Feminism | Posted by Sarah E on 01/23/2013
The Surprising Similarities Between Burqas and Short Skirts
The Burqa ban is the cause of much debate in France. The ban sparked a discussion about human rights: do the citizens of France have free will to wear whatever they want? Is the next step to silence people from saying what they want? Or is the Burqa a security threat — a piece of fabric that can completely conceal the identity of a person, and possible a weapon, or worse a bomb, too?
It raises many a question from a feminist perspective too. Is it empowering to be able to conceal your body so you are judged on your personality and not on how you look? Is it oppressive because it is imposed upon women by men?
When I asked a male Muslim colleague why women were asked to …
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Feminism | Posted by Iris A on 01/11/2013
A (Rookie) Rookie Feminist
As a teenager, sometimes I believe that our generation is hopeless. Just walking through the hallway you can hear certain things that would make you want to sit everyone down on the spot and explain how they’re seeing things in such a male-dominated way. The truth is, though, that I’ve grown to ignore many of these instances just because I don’t think that anything I say will make a difference. I’m just “one of those freshmen” after all. It also seems like a waste of time and energy to let my opinions fall on deaf ears when I can find people who care on blogs like The FBomb, Rookie and Tumblr. It seems like lately, I’ve lost faith in “real people” and put my faith in “internet people” instead. The …
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Feminism | Posted by Eden F on 01/7/2013
Why I’m Not A “Feminist”
…because I’m actually a Feminist!. What’s the difference? I use the term “Feminist” to refer to “Feminist” a stereotypical media character who exists to destroy what I call “Feminist!s” (the real deal) by portraying herself an extremist asexual witch.
I’m not the type of person who shies away from feminism for fear of being thought of us a “Feminist.” I call myself a Feminist! with much pride. I believe that gender equality is a fact, not a right, and I believe it mentally, emotionally, intellectually, and religiously. There is not one bone in my body that would beg to differ. I believe in feminism as a movement, and the incredible leaps and bounds our fore-mothers and fore-fathers have made to give women equal treatment. Yet, something happened to me that …
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Feminism | Posted by Carina on 07/16/2012
How the Media Sells Pimp Culture
Every morning when I take the train, I put my iPod on shuffle and let various thoughts run through my head. But as I think about how tired I am or about the math test I have during first period, I don’t pay attention to the lyrics that are being whispered into my ear by various artists. As the E train pulls up to Roosevelt Avenue, I hear Kanye West talking about a girl who “got an a** that can swallow up a g-string/and up top, uh, two bee stings.” And as I step off the train on Spring Street, I listen to Fergie telling me about how guys love her “lady lumps…spending all your money on me and spending time on me.” Most of the time I would just …
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Feminism | Posted by Sophia I on 06/13/2012
When Your Friends Don’t Get Feminism
I recently experienced something deeply upsetting that as fellow feminists I am sure you all can relate to. It was like any other summer evening, a group of my friends (3 guys, 4 girls) were sitting in a circle in my guy friend’s backyard. At some point in the conversation, my good female friend (a bio/chem major) asked me to explain – on a basic level – what exactly women’s studies (which is what I’m studying) entails. As I always do when I get asked this question, I took a deep breath and carefully calculated my response. I summed up the major (to my understanding) pretty concisely, or at least I thought, and looked forward to answering any other questions she, or any of my friends, might have. In a …
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Feminism | Posted by Emily Jane G on 06/4/2012
Defending the Relevance of Feminism
One of the main problems with calling yourself a feminist today is that it can be hard to explain why it is still needed. On the surface, many goals of feminism seem to already have been achieved and therefore many people seem to think feminism in the 21st century redundant. It is undeniable that since its beginnings, feminism has achieved a lot: women can now vote, we are allowed to work in previously male-dominated fields, we can wear whatever we want (albeit, more or less, apparently). Overall, though, the status of women has greatly improved. So, is feminism still needed? In a word: yes.
To see the relevance of feminism today, we only need to look beyond the Western world. Women in other countries are still largely regarded as …
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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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Feminism | Posted by Gina B on 01/2/2012
Here’s to 2012: My Year As A Feminist
I’ve never really been one for New Year’s resolutions. All the promises I’ve made to myself have either been forgotten two or three days into January or are things that I’ve rationalized not doing. For example one year’s resolution was to stop eating so much chocolate (I don’t know why I even thought about attempting that one – like it was even the slightest bit plausible). Another was to walk to/from the train station on the way to/from school or uni more instead of catching the bus (“but my bag’s always too heavy!”; “my lecture’s at 9 so I’d have to wake up really early!”). But there are one or two things that have been bothering me this year that I want to act on in 2012 – a resolution …
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