Women's Art Openings This Weekend

Check it out! There are not one but two openings of art exhibits by women in the valley this weekend.

Tonight, drop by Shades Cafe from 6-8 PM and see the “Women of Wax" exhibit of encaustic paintings by Chris Wimberg, Meggan Stordahl, Micah Richardson, and Elisa San Souci.

Tomorrow, attend the reception for “A Collection of Female Contemporary Artists,” 6-9 p.m. at Ciao Gallery, 1921 Moose-Wilson Road, featuring artists Kari Hall, Dalia Chako, Michele Walters, Kristi Kapolka, and Nichole Welch.

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Portland Shout-Out

I just returned from a long weekend in Portland, Ore., aka the left coast feminist Mecca. Portland has a rich history of progressive politics. Recent years have seen an influx of feminist artists, activists, musicians, writers, and small business owners blossoming in the City of Roses. Here's just a brief list:

Bitch Magazine
Ariel Gore and Hip Mama Magazine
In Other Words Womens Books & Resources
Sarah Dougher
The Blow
Rock n Roll Camp for Girls
2 Grlz Quarterly
Portland State University Women's Studies
Soapstone Women Writers Retreat

And that's just to name a mere few of the fabulous and interesting women's community highlights in PDX. If only it wasn't so damn rainy soggy cloudy and gloomy there! You think it's been bad around the Jackson area lately? Yikes. The way the clouds and the barometric pressure pressed down on my eyelids, cheeks, and mood was nearly unbearable. No wonder the coffee shop per resident ratio is nearing 1:1! No wonder I moved out of there a few years ago!

I welcome any additional feminist tips about Portland, as well as any tips on how the hell to survive a grey-sky visit there.
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Feminist Foremother

A bit of humor from Mary Tattlewell (a pseudonym), who wrote The Women's Sharp Revenge or an answer to Sir Seldom Sober that writ those railing Pamphlets called the Juniper and Crabreee lectures, etc.

Moreover, women were so chaste that, though they did marry and were married, it was more for propagation of Children than for any carnal delight or pleasure they had to accompany with men. They were content to be joined in Matrimony with a greater desire of Children than of Husbands; they had more joy in being Mothers than in being Wives. For in the old Law it was a curse upon Women to be Barren; and surely if there had been any lawful way for them to have had Children without Husbands, there hath been, and are, and will be a numberless number of Women that would or will never be troubled with wedlock nor the knowledge of man. Thus good and modest Women have been content to have none or one man (at the most) all their whole lifetime, but men have been so addicted to incontinency that no bounds of Law or reason could restrain them. For if we read the Story of the Kings of Judah, there we may find the wisest that ever reigned, Solomon, had no fewer than three hundred Wives and seven hundred Concubines, and that his Son Rehoboam had eighteen Wives and sixty Concubines by whose he begat twenty-eight Sons and three-score Daughters. There have been some good women that, when they could have no Children, they have been contented that their Husbands should make use of their Maidservants, as Sarah and Rachel and Leah did. But I never heard or read of any man that, though he were old, diseased, decrepit, gouty, or many and every way defective and past ability to be the Father of any Child, hath been so loving to his wife as to suffer her to [be] made a Teeming [pregnant] Mother by another man. There was once a Law in Sparta amongst the Lacedaemoninas that if the husband were deficient for propagating or begetting of Children, that then it was lawful for the wife to entertain a friend or a Neighbor. But the women were so given to chastity that they seldom or never did put the said Law in practice, and I am persuaded that the Decree is quite abolished and out of use and force all the World over.

What an inspiration to know that women in the seventeenth century were thinking, writing, and laughing about many of the same things were are today.

What eight years of abstinence-only education gets you....

Numerous media outlets are reporting soaring STI rates among women, particularly young women. In fact, the CDC now estimates that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. Right to Life of Teton County even noted this in a recent ad. However, RLTC continues to promote abstinence as the solution. Umm, haven't we tried that for the past eight years? The result is a staggering increase in the number of women with sexually transmitted infections. Some of these infections could lead to infertility. How is this pro-life?

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New: Blog of Rights

Check it out!

The ACLU has just launched the Blog of Rights, to keep you up to date on the latest threats to and victories in our civil liberties.

The Rights are organized by category - of particular interest to Cowgrrl Up! readers are Women's Rights and Reproductive Rights, not to mention LGBT Rights, Immigrant Rights, Racial Justice, U.S. Supreme Courts, and more!
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Go Mama, Go!

My friend Amy just published a new book. She's so cool! I'm sure they'd love to order it for you at the Valley Bookstore.

Click on the graphic below to read a great interview with Amy at Salon.com.

Wage Gap Blues

As we know, Wyoming women suffer the worst gender wage gap in the nation. But just in case you're raising a daughter who you hope to have better luck elsewhere when she graduates from college, think again.

According to a recent Economic Policy Institute report, recent women college graduates made, on average, $2.92 less than their male counterparts in 2007. Gee, makes the 44 cents difference in Wyo. sound like a bonus.

