Posts Tagged culture

What do the numbers say? VIDA’s annual count of the gender gap in publishing

In 2011, one of my classmates from Sarah Lawrence penned an open letter to The New Yorker, blasting them for their then abysmal record of publishing women’s voices. She shared her letter on our closed email listserv and received curious pushback from some of my male classmates. When I say curious pushback, it was more like: “it’s really hard to get published…” or “there are bigger concerns like the economy tanking…” or “the prison industrial complex is growing more powerful by the day…” or “what about black on black crime” (I kid on that last one, but not really). Which is to say: why should we spend our energy caring about something as frivolous as publishing an equal ...

In 2011, one of my classmates from Sarah Lawrence penned an open letter to The New Yorker, blasting them for their then abysmal record of publishing women’s voices. She shared her letter on our closed ...

Poet puts the spotlight on gender, domestic violence, and colorism in new performance project

The Poetic License Theater Festival is currently underway in New York City. The ten-day festival will feature performances and readings from such luminaries as Ntozake Shange and Staceyann Chin. It will also feature a three-day run of the multidisciplinary production Redbone: A Biomythography , written and performed by poet Mahogany L. Browne, beginning this Monday at the Wild Theater Project in New York City. 

The Poetic License Theater Festival is currently underway in New York City. The ten-day festival will feature performances and readings from such luminaries as Ntozake Shange and Staceyann Chin. It will also feature ...

New York jury says it’s not okay for black people to use the N word at work

A New York jury ruled Tuesday that the N word is off limits in the workplace, even when it’s being used by one black person to another.  The case could set interesting precedent in the area of employment discrimination and curb the social use of the N word between black people while they are at work.

The jury found that the term is impermissible and creates a hostile work environment.  The jury rejected the N word double standard that black people have reappropriated the term and can say it as a term of endearment to one another but white people cannot use the term.  Why anyone who is not black would want the right to use the term is beyond me, but ...

A New York jury ruled Tuesday that the N word is off limits in the workplace, even when it’s being used by one black person to another.  The case could set interesting precedent in the area of ...

Quick Hit: Terrific rape culture cartoons thanks to students at York University

I’m not a big fan of rape jokes, but bring on the jokes about rape culture!  The students at York University in Canada have created some awesome rape culture cartoons starring some of our favorite super heroes.  The comics truly get to the heart of how flippin’ ridiculous rape culture is and how those who perpetuate it need to quit it and become part of the solution.

 

I’m not a big fan of rape jokes, but bring on the jokes about rape culture!  The students at York University in Canada have created some awesome rape culture cartoons starring some of our favorite super heroes. ...

Immigration and Women This Week: Mixed Emotions

Ed. note: This is a guest post by Juliana Britto Schwartz. By day, Juliana is a student at University of California, Santa Cruz. By night, she is a Latina feminist blogger at Julianabritto.com, where she writes about reproductive health justice, immigration, and feminist movements in Latin America.

 

In case you missed it, the news on what it was like to be an immigrant woman this week:

Something to Inspire You

Yesterday the Rally for Citizenship marched on the Capitol in Washington D.C., drawing thousands of protesters and calling for comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship. The rally had a diverse array of participants: organizations for Arab immigrants, African immigrants, allies and undocumented as well.

Something To Make You Angry:

The new immigration reform bill might 

Not Oprah’s Book Club: Searching For Zion

The first time I learned I was American was my first trip abroad to America’s colonial ancestor, England, where I circled a plexiglass-protected 15th century Benin mask at the British Museum. An older white Englishman engaged me in a conversation and when he called me American, it made my ears ring. For the remainder of my trip I observed, Londoners knew immediately by my walk, my posture, my voice (I didn’t talk loudly for fear that I’d get lumped the obnoxious Americans) that I was American. I can’t tell you how shocking that experience was. Even in America I never thought of myself as American. Immediately, I found myself searching for an exceptions, to footnote my American-ness. ...

The first time I learned I was American was my first trip abroad to America’s colonial ancestor, England, where I circled a plexiglass-protected 15th century Benin mask at the British Museum. An older white ...

You’ve come a long way, lady

Ann has a great piece in the (newly launched and very beautiful) New Republic about ladies who call each other, well, ladies. Sifting through the intergenerational interpretations, rap lyrics and colloquialisms, she writes,

….the word “lady” has become core vocabulary of feminism in the age of irony. With its slippery meaning—associations range from grandma’s lavender-scented powder to the raunchiest of rap lyrics—it encapsulates the fundamental mutability of modern feminism.

And goes further,

…..“lady” splits the difference between the infantilizing “girl” and the stuffy, Census-bureau cold “woman.” (Both still have their place—just not in the witty conversation that young feminists want to be having.) It’s a way to stylishly signal your gender-awareness, without the stone-faced trappings of the second-wave. It’s a casual synonym ...

Ann has a great piece in the (newly launched and very beautiful) New Republic about ladies who call each other, well, ladies. Sifting through the intergenerational interpretations, rap lyrics and colloquialisms, she writes,

….the word “lady” has ...

Not Oprah’s Book Club: Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo

Years before Adrienne Rich would write in Of Woman Born that ” [women] need to imagine a world in which every woman is the presiding genuis of her own body,” 19th century Western women began exploring skin modification through the art of tattoo.

Margot Mifflin’s recently reissued Bodies of Subversion is more than just a photographic history of this deep subculture. It is a close study of women during a period of historic limitations and social mobility, beginning to break barriers by exploring alternative ideas of beauty and self expression. Originally released in 1997, Bodies of Subversion was the only account of the origins of female tattoo art in Western culture, providing a fascinating journey into a subculture ...

Years before Adrienne Rich would write in Of Woman Born that ” [women] need to imagine a world in which every woman is the presiding genuis of her own body,” 19th century Western women began exploring skin ...

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