FCW Society

FCW Society Blog has moved!

2007-04-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

Thank you for reading the FCW Society Blog - we have moved the blog to
www.fcwsociety.wordpress.com

Please check us out there!

For more information about FCW Society

www.myspace.com/fcwsociety
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fcwsociety/

or email Joanne Morton at trickydame@yahoo.com

... and remember WOMEN ARE SO FUCKING COOL!

The Thinking (Wo)man’s Sundance

2007-03-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

Video Shorts Segue Women Into Director’s Seat

New York – From silver screen sirens to indie breakout roles, women have always maintained a strong presence in the world of the moving image – that is, at least, on camera. Despite the various mediums that exist today for film and video imagery, the off-camera role of director remains decidedly male terrain. However, for 92 minutes one audience received a glimpse as to how the industry would look if populated, instead, by a slew of Sophia Coppolas.
This year’s International Video Shorts Screening Festival, which features female directors, displayed 22 video shorts out of 66 pieces sent from the around the world, said Sheryl Mousley, curator of film at the Minneapolis-based Walker Art Center. Mousely screened all the submissions for the Feb. 18 festival, held at Barnard College and sponsored by The Women’s Caucus for Art.

The selected shorts were arranged across four categories, including children -- no surprise there -- to identity, memory and place. Unexpected, however, was that just three shorts were featured under the children category, indicating women directors have a lot more on their minds than motherhood. In fact, some of the most evocative pieces in this year’s festival were found in the identity and place categories.
Martha Gorzycki played with the ubiquitous image of the American flag in “Unfurling.” Amid all the entries, this particular short stood out as type of modern artwork than digital short. The flag in Gorzycki’s near two-and-a-half-minute piece is comprised of commerce signs, bar codes, animated cars, windmills and other images strung together, in patterns – creating an American flag comprised of layers which exude rhythms and has a pulse. At the same time, this piece is also a deconstruction of an extremely powerful object, for various reasons, the world over and should find a home in a MoMa-like institution.

Agoraphobia, the notions of limit, and marriage were among other topics explored during the festival. And while it’s safe to say it was inevitable that the Iraq War II and the Sept. 11 attacks would be explored, Donna Stack delivered these themes in an especially tactful piece called “Ten 00:10:00.”

This ten-minute short, comprised of one-minute clips that play in slow motion, include footage taken from these two violent events, skillfully woven together with eight other clips from man-made and natural events (the 2006 India Ocean Tsunami, for example). Yet, there is no sound to this short. The muting of such a crucial element produced visible reactions in the room. The audience was moved by footage ranging from high-tech bombs being released mid-flight, to the heat sensory camera that captured human “targets” being taken out in a US military raid. But it was the silent footage of the abuse of prisoners at the Iraqi prison, Abu Ghraib, which produced audible gasps by the crowd.

And if it’s no surprise that sex and violence sell in America, then director Chelsea Tonelli Knight skillfully repackaged it into a form that did surprise, utilizing a seemingly innocuous tale of an Italian female traveler.

In the eight minute short, “Standing on the Beach in Rimini,” the unseen female narrates three stories from her travels across the Adriatic Sea. One involves meeting a mother in the former Yugoslavia, who, as she fiddles around her kitchen and fusses with her outdated stove, drops this bomb into the conversation -- that two of her three sons were murdered and the community fingers local Muslims for the crime.
But it’s the female Italian’s retelling of a sexual episode involving three strangers in an unfamiliar city that touched a raw nerve with the audience.

Recalling drinking and some hash smoking with these male strangers, our soft spoken narrator reveals she’s unclear as how and why she had sex with all three men one that evening. Perhaps it’s her very blunt description of the factors that lead to her entanglement which created the connection with the audience. As the traveler relates her confusion, in a flat voice, seemingly devoid of emotion, the audience grew completed muted and still. It appeared that many were recalling their own individual wounds from sexual exploitation and as the tales from Knight’s character eventually rolled from the beach in Rimini out to sea, only the sound of the heat being pumped into the college auditorium was heard for several moments.

To be sure, the festival did not disappoint, delivering the ups and downs an audience needs out of an edgy event. That’s because not every short was as polished as the above mentioned, or, in the case of Sarah Kanouse’s “Chasing Billy Caldwell,” even coherent due to poor sound mixing. But the festival is the thinking (wo)man’s Sundance; for example, despite its technical flaw, Kanouse’s short was pleasing for her premise. The just over seven minute short traced the life of Billy Caldwell, a 19th Century Indian-Canadian settler, by using the street and business signs found in an affluent Chicago neighborhood that tap his name.

This mixing of the up-and-comers, with those who should be well on their way to broader recognition, is what makes this international festival truly cutting edge.

The Women’s Caucus for Art, nationally based organization, sized up video shorts as an opportunity for women to chip away at the gender imbalance when it comes to directing. The 4th running of the International Video Shorts Screening was the premiere event for the organization’s 35th Anniversary Celebration in New York City.

Colleen O’Connor Grant - writer/ FCW SOCIETY MEMBER

we heard a rumor!

2007-03-30T07:04:00.001-07:00

Hillary Clinton was asked if is she a feminist and she basically said "HELL YES I'm a feminist!"

Why I wanted to form the FCW Society...

2007-03-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

Women are so Fucking Cool!

Not sure when I realized that I had been meeting some of the most fucking cool women in the world. As far back as I can remember, I have known fucking cool women. Childhood friends, H.S. girlfriends, women you met on the job, girls from the local bars, an aunt, mother, sister, lover, girlfriend, the chick that lived with you for a month - the list could go on and on. All women, everywhere – all kinds. It’s because of this list that I needed to create the “Women are so fucking cool!” project.

It started out with the video. I attempted to try and answer the question, “why are women so fucking cool?”. I was going to interview 20 women and to find this answer. Somewhere after the 2nd woman, I realized that this was one question that was never going to find an answer. So, instead of trying to find the answer, I changed my focus to letting the audience hear other women talking about a fucking cool woman in their lives and reminding them of the fucking cool women they know.

The video was made from 1992-93 while I was living in Chicago. I was going through my twenty-something, feminist, women-centered period. It was an exciting time for me to discover the spirit of sisterhood though the process of this project. For each interview, I used different women as the camera and sound person. I let the women who were shooting, to shoot however they felt like. I wanted to get different women’s perspectives. I asked the same questions to all of the women, but always-new discussions arose from each shoot. We would spend about 2 hours just talking about the cool women in our lives and why they are so special. How fucking empowering can that be? The dancers were friends of a friend. The movements came from their interpretation of the statement; “Women are so Fucking Cool.” The women on the street were videotaped one Sunday afternoon. I stationed myself outside a café on Broadway. I stopped women who were together, and asked them, “do you think women are cool?” If they said yes, then I videotaped them. My sister, Jennifer, took the photos. The video was screened in 1994 at the Women in the Director’s Chair International Film & Video Festival, in Chicago and on DYKE TV, national cable access program.

A few years ago, I was meeting some pretty fucking cool women in NYC and wanted to do part two of the project. Email had just begun to really start taking off. I emailed all the women that I knew, asking them to compile a list of fucking cool women and send it back to me. I also had them forward the request to other women. For 2 months, I received emails from so many fucking cool women. I was getting lists as long as 10 to 25 names. It was a powerful moment on the Internet. I enlarged the lists and they were part of a Bra Bar show at PS 122 and I wheat-pasted the sheets of names around the East Village. I feel it is important to spread the word about fucking cool women.

Now 13 years after the original video was made, I'm very proud to be a part of the FCW Society. Our 2nd Anniversary Special Brunch/Party was a lot of fun. Over 70 men and women gathered in a basement club (MIDWAY) in the East Village, we were entertained by talented women, we heard about how we can make a difference in our society and we had a few drinks.

I am very proud that a simple idea I had when I was 27 has grown into a powerful energy in the world because of all of the fucking cool women who exist!

sisterhood is a powerful thing!

Joanne Morton
co-founder of the FCW Society

Online Tix available for March 4 Event

2007-02-06T18:01:00.000-08:00

Sunday, March 4, 2007-

Advance tickets are available online
http://fcwsocietyanniversary.eventbrite.com/

The FCW Society 2nd Anniversary Special
The public is invited to join in the celebration!

Place: Midway, located at 25 Avenue B in the East Village
Cost: $20 includes food/special treats/raffle

Proceeds will got to the Pro Choice Public Education Project (pep).
PEP is an organization dedicated to engaging young women on their terms around the critical issue of reproductive freedom.
www.protectchoice.org

Guests who bring a copy of their Con-Ed bill will be able to convert their electric bills to Wind Power. A representative from New Wind Energy will be present to give information and make the switch.
For more information: Jeff.Cheek@NewWindEnergy.com
www.conedsolutions.com/ces/nyc

Hosted by FCW Society co-founders Joanne Morton and Courtney McLean
Performances by Jun Bustamante, Amy Clarke, Erin Cronican, Christine "Skylark" Larkin, Flash Rosenberg, Nichelle Stevens, Marjia Vukovic and other special guests... plus a screening of the FCW Society short film!

Pro Choice Education Fund

2007-01-27T17:29:00.000-08:00

FCW Society member Mary Mahoney works at the Pro Choice Education Project which is the organization we are donating proceeds of the our 2nd year Anniversary Special.

The Pro-Choice Public Education Project (pep) is an organization dedicated to engaging young women on their terms around the critical issue of reproductive freedom. www.protectchoice.org

Here is an article that Mary wrote for Center forAmerican Progess.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/01/roevwade.html

2007-01-27T17:05:00.000-08:00

Is the USA ready for a women president?

2007-01-27T07:50:00.000-08:00

This past month, Senator Hillary Clinton has begun to start her campaign to be the next president of the USA. She isn't the first to show interest ... could she be the first woman president? Would be fucking cool...

Here is a list of some other women who were interested in the position:

1872 and 1892 Victoria Chaflin Woodhull, for The Equal Rights Party in a number of States. She lived (1838-1927).

