Innovations in Action 2

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Innovations in Action

View Innovations in Action in a larger map

Healthy Couples and Screwed Individuals

My new favorite blog, Think Progress, linked to an article in the LA Times today that reports the results from a recent Kaiser Family Poll stating that 7% of Americans say that they or someone in their family married in the past year in order to obtain health insurance.

Health insurance is way too expensive. But we already knew that. What's really upsetting is that individuals are having to decide between their independence and health insurance. That single people would be left unprotected while married couples are only tenuously protected (as long as one member of the couple remains employed) just goes to further illustrate the anachronistic (and institutionalized) perception in our society of marriage as "right" and singledom as "wrong." Furthermore, and much worse really, it also illustrates how our government refuses to take responsibility for the health of its citizens, leaving individuals and couples to scramble for even meager and expensive coverage in any way they can. Even if it means getting married to a boring and smelly someone with great health care coverage. Though, perhaps the health care coverage would at least take care of the smell. And with all the advances in medical technology, who knows, perhaps soon enough we'll have a cure for boredom as well!

My New Favorite Source of McCain Bashing Material

I was recently made hip to thinkprogress.org by my roommate and good friend, Mel. It is awesome! This blog is all over McCain and I'm all about it slash totally freaked out that he could be our next leader if we don't get it together by November.

Good to Know that if I Ever Need to Make Some Real Money I Can Reach for a Donut

This afternoon, in the gorgeous, early spring sunshine, I was walking home from my subway stop in Brooklyn. And as I innocently enjoyed the way the sun bounced along the wind shields of passing cars, my confident stride was interrupted by a dismissive and loud grunt from an old man standing on his front stoop. "You gotta gain at least ten pounds. Then you'd be worth $100 an hour. Maybe even $200," he enthusiastically, and not unkindly, announced as I passed.

Good to know I have an additional option as I contemplate future career moves. An option that includes lots of big meals full of carbohydrates and hours of sitting in front of the T.V. watching reruns of 90210. How come the career counselor at college never mentioned this in one of our many unproductive meetings?

Saving Superwoman

I just saw the teaser trailer for Frank Miller's new film, The Spirit. It looks like a sequel to Sin City even though it isn't being billed as such: Overly stylized, hyper-nostalgia for a kind of caricature of masculinity that (thank goodness) never actually existed. His aesthetic makes those old radio stories about The Shadow seem down right feminine. You know, in a bad way.

Luckily, today, I stumbled onto an awesome article by Shannon Cochran called "The Cold Shoulder: Saving Superheroines from Comic-book Violence" on Bitch Magazine's website. It is the perfect antidote to the two minutes I wasted in Frank Miller's world.

After discussing the distressing trend in popular comic publishing where female superheroes die, are tortured, or lose their powers in degrading and painful manners at alarming rates and in disgustingly sexualized or strangely celebrated ways, the article goes on to highlight websites and women that have taken a stand against this niche form of sexism.

Gail Simone's website, Women in Refrigerators, lists superwomen that died untimely deaths, were tortured or depowered. She says that her list is so shocking because it started out as a game:

I and some male friends started making a list of the characters that had been killed, mutilated, or depowered (also a telling trend, as the more powerful a female character was, the more likely it was that she would lose those powers). It was shockingly long, and almost no one in the already small pool of valid superheroines escaped the wave of gynocentric violence.

Another site worth checking out is Project Girl Wonder founded by Mary Borsellino who hopes that is will

stand like a watchdog. We’re working on forging contacts with media groups, so that the next time DC or Marvel try to do something as sickening as [unjustifiably and violently killing off a female hero], they’ll have to consider that there’s this group of very noisy, very angry feminists watching their every move and hitting their speed-dial as they do it.

I like that idea. And while I know that no amount of feminist noise on the internet is going to make Frank Miller's hyper masculine world where women are beautiful, young prostitutes with guns, bad attitudes and soft spots for their men (i.e. props to be objectified and killed off for plot purposes or in order to make the manly men even more masculine (dear god, is it even possible?)) less appealing to a mainstream audience. It is heartening to know that noise is being made at all. And, as Cochran's article points out, someone seems to be listening. DC is re-releasing Batwoman's story. And now she's not only fighting crime, she's dating women on her off-time.

Hopefully, Batwoman will be strong and capable enough to navigate the streets of Gotham City on her own. But it can’t hurt that there’s a legion of real-life Girl Wonders to watch her back. We’ve lost enough of our heroines already.

Amen. Also, when do you think they'll make of a movie out of this comic?

Shrinking Violets

This web piece, discussed over at Pandagon, is scary mostly because it rings so true. Mob Logic found that, when confronted with a person conducting interviews in public, women tend to avoid answering questions more than men. Women tend to pass on an interview altogether or defer to the man standing next to them. Often men will just jump in and speak for the women they are with, allowing the ladies to pass on even having to decide whether or not to answer.

Why this is the case seems obvious to me. Pandagon does a good enough job of answering that question but I'm so heated about it I'll summarize it here as well: Women learn early on that we are considered dim or superficial until proven otherwise. This puts a lot of pressure on every word that comes out of our mouths. One wrong sentence or fact and we will have provided more than enough evidence to confirm what is already "known": we don't know anything. It's better to remain quiet until there is a situation where we can be sure to best represent our brain power (if we even want to do that-it's not like we are conditioned to think smart women are especially foxy anyway. And being foxy is what counts in the long run. Duh!)

This piece gave me horrible flashbacks of middle school. That was about the time I started to realize that I was talking too much and wearing makeup not enough. But we were all promised that real life wasn't really like middle school. You know, if you survive 7th and 8th grade and then graduate high school it will be alright. The real world, I was led to believe, is full of rainbows, puppies and little pink chicks, and respect and acceptance for every one, no matter their gender, race, sexuality, or economic status. Where are those damn pink chicks!?