Happy (belated) Women’s History Month or — as I like to call it — Ladies’ Month. I have no good excuse for being two weeks late to the party other than, well, it’s 2008 and us hard-working career gals are busy. But that doesn’t mean slowing down for a second and paying our past its due isn’t important. Sometimes, I think it’s more important than ever.

Of course, at this point someone will ask, “Why even have a Women’s History Month”? Aren’t we past the superficial need to celebrate one’s gender as a part of our cultural identity? In theory, gosh, wouldn’t that be nice. In actuality, so very much no. Go ahead and Google feminism. Among the top results, you’ll find “Ladies Against Feminism,” “Feminism is evil!” and “How feminism destroyed real men.”

Yes, because the plague of fake men roaming the countryside threatening to paint your toenails and wash the dishes has truly reached epidemic levels. It’s at moments like these that I dig down and seek the guidance of my spiritual gurus, the Muppets. … continue reading

I want several things from our next president. A coherent foreign policy. An economic plan that helps the poor and middle class instead of corporations and the rich. An extension of full equal rights to all LGBT Americans. And last, but not least, an ability to laugh at her/himself. However you feel about Sen. Hillary Clinton, she proved she could deliver the latter this past weekend, with a surprise stop by Saturday Night Live.

Hillary appeared in an “Editorial Response” to the show's opening skit, which spoofed the most recent Democratic presidential debate. Her on-screen doppelganger Amy Poehler joined her, and the resemblance was pretty uncanny.

With the next, and possibly deciding, primaries just a day away, it remains to be seen whether Hillary's appearance swayed any votes. But it should go a long way to dispelling that old sexist chestnut about women and their senses of humor. I mean, how good of a sport do you have to be to go on right after it's implied that your plan to take down special interests is to be “so annoying, so pushy, so grating, so bossy and shrill, with a personality so unpleasant, that at the end of the day the special interests will have to go, 'Enough! We give up! Life is too short to deal with this awful woman!'”? According to TMZ, Hillary was given the skit in advance for approval and told them not to change a thing. … continue reading

I'm not going to pretend to understand the legalities here. I suspect that like most of us educated in the U.S., my knowledge of Canadian politics and history is sorely lacking, but I have that nostalgic liberal (and that's not a four-letter word, Fox News!) American tendency to view Canada as a little more sane than the land of my birth. You know, health care, gun control, laws that occasionally recognize LGBT citizens as human beings.

But it looks like more than my delusions of utopia could be at risk. Working its way through the Canadian government right now is a bill that would give the Canadian Heritage minister the right to ax promised funding for any film project it deems “offensive.” This apparently includes “gratuitous violence, significant sexual content that lacks an educational purpose, or denigration of an identifiable group.” That would seem to include films like these:

When Night Is Falling

Exotica

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Over the past year, as Hillary Clinton has emerged as the first serious female contender for President of the United States, a lot of us in Texas have said the same thing: "I wish Ann were here."

Ann Richards would be riding high right about now. Because whatever happens in the next few days and weeks, this is a historic time for women. And Ann had a lot to do with getting us here.

Most everybody in Texas has an Ann Richards story. I got to be a part of her gubernatorial inauguration, when she led a parade down Congress Avenue to the capitol building — her way of showing the Bubbas that a new sheriff was in town. For those of us who were young adults when she was elected governor, she was a symbol of hope in a state where good ol' boys had always been in charge. Since she carried the women's vote by 60 percent, seems that a lot of those good ol' boys' wives voted for Ann.

Ann had already made an impression on the rest of the country. At the 1988 Democratic National Convention, her opening remarks included a sound bite that is Ann at her best.

"Twelve years ago Barbara Jordan, another Texas woman, Barbara made the keynote address to this convention, and two women in a hundred and sixty years is about par for the course.

But if you give us a chance, we can perform. After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels." … continue reading

Have you recovered from all the Super Tuesday excitement? I haven't — I have a feeling I won't until, oh, Nov. 4 or thereabouts.

Nor have I recovered from the giggle fits induced by this graphic, which appeared on 236.com last week. Liz Cheney, daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney — the other daughter — declared her support for Republican candidate Mitt Romney, so the Romney campaign issued a press release. The satirists at 236.com took their red pens to the press release, and lo, hilarity:

(Click the graphic to see the larger version on 236.com)

The post also included this picture of the Cheney daughters, with the caption "On the left, on the left!"

