Tag Archives: Feminism

Jul 25 2023
Posts

Barbenheimer: When Worlds Collide

“Some things have been happening that might be related.”  — Quote from the Barbie film. 

 “Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For this he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity.” — Quote from the opening of Oppenheimer

The quote from the Barbie movie says it all. Not only do worlds collide in both films of the Barbenheimer movie mashup, some things have been happening that might be related in the real world. This essay is part movie review, history lesson, reminiscence, and commentary on the culture and politics of the past — and more concerning — of current events. Oh, My! “It’s a Barbie World.” Continue reading →

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Jun 29 2022
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Rainbow Scare

“The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.” — Maya Angelou

“If the Supreme Court can reverse Roe, it can reverse anything” — Mary Ziegler

Earlier in June, I began to consider a topic for my next blog post. I often begin my writing process with research, reading online, frequently the subject is politics, culture wars, and/or the news of the day. I also reflect on my lived experience and things that pique my curiosity.

I decided on Rainbow Scare and soon after read an opinion piece by Allison Hope. I also became alarmed when the leak occurred earlier in May of the draft Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade and its potential impact overturning settled law. It raised the possibility that the gains we made in the last decades could be undone. We’d essentially go back in time. We could lose reproductive rights, both access to abortions and contraceptives, and for women, the ability to make decisions about what happens to our bodies, plus our LGBTQ+ community may have our marriages nullified and our relationships criminalized. Oh, my! Continue reading →

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Oct 03 2021
Posts

Scenes from a Marriage: Keys to My Life

“Do you think people who live together can ever be completely honest?” — from Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage

Sometimes a series of events coalesce randomly, serendipitously. Such is the case this past month when I began watching the HBO remake of the groundbreaking relationship drama, Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 Swedish TV mini-series, Scenes from a Marriage. When it was originally released in 1973, I had been married for a couple of years to my husband, Frank. We watched the theatrical version released in theaters in the U.S. We were foreign and avant-garde film buffs. Our friend Hal, a French professor at UW – Parkside, curated the campus film society. We attended lots of films together and I learned about the art of filmmaking from Hal and I quickly became a cinephile. Continue reading →

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May 17 2019
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Posts

1968 – Flashback & Fast Forward

“Memories are not the key to the past, but to the future.” — Corrie ten Boom

Every two years, Madison’s Forward Theater launches a monologue festival with a dedicated theme. From their website, “Forward Theater’s biennial monologue festival is back! Featuring a dozen original pieces written just for us by playwrights from across our community and around the nation, this festival celebrates the many different ways creative authors can approach a common subject. Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Wisconsin’s ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, our Two Steps Forward festival will encompass a wide variety of perspectives on and interpretations of our state’s long progressive tradition.” I’ve submitted monologues in the past and did so again this year. Unfortunately, it wasn’t selected. The Two Steps Forward monologue festival will be performed one weekend in June 2019. I suggest you get your tickets now. I have mine! Following is my monologue submission: Continue reading →

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Dec 31 2017
Posts

Finding the Light in Dark Times

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” — Edith Wharton

It seems timely — that on the eve of the New Year and the eve of the January Supermoon — I take a look back at the past year and look ahead to the New Year, while I search for the light to give us hope in what can only be described as dark times.    Continue reading →

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Oct 27 2017
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Posts

Remembering Jane

Jane Rowe 3/25/1932 -10/19/2017 

Jane was many things to many people. To me, she was a friend, the mother of a friend, Michele, the spouse or partner of friends, Carol, Bea, and Elthea, a mentor, a member of a fellowship we shared, and my first sponsor in that fellowship. Together with other women we founded a peer support recovery center WISH (Women in Support and Healing) which continued to sponsor meetings after the doors closed. I had the privilege of recording Jane’s oral history interview for the University of Wisconsin – Madison Libraries Oral History Program, LGBT Community, 1960s-Present. Continue reading →

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Oct 01 2017
Posts

Battle of the Sexes Redux

“It’s just really important that we start celebrating our differences. Let’s start tolerating first, but then we need to celebrate our differences.” — Billie Jean King

“I wanted to use sports for social change.” — Billie Jean King

“You’ve Come a Long Way Baby.” — Virginia Slims cigarette slogan, first sponsor of the women’s tennis circuit which later became the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association).

Each generation experiences firsthand a series of events which become mile markers and touchstones for our lives. The past two weeks, I was reminded, while watching Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s riveting PBS documentary series, The Vietnam War, of being a baby boomer who came of age from preteen to young adult during the Vietnam War. Beginning last year, and continuing this year, I watched documentaries and narrative films about the anniversaries of Civil Rights protest marches, riots, and tragedies, most recently the film Detroit. On Friday, the reminiscing continued when I saw the new film, Battle of the Sexes, chronicling the $100,000 tennis television spectacle between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, billed as the “battle of the sexes,” women’s libber vs. chauvinist pig.  Continue reading →

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Jun 25 2017
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Random Topics II

Mansplaining, Man Buns, and Manspreading 

I introduced the first installment of Random Topics for Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! in October 2015 as follows: “As a blogger, I mine my daily life for topics to write about. I set out to find something timely and meaningful, something that my readers can relate to, a universal message or lesson to discover in my lived experience.  I’m often left to choose from the mundane, or subjects that pique my curiosity. When this happens, the only common theme is the randomness of my choices. Today, I offer three random topics with absolutely no connection or relation to each other at least that I’m aware of at the outset of this essay. Perhaps as I write, I may discover the subtle relationships that bind them together. Life is like that.”  For the most part, the same is true for this new offering in the series, Random Topics II, except man is at the root of every story. It could be more precisely titled, Almost Random Topics.   Continue reading →

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Dec 31 2016
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Posts

Drinking from a Glass Half-Full

“Every last one of us can do better than give up.” —Cheryl Strayed

Looking back at 2016 with gratitude and ahead to the New Year with optimism.

Before you jump to any conclusions — I’m not crazy — 2016 sucked!  I’m not going to rehash all the reasons why, because we all know why, and we’ve talked about it around the virtual, social media water cooler from glasses half-empty for the past year and more.  As we’ve all been reminded by a quote from Albert Einstein (who knew he was the first to say it?), “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Continue reading →

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Nov 12 2016
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Posts

Red Letter Days (and Nightmare Nights)

Red Letter Day

Definition: a day that is pleasantly noteworthy or memorable

Like most of my left-leaning, liberal, tolerant, and progressive friends, family, and neighbors the days leading up to the presidential election were bright. In fact, in the words of friends Pat and Barb MacDonald of Timbuk 3 from their song, “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” the lyrics echoed the optimism that though the race was close, most prognosticators predicted Hillary Clinton had over an 80% chance of reaching or surpassing the 270 electoral college votes needed to secure the election. It was a Red Letter Day that then turned into a nightmare night.  As we all know now, she won the popular vote and lost the election. We were shocked and stunned. Continue reading →

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