Paradigm Shift

July 22, 2013

 

URGENT ALERT: Military Sexual Assault Legislation Gaining Momentum! Ask Your Senators to Add Their Support So Bill Passes on Senate Floor!  

 

For the first time in decades, we have a real chance to reform the military justice system and address the epidemic of sexual assault! Senator Gillibrand’s legislation, ensuring that professional military prosecutors are responsible for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases, is gaining momentum!

 

Here is what you need to know: every 21 minutes, a service member is assaulted. In 2012 alone, there were 26,000 cases of unwanted sexual contact. Only 9.8% of victims ever report these devastating crimes, citing fear of retaliation, and the majority of those who do report experience social, administrative or professional retaliation within their unit. For decades, military leaders have promised to try harder to end this scourge of violence but sexual assault in the military remains an epidemic.

 

Senator Gillibrand’s (D-NY) Military Justice Improvement Act (S. 967) has 36 bipartisan co-sponsors and 2 more Republican Senators, Senator Cruz (R-TX) and Senator Paul (R-KY), pledged their support to her bill! This legislation would reform the military justice system by authorizing professional military prosecutors to make decisions about which cases should proceed to trial. Under the current system, commanding officers, not trained legal experts, have the sole authority to decide whether a case is brought to trial. Senator Gillibrand plans to offer her bill as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that could be considered by the Senate as early as this month! We need every single Senator, especially those who have not yet signed onto the bill, to co-sponsor this measure and support it as an amendment on the Senate floor.  The vote could occur in the next two weeks before Congress goes home for their August recess.

 

Please take urgent action now to ensure that Senator Gillibrand’s bill passes the Senate when it is considered in the coming weeks!

ACTION ITEM 1): CONTACT YOUR SENATORS ON THE TARGET LIST BELOW AND URGE THEM TO CO-SPONSOR THE MILITARY JUSTICE IMPROVEMENT ACT!

Senate Target List (Senators not yet on the bill or openly in support):

Arkansas: BOOZMAN, John (R-AR) SH-320 202-224-4843

Colorado: BENNET, Michael F. (D-CO) SR-458 202-224-5852

Connecticut: MURPHY, Christopher (D-CT) SH-303 202-224-4041

Georgia: ISAKSON, Johnny (R-GA) SR-131 202-224-3643

Idaho: CRAPO, Mike (R-ID) SD-239 202-224-6142

Idaho: RISCH, James E. (R-ID) SR-483 202-224-2752

Illinois: KIRK, Mark (R-IL) SH-524 202-224-2854

Illinois: DURBIN, Richard J. (D-IL) SH-711 202-224-2152

Indiana: COATS, Daniel (R-IN) SR-493 202-224-5623

Kentucky: McCONNELL, Mitch (R-KY) SR-317 202-224-2541

Louisiana: LANDRIEU, Mary L. (D-LA) SH-703 202-224-5824

Montana: BAUCUS, Max (D-MT) SH-511 202-224-2651

Montana: TESTER, Jon (D-MT) SH-706 202-224-2644

Nevada: REID, Harry (D-NV) SH-522 202-224-3542

North Carolina: BURR, Richard (R-NC) SR-217 202-224-3154

Ohio: BROWN, Sherrod (D-OH) SH-713 202-224-2315

Oklahoma: COBURN, Tom (R-OK) SR-172 202-224-5754

Pennsylvania: TOOMEY, Patrick J. (R-PA) SR-248 202-224-4254

Rhode Island: WHITEHOUSE, Sheldon (D-RI) SH-530 202-224-2921

Texas: CORNYN, John (R-TX) SH-517 202-224-2934

Virginia: WARNER, Mark R. (D-VA) SR-475 202-224-2023

Wyoming: ENZI, Michael B. (R-WY) SR-379A 202-224-3424

 

When you call, be sure to ask to speak to the staff person who handles military/defense legislation and say:

·       I am a constituent from [city and state] and my name is _________.

• I urge Senator [insert name] to co-sponsor S. 967, The Military Justice Improvement Act, which will hold perpetrators of sexual assault accountable for their actions and provide victims of military sexual assault access to safety and justice.
• Thank the staffer for their time.

Don’t forget to call back and contact your other Senator if they have not yet signed on!

Resources for your phone call:

http://4vawa.org/military-sexual-assault

Gillibrand website info

http://servicewomen.org

http://www.protectourdefenders.com

Below are the Senators who have already co-sponsored the bill.  If you have a moment, call and thank them:

Co-sponsors of S. 967:

