Me again

I seem to have a lot to say all of a sudden.  After last week's discussion and article, I just wanted to call everyone's attention to the "news" (reported yesterday) that boys are not innately better at math (gasp!).  It seems that girls and boys are doing equally well on standardized math tests - take that author whose name I've already forgotten!!

That being said, the same is not true of Minnesota.  According to the Star Tribune, while Minnesotan girls and boys perform at the same level on standardized math tests through the eighth grade, by the time they reach eleventh grade girls fall behind.

I fail at computers...

Okay, here's the actual website:

http://www.feminist.org/sports/titleIXfactsheet.asp

Women in Athletics

I'm currently procrastinating from studying for the GRE.  Lucky for me, I am able to justify my procrastination by catching up on my news, etc.  Since the article we read a couple weeks ago about Title IX was a little old, I thought you guys might find this website interesting.  This specific page has a few facts about Title IX and there are links to other pages that give more information on the law and its history.  

The fact I found most provocative? "Title IX compliance has been driven by law suits and the threats of law suits.  Although the law states that schools that violate TItle IX will lose their federal funding, in thirty years no school has ever lost federal funding for not complying with Title IX."  Hmm... just some food for thought.

Speaking of body image...

My aunt sent me this (don't ask me where she found it, she sends me tons of weird stuff--she's pretty cool) and I thought it was pertinent to our discussion a couple of weeks ago. I was pretty speechless when I first saw it. And I can't believe that she hasn't had ANY health issues due to her corset. Her intestines and stomach are like IN her uterus. UGH. Anyway, thought you'd like to see it. ENJOY!! Here is the link.

Local Legal Issues That Ties In To Our Most Recent Discussion

Hey, all.

The Star Tribune is the middle of a three-part series about the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP), a program  that is under fire because it costs a lot of tax money and has yet to release anyone who has been "civilly comitted" to the program.

Check it out at www.startribune.com/offenders

 

A link!

I found this site about singles rights while reading Bust magazine and I thought it was pretty interesting. I never knew there was a line of activism that was pro-singles. That's pretty neat.

Killing Us Sofly 3

Because there were only three of us at the meeting today, and it is a pretty important and eye-opening topic, I thought I would post the link to the video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1993368502337678412&q=killing+us+softly+3&ei=7zY6SMX4H6Gm4QKU_cjoAw
I'm sure we'll refer to this video next time, so you should watch it. And if you are so inspired, you can bring an ad as well.

Guess what?! You don't have to read this Sunday.

We're going to mix it up a little bit this week. Instead of reading and then discussing the articles in our meeting tomorrow, we're going to bring in advertisements and watch a movie in our meeting tomorrow.

The movie is "Killing Us Softly 3" and it was created by Jean Kilborne. Some of you may have heard about it before. It deals with the portrayal of women in the media, but specifically within advertisements and what they mean for our society. So thinking on that same page, it would be great if you guys could bring in a few advertisements yourselves and we could discuss them after the movie. I've found that designer clothing advertisements are the most offensive...just to start you off. And household cleaning supplies...You get the point. So anyway, see you tomorrow!!!

Oh, and Derek won't be there...he's off scampering in the woods somewhere...so you'll have to deal with just me. Hopefully that won't be too horrible for you guys.

So it just occurred to me that I can't actually go see the play this Sunday because of silly wedding in North Dakota ridiculousness. Could we maybe go on the 29th? Unless no one else can go that day, then I'd just be, you know, out, as it were.

Cool website

Hi folks!

Since I almost never get a chance to participate in Sunday discussions due to work, I thought I'd share a link to a website I had forgotten about until today.
The organization and design leaves much to be desired, but there's a ton of information there from a feminist perspective on a topic I'm not sure we've devoted much time to (although, perhaps you have discussed and I just missed it. Either way.). One of the fascinating aspects of this site is how much of the info and research is enhanced with commentary by actual women. Good site. Much fun.

Take care,
Kris