Category: feminism

It’s Banned Books Month, and Pen is running a series of blog posts about controversial books. Yesterday, Anna Božičević  had an excellent post about Madame Bovary.

Božičević  starts by talking about the prosecution of the novel after its successful serial run, noting:

it is precisely this contrast between the “true/just/right” and the “good” that is on trial: aesthetic clash manifest.

But it’s not merely aesthetics, or the issue of basic decency, that’s at issue here:

The problem of Emma is the problem of desire. Her only métier is desire, and its top percent, love. Emma lusts for gratification through commodity and body and makes her body the commodity of gratification. And in her self-chosen death, is Emma Bovary not simply a Medusa felled by her own image?

Prosecutor Ernest Pinard wasn’t just concerned with Flaubert’s style; it was the fact that Emma (and her desire) could not be controlled.

But despite being published in 1865, that sense of judgment against uncontrollable women is not over. Božičević notes:

It’s not a tendency in Kristen Stewart, Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan, Whitney Houston, Paz de la Huerta, Courtney Love, Britney Spears, or Cat Marnell that will be allowed by the public censor to pass without judgment. When women, the stuff of art, take their materiality into the freefall zone of de trop, either through imagination or its spectacular fail, Pinard will be there to seek for a person to rule them.

The public censor is loud, especially in the technological age, where we can criticize behavior in minutes thanks to photo and video uploads to social media. And yes, there is a difference between public censorship and worthwhile criticism. You can dislike Twilight without making sexist epithets about Kristen Stewart. You can be bored by Courtney Love’s work without resorting to name-calling or shaming. You can think Keeping Up With the Kardashians is a waste of time, but you don’t need to attempt to silence people. We don’t need to obsess about other people’s behavior (including/especially the behavior of celebrities). People will do what they want, even women, and they deserve better than constant judgment. 

I know that a good chunk of the internet has already posted some excellent snark about this topic (see Sociological Images and Buzzfeed), but it made me laugh so hard that I couldn’t help but share as well.

The BIC corporation decided that they needed to launch a line of pens “for her.” You know, because apparently regular pens are too masculine. We must find them intimidating or something. How dare our writing utensils be androgynous?

What made me really happy, though, is the extent to which consumers have ridiculed BIC for this silly product. I’m thrilled to see consumers recognizing how obnoxious it is to gender products. There is a hilarious string of reviews over at Amazon, calling attention to the fact that women don’t need special pens. Below are a sample of my favorites.

My mother, a hard-working woman who raised twelve kids single-handedly whilst doing all the ironing (as nature intended), was furtively abashed by her illiteracy. Long would she gaze upon her husband and sons’ scrawlings and would dedicate five minutes a day (which she really should have spent making sandwiches) to pray that one day she would be granted the ability to create such scribbles of her own. She’s still a little slow on the uptake, but this product has definitely helped start the ball rolling. We tried to give her men’s pens but she used to rip the cartridges out and drink the ink. Typical woman.

***

My only criticism of these wonderful pens is that I get a bit bored with all 12 looking the same. I get around this my customising each pack. At the moment, the pen I have in use is covered in stripes of glitter and I glued a pink pompom and one of those diamanté charms you get on mobile phones (I couldn’t fit any more on my phone) onto the top. I think BIC should start adding pens like this to their range because some women find it difficult to hold tubes of superglue properly – I asked the 6 year old boy who lives next door to help me.

***

Without the Limited Feminine Hygiene Colour Palette on the packaging, I really struggled to come to terms with my socially constructed norms when shopping for stationery. Thanks, Bic!

***

My husband bought a box of these for me. I was SO excited that, finally, I would be able to write after watching him do it for all these years. My excitement turned to tears when I realized that they do not come with paper-for-her. Please, BIC, consider making some feminine paper products so I can use my new pens.

