Calling All Girls Who Want to Be President
Posted by: Lady Boomer NYC on: April 24, 2009
“What’s Your Point, Honey?” movie trailer
Filmmaker Out to Elect Women for President
Many feminists were disgusted this past year by the sexist, misogynistic treatment that former NY Senator Hillary Clinton received during her Presidential run, at the hands of the mainstream media, the fauxgressive blogosphere, stalwart feminist organizations, and members of her party. This time, Republicans didn’t seem to have quite as much to add, because Clinton’s own Democratic Party, we were shocked to observe, outperformed them in maltreating her.
Amy Sewell, award-winning filmmaker of the endearing 2005 documentary, Mad, Hot Ballroom, is doing her part to help elect a woman President of the United States. Her latest thought-provoking 2008 release, What’s Your Point, Honey?, is the first social justice cause film that’s being marketed on amazon.com and on iTunes, too. I’d agree with her point that:
Feminism, gender inequality, is the longest revolution and the last social justice cause to have a great need to be brought to the surface and pushed out there.
Radio Interview Explores Feminism, Gender Equality, and Path to Politics
In January, 2009, I sat down with the dynamic and articulate filmmaker to record the audio interview from which this article is drawn. In the interview, Amy and I also discuss: women’s pay equality issues, the Lilli Ledbetter Act, gender inequality awakening of Baby Boomers as compared to the MTV generation. Plus, there’s an update about the lives of the seven diverse young women in her film, and their quest to run for political and organizational office.
Click arrow to play Lady Boomer’s interview with filmmaker Amy Sewell (1:41)
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What’s Your Point, Honey?
The Point of What’s Your Point, Honey?
The film’s title, What’s Your Point, Honey?, was inspired by a 2007 Jim Borgman cartoon in the Cincinnati Enquirer. The cartoon depicts Hillary Clinton standing, pointer in hand, appearing to school Uncle Sam in front of a chart entitled, “Countries That Have ALREADY HAD FEMALE Heads of State.”
Here’s the list: Haiti, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Burundi, Liberia, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, India, Germany, Serbia, Israel, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, England, Latvia, Iceland, Ireland.
And in response, a schlumpy-looking Uncle Sam asks Hillary,
What’s your point, honey?
In our interview, Sewell expands on the cartoon’s irony: The US is 71st in the world in women’s representation in government — we’re laggin’. We’re behind the -stans and Cape Verde. . . . Despite often horrible treatment in some of the countries that have had women leaders, women are proportionally better represented and lead other countries in far greater numbers.
The filmmakers set out to influence the younger generations with their film, and to create an awareness of feminism in them, because many young women “do not believe that they’re not equal.” Additionally, Sewell says that she and the film’s director, Susan Toffler, decided to reclaim the term “honey,” in order to devalue it when used by the oppressor, so to speak.
Co-stars of the documentary, “What’s Your Point Honey?,” include Sewell’s twin daughters, the generation of girls “that doesn’t believe that they’re not equal.”
Hidden Inequality
They made a movie for an audience that doesn’t want to hear it, Sewell asserts, because they think they’ve got it all in the bag. They see their moms going to work and just think that everything is equal—after all, mom’s working. Girls don’t really know what their moms go through at work, regarding career advancement, pay differences, harassment, and what is expected of them as compared to men.
Girls don’t grasp that women, despite feminist gains of the last forty years, are largely responsible for taking care of: the house, the kids, doctors’ appointments, day care, child care, shopping for groceries, supplies, and clothing, cooking, cleaning up, housecleaning, laundry, and more. Additionally, their moms are often caregivers for their elderly parents or in-laws. Yet, girls of today think that life is, and will be, the same for them as it is for the boys they’re growing up with.
Forget about equal pay: Sewell says that women should actually get paid MORE than men. After all, the mom does everything, and the dad “just goes to work,” as a young boy observes in the film. Yes, we’re swimming in the patriarchy, so much so that many fish don’t know it, haven’t seen it. However, girls are beginning to see sexism and inequality at home, and more women saw it in the political atmosphere of the 2008 Presidential election.
Eyes Wide Open—Lessons from Sarah
Sewell claims Sarah Palin lit a fire under many liberal women who thought, “hey if she can do it, why can’t I?” We should be running for local offices and positions that grow us into more and higher national prominence. A way to begin is to step up and get active about the projects and issues you really care about in your local community, and just go ahead and start to run things.