1884 and 1888 Belva Ann Bennet McNall Lockwood, for National Equal Rights Party. In 1878 she was the first female attorney to practice before the supreme court. Her running mate in 1884 was Marietta Lizzie Bell Stow. She lived (1830-1917).

1964 Senator Margaret Chase Smith, member of the House of Representatives 1940-49 and Senator 1949-73. In 1964 she was Presidential candidate in the primary elections. She was defeated by Barry Goldwater in the party convention. Chairperson of the Republican Conference in the Congress 1967-72. She lived (1897-1995).

1968 Charlene Mitchell , Candidate of the Communist Party with Michael Zagarell as her running mate.

1972 Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, she was the first female black member of the member of the House of Representatives 1968-82 and was candidate for the Democratic nomination of Presidential candidate at the Democratic Party Convention. She lived (1924-2005)

1972 Patsy Takamoto Mink, she was member of the Territory House of Representatives of Hawaii 1956-58, the territory Senate 1959 and the State Senate 1962-64. Member of the US House of Representatives 1965-77 and from 1990. 1983-85 Chairperson of the Honolulu City Council. She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination as Presidential candidate, but withdrew her candidature before the convention. She lived (1927-2002).

1972 Bella Savitzky Abzug, stood as a candidate for the Democratic nomination as Presidential candidate but withdrew from the race before the party convent. She lived (1920-98).

1976 Margaret Wright, candidate for The People’s Party.

1984 Sonia Johnson, Candidate for Citizen’s Party. Her running-mate was Emma Wong Mar

1984, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 Dr. Isabelle Masters

1988 and 1992 Leonora B. Fulani, Candidate for the American New Alliance Party. The first black woman to appear on the ballot papers in all 50 states. In 1992 her running-mate for the post of vice-President was Elizabeth Munoz.

1988 Willa Kenoyer, candidate for the Socialist Party.

Some of this information was taken from this site:
http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/index.html

WORLDWIDE GUIDE TO WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

This site (which is a fucking cool women site!!) is dedicated to the women who have ruled since the beginning of times - or as long as the sources date back.

There have always been female rulers. Some Egyptian Queens are believed to have governed from around 3000 BCE, and the first to be named by the sources without any doubt is Ku-baba, who ruled the Mesopotamian City-State of Ur round 2500 BCE.

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE WOMAN!
- trickydame

Because...

2007-01-12T17:05:00.000-08:00

Because woman's work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we're the first to get fire and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our fault and if we ge beaten we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women it's because we can't get a "real man" and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect childcare we're selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and 'unfeminine" and if we don't we're typical weak females and if weant to get married we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion ..for lots and lots of other reasons we are part of the women's liberation movement.

- found this online ... trickydame

On this day in 1897....

2006-12-09T10:13:00.000-08:00

Stage actress, journalist and leading suffragette Marguerite Durand (true fucking cool woman!) founded the feminist newspaper La Fronde.

La Fronde (The Sling) was a feminist newspaper first published in Paris, France on December 9, 1897 by activist Marguerite Durand (1864-1936). Durand, a well known actress and journalist, used her high-profile image to attract many notable Parisian women to contribute articles to her daily newspaper, which was run and written entirely by women. To send a message of equality the paper indicated the current date according to a variety of calendars such as the French Revolutionary calendar, the Jewish calendar, and the Gregorian.

The newspaper gave extensive coverage to a broad range of feminist issues and profiled such things as Jeanne Chauvin's demand that the French government grant her the right to practise law and for Madeleine Pelletier who argued for the right to become a psychiatrist.

Circulation for La Fronde briefly reached a peak of 50,000 but in September of 1903, financial problems forced the paper to cut back to a monthly publication, and to close altogether in March of 1905.

Mothers R fucking cool!

2006-11-19T08:38:00.000-08:00

Did you know:
• Only four countries in the world—Lesotho, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea and the United States fail to provide paid maternity leave to all workers?

• Mothers in the United States are only half as likely as non-mothers to be hired for the same job and the average college graduate who becomes a mother will sacrifice a million dollars over her lifetime?

• Businesses that create flexible work environments find that productivity goes up, they attract more talent, turnover is reduced and their bottom line is improved?

These and other startling facts are presented in a powerful and engaging new one-hour documentary, THE MOTHERHOOD MANIFESTO--a film by Laura Pacheco and John de Graaf, which is narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Mary Steenburgen. The film will be released in the fall of 2006.

VISIT: MomsRising and be one of the first to see it.
http://www.momsrising.org/film

The film brings to the screen many of the characters, experts and stories from the new book by the same name, written by Joan Blades, co-founder of MoveOn.org and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. Blades and Rowe-Finkbeiner are also the founders of MomsRising.org.

Moving personal stories combined with humorous animation, expert commentary and hilarious old film clips tell the tale of what happens to working mothers and families in America and how enlightened employers and public policy can make paid family leave, flexible working hours, part-time parity, universal healthcare, excellent childcare, after-school programs and realistic living wages a reality for American families.

Fast-paced and engaging yet carefully balanced and researched for journalistic credibility, THE MOTHERHOOD MANIFESTO turns the camera on America’s hidden crisis of caring.

THE MOTHERHOOD MANIFESTO travels from Washington State to Washington DC, from Oakland to Denver to Indianapolis and Chicago, from small-town Vermont and Pennsylvania to big city New York, to introduce viewers to people like:

• Kiki Peppard, a Pennsylvania mother who has been battling discrimination against moms for the past decade.

• Selena Allen, who had to return to work four days after she gave birth prematurely.

• Sharon Dorsett, whose son’s illness bankrupted her family even though the Dorsett’s had health insurance.

• Jim Johnson, a conservative Republican businessman who found that flexible hours and family-friendly policies can increase a company’s profits and success.

• Joya Chavarin, who knows what California’s new paid family leave law means to mothers.

• Republican pollster Frank Luntz who says that “lack of free time” is the most important issue for women with children.

• Dr. Deborah Richter, who has seen patients die because they didn’t have health insurance.

• Democratic Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, a former welfare mother who works tirelessly to help working mothers.

• Angenita Tanner, a childcare provider who takes in children from families too poor to afford childcare.

• And Bev Betters, a hilarious animated character whose advice to working moms always seems to backfire.

Narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Mary Steenburgen, THE MOTHERHOOD MANIFESTO shows dramatically just how far behind all other industrial countries the United States lags in its support for families. Prominent experts including Karen Kornbluh, Joan Williams, Janet Gornick, Jody Heymann and NOW’s Kim Gandy make the case that America can do much better.

Like the book, THE MOTHERHOOD MANIFESTO is a stirring call to action for all Americans, a film that not only shows what’s wrong but we can and are doing to improve the lives of American mothers.

THE MOTHERHOOD MANIFESTO was produced by longtime PBS veteran John de Graaf (“AFFLUENZA”) and NOVA producer/director Laura Pacheco and photographed by five-time Emmy winner Diana Wilmar. Executive Producer: Joan Blades.

86 years

2006-11-11T08:29:00.000-08:00

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution passed and in thePresidential election of November, 1920, was therefore the first occasion on which women in all of America were allowed to exercise their right of suffrage.

A lot has changed since those days of our early sisters fighting for our rights to be heard.

The end of the 2006 midterm elections resulted in a record increase in the number of women voted into the U.S. Congress. In the Senate, a record total of 16 women, 11 Democrats and five Republicans, will serve. Victories by 50 Democratic women in the House helped Democrats gain control and placed Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California in line to become the first female Speaker of the House. What happens if GW & DC accidently shoot each other while hunting for the "thanksgiving turkey" this year?!

In gubernatorial races, five of the eight women who ran won their races, and a total of nine women will serve as governors in 2007, a level reached only once before.

Of course there is still A LOT of work to be done -
Voters in South Dakota rejected a ballot measure by a vote of 56 percent to 44 percent that would have banned abortions at all stages of pregnancy, including cases of rape and incest, and offered no exception for a woman's health.

In Oregon and California, voters defeated measures that would have required doctors to notify a parent before performing an abortion on a minor. Voters defeated California's Proposition 85 by 54 percent to 46 percent, and Oregon's Measure 43 was rejected with a 55 percent vote. Thirty-five states already have laws requiring parental involvement in an underage woman's abortion decision.

Arizona became the first state to reject a ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage with voters refusing to outlaw gay marriage by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, reported Stateline.org. However, seven more states on Election Day joined the 20 states that already had decided to pass constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.

This last election shows how important it is to vote. One way that the FCW Society has been working so well since we started meeting for brunch in March 2004 is all of the members do a little bit. This way not one of us is left with the burden to make things happen - this is just like when you vote. If we all vote - change can happen. One vote at a time.

Let's make Feminist change happen! We can do it.
Sisterhood is a Powerful THANG!

-trickydame
www.trickydame.biz

FCW October Brunch - Hooray!

2006-10-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

Ladies - What a great gathering in the garden this past Sunday for brunch (and great pictures from Julie!)

A check was just sent in to NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault (in FCW Society name) for $50! Congratulations for chipping in and contributing to a safer and healthier environment for women!

If you want to check out the site - please go to:

www.nycagainstrape.org

xoxo -

Amy
www.amyclarke.com

Feminist Web Sites & Inspiring Quotes!

2006-09-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

Found this great trove of information organized by a bookstore in Toronto: Feminist Websites

Check all of these awesome links ladies, and CELEBRATE OUR GLORIOUS SISTERHOOD!

Now here are some lyrics to carry you through your day...

"The last thing we can do is just stand by
No, we must not comply
We must do what no one dares...

Don't say there is nothing you can do
When giving up is what they want from you

Rise, rise, rise! she said
No, this isn't the end
No, I don't believe that it's over yet"

lyrics excerpt from "Fight or Flight"
(c) Amy Clarke, MAAT Music
ScorpFaery Productions

xo - Amy

www.amyclarke.com

collateral repair project

2006-07-14T07:36:00.000-07:00

When I was visiting Seattle in May, I met Sasha Crow, a FCW who is working to help a women in Iraq who has lost her husband and has 5 children too raise. I was very inspired by her because this is why the FCW Society exists. We are a International Society committed to helping women every where. The FCW Society gives Sasha and the people who have donated to the Collateral Repair a big KUDOS!

