Feminism | Posted by Talia on 08/2/2011

Like When We Were Eight

A little while ago, I was at my friend’s house for the weekend. Her younger sister, who was in second grade, had a friend over (let’s call her T) on Saturday night. According to today’s beauty standards, T is absolutely gorgeous, despite the fact that she is only eight years old. In addition to being physically appealing, her personality is totally adorable.

The thing I remember T most for, however, is the fact that she laughed. That is, that she laughed despite the big gap between her two front teeth.

It struck me that this little girl wasn’t afraid to laugh out loud, that she wasn’t afraid to smile. She wasn’t trying to hide her “imperfect” teeth. She didn’t feel self-conscious about it. She just didn’t care that her teeth …

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Feminism | Posted by Emma E on 08/1/2011

Why I’m Rejoining Social Justice

Oh, I’ve always been into social justice. Don’t be fooled by the title. What I mean is the social justice club at my high school.

I’m going into ninth grade at the end of the summer, and I was in social justice club for a few months in grade eight. It pissed me off, because we never DISCUSSED anything. We were always do, do, do. Go collect teddy bears for homeless children. Go collect batteries. Go decorate a corner of the lobby with “go green” messages. Which is all great, but we never really discussed the roots of social justice. The closest we came to that was when we invited the proprietor of a local battered women’s shelter to talk to the club, which was one of the most informative …

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