She enumerates three lessons women learned from Palin’s Vice Presidential run:
1. Women can be raising a family and become a major player, with the right support systems.
2. If you multiply out all the ways you run your household, you can do it on a larger scale in your community, city, state, and nation.
3. If Sarah can do it, why are we liberal women still on the sidelines, waiting for men or somebody to hand this to us?
The White House Project: “Beyond Gender to Agenda”
The film is based on a “contest” co-sponsored by COSMOgirl and The White House Project (WHP), an organization founded and run by Marie Wilson. Wilson is past President of the Ms. Foundation and co-founder of Take our Daughters to Work Day©. Her “Vote, Run, Lead” training program at the WHP recruits women to run for office. Since its beginnings in Colorado four years ago, the program has expanded to ten states. They select young women who are definitely interested in running for any office and serious in their intentions, and equip them with the tools they will need.
Wilson believes strongly in having a nonpartisan organization, because her philosophy is that all women bring the same basic life issues to the table, such as: child rearing, child and elder care, the wage gap, working in male-dominated fields, and, of course, who owns their bodies. The goal is to get more women into office. Women are 51 percent of the population, and 80 percent of the purchasing power. Women decide how 80 cents of every dollar in American households will be spent.
I questioned Amy: If women treat each other so poorly when running for office—as they did with Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin last year—will women be discouraged from running in the future, expecting that they might face a similar fate? Introducing the pipeline theory, she said that “it’s not about one. As long as you have only one woman running, everyone will always rip her apart.”
Sewell contends that if you have just as many women running as men, you get “beyond gender to agenda,” to quote Marie Wilson. There are many amazing, accomplished, powerful women out there; we just haven’t seen it happen in enough numbers yet, so we have to make our own way! But the environment is changing: Initially, Wilson asked women to run for office, because she knew that women needed to be asked. However, there seems to be an attitude shift in that women are beginning to step up and run. There were 100 applicants for the program in NY State, and several women who were in the film announced their plans to run for office right after completing their training.
Winners of the 2024 Project, co-sponsored by The White House Project and COSMOgirl, gather in front of The White House during the making of the documentary
The Key to Success: Fill the Pipeline with Young Candidates
As a way to keep the ball rolling and get younger generations involved, What’s Your Point, Honey? shows inequalities in their world today “wrapped around the metaphor of a woman running for President.” The filmmaker sees that girls can look up to the current women in power, like Hillary and Sarah Palin, but they don’t relate to them as they do to twenty year-olds, like those in the film.
If we build the pipeline, the more women we have wanting to come into political power, the easier it will be for all male political figures in the future to have a pool of applicants to choose from [for cabinet and other appointments.] [. . . ]
Our hope is someday that it won’t even be a question. We’ll have so many women in politics that we’ll de-genderize it.
Sewell is passionate about carrying through her message and continuing to reach an audience of women that can begin to fill the pipeline of participation in government, beginning with reaching young girls. Her new book, SHE’S OUT THERE! Essays by 35 Young Women Who Aspire to Lead the Nation: The Next Generation of Presidential Candidates, will be released in May, 2009. (The book launch and signing with the editors and Marie Wilson will be on May 18, 7-9 pm at Barnes & Noble, TriBeCa in NYC.)
Further, an educational pilot program is being rolled out by North Carolina Political Center for Women: the What’s Your Point, Honey? DVD and study guides will be used as part of high school programs in North Carolina. This will be followed by programs throughout the US in middle schools, high schools, and colleges, accompanied by study guides appropriate for each educational level. Amy has generously provided the Honey Viewers Guide here for you to download FOR FREE, which you can use when you buy the DVD, or rent or buy the video-on-demand (VOD) download.
Women Have Power
Sewell sees little advantage in fighting with people who do not and will not ever agree fundamentally, and I agree! Women need to join together and get involved with whatever social justice causes that move them. Furthermore, WOMEN have the purchasing power. Money speaks, and we have power here. For example, ads and products that call for our attention to speak out against: Boycott! The PUMA and some of the feminist movement made a difference by boycotting MSNBC, CNN, PBS, NPR, and network television due to their commentators’ misogynistic and biased stances about then Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, and VP nominee, Sarah Palin.
The movie purposely uses a light touch to draw new people into wanting to be active, and has a carryover affect. Viewers report that they begin to notice more instances of inequality or sexism in their daily lives, whereas before they wouldn’t have seen it. I encourage everyone to see and discuss this film, especially families. Be sure to rate, comment, and see what others are saying.
