A Rock Shock to the Status Quo
The Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, PAVE, and The Voices and Faces Project have all teamed up to host a rock concert to benefit the great organizations working to end sexual assault.
A Rock Shock to the Status Quo will feature Martha Berner, The Laureates, and Tyler Jon Tyler.
When: April 26th, 7:00pm.
Where: Schubas, located at 3159 N. Southport , Chicago, IL.
The event is only $10 so if you’re in the Chicago area, please consider attending this event and helping the countless survivors of sexual assault who need the organizations who work to help them and end sexual violence.
Womanism/Feminism…Feminism/Womanism
When we look at labels to describe activism by women we commonly use the term womanist, or feminist. Words mean something despite how casually we toss them around. They are how we order and understand our world. In an effort to be inclusive when we write about activism many will often write feminists/womanists. This acknowledges that some WOC have to some degree separated themselves and have taken on the label of womanists because of the history of racism within the feminist movement.
The problem with using these labels is that they often appear in a certain order. Most will write feminists/womanists rather than womanists/feminists. This may seem like a small insignificant point but what it does is that it once again sets up a hierarchy about what counts as real activism when it comes to women. If feminism is routinely placed first it sets up womanism as a ridiculous offshoot. When we consider that womanists largely identify as such because of racism in feminism, routinely placing it behind feminism only reaffirms the idea that white women still see WOC as secondary bodies.
Even though writing feminists/womanists is an attempt at inclusion, the order of the words appear means something because it speaks to who has power and privilege. Often unconsciously we reaffirm power dynamics in our society. Privileging certain bodies has become a naturalized phenomenon and it takes a conscious effort to decolonize your mind. These small slights do not go unnoticed even if they are unremarked upon.
Many WOC are rightfully distrustful of white women. There is a long history of betrayal and silencing. I have watched time after time as we are assaulted and our issues ignored. We are told that we focus to much on race in an attempt to destabilize our organizing. Womanism speaks about our lives, our needs and our existence in a way that feminism never has. It validates our experiences and places us in the center of the conversation. To place feminism before womanism continually only reifies the need for womanism.
The rift between WOC and white women needs to be healed. Each new slight just adds to the bitterness and contempt and is the equivalent of pouring salt into an open wound thereby further dividing us from each other. When there is such a large history of betrayal we cannot afford to continue to fuel the negativity as it only detracts us from our common enemy: patriarchy.
WOC are always going to have issues that are unique to us, and yet we share many issues in common with white women. The anger and bitterness often causes us to ignore their valid commentary and make sweeping assumptions. There will never be one monolithic woman that can represent us and the “sisterhood” will never cure all the hurt, but we need to think about how we speak to each other if we are going to move forward.
Our future lies in unity and not in separation. It is important that we leave room for forgiveness and it is essential that white women acknowledge the ways in which they have wronged us. This is a problem that we need to tackle together with patience and love. Both WOC and white women essentially want to see women succeed, we just don’t always agree with what constitutes “woman”.
Cross Posted from Womanist Musings
Blogging IS Activism
Debra Dickerson recently published a reply on Mother Jones to a New York Times article on the future of abortion providers, saying:
Today’s feminists need to blog less and work more. If women want reproductive choice to remain more than rhetoric, they’d better stop assuming these clinics will be there when they need them.
I agree with the fact that women should stop assuming that abortion clinics will be there when they need them, which is why I encourage pro-choice people to speak out on behalf of reproductive rights and how important it is for every woman, everywhere, to have the right to choose. And one of the most influential ways to reach a great amount of people now is to start a blog or incorporate feminism and reproductive rights into your existing blog.
