Artists I Lurve

The winter-chilled rainy blahs are here, urging me to curl up at home with all-things-cozy. The sketchbook art of one Ms. Laura Park, a.k.a. Featherbed has been one of the things lately keeping me all warm and fuzzy.

I love how she squishes all these images & words in while still managing to stop short of frenetic. And her subject matter is pleasing in it’s everyday, mundane silly-ness.

I know little about Ms. Park because there’s little on the Internets about her. She lives in Chicago, is originally from California and she designed the hoodies for Asthmatic Kitty Records (Sufjan Stevens label), which is how I originally found her.

I *do* know that, to me these days, her sketchbook is the art equivalent of a steaming cup of cocoa with homemade marshmallows. Mmm-mmm.

Subprime Crisis Affecting Women Disproportionately

Today’s NY Times highlights how women are hardest hit by the subprime crisis.

First, to clarify -  a subprime loan is a loan that is offered at a higher interest rate, generally to individuals who would not qualify (or might not think they qualify) for traditional loans. Generally these loans have been meant for people with low credit scores or other factors that show they might be more likely to default on payments. The additional percentage points can add up to “tens of thousands of dollars worth of additional interest payment over the life of a loan”.

Traditionally, these types of loan companies preyed on poor people, much like high-interest credit card companies have, by taking advantage of people with poor credit and few options by charging enormous rates. (Interesting history of the “Ascendency of the Credit Card Industry” here)

Now it seems these financial vampires have found new prey as the NY Times reports,

“…even at high-income levels, mortgage brokers may assume that women are less confident to negotiate or shop around, and so offer them higher rates. A survey in 2006 by Prudential Financial found that two-thirds of women graded themselves at C or lower in their knowledge of financial services or products.

Ms. McIntyre, who bought her house for $125,000 in April 2006, is one of those women. When she bought the house, using two subprime loans — adjustable loans that started at 8.35 percent and 13.25 percent — the lender insisted that she use her savings to pay down a car loan, a common demand on subprime loans. After she lost her job, she had no reserve to pay her mortgage.

“I feel they had me from the start,” Ms. McIntyre said. “I was eligible for money as a first-time home buyer and a state employee. Nobody told me about any of these.”

What this means for women is that we must educate ourselves about our finances. We must hold ourselves responsible for learning how to invest, how to plan for retirement, and we must take the time to research when we take a large financial step such as buying a house.

Mothers and fathers must teach their daughters this information, and impress upon them the importance not only of financial independence but good long-term financial planning. As a society we should look at creating financially-savvy women as in everyone’s best interest – as our mothers, our life-partners, and our business colleagues.

Recommended reading -
“Women and Money” by Suze Orman
“Smart Women Finish Rich” by David Bach

Sexism Still Alive and Well in the Political Process

So leave it to election-year politics to draw me back into blogging!

Maureen Dowd’s editorial on Hillary Clinton’s ‘tears’ appeared in the New York Times yesterday and it was so incredibly sexist it made me sick to my stomach.

Now today, this editorial appeared stating that women must’ve seen Obama as the ‘popular kid who never talked to them’ and that every woman who’s been a multi-tasker suddenly was on Hillary’s side.

Now I recognize that voters can be motivated by all sorts of fickle & inconsequential things but it certainly seems like the interpretation of this particular voting shift has been extremely patronizing and sexist. Very few people focus on the fact that Hillary seems to do well when she can connect with smaller groups of voters which is more possible in New Hampshire. And maybe the almost-crying did humanize her and that helped with the vote but the way that it’s being written about is, to me, barely-disguised sexism and not at all what we’d see if a male candidate did the same.

The Daily Show at least recognized this and did a great montage of male politicians breaking down as well as pointing out that she didn’t even really CRY for chrissakes! I couldn’t find the full clip with the politicians breaking down but this shows the clip and how ridiculously everyone reacted.

In addition to posting these two editorials, The New York Times has been so blatantly pro-Obama lately that I’ve begun to lose confidence in it’s ability to accurately report on this election. And I’m not anti-Obama by any stretch (would easily campaign for him should he win the nomination), but I would hope for unbiased reporting, and editorials from many sides of each argument. New York Times don’t fail me now!

And I don’t even have time to touch on the maddening treatment of Hillary in the conservative press. The Washington Post printed this cartoon on January 10…

Where is your embarrassment people! Ugh.

Addendum – This op-ed piece by Gloria Steinem appeared a day before the Maureen Dowd column. Definitely worth reading and glad to see the NY Times had presented this.