This is such an enthusiastic, supportive article, you’d think I have an ulterior motive, or am receiving some kind of net gain. I hope I am and do. I believe passionately, based on my spiritual and community background, that the societal road forward, onward, and upward must be: positive, collective, supportive, have dignity—and—be ignited, and driven by and for women. We can accomplish this by expanding girls’ and young women’s horizons, education, and opportunities for governance, and yes, the Presidency. Elect a woman? . . . “It’s not about one.”
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© Copyright 2009 by Lady Boomer NYC, article and audio interview. All rights reserved.
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Resources
These are linked within the article and included here for your convenience:
DOC WEBSITE: http://www.whatsyourpointhoney.com/front/
THE WHITE HOUSE PROJECT: http://www.thewhitehouseproject.org/
AMAZON DOC VOD LINK: WHAT’S YOUR POINT, HONEY? ($2.99/week rental, $9.99/buy)
BOOK AMAZON LINK: SHE’S OUT THERE: SHE’S OUT THERE! Essays by 35 Young Women Who Aspire to Lead the Nation: The Next Generation of Presidential Candidates
31 Responses to "Calling All Girls Who Want to Be President"
April 24, 2009 at 1:52 PM
Oops, that was supposed to read: “That IS all”, not “that IT all”.
April 24, 2009 at 2:04 PM
Really great post LB! I watched the videos and read every word! This is a fantastic post!
still gotta listen to the audio. I will, promise!
Filling the pipeline with women to run for office. Great idea.
I wish the DNC, DSCC, DCCC and RNC would write themselves a by law that forces them to support as many women as they do men for office.
April 24, 2009 at 2:09 PM
Thanks, taggles. I think that the interview will get a better airing when we run it “live” on PUR.
I got this from Women Count today. Let’s not go backwards:
“So far in the new Congress, we have a total of four special elections to replace departing House Members – and three of those are seats originally held by women. We are at risk of losing all three and we cannot let that happen.
If it does, the number of women in the House of Representatives will drop from 75 to 72, which means our very slight gain in the last election in the total number of women serving in Congress will have been completely erased. We must increase our numbers, not go backwards! And it’s up to women to make that happen.”
April 24, 2009 at 2:11 PM
Oh, and I think it’s important for women to elect women to office, but it’s up to everyone, not just women as quoted above!
April 24, 2009 at 2:34 PM
O/T sort of: Just read that Susan Boyle has had a wee make-over. Read it at the UK Sun Times w/Pictures
April 24, 2009 at 2:38 PM
What a wonderful idea! My daughter has wanted to be President since she was 4 years old. She’s fifteen, and she’s not interested anymore after seeing what was done to Hillary and Sarah. It’s the nation’s loss. She would have made a great President.
April 24, 2009 at 2:44 PM
Yes, janicen — The lessons may lie in what we learned from Hillary and Sarah’s runs for the office, but the hope lies in your daughter’s generation. I hope you introduce her to the film, this article, and The White House Project. Perhaps, she’ll be reignited.
I really love Marie’s idea that “it’s not about one” — the more women we have running and in office, the less that each one will become a target. We have to start somewhere, and looks like other countries are ahead of us in this domain, too. But why should that be such a surprise? After all, we’re only trying to reverse thousands of years of history! And much of the world doesn’t see the situation through liberated eyes.
April 24, 2009 at 2:48 PM
Sorry to post and run this morning. I am still dealing with the police and helping my tenant (the organization “Women in Distress” in Broward County has been wonderful by putting her together with counseling for her and her kids.I am also preparing everything for the new doggie including vet appointment and scheduling to have him fixed (or as my husband says “losing his manhood”).
I know that over the years allowed the status quo to continue. I always thought that everything would be okay if a Dem were in power. I do blame myself for what happened to Hillary and Sarah. I did not speak out enough for over 10 years. I was too busy “living” my life to care about the advancement of women. I lost the “spark” that I had during college when I was a member of NOW (I am not the only one because NOW is unrecognizable). But no more. I have awakened and will not take it anymore.
I am so full of hope for women’s equality because there is a generation behind us that are ready to step up and there are still brave pioneer women willing to take the risk that so many of us haven’t.
