First, I got an email from Marie Forleo, who educates women about creating a thriving life, mostly focusing on creating an online business. She's really funny and smart and I like getting her videos every Tuesday. This Tuesday she sent an email about Half the Sky, which started with a book, then a documentary and now a movement. Here's her youtube link to get you started.
http://www.marieforleo.com/
You can watch it on itunes and It was playing on PBS. I just watched the first half today and between crying and wanting to vomit; I was deeply moved and motivated to help make change in the world. So many women and girls have no voice, no recourse, no freedom, it's overwhelming, but Half the Sky does a nice job looking at people who are making changes and then lets you link up with them.
I've got it on my DVR so if anyone wants to come over and have a Half the Sky gathering; come on over!
http://www.halftheskymovement.org/
I also got a fantastic book from a friend to read while I was recovering. How to be a Woman by a the British author Caitlin Moran. It is so damn funny; I can't read it in bed because I laugh so hard, I shake the bed and wake Rob up, "Whhaaaa. What are you doing?" he mumbles and then goes back to sleep until the next page makes me laugh again.
She is so honest, funny and pissed off; it is very satisfying. I HIGHLY recommend it. I haven't finished it yet because I don't want it to end (I can get clingy with books I really love, and resist their ending, but thankfully she has a new book coming out now.)
Here is a link to her website and a little excerpt. Funny!
http://www.how-tobeawoman.com/
ABOUT HOW TO BE A WOMAN
1913 – Suffragette throws herself under the King’s horse.1969 – Feminists storm Miss World.
NOW – Caitlin Moran rewrites The Female Eunuch from a bar stool and demands to know why pants are getting smaller.
There’s never been a better time to be a woman: we have the vote and the Pill, and we haven’t been burnt as witches since 1727. However, a few nagging questions do remain…
Why are we supposed to get Brazilians? Should you get Botox? Do men secretly hate us? What should you call your vagina? Why does your bra hurt? And why does everyone ask you when you’re going to have a baby?
Part memoir, part rant, Caitlin Moran answers these questions and more in How To Be A Woman – following her from her terrible 13th birthday (‘I am 13 stone, have no friends, and boys throw gravel at me when they see me’) through adolescence, the workplace, strip-clubs, love, fat, abortion, TopShop, motherhood and beyond.
Another awesome woman who is inspiring me is Mama Gena. I was given her book at my last year's scholarship adventure at the amazing Pleasure camp with Jena Laflame. http://www.pleasurableweightloss.com/ (which was deeply mind-altering and transforming! She's doing it again this November and I highly recommend it.)
Last month I finally read Mama Gena's School for Womanly Arts and really really enjoyed it. (At first I was put off by all the talk of manicures and pedicures, which really don't speak to me, but then I realized those were just symbols for a woman's desire or pleasure; whatever that might be.) She believes that "Women are the greatest untapped natural resource in the world" and that if a woman focuses on her pleasure she creates a powerful magical life. Sounds good.
http://www.mamagenas.com/books/
Here's a link to her blog where she discusses issues around women, pleasure and power. I loved this entry on Pussy Riot and what's going on with women and power in the world.
http://www.mamagenas.com/pussy-riot/
SO! Mama Gena is coming to Massachusetts and I want to go! Anyone want to join me?
http://www.mamagenas.com/catch-me-massachusetts-oct-18/
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