feminism

Extended Interviews

Writer and Bitch Media co-founder Andi Zeisler explores 50 years of tension between feminism and capitalism in popular culture, and explains how mass media has adapted and amplified the language of empowerment, but in a depoliticized form in service of selling products, and why she's hopeful that a young generation of connected girls and women can reclaim feminism's radical, libratory potential.

Andi is author of "We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement" from PublicAffairs: http://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/book/we-were-feminists-once/9781610395892

Choice is not liberation: On the buying and selling of feminism.

In late August 2016, WLRN volunteer Sarah spoke with Womens' Liberation Front spokeswoman Kara Dansky. Dansky filled us in on WoLF's legal challenge to the Obama administration's guidance on sex-based spaces for women, which essentially eliminated them. She also spoke about the difference between sex and gender and the risks women face when men (who may or may not "feel" that they are "women") enter female spaces.

Kara Dansky extended WLRN interview

Pippa Fleming is a butch lesbian performance artist, poet, writer, spiritualist and motivational speaker living and working in the bay area. Catina Hyman interviewed Pippa on October 4th for WLRN’s Black Lives Matter edition to get her perspective on the experience of black lesbians within the women’s liberation movement and civil rights struggles. In the interview, Pippa also discusses her upcoming book.

Extended Interview with Pippa Fleming

This interview was done by Elizabeth McKeown on June 30th of 2016.
Ruth Barrett is editor of the book 'Female Erasure: What You Need to Know About Gender Politics’ War on Women, the Female Sex & Human Rights.'

WLRN

Ruth Barrett talks about the release of the book 'Female Erasure'

Stripe Gandara, a butch lesbian who holds her PhD in Gender and Sexuality Studies from the University of Nebraska, was a panelist in the discussion called "Between Butches: Maintaining Sisterhood, Survival, and the Specificity of Womanhood in a Post-Trans World." 

The discussion took place at the first annual Lesbian Film Festival in Paducah, Kentucky in September, 2016.

WLRN's Thistle Pettersen starts by asking her what it means to be in a "post-trans" world and is surprised by her answer. You will notice that Gandara, like other butch lesbians on the panel are truly feminist in their choice to embrace their womanhood and sisterhood, yet they are still trying to co-exist with transgenderism. Using a lot of academic language, they make it seem like co-existence and mutual support are possible, which is not the view of radical feminists who understand the violent nature of the take-over of women's spaces and culture by trans activism and ideology. To view the panel discussion in its entirety, click on this linkhttps://www.facebook.com/resin.rebel/videos/vb.100008977329477/1577114385931124/?type=2&theater

WLRN interview with Stripe Gandara

WLRN’s Catina Hyman interviewed Maya Dillard Smith on August 2, 2016 via phone. They discussed Dillard’s recent forced resignation as the chief officer of the Georgia ACLU in addition to her project, Finding Middle Ground, a civil rights organization committed to finding solutions to all civil rights concerns.

Dillard-Smith is an advocate for the rights of all. She has recently been labeled “hateful” for drawing attention to the rights of girls and women. She holds a Master’s degree from Harvard and a law degree from UC Hastings.

http://www.findingmiddleground.org/

Maya Dillard Smith WLRN extended interview

On August 26th, WLRN's Thistle Pettersen got to talk with Charlie Rae, journalist with the Fifth Column, a popular indie media news service online, and with Sam Reitger, also with Fifth Column, and co-author of Changing Minds: A Guide to Confronting Gender Doctrine. 

Relevant work by Charlie at Fifth Column: http://thefifthcolumnnews.com/2017/08/are-there-good-reasons-to-oppose-transgenderism/

And by Sam: http://thefifthcolumnnews.com/2017/07/liberal-silence-on-transgender-violence/

In the interview you will hear these two dynamic and articulate radical feminists debunk the claim that the trans movement is a civil rights movement, talk about how they came to question what they call the gender doctrine, and analyze the ideology behind the trans movement that fuels sexism and homophobia but also could potentially fuel ableism and racism as well. 

