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Review: Martyna Majok’s ‘Ironbound’ Encapsulates Struggle of a Polish Immigrant Woman

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Moxie Theatre is staging its first production the 2017-2018 season, Martyna Majok’s “Ironbound.” Directed by Jennifer Eve Thorn, “Ironbound” is a story about a Polish immigrant woman “for whom love is a luxury and a liability as she fights to survive in America,” as described in the program.

Set at a bus stop at night in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Jacque Wilke portrays the life of Darja from 1992 — shortly after she emigrated to the United States with her first husband Maks (Arusi Santi) — until 2014, when she deals with her unfaithful boyfriend Tommy (Eric Casalini), a letter carrier.

Using 2014 as a jumping-off point, the play’s narrative goes switches between defining moments in Darja’s relationships with her two husbands (only her first husband appears on stage), her son (who never appears on stage) and Tommy, her current boyfriend. Vic (Carter Piggee), a high school kid, who finds Darja at the bus stop after she has been beaten by her second husband, acts as a Good Samaritan.   [Read more…]

Blast From the Past: Susan B. Anthony Grave Draws a Crowd on Election Day | Video Worth Watching

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Today marks the 46th anniversary of Women’s Equality Day, an event commemorating the ratification of the 19th amendment, prohibiting the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. A resolution to designate this day in honor of the adoption of that amendment, was introduced by New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug and was eventually passed as H.J. Res. 52 on August 16, 1973.

In that spirit, here’s a brief clip recording a spontaneous expression of gratitude to one of the early pioneers of the Woman Suffrage movement, Susan B. Anthony. Last Election Day (Nov. 8, 2016) by 10:30 a.m., easily 1,000 people, a large majority of them women and girls, made the pilgrimage to her grave at this 196-acre Victorian cemetery. Hundreds more stood patiently in line, enduring an hour’s wait for the chance to approach Anthony’s stone.   [Read more…]

Courage and Camaraderie During the Reign of Terror: Moxie Theatre Produces ‘The Revolutionists’

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When historical women gather on stage—like Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls—their creativity, wittiness, and diversity transform into dynamic energy. The Moxie Theatre production of Lauren Gunderson’s The Revolutionists, directed by Jennifer Eve Thorn, exemplifies that transformation.

Set in Paris in 1793 at the beginning of the Reign of Terror (1793-1794), The Revolutionists portrays four women who played different roles in the French Revolution. The central figure is writer Olympe de Gouges, who championed equal rights for women in the French Republic and wrote plays and pamphlets as well as giving speeches including the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen.   [Read more…]

New Hampshire Republican Who Founded Woman-Hating Site Makes Outrageous Statements Validating Rape

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The state’s Republican governor calls for his resignation

By Kali Holloway / AlterNet

Robert Fisher is the founder of the Red Pill, an online subreddit for men who are sick of women complaining about rape, harassment and sexism. As a vocal participant in the group, he’s written at length about how feminism makes life hard for nice guys like him who see women as sex objects and make rape jokes.

Fisher is also a Republican lawmaker representing Belknap County District 9 in the New Hampshire state legislature. For years, no one knew the two were one and the same, until an investigation by the Daily Beast’s Bonnie Bacarisse uncovered the truth. Now the state is considering whether or not to oust Fisher, and he has promised to fight removal every step of the way.   [Read more…]

Just So We’re Clear: Black Mothers Aren’t to Blame for High Infant Mortality

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When famous midwife Ina May Gaskin suggested that Black mothers should make better lifestyle choices to have healthier babies, the Black birth world decided they’d had enough

By Ambreia Meadows-Fernandez / Yes! Magazine

Ina May Gaskin is often referred to as the “mother of modern midwifery.” But when Gaskin was asked at an April 22 birth seminar in Forth Worth, Texas, about the effects of systemic racism on high infant and maternal mortality, her response left many in the Black birthing community questioning her competence.   [Read more…]

Paying Homage to Single Mothers

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When many economic supports for already-vulnerable women and children are under assault, it is time to reject the false “family breakdown” narrative