Here is some infomation:

Dear All,

It is with a full heart and extreme gratitude that I write tonight to tell you that through your generous contributions in reply to my "urgent plea" last night, already $760 of the goal of $1000 has come in! Amazing! This means that the land for Nourija and family is paid for, along with almost all of her travel expenses! Now all we are hoping for is another $240 to complete Nourija's travel cost and to help pay the Western Union money transfer fee. With such rapid response already, I feel confident this goal will be met.

THANK YOU! You are amazing!

We would like for Nourija to know that there are "real people" who've contributed to make this happen. So, we are suggesting that anyone who wants to send a very short note to Nourija do so. Please keep your note to one or two sentences as I will paste them all to one email to send to Eman to give to Nourija. Since Nourija does not speak or read English, Eman will need to translate. We do not want to burden her with too much as she is extremely busy. Also, be sure to sign your name/s to your note.

Please send them to the Collateral Repair e-mail address:

info.crp@gmail.com

Again, our deepest gratitude for your generousity and caring. I know, for myself, because I am so often engaged at looking at the pain humanity inflicts on itself, sometimes I forget how truly loving and caring people are. Your contributions are not only a gift to this family, but are a gift to me in reminding me of the goodness of humanity. Thank you.

I will send another update when the funds are sent to Iraq. Soon after that we anticipate having more photos (of Nouija in Baghdad) on the web site and I'll send you notice then.

Best -

Sasha

www.collateralrepairproject.org

This just came from Eman - thought we all need to read it and to understand more fully what life is really like in Iraq right now - we need to respond to this as if it was happening in our own neighborhoods. Iraqis die and suffer while we here, with the best of intentions and what seems to be our utmost energy, have yet to come up with strategies that adequately address this situation's gravity. Let's find some creative and - most of all more effective and rapid ways to respond to the crisis that is Iraq under our occupation.

In peace through justice,
Sasha

From Eman:

well Sasha, I think we can tolerate no electricity, no water, nothing easy or available, but what we can not tolerate heads rolling in the streets. yesterday in a funeral, the man put the head of his son in the coffen. That is all. the situation is more than bad, it is undescirbable. Today there were violent clashes and explosions, where tens were killed in at least 5 provences in the north and the south, not to mention Baghdad. I do not know what to say, it is beyond words.

ANI DI FRANCO on feminism, patriarchy

2006-07-14T07:13:00.000-07:00

Saw her in Central Park last night. She was amazing. I highly encourage everyone to go out and purchase Reprieve, her newest, when it comes out.

Check her comments on patriarchy:
The title of veteran singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco`s new album, 'Reprieve,' is both apt and ironic. The 35-year-old was forced off the road last year while recovering from extreme tendonitis in her wrists and hands. But, just as she has throughout her career, she remains restless as a political activist and musician.

To be released on Aug. 8 on DiFranco`s own Righteous Babe label, 'Reprieve' is a "hard look at patriarchy," according to the artist.

"It is kind of weird, in this day and age, to be talking about that particular subject. You`d think instead it`d be about the war or the government infrastructure or the kind of greed from that government that we`re subject to," DiFranco tells Billboard.com. "But I sort of see all these things stemming from this one thing. I think that patriarchy is the root of imbalance, the disease from which all these symptoms manifest."

"I`m not looking for the other extreme, but just for the consciousness of incorporating women into the permanent structure, as an essential ingredient for peace," she continues. "And that doesn`t mean just plugging them into a few seats in Congress, where they may just become part of the system. I`m talking about a permanent change, a part of the language." She laughs. "Is that heavy enough for you?"

She talked a lot about the power of words, and definitions, and how if you looked up feminism in a 1900 dictionary you waould have been like “femi-WHAT?” and we all laughed. “But just look at it now,” she said. Then she laughed about when being asked to “speak for the feminists” in interviews, “like there are a handful of us.” she said. “Like we’re a little club.” All the thousands of people there screamed. Then she talked about the definition of patriarachy she found in Webster’s - “a society controlled by men in which they exploit and use power to their own advantage”. “Hmm...” she said. Implying that even THAT was getting a little outdated, she said, “I simply define patriarchy as a society controlled by men...”

They’re on their way out, ladies! War and abuse are exploding around them in their faces. We will emerge strong, just, wise, and caring!!!

FCW ROCK! I gave out bunched of FCW flyers to cool women at the show....and got to give MY CD to Toshi Reagon, ANOTHER FCW who is a rocker from Brooklyn on Righteous Babe who opened for Ani, and then bought her CD and had her sign it. She was smoking a big huge cigar. It was hot.

LOVE THE LADIES WHO ROCK!

Amy Clarke
Singer/Songwriter, Keyboardist, Producer
ScorpFaery Productions
)O( everything she touches changes )O(

MS Magazine ROCKS

2006-07-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

I leisurely spent this Sunday morning lying in bed, reading the Summer 2006 Issue of MS Magazine, cover to cover. I wish this could come out every week like the Sunday NY Times, maybe someday...

I wanted to share some of the HIGHLIGHTS!

Quotes, "One of my fantasies is to have lunch with her." Halle Berrry on Gloria Steinem in Glamour.
Well, Halle, FCWS has met Gloria and she rocks, I'm sure your lunch with her will be amazing.

DIXIE CHICKS' new album hit #1 and they have a strong anti-war song on it!

Christian Coalition is sinking in loss of revenue and lawsuits - there is trouble in the river city, thank GOD!

Next time some guy harrasses you on the street, use your photo phone and snap his pic and post it at www.hollabacknyc.com

Helen Reddy just wrote a book and accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a clilnical hypnotherapis and "This is the happiest time in my life: I'm single and intend to stay single because I have become the person I once intended to marry"
"I AM WOMAN" needs to be re-released!

Women lead Anti-War Sentiment, and 5 of the 12 women (105 total) who have been given the Nobel Peace Prize are forming Nobel's Women Initiative.

HEADLINE ARTICLE : Oil is a Feminist Issue.

Norway leads the world with have 40% of women in gov't and corporate leadership roles - the USA is ranked 51!

Women in Bysantium, a book published by Studion, 31-46 21st ST. #134, LIC, NY 11106

The Bysantine Society was clearly defined, talents rather than birthright, allowed those of even the humblest birth to ascend to hte highest positioin in the empire, that of empress. In very few societies, have women enjoyed a better position, or played a more important part, or had a greatere influence upon politics, government, and morals, than in Byzantium. Women engage in the study of medicine, there were women doctors and surgeons.

LOOKS LIKE A FCW SOCIETY!!

MS MAGAZINE is offering a special year membership in honor of the 40th anniversay of NOW, only $25. I highly recommend subscribing, spend your sunday in bed witih MS.
www.msmagazine.com

-trickydame

This Sunday at Cattyshack!

2006-06-09T11:40:00.000-07:00

2 FCW on one bill! Both Courtney & I will be performing this Sun night in an awesome benefit for Reproductive Rights in South Dakota - this time we raise funds for Cecilia Fire Thunder & The Sioux Ogala Triba of South Dakota. The show starts at 7:30PM at Cattyshack (the lesbian club in Park Slope) - check it out here:

Cheap Drinks, 2 floors, outdoor smoking deck, pool table, go-go pole & hot barstaff!
www.cattyshackbklyn.com

Here is a link about the event on indymedia:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/05/70785.html

Sunday June 11 7:30-10:30pm
Cattyshack
249 4th Avenue
(between President & Carroll)
(R to Union St or F to 4th Ave/9th St.)
Brooklyn - Park Slope, nyc

MC'd by Missile Dick Chicks Sparkle & Candy Can
DJ Winter, Co-founder of Sister NYC
Special Guest:
Jennifer Baumgardner
Annie Tummino, lead plantiff in EC case against FDA
Music by Amy Clarke
Spoken Word by Courtney McLean
Video Clip of the film "Speak Out: I Had An Abortion"
Raffles @ 9pm & 9:45pm, and More!
$10
RSVP appreciated: feminist9@yahoo.com

Not to be missed! We will be raffling off two vibrators, among other
prizes!

All proceeds go to Cecelia Fire Thunder, President of the Oglala
Sioux Tribe, and Planned Parenthood of South Dakota.
Fire Thunder announced that she would start an abortion clinic on
tribal lands, if the draconian ban that was passed in SD is not
repealed by the referendum.

Co-sponsored by:
the list-serve Women's Mobilization, a feminist network empowering
women in the struggle against patriarchy since February 2001
and The Women's Liberation Birth Control Project, which fights for
justice for women, including our rights to birth control and
abortion.

www.amyclarke.com
www.courtneymclean.com

By feminist9 http://www.kintera.org/autogen/home/default.asp?
ievent=177736

rsvp to feminist9@yahoo.com

June Brunch Rocked!

2006-06-06T06:23:00.000-07:00

We had another successful brunch this month! This time, we asked our FCWs to invite the FCMs in our lives - F-ing Cool MEN! Hey, the FCW Society is about promoting love amongst women, but we want to give the men in our lives props too (at least every once in a while). There were quite a few cool people there, standing around, chatting, drinking beer in the park (gasp!), and juggling. Juggling? Yes, there was juggling. One of my FCMs, Rod, is a part of the group The Flying Karamazov Brothers. He and another fabulous juggler FCM, Tom, were entertaining us all with their circus antics.
We also had a few new FCWs join us too! Hannah and her sister, Leah, and Marjorie's friend Laura... welcome aboard. And it was great to see some FCWs return that we've missed for a while too.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. We stayed in the park from 12 noon till about 7pm! Wow! You can check out the pictures here.

ALSO - We raised $45 for the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault. Great job, everyone.

xoxo Court.

FCWS Walked the Revlon Walk for Women...

2006-05-23T17:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 6, 2006 was a good day to be a fucking cool woman. 9 of us represented the FCW Society at the Revlon Walk for Women! We woke up EARLY and met at 7:30am, walked 3.1 miles with thousands of others who are raising money to find a cure for cancer.

