| Fall 1999
Love Your Body Day: Panel explores gender issues Making a major shift: A letter from MN NOW lobbyist Susal Stebbins New cosmetic surgery technique makes emulating false standards of beauty dangerously easy Conventioneers discuss proposed Feminist Communications Network National NOW conference a "head-spinning" experience Headwaters Walk for Justice draws 700 participants
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Conventioneers discuss proposed Feminist Communications Network
By Claire Peirce The National Conference this year was held at Merv Griffin’s Beverly Hilton. For years I have championed the cause of low-cost conferences but must admit a guilty secret. While pinching pennies is a way of life for me, I look forward to a weekend of luxury surrounded by feminists once a year. This year more than lived up to my expectations. I never had a fax machine in my room before and now I know that those hotel robes you see in movies and on soap operas fit almost everyone. (However, I didn’t spend $165 to buy one.) Eating my scones and cheese for breakfast in my room looking at palm trees and hills was a pleasure we don’t get in Minnesota AND the temperature was lower than at home so I was very happy. Since we were a hop and a skip away from Hollywood, most of the programs centered on the media and its portrayal of women and people of color. The day after the conference, NOW sponsored a Media Institute to hear from people who care about the media and its impact on women’s lives in light of the technological and political changes in the industry. After two panels representing all aspects of the industry, we had lunch and broke into small groups to strategize on the launch of NOW’s own Feminist Communications Network—a TV, cable, radio and Web broadcast network. My office was closed that day so I stayed an extra day to attend even though I am technologically-challenged. I took copious notes which make little sense to me. Often it seemed like the panelists were speaking in tongues. A few points that came through were that digital TV will further fragment the audiences. The digital airways were given to the media corporations with no mandate to permit public access—just a suggestion. There is concern that the handful of corporations that own the vast majority of news outlets are shaping the news to their advantage, duh! Most of the younger panelists were intent on using the Internet for communicating. This could create a new dichotomy of haves and have-nots. Even if all schools and libraries had free access to the Net, the populace is not all programmed to use libraries or schools. The first speaker was Meryl Marshall, the chair of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She and the other panelists who are writers, directors or actors told about the changes in the industry over the years. Women weren’t hired as newscasters because the pitch of their voices didn’t have the authority needed to read the news. Like other areas of society, we’re taking baby steps. I found an interesting fragment at the bottom of one page of my notes. “Nothing more powerful than women telling their stories.” That is why we need a real feminist network that is not owned by a huge media corporation. So we can tell our stories in our own voices. It is also why more NOW members need to attend meetings and conferences. Don’t rely on other people to sift through the stories and report back. Go and hear them yourself. Early in July of 2000 the National Conference will be in Miami. |