April 24, 2009 at 3:05 PM
FLVoter – sounds like a lot’s on your plate! Ditto on “over the years.” Our gains had become somewhat invisible to us, and as Amy Sewell says, a whole younger generation doesn’t know that they’re not equal. They see that women can do it all, and think that we are more equal in our society and in the world than we are in reality.
April 24, 2009 at 3:09 PM
Wonderful essay, Lady Boomer! I look into the faces of my own granddaughters and see the possibility of a future for them where women are valued for who they are. I see in the faces of my female friends and peers the life’s journey to attain the same.
Maybe someday.
April 24, 2009 at 3:11 PM
We keep on keepin’ on, Pat. One foot in front of the other. In full voice. Women are the change we’ve been waiting for. 
April 24, 2009 at 3:13 PM
Oh, and I’m going to join with you in the Grandma club this summer for the first time.
April 24, 2009 at 3:15 PM
Oh, and thank you, Pat! And may our efforts contribute to that day when girls, women, and all people are valued each for who they are.
April 24, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Lady Boomer,
I guess I do have alot on my plate right now. What’s funny is that in helping out in this horrible situation I feel more alive and more connected than I have in months.
Now my only hope is that the boyfriend doesn’t come back to the empty house and trash it. The neighbors all have our telephone number and said they will keep on eye on the house. My tenant still has her belongings in it. She wants to wait a couple of days for things to calm down before she removes what is left of her personal property.
April 24, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Thank you, PJ. I’m looking forward to it for many reasons.
April 24, 2009 at 3:45 PM
Wonderful post, LB!
This part jumped out at me:
Forget about equal pay: Sewell says that women should actually get paid MORE than men. After all, the mom does everything, and the dad “just goes to work,” as a young boy observes in the film.
That is the type of thing my mother used to say. In fact, she said women going to work was actually a step backward for us, because we were now expected to do two full-time jobs for the price of one. She would have preferred to be paid for the full-time job she already had – taking care of me and my brother!
April 24, 2009 at 3:52 PM
Thanks, MB! Yes, I love that part too: MORE than men — we’re doing two jobs and often three or four. Didn’t women invent multi-tasking?
It sounds like your mother was a wise and practical woman back in the day! No wonder you’re so savvy.
It’s been reported that many households are struggling, because now that men are getting laid off, the women are the only breadwinners. And whereas their jobs may be more recession-proof, they are paid less. Thus, this 78 cents on the dollar that women earn is an inequality that effects everyone.
April 24, 2009 at 3:58 PM
I mean: the 78 cents on the dollar always affects everyone, just that now, it is felt especially because previous two-breadwinner households are making do with one.
April 24, 2009 at 4:02 PM
Awwwww….My mom was quite the original thinker, LB. You would have loved her! She also said burning bras “hurts us more than it hurts them.” LOL!
It’s amazing how our society penalizes women just for existing. It’s rather shocking once you taste that water, isn’t it?
April 24, 2009 at 4:09 PM
Wonderful post Ladyboomer. Now if only the sentiments and activities can come to fruition this time.
I remember, vividly, as a young woman singing I am Woman along with Helen Reddy. It was a no 1 hit, won a grammy, and Helen thanked the goddess. I thought we were on our way to real equality.
I worked like a fiend to get to a satisfactory level in business, whereas had I been a man, I would have gotten much higher – and my many male colleagues (some of whom had stolen from me and climbed on my back to get ahead (grits teeth)) admitted that – at my retirement – which, by the way, I was able to do at 54, so we’re not talking bitter ole biddy here. I’m just terribly sad that 35 years later, we are still running on the same hamster wheel. They change our water and food when necessary, but no way they’re letting us out of the cage – we have to escape.
If Amy Sewell can galvanize young women to actually go beyond their need to be kewl and have boyfriends, go beyond their need to satisfy anyone’s objectives but their own, then I say…..Good luck and Goddess speed.
I raised two kids to be self sufficient, to be their own person, to recognize that all were equal…yadda yadda. You would have thought that because I was a single working mom, with no support, that would have had a major impact. Kids are full of surprises, and my own two are no exception. I have daughter, who moved home with boyfriend, waiting hand and foot on him…I’m working on the little lord fauntleroy complex, and my daughter. I have son, who isn’t quite as far gone, but has said some sexist things for which I’ve given him he – ll.
