#BlackLivesMatter is a Feminist Issue

The past few weeks have been a very trying time in terms of American race relations.  I find myself, along with others, holding a myriad of emotions (fear, anger, confusion, dismay, apathy), as well as hope and love when seeing the efforts of protesters and minority communities coming together in solidarity to speak out against injustice.  Sadly, I find that as a Black feminist, it is too easy to become disheartened with the current state of racial injustice; too easy to relate current events to historical depictions of the treatment of minorities in America; too easy to just want to ignore or become apathetic about such real and present reminders of privilege, power and inequality.  It’s too easy to pretend that if it doesn’t directly affect you, then it’s not going to affect you at all. 

After reading numerous news articles and Facebook posts about Michael Brown and Eric Garner, a friend of mine stated “Everyone expects me to be sad about this, I don’t understand because it’s not directly affecting me.  I didn’t personally know the Black men involved”.  In that moment, I became well aware of just how easy it is to allow yourself to become so removed from the situation that you believe it doesn’t affect you at all.  No, I did not personally know Michael Brown, Eric Gardner, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice or Renisha McBride, but I speak their names to affirm and validate their lives and experiences.  I do, however, know my brothers, my father, my uncles, my cousins, and myself.  As much as I imagine that their loved ones worried for their safety, I worry for the safety of my loved ones as well.  I worry for my 3 brothers, because I know that it doesn't matter that they are educated, humble, respectful & caring individuals, having black skin has been/is seen as a crime in and of itself.   I worry for myself, as a perpetual student and resident of the Ivory Tower.  How will my passion and pride in my communities; my outrage with “the system”; and my anger as a Black woman be viewed amongst friends, advisors, colleagues?  I worry for my friends who may not understand fully the historical implications of abuses of power and privilege directed towards racial and ethnic minorities.  I worry about how this will impact views and interactions with and of them.  Most of all I worry that my anger will be invalidated and cast among the innumerable stereotypes attached to a body that identifies as Black, feminist, activist, scholar, PhD student.  I worry the same worries that have stressed those who have paved the way for my existence in this space, place and time in my life.

When talking about race and cultural competence (as I somehow always find myself doing amongst friends), I was once asked “So how is this a feminist issue?”  Shocked, confused, and embarrassed, I found myself struggling to find an answer on the spot.  Sometimes the words that you are looking for have already been spoken and connecting to those words and the lips from which they emerged brings the most meaning to your experience.  So how is #BlackLivesMatter a feminist issue?  I believe that Audre Lorde spoke it best in saying: “I am a Black Feminist. I mean I recognize that my power as well as my primary oppressions comes as a result of my blackness as well as my womaness, and therefore my struggles on both of these fronts are inseparable.” – Audre Lorde

- Written by Tangela Roberts, M.S. 

Media Comsumption

     As a consumer of media, I can’t help but notice the appalling rate at which I am inundated with sexualized images on a daily basis. As a female consumer, I find it disheartening to be bombarded with the message on a daily basis that my worth is largely determined by the number inside my blue jeans, my cup size, and how well I’ve managed to mask the effects of that dreaded humidity on my hair. As a human being, I (like so many others) have finally decided to take an active stand against the belief that I somehow need to be tolerant of- or at least pretend I’m blind to- the constant barrage of media messages that I can be reduced to my physical attributes as an estimation of my worth.

     In an attempt to save money while I pursue my doctorate, my husband and I opted to forgo the luxury of cable television in an attempt to save a little extra cash each month. To be honest, I was never much of a TV fanatic anyway, save for my secret obsession with the Food Network. (“Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”, anyone?) Anyway, I also am humbled to admit that I am incredibly technologically challenged. It’s true, my Mac laptop is a portal to merely 3 things: Homework, Email and Facebook. I don’t tweet or blog or read celebrity gossip on Buzzfeed. I’m not a gamer, nor do I even know how to work the control that turns on our X-Box at home. Despite my relatively limited awareness and use of screens compared to others in my generation, I am nonetheless forced to admit that I absorb media’s targeting messages about me and my fellow sisters on a minute-to-minute basis. If I’m not hearing on the radio how I can be more attractive with laser hair removal, then I’m accosted with 100 ways to “rock my man’s world in the bedroom” in the check out line, all the while feeling sized up by men who are complete strangers and hearing their cat-calls because I dared to have a pair of breasts.

     But it isn’t limited to just me and my own experience, and that’s the problem. Although I am mindful about my own media consumption, I’m not exempt from the stories of other women who are constantly evaluating themselves based on the number of “likes” a picture of them received on their social media outlet. As a training clinical psychologist, I hear my female clients’ heartache every time they disclose their unwanted sexual encounters and describe through tears the devaluation they experience every time a new reality TV show makes yet another unrealistic standard of what their ideal body type should be. Many of the college aged women sitting in my office have suffered quietly with disordered eating behaviors for years, silently agonized with self harm tendencies and violated their own moral codes for sexual behavior in their pursuit of hearing just one person tell them that they’re beautiful. We live in an age where the size of our heels and the length of our skirts determine even our pursuit of professionalism and being taken seriously in the work force in which we find ourselves. I once heard a stand up comedian say that we live in a media-world that preys on the insecurities of women, and then we blame them for it. And if you ask my perspective, the very objectification that is sucking the lives out of our female youth is fueled by our fear- the fear of not feeling accepted. We have thus created a system designed to collapse on itself, and every constituent that’s within it.

