Susan Faludi wants you to read this

As some of you know, I am a board member of an awesome feminist media organization, Women In Media & News. Well it's that time of the year to ask you to reach into your wallet, perhaps looking between the cushions of your couch, and that spare change in your bag. And who better to ask you to give a little love to WIMN than the amazing Susan Faludi?

♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥

Dear Friend of WIMN,

Award-winning journalist Susan Faludi has spent decades documenting the dangerous impact of media sexism on American women, and on our country. Now, the author of Backlash and The Terror Dream asks for your help to improve the media landscape:

“Women in Media & News offers a desperately needed and all-too-rare public service: spotlighting media’s misrepresentations of women from all angles–from distortions to falsehoods to utter erasure–and countering them with careful reporting, no-nonsense statistics, and intelligent analysis. And WIMN’s dispatches are fun to read, to boot. What’s more, WIMN actively changes women’s status in the media: both by bringing a vast repository of informed female sources to the media and by teaching media consumers a crucial skill–how to dissect and debunk those supposedly ‘objective’ media messages about women that they are being bombarded with 24 hours a day, and how to improve those messages. Please join me in giving as generously as you can to support WIMN’s vital work, professionalism, and commitment. The organization can’t survive without you.”

As one of our loyal readers, you know the vital work Susan’s talking about. In 2007 alone, we:

• Brought feminist media criticism to the mainstream, with multiple appearances on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and PBS. For example, on “Hannity & Colmes” in the aftermath of the horrific Virginia Tech massacre, WIMN was the only voice in broadcast media to expose how violence against women has been at the root of most of the worst school shootings over the past two decades.
• Produced hundreds of blog posts, articles, and action alerts skewering sexist double standards in reporting on female politicians; debunking biased science journalism, such as the New York Times column on how women are biologically programmed to desire rich men; highlighting the invisibility of women in war coverage, including rape as a war crime and the again-invisible plight of Afghan women; and offering astute insights on pop culture inanities from Britney Spears’ panties to the hookups of “The Bachelor” and supposedly-sexy corpses on “America’s Next Top Model.” Our analyses often changed media coverage: for example, after WIMN’s Voices blogger Jill Nelson challenged the invisibility of Black women’s voices in media debates over radio host Don Imus’s on-air slurs, her commentary was reprinted widely and Nelson–an award-winning African American journalist–did radio interviews and was quoted extensively in regional and national media, shifting the tone of the national discussion and broadening the whitewashed opinion lineup.
• Placed women as featured experts in major news outlets such as Fox, ABC News, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, and Pacifica Radio and in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Bitch, Ms., In These Times, the American Prospect, and many others.
• Conducted media trainings for more than 20 women’s groups such as the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault, the New Orleans Women’s Health and Justice Initiative, and Vibe Theater Experience, and led media literacy programs for more than 1,000 young people at colleges across the country.
• Advocated for media justice in powerful arenas: Following conversations with WIMN, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards’ campaign began speaking publicly against media consolidation.

If that doesn’t convince you to open up your checkbook, this reality check should: WIMN has achieved these successes, and many more, with just one full-time staff person (who works without a salary or health insurance), no office, and only minimal foundation support.

In order to keep moving women’s voices from the margins to the mainstream, WIMN needs to raise $15,000 in donations from individuals like you. Please make a tax-deductible gift to WIMN today!

As an added bonus, for every donation of $35 or more, you’ll get a fabulous gift, courtesy of our friends at the Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild (see their site for pictures and descriptions of these items):

• Donate $35, and you’ll receive a tasty tin of EmpowerMints
• Contribute $50, and you’ll receive a finger puppet of Emma Goldman, Harriet Tubman or Susan B. Anthony
• Give $100, and you’ll receive a nifty “disappearing civil liberties” mug
• Donate $250, and you’ll get a copy of WIMN’s Voices blogger Anne Elizabeth Moore’s brilliant new book, “Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing and the Erosion of Integrity”
• Donate $500 or more, and you’ll get all four

As Susan Faludi says, WIMN’s work is essential to improving women’s status in the media. Your support will allow us to become an even greater force for change. Please give generously today!

With gratitude,

Jennifer L. Pozner, Founder and Executive Director

and
Lisa Jervis, Aliza Dichter, Sunita Viswanath, Veronica Arreola and Sara Beinert, WIMN’s board of directors

PS: Many companies and non-profits match charitable donations; ask your employer if your tax-deductible gift to WIMN is eligible for matching funds. Thank you for digging deep and making your donation today. We can’t keep our programs running without you!

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