Articles of the Queen B Manifesta

I haven't written in this for a long time. Somehow my life felt fullfilled enough to do any writing, poetry, prose, journaling, etc. So I stopped. I realize now that was one of the most unhealthy decisions i made. So, here goes.

Her name was Alice Chahinian. She was 36, Armenian and one of the most amazing people i had ever met. She was one of those women who could light up a room the minute she opened the door. I have a profound belief and trust in the energy people exude, it speaks to me in ways undescribable, like somehow i am able to comprehend how beautiful their souls can be, or vice versa. This is my guiding light to building relationships. I dont have many deep relationships with people, but that light, that energy, those words help define and shed light on when my life is feeling empty and how my life could be fuller with this or that person in it. There was something about Alice that i couldn't turn away from. Something about her entire being that spoke to me in ways i knew would change my life.

Our friendship was very short lived. We had mostly begun to get close in the last few weeks. I was excited. I knew my roomates would fall in love with her at first sight and that perhaps, we could become long time friends. Tuesday night we were supposed to get together. I called her as soon as my class let out. I was exhausted and had a paper due the next day. So I rainchecked to Wednesday. Had i for once prioritized my friends, relationships and the beauty of life over fucking academics, perhaps the outcomes would have been different. Sometime within the ten minutes following our phone conversation, she experienced a fatal car accident. I thought she had stood me up the next evening. She hadn't.


What the fuck?!?!??!!!! I love you Alice. And I really miss you.
QUeenB



Long Beach Woman Killed in Accident

UNION-TRIBUNE

September 20, 2006

MIDWAY DISTRICT A Long Beach woman died last night when her Jeep overturned on the ramp from eastbound Interstate 8 to southbound Interstate 5, authorities said.

The woman's name was not released. She was 36, a California Highway Patrol official said.

The cause of the accident was under investigation.

CHP officials said the Jeep driver swerved off the ramp to the left about 7:15 p.m., then overcorrected to the right and flipped the vehicle on its left side. It came to rest where the ramps from eastbound and westbound I-8 converge to southbound I-5.

The driver was pinned to the ground by the Jeep's rollbar. She was declared dead at the scene, the CHP said. The ramps were closed for nearly three hours.

Pauline Repard
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060920-9999-7m20briefs.html

I feel like I haven’t had time to breathe these days, let alone have time to think about blogging or submitting my thoughts on paper. After being straightforward with my professor about my reactions and personal experience with the nature of the Symposium on Social Justice in Las Cruces I attended last week, she suggested I begin documenting my emotions, mental processes, and truly attempt to recognize my voice and my role in the process of doing my Master’s work.

I am doing my research on the Femicide in Juarez, Mexico. Femicide is defined as the mass murder of women simply because they are women. In this case it has been the annihilation of women’s bodies, more than 450 over the last thirteen years and a prevailing impunity that continues to enable a culture of fear and violence in this region. It is important to note that the use of the word femicide here is an effort to make a clear distinction between a mere coincidence of killings and a gender-specific pattern of violence aimed at a particular contingency of women. A high percentage of the women found are often young, dark skinned and employees of the local maquiladoras along the border region. Many have emigrated from other parts of the country in search of a better life, a good job and a promising future. NAFTA removed most barriers to trade and investment among the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Since the agreement in 1993, Ciudad Juarez has become the city with the highest employment rate in the maquila industry in Mexico, with 211,020 jobs reported in November, 2004. According to AMAC (Association of Maquiladoras) report, out of the 79,273 jobs generated in 2004 by the maquila industry in Mexico, 18.31% were created in Ciudad Juarez (14,520 jobs) and 20,000 additional jobs are estimated to be created this year due to the expansion projects existing plants have and new investments to be made in the sector (stats from AMAC). So this sheds some light on what the city looks like in relationship to globalization, maquilas and the population of the city.

I think I can go on for pages and pages in describing other irregularities involving drug cartels, free trade, violence against women, capitalism, patriarchy and other institutions that enable the construction of a culture of fear and violence in this city… but I’d rather not.

