4. You will be asked whether you’re a single parent or a lesbian or childless or fat, as if these things were accusations
And when they’re wrong, you will have to resist triumphantly shouting something like: “No! Ha! I am a straight, married mother of average BMI! In your STUPID PRESUMPTUOUS FACE!” Because to do that would, of course, be to endorse the hatstand morality that says being a single parent or a lesbian or childless or fat is a shameful condition that invalidates anything you have to say – and it would leave you at a distinct disadvantage if they ever fluked into being correct.
Yet there is some purpose in your impulse to deny: when people say these things, they’re saying that nothing you ever do can be uninflected by the physical. They’re saying that you are the deviation from the reliable, masculine norm and your words proceed from your ovaries. You would understandably like to disabuse them of that notion.
And you may do so – gently, and without accepting that there’s any justice in their hatreds.
5. You will hear: “Not everything is a feminist issue, you know”
Some people think sexism should get a pass for the greater good. Their version of the greater good is shitting on half the world, which doing some maths tells me is not actually the greater good at all. Ignore them.
6. You will be told: “Enough with the isms and ists”
Personally, I don’t feel like it is enough. I don’t think it’s good enough for my daughter and her peers to grow up in a world where some chump can go on TV and joke about his “instincts” telling him to grope a woman’s breasts, and then use the image of her giving someone (implicitly him) a hand job to embarrass her. I am not cool with that.
Before we had the language of “ists” and “isms” we had “no property rights” and “legal marital rape”. We’re a tiny way out of a history of seeing women as things not people, and I want the next generation to grow up knowing that they do not have to put up with this rudeness.
Because that’s why I write about feminism: in the hope that some time, eventually, no one will have to.

Author: Aya de Leon. Dress: Betsy Johnson, vintage.
Accessories: Rag for incineration, Vice Magazine fiction issue featuring women writers suicide fashion spread.

1. Because being a woman and a writer is not a tragedy

2. Because my sexy feminist heist novel isn't finished yet

3. Because I'm a mom

4. Because my life was worth living even before I was a mom

5. And for Toni Morrison

6. And Diane Balser

7. And for Audre Lorde

8. And Barbara Kingsolver

9. Because sexism is a cause of depression

10. Because I aim to see sexism end in my lifetime

11. And for June Jordan

12. And Tobe Correal

13. And for Mabel Maney
(Up to 99 most excellent reasons

http://bitchmagazine.org/post/99-reasons-i-as-a-female-writer-wont-be-killing-myself

I am 17 years old and I am a feminist. I believe in gender equality, and am under no illusion about how far we are from achieving it. Identifying as a feminist has become particularly important to me since a school trip I took to Cambridge last year.

A group of men in a car started wolf-whistling and shouting sexual remarks at my friends and me. I asked the men if they thought it was appropriate for them to be abusing a group of 17-year-old girls. The response was furious. The men started swearing at me, called me a bitch and threw a cup coffee over me.

For those men we were just legs, breasts and pretty faces. Speaking up shattered their fantasy, and they responded violently to my voice.

Shockingly, the boys in my peer group have responded in exactly the same way to my feminism.

After returning from this school trip I started to notice how much the girls at my school suffer because of the pressures associated with our gender. Many of the girls have eating disorders, some have had peers heavily pressure them into sexual acts, others suffer in emotionally abusive relationships where they are constantly told they are worthless.

I decided to set up a feminist society at my school, which has previously been named one of "the best schools in the country", to try to tackle these issues. However, this was more difficult than I imagined as my all-girls school was hesitant to allow the society. After a year-long struggle, the feminist society was finally ratified.

20 JUNE 2013 | GENEVA - Physical or sexual violence is a public health problem that affects more than one third of all women globally, according to a new report released by WHO in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the South African Medical Research Council.

The report, Global and regional estimates of violence against women: Prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence, represents the first systematic study of global data on the prevalence of violence against women – both by partners and non-partners. Some 35% of all women will experience either intimate partner or non-partner violence. The study finds that intimate partner violence is the most common type of violence against women, affecting 30% of women worldwide.

The study highlights the need for all sectors to engage in eliminating tolerance for violence against women and better support for women who experience it. New WHO guidelines, launched with the report, aim to help countries improve their health sector’s capacity to respond to violence against women.