     That being said, I do have an incredible amount of hope. I have to, or else my pursuit of education in this field would be meaningless and definitely not worth the 8 years of graduate school it will have taken me to understand what our subscription to these beliefs is doing to our psychology. I wholeheartedly believe that slowly but surely, a new trend is beginning among our youth that is a forced to be reckoned with. I see it in the growing number of women choosing to pursue higher education. I see it in the gradual but sure growth of female members of congress in this recent election. I see it every time a female celebrity makes a statement that she’s exploring this word ‘feminism’ for the first time to see how it fits. I am given hope every time a legislation is passed that puts power back in the hands of women over their own right to reproductive and sexual health. In a recent event I held in our department, I was amazed to see the numbers of undergraduate and graduate students wanting to dialogue about all of these issues and more. My hope is that we never stop this conversation; that we never refrain from asking the difficult questions that are required for effecting change. And if all that is accomplished through these conversations is the deepening of our awareness, I am still honored to be a part of them.

-Written by Mae Adams

     

Labels

We live in a society where labels are everything. Some labels are chosen for us and others are chosen by us. Let’s take our names for example. This is something that for the most part is given to us at birth. It is a label that identifies who we are, what family we belong to, and in some cultures – what our role in society is. As a woman and first generation graduate, my first and last names are a big part of my overall identity. It tells people I am Latina and it tells my family that “we” have accomplished things as we see it printed on certificates and diplomas. Being a woman in higher education brings up big questions when it comes to marriage. One of them being – Do I change my last name? How will people remember me? How will I be addressed? What is my overall identity? Personally, I had an “identity crisis” when I got engaged. I was immediately put in several boxes that I wasn’t ready to address. I wasn’t ready to change who I was. I am Yurivia Cervantes-Lopez. That was the label I had embraced, used, and understood my entire life. Changing my last name meant changing my identity, which was scary.  Being able to hold on to my identity while embracing my partner and new chapter in my life was something I needed and so I decided to hyphenate my name. I have the full support of my partner and family, but find it interesting to see others reactions to my decision. Some people look concerned while others seem annoyed by the whole idea. Such reactions by both women and men lead me to wonder: Why is it that in our society women who chose to keep their name or hyphenate after marriage are perceived as pretentious? Why is it that in heterosexual marriages, men don’t contemplate taking on their bride’s last name? Why? I find myself asking questions that many women have asked before. Yet, there is never a direct or satisfying answer.  It is simply driven by gender norms so why not do away with them? Maybe we should follow the steps of Phoebe from the show Friends and change our names to Princess Consuela Bananahammock.  At the end of the day our names are one of the most important labels we have and we should be able to change it, modify it, and do with it as we want because it is what makes us, US.

- Written by Yurivia Cervantes, M.A.

Living in the Liminal: A contemporary feminist’s experience living in the in-between

Street harassment walked into the media spotlight recently after the release of the video 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman. Street harassment is a primary example of women’s spaces being violated by the male space. The lack of boundaries both physically and philosophically between men and women creates space for intimidation and dominance often exerted as male-on-female. Street harassment has been shrugged off by some as hypersensitivity but it represents the depth and permeation of patriarchy that prevents women from feeling safe and existing in an autonomous space. The tyrannical control over women’s spaces is multifaceted. Women are not reasonably represented in positions of power -100 in Congress, while encouraging, is still not equal- and should not expect the male life experience. The male life experiences postulates that street harassment is a form of flattery. This attitude escalates and perpetuates such myths as ‘politeness from a stranger is consent to have sex’ or that ‘a miniskirt justifies rape.’ The contemporary woman is forced to negotiate between these two mentalities and to repeatedly ask herself: I’m being told to stop complaining because of how good I have it and yet I’m faced with sexism every day that tells me I need to continue to fight for equal treatment. How should I proceed? The female experience can be defined though liminality. Women live in the same physical space as the dominant culture but do not live in the same societal space. Women exist in a liminal space – liminal coming from the word ‘threshold’ in Latin, līmen- meaning they are existent but not present, exposed yet overlooked, neither here nor there. Living in a liminal space leads to isolation. The space becomes smothering and convinces its inhabitant that she alone exists in the invisibility. The dissociation from the dominant culture occurs as a result of being societally degraded. Women are further distanced when repeatedly told that their value lies in the body; our only purpose, we’re told, is to provide sexual pleasure for men. This superficial interpretation of women’s value carries deep and damaging meaning. Extending that interpretation reveals that when women are told to be thinner or smaller they are being told to take up less space, to have quieter voices, to hold less power, and to have less control. This meaning manifests in self-isolation and arguably appears in the form of depression, which women present with a staggeringly higher prevalence than men. This interpretation highlights importance of intersectional feminism. The modern feminist must raise awareness surrounding gender discrimination as well as all other forms of oppression. The layers of privilege between persons put psychological space between them. This allows the dominant culture to dehumanize the Other, which creates acceptance of violence. Each layer of privilege adds another wall and creates additional space between individuals.  The more dehumanized or objectified a population is considered by the dominant culture, the higher the acceptance of violence is toward that population. How else could it be that one in three women on the planet are raped or beaten in their lifetime, but the Earth’s population continues to exist unperturbed? The only established remedy is exposure in the form of knowledge and experience. When a person comes to understand another person’s perspective, the layers of space and privilege between them fall away. They are able to enter the liminal existence of another person. The challenge of the modern-day feminist is to inform the dominant culture about the isolated space in which many women exist, and provide education to help others understand the liminal existence. By removing the layers between the space of the dominant culture and exposing the female experience, global perspectives are formed.  A decrease in violence should follow, but for now a walk to the subway without catcalls would make my day.

- Written by Katrina A. Maurer

The Murder of Mary Spears: When Will a Woman’s “No” Be Enough?

Mary “Unique” Spears, a 27-year-old African American mother of three, was shot and killed on October 5, 2014 after turning down a man’s romantic advances. The shooting happened at Joe Louis Post 375, the Sons of American Legion. Joe Louis Post 375 was a nightclub in Detroit, Michigan where Spears and several of her family members were spending the evening after having attended a family funeral earlier that day. Per family witnesses, Spears was approached by a man who asked for her name and phone number. Spears, who was engaged, reportedly told the male pursuer the following—“I have a man. I can’t talk to you.”

