Paradigm Shift

Who Will Rape Me? – Written by Andrea Grimes at Hay Ladies, this post discusses the reality of sexual assault against women and the lived experiences of women in rape culture.

MTV’s Shockingly Good Abortion Special – On December 28th, MTV aired a special episode of 16 and Pregnant which featured three teenagers that chose to have abortions… and it was “shockingly good.”

– As soon as I read these poems, I could not wait to share them with my friends.  At times touching, other times heartbreaking, these poems address many important issues affecting women around the world today.

Arizona Bans Ethnic Studies, and Along With It, Reason and Justice – I could not have said this better myself…

Tests of ‘Roe’ More Frequent since Justices Upheld Late-term Abortion Ban in ’07 – Read this to learn what these tests mean for our reproductive rights and why the 2007 decision was so significant.

Life-Saving Hospital May No Longer Consider Itself Catholic – During the eleventh week of her pregnancy, a woman rushed to St. Joseph’s hospital in Phoenix, Arizona.  She needed the doctors to perform a life-saving abortion, a procedure which went against the hospital’s Catholic, pro-life principles.

Feminism: A Moral Compass for Change – A great piece on one woman’s experiences with feminism.

Have you been reading or writing anything lately?  If so, please share!

What better way to spend the holiday season than cozying on up with a great book, some pumpkin bread, and a huge cup of coffee?  Now that school is out of session, I finally have time to catch up on reading books that aren’t found on my course syllabi.  My list of books to read is endless, so I have no choice but to narrow it down to a reasonable amount.

So far, I have read two amazing books by two amazing, feminist authors.  First, I read Gender Trouble by Judith Butler. I had already read numerous articles and excerpts written by Judith Butler, so I assumed I would love the book… I was right.  Her work is both theoretical and intellectual, revolutionary yet completely grounded in reality.  Gender Trouble is one of Butler’s earlier books and considered to be part of the canon for feminist and queer theory.  In this text, Butler completely challenges our understandings of gender, sexuality, and social constructionism.  This book is a must-read for anyone interested in identity politics!

After this, I decided it was time for a break from theory. I needed something easy to read, but equally thought-provoking and inspiring, so I turned to Overcoming Speechlessness by Alice Walker.  Before I delved into the text, I spent some time thinking about what it means to be speechless.  We are often speechless in light of a situation which elicits a strong emotional response; whether our reaction is positive or negative is irrelevant.  After spending a great deal of time pondering the meaning of the title, I turned to the first page and started reading.  Once I started, I did not stop until I reached the end.  As part of a trip organized by Women for Women International, Walker travelled to Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel.  She documents her experiences, which later turn into a poem known as Overcoming Speechlessness.  Needless to say, I was not left speechless after reading the text.  In fact, my mind was racing with thoughts at such a speed that I could barely keep up with them!  Walker transported me to a world full of terrible injustices and human rights violations, yet allowed me to see beyond this exterior.  Regardless of these terrible situations, there is still love, humanity, and a strong sense of community.  Simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, Overcoming Speechlessness is definitely one of the most powerful texts I have ever read.

Next up on my never-ending list of books to read is Cunt: A Declaration of Independence by Inga Muscio. When I first met my best friend, she told me that this book completely changed her life by re-introducing her to feminism and empowerment.  Having known nothing about the content of the book, I was intrigued to learn more.  I have finally gotten around to reading this book and must say I am pleasantly surprised!  I am only a few pages in to the text but can already recognize why my friend loves this book so much.  Muscio’s ideas can be controversial, challenging, and absolutely incredible.  In this text, she argues that women need to reclaim the word cunt because it represents womanhood, passion, and strength.  As Ophira Edut at Bust Magazine says, “Cunt does for feminism what smoothies did for high-fiber diets—it reinvents the oft-indigestible into something sweet and delicious.”

