Lunch time feminist rant

In my noontime internet puttering, I came across a fantastic, and depressing article on male-dominated children's entertainment. It turns out that there are three male characters for every female character in children's movies, and 87% of narrators are male. I realize that cartoons like Jem and the Holograms and She-Ra: Princess of Power were really just vehicles to sell plastic toys, but at least they featured women doing things. For goodness sake, Jerrica Benton ran an orphanage on top of having a secret identity as the popular recording star, Jem. Is it any surprise that I want to be a polymath? Hardly.

In fact, I remember way back that when Card Captor Sakura was imported to the states, it was called Card Captors so as not to alienate the male viewership. Because we all know that girls are inferior and boys won't want to watch a show that features one, right?

A quote from the original article in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Davis argues that young girls (and boys) need to see female characters onscreen, or else they will grow up thinking of females as invisible or unimportant. The institute's motto is: "Kids need to see entertainment where females are valued as much as males."

I would add that we need a society where females are valued as much as males, too.

And this is also why, although I mistrust any philosophy that can fit on a bumper sticker, I'll be post-feminist in the post-patriarchy.

Vanessa Walilko
Eclectic chainmaille jewelry, and the occasional feminist rant

Big, big update

I am miserable at updating this thing. However, I just received Alyson Stanfield's newsletter about devoting just 15 minutes a day to your art. Why not my blog?

If you're following Kali Butterfly on Facebook, you'll know that my upcoming chainmaille classes were featured on Cyndi Lavin's blog. (Thanks, Cyndi!) I'll be teaching Dragonscale at Bead&Button 2010, (sign up now!), and a Persian Maille class at Lill Street Gallery. If you're looking for a chainmaille challenge, these classes are for you.

Also, I'm happy to report that my piece, "I Always Wanted Claws" will be featured at eXtremities: Exploring the Margins of the Human Body, a featured exhibition during the 2010 Society of North American Goldsmiths Conference in Houston. SNAG is going to be a lot of fun for me this year.

In other jewelry-unrelated news, my paper, "Beyond 'Feminisms': Refocusing the Women's Movement Through the Lens of Liberation" was just published in the most recent issue of Current Perspectives in Social Theory. You can read it at Google Books. Discovering that was almost as cool as seeing my name in print.

Vanessa Walilko
Unique, handcrafted chainmaille jewelry, intricate beadwork, and beaded sculpture