Author and filmmaker Jennifer Baumgardner explores what bisexuality means for individuals and society in her new book, "Look Both Ways." She has made a career of injecting taboo-ridden topics into popular discourse.

Jennifer Baumgardner

(WOMENSENEWS)--Ask Jennifer Baumgardner about her proudest moment in 14 years in media--as a journalist, film producer and cultural critic--and the 36-year-old native of Fargo, N.D., smiles broadly.

"Gillian Aldrich and I had just finished a film called 'I Had an Abortion,' which we hoped would invite people into conversations--not bumper sticker slogans--about it," she says. "It was 2005, and the film was being shown in a big art deco theater in downtown Fargo. There were picketers outside, but a few came in. After the screening one man stood up and said that even though he'd come to protest, he'd learned something. He said that he now understood why women had abortions, that he felt compassion for them. It was a goose-bumps moment for me because we usually only preach to the already converted."

Since its release two years ago, the film has been shown throughout the United States and has garnered numerous awards.

Baumgardner, meanwhile, is pushing on. "Look Both Ways," her third book and the first she's written alone explores bisexuality and was released in late February by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Two others, "Manifesta" in 2000--about the history and continuing need for feminist activism--and "Grassroots" in 2005
--about the many ways that individuals can contribute to movements for social change--were co-authored with Amy Richards, a founder of the New York City-based Third Wave Foundation.

"All of my work has a similar point," Baumgardner says. "I try to bring things that are secret out in the open to take some of the stigma off of them or make something like bisexuality, which is invisible, visible. If 'Look Both Ways' can make people feel understood, and if the book imposes a description of bisexual women into the culture, I've done what I set out to do."
Beginning as Unpaid Intern

Baumgardner got her media start in 1993, fresh out of college, when she became an unpaid intern at Ms. magazine. "Ms. was on the coffee table when I was growing up," she says. "Then it shut down for a while. When it re-opened, ad-free, I was 20 and the head of the feminist organization at Lawrence University. I would read it and cry, I was so moved by the articles."

At the time, she wanted to be an actor-singer and hoped coming to New York would be a stepping stone, allowing her to audition for Broadway while working at her favorite magazine. Her dreams of stardom faltered, but unlike many in that situation, Baumgardner was largely unfazed. Within months of arriving at Ms., she'd discovered the joys of writing and editing.

Slowly, Baumgardner began proposing story ideas and when several people resigned in 1994, she was hired. "I went from Gal Friday to the woman who edited features and the health section," she laughs. "I moved up really fast partly due to initiative and partly due to the circumstances facing this beleaguered publication."

Although Baumgardner had never taken a journalism course, she says that writing comes naturally to her. What's more, she has always been good at drawing people out, an essential skill for a reporter.
'Look Both Ways'

This ability is evident in "Look Both Ways." From indie folksinger Ani DiFranco to actor Anne Heche, Baumgardner analyzes bisexual behavior, drawing upon her personal experiences with both men and women. "Girls today look both ways," she writes, "not because it's a phase and we're painfully trendy, or because we are pathological and weak, but because there is plenty in it for us . . . Looking both ways is not about just behaviors. It is aiding women to make that final step toward liberation." She credits feminism for opening this and other options up to women.

Although some--including Norah Vincent in The New York Times--have questioned Baumgardner's conclusion, she refuses to be silenced.

She says that it was her family who first encouraged her to voice unpopular positions. "I'm an underdog defender," she says. "My older sister was very sensitive and since childhood, my identity has been connected to safeguarding her."

It was a small leap, she says, from protecting her sister to protecting the Fargo abortion clinic, and another small leap to begin writing about abortion and feminism. "Since I was a very little kid, abortion made sense to me. Right away I got that it should be available and legal."

Baumgardner left Ms. after five years and now freelances for publications including Glamour, Jane, the Nation and Redbook and gives of her time in other ways.

