I Hope This Girl Runs for Office Someday

Rappers' Delight

Voices of protest are popping up here and there, ever so slowly, to register their complaints about the woman-hating lyrics and culture of some popular rap music. In the last year the protests have come from inside hip-hop culture, where it should have the most impact (no one is going to listen to a bunch of white middle class intellectuals, especially women, as a general rule).

This latest piece is by a teenage girl from Ohio, a rap fan and feminist struggling with this cultural conflict. This excerpt especially warmed my heart, because it is directly opposed to the idea that cultural expressions like art don't influence attitudes and behavior. You know, the folks who claim that watching violent movies 10 hours a day since age 5 doesn't affect them in any way.

'Instead of simply promoting fads like Lacoste shirts and Cristal, through their music, rappers are spreading their views on women to an audience of teenage boys larger than Fat Joe's waistline, and I feel the effects everywhere I go.

From the school hallway, where on more than one occasion I have heard comments about the way I fit in my jeans, to the mall parking lot where pick-up lines usually begin with "Ooh, sexy ... " teenage boys express the same misogynistic sentiments as their rapping idols. I know that music is not the only driving force behind their behavior, but I believe rap's influence on my peers is stronger than the light reflecting off Jay-Z's ice.'

Say it!! But I am bothered by the sense of hopelessness (she calls it her hope, but I think it's actually pretty defeatist) in her conclusion, though. I don't expect this 17-year-old to have a solution, but if feminist teens are feeling hopeless, what hope do we have? On the other hand, just the fact that she wrote this and that it appeared on Alternet gives me tons of hope. Hope shmope. Always hoping things will get better, aren't we.

'I'll just hope that one day in the spirit of MC Lyte and Ms. Melodie, the future of popular radio will include new songs that don't make me want to alert NOW.'

A bunch of people responded to her on Alternet with brilliant suggestions like "change the radio station," and "listen to other kinds of rap and/or musical genres that don't degrade women." Totally missing the point, they are.

Will this song become relevant again?

This is a song written by the New Haven Women's Liberation Rock Band and released on their only album, Mountain Moving Day, recorded with the Chicago Women's Liberation Rock Band in 1972. The album has recently been re-released with the addition of two songs by Le Tigre.

ABORTION SONG

We're talkin' about abortion, it's against the law

But we know that it's our right

Control of our bodies we are going to will

We've got to get together and fight

They tell us to get married and have three or four kids
Change the diapers, be a good wife
But we will decide how many children to bear
We've got to control our own life

(Chorus)

Free our sisters, abortion is our right

Free our sisters, abortion is our right

We're talkin' about abortion it's as old as time
Hidden in fear and pain
The witches began it, they were burned at the stake
For helping sisters break their chains

Next came the butchers with their blood-stained hands
We've lost too many sisters that way
Now you go to the doctors and ask them to help
They say come back another day

(Chorus)

We're talkin' about abortion, gonna change the law
And make a better way
Those men with the power got to bend or break
They've got some heavy dues to pay

(Chorus)

Words & music: New Haven Women's Liberation Rock Band (1972)

S-K disappears from ACL lineup

So did anyone notice that Sleater-Kinney is no longer playing at the ACL Festival? That was a rather silent cancellation there. And it makes the lineup even more skewed to the boys. Sigh. I think it's better than SXSW's record on the gender front though. Silver Zephyr and I were once going to painstakingly research the actual gender ratio of SXSW bands - oh how ambitious we once were.

I'm working on a review of Sleater-Kinney's new record, The Woods, right now. It's a bit scary to write but should be up on Girlstown Productions soon. There are actually several new reviews up on the site lately: Sick Bees, Lali Puna, Gang Gang Dance, and a live review of last weeks' The Willowz show by yours truly. Ok, ok, so I comment more on how people look than what they sound like...I never claimed to be a professional music critic. I am a music fan who has certain detailed knowledge of a very specific slice of the indie scene, that from the pacific northwest, and not much else. And I am especially a fan of the lady musicians who defy all barriers and play some mean rock and roll through the pathetic cries of 'show us your tits.' Sleater-Kinney used to sell tee shirts that said "Show Me Your Riffs."

Look out for my review of this Thursday's Le Tigre show! Hopefully I can get close enough for some pictures without greasy heads in the foreground.

New Territory

Just a quick update -- the last 10 days have been high drama and high anxiety for me. First, we made the move across town and have been dealing with unpacking and storing, sorting, cleaning, organizing, arranging, etc. and getting used to the new space. In the middle of that, Silver Zephyr had a C-section, and baby Frankie (not to be confused with doggie Frankie) had to have a complicated and fairly rare surgery the next day -- he seems to be doing much much better now, though!. And then in the middle of all that, I found out that my parents, in their 39th year of marriage, are getting divorced. I have been spending a lot of time on the phone with my family, and dealing with my own conflicted feelings, and not feeling like interacting too much socially. It's bizarre to be going through this in my 30s. It's really hard no matter the age. I never thought this would actually happen, but it's probably for the best. I hope my mom truly comes into her own and finds some peace.

Do I Really Need to Hang On to Those Skis?

