In a city that serves as a progressive paragon, it's easy to forget that American women didn't get the right to vote until 1920. And that's just one facet of the tumultuous history and continuing struggle for women's rights -- here and abroad.

The International Museum of Women (IMOW) -- an innovative online museum based in San Francisco -- has been championing female-focused issues since 2006, but its history of fierce feminism has roots stretching back to 1985.

First founded as the Women's Heritage Museum, this nascent organization operated as a museum "without walls" for 10 years, producing exhibits, sponsoring an annual book fair, providing fodder for teachers during Women's History Month, and of course, celebrating the lengthy lineage of women throughout the past, long overlooked for their accomplishments.

Elizabeth Colton, original founder of IMOW

In 1997, a Bay Area woman named Elizabeth Colton was hoping to take her daughter to a museum dedicated to women's contributions to society...but she couldn't find anything. She called up Gloria Steinem, a noted feminist activist, who she didn't know, and asked her if such a place existed.

"Gloria told her 'no, but I think you should [start] one!'" says Catherine King, Vice President of Exhibitions and Programs at IMOW. "Elizabeth took that has a call to arms." Elizabeth soon corralled a group of Bay Area teachers equally disappointed by the current feminist offerings and established the International Museum of Museum.

"She thought, 'lets expand the mission, let's get global.'"

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Photo by Kim Anno and Kyung Lee

More than two years have passed since the earthquake and tsunami devastated Fukushima prefecture in Japan, and only last week, The New York Times reported that the radioactive water used to cool the nuclear reactors in Fukushima is accumulating at an alarming rate. The independent writer of Fukushima Diary catalogues phenomena: mutated dandelions, unseasonal cirrocumulus clouds, absent azalea buds.

Jose Navarrete and Debby Kajiyama's Navarrete x Kajiyama Dance Theater, past honorees of Dance Magazine's 25 to Watch, present BAILOUT!, their newest activist interdisciplinary site-specific installation, May 10-12 in and around Dance Mission Theater. BAILOUT! tackles Japan's nuclear disaster from the perspective of our relationship with the oceans. The installation considers what recourse remains to those served by governments that would rather rescue financial institutions than address massive environmental consequences, as well as our complicity in the act of urban living.

Navarrete and Kajiyama have previously created work on genetic modification of crops and diminishing natural resources, as well as the city's transgender and ethnic communities.

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The Occupy movement and resulting marches galvanized the country. But ultimately, was anything achieved? "What were we marching for, exactly?" asked many a supporter. On the day of the second big protest in Oakland, I was walking downtown and passed an older black man sitting on his porch, "Oh you don't want to go down there today. That's a big old mess down there." A mess indeed. Riot cops, helicopters, the anarchist brigade, and black clothing, but not black faces, dominated. I can only presume, considering the long economically depressed condition of West Oakland, that this man had no love for Wall Street bankers, but still, Occupy held no meaning for him.

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The Sweet Spot: Puberty and Playboy

The Sweet Spot: Prostitution and Prop 35

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Members of the Sex Workers Outreach Project marching against rape.

December 17 is one of the few times that you'll see the deaths of sex workers mourned publicly and sincerely. For the rest of the year, sex workers who die at the hands of clients, police, or pimps are reduced to punchlines or object lessons in one morality or another. One thing that liberals and conservatives share, even in this very polarized era, is that both are much more comfortable speaking for dead whores than talking with live ones.

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Edward Paik

As you may have heard, Obama's headed back to the White House for a second term in January, which can only mean one thing: Muslim Kenyan Socialist Armageddon is nigh! Our Communist president is coming to take your guns, gay marry your children, and ban sunshine in schools, or so the latest wack e-mail conspiracies would have you believe.

Instead of merely rolling your eyes and deleting whatever crackpot forward your distant (or less distant) relatives and friends send to you, allow us to present to you a better way of dealing with the misinformation that assaults our inboxes.

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How to Deal with Relatives' Spam -- or -- Forward this Post to 10 Friends!

Beyonce Trumps Trump: The Best Election 2012 Celebrity Responses

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Long ago, I poured a pint for a fellow who asked me to advise him about his love life. Or rather, his sex life. I began to give him the usual lines: Don't have an agenda, be a giver, etc. But then he said, "Nah. I just really want to fuck. I don't want to have to know their name. Just a really good ramming, you know?" I abruptly cut off lines of communication and gave him my friend Anya's business card (not her real name). Dominatrix extraordinaire, she would know just how to handle him. Thank god for the professionals.

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Remembering Robyn Few, the Patron Saint of Sex Workers

"Cupcake Lady" Brings Sweets -- and Hope -- to Sex Workers in S.F. Strip Clubs

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Tweeted by Tony Stark

Last night was a big success for liberals in our country, and not just for Big Bird fans and recreational pot users. Wisconsin got its first openly gay Senator, Tammy Baldwin; voters approved gay marriage (for the first time!) in Maine and Maryland, and Washington's referendum is likely to pass as well; similarly, an anti-gay amendment was defeated in Minnesota. New Hampshire became the first state to have an all-female Capitol delegation, and oh right -- Obama is in the White House for four more years. But let's talk about what really matters here: What celebrities are saying on social media.

We combed the Interwebz to bring you the most amusing, baffling, and entertaining election-related tidbits from those we've never met but are dear to our hearts.

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How to Win Political Arguments

Biden: Trans Issues a "Civil Rights Issue of Our Time"

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Thomas John is a psychic medium and clairvoyant who predicts things from natural phenomena to celebrity events, such as the divorce between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (not that we all couldn't see that one coming). I caught up with him over the otherwordly Skype and asked him about his life as a psychic.

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Acro-Cats Bring Kitty Hijinks to San Francisco -- Fur Real

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Christopher Morgan

The Exhibitionist is an arts blog, and we aim to make your day better, so we don't venture into politics much. Election season is a drag for us too -- the constant political heads droning about this and that, the stack of un-recyclable attack ads delivered daily to our doorstop -- it's enough to make anyone apathetic. I know a lot of artists who feel like the politicians keep talking, and everything stays the same. But even if you're knee deep in sculpture, lost in your poetry, or backstage trying to find "the zone," there are plenty of reasons to go out and vote.

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Joe Biden Says Trans Discrimination a "Civil Rights Issue of Our Time"

Election Day Highlighted by Most People Not Voting

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Fake Presidential Campaign season will be over soon -- Kitty / Maru 2012! -- and while this has been a good one, there haven't really been any entertaining prank campaigns this year. Roseanne Barr, I guess, but c'mon. She's running for the Green Party, and she's transphobic to boot? Yeah, no thanks.

Thankfully, San Francisco has had its share of prank campaigns for local government positions in the past, all of which still have plenty of entertainment value. Today, we'll look at the ones waged by Jello Biafra and Sister Boom Boom.

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This Election Season, We're Voting for Hello Kitty

Pioneering Queer Activist Jack Fertig, aka Sister Boom Boom, Dies at 57

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