I HAVE BECOME so enamored lately of the blog Cat Party. Blogger Chelsea Fairless’s depiction and exploration of femininity is just the most satisfying mix of camp and rock and eternal glam. I swoon. Here is a taste–a recent post, which embodies everything I love about being a girl:

At some point during my epically angsty adolescence I gave my Baby-Sitters Club “Mary Anne” doll a Kathleen Hanna-inspired makeover. Isn’t it hilarious? I have no recollection of doing it so I was surprised when I stumbled across her at my parents’ house over the holidays. Tragically Stacey and Claudia were nowhere to be found! Those dolls were creepy because the girls in the Baby-Sitters Club were supposed to be 12 and 13 but the dolls were really mature looking, a bit sexy even. That paired with the Catholic schoolgirl outfit that Mary Anne was wearing probably prompted me to reclaim her as a riot grrrl. I love the little safety pins on her skirt!

Hell yes. Read all the juicy archives here.

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Sana Javed discusses why she stopped wearing the hijab in 2009

I AM ENDLESSLY FASCINATED by trans-cultural feminism. This is in part because being reminded of the tenuousness of my convictions always makes me feel alive. (A bit dramatic, I know.) So naturally, the intersection of Western media, Muslim women, and feminism is a place of exhilaration for me.

There is just so much gray area that inevitably leads to questioning the boundaries of nebulous concepts like devotion, womanhood and agency. All too often, I find mainstream discussions of Muslim women to be problematic and shallow. (Remember this post from 2009?)

But currently NPR has an interactive feature on their website, which provides the stories of twelve American Muslim women and their common decision to stop wearing the hijab. One of the reasons why I think this story works is because it serves as a sort of pastiche of narratives told in women’s own voices that, when combined, introduce some interesting, broad questions about the symbolic heft of clothing, and the universal female struggle to define ourselves beyond appearance. (Which, of course, begs infinite other questions like: What do women hope to change in their lives by changing their appearance? Is this a struggle that will ever truly be resolved? Is resolution even important? What impact do individual choices have on religious or gender-based or global communities? Do these communities actually exist? Or are we needlessly imposing the idea of community on women? If so, who cares?)

Interestingly enough, many commenters on the site argue that by calling attention to these women’s stories, NPR is further fixating on the importance of appearance and dress rather than dismantling it, as many of the women featured in the piece have endeavored to do by removing their hijabs. It’s an area rife with contradiction.

I encourage you to listen in and join the conversation: where do you stand among these myriad of questions? What pieces of this complex, contemporary quagmire intrest you the most?

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Click here to view the embedded video.

IT’S BEEN FAR TOO LONG since I dug up any vintage advertisement gems here on the blog. So on the heels of the big wedding (you know, the one where we all allowed ourselves to become nostalgic saps about  fairy tale endings for a day), I thought this Ivory commercial would do just fine. Of note: is the princess receiving a large taxidermed giraffe along with her silks and diamonds? Also, I love her hairdo at 0:35.

[via]

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I AM LUCKY ENOUGH to have become good friends here at graduate school with a bonified Jane Austen nerd. (Hello, former English majors!) When I am a mess over school or weepy about love sagas, this friend of mine always listens to my gripes and then pauses thoughtfully, before saying something to the effect of: “It sounds like you need some more Jane in your life.” (Yes, this is her proposed remedy for everything.)

At first I was dubious. You see, I fancy myself as more of a pomo, contemporary, weirder-the-better fiction nerd. So I figured these stuffy novels of old couldn’t possibly hold transcendent healing powers. But I am here to confess to you, readers, that I couldn’t have been more wrong.

It’s been years since I read any Austen novels, and I had forgotten how damn good the stories are: witty banter, financial strife, smart women, lost love, sprawling countrysides, compassionate sisters who write letters to each other, near-death illness, brutish (and occasionally tender) men. Really, what more do you need?

And all this is particularly poignant now, as Sense and Sensibility, Austen’s very first novel, which she published under the psudonym “A Lady,” is now 200 years old. Frankly, I can’t believe it. The pathos of the story, though clothed in all those bonnets and cleavage-clad empire waists, is so strangely contemporary.

If you’re feeling lazy (like me) about reading the book, might I recommend the 1995 movie version (which basically contains the entire cast of Harry Potter plus Kate Winslet with a Jheri curl). It’s fantastic!

