This morning I attended the annual Chicago Foundation for Women's Symposium. The panel was made up of moderator, Diana Palomar, director of community services, WLS-TV/ABC 7 Chicago and panelists Lakshmi Chaudhry, former senior editor, Alternet, Lisa Jervis, publisher, Bitch Magazine, and Makani Themba-Nixon, executive director, the Praxis Project.

The fact that all these women were in the same room together is amazing. Then when they opened their mouths to discuss the issues and some questions from the audience, it was breath-taking. That said, I took some kick ass notes (withdrawal from graduate school perhaps?) and present them to you so you can hear the gospel. Of course, with my own 2 cents thrown in as I see fit. And they are notes, not a word for word transcript. Also do note that the speakers don't always answer the full question.

Palomar: The CFW believes that media is the tool for advocacy that we all should be using. It is central to our goals as advocates. My question to the panel is how to voice our priorities and views?

Q: The media is filled with the same news. It casts people in stereotypes - people of color as violent and whites as heroes/victims. How do we become more critical of media? How do we get it to cover feminism more?

Chaudhry: We have to understand that the media is much more corporate now. We also have to recognize that journalists are more affluent today and thus are removed from the everyday realities of the average person. Journalists reflect the bias of the elite and define themselves by their access to the elite. There is a gender bias as well. In the month after 9/11, there were 92 bylines in major newspapers about the terrorist attacks and only 19 were women. Why? Because war and terrorism is considered a boys topic. Women are only allowed to talk about women's issues. We can't have more feminism in the media until we have more women (generally speaking). We need to write and speak out on all topics.

Q: What have you observed when working with mixed groups (black & white, Asian & Latina) when they need to work on women's issues? [note: I know I messed up this question big time. I hope you get the gist of what was being asked.~roni]

Themba-Nixon: That words come out of pictures. How we deal with the pictures of the feminist movement? What are we losing when we ignore sexism? We give way to battles between career women and women in homes, welfare moms. Who do we value? All forms of media create a bigger picture. We need to focus on that picture.

Q: Why Bitch? How do we use pop culture to bring the younger generation to the movement?

Jervis: [Since Lisa gets this question a lot, I will point you to the Bitch Magazine answer.] The title is honest about what is inside the magazine. I see the divisions in the movement as an issue of age. Labeling the movement in waves and pitting those waves against each other obscures the real divisions. We need to look at media and ask what is it telling us? Who is paying for it? From that we can think about what we can do to shift the messages.

Q: What is the feminist agenda?

Jervis: It is important to label things as feminist. If we abandon the word, we risk losing it. We have to situate feminism within a broader human rights agenda. We have to assert that there is always something about gender in all conversations. Contextualize feminism within the world.

Themba-Nixon: People don't see patriarchy so they don't understand feminism. Much like people who don't see white privilege can't really understand racism. Need to be clear that there are oppressive systems. We need to articulate the agenda.

Chaudhry: Why do women fear feminism? I believe it is a fear of drawing attention to the inequality in our society. We don't want to make others defensive. Don't want to talk about why there is inequality. This is important when talking or thinking about women who say "I'm for equal rights, but I'm not a feminist." I got a lot of negative comments on Alternet recently when I said "Pardon me for saying so, I think we've had plenty of revolutionary movements of change headed by white males. Call me crazy, but I'd like to hold out for one that includes folks who look like me." There's great risk in talking about gender issues and inequality in progressive circles. Can you imagine the risk you would be taking if you talked about it in the NY Times? [Here's the link to the original Alternet posting and then her followup.]

Q: Can you give any tips to leaders on how to communicate feminism? Can you address using metaphors considering that most metaphors are either sports-related (even playing field) or military-related (class warfare)?

Themba-Nixon: We can shift the metaphors. We just need to be clear on who are we talking to. Validate people's reality. Tell better stories of what we do. Shift from careerist feminism (Take Our Daughters to Work Day) to a wider feminism. Talk about why we need women-only space. What is fair? Tell our stories. LISTEN to each other and what they are struggling for. Reflect in our own language. Don't be afraid of words. We need to map the discourse, a long term vision.

Q: What lessons can we learn from, mostly conservative, politicians who communicate well?

Chaudhry: The challenge is not that we have to learn and do what the Republicans do. We have to be honest, our task is harder. The appeal to the otherside is that of a world that once was, even if it is a false nostalgia. Anti-feminist ideas equate with ignorance is bliss because the fight is so uphill some women would rather pack it in and go home. Arguing for something that is not here is much harder to do. The conservatives have a lot of people saying the same thing over and over until it becomes "the truth." Repetition is the key.

Q: How can we communicate better with the undecided?

Jervis: We have to realize that indy media does feed into mainstream media. Some stories start out in the indy press and move into our mainstream press. We do need to expand that influence. We need to fund media. Train pundits. Ann Coulter didn't just pop onto the scene. She was trained. We need to prioritize the message and repeat it.

Q: How do we become more critical consumers of media?

Jervis: A lot of people agree with our ideas. We need to stop making the mistake that people don't agree with us. The polling is showing that more and more people are opposed to the war. Poll after poll shows that people agree with the theory of feminism even if they don't call themselves a feminist.

Themba-Nixon: There are great resources on the web. Youth Media Council. Media Channel. We have to deal with FOX. We need to work on policy that deal with pundits being paid to state a message. "This op-ed brought to you by PepsiCo." FOX negotiates deals with hotels and restaurants to be your background noise in the bar area. We have to ask our hotels and restaurants, "Do you have to show FOX in the bar area?" If yes, tell them they can't have your business or conference.

