What Kay's Doing

Wow. Hey, guys. I've been out of the posting game for a little while. Sorry about that. Mainly I've been busy because I quit my job and started a new one since my last blog post. I'm no longer the editor at CampusProgress.org (and if you know anyone who wants my old job, send them here).

Instead, I'm now the online managing editor at Washingtonian magazine. I'm just getting going there, but if you're really desperate to read some stuff written by me, you can read some morning roundups and daily questions I've put together over there.

But if you want to see me in real life, you should swing by the Women's Information Network offices tonight at 6:30 for me to present with some other folks on "Finding Your Voice Online: Political Blogging 101."

Student Parents Need Child Care to Increase Retention

Today I have a piece in The American Prospect on student parents. Check it out:

Each morning, Sherita Rooney wakes up around 6 a.m. She gets her 14-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son ready for the day. She makes breakfast and gets her children to school before driving an hour to West Chester University outside of Philadelphia, where she recently transferred after graduating from Montgomery County Community College.

Every day is difficult, but Tuesdays are especially so. She works from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. before class from 2 to 7. She picks up her kids, then brings them home and puts them to bed. As a math education major, she takes challenging classes that keep her up late studying. She goes to sleep around 2 a.m. each night. The next day, she gets up and does it over again.

Without the child care scholarship she found through the Philadelphia-based nonprofit, Family Care Solutions, Inc., Rooney says, she's not sure what she would do. She'll find out this summer, when she's signed up for classes but won't have the scholarship.

Student parents like Rooney make up about a quarter of all postsecondary students in the United States, according to a new report released by the Institute for Women's Policy Research. The report estimates that of the total of 3.9 million student parents in the country, more than half are low-income. About 12 percent of all undergraduate students in the United States are single parents, and of those more than three quarters are low-income. The vast majority of them are women.

Read the whole thing.

Gender + Zombies in an Upcoming Anthology

(Flickr/Med's Photo)

Did you like my post on weird racism and sexism that got added to The Walking Dead's television series? I'll be contributing to an anthology on The Walking Dead called Triumph of The Walking Dead: Robert Kirkman's Zombie Epic on Page and Screen and it'll come out in November of this year (but you can, of course, pre-order now by following the link).

I have to admit, I'm in esteemed company. Here's a preliminary list of contributors:

Kyle William Bishop
Southern Utah University English professor, author (American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Walking Dead in Popular Culture)

Arnold Blumberg
Instructor University of Baltimore, author (Zombiemania: 80 Movies To Die For, The Big Big Little Book Book: An Overstreet Photo-Journal Guide)

Jay Bonansinga, author (The Black Mariah, Frozen, co-author with Robert Kirkman of upcoming Walking Dead novels)

Brendan Deneen, editor, film producer, publisher (former Director of Production & Development for the The Weinstein Company, editor on the Walking Dead novel trilogy for Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press)

Craig Fischer, professor at Appalachian State, comic scholar (The Comics Journal, The International Journal of Comic Art)

Kenneth Hite, game designer, writer (Zombies 101: Knowledge Is Survival, Trail of Cthulhu)

David Hopkins
Educator, comic book author, essayist (Karma Incorporated, Emily Edison, Webslinger: SF and Comic Writers on Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man)

Del Howison
Author, editor, actor (Dark Delicacies, When Werewolves Attack)

Scott Kenemore
Author (The Zen of Zombie: Better Living Through the Undead, Z.E.O.: How to Get A(Head) in Business, The Art of Zombie Warfare: How to Kick Ass Like the Walking Dead)

Jonathan Maberry
New York Times bestselling author (Patient Zero: A Joe Ledger Novel, Dead of Night, Rot & Ruin)

Lisa Morton, author, screenwriter (The Castle of Los Angeles, The Lucid Dreaming, A Hallowe'en Anthology: Literary and Historical Writers over the Centuries)

Kim Paffenroth, professor of Religious Studies, zombie scholar (Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Visions of Hell on Earth, History Is Dead: A Zombie Anthology, Dying to Live series)

Brendan Riley, professor Columbia College Chicago, author (Journal of Popular Culture, The Amazing Transforming Superhero)

Steven Schlozman, M.D., assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Lecturer in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, author (The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse, Psychology Today)

Kay Steiger, editor of Campus Progress, author (The Atlantic, Bitch Magazine, In These Times)

Ned Vizzini, young adult author (It's Kind of a Funny Story, Be More Chill, and Teen Angst? Naaah . . .)