***

An outrage– who deemed it necessary for women to write things? It’s bad enough when women get their claws on men-pens– but at least they’re harpy claws can’t adequately grasp the “For Him” shape. These “For Her” pens are promising a generation of incorrigible Friedanites– a real danger to this already threatened international climate. Surely, pens “For Her” are harbingers of wild orgies, witchcraft, and, in due time, the feminist-wrought apocalypse. If women can write, they’ll soon be writing employers memos asking for ridiculous things like “equal pay” or “reproductive rights.” Nonsense and poppycock!

***

I bought it simply because it was pink, and shiny, and would go with my outfit. I was going to my first job interview, I was going to be interviewed for a secretary in one of those big offices that are for men. So when I took out this pen to sign my name in the guest book, I felt this weird rush of confidence going through me. I felt…worthy, like I could actually do something more than look pretty, stare blankly and smile.
I got the job and now I am a happy office worker and the only woman in the office.
These pens have changed my life. Girl Power!

***

I used my new pen to write a letter to my local Congressman requesting equal pay for women and a preservation of my reproductive rights… and then the ground began to shake, the world around me crumbled into flames and molten stone, everything went black, and I was torn asunder from the universe. Did I use it wrong????

***

As both man and writer, I perpetually struggle with the expression of dichotomous self – dialogue, in particular, is difficult to resolve fruitfully. Masculinity comes easily, as all male characters can be drawn with a few broad strokes about contact sports, engine capacity and drinking; femininity has always been problematic, however. How does one portray the fickle, vacuous hypersensitivities of the feebler sex?

Now I need look no further. Since beginning to use these pens for scripting my female protagonists, I have found their words to be endlessly forthcoming. They flow from the pretty little nib like so much glutinous compound, and I shall never worry about having nothing to say again. In fact, I shall buy the entire remaining stock so other male writers will be destined to churn out inferior work, and I shall be adored by women the world over for my empathy.

***

Thank you, Bic. The touch of these pens has put me back in touch with my femininity and in doing so, I have fully embraced what it is to be a woman, in all its purple glory. I fully surrender to true womanhood and vow to no longer take part in feminist movements. I now realize we should not strive for equality but focus on what we do best, being pretty, to the point that any tool we use must be decorative and gorgeous. It is imperative that we fulfill our calling and be the womanliest women that we can be. I would recommend that governments dealing with unruly females subsidize these pens and pass them around. They may have the power of preventing feminist revolutions all over the world. These pens could finally bring world peace! Long Live Bic For Her!

***

I was going to buy some regular old pens for a transgender friend of mine to celebrate her transition, but this product has made what should be a simple purchase into a real etiquette problem that is keeping me up at night!

Now I’m not sure if she’d be offended if I got her the other pens, because she might see them as “Pens for Him,” and think that I wasn’t being supportive of her. I want to be respectful, but I’m also worried that if I get these “Pens for Her,” she might not be able to use them and be devastated. I would hope that BIC has taken the Transgender community into account when manufacturing their pens, but I’m not sure I can trust a company that took until 2012 to make pens that were usable by half of our population. Really, I just don’t want to be making any sort of faux pas, and get some pens for my friend that will make her happy. Until then I’m going to have to stick with gender neutral pencils or crayons.

***

It IS a very pretty pen! But I have to say, that 1.0mm tip could stand to be a bit slimmer. Perhaps it’s time for some low-calorie ink?

***

I work in a big Madison Avenue advertising firm. I started out as a secretary, but my dream was to be a copywriter. One day I got my lucky break, writing copy for lipsticks in my spare time, and I was on my way! But no matter how good my ideas were, and no matter how hard I worked, I just couldn’t get the respect I deserved! Then one day, a glamorous, experienced, older woman gave me some really neat advice. “Listen,” she said to me, “You’ll never get anywhere trying to write with one of the boys’ pens. What you need is a woman’s pen. It’s a powerful implement when used correctly.” So I got up the courage to ask our office manager to order me the Bic for Her woman’s pen, and it has changed my life! Thanks to the pretty pink color, and how curvy my writing’s become, I’m getting all kinds of great accounts! Cold cream, bras, even weight-loss devices! Sure, I still don’t really have a husband, or a worthwhile boyfriend, but maybe next year! Thanks, Bic!

