Eileen Boris
We at Frontiers are delighted to introduce our readers to a new interactive column, “Feminist Currents,” by 
Eileen Boris, Hull Professor and chair of the Women’s Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In the paragraph below Boris poses a question to our readers and all interested feminists, whether they find this column in Frontiers or on any number of postings in cyber space. All are invited to e-mail Frontiers their answers, which Boris will edit by synthesizing and summarizing. Her intent is to cook up a gumbo out of our responses: mixing, seasoning, and throwing in her own ingredients, as she enables us to engage in feminist dialectic. Boris’s response will appear in our next spring issue along with another question posed by her. We see this exchange as a way to strengthen and enrich our feminist community. Or, in Boris’s words, “‘Feminist Currents’ is a place for feminists to debate pressing and not so pressing (sometimes whimsical but hopefully compelling) issues of the day, to share perspectives and thoughts, develop strategies, and connect scholarship and teaching to social justice.”
A Question
Do clothes make the woman? What is your personal relationship to clothing? What constitutes feminist positions on clothing? Why is it that when we talk about women in public--especially notable women--we engage in the politics of appearance? Why did we talk about Hilary Clinton's pants suits and Sarah Palin's designer clothes in the last election?
Replies
You can respond in two different ways. You can give your answer on the Frontiers Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28584178375). Or you can email your reflections, from 30 to 300 words, to frontiers@asu.eduno later than September 1, 2009. In your subject line please type "Feminist Currents." Unless you notify us otherwise in your email, your response signifies that we may paraphrase your thoughts, quote directly from them, and use your name and affiliation.