Ah, sexuality-of-the-daughter-of-the-vice-president humor. It never gets old. I wonder if Mary Cheney's son is a Romney supporter? I'll bet he's for Hillary all the way.

For those of us in 24 American states, it’s Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Tuesday (hey, that’s nearly half the country; I think it deserves an upgrade from just “super”). Whichever way you pull the lever, today will be a historic vote. Well, unless you’re voting for that other party. In which case, have fun choosing an old white guy.

In the first presidential election of the YouTube era, the campaigns have gone viral from the start. Who can forget the Obama Girl or Hot4Hill? But in the past week, two of arguably the best videos for each candidate have emerged. One is sincere and inspirational (not to mention packed with star power), and the other is lighthearted and fun (not to mention Hill-arious). Both are, interestingly, music-based. And both are a reminder that, as difficult as the decision between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may be for Democratic primary voters, it’s also an embarrassment of riches to have two strong, smart and special candidates on the ballot.

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Election Day in 1992 was possibly my favorite political day ever. I voted in the morning, watched election returns all evening and celebrated in the streets of West Hollywood until late that night. California made history that day by electing two women to the Senate, and I had the satisfaction of having been part of the process. Two years later, lots of folks with politics different from mine had the satisfaction of shifting things in a different direction. (I was less happy about that.) What we had in common, however, was a belief that voting was important.

This Tuesday, February 5, is Super Tuesday — a big voting day in the United States. Despite the early primaries and caucuses, Tuesday is the official start of the presidential primary season. The 23 Democratic primaries and caucuses and 21 Republican primaries and caucuses will likely determine both parties' candidates. The right to vote is cool and important — arguably the single most important element of civic responsibility and participation. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Logo (AfterEllen.com's parent company) launched VisibleVote08.com in anticipation of this year's U.S. presidential election. And lots of celebrities are always yammering about the importance of voting or the candidate they want you to vote for. Let's take a look at how some celebrity women have gotten into the act.

Celebrity Endorsements

The most obvious way celebrities participate in the political process is by endorsing specific candidates. Oprah is arguably the highest profile endorser of a candidate in the 2008 race.

She endorsed Barack Obama last spring, and pundits are questioning whether she can apply the “Oprah Effect” to political candidates.

Susan Sarandon is a perennial activist who is dismissed by many (not by me) as a wacko liberal and humorless soapbox orator. (I believe this makes her an honorary lesbian!)

She tolerates this wearily, and argues that if she has to deal with the burdens of celebrity, she might as well also try to use it to do some good. And she acknowledges that even her kids laugh at her activism:

“When we have friends over, the kids always bet on how long it will take before we turn to politics. We always forget, and then they say, 'That was fast — only one minute and two seconds.'”

And, of course, there's Barbara Streisand, whom I love even though I think she takes herself too seriously. … continue reading

VisibleVote08.com vloggers Jennifer Vanasco and James Withers discuss how Hillary and Obama aren't friends, how they're tired of the race and gender cards being played all the time, and why they want the fight to continue to the convention.

The Gay Agenda: Jan. 24, 2008

In the second episode of her vlog, political comedian Kate Clinton comes to you from the shadow of the Transamerica building in San Francisco. She notes that she "doesn't do brocade," covers the New Hampshire primary and the media response to it, and reminds us it's all right to cry.

Plus, she offers a theory on what's wrong with Maureen Dowd. And there's more football!

If you ask me, watching this vlog is like enjoying a quality office hour with your favorite women's studies professor. Only with more guffaws and less Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Look for new episodes of Hilarity Clinton every Tuesday and Friday on AfterEllen.com. … continue reading

My girlfriend has been filling up our DVR with movies that she feels she should watch and kind of wants to watch, but is never in the mood to watch. It's hard to get excited about Boys Don't Cry and Hotel Rwanda because, even though she knows they're good, they're so incredibly depressing. I just stumbled across a book that triggered a similar conflict for me. It sounds fascinating and well-written, but convincing myself to read it is going to take a little effort. The book in question is My Life as a Traitor, by Zarah Ghahramani (with Robert Hillman).