You won't want to miss a second of their sharp-cutting thought that aims to give you a glimpse of what they will cover in their book to come out in 2018.

Charlie Rae is a New Englander who now lives in the South. She goes to school to study Communication and is a member of the National Academic Honor Society, Tau Sigma. Rae was featured on WHUS Radio and in the Uconn Free Press for her writing on activism and coverage of the events in Ferguson. Rae also has an Associates Degree in Visual Fine Arts, and has worked as the Art Director for local campaigns. She now writes for independent news source The Fifth Column, running a feminist faction called The Fem Column with her working partner Sam Reitger. The two of them work remotely on a collection of projects, and their main endeavor is this work-in-progress book discussed at length during the interview. 

Sam Reitger is a California native and continuing student, presently seeking to complete her major in Sociology. She is a social critic and writer, working as a freelance journalist for The Fifth Column and assistant editor to Charlie Rae at The Fem Column. She founded and co-runs an online question and answer forum on Facebook called “Ask Radical Feminists”. She is also an aspiring videographer, and is working on a series of short videos that explore topics in radical feminist political theory. In addition, she works with Edgewater Press, where she plans to publish her upcoming video projects.

To contribute to their campaign to get this book published, click on this link: https://www.patreon.com/charlierae

WLRN interview with Charlie Rae & Sam Reitger about Changing Minds

WLRN's 18th edition podcast is packed with information and stories about prostitution, pornography and the sex trade. Though this topic is a difficult one to discuss, WLRN is committed to facing the truth about the conditions under which women live worldwide. For this reason and since we have never addressed this issue head-on before in a podcast, we are going over our normal hour length to offer up this collaborative work that is nearly two hours long.

We were able to get in touch with some of the world's leading experts and activists on this topic including Samantha Berg, Julie Bindel, Sabrinna Valisce and Renee Gerlich. Each of our guests have unique and powerful things to say about the male-driven rape industry that plagues us in these latter stages of global patriarchal capitalism.

In addition, hear our WLRN world headlines as written and presented by Amanda. 

Tired of patriarchal news coverage of global events? Take a listen to our headlines that come at the beginning of each podcast.

And finally, enjoy the scathing and rich language employed by our resident female separatist, Sekhmet SheOwl as she holds leftist men accountable to the neolibral politics of the sex trade and calls for women everywhere to fight it in solidarity.

Samantha Berg is a journalist, activist, and radical feminist. Originally a reproductive rights and anti-poverty advocate, in 2002 she began working against prostitution, specifically seeking to reduce men’s demand for paid sex. In recent years Samantha been organizing conferences and public events to build community among radical feminists. You can read Samantha’s published articles at the blog Johnstompers.com

Julie Bindel is an English writer, feminist, and co-founder of the law-reform group Justice for Women, which opposes violence against women and helps women who have been prosecuted for killing violent male partners. She is the author of The Map of My Life: The Story of Emma Humphreys (with Harriet Wistrich, 2003), Straight Expectations (2014), and The Pimping of Prostitution (2017). This last book is set to be released this month in London at a public event that will feature women speaking out against the sex trade. http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137558893

Sabrinna Valisce experienced prostitution in the South Pacific under three legislative models and is now the South Pacific representative of SPACE International. http://www.spaceintl.org/She is a former volunteer with the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective but left when it became clear decriminalization was unable to fix sex trade problems. She participates in strategy meetings for Abolitionist Model implementation in Victoria working alongside frontline services, organizations, MPs, police officers and researchers. As of November 2017 Sabrinna will be joining the board of Herspace, a unique Trauma Informed Service for women harmed by sexual exploitation.

Renee Gerlich is an artist, writer and feminist activist living in Wellington New Zealand. She spoke with WLRN's Julia Beck about an art exhibit she curated last month called Too Much Truth about the global sex trade. You can read her writings here: https://reneejg.net/

Musical selections for this edition are "Me and a Gun" by Tori Amos and "Invincible" by Pat Benatar.