COVER by Rafael Kayanan, artist Conan, Star Wars, Amazing Spider-Man, The Immortals

EDITED by James Lowder, editor, author (Curse of the Full Moon: A Werewolf Anthology; Prince of Lies (Forgotten Realms: The Avatar); Books of Flesh series: Book of All Flesh, The Book of More Flesh, The Book of More Flesh, The Book of Final Flesh (All Flesh Must Be Eaten), The Best of All Flesh: Zombie Anthology)

Chatting with Jocelyn Elders

(Photo courtesy Ripon College)

Bitch magazine's poll of women we miss now that they're gone reminded me that I did an interview with former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders a couple years back. She's a pretty rad lady—and as far as I know still kickin'. You should go check it out.

'The Next Rush Limbaugh': Conservatives Pumping Right-Wing Young People into Media Jobs

Hey guys, I have a piece on conservative journalism training found at CPAC over at AlterNet.

This year at the Conservative Political Action Committee in Washington, D.C., there were a number of targeted media trainings and journalism-oriented panels. A panel titled “Shining Light into Dark Places” sought to stress the importance of investigative journalism. Others included “Freelance Writing for Freedom,” “So You Want to be a Columnist” and “Want to be the Next Rush Limbaugh?”

Despite Sarah Palin's invectives against the "lamestream media," conservatives seem eager to fill its ranks with right-wing young people.

Check it out.

Guest Blogging at TAPPED This Week

Hey, I'm guest blogging at TAPPED this week! Check out what I've written so far:

• Medicaid expansion programs that offer more women contraception are good public policy.
• A Texas voter ID bill is pretty much just blatant voter suppression to help Republicans.
• Women are in a worse position in the economic recovery than men.
• We should make the Pell grant an entitlement program if we really want to "win the future."

Stay tuned.

Anti-Choice Legislation in the States

I have an interview with Nancy Northrup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, over at The American Prospect today on upcoming anti-choice state legislation. Check it out.

Executive Director Goes to Work for Washington Lobbyist

My reporting on the timeline of Melanie Sloan's decision to go work for Washington lobbyist Lanny Davis: Read it.

Blogging at Feministe

Jill has generously allowed me to blog over at Feministe. Check out my post on hooking up (with science!).

Taxpayer Protests

Over at Campus Progress today, I have a take on the heath care reform protesters that flooded D.C. this weekend. Go ahead and take a look.

Five Minutes of Fame

I'm guest blogging over at Jezebel this week. (Hat tip to Amanda for the great photo!)

Scientists As Organizers?

I interviewed Chris Mooney about his new co-authored book, Unscientific America, over at Campus Progress today. Here's what he had to say about how science is (un)like feminism:

It seems to me it almost has some parallels with the battles that the reproductive rights community goes through, in that they're constantly trying to rework messaging and things like that, but the polling numbers roughly stay the same year after year, decade after decade. Do you see those similarities?

I'm willing to buy it, [though] I don't know the [issue of reproductive rights] as well. I know that it's a long, hard-fought battle. But to me, you're saying that the reproductive rights groups are constantly working on their messaging, and I believe that they probably are. I don't think that's true of the science groups. Maybe some of them, but in science it's different, because there's this whole thing where you're not supposed to have messaging. It's seen as a lack of integrity. And there's no coordinated strategy in the science world about how to handle this.

Read the whole thing.

Some Things I've Written

It's been a busy month, but I just wanted to point out that here are some things I've written lately:

• Some reporting on the Ricci v. DeStefano "reverse discrimination" ruling
• How the new GI Bill is working, and how it isn't
• Some state legislation movement on how pharmacists are trying to prevent access to birth control and emergency contraception
  

On Double X

Yesterday Campus Progress put up my thoughts on the new Slate Double X site:

A bunch of feminists, myself included, were really excited about the May 12 launch of Double X, Slate’s new site “about politics, sex, and culture—that both men and women listen in on.” After all, the site features a long list of some of the top feminist writers, including The Nation’s Katha Pollitt, former Jezebeler Jessica Grose, Slate’s own Emily Bazelon, the illustrious E.J. Graff, and The Root’s Dayo Olopade. What’s more, after years of drivel-like articles that declared feminism dead and the journalism industry in crisis, it was a reassuring sign that Washington Post/Newsweek International saw potential profits in a woman-focused site.