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Click here to view the embedded video.

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Ladies: meet your, er, dream man

LIKE SO MANY WOMEN today, I often find myself wondering: “How can I make the most of my womanhood?” and “How will I find my Prince Charming?” and sometimes even, “What should my life goals be?” Luckily we can all find answers to these vexing questions (and so much more, really) every Monday night on The Bachelor. And I’m only half-kidding.

The truth is, I do watch The Bachelor and I’m getting kind of obsessed with it. And I wish I could tell you that the only reason I tune in is to make fun of all the amazing one-liners coming from ladies with spray tans, (and that’s like 90% true) but I’ve also found myself getting genuinely sucked into the whole “happily every after” thing.

In fact, watching the show almost always makes me think of this “Fallen Princesses” photo series from Dina Goldstein that I wrote about here on TSP a few years ago. Does Prince Charming (who by the way, always seems like he was deprived of some serious oxygen at birth on The Bachelor) + princess-in-the-making (breast implants and tiny waist suggested) + an enormous budget for helicopter rides, scuba diving lessons, and lavish world travels = happily ever after? Really? And what about when that big budget doesn’t exist anymore? Can a team of producers really buy you a Disney princess ending?

And despite the litany of failed Bachelor/ette relationships from the past, I still find myself glued to the TV on Monday nights. Waiting to see if this time, it will work.

Are the women who subject themselves to this show just hopeless romantics? Or completely desperate (verging on psychotic)? Is this twisted and at times, campy version of true love the modern day Cinderella fantasy?

What about all you lady-readers out there? Do you watch The Bachelor, and what makes you keep tuning in?

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TOMORROW MARKS THE 38th ANNIVERSARY of the supreme court’s Roe v. Wade decision. I’m so grateful to have been born into a country where sisters (and brothers, too, of course) before me fought for women’s right to choose! So how are you celebrating? Need ideas?

The website Feminists for Choice has several events listed (in Texas and NYC) and here’s a post from feministing with the lowdown on other NYC-based celebrations.

P.S. Another happy birthday to my favorite feminist and fantastic boyfriend, Dreux! (photo by christine)

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(click image for full-size)

WOWSERS. APPARENTLY A CHAP NAMED Chris Harrison, who happens to be a Ph.D. student in Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon, has put together this amazing looking infographic on how “he” and “she” are used in Google’s digital books archive, which now contains 200 years worth of published material. (Completely mind blowing, right?!) The graph shows the 120 most common words used after “he” and “she,” ordered in decreasing frequency. Like I said: wow. But how are we to interpret such a thing?

My first was reaction was to to see how this collection of 200 years of published material completely reaffirms age-old gender addages that us women are the passive feelers (“she loves” and “she learns” and “she gives”) while the men are out beating their chests and asserting themselves (“he believes” and “he argues” and “he became”).

I was amused to read that this conclusion on stereotypical gender roles wasn’t the first thing that jumpped out to Harrison. When asked by feministing.com what he found the most interesting about his findings, he responded: “Not any one thing was most interesting. As with many large data sets, there are many fascinating patterns. It is analogous to a single thread being rather unremarkable. From from many threads one can weave a tapestry.” Spoken like a true engineer!

Care to weigh in? (When you uncross your eyes from following all those tiny, criss-crossing lines, that is.)

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LOVING THIS ROUND-UP of 22 shamelessly sexist ads from the past. Some of them I’ve posted here before, and others (like the one above) are new to me. I thought the ol’ wifey-don’t-cry-because-you-can’t-cook number might be good for this week as some of us prepare to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Lets hope this putz husband stays in the olden days and doesn’t show up at our holidays!

(via owni)

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SPEAKING OF CRAFTS, I thought I’d share a photo that sums up how I’ve been spending the bulk of my free time lately. That’s right: I’ve been canning. It all started with this recipe for refrigerator pickles that Margaret Roach, founder of The Sister Project, posted on her gardening blog. I love how the simple steps of canning–sterilizing the jars; boiling a brine; gathering the perfect combination of spices–connects me to Margaret even though we’re separated by a thousand miles, and also connects me to the many women in my family who have done this very activity over the past hundred years. This women’s work is powerful stuff, eh?

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