The conference that I spoke of attending last week was the J. Paul Taylor Symposium in Violence against Women held at New Mexico State University Las Cruces. This year’s theme focused on the femicides in Juarez, Mexico. It was an emotional rollercoaster with empowering, frustrating, exhausting, disturbing and everything in between kind of feelings. What was particularly striking to me was my role as an academic observer immersed in the discourse stemming from three days of panel discussions, lunches, coffee, hotel rooms, etc. I have decided to analyze the three tiers of government in Mexico, their language and approaches to investigations, the death threats and other modes of intimidation some of the victim’s mothers have received over the years and the impact of patriarchy, globalization and capitalism as factors contributing to the social and political construction of a culture of fear among this traditionally silenced and marginalized community. What was stunning was that as a feminist researcher, observing the ins and outs of the symposium, it’s discourse, language and particular happenings, I began to feel and experience this culture of fear, this feeling of being along the border and witnessing the energy of this fear travel bi-nationally to the university I was sitting in, to the hotel room I slept in, to the food I ate and the dialogues I engaged in. I felt it like I had never before. Up until this moment, I had done extensive research and reading on the subject, performed and attended various events addressing the issue of the femicides, but until this moment, I had been displaced, and had not truly experienced this reality, the reality of this prevailing impunity, the reality of this culture of fear existing in this city, this third world country residing not thirty miles away from where I was. It fucked me up. It really fucked me up.

I came home and I realized that this culture of fear that I seek to analyze and interrogate, I was experiencing first hand at this conference, not thirty five miles from where two more bodies were found during those days. There is a theory that these bodies were placed there at that particular moment in attempt to send a message to the mothers who have become politically active on a number of levels in the fight for social justice for their daughters. Further, to launch a symposium with a few hundred people, many of them academics, intellectuals, film makers, press, activists, NGO’s, etc… I can easily see how this may have appeared as a threat. Nonetheless, I as a graduate student observing the happenings and discourse produced here, I felt the culture of violence hovering over me like a dark cloud. It spoke to me in my dreams, tied me up and entrapped me within the confines of my mental instability and confusion of knowledge it invaded my entire process, and it fucked me up.

In any case, the week after we arrived back in San Diego, we hosted a film screening featuring On the Edge, a documentary by film maker Steev Hise. We also featured Juarez Mothers Fight Femicide, a short documentary by film maker Zulma Aguiar. We had a brief discussion with about fifty or so attendees. It was great. People expressed interest in getting involved with the project of the femicides.

I will end this blog with an excerpt from an article published in the New Yorker in 1993 by a reporter named Alma Guillermoprieto recalling one of the first victims found:

“Among the first victims to be noticed in the crime pages of the local press was Alma Chavira Farel, whose death is still used as the marker of the official count. Her corpse was found in January of 1993 in an empty lot in a middle-class neighborhood--she had been raped, beaten, and strangled, the brief news story said--but there is to this day no explanation of why a young girl's violated body might have ended up in such a place. The following May, the body of another raped and strangled victim, name unknown, was found. She was discovered on the slopes of the Cerro Bola, a high hill with the words "Read the Bible" lettered on it. A third corpse appeared in June, stabbed and set on fire. Another anonymous victim, found on the banks of the Rio Grande, had been raped, impaled, and knifed to death; her head had been bashed in.”

Most recently, although recurring for years, patterns indicating a femicide have been documented on the southern border of Mexico and Guatemala, 427 in January alone in fact. So what is it about these borderlands that kills women?

It is critical that we become educated and involved in seeking international human rights and social justice for the faces of these women that have continued to be erased over time.

Resources:
http://www.mujeresdejuarez.org
http://www.amigosdemujeres.org
http://steev.hise.org/
http://political.detritus.net/juarez/
http://www.zulmaaguiar.com/
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2006/03/30/unsolved_killings_terrorize_women_in_guatemala/

Last night we saw Angela Davis speak at the UCSD Price Center Ballroom. It was pretty amazing. One of the aspects of her talk that I really enoyed was that although she is a highly academic theorist, her roots are in the activism that grounded the context for her seeking this journey in the first place, and it was really manifested in the language she used to address the audience. She made important and inspiring arguments welcoming and accessbile to all audiences, which I find critical not only in the movement for social justice, but in the movement to build bridges across the theoretical and the activist minds.

I won't go too much into detail as both a debriefing and the audio of her speech are available for download. Visit us at http://www.radioactiveradio.org/archives.php to download the segment.

Radica Radio airs every other Wednesday night at 8:00pm. Tune in to www.radioActiveradio.org to listen and all that jazz.

