Feminism | Posted by Liz P on 12/16/2010
Speaking Out Against Sexual Abuse
When I was twelve, I was the only person I knew of who knew people who had been affected by sexual abuse. When it had been disclosed to me, I didn’t know what to do with the information, and didn’t even write about it in my journal. Until high school, the only person I told was my best friend, and we talked about it only once. Twelve year olds tend to not know what to do with that kind of stuff. As I got older, the number of people that I knew who had been affected by sexual abuse, unfortunately, grew. In high school I learned that a friend of mine had been sexually abused and was having difficulties dealing with her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, her family, her abuser, …
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Feminism | Posted by Talia on 11/9/2010
Why Couldn’t I Say “Rape”
One of my extremely good friends is finishing out her high school career abroad, and I spent the weekend at her apartment with some other friends as a send-off party before she left. When we were discussing how she would get around, since she can’t drive yet, she said that she wouldn’t go into a taxi alone. I agreed.
“Yeah, that’s not a good idea, you don’t wanna get…hurt,” I said.
The word I had in mind was raped, but I felt uncomfortable saying it. She didn’t, though.
“Yeah, since I definitely do not want to get raped or molested or something by a cab driver,” she said.
Why did I have such a problem saying the word rape? Seriously, what was wrong with me? Rape is a crime, just …
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Awareness | Posted by Liz P on 10/20/2010
The Clothesline Project
October isn’t just Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it’s also Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Instead of sharing statistics that you can easily find online to show how prevalent domestic violence and interpersonal violence is, I’m going to share a story:
Last spring, my university’s chapter of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance co-hosted the Clothesline Project. The Clothesline Project raises awareness about interpersonal violence by physically showing how many people have been affected as represented by t-shirts. You can decorate a t-shirt for yourself, for someone you know, or for someone you don’t know. Our event happened to be the same week that a senior girl had been tragically murdered by her ex-boyfriend, so we got a lot of her friends coming by to make t-shirts. Sadly, it brought the project …
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Feminism | Posted by Courtney F on 10/12/2010
A Modern Rant on Modern Feminism
The past few days I’ve noticed some hating going on towards modern feminism on tumblr, and hey, everyone’s entitled to their own opinions, but it still frustrates me. I don’t think people really understand what modern feminism is and that there’s still reasons to fight, even if it’s not necessarily the reasons of the 60′s. I mean, I didn’t even really understand what modern feminism was until about a year ago.
People hear the word feminism and associate it with the fight to stay out of the kitchen. It’s just not. I mean, if you want to talk feminism and the kitchen, feminism believes it’s a woman’s choice to stay in or out of the kitchen. I for one, try to avoid the kitchen at all costs because I can hardly …
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Feminism, Pop-Culture | Posted by Talia on 08/31/2010
Allison Iraheta and the Glamorization of Violence
When Allison Iraheta was on American Idol, I really liked her, and was upset when she got voted off. One of my friends fell totally in love with her. “You gotta hear her single, ‘Friday I’ll Be Over U,’ it rocks,” she kept hocking me. I finally looked it up on YouTube and was unimpressed. When my friend kept insisting that I had to listen to the whole album, I got it from the library.
Since this isn’t an album critique, I won’t go into detail about how Allison sold her soul to the Music Industry Devil by singing teenybopper songs when she has more of a Janis Joplin appeal. What I will go into detail about is the plain old anti-woman offensiveness on the album. The songs …
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Feminism | Posted by Kate S on 08/9/2010
Pads, Phallus, and Gloria: Advocating for Trash Bins and More
I recently came across Gloria Steinem’s “If Men Could Menstruate” as I was perusing over required reading packet. In this article, Steinem creates an alternate universe where the power of the penis is amplified by not women but men’s ability to menstruate. She hypothesizes that it would be no surprise to find the government taking an active role in making “monthly discomforts” more convenient, boys competing for longest and largest amount of monthly blood loss, and boyfriends encouraging intercourse at “that time of the month.” As I lmfao-ed, I remembered a certain incident at a yacht party in the early summer.
My friend’s parents had organized a yacht party to celebrate his graduation. Families and friends showed up in their cocktail dresses and suave suits. Before boarding, …
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Feminism | Posted by Julie Z on 05/17/2010
National Punch a Slut Day
The facebook trolls who think they’re hilarious for their misogynistic groups and events are at it again, folks!
Some FBomb readers and a recent Jezebel article alerted me to a series of “slut punching” events – one a week-long event that I believe was removed, and another, which will merely last a day.
The latter event includes some seriously gross comments, such as:
Dongie Lee:
Some of you need to stfu about violence toward women. boohoo. Ever thought about violence toward men? toward elderly? toward kids? And I bet 99.9% of you fuckers bitching and crying aren’t doing a fucking thing to stop any real violence. Let’s also not forget that this group isn’t about punching women but about punching slutts. Do criminals deserve time in prison? Yes. …
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Awareness | Posted by Julie Z on 05/11/2010
Yeardley Love: Why Domestic Violence Is Serious
Many of you may have heard by now about the murder of Yeardley Love, a senior lacrosse player at the University of Virginia. Last Monday, Yeardley was found by one of her roommates in bed, face down and unresponsive. Police found blood on her pillow and reported that her face was bruised as a cause of ‘blunt-force trauma.’
George Huguely, also a senior at the University of Virginia, and Yeardley’s on-again-off-again boyfriend, was charged with killing Yeardley, and admitted to acting violently with her the night she died, stating that he “entered Ms. Love’s unlocked apartment early Monday, kicked his foot through her bedroom door and forced his way in. He then ‘shook Love, and her head repeatedly hit the wall’” (NY Times)
Of course, this is a tragedy. …
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