Once I finish reading Cunt, I hope to read a few more books before returning to school, including:

For Colored Girls that have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is not Enuf by Ntozake Shange – I had never heard of this book until it became a major motion picture.  From what I had heard, the film discussed issues such as abortion, sexual assault, identity poltiics, and more.  Before running to the theater to check out what sounded like a great movie, I decided to pick up a copy at my local bookstore.  I’m really looking forward to reading this book, watching the film, and comparing the two!

Nimos War, Emmas War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War by Cynthia Enloe – Next semester, I will be taking on an independent project on women and Islam.  When I first approached my professor to discuss this, she gave me some suggestions of texts which I could include in the syllabus.  I chose not to use this book because it was slightly unrelated to the other books I would be reading, but it definitely fits in to my areas of interest.  Enloe’s text follows the life of eight women during the Iraq War – four from the United States and four from Iraq.  In doing so, she offers a realistic portrayal of women’s lived experiences during wartime which challenges the stories which are presented by mainstream news and media sources.

So what have you been reading recently?

Earlier this morning, President Obama signed a bill which will put an end to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.  This policy, implemented during the Clinton era, banned openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the United States military.  Over the past seventeen years, approximately fourteen thousands troops were discharged because of this discriminatory law.  Although the law has not been officially repealed yet, Obama has asked Defense Secretary, Robert M. Gates, to suspend all current investigations and discharges relating to a service member’s sexual orientation.

The next step requires the military to meet certain requirements.  Troops must undergo new training and education programs.  Then, the military will have to draft new policies which will recognize the needs and rights of all service members.  Following this, Obama, along with Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of Joint Chief of Staff, will inform Congress that the military is prepared for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.  Once this is done, there will be a sixty-day interim period before the law is officially repealed.

Stay tuned for more news about DADT repeal!

Meet Erik Kondo, the founder of NOT-ME!, a non-profit organization that completely transforms the art of self-defense.  His workshops incorporate skills and strategies beyond the scope of traditional, physical self-defense workshops; participants are encouraged to understand their own potential, build confidence in their abilities, and follow a system of preventative strategies.  If you can’t make it to one of his workshops, check out his incredible blog about street harassment.

In this interview, Kondo speaks about the importance of self-defense, the prevalence and underlying causes of street harassment, and issues relating to power, communication, and fear.

What was your motivation for starting the organization, Not Me?

I started NOT-ME! with the intention to advance self-defense education for at-risk populations. As a long time practitioner of the martial arts, I came to the realization that the majority of self-defense instruction is based on teaching mostly physical technique. As a person with a disability, I understand the limitations of using physical technique for self-defense. Most attackers are bigger and stronger than their intended victims. Therefore, it is far more effective to outsmart an attacker with a powerful strategy such as the 5D’s of Self-Defense, then it is try to “out fight” them. I created NOT-ME! in order to advocate the importance of using strategy and incorporating the mental and emotional realities into self-defense education and training.

What can people take away from your self defense workshops?

Truly learning self-defense is similar to learning how to swim. It takes a lot of time and effort. But, the first part of learning how to swim is how “not to drown”. In terms of self-defense, “not drowning” means having a realistic understanding of your personal strengths, weaknesses, and instinctive nature. It means understanding that the most effective means of self-defense is prevention executed by active deterrence. That is the message I convey in a workshop.

What has been the most rewarding story you have heard from a participant in your program?

Not long ago, I did a private session with a young woman who was planning to travel alone to Chile for the summer. Along with personal instruction, I provided her with reading materials for the plane. While, in Chile she encountered a young female traveler who had just been robbed. She passed the materials on to her.

The goal of self-defense is to minimize the consequences of aggression and to provide peace of mind. When she returned, she had no problems to report. But she had felt better prepared for her trip than her unlucky fellow traveler. To me, this is a great example of the purpose of self-defense instruction, to provide people with a means to be better prepared and for them to pass on their knowledge to others.

What makes certain individuals more at-risk for street harassment?

