Women & Society Conference

The 20th annual Women & Society Conference is this weekend ( Friday Oct 21 & Saturday the 22nd) at Marist College, Poughkeepsie NY.
Women and Society is an academic conference covering all aspects of women and gender currently under study. Among the topics to be discussed this year are Sex, Violence, Counseling and Advocacy; Body and Sexuality; Media Portrayals; Reproductive Rights and Activism; Lesbians and Gays: Nature Versus Nurture; Empowering Women Through the Arts; New Ways of Thinking about Gender; and Warning Signs of Domestic Violence.

The keynote address is free and open to the public and will be given Dr. Gail Dines, a professor of sociology and women's studies at Wheelock College in Boston, on Friday, October 21 at 7 p.m. in the Nelly Goletti Theatre, located on the third floor of the college's Student Center. Dines is an internationally acclaimed speaker and author, and a feminist activist who focuses on the hypersexualization of the culture and the ways that porn images filter down into mainstream pop culture.

Dr. Dines' work on media and pornography has appeared in academic journals, magazines such as Time and Newsweek, and newspapers across the country. She is a frequent guest on radio and television and is a recipient of the Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights. Dr. Dines is a founding member of Stop Porn Culture, an educational and activist group made up of academics, anti-violence experts, community organizers and anyone who is concerned about the increasing "pornification" of culture.

Dr. Dines' new book "Pornland" has just been published by Beacon Press and has received coverage by the Boston Globe The Guardian, the American Spectator, Ms. Magazine, The Huffington Post, AlterNet, the New York Post, the Sacramento Book Review, and Pulse Media. She has been featured on CNN and Canadian Public Radio.

This conference aims to mentor undergraduate scholars, to do so, we allow them to attend for free. All others must pay the registration fee. Conference registration begins on site at noon Friday in the Henry Hudson Room, 3rd floor of Fontaine Hall.

For registration and further information, contact conference coordinator Dr. JoAnne Myers, associate professor of political science and co-director of Women's Studies at Marist, at joanne.myers@marist.edu or (845) 575-3000, ext. 2234. A conference schedule is available online at

http://www.marist.edu/liberalarts/womensstudies/program.html

On the backs of women

Literally, on the backs of women, the Topeka, KS City Council voted to decriminalize domestic violence...did they vote to decriminalize a nonviolent, non public order threatening marijuana: no! This is literally a FU to women.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/topeka-moves-to-decriminalize-domestic-violence.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=topeka&st=cse

Petition to decriminalize marijuana not DV in Topeka:
http://www.change.org/petitions/topeka-city-council-member-decriminalize-marijuana-not-domestic-violence

Book group

Just finished our book group--Next books are Gail Dines' Pornland (she is also talking at Marist OCt 21st as part of the Women & Society Conference, you're invited to the talk)for November, December is Joan Wallach Scott's The Politics of the Veil, and Jan/Feb is Orhan Pamuk's Snow, March is Taking on the Big Boys by Ellen Bravo...and on the list is Wendy & the Lost Boys, Going Rouge. . .

Kristof is in Sieera Leone, and just busted a pastor who was allegedly sexually abusing (raping) young girls according to his tweet.