BALDWIN, Tammy (D-WI) SH-717 202-224-5653

BEGICH, Mark (D-AK) SR-111 202-224-3004

BLUMENTHAL, Richard (D-CT) SH-724 202-224-2823

BOXER, Barbara (D-CA) SH-112 202-224-3553

CANTWELL, Maria (D-WA) SH-311 202-224-3441

CARDIN, Benjamin (D-MD) SH-509 202-224-4524

CARPER, Thomas R. (D-DE) SH-513 202-224-2441

CASEY, Jr., Robert . (D-PA) SR-393 202-224-6324

COLLINS, Susan  (R-ME) SD-413 202-224-2523

COONS, Christopher A. (D-DE) SR-127A 202-224-5042

FEINSTEIN, Dianne (D-CA) SH-331 202-224-3841

FRANKEN, Al (D-MN) SH-309 202-224-5641

GILLIBRAND, Kirsten E. (D-NY) SR-478 202-224-4451

GRASSLEY, Chuck (R-IA) SH-135 202-224-3744

HARKIN, Tom (D-IA) SH-731 202-224-3254

HEINRICH, Martin (D-NM) SH-702 202-224-5521

HEITKAMP, Heidi (D-ND) SH-502 202-224-2043

HIRONO, Mazie K. (D-HI) SH-330 202-224-6361

JOHANNS, Mike (R-NE) SR-404 202-224-4224

JOHNSON, Tim (D-SD) SH-136 202-224-5842

LEAHY, Patrick J. (D-VT) SR-437 202-224-4242

MARKEY, EDWARD (D – MA) SR-218 202-224-2742

MENENDEZ, Robert (D-NJ) SH-528 202-224-4744

MERKLEY, Jeff (D-OR) SH-313 202-224-3753

MIKULSKI, Barbara A. (D-MD) SH-503 202-224-4654

MURKOWSKI, Lisa (R-AK) SH-709 202-224-6665

PRYOR, Mark L. (D-AR) SD-255 202-224-2353

ROCKEFELLER, John. (D-WV) SH-531 202-224-6472

SANDERS, Bernard (I-VT) SD-332 202-224-5141

SCHATZ, Brian (D-HI) SH-722 202-224-3934

SCHUMER, Charles E. (D-NY) SH-322 202-224-6542

SHAHEEN, Jeanne (D-NH) SH-520 202-224-2841

UDALL, Tom (D-NM) SH-110 202-224-6621

VITTER, David (R-LA) SH-516 202-224-4623

WARREN, Elizabeth (D-MA) SH-317 202-224-4543

WYDEN, Ron (D-OR) SD-221 202-224-5244

 

Senators who have pledged their support for the bill:

CRUZ, Ted (R-TX) SD-185 202-224-5922

PAUL, Rand (R-KY) SR-124 202-224-4343

 

Voted for Gillibrand in Armed Services Committee (3)

 

DONNELLY, Joe (D-IN) SH-720 202-224-4814

HAGAN, Kay R. (D-NC) SD-521 202-224-6342

UDALL, Mark (D-CO) SH-730 202-224-5941

ACTION ITEM 2): USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO CONTACT YOUR SENATORS!

Find your Senators’ Twitter handles here and use our sample tweets below:

Lend your voice to victims of military sexual assault & join @SenGillibrand’s @Thunderclapit in support of #MJIA: http://bit.ly/1dCJudg 

[insert Twitter handle] Protect those who protect our country! Support the Military Justice Improvement Act. #militarysexualassault #EndMilitaryRape #MJIA

[insert Twitter handle] Victims of sexual assault in the military deserve safety & justice. Support S. 967 #militarysexualassault #MJIA #NotInvisible

Thanks to @SenatorVitter @tedcruz @RandPaulSenate for supporting @SenGillibrand bill to combat military sexual assault! #MJIA

 

Sample Facebook post:

 

Please contact your Senators today and urge them to support Senator Gillibrand’s Military Justice Improvement Act that would reform the military justice system to finally protect victims of sexual assault! By authorizing trained, professional military prosecutors, not commanding officers, to make decisions about sexual assault cases, victims will finally see the justice they deserve. This legislation could come to a vote on the Senate floor as early as next week- and we need every Senator’s support. Service men and women have fought hard to defend our country- now we have a chance to stand up for them. #MJIA

 

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For more information, fact sheets, press coverage, support letters and Updates: www.4vawa.org.

Follow us on Twitter at @NTFVAWA and “like” our Facebook page.

If you aren’t on one of the VAWA email lists or want to add members of your staff or state/community leaders to our grassroots alerts e-mailing list, send names and contact information including email to ntfvawaalerts@icasa.org. For more info, go to www.4vawa.org.

 

 

I was recently house sitting and as I wandered through the house searching for one of the cats, I looked up to find a sign hanging from the laundry room wall. “When I said I DO, I didn’t mean LAUNDRY!” it said, in a bold black typeface. While I feel certain that it was supposed to carry a certain amount of humor, I stopped in my tracks, appalled at its connotations of inequality and traditional gender roles. It also happened to fit in perfectly with a question that I’ve been pondering recently. What does marriage mean in 2013?

was recently house sitting and as I wandered through the house searching for one of the cats, I looked up to find a sign hanging from the laundry room wall. “When I said I DO, I didn’t mean LAUNDRY!” it said, in a bold black typeface. While I feel certain that it was supposed to carry a certain amount of humor, I stopped in my tracks, appalled at its connotations of inequality and traditional gender roles. It also happened to fit in perfectly with a question that I’ve been pondering recently. What does marriage mean in 2013?

