams.  And to that, I call shenanigans.  Last time I looked, plenty of women in our past wrote about the link between shared knowledge, literacy, education, and the democracy (and we continue to do so to this day!).  And in fact, women are completely absent from his article, unless we are counted under the gender-neutral umbrella of “citizenship.”  

• Despite my anger at the distinct lack of women, past and present, from Darnton’s article, yes, I agree – a national digital library, connected to a larger international library (an index of ALL digital libraries) needs to happen, as soon as possible.  Cooperation is needed on all levels – state, federal, private corporations, universities, colleges, the government – I think you get the picture.  And obviously, copyright is one of the biggest hurdles we face, so why not start with texts with expired copyrights, or texts that reside in special collections?  You can see that Darnton has the same idea in his reply to Simpson.  Anyways, read the articles and tell me what you think.   

• From Gizmodo: “Attention: The Web Is Not Public Domain” by Brian Barrett

• From Mashable / Social Media: “7 Fantastic Free Social Media Tools for Teachers” by Sarah Kessler

• From Jezebel: “What Facebook Does to Teenage Girls” by Irin Carmon
• Remember the articles about the Facebook movie, The Social Network, as a male homosocial network?  I thought this article was an interesting contrast.

• From The Frisky: “’I Am A Girl’ Documentary Looks Like A Sobfest” by Jessica Wakeman

• From Slate: “Who Gets To Be a Feminist?” by DoubleX Staff

Cool sites:

• The University of Michigan: Eighteenth Century England: A Site Created by and for Literature Students at the University of Michigan

• I found this site by accident the night my contextual documents assignment was due, Friday the 5th.  I Googled something like “essays on female friendship by women” and this popped up in the results.  It’s amazing!  I already posted the link to our WebCourses discussion board so my classmates and Dr. Logan could see it.  I’m hoping that Dr. Logan and our English Department will grant us permission to create a shell page on the UCF server that will link to all of our projects, as well as Dr. Logan’s students’ previous digital projects (whew, that was a mouthful). 

• The University of Michigan site is cumulative – so far, 143 students have contributed 54 projects, working in groups from 1999 through the present.  It’s quite impressive, especially when you see the levels of cooperation – professors, undergraduate students, graduate students, and doctoral students, as well as interdisciplinary cooperation (different departments).  

• What I love most about this site is that it is student driven and created – these are our peers, our equals.  I think sometimes that scholarship can seem intimidating because of the author, or difficult to understand (or unpack as Dr. Jones says) because of all the jargon most of which as students we’re still learning about.  These pages, on the other hand, are written in the same language and style that we are familiar with because it is our own.  So please, take a couple of minutes to explore their site and let me know what you think.

• Beeskep: 18th-century American Women

• This site also popped up in my Google results for “essays on female friendship by women” and I thought my classmates would enjoy looking through it.  The author, Beeskep, has three other sites that straddle the time periods of our class, which I’ve listed below.

• Beeskep: Early American Gardens

• Beeskep: 17th-century American Women

• Beeskep: 19th-century American Women

BFF 4 Eva!

It’s Female Friendship Week over at The Frisky.  What, you ask yourself, is Female Friendship Week all about?  Let’s take a look:

Besties, frenemies, sisters, and groups of gal pals.  Explore the joy, the sorrow, and the everything else of the female friendships in our lives.  Let’s face it, dudes are much less complicated creatures.  But they could never replace the ladies in our lives (The Frisky).

Ah, I love it when modern connections to the female homosocial and lesbian continuum found within MMMB drop into my lap without any effort on my behalf.  

Speaking of (literary) sisters, I’m going to take the opportunity to share an xkcd comic about Emily Dickinson, a Jane Austen PostSecret card, and the article “Jane Austen’s Well-Known Style Owed Much to Her Editor, Scholar Argues” from The Chronicle of Higher Education by Jennifer Howard.


From xkcd:

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From Post Secret (tumblr archive):

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From The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Jane Austen’s Well-Known Style Owed Much to Her Editor, Scholar Argues” by Jennifer Howard


Also, Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts?  Amazing.  Simply amazing.  What a beautiful and stunning example of digital humanities.  Now anyone with a computer, not just scholars with access to expensive databases and journals, can see Austen’s manuscripts, over 1,100 pages worth.  The site also allows you to view, side by side, published editions and Austen’s handwritten manuscripts.  And unlike the (Emily) Dickinson Electronic Archives, there aren’t entire sections subject to restricted access.


Enjoy.  


Works Cited:

Anonymous.  Jane Austen Is Better Than Sex.  Digital image.  PostSecret (Tumblr Archive). 16 June 2010.  Web.  25 Oct. 2010.  <http://postsecret.tumblr.com/post/704140943>.

Munroe, Randall.  The Carriage.  Digital image.  xkcd.  03 Sept. 2010.  Web.  25 Oct. 2010. <http://xkcd.com/788/>.

Re-Imagination and Disney Princesses

[This post is dedicated to my sister Erin, the most Disney Princess girl I’ve ever known. She’s all about Belle.]


Dr. Logan structured our course so that each of the ten students presents a text to the rest of the class in a 30-45 minute presentation; we are also responsible for the creation of a handout to guide and focus our discussion of the selected text.  Last night’s class was on The Female American, attributed to Unca Eliza Winkfield.  Spencer was our presenter, and on the handout, he included an art deco image of Pocahontas.  In The Female American, Unca Eliza’s Native American mother is a Pocahontas figure, saving her future husband from death at the hands of her tribe, of which her father is king.  Unca Eliza, a bi-racial character, frequently references her skill with a bow and arrow, which makes the selected image particularly suitable.