Then, on Tuesday, Double X went live with articles titled “Whine, Womyn, and Thongs: How Feminism Has Failed,” “How I Got Bored With Feminism,” “Yes, Virginia, Feminism Really is Dead,” and “What’s the Problem Now? Feminism’s Dilemmas.” It’s enough to make all those feminists who eagerly anticipated the site’s launch—again, myself included—want to pull their hair out. What’s more, Double X seems to be trying with all its might to stoke a divisive generational flame war among feminists. This war, characterized in part by accusations from older feminists that younger feminists are somehow betraying the “true” spirit of feminism, is best summed up in the words of Deborah Dickerson in Mother Jones earlier this year: “Today’s feminists need to blog less and work more … I gotta say: Pole-dancing, walking around half-naked, posting drunk photos on Facebook, and blogging about your sex lives ain’t exactly what we previous generations thought feminism was.”

North Dakota's Failed Personhood Legislation

Today I have a new post up at RH Reality Check, where I talk about the defeat of the North Dakota legislation that attempted to define a fertilized egg as a person:

It was a win for the pro-choice movement, but perhaps what was most surprising was not that the legislation was defeated - the personhood movement is considered extreme even within the anti-choice movement - but how it was defeated.

Go ahead and read the whole thing.

Lilly Ledbetter's Fight

Today I have a piece up in Comment is Free about how the legislation touted by many as a big achievement for closing the pay gap, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that Obama is expected to sign this week, is merely one of many things Obama needs to do to right the Bush legacy. To really address pay discrimination, more action needs to be taken:

The Ledbetter act is certainly legislation to be celebrated by feminists and equal rights advocates everywhere, but in many ways the legislation is just one remedy in a long list of injustices done in the last eight years and a minor step up in the battle for equal pay. After all, the law only returns to what was practiced before the court's decision and gives women the right to sue.

On average, women still earn less than 80 cents for every dollar a man earns, and the gap becomes even greater for women of colour. The kinds of legislation that might address that pay gap are much more difficult battles to fight. To examine paycheque discrimination in a real way, we need to begin to think about greater pay transparency and more family-friendly workplace policies.

Go ahead and read the whole thing.

My Attempt to Know Things About Culture

I have an interview with Tim Westergren, co-founder of Pandora, up at Campus Progress today. Enjoy.

More Roe v. Wade Stuff

I have a piece over at Campus Progress today about how the pro-choice movement needs to really commit to reaching out to communities they traditionally haven't. Such reaches will only strengthen the cause.

[T]he reproductive rights movement is incomplete. Many people believe the movement, with its obsessive discussion of choice, Supreme Court justices, and slogans like “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries,” seems to be speaking past some key groups that could—and should—be its strong allies. These groups—people of color, young people, and straight men—all tend to think of feminism as we know it as something purely under the domain of white, relatively privileged women. If the movement hopes to achieve broad victories during the Obama administration, it must better engage these constituencies. If it doesn’t, it will have wasted this once-in-a-generation opportunity to truly make an impact on as many people’s reproductive lives as possible.

I also went down to the Supreme Court today and took some pictures of the rather small rally of anti-choice activists that were gathered there. One thing I noticed was that the group was mostly white, and seemed to be either of the boomer generation or high school kids. There were few Millenials to be found. For more, you should see Annika Carlson's 2006 piece on how the anti-choice movement relies on indoctrination of young people through "hip" culture. The problem is that the movement ends up ultimately being based on a lack of substance.

On the Agenda: Comprehensive Sex Ed, Repealing the Hyde Amendment, etc.

I have a new post about the legislation Congress should (and shouldn't) look at in this upcoming session over at RH Reality Check. Take a look.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009! (God, I can already tell it will take me several months to automate "09" when writing the date.) Apologies for the lack of posts -- I was on vacation in my chilly home state of Minnesota for the holidays. After spending some time relaxing, with family, and celebrating the new year with friends, I'm once again ready to turn my attention to righting gender inequalities and providing general snarkiness again.

Catch me tomorrow morning on Jezebel's last-ever Crappy Hour, featuring pretty much everyone that's participated in the feature since it started. It should be awesome.

UPDATE: The crap-tastic hour is posted now. I, unlike Spencer, thought the experiment worked pretty well, and I'm sad to see this feature go.