Spears’s family shared that the man continued to harass Spears throughout the night and that this harassment culminated at 2:00am when the man grabbed and hit Spears as she and her fiancée were attempting to leave the nightclub. The man who had been pursuing Spears then retaliated by pulling out a gun, aiming at Spears, and shooting her multiple times in the head. The man also released a spray of bullets into the crowd that injured Spears’s fiancée and several other members of her family.

I was literally left speechless when I first received news of Mary Spears’s death as I perused some of my favorite feminist-oriented websites. Mary was murdered because she declined a man’s romantic advances. Mary was murdered because she exercised her basic human right to say “no” to something that she did not desire.

One of the pieces of Mary’s story that stood out the most to me was Mary reportedly trying to fend off the man that was harassing her by proclaiming that she was already in a relationship with another man. Mary’s statement of “I have a man” was her inherent truth. However, I can think of several times that I have been approached by men either at school, at a nightclub, at a restaurant, or simply walking from store to store in my city’s downtown area, and have tried to decline a man’s advances by simply saying “that’s so kind, but no thanks” only to be met with major dissension in the form of verbal abuse. It has only been after I make a statement such as “oh I’m sorry, but I have a boyfriend” or “I’m taken” that a man has halted his romantic advances and respected my verbalized “no.”

Why is it that the men who have approached me with romantic interests do not respect my personal “no thanks” with regards to sharing my phone number with them or returning their flirtatious invitations? Why is it that these men who approach me will only stop their advances once I make the verbal statement—that is sometimes false, depending on my relationship status at the time—that “I have a man?” Why is it that my own personal and articulate decline of a man’s romantic advances isn’t enough, and it must be accompanied by showing that I am, in some way, shape, or form, already “taken” by another man?

What absolutely scares me the most regarding the death of Mary Spears is that Mary could have easily been ME. I identify as an African American woman. I am just one year older than Mary was at the time of her murder. I too have turned down men’s romantic advances by using the (oftentimes fabricated) statement that “I have a man. I can’t talk to you.”

The only difference between Mary and I is that I have been fortunate enough to not encounter a man who has turned to physical violence in the face of my rejecting his romantic advances. As a woman in our society, I should not have to fear that male privilege and socialized sexual expectations regarding male-female interactions could undermine my autonomy as a woman who has a right to say “no” to situations or people that I do not desire. I should not have to fear that my “no’s” may one day be met with physical violence, and in Mary Spears’s case, murder.

I challenge all of you to commit your professional and personal work as feminists to furthering the development of safe spaces where a woman’s “no” is honored, respected, and upheld without her having to fear retaliation in its most nefarious forms. 

- Written by Ciera V. Scott, MS

Thoughts on the Election

Ooof Election Day and the emotional rollercoaster than ensues, amirite?  I don't know about you folks, but I have some pretty intense feelings about the impact this election could have on women's rights.  Here in Illinois, I, like many others I associate with, felt pretty darn comfortable with our chances.  Illinois is where Obama is from!  Solid blue state for years!  All of us who know how important so many of these social issues that are up for grabs are going to rally and would never EVER let anyone get in the way of our rights!  Right?!  Not entirely true.  Although the Dems lost the Governorship, it looks like the referendum on women's access to birth control after the "Hobby Lobby" decision will be safe and sound, as Illinois voted in favor of maintaining that access.  This doesn't necessarily ensure we will have access to it by law, but at least our voices have been heard (I hope).  The other good news is that the state overwhelmingly voted to improve funding for mental health services.  It seems like every time election day rolls around, I am still optimistic, particularly with regard to women's rights in our country.  ESPECIALLY after all of the publicity that "feminism" is getting these days (of which the commercialization and comodification is fodder for another post), I had high hopes that women would rally behind each other and our allies to elect politicians that would support us and our right's to our bodies.  Although not surprising, still super disappointing, especially with everything that is going on with abortion access/rights (or lack thereof) in Texas.  But it's not all for nothing.  At least places like New Hampshire, Arizona, and Hawaii are moving and shaking, electing women that have a chance to stand up for women's rights.  

This being said, I know that talking about politics is a touchy subject and the discussion can get heated.  I personally believe it's a bummer in general that we only get two sides to stand on (for the most part), and that the way the system works is inherently flawed.  Whichever side you choose, bottom line is the United States is ranked at 54 out of 142 countries with regard to political empowerment and the gender gap, according to the World Economic Forum's report for this year, which seems to me to be shockingly low considering our technological, educational, and economic resources.  I have a feeling the vast majority of you won't disagree when I say MORE WOMEN SHOULD BE IN POWER.  This invisibility is a shame and a disservice to all genders.  Let's hope that there can be some true bipartisanship with this round of newcomers and we can all work together and support each other.  

- Written by Haran M. King, M.A.

