Trolling (not the bad kind) through the ole inbox today turned up an interesting bit of email from Christine Brooks, PhD and Shayna Korb, two feminist women researchers from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California interested in the spiritual experiences of feminist and activist individuals.
Dear readers, they’d like your perspective for a project they’re currently carrying out on this very topic:
We are two Third Wave feminist researchers with our own strong spiritual leanings and have noticed a lack of information on how our feminist peers live out their own spiritual lives. We’re doing a pilot study on third wave feminists’ experience of spirituality, a study that to our knowledge, has never been studied before.
If you identify as a woman and a third wave feminist and you’re between the ages of 18-40, fill out our short (we estimate under 20 minutes) narrative survey!
Sounds like a cool project!
Want to offer your two cents? You can find more info and the link to the survey here. Happy participating, spiritual third wavers!
It’s Monday. It’s time for the roundup. I’ve only got three goodies for you, but are they ever good.
Coming soon to a Playstation near you: progressive website frequenter Martin Dufresne is designing a video game, and needs, he says, “Egregious SHORT quotes by allegedly Great Men and current antifeminist activists. French essayist Benoîte Groult assembled a full book of such quotes in 1993–’Cette mâle assurance.’ Do you folks know if anyone has done the same for English speakers? Do you have a groaner or two you want to share?” If you do, pass them on to Martin at his Facebook site, or throw them down in the comments section and we’ll pass ‘em on.
This is exciting for the change agents among us. About a week and a half ago at Change.org, blogger Amanda Kloer wrote a post about the fact that credit card company Diners Club had teamed up (sorry, partnered) with a Vietnamese mail-order bride company to offer men a payment plan of sorts, allowing men to buy a Vietnamese woman on credit. As Kloer’s most recent post indicates, her article–and the deluge of protest mail received by Diners Club–forced them to back off and sever their deal with Vietnam Brides International.
You know how L’Oreal (yes, that L’Oreal) and UNESCO have been getting together (oh, sorry again, partnering) to fund women scientists’ research? They’ve just put out a Women and Science booklet, which includes “new profiles, from interviews with young women at the start of their science careers, tell their stories of passion and persistence —what drives and excites them about their work in the sciences.” I’d like to get excited about this, but judging from what blogger Ms. Ph.d. has to say over at Young Female Scientist, things ain’t quite that shiny, happy for women in science at this point.
The end of an era: Millvina Dean, the last Titanic survivor, makes her final voyage.
Alas: after dreaming a dream, Susan Boyle loses out to a dance team.
Too enraging for words: anti-choice “pro-lifer” murders American abortion provider George Tiller. Canadian pro-choice blogs Dammit Janet, Unrepentant Old Hippie, and Birth Pangs express outrage and offer timely commentary on this disturbing situation.
Bet you need something uplifting: the always fabulous Antigone Magazine blog is featuring the latest of their “Dreams for Women” postcards. In your face, patriarchy! Yeah!
Thanks to our crack team of highly trained IT workers, Confabulous now has a couple of badges for you to place on your OWN blog! Just go on over to that shexshay-looking “Are You Confabulous?” button over in the sidebar, click on it, and it’ll take you to a page where you can pick up some HTML and slap it down on your own blog. Show the world the site that gives you the daily dish of politics and pop culture, Canadian-style. Declare yourself a Confabulista!
Dell has a new site set up–quaintly called “Della“–to sell women computers to women (thanks to T for alerting us of this). It seems pretty patronizing, and, as Engadget’s Laura June points out, it’s
a bit disconcerting that they mention “finding recipes,” “counting calories,” and blissing out to “guided meditations” on the Tech Tips page.
Agreed. But I admit, as one who likes nice things, that I’m torn–Della’s pushing some pretty cute and stylin’ laptops. It’s too bad they come wrapped up in such a sucky marketing package.
Thoughts, dear readers? Does Della make you want to run out and buy a sweet new computer to coordinate with your hot new jumpsuit or loincloth? Or do you find this whole marketing attempt just a little (or a lot) insulting to women (hello, Mom’s Night Off Meal and pink vitamins)?
There’s a shake-up goin’ down at Confabulous, fellow confabulators! From now on, a bigger and better Roundup will feature only on Mondays, bringing you the best of the weekend to help ease you back into the workweek. Watch for it!
As you dance around your May Pole, consider labour’s history of May Day.
Team Abstinence? Bitchquestions the allure of the Twilight series. The most recent issue of Msalso takes on Bella and her vampire and werewolf crews.
On a not un-related note–are you looking for a job with a fab feminist mag? Bitch is seeking a new Executive Director.
Throwback! A new bill in the Alberta legislature proposes to allow parents the right to pull their children from classes when homosexuality or evolution are to be discussed.
Swine flu update: Noel Gallagher and the sneeze heard ’round the world.
One more reason for safer sex–the avoidance of paralysis and insurance nightmares.
How’s this for activism? To battle governmental infighting, women in Kenya are instituting a seven-day sex ban. The group behind the action is even willing to compensate sex workers for lost income if they join the protest.
Smashing it up for all the sisters: feminists in London take on sexism and win.
Trolling (not the bad kind) through the ole inbox today turned up an interesting bit of email from Christine Brooks, PhD and Shayna Korb, two feminist women researchers from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California interested in the spiritual experiences of feminist and activist individuals. 
Confabulous badges!
