The Latina women’s vote matters!  Join us tomorrow, September 21st at 1:00 pm EST for our second voter registration tweetchat.  This time we’ll discuss voter registration for Latina women.  Fem2.0 will be joined by special guest Maria Theresa Kumar (@MariaTeresa1), president of  VotoLatino (@votolatino) and MSNBC contributor.

We need your participation!  Bring all of your questions about voter ID laws, voter registration, issues you’re passionate about, and Maria will answer them. She’ll also tell you how to inspire and mobilize Latina women to register and vote.

To follow along, ask questions, and join the conversation, use hashtag #votolatino.  We look forward to hearing from you tomorrow!

Image Credit Voto Latino.

From registration to mobilization, this election has its challenges. But with a little help from some friends, AAUW and Fem2pt0 are ready to take it all on.

This Tuesday, September 18, at 2 p.m. ET, we’re hosting a tweetchat to tackle questions about voter registration and inspiration. Sandra Fluke will be on hand to talk about how to inspire and motivate women voters, while Dan Vicuna, a staff attorney with Fair Elections Legal Network, will answer questions about voter registration and ID laws. Submit your questions early and follow along on Twitter by using the hashtag #itsmyvote.

Oh, and if you’re looking for some material to prep with, check out Sandra Fluke’s voting pep talk and read up on our It’s My Vote campaign. You’re registered to vote, right?

This post is originally published Our Voice Our Vote and is cross-posted with permission.

Image via Our Voice Our Vote

Tonight in New York City, outside of NBC headquarters, there will be a protest calling for the cancellation of “Stars Earn Stripes.”  What was NBC thinking when they green-lighted a reality show where celebrities try out military training for sport?  If you watched the Olympics at all, you’ve seen the commercials of celebrities in army gear in what looks like an action movie.  A show that NBC believes is, “pay[ing] homage to the men and women who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces and our first-line responder services.”  But simulated war should not be reality TV entertainment.  If anything this will be completely disrespectful to the women and men who have experienced the realities of war.

Tonight’s protest is supported by nine Nobel Peace Laureates; Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984), Jody Williams (1997), Mairead Maguire (1977), Dr. Shirin Ebadi (2003), President José Ramos-Horta (1996), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (1980), President Oscar Arias Sanchez (1987), Rigoberta Menchú Tum (1992) and Betty Williams (1977).  The Laureates recently sent a letter to the Chairman of NBC Entertainment asking for the show’s cancellation.  In their letter they explained that, “It is our belief that this program pays homage to no one anywhere and continues and expands on an inglorious tradition of glorifying war and armed violence.  Military training is not to be compared, subtly or otherwise, with athletic competition by showing commercials throughout the Olympics.  Preparing for war is neither amusing nor entertaining.”  This show will only cause further public desensitization of war and violence.

The Laureates go on to explain that, “Trying to somehow sanitize war by likening it to an athletic competition further calls into question the morality and ethics of linking the military anywhere with the entertainment industry in barely veiled efforts to make war and its multitudinous costs more palatable to the public.”  Do you agree?  Will you be protesting this show?  

The protest is tonight at 5 PM outside NBC headquarters: 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112.

If you’re not in the NYC area, you can still tell NBC to cancel “Stars Earn Stripes” by signing the petition.

You can also tweet @NBC to cancel @NBCStarsStripes and use the hashtag #WarIsntEntertainment.

Read the full letter from the Nobel Peace Laureates: http://nobelwomensinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Laureates-Letter_War-Isnt-Entertainment-08-13-12.pdf?ref=204

Photo Credit The U.S. Army via the Creative Commons License.

August is always a slow month except when it comes to Feminist events! Because we know it’s hard for everybody to keep up with of all of them and we don’t want you to miss anything, here’s what we know is coming up:

It’s time to end victim blaming and slut shaming! Tomorrow, Saturday August 11, do not miss SlutWalk D.C 2012. It will begin in Lafayette Square and march down 15th St, NW to the Washington Monument. The speakers will be at the Sylvan Theatre Stage.

Feminist Press’s Annual FP Hamptons Fundraiser is August 12.  Feminist Press has been publishing the work of authors promoting choice and equality since 1970.  Help them continue their great work  – check out the event details here.

On August 18th join March & Rally against the War on Women in Washington, DC! Find more info about the rally here.