I am often asked what I am doing for feminism and what I tell them is that I blog. I share my feminist ideals on my blog and encourage educated and informed conversations on a wide range of topics that matter to me, to humans, and to my feminist activism. Many people don’t think that blogging is enough, but if you read the bulk of feminist, womanist, and humanist blogs out there, most of the topics that are brought up for discussion come directly from living life and being a humanist out in the big, sometimes cruel, always controversial world. We see the injustices in our society around every corner we walk. We experience sexism and misogyny nearly every time we go to a bar or club. We are confronted by men as well as other women for our basic viewpoints and our refusal to back down and stay silent. Just by blogging, we are informing the people who read our blogs, who identify with our principles, and we are also faced with younger generations finding our blogs, being educated about feminism and perhaps identifying as feminists who would otherwise perhaps not know what feminism is and what it is to be a feminist without our openness and passion to share our thoughts and views on a public platform. And hell, maybe one of those people who read what we have to say will go to medical school and become an abortion provider. Perhaps they will even blog about their experiences.
Dickerson also posted:
But you young chicks maybe need to go the Northern Exposure route, sending folks to med school in exchange for a few years running an abortion clinic. That feminist fire in the belly? I gotta say: Pole-dancing, walking around half-naked, posting drunk photos on Facebook, and blogging about your sex lives ain’t exactly what we previous generations thought feminism was.
Yes, “young chicks.” The feminist fire in our bellies encompasses many feminist principles. We care about reproductive rights, we care about birth control, emergency contraception, and we care about comprehensive sex education in every school in the country and around the world so abortion services are not so widely needed. We care about equality. We raise awareness about where we are not treated equal and who we are not being treated equally by. We raise awareness about gender, gender identity and expression, race, privilege, and we raise awareness about when we are being blamed by so-called previous generations of feminists for not doing enough.
Dickerson somehow got some warped perceptions of feminism; feminists today are allowed to speak openly about sex and sexuality and give other women the permission to identify with their sexuality because it is still seen as taboo for a woman to be open about her sexuality and that is the result of woman shaming; the same woman shaming that Dickerson herself is displaying and condoning.
Feminists do not blame other generations and call them slackers. We do not tell them that they aren’t doing enough when every day, we are raising awareness and working towards an ideal, woman and human-friendly world.
Dickerson asks us, today’s feminists, what we are doing for the struggle. Head on over to Mother Jones and clue her in.
The Army of Angels Conference: Moving from Survivor to Warrior
It is very different to have survived abuse and trauma and to truly be a survivor. However, being a survivor, as it turns out, is simply is the tip of the iceberg. Angela Shelton, the woman who made the award-winning documentary Searching for Angela Shelton and wrote the book Finding Angela Shelton has become an expert in trauma and recovery and it’s really no surprise how she did it; she survived her own abuse and as she got older (and wiser) she dealt with her past and looked onward to her future. She has become an icon for many survivors out there in need of becoming the warrior they can be in their lives. Speaking of becoming a warrior, Angela has an exciting event coming up soon–Very soon, in fact.
The The Angela Shelton Foundation and PAVE are holding the first annual Army of Angels Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 13 and 14.
The Army of Angels is a group of people who have been inspired and helped by Angela Shelton’s work and have transformed their lives. They are now working to inspire healing, awareness, and joy in their own lives as well as the lives of others. There will be many speakers at the conference, including Angela Shelton herself who will also be doing her ‘Removing the Sword of Trauma’ powerpoint presentation.
If you are interested in attending the Army of Angels inaugural conference, check out the event on Eventbrite and contact diann@angelashelton.com for more information.
Ten Ways to Make America a Better Place to Live
Helen Keller once said, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”
These days many people are suffering in America. Skyrocketing job losses (2.6 million in 2008, according to the Labor Department’s Jobs Report), skyrocketing foreclosures (up 81% from 2007 to 2008, per RealtyTrac), skyrocketing healthcare costs (and the many personal bankruptcies that have followed), rising college costs (up 6.4% at four-year public colleges this school year alone, according to the College Board), plummeting 401(K)s, the recession, war, terrorism, education, the environment, inequality…and that only covers a small portion of what’s usually featured on the nightly news! I don’t know about you, but I often find myself slamming down the remote (while considering throwing the television out the window) and thinking, “I know we can do better than this!”