Check Feminist Daily News for more on this issue.
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Equality Rights

The great English poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), wrote

"Happy are all free peoples,
too strong to be dispossessed.
But blessed are those among nations
who dare to be strong for the rest!"

While Browning's causes were women's rights and slavery, her words can be applied to the marriage equality issue of the 21st century. Blessed are the influential and progressive citizens of California who are showing strength for and support of same sex couples who are interested in marriage. I am confident that the daring ruling in California will empower other states to find ways to foster freedom for all of their residents.

Marriage Equality!

I've got to shamelessly gush here. The state of California has pushed the nation one step further in marriage equality for all, which is to say full citizenship for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. This is a huge step! I was particularly excited to see Jewelle Gomez and Dianne Sabin in this NY Times photo (that's them on the right, about to kiss.) We met them when we lived in SF, and they are the warmest, most wonderful women. Jewelle is a writer and Dianne is a chiropractor. They were plaintiffs in the case.

What the California ruling means for Wyoming is that we will likely see another bill proposed that would bar the state of Wyoming from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states (there was one like this last year). To enshrine such a measure in the state Constitution is overkill to say the least because if Z and I got married in Calif., our rights & benefits already don't travel across state lines. Also look for a state ban on same-sex marriage altogether.

For a run-down on Wyoming's laws regarding LGBT people, check out Human Rights Campaign's excellent website. The Equality State is not at the bottom of the barrel -- the sodomy law was repealed in 1977, same-sex partners can establish power of attorney to make medical decisions for one another -- but amazingly the state still doesn't have a hate crimes law, it's still legal to discriminate against us, and LGBT students are not protected from bullying and harassment.

But all that bad news aside, I'm focused on the great victory in California! I'm so excited I can barely sit still. I want to tell everyone I see! I want to buy a tuxedo and rush to San Francisco with my sweetie on my arm. Femmes look great in tuxes, you know.

Women and Housing in Teton County

Dear Readers,

We Cowgrrls are launching a series of themed posts discussing the housing crisis/issue in Teton County and how women are impacted. Check back frequently in the next several weeks for interviews, anecdotes, and opinions on this as yet undiscussed aspect of this very hot topic in our valley.

In the meantime, I wanted to pass the word that if any of you are having trouble paying your property taxes due to crazy increases, there is help. Check Rep. Keith Gingery's site for a full listing. He mentions specifically:

The legislature did pass the Property Tax Refund Program this past session that refunds ½ of your property tax bill if your income does not exceed 2/3 of the median gross income for Teton County. If you think you may be eligible, I would urge you to call our local county assessor, Cathy Toolson, (733-4960) and talk to her about these programs.

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A report on the WAGE Project in Wyoming

News from the Wyoming Women's Foundation:

The WAGE Project WAGE works to promote gender equality through instructional workshops. These $tart $mart workshops were held statewide, including Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, Powell, and one session through video conferencing. Anne Houle led these workshops and traveled statewide with Richelle Keinath of the Wyoming Women's Foundation, and Sarah Mikesell-Growney from Equality Initiatives, two Wyoming organizations concerned with the wage gap. Attendees were able to gather information on the wage gap, and learn, through role play, how to negotiate a salary. This is one crucial step in shrinking the wage gap. To put this into perspective, the wage gap cost women $17,000 per year in 2006 according to the Wyoming Council for Women's Issues. Over a lifetime, this compounds to a difference of approximately $1.2 million dollars less for women than equally qualified men.

The workshops also provided an opportunity to become a workshop facilitator, in order to further disseminate information and education on the wage gap and how an individual can address it. Hopefully, WAGE has brought one tool Wyoming can use to decrease the gap, which is the worst in the nation.
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What has stopping global warming got to do with feminism?

Both efforts imagine a hospitable planet for all people, regardless of race, gender, socio-economic status, or geography.

I just read the latest dispatch from conservationist Bill McKibben and it made me more frightened than I've been yet about the course this planet is on. If you care about our future too, please visit Bill's new campaign 350.org. Let's plan a 350 action here in Teton County! If you have ideas, please post a comment here.

Thanks for reading.
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What's in a name?

I asked my friend C to write a guest post after I read this article about a California couple who sued the state so that the husband could take the wife's last name without extra fees. C's husband took her last name, with much less fanfare, in Hawaii 10 yrs ago. Here is her story:

It it with sorrow and surprise that I recently read about a California couple's struggle with trying to change their last names to the wife's last name rather than the husband's. I say this, because my husband took my last name with no legal difficulties when we married ten years ago in HI. This option was known to us only 48 hours prior to the ceremony, after we obtained and read our license and realized we would not have hyphenate. Had we known earlier, we would have created an entirely new last name as that was also an option, but one we could not invent in a mere 48hrs.

Many people have assumed my spouse is a feminist...he is not, not by a long shot. But, we did want to share a last name as that is one of the things that defined us as a new family (we are not fond of wedding bands), and would also facilitate international travel to places where unmarried couples can not sleep together (another unfortunate issue altogether). Ultimately, pragmatism led us to settle on my name as I would have had many more documents to change than my husband, who led a fairly uncomplicated life at the time of our wedding.

