by Yashar Ali

Every election season, I ask myself the same question: Why aren’t more women running for public office?

Over the past ten years, I have been hopeful for the prospect and rise of women political candidates. While I never studied the numbers, I felt like we were heading in the right direction.

I couldn’t be more wrong.

Reporter Kate Linthicum’s brilliant Los Angeles Times article sheds light on the City of Los Angeles’ problem with proper female representation on the city council. The fifteen-member council, which had five female members eleven years ago, currently has just one, Jan Perry.

Current statistics about women holding federal office are equally dismal: women hold fewer than 20 percent of House and Senate seats. The House faced its first decline in 30 years with respect to women members.

Women hold fewer than 25 percent of seats in state legislatures. This sort of decline has not been seen in decades.

Why are we slipping back after so many years of slow but steady progress?

There exists real obstacles for prospective women politicians: media bias, lack of financial support, mediocre recruitment efforts, underfunded organizations built to help women run for public office.

I want to introduce a not-so-prominent problem: the serious deficiency of women in senior positions on political campaigns. With the exception of political fundraisers, you find very few women running campaigns or serving in top management spots.

The absence of women operating behind the scenes of political campaigns has been largely ignored. This is made clear by the complete absence of studies tracking the numbers of women working in politics. Open your newspaper and turn on your TV. You usually hear a senior-level male staffer speaking for candidates.

This isn’t just about my ideology. This is personal for me.

For the past two and half years, I worked for California Lieutenant Governor and former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. In my last position with him, I managed his 2010 race for Lieutenant Governor.

Lieutenant Governor Newsom and his wife, actress and documentary filmmaker, Jennifer Siebel Newsom (who made a brilliant documentary about women’s under-representation in positions of power and the limited and often disparaging portrayal of women in the media – see SG interview) expressed in this campaign their frustration and concern about the lack of women working on his campaigns.

Lieutenant Governor Newsom always asked, when we made hiring decisions, whether we could fill these posts with qualified women. This was not just a question for him. In his first year as mayor, he appointed San Francisco’s first female police chief and fire chief. He was also the first mayor to initiate gender analysis of budget cuts.

But I couldn’t find available and qualified women to take senior positions in his campaign. The few women I did know were already working on other campaigns.

Shawnda Westly, Executive Director of the California Democratic Party, saw a need to fix this problem in California. She, along with her colleague Robin Swanson, put their money where their mouth is, and launched a website called Political Women California.

Political Women California delivers a simple, but powerful mission: to give women working in politics a place to post their resumes so employers can find and hire them for campaigns, elections and political positions throughout California — and across the country.

Their site has been flooded with postings from women already working in politics in California. Even though I am not in the business of managing campaigns anymore, it helped me realize how many women are trying to work in politics.

Usually, people run for office after being exposed to a political campaign in one way or another. So the question is: how do we expect young women to motivate themselves to run for public office when all the people running campaigns are men?

This issue is not limited to Democrats. We need more women working on campaigns and in elective office across the political spectrum. Both parties should see the benefit of female leadership. But drawing from my personal experience, I want to speak to Democrats: There is no excuse. How can we demand equality for women in the workplace and fair wage laws, when we can’t manage to hire women for the campaigns professing these issues?

I spent the better part of two years working tirelessly for Hillary Clinton in her bid to be the 44th President of the United States. My passion for her candidacy was primarily based on my belief that she was the most qualified candidate for president. I felt her unique combination of experiences would serve our country incredibly well.

But there was another strong factor for my motivation. One I will not apologize for. I really wanted a woman president.

The dream I have for a woman president is not dead. However, if we don’t make conscious efforts to hire more women on political campaigns, we are not only limiting our talent pool, but we will also face an epidemic shortage of women running for office.

We must demand that candidates we support value diversity in their hiring practices. So, my message is for two people: the candidate and the campaign manager.

Next time you are walking through your campaign headquarters, take a look at the young woman who shows up everyday after her classes to volunteer. The same one who always pays her own way on public transportation to make phone calls and to help knock on doors. The same one that you are impressed by and think is better than half your paid staff. And probably the same one you take for granted. She could be president one day…if you give her a chance.

