Calling All Shaker-Uppers

You may have heard about one of our newest books, The List: 100 Ways to Shake Up Your Life — if you haven't, it's chock-full of ideas to get out, get involved, get going, and generally add some life back into your life. All the ideas in The List, from #13 Run for Office to #60 Kiss a Total Stranger to #92 Have a Baby Late in Life, are based on real stories from women who've come up with creative and often outrageous ways to do something new. You'll read about women who've biked across the US, played ice hockey, started charities, lost 50-plus pounds, gone commando, and mounted art exhibits, to name a few. But we know there are many, many more ideas out there than could ever fit into one book . . . and that's where you come in!

If you have a great shake-up story or an idea for one, we'd love to hear about it. Email thelist@perseusbooks.com with your name and a description of your shake-up. The Lister with our favorite story will win a free copy of the book! Deadline is November 30, so make sure to get yours in this weekend!

To learn more about The List, visit the website at www.shakeuplist.com.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days

A while back, I heard the name of a film and knew exactly what it would be about. I added it to our netflix and my boyfriend and I watched it over the weekend.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days is set in Communist Romania in 1987. It tells the story of two students, roomates in the dorms, who help each other arrange an illegal abortion for one of the girls. This film brought up a lot of feelings for me because the idea of overturning Roe v. Wade always seems to be of question or concern. As a young woman who believes in every woman's right to choose, this movie made me think of the consequences of what would happen in the United States if abortion were illegal and girls and young women were forced to do terminate pregnancies in hidden places, with unsterile things, and under horrible circumstances. This movie brought those images to life. It opened my eyes to a place where girls will go to jail if they accidentally become pregnant and make the choice not to have the baby. A world where in order to even have an illegal abortion and perhaps die from it, women sometimes endure rape, just so they can pay for it.

It's difficult to believe that choice is still in question for some in the world. That because you aren't ready yet, or made a mistake, that you may have to risk your life. But I'm thankful to live in a country where I am still able to choose, and I hope it stays that way.

This movie is hard to watch at times, but really worth it.

~Eva

the F-word is still a dirty word

According to a new Daily Beast poll only 20% of women are willing to use the word “feminist” about themselves and only 17% of all voters said they would welcome their daughters using that label.

When you run in feminist circles, you think that numbers like this can't possibly be true. The very fact that "feminism" is a dirty word to so many people, a label that women would reject because of the stigmas attached to it, is evidence of how much power---personal, social, political---we give up, over and over and over again, as women. I'm not a conspiracist. It's not like I think The Man, or The Right, or women like Sarah Palin are in cahoots to keep women in their places. But each of these entities (and hundreds of organizations and ideological groups and individuals just like them) certainly distorts feminism, so much so that feminism is really just an interpretation: home, life-saver, threat, joke, dirty word.

I remember seeing this quote by feminist Paula Kamen: "A natural response is to change the word feminist to a word with fewer stigmas attached. But inevitably the same thing will happen to that magical word. Part of the radical connotation of feminism is not due to the word, but to the action. The act of a woman standing up for herself is radical, whether she calls herself a feminist or not."

The act of a woman standing up for herself. A radical act, indeed.

via Broadsheet

---Brooke

Thomas Beatie, pregnant man, on Good Morning America

This morning Thomas Beatie appeared on Good Morning America with his wife, Nancy, and their daughter Susan. He discussed his new book, Labor of Love: One Man's Extraordinary Pregnancy, and how it feels to be the world's first pregnant man. Check out the video here! Also read the first chapter of Labor of Love at the ABC website.