Cat Call: The "Compliment" That Leaves You Feeling Icky

As a clinical psychologist in training I've seen many of my female clients struggle to balance the pressures to represent both innocence and sex.  As a result, these women feel obligated to objectify their bodies but then shamed for doing so. Such a cycle leaves women to vacillate between feelings of guilt and shame, which as we know, is a recipe for depression and anxiety.  Everywhere we look women are bombarded with images boasting what society tells us we should value most, our bodies.  Advertisements break us down to our most valued body parts, or depict us as animals or objects existing solely for a man's pleasure. Internalizing societal views cause many women to sexualize themselves, measuring their worth based on the amount of "attention" aka harassment they experience. Hollaback, a movement to end street harassment powered by a network of local activist around the world, recently released a video of a woman experiencing 100 instances of street harassment in one day. As I watched the video I unfortunately was not surprised.  What was even more disturbing- I feel I have become numb to it.  As a woman I should NOT expect to be harassed when I walk out my front door, but I do.  To understand why we must first reflect on the fact that in our society, it is perfectly acceptable for a man to objectify me, telling me my "ass looks fat." In fact, such a statement may be viewed as a compliment, meant to boost my self-esteem and express my local gas station attendant's approval of my body. (Gee Thanks, consider me fulfilled).  It is beliefs such as these that must be changed.  Men in our culture are not all heartless chauvinists, rather they are our brothers, fathers, and partners who have been conditioned from the time they were born to believe they have the right to a woman's body.  Like myself, many women may also have become numb to our harassment, leading to suffering in silence and accepting this as "just the way it is." Hollaback hopes to change this point of view and invites women around the world to join the conversation.  Just talk about it.  Talk about it with your friends, sisters, and mothers, but more importantly, talk about your experiences with your brothers, fathers, and partners.  

- Written by Samantha Brustad

Expanding the Discussion on Gender Pay Gap

In a recent article in the Money section of CNN’s website, Kottasova (2014) highlighted the world’s gender pay gap. As was articulated in the article, pay equity, whereby women and men are paid equally for doing the same job, does not currently exist in any country. And TheGlobal Gender Gap Report 2014 posits that the closing of the gender gap will take at least 81 years. So where does the U.S. rank in the world’s unequal compensation for the same work? And how will this continue to affect women, especially those women graduating college with substantial student loan debt?

Currently, the U.S. has a wage gap of 66%, which means the women earn approximately two-thirds of what men earn for comparable work. As such, wage equality in the U.S. ranks 65th out of 142 countries. It is this wage gap that continues to oppress women, especially women of color, through economic disenfranchisement. Further, women continue to devote substantiallymore time to household and childcare responsibilities than men. Therefore, women are continuously devalued due to the time and energy spent in ‘unpaid’ work versus the time men give to ‘much better paid’ work. This insidious pay discrepancy under the dominant discourse of alleged gender ‘equality’ restrains women to their marginalized social location, of which women receive society’s message that they should be content ‘in the home.’

Granted, taking a dichotomous view of gender limits one’s understanding of the complexities that genderqueer and sexual minority individuals face in regards to wage disparity and household responsibilities. Therefore, more discussion is needed to investigate the consequences of a heteronormative society on queer households and gender transgressive and sexual minorities in the workplace. It could be postulated that individuals in queer relationships that assume the socially determined ‘feminine’ responsibilities of childcare, household chores, and caretaking are also those who are disenfranchised within their partnership; possibly even earning less in their ‘paid’ work. As such, discussing ‘gender’ pay gap goes far beyond cisgender heterosexual partnerships.   

So we can see, the gender wage gap negatively affects the lives of women and those sexual and gender transgressive minorities who assume caretaking roles in ‘paid’ and ‘unpaid’ work. However, the ‘student loan crisis’ also has an excessively more negative affect on women’s lives?

I recently attended a lecture by iconic feminist, Gloria Steinem, at Case Western Reserve University. It was during her talk on why the women’s movement, or “revolution,” has just begun that she mentioned the importance of the U.S. recognizing how student loan debt disproportionately affects women. Steinem noted that the U.S. is the only ‘advanced’ country that burdens its university students with such excessive debt during the time when they should be most free to explore opportunities, identities, and the world.

Although the burden of loan debt is weighing down on men and women alike, women (or genderqueer individuals who adopt ‘feminine’ roles) will be most affected due to the gender wage gap and caretaking responsibilities. More specifically, Steinem noted that women earn approximately $1 million less in their lives than men, which decreases their ability to repay student loans. Now couple women’s disproportionate difficulty repaying student loans with the added cost of childcare, which has now exceeded the average cost of college education. It is no wonder then, why women are struggling and failing to meet the requirements of gendered loan ‘forgiveness’ programs; programs that are best suited to support men’s social location of having more economic and social power.

Therefore, when politicians, academic institutions, and professional organizations, such as the American Psychological Association, start the dialogue of student loan debt, we need to remain cognizant of how women’s needs are not being met when the standard of student loans is based on the male experience.

Again, it is important to note that although women are mostly affected by the gender wage gap and the added burden of caretaking, the complexities of a genderqueer analysis opens the possibilities to explore how gender transgressive and sexual minorities are also impacted by gender wage gap and student loan debt if they adopt the more ‘feminine’ caretaking role in their partnerships.

However, focusing only on how gender pay gap negatively affects women who have accrued student loan debt ignores those who are so economically and socially disenfranchised that they cannot attend university (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities, urban and rural communities, those who are undocumented, persons with disabilities, etc.). In such social locations, the reality of unequal pay becomes a heavy burden to carry, particularly for women and single mothers, and perpetuates marginalization. 

 - Written by Brittan Davis

All Sides of Your Halloween Self

Boo!! Halloween is next Friday, so two lingering questions await.  First of all, what type of candy should I buy to give out to children (read: eat myself)? Secondly, what costume should I wear? Answering the former question tends to be easier for me.  My strategy is to walk into the depths of the candy aisle at the grocery store and buy whatever strikes my fancy.  Though effective, this strategy is also expensive and tends to lead to a stomach ache.  Answering the second question is definitely more complicated.

As a woman, I feel bombarded with the pressure to only be sexy for Halloween.  It seems that the entire world of Halloween costumes is not geared towards women, and the sexy costumes that are designed for women are often deemed “slutty.”  To be clear, women should absolutely feel free to be sexy, sexual, and sensual, but we should also feel free to be scared, gross, ugly, and weird!  

Herein lies my perennial frustration with Halloween.  Is Halloween just a holiday on which women are scripted to be sexualized, or can we be free to express ourselves as lumberjacks, athletes, and tacky 80’s prom dates? 