It is impossible to answer this question without running into the danger of “victim blaming”. One of the difficulties of street harassment is that in most situations the harassing behavior cannot be avoided or deterred by the target of harassment. The term “street harassment” encompasses a wide variety of behaviors, starting with leers and comments and ending with predatory testing and stalking. It is simply not possible to prevent someone from making inappropriate public comments about you, nor do I believe it is advisable. Avoiding street harassment by wearing baggy clothes or by limiting public travel has the effect of magnifying the overall negative effects of harassment.

An episode of street harassment differs from a self-defense situation in that the damage caused by street harassment is by definition not physical. Street harassment is an attack against the target of harassment’s psychological well-being. It is the constant repetition of the incidents combined with the target’s feeling of powerlessness than creates long term damage, especially among adolescent girls.

What advice would you give to someone that is experiencing street harassment?

While every incident of street harassment has similar elements, the particular circumstance of each incident differs widely. Therefore, my advice is a flexible strategy that follows the three steps; Acknowledge, Assess, and Act.

Acknowledge that you or someone else is being harassed. It is impossible to take positive action without first recognizing and confirming that there is a problem. You must break the destructive cycle of deny, delay, and do nothing.

Assess the situation. The type of response you make is totally dependant upon the type of person that you are dealing with, your own personal strengths and weaknesses and the existence of potential helpful bystanders or harassing confederates. For example, dealing with the Charmer Wannabe is less threatening than the Overgrown Bully, unless the Charmer Wannabe is really a Predatory Tester in disguise.

Act in a proactive manner. The type of action executed is determined by what has been previously assessed and taking into consideration your ability and willingness to confront the harasser. While an assertive statement is typically the most effect response, it is also difficult for many women (and men too) to be assertive without practice.

Assertiveness is not an emotion. Anger, fear, irritation, and uncertainty are examples of emotions. Assertiveness is a method of communication, in the same way that whispering and yelling are methods of communication. People are born with the inherent ability to feel emotions. They are not born with the ability to be assertive. Assertiveness must be practiced and perfected over time. The two most common reactions to harassment are variations of the powerful emotions of fear or anger. These emotions lead to either passive behavior or an angry outburst.

In order to be assertive, you must be neither fearful nor angry. You need to have the stern matter of fact voice and demeanor of a tough elementary school teacher. Therefore, if your idea of assertiveness is “Please pass the salt.” as opposed to “Now pull up your pants little Johnny. And don’t let me catch you doing that again!”, then you need to create an action response that works for you.

Why do you think street harassment is often justified and trivialized?

Those are two separate questions. I believe that street harassment is trivialized because as I stated earlier, it encompasses such a wide variety of behaviors. Very few people would say that when an adult man stalks or engages in predatory testing of an adolescent girl, it is a trivial matter. But, on the other end of the scale, if a man says to a fully grown woman he passes on the street “Looking good today!” it is possible to wonder “what’s the big deal?”

The issue is not the words; it is the context and implication of the statement that create the problem. For instance, in the Middle Ages, that type of statement to a Queen would most likely get a man upside down in a kettle of boiling oil. Why? Because the implication of the statement is the existence of disrespectful familiarity, one that has a sexual context. What should exist between strangers is a common desire to treat each other with respect. Therefore, keeping one’s head out of boiling oil, means changing disrespectful comments to simple acknowledgement greetings such as “Hello” or a nod of the head.

Why street harassment is justified is another matter. Typically a behavior is justified by one person or group when another person or group places blame for the behavior. Assessing blame is a sure fire way to guarantee a justification response. Women blame men for harassing them. Men blame women for blaming them. Women blame men for blaming them. This is a self-enforcing destructive cycle.

Justification is similar to an excuse, and excuses are for those who need them. There is no logical or rational reason to be disrespectful to a stranger on the street. Therefore, that type of behavior needs to be “rationalized” and “justified” in order it to continue.

Studies have shown that women all across the world experience street harassment, regardless of race, class, and ethnicity. Why is it that street harassment is such a global phenomenon?

