Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Miss Vermont Chooses Eco-Friendly Gown for Miss America Pageant

There’s a lot I don’t like about Miss America. Sure, they give many scholarships to women, but let’s be real: Miss America isn’t about advancing women’s rights and causes, it’s about rewarding beautiful women for being beautiful. In my opinion, the pageant misrepresents itself as something greater than what it really is: a competition in which women are largely judged for their looks.

The very existence of the swimsuit contest portion of the competition and the fact that most of these women look like overly made up, perfectly proportioned Barbies come to life contriving to care about world peace makes me less than a fan.

However, I did think it was cool when I recently found out that Miss Vermont, Ashley Wheeler – a contestant in this year’s Miss America competition – is going to be wearing an eco-friendly gown. Ashley’s dress is constructed of hemp and silk, lined with hemp and organic cotton and decorated with repurposed gold lace, beads and sequins.

The gown is made by designer Tara Lynn, whose collections are inspired by and dedicated to environmental causes. Tara’s studio runs off solar power, and her shelves are stocked with vintage and recycled materials collected over many years. Her innovative wedding gowns have been featured on Treehugger.

Of her choice to wear an eco-friendly dress, Ashley says,

“I was raised as part of a family-run business and I understand how important it is to support locally-owned and operated businesses.  So when it came time for me to purchase an evening gown for the Miss America pageant, I decided to keep my business in Vermont and call upon a designer from the Northeast Kingdom.  I had heard about Tara Lynn and it was very appealing to go “green” for Miss America.  I will be making a significant statement and suspect I will be the only contestant who has chosen to go this route.  I think this is the perfect way for me to share my stance on preserving our environment and set myself apart from the other contestants.”

So, does a locally made hemp dress make up for the pageant’s many flaws? Not at all. I will never buy the assertion that Miss America is a feminist icon and I think the whole thing is outdated. But, Ashley’s choice of an eco-friendly dress does inject a tiny bit of meaning into an otherwise shallow tradition.

Given that beauty is something that is still very much valued in our society, and there are many girls out there who strive to be like Miss America, it is nice to see a contestant show the world that you can be every bit as beautiful and glamorous in an eco-friendly gown as in a conventional one.

McCain Rails Against ‘Liberal Feminist Agenda’, But His Record Speaks for Itself

“They need education and training”. That was John McCain’s solution to the fact that in 21st century America, women still make only 77 cents for every dollar men make, for the same exact work and with the same qualifications. McCain opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which sought to extend the amount of time that women who have been discriminated against can file a complaint. Apparently, he thinks we just aren’t as well educated as our male counterparts.

Unfortunately, that’s just the beginning of a long line of offenses against women by McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, who has been marketed to us as a role model. She, who turned a blind eye to the Wasilla police department practice of charging rape victims up to $1,200 for evidence kits.  She, who would deny 10-year-old barely pubescent incest victims the right to terminate pregnancy.

Lately, McCain has been complaining at rallies that he and Palin are under attack by the “Feminist Left”, attributing his downslide in the polls to efforts by feminist groups to educate the public about his ticket’s history in regards to important women’s issues. What McCain doesn’t seem to get is that issues like breast cancer research, domestic violence prevention and equal pay for equal work are important to most women, regardless of party affiliation. Perhaps he’s forgetting that his own record shows clearly enough where he stands.

With only days remaining until November 4th, women deserve to know these facts before they vote.

Health care is one of the issues I’m most fired up about this election season, because there’s so much at stake for all of us. Not only would McCain’s health care plan put us at the mercy of insurance companies eager to take all of our money and deny our claims, his plan has no details about cancer programs.

My grandmother passed away of ovarian cancer at just 59 years old, and my sisters and I are at heightened risk of developing it. So much research is still needed to aid in earlier detection of this deadly disease, which is one of the most fatal forms of cancer in women. Only 24 percent of ovarian cancers are detected before they spread to other areas of the body.  The fact that Obama’s health plan doubles federal funding for cancer research within 5 years and increases access to clinical trials for cancer patients makes me feel much more secure about my own chances for survival if I were to become one of the millions of women affected every year by breast and ovarian cancer.

Here are just a few examples of McCain’s voting history, provided by the Feminist Majority at FeministsforObama.org:

McCain voted against funding breast cancer research if it meant taking away from military funds.  Breast cancer affects all women, even the 370,000 women currently serving in the US Armed Forces.  Since breast cancer attacks 1 in 8 women, that means 46,250 members of the US military will deal with breast cancer.  And John McCain voted NO.

Senators Obama and Biden have sponsored and supported legislation, including funding, to reduce violence against women and to assist women survivors of domestic abuse.  Biden authored the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).  Obama cosponsored the reauthorization of VAWA and authored legislation on violence against women as an Illinois State Senator.

Not only did McCain vote NO on VAWA, but he also failed to co-sponsor VAWA reauthorization although many Republican and conservative senators did.

Obama and Biden are running the strongest campaign on women’s rights of any major party in U.S. history. Compare McCain and Palin’s record on women’s issues with that of Obama and Biden yourself at FeministsforObama.org.

If McCain and Palin win, women lose.  Please pass this information on to the women in your life, so they can consider it before going to the polls.

And, by the way, if you’re not clear on McCain and Palin’s environmental records, I’ve summed them up over at EarthFirst (9 Reasons a John McCain Presidency Would be a Disaster for the Environment, Sarah Palin’s Abysmal Environmental Record). Suffice to say, Obama/Biden ’08!

Why Do I Fight for the Earth? Because I'm a Joyful Girl.

