FemineUs

Take that, American Apparel!

2010-07-10T09:03:00.000-07:00

This Is What A Real Woman Looks Like

2010-06-07T20:40:00.000-07:00

Everyone should check out this awesome video our "Women In Pop Culture" classmates made about body image and the media. Head over to our professor Melanie Klein's post about the project on Feminist Fatale if you like what you see!

National HIV Testing Day

2010-06-03T13:37:00.000-07:00

Did you know that today is National HIV Testing Day? Oh really, you didn't? That's alright -- Simply enter your zip code here to find a testing center near you!

Don't think you need to get tested because you aren't gay/haven't had many sexual partners/feel invincible? Think again. Our generation has grown up with a lot of myths about HIV and AIDS and it's about time we correct them. Heather Corinna at Scarleteen's got my back here, debunking crazy claims like "HIV/AIDS isn't a real problem anymore now that we have better drugs to deal with it" and "HIV/AIDS is only a real problem in Africa" left and right. Go check out what she has to say on the matter. You might learn something that'll save your life.

For young people concerned about confidentiality (or perhaps concealing the need for an HIV test from one's parents...) Heather Corinna has the following advice:

You can get a test for HIV --an oral swab and/or a blood test -- at your regular, general doctor's office or general health clinic, at a hospital, via student health services or through your gynecologist, urologist or sexual health/family planning clinic. There are also clinics which specifically deal with HIV testing and treatment, too. But ALL of those places are legally obligated to protect your privacy.
If you're a minor, you can get HIV testing in most locations worldwide without parental permission or notification. If you choose to use a doctor where your family insurance will cover your visit, then your test may show up on the statement sent to your family, but with so many options for HIV testing in most places -- many of which are low-cost or even free -- there's no need to go through that channel unless you want to. Most HIV results are not sent in the mail, or given to someone else, but given to you, one-on-one, by the person who tested you.

Go ahead, plug in your zip code and find a testing center near you. You'll be glad you did.

Are you Nasty and Inappropriate or Sexy?

2010-06-03T01:36:00.000-07:00

I interviewed multiple students at Santa Monica College to get their feedback on what they thought if the opposite sex has passed gas in their presence. Not only about farts, I also asked them questions about what they find appealing or attractive of the sex that they are normally attracted to. I make a little video about the purpose of making this post.

My Post 1

My Post 2

My Post 3

Although Kardale’s answer was a bit upsetting, there were other responses that brought joy to my face.

Alejandro’s Response

Now, I know that some of you may have lasted though the day and had to hold your farts in right? Well, did you know that you are at the risk of getting hemorrhoids? This is only possible because the more the anal increases in frequent contractions, it creates pressure and decrease blood flow to that specific area.

So please, push that fart out because it’s healthy for you. Which is why I’m writing this to everyone. Flatulence should not be perceived as abnormal and disgusting. Yeah, the smell may be terrible, but at least our farts are not accumulating to the air pollution. I mean would you rather smell a cigarette or fart?

Attraction also brought some interesting response. I like Zweli’s answer with the fart question but when he began describing what make him attractive to another woman, it just seemed like he was objectifying all women that he dates or would like to date.

But my favorite response was Alejandro’s.

I fucking loved this one because it took him forever to figure out what he found unattractive about a women/girl. I mean geez, I wish there to be more gentlemen like Alejandro.

Veronica

So I guess what I’m trying to make you understand is that no matter what color, shape, or form you are, everyone should accept what you already have because humans are precious beings. No matter if you fart a lot of have other bodily functions, everyone should treat you with respect and no discriminating of any kind.

Young Activism...

2010-06-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

There are plenty of young activists around the globe, and there are also plenty of young feminist activists. One movement that stands out to me, that I really enjoyed learning about, was the 1970's movement.
According to Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings, in 1971 about "600 chicanas met in Houston, Texas to hold the first national conference of Raza women." It just showed that when people are passionate aobut something they will put all differences aside and stand together for something they all want.