FCW Society raised $1808

After we left Central Park, a few of us went and had brunch. We probably should have arranged to meet others right after the walk instead of Joyce's lovely offer to host at 5pm. I crashed at 3 and woke up in a very dazed state. The rest of the evening was a little hazy - thank goodness I had a Ewan Mcgregor movie to entertain me. Joyce called around 6 - did anyone make it?

THANK YOU AGAIN JOYCE for opening your home for a gathering ... we are fucking cool women just sometimes, we under estitmate our energy - our time ... and over book ourselves. This is what we do so much in our lives ... its so important to take care of ourselves and when you are tired, even though you want to do something, the main priority in a fucking cool woman's life is HER.

This is what makes our society - so many FCW committed to their own lives and dedicated to promoting & exploring feminist issues and interests while spreading the FACT that women are so fucking cool!

Looking forward to next year's walk...
Joanne, fcws member

THURS NIGHT - Cafe Grumpy in Greenpoint - PPSD Fundraiser!

2006-05-08T05:54:00.000-07:00

I know there is another post about the Planned Parenthood South Dakota fundraiser on the blog, but I had to post again myself to highlight to everyone that I am performing at this badass fundraiser - yes, I am one of the musical entertainers. So - know you DEFINITELY know someone there - and you get to hear my new song from my new EP - written just for this cause - "Not Your Landscape"!. Come on out! I went and checked out this space yesterday - a beautiful huge, modern art gallery type coffee house - you will have a VERY FUN evening. I am making this my official full moon celebration this month - so come on out and support!!! This will be a memorable, powerful, inspiring evening - come be a part.

Amy Clarke
Singer/Songwriter, Keyboardist, Producer
www.amyclarke.com

You're invited!

What: A Pro-choice Party to Raise Funds for the Legal Battle in South Dakota.
When: May 11, 2006, 8pm

Where: "Cafe Grumpy" 193 Meserole Ave. Greenpoint Brooklyn
Easy Access from Manhattan: L train to Lorimer St,
G train 1 stop to Nassau Ave or 2 stops to Greenpoint Ave
http://www.cafegrumpy.com/
There will be a $10 cover charge which includes one drink.

To RSVP: my_choice_usa@yahoo.com

Proceeds will be donated to Planned Parenthood of South Dakota

Fighting the South Dakota Abortion Ban the best way we know how - WITH BEER! Come on out!

2006-05-08T05:20:00.000-07:00

Local girls use beer to fight abortion ban:
`Are we really still fighting for this?' they ask

May 4, 2006 – Brooklyn, NY. Five girls from Queens are doing their
best to help the women of South Dakota, who are 1,600 miles and less
than two months away from the most draconian abortion ban since
1973. Their method? Beer, music, and, well, beer.

On Thursday, May 11, at 8pm, the girls will be hosting "Can you
believe we're still fighting for this?" – a fundraiser for the
Planned Parenthood of South Dakota's legal fund.

"We're going into this with a million dollar donation against us
from the start," said Kiera Downes-Vogel, one of the event's
organizers. "It's not going to be easy, but what else are we going
to do? There's no way I want to live in a country where my daughters
might have to drive into Canada just to get birth control."

Frustrated by the news of the impending abortion ban in South
Dakota, the girls knew they wanted to do something but weren't sure
where to start. After throwing around a few ideas, they decided to
ask friends for help. And the result was like an avalanche.

"People just started coming out of the woodwork," said Downes-
Vogel, "I just mentioned to a friend that we were looking for a
venue, and all of the sudden we had café on board and free beer from
Brooklyn Breweries."

The event, which is being held at Café Grumpy in Greenpoint, will
feature DJs, singers, a belly dancer, and donated beer from Brooklyn
Breweries. The girls will be charging $10 at the door, all of which
will go to Planned Parenthood.

The girls, none of whom have ever held a fundraiser, have been
astounded by the outpouring of support they've found from the
community. Hoping to raise not just funds but the energy of the pro-
choice movement, they have been chronicling their progress on a blog
(mychoiceusa.blogspot.com) where they also encourage supporters to
take action by sending wire hangers to the Governor of South Dakota
and volunteering with Planned Parenthood. Still, the girls know
there is a lot of work ahead of them.

"It's easy to feel helpless when you're half-way across the
country," said Dana Gallagher, one of the event's organizers, "this
is our way of saying `you're not alone – we're all in this fight
together'."

For more information – http://mychoiceusa.blogspot.com

"Can You Believe We're Still Fighting for This?"
When: Thursday, May 11, 8pm
Where: Café Grumpy, 193 Messerole Ave in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (G to
Nassau or Greenpoint Ave)
Who: Kylene Gues from Planned Parenthood South Dakota, DJ Frankie
Teardrop, Singer Amy Clarke, Tribal Bellydancer Orkideh, and you!
How Much: $10 includes one drink
RSVP: to my_choice_usa@yahoo.com
Info: http://mychoiceusa.blogspot.com

Inconvenient Truth--

2006-05-07T13:45:00.000-07:00

A New Doc about Global Warming from Al Gore, Sat. May 27th, Sunshine Theater, NYC

We all know that Mother Earth is getting a pretty RAW deal these days. This film promises to let us know how bad it really is, and some things we can do about it. It opens May 24th and they are trying to get one million people to see it that weekend. I plan to go see it on Saturday May 27 at: Landmark Sunshine Cinema
143 E Houston St. I am not sure of times yet, but I will post when I find out. Please let me know if you'd like to go and we can go as a group of FCW!

--Laura Allen

Set Your Tivos for Billie Jean King

2006-04-26T04:35:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine has worked on an HBO documentary about the legendary feminist and tennis great Billie Jean King. She's led a full life and it looks like a great show.

Here are the details:
HBO
Billie Jean King: PORTRAIT OF A PIONEER Tuesday, April 26th, 2006 10PM (9CST)

http://www.hbo.com/events/billiejeanking/index.html

On and Off the Court, an Activist for Equality
This exclusive "Sports of the 20th Century" presentation explores the personal and professional life of the landmark athlete and activist, whose remarkable career on the tennis court was equaled only by her impact on the struggle for women's equality during the 1970s. The documentary will tell the story of an athlete who revolutionized sports for women, in the process encouraging women to pursue endeavors outside the traditional realm of the home

Enjoy!
Katherine Knorr

Revlon Walk for Women

2006-04-03T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hey FCW!!!

Joanne, Erin, and I have all joined the FCWS team to walk in the Revlon Run/Walk for Women on May 6 in NYC! Click here to join us. It's going to be a f***ing cool time with some f***ing cool women for sure!!

May Brunch to follow!

And thanks to all the ladies that came out to the brunch yesterday - what a great time! Thanks to Christine for hosting.

Respect. Empower. Celebrate.

- Court.

Aprils Brunch Post Script

2006-04-02T17:01:00.000-07:00

hello, i hosted the brunch. it was fucking cool.

Seven Women, Seven Weeks Goals Achieved!

2006-03-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

You're Invited!! To a cool self-marketing event THIS Tuesday April 4th. 7-9pm, SLC Conference Center, 352 7th Ave. at 30th St. (near Mustang Sally's)

FCW and SEVEN WOMEN graduate Marjorie Kouns will be on hand to talk about the INCREDIBLE online auction she is co-producing to benefit several local non-profits. She'll also share how she is leveraging this non-profit event in order to land an excellent full-time Special Events Planning job.

You'll also meet a FCW Society Members Sara Steigerwald, motion graphics artist and Heidi Schmidt - t-shirt designer and other women who are working hard to make their goals real!!

Laura Allen, Co-founder of 15SecondPitch invites you to meet some very cool women (and men!) and feel free to market yourself and share your 15SecondPitch with everyone you meet! You'll also meet the recent graduate of the coure Seven Women, Seven Weeks to Self-Marketing Success and learn how they are marketing themselves more effectively. Please RSVP your full contact info and your line of work to: laura@15SecondPitch.com.

--Laura Allen

[thawannouncement] Kathleen Chalfant, Denis O’Hare &Kia Corthron Headline THAW’s 3rd Anniversary at PS 122 on 3/19

2006-03-18T13:41:00.000-08:00

Fucking cool women! I am in a fucking cool pro-peace and human rights event tomorrow - FREE - at 7PM in the East Village at P.S.122. Bring a friend - I will be performing a song I wrote for this occasion. Also - check out their website...which I'm adding to our LINKS page over to your left.

[thawannouncement] Kathleen Chalfant, Denis O’Hare & Kia Corthron Headline THAW’s 3rd Anniversary at PS 122 on 3/19

www.thawaction.org

also, for related political art news, read about RACHEL - an amazing account of the "My Name is Rachel Corrie" tale

www.rachelswords.org

THEN COME THIS SUNDAY!!!

March 19, 2006: Reflection, Outrage and Art

For the third anniversary of the Iraq War, Theaters Against War returns to the site of its first Town Hall, PS 122, and invites our long list of member theaters to offer up a piece of work from the last three years that speaks to the sense of outrage at a war that never should have been and the US’ continuing assault on civil liberties in the US and around the globe.

THAW Member Theaters and individual theater artists gather to share short excerpts of pro-peace performance from the last three years. Confirmed participants include: Kathleen Chalfant and Liz Magnes, Tony Award-winner Denis O’Hare, playwrights Kia Corthron, Karen Malpede, David Meth with Farah Bala, Howard Pflanzer, and the work of Caridad Svich, Anthony Arnove (co-editor with Howard Zinn of The Voices of the People’s History of the United States), singer/songwriters Alec Duffy, Jamie Smith, Amy Clarke, composer Milos Raickovich with Dalia Bisiouny, performers DADAny with Lissa Moira, Emmy Bean, Michael Schwartz, Jay Smith, David Cote, Okwui Okpokwasili, the Missile Dick Chicks and Paul Pierog and youth theater from the Creative Arts Team (CAT). Rounding out the program are an extended portion of Fountain Theater and Eliot Weinberger’s What I Heard About Iraq* and an excerpt from the Pumpkin Pie Show’s new production, junta high**, now playing at Performance Space 122.