Fortunately, I’m not the only one who has been wondering. In April, the New York Times printed two articles about marriage that caught my attention. The first,  “When Love Is Not The Wedding’s Only Theme” focuses in on the new trend of theme weddings, and excessive weddings in general. The second, “In the Season of Marriage, a Question. Why Bother?” really hit the nail on the head for me. While it is less remarkable than ever to have a child out of wedlock, demographers still project that at least 80 percent of Americans will marry at some point in their lives. Why will they marry and will they stay that way? Well, that’s another question altogether.

Marriage, what was once the first step into adulthood, now has yet another role as the last step that a successful couple takes as a capstone of their personal life. Even how weddings are paid for shows a huge shift. What was once planned and paid for by the parents is more and more often being completely funded by the couple themselves. In 2012, 36 percent of couples footed their own bill while another 26 percent at least contributed to the cost. This in itself shows that the central meaning is shifting away from a union of families and instead is completely focused on the couple. While the meaning and frequency of marriage may have changed, and continues to do so, it is also clear that is still carries an important role in American society. But at the same time, it is also possible to have a perfectly respectable life without marrying. Have we found the best of both worlds?

Maybe. Cohabiting before marriage (or for the long term) has increased more than 1,500 percent in the past half century, now more than 7.5 million Americans are in a cohabitation arrangement. From the sexual revolution to birth control to economics, young people have more reasons than ever to live together. But unfortunately, it seems to “just happen” more than it is planned. And that becomes problematic, as those folks are more likely to divorce than couples that did not cohabit. Especially since two thirds believed that moving in together before marriage is a good way to avoid divorce. But is it really?

Now more than ever, alternative relationship styles are embraced. From being in an “open relationship” to polyamory, I know more and more folks who choose to set up their love lives in ways that wouldn’t have been accepted in the not-so-distant past. My only concern is that, for some people, it is a trend rather than a true calling. For others, I readily see how it fits in with their personalities. Just as some people really don’t see marriage as the right fit for them.

While not many of my close friends are married, I’ve had an inside view of a few weddings that do certainly fit the “cherry on top” purview. They can be lavish, excessive, and completely bride (maybe groom too, if they’re lucky) centric, these events don’t even resemble the quaint weddings of olde. Looking back at family wedding pictures from the 1960s and 70s, I see a completely different landscape. It was the time of the “mints and nuts” table rather than banquet consisting of a carving station and mashed potato bar, two bridesmaids rather than twelve. The way that some people choose to celebrate now is very different from that of the past. But does it make the difference in their relationship and marriage? Does it create a relationship that is sustainable and equal? That is what it is supposed to be about in the end.

Links to the articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/opinion/sunday/why-do-people-still-bother-to-marry.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/fashion/weddings/theme-weddings-grow-more-popular-field-notes.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/the-downside-of-cohabiting-before-marriage.html

5 Easy Ways to Celebrate Momentous Occasions

Life is full of milestones and people often look for new ways in which they can celebrate them. These days there are a lot of choices out there for people who want to find a unique way of celebrating something. Graduation, religious sacraments, birthdays and other occasions are all going to warrant a celebration of some sort. Many people may want to take a look at a few different ideas that can be used for this. These ideas are not set in stone, however. If there is something else that you would like to try then you can try to incorporate it into your overall plan. A celebration is supposed to be a personal event with friends and family. It is therefore important to come up with something that you know your loved ones are going to enjoy.

A Dinner Party

For events like graduation from high school or college a dinner party can be a great affair. Why not try to come up with a unique recipe, or take a look online for different dishes from around the world? A diverse menu is going to be a good choice to make if you are trying to create a memorable event. Depending on the people that you invite to the event, you may need to take a look at their dietary issues. If someone is allergic to something or is a vegetarian then you will have to take these points into consideration.

 

A Garden Party

Garden parties are great for when the weather is good. Some people may decide to get a catering company to do the food, or they will make it themselves. If you want then you can do a barbecue as well. There are plenty of places where you can get marquees and outdoor tents. If the party is going to be going on into the evening, then see if you can get a DJ for the event. This will certainly help to mark it out.

 

Sushi Night

Try something different and see what a sushi night can do. A lot of people enjoy sushi and if you want you can theme the evening. Decorate your living room Japanese-style by placing a few Japanese-style decorations around the room. Add a trickling fountain. Making sushi can be a little difficult so if you want then you are going to have to practice. Overall, however, you will be able to get the hang of it. If you do not have the time, however, then it is probably better to get someone else to make it.

 

Book a Hall

For large parties this is the best idea. Those whose homes may not be big enough to accommodate the event will want to see if there are any venues that they can get. This will give you the opportunity to create the party you want.

 

For Children

A children’s party is going to have to have all the things that children love. This will include things like clowns, games and a bouncing castle. Bouncing castles are great for when the weather is good, so make sure to book one early.

 

Author Bio:

Sasha Wilson is a freelance writer and blogger. As well as writing about Janie Wilson handmade birthday cards, she writes on a range of other topics. These include alternative energy, career advancement, travel and more.