Little did we know that our families would read much more into our rather casual decision. My husband's friends were all a bit surprised, and while none really said so out loud, I am certain that they assumed that I had him in shackles....after all, taking a woman's last name carries with it a negative stigma of weakness and the like.

I have occasionally sensed that my husband felt some regret about his decision. He never missed his last name, rather, he has found it odd having to always explain why he has a name that clearly sounds like it is from the same country as his wife originally came from.

It is my sincere hope that some day, all states, and nations will allow lovers to keep, or change their names, including the creation of new ones at the time that they decide to create and distinct family. Ironically, neither one of us exists in my native country, in spite of passports bearing our names, as they do not recognize such name changes, even when they are official in the U.S.!
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Mother's Day

As one of the moms in our group of bloggers, I've been asked to blog about Mother's Day. This will be, in fact, my second Mother's Day as a mom. Last year I celebrated by taking my newborn home from the hospital.
I have gained a whole new appreciation for my mom and all mothers from my fairly new perspective as a member of this group. Now I understand why my mom didn't want me to ride my bike further than a block away and why she always waited up until I was home. I understand why she still feels the need to give me advice and warnings.
Having a child means a piece of your heart has been yanked out of your body and placed in a delicate little person who will do stupid things, make you worry, and eventually leave you. I didn't care much for babies or kids before I had mine. Now the thought of someone harming any child sickens me and brings out my momma-bear instinct. I love my little cub more than anything, and my goal is to raise her to become a strong woman who knows no boundaries or restrictions on what she can do with her life.
When I was pregnant, I asked my husband if our impending parenthood changed his feelings about abortion. He said it didn't. I agreed. If anything, experiencing the ups and downs, the stresses and joys of being a parent has only enforced my feelings that no woman should be forced to keep a pregnancy. Pregnancy and parenting are hard and should only be undertaken by those who desire it.
So, this Mother's Day, tell your mom you love her and appreciate her. She's done alot for you, and while I'm sure she was happy to change your 3rd poopy diaper of the day, it's nice to be appreciated. The first time my daughter smiled at me made me forget the previous month of meconium, spit up, and very little sleep. She doesn't ever really need to buy me flowers or a card. As long as she keeps smiling, that's enough for me.

Boys will be boys. Still?

If you pay any attention to the world of sports, you've probably heard about the dust-up surrounding the Chicago White Sox and their creation of a weird shrine involving blow up dolls and strategically placed baseball bats in a misguided attempt to change their clubhouse juju. Let's just say they're doing pretty poorly so far this season and have lost six in a row. A lot of people are defending their behavior, even though it was in an area of the clubhouse open to reporters, with the usual "boys will be boys" banality. Mike and Mike of ESPN Radio however, took the much more enlightened view that defending this behavior clearly discriminates against reporters of any gender that would be made uncomfortable by this inappropriate display. In response to listeners' comments that people were being "too politically correct", Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg argued that this was purely a matter of basic decency. If you want to argue, as some did, that female reporters should just "suck it up" or find a new job, clearly you're willing to accept a certain level of discrimination in sports reporting or that female reporters should be willing to deal with what would amount to actionable sexual harassment in any other workplace. Should we be telling young girls that they can be anything they want to be - except sports reporters, unless they're willing to quietly accept offensive behavior? Would you tell your daughter, niece, etc., that?

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Marketing Mom's Day to Progressives

If I get one more "do it for Mom" solicitation email from one of the progressive organizations I belong to, I'm going to scream! So far, I have received Mother's Day fundraising pleas from:

1 Sky (climate change)
Planned Parenthood
Code Pink
Amnesty International
Feminist Majority

I like these organizations. I understand they need money. But I really hate it when they jump on the bandwagon of turning holidays and meaningful tribute days into "shopping" days, like Kmart or Victoria's Secret do. It's great to be part of the tribute & celebration of moms. Just don't pull on my progressive guilt strings. I don't need a tie-in to contribute -- I'm much more apt to give to a specific campaign than a feel-good exploitation of mothers.

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Race v. Gender redux

I wanted to share this excellent analysis by Betsy Reed (The Nation) of the way Hillary Clinton's campaign has used race as a wedge issue against Barack Obama.

Reed deftly looks at many sides of the race/gender divide -- and implicates Hillary in helping to create that divide, which was not a major issue at the beginning of the primary race. She gives voice to my own misgivings about Hillary, as well as my suspicion that some men support Obama because they are more comfortable with his gender.

The support Obama has seen in Teton County is revolutionary. Growing up here in Jackson, I heard tales of one black resident being roped and dragged on his bicycle through town. My 8th grade buddy, Colin, lasted only a year here in 1983 before his family decided it was too isolating. (I don't know the specifics about racism they faced, but I imagine it was significant.)

So we've come a long way, and I'm proud of Jackson for that. Still, in such a macho town, I have wondered if some people are dismissive of Hillary because she's female. Or perhaps the overriding issue is that her being an east coast, Washington insider doesn't play well in the libertarian-leaning West. Obama has certainly built bridges and found ways of reaching westerners along with people all over the country.

Your thoughts?

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