With the threat of Iraq descending into a full-scale civil war and the growing and clandestine reach of the Executive branch into citizens’ lives, THAW’s core issues of resisting this Administration’s policies at home and abroad are more urgent than ever.

Date: Sunday, March 19, 2006
Time: 7 pm
Where: PS 122 at 150 First Avenue, between 9th and 10th Streets
Subways: L to 1st Avenue/ F to 2nd Avenue/ 6 to Astor Place
This event is free and open to the public.
Space made possible by Performance Space 122 and Playwright Clay McLeod Chapman

*WHAT I HEARD ABOUT IRAQ (A Cry for 5 Voices), adapted for the stage by Simon Levy, from the article, "What I Heard About Iraq" by Eliot Weinberger; originally produced at The Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles (www.fountaintheatre.com), September 11, 2005.

**junta high by The Pumpkin Pie Show at Performance Space 122
March 16 – 26; Opens Thursday, March 16
Wed-Sat at 8:30 p.m.; Sat and Sun at 4:30 p.m.
In junta high, Clay McLeod Chapman crafts a Sweet Valley-styled high school for terrorists where cheerleaders double as suicide bombers and guidance counselors are taken hostage by the A/V club. Holy causes worth dying for galvanize school spirits, blood is shed on the football field every Friday night, and the Hungry March Band fervently plays on.
Tickets $20, $15 students/seniors, $10 P.S. 122 Members
FEE FREE: Available on-line at www.ps122.org, by phone 212-352-3101 or at box office.
150 First Avenue at Ninth Street

THAW is an international network of theater artists responding to the United States' ongoing "War on Terror," aggressive and unilateral foreign policies, and escalating attacks on civil liberties in the US and throughout the world. www.THAWaction.org

Come support!

Amy Clarke
Singer, Songwriter, Keyboardist
www.amyclarke.com

Patti LuPone

2006-03-17T09:12:00.001-08:00

AND, I just saw "Sweeney Todd" on Broadway last night, starring the Broadway powerhouse, Ms. Patti LuPone! She was the best part of the production for sure: her voice is incredible and original and she looks super hot in her knee-high fishnets and wedge shoes! Not to mention she is an incredible actress who's stage presence is unmatched, but she still maintains beautiful chemistry with her cast members. I was just on her website for the first time and she has a really entertaining and charming blog in which she personally makes entries! Click on "Ramblings From The Road" at the bottom. It's a great little slice into the life of a Broadway legend!

Wilma Mankiller

2006-03-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

I am currently reading the autobiography of Wilma Mankiller, former principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Her philosophies on life, which are the philosophies shared of course by her tribe and by other Native American tribes, are amazing and inspiring. The absolute atrocities that the aboriginal peoples of this land have endured for the past few centuries would do any of us in for good, but Wilma Mankiller still encourages the Cherokees to "dance" and retain their ancient way of living. I'm only about 50 pages into the book, but she is an incredibly inspiring woman who's strength knows no bounds:

Wilma Mankiller, former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, lives on the land which was allotted to her paternal grandfather, John Mankiller, just after Oklahoma became a state in 1907. Surrounded by the Cherokee Hills and the Cookson Hills, she lives in a historically rich area where a person's worth is not determined by the size of their bank account or portfolio. Her family name "Mankiller" as far as they can determine, is an old military title that was given to the person in charge of protecting the village. As the leader of the Cherokee people she represented the second largest tribe in the United States, the largest being the Dine (Navajo) Tribe. Mankiller was the first female in modern history to lead a major Native American tribe. With an enrolled population of over 140,000, and an annual budget of more than $75 million, and more than 1,200 employees spread over 7,000 square miles, her task may have been equalled to that of a chief executive officer of a major corporation...

New Word! Only $19.95

2006-03-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

Is the word "feminism" getting you down? Are you finding that people won't take your point of view seriously when you say you're a Feminist? Are you alone in your steadfast fight for total women's equality????

We love the word "feminism" and want people to realize it is a positive word, but I just discovered this one today - it's kinda obvious if you know your Latin - and I love it so much because it literally means "for the love of women":

PHILOGYNY!!

So, from now on, I am also a Philogynist!

Spread the LOVE!

One Year Anniversary!

2006-03-05T18:42:00.000-08:00

Sunday, March 5 - FCW Society celebrated our 1 Year Anniversary! This is fucking cool! We started in a small one bedroom in the East Village and we have grown to an amazing house in Queens! We are spreading our wings and growing. We have members in London, St Paul, Milan, Seattle, Los Angeles, Montreal ... even Gloria Steinam has her official membership card!

Our goal to create a place where feminists can get together to promote the strong women in their lives to help create CHANGE in the world is happening. Funny thing about promoting other women - it inspires you to promote yourself too! That's what we are all about - celebrating the fact that WE (WOMEN) are so fucking cool! Over the past year, I have seen some pretty fucking cool women take charge of their lives and creating an amazing ripple effect of positive changes around them. This is what its all about.

As we begin our 2nd year - we know we will continue to work on our own lives but we also want to help others who are also helping women. We are proud to be sending in a group contribution to the Women for Women International. WWI helps women in 8 war torn countries to help women regain their health and strength and provide for their families. Its not our war - its time for us to stop being the victims! If you would like to donate or find out more information go to- www.womenforwomen.org. Membership cards are also being sent.

As one of the founding hostess committee members of the FCW Society, I am pleased and honored to know so many fucking cool women.

ROCK ON SISTERS!
Joanne

inspiration - She Who Makes Her Meaning Known

2006-03-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

Court's so cool for sharing my deal on affordable health (can anyone say free yoga?) that I just wanted to share something equally cool, although slightly less active - some powerful words by Audre Lorde that always gives me inspiration - hope they do the same for you:

"For each of us, as women, there is a dark place within where, hidden and growing, our true spirit rises...These places of possibility within ourselves are dark because they are ancient and hidden; they have survived and grown strong through that darkness. Within these deep places, each one of us holds an incredible reserve of creativity and power, of unexamined and unrecorded emotion and feeling. The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep."

Before she died, Lorde in an African naming ceremony took the name Gamba Adisa, meaning Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Known. How f***ing cool is that?

Peace, FCWarriors...

Amy

Mother Revolution

2006-03-01T07:45:00.000-08:00

Although it's been a month already, I just now found out that Betty Friedan passed away on Feb. 4, 2006. RIP to one of the greatest feminist revolutionaries of our time.

Don't we just love a great deal?!!

2006-03-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

Attention NYC FCW! This is going to sound like a spam email, but listen anyway. FCW Amy Clarke told me about this today and I totally impulsively bought one because it just seemed like too good a deal to pass up. The American Health and Fitness Alliance offers these Pass Books that are around $80 chock full of free passes to gym, dance, and/or yoga classes. Amy showed me hers and it's totally legit and just seems like a great deal. The book pays for itself after about 4 or 5 classes. The passes expire at the end of the year. Anyway, check it out and hopefully I'll see you in class!

- Court.

If you are a woman..

2006-02-26T07:52:00.000-08:00

"If you are a woman between the ages of 20 and 40 living anywhere on the globe, you are part of the most educated, professionally empowered, international generation of women ever. Its inspiring story in a world full of violence and insecurity - a generation of women poised to take leadership like no other generation in history."

Paula Goldman, in Imaging Ourselves, Global Voices from a New Generation of Women.

The Power of The Purse--Part 2

2006-02-18T19:04:00.000-08:00

As women we cannot afford to be afraid to let the world know about our skills, talents and dreams. As women we cannot allow ourselves the outdated notion of "Oh, my boss (male or female) knows I work hard and I'm sure I'll get a raise...someday." As women we cannot sit idly by just scraping enough money together each month to pay the rent, put food on the table and hopefully make a dent in our massive student loan or credit card debt. No, we as smart, powerful women must get brave and learn to PITCH ourselves with joy, passion and reckless abandon!!(We don't have to sound like a used car salesman, either.)And we need to learn to pitch other FCW better than we pitch ourselves, because they will do the same for us in return. Let's get a bigger piece of That Purse. Not because we are greedy, but because we work hard, we are f*cking cool women, and we deserve it.

Laura Allen
FCW and Co-Founder of 15SecondPitch.com

The Power of The Purse

2006-02-18T18:32:00.000-08:00

"Women now make 85% of all consumer buying decisions. The marjority of corporate purchasing agents and managers are women. And women entrepreneurs account for 70% of new business start-ups."

--Martha Barletta from the book Marketing to Women

Women's rights in essence...

2006-02-10T07:35:00.000-08:00

"Women's rights in essence is really a movement for freedom, a movement for equality, for the dignity of all women, for those who work outside the home and those who dedicate themselves with more alturuism than any profession I know to being wives and mothers, cooks and chauffeurs, and child psychologists and loving human beings."

Jill Ruckelshaus, political activist and lecturer

One Reason why FCW Society Exists!!!

2006-02-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

Women Who Make the World Worse
Kate O’Beirne calls feminists on their bad ideas.

Q&A by Kathryn Jean Lopez

"They talk "freedom of choice," but feminists are too contemptuous of dissenting women to allow them to choose freely how to live their lives without ridicule and disdain," Kate O'Beirne writes in her new book, Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports. And she would know. Having taken on some feminist stalwarts on Capitol Hill and the likes of Crossfire, Kate puts a final (or so we can hope) nail in feminism's coffin in her new book, calling their bad ideas out with facts and figures and good sense.

NRO Editor Kathryn Lopez recently talked to NR Washington Editor Kate O'Beirne about Women Who Make the World Worse.

Click here to read article:
http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/obeirne200512290819.asp

www.greatwomen.org

2006-01-18T07:35:00.000-08:00

The National Women's Hall of Fame is an exhibition and research center in Seneca Falls, N.Y., "to honor in perpetuity those women, citizens of the United States of America, whose contributions to the arts, athletics, business, education, government, the humanities, philanthropy and science, have been of greatest value for the development of their country."