The media, marketing, celebrity culture is really hard to get beyond. Even in my case, I got rid of television 10 years ago. I truly hope that this does mean a beginning of a new era, but as long as Madison avenue and the magazines are bombarding our kids about how they should behave……..what is different between today and 1975?
April 24, 2009 at 4:13 PM
HT –
The media, marketing, celebrity culture is really hard to get beyond. Even in my case, I got rid of television 10 years ago. I truly hope that this does mean a beginning of a new era, but as long as Madison avenue and the magazines are bombarding our kids about how they should behave……..what is different between today and 1975?
Great question. Stick around here, and at about 4:30 today you’ll hear a suggestion from yours truly.
P.S. I commented downstairs about food allergies. You are so right. My dairy allergy gave me eczema, but I had to figure it out for myself!
April 24, 2009 at 4:15 PM
Yes, MB, I’m sure your mom is smiling down on you!
Ha, pretty funny statement about the bra burning — haven’t heard it put quite that way before. True confessions: I went without for about 13 years, on the commune — we were free and easy! But going without doesn’t make one liberated.
Like the young girls in the film, when I was married, having and raising my three kids in my twenties, thirties, forties, fifties — gee, does raising kids end? — well, being a mom doesn’t — I didn’t know that I wasn’t equal. I really didn’t think much about it till last year. Before that, I just knew that I didn’t want to live by the rules of society of our day. I didn’t really notice how poorly women were treated until I saw it played out before my/our eyes on the national stage.
Eyes wide open. As many now say, can never go back.
April 24, 2009 at 4:22 PM
HT – Thank you for sharing your story.
I’m still trying to undo some of the ways I raised my kids. I think sometimes that generations just skip over previous gains in reaction to whatever the experiment of the day. Like that more women are wanting to get married early now, because they saw they couldn’t get to the top of the corporate ladder, or when they did it wasn’t all that great.
I was later a single mom, too, and I think that we’re often working so hard to keep it all together, and a spouse or partner isn’t there saying, “be good to your mom,” so our efforts go unappreciated or unnoticed.
April 24, 2009 at 6:10 PM
LadyB, in my case, both kids (young adults now) recognize to a small degree what my involvement was and respect me for that. They are my biggest cheerleaders. It’s their behavior with regard to females (other than me – did you know that Moms are asexual?) that really frosts my tonsils. I don’t think they view me as female, I’m just mom. Mind you, with the economy, I suspect they will be with me for the next 5 years, so I have some room to work on their re-education, and believe me, it will be brutal…. I have the financial stick with which to beat them into submission and I intend to use it.
April 24, 2009 at 9:19 PM
LOL! HT — When my kids were teens, my best friend and I, who had kids of similar age, were like an extended family. When we chauffeured our families around or sometimes just took the kids for a drive in her van, we’d joke that them being captive in it was the best time to get them to listen or have a conversation that would be difficult to pull off when everyone was running in every direction with their lives and schedules.
RE: behavior regarding females: my son has been a hip hop producer for ten years, and some of the lyrics and ways that they talk about women in the “rhymes” is disgusting and degrading. I’ve mentioned something about it, but have to tread lightly, because of our tenuous relationship. I think he may be saved, because he’s found love, and he and his gf seem to be very good to each other. I’m hoping that will temper things as far as how he sees women, but he is really in the dark, I think, and has miles to go. I wish I would have done a better job, but the pain of divorce, although twenty years ago, has not faded for him. And guess who’s the bad person? The mom.
April 24, 2009 at 9:35 PM
LadyB, your life and mine intersect. My children were raised by a single, sole support mom, your son was raised for the most part by you. I spent my time with them teaching them, as I’m sure you did as well. It wasn’t a structured environment, but we discussed what happened in the news daily at meals (I made them listen and we didn’t have television, so it was easier). Even after that, I am appalled at my daughter’s behavior….catering to her boyfriend. I won’t say much more for fear of boring everyone, but let me tell you, that financial whip is out and will be wielded, gradually but firmly. I will gradually encourage him into a feminist mode (he thinks he is already, the lazy sod, but he ain’t seen nothing yet). Give me a year with this guy….. My son…just takes three weeks home with mom and he’s back to equality at all costs.
Thanks for the great article, and apologies for spewing personal invective into the comments.
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April 24, 2009 at 1:48 PM
I just watched the video, and I still have to go read your whole post LB, but I just want to say I love this line “I am NOT going to walk delicately, I am going to walk FIERCELY”. Ok, back to reading….