Jezebel: women scorned

Women's Colleges Boost "Social Good" — But Not At Tulane

Anna N. — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:40:00 EDT

A judge has ruled that Newcomb, Tulane University's women's college, can stay closed — which is especially sad since the Washington Monthly says women's colleges contribute disproportionately to the "social good."

Tulane closed Newcomb College as a cost-cutting measure after Hurricane Katrina, but the great-great-great niece of its founder Josephine Louis Newcomb sued. She argued that closing the college — which was a model for other women's coordinate colleges like Barnard — violated Josephine Newcomb's will. But a judge decided that the will "contains no enforceable conditional obligation to support the plaintiff's claim" — thus, the college can stay closed.

The news came just as the Washington Monthly released its unconventional college rankings. These rankings aim to convey "what colleges are doing for the country," measured by "social mobility, research, and service." The magazine's editors explain,

In our eyes, America's best colleges are those that work hardest to help economically disadvantaged students earn the credentials that the job market demands. They're the institutions that contribute new scientific discoveries and highly trained PhDs. They're the colleges that emphasize the obligations students have to serve their communities and the nation at large.

As it turns out, women's colleges "play an outsized role in contributing to the public good." Though only about fifty still exist, four of them made the Washington Monthly's top 10 liberal arts colleges. This should be no surprise, since according to Jessica Calefati of US News & World Report (source of those other college rankings), women's colleges "are among the country's more ethnically and socioeconomically diverse liberal arts colleges, offering generous financial aid packages." Calefati adds,

Just as women's colleges originally were founded because women couldn't go to college elsewhere, many of today's women's colleges are surviving-and thriving-by educating specific populations of women who are still underserved.

But Calefati also notes that more and more women's colleges are closing or going coed. Wells College in Aurora, NY began admitting men in 2005, and some students saw a difference immediately. "Women are waking up early to put on makeup, and that's odd," said then-senior Sarah Alexander. The status of women's colleges as champions of the underrepresented and promoters of diversity may be under threat.

The Washington Monthly ranks Tulane 70th out of 258 national universities. In a blog post on the rankings, the Times's Tamar Lewin asks,

What would the world be like if college presidents worked as hard to improve their Washington Monthly rankings as they now do to keep up their U.S. News ranking?

Guess Tulane isn't itching to find out.

Judge Rules In Tulane's Favor; Women's College To Stay Closed [US News & World Report]
Rating Colleges By Their Contribution To The Social Good [NYT]
Introduction: A Different Kind of College Ranking [Washington Monthly]

Things Are Looking Up For The Women In Hollywood

Jessica — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:30:00 EDT

Ever since Sex and the City turned out to be a money making juggernaut, Warner Brothers has decided to aggressively market The Women. "This is an about-face from the studio's earlier decision to leave plans intact for about-to-shutter Picturehouse to debut the chick flick in limited release and with a small P&A," says Nikki Finke, who has been following the fate of the Meg Ryan-helmed film for some time now (also starring: Annette Bening, Bette Midler, Jada Pinkett Smith). If you'll recall, last year Warner Brothers' Jeff Robinov famously declared, "We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead." Well apparently he's doing at least one movie with a woman in the lead, and while that's heartening, movies still have a long way to go. Looking at the just-released shortlist for Emmy nominations, however, shows that there are myriad plum roles for leading ladies on the small screen. Which leads me to wonder: why is there such an enormous disconnect between females on TV and the ones on the silver screen?

Tina Fey (30 Rock), Glenn Close (Damages), America Ferrera (Ugly Betty), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine), Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives), Mariska Hargitay (Law and Order: SVU), Kyra Sedgewick (The Closer), Minnie Driver (The Riches), Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) and Jeanne Tripplehorn (Big Love): these were the women who were nominated for Emmys, by-in-large playing strong, capable, well-written roles. And what's more, most of these women are, gasp, over 35.