Yashar Ali is a Los Angeles-based columnist, commentator, and political veteran whose writings about women, gender inequality, political heroism, and society are showcased on his website, The Current Conscience. Please follow him on Twitter and join him on Facebook.

He will be soon releasing our first short e-book, entitled, A Message To Women From A Man: You Are Not Crazy — How We Teach Men That Women Are Crazy and How We Convince Women To Ignore Their Instincts. If you are interested and want to be notified when the book is released, please click here to sign-up.

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A Message To Women From A Man: You Are Not Crazy

by Steven-Elliot Altman (SG Member: Steven_Altman)

Our Fiction Friday serialized novel, The Killswitch Review, is a futuristic murder mystery with killer sociopolitical commentary (and some of the best sex scenes we’ve ever read!). Written by bestselling sci-fi author Steven-Elliot Altman (with Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse), it offers a terrifying postmodern vision in the tradition of Blade Runner and Brave New World…

By the year 2156, stem cell therapy has triumphed over aging and disease, extending the human lifespan indefinitely. But only for those who have achieved Conscientious Citizen Status. To combat overpopulation, the U.S. has sealed its borders, instituted compulsory contraception and a strict one child per couple policy for those who are permitted to breed, and made technology-assisted suicide readily available. But in a world where the old can remain vital forever, America’s youth have little hope of prosperity.

Jason Haggerty is an investigator for Black Buttons Inc, the government agency responsible for dispensing personal handheld Kevorkian devices, which afford the only legal form of suicide. An armed “Killswitch” monitors and records a citizen’s final moments — up to the point where they press a button and peacefully die. Post-press review agents — “button collectors” — are dispatched to review and judge these final recordings to rule out foul play.

When three teens stage an illegal public suicide, Haggerty suspects their deaths may have been murders. Now his race is on to uncover proof and prevent a nationwide epidemic of copycat suicides. Trouble is, for the first time in history, an entire generation might just decide they’re better off dead.

(Catch up with the previous installments of Killswitch – see links below – then continue reading after the jump…)

[..]

by Auren Suicde

She Wants Revenge: is clearly the type of dancy, sexy music that modern rock was hungry for. DJ Adam 12, the jack-of-all-trades who plays bass, keys, does the programming and co-founded the band, spoke with me about his impending stardom and love of SG. Who knew?

Read our exclusive interview with She Wants Revenge on SuicideGirls.com.

Lavonne Suicide in Rainforest

• INTO: Organic & local.
• MAKES ME HAPPY: Art, music, love, philosophy, good food, like-minded friends, books, crystals, rocks, nature, water, laying in the sun, adventures, traveling, selling paintings.
• 5 THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: I can probably live without almost everything.
• VICES: Food.

Get to know Lavonne better over at SuicideGirls.com!

by Blogbot

Artist / SG Member Name: Voodou Suicide

Mission Statement: Art can be an escape, a personal thing, a social thing, a way to meet others. It has been all these things for me. I love making and doing things, so I don’t think I could ever stop. Art is a huge part of what makes me, me.

Medium: Mixed media, some favorites include Copic markers, acrylic, fineliners, water colors and my Wacom tablet for computer work.

Aesthetic: Fun, colorful, graphic, most likely containing robots and/or dinosaurs.

Notable Achievements: I won Sappi ThinkAhead Graphic Design Student of the Year. I have passed my ISTD (International Society of Typographic Design) exam, making me able to put MISTD after my name. I have been featured in House & Leisure magazine (South Africa) as a winner of their reusable packaging contest. I have also been an Emerging Creative at Design Indaba (South Africa) in 2009.

Why We Should Care: Cause everyone could do with more fun and robots.

I Want Me Some: Find more of my graphic design on Tumblr and my T-shirts via my Etsy store. I also do commissions. Message me on SG if interested. Or email robot.factory.design@gmail.com

[..]

by Bob Suicide

To be completely honest, I never wanted or liked having Siri on my iPhone. My wishlist of features for future phones will never include the desire that my phone “talk to or at me more.” The social implications of a world filled with people who own phones that talk makes me shudder down to my very anti-social core.

