South African teenager Mokgadi “Caster” Semenya won the 800 metres race at the ongoing World Athletics Championships in Berlin last week with what has been described as “a stunningly dominating run.” Unfortunately, her victorious debut in international sports has been clouded by controversy over her sexual identity. Many media reports on the issue reflect ignorance about the distinction between sex and gender.

Saturday morning at the Allied Media Conference, and I’m waking up thinking about how impressive the “future is now” vibe has been at #AMC09. I can honestly say I’ve never been to as tech-savvy a conference, specifically in relation to the use of information communications technology. For example, a major highlight of last night’s keynote […]

I’m attending “Media Justice: What’s Next?” at the Allied Media Conference.
This rich, deep fishbowl conversation has focused on the reasons why media justice activists do our work, and varied methods media justice organizers are acting in the service of transformational social justice and expanding power of traditionally oppressed communities, and creating positive change around […]

Quick hit: Sex Workers and Media at the Allied Media Conference
I’m attending an enlightening discussion about the impact of corporate media coverage of the sex industry on the lives of sex workers — and the reasons why sex workers have created their own media to tell their own stories, on their own terms, to expand […]

Small groups broke out and brainstormed for an hour to answer the question:

What resources would strengthen your community’s capacity to sustain yourselves as media makers?

The following bullet point list represents the summation/report-back from the small groups about what resources we need to effectively sustain our work.
(As always, please note that I have done my […]

Report-back from the Women’s Media Equity Summit: Visioning Activity
Note: I can’t possibly type as fast as the women in this group speak, so I’ll do my best to capture the essence of what is said, and as a journalist I will attempt to quote accurately. But, understand that there will be typos, paraphrased comments, etc.
Youth […]

Out of the all media pieces I have seen in the last week as the world learns that Thomas Beatie is pregnant with his second child, none floored me as much as this piece from “The View” where it is Elizabeth Hasselbeck that brings the conversation back to a sense of reality “”Having another baby […]

By Guest Blogger Irene Villasenor

If you are interested in rectifying the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women in the media, one way to get started is by interning at the first and longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction film, P.O.V. (’point-of-view’). Produced by American Documentary, P.O.V. premieres 14-16 high-impact documentaries every year on PBS. Hailed by critics […]

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! […]