The center was opened to the public in 1979 and is located near the site of the first Women’s Rights Convention, convened in 1848 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Coffin Mott.

American women, of the past and present, are elected annually to the museum by the National Honors Committee, a panel of 25 women and men, eminent authorities in various fields; their choices are made from nominations submitted by the public, national organizations, and newspaper and magazine editors.

PERSONS ELECTED TO THE NATIONAL WOMEN’S HALL OF FAME, INC.

Faye Glenn Abdellah (Healthcare)
Bella Abzug (Civil Rights)
Abigail Smith Adams (Government)
Jane Addams (Social Welfare)
Madeleine Korbel Albright (Government: Politics)
Louisa May Alcott (Literature)
Linda G. Alvarado (Business)
Dorothy Andersen (Medicine)
Marian Anderson (Music)
Ethel Percy Andrus (Senior Citizens Welfare)
Maya Angelou (Literature)
Susan B. Anthony (Women’s Rights)
Virginia Apgar (Medicine)
Ella Baker (Civil Rights)
Lucille Ball (Entertainment)
Ann Bancroft (Exploration)
Clara Barton (Social Welfare)
Mary McLeod Bethune (Education)
Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell (Religion)
Elizabeth Blackwell (Medicine)
Emily Blackwell (Medicine)
Amelia Jenks Bloomer (Journalism)
Nellie Bly (Journalism)
Margaret Bourke-White (Photography)
Lydia Moss Bradley (Education)
Myra Bradwell (Law)
Mary Breckinridge (Healthcare)
Gwendolyn Brooks (Poetry)
Pearl S. Buck (Literature)
Charlotte Ann Bunch (Education; Human Rights)
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (Religion; Social Welfare)
Mary Steichen Calderone (Medicine)
Annie Jump Cannon (Astronomy)
Rachel Louise Carson (Marine Biology; Ecology)
Rosalynn Carter (Healthcare)
Mary Ann Shadd Cary (Social Reform)
Mary Cassatt (Painting)
Willa Cather (Literature)
Carrie Chapman Catt (Women’s Rights)
Lydia Maria Child (Social Reform)
Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (Politics)
Jacqueline Cochran (Aviation)
Bessie Coleman (Aviation)
Eileen Collins (Space Exploration)
Ruth Colvin (Education)
Joan Ganz Cooney (Broadcasting; Education)
Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori (Chemistry)
Jane Cunningham Croly (Social Reform)
Pauline Kellogg Wright Davis (Women’s Rights)
Dorothy Day (Social Reform)
Marian de Forest (Women’s RIghts)
Donna De Varona (Athletics)
Emma Smith DeVoe (Women’s Rights)
Emily Dickinson (Poetry)
Dorothea Dix (Social Welfare)
Elizabeth Hanford Dole (Government: Politics)
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (Environment)
Anne Dulles Dudley (Women’s Rights)
Mary Barret Dyer (Religion)
Amelia Earhart (Aviation)
Sylvia Earle (Marine Science)
Catherine East (Women’s Rights)
Crystal Eastman (Labor)
Mary Baker Eddy (Religion)
Marian Wright Edelman (Children’s Rights)
Gertrude Ederle (Athletics)
Gertrude Belle Elion (Chemistry)
Alice Evans (Medicine)
Geraldine Ferraro (Politics)
Ella Fitzgerald (Music)
Betty Friedan (Women’s Rights)
Margaret Fuller (Literature)
Matilda Joslyn Gage (Government: Women’s Rights)
Althea Gibson (Athletics)
Lillian Moller Gilbreth (Engineering)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Social Progress)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Law)
Katharine Graham (Journalism)
Ella Grasso (Politics)
Martha Wright Griffiths (Politics)
Angelina Grimke (Social Reform)
Sarah Grimke (Social Reform)
Mary A. Hallaren (Military; Women’s Rights)
Fannie Lou Hamer (Civil Rights)
Alice Hamilton (Medicine)
Martha Matilda Harper (Business)
Patricia Roberts Harris (Government)
Helen Hayes (Theater)
Dorothy Height (Civil Rights)
Beatrice A. Hicks (Engineering)
Oveta Culp Hobby (Government)
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay (Social Progress)
Barbara Holdridge (Literature)
Major General Jeanne Holm (Military)
Grace Murray Hopper (Computer Science)
Bertha Holt (Social Reform)
Julia Ward Howe (Women’s Rights)
Dolores Huerta (Labor)
Helen LaKelly Hunt (Women’s Rights)
Zora Neale Hurston (Anthropology; Literature)
Anne Hutchinson (Religion)
Shirley Ann Jackson (Government)
Mary Jacobi (Medicine)
Frances Wisebart Jacobs (Social Progress)
Mae Jemison (Space Exploration)
“Mother” Mary Harris Jones (Social Reform)
Barbara Jordan (Politics)
Helen Keller (Social Progress)
Bishop Leontine Kelly (Religion)
Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey (Medicine, Pharmaceuticals)
Nannerl O. Keohane (Education)
Billie Jean King (Sports)
Maggie Kuhn (Senior Citizens Welfare)
Stephanie Kwolek (Science)
Susette La Flesche (Native American Rights)
Dorothea Lange (Photography)
Mildred Robbins Leet (Philanthropy)
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Literature; Aviation)
Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood (Law)
Juliette Gordon Low (Education: Social Progress)
Shannon W. Lucid (Space Exploration)
Mary Lyon (Education)
Barbara McClintock (Medicine)
Katherine Dexter McCormick (Women’s Rights)
Louise McManus (Medicine)
Mary Mahoney (Medicine)
Wilma Mankiller (Native American Rights)
Maria Goeppert-Mayer (Physics)
Margaret Mead (Anthropology)
Patsy Takemoto Mink (Government)
Maria Mitchell (Astronomy)
Constance Baker Motley (Law; Civil Rights)
Lucretia Coffin Mott (Women’s Rights)
Kate Mullany (Labor)
Antonia Novello (Government)
Annie Oakley (Marksmanship)
Sandra Day O’Connor (Law; Government)
Georgia O’Keeffe (Painting)
Rosa Parks (Social Reform)
Alice Paul (Women’s Rights)
Mary Engle Pennington (Science)
Frances Perkins (Government)
Esther Peterson (Social Progress)
Jeanette Rankin (Politics)
Janet Reno (Law, Government)
Ellen Swallow Richards (Chemistry)
Linda Richards (Healthcare)
Sally K. Ride (Space Exploration)
Rozanne L. Ridgway (Politics)
Edith Nourse Rogers (Politics)
Eleanor Roosevelt (Politics; Social Progress)
Ernestine Louise Potowski Rose (Women’s Rights)
Sister Elaine Roulet (Children’s Rights)
Wilma Rudolph (Sports)
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (Social Reform)
Florence Sabin (Medicine)
Sacagawea (Exploration)
Margaret Sanger (Social Reform)
Katherine Siva Saubel (Native American Rights)
Betty Bone Schiess (Religion)
Patricia Schroeder (Politics)
Felice N. Schwartz (Women’s Rights)
Florence B. Seibert (Medicine)
Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton (Religion; Social Welfare;
Education)
Anna Howard Shaw (Religion, Women’s Rights)
Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (Social Welfare)
Muriel Siebert (Finance)
Beverly Sills (Music)
Bessie Smith (Music)
Sophia Smith (Education)
Margaret Chase Smith (Politics)
Hannah Greenbaum Solomon (Child Welfare)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Women’s Rights)
Gloria Steinem (Social Progress)
Helen Stephens (Sports)
Nettie Stevens (Biology)
Lucy Stone (Women’s Rights)
Harriet Beecher Stowe (Literature; Social Reform)
Harriet Williams Russell Strong (Agriculture)
Annie Sullivan (Education)
Maria Tallchief (Ballet)
Ida M(inerva) Tarbell (Journalism)
Helen Brooke Taussig (Medicine)
Sojourner Truth (Social Progress)
Harriet Tubman (Social Progress)
Brigadier General Wilma Vaught (Military)
Florence Wald (Medicine)
Lillian Wald (Medicine)
Madam C.J. Walker (Business)
Mary Edwards Walker (Medicine)
Emily Howell Warner (Aviation)
Mercy Otis Warren (Poetry)
Faye Wattleton (Medicine; Social Welfare)
Annie Dodge Wauneka (Native American Rights)
Ida Wells-Barnett (Social Progress)
Eudora Welty (Literature)
Edith Wharton (Literature)
Sheila Widnall (Science)
Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (Social Reform)
Oprah Winfrey (Broadcasting)
Sarah Winnemucca (Native American Rights)
Victoria Woodhull (Social Reformer)
Fanny Wright (Social Progress)
Chien-Shiung Wu (Physics)
Rosalyn Yalow (Medicine)
Gloria Yerkovich (Child Welfare)
Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias (Sports) "

I believe a FCW SOCIETY Field Trip is in order!
Check out their Site!!

- fcw society hostess committee

FCW Encounter in Los Angeles!

