N the 1936 Olympic Games, the sprinter Stella Walsh — running for Poland and known as the fastest woman in the world — was beaten by Helen Stephens of St. Louis, who set a world record by running 100 meters in 11.4 seconds. After the race, a Polish journalist protested that Stephens must be a man. After all, no woman in the world could run that fast.

Olympic officials performed a “sex test” on Stephens, who was found, in fact, to be female, proving once and for all that a person could be incredibly fast and female at the same time.

Forty-four years later,…

This goes out to all our Bay Area friends — WIMN’s having a party on July 17, and I hope to see you there. Feel free to forward this post to any Bay Area journalists, media producers, media activists, feminists, progressives and others who you think might like to eat, drink, network and collaborate.
–Jenn
You’re invited! […]

[UPDATE: I’ve posted a full op-ed here.] Linda Hirshman hits the women’s movement with another blow in her recent article in the Washington Post, “Looking to the Future, Feminism Has to Focus.” In the piece, she surmises that the reason Hilary Clinton lost the nomination because of intersectionality and diversity in the movement. The war, […]

Saturday, 12:15: Right now, at the National Conference of Media Reform, I have the immense pleasure of moderating a panel called “There Is No Media Justice Without Women: Models for Feminist Social Justice Media Activism” with some of the women I respect most in the world — women who are simultaneously as creative, funny and […]

If you’re not able to be in Minneapolis for the National Conference on Media Reform, you can listen to live streaming video and audio from the opening plenary, here (you can also watch and hear clips from panels, full video and audio from plenaries, and more on a constant basis from now until Sunday).
As she […]

If you’re planning on attending the National Conference on Media Reform (NCMR 2008), I’m excited to invite you to what promises to be a fascinating and compelling conversation between some of the most dynamic, effective women leaders of the multi-faceted media justice movement.
On behalf of Women In Media & News (WIMN), I’m moderating a […]

Update on what appears to have been a successful campaign against sexist attitudes and offensive behaviour on ‘The Footy Show’ in Australia

This communication from Anne Walker in Melbourne makes it clear that sexism of the crudest kind is still alive and kicking, showing up in different places in different forms at different times:
“Sam Newman is a well-known football personality here in Australia and is a key member of an entertainment show called ‘The Footy Show […]

Media love to tell women we should be ashamed of aging. “You never ask a lady her age,” we hear from news anchors to soap opera characters. But WIMN’s Voices is turning 1,000 today, and we couldn’t be happier at how we’ve grown up.
This, in fact, is the thousandth post to WIMN’s Voices, the […]

Opportunity for Boston area folks: This weekend through Monday there will be several chances to meet Women In Media & News’s staff, board and bloggers at the WAM!2008 conference today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday), as well the next day (Monday) at MIT, where I will be speaking about reality TV as cultural backlash against women […]