Edition 18: Prostitution, Pornography & Sex Trafficking

Greetings on this fine November day! The women of WLRN invite you to sit back and relax with A Tribute to the Women Who Came Before Us. This special herstorical podcast focuses on the achievements and experiences of second wave feminists. Our foremothers built the groundwork for liberation years ago, and we must heed their advice to nurture this movement as they have, with clear intentions and courageous hearts. As the seasons change, let us dedicate a moment or two to our righteous feminist past.

This month, our podcast begins with Sarah's hand-crafted headlines from all around the globe and then the song Misty Mountain by classic lesbian musician, Ferron. Next, Julia interviews Falcon River, who shares her stories of the second wave as an out butch lesbian, blazing a fresh trail Home. After a brief interlude with "Ancestor's Song" by Kellianna, Amanda interviews Linda Bellos, a candid second waver who's been no-platformed from Cambridge University. Paula Cole's "Tiger" is followed by Thistle's interview with Tara Ayers, a stalwart organizer who ensures the accessibility of physical sisterhood. Rounding out the hour is Sekhmet's incendiary commentary to feed the flames of feminism in all of us.

Brew a cup of clover, and dust off that old fleece. Your sisters are waiting.

Guests' Bios:

Falcon River is a professional craftswoman, massage therapist, intuitive archer, and ordained priestess. As a butch lesbian in the early 70’s, River found employment as a drag king, winning the title of “Mr. Roanoke” for two consecutive years. In 1975, she and her partner founded the very first multi-functional lesbian bar in Louisville, Kentucky. That same year, River helped establish and defend the first Michigan Women’s Music Festival. In 1999, she met Ruth Barrett, and together they founded the Temple of Diana, a female-only congregation of dianic witches.

Linda Bellos is a proud out Lesbian feminist, a mother and grandmother with an African Father who came to England in 1942 and a Jewish mother born in England.

Ms. Bellos has been involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement before it fell apart, and in Municipal Government. In 1984 she wrote and published a short paper called The Limitations of Identity Politics. Later she became active in Black Sections of the Labour Party.

Ms. Bellos was barred from speaking last month at Cambridge University in the UK due to her gender-critical stance.

Tara Ayres is a cultural activist who has spent the last 43 years producing women’s and lesbian and gay concerts, theater and other cultural events, first in Kansas City, then in Connecticut and Wisconsin, and now in the San Francisco Bay Area. After years of producing women’s concerts and dances in Madison, WI, she served for 9 years as the Artistic Director of StageQ, Madison’s LGBT theater troupe.

She was involved in community radio for 35 years, on WYBC-FM in New Haven as part of the Come Out Tonight collective, and then at community radio station WORT-FM in Madison as an anchor and producer for Her Turn, a feminist radio news collective and Queery, a program about LGBTQ+, and as a music programmer for Her Infinite Variety and Better Living Through Show Tunes.

Ms. Ayres currently serves on the board of directors for the We Want the Land Coalition (WWTLC), a feminist organization seeking to purchase the land the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival happened on for forty years.

Edition 19: Paying Tribute to Second Wave Feminists & Feminism

Thanks to Anonymous for sending WLRN this sound file from 2014 when Thistle Pettersen interviewed Sheila Jeffreys, Elizabeth Hungerford and Jane Doe on the Access Hour at Madison's community radio station WORT 89.9 FM. The lead-up to this show and the aftermath were notable since trans activists and advocates complained to the station that this show was "trans misogynistic" and full of "hate speech."

November 3rd 2014 Interview with Sheila Jeffreys, Elizabeth Hungerford and Jane Doe

Feminist news programming that seeks to provide the unique and under-represented voices of girls and women with a national and international venue to break the sound barrier.

WLRN interview with Charlie Rae & Sam Reitger about Changing Minds

Women's Liberation Radio News