Are there so many more available roles for women of a certain age on TV because producing a television show is that much cheaper? Are aging bodies less obvious on the small screen, and so they're more acceptable? Are Hollywood honchos just stuck believing that women don't see movies, or that men don't want to see movies with anything but eye candy? It's probably a combination of all of the above, and even though those televised, meaty roles are something to be proud of, there is not a single black actress on the short list for Best Actress Emmy (there are two Latinas: Ferrera and Eva Longoria-Parker).

I know I've said this so many times before, but there is something concrete we can do to help: go see movies made by women, or made with women in respectable roles. I'd tell you to go see something specific this weekend, but the only recent release with a plucky female protagonist is Kit Kittredge, and if you're not a Jezemom, I'm guessing that holds limited interest for you. Sigh. We clearly have a long way to go.

Warner Brothers Decides To Embrace The Women [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
Why Won't Warner Embrace The Women? [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
Warner's Robinov Bitchslaps Film Women [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
Sarah Silverman Lands In The Top 10 List Of Emmy semifinalists For Best Comedy Actress! [Gold Derby LAT]
Looks like Mary McDonnell Of 'Battlestar Galactica' And Elisabeth Moss Of 'Mad Men' Are On The Emmy Top 10 List [Gold Derby LAT]

Earlier: Ultimate Chick Flick The Women Is Finally About To See The Silver Screen

Ultimate Chick Flick The Women Is Finally About To See The Silver Screen

Tracie — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Here's the trailer for The Women, the Diane English remake of the 1939 George Cukor film based on the play by Clare Booth Luce. According to Nikki Finke, the movie — which features an all-female cast (Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Bette Midler, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Debi Mazur, Joanna Gleason, Carrie Fisher, Lynn Whitfield and Cloris Leachman) and is directed and produced by a woman as well — had a dicey future, despite the fact that Sex and the City proved that women actually, you know, go to see movies. It took 15 years to get The Women made, and male studio execs, whom Finke refers to as the "he-man woman-haters club" were about to shut the movie down, but had a change of heart and the film will now be released this September.

The Women Trailer [Yahoo]
Updated: Why Won't Warner Embrace 'The Women'? Or Will It? And What Other Female Film Isn't Getting Love There? [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

Just Got Dumped? Maybe It's Time To Scream, Stalk, And Embrace Your Inner Stacy

Jessica — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:00:00 EDT

After hearing about the Herpes Avenger, the Brooklyn woman who plastered the face of an STD-carrying former lover all over her neighborhood and the internets, my first thought was Jesus, what a psycho. But then I read what Moe wrote about her boyfriend and "acting like a typically-female species of psychopath" after a breakup and I thought, huh, maybe the behavior of the herpes harlot is actually semi-justifiable! Because let's be honest. We've all been that girl before. At least I have. I freely admit that I peed on my freshman year boyfriend's porch after he dumped me, and I also might have fucked someone's best friend after he refused to break up with me in person. I polled the other Jezebels, and apparently each one of us has been known to pay a visit psychotown on occasion.

Beyond the run-of-the-mill cyberstalking, drunk dialing, and boning of the ex-bf's friends (a particular fave 'round these parts), one Jezebel "briefly had a blog on which I would take note of changes in his MySpace profile and speculate as to which of his newly-added female friends he was doing. Also I would send him text messages along the lines of 'I want to shit in your eye.'" Oooh, clever, and cached for eternity!

Anna asks, "Does publishing an entire book on breakups count as psycho? I. WAS. PISSED." Not psycho! I've found that writing about break-ups is the best revenge!

Another Gawker media blogger says, "I spray-painted SLUT on a dude's dorm room door once after I found out he was hooking up with both me and this girl in my creative class who I hated." Oooh, effective and hard to get rid of!

In fact, even being called psycho (or "crazy" or "dramatic") in the first place is often just a way for guys to marginalize what they perceive as messy female emotions. Yale social psychologist Victoria Brescoll, in an article about male vs. female tears, puts it this way: "When men express anger they gain status, but when women express anger they lose status." So the next time you're disrespected, don't be afraid to fight unfair notions of lady hysteria and unleash the beast.

Earlier: Boys Who Use The Word Drama: An Investigation