Book review—Gendered: Art and Feminist Theory

 

Gendered: Art and Feminist Theory, Tal Dekel, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013, 205 p., ill., ISBN 9781443842198

 

Gendered: Art and Feminist Theory (http://www.c-s-p.org/flyers/Gendered–Art-and-Feminist-Theory1-4438-4219-2.htm) by Tal Dekel could be considered three books in one with its focus divided between 1970s American feminist art; contemporary Israeli feminist art; and Post-Partum Document (http://www.marykellyartist.com/post_partum_document.html) (1973-1979), an installation by then London-based US artist, Mary Kelly. The structure could be chocked up to the fact that the book is an outgrowth of the author’s dissertation (at Tel Aviv University, where she currently lectures).

 

Feminist art was one Wave behind the women’s liberation movement, which is to say that it only emerged during the Second Wave. As art critic Lucy Lippard observed, no self-aware woman wanted to be reduced to her body parts, and this attitude formed the basis of early feminist art in the US. Dekel feels this era needs more scholarly attention, because the 1970s feminist artists were thrown under the proverbial bus by artists and critics in the next two decades. Its detractors found the art of American feminists woefully narcissistic and unsophisticated for its exclusion of queer, racial, postcolonial, etc. politics. Dekel argues that many aspects of the first generation of American feminist art were postmodern and only became appreciated once they were articulated in literature.

 

She distills a complex and prolific period into nine categories, which would be a valuable excerpt for a course on gender and art. None of the following are meant to be mutually exclusive: performance art; representations of the female body; cunt art; video art; great goddess art; pattern and decoration art; collaborative community art; lesbian art; and protest art, which is subcategorized into resistance against pornography, racism, military/violence, and class oppression.

 

Dekel then delves into a detailed analysis of Mary Kelly’s Post-Partum Document. From verbal development to weight gain, what today’s mother would capture in an ‘app.’ Kelly painstakingly tracked in charts, alongside rhetorical questions like, “Why don’t I understand?” and reflections on Dr. Spock and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Kelly also explored the fetishistic side of mothering by displaying relics from the first six years of her son’s life—ranging from diaper liners to biological specimens he collected—but not, as Dekel notes, the more obvious choices like his first pair of shoes. Dekel sees Kelly as having challenged society’s perception of child development by exposing the mother’s experience, a point of view that was ignored by the (male) Establishment. She argues that between the Establishment and anti-family radical feminism, Kelly was caught between a rock and a hard place as an artist-mother, an identity hidden by many. Dekel briefly outlines the reasons for mothering being an uncommon subject in art, but readers wishing to know more may want to check out Reconciling Art and Mothering, a collection of essays published last fall by Ashgate.

 

Mary Kelly is presented as a unique case, as an American who addressed bodily issues like breastfeeding without using—and arguably exploiting—her own body in her work. To Dekel, this captures the dichotomy between early feminist art in the US and Europe (where Kelly was based when she produced the series). However, unless I missed any examples, the only European contemporaries of Kelly she describes hardly shied away from using their bodies: Catherine Elwes bled in a white box during her period as a performance, Cosey Fanni Tutti posed pseudo-pornographically in photos, and Marina Abramović so frequently performs without clothing that when critic Jerry Saltz saw her take off her belt and shoes during Jay-Z’s musical performance at Pace Gallery (New York) on July 10, he thought, “Oh God! She’s going to get naked again.” (1)

 

Kelly’s lasting influence is seen in works like Israeli artist Sheffy Bleier’s What Remains (http://www.sheffybleier.com/whatremain.aspx) (1997), featuring parental notations and personal objects from her young son. The afterword focuses on contemporary Israeli art produced by feminists, which didn’t emerge until the 1990s and when it did, it constituted a ‘quantum leap.’ While some themes from 1970s American feminism are less apparent (goddesses, for instance), others like lesbianism and militarism continue to be relevant in the Israeli art scene.

 

This book will appeal to the average Joe and the interdisciplinary academic, given that social change and comprehensible critical theory frame artistic developments. An index, bibliography, and endnotes are included. Images are all in black and white, which is a shame: it would be preferable to see the fleshy hues of Judy Chicago’s vulvic ceramics in The Dinner Party (http://www.judychicago.com/gallery.php?name=The+Dinner+Party+Gallery) (1974-1979); the unmuted sexual rawness of Ariela Shavid’s post-mastectomy self-portrait as a swimsuit model (Calendar series, 1996); and in Betye Saar’s The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/BetyeSaar.php) (1972), to read the black fist as symbolically black rather than appearing as merely high contrast.

 

(1) Source: Saltz, Jerry. “‘Picasso Baby’ Live: Jerry Saltz Goes Face-to-Face With Jay-Z.” Vulture, 11 July, 2013, http://www.vulture.com/2013/07/jerry-saltz-face-to-face-with-jay-z.html

I recently had the amazing opportunity to spend five weeks in a French immersion program at a university in Quebec City. I met amazing people, learned a lot of French, ate delicious food, and had an incredible time. It was a life-changing experience to say the least, but not always in the best way.

