Women For Obama

Just in case you didn't get enough from Alisha, I thought I'd give you some more Obama love. As we speak my 65 year old mother is preparing to go on a road trip to PA for a Women For Obama rally (you can find out more here -). So if you're in the area, get your banners out and join her!

I wish I could be with her, but instead I'm in a country where the President admits that his new super-model wife makes him jealous because she looks better naked compared to him. Yes, believe everything you have ever heard about the French and women. It's all true.

Barack Obama: A True Feminist

Hello readers,

Sorry for the long-time radio silence, but I want to join C-A in a big rousing thanks for our E for Excellent award. I suppose it's motivated me to try to live up to the ranking :)

I've moved across the pond - these days I'm back in the UK. But what's on my mind, not just as an American but as a citizen of the world if you will, is the 2008 presidential election. Regular readers will know I've posted on this topic before . But my own beliefs have followed an evolution throughout this campaign, starting from being so thrilled as a woman and feminist to have a prominent female contender in the race to my stance now: an absolute, full-out, 100% Obamaniac. I love Obama in the way you love someone that inspires you and your friends and family to want to do good things and hope for the future. I think he's intelligent, eloquent, thoughtful, progressive - everything I want in my country's next president.

But I will admit, I get some grief, especially from former friends and colleagues in gender studies about my support for Obama. To date, I haven't been able to articulate clearly enough why I feel like I support Obama over Hillary precisely because I am a feminist. Luckily, Ariel Garfinkel, writing in the Huffington Post, did it for me.

In her article, The Obama Feminists: Why Young Women Are Supporting Obama Garfinkel posits that in this race, Obama is the candidate that best embodies feminist ideals of equity and equality, as well as the one who has certainly run the most high-minded campaign. He doesn't forget gender or sexuality just because he talks about race or class- he has, in my opinion, a firm grasp on how intricately these identities are connected. And not only that, he's kept his integrity as the race has gotten dirtier and dirtier which, sadly, Clinton has not:

As the media endlessly ran clips of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, suggesting somehow that Obama was responsible for the extremes of his minister (a scrutiny, by the way, not applied by the media to the provocative spiritual advisors of John McCain), Hillary ducked to let the circus continue. Failing to show true leadership by denouncing one pastor's views as fair game in evaluating a presidential candidate, Hillary sat it out apparently hoping the focus on Wright might injure Obama. While missing her own principled moment, Hillary was left to watch Obama rise to his.

For more information on the Obama campaign click here.
For an excellent interview with Obama in The Advocate, click here.

In the mean time, I leave you with the Yes We Can music video which seriously brings tears to my eyes.

We Are Still Here....

The Choice Is Now nominated us for an 'E is for Excellent' award in March. First of all, it's a thrill to get nominated, so thank you very much Kelly. Secondly, I have to apologize (again) on the total lack of posting recently. Even though there are three of us, we still seem to be completely lost in our own little worlds and aren't finding enough time to post. Which is sad. It's kind of like saying you don't have enough time to exercise when we all know that's just an excuse. In fact, I'm been feeling so bad about not posting, I started considering whether this was the end to Feminist Figure, but our little award makes me feel like perhaps there is some life in this little blog yet.

But back to the award. We have to nominate ten blogs that we feel have excellent content. And since there are three of us, the task is getting divided among us. And instead of 10, we are nominating 12 because it's easier then 3.3. Also there is no limit to how many blogs you nominate. By the way, I've made this decision without any consultation with my fellow blogger team.

So here are my four:

blue milk
Charlotte's Web
anythings.org
Feminist Dad