Eve Ensler's 'Emotional Creatures' Fights Patriarchal Arguments About the 'Cult of Womanhood' With Perfect Timing

Maryna Linchuk | Santiago & Mauricio | Interview Russia October 2012

Fashion, vanity and emotionalism have strong connections in the history of women’s lives and our cultural perceptions of what makes women tick.

At AOC, we explore the validity of these perceptions with science and research papers, choosing to ignore these popular precepts about womanhood that are deeply embedded in our brains.

Above and left for complete editorial, Santiago and Maurizio Serra capture Marina Linchuk as Lady Godiva for the October 2012 issue of Interview Russia.

The map below of a woman’s heart reminds me of key points that I raised in an earlier AOC essay ‘The Cult of True Womanhood’ & Female Cardinal Virtues | Feminism 101.

The artistry of Kellogg’s map serves as a historical reminder of the stupidity of men’s assertions about the nature of womanhood.  

Doing a bit of research on D.W. Kellogg, I arrived at a most interesting online exhibition on women called Beauty, Virtue & Vice True Womanhood: An AAS Online Exhibition

This exhibit is rich with provocative insights and information about women’s history.

French Roast News

Sung Hee | Kah Poon | Dossier Journal S/S 2012 | Lady Godiva’s Operation

We began this morning French Roast montage with Maryna Linchuk playing Lady Godiva. We posted earlier in the year this Dossier Journal editorial ‘Lady Godiva’s Operation. Reviewing it, I thought it had no place in this reverie until I watched the trailer of Eve Ensler’s new play ‘Emotional Creature’.

Within the context of Ensler’s latest provocation on womanhood — this time from the perspective of teen girls — the editorial fell into place.

With the world at a pivot point in terms of the development of women’s roles worldwide and in America, we still hear the same old arguments about women’s true destiny.

Ensler’s ‘Emotional Creatures’

The first New York City rehearsal of ‘Vagina Monologues ‘playright Eve Ensler’s new show ‘Emotional Creatures’ was dedicated to Malala Yousufzai, a 14-year-old Pakistani teen activist who was shot in the head Oct. 8 by a Taliban gunman.

At the time, Ensler stated, “The reason I wrote ‘Emotional Creature’ was to honor people like Malala Yousufzai — a fearless young activist who is an inspiration to teen girls the world over. We cannot begin this process without keeping her in our thoughts. Today’s first rehearsal is dedicated to her bravery, her cause, and what I hope is her speedy recovery.”

‘Emotional Creatures’ is inspired by Ensler’s best-selling book of the same name and represents a series of fictional monologues, ensemble and songs about and for teen girls created by Ensler and inspired by girls she met around the globe.  The cast is comprised of six talented young women, in their early twenties, who give powerful and heartfelt expression to very believable stories highlighting the intensely emotional and complex worlds of girls, writes ART hound.

Related: Fears Blight ‘Malala Day’ in Mingora

Tammy Baldwin Brainiac

Rep. Tammy Baldwin will become the first openly gay US senator. Baldwin (D) was elected this week by the state of Wisc.Wisconsin Senator elect Democrat Tammy Baldwin was not an emotional creature when Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wisc) said he hoped he would be able to work with her — as soon as he explained the “facts” of the budget to her.

“Hopefully I can sit down and lay out for her my best understanding of the federal budget because they’re simply the facts,” he said. “Hopefully she’ll agree with what the facts are and work toward common sense solutions.”

Baldwin responded to Huff Po: “I was a double major in college in mathematics and political science, and I served for six years on the House Budget Committee in my first six years in the House.”

“And I am very confident that when proposals come before the U.S. Senate, I will be able to evaluate them as to how they benefit or harm middle-class Wisconsinites. A yardstick of ‘does it create jobs,’ ‘does it lower the deficit’ and ‘does it help grow the middle class’ is an important one. I’m quite confident that I have those abilities,” she added.

Credits: “A Map of the Open Country of a Woman’s Heart” via Fshng

Forbes Shares 7 Ways Parents Hurt Their Daughters | Outsourced Jobs Come Home | Educating American Workers

French Roast News

Anne is reading …

Forbes Woman shares seven ways that parents can be hurting their daughter’s future, with study references and reasons why. They include:

1. You teach her to be polite and quiet.

2. You buy her gender-specific toys.

3. You tell her she’s pretty … to the exclusion of everything else.

4. You indoctrinate her into the princess cult.

5. You give Dad all the physical tasks around the house.

6. You only let her spend time with other girls.

7. You criticize your own body, and/or other women’s bodies.

An earlier study published in Forbes Woman noted that shifts in parents’ prejudices — and particularly mom’s — on gender roles makes a significant difference in “reducing sexism and preventing gender-based violence.” The Spanish researchers also confirmed that boys exhibited higher levels of sexist beliefs than girls.