One of my favorite Halloweens was Halloween 2009.  In 2009, my partner and I dressed up as each other.  He was a muscular, solid 6’ 2”.  I was half a foot shorter with long red hair.  Besides the hilarity that we experienced poking fun at each other all night and acting silly, the highest compliment that I was paid that evening was when men and women thought I was a man.  I still glow with pride as I think of how I effectively fooled dozens of our friends into thinking that I was a man. 

An important memory I took away from Halloween 2009 was the widely positive reactions I received from friends and fellow-party goers when I was dressed as an over-masculine man.  It was nice to be affirmed in my costume choice despite shirking Halloween’s unwritten rule of sexualizing women.  As stated previously, I encourage women to explore their sexiness; however, don’t be limited by your sexuality or reduce yourself to only a sexual being.  We are funny, smart, independent, creative, and sexual beings.  

So whether you spend this Halloween as Catwoman, a tandem horse, a bloody zombie, or a sexy nurse, embrace all sides of your being.  Moreover, do not let others reduce you to just sex.  Be sexy, smart, sassy, and beautiful.  Or dress up as a man with a fake 5 o’clock shadow and a dirty-brown shaggy wig…

Happy Halloween!

- Written by Katy Owen 

Halloween - Let's Discuss!

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday. 

There are many reasons for this and here are some:  

1. CANDY, 

2. Caramel apples, 

3. fall air 

4. PUMPKIN! 

5. Horror movies 

6. My husband and I began dating and 

7. Dressing up

As I was thinking about what to be for Halloween, just as I do every year, I wonder what ridiculous costumes I will find in stores. Of course, I run across this on Buzzfeed  and this at Huffington Post.  I have difficulty determining how I feel about the issue of “sexy costumes.” One time I dressed up as a “school girl,” but to combat the “sexy school girl female stereotype” I decided to make the costume bloody and look like a zombie. Last year, I created my own Red Riding Hood costume, which was an easy, comfortable costume, yet fun. This year, I am planning on making my own costume with a cool dress I found at Hot Topic. I found a cool Pinterest idea for a DIY costume.  I am not completely against wearing sexy costumes. I just have a debate within myself and have not decided where I fall on the topic. For me, the debate is between empowering female sexuality and body pride versus society’s sexualizing of females and perpetuation of stereotypes. I think that females should be proud of sexuality and should not have to hide it. I also think women should be proud of their bodies and not feel ashamed. However, on the flip side, I feel that society sexualizes women and sometimes reduces women to “sexy” or body parts. Many times, people are more concerned about females’ looks than intelligence, strength, or other characteristics.  Also, many of the costumes perpetuate stereotypes. I have not seen an engineer or scientist costume for women (they may really be out there somewhere), but I see plenty of nurse and maid costumes everywhere. I also think people should have a choice and determine if they want a sexy costume or not and when I go to the Halloween store, there never appears to be any costumes that are not sexy, but are still fun. I think choice is a key word for me. Another big deal to me is that women are choosing to show their sexuality for themselves (empowerment) and not just because of someone else or because they feel it is necessary for society (sexualization). Also, sexy does not have to be skimpy. It can be, but doesn’t have to be. And I hate paying $100 for less material or a costume that does not fit my body type. I seriously cannot even fit into most of the costumes anyway.

I would love to hear opinions and comments on this and whether or not others have the same debate. Please be respectful of those with differing opinions because there really is not a right or wrong answer here, just opinions. I would also like to know what others think can be done to change how people think about costumes or change what types of costumes are available (make a greater variety).

- Written by Savannah LeBarre

Masculinity, Objectification, and Advertising

My original idea for this post was going to be about ways to integrate men into feminist spaces.  I was going to talk about how once a man enters a feminist space and wants to talk about his experience, the reaction may feel like he is being slapped on the hand.  Though we want men in the space, feminist activism inherently deconstructs power structures in the dominant culture, one of which is the male voice as the voice.  This is often experienced as feminists being dismissive of men’s experiences, which seems hurtful and elicits defensiveness.  But the thing is: that is their issue to deal with.  We are not obligated to rush to them and listen intently, as our socialization might tell us that we should.  So I dug a little deeper and came to the conclusion that my greater concern is not whether or not men listen to me when I talk about my experience as a woman (I know it’s there, I live it every day).  What I do care about is how men listen to each other when they talk about the experiences of women.

I asked my spouse for some input on this one, and he told me a story from a few years back at his old job.  He worked in the restaurant industry, and a male co-worker was making very objectifying remarks about a female customer.  My husband, being the feminist he is, told the co-worker to cut it out.  The co-worker then called my husband a name, intending to insult his sexuality.  My husband informed him that what he just said could get him fired and that he really needs to educate himself about how to treat people or else he will be in serious trouble down the road, and the co-worker apologized (for real!).

This story got me thinking: what is the deal with the straight cisgender male?  Why do so many (read: not all) resort to insulting sexual orientation when given feedback on their objectifying behavior?  And, why do they objectify women anyway?  The sexual orientation piece has been unpacked before.  Having any sort of attraction to another person who is not a cisgender female suggests a man is less of a man.  In that way, sexual orientation is an insult to other men in the face of the insulter’s insecurity about being called out.  Done and done.  But, what about the objectification of women?  Where does that come from?

Drive down any interstate or watch TV for 30 minutes, and you are going to see chiseled men and women being used as sex objects to sell…well, anything.  It’s in our brains now: sex sells.  The reason it works is because it gets your attention, stimulates you.  You are going to spend more time looking at it, thinking about it, remembering it so that when you are in the store, you will buy it.  And, that strategy works for business, but it’s bad for our society.  The downside of this phenomenon is that we compare ourselves to these images.  Men and women see themselves portrayed this way and begin to think of it as ‘normal.’  Then, we start looking at each other, projecting these images on to people in real, non-photo-shopped life.  Thus, when someone calls you out on objectifying behavior, you think that person is being ridiculous, because you’re just doing what normal people do.  That may be true if you are talking about the majority of people, but it’s actually allowing yourself to be manipulated by advertisers, who make money off of making people feel a certain way so that they buy things.

