The nineteenth issue of The Carnival of Feminists is out today at team-blog Figure: Demystifying the Feminist Mystique.

Posted by Alisha, the introduction reads:

"Welcome to the 19th edition of the Carnival of Feminists! It has really been a pleasure to read all of the nominations and to discover some new blogs we knew nothing about.

Our theme for this Carnival is 'Feminism and Career' and we definitely came across some exceedingly interesting posts on the subject. This happens to be a topic that we here at Figure: Demystifying the Feminist Mystique hold near and dear to our hearts. However, we also wanted to recognize that a career does not necessarily have to be an office job…"

Click through to read the issue.

Next Issue...

The next issue of The Carnival of Feminists will be hosted by Kactus at Super Babymama on August 2nd. The theme to issue 20 will be poverty and class.

You can submit nominations via the Blog Carnival submission form.

To find out more about the carnival, how frequently it appears, and to read past issues, visit the official Carnival of Feminists blog.

To volunteer to host an issue, please contact the Carnival Organizer, Natalie Bennett.

This is not a movie review, but a general complaint. Is it possible we're living in the 21st century? Not judging by the stories we're telling, which recycle the same staid gender roles. I'm taking about the summer blockbuster movies Superman and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

I was pretty disappointed with the characters written for women in both films. This is not an indictment of either Kate Bosworth or Keira Knightley (Superman and Pirates, respectively). I'm sure both actors were doing the best they could with the material they had. But have you ever seen a worse Lois Lane? I didn't feel she was a crack reporter, driven to nail a story down - she seemed to be there as the damsel in distress. Yes, Margot Kidder fulfilled the same role in the Superman film of 1978, but at least there were gestures towards her career: the balcony scene where she gets out her pad and pencil for the scoop on Superman, and the general indication that she had drives and desires, and led an autonomous life.

In fact, having recently viewed Superman: The Movie, I was stunned by a scene I'd forgotten: there's a long sequence where Superman and Lois Lane fly above Metropolis at night, just after the balcony scene mentioned above. The audience gain access to Lane's thoughts during an unrushed monologue where she muses on what is unfolding before her. This places the whole audience in sympathy with Lane, and places our subjectivity squarely on a female character's shoulders.

I got the sense from the 2006 Superman script that it could've cared less what Kate Boswell's thoughts were, or what drove her, besides the socially sanctioned love for her child. Speaking of child - how boring is it to have her kid be male? For God's sake, at least take a bit of a risk and make the child female - that way we would've had more interesting ideas raised about gender and the whole "superman" mythology. But, no - they had to keep that whole Christian Father/Son thing chugging along.

In Pirates, there's a wonderful moment where Keira Knightly, as Elizabeth Swann, is aiming a gun at some barrels of gunpowder. You think - yes! - they've given her some action, something interesting to do. But the inclusion of her fiance on the barrels, along with a swaying boat which, in her female incompetence, she is unable to contend with, means that the satisfaction of blasting the Kraken's tentacles is left to the ever-shaky Johnny Depp. Yawn, sigh. Well, what was I thinking - they'd let the female character actually do something?

The Pirates script even has a promising set-up where Swann has to disguise herself as a sailor and work on a ship incognito. The writers could've taken this in any number of interesting ways, having fun with the role reversal, undermining gender expectations, etc. But her passing as a male member of crew is left largely unexplored. Disappointing.

Am I too optimistic about gender roles crumbling in this new century? Hollywood seems stuck in reverse with its unexamined assumptions about men and women, endlessly recycling the same old stories…

Blur penned these lyrics in 1995:

This is the next century
Where the universal's free
You can find it anywhere
Yes, the future's been sold

Every night we're gone
And to karaoke songs
How we like to sing along,
Though the words are wrong

It really really really could happen
Yes it really really really could happen
When the days they seem to fall through you
Well just let them go

I share Blur's thinly-veiled skepticism. Chances are, the plum roles will continue to be written with men in mind, until more women move into directing and producing. Then maybe we'll have a fighting chance of having complex, interesting leading ladies: in short, humans, not cardboard characters.

It really really really could happen.

Lyrics: Blur, "The Universal", The Great Escape

Issue number 13 of The Carnival of Feminists is out now!

Terry of I See Invisible People is the host and editor of lucky number 13, and she's done a great job of rounding up some of the best of the feminist blogosphere.

Do stop by and leave a comment if you think she's produced a good issue - comments are like applause for Carnival Hosts. ;)

Cross-posted at Sour Duck

I'm spreading the word about the call for submissions for the next issue of The Carnival of Feminists.

From Terry at I See Invisible People:

The 13th issue of The Carnival of Feminists will be hosted on I See Invisible People on April 19.

The theme of the issue will be “Feminism and Challenges - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.” Possible topics including: self-determination in health and mental health care, disability issues, transgender issues, issues of aging, integration of religion and feminist beliefs, economic issues, etc.

The issue will not be limited to the theme, though I hope to get a nice collection of posts fitting it.

Please feel free to nominate a post of your own, as well as those by other people.

Posts written after 5 April 2006 will be eligible. Nominations will close at midnight 17 April.

Nominations may be sent to ISeeInvisiblePeople AT gmail.com or submitted through the online form.

Hope you all submit something!

The Carnival of Feminists, Issue 8 has just been published in all its glory at Gendergeek.

The theme for this issue is "Babes in Geekland". Intriguing...

The editors of Issue 8 are Emma and Emmy - do stop by and leave your thoughts and feedback. If you like what you see, let them know! Comments are "applause" for carnival hosts.

Then race right back to Mediagirl.org. There's always something happening here. ;)

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