"Writing and speaking connects me to feminism," she says. "I regularly answer five to 10 e-mails a day from women who write me for advice. I try to informally connect those who are trying to do projects with resources, and I donate a lot of my time to nonprofits."

Baumgardner says she was also instrumental in getting Farrar, Straus and Giroux to re-issue such feminist classics as "The Dialectic of Sex," "The Female Eunuch" and "Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen."
A Feminist's Day's Work

Baumgardner's daily life is exciting and exhausting. She juggles writing articles and books, networking, launching feminist projects, speaking at colleges, universities and community groups and co-parenting a 2-year-old son.

Amy Richards, Baumgardner's writing partner since 1997, describes her not just in terms of output, but in terms of lived values. "Jennifer believes that an investment in collaboration is an investment in feminism," Richards says. Calling Baumgardner hard-working, respectful, generous and funny, Richards makes her sound like the perfect colleague.

"Jennifer travels the path from theory to action and is highly committed and multi-faceted in her creativity," says New York City abortion clinic owner, Merle Hoffman. Hoffman first met Baumgardner when she volunteered as a patient escort. Years later, the two share feminist parenting strategies and continually debate how best to invigorate the pro-choice movement.

Baumgardner's book tour for "Look Both Ways" recently kicked off. While that will keep her busy for the short term, she's already looking ahead. "I'm thinking of doing another film dealing with unplanned pregnancies," she says, "and a book that personalizes abortion and discusses what we need to do and where we need to go."

By Alexandra Poolos
WeNews correspondent

Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya has earned recognition and reprisal for her coverage of the war in Chechnya. She is unswerving in her dedication to her work, which she says offers a chance to help people face both atrocities and everyday life.

Anna Politkovskaya

Editors' Note: Anna Politkovskaya was murdered on Oct. 7, 2006, in her apartment building in Moscow. She was reportedly covering alleged torture in Chechnya before she was found dead from gunfire in the building's elevator. "Her death is a great loss to journalism, to her country and to the service of the truth," said Joel Simon of the Committee to Protect Journalists, which declared her one of the top press freedom figures in the world during the past 25 years.

(WOMENSENEWS)--Anna Politkovskaya was exhausted on a late Sunday night in December.

A mother of two and one of Russia's most daring journalists, she has made a career of covering the wars in Chechnya. That evening she had been out in the cold protesting the disappearance of democratic freedoms in Russia in central Moscow. The march, which was scheduled to coincide with the anniversary of the Battle of Moscow during the Second World War, drew thousands.

Politkovskaya, however, was disheartened that many in Russia would never even know the demonstration had taken place.

"It's absolutely forbidden to cover democratic activities," she said in a phone interview from her home in Moscow. "We don't have one independent TV channel, just state channels. We have one independent radio station and two newspapers. It's absolutely little for such a huge country."

But protesting in the cold and fighting for democracy is nothing new for Politkovskaya, who has made a career out of daring journalism and tenacious activism.

In her work for the independent bi-weekly Novaya Gazeta, she has endured intimidation and even poisoning. Considered one of Russia's bravest journalists, she has covered the Chechen wars from the ground, traveling deep into the remote and dangerous southern Caucasus to report on how the war has affected ordinary citizens. She has faced Russian soldiers, Chechen rebels and constant warfare in her tenacious work.

Recently she was awarded the Civil Courage Prize, given by the Northcote Parkinson Fund, based in New York, which honors those who fight injustice at great personal risk.

"The courage of Anna Politkovskaya, one of Russia's leading journalists, stands out in sharp relief," presenter Nicholas Platt said at the October ceremony in New York. "She has exposed the atrocities of the war in Chechnya, in books and articles in Novaya Gazeta, persisting despite the wrath of the Kremlin and in the face of death threats, intimidation and poisoning."

She was also a recipient of the International Women's Media Foundation Courage Award in 2002.
Duty, Not Courage

But Politkovskaya doesn't believe that "courage" is a good word for her work. "I don't like this word. It's duty. I'm absolutely sure that I want to do something for the people using journalism."