***

These are absolutely rubbish at hair removal. Would not buy again. Now my legs and pits are really overgrown and I’m worried everyone will think I’m a feminist.

***

I do not understand why a pen for her is so phallic. Why does a tool of self-expression have to bear the very shape of the symbol of the patriarchy?

Sisters! We have been misled by society for too long. We need £500, a room of our own, and THESE PENS.

Shakespeare’s Sister would have taken the world by storm if she’d had them. Buy them immediately and smash the patriarchy – one love heart dotted ‘i’ at a time.

My only disappointment in this pen is that it only comes in Precious Pink, Blacklisted and Bluestocking. I am looking for a pen that is available in the full 50 shades of gray. Any ideas?

I am a huge fan of the gender binary. Without it, it’s very hard to work out who to oppress. I therefore decided to purchase some razors so I could remove a great deal of hair which was growing out of my body on places such as my shins. I thought this would make me look smooth like a baby, and vulnerable, and also different and deferent to men, so that they could feel I was complimenting and complementing them.
I knew that bic made razors, so I searched and found ‘bic for her’ – this seemed to solve my problem – I am on a low budget so was looking for cheap disposable razors – the slicing off of goosebumps seem mere collateral damage in my quest to appear feminine.
I saw these ‘bic for her’ with their pink box and was so relieved the cheap razors would not sully my bathroom with their orange glare – I was reluctant to run the risk of being misgendered by overnight guests.
And then they arrived and were pens.

I write things, but not often enough to require 12 pens. Seriously – the only feminine person I can think of who produces that many words is Barbara Cartland, and she lies on a chaise longue while someone else writes down her dictation in any case. How many thoughts do you think I have in my pretty pretty head, bic?

Even if I did have a moment of wisdom, I would feel ashamed, keep it secret and hope like hell it would pass before anyone noticed.

Depending on how much you pay attention to the world, you may or may not have heard that writer John Hemingway used the term “Girlfriend Mode” when describing the beginner levels in the videogame Borderlands II. As you can imagine, many of us took issue with that, for what I hope are obvious reasons. (I’m admittedly not much of a videogamer myself beyond Tetris, but my gender has nothing to do with that).

In response to Hemingway, my friend Carly Kocurek (scholar and writer extraordinaire!) wrote a post at her blog entitled “Modes that are more realistic than Girlfriend Mode,” in which:

I was thinking about alternative modes that might actually tell something about how women experience or interact with the broader world.

This piece is funny, but in a way painfully so, because it’s true. Such as the first example:

Hey Pretty Lady Mode  During interactions with nonplayable characters, every nonplayable character will provide commentary on your avatar’s physical experience. Time spent engaging with these NPGs negatively affects your character’s health levels and may encourage the NPGs to continue trying to distract you, but if you ignore or avoid them, they will chase and harass you, which has a more acute impact on health levels.

In addition, there are already some fun additional suggestions in the comments:

Manic Pixie Dream Girl Mode: The character wanders around aimlessly examining every minor detail and won’t stop talking if you get near her. Monster attack rate quadruples while she is in your party because she draws so much attention to herself, but upon entering a new town people are not only friendlier to you, but offer you items at 75% the original cost. Treasure discovery triples, but frequently the treasure is nothing of value to any of your party members except for her. Completely incapable of dropping any items unless her inventory is full, then she may only drop two.

If you have a suggestion, feel free to visit the post and add it to the comments. Carly would love the discussion.

Austin attorney and poet Sheree Rabe is using her writing to raise awareness about a cause that is only getting marginal attention (at best) in American media: over 100 million female babies being fatally neglected in China, India, and other countries. (Link opens to a PDF.)

