Friday Femme Fatale

by Jen Nedeau

category: Friday Femme Fatale

Published November 21, 2008 @ 02:05PM PT

Well, it's Friday. And while it may be the end of the work week, there is still a lot of work to do when it comes to the feminist movement. Check out these three compelling stories that describe the front lines of the feminist movement in politics, technology and the military.

New York Magazine further dissects the decree of sexism against Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin this week with their piece is titled, "The ‘Bitch' and the ‘Ditz." The article serves as great extension of the conversation that took place here at Change.org with my piece, "Did Sexism Prevail in 2008?" The NY Mag story goes into greater detail of the specific instances and the mechanisms by which sexism did prevail this election season against these two women:

"In the grand Passion play that was this election, both Clinton and Palin came to represent-and, at times, reinforce-two of the most pernicious stereotypes that are applied to women: the bitch and the ditz. Clinton took the first label, even though she tried valiantly, some would say misguidedly, to run a campaign that ignored gender until the very end. "Now, I'm not running because I'm a woman," she would say. "I'm running because I think I'm the best-qualified and experienced person to hit the ground running." She was highly competent, serious, diligent, prepared (sometimes overly so)-a woman who cloaked her femininity in hawkishness and pantsuits. But she had, to use an unfortunate term, likability issues, and she inspired in her detractors an upwelling of sexist animus: She was likened to Tracy Flick for her irritating entitlement, to Lady Macbeth for her boundless ambition. She was a grind, scold, harpy, shrew, priss, teacher's pet, killjoy-you get the idea. She was repeatedly called a bitch (as in: "How do we beat the....") and a buster of balls. Tucker Carlson deemed her "castrating, overbearing, and scary" and said, memorably, "Every time I hear Hillary Clinton speak, I involuntarily cross my legs."

Additionally, Saabira Chaudhuri remarks on the sexist nature of the Digg community this week - something I too have faced as a women's rights blogger who knows a thing or too about social media. She writes:

"Yesterday, an article I wrote on the most influential women in web 2.0 went up on FastCompany.com. The comments it elicited on Digg were unprecedented. (Update: Digg's founder Kevin Rose emailed me after I posted this blog to say that his team is in the process of deleting any comments on this article that violate the site's terms of use. So the comments I highlighted may not all still appear.) A few applauded the list, a few critiqued it and offered others they thought should have been featured, but the overwhelming majority went like this:

seantubridy
Do her... Wouldn't do her... Wouldn't do her... Do her... Do her... Wouldn't do her... Wouldn't do her... Ugh, who hasn't done her? Wouldn't do her... Do her... Argghh!

zoydberg
not the chicks from 2 girls 1 cup?

Scootie
"insert female porn star name here"

smallchaz
The most influential woman in 2.0 is a man."

Finally, there is even more thrilling news about the state of women's rights from the blogosphere - Helen Boyd shares this difficult story on her site, MyHusbandBetty:

Here's another update - and more chilling news - about the astronomical levels of rape and sexual harassment inflicted on female soldiers serving in the US military. To really add insult to injury, the military's health insurance plan doesn't pay for rape kits in many circumstances.

And it is days like these when I really start to wonder how anyone can say "feminism is dead." From politics to technology to the military - we still have a lot to work on, people.