Are we still in the in the 1950s?

Bettina Arndt could have me fooled with her argument that married women should have sex with their husbands even if they don't feel like it. It's even more shocking because it's coming from a women.

We live in a screwed up world!

Extract taken from age article about interviews conducted with men who use prostitutes:

Nonetheless, most men said they viewed their interaction with prostitutes as a business contract in which payment entitles them to treat the women any way they like. Women surrender the right to say no to anything once they accept a customer's money, many said.

"Prostitutes are a product, like cereal," said one man. "You go to the grocery, pick the brand you want, and pay for it. It's business."

Veganism and Feminism

I am not a food blogger. I have been posting a lot about food lately but I still intend to post non food posts. If I had my ideal blog I would have amazing food pics with feminist and other issue posts. Food photography is not one of my skills however and I don't seem to have the energy at the moment for all of my feminist and other more thoughtful posts. I think I just miss Sour Duck's feminist blog and kind of fell out of the loop with other feminist bloggers apart from Shrub who I still read and love.

Anyway, it saddens me that feminism and veganism don't go hand in hand together. In my mind they are so related as are other issues such as human rights. They all have exploitation in common and much more. So I can't help but get disappointed when PETA use female body images to sell animal rights/veganism and that when I point it out to vegans they don't see what is wrong with it. Or that there are 100+ posts on what is wrong with calling a man a 'girl' in a vegan forum with many thinking that it fine to call a man a 'girl' as a insult. Or that feminist blogs don't discuss animal rights. I don't think single issue approaches are the best way at all. I don't want to go into discussions about any of that right now because I just don't have the energy to argue and be sad about it.

I am glad to see posts like Gary Francione's recent one called postmodern feminism and animal welfare: perfect together because they bring the two issues together. But I feel a little torn reading it. I agree with parts of it but feel that I can not completely support it. Perhaps it is because I sit somewhere between a 'postmodern feminist' and 'radical feminist' in terms of his definitions and actually tend to be closer to a 'radical' feminist. I've never thought of myself as radical in any sense of the word. Or perhaps it because I am not completely anti-animal welfare. I think I need to sit with it for a little while but I would love to know your thoughts. Here is a preview:

The animal welfare movement makes people feel more comfortable about animal exploitation just as the postmodern feminists make people feel better about participating in the exploitation of women. You can be a “feminist” as you enjoy a lap dance at a strip bar; you can be an “animal rights” person as you eat your “cage-free” eggs or meat that is approved by animal protection organizations.

Female friendly films*

Here it is as promised, my only question is where do I put it? I was thinking about putting in on my sidebar but it's much longer than I anticipated. It's made up mostly of your suggestions. S0 feel free to advise me of any that I have missed.

• A League of Their Own (1992)
• A Month in the Country
• A Walk on the Moon (1999)
• Adam's Rib (1949)
• All About Eve (1950)
• All About My Mother (1999)
• Amelie
  
• Amy's O (2002)
• Antonia's Line (1995)
• Beaches (1988)
• Being Julia (2004)
• Belle de jour
• Belleville Rendez-Vous (U.S. Title: the Triplets of Belleville)
• Better Than Chocolate (1999)
• Born in Flames
• Boys on the Side
• Bridget Jones's Diary
• Bubble (2005)
• But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)
• Calendar Girls (2003)
• Carol's Journey (2002)
  
• Citizen Ruth (1996)
• Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989)
• Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
• Foxes (1980)
• Frida (2002)
• Fried Green Tomatoes
• Ghost World (2001)
• Ginger Snaps (2000)
• Girl, Interrupted (1999)
• Gloomy Sunday (1999)
• Gone With the Wind
• Handmaid's Tale
• Heathers (1989)
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
• High Art
• Iris (2001)
• Iron Jawed Angels (2004)
• Jawbreaker (1999)
• Julia (1977)
  
• Kissing Jessica Stein (2002)
• Last Night (1998)
• Like Water for Chocolate (1992)
• Little Women (1994)
• Live Nude Girls Unite! (2000)
• Lolita (1962)
• Ma Vie En Rose (1997)
• Maria Full of Grace (2004)
• Mermaids (1990)
• Metropolis (1927)
• Miss Congeniality
• Monsoon Wedding (2001)
• Moonstruck
• Muriel's Wedding (1994)
• My summer of Love (2004)
  
• Nana (2005)
  
