Posts Tagged microaggressions

The Academic Feminist: Sonny Nordmarken on building stronger movements through intent

Welcome back, Academic Feminists! Bringing us into the end-of-semester home stretch is Sonny Nordmarken, graduate student in Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Sonny’s explanation of microagressions and his work examining the intersections between feminist and transgender studies, as well as his personal story of coming to feminism through the comradery of sports, point to the ways that paying attention to everyday interactions can help bring us closer as activists, academics, and allies.

1. You were a women’s and gender studies minor as an undergraduate. Is this how you became interested in feminism? If not, what was the draw to feminism?

My first substantial memory of coming to feminism was in the community we created in my ...

Welcome back, Academic Feminists! Bringing us into the end-of-semester home stretch is Sonny Nordmarken, graduate student in Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Sonny’s explanation of microagressions and his work examining the intersections ...

Weekly Feminist Reader

Sex education in Mississippi is abysmal.

In Texas, the return of the back-alley abortion.

The three men convicted in the gang rape of the Mumbai photojournalist have been sentenced to death.

Where are the stories about female war veterans?

Young black musicians changing the face of classical music.

Sex education in Mississippi is abysmal.

In Texas, the return of the back-alley abortion.

The three men convicted in the gang rape of the Mumbai photojournalist have been sentenced to death.

Where are the ...

Weekly Feminist Reader

New campaign works to humanize horrifying reproductive rights statistics.

On Tuesday, activists will gather before the Supreme Court as it takes up two challenges to the contraception coverage mandate and decides whether your birth control is your boss’s business. Tomorrow, join us and repro health advocates for a digital Google Hangout rally!

Birth control is for people who don’t necessarily want to act responsibly.” – Another male government official.

On historically black churches and LGBT allyship.

“Police abuse is part of the life of prostitution.”

New campaign works to humanize horrifying reproductive rights statistics.

On Tuesday, activists will gather before the Supreme Court as it takes up two challenges to the contraception coverage mandate and decides whether your birth control ...

White privilege, the new girl in yoga class, and the intersections of fat discrimination


When I first read Jen Caron’s piece about the fat black woman in her yoga class, I cracked up. Perhaps I’ve been desensitized to white people finding issue with black people when they share spaces that they subconsciously accept to be for whites only–6 years at predominantly white universities will do that to you.  Jen’s interpretation of this experience was offensive to black women, certainly. And Pia Glenn, also from xoJane, thoroughly summed up all the reasons Jen’s bias was racist and fueled by white guilt. But it seems that folks are only briefly acknowledging that this entire situation was prompted by the fact that the new girl in class was a fat woman.


When I first read Jen Caron’s piece about the fat black woman in her yoga class, I cracked up. Perhaps I’ve been desensitized to white people finding issue with black people when they ...

The Wednesday Weigh-In: “What Weird Mix Are You?” and Other Awesomely Bad Microaggressions

We’ve written before about Microaggressions, a sweet blog that provides a platform to expose some of the subtle and not-so-subtle forms of ‘isms that invade our daily lives.

As Chloe explained earlier this year, the blog catalogs small expressions of inequality, from a parent who pointedly leaves newspaper articles about HIV lying around for her gay son to see to a white classmate claiming, on MLK Day no less, that she’s been discriminated against because she’s white.

I thought of the site this Memorial Day weekend when I was asked during a party by two white European women “What weird mix are you?” and felt like causing a scene. Instead, I smiled politely. “I’m half Russian- maybe we share ...

We’ve written before about Microaggressions, a sweet blog that provides a platform to expose some of the subtle and not-so-subtle forms of ‘isms that invade our daily lives.

As Chloe explained earlier this year, the ...