Sometimes the simplest images and stories are the ones that drive home the fundamental point that drives our work: that gay couples are no different than straight couples.

We at All Out were incredibly moved by this video – and wanted to share it with our global community. Will you take a moment to watch and share it, giving more people a chance to join the conversation? After you watch, sign our letter to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, asking her to push marriage equality onto the platform at her party’s national conference THIS WEEK.

I would argue that the most difficult thing about the entire process of higher level, collegiate education is not getting in, though that is what the public conversation at large is about. The most difficult, troubling part of higher education is paying for it once you do get in. Even with financial aid, even with other scholarships, so many people end up with crippling debt by the end of their college years.

These past few months, I’ve watched my class celebrate getting into college. Then I’ve watched everybody have an “Oh, shit” moment trying to figure out where the money is going to come from to fund the next four years of their life. I’ve watched brilliant people decide to go to schools they are beyond over-qualified for because they were offered more financial aid. I’ve watch people resign themselves to the reality of student loans (in fact, 2/3 of college graduates right now have student loans). A lot of kids my age approach student loans as an inevitable necessity. They figure they’ll take out the loan then pay it back once they graduate and get a high paying job.

Here’s the thing though. Really good jobs are hard to come by these days, and they’re getting scarcer by the minute. Then faced with the reality that student loans involve interest, forebarance, penalities and all of this stuff that can double or even TRIPLE the amount you owe based on your original loan, the prospect of paying back these loans slowly becomes further and further out of reach. But what does an 18-year-old, signing on to these payment plans, know about that? The whole college process is huge, daunting and overwhelming, that that reality often gets buried in the muddle.

And here is where I start to get really, really pissed. As a feminist, ESPECIALLY as a teenage feminist, this issue is incredibly relevant to my life and to the people in this community. I believe that education in all forms is the answer to so many of the problems that feminists combat. As a country, as a society, we need to be better educated. But how can we – teenagers, the future of this country and this world – better educate ourselves and better prepare ourselves to face all of this shit older generations have gotten us into, when those same generations are making those tools completely unaffordable and, thus, unavailable? Older generations are pushing us into lifelong debt, which the process of paying off will preoccupy our talents and energy – the same talents and energy that could be put towards actually SOLVING some of these huge problems. And even in one of the best-case scenarios, when kids are able to pay for college due to scholarships and financial – but they’re receiving an inadequate education in accordance to their level of intelligence, and thus are not reaching their full potential (read: we are not putting to use some of the greatest minds available to use) – we know we have a really big problem.

There are a lot of reasons why the world is so fucked up right now. But let me tell you, virtually ALL of them could be solved, or at least alleviated,  by better educating the masses. And when that option because unaffordable, and therefore not an option at ALL, we’re seriously impeding all progress. And as a feminists, as human beings, the fact that these problems all have a fairly basic answer (education, if you haven’t been paying attention) which we are making impossible because of capitalism makes me really, really angry.

I know that student loans isn’t the sexiest topic to cover here on the FBomb, but it’s so incredibly relevant to our lives (and, yes, my life right now as a rising college freshman) that I had to bring it up. I’ve really only skimmed the surface of this problem here, and thankfully there are people who are doing really great work in raising awareness about this issue. For example, there’s been a documentary made about student loans – Default: The Student Loan Documentary.

The bottom line is we need systemic change. But until then – and this is especially a message for younger FBomb readers who have yet to face the college process – educate yourself about all of your options and be aware of the truth of student loan debt. It’s not something that teens are really educated about, or even aware about at all until it’s an immediate option, but you owe it to yourself to find out the truth.

Help Educate Girls In Malawi!

Statistically, according to UNESCO’s 2005 Education For All monitoring report, only 31% of adult women can read and write in Malawi. This is shocking when compared to men – 80% of whom are literate. Kasungu district in Malawi, where the Join My Village project is taking place is no exception in terms of prioritizing boys when it comes to education. Kasungu is among the top list of districts where literacy levels are very low in women.

Once educated, a girl child is more capable of helping the greater family as she is the one that spends more time with them and so can act as a good mentor. An educated girl can easily manage to start a small business that can help the family financially. It is only through education that girls can learn to be independent and free from male dominance. With education, a girl can easily protect herself from diseases and unwanted pregnancies and is more likely to delay marriage. There is a saying that says, ‘educating a girl is educating the nation’ and this is what Join My Village is all about.