Alright alright so a couple of weeks ago was our first experience back on the air with our new format, new vision, new style and new lovers.... syke. hehe. It's a work in progress... you know, this journey of independant media and all. And the ladies of Radica Radio are pretty fucking excited. So, what's happening tomorrow?

Angela Davis speaks live at UCSD tomorrow evening at the UCSD PRice Center Ballroom. The event is free and it starts at 6:00pm. Tune in to www.radioActiveradio.org tomorrow night at 8:00pm to hear a rebroadcast of her talk. It's going to be rad ass.

CAUTION:

Chances are the audio won't be that great, for reasons beyond what I can provide =). But we will be doing our best to bring you some of her words. So tune in tomorrow night, and if you aren't already planning on it, join us for the event. We'll be the crazy ones up front with Angela Davis stenciled t-shits and handbags... no im kidding, but we will be up front.

Info on Angela and the event:

ANGELA DAVIS
“Women and Social Justice Movements: Then, Now, Tomorrow”
Wednesday, March 1, 2006 at 6pm
Price Center Ballroom
Tickets Available at the Price Center Box Office

Angela Y. Davis is known internationally for her ongoing work to combat all forms of oppression in the U.S. and abroad. Over the years she has been active as a student, teacher, writer, scholar, and activist/organizer. She is a living witness to the historical struggles of the contemporary era. Professor Davis will be discussing women and social justice movements looking retrospectively at women’s involvement in struggles for justice as well as looking at the current state of feminist and other social justice struggles, with thoughts on the future of women’s work around social justice.

Free and open to the public. Ticket required for entry. Please visit the University Events Box Office to obtain your free ticket for this event. Please arrive early. Seating is not guaranteed.

Last night, my partner asked "So do you think you will start speaking and writing like that?" He asked this in response to some book on I was reading for class on feminist theory flooded with academic jargen that requires a third reading to begin to comprehend. I acknowledged that it had begun to happen already, with resistance. My Borderlands and Feminist Theory professor told us during a dialogue, "the very mere fact that you are sitting in this room distinguishes you from the world." I dont neccessarily feel comfortable in creating these hierarchies, as a passion of mine is seeking avenues and directions in the movement to break down these very hierarchies we ourselves are perpetuating. However, it is important to acknowledge your privilege at all times and recognize your standpoint and positioning in the midst of this world of chaos, especially if we aim to do MORE than sit in a room and study what feminists have been thoerizing on for years....

Aurora Levins-Morales seems to answer all of my questions, all of my concerns, my nervousness and anxiety, the fear of isolation i get in class settings sometimes, all of it. “As academic feminism drifts farther from its activist roots, as the elite gobbledygook of postmodern jargon makes it less and less acceptable to speak comprehensibly, I have more and more often found my trust in myself under assault." I haven't until recently, had language to define what my fear and anxiety consisted of. I couldn't define it. I read this and i thought... "fuck yea, that's me too!"

On academic intellectuals:
“When I call myself an organic intellectual, I mean that the ideas I carry with me were grown on soil I know, that I can tell you about the mineral balance, the weather, the labor involved in preparing them for use. The intellectual traditions I come from create theory out of shared lives instead of sending away for it. My thinking grew directly out of listening to my own discomforts, finding out who shared them, who validated them, and in exchanging stories about common experiences, finding patterns, systems, explanations of how and why things happened. This is the central process of consciousness raising, of collective testimonio. This is how homemade theory happens."

This is what I want to be hearing. This is what I strive for, what I live for. This is the validation I need, to know that I am not the only one who thinks this way, to know what mujeres who came before me built frameworks on which to create testimonio, to know that this theory exists within the chaos of Donna Haraway, Sandra Harding, Judith Butler, is to feel validated, to feel real, to fee community within the confines of this Academia. This is exciting.

Yes. Bring it.

With all this hoopla around the Vagina Monologues and Shakti Rising, V-DAY, The Center, Feminist Gender Studies, independant media and all that wonderfully radically sexual jazz, I felt compelled to share a poem. This piece placed me 2nd in the San Diego Poetry Slam once, or was it third? Anyway, it was a good experience.