Cultural based street harassment such as that seen in NYC, is a toxic byproduct of three main ingredients. They are (1) a male dominated power culture, (2) a cultural fear of male violence among women, and (3) a culture of disempowered bystanders. When these three ingredients exist in a society somewhere in the world, that society is likely to experience its own version of street harassment.

What do you see as the most effective measure in preventing and combating street harassment?

I believe that street harassment can be defeated by a three petal plan that involves Prevention, Intervention, and Mitigation. That means preventing street harassment from occurring, intervening to stop it when it occurs, and mitigating the negative effects after it has occurred.

This plan must be implemented by society as a whole, by bystanders to incidents of street harassment, and by women as targets of harassment. The harasser’s themselves are part of the plan in that their behavior is the central focus of the plan. Specifically,

1. Society must create a culture of intolerance for street harassment in order to eliminate the behavior.

2. Bystanders – must learn strategies and methods to intervene and mitigate when observing incidents of harassment.

3. Targets of Harassment must learn strategies and methods to directly voice their disapproval when harassed.

Every situation of street harassment is different. Each situation requires a different response. But the overall strategy is the same: Society, Bystanders, and Targets need to communicate that street harassment is unacceptable behavior and will not be tolerated.

What do you think street harassment tells us about society?

I believe that street harassment is not just a “cancer” than needs to be eradicated. I think it is a symptom of a greater problem. This problem is more than just a power struggle between the genders. Street harassment is evidence of a break down in people’s ability to effectively communicate with each other on a face to face level when removed from controlled social situations.

Street harassment is in effect unwanted or forced communication. The harasser uses his method of communication to not only intimidate, silence, or anger the target of harassment, but also the surrounding male and female bystanders. Neither the target nor the bystanders know how to communicate their displeasure to the harasser. Despite the fact that the balance of power is in the hands of the bystanders, but in most situations, they do nothing.

In a typical harassment situation on a subway train with a captive audience, the Target doesn’t effectively communicate her displeasure to the Harasser. She doesn’t effectively communicate her desire for assistance from the male and female Bystanders. Neither the male or female Bystanders effectively communicate their willingness to support the Target, or their displeasure of the behavior to the Harasser. The Harasser is able to capitalize on this breakdown in communication and take control of the situation.

Therefore, while it is possible to point the finger of blame squarely on the Harasser, it is the inaction of the majority that enables the Harasser to do his dirty work.

Street harassment is everyone’s problem. Everyone must share responsibility for its existence and for its defeat. While everyone may not be directly involved in incidents of street harassment, everyone suffers to some degree from the same problem with intrapersonal communication. Every man that silently watches another man harass a woman is at fault in the same way that every woman who automatically looks down at the approach of a male is at fault. These behaviors create the environment that makes cultural street harassment possible.

I just finished reading “Feminism is as Feminism Does” by Merle Hoffman at On the Issues Magazine. She starts out by discussing media representations of “feminism”, ranging from people like Barack Obama to Sarah Palin, and ultimately concludes that none of them are feminists, according to the criterion she sets out in her “feminist litmus test.”  Let me start off by saying that I have the utmost respect for Merle Hoffman.  She is an icon in the reproductive justice movement and her work is not only inspiring, but responsible for a great deal of positive change in the lives of women.  That being said, I want to offer a more critical analysis of her article and the politics she discusses.

Merle asks, “So what is a feminist?”  This is a question that I have grappled with for a long time.  I agree with Merle that a feminist must have certain characteristics in order to rightfully identify as a feminist, but struggle with the idea of putting feminism in a box.  At its core, feminism is about equality, for all people.  However, this is not the definition of feminism that most people are familiar with.  Instead, people associate modern-day feminism with the early women’s movement, and rightfully so.  The movement began to empower women and create equality for the sexes, but I would argue that the feminist movement has changed a great deal in the past century.  Within the feminist movement today, you find activists in all different realms: fighting to end discrimination and violence, working to ensure reproductive freedom, and creating safe communities for people to gather, communicate, and become empowered.  All feminists have their own passions, ideas, and characteristics, but at the end of the day, they all agree on the basic principle of equality.