The bottom line of this thought is that seeing people as people rather than as objects takes some level of mindful awareness.  We have to see our objectifying thoughts, recognizing that they are part of a culture that uses objectifying language and images to sell products.  It does not have to be who we are, though.  We can see each other as people and not tie our womanhood, manhood, or personhood into a dominant cultural narrative of objectification.  Advertising is not about reinforcing masculinity, it is about separating people from their money, and the two should never be confused.

- Written by Teresa Young

Recently, I attended a conference in the New England region. This conference not only 

enabled me to present my own poster on children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in China but 

also it had led me to learn from the posters that were presented. One of the posters that were presented focused on substance abuse and eating disorders among college females. The presenter Dr. Dunham addressed the issues of enabling responses, attitudes toward and knowledge about substance abuse and eating disorders. 

As I was listening to her presentation, I thought about its relationship to feminist psychology. The psychology of female college students has a lot to do with perception of others and role taking. As a result, these factors contribute to the development of cocaine abuse, bulimia, and alcohol abuse. 

Through the study, it shows that enabling behaviors are associated with abuse. For example, the process of providing money to support the abuse and making excuses for the abuse are part of the enabling behaviors. Enabling behaviors can not only negatively impact the person choices, but also can distort the person’s perceptions about the world.  For example, a college female would see alcohol abuse to be a normal when others are supporting her behaviors. 

This poster points to future directions of research in drug and alcohol preventions. Both females 

and males are in danger of enabling behaviors on campuses across the country. In terms of 

future research, perceptions of others are an important factor in relation to alcohol and drug abuse.

- Written by Shengyong Zou (Sherry) 

Texas Tech University and Rape Culture: #TTUnomeansno

So, there is a lot going on here at Texas Tech University.  This has reminded me how important it is for students – undergraduate and graduate – as well as faculty to engage in activism and advocacy.

Ms. Mag sums up the issue quite nicely.

Essentially, a fraternity on TTU’s campus had a boat with the slogan “no means yes, yes means anal.”  This boat has been around for at least 6 years and they have similar slogans like this for all their parties (e.g., an ice sculpture with “put out or get out” at an 80s themed party).  They also had a “vagina sprinkler” where a wooden cut out of a woman’s spread legs were attached to a sprinkler at the party.  The image went viral the next day. 

Eleven days after the event a protest happened on campus – women (all of them de-identified – a common experience is fear among women, not just fear of the campus climate, but fear of being punished for speaking out) hung banners around campus with a list of demands.

At this point, the president of the student government – a member of that organization and at the party – is refusing to resign.  Here is his apology.

There is some mobilization on campus, and it is a true pleasure to engage – people participating in the #itsonus campaign, the dean of students is getting involved with FMLA (feminist majority leadership alliance), as well as people speaking out about the student body president.

We’re seeing movement here… but it not enough.  This is not the first university with this experience and not the last.

However, with combined and persistent efforts, we as feminist scholars/clinicians can work with organizations to effectively enact change to make campus environments safer for students.

- Written by Samantha D. Christopher

Women In Film… Or Not

According to a recent study commissioned by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, with support from UN Women and The Rockefeller Foundation, women account for less than a quarter (22.5 per cent) of on-screen roles in contemporary popular film.Besides being a wildly inaccurate portrayal of humanity (after all, half of the world’s population is female), these stats constitute trends that should be concerning to women and men alike. Women and girls who do make it onto the screen are twice as likely as their male counterparts to be shown in sexually revealing clothing, partially or fully naked, and/or thin. And, they’re five times as likely to be referenced as “attractive.”
Tomes of research from feminist psychology and beyond point to the importance of media in the gender socialization of youth. Documentaries like Dreamworlds – 3  and Killing Us Softly 4 (both directed by Sut Jhally) provide powerful illustrations of media messages and their potential consequences.
What should be done? Increasing women’s roles and addressing the disproportionate sexualization of women would be a start. But it isn’t enough. Consistent with the Bechdel test, the Geena Davis study found that females played only 15 per cent of on-screen high-powered roles (e.g., those of business executives, political figures, or STEM professionals). Is this the message we want to be sending our youth? It’s critical for us, as a society to look not only at how much but also at how we’re portraying women.
-Written by Corianna Elizabeth Sichel

Everyone's Issue

            Over the course of the past month, the media has splashed multiple stories about women’s issues from the icloud photo scandal to NFL football player Ray Rice’s, physically assaulting his wife. In each of these cases, I have found myself frustrated for the survivors of these attacks. In the wake of the icloud picture scandal the media splashed accusatory stories regarding the problems of taking nude photographs. In these articles, the newspapers accused the women of wanting photos to get leaked by merely taking the photos in the first place. In this case, there has been no suspect found guilty of either of the two photograph leaks. In the case of Ray Rice, only after a video leaked, was he suspended from the sport. Until this time, he was only removed from a few games. In both of these cases, the female survivors are blamed, and perpetrators only receive blame when there is visual proof of an assault.

            In the wake of these nude photographs and sexual assaults being splashed across the media, many organizations have begun to express the need for social change. Specifically, Emma Watson addressed the United Nations promoting her new campaign entitled HeforShe. She stated, “Men, I would like to extend your formal invitation to the conversation because gender equality is your issue too.” In her eloquent speech, Ms. Watson refers to her privileges of SES and familial support. However, as a woman, she also faces discrimination. In the wake of her speech, the media attacked her words and began to discuss the potentiality of her having nude photographs. In fact, I believe I saw more negative articles about Emma Watson than positive in the past few weeks. This is a travesty as many Emma’s speech supports gender equality for all.