Join My Village is working with CARE to provide reference materials to primary schools as one way of improving girls’ access to education early. The project is also constructing female teachers’ houses in 15 primary schools to encourage more female teachers to move to these schools. The teachers will be role models to girls and also motivate them to aspire for a better future. Join My Village is also providing secondary school scholarships for girls from poor households to keep them in school.

For every view of the video I’ve linked to below, Join My Village will donate $1 to send girls in Malawi to school!

via Causes.com

I can’t embed the video, so to watch, please go here (you have to be signed on to Facebook).

President Barack Obama

Seth Meyers

Today, my lovely FBomb friends, is a wonderful day. Why is that? You may perplexedly ponder. I don’t recall hearing talk of it being International Free Cupcake Day and  I’m pretty sure Ryan Gosling isn’t going to spontaneously show up on my doorstop “Hey Girl” -ing me…is he? IS HE?!?!

NO! HE’S NOT! BUT THIS IS EVEN BETTER! IT’S BACK UP YOUR BIRTH CONTROL NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION!

Yay!

So here’s the thing about birth control: there’s no excuse not to use it and everybody should. Especially teens. Especially, especially feminist teens. I don’t think most kids in our generation even comprehend how much fighting the awesome women who came before us did to secure us the right to even have birth control, and beyond that, the social revolution that made it possible for women to have sex without it being solely for reproductive purposes within marriage. Those were some awesome feminist revolutions that occurred so that we could have sex without having to immediately get married or start a family – instead we get to have sex lives AND professional lives AND do whatever the hell we want to do, which is pretty freakin sweet.

But sometimes, we slip up and don’t use birth control. Or, even if we do, malfunctions happen (condoms break, y’all). Or, worst of all, women can be forced to have unprotected sex – one out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.

All of this shit sucks. But it doesn’t have to be the end of the story, because this is where Emergency Contraception comes in. Here’s the 411, via Back Up Your Birth Control:

WHAT IS EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION?

EC is a safe and effective method of birth control that can prevent pregnancy after sex. EC is not the abortion pill. It will not work if you are already pregnant. It does not protect against sexually transmitted infections or HIV/AIDS.

HOW DOES EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION WORK?

EC can prevent pregnancy by delaying or inhibiting ovulation. It may also inhibit fertilization. There are three brands of EC (Plan B® One-Step, Next Choice®, and ella®) approved for pregnancy prevention.

EC is a great idea, right? Well, in the grand tradition of many great ideas before it, there are people out there who don’t want to “corrupt” society with it, especially not in the hands of teens. Luckily the Center for Reproductive Rights has a petition that’s trying to take of that.

Honestly, it’s hard enough to get adults to talk to us about sex. If schools have sex education curriculum at all, so much of it is based on abstinence. So many kids have such limited information about regular birth control that it’s depressing to think how few know about EC, and even worse to think of kids who really could’ve used it, and how different their lives might be now if they had.

My challenge to the FBomb community is this: one of the greatest parts of our feminist identities is that it has educated us in so many areas (like reproductive rights) that we probably otherwise would know little about. I’m sure all of us have friends who don’t identify as feminists and who may know very little about this stuff. I think our job, as teen feminists, should be to start these conversations amongst our peers (Awkward? Maybe. Necessary? Yes.), and stand in for the adults of authority in our lives that may be failing us. And the Back Up Your Birth Control Campus Challenge is making it even easier by hosting a challenge/contest on the very topic.

Of course, our ultimate goal should be to have more comprehensive sex education in our schools, and even further to be a society that isn’t ashamed of talking openly about sex and makes information about it widely available so that we can all make the best choices for us. But until then, I guess it’s up to us.

I’m a little late on this, but a while back I was one of the judges for the I Am This Land video contest on diversity. The winner was recently announced, and I’m happy to report that the video “Role Call” was the winner. A little bit about the winning video:

“Role Call” is a fun and thought-provoking video made by a team of students and alumni at Flushing International High School (FIHS) in Queens, New York. The MTV-style video – of a student in class daydreaming about gender, cultural expression, and racial stereotypes – won the judges over.