The move went down on Sunday with the help of ATX Moving (highly recommended). It took 3 men four hours from start to finish, and they were a little peeved when they saw all the stairs at the Kirkwood place - apparently we technically lived in a third floor apartment rather than the second floor we thought we lived in. We gave them power-ade and when they were done they hosed themselves off and we all drank a lonestar. Moving always humbles me because I am forced to come to terms with the fact that I have a lot of crap. Boxes and boxes of random odds and ends that taunt me in their 88% uselessness. It's that 12% potential usefulness that keeps me hanging on. I did throw away and donate bags of stuff this time around, but I am trying to do more. This morning I left my downhill ski boots at the Salvation Army on S. Congress. I actually felt pangs as I drove away, and saw my boots receding in the distance. Where will they end up? Those boots took me down many a mountain, and I don't want them to end up on a scrap heap somewhere . Who in Texas could possibly appreciate them?

So now I'm left with a pair of downhill Rossignol and a pair of Karhu cross-country racing skis. I've had them since the late 1980s. Seriously. I also have a 17" computer monitor that I brought with me from Seattle, and haven't used or wanted to use it in three years. A perfectly good monitor, but it's humongous and in its original box takes up a lot of space. I'm sitting here staring at coffee-table cat books, an old fleece pillow, a broken cat toy, 10-pound hand weights, a piece of denim cloth that I thought would make good patch material (8 years ago), a beanie baby (a pug doggie) given to me by my mom about 10 years ago, a box of wool gloves, mittens, and hats, a bag of thick wool socks, and at least one box of greeting cards sent to me over the years by my parents and assorted close friends. And that's just what I can see from where I'm sitting. The personal mementos are the hardest. I've been pack-ratting this stuff around for 15 years at least, driven by the fear that when I'm an old woman I will forget everything that ever happened to me and thus will need 10 boxes (projected estimate) of reminders so I can go sift through it and remember that weekend trip I took to Boulder Colorado in 1994. Sigh.

One more day of cleaning the old apartment and then we're done. We're living out of boxes at the new place but the cable is all hooked up and I have my wireless internet again so all is well. Frankie has her very own fenced front yard all to herself (she's been sharing with 1 - 3 other dogs the last two years), and she wants to play ball all day. O.F. and Stella adjusted fairly quickly but Pepe needs some more time. The first thing he did is get himself stuck behind the refridgerator. He was able to get himself out though, but not before I panicked realizing there was no human way to move the fridge. When the cable person was here doing the hookup both Stella and Pepe hid behind the fridge for a couple of hours - I thought they were going to pass out from the heat and be too weak to jump back out -- Stella came out with some coaxing but Pepe stayed down in there for like two more hours. Weirdo.

Other than that I'm having trouble finding a place for the litter box. My bathroom hardware accessories from restoration hardware arrived today - I can't wait to install them. The front door area is festering with mosquitoes that attack even in broad sunlight - anyone know how to control them other than getting rid of standing water (which there is none). I am very scattered and overwhelmed! I am hoping no one at the Coww is missing me this week.

I'm packing, really, I am

Here I am knee-deep in boxes and random shit and I all of a sudden have time to post blog entries and update Girlstown Productions. Speaking of that, we're experiencing a bit of a lull while Return of the Silver Zephyr is in the hospital trying to keep the kid from being born prematurely and I take care of my move and my chronic laziness. We're working on recruiting new writers who will contribute music reviews and feature articles, so watch for that in the next few weeks!

More changes are in the works this Fall, as I am on track to re-join the world of the gainfully employed while I finish (uhhh, start) my dissertation. It's not official yet, but if it comes through I will certainly welcome the opportunity to leave a certain foundation (we'll call it the "Cow Foundation" ) which didn't live up to its potential for me. It's really too bad, because the potential is truly there. It just depends on what people/personalities occupy the positions of power and how they view graduate education, as well as the organizational upheaval going on. I'm being a little vague here, yes. It was better than being a T.A. though!

Here's to the many sushi dinners that may be in my future...

Punditry

So Jerry Springer and Al Franken don't think Bush is going to try to appoint an extremist judge to the supreme court (i.e. an anti-Roe judge). Jerry thinks it would be the "end of the Republican Party," and Al thinks it would create too much controversy and it would be a stupid decision politically. Jerry admits he may be a bit too optimistic, but really feels that the counter-revolution this would spark would be too much for the Republicorns. I tend to think that Bush isn't afraid of controversy, and likes to be seen as making the tough, unpopular, but "right" decisions. I also keep seeing in print that the current court is 6-3 for Roe, when all the pro-choice fundraising propaganda - whoops I mean literature - I get consistently says 5-4. So they would actually need Rhenquist and one other pro-Roe judge in addition to O'Connor to resign before it could be overturned.

Oh and can I just say I really like Jerry Springer's show on Air America? Plus he totally pokes fun at himself for his TV show.

So what have the other pundits and wonks been saying? Anyone watching Fox to see what their take is?

Wanted: one female centrist supreme court nominee

The New York Times has quickie profiles of eight potential nominees (how they arrived at these particular eight is not known) to replace O'Connor. To my horror, they are ALL men and almost all white. The fact that they're all conservative is a moot issue. Now we can only hope for some diversity.

We could be royally screwed here. Could we? It may be naive optimism, but I still have a hard time believing that Roe could be overturned. They've upheld it twice already, and the court does not like to take back prior decisions (the whole stare decisis thing). But I just know GW is going to express-lane an activist judge to the bench and so our only hope now is the Democrats' filibustering power, which can be taken away by the republicorn majority if they feel the democrats are being too stubborn.

Vancouver B.C. is looking veeeery good to me right now.