Chaudhry: Blogs are criticism. That's why journalists don't like them. People are drowning in information. Journalists don't state facts anymore. If Karl Rove said that the sun rose in the west and a liberal said it rose in the east, a journalist today says "make up your mind." If she were to say, Rove was full of bullshit, that would be labeled partisan. FOX has built an emotional connection to the viewers. In the same vein that Bush has an emotional connection to his supporters. Both reinforce personal worldviews and biases.

[Apologies to these fab women if I have totally gotten your message wrong. Again, these are my notes, not a transcript. -roni]

Question and Answer Session:

Q: Is feminism the real tool for the moment when class is the larger issue at hand?

Chaudhry: Class has always been a feminist issue, as well as race. But using and focusing on class may be the way to bridge NASCAR dads with feminists. Bush has been great at making NASCAR dads feel less emasculated by economics and society despite not improving their lot in life.

Themba-Nixon: Who gets to work and who doesn't is the question to ask. Being poor means being productive. People of color youth must have summer jobs. They don't get to just hang out over summer. They need to prove their worth by working for someone else. Does the healing start when we liberate men and women from their gender roles? We need to understand economic, social, and political issues. We then need to connect them.

Q: Has the increased media coverage of domestic violence and rape helped? Why don't we see more coverage of Darfur?

Jervis: Media coverage has changed a lot over the years. Heck, things like martial rape weren't even a crime a few years ago! But the media has never really told women's stories accurately. Reporters stick to the law enforcement method. They want a story that is believable beyond a reasonable doubt instead of just letting women tell their stories.

Chaudhry: Lifetime sums it up. We talk about individual cases where the woman is rescued (by a man, by the police). DV is isolated. We don't talk about the social reasons for DV. All of our success in DV and other areas is tenuous [recent VAWA funding issues is a great example. ~roni] because there is no larger discussion.

Themba-nixon: We're not doing a good job at framing DV. As to Darfur...Africa is very difficult for the rest of the world to understand (US and Europe). Most newspapers and agencies don't have reporters in Africa. They live in Rome or Portugal and fly in on occasion or have stringers in Africa sending in reports. There is this notion that the problems are unsolvable; that the people are incapable of governing themselves. We have to challenge that framework. We are global citizens.

Q: [Roni note: The woman who asked this question started off on a rant about how she'd like to go to one women's event that didn't involved man-bashing. She took Chaudhry's comment about NASCAR dads that she was bashing NASCAR dads, when in fact Chaudhry was stating that they are a likely ally of ours and we need to talk with them. The woman stated that she grew up with NASCAR dads and they aren't that different than soccer moms. This woman and Chaudhry had a lengthy exchange where they seemed to have come to an agreement that this woman, who was white, should talk with her people about feminism and Chaudhry will talk with hers. Don't take that as a diss to cross-cultural exchange, but more fodder for the "we listen to those we trust. and those we trust look like us." file. ] How do we get more men into the fold?

Chaudhry: How do we not diss men without pointing out women's problems? [see discussion above about the fear of speaking of inequality.~roni] In the end you listen to people you trust and grew up with.

Themba-Nixon: I would like to live in a world where I could kick it with NASCAR dads. We need to ask what does winning look like? We should start bringing in people who are already with us instead of trying to get those who are waaaaay not with us. There are a lot of African-American women out there who want to be in the fold. We need to just get them.

Q: Where does transgender issues fit into the feminist framework?

Jervis: Feminism is all about dismantling gender roles in society. There are tensions about who can call themselves a woman in the feminist community - this surrounds issues of woman-only spaces.

Q: [Roni note: I didn't ask this, but I'm glad someone did!] Racism exists in the feminist community. How do we create a better understanding of race issues?

Themba-Nixon: We need to create discussion space. But don't walk away. It's a hard process to get racism out of an organization or movement. We need better tools to help us talk to each other.

Chaudhry: After my blog entry I didn't walk away from the issue. I re-addressed it. We have to continue the conversation. We have to be willing to hear things that we don't want to hear. Be uncomfortable. Understanding comes from basic respect.

Jervis: White women need to understand our privilege. We need to understand racism. We have to do the work.

Q: How do we reclaim our vocabulary and the issue of abortion? [This wasn't so much a question as someone pointing out that up to that point the word abortion wasn't spoken. We did talk about health, even if my notes don't reflect it and reproductive health was mentioned. This goes back to the issue of some of us say abortion, some of us say reproductive health or justice. Read "Undivided Rights" for more on this dichotomy. Buy from here.]
Q: Are we ready for Roe to be reversed? What can we do?

Themba-Nixon: Law is an amalgamation of principles, public opinion. Law changes. We need to get out and tell pre-Roe stories.

Q: Does the rivalry between women put a damper on the feminist movement?

Chaudhry: It's a sexist myth. Men are just as bad. Women are afraid of expressing solidarity with other women because it brings attention to themselves.

Q: Given that we are fed bullshit by the media, we need to call all the media outlets and demand better coverage! [Not a question, but a challenge to all those in attendance.~roni]

Closing thoughts...

Themba-Nixon: We need better tools to communicate with each other. We need a toolkit for talking with friends and family about feminism. We need to look at our own internal sexism.

Chaudhry: Everytime you speak, whether it is in a staff meeting or with a friend, it is an opportunity to give a feminist message.

Jervis: Be out as a feminist. Make the calls. Write the letters. Make noise. And support alternative and feminist media.

[Roni note: Again, these were my notes, not a transcript. If you want to add to them, just drop me a line or add it in my comments. whew!]

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