• Next Stop Wonderland (1998)
• Nights of Cabiria (1957)
• Nine to Five (1980)
• Norma Rae (1979)
• North Country (2005)
• One True Thing
• Osama (2003)
• Persona (1967)
• Polish Wedding (1998)
• Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
• Queen Christina
• Queen Margot (1994)
• Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
• Real Women Have Curves (2002)
• Room with a View
• Ruby in Paradise
• Saved! (2004)
• Saving face (2004)
• Scenes from a Marriage (1974)
• Secret and Lies
• Secretary (2002)
• Sex and Lucia (2002)
• Sexual Dependency (2003)
• Silkwood
• Something's Gotta Give
• Sophie's Choice (1982)
• Starstruck (1982)
• Steel Magnolias (1989)
• Sunset Boulevard (1950)
• The Accused
• The Hours (2002)
• The Joy Luck Club (1993)
• The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
• The Philadelphia Story
• The Piano
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
• The Stepford Wives (1975)
• The Stepmother
• The Terminator
• The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
• The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
• The Women (1939)
• Thelma & Louise (1991)
• They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
• Rebecca
• Times Square (1980)
• Tipping the Velvet (2002)
• Transamerica (2005)
• Vagina Monologues: Eve Ensler (2002)
• Vera Drake (2004)
• Victor / Victoria (1982)
• Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996)
• Whale Rider (2003)
• While You Were Sleeping
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
• Woman of the Year (1942)
• 10 things I hate about you
• 301/302 (1995)

*disclaimer: I can't guarantee that you will enjoy any of the films.

I'm sick of poor white guy movies

Mr T and I love movies. Especially now that he joined acmi library and our video shop around the corner is relatively cheap.

The one genre that Mr T and I both enjoy is art house. You may think with art house that you might get a bit of variety but not really. I am so sick of watching movies told by and based on white men's problems. Poor guy struggles to get a girlfriend, struggles to get a job, to be popular, to be successful, with health problems, with family. Blah, blah, blah, blah!

Yes I know that while white males hold plenty of privilege they also may have lots of problems. I'm just sick of watching stories based on their lives, told by them. I just don't want to be silenced as a woman in movies. I want women to have voices and lots of different types of voices.
God females make up close to half of the population why can't movies reflect that? Why can't half the movies be told by females, about females and have great female roles. Not females that need to be saved, that only date popular guys, that are superficial, that are 'sluts', that play games. I guess part of the problem is that female producers are not as common as male producers, but then even female producers tell male stories not female stories. So maybe it is that female stores are not validated and supported financially and I'm sure that living in a patriarchy doesn't help the situation. Whatever the reason, though females have problems that need to be told from female perspectives. Yes I know these movies exist but no way near enough.

As for the white issue, we watch a lot of international films especially Chinese films but there seems to be even less of them told by females. It's easier to fix the white issue, unfortunately there is no section for female movies. Maybe the video store could implement a very small shelf just made up of movies told by female characters.

I've decided to try and comply a list of films that I have watched that are told by female characters starting now. Feel free to add to the list. I'm not going to start right now as it is too difficult to come up with a huge list of films to begin with, I will start with the next one I see, it might be a couple of weeks though.

Me=Bad

I've been thinking all week that I will post about women's issues particularly issues about women's rights around the world or events for international women's day but there I go just posting about food again.

It's been pretty quite in the event front except for North cote social club hosting a special night with all female musicians called 'play like a girl'. But that's too late now. :-(

So instead I can direct to you other great blogs:
Richie writes a great response here about privilege in the same line as Andrea's post at Official Shrub.

Another great unrelated post over at Feminist, unmodified on a comment on 'young feminists' versus 'feminists of previous generations'.

The initial comment about femininity has been kind of niggling away at me. Mr T and I got into a kind of unusual argument the other day. He was arguing that he doesn't understand why I bother with traditional hair removal (I shave my underarms, legs, and pluck my eyebrows). While I agree with him that it's not fair that women are expected to remove all of that hair while men are not expected to. Whatever way you look at it, is unnecessary and well just not fair. Why is it gross on a woman but not a man? While I understand this inequality, I am so socially conditioned that I can't break through with leaving hair because I hate the idea of someone thinking of me as 'gross' and well I have heard those terms too often in response to female underarm or leg hair. Don't get me wrong when I see other women with underarm hair or whatever I am not grossed out instead I want to say 'good on you'. I just can't seem to do it myself. Mr T said 'if he was a female he simply wouldn't remove the hair' to which I was quite annoyed with because it is simply unfair for him to make that remark as a man. It's like me saying 'If I was Asian I would argue with my parents' or 'If I was in a relationship with another woman I would show public displays of affection everywhere'. It's very easy to sit there from another side and argue 'if....' but let's face it you really don't know what it's like til you have experienced it and dominant culture is quite powerful.

Ok it's not much for a women's day post but better than nothing.