            As a feminist and an advocate, I find myself frustrated watching the news and/or reading the paper. In fact, I have avoided doing so recently because I needed a break from being angry at the television. As I have grown in my own understanding of my feminist identity, I continue to become far more aware of the gender equality problems evident everyday in American culture. I agree with Emma Watson in this sense, this isn’t a female problem; it is an everyone problem. In his 2012 Ted Talk, Jackson Katz states “people believe the word gender is synonymous with women, so gender issues is equivalent to women’s issues…causing men to be invisible in large measure about issues that are primarily about them. In this sense men are erased from a conversation that is primarily about them.” In this case, gender equality, sexual assault, rape, domestic violence is everyone’s issue and should be treated as such. Think about it.

- Written by Emily L. Barnum, M.A.

Don’t Dominate to Assert Yourself

A couple of months ago, my fiancé shared with me an article about how men can dominate just about every situation without meaning to. It explained how men take on a posture that allows them to physically take up more than the space they really need. Also, the article stated that in conversation, men tend to dominate because their voices are louder, deeper, and more confident. 

Being a woman who constantly tries to shrink herself in social situations, I noted that while the article made a valid point about how men can be more conscious in their interactions with others it has also been my experience that women can be just as guilty of asserting themselves too much.

I cannot even begin to list the number of times I have been in an all-female setting, and felt my voice being lost in the conversation because I am not loud and I will not talk over people. That is just part of my personality. 

Often times, those who are participating in the conversation will not even notice that I have retreated from it. I think this is a problem if women want to succeed as a unit. 

The single basic principle of feminism is equality. If even within that group of like-minded people the introverts are being left-out, feminism has failed its first test. 

I joined the movement to help people like myself, to give them a voice because I know what it is like to be without one. And while I believe that assertiveness is a wonderful quality for anyone to have, it is not a part of my personality and probably never will be, so those who are assertive by nature should be aware of dominating feminist dialogues. 

No, I am not saying that assertive women should cater to those who are less so by altering their communication styles. I am saying that in the same way the article asked men to be more aware of their tendency to dominate in everyday life, so should women who were blessed with that characteristic. 

Self-awareness is a characteristic that everyone can benefit from, because it is important not only to assess your own role in every interaction, but the roles of others as well. We need to adjust our communication styles to fit the interaction.

Outspoken individuals should check themselves to make certain that they aren’t dominating an interaction, especially when the interaction is with someone less outspoken. Quiet folks, like myself, should do the same and make certain they aren’t allowing themselves to be dominated. 

If feminism is not allowing all women’s voices to be heard, then it isn’t helping women as a whole, it is pushing some of us further into the background and, even worse, it is being done to feminists by feminists. 

- Written by Jocelyn Zoe Gibson

Fear of feminism: 2014 Edition

A few nights ago, I received a picture message from a friend of mine in Chicago. The image sent was a meme of Amy Poehler, the hilarious female actress, speaking to women who renounce feminism. She stated, “That’s like someone being like, ‘I don’t really believe in cars, but I drive one every day and I love that it gets me places and makes life so much easier and faster and I don’t know what I would do without it.” This message speaks to a long-standing issue that I have come across as a young woman today. The first issue being that this meme was sent to me directly because, in my belief, pro-feminist messages aren’t always well digested within the larger social media community. Sadly, the truth of the matter is that social media is simply a reflection of what exists within the larger culture.

The Amy Poehler meme then reminded me of a piece I read as an undergraduate written by Lisa Marie Hogeland called Fear of Feminism. Hogeland used the words “of course” to acknowledge the blatant stance that women have taken regarding feminism when she stated, “Of course young women are afraid of feminism.” (Hogeland 722) After all, “It is far easier to rest in silence, as if silence were neutrality, and as if neutrality were safety. Neither wholly cynical nor wholly apathetic; women who fear feminism fear living in consequence.” (Hogeland 724) I believe that Hogeland makes a valid point about feminism being dangerous by stating, “We do young women no service if we suggest to them that feminism itself is safe. It is not.” It is not easy to question and “stand opposed to your culture, to be critical of institutions, behaviors, discourses.” (Hogeland 725)  We find it much easier to stand silent and agree with terms because of subconscious cues that enhance our gender consciousness. If a young woman were to question the limits put on her and wanted to challenge these very norms, this ironically could cause her to limit herself further because this “limits the options of who they might become with a partner, how they might decide to live…feminist identity puts them out of the pool for many men.” (Hogeland 723)  I am aware that comment endorses a heteronormative attitude, and therefore also hope that women who identify as a sexual minority will not experience the same set of limitations. Limiting a woman with her partner options shouldn’t be such a great risk, but in fact it is. This is due to the fact that “our culture allows women so little scope for development, for exploration, for testing the boundaries of what they can do and who they can be, that romantic and sexual relationships become the primary, too often the only, arena for selfhood.” (Hogeland 723) Here we see women in a double bind, which is not surprising. The concept of limiting women strikes me as a recurring theme. I view women’s silence and  inaction as further reinforcement to self-limiting behaviors. However, this should come as no surprise considering social norms value women who stay silent, although this form of behavior continues to perpetuate these oppressing cycles.

However, that is not the issue today. Instead, I am saddened to say that we are worse off. Women are not staying silent about their oppression as before. Instead, women are screaming out loud and running in the opposite direction. I believe that we are dealing with a different beast today. After coming across an article in the Huffington titled “9 Photos That Prove These 'Women Against Feminism' Still Need Feminism” and receiving many reactive comments to my status as a feminist, I have realized that the beast we are dealing with today is simply the lack of understanding about the word feminism and what it means to be a feminist. It seems as though Derrick Clifton, the author of the Huffington post article, caught onto this issue by stating his first sentence as, “Anti-feminist woman. Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?” The truth is, yes. The sad truth is that today many women are not subject to the dangers of protests; this is not the second wave feminism era. We are not starving ourselves and being force fed through tubes in a jail like Alice Paul in order to fight for the right for women to vote. Although these things sound treacherous, they created meaning and value for the word feminism for women. Instead, women are fighting the horrific battle of being called the ever so nasty word; feminist. The word feminist has caught such a rancid connotation that it is used as an insult.