I go to a small liberal arts college in a calm, small city. I know most of the people in my school and adore the deep sense of community that I have there. I know that if I walked home after the bar, it would not only take me less than five minutes to get from any bar in town to residence, but that I would be safe. Being ingrained with rape culture, however, I do make sure I have a charged phone, some sort of weapon, and well-lit paths when I’m venturing alone. It was a change of scenery to go from that setting to a bustling campus with thousands living on residence, an overwhelming majority of whom were strangers. My residence was always open, featured glass walls, and had separate wings with their own elevators and staircases.

My second Wednesday in the program, I was coming home from a fun night of karaoke at a little past one in the morning. My friends, who lived in other residence buildings made it a point to stop at my residence despite their far walk so I didn’t have to walk alone. I walked across the lobby and down a hallway until I got to the elevator for my wing, tucked away in the corner of the square building. As soon as I pushed the button, I noticed footsteps pacing towards the elevator. Figuring it’s somebody who wanted to get home as well, I didn’t think much of it and began texting on my phone, telling my friends I got home safe and that I’ll see them tomorrow.

The man who started to wait for the elevator with me started talking to me. He asked me my name, to which I responded. Noticing I was an anglophone, he asked me if I was here for the immersion program and other related questions, to which I curtly answered. The elevator finally came and I got in and pressed my button. I asked the man what floor he was on and he said, “Whatever floor you’re going on.” As the door closed, my heart dropped. I froze.

The man began telling me that he could “show me a good time” and teach me French. He started inching closer. The elevator finally stopped at my floor, and I didn’t get off. I didn’t want to go to my room and have this guy knowing where I lived. Instinctively, I pushed the button back to the main floor, wanting to be where there were people. Although I was clearly uncomfortable, this man took that as a desire to go home with him and asked if I was coming with him. I told him no, that he should get off, and he grew visibly angry. When the elevator reached the lobby, he muttered foul things and stormed off. I immediately pressed the button for my seventh floor again, looked out for him when I got off, and ran immediately to my room and did not come out for the rest of the night, despite needing to use the bathroom. I was too scared to leave my room to pee in the school residence. Not being able to sleep, I laid awake the rest of the night and chewed over how messed up what I’d just experienced was.

This was the first time in my life where I experienced the consequences of patriarchal entitlement. This man made it clear that he didn’t leave in my wing, and I’m not sure if he even lives in my building- thankfully, I never saw him again after this incident. Although he had no business being there, this man chose to follow me from somewhere in the building to the elevator leading to the place I lived. This man might have been a stranger from the city because the residence had zero security features that would prevent non-residence students from wandering in. This man invaded my privacy and violated my sense of security by making advances and ignoring my obvious discomfort and somehow felt entitled to feel angry about my saying no. It infuriates me when I think about how he believed he deserved to be let into my room. I did not feel safe on campus for the rest of my stay. I was very uncomfortable every time I was in the elevator with somebody I didn’t know and was always antsy about having a similar experience.

I was very overwhelmed with what to do right after this incident happened. I was scared. What if people respond with victim-blaming comments that I would not be able to handle? Would people be indifferent because nothing physical happened? Is this a normal occurrence here? How would I be able to retell the story in French?

I decided that I did want to an authority figure about this but realized I lacked the resources to do so. We were given emergency security numbers and equipped with a red “in case of emergency” phone on every floor, but was never told of any other resources we could turn to for non-urgent but still dangerous situations like this. Then I remembered a presentation on the harassment prevention department in the beginning of the school year, and receiving a sheet. When I found the sheet and read it over, I couldn’t believe the “harassment prevention tips” that were given: consider what kind of a message you’re sending people, make sure you’re not dressed suggestively, control your drinking. All of these “tips” were slut-shaming, victim-blaming ideas presented as though the victim has a part in whether they get harassed or not. There was nothing along the lines of: if somebody does not reciprocate interest, leave them alone, make sure you’re creating a comfortable atmosphere for people, do not become aggressive to people, or anything that holds the harassers responsible and actually prevents rape.

I was pretty defeated at the lax and rape-apologist behavior that the school held, and when I expressed these concerns to my group of friends, not many of them seemed to recognize this as a problem. I did, however,I find out that several other girls had similar experiences within the residence building, from different men.

This incident was disturbing and unfortunate, but it did open my eyes to the fact that rape culture and the subsequent victim blaming and male entitlement do not merely exist but thrive, even in young minds. It was painful to have to describe my “not too bad” outfit to people and being dismissed when explaining that that it is an unimportant detail. People who heard what had happened even asked me what I was wearing, what time it was that night, and why I had talked to him if I wasn’t interested.The most upsetting comment I’d gotten was from a well meaning friend, who’d said “At least do anything serious.” That statement implied several things. A man invaded my security and tried to follow me home against my will and I am supposed to be glad he didn’t try to break in or physically assault me. What happened to me is not considered “serious” despite the fact I didn’t feel safe enough to leave my room the entire night.

Although that Wednesday night was definitely a dark part of my trip and tainted a lot of my experience overall, it helped me recognized the reality of rape culture and patriarchal entitlement and left me with a lasting impression. I plan on contacting various university officials regarding their ineffective wording and lack of resources. Truthfully, I am unsure of what more to do because of the omnipresent problem that is rape culture which goes beyond one school or one encounter.