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Part of our assignment included browsing through the images in Edward J. Gallagher’s Pocahontas Images gallery to acquaint ourselves with the ways in which the persona and image of Pocahontas has been appropriated by cultures throughout time.  There is an astounding amount of images available on the site, and apparently, Pocahontas can, with the stroke of an artist’s paintbrush or pen, transform from a Native American woman into a hybrid into a white woman.


So, during our class discussion (or was it last week’s discussion?  Oh old age, you are wrecking havoc on my memory), the subject of the Disney princesses came up, and Dr. Logan asked us, “Do any of them end their story not married?”  As we sat there thinking, we realized – no, all of the princesses, except Pocahontas, end up married.  However, even Pocahontas cannot escape the fate of a Disney tale, and ends up married in the sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (thanks to Jen for saving the day with this trivia tidbit).  

The Homosocial Network

If, as Dr. Logan’s Early American Women’s Words undergraduate class postulates, Facebook is a modern version of the commonplace book, then the movie The Social Network is worth taking a closer look.  I have not seen the movie, and have very little desire to do so, but after reading through some of these movie reviews, I might have to see it – in the name of research, of course.


The first review that caught my eye was on Slate (I am addicted to Dear Prudence).  I glanced through it and a reference to another article, “The (Homo)Social Network” is what snagged my attention.  The homosocial is on my mind almost twenty four seven thanks to this project, so there was no way I could let this opportunity for a modern connection slide past me.


So, I gathered a list of articles reviewing The Social Network, which wasn’t too hard because some of the reviews refer to other reviews.  This list is by no means exhaustive, obviously, but it heartens me to see reviewers grappling with the role of women within the movie, and its social consequences.  Enjoy.

• From Bitch Magazine: "Tube Tied: Stephen Colbert Asks About Women, and Maybe that's All I Need" by Michelle Dean

• From Jezebel: "The Social Network, Where Women Never Have Ideas" by Irin Carmon

• From Women and Hollywood: "Stephen Colbert Asks Aaron Sorkin About the Ladies in The Social Network" by Melissa Silverstein

• From IFC: "The (Homo)Social Network: "The Social Network" doesn't have a problem with women -- its characters do." by Alison Willmore

• From Slate: "Is the Facebook Movie Sexist?" by Dana Stevens

• From Salon: "Sorkin explains "Social Network" sexism" by Tracy Clar-Flory and "Female programmers on "The Social Network."  How accurate is the Facebook movie's depiction of women as trophies in the world of Web 2.0? We asked the experts." by Tracy Clark-Flory

• From The Daily Beast via Business Insider: "Groupies, Sexed-Up Asians, Vengeful Sluts, And Feminist Killjoys – Meet The Women Of The Social Network" by Rebecca Davis O'Brien

• [Edited on 19 October 2010 to add another link] From Tenured Radical, The 2.0 Edition: "Straight People, Listen!  The Pervasiveness of Cruelty in Mass Culture" by Tenured Radical

Oh. Em. Gee.

I watched the season premier of Glee tonight, and every time Sue Sylvester came on screen, all I could think about was Madam Knight and spew.  Sue Sylvester = Madam Knight!  Think about it.  Sue has a journal (scroll down for a transcription), Knight has a journal (full journal here).  Sue is completely outrageous in her opinions of minorities, gays, non-jocks, ugly people, etc. just like Knight nonchalantly degrades and dehumanizes African Americans, Native Americans, and any one lower in class than herself.  They both have a biting and vicious sense of humor and are quite theatrical.  Unlike Knight, Sue has the opportunity for public publication of her thoughts – Sue’s Corner, her short appearances on the local TV station.  They both spew their thoughts, unfiltered, and see nothing wrong with their thoughts and actions.

“Sloppy freak-show babies!” – Sue Sylvester

Fox has compiled three videos of Sue vs. Shue on the Glee website, which features clips of them trading insults.  Go here to watch them.


Here’s a fan made compilation of Sue’s “zingers” from YouTube.

And you can see for yourself all the horrible and spewing related things Sue says on Glee at TV Fanatic.


Some gems include:

• The two of you are making a mistake, the likes of which have not been seen since the Mexicans sold Manhattan to George Washington for an upskirt photo of Betsy Ross.

• Even if your team has dropped their sequin-covered panties and urinated all over the stage like an elderly Carol Channing, they literally could not have done worse.

• Will: Inside, you're a really good person. I appreciate what you're doing for these kids. I won't forget it.  Sue: I'm seriously gonna puke in your mouth.

• Your hair looks like a briar patch. I keep expecting racist, animated Disney characters to pop up and start singing about living on the bayou.

• And that gay terrorist went on to become the first gay president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.

• I will no longer be carrying around photo ID. Know why? People should know who I am.

• I'm engorged with venom, and triumph.

• All I want is just one day a year when I'm not visually assaulted by uglies and fatties.

• I'm about to projectile express myself all over your Hush Puppies.

• [Ramps] are what I call lazy-makers. They discourage able-bodied students from getting proper exercise by using the stairs.

• Sue: Iron tablet? It keeps your strength up when you menstruate.  Will: I don't menstruate.  Sue: Neither do I.

And so on, and so forth – I think you get the point.  So, what do you think?  Am I totally off my rocker or do Madam Knight and Sue Sylvester have a lot in common?  And if you haven’t watched Glee yet, you’re missing out.