Awareness | Posted by Julie Z on 03/18/2010

Lesbian Teen Banned from Prom

Constance McMillen

I’m sure a lot of you have heard about this story by now but I had to blog about it. Apparently the school district of Itawamba County in Mississippi would not allow Constance McMillen, 18, to attend her prom  wearing a tuxedo and with her girlfriend. Constance was told by her assistant principal that she may be able to get away with escorting her girlfriend if she were to bring a bunch of guys…you know to cancel out / hide their lesbianism, or something. The superintendent suggested that the girls attend the prom separately, wearing dresses, and avoid each other completely lest they “push people’s buttons.”

Now this would be repulsive enough if these were merely the suggestions of misguided authority…

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Awareness, Feminism | Posted by Jaded16 on 03/3/2010

Someone Needs To Take The Negative PR Off Of Abortion’s back

abortion in India: not everybody feels this way

As I was reading this post on “Abortion Doulas” I got to thinking about being pro-choice, abortion in general and about abortion in India in particular (as this is where I live). Out here, we tend to look at abortion as something shameful, disgusting, a thing to keep under wraps. No “good Indian” girl ever gets an abortion. If she does, people whisper about her in hushed tones for what she did was indeed disgusting. Interestingly, this is the attitude for abortion only for single women, unwed mothers etc. Within the sanctity of marriage, many women are forced to abort their unborn female fetuses. That isn’t entirely looked down upon. In fact, aborting…

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Awareness | Posted by Julie Z on 03/2/2010

I Can’t Believe This Still Happens: Honor Killings

a map of countries that have reported cases of honor killings

It’s kind of hard to convince American teenagers that we still need feminism. “But my mom works,” many a peer of mine has stated in response to finding out that I identify with the f word. “She even kept her own last name. We’re totally post-feminist.”

Ah, yes, it is fun for us to live in the privileged little bubble that is the United States, where our Moms do work and can keep their own last names (how far we’ve come…). Even with the rate of women earning 77 cents for every man’s dollar (as of 2007), not to even go into all of America’s feminist short comings, we are incredibly…

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Awareness, Feminism | Posted by Julie Z on 02/25/2010

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week

the eating disorder awareness week poster from 2004

No, the title of this post is not the most uplifting thought in the world. But it’s an issue that’s plaguing my peers and isn’t going away any time soon. Scratch that, it’s not just an issue, or something that haunts insecure teenagers with nothing better to think about than themselves. Eating disorders are life threatening illnesses caused by dangerous pressures and behaviors that need to be addressed.

I see this every day at my school in a vast spectrum of ways. I saw it just the other day in the bathroom at school (such a cliche but shit seriously does go down in the bathroom…). This girl that I don’t know very…

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Awareness | Posted by Julie Z on 02/9/2010

Gen Eff: What You Don’t Know Can Kill You

I wanted to share this with you guys. This is a new non-profit in my hometown that aims to increase health care awareness among teens and twenty-somethings. Health care is such a huge issue that I’ve been directly effected by – health care has been a difficult thing for my family to get because my Dad is self-employed and my Mom has a pre-existing condition. I know as much as anyone that our country has so many issues with health care. It’s nice to see that people are trying to address them, especially for my generation.

Gen Eff is a new national grassroots movement with one goal: prevent an entire generation of kids from falling through the cracks of today’s health…

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