In November 2012, four women began a movement in protest of the Canadian government’s policies regarding treaty rights and environmental laws. These women, Nina Wilson, Sheelah Mclean, Sylvia McAdam and Jessica Gordon were the sparks that ignited the Idle No More movement, which has gained momentum and solidarity worldwide.

As a resident of Saskatchewan,where the movement first began, and a woman of colour, I have supported this movement from its beginning, which began with small, local protests and rallies, as well as workshops held by the founding women and like-minded people. The movement was a response to the Canadian Conservative government’s introduction of Bill C-45, which, among budget laws, included laws that stripped treaty rights and ripped away environmental protection.

The protests grew in size and began spreading across Canada and in parts of the United States. Soon, people from all over the world, including indigenous* people from various parts of the globe, expressed great support and solidarity. Flash round dances, speaker events, and bigger rallies began being organized and the grassroots movement grew into something international. What I found remarkable as I watched the movement take flight was the connectedness of oppressed people all over the globe– the photos of signs held in solidarity were sent in from Afghanistan, Japan, England, and countless other nations from people of all backgrounds. There was an immense amount of solidarity expressed for indigenous people of Canada, who have been neglected to be treated justly for far too long.

Idle No More’s relevance to feminism is apparent: it is another movement that hopes to bring justice and equality to a social minority, started by women. From Native Studies classes and Idle No More speakers, I have learned that women in indigenous communities traditionally play a prominent role. While every First Nation has different roles and expectations it has of women, it appears that culturally, indigenous communities have a sense of gender equality. Idle No More brings to light the power of women, not only in an indigenous context but in global, political contexts as well.

This women-driven movement is also one of the very few times I’ve seen indigenous people represented in a positive light. First Nations people of Canada face an overwhelming amount of racism and prejudice. Idle No More disproved stereotypes of laziness and dependency as it took off and demanded that human rights of the indigenous people are protected. Despite its small roots, the movement eventually received a good amount of deserving media attention.

One of the biggest stories regarding Idle No More was the Attawapiskat First Nation’s Chief Theresa Spence’s hunger strike. Chief Spence announced a hunger strike on December 11th, 2012 as a public demand for prime minister Stephen Harper and governor general David Johnston to meet with her about the relationship between First Nations and the Canadian government. Her hunger strike lasted six weeks and ended on January 24th, 2013.

Because it was the most talked-about issue regarding the Idle No More movement, support poured in quickly. Many people fasted for a day in solidarity, including several politicians. Amnesty International expressed support for Chief Spence, as did former prime minister Paul Martin. However, there were many appalling features to the hunger strike, as well. The government’s response was slow and inauthentic at best, as it took the prime minister five weeks since the beginning of the highly-publicized protest to agree to meet with Chief Spence. While the government’s neglectful response was upsetting, the most disheartening thing regarding the response to Chief Spence’s protest was the prominence of sexism. Although this woman was risking her health to have her political message heard, people were criticizing her relentlessly. Some said that she wore too much makeup, while others made fun of her for looking haggard. Her hair, clothing, and appearance overall was scrutinized during interviews while she was explaining the critical housing and living situations of her reserves. People had an endless fascination with her weight, trying to figure out how much she’d lost during her political starvation. Chief Spence, because she was a woman, faced the burden of having her looks critiqued, her motives questioned, and her message belittled. Similarly, the women who began the organization had their education and achievements overlooked and had the focus instead on their appearances. It was as though despite the importance of these women in the Idle No More movement, the most important thing about them were their looks. Remember when the members of Pussy Riot received more scrutiny and attention over their looks than they did over their politics and protests? Unfortunately, the sexist and superficial coverage of Idle No More reminded me that most media would rather inform the reader the physique of an influential, political woman than their thoughts.

Idle No More is a movement I’m following closely and supporting wholeheartedly. The media attention has faded, but the passion within the movement has only grown stronger. Youth from central Canada have marched for days towards parliament in protest, more flash round dances were, held, and the sense of solidarity is still strong. Considering the strong value women hold in indigenous cultures overall and the negligence and human rights violations the Canadian government has shown to indigenous communities, Idle No More is an absolutely necessary movement that will hopefully bring change and improved policy. Furthermore, it is a movement started by and held together by women of colour, where their often silenced voices are not only heard but amplified.

In the upcoming fall semester, I will be taking a seminar course on indigenous connections to the land and its relation to current politics, specifically Idle No More. I am lucky to attend a school that recognizes the significance of the relatively new and definitely underrepresented movement. During this seminar, I will be able to meet the leaders of the movement and hopefully will be able to keep Paradigm Shift posted on new insights!

 

 

*Although there are several terms that describe indigenous people, indigenous is the term that was not given through colonialist laws and the one that I, along with most of the Idle No More movement, prefer to use.

 

 

Here in NYC, our regular teen mom shaming subway ads have been swapped out for black and white portraits of actresses ready to play topless football.

 

 

My first thought was “is Starr Jones going to be in a powder-puff football reality show?”