We live in a country that has been a land of opportunity for millions. We live in a country whose doctors have helped the tiniest premature babies live. We live in a country that has put astronauts on the moon. We live in a country that invented Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. We have done better. We can do better. And when I look at my eight-year-old nephew, I know that we must do better. I also know that each of us needs to take an active role in doing better now.
In fact, with all the things that are happening in America now, most of us do feel a longing to help when and where help is needed. Most of us would gladly do whatever we can to make the poverty and war-kind of news stories a thing of the past. And most of us have spent time wondering, “What is it that I can personally do? How can I make a difference?” Here are ten ideas each of us could start with:
1. Decide that inclusion is a much better word to teach our children than exclusion. (As my friend Mary wisely says, “Whatever language we speak to children is the language they learn.”)
2. Spend our money on things that save people’s lives rather than do the opposite. (How many more people need to die from cancer, or get killed in a war, before we decide to re-work our budget?)
3. Start thinking of healthcare as fundamental a right for everyone as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
4. Keep jobs here! (And support companies that are making this choice!)
5. Use our money fairly, wisely, and in ways that will make our children and grandchildren proud. (If we have any doubt at all, we should make a different choice.)
6. Convince our companies that there is such a better use for money than commercials none of us like to watch anyway. (Job creation, disease research, health care, education and the environment…just to name five.)
7. Adopt the mindset “All About We” (rather than “All About Me”) since that really is the only way things will ever truly get better.
8. Know that the three R’s (reduce, reuse, and recycle) are just as important for our children to learn as those other three R’s (reading, writing, and arithmetic).
9. Do one thing…even if it’s just for one person…that can make things better because while doing one thing may seem small, it will feel huge to the person or people who benefit. (Visit a senior center, buy someone you don’t know lunch, give your scarf to a child you see shivering on the street…just to name three.)
10. Start today! As Anne Frank once said, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
My friend Meagan once told me about one of those pivotal, light-bulb-dawning-over-head moments she had as a teenager years ago. She was watching the news with her family and was just plain angry about the one-sad-story-after-another that was being reported. That’s when her dad said to her, “Meagan, there are enough people in this world who complain about things, but not enough people who do anything about them.” I can’t think of a better time than right now for each of us to take Meagan’s father’s advice!
Right now, each of us really can help someone or some cause somewhere. We really can do something to make America a better place to live. If each of us were ready, willing, and able to help in just one of the ways that we want to help…in the way that means the most to us…we would make the kind of beautiful difference and create the kind of beautiful America our children and grandchildren deserve!
What is the “something” that YOU are ready, willing, and able to do? What idea can YOU add to the “Ways to Make America a Better Place to Live” list? And, perhaps most importantly, how will YOU get started today?
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This post was written by Shelly Rachanow
The author of the successful book, If Women Ran the World, Sh*t Would Get Done, Shelly Rachanow is a graduate of The George Washington University and Emory University School of Law. Her latest book, What Would You Do If You Ran the World?: Everyday Ideas From Women Who Want To Make the World A Better Place, is the culmination of brilliant, creative, and totally possible ideas women have shared.
Blog for Choice Day 2009 Open Thread
Today is the day for pro-choice bloggers and activists to get out there and rally to keep what is rightfully theirs–Access to safe reproductive health care. Today is the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and also Blog for Choice Day 2009. I don’t normally allow post pimping on here, but to celebrate this anniversary even further, if you have any posts regarding the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and/or Blog for Choice Day 2009, feel free to post them in the comments!
If this is the first time you’re hearing of Blog for Choice Day 2009 and want to participate in the online pro-choice festivities, NARAL Pro-Choice America is asking the question: What is your top pro-choice hope for President Obama and/or the new Congress?
