Talking feminism on TV

UPDATE 8/25: Watch the full broadcast here.

I’ve promoted this appearance like crazy on Facebook and Twitter, but somehow, I left it off my own blog. On Aug. 17, I was on Connections with Renee Shaw, which is broadcast on KET. The broadcast will air again tomorrow, Aug. 19, and a few more times after that. On her blog, “Prompter,” Renee describes me as a “writer, performer, public speaker, and feminist … denouncing the “isms” of society – sexism, racism and the social injustices they birth.” Yes, I’ve said those things about myself, too, but it’s a lofty goal to live up to. Hope you can catch one of the broadcasts to see how I did. Here’s a preview of the show:

 

A link to the full broadcast will be posted after the 23rd.

UPDATE 8/19: I have to note that this was taped before Gabby Douglas won two gold medals in the 2012 London Olympics and before Mitt Romney named Paul Ryan his VP. Hearing the happy note about black women celebrating black women struck me as odd after the (faux?) controversy over Douglas’ hair. Sometimes I’m not sure whether we’re celebrating each other or finding ways to chip away at celebratory moments. It also looks like all the topics I talk about will continue to be big ones as this country decides what kind of country it wants to be, what kind of role government should play, who should take care of whom and what individual liberty means.

Also, I have to say I regret not being able to find the word “misogyny” during the interview on Connections, specifically when talking about “Miss Representation” and why more women don’t run for office. When Phillip Bailey asked Kentucky Sect. of State Alison Lundergan Grimes on his show, Noise and Notes, if it’s misogyny that keeps women out of politics, I said to the radio, “Yes.”  I made a terrible gaffe in my interview: It was far more detrimental than female candidates being “made fun of”; they were harassed, attacked and demeaned. Hillary Clinton was a “nutcracker,” a figure of non-sexual power meant to be feared by men. Sarah Palin was referred to as a good masturbation tool. I make no pretense–I don’t like the woman, and I suspect she’s gotten rewarded in life more for her looks than for her brains–but to reduce a candidate running for second chair to the highest office in the land to an object to get men off is appalling. No woman should have to go through that, and it is the misogynistic, patriarchal view that women are useless unless they’re bearing children that’s at the root of these kinds of attacks and that allows messages of inferiority and of, “you should only feel good about yourself, your intellect, your talent and your goals if you look like a good breeder,” to keep girls from thinking about leadership. But there is some light at the end of this tunnel.

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