Feminism | Posted by Mareike S on 11/26/2012
Buying Condoms
I guess the title already gives you a good idea what this post will be about, but bare with me while I explain how exactly I got to writing this post and chose this title.
You could say I’m a grown woman. I’m a few years older than my country’s legal age, I live in my own flat several hundred kilometers away from my parents and, yes, if I’m not in a committed relationship, I sometimes hook up with a guy if he’s my type and things click.
Now, I’m on the pill (which luckily is really, really easy to get if you live in Germany or anywhere else in Europe as far as I know), but there’s no one-night stands without condoms for me. Just. Not. Happening.
You’d think …
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Pop-Culture | Posted by LodB on 03/28/2012
Sexist Memes: Funny or Not?
While I understand that there is humour in provocation, this meme (the picture to the left) that’s been making the rounds on websites like 9gag and We Know Memes made me throw up in my mouth a little. Although I love these websites to death, and I think the political potential of memes is huge, these websites (9gag in particular) feature so much overt sexism that I often get mixed feelings. I think 9gag may be conditioning women to think that sexism is funny and perfectly acceptable.
Honestly, sexist jokes — such as the “woman-in-kitchen” variety — never used to offend me that much. I didn’t think that they really had much to do with women, just like yo-mama jokes have nothing to do with mothers. I figured they were …
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Pop-Culture | Posted by Fiona L on 02/17/2012
Maybe SHE’S Just Not That Into You
A friend of mine recently created a zine about the slut/stud double standard for a electives course called Feminisms that she’s taking. She included various fairy-tale-esque ads she found in magazines depicting women as love-obsessed. Watching her make her zine got me thinking about the image we always see of women as relationship-focused and emotional. Specifically, it got me thinking about the way we’re generally told girls and boys view random hook-ups, and I began to question whether those views are as widespread as we’ve been led to believe.
Remember the movie He’s Just Not That Into You? For those of you who missed it, the basic premise of this highbrow film (read: crappy rom-com) is that women and girls make up all kinds of excuses to rationalize men’s jerky behavior. According to He’s Just Not That Into You, we come up with justifications when a guy doesn’t call us, ignores us, or just treats us generally badly.
Apparently, we all need to realize that, upsetting as it is, he’s just not that into us. I agree. If someone is treating you badly, chances are they aren’t worth your time. But I have one issue.Movies like He’s Just Not That Into You and nearly every other rom-com in existence (save, maybe 500 Days of Summer) tell us that men often act like jerks and sometimes act nice. They usually tell us to find the nice guys, but they never address the fact that women also act like jerks, and sometimes she’s just not that into you.
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Creative | Posted by Emaan M on 09/23/2011
Shame
Jane had pretty poetry
And hands the size of shoes
And swirling inky look-at-me tattoos
On the trophy shelves of her skin
And Jane never thought twice about you
And nor did she digress;
Don’t help me once, just hurt me
less
Yet in the eyes of everyone Jane was a trailer-worthy mess.
And some sweet girls they said things about Jane
How small and suffocating cotton would stick to her skin
How a boy with dark hair and slinky eyes
Boasted about the game and the win-
Yet no one ever seemed to whisper anything poisonous about him.
Friends, teachers, the
do-gooders and world-changers
Her righteous church-community youth leader
Would always have their little snickers of Jane
And that’s what drove her from church.
And no one ever had …
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Feminism | Posted by Kelsie M on 08/5/2011
Thank You, Slutwalk
July 31 marks the one-year anniversary of the night I was raped. On August 6, I will be participating in Slutwalk when it comes to Philly. They could not have picked a better date. I find it ironic that the very word that kept me from getting any help that night a year ago is now the very same word that is saving me.
I know that Slutwalk has many critics, and in a way I think that most of it may stem from simple ignorance. I don’t mean this as an insult, but rather that until someone is in the situation of rape, they simply can never understand.
You will never understand the 3 am feeling of laying on the cool tile of the bathroom floor after puking up …
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Feminism | Posted by A. on 03/23/2011
What Exactly Are We Saying? An Analysis of Today’s Derogatory Slang for Girls
There are lots of dirty words reserved for females, particularly those of high school age. But there are three words that, arguably, epitomize them all. Some are considered to be profane; others are not. As has been shouted down many a junior high hallway: “You are just a fat, slutty, lesbian.” This is enough to make some girls cry, others defiant. Still, they have an immeasurably notable effect on girls of this generation as a whole.
“Being” one of these words is, essentially, one of the worst things a teen girl could be branded as. Many of these words are used also as terms of endearment amongst certain clans of females; others find them dreadfully offensive. The words’ meanings fluctuate extremely based on by and to whom it is said. …
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Feminism | Posted by janedoe225 on 03/11/2011
What Is Rape Culture?
There is a married woman and her husband works long nights and doesn’t return until the early morning. When her husband is away, the wife gets dressed up and goes to an island where she has affairs with random men. When these men get too close to her, like if they want to take their affair to the next level, she purposely gets in fights with them. Then she takes the ferry back home before her husband arrives. She’s also really drunk.
So one night she does her usual routine. She goes to the island, has sex with a guy and then acts like a jerk so they can break up. As she is on her way back to the ferry she realizes she doesn’t have enough money to get …
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Feminism | Posted by Regina on 11/4/2010
The Entitlement List
Entitlement: belief that one is deserving of certain privileges
When men are invading your space (at the supermarket, jogging, the bank, lunch line) and think it’s okay.
“Nice guys” who feel they’re entitled to sex because they treat you well.
When you dress “slutty” ( it doesn’t matter you can be wearing a garbage bag) men feel entitled to comment on how provocative you look and how you deserve anything that THEY do to you because of it.
White people trying to touch POC’s hair.
White people trying to cultural appropriate other people’s cultures.
The N word. ” Why can’t we say it?!?”
Men think it’s ok to say “bitch,” “slut,” “skank” etc etc
The whole Ground Zero mosque fiasco.
White Americans are upset because they feel their …
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