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Catherine Epstein

Recent Posts by Catherine Epstein

“Send your jokes in”: Women Comedy Writers at the Paley Center

May 21, 2010 – 11:58 am

In a guest post for Women & Hollywood, Kathleen Sweeney reports from the “Women and Late Night Television” panel at the Paley Center, where female writers from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Jimmy Fallon Show and others gathered to talk about what it’s like being such a stark minority in the boy’s club [...]

Glenn Beck: Still Sexist

May 20, 2010 – 5:34 pm

On today’s Glenn Beck Program, the prolific host took aim at photos of First Lady Michelle Obama in today’s Drudge Report. The Drudge caption reads: “Sex in the City!” – because, I guess, Carrie Bradshaw & Co. also wear nice dresses and looked really good sometimes.
Beck kicks off his tirade by referring to Michelle Obama as [...]

Facebook, Justice, and Badass Deanna: Free Press Summit

May 20, 2010 – 5:28 pm

The conversations at last week’s Free Press Summit were charged with the energy and innovation that are the hallmarks of folks on the cutting edge of media. Journalists, policy makers, activists, and philanthropists discussed everything from Net Neutrality to Facebook to the transforming demographics of our country. Tracy Van Slyke, Progressive Women’s Voices alumna and [...]

Laura Bush on Elena Kagan Nom: “It’s great”

May 18, 2010 – 1:52 pm

Go progressive once, props to you. Go progressive twice and uh, props to you again!  Go progressive THREE TIMES, and someone might mistake you for a liberal. So has gone the trajectory of Laura Bush in the past few weeks, as revelations from her memoir out the former First Lady as not only pro-choice, but [...]

7-Year-Old “Single Ladies” — WMC Takes Action

May 15, 2010 – 12:39 pm

The video that’s spun through blogs and YouTube this week – featuring five 7-year-old girls dancing to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” in an Urban Dance Contest – got attention Thursday night from Anderson Cooper and his guest Dr. Phil, who called it “extremely inappropriate.” How did we get here?:

Women’s Media Center is working with a group of [...]

Kagan Look-Alike Contest (Or, Blawgs Lower The Bar)

May 13, 2010 – 12:31 pm

The blogosphere was poppin with news of Elena Kagan yesterday – specifically the questionable choice of photograph on the Wall Street Journal’s front page (Are they gossip-mongering? Are we?), and the blatant sexism spouted recently by conservative radio hosts who called Kagan’s appearance, among other things, “personally grotesque.” What gives? Who on the information superhighway [...]

Whither Softball: Is WSJ’s Kagan Photo Gossip-Mongering?

May 12, 2010 – 5:31 pm

Much has already been made of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal front page photo of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan stepping up to the plate for a softball game in 1993. Some leaders in the LGBT community have called it “too easy a punchline,” after national gossip last month insinuated that Kagan is a lesbian.
The photo [...]

Sexist Conservative Radio Targets Kagan Appearance

May 12, 2010 – 11:26 am

Amidst the counter-attack from the conservative media against Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, a loud, clear, and very sexist rhetoric on Kagan’s appearance has risen to the fore. As our partners at Media Matters point out, in the last few days right-wing commentators have made explicitly sexist comments about not just Kagan’s appearance, but that [...]

WTF? Another Stupak for Michigan?

May 11, 2010 – 6:34 pm

The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author alone and do not represent the WMC.
The WMC is a 501(c)(3) organization and does not endorse candidates.
Yesterday’s statement by Connie Saltonstall that she will withdraw from the Democratic primary for U.S. Representative in Michigan is a profound disappointment to pro-choice America, particularly the many [...]

Geena Davis: “Looney Toons has 11 characters. The only female character is Granny.”

May 11, 2010 – 5:47 pm

Ever since I went to see Geena Davis (and freaked out a little) at the Paley Institute, I’ve gotten a somewhat nerdy in my admiration of her. Since founding the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, Davis has been outspoken in her support of stronger, and more frequent, female characters in entertainment – particularly in [...]