A Usable Past

From TransGriot.

Sociological Images posted some great ads from a LiveJournal group called Vintage Ads.  Pretty awesome.

Check them all out here.

From Sociological Images via Ms. Magazine.

Marianne Schnall at Fem 2.0 has dropped some fabulous quotes from extraordinary women on us which she excerpted from her book Daring to Be Ourselves: Influential Women Share Insights on Courage, Happiness and Finding Your Own Voice.  Here’s a peak into some of the thoughts of awesome women:

We need to help them really internalize the message that good enough is good enough. We don’t need to be perfect. We’re not supposed to be perfect; we’re supposed to be complete. And you can’t be complete if you’re trying to be perfect.
– Jane Fonda

It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.
–Madeleine Albright

Just be what it is that you are, and that is just fine. You don’t have to be what you’re not in any way. Live that and live that fully, and that is where you discover ecstasy. You can’t really have ecstasy as something other than yourself.
–Alice Walker

Check out the rest of the post here and pick up the book for your favorite woman here!

Ken Middleton at Women’s History Sources posted some great links on Works Progress Administration posters from the 1930s that are too good not to share.

The Library of Congress’ American Memory project is a great place to start with their exhibit By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA 1936-1943. I’ve linked to some of these before but they’re completely re-post worthy.

Happy Christmas!  “The Works Progress Administration in Ohio presents the Federal Theatre for youth in ‘A Christmas Carol’.”

Next, check out the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Murals in California from San Diego State University.

Want to check out more New Deal art?  Search the New Deal Art Registry!  Here’s a neat one from a D.C. library in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood – “Animal Circus,” 1934.

Finally, check out “Women Artists in the WPA Collection.”

Women played a significant role in the creation and composition of the art that was produced. In an exhibit catalog entitled Federal Art in Cleveland 1933-1943, for the Cleveland Public Library exhibit in 1974, 21 women were listed as active artists in the program.

Hot!  The following are by Jolan Gross-Bettelheim:

“Employment Office”

“The Yard”

And one from Dorothy Rutka:

“Flood”

Julie Z at the fbomb created a nifty reproductive rights timeline. Here are some excepts:

1870’s: The Comstock Laws are passed, making contraception illegal and declaring that all attempts to make contraception and family planning available are, “obscene.” These laws resulted in a lot of unwanted pregnancies, and increasing poverty because families of lower classes often had more children than they could support. The Comstock Laws led to illegal abortions. While wealthy women could find a way to obtain safer abortions under the radar, poor women had to resort to causing themselves extreme physical strain or inserting sharp devices (like clothes hangers) into themselves. Such methods commonly resulted in, “cervical wounds, serious bleeding, infections, shock and death.”

1936: Sanger is arrested when postal authorities find that she is illegally ordering contraception. Her case was reviewed by Judge Augustus Hand, writing for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, how overrode the Comstock Laws, and ruled that contraception could no longer be considered obscene. The ruling applies to New York, Connecticut and Vermont. It isn’t until the 1960’s that married couples in the United States can obtain contraceptives from licensed physicians.

1967-1970: Colorado becomes the first state to liberalize abortion laws by developing the “Model Penal Code on Abortion” which advocated for legal abortion in cases of “rape, incest, severe fetal defects, and when the women’s life or health was at risk.” Hawaii (which made abortion totally legal), New York (which allowed abortion through the 24th week of pregnancy if the procedure was preformed by a licensed physician), Alaska and Washington soon followed.

2009: Dr. George Tiller is murdered because of his standing as one of the few doctors in the United States to perform late-term abortions. His murder came after years of threatened violence, witnessing his clinic being bombed, being shot in both arms and facing multiple law suits against his operation.”

Check out the whole post here!