So in honor of the Vagina Monologues, the V-DAY movement and the amazing women producing amazing testimony, here's mine. Hope folks take advantage of the amazing performances happening around the country. It's dissapointing more people aren't... as movements like these are imperitave to analyze, interpret and apply to us as people in the fight for social change.



Embrace

Embrace me.
Embrace me for the beautiful BUSTy bruja that I am!
Embrace me for the
radical bohemian thrift store stencil making goddess I am.
Embrace me for the radical fucking cheer leading poet that I am.

Because this is the New Girl Order.
We are the Generation XX.
We are the women who give a fuck about taking care of each other.
The third wave lesbian,
bisexual, queer, trans
ally
women of color and working class in the fight
who don’t need corporate careers
and a perfect “white picket fence” life
and a dirty buck to be satisfied.

We are the non-airbrushed women with stretch marks on our tits,
the 36C size wearing women who can embrace our cunts for what they are.
Not the perfect pretty pink shaved pussies
that we were and still are conditioned to think are normal.

We are the women so far beyond the fucking BABY BOOM
that today we talk about sex workers unions,
about open intimacy,
0pen marriages and our
multi-theoretical minds.

We are the brujas who take control of our lives and our bodies,
We don’t need men in our dreams to feel protected and normal,
We can fuck who we want to fuck and not
fear getting placed in a sexual identity box
Because we wear a size 12 pair of jeans and its fucking okay
to not look like the 5 percent of women in the world
we’re told to aspire to look like.

Embrace me for being the
bordertown bruja who grew up on panaderias,
butter topped elotes and in store jackings just to see if I got caught.

Embrace me because
I am that bruja who will wear a
hot pink wedding dress on MY big day
with a diamond dog collar around MY neck
and my Chuck Taylor’s
My father will not walk me down the aisle to
GIVE ME AWAY…
And I am not getting sworn in some by Jesus Freak
who on the frontlines of this battle
wears the red badge of courage
to take my privilege away.

I will be the one professing to my partner that
for the rest of my life
I expect to be treated with the equality I deserve,
that means making my fucking dinner,
washing my fucking laundry,
making ME CUM first for a change
And yes it’s a heterosexual relationship
and I know I would have made a great lesbian…
But I know this,
who gives a shit,
it’s my life,
my choice,
it’s my fuck.

So embrace me for the sexual radical that I am.
Embrace me the way my best girlfriend embraces me
Embrace us as the goddesses of the New Girl Order,
because we are who the fuck we want to be.
From Alice Paul to Angela Davis and mi Anzaldua,
we are the riot grrls of Generation XX,
the feministas artist slackers who love revolution, dildos and orgasms.
This is our MANIFESTA.
So embrace me.

Time in a stressful and complicated schedule has finally surfaced and allowed me to reflect on Radica Radio's first show back on the air in over two months. We spent over ten hours producing just about a 30 minute segment featuring the story of Shakti Rising and their production of the Vagina Monologues. It was no "his American Life," no "Mindwalk," no "Radio Insurgente." It was far from that actually. And although I am highly confident that as feminist researchers, reporters and media producers, this proccess will become smoother by the week, I felt disempowered and dissapointed to an extent. But before I go into proccessing this further let me outline the logistics of that day:

We spent most of Wednesday finishing the editing of our segment. We used Audacity, a free open software editing program that, despite our indy media anarchist efforts to encourage everyone to embrace, it has its serious flaws and limited features. I guess that's why it's free. We spent about an hour and a half trying to grab music off Pepperboxx's ipod and onto my laptop, which was a failure. We then attempted to locate my music in itunes, which had mysteriously dissapeared and when importing our song of choice (The Life, Mystic)it was two seconds of static. So after an overwhemling proccess, we downloaded some music from limewire and decided to go with Zap Mamma, which was in the end, a perfect choice. By the time we had that choice picked out though it was 6:15pm. Our show was to air at 8 and we werent finished. UGH! So it's literally 7:25pm and we are finally finished, transferring the segment to mp3 format. I dont have a cd burner on my laptop and the mp3 was too big to attach in my email so i sent the Audacity file to pepperbox for her to convert to mp3 and burn to cd. it didnt work. so we decided our only option would be to play the file directly from my laptop, into the mixer and on the air. THAT FAILED TWICE. FOr some reason you could hear the music but no the dialogue. It then became one of the most frustrating and depressing moments in Radica Radio history. SO then I went back into the house, plugged my laptop into the internet box (my wireless card is at my bro's house) and emailed it to myself from http://www.yousendit.com the best thing every invented. So then I downloaded it from the Main Computer in the studio and we aired it. By the time the segment aired it was 8:45pm. The segment itself has some missing componenets, like at times where music was suppose to be playing, there was nothing but silence. And it sounded very scratchy at times, which we think is a result from the use of the "amplify" tool on audacity. We're going to moderare our use of that for the future. So when the segment finished, we stuck around for a few minutes and then called it a night.