The reality is that many people, including women themselves, are not aware of the actual definition of feminism. Feminism poses equality for all, including women themselves. How could one knowingly choose to stay oppressed? The concept itself goes against everything we know to be evolutionarily true about humanity. Of course the discussion has been presented many times where women may state that women’s right to vote was a political movement and should not be identified as a feminist movement. But they stand unaware that it was women who worked together to attain the right to vote because “the personal is political” and at that time the inability to exercise that right was personal to women and eventually became a political issue. Then to add insult to injury, the next statement usually follows as such, “Well, we can vote now. So who still needs feminism?” The actuality is that more times than not feminism and its purpose is not understood correctly and that if it were to be accurately comprehended, it would only seem sane to grant yourself the desire to want equality. Instead, we as a culture are stuck and fixated on the falsely created narrow conceptualization of a word. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Most of the time feminists are women and men who simply would stand against the misunderstandings of culture and fight to see equality.

I would love to say that the issues we face today are issues of value and honor, or existing due to binds where women are stuck in the role of a martyr as Lisa explained in her beautifully written piece. But the truth of the matter is that today our issues with feminism can’t be reached because we can’t get past the false connotation of the word itself to actually do honorable work. We are nothing like Alice Paul. We are not starving ourselves protesting for the right to vote. Instead, we are on Facebook and Tumblr protesting about how much we hate being called a feminist.

 - Written by Sevan Makhoulian, B.A.

 

 

 

References

 Clifton, Derrick. 9 Photos That Prove These 'Women Against Feminism' Still Need

            Feminism. Huffington Post. 20 September 2014        

           

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Hogeland, Lisa Marie. "Fear of Feminism." Women’s Voices Feminist Vision.

            Susan Shaw. Janet Lee.   New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 722-725

 

A Culture of Domestic Violence in the NFL

I’m a football fan. I’ve been watching the Patriots play since Drew Bledsoe was the model of the stiff-legged quarterback, and I’ve recently carved out a spot in my heart for the poor, poor Browns. So when I begin this post with a title that declares the NFL to have a culture of domestic violence, it is not from a place of malice towards an out-group or of ignorance of a culture. Instead it is from a place of pain and with a sadness in my heart that I admit that this thing I love, this part of so many of us, has an attitude of passivity towards the violent behavior that players impose upon their families.

Ray Rice was seen dragging his fiancée by the hair through a casino. The NFL did not pursue additional information, including the tape that was later obtained by TMZ.  Instead they ignored it and banned Rice for two games. It was only when their hands were forced that they instituted a serious ban. Adrian Peterson was known to be facing charges of child endangerment/child abuse. He was allowed to play for his team until a warrant was put out for his arrest. Greg Hardy’s domestic violence case was also not a surprise. These are not small time players, and this is not a couple isolated incidents. These are some of the NFL’s biggest stars and This. Is. A. Problem.

Like many young men, I played football in high school. I had been watching the sport for years and I saw a chance to do something that seemed ‘manly’, that showed toughness. How is abusing your children manly? How is dragging your unconscious fiancée around by her hair being tough? Protip: these actions are neither manly nor tough.

NFL teams’ responses have been as poor as the league responses. Two of the three players mentioned above are currently on the NFL’s “exempt/commissioner” list, a designation that is rarely used but was intended to give players time to address “off the field issues”. Both Peterson and Hardy, by the way, are still being paid their salary while they are on “leave”. That’s over $700,000 per week for Hardy. Past NFL players who have been placed on this list include Michael Vick, who was sent to prison for his role in a dog fighting ring. Basically it’s a way for teams to take their legally troubled players out of the limelight and off the field until the trouble blows over.

This statement leads me back to the problem I mention in my first paragraph, the problematic attitude of passivity towards domestic violence that the NFL has exhibited. Perhaps passivity is even too weak a word. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that that the NFL chose not to act, chose to turn a blind eye to the domestic violence problem that it has, and in doing so tacitly encouraged this culture of violence in the home. The NFL estimates that over 40% of its fan base in female. Mr. Goodell, how can you encourage the abuse of women when they make up over a third of your fan base? How can you encourage the abuse of children, who may want to grow up to play the very game that has in some way influenced they violence they faced in their own lives?

A post by Angela Barney was featured on this blog a couple weeks ago highlighting the lack of initial punishment in the Rice case and focusing on the sometimes appalling responses to the case from some ESPN and other news anchors. Ms. Barney’s post covers those topics better than I could hope to, and articulates some greater societal problems that we have with the issue. As an entity that provides role models for millions of children, as an intrinsic part of American culture, the NFL needs to do better. Roger Goodell’s apology for choosing to ignore evidence and suspend Rice only two games is not enough. The new policy is a step in the right direction, but it is still not enough. The NFL needs to take responsibility for its actions. It needs to admit that it was wrong, and that it has been ignoring what is truly a problem that is faced by its players and those they love. It needs to step up and get help for all those involved and implement programs to educate players and prevent these problems from occurring in the first place. Until then their fans, their sponsors, and the world will be left wondering whether football is the same American staple is has been, or whether it will cease to be a place where role models and good work ethic can be demonstrated and extolled.

I close this post as I opened it, a fan of football waiting for Sunday to watch my teams play. I hope that is not a decision I find myself regretting.

- Written by Eric R. McCurdy