Do something different for your lunch break next week.  Join National Museum of Women in the Arts In-Gallery Conversation Pieces on August 15^th, part of their 25^th anniversary celebration. While you are there take a look at some other great exhibits as the 25 x 25: Artists’ Books.

Got an event coming up or a tip to share? Let us know!

Photo Credit david_shankbone via the Creative Commons License.

This piece was cross-posted from Blog For Choice, NARAL Pro-Choice America

Last night, NARAL Pro-Choice America hosted our Roe v. Wade 39th anniversary dinner. The event brought together pro-choice stars from the political, activist, and entertainment worlds.

The theme for this year’s event was “It’s Politics. It’s Personal. It’s Choice.” Our brilliant speakers weaved this theme into the evening’s celebrations, and drew upon the importance of connecting personal experiences with all that’s going on in the political arena.

Susie Essman, who played the sassy Susie Greene for all seven seasons of the critically-acclaimed HBO comedy series, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” was our mistress of ceremonies.

Susie’s opening remarks drew a standing ovation–especially after she highlighted the dangers women face should any of the anti-choice Republican candidates for president win in November:

If any of these candidates reach the White House the only way to protect my reproductive rights will be to declare my womb a corporation.

Rosalyn Levy Jonas, board chair of NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, also shared a personal story about seeking abortion care as a young woman, and then later, starting a family with her husband. In a moving call to action, she invited the guests to stand if they or someone they knew had ever sought abortion care.

The entire room stood.

“We do not wear scarlet letters,” she said. True.

It’s that personal element that underscores the importance of our political movement: the basic notion that women–the women we know–are the ones best equipped to make the personal, private decision that is right for them and their families.

We honored the D.C. Abortion Fund with our 2012 Champion of Choice Award. The D.C. Abortion Fund is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization that makes grants and no-interest loans to D.C.-area women who cannot afford the full cost of abortion care. Read more about this amazing organization.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, put into stark relief the contrast between President Obama’s pro-choice administration and a potential anti-choice Republican one:

Just last week, the Obama administration stood up to intense lobbying from anti-contraception groups and made a decision that will guarantee insurance coverage of birth control without a copay for millions of American women. This is a huge victory.

Every time a woman goes to the pharmacy and picks up her birth control without a copay we are reminded of why it matters to have a friend in the White House.

The bottom line: ELECTIONS MATTER.

That’s why I believe that, at the end of the day, our determination will crush their anti-choice hypocrisy.

At NARAL Pro-Choice America, we are ready for the battle of 2012.

And speaking of 2012, the event’s keynote speaker was Patrick Murphy, a former two-term U.S. representative from Pennsylvania. Patrick was one of our brightest pro-choice stars in the House.

Patrick was the first Iraq War veteran to be elected to Congress, and was a professor of constitutional law at West Point–not the sort of guy our anti-choice opponents relish going up against when debating a woman’s fundamental, constitutional right to privacy.

He rallied the room to action in 2012:

Because of you, we have a President that worked with Congress to make sure women have access to contraceptives.

Because of you we had a Congress that said being a woman is no longer going to be considered a pre-existing condition.

We’re going to look back on this election and say: “that was the turning point.”

Let’s keep fighting to make sure it’s a turning point in the right direction.

We’re only getting started. We’ll fight every day in 2012 to make sure that this is the year we stop the War on Women.

Paid for by NARAL Pro-Choice America, www.ProChoiceAmerica.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

Check photos from the event here.

Reading Materials

Robert Massie has written another fascinating book, Catherine the Great. I bought it two days ago, and since then, I haven’t put it down. The story is about Sophia Augusta Fredrika von Anhalt Zerbst, a relatively unknown princess of minor German nobility, who traveled to Moscow to marry her second cousin, Peter, and became one of the most important and famous rulers in European history: Catherine the Great, Empress and Autocrat of all the Russia. For more information about the book, click here.

As we approach the end of 2011, we took a look back at some of our favorite books.  Here is a list with the best books of 2011 from The New York Times.  What are some of your favorite reads?

Events

The DC Abortion Fund’s annual Peace, Joy, and Choice holiday party and fundraiser is on Monday, December 12. Buy your tickets ahead of time online and enjoy yourself at One Lounge. For more info, click here.