Impact on physical and mental health

The report details the impact of violence on the physical and mental health of women and girls. This can range from broken bones to pregnancy-related complications, mental problems and impaired social functioning.

THE BEST OF ‘I NEED
FEMINISM BECAUSE…’
They're the whiteboards that have swept across campuses nationwide. The Tab picks out the best of the 'I need feminism' signs.
By The Tab

These whiteboards came alive on campuses across the UK this year as students scrawled their ‘I need feminism’ messages on them.
And almost all the resulting pictures went viral on Facebook as more students and societies joined the whiteboard movement.
Here The Tab picks out the best of the bunch from around the country.






http://tab.co.uk/2013/06/20/the-best-of-i-need-feminism-because/

This led to a side discussion about what “rape culture” meant. The suggestion came up that the phrase is a dog whistle that prevents honest discussion and implies all men are rapists and rape-enablers.

Okay, given the seven billion people in this world, I’m sure you can find one who believes all men are rapists, but that isn’t what that phrase has meant in any conversation I can remember having. (It is what I’ve seen some “Men’s Rights” advocates try to claim it means, because it gives them a way to derail discussion.)

I use “rape culture” to describe a society in which sexual violence is common, underreported, and underprosecuted, where rape victims are blamed or even prosecuted for trying to report the crime. A society that turns its back on rape survivors, or blames them for wearing the wrong clothes, drinking the wrong things, sending the wrong signals, putting themselves in the wrong situation, and so on. A society that treats women as objects and encourages men to be sexually aggressive, to see sex as a game to be won.

Does this mean all men believe women who are raped deserve it? That’s as silly as saying “The U.S. has a strong gun culture” = “All Americans are gun owners” or “Tumblr is full of fandom culture” = “All Tumblr posts are about fandom.”

Okay, fine, the argument goes. But that doesn’t prove this so-called “rape culture” actually exists. You worked as a rape counselor and spend a lot of time talking about this. Doesn’t that give you a distorted, overblown sense of the problem?

Christian Domestic Discipline, or CDD as its adherents call it, is a movement that seeks to carry out God's will. Which specific plan of God's? Oh, you know, just that all women obey their husbands fastidiously — a dynamic that CDD thinks is best maintained through doling out out corporal punishments. Its few thousand practitioners, however, claim that it's not domestic abuse.

The Christian Domestic Discipline Yahoo! group, which is private, opens with a quote from Hebrews 12:11: "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." And, whom are we to train into righteousness and peace? Women only (duh)! The group's description goes on to say, "We offer a LOVING approach to all who wish to learn and grow in a traditional Male, head of household, female submissive, Christian Domestic Discipline relationship." One last caveat:

This is not a typical "spank" site. We are NOT a dating service, a list for personal ads, bratting, erotic stories, or alternate lifestyles. We do not discuss Sadomasochism, the disciplining of children, same gender relationships, or Fem domination/male submission.
According to CDD practitioners, Domestic Discipline is neither erotic nor abusive. It's merely a "practice between two consenting life partners in which the head of the household (HoH) takes necessary measures to achieve a healthy relationship dynamic... to create a healthy home environment... [and] to protect all members of the family from dangerous or detrimental outcomes by punishing the contributing, and thus unwanted, behaviors for the greater good of the entire family."

Serena Williams apologises after comment that rape victim 'shouldn't have put herself in that position'


Williams, 31, whose multi-million dollar endorsement deals with brand such as Nike could have been threatened by the PR disaster, faced an immediate backlash from fans on Twitter.

The responses included: "@serenawilliams you lost many fans with you nasty comments about a young lady who was raped. Shame"

Williams, who was awarded the top seeding at Wimbledon on Wednesday, released a statement on her apologising for the controversial comments. "What happened in Steubenville was a real shock for me," she said. "I was deeply saddened.

"For someone to be raped, and at only sixteen, is such a horrible tragedy! For both families involved - that of the rape victim and of the accused.

"I am currently reaching out to the girl's family to let her know that I am deeply sorry for what was written in the Rolling Stone article. What was written - what I supposedly said - is insensitive and hurtful, and I by no means would say or insinuate that she was at all to blame."