 

Thankfully, no (although I’d probably watch the first season). What we’re supposed to be taking away from this homage to Starr Jones’ collarbone is an awareness of heart disease in women. The organization Go Red for Women has funded this series of ads across the NYC metro system. Go Red for Women is part of the American Heart Association and promotes heart disease prevention in women.

 

Heart disease, as the Go Red site notes, is the “no. 1 killer of women and is more deadly than all forms of cancer.” A serious, urgent cause. Nude actresses are probably not the best way to promote this.

 

Did these ads get your attention? Apart from wondering if I needed to add a new show to my reality TV lineup, this campaign didn’t immediately seem relevant to me. The problem I had was that I’m a woman, and these ads are definitely not created with women in mind.

 

The most obvious issue with these ads is that they’re catering to the male gaze and, as a female viewer, I reflexively disregard them. These women—famous, conventionally beautiful actresses—are supposedly topless and decked out in full makeup and fancy blow-outs. It’s provocative, sexy, and isn’t meant to purposefully attract me. Usually, when I see subway ads with semi-nude women, I assume they’re peddling wine spritzers or underperforming buddy movies. I’m not interested in either.

 

Why create ads that cater to a male audience when you’re trying to speak to women?

 

 

Perhaps I’m part of the minority here; using sex to sell anything has become so prevalent that many of us are desensitized to it. Even if we can argue that these dolled-up celebrities are equally attention-grabbing to everyone, regardless of the obvious male slant, a bigger issue with this campaign is that the American Heart Association is using sex to sell heart disease prevention. Moreover, they’re only using this tactic in their female heart health ads.

 

This sexy marketing seems strange, ineffective, and downright disrespectful. It’s insulting to treat a serious, life-threatening disease with such surprisingly flippancy. It’s as if the marketing team, compelled to include women in ads about female heart disease, solved the problem of attracting attention by shooting their models topless.

 

I understand where the Go Red campaign is coming from; they’re trying (I hope) to show strong, powerful women who are literally getting ready to “attack” heart disease. The “Arm Yourself for Battle” tagline also conveys strength, in addition to reinforcing the tough road ahead—put yourself on the defense, and take precautions now. The celebrities are meant to grab our attention and help us understand the weight of this issue (“If Starr Jones thinks this is important, it must really be!”).

 

This could have been done more effectively if these actresses weren’t portrayed as sexy football players. The warped message coming through these ads is that heart disease is an important issue, but fighting or having heart disease doesn’t mean you can’t be sexy. This campaign is, simply, ineffective. Is slapping on some fierce face paint and taking off my top—totally legal in NYC, by the way—going to make other women think, “I should probably eat more whole grains”? I doubt it.

 

A real-life approach using fully-clothed, non-celebrity women warning us about the dangers of heart disease might better. Wouldn’t women—the target audience—be more likely to notice and respond to an ad created with them in mind?

 

All in all, Go Red for Women is still a worthy cause, in that it is the most visible organization working to spread awareness of the risk of heart disease in women. It is important for women to have a resource to learn about this disease, and Go Red is providing that. After all, heart disease, as Go Red notes, kills one woman every minute.

 

Go Red is providing an important public service. Their marketing, though, is complicating that goal.

Here in NYC, our regular teen mom shaming subway ads have been swapped out for black and white portraits of actresses ready to play topless football.

My first thought was “is Starr Jones going to be in a powder-puff football reality show?”

 

Thankfully, no (although I’d probably watch the first season). What we’re supposed to be taking away from this homage to Starr Jones’ collarbone is an awareness of heart disease in women. The organization Go Red for Women has funded this series of ads across the NYC metro system. Go Red for Women is part of the American Heart Association and promotes heart disease prevention in women.

 

Heart disease, as the Go Red site notes, is the “no. 1 killer of women and is more deadly than all forms of cancer.” A serious, urgent cause. Nude actresses are probably not the best way to promote this.

 

Did these ads get your attention? Apart from wondering if I needed to add a new show to my reality TV lineup, this campaign didn’t immediately seem relevant to me. The problem I had was that I’m a woman, and these ads are definitely not created with women in mind.

 

The most obvious issue with these ads is that they’re catering to the male gaze and, as a female viewer, I reflexively disregard them. These women—famous, conventionally beautiful actresses—are supposedly topless and decked out in full makeup and fancy blow-outs. It’s provocative, sexy, and isn’t meant to purposefully attract me. Usually, when I see subway ads with semi-nude women, I assume they’re peddling wine spritzers or underperforming buddy movies. I’m not interested in either.

 

Why create ads that cater to a male audience when you’re trying to speak to women?

Perhaps I’m part of the minority here; using sex to sell anything has become so prevalent that many of us are desensitized to it. Even if we can argue that these dolled-up celebrities are equally attention-grabbing to everyone, regardless of the obvious male slant, a bigger issue with this campaign is that the American Heart Association is using sex to sell heart disease prevention. Moreover, they’re only using this tactic in their female heart health ads.

 

This sexy marketing seems strange, ineffective, and downright disrespectful. It’s insulting to treat a serious, life-threatening disease with such surprisingly flippancy. It’s as if the marketing team, compelled to include women in ads about female heart disease, solved the problem of attracting attention by shooting their models topless.

