Public Plenary

The closing plenary of the 2012 Console-ing Passions conference begins at 5:30pm on Saturday in Suffolk University’s beautiful C. Walsh Theater, located in historic Beacon Hill. The event is open to the public and tickets can be purchased here for $10.00. For Console-ing Passions conference attendees, your conference badge is your ticket. Please join us for this special event!

FEMALE SEXUALITY, MEDIA POLITICS, AND THE WAR ON WOMEN

July 21, 2012 — 5:30-7:30
Suffolk University  — C. Walsh Theater
Boston, MA

This year the so-called “War on Women” has dominated media coverage of national politics, driven by a set of high-profile controversies:

• The Komen Foundation decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood
• Virginia’s proposed law to require transvaginal ultrasounds to women considering an abortion
• President Obama’s mandate that health care providers cover contraception
• Rush Limbaugh’s reaction to Sandra Fluke’s testimony on the Affordable Care Act

Taking as its focus the centralization of women’s bodies in these national debates, this special event gathers together experts on media politics, women’s sexuality, health care, and reproductive justice to discuss how both traditional broadcast outlets and social media have framed — and changed — this conversation.

The evening begins with a screening of the new film The Purity Myth, introduced by writer Jessica Valenti. Following the film, a panel of nationally recognized authors, advocates, commentators, and educators will join Jessica on stage for a lively discussion moderated by internationally-recognized media activist Jean Kilbourne.

Plenary Speakers:

MODERATOR: Jean Kilbourne, author and speaker, creator of the Killing Us Softly documentary series.

Michelle Goldberg, senior writer for Newsweek/The Daily Beast and author of The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World

La’Tasha D. Mayes, founder and executive director of New Voices Pittsburgh: Women of Color for Reproductive Justice and co-chair of SisterSong: Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective

Allison Perlman, assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine and co-editor of Flow TV: Television in the Age of Convergent Media

Jessica Valenti, columnist for The Nation, author of The Purity Myth, and co-founder of Feministing.com

Deanna Zandt, technology consultant and author of Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking