Why Isn’t Your Feminism Intersectional? // Angel McKissic, M.A., TLLP

In the past week, Target ran an ad for one of their Black-woman owned brands, The Honey Pot, a smart line of hygiene products, ranging from cotton pads to wipes. The commercial featured the brand’s owner, Beatrice Dixon, telling her story of entrepreneurship and that it was important for her brand to succeed because it would increase opportunities for other Black women and girl entrepreneurs.

Any meaningful concept of “feminism” includes (or should) the position that women, non-binary, and femme identified folx show up for each other in whatever decisions we make about our lives and recognize that our experiences are constituted by the intersection of all the identities we occupy. In other words, intersectional feminists fight for and uplift everyone’s right to author their lives. Moreover, an intersectional feminism acknowledges that the fight is against a system that devalues anything that resembles the socially constructed concept of femininity, thus the movement must include advocacy for all individuals who do not perform the socially acceptable standard of masculinity, because those who exist outside of it are systematically and pervasively subject to marginalization.

            Cut to the day of the Target commercial and the subsequent onslaught of deplorable comments left on The Honey Pot’s TrustPilot page, and the social media of attacks aimed at the company and Beatrice herself. As a Black woman, it came as no surprise that most of these comments were left by White women claiming that Target and The Honey Pot’s owner were unnecessarily, even maliciously, using race, more specially, Blackness, in the brand’s storyline. One could write a robust dissertation on the numerous ways in which these complaints are problematic, not the least of which many of those women failed to realize that the ad aired in February, which is Black History Month. Target, among a slew of other companies use the month to highlight the Black business owners whose products they sell or endorse. But never mind this fact, because while we cannot know if those women who left the comments identify as feminists, the White women who do, have responded with a deafening silence, which begs the question - Is the attack on Beatrice and her company not worthy of mainstream feminist outrage? Apparently not.

            One does not have to look far to find failures of the mainstream feminist movement. Where are the outcries of White feminists on the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women? What about the disproportionate killing of Black trans women? And how about the Black women who have been murdered by police? This is not to mention the nearly total exclusion of gender non-conforming and non-binary femmes from the concern and agenda of the mainstream feminism. Again and again we witness mainstream White feminism abandoning women of color and femmes because of a lack of intersectional ideology. The mainstream feminist movement has always been deeply drenched in White supremacy and heteronormativity. So, per usual, Black women, women of color, and queer folx show up for their communities in the void left by White feminism. Case in point, Black publications like Essence, published a response form Beatrice a few days after the incident. Black women on social media have been calling for others to counter the vitriolic comments left on the page with positive reviews, and Beatrice has been featured on The Real, a daytime talk show hosted by an all women of color cast. In the end, this is the old playbook of mainstream feminism, so it is up to a new generation of Black, brown, and queer women/femmes to call out feminist movements that claim to empower and uplift women, when the reality is they are leaving behind the most marginalized women and femmes. If your feminism is not inclusive, then it is not revolutionary nor radical.

You can find The Honey Pot products here.

By Angel McKissic, M.A., TLLP

Towards a Greater Consciousness // Sandra Yankah, M.S.

The human brain has a tendency to continually employ strategies that make it easier and faster to categorize, pass judgments and make decisions. Ideally, these shortcuts result in more efficiency and lessen the expenditure of unnecessary energy. However, there are many pitfalls associated with these mental shortcuts. Automatic versus controlled processing can be compared to the ubiquitous and uncontrolled processes involved with implicit learning versus the effort associated with deliberate learning. Controlled processing is seen as deliberate, conscious, and effortful. Uncontrolled processing is seen as occurring without effort or awareness.

Automatic processing helps us with the continuity between the old and new. It often saves us time by allowing us to complete a task without consciously thinking about them. Consequently, we are constantly engaging automatically with the world. Examples of mental shortcuts associated with automatically analyzing the world include schemas and scripts. Schemas are mental structures people use to quickly organize the world. Scripts are standards of behavior and resulting consequences that are expected in specific environments or contexts. The difficulty with these phenomena is that they are not culturally universal and can be tied to deleterious processes such as prejudice and discrimination. Within the field of psychology, we frequently study how implicit beliefs and attitudes affect an individual's explicit behaviors or expressions.

 Implicit refers to something that is held internally and can refer to attitudes or beliefs that are not in immediate awareness. Explicit refers to the physical manifestation of implicitly held beliefs or attitudes. A concrete understanding of how these processes influence and relate to each other is particularly important in real-world contexts. For example, policing is a practice that requires individuals to make quick decisions under stressful conditions. Failing to acknowledge the effects of implicit processes that influence decisions like whether or not to use deadly force can have disastrous results. Interventions that have been developed to help combat this problem include guiding individuals through exercises that allow them to recognize and acknowledge implicit feelings of bias, fear, or prejudice. The aim of these exercises is not to eliminate these components of thinking, but to help people to recognize that they exist so that they think twice before engaging in actions that have the propensity to be harmful to others. These exercises can be applied in our every day lives as well. Carefully examining the origin of our own attitudes and beliefs provides a greater awareness of how they directly or indirectly influence the way that we engage with the world around us.

By Sandra Yankah, M.S.

Women, Safety Anxiety, and The Rise of True Crime Podcasts // Jaclyn A. Siegel

Content Warning: Physical and sexual violence against women

Over the past few years, true crime-related podcasts have become a part of the zeitgeist. The popularity of podcasts as a medium can arguably be attributed to the investigative journalism series Serial, in which NPR reporter Sarah Koenig revisited the details of Hae Min Lee’s murder and the case against Adnan Syed. Other investigative journalism podcasts, such as Finding Cleo (the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women, particularly Cleopatra Semaganis Nicotine), Cold (the murder of Susan Cox Powell and her two sons), In Your Own Backyard (the murder of Kristin Smart), Root of Evil (the murder of the “Black Dahlia”), and Man in the Window (the tactics and strategies of the Golden State Killer), have also topped the charts in recent years. Millions of listeners tune in each week to five-star-rated podcasts such as Crime Junkie and My Favourite Murder to “get their fix” of true crime. These podcasts are not just entertaining: in some cases, they have actually played a role in identifying victims (e.g., Bear Brook) and solving cold cases (e.g., Up and Vanished).

A few months ago, I took a deep dive into the true crime podcast world and have since become quite the “true crime junkie.” Not only do I listen to the podcasts, but I also subscribe to two of them on Patreon for bonus content and am a member of a Facebook group for listeners. I even recently purchased tickets to a live show in New York to see my favourite podcasters (Gillian Pensavale and Patrick Hinds, True Crime Obsessed) provide their commentary on a true crime documentary (note: I live and study in Canada). The combination of intrigue and horror created by these stories has left me completely engrossed in the world of true crime. I am not alone in this: more and more people, and women in particular, find themselves drawn to crime-related media content (Tuttle, 2019; Vicary & Fraley, 2010).

Survey research consistently shows that, while men listen to podcasts marginally more regularly than women, women comprise the overwhelming majority of true crime podcast listeners (Joyce, 2018). Various explanations have been proposed for this phenomenon: (1) although most podcasting is done by men, the hosts of true crime-related podcasts are often women, (2) in some cases, female hosts infuse personal anecdotes into the narratives, making them relatable to women, and (3) other podcasts are specifically geared toward male-typed topics (e.g., sports, politics) while murder is less gender-specific. Perhaps the most compelling explanation for women’s attraction to these stories, however, is that (4) true crime stories validate women’s fears about experiencing violent crimes themselves.

Women – particularly women with marginalized identities – consistently report higher rates of personal safety anxiety and vigilance than men (Riger & Gordon, 1981; Riggs & Cook, 2014). This may seem somewhat paradoxical, as men are more likely to experience nearly all forms of violent crime (Cotter & Savage, 2019). Yet, women (especially those who are transgender or queer) are disproportionately victimized by crimes of a sexual nature (Cotter & Savage, 2019; Stotzer, 2009). College-aged women report a variety of situations in which they are afraid of being raped and engage in numerous safety-related behaviors out of fear of rape (e.g., “avoid accepting help with my car from guys I don’t know”, “avoid walking through parking lots”, “carry something to use as a weapon”, “refrain from drinking around guys I don’t know”; Hickman & Huehlenhard, 1997).

The “shadow of sexual assault hypothesis” (Ferraro, 1995) proposes that, given the “ever-present” concern of sexual assault, women’s fear of being raped “shadows” their fear of experiencing all other forms of violence (Fisher & Sloan, 2003). Research has supported this hypothesis: According to survey research, although women express more fear of experiencing nearly all forms of violent crimes – and perceive themselves to be at a higher risk of experiencing violent crimes – women’s fear of rape can help to explain their concerns about potentially being victimized by myriad types of crime (Fisher & Sloan, 2003).