RH Reality Check is also having a live blogging event from 3-4PM EST about messaging and the reproductive rights movement. Check it out here.
Blog for Choice Day 2009 is Tomorrow!
Tomorrow, January 22, is the anniversary of Roe v Wade and for the past three years, pro-choice bloggers everywhere have been coming together and blogging about reproductive rights and health in order to celebrate the 36th anniversary of the day where women were given a choice. It is important to keep choice in the national spotlight and for that reason, tomorrow, bloggers will be given the opportunity to speak out about choice for another year.
This year, NARAL Pro-Choice America is asking the question: What is your top pro-choice hope for President Obama and/or the new Congress?
Sign up to participate in Blog for Choice day here and after you sign up, be sure to promote this important call to action on your own blog, social networking sites, etc. to ensure that tomorrow, the blogosphere is full of pro-choice bloggers and blog posts!
Feminist Media Cannot Survive without YOU!
In mid-September Bitch Magazine released a call to action to keep independent, nonprofit feminist media going through this economic devastation we have been facing. Luckily, Bitch Magazine was saved but because of how much it costs to keep Bitch Magazine going every month, the funds they received from that call to action didn’t last very long.
Feminist voices are important and deserve an outlet. For that reason, Bitch has launched a new hangout for people dedicated to keeping Bitch Magazine alive, the B-Hive! Bitch recently released The Best B Movie Ever:
Help Bitch reach their goal of 500 dedicated bitchin’ bees by joining the B-Hive.
A Shout Out to Feminist Bloggers!
Whenever you bring up politics or opinions on world events, you are bound to receive a myriad of disgruntled and downright rude comments, but when you’re an open feminist blogger, the comments tend to escalate to something very, very ugly. Every feminist blogger I have spoken to for a little while have shared stories about the outright madness that occurs in the comments section of their blogs; our blogs tend to be playgrounds for the sexist and misogynist masses and there is likely no end in sight.
It is for this reason (and I’m willing to bet several hundred other reasons) that I was overjoyed when I saw this awesome video over at Feministing by Samhita.
Being a feminist blogger takes passion and intense dedication, otherwise we’d all start blogging about shoes and Sarah Jessica Parker (hey, that’s why I made a fun women’s interests blog!) and while it’s apparent that we don’t always get the appreciation we definitely deserve, all you feminist bloggers out there, know that you are doing excellent work.
And don’t forget to check out Samhita’s video:
I also found this really great comment on the Feministing YouTube page that I feel the need to share because while we do see a great number of female feminists out there, male feminists are a bit more scarce:
It takes strength to be a male feminist — to say, “I will stand aside and follow my sisters; because for too long, they have only been allowed to follow.” To be a male feminist advocate (like a blogger) is to say, “Society stacks its deck in my favor, and that is wrong.”
–dasneonlicht
Fear No Fashion: Help Prevent Sexual Violence
PAVE (Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment) and Lather Chicago have teamed up to put together a night of fashion and fun. They are hosting a charity fashion show in an effort to raise awareness and prevent sexual violence in schools, enhance the empowerment program of PAVE and also to create a national network of affiliates all working towards preventing sexual violence.
The fashion show will take place tomorrow, September 28, in Chicago at the Cubby Bear Lounge located at 1059 W Addison St from 4pm to 8pm.
If you are in the Chicago area tomorrow and are over 21 years of age, please consider going out to support organizations dedicated to prevention and education of sexual violence. There will be complimentary drinks from 4-5pm, a fashion show featuring Evolve Intimates, Borris Powell and Christopher Anthony. In addition to the fashion shows, there will also be burlesque acts and a silent auction.
Tickets are $20 each and can be purchased here.
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Out Campaign
The OUT Campaign allows individuals to let others know they are not alone. It can also be a nice way of opening a conversation and help to demolish the negative stereotypes of atheists. Let the world know that we are not about to go away and that we are not going to allow those that would condemn us to push us into the shadows.
