If this isn't the most beautiful photo I've seen, I don't know what is.

I received the current issue of Ms. in the mail a few days ago. As faithful readers know, I have a love/hate relationship with Ms. I chalk it up to my evolving feminism and their inability to really reach out to younger feminists. By this photo, hopefully this kick ass mom will help with that bridge.

So what's inside this issue? Racism, Iraq, Germs, Global Warming, HPV, Immigration, and Taxes.

The article I most looked forward to is hyped on the cover as "1,024 things to do with a Women's Studies Degree." As someone with two women's studies minors and a hubby who loves to quote Alex P. Keaton, "Women's Studies...haha!" this topic is near and dear to me. While inside there is not a list of exactly 1.024 things that can be done with a Women's Studies degree, it does discuss the evolution of students who earn Women's Studies degrees.

"In the early years, women's studies graduates tended to work on gender-specific issues, getting jobs in battered-women's shelters and rape crisis centers," [Beverly Guy-Sheftall] says. "But more and more we have students going into public health, international policy, journalism, electoral politics, film-making, K-12 education and other careers that allow them to effect large-scale change."

"The Talibanization of Iraq" is a must read. Whether or not you support the Iraq War or want the troops home today, the fact is that women are worse off today than before our invasion. Iraqi women share a similar history with Afgani women - We used them to justify the war. Rape rooms, the Taliban, and burkas were the way the administration and the media wanted us to see them. Today Iraqi women are too scared to leave their homes to work, shop, or organize for a better life. Women and girls are being kidnapped, tortured, raped, and killed.

Many of the bodies of women and girls who are raped and killed are not getting claimed, because families are too fearful or ashamed to identify them.

Feminist economics has become a growing obsession with me since I took my first econ course in graduate school. I'm thinking I might be a kick ass econ professor by now if my fear of econ hadn't keep me out of that class for 25 years. Martha Burk gives us a wonderful essay on why taxes is a feminist issue. Some of Martha's suggestions are right on including not privatizing Social Security and removing the cap. Did you know everyone who earns more than $97,500 pays the same amount into Social Security as Donald Trump and Tom Cruise?

My one criticism is that Martha posits that paid family leave where full benefits would require dads to take leave would not help single moms. I'm assuming because being a single mom means the dad skipped town. I think we now live in a world where unmarried parents are in their child's life.

Sandy Boucher recalls in "Working-Class Hero" her 40 year friendship with author Tillie Olsen. Olsen died January 1st and left a wonderful literary legacy. Sandy's reminisces about visiting Tillie in an Alzheimer's nursing home. The piece is beautifully and lovingly written. It brought tears to my eyes not just because of their friendship, but because quite honestly each time I read a story about Alzheimer's I think of Amy and her Papa.

"The Melting Point" fabulously shows how women have played and still are in key roles in the environmental movement. It drowns in essentialism, but it's a must read article. "But will a change in U.S. leadership - led by powerful women - begin to reverse the dire direction in which we're headed?"

Which leads me to leave you with a review of the book reviews. Since I've been writing them myself, I figured I better read more of them so I can figure out my own style. I found 2 books that will be on my to read list: Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, who I hate to say I've avoided because her books look like fluffy chic-lit to me. Her latest novel deals with the why of school shooters and the hyper-masculinity that plays a vital role. Timely. Oh and she's writing a few issues of Wonder Woman too. Why didn't y'all tell me she was like this?

Sexual Decoys by Zillah Eisenstein gets to the heart of that oft-asked question, "Why don't feminists celebrate Condi's power?" Because she's not a feminist asshat. From Condi to Abu Ghraib, Eisenstein reminds us feminists and explains to the rest of society that feminism is about not just about how many women are in power, but what they do with that power.

I could go on and on about the current issue, but I won't. This is already bordering on the world's longest blog post and I hate those! Not to mention that it's so long I needed to make the font smaller. Sorry! So go hit your local feminist bookstore (if you're lucky to have one) and get the latest issue of Ms.

Labels: abortion, feminism, magazines