My Life as a Traitor is the story of Ghahramani's 29 days in Iran's Evin Prison, which is notorious for its political prisoner wing. (This place is no Larkhall.) When she was 20 years old (in 2001), the relatively privileged Ghahramani was arrested after taking part in a student protest about the strict dress code and the general rigidity of the mullahs. (She had been protesting dress codes since she was six years old and drawn to forbidden pink shoes.) … continue reading

Back in 2004, Barack Obama was engaged in a heated battle in Illinios for a seat in the U.S. Senate. His opponent? A Rebuplican named Jack Ryan. The outcome of that race will never be known. Why? Because a certain Borg popped up and forever altered the political landscape.

OK, I might be overstating her actual influence. Jeri Ryan hasn't joined the list of celebrities endorsing the various candidates, but she is a factor in the three-ring circus we call politics. See, Jack Ryan, Obama's senate opponent in 2004, is her ex-husband. The same ex-husband she claimed had taken her to Paris sex clubs and tried to persuade her to perform various sex acts while others watched. The allegations were part of divorce papers unsealed by court order during the course of that 2004 campaign. The sex scandal resulted in Ryan withdrawing from the race. Obama went on to win in a landslide over Ryan's replacement, Alan Keyes. … continue reading

It's January. Election Day is ten months away. Yet the campaign has been underway for several months already. And as expected, I am already bored with it. I have no idea who I will vote for come November, and I likely won't know until I actually cast my vote behind the little curtain of my portable voting booth. What I do know is that the face of Chuck Norris was grinning at me from behind Mike Huckabee when he congratulated himself on a victory in the Iowa caucuses last week. And I asked myself, "What the hell is Chuck Norris doing in Iowa? And why does he look like a life-sized plastic cutout of himself?"

I'm guessing you may be asking yourself a similar question right now. Namely, what the hell does this have to do with women in entertainment? Well, Chuck Norris' plastic mug got me thinking about the role of celebrity in politics. Politics is one big popularity contest, after all, the likes of which many of us dreaded in junior high. So, does having a celebrity by your side actually get you anywhere in politics? Actually being a celebrity worked well for Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse "The Body" Ventura. But does having the vocal support of Oprah Winfrey and Halle Berry actually do anything for Barack Obama come election day?

There has to be something to this celebrity endorsement thing, right? It's not like Obama is the only one with big name celebs lining up to offer support, usually in the form of money and publicity, which inevitably generates more money, which may or may not win someone the White House. Rudy Giuliani has the support of some 1970s pinup girls in the form of Bo Derek and Cheryl Ladd. No word on whether the rest of the angels view him as a perfect 10 or not. … continue reading

If you're outside the United States — or living in a news vacuum — you might have missed that today is Iowa caucus day. That means that Iowa Republicans will be casting ballots, Iowa Democrats will be standing in different parts of a room and, by the end of the day, we'll be that much closer to knowing who the next woman in the White House will be. This year is exciting because we usually don't get to vote for the woman in the White House.

The closest we've gotten so far is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who's two heartbeats away from the Presidency. Of course, as Sarah pointed out last summer, we do have celluloid depictions of women who rule. And we all know that fictional leaders are often more appealing than the real deal. (President Bartlett, anyone?) So, let's see how the real prospects stand up against the fictional. In true Iowa-caucus fashion, pick a candidate, stand in her corner and see if you can convince others to join you.

Madame President

1. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton

Why you should stand in her corner: She's the first female Presidential candidate to have an actual chance of winning. At the Visible Vote forum, she told us, “I'm your girl.” She supports the repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” and is in favor of civil unions. She is a real-life person.

Why you should stand elsewhere: She doesn't support same-sex marriage “yet.” Lots of people hate her, and some believe that makes her unelectable. … continue reading

Presidential candidates are just like us! They like to sack out in front of the TV with a bag of Cheetos and the remote, too. Or, well, so they told TV Guide earlier this month. Several of the top presidential contenders, both Democratic and Republican, shared their tube-time schedules. The answers weren't too surprising. Familiar favorites, family fare and the like. So in the interest of broadening their horizons, I've compiled a list of their current TV habits and shows they should consider checking out. I consider it my patriotic duty to get them matched up with the right programs.

Hillary Clinton

Does Watch: HGTV makeover shows, American Idol, Grey's Anatomy, Dancing With the Stars and her all-time TV favorite, The Ed Sullivan Show.

Should Watch: Wonder Woman. Breaking glass ceilings and traveling in glass jets. It's the perfect preparation for a spin on Air Force One — again. Plus, what president couldn't use that Golden Lasso? … continue reading