Williams added: "I have fought all of my career for women's equality, women's equal rights, respect in their fields - anything I could do to support women I have done. My prayers and support always goes out to the rape victim. In this case, most especially, to an innocent sixteen-year-old child."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/serena-williams-apologises-after-comment-that-rape-victim-shouldnt-have-put-herself-in-that-position-8664998.html

Yesterday evening the House of Representatives passed the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” a ban on legal abortions 20 weeks or more after fertilization based on dubious evidence that fetuses can feel pain during the second trimester. Sound unconstitutional? That’s because it is; courts have struck down similar state-wide bans in Arizona and Idaho (and temporarily delayed a similar measure in Georgia) based on Supreme Court precedent.

We don’t yet need to gear up for a legal fight on this the national ban, though, because it won’t become law this time around: the Senate isn’t pro-choice, but it is unlikely to even consider the bill. If it does, the measure has too little support to break a filibuster or overturn the already-promised presidential veto.

The bad news is that the 20-week ban, sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), is evidence the GOP isn’t backing down on its fight against abortion access. After the 2012 election, high-ranking Republican leaders, including John McCain, called for a shift in party focus: promising to roll back reproductive rights, they seemed to say, is just not a strategy that will win us national elections.

Despite this opportunity to liberalize its stance, though, the anti-choice GOP has only redoubled its efforts, even when they know the proposed bills have no shot. (This kind of symbolic voting in the House isn’t rare. Let’s remind ourselves that the House has voted to repeal Obamacare how many times? 37? And guess what kids, I’m still not paying for my birth control.) Legislative campaigns like these may not result in immediate victories, but they energize the anti-choice base and inspire similar state-level efforts, which are more likely to be passed and, ultimately, present a challenge to abortion rights in the Supreme Court. These efforts also force reproductive justice advocates onto the defensive, distracting them from efforts to expand access, and shift the conversation: because of yesterday’s vote I’m writing about an absurd 20-week abortion ban rather than how to overturn the Hyde Amendment.

Advocating on behalf of other animals is a political protest that is often hugely influential to a woman’s self-identity. But to challenge the institution of animal use is to challenge the institution of male dominance. On one hand, women who take on “masculine” traits in their advocacy are met with hostility. On the other, women who perform their gender “appropriately” are not taken seriously due to their femininity. Many academics have been critical of PETA’s sexual objectification of female advocates, but only a handful has discussed the sexism that structures the movement as a whole. Even fewer on-the-ground advocates have touched on gender discrimination and policing. For the most part, the female experience is omitted from animal liberation discourse.


Race politics, too, tend to go ignored in Nonhuman Animal rights claimsmaking. A June 6, 2013 post on an anti-speciesism website, Free From Harm, urges readers to “help stop the practice of ‘live sushi’,” which they call “barbaric,” “vulgar” and a “shame to the Japanese people.” I responded with the suggestion that such a campaign reinforces structural racism. Sensationalizing particular acts of cruelty committed by people of color encouraging prejudice and facilitates a sense of white superiority. I received a response very similar to my work against sexism. Advocates, who were mostly white, attacked me viciously, accusing me of “playing the race card” for intentional trouble-making. One even diagnosed me with a mental disorder.

While race plays an important role in the repertoire, people of color are often tokenized. That is, especially atrocious manifestations of racism (like slavery) are drawn upon to make a case for anti-speciesism. Yet, as Dr. Breeze Harper has theorized, the current experiences of people of color are ignored or denied in vegan outreach efforts. Major organizations pay little to no attention to the reality of environmental racism, food deserts, and ongoing human abolitionist advocacy. While Harper and other vegan women of color have been vocal about this marginalization, the Nonhuman Animal rights movement tends to operate as though in a post-racial society where enslavement and discrimination are a thing of the past. This post-racial position presumes that everyone has equal access to vegan alternatives and present-day people of color are disconnected from their history of colonization and racism.

History has shown us that women can prove a powerful force in advocating for social change. Yet, in the social movement arena, what tactics and measures are considered legitimate and helpful are still managed closely by men (and the women socialized to support them). The Nonhuman Animal rights movement has an added layer of complexity in that speciesism is an offshoot of patriarchy and the movement itself maintains a patriarchal hierarchy of command. Policing femininity and omitting feminist critique has the unfortunate consequence of reinforcing sexist stereotypes and limiting women’s potential contributions. This omission makes building bridges to other social movements difficult. Ultimately, the movement’s conception of oppression is fragmentary and anti-speciesism is left anything but inclusive.