Notably, women report experiencing unwanted sexual attention or behavior in public, private, and online places and spaces more often than men, and thirty percent of Canadian women report lifetime experiences of sexual assault (Cotter & Savage, 2019). All of these experiences, from catcalling to unwanted touching to sexual violence, occur along a spectrum of sexual objectification, a common and uncontrollable experience in women’s lives. As proposed by Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), experiencing sexual objectification can remind women that, regardless of their other personal attributes and characteristics, they walk through the world as bodies, bodies that can be harmed and violated. Women may even adopt an objectified self-perspective to anticipate and control their social treatment (Roberts, 2004). The threat of sexual violence is inherent in all experiences of sexual objectification, even those that may seem benign or flattering. Research suggests that experiencing sexual harassment can not only increase women’s self-objectification but also can increase their fear and perceived risk of rape (Fairchild & Rudman, 2008). The fear of being raped produced by experiencing sexual objectification can explain, in part, women’s fear of experiencing all forms of crime (Watson, Marszalek, Dispenza, & Davids, 2015).

Listening to true crime podcasts is a way that women can have their fear of rape and crime validated. For many of us, these gruesome stories do not merely serve as entertainment: they remind us that our fears are legitimate and in many cases can provide tips and tricks for staying safe (e.g., “Crime Junkie Life Rules”). These strategies may not protect us in practice, but they can help us feel more prepared and empowered to protect ourselves. While consuming crime-related media content may actually increase perceptions of crime risk and fear of crime (Callanan, 2012), we are drawn to them because these are our stories: our friends’, our families’, and – if we are not careful – our own.

“Stay sexy and don’t get murdered” (My Favorite Murder). “Be weird, be rude, stay alive” (Crime Junkie). More than merely catchphrases, these slogans are our warnings, our hopes, and our prayers.

References

Callanan, V. J. (2012). Media consumption, perceptions of crime risk and fear of crime: Examining race/ethnic differences. Sociological Perspectives, 55(1), 93-115. https://doi.org/10.1525/sop.2012.55.1.93

Cotter, A., & Savage, L. (2019, December 5). Gender-based violence and unwanted sexual behaviour in Canada, 2018: Initial findings from the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces. Statistics Canada. Retrieved from: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2019001/article/00017-eng.htm

Fairchild, K., & Rudman, L. A. (2008). Everyday stranger harassment and women’s objectification. Social Justice Research, 21, 338-357. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-008-0073-0

Ferraro, K. F. (1995) Fear of crime: Interpreting victimization risk. State University of New York Press, New York.

Fisher, B. S., & Sloan, J. J. (2003). Unraveling the fear of victimization among college women: Is the “shadow of sexual assault hypothesis” supported? Justice Quarterly, 30(3), 633-659. Doi: 10.1080/07418820300095641

Fredrickson, B. L., & Roberts, T.-A. (1997). Objectification theory: Toward understanding women’s lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(2), 173-206. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x

Hickman, S. E., & Huehlenhard, C. L. (1997). College women’s fears and precautionary behaviors relating to acquaintance rape and stranger rape. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(4), 527-547. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00129.x

Joyce, G. (2018). Podcast audiences: Why are women such big fans of true crime podcasts? Brandwatch [online] https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/react-podcast-audiences/

Riger, S., & Gordon, M. T. (1981). The fear of rape: A study in social control. Journal of Social Issues, 37(4), 71-92. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1981.tb01071.x

Riggs, S., & Cook, C. L. (2014). The shadow of physical harm? Examining the unique and gendered relationship between fear of murder versus fear of sexual assault on fear of violent crime. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 30(14), 2383-2409. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260514553117

Roberts, T.-A. (2004). Female trouble: The menstrual self-evaluation scale and women’s self-objectification. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28(1), 22-26. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2004.00119.x

Stotzer, R. L. (2009). Violence against transgender people: A review of United States data. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 14(3), 170–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2009.01.006

Tuttle, K. (2019, July 16). Why do women love true crime? New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/books/review/kate-tuttle-true-crime-women.html.

Vicary, A. M., & Fraley, R. C. (2010). Captured by true crime: Why are women drawn to tales of rape, murder, and serial killers? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(1), 81-88. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550609355486

Watson, L. B., Marszalek, J. M., Dispenza, F., & Davids, C. M. (2015). Understanding the relationships among White and African American women’s sexual objectification experiences, physical safety anxiety, and psychological distress. Sex Roles, 72, 91-104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-014-0444-y