Some days it seems like all the work I do on behalf of the animals, plants, insects and other life that make up all the beauty in my world is just a (pointless) drop in the bucket. Humans seems dead-set on destruction of this incredible jewel of a planet we’ve been given, and who am I to try to stop a clearly suicidal culture?

I’ve never known exactly what I want to do with my life- studying science, being in nature, and revelling in art are the things that give me the greatest joy. To me the intricacies of the sodium-potassium pump that resides in each of our cells, watching a sea turtle traverse an invisible ocean current, and listening to Beethoven’s 7th all bring a sense of overwhelming happiness and thankfulness for being alive. I have these moments quite often. Cacaphonous torrents of emotion that are akin to what I’m sure some people describe as ‘religious experiences’. As an atheist, I don’t believe in god, or gods, or even a generic supreme being or energetic force. But I do believe that I’m here to preserve and promote beauty. And the Earth is the most beautiful thing I know.

So when I’m feeling the burning sadness of knowing I only have a short time to love all of this, and the frustration of being so unable to communicate that to other people, I turn to my favorite artists. Ani DiFranco has been one of my mentors (though I’ve never met her) for at least ten years now and her songs give me strength and perspective when I need it most. Thanks Ani. Here’s the song that has given me courage on many difficult, beautiful days:

“Joyful Girl”

i do it for the joy it brings
because i’m a joyful girl
because the world owes me nothing
and we owe each other the world
i do it because it’s the least i can do
i do it because i learned it from you
i do it just because i want to
because I want to

everything i do is judged
and they mostly get it wrong
but oh well
‘cuz the bathroom mirror has not budged
and the woman who lives there can tell
the truth from the stuff that they say
and she looks me in the eye
and says would you prefer the easy way?
no, well o.k. then
don’t cry

and i wonder if everything i do
i do instead
of something i want to do more
the question fills my head
i know that there’s no grand plan here
this is just the way it goes
and when everything else seems unclear
i guess at least i know

i do it for the joy it brings…

Joyful Girl (Remix)

Blogging and Feminism Panel

The Panel on Blogging and Feminism in NYC was really fantastic! I didn’t make it to the EO Wilson talk, but I know Starre did! So she’ll have more on that I’m sure.

[Picture originally uploaded by Liz]

Liz, who does regular blogging here, did some live blogging for the Blogging and Feminism event, I encourage you to go read about it there, she did a pretty good job at getting everything that the panelists said.

I enjoyed Alice’s talk the most, you can find her tech&fem blog here. She has posted her notes online, download the .doc file here. Alon Levy of Abstract Nonsense has done a really interesting post on the panel as well.

The panelists were Jessica of Feministing who it was an absolute pleasure to meet. (Feministing has also been spotted in the most recent issue of Marie Claire! Cool. Its fun when bloggers are give print publicity.) Gwen, Jessica’s ‘co-everything’ including co-founder of The Real Hot 100. The Real Hot 100 is very bitchen, as it celebrates real beauty as opposed to the shallow standards that we’re exposed to on a daily basis. Rock on. Alice’s website can be found here where she blogs about technology and feminism. Liza from Culture Kitchen, Lauren from Hollaback NYC and Michelle from Hollaback Boston were the other three panelists.

Here is another picture from Liz of the panelists, …but you can’t see Michelle.

The Hollaback websites have an interesting thing going on. They exist to ‘take back’ street crime by taking pictures of harssers and sending them into the blog …Its really great to see women taking these disturbing events and making it something other than a humiliating moment. But I personally am more drawn to things that show results. In a way this is a good step at making women really in your face and such, which is nice, but… we need a way to make sure they’re taking their lives further and never letting anything get in their way – not just pig headed men on the street.

It was interesting to hear Liza talk about niches on the web. She thinks they’re really important, where Alice disagreed. I tend to agree more with Alice on this one, and not just because I like her a lot. Just as in ecology, niches can’t function on their own – and they need to become part of a bigger picture to have any importance. While its nice to have a small niche that you can go into and find your own identity, for that to even matter, and for any stereotype to dissipate there needs to be a bigger picture – and we all need to be a part of it.

What good is the internet if all the ‘big blogs’ and the blogs that are getting all the media attention are those which are run by white males? That isn’t progressive at all. For the blog phenomena to be any different than the mass media before it the niches sort of need to just dissapear and everyone needs to get on the bigger stage.

All and all I think Jessica and Gwen pulled a fantastic and interesting group together.

More New York Events

This isn’t so much an Eco-Event as it is a Chick-Event.

Jessica of Feministing is speaking at the panel, which will be on blogging and feminism.

Tuesday, November 14
7pm
Altschul Atrium, Altschul Hall
(Barnard is located between 116th and 120th streets on the west side of Broadway)
Free & open to the public

From the Barnard Center for Research on Women:

Cyberspace . . . will have important effects in encouraging women to participate in designing and implementing models of economic development, constructing stable democracies, ensuring that different cultures can exist side by side without violent conflict and providing the sense of trust, partnership and solidarity that are necessary to any society in which people cooperate for mutual well-being. – Lourdes Arizpe

Of the internet’s viability as a tool for political change, we ask, is there a better example than the blog? Young and youthfully minded feminists have learned that blogging allows them to carve out personal and political spaces where their lives, their issues, their analyses of the world can come into sharp focus. Outside the confines of mainstream media, where women are addressed (usually exclusively) as consumers, feminist bloggers have become the cultural producers blazing some of the most radical and rousing paths toward revolutionary social change.

This one is free and has no reservations required. I’ll be at this one for sure! Go! It will be really interesting. I think that the topic of women in the blogosphere is a HUGE considering the male dominance that we see. It should be fab.