Reports from MEC:

This two page analysis aimed for donors discusses a 2-pronged media approach to place 50% of all monies for media campaigns in the hands of grassroots media activities and outlets.

In the Spring of 2010 Groundswell Fund (still called Catalyst Fund at the time of this report) superceded all the other model funds Media Equity had previously researched. That discovery led to creation of SNAPSHOT of FOUNDATION SUPPORT for FEMINIST GENDER JUSTICE MEDIA.

A shout out to Hollaback for blazing a movement against street harassment – their tool mobile technology. Already in 11 locales internationally, another eight chapters are in the works.

And kudos to Hollaback for their great public relations work for harassment hero, Nicola Briggs, the brave subway rider who spoke out against a flasher:

AdministrationMONEY/GRANTS

Women's Media HISTORY

See MEC's infrastructure posting
on GFEM:

Becoming Donors: A Call To Action

In the early 1980s the single largest funder of both women's art and media was the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The rise of the conservative right under the auspices of the Heritage Foundation (the original report was in 1980, a 1996 rendition is here) first vehemently attacked this use of public funds for what it deemed "social art". When the right was unsuccessful at totally dismantling the NEA and NEH (still today the largest funder of media in the US, but nothing feminist!) the right moved, just like it has with abortion, to chip away at most of the mechanism within these agencies that supported women's art, culture and media. So, those 15 to 25 women's organizations that annually (depending on years' applications and panels) received NEA support, has today dwindled to a handful. In the SNAPSHOT report Media Equity produced last June (see pdf on this webpage) of the 20 sample women's media organizations whose funding is listed, Reel Grrls (in Seattle) was the only organization currently receiving NEA support.

The Waitresses 1979 image copyright Jerry Allyn

As a result organizations like the hugely successful and historically significant feminist cultural organization Woman's Building (in LA) or the stimulating, provocative Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics folded in the early 1990s. Yet, feminist cultural makers and the reporters who chronicled that culture and/or political change are essential components to build and sustain that change.

Over the first decade of the 21st century a resurgence of new entities – Chica Luna, Digital Sisters, GritTV, etc – have emerged to fulfill new, deepened and expanded feminist media/arts needs. The renewed blossoming while predominately by younger women, also includes reinvested efforts by older feminists – Women's eNews, On the Issues, Women's Media Center. The impulse to express – because both the dominate culture and corporate media are so riddle with dis-reality, lies and double speak – is a human need. And a human right (Article 19th of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

Yet, today while the initial bursts are impelled by need, their long term sustainability are threatened. There is no organized support or funding base committed to ensuing that such a progressive cultural and media rich feminist environment survives. A few initiatives like Fledgling Fundand Chicken and Egg Pictures have been innovative funders for some women's films. But the vast majority of feminist cultural and media works slip through almost all funding opportunities or suffer from persistent male bias. Seen as passé or no longer viable or politically 'too hot', women filmmakers or activists artists especially with strong feminist content are not receiving 'organized' funding. Only those few works of art or film are seeing the light of day by the skin of the maker's teeth, the overtaxed blood, sweat and tears of its makers.

Media justice activist, song writer and media maker, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, and co-founder of Third World Majority, stated early in this decade: "If media is not your first issue, make it your second." Bill Moyers has just made a parallel call to donors: "Take what issue you care about and fund it #1. Then take alternative media and fund it as your #2."

Four areas of focus of mediafeminism Ariel Dougherty © 2010

Only creativity and creative ideas will stand up to unmask the conservative and religious right. We need – like deep ecology and deep feminism – deep pockets to step forward to support this creative art and media work. We need a new fund that actively and massively supports media and arts feminism. We need a broader more comprehensive strategy to harness our collective resources, to maximize our efforts in a short period of time. The threats against women's reproductive rights, increased violence against women and children, and even our right to speak and have unfettered information are all at stake. If we desire feminism to deepen further as a living, dynamic force, and to become more inclusive, we must fund the movers and shakers of that dialogue and creativity. It is not the culture, necessarily, that you might place on your living room (or Facebook) wall. It is the kind you wear on your heart.