Imagine if everyone who currently owned an iPhone had Siri on it; you wouldn’t be able to walk down the street without hearing that robotic voice making appointments, giving directions, or doing some kid’s math homework. People who used to quietly access information on their phone will now yell at it until it yells back. The implication being that it takes several attempts and ultimately frustrated yelling at the phone in order to get the artificial “intelligence” to understand your request.

After the social decline that I can see Siri ushering in, I’m afraid of the “dumbning-down” of the consumer interface. People won’t need to learn how to use their phone to access information. They won’t need to understand how apps function or how to navigate Google maps. All they have to do now is yell at it until it tells them what they want to hear. Why learn how to use your phone when a robot can use it for you?

So, given my ardent dislike of Siri, I’m not at all surprised that she isn’t performing exactly the way people want. But, what does surprise me is what everyone seems to be complaining about.

Numerous media outlets are reporting that Siri is failing to point out abortion clinics. This oversight prompted both the rallying cry of an elaborate pro-life conspiracy on the part of Apple and the hailing of a new life-saving technological advance (depending upon which side of the debate you fall on). A pro-life group went so far as to congratulate Siri (and Apple) for the, “Numerous lives [that] will be saved as a direct result.” While the ACLU called upon Apple to fix the “glitch” immediately.

When asked to find a clinic, Siri says, “I didn’t find any.” And when you ask her this question in the middle of a large metropolitan area, whether you’re pro choice, pro life, or apathetic to the idea of children, it’s clear Siri isn’t looking hard enough.

Apple has since responded to the uproar by saying that Siri is young and hasn’t quite learned everything she needs to know, but as she “ages” through updates she will become more knowledgeable. Clearly, no one at Apple sat her down and had “the talk” about the birds and the bees before launch. She’ll just have to pick it up from the streets.

The reality is that there are a lot of things that Siri doesn’t know about yet. When I first got her, I yelled “cylon” at her in varying tones for the better part of ten minutes, but she has no idea what their plan is. Just because abortion happens to be a hot-button issue, Siri is seen as having a political agenda rather than the incompetent software that it currently is. Us geeks have all lamented the missing or defective features in the latest iteration of our favorite OSs, and Siri’s inability to find an abortion clinic or properly call my mother instead of my brother is another in that long list.

But, let’s go out on a limb and assume that Siri really is a pro-life sentient software. Why are you complaining that this intelligent techno-butler doesn’t share all of the same ideals as you? You can’t have it both ways. You can’t herald the creation of technology that will lead to sentient software and then get upset when that software appears to have a perspective that differs from yours.

You may be able to argue that Siri isn’t properly doing her job. You might have hired her to give you all possible suggestions, directions, platitudes, and words of heartfelt encouragement, and if so, and you find Siri fails to do her job in any of these categories, then the solution is obvious: she should be fired. Get a new phone or stop using Siri and go back to accessing your phone’s apps like the cavemen before you used to do.

In the mean time, let’s all just laugh it off with some hilarious visions of Siri over-compensating for her latest faux pas:

For more Siri/Abortion hilarity visit HappyPlace.com/.

[..]

by Fred Topel

One of my favorite kinds of interviews is when I end up just talking with a filmmaker about what movies they like. That’s exactly how it went when I interviewed Wim Wenders, one of the original icons of the indie film movement.

Having made movies since the ‘60s, Wenders has seen a lot of world cinema firsthand. His impact peaked in the ‘80s when Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire captivated arthouse cinemas. He’s made music videos for U2 and pretty much a movie a year, 33 in all plus shorts, television and segments in anthology films.

Wenders’ latest movie is worth discussing too. Pina is a documentary profile of the dancers in Pina Bausch’s company. Bausch unfortunately died before filming was finished so she herself could not be in the film more. Shot in 3D, Wenders captures her dancers occupying real space in their avant-garde performances.

Over a cup of coffee one morning during the AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles, Wenders sat with me to talk about Pina. In a quiet, unassuming German accent, Wenders revealed his art with a confidence and vulnerability. If you’re interested in dance or just looking for some obscure movie recommendations, here is my candid chat with Wim Wenders.

Read our exclusive interview with Wim Wenders on SuicideGirls.com.