Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: For the past three years, Janet Donoghue and Alison Fisher (otherwise known as Glenda Greenhouse and Mary Mercury) have been performing as The Composters, a satirical, ecofeminist, postmodern duo. From motherhood and Mother Nature to the economy and infomercials, The Composters have mixed, turned and cooked outdated/expired societal notions with humor in an effort to evoke personal and political change through environmental and feminist realities and possibilities. Their next performance adventure takes them on a smear campaign as Mary and Glenda compost their next frontier: news. Parodying both “serious” and “fake news” journalists (think: Anderson Cooper to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert), they offer a satirical “spin zone” by camping up the proverbial “straight man”. Seeking to speak truth back to power (ala Socrates) they subvert the news medium as the message (ala Marshall McLuhan). This presentation will combine headlines, correspondent reporting, forecasts & meltdowns, an interview, and a pile turning epiphany to offer viewers a meta-narrative on media control.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Like many other social movements, the LGBT movement has long standing political tensions between transformative/radical and liberal/campaign politics. This paper examines these tensions within the context of disputes about transgender inclusion within a LGBT campaign to overturn an anti-gay charter amendment in Ypsilanti, Michigan in 2002. These tensions between transformative and "campaign" politics shaped the response of the Ypsilanti campaign to two transgender incidents--a smear campaign by the local Religious Right and claims of transgender discrimination within the organization--more than individual attitudes or understandings towards transgender issues.