Politkovskaya doesn't focus on women's issues in particular. Rather, she says, just being a female journalist in Russia today means that she will see everything about her work differently, especially when it comes to war.

She says that while female journalists can be repelled by covering war, male journalists can often become fascinated. "They like weapons; they like to see it. But female journalists and me too, all the time, I thought it's so awful to see all these weapons, to hear all these noises of the war. The only thing I prefer is to return home, not to see it and smell the war."

Politkovskaya says that her tenacity in covering the second Chechen war, which began in 1999 and continues today, ended her marriage in 1999. Her husband walked out after he could no longer stand the worry and loneliness that accompanied her constant travels. She believes her role as a female journalist and mother has shown her that reporting on the atrocities is never enough. She was a negotiator in the Moscow theater siege and has worked to find food, housing and justice for her subjects countless times.

"You need to be a writer first of all," she says. "But, secondly, you need to do something more for them. If the people don't have food and water, you need to find them food and water."
Born in New York, Educated in Moscow

Politkovskaya was born in 1958--five years after Stalin's death--in New York, where her Soviet Ukrainian parents were United Nations diplomats. She was sent back home to be educated and graduated from one of Soviet Union's most prestigious departments, the journalism program of Moscow State University.

She became well read, in part, because her parents' diplomatic status allowed them to smuggle forbidden books into the country. After graduation she worked for state newspapers and eventually made her way to the independent press, where she began to distinguish herself by offering dogged reporting of Chechnya and becoming one of the few reporters to stick it out over the years.

She says the challenges of working as a female journalist in Russia are many. She speaks of constant discrimination and harassment, and says that it's almost impossible for a woman to rise to the rank of editorial board member. Ironically, these same challenges melt away in the mountains of the southern Caucasus, her second home in many ways.

"It's absolutely dangerous work for men because everybody sees them," she says, "but as a woman I can wear some clothes, like the Chechen women, and move around more easily."
Slipped Poison in Her Tea

Recently, Politkovskaya's work almost cost her life, when on her way to act as a negotiator in last year's school hostage crisis in Beslan, she was slipped poison in a cup of tea. Although she isn't sure who tried to poison her, she suspects the Russian security service.

The situation, she says, is likely to become more dangerous as democratic institutions suffer under Russian President Vladimir Putin's measures. Just this month, Putin backed a bill to close all foreign nongovernmental organizations in the country.

Despite the risks, she believes she can only go forward and continue with what she calls the Russian theory of "little business."

"It's a special Russian theory that if you can't change the whole world, you need to do some little things to help specific people," she said. "Russian journalism was and now is the possibility to help people first of all in their everyday life and in their catastrophic life. I decided that it was a very nice theory for me."

n October, renowned Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, who was noted as a "leading light" in Perspectives' "Women in the Lead" edition, was found murdered in the elevator of her Moscow apartment complex.

Politkovskaya was known for both her talent and courage while providing relentless coverage of the wars in Chechnya and human rights and government abuses throughout Russia. Over the course of her career, she was no stranger to the risks of exposing and criticizing authority, and many suspect the murder was a reaction to her work.

In addition to her writing, Politkovskaya also acted as a negotiator in the 2002 Moscow theater siege and took on other humanitarian tasks to help those in need.

"You need to be a writer first of all," said Politkovskaya when she was chosen as the Journalist of the Month for Women’s E-News. "But, secondly, you need to do something more for them. If the people don't have food and water, you need to find them food and water."

lA meilleure équipe defoot- ball de la caraibe est la selection HAITIENNE,nous sommes sûr que nous allons avoir la suprematie au Gold cup cette année.

personne ne nait gagnant ,personne ne nait perdant.Nous naissons tous avec la liberté de choisir.La Bible dit que nous avons le pouvoir de choisir.J'ai choisi d'être positive.J'ai choisi d'avoir des objectifs.J'ai choisi de faire de mon mieux avec ce que j'ai.