 

I understand where the Go Red campaign is coming from; they’re trying (I hope) to show strong, powerful women who are literally getting ready to “attack” heart disease. The “Arm Yourself for Battle” tagline also conveys strength, in addition to reinforcing the tough road ahead—put yourself on the defense, and take precautions now. The celebrities are meant to grab our attention and help us understand the weight of this issue (“If Starr Jones thinks this is important, it must really be!”).

 

This could have been done more effectively if these actresses weren’t portrayed as sexy football players. The warped message coming through these ads is that heart disease is an important issue, but fighting or having heart disease doesn’t mean you can’t be sexy. This campaign is, simply, ineffective. Is slapping on some fierce face paint and taking off my top—totally legal in NYC, by the way—going to make other women think, “I should probably eat more whole grains”? I doubt it.

 

A real-life approach using fully-clothed, non-celebrity women warning us about the dangers of heart disease might better. Wouldn’t women—the target audience—be more likely to notice and respond to an ad created with them in mind?

 

All in all, Go Red for Women is still a worthy cause, in that it is the most visible organization working to spread awareness of the risk of heart disease in women. It is important for women to have a resource to learn about this disease, and Go Red is providing that. After all, heart disease, as Go Red notes, kills one woman every minute.

 

Go Red is providing an important public service. Their marketing, though, is complicating that goal.

Ana Mendieta was a mid-career artist in her 30s during the 1980s, but her exhibition at Galerie Lelong (http://www.galerielelong.com/exhibition/1771) in Chelsea is called ‘Ana Mendieta Late Works: 1981-85’. The reason? In 1985, her promising career was cut short when she plummeted from the 34^th floor Greenwich Village apartment of her husband Carl Andre (also an artist). Leading up to Andre’s acquittal of second degree murder, the New York art world became polarized, with feminists striving to preserve her memory in the face of the old boys’ club and to see justice served for what appeared to be an unlikely suicide.

 

Olga M. Viso has written that the sensationalism surrounding her death caused her work to be interpreted as a commentary on violence towards women. It wasn’t just in the media; in the courtroom, the chief defense lawyer implied that her death had been foretold with artworks featuring a lifeless female figure impacting the earth and surrounded by blood. Complicating matters is the fact that Mendieta did, on occasion, make work about the victimization of females, like recreating a rape scene from a newspaper story in which she played the role of the victim. In seeing, say, sculptures at Galerie Lelong with impressions made in a tree trunk using burnt gunpowder, it’s easy to have a knee-jerk reaction and equate gunpowder with violence. But in the age of SlutWalks and the movement (hopefully) away from victim blaming, how might we resist the intrigue of the biographical method and see Mendieta’s art in a more balanced way?

 

A good place to start is the description of her work from her first exhibition at A.I.R. Gallery as an ongoing dialogue with nature. Mendieta felt uprooted because she relocated from her native Cuba to the US with only her sister when she was 12 years old. Years later, she would reach out to her homeland through her art by making work in the waters of Key Biscayne, Florida, which ultimately flow to Cuba, and making sand floor sculptures in Italy in the shape of Arfo-Cuban ritualistic objects, possibly with grains of sand from Cuba included in the mix. It’s no small wonder that her sister, the executor of her estate, declined invitations to include Mendieta in Latin American shows until she was seen as something other than a Latin American artist. The reductive tendency can be multi-faceted.

 

The point is, she used her art to connect to the world—literally. Earth art is a well established genre today, with entire courses devoted to its study, but when Mendieta was in graduate school at the University of Idaho, it was revolutionary for visiting artist Scott Burton to install furniture within the wild landscape of the campus. Mendieta’s take on earth art was deeply personal in comparison. Like many female artists in the second wave of feminism, she used her body directly in her work, making what she called earth-body sculptures. In her trademark ‘siluetas’ (silhouettes), she traced her tiny frame in the landscape repeatedly, filling it with snow, flowers, leaves and other organic materials. Playing with positive and negative space, she created these goddess-type shapes as protrusions built up with mud and also as indentations dug into the earth and then exposed them to the elements.

 

With gallery images at your fingertips, why visit in person? Perspective is everything. When the New Museum held a much-heralded retrospective of her work, the catalogue printed a photograph of El Labertino de la Vida (The Labyrinth of Life) (1982) so that the ‘head’ of the figure points to the left. The same photograph appears in Galerie Lelong oriented upright, in the same orientation printed elsewhere, which emphasizes the clitoral/vaginal element of the design. Curiously, the lack of focus at the base of the figure, where a spiral trails off, indicates that the artist would have taken the shot from the head rather than the base. To hang it this way, however, would sacrifice an interesting visual relationship with another nearby vertical photograph that highlights their similarities.

 

A visit is worthwhile for the videos alone. One shows a silueta set ablaze, with a final puff of smoke emerging from the figure’s head. Another, with shimmering water surrounding the hourglass shape of a silueta, captures the magic Mendieta sought relentlessly in her work.

 

The exhibition closes June 15.