So again I find myself asking, what is a feminist?

First, I want to stress that any person can be a feminist.  As bell hooks once said, “Feminism is for everybody.”  As the result of misinformation, many people are led to believe that only women can be feminists, but this could not be farther from the truth.  Also, due to the origin of the women’s movement, skewed media representations of feminism, and Western feminist exceptionalism, there is an idea that feminism represents the interests of racial, religious, and ethnic majorities.  Although I see this as holding true for the women’s movement of the early 1900s, this is not accurate of today’s feminist movement.

I see feminism as a movement that fights to give all people the right to choose what is best for themselves, without having to submit to the wishes of others.  This right needs to be complemented with unbiased education, accurate information, and access to resources.  So a feminist would naturally be someone that has this same mentality.  “The litmus test has always been quite simple: Gloria Steinem said that, “A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.”  This seems pretty simple; you either support full equality or you don’t.  But is it really that easy?  Definitions of equality differ greatly, depending on who you ask.

For example, Merle says, “Any woman who does not support reproductive freedom, including abortion rights, cannot be a feminist. Period.”  I completely agree with what she is saying; reproductive freedom and abortion rights are an essential part of women’s equality.  However, this is not such a black and white issue.  What does it mean to support reproductive freedom and abortion rights?  Well for one, it means acknowledging that every individual in the world is entitled to their reproductive rights.  Although we typically associate reproductive rights with women, it is important to realize that reproductive rights exist outside of sex, gender, and/or sexual orientation.

That said, I want to delve further into this notion of reproductive freedom.  Typically, reproductive freedom is associated with bodily autonomy.  However, this concept is not nearly as simple as it seems.  As Judith Butler says in Undoing Gender, there is no such thing as bodily autonomy because it would require complete freedom from the external world.  As living beings in a complex society made up of numerous social structures, institutions, and communities, we need interaction and communication to survive.  We need emotional support from friends and family, medical assistance, and a governing body (the role of this structure, as it is in current society, would need to undergo reform in order to become aligned with the values and goals of the feminist movement).  In order to support reproductive freedom, we must understand our need for interpersonal relationships.

I would also argue that the definition of reproductive freedom, within the feminist community, is highly debated.  Although feminists can agree on reproductive freedom, how this is understood depends on the individual’s own ideas and beliefs.  For example, abortion rights are a crucial component of our rights as women, but there is still debate over to the specifics of the procedure.  Some feminists support unrestricted access to abortion, regardless of the duration of the pregnancy, while others believe in enforcing gestational age limits.

Let me give another example.  The feminist movement has long been divided on the issue of sex work.  Some feminists support sex work, others are completely against it; ultimately, the division comes as a result of the rhetoric of choice.  Pro-sex work feminists argue that sex work can be empowering, whereas anti-sex work feminists see all sex work as the result of manipulation, desperation, or force.

I offer these comparisons to show that all feminists do not all think the same way.  We may agree on the bigger picture, but our opinions are as diverse as our backgrounds.  There is no feminist checklist or litmus test to determine whether or not someone is a feminist; feminism is much more complex than that.

Tired of sexist career advice?  Looking to be valued as an entrepreneur, rather than a “fempreneur?”  Well look no further than “Bullish”, Jen Dziura’s weekly column at The Gloss.  In her articles, she applies a feminist perspective to issues relating to business, finances, and the workplace.  I can’t express how refreshing it is to read advice which recognizes the intersectionality of inequalities in the workplace and encourages women to seek their full potential.

Here are some of the must-reads:

“Social Class in the Office”

“Financial Planning for Motherhood (Just in Case You’re Not Swedish)”

“How Business is Like Dating”

“Be Thin or Be Fat, Just Be On Your Game”

So take a look for yourself… you won’t regret it!