Plastics – If You Socialize, Read This

Plastic Cups, Circa 2023 Informal fundraising lunches. Business dinners hosted in the office. Group get-togethers with cocktails and snacks. Chances are you’ve been to at least one of these functions. You slap on a name tag and wade into the crowd, chatting, perhaps making some new connections and becoming thoroughly inspired by the speaker. Or you enter and see no one you know, later nodding off after the artfully arranged dessert but during the way-too-long program. These things happen. You know what else probably happens? You’re probably awash in plastic. And I don’t mean the microplastics that are unseen and…

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Through Women’s Eyes International Film Festival 2023

  Highlights from our 24th Annual Festival on March 9-13, 2023,  included 12 visiting filmmakers, a wonderful Friday night opener introduced by Ringling College President Dr. Larry Thompson, Saturday speakers including pro-choice activist Paxton Smith and Dr Sujatha Prabhakaran (Planned Parenthood Southwest and Central Florida,) yummy food and, of course, so many great films.                

  • Post category:MusingsWomen
  • Reading time:3 mins read
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SOFTIE the Film

Here it is, folks, a cool combo of issues: Kenya, politics, photography, film, and the trade-offs between cause and family. Watch SOFTIE, the award-winning film about Boniface Mwangi, a photojournalist/activist, and candidate in the 2017 Kenya election, then listen to a panel discussion this Friday, April 22nd, at 7 PM EDT. Free AND enlightening. Who could ask for anything more? Sign up here: https://museumofpoliticalcorruption.org/

  • Post category:MusingsWorld
  • Reading time:1 mins read
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A Message to Corporate America

Companies – where are you!?  Asking on behalf of America’s women here! Y’all just gonna let this Texas anti-abortion bill pass and do …nothing? All you companies who pride yourselves on your "diversity," all you companies who market to women, and all you companies who happily line up on breast cancer awareness month: where are you now? You think you can sit this one out?! Y’all just gonna let this one slide because “it doesn’t affect you?” Do you really think this is about ‘religion’ so you should stay away from the issue? Please. Of course it’s not. This is…

  • Post category:MusingsWomen
  • Reading time:2 mins read
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Cuomo: Three Fallacies

Cuomo: Three Conditioned Fallacies That Helped This Abuse Persist The universal privilege accorded white men, especially powerful white American men, is so omnipresent we almost don’t see it. But the Cuomo investigation and subsequent resignation make clear a few things: one, that the vibrancy of the #MeToo movement persists and is benefitting us all. And two, that we need to look more closely at some of the reasons why actions like Cuomo’s persist. I suggest three fallacies that we can learn from. First fallacy: that older (usually white) men are caught in the flux of changing mores and social norms…

  • Post category:MusingsWomen
  • Reading time:4 mins read
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SPOILED – the Film Version. Watch it NOW!

I first began developing the concept that would become SPOILED when I lived in India. I became convinced we needed to look at gender-based violence from a male perspective; it was clear we needed to do more to understand how our societies produce attitudes and behaviors so hostile to women and gender-nonconforming people. Some of you will remember the premiere of SPOILED in 2015 in NYC. Others will recall that UN Women USA was planning to promote a live showing of SPOILED in 2020 during CSW (pre-COVID!) Yet events every day, every week, right here in the USA, remind us…

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Cuomo and Women – Is this Corruption? My .02

Many are struggling with the abuse of power vis a vis women aspect of the Cuomo scandal (I am not addressing the nursing home issue here). People are trying to weigh and value these alleged abuses, often comparing them to the “good” Cuomo has done. They are trying to figure out, in effect: "how bad is this, anyway?"  Our ability to weigh and understand these alleged abuses  - and thus assess Cuomo - relates directly to how we understand and how we weigh women’s rights.   We are in a time of rapid social change around our understandings of the role…

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