While China’s one-child policy and its effects on the female population have captured some degree of American attention, the horrors that female children are subjected to after they are born are largely glossed over. News outlets tend to report on the issue of selective abortion, ignoring the ways that female children suffer after birth. Furthermore, this issue is often portrayed as something specific to China. I had no idea, up until a few months ago, how pervasive this issue was in other countries. Nor is it merely about population control; baby girls in many countries lack value because they are considered expensive (they need a dowry to be able to marry), they are considered bad luck, or because they are simply considered less valuable overall than boys.

Sheree has started a blog entitled 100 Million Girls to help raise awareness and encourage activism. The site has links to articles, organizations, and videos that provide information and ways to help out. But the main focus of the site is activist poetry. She has a page featuring poetry from The Sky is a Nest of Swallows, a book put out by the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. She also has an open thread where blog visitors can post their own poetry; I shared my own piece “For Reference,” earlier this week. And finally, Sheree is using her own writing as a form of activism: she is currently at work on a poetry collection designed to raise awareness and propose solutions. I’ve had the privilege of giving her feedback on an early draft of the book, and I can’t wait to see the finished work.

Sheree is not the only person attempting to raise awareness and fight this issue. The Gendercide Awareness Project and Gendercide Watch are two examples of organizations seeking to address the systematic, endemic lack of basic rights and respect for baby girls.

The United States has its fair share of problems, to be sure. But that doesn’t mean we can live in willful ignorance of the abuses that go on elsewhere in the world. It doesn’t mean we can’t help. I also know that people have limited time and money, and struggle to find a way to contribute to every cause, even ones that really matter to them. If you have the time, get involved with one of these groups. If you have money, donate. And if all you can do is spread awareness**, that’s great, too. As I’ve said, this issue does not get nearly enough attention in American media; you helping to raise awareness does a lot.

**Recently, I have had discussions with people on Google+ about the issue of “slacktivism.” Some people have argued that sharing posts on social networks, etc., is ultimately lazy and you can’t consider yourself an activist. My position is that we, as humans, cannot possibly devote 100% of our energies to all the possible ways we could change the world. Do what you can. If the best you can do is help spread the word, that’s great.

Last week on Google+, someone I follow linked to the Con Anti-Harassment Project. The mission is simple, but powerful:

The Con Anti-Harassment Project is a grass-roots campaign designed to help make conventions safer for everyone. Our aims are to encourage fandom, geek community and other non-business conventions to establish, articulate and act upon anti-harassment policies, especially sexual harassment policies, and to encourage mutual respect among con-goers, guests and staff.

I’m not a regular con-goer; I’ve only had two con experiences in my life (ArmadilloCon in 2010 and 2011). Both of my experiences were overwhelmingly positive, and I look forward to attending again. However, not all cons and con experiences are created equal (hence the problem, I suppose), and I seem to be in the lucky minority of women who do not face harassment at conventions.

I should not be in this minority, and I should not consider myself “lucky” that I’ve never been subject to unwelcome encounters at a convention. I also hate to think that if I return to ArmadilloCon this year (which I probably will), I run the risk of getting harassed because my luck has run out. I hate hearing from female friends and acquaintances that their con experience was tainted because some people thought that they had the right to interfere with personal space, or refuse to take no for an answer. So I was really happy to find out that this Project exists.

The Project has a three-point plan that it encourages con committees to adopt and implement. They also have a database of cons and what their specific policies are. And if you’re concerned that your con of choice doesn’t have a comprehensive enough policy, or doesn’t think that harassment is a problem with their con, CAHP is hosting a letter-writing campaign to help raise awareness. And if you’re going to a con and want to know what to do in case a situation arises, check out the Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Project and Gentlemen’s Auxiliary (comprehensive enough to warrant a post of its own).

Thank you, CAHP, for existing, and for helping to create safer, happier con experiences for everyone.