Sexism in the City

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as of February 2012 there was a gender wage gap of 17.4 per cent across all sectors – with an average full-time weekly wage of $1,186.90 for women and $1,437.40 for men.

Suzi Finkelstein, executive convenor of Women & Leadership Australia at the Australian School of Applied Management, says disproportionate salaries are an institutional problem, deeply entrenched in the workplace culture of many industries. Once considered less suitable for leadership roles, women can struggle to work their way up the chain and are often passed over for male colleagues irrespective of their ability and performance record.

Outsourced Jobs Come Home

Whether defined as the promise of a better future or as the endless opportunity to work hard and get ahead, fewer people than ever believe that the United States embodies that hope. “The U.S. worked hard to create the American dream of opportunity,” Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote last week in the Financial Times, “but today, that dream is a myth.”

“The U.S. used to think of itself as a middle-class country - but this is no longer true,” he said. “Today, a child’s life chances are more dependent on the income of his or her parents than in Europe, or any other of the advanced industrial countries for which there are data.”

The Daily Beast shares dual perspectives on whether the American Dream is alive.

Teens Learn Manufacturing

American business leaders have a problem with unskilled workers. BloombergBusiness quotes yet another survey of unfilled jobs for line workers, skilled trade workers and engineers. The momentum of businesses striking alliances with educational facilities is working to solve the skilled worker shortage.

In Pennsylvania’s Bucks and Montgomery counties, 50 manufacturing companies are working to partner with two-year colleges and trade school, after forming their own BuxMont Manufacturing Consortium.

Companies in the Pennsylvania consortium typically pay workers $35,000 to $50,000 annually, plus overtime pay, health care, and employer-matching 401(k) accounts.

Read also an earlier BloombergBusiness article about the Reshoring Initiative, a group of companies and trade associations trying to bring factory jobs back to America. An April poll of 259 YS contract manufacturers showed good news for American workers. 40 percent of respondents said they had sourced production in America that was previously done in China.

Anne of Carversville

Isabeli Fontana | Fabio Bartelt | Vogue Brazil June 2012 | Dona da Rua

AOC Style

Bonnie Chen | Zack Zhang | Harper’s Bazaar China July 2012 | Tours London in Style

Valerija Kelava | Paul Empson | Black Magazine #16 S/S 2012 | Dancing Backward in High Heels

Rosie Tupper | Ron Contarsy | Harper’s Bazaar Mexico July 2012 | Chic Pastel

Irina Vodolazova | Juan Aldabaldetrecu | Elle Spain July 2012 | ‘Practica El Nude’

Franziska Mueller | Paul Empson | Exit S/S 2012 | Alice In Wonderland

AOC Private Studio

Eva Doll | Nadine Ottawa | Friday Magazine | ‘Swimming Pool’

Behati Prinsloo | Thomas Schenk | Vogue Germany July 2012 | Body Of Evidence

Monica Bellucci | Bryan Adams | Zoo Summer 2012 | Screen Siren

Ros Georgiou | Thanasis Krikis | Vogue Hellas July 2012 | Greek Pride

Erica Bertoni | Zee Nunes | Harper’s Bazaar Brazil June 2012 | Tramas de Inverno

Elena Lomkova | Roberto D’Este | Grazia Italia No. 27 June 2012

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Kickstarter: Chelsea Rose's Earth Goddess Body Art & Photography Expedition

In Chelsea Rose’s own words:

My “Earth Goddess” body art photography series expresses the sacred and powerful qualities contained within the female body, mind and spirit and works to expose the powerful relationship between women and Mother Earth. Nowadays women are bombarded by pop culture’s destructive and disfiguring definitions of female beauty, strength, and spirituality. Modern society is quick to discredit the sacredness and power of the earth as well as the female sex and their ties to nature’s cycles. My art series challenges these views and cultural missteps with a series of stark, black and white photographs that elevate women to their true goddess status through the use of intricate body paintings. In these photos, women of all age, body type, and ethnicity stare back at the viewer, clothed only in the spirally woad of my body paint, enmeshed in the infinite wilds of deep forest, craggy sea shore, rock cliffs and more.

With your help I can gather the funds that will allow my models and I to safely explore, travel, lodge and create in remote, wild and amazingly beautiful locations. If my funding goal is met I aim to photograph my hand painted models in the snowy heights of Mount Hood, the primordial rain forests of Washington, the mystical rocky shores of the pacific north west, the soothing sights of the Columbia river gorge, the rocky red deserts of eastern Oregon and much more.

Read on at Kickstarter. AOC has contributed to this project and we urge readers to give a mere $5 to jumpstart this important art initiative and keep it going. Chelsea is asking for a mere $1000 to support the very real expenses of making her art.