2006-01-07T17:35:00.000-08:00

It was on friday..bored at work I had just passed out my little New Year cards to all of the other employees..everyone was in a festive mood and in walks Erin Brochovich. She looked exactly like she did when the movie came out. I didn't recognize her at first, and then it hit me.I read her book when I was disabled and I remember her picture .I t was her. I didn't cacth on till midway in the sale.She bought some cool stuff and chatted on and on like a flight attendant.I told her of my injury due to toxic air on the plane and she said " Oh I get calls everyday about this problem...once this administration changes over..everyone will know how serious a problem it is" ..I said that I was working in the shoe store to save up for a colon therapy machine and that I was a colon therapist.Her eyes got real big " I love that" " I am a true believer of colon therapy after everything I have seen happen to people..I am working with a school in Beverly Hills now where all of the kids are getting cancer because of an old gas well that was abandoned and leaks into the area" she also mentioned that she was working on another book. After the sale I helped her carry her bags to her car,she said that she was meeting her husband for lunch.when her got to the car she said that she was also doing some work in Indonesia..I said "Oh I love Bali!!" she said "Oh did you stay at the Four Seasons? It's great" I said 'No I had a friend who's husband is a doctor so we stayed at her home,it was nice cause we had servants and a pool in the back,where you can swim naked every morning" she said " Oh that's better than where I stayed" " That sounds great"....I said goodbye and she was off.....then about an hour later she came in again but this time she was with her husband and another man. She said " I just had to bring them in the wonderful store you have the best shoes ever"..she bought some slippers and more socks and then she asked to try on this new high heeled sexy,yet comfortable boot that I adore and wanted.She was a size 8 like me so I checked on it ..and we had already sold out...so I did the unthinkable..this jazzy,sexy,,comfortable boot..only one left..on hold for me to purchase...I couldn't help it I gave her My boot and told her it was the last one....it fit her like a glove"Oh I love it ''I'll take it thanks for finding it for me" (little did she know) so I sold her the boot and some other things again and shook her hand and thanked her for doing such a great job at bringing awareness of Toxic Exposure in our world to the forefront. She was the nicest,kindest,and most realistc person I have met in Studio City. They are far and few between....believe me...Talking to her was like talking to a friend.it was nice and I feel so lucky to have met her..right there in Studio City..in the little shoe shop...and of all people to sell her shoe's .....me.

always roamin' Rebecca Rose Gonzales

Happy New Year!!

2006-01-06T05:46:00.000-08:00

Hey Ladies!

What an awesome year 2005 was!! We hosted our first big brunch with invitees (FCWs aside from our hosting committee) and managed to have a brunch virtually every month since, we did awesome art projects, wrote our thesis', wrote and performed our songs and plays and burlesque dances, marched for our causes, loved our sisters, and spread magic, passion, and love all over the world!

I just wanted to share with you an organization that I stumbled upon this morning called CodePink. CodePink is an women's antiwar organization that I think would be an awesome thing in which FCW can get involved. Check out their site! I might be a little behind in discovering this, but hey! One more person!

So, I hope everyone's New Year has gotten off to a fucking cool start! We have our first brunch of 2006 this Sunday... post a comment if you're interested in coming out!

Peace. Court.

Word of the Day

2005-10-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

I received this word from dictionary.com today:

virago \vuh-RAH-go; vuh-RAY-go\, noun:
1. A woman of extraordinary stature, strength, and courage.
2. A woman regarded as loud, scolding, ill-tempered,
quarrelsome, or overbearing.

Interesting that the one word can mean these two things. I wonder if one definition was derived from the other? Either that it originally meant Def. #1 and was warped by those scared of those types of women. Or perhaps it originally meant Def. #2 and was hence embraced by strong women in defiance.

I'm going to recognize only the first definition and declare myself "Virago" McLean. YEAH!

- Courtney

Sibilla Aleramo

2005-10-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

At the last FCW brunch (which was AWESOME!), I shared a bit of my research on the Italian women writer, Sibilla Aleramo. Someone asked me to blog a little bit on her, so here you go.

Born in 1876 in Alexandria as Rina Faccio, Sibilla Aleramo became a "mother" of Italian feminism and the Italian feminist movement. In 1906 she published her first book, an autobiographical novel entitled, Una Donna, under the name of Sibilla Aleramo. (Sybil being the prophetess and Aleramo from a well-known family near her home town. The book begins with her childhood (although the protagonist is never named) which was unique in that she was educated and worked as a young teenager in the glass factory that her father ran. The factory was in Le Marche, the province East of Tuscany, and in the time that the family moved from their cosmopolitan residence outside of Milan, Le Marche was considered "backward" and "southern." Having exhausted every educational possibility in her new town, Aleramo's father has her work as his accountant. One night in the office of the factory, a 25 year old man (she is only 15 here) with whom she works and has befriended, rapes her. Confused and upset, she is subjected to the only socially acceptable solution, marriage. Her rapist turned husband does not stop his abuse in marriage, in fact it is heightened. In marriage, also, she is transformed from an independent, free thinking young girl into an inprisoned woman (in fact, themes of imprisonment are common in Italian lit and many conferences have been held on this topic.).

So - Aleramo goes through a difficult first few years of marriage. She miscarries her first pregnancy because of her sister-in-laws temper, her mother commits suicide, her father has all but disowned her, when she finaly has a child (a moment of great joy and perhaps the most beautiful segment of the book) she loses her ability to breast feed again because of her sister-in-laws temper and must suffer through the emotional trauma of having a wet-nurse feed her child. All throughout this, her husband is cheating on her, raping her, hitting her and locking her and her baby in their bedroom during the day and forbidding her to be part of society.

But one thing Aleramo does have are books and journals. He provides these to her willingly - and she begins to correspond with other writers and publishers - finaly getting her own work published in a few papers. She builds a career as a writer from her bedroom/prison and is offered a position as editor of a women's magazine in Rome. At this time, her husband looses his job and the family moves to Rome where she will work as an editor from home (he refuses to let her have an office outside the home). He is incessantly jealous of her literati friends (D'Annunzio and Pirandello among them) and when she asks for a seperation, he refuses. He has been offered her father's position as the factory manager and he insists that their family move back to Le Marche. She leaves Rome and they return to her hell.

But she has tasted freedom and made important contacts and developed a support network outside of her home. She now has a place to run to. So, in the middle of the night, she says good bye to her 6 year old son (most tearful part) who begs to come with her (she would be imprisoned if she took him) and leaves on a train at 3:00 am.

The end of the book is directed at her son - hoping that some day he will read it and understand why his mother had to liberate herself.

Aleramo went on to publish 40 volumes - novels, poetry, translations...and have illustrious love affairs with many famous Italian writers (and one French woman!) Plus she taught literacy to the poor migrant workers outside of Rome and aided earthquake victims in Naples.

If Sibilla Aleramo isn't a FUCKING COOL WOMAN, then I don't know who is. She's the Simone de Beauvoir of Italy, but no one seems to know of her here. I'm about to change that.

FEM APPEAL

2005-09-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

I borrowed "Life's a journey, not a destination.." (it appears at the bottom of my email signature) from an Aerosmith song, but it is so apropos.

In the last five months I've done a whole lot more living and much less settling/accepting/complying as I make my way through this world and I feel FUCKING FANTASTIC.

The FCW Society was definitely a catalyst and I thank each and every one of you for your energy, creativity and positivity,
but I must also give a SPECIAL thanks to Joanne, Beth and Rachel -- my partners in burlesque.

I had my first run-in with burlesque in 2003 at Pyramid. My friends and I were all set for some 80s dancing on the cheap, but fate had other plans. We were treated instead to an hour of brains, beauty, grace and art hosted by the hardest working man in showbiz -- none other than Mr. Murray Hill. It was an incredible experience and I have the Polaroid to prove it.

Five months ago a singer/songwriter and good friend performed at Freddy's Back Room in Brooklyn and the act that followed stirred my creative juices. The Bitter Poet was really good and quite entertaining, but his partner, Howlin' Vic, stole the show. In between his songs/rantings/musings, Howlin' Vic would do a little burlesque number. One in particular, blew me away. She began her routine wearing only a bra, panties and a mustache and got fully dressed (three-piece suit complete with tie and suspenders) to the tune of "Just a Gigolo". She was BRILLIANT.

While on vacation in the Bahamas this summer, I came across a documentary on burlesque and knew I wanted to try it.

FCW Joanne, Beth, Rachel and myself enlisted the help of Jo "Boobs" Weldon and took a few classes in burlesque dancing and after a workshop on burlesque, I found myself signed up to compete in the Miss Galapagozonga Amateur Burlesque Competition at Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg.

On Monday, September 5, performing under the stage name Fem Appeal, yours truly dared and did it.

It was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. I can't really provide many details, because so much of it was truly out-of-body, but talk about being ALIVE.

I'm no expert on burlesque, but what makes it so intriguing to me is that it embodies female empowerment.
It combines elements of dance, theatre and comedy and it's all inclusive. Women of all ages, ethnicities, body types and backgrounds are represented and they're SEXY, because women really are, so fucking cool.

Lovin' my journey
- Taryn

A Spanish Adventure...

2005-09-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I got back from a holiday in Spain. It was my first trip to Europe... quite a good feeling to step upon another continent on Earth. Quite a good feeling to meet so many fucking cool women every where I go -

first - Nuria, she and her boyfriend did an apartment swap and helped out each other. As most fucking cool women know, fucking cool women only get involved with fucking cool men. It was a lovely to meet her and David and to have them experience NYC in the fall while in love - magic.

then - Andrea, on her way back to Mexico from Montreal. We chatted about life - following hearts desires and the importance of listening to the artists, scientists, philosphers, academics and the feminists - all of this happened in about 30 minutes - short time - fucking cool woman.

On the plane, I sat next to Ale - a woman on her way to a conference. Originally from Honduras, she and I spoke of marriage, love, relationships, careers and feminism. The next day, while I was wondering the streets of Barcelona, we ran into one another. We were able to take our conversation to the next level. Women can create an intimate bond with other women, that's our specialty. This skill could be used in creating world peace if given the opportunity. Its in our nature to communicate - why has it stopped?

The weekend came and I flew to Ibiza, an island in the Mediterranean Sea. A gorgeous place known for its parties however, I was able to experience Fucking Cool Women! I spent time at La Casista Verde and met many women who were organic farmers. Marta, a sexy, smart, funny, and cute woman from Madrid shared her home with me and three fucking cool women.
Eli - a singer with a voice of an angel and a passion to create good in life
Suzi - an artist who lives her life as her art project and inspires many to believe in the Power of PINK ...including me.
And JUHI - a friend who I am so happy to have flown across the Atlantic Ocean share time with. She is a FUCKING COOL WOMAN who is going to change the world with her talent, vision and love.

Just when I thought I had met all of the Fucking Cool Women on my Spanish Adventure, Along came Polly. A 88 year old woman who was once a town historian, married twice, children all over the world and loves NYC like me. Needless to say, it was so much more enjoyable speaking with her than watching the in-flight Will Farrell movie.

Fucking Cool Women are everywhere and I feel very fortunate to be one so that I always meet them.

