Tag Archive for "History"

Posts Tagged History

Justice for sexual violence during the Civil War

*Trigger warning*

Could it be the greatest irony in our history is that our nation actively prosecuted perpetrators of rape and sexual violence during the Civil War? In 1863, President Lincoln signed an executive order known as the Lieber Codes that governed Union soldiers and protected civilian women. Historian Crystal Feimster writes in the New York Times:

Union military courts prosecuted at least 450 cases involving sexual crimes. In North Carolina during the spring of 1865, Pvt. James Preble “did by physical force and violence commit rape upon the person of one Miss Letitia Craft.” When Perry Holland of the 1st Missouri Infantry confessed to the rape of Julia Anderson, a white woman in Tennessee, he was sentenced to be shot, ...

*Trigger warning*

By Samhita • 11 years ago

What can we do about feminism’s brand problem?

According to a new study at the Huffington Post (with YouGov) there is a major disparity between people that believe in equality “between the sexes” and identify as feminist. The study found that only 20% of Americans identify as feminist whereas 82% believe that “men and women should be social, political, and economic equals.” Equality between men and women is the most commonly accepted, mainstream definition of feminism. It’s not the only one — and certainly not the one that we adhere to at Feministing (as it relies too wholeheartedly on the gender binary and ignores all the other forms of difference we think are as important as gender oppression) — but it is what most people ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

Throwback Thursday: The audacity of Phyllis Wheatley as observed by June Jordan

We live in strange times. Yesterday, as Zerlina has discussed, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. And while Scalia barked that VRA is the “perpetuation of racial entitlement,” less than half a mile away, the Rosa Parks Statue was unveiled at the Capital Building in honor of Park’s activism that ignited the Civil Rights Movement. The same building that was built by African slaves. Yesterday was also the 71st anniversary of the Supreme Court’s upholding the 19th amendment that protected the right to vote for women. What a strange and poetic irony of a day was February 27, 2013; a normal day in American life, proof of our complicate history ...

By Samhita • 11 years ago

When I stay out too late with feminists at the Makers red carpet premiere…

…and I can barely blog, but I sure can rock some sunnies.

Last night I went to the premiere of Makers. Makers is a documentary about the American women’s movement. It’s also a video library that hopes to be the largest video library of women’s stories ever collected.

Spending the night hanging out with bad-ass feminists, including Vanessa, Courtney and Chloe, listening to Gloria Steinem talk about feminism, then and now, reassured me. It confirmed that we, the Feministing community, have helped to keep generations of feminism alive–growing, evolving and staying relevant. It felt good.

As Steinem said in conclusion to her speech at the screening quoting Paula Gunn Allen, “The root of oppression is the loss of memory.”

The event and screening was ...

…and I can barely blog, but I sure can rock some sunnies.

Last night I went to the premiere of Makers. Makers is a documentary about the American women’s movement. It’s also a video library that hopes ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

Sojourner Truth: “A woman in control of her image”

Holiday movie-viewing season probably means that you undoubtedly will catch one of the most talked about films of the year, Spielberg’s “Lincoln.” I saw the movie a few weeks back and it’s pretty grand. Yet, I had a healthy amount of skepticism going in, because it is a Spielberg jawn, which would mean there would be a douse of self-righteous audience pandering hoakieness, but muted by the powerful script from screenwriter and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner. “Lincoln” as a title is kind of a misnomer: it’s a legislative drama, watching white men wrest, insult and struggle with each other over the legality and morality of human bondage while the Civil War dragged on.

I’m a descendant from all of ...

By Lori Adelman • 11 years ago

Amelia Earhart prenup from the 1930’s lays out a pretty darn modern vision of marriage

Wondering what a feminist icon living in the earlier half of the 1900’s thought about love and marriage? Look no further than the document above, a letter from Earhart to her future husband George Putnam.

You’ll remember Earhart became famous as the first female aviator to fly a solo transatlantic flight, redefining expectations of women along the way. Then, she tragically disappeared during a flight in 1937 (only to reappear in a “carefully scrubbed” and “exasperatingly dull” movie in which she was played by Hilary Swank, but that’s for another post).

Of course, we love her anyway for her courage and fierceness, and even moreso having stumbled upon this priceless prenup agreement. Reading through the document, one thing becomes ...

You’ll remember ...

By zerlina • 11 years ago

Senator Scott Brown’s staffers mock Elizabeth Warren with racist chant

How charming! Senator Scott Brown’s staffers were caught on tape chanting Indian War whoops with some tomahawk chops for good measure. The racist chant is apparently intended to mock Elizabeth Warren for her Native American roots. WCVB news in Boston confirmed that Deputy Chief of Staff Greg Casey and Constituent Service Counsel Jack Richard, State Director Jerry McDermott, special assistant Jennifer Franks and GOP operative Brad Garrett are pictured in the video.

The controversy over Warren’s Native American roots has always been silly. Warren is originally from the state of Oklahoma where either you have verifiable Native American roots or you grow up hearing about how you have Native American roots. The truth is that it’s hard to prove either ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

On Juneteenth, idleness, legacy and history

My grandmother tells me that in Tennessee, this day, the day the slaves caught word that they had been freed by President Lincoln by executive proclamation in January 1863, was on August 8, 1865. But she’d add, still, we celebrate this day, June 19th, as Juneteenth, the official day as the end of intergenerational, black chattel slavery. The Root has a thorough accounting of the delay by the Union in spreading the ‘good news’. Melissa Harris-Perry also offers a history lesson in context for us:

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