So why the feelings of dissapointment and disempowerment? Geez, perhaps its because i can let the pessimist take over the best in me sometimes. The entire reason why we took the winter break off was to immerse ourselves in the technology and language it takes to produce independant media. How are we suppose to empower marginalized women to take these resources and this media into their own hands if we cannot fully interpret and produce it ourselves? At the same time I am glad this experience happened, as it has made us stronger and prepapred for weeks to come. You can download our segment at http://www.radioactiveradio.org/archives.php.

Lesson Learned: 1) Audacity is kind of shitty 2) Just because we have a radio station parked in our drive way doesn't mean we can slack off until the last minute 3) SHIT HAPPENS, deal with it.

Shakti Rising presents The VAGINA MONOLOGUES tonight at the Gay & Lesbian Center in Hillcrest. Tickets are $15.00 and procceeds go to local organizations. The show starts at 7pm. Be there.

Radica Radio: Music and Feminism Never Rocked This Good, is finally, after a long awaited Winter Break, back on the air! Radica Radio is dedicated to providing a safe space in documenting the politics, action, testimonies and voices of local and regional women in the struggle to make this world a better place. We spent the winter accessing and re-defining who we are as feminists, as radio hosts, as reporters and as voices within the movement and are excited about the new season.

Join us as we embark on the journey of these stories. This Wednesday Radica Radio will be featuring SHAKTI RISING and their experience in producing the VAGINA MONOLOGUES for the very first time. Shakti Rising is a local organization providing a recovery program founded on education that assists young women, primarily ages 15-25, in overcoming addictions, abuses and disempowerment. The program encompasses the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of healing necessary for transformation.

Info on V-Day:
V-Day was born in 1998 as an outgrowth of Eve Ensler's Obie-Award winning play, "The Vagina Monologues." As Eve performed the piece in small towns and large cities all around the world, she saw and heard first hand the destructive personal, social, political and economic consequences violence against women has for many nations.

Hundreds of women told her their stories of rape, incest, domestic battery and genital mutilation. It was clear that something widespread and dramatic needed to be done to stop the violence. A group of women in New York joined Eve and founded V-Day . . . a catalyst, a movement, a performance.

V-Day’s mission is simple. It demands that the violence must end. It proclaims Valentine’s Day as V-Day until the violence stops. When all women live in safety, no longer fearing violence or the threat of violence, then V-Day will be known as Victory Over Violence Day.

TUNE IN THIS WEDNESDAY at www.radioActiveradio.org AS WE DOCUMENT THE STORIES OF SHAKTI RISING AND THEIR EXPERIENCE IN ENTERING THE REALM OF THE VAGINA! HAPPY V-DAY!

Shakti Rising will be performing the Vagina Monologues Friday February 17th, 2006 at the Gay & Lesbian Cnter in Hillcrest. Tickets are $15.00 and procceeds benefit local organizations.

Resources:
www.shaktirising.org
www.vday.org
www.thecentersd.org

Let's just add this to INSTALLATION I of our Poety for Survival Guide. These poems belong together and my bad for forgetting to include this one. I first read this poem in my U.S. Third World Feminism class in 2002. It changed my life.
Enjoy.



The Bridge Poem
Donna Kate Ruskin.


I've had enough
I'm sick of seeing and touching
Both sides of things
Sick of being the damn bridge for everybody

Nobody
Can talk to anybody
Without me

Right?

I explain my mother to my father my father to my little sister
My little sister to my brother my brother to the white feminists
The white feminists to the Black church folks the Black church folks
To the ex-hippies the ex-hippies to the Black separatists the
Black separatists to the artists the artists to the my friends' parents. .

Then I've got to explain myself

To everybody
I do more translating
Than the Gawdamn U.N.

