Orgasm, Inc.: The Strange Science of Female Pleasure

I want to include this second poster made by our amazing Programming Intern, Julissa!!

To find out more about Liz Canner, please visit her website at:
Astrea Media

and about her residency at the CWG website.






Peace & Sisterhood
Xenia Markowitt
Director
Center for Women & Gender
Dartmouth College

Visionary-in-Residence 2009

We're so excited these days in preparation for our Visionary-in-Residence 2009, LIZ CANNER.

Liz is an independent filmmaker and activist who has worked on such varied and interesting subjects. Her latest work concerns the area of women's health and sexual well-being. Her latest film is PHENOMENAL - and we're so lucky to be able to show it in a sneak preview before its official release in the US.

I've known Liz for a number of years now and have been urging her to finish her film Orgasm, Inc.: The Strange Science of Female Pleasure ever since we met, because I couldn't wait to share it with students, faculty and staff at Dartmouth.

That day is here!!! Monday, May 11th! Loew Auditorium at 7pm.
We kick off her residency with a screening of the film.

Orgasm, Inc. is a humorous and informative odyssey that explores the mixed messages, corporate greed and outright quackery that women confront in their quest for sexual pleasure. This film had its international debut in the last few days at a Toronto Film Festival where audiences have been motivated to speak out on issues of women's health. The Visionary-in-Residence program brings mulitiple opportunities to interact with Liz Canner, and learn more about her work.

Liz Canner is an award winning independent filmmaker who has created many innovative documentaries on human rights issues. Since earning her BA with Honors from Brown University in 1991, Liz has received more than 40 awards, honors and grants for her work. Her documentaries have been broadcast on PBS, cable stations and internationally in many countries. They have screened at festivals like the New York Film Festival and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. For her contribution to the field, she was honored with a Radcliffe Institute (Bunting) Film Fellowship from Harvard University and a Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellowship.

Here's the residency schedule we have lined up:

Monday, May 11

~*~Sneak Preview Screening of _Orgasm, Inc.: The Strange Science of Female Pleasure & Meet the Director Q&A
open to all, free 7pm, Loew Auditorium

Tuesday, May 12

~*~Student Lunch with Daughters of Dartmouth
(by invitation only)
~*~Student Dinner with Gender-Neutral Housing Floor
(by invitation only)

Wednesday, May 13

~*~Class visit: WGST16 Contemporary Issues in Feminism: Theory & Practice, Professor Martin
~*~International Student Association Dinner
(by invitation only)

Thursday, May 14

~*~Grand Rounds, Dartmouth Medical School
~*~Community Dinner to award 2009 Visionary-in-Residence
Occom Commons, 6pm
open to all, Free, RSVP - space limited - preference to Dartmouth students


Friday, May 15

~*~Independent Filmmaking Lunch Workshop
12:30pm, Wilson Hall 315
open to all, Free, RSVP - space limited -


RSVP to cwg@dartmouth.edu
indicate Community dinner or Filmmaking Workshop in the subject line


Peace & Sisterhood
Xenia Markowitt
Director
Center for Women & Gender
Dartmouth College

The Lonely Soldier by Helen Benedict

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and the SAAProgram has all kinds of goings on....
check out our current events page on the CWG website.

We're all reading The Lonely Soldier by Columbia Journalism Professor and author Helen Benedict in preparation for her visit on:

Monday, April 20
3:30pm
Filene Auditorium
Moore Psychology Building

We can't put the book down! Helen Benedict has exposed the absolutely appalling conditions that women in the armed forces are facing given the behaviour of their fellow [male] soldiers matching or even out-doing that of the enemy.

Then, just yesterday NOW (the National Organization for Women) sent out a call-to-action in support of H.R. 840 which was reintroduced on Feb. 3, by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) H.R. 840 is the Military Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Response Act. According to the email:

"The bill works to reduce violence against military personnel and their families
by enhancing programs of prevention and deterrence, improving victim
services, and strengthening provisions for prosecution of assailants."

Just this week President Obama described the Afghani law that legitimizes marital rape as "abhorrent". Yet our military has created a climate for women in which rape and sexual assault are sanctioned. It is no small irony that we are sending troops in to Afghanistan to fight for freedom for people there when we are not even concerned with promoting the same freedoms in our own military institutions. I call that abhorrent too.

I encourage you to come to Benedict's event on the 20th. For more on the event, also see the article in the Book section of today's Valley News.

Peace & Sisterhood

Xenia Markowitt
Director
Center for Women & Gender
Dartmouth College

V-Day!

V-Day is here! We have so much going on!. Check out the CWG webpage to see the full schedule.

