Carnival of Feminists #32

I’m not sure if I’m lucky or unlucky to be hosting this Carnival. On the one hand, it covers a period of time when the feminist blogosphere sustained an attack of tremendous proportions on two of its favorite daughters (does the blogosphere have daughters?). On the other hand, I’ve seen a pretty amazing outpouring of support for those two women. I’m talking, of course, about

The Great Edwards Campaign Kerfuffle of Aught Seven

For those of you living under a rock (or just outside the US), in short, the Edwards Campaign opened up a Pandora’s box by hiring feminist bloggers Amanda from Pandagon & Melissa from Shakespeare’s Sister. That hiring was subsequently criticized by crazy Catholic William D*n*h*e, leading to My people call it accurate.. by Angry Black Bitch. For a hot second, piny from Feministe thought Edwards might have a spine after all, and Jill from the same blog took the opportunity to point out that it was the real extremists who were calling Amanda an extremist. Sara E Anderson at f-words pointed out that lots of people with strong opinions have run for office or worked for candidates. Raging red opined that her vote for Edwards was less secure as a result of his handling of the situation.

But in the end, first Amanda and then Melissa left the campaign. Amanda wrote eloquently of her decision at Salon, and Melissa announced her resignation on her own blog. Many, many bloggers wrote about their reaction to the news, some of which are collected here under I Am Spartacus. But I’m giving the last word on this topic to my blog-friend Elizabeth over at Half-Changed World, who lamented the current level of political discourse in our country.

Hooha about Hoohah

Some spineless clever folks down in Florida decided to rename Eve Ensler’s play, The Vagina Monologues, after someone complained about seeing the word “vagina” on the theater’s marquee. Bitch PhD (caution, some folks thought it was NSFW) wrote about the irony of a play that tries to keep women from feeling shame about their genitalia being censored. I was mildly amused, to see on f-words, this defense of the play by an anonymous nun. And stroppybird pointed out on her stroppyblog that now every kid will know what the play is about.

Policy Pandemonium

Lots of folks had good things to say about women’s health. There’s been a fair amount of controversy on the parenting blogs about the HPV vaccine, and the decision by the state of Texas to make it mandatory for sixth grade girls, so I was interested to see what some non-parent feminists had to say about it. Debbie from Body Impolitic wrote an interesting post about the disturbing potential that Merck is trying to get the vaccine made mandatory to protect themselves from liability. And *e from A Blog Without a Bicycle wonders why the mandatory-ness is aimed at tween-aged girls, and not other at-risk populations?

In other reproductive health news, Rachel from Women’s Health News reported on the move by a Tennessee Republican to propose death certificates for abortions, Terry from I See Invisible People asked readers to write to Wal-M*rt’s CEO Lee Scott to make Plan B available in all their stores, and Rachel from RachelAPP’s Blog wrote about how her monthly cycle reminds her that her body needs care. C-A at Figure: Demystifying the Feminist Mystique wrote a post about Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania’s proposal to efforts to ban lay midwives, Bean from A Bird and a Bottle spoke up in favor of the need of women in drug treatment to have reliable child care, and Thirza Cuthand from Fit of Pique dashed off a post about bipolar disorder and sexuality.

Laura from 11D informs us about the Bush Administration’s decision to seek comments on the FMLA, in the interest of making every working parent’s life harder. But Miriam from Everyday Mom points out the complexities for feminists, as women small business owners lead the charge against a New Jersey bill to provide paid family leave. On a somewhat related note, Shawna from Girlistic wrote An Open Letter to her co-workers, asking them not to focus all her attention on the fact that she was leaving her child to come to the office.

It’s all over but the shouting

And last, but definitely not least, a little category I like to call “miscellaneous.” In a post title near and dear to my heart, sailorman wrote about raising feminist daughters. I’ve done a fair amount of flipping genders while reading stories to the preschooler set, it’s an interesting exercise. Several bloggers had something to say about money—Penny Nickel penned an excellent post about the long-term effects of sexism in salary negotiations, and what to do about it. Joolya posted a letter to a colleague about why ‘marrying up’ might still make sense to some women.

Uma from Indian Writing produced a great post on racialized makeup advertising. Naiades from Mind the Gap also wrote about advertising, with an emphasis on over-sexualized images. Sue from Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents wrote about a lack of women political bloggers in her local community. And I’m giving the final link in this Carnival to Heart from Women’s Space/the Margin, for her great profile of Nawal Al Saadwi.

Thanks everyone, for the wonderful submissions–I’m sorry I wasn’t able to use them all. This was a lot of work, but I truly enjoyed having the chance to focus on such fine feminist writing. And now, back to your regularly scheduled mommyblog…