Forget it
I'm sick of it

I'm sick of filling in your gaps

Sick of being your insurance against
The isolation of your self-imposed limitations
Sick of being the crazy at your holiday dinners
Sick of being the odd one at your Sunday Brunches
Sick of being the sole Black friend to 34 individual white people

Find another connection to the rest of the world
Find something else to make you legitimate
Find some other way to be political and hip
I will not be the bridge to your womanhood
Your manhood
Your human-ness

I'm sick of reminding you not to
Close off too tight for too long

I'm sick of mediating with your worst self
On behalf of your better selves

I am sick
Of having to remind you to breath
Before you suffocate
Your own fool self.
Forget it

Stretch or drown
Evolve or die

The bridge I must be
Is the Bridge to my own power
I must translate
My own fears
Mediate
My own weaknesses I must be the bridge to nowhere
But my true self
And then
I will be useful.

Betty Friedan, the historic and groundbreaking mover and shaker who helped kick start the second wave of feminism passed away today at the age of 85. She wrote the renown and now legendary book The Feminine Mystique.

Yes, I recognize and validate the work Betty Friedan did as one of the founders of the Second Wave, however it is critical to note that Betty Friedan and the second wave of feminism had it's flaws, particularly the flaw in essentializing the notion of "woman" and the assumption of universal woman's oppression. The problems facing, for example, millions of poor, working women, women of color, oppressive working conditions and low pay, instituionalized racism, etc were not even on the horizon of the Feminie Mystique, which dealt mostly with the problesm of white midle class housewives in search of liberation. In my point of view, Friedan was kind of like the mother of Liberal Feminism which = Cultural Feminism = Essentialism = BAD. =)

In her book From Margin to Center (and i know this because i literally read it two days ago =), bell hooks has this to say about Betty Friedan "...she did not discuss who would be called in to take care of the children and maintain the home if more women like herself were freed from their house labor and given equal access with white men to the professions. She did not speak of the needs of women without men, without children, without homes. She ignored the existence of all non-white women and poor white women. She did not tell readers whether it was more fulfilling to be a maid, a babysitter, a factory worker, a clerk, or a prostitute than to be a leisure-class housewife."

BUT IN ANY CASE, it is important to validate and honor the women who have come before us in the fight for a better world. We lost a warrior today, and at the age of 85... amazing. You can read more about her pretty much everywhere. Here is the news posting from the Feminist Daily Newswire.



Feminist Daily News Wire
February 4, 2006

Feminist Giant Betty Friedan Dies at 85

Betty Friedan, author of the groundbreaking book (The Feminine Mystique)that helped launch the contemporary women's movement, died today at the age of 85. “Not only did her book define the problem of the lesser status of women, but she also had the courage to launch a movement and an organization, the National Organization for Women, to change that status forever,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation and a former president of the National Organization for Women.

“Women of my generation owe Betty Friedan a great debt,” said Katherine Spillar, executive editor of Ms. magazine. “Had Friedan not defined the problem that had no name and helped start the National Organization for Women, opportunities in education, employment, and public life that my generation has enjoyed might not have been possible.”

“Betty Friedan was a giant for women’s rights and a leading catalyst of the 20th century whose work led to profound changes improving the status of women and women’s lives in the United States and throughout the world,” said Smeal. “She faced ridicule, scorn, anger, and personal denigration, but she never faltered in her advocacy for fundamental changes to improve the lives of women.”

“Like any icon or giant, Betty’s vision was limited by her time,” Spillar said. “One of her great shortcomings is that she was slow to endorse the fight for lesbian and gay rights as a part of the feminist movement. But she did finally vigorously endorse the movement for lesbian rights in 1978 at the International Women’s Year conference in Houston, Texas before an audience of 20,000 and an even greater worldwide audience.”

“The movement that Friedan’s energy sparked continues to grow, and is bigger today than she could ever have dreamed when she helped launch it in the 1960s,” said Smeal. “Many of the advances for women and girls that we all celebrate and enjoy would not have been possible without her determination and pioneering spirit to challenge the inequities when others dared not speak.”

“The feminist movement continues to change women’s lives today, as reflected on the pages of Ms. magazine,” said Spillar. Ms. magazine is encouraging all those whose lives were changed by Betty Friedan and the modern women’s movement to post their stories at MsMagazine.com.