Are you living in London or are you planning to be there next weekend? If the answer is yes to either, then do not miss the Muff March on Harley Street, next Saturday, December 10th. Marchers will be speaking out against surgeons profiting from body hatred and raising awareness about the growing pressures on women to seek labiaplasty. For more info, click here.

Check out this infographic to get a sense of what America’s obsession with beauty is costing us!  One has to ask – is this really healthy?

Via: Online MBA Blog

I Love Myself When I Am Laughing…And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive, a unique anthology with 14 examples of Hurston’s work on fiction, journalism, folklore and autobiography will be released in the beginning of November from Feminist Press. This unique publication establishes Zora Neale Hurston as the intellectual and spiritual leader of the next generation of black writers. For more information, click here.

Anne Enright’s heroine in her latest book, The Forgotten Waltz, is Gina, an IT consultant who is in a relationship with a married man. Anne’s book is about relationships, connections, and the role of the family in people’s lives as she follows Gina on her journey. For more information about this novel of intelligence, passion and distinction, click  here.

Events

From Nov. 2-10, WIN will host its annual Week of Events – a fantastic way of new and old members to become more involved with WIN, exchange ideas, and learn more about young pro-choice Democratic women. For more information, click here.

On November 1st, the Barnard Center for Research on Women will host the event, What’s on Your Plate? The History and Politics of Food. Hilary Callahan, Kim F. Hall, Deborah Valenze, and Paige West will talk about the social, geopolitical, rhetorical, and environmental factors that influence food, including items as ordinary as sugar, coffee, milk, and corn. For more information, click here.

In her latest book, If This Is Paradise, I Want My Money Back, author Claudia Carroll’s gives us another great and entertainment book with her cheeky writing style. Because every character is strong, self-supporting and interesting, it allows the reader to remain engaged in every single scene. The main character is Charlotte Grey. She comes back to the earth to protect her boyfriend James but whatever decision she makes, it creates problems. For more information click here.

The Feminist Press brings back to print the book And the Bridge is Love  by Faye Moskowitz. A book with personal essays from a great Jewish American novelist. The author talks about the significant people of her Jewish childhood during the Depression and her experiences as a teacher, activist, parent, and writer. For more information click here.

Events

Join Feminism2.0 on October 27th. We’ll be participating in Purple Thursday by gathering in Farragut Square in DC. If you’re in the area wear purple, stop by for some Hersey kisses and a group picture. If you’re not in DC or you can’t get to Farragut Square – not to worry, you can still join in! Wear purple, take a picture and share it with us! We’ll post them right here. Now there’s no excuse not to, so follow the link and RSVP .

A book reading and a photo presentation of Nepal is happening this Thursday at the One More Page Books in Virginia. The book I Taste Fire, Earth, Rain describes the story of a woman and her solo trip to Nepal, her marriage with a Sherpa and their cross-cultural relationship. For more information about the event click here.

In his new novel The Marriage Plot, author Jeffrey Eugenides takes a closer look at the life of three characters, as they try to find their way through college and the risks of the real world after graduating from college.  The main heroine of the book is Madeleine. An English major student at Brown University, she is writing her thesis on the “marriage plot”. For more information about the book click here.

In Elizabeth and Hazel: The Women of Little Rock  David Margolick describes the story of the two central figures in one of the most recognizable photographs of the civil rights era. The author interviewed both women and in his latest book, he describes their relationship and their painful journey, as they progress from apology to forgiveness to reconciliation and, at the end to friendship. For more information about the book click here.

Events

On Friday October 14th the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence is preparing for a very exciting Flash Mob. The goal is to raise awareness about the importance of fostering healthy, safe and loving relationships and communities in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month! Come and share with us your amazing dance skills while you help to send domestic violence and create healthy relationships. Please RSVP here.

On Saturday October 15th join other student leaders for a free University Student Leadership Council Training to learn more about how you can get involved and end relationship violence. The University Leadership Council is a new project of DCCADV. To learn more about joining the council or participating in the training email Andrea Gleaves.

Save the date and join Feminism2.0 on October 27th. We’ll be participating in Purple Thursday by gathering in Farragut Square in DC. If you’re in the area wear purple, stop by for some Hersey kisses and a group picture. If you’re not in DC or you can’t get to Farragut Square – not to worry, you can still join in! Wear purple, take a picture and share it with us! We’ll post them right here. Now there’s no excuse not to, so follow the link and RSVP .