By Julie Kohler, Nicole Rodgers / Common Dreams

Mothers have it hard in this country. We pay lip service to support for working moms, but don’t back up our words with deeds, through critical public policies like paid family leave or high quality affordable child care. Mothers ― especially Black and Latina mothers ― earn less than fathers, as well as women without children. Single mothers face additional challenges, earning 58 cents to every dollar earned by fathers.   [Read more…]

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: A Story about Extremism and Complacency

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By Doctor RJ / Daily Kos

I am a man. I state this because my perspective on what it means to be a woman within our society is limited in some ways. However, from the outside looking in, it’s been my observation that most women are forced to walk a very narrow balance when it comes to public perceptions, which is fundamentally unfair and contributes to some of the glass ceilings.

For example, in almost all respects of life, confidence and strength are character traits people respond to—whether it’s a leader outlining a plan of action, or someone trying to sell their attraction in order to get a date. But for women, show too much strength and get called a bitch, or act too nice and be regarded as weak.   [Read more…]

America’s Abortion Divide

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Deborah Klugman / Capital & Main

Produced and directed by Tracy Droz Tragos, the HBO documentary Abortion: Stories Women Tell shares the experiences of women living in the Bible Belt and coping with unplanned pregnancies. The film is unlikely to change the thinking of firm believers on either side of the issue, but for viewers whose opinions waiver, who are unsure of the morality of abortion or are unclear about the motives behind it, the film will be educational and illuminating.

Tragos grounds her documentary in her home state of Missouri, where one abortion clinic serves the entire state. While Missouri has some of the most draconian restrictions in the nation, it’s hardly alone in limiting abortion access. Since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973, over half the states have enacted some form of restriction.   [Read more…]

A New Way to Close the Gender Pay Gap

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By Martha Burk / Common Dreams

Once again, Equal Pay Day is approaching. Never heard of it? If you’re a working woman or someone who cares about the working women in your life, you need to study up.

Equal Pay Day is the day in any given year when women working full-time, year-round catch up to men’s earnings from the previous year.

Let’s say the average man made $35,000 last year, from January 1 to December 31. The average woman working the same amount of time made $27,300. It will take her until April 4 of this year to amass the same earnings the guy made by the end of last year. So Equal Pay Day is April 4 this year.   [Read more…]

The Value of Equal Pay to the U.S. Economy

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By Kate Bahn / Center for American Progress

This year, Equal Pay Day falls on April 4. This means that the average woman had to work from the start of 2016 through April 4, 2017 to earn as much as an average man did in 2016 alone. Put another way, women currently earn 80 cents for each dollar that men earn.

As a result of these factors and others, women can lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in earnings over the course of their careers. But it isn’t just women’s individual bottom lines that suffer: The gender wage gap is also a drag on the U.S. economy, and closing the gap should be a top priority of any economic policy agenda that seeks to strengthen and grow the economy. In fact, comparing it to the current top priority of the GOP—tax cuts for the wealthy—equal pay would put twice as much income back into our economy as their current proposed tax cuts.   [Read more…]

Local Democrats Have a Woman Problem

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I am afraid. And I am not the only one.

By Anonymous Is a Woman

A handful of Democratic women saw each other at the ADEM elections for the first time since the holidays. For some, it’s the first time they had come out for an event since the election. For others, this was their third event that weekend.

After a few minutes of small talk and “Holy-crap-the-world-is-ending” Trump commentary, the conversation becomes a bit more hushed when one of the women asked, “So what do you think about this Mickey Kasparian situation?”

Voices automatically lower.   [Read more…]

Family Reconciliation in Twilight: World Premier of ‘Firepower’

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The Detroit Repertory Theatre’s world premiere of Firepower, written by Kermit Frazier and directed by Lynch Travis, explores the challenge of trust, honesty, respect, and love through the reunion of two generations of African American men.

Using the familiar structure of a family reunion and reconciliation, Firepower is packed with a number of issues and subjects from the history of the civil rights movement, racism and exploitation in American sports, search for and expression of identity, and the need for change toward further inclusion and diversity.   [Read more…]

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