“The video was created in response to several incidents of violence in our school, and our desire to use media to promote respect and tolerance in our school and beyond,” said teacher Dillon Paul. “Our students come from approximately 40 different countries and speak 20 different languages. Like most high schools, however, cultural differences, sexual and gender identity can be sources of discomfort and fear, leading to bigotry, bullying and violence.” From Jean Franco Vergaray Franco (a student, and Lead Director and Editor on the film), “That we could portray one person being all these different personalities, all these different identities, was just a way to say, diversity is okay. People shouldn’t be labeled.”

Here’s “Role Call”

The Affordable Care Act

One of the reasons many girls today don’t identify as feminists is because there are quite a few of us who are convinced that men and women are totally equal. The 1970′s took care of all of our political and social battles, teens reason, looking to mothers who work to the same degree and prestige as their fathers and male classmates who they largely equal or surpass in intelligence. What exactly are feminists fighting for, they might wonder, and write us off as never-satisfied perpetual complainers.

Well. Even if we completely disregard the fact that this standpoint can really only occur to girls of first-world countries, and within those countries to girls of middle-upper classes, there are still a lot of political and economic disparities that effect all of us. For example, there’s still a wage gap - while girls may see their mothers working alongside their fathers, they may be surprised by their own paychecks as compared to their male counterparts in just a few years. Another huge issue is reproductive health – we take the current rights we have over own bodies for granted, not realizing that there are plenty of people fighting to have them taken away from us, and that they could disappear at any minute.

However, while when closely examined it becomes clear that the fight for women rights still has a long way to go, it’s equally important to celebrate our accomplishments. Who wants to support/join a movement that’s not making any headway in their long, sobering checklist of goals?

A year ago, the Affordable Care Act was passed. This Act, amongst other benefits, includes provisions that will improve women’s reproductive health. According to the National Women’s Law Center, this Act will: “improve access to health insurance coverage for maternity care and family planning services (it will make prescription birth control more affordable), making it easier for states to expand Medicaid coverage of family planning.” However, at the same time that this is a great victory for women in this country, there are still people launching campaigns opposing the Act, and trying to amend and nullify some of it’s great policy.

The bottom line is this: as feminists, we can’t just linger on all the work we have yet to do, and we can’t rely on raising awareness about our cause by focusing on the negative. We also have to acknowledge the positive and celebrate our victories, such as the passage of the Affordable Care Act. It’s the job of our generation – teenage and young feminists – to balance both of these realities. We must maintain a positive and optimistic outlook while at the same time remaining vigilant to protect our victories, and the Affordable Care Act is a great reminder of this mission.

This post is part of the NWLC blog-a-thon

What You Can Do

- Help pass a Federal Bill to increase direct support services to young sex trafficking survivors and resources to address and combat sex trafficking.  Women’s Funding Alliance on Facebook will be glad to keep you updated on that.

- Use Super Bowl Sunday as an opportunity to teach the boys and men in your life how to have healthy relationships free from violence.

let's stop corrective rape

According to a recent report by ActionAid – an international NGO – there’s a rising, incredibly homophobic and violent trend amongst South Africans. In addition to waves of homophobic attacks and murders in townships like Johannesburg and Cape Town, South African lesbians are the victims of “corrective” rape.

“Corrective rape” is the practice of a heterosexual man raping a lesbian with the intent of “turning” her heterosexual. As if the act of rape weren’t enough, many of these women experience after effects of contracting HIV/AIDS and lasting psychological trauma, including a rise in depression and suicide attempts.

What’s even more frustrating than the occurrence of Corrective Rape is the South African government’s complete unwillingness to act on behalf of the victims. South Africa’s national prosecuting authority, in response to the rising trend, stated, “While hate crimes – especially of a sexual nature – are rife, it is not something that the South African government has prioritised as a specific project.” The understandable outrage this comment has caused is underscored by the fact that recent research shows 86% of black lesbians from the Western Cape currently live in fear of sexual assault, and a gay rights organization in the area reports that it deals with up to ten new cases of “corrective rape” every week. Not to mention that 24 of 25 South African men accused of rape walk free.

Please consider signing this petition to declare “Corrective Rape” a hate crime. They’re only about 5,000 signatures away from their goal of 150,000 and every signature counts!