Recently in Generational Analysis Category

My sister was browsing through Gaia online today and she found a post in one of the forums that caught her attention... here I'm going to state exactly what was said.

Kikkaku: not all christians are anti-abortion

mortok: I hate these ones: Abortion doctors are murderers (more of an outright lie rather than a stereotype)

My Grandmother's favorite performer of all time was Tom Jones.

She, known to everyone as June Care, but to her grandchildren only as Mema, grew up in a small steel town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To her, the glitz, glam, and fake tan of Tom Jones was something she aspired to have.

Mema married Da, my Grandfather, when she was just 18. He was heading off to Korea and they tied the knot right before he shipped out. When he returned, he went to law school and moved her and the beginnings of their family to Lexington, Kentucky.

My grandmother lived the good live of a wife of a Southern lawyer. She had four children, lots of parties, and even more drinks and cigarettes. When she was in her early 30's, she got the chance to go to Las Vegas and wear her only fur coat to see Tom Jones live, a story that was told every chance she got.

Mema was the family member I most identified with. She was loud and very opinionated. She smoked like a chimney and didn't care what you or anyone else had to say about it. All of her grandchildren, and she had nine, were treated equally. She would measure out the money that she spent on gifts down to the penny. When I opened a present from Mema and Da it was not uncommon to find the random pack of hair ties or couple of jawbreakers; she was just making sure we were all even.

Readers of this site know, perhaps more acutely than others, how generational many women's responses to this election have been. And weat WVFC decided to query a mother and daughter for their gut responses.

Dr. Cecilia Ford offers some thoughts from the Baby Boom generation:

As millions of people all over the world celebrated the election of Barack Obama last week, it struck me that this moment, while a national and international event, was a personal one for each of us as well. I began to realize that everyone was reacting to it in a way that was unique in its emotional content, through their own personal lens and history. I imagined that African-Americans particularly may have had strong feelings about this election. In the days before the election, I saw a number of black people interviewed on TV who said they were not going to watch the election returns because the tension would be too unbearable....

Meanwhile Ford's daughter,  25-year-old Kate White tells us what Grant Park felt like to her on November 4:

I was seventeen years old in 2000 when George W. Bush was  elected, and thus too young to vote in that election.   Not only could I not believe how long it took to come to a resolution, but I was also extremely disappointed by the outcome. I felt the same when he was re--elected in 2004.  This year, in the months leading up to Election Day, I had a sense of doom because  I was convinced that the Republicans would play “tricks,” and that Barack Obama would lose despite the polls indicating he would win.

My sister and I were lucky enough to be in Chicago in Grant Park  election night,  because our father is a longtime aide to Senator Biden. Nearly everyone I encountered  was celebrating early in the night, before the huge projector in the park declared that Obama was the President-elect, but I wouldn’t let my guard down until it was official.  When the announcement was made, I screamed for almost  five minutes straight.

We'd love to hear comments on Women's Voices for Change - including which of these two feels closest to your own.

As we all wait to see how this election shakes out, I keep thinking about what teaches us all to be honest people with integrity -- or not. As Elizabeth Hemmerdinger writes on our site today (excerpt below), those questions cut to the quick of how we function as a society:

Hi all, I'm new to this game, so bear with me.
I've been reading Feministing for a few months now, and it has really opened my eyes to a lot of covert sexism in the media and in every day life. I have a particular situation that I'd love to get some opinions on/see if anyone else deals with this.

Some back story: When my parents got married, the three of us moved into my dad's grandmother's house to help take care of her (and so my parents did not have to pay a mortgage right away). My great grandmom was a feisty old lady and a lot of fun, but she was very old fashioned. Before her husband passed away, he used to demand coffee and breakfast on the table every morning, and that my gram go get the paper from outside.

Her son, my dad's father, continues this tradition. He used to come over in the morning, and my gram would make him cups of coffee, toast, eggs, etc, even though my grandfather could very easily get up and refill his cup on his own. It used to disgust me.

I have recently had to move back into my parents' house, and my grandfather STILL comes over every morning, even though it's been years since gram passed away. I've found it increasingly difficult to deal with him, as he is really sexist. Just this morning I was getting my stuff ready to go to work, and he asked me about my attire. I had jeans and a tshirt on, since I will be the only person in the office at all today. He said, "Don't you think you should go put on a nice blouse and skirt?"

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending my first NOW (National Organization for Women). Overall, I thought the material was great. I got to attend some great workshops (my favorites were on reproductive justice and women in the media). I even got to meet Lilly Leadbetter, one of the winners of NOW's "Women of Courage" awards for her fearless legal battle with GoodYear Tire for wage discrimination and the creator of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007.

However, I was extremely disapointed with the lack of diversity. I was with a group of fellow young, college feminists and, to be honest, I felt like we stood out like a sore thumb. Not to say that I did not feel welcomed by the older feminists, I just did not feel the energy and mobilization that I pictured I would.

And I really don't think that the lack of diversity was due to lack of interest, but the fact that NOW still seems to cater the white, privileged population for which feminists are so often criticized for doing. The 3 day conference was held in a very nice, but expensive hotel which would most likely be inaccessible to lower-class women who could simply not afford to stay there. No, they would not be required to stay in hotel, but unless they just happen to live within walking/driving distance of the conference, they're screwed. Yes, they could stay in a cheaper hotel nearby, but what if they can't even afford that? Why not have it at a local community center and sleep in sleeping bags (while of course offering the option of going to a hotel for those who want to and can afford it)? That would not only make the conference more accessible, but also be a good place for new feminists to discover NOW and maybe show that feminists do care about more than just the white and privileged.

I know there are plenty of flaws to my logic here, but seriously something has got to change, NOW (pun intended).