The Intersection of Art and Feminism... and T-Shirts...

I'm playing catch-up today. I've been meaning to drop a couple of links for some time, now, and I keep forgetting.

No more!

I discovered The Feminist Art Project a little while ago, and I've been wanting to drop a link to their site, because I absolutely love their mission:

The Feminist Art Project is a collaborative national initiative celebrating the Feminist Art Movement and the aesthetic, intellectual and political impact of women on the visual arts, art history, and art practice, past and present. The project is a strategic intervention against the ongoing erasure of women from the cultural record. It promotes diverse feminist art events and publications through its website calendar and facilitates networking and regional program development throughout the U.S.

Sadly, none of the events that they've listed on their calendar are near me, but there's some pretty interesting sounding things going on, and it might be worth checking some of them out if they're near you.

The other thing I keep meaning to do, and I've been sadly remiss in following through on, is to give a shout out to Jaclyn Friedman's t-shirt site. I think that the designs themselves are great, and I love the idea: Take the insults and attacks that feminists are accused of, and take away the sting by mocking it on a t-shirt. From the site:

I started Sticks & Stones Clothing after I published an article in which I briefly mentioned having been sexually assaulted, and was accused by commenters and letter-writers of being a lying, man-hating whore just for having had the nerve to speak about it.

That hurt. Until I made a tshirt out of it so I could wear it proudly. Now, you can, too.

Friedman's goal is to "Claim or subvert a current insult used by wingnuts" and make t-shirts that "can't be worn un-politically." Take a look at some of the designs, and if you've got an idea for one, she encourages you to send the idea to sticksandstones at jaclynfriedman.com. If she uses it, you get a free shirt.

Also, you can check out the logo, which was designed by yours truly.

Murder Most Foul: Pregnant Woman's Killer on the Loose...

Cara, over at the Curvature, has a blurb about Jessie Davis and the link between the murder of women and relationships. That is: that 1 in 3 women who are murdered are killed by current or ex husbands or boyfriends. That's staggering.

She also notes that one of the things that made this case so newsworthy is that she was pregnant and likely to give birth soon when she was murdered. That's probably accurate. Sadly, she isn't alone in that regard, although there's much less news around the case of Jennifer Kathleen Nielsen. Nielsen, 22, who was expected to give birth later this week or next, was murdered outside a gas station while she was delivering papers on her second job. Police don't know yet why she was killed, but have released a sketch of a person of interest wanted for questioning.

Cases like this are important to get the word out about- it's a terrible tragedy whenever someone is murdered, but it seems especially so when there's no explanation, no reason, no information at all about what happened. I can only imagine how hard this must be for her family. Her husband is faced with explaining to their children- both under 5- why their mother can't come home anymore. Her family have to deal with the pain of having a loved one taken from them in a brutal and senseless act. And none of them have any answers about who did this or why.

This particular case also highlights one of the interesting and awful things about the internet- when you make connections to people online, you never know who they are offline, and you never know what kinds of things happen to them. If Nielsen had been a regular commentor on any of the blogs I read, she'd have disappeared, and I'd have never known why. As it turns out, her brother is a long-time member of a web-community that I used to be really active in. I was one of the founding members, and I've known this guy for years. My heart goes out to him, and his family, in this time of loss. I can only imagine the pain and frustration that they're probably feeling right now. I can only hope that justice is served.

The Davis case is still getting a lot of media coverage, and I certainly don't want to give the impression that I'm not absolutely sympathetic to her family and their loss, and to the heinousness of that crime. But, right now, there's an important distinction between Nielsen and Davis. Both cases are terrible tragedies, but Davis' case was solved. Her killer is being arraigned, and the wheels of justice are turning. Nielsen's killer is still out there, somewhere, and the police are looking for clues. Her family are still looking for answers and trying to understand what happened. I know, this is a pretty sad way to start the week, but I'm just totally at a loss here. Things like this are just so absolutely senseless.

There's a fund being set up to help Nielsen's family, in case anyone is interested.
Nielsen Family Fund
First Flight Credit Union
1156 North Main Street
Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526
Attention Kati
(919) 557-5311