Today is Health Resources' SexDay: At 4 pm today, Paul Joannides will give a presentation at 105 Dartmouth. He is the author of The Guide to Getting it On - the "textbook" that Sexperts use.

Then this evening from 8-10pm, the 7th annual SeXfEsTiVaL is on. The CWG passed along the organization to Health Resources to allow them more input, and to free us up for other V-Day ventures. We will still be present...in fact we'll actually have more freedom to do tables. Thanks to Health Educator Kari Jo Grant for her amazing stewardship of the festival in its new incarnation.

Tomorrow and Thursday are the 11th annual performances of the Vagina Monologues. Buy your tickets at the Collis Info Desk before they sell out! ($8)
This year we are proud to award Sergeant Rebel Roberts of Safety & Security as our 2009 Vagina Warrior! Rebel is a tireless ally and friend to the Sexual Abuse Awareness Program (SAAP) and the CWG and most importantly, to students at Dartmouth. She is our shero! Rebel will receive the award at Thursday night's performance.

Also on Thursday night, Carmen Tarleton will be coming to the Vagina Monologues. Carmen is a community member who was the target of a brutal assault a number of years ago which included her being doused with lye. As she struggles to heal, her medical and related costs are exhorbitant. We are proud to share with Carmen the proceeds from ticket sales and fundraising events for her recovery. Carmen and the example she sets, fills us with inspiration and unabashed awe at her resiliency and commitment to life. We are thrilled that she will be coming to the show.

35 Dartmouth women, including our own Megan Fallon, (CWG Asst. Director), and Michelle de Sousa (SAAP Coordinator), will put on a great performance. If you want to buy a vaginagram to cheer on your favorite actress, you can buy them at the door.

Graduate students are very involved with V-Day this year - thanks to the commitment of MALS student Katie Kinnaird working with Megan Fallon - also a MALS student. Events have included a film screening and discussion; sending chocolate pop vaginagrams; and will culminate in a Venefit for V-Day Grad student Charity Cocktail Party at The Canoe Club in downtown Hanover. The Canoe Club will provide 50% of their proceeds to our fundraising efforts - including diners who wear an identifying V-day bracelet available at the door!

I am personally, and professsionally, proud that we have participated in V-Day since its first college campaign 11 years ago. On our 10th anniversary - last year - Eve Enlser came to our campus. This was a thrill for us all, and for me personally, a life-altering experience. I am profoundly grateful for the work that she and V-day have done to create a world that is less violent for women and girls.

Proceeds from ticket sales and fundraisers go to supporting local community resources for violence against women, such as WISE, Have Justice Will Travel, and when possible, directly to community survivors.

Peace & Sisterhood
Xenia Markowitt
Director
Center for Women & Gender
Dartmouth College

Date Auctions then and now.

In our weekly staff meeting at the CWG, a staff member announced that a sorority and a fraternity plan to sponsor a date auction in the coming days. Around Valentine's Day, date auctions on campus (usually sponsored by Greek-letter organizations) are as predictable as, well.... the Vagina Monologues. Although date auctions really pre-date the arrival of V-Day 11 years ago, by decades.

This reminded me of a story that I heard related as part of an alumna's senior thesis on activism in our Upper Valley community. It appears that back in the 1970s, soon after co-education, there was an auction of women held on the Green. The then-Dean was the MC accompanied by his wife, and he auctioned off the "co-eds" to wash a man's car, or for similar such tasks. Women activists in the Upper Valley community found out about it, and started at the other end of the Green, marching over, paper chains around their ankles connecting them in a column. Da da da Dun. Da da da dun. They intoned. When they reached the platform, they climbed up, asked the Dean for his bull horn and proceeded to inform the crowd of how demeaning it was to women to auction them off for the delight of the men.

I love that story. I love that the community activists felt that they had a right and a duty to intervene. I love that women spoke up against auctioning off other women - that they spoke up for human dignity. I love that they made their point, and probably made a few of the participants rethink what they were doing. I love that the community women connected students' actions to their lives.

Today, as far as I can perceive, most students don't seem to find anything objectionable about date auctions. Community activists don't appear to concentrate their efforts on college goings-on of this sort.

Every year we at the CWG and OPAL, make an effort reach out to try to get students to think critically about what it means to auction themselves off: what are the messages about human worth; can one auction off human beings - especially women and men of color - without invoking the horrific history of the slave trade and 21st century sexual slavery? To hold a "date auction" in February, which is Black History month and also our tradition of V-Day about raising awareness to end violence against women & girls, one might argue, is adding insult to injury.

The Center provides opportunities to explore this and other issues related to gender. Check out our website for V-Day activities and more. Stop by and let us know what you think.

Peace & Sisterhood
Xenia Markowitt
Director
Center for Women & Gender
Dartmouth College