-Joanne

Guerilla Girls Theatre Network

2005-09-20T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hey Ladies! If you're interested in joining a cool group of women in an online theatre networking group... click here!

The Guerrilla Girls On Tour Network for Women In Theatre is an email listserve for women theatre artists in the following categories: directors, producers, writers, stage managers, designers and women in all aspects of production.

Our purpose is to create a forum where we can network, post job opportunities and share resources and ideas. In a male dominated profession, we feel it is important to consciously network with one another. Then, for example, when we are in a position to hire, we will have a pool of female professionals to call upon.

This group is not for 'out-of-context' self-promotion. If you have a question, opportunity, or idea that you would like to post to the group, you may include your website at the end of the email, as part of your signature. You may not announce shows, or promote yourself without good reason. The purpose of this is to keep it useful and resourceful, and not overwhelmed with advertisements.

Network away, theater grrrrls!

FCW October Brunch

2005-09-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

Calling all Fucking Cool Women in the NYC area! We're having another brunch on Sunday, October 2nd... email me if you're interested in coming out!

The Ultimate FCW!

2005-09-17T08:31:00.000-07:00

Last week, Joanne and Kelly and I attended the 10th Anniversary Gala of the Center For The Advancement of Women, courtesy of my good friend and FC Man, Paul Fraley. There were TONS of FCWs there, including the honorees, Sherry Lansing, Madeliene Albright, and the FCest woman ever - Ms. Gloria Steinem. Joanne, having larger ovaries than myself, took me by the hand to meet her at her dinner table and gave her an FCW Society Lifetime Membership card! Ms. Steinem was so gracious and totally tickled by the name and concept of our society. And, at 71, the woman is a total knockout. Rock on, Gloria!! Hosting the event was the ever-hilarious and witty Joy Behar. Joanne even approached Kathleen Turner and had a girl-power handshake after complimenting her on her performance in "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf." Dr. Ruth was there too and I think she came up to my waist in height! Too awesome. It was also a fantastic opportunity for us to get dressed up in our black tie duds and go out on the town! Great food, great drinks, great women!

- Court.

FCW Society Full Moon Barbecue

2005-08-12T19:36:00.000-07:00

We don't spell women with a "Y" but Fucking Cool women do love the full moon and a chance to grill & chill so a barbecue is what we do.

Its happening on Friday - August 19 - come and join the fun.
East Village - Margaritas - GOOD TIMES

email trickydame@yahoo.com for info.

2005-07-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

"I am a feminist because I feel endangered, psychically and physically, by this society and because I believe that the women's movement is saying that we have come to an edge of history when men - insofar as they are embodiments of the patriarchal idea - have become dangerous to children and other living things, themselves included."

Adrienne Rich (1929 - )
Adrienne Rich was first published as a poet in 1951, when she won the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize. Her poetry has reflected her own life changes and many roles.

Adrienne Rich's feminism emerged in mid-career, and many of her later poems express a political rage and search for sisterhood and creative language.

GOODESS ENERGY

2005-07-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

It never ceases to amaze how fucking cool women are!

Smart
Beautiful
Strong
Powerful
Sensual
Kind
Forgiving
Loving
Sexy
Inspiring
Sensitive
Empathetic
Funny
Generous
Supportive

Women in my life make me my life better. By supporting one another - we can change the future lives of Women and Men ... Its not about one or the other - its about everyone.

I intend to continue to create a strong connection with Fucking Cool Women and the men they love because its thru our energy - change will happen.

- trickydame, nyc

american idol?

2005-06-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

What I've really wanted since coming back to New York is the country, as in trees and ticks and dirt and Main Street. And a pitcher of sangria on Joanne's roof as soon as we successfully get ahold of each other. But really quietness to read and write and think and maybe work outside. Right in the middle of planning to go up to the Berkshires for a couple of months, I get a phone call asking me if I 'd like to work on the crew of American Idol IV, the winners' concert tour. Exact same time period I was planning on making daisy chains and focusing on me, not to mention that I've never seen the show besides approximately 20 minutes of mocking once with my roommate. After careful (sike) consideration of the funny stories that I will return with, I said yes. I'm an American Idol roadie. what the.

- jess r.

status anxiety

2005-06-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

today i read a book by my current favorite author, Alain de Botton, called Status Anxiety. I absolutely did not mean to buy Status Anxiety because it doesn't exactly fit into my unemployment budget but faced with A.D.B i am hopefully fiscally irresponsible, maybe because he gives me such hope that why, really, should i care about that errant $15. I only even went into Barnes & Noble to use the bathroom but the line at the bathroom was really long and my friends weren't re-emerging so i walked in circles around the displays. His other books The Consolations of Philosophy, The Art of Travel, and How Proust Can Change Your Life have inspired me and reminded me of things that are wonderful and crucial and too easy to forget and made me LAUGH outloud, to myself, repeatedly. I sit on the fire escape and stare off in the distance and smile. a lot. I'm thinking a lot about laughter.

- jess

Menstrual Sponges

2005-03-07T19:10:00.000-08:00

something to think about - Menstrual Sponges

Some women use small sea sponges (not the cellulose kind used in the kitchen) as all natural tampons. You just wet a sponge under the faucet, squeeze it out and push it in as deep as you can with one finger. Remember to aim toward the small of your back.. You pull it out with your fingers as well, and rinse it out in the sink and reuse it. A sponge should be thrown away as soon as it starts to look ratty. If they start to smell funny, they can be rinsed with a little vinegar in water.

Sea sponges cannot be sold as "menstrual sponges" because they are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for that use, but most health food stores sell them as "cosmetic sponges". Look for small, yellowish natural sponges which are about 2 inches long.

Advantages:

Some women find them more comfortable than tampons. One problem with tampons is that they can cause dryness and irritation by being too absorbant. The sea sponges are more gentle.

They are not bleached like tampons. They are used multiple times, which cuts down on waste.

Disadvantages:

They are not as convenient as tampons: you have to rinse them out (which can be tough in a public restroom), and maybe carry a used one around if you are away from home.

They require that you be comfortable with your body because you have to stick your fingers in your vagina to get the sponge in and out. They might take some practice to use.

Toxic Shock Sydrome. Almost no research has been done on sponges used for menstruation, but when you put anything inside you for a while you should be concerned about TSS. Since they are not made of synthetic materials, and do not have a string, we might guess that they would be safer than a tampon.

They come out of the ocean, and the ocean is polluted, and we don't know how that pollution affects the sponges and how that might affect your body. Sponges from Florida and the Caribbean might be grown in less polluted water than sponges from the Mediterranean.

(GOOGLE THIS AND YOU CAN FIND PLACES ON LINE TO BUY!)

FCW list grows...

2005-03-06T19:41:00.000-08:00

We gathered - We talked - We shared - We listened - We ate - We supported - We are Fucking Cool Women and so are the following women:

Quinn Slayton, Mal Mahoney, Kat Pittelberger, Laura Blackman, Janna Slack, Suzie Oh, Erin Rollgen, Andrea Miller, Meredith
Marsh, Leah Gerard, Kiyomi Kamura, Teresa Matejovski, Brittany Eveland, Lydia Cho, Peg Dawson, Tanya Parker, JoAnn Parker, Hannah Wolfe, Patricia Rivera, Ines Rivera, Gloria Burns, NaNede James, Shaunette Gibbs, Geri D., Elaine B., Sue G., Preeta M., Jane C., Una S., Susan M., Frances G., Susan M., Maria H., Rebekah E., Jackie G., Christine Larkin, Kelly Childress, Chazz Levi, Marisa Osorio, My Mom, Terry Dewhirst, Nina Simone, Agnes Varda, Louise Bourgeois, Julia Kuisteva, Susanna Debibat, Pauline, my mother, my sister, my aunt, my grandmother, so many fucking cool women!

Michelle Vaca, Denise Reyes, Carolyn Clues, my mother, my sister, my friend Karen, my friend Barbara, my nieces, I am very lucky to be surrounded by some very interesting and stimulating women. They are gifts to my life.

Jessi, Jen D, Sefanie, Blu, Adrian, Erin, Joanne Morton, Laura Allen, my mom, my Aunt Diane, Jen Mac, Xena, Karen Salmanshohn, Margaret Cho, My Great-aunt Ann, Nora Ephron

This list continues to grow - chapters encourage to form.

2005-02-06T18:40:00.000-08:00

"A feminist is a man or woman who already knows for a fact that men and women are equal and wants society to wake up to that fact, so the world can stop operating at half-strength."
MARLO THOMAS

It is time for all fucking cool women to unite!
We're everywhere - We all know some - We all are one ...
Now its a chance to introduce us to one another.

sunday, march 6
1-5ish
late brunch/tea

Brunches will be happen 1st sunday of every month

So Many Fucking Cool Women

2005-01-30T14:45:00.000-08:00

Joanne, Katherine, Mary, Jenny, Deborah, Kelly D, Kelly F, Kelly C, Sarah K, Gloria, Chance, Jen M, Sara K, Jeanette, Emily, Jenny L, Katie, Masha, Laura Hy, Laura Ha, Amylia, Hannah, Blossom, Allyson C, Jenny M, Nicole Ho, Nicole Hi, Agatha, Allegra, Barbara, Anne, Cheryl, Dorothy, Liz, Alex, Amy, Maria... and more!!!

- girlprez

2005-01-30T10:27:00.000-08:00

"I do not wish [women] to have power over men, but over themselves."

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
British author and feminist. "Vindcation of the Rights of Women", ch. 4 (1792)

A few Fucking Cool Women

2005-01-29T11:11:00.000-08:00

lauren, jenny, courtney, christine, jennifer, jen mac, laura allen, heidi, sara, barbara, suzanne, rebecca, gillian, lizzie, lina, ana, mary, claudia, linda, mary, sanna, louisa, lisa, alwyn, alberta, laura, elaine, alicia, beth ann, natalie, gina, leah, bobbie, dara, jenny, stephanie, jane, infin, ann, marie-claire, elaine, tina, tanya, just to name a few today.
- trickydame