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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Feminism | Posted by Holly Grigg-Spall on 12/12/2011

Ms-guided: I Was A Teen On Drugs

what do you really know about the Pill?

When I was 17 years-old I was put on the birth control pill. I had painful, heavy periods that would get me out of gym class, but that wasn’t the only reason I was taken to the doctor. My mum, who became an adult in the 1960s, just as the Pill was introduced as a tool for female liberation, was afraid I would get pregnant. Not that I had a boyfriend, or even had sex – and, in fact, I wouldn’t for another four years. It was just the responsible thing to do, the right thing to do, and I swallowed that, quite literally, without question. I had no idea how the Pill worked, nor even how my own body worked. Aside from…

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Feminism | Posted by Christina B on 12/9/2011

Chicks Before Dicks

who will you be left with when you break up?

In high school (and in life) people learn that they have to have priorities. Do grades come before sports? Do friends come before family? Does my boyfriend come before everyone/everything else? After a year and a half of high school (only two and a half left – yippie!) I feel that I have a pretty good sense of how high school relationships function. Many of my friends, teammate and classmates have had boyfriends or girlfriends and so have I and what has become very obvious is that people more often than not choose their boyfriend/girlfriend over their friends, which I think is really damaging.

It’s not secret that teenagers’ hormones are raging all the time. Walking into a high school is basically…

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Feminism | Posted by Julie Z on 12/5/2011

The Anita Hill 20: Sexual Harassment and Teens

Anita Hill

On October 15th, I had the honor of participating in the “Sex, Power and Speaking the Truth: Anita Hill 20 Years Later” conference. I spoke on an intergenerational panel that also featured speakers Kimberle Crenshaw, Virginia Valian, Gloria Steinem and Devon Carbado, which was terrifying and beyond humbling, but also probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever had the opportunity to do. Using your feedback about sexual harassment and my own observations, I pulled together a speech that I thought reflected our generation’s attitudes towards sexual harassment.

I’m beyond late sharing this with the FBomb community, but I hope you enjoy it and would still love to hear your reactions to my speech or any of the other panelists’ speeches and your thoughts about sexual harassment today.

The whole conference was televised…

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Feminism | Posted by Mercedes V on 11/9/2011

I Come In Peace

not a feminist

Introductions are such silly things sometimes. As a child, I was given the impression that they would be as easy as a “Hi, my name is Mercedes. It’s a pleasure to meet you” plus a relevant fact or two about myself. Growing up, however, has proven to me that they are anything but.

I don’t know what it is about the word ‘feminist’ but it seems to conjure up the image of an all-mighty ball-breaker for a lot of people. Far too often when mentioning that I’m a feminist I am forced to face the awfully disgruntled face of a man who looks like his masculinity was just stolen from him. Or (possibly worse), the irritated face of somebody who clearly does not know what feminism is. Now, that’s…

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Feminism | Posted by Anna D on 10/31/2011

We Love the Female Orgasm! Do You?

Starting college is pretty exciting; everyone’s meeting new friends, getting the hang of their classes, and, if they’re lucky, learning about female orgasm. A few weeks ago, my college’s Sexual Health Educators brought the program “I Love the Female Orgasm” to our student body. After seeing the attention-grabbing posters around campus, my roommate and I went to the event, not quite sure what to expect. What we ended up seeing was an in-depth presentation on female sexuality and its relation to society. The presenters, Rachel Dart and Marshall Miller (co-author of I Love the Female Orgasm: An Extraordinary Orgasm Guide with Dorian Solot), explored a variety of subjects and asked the audience about our opinions. It was exciting that such an under-discussed, even taboo, subject was being discussed openly; students shared…

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Feminism | Posted by Lizzie M on 10/28/2011

My Sexuality Is None Of Your Business, Thanks

Mount Holyoke

Probably the most common thing I hear regarding my collegiate matriculation selection is one of a pejorative why I would ever, in-the-name-of-sanity, select to attend an all-female institution. Unsurprisingly, I have a lengthy and rather complicated reply that first must unpack the question (like a true Mount Holyoke Woman, assuredly). This answer, as you have no doubt gleaned, is one I am indirectly (but also directly) answering in these five posts illustrating facets to life here that I love.

However. This is, as the Buddhists would say, a question wrongly asked.

To begin: Mount Holyoke may exclusively admit women only, but not all of its students identify according to the gender binary, and some are in the midst of a sex change whilst at MHC. I am not going to speak to this,…

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Feminism, Pop-Culture | Posted by Sarah M on 10/14/2011

Sluts and Whores

Ms. Norbury gets it

You know that scene in Mean Girls where Tina Fey’s character tells all the girls that they need to stop calling each other sluts and whores because it only makes it okay for guys to call them sluts and whores?

I wish Fey would tell that to girls everywhere.

There’s pretty much two types of that sort of name-calling and they both piss me off.

First, there’s the casual, “Hey, slut, what’s up?” or “Hey there, ho!” that friends say to each other. Now, this would be one thing if they were trying to reclaim the word, if this was some sort of movement or statement – but in the vast majority of cases, it’s not. These girls are just trying to fit in with the patriarchal bullshit that tells…

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