Jane Harmen: too attractive to last so long in congress

It is no surprise that an attractive white woman is being attacked not just for being attractive but she is Jewish.
Jewish is not just a religion. It is a source of increasing identification with meaning where by new blogs are springing up to address this special interest group. A corrupt politician is not just potentially corrupt, but Jewish too.
Elliot Spitzer is another case in point. It is being said that his current return to the political scene is too much, too soon. Is this because he is Jewish? His crime was mostly one of personal behavior. Politically he was a whistle blower without protection

How much does prejudice control the political scene? Too much?


Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective

Helen Gurley Brown: The original Carrie Bradshaw

Found in: Books of The Times
April 22, 2009

Written by a Man!
DWIGHT GARNER



This article raises much to be debated. It is rift with prejudice about women, about the uneducated and those who were educated (at great cost and effort in private colleges), and the effect of the women movement on today's second sex.

Helen Gurley Brown author of “Sex and the Single Girl” (1962) and the editor of Coismopolitan for three decades was the first "tough sexy woman" to take public notice and female followers who sought out her teachings because they entertained and made life a little nicer. She helped the "single women" be single without fear of recrimination and she pushed for common sense about issues where common sense was not formerly exercised.

Certainly a woman to be studied and talked about. This book Helen Gurley Brown The original Carrie Bradshaw is well worth a read. I recommend it for selection at your next women's book or study group.



Linda Zises
WBAI Women Collective

Julia: Funny or not, that is the question

Julia is a 2008 drama/thriller film
directed by Erick Zonca with Tilda Swinton


shot in California and Mexico.

The film was inspired by:

* Gloria (film) (1980), a film directed by John Cassavetes
* Gloria (film) (1999), a remake of John Cassavetes' Gloria by Sidney Lumet
* Gloria (TV series) , an All in the Family spin-off



Julia is a confusing film with gender at center stage. The academy award winning actress Tilda Swinton did an outstanding performance in her role as Julia, an attractive alcoholic woman, who in her superficial effort to stop drinking by attending an AA meeting meets up with a scam maker who deals in money for a kidnapped eight to ten year old boy.

What ensues is a series of chase scenes and schemes replete with guns drawn and even used when the moment seemed ripe. This masculine driven behavior is contrasted with Julia's maternal striving that seem harshly hidden in the beginning of the film.

I am not as disturbed by women dressed up in clothes and behavior and general speech and demeanor to seem like men but the lack of any character in the film for me to identify with is a serious problem. I didn't like anyone and I doubt if any viewer could. What I did like was the contrast in life style between the rampant poverty in Mexico , the barren harsh desert and the affluent American life style that is afforded to even the downward mobile citizens.

Men seem to like this film, perhaps they feel titillated by it (as will some woman) because there is a playful element to the interactions.

Putting children into an intensely disturbed adult setting often yields awkward juxtaposition and amusing moments in contrast to the harsh authoritarian rule.
Julia is a case in point.

But
For a film like this to "work" there has to be a reason to care, to feel a positive emotional involvement with someone on screen and that didn't happen. Not for me.

Linda Zises
WBAI Women Collective

"TURNING POINTS" Left Forum

The Left Forum, April 17-19, 2009 conference entitled "Turing Points" was larger than years past due to he change in venue. In the post few years the weekend event was held at Cooper Union. This year the "left" community or those who just want to know piled into Pace University the third and sixth floor to hear "what is going on " and what the alternative media and academicians have to say on current events.

Current events of note abound.

From one session to another three to five men stood on their small podium to discuss the depression (here there is no illusion of a repression or slow down of economic malais) with tentative offerings of an assessment of what use we, not them, can make of the moment and where do we go from here.

Where we go from here is an endless topic with lively criticism of the current policies and forecast of doom and gloom for the "risk and speculation" debt driven world that has dominated the economy known as Capitalism.

The grass roots movements seemed small but notable challenges for the rights of people to get what they think government should provide (food, clothing, shelter and the ability to fulfill their potential) while others debated the forecast of another "Bubble" or the dimensions of the crisis and if the crisis is good, leading towards another kind of economic system or bad, leading to a fascistic society where more members of the ruling elite separate themselves further and further from the crowded working/lower class citizens.

Of course there is still debate on if there is a working class and how will this huge debt be paid and by whom and will China loom large or will 'China come down into the mire of the world economy

It was lively, even enjoyable conference with plenty of books and ideas to take home. But the overall complaint as to why Men must be in the forefront and women so neglected as speakers remains in the minds of those who care about such things. Does gender matter?, was not one of the titles of the more than sixty sessions and vegetarianism was frowned upon as being off the map, irrelevant And if one looked around at the participants at the conference it is easy to see why Vegetarianism hasn't taken hold, at least, not for this group of high thinkers and poor eaters.



Linda zises
WBAI women Collective