These Chicanas knew what they wanted, and when they wanted it. They called for a resolution that stated, "we have a right to control our own bodies." Besides that, they were bringing awareness to what they felt was important in their lifes, like "sex and the Chicana" and "marriage -Chicana Style." But the most important thing that came out of this movement was that Chicanas realized how important they were to society, and they realized that they were being oppressed in society. These women started to question everything that they felt was affecting them, like "inequality in the job to their role at home; machismo, discrimination in education, the double standard, the role of the Catholic Church, and all the ideology designed to keep women subjugated." Honestly, I feel as if these women had the guts to stand up for anything the felt was not taking them into consideration. What more could you ask for?

After seing multiple coverage of student activism on the news when it came to education, I didn't realize how much went into planning. My tio took part in one of the protests that place at UCLA a couple months ago. He was one of the students in charge of making sure that the other however many students showed up stayed in line and didn't get too crazy. Sad to say the protest got coverage, but most of it went to when the police started to "beat" the students with their baton, and my tio was one of them. Even though towards the end it got a little out of hand, my tio said it was worth doing.

For the first time I experienced student activist first hand. I went and filmed the braunching event that some of my classmates put together. To be honest I didn't know wha to expect from this braunching event. When we got to 3rd St. people were running around trying to put last minute things together, and trying to figure out were everyone was suppose to be. I was amazed with how well this group did, they kept their cool when some didn't show up, and changed their game plan at the last minute, but still executed it. They did this little dance, people stopped to stare, and then swung around their bra's. I was impressed with how well this group did, and how they brought awareness to the E.R.A. It taught me that any one can make a difference, you just need passion and commitment, and it may help if you have a group of people that feel the same way about the issue.

Body Image: A Personal Story

2010-05-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

Video blog and text after the jump! I thought I'd change things up a little.

A video blog from yours truly:

Nearly a year ago I became a CrossFitter. For those of you not familiar with what I'm talking about, CrossFit is a high-intensity workout program that's designed to help build all-over strength. I didn't enter the program with a specific goal in mind. I wasn't looking to lose weight nor was I looking to shape myself into a top-tier athlete. At the very least, I figured I would get into better shape and be a bit healthier. So I started taking classes, became hooked to the challenge it provided, and soon found both my body and mind undergoing a radical transformation.

Over the months my body began to change dramatically. Strength I didn't know I had came out of nowhere. You want me to deadlift and back squat my body weight? I can do that. And you want me to shoulder press and front squat half of my body weight? Hey, I can do that too. Don't forget plenty of sit ups, pull ups, and push ups for good measure. Having been skinny and without any kind of muscle tone my entire life, being able to do these kinds of exercises was a big deal for me. I felt stronger and more confident than ever- something I hadn't always felt about my body before.

But even though my body has changed for the better, part of me feels uncomfortable with my new-found biceps and muscular calves. Instead of celebrating my strength and confidence, I sometimes find myself wanting to be skinny again. I've put on 20 pounds of (what I'm guessing is mostly) muscle weight and have gone up two pants sizes because of it. And I know that this isn't a bad thing because I'm the strongest and healthiest I've ever been. So while I am blessed with greater health and wellness, I still find myself wanting to go back to a body that wasn't healthy for me.

I find myself caught in an odd position here. Here I am, a self-declared feminist who is uncomfortable within her own body. I'm well aware (and I'm sure you are too) of the ridiculous and unrealistic beauty standards that women are expected to live up to. But even though I do have this feminist consciousness, I still compare myself with this impossible beauty standard. This is all embarrassing for me to admit to because I do know better and I do know that being a size zero is unhealthy for someone like myself. But even with this knowledge, there is a part of me that still longs to be skinny and tiny and everything that popular culture tells me I should be.

And I know I'm not alone with these feelings. Countless books have been written for, by, and about women on the topic of body image. Some of these books deliver a lighter hearted, but still serious take such as Leslie Goldman's Locker Room Diaries. Others, such as Susan Bordo's Unbearable Weight deliver a more academic take on Western beauty ideals and culture. Both are fully aware of and discuss the consequences and impact that these beauty standards and images have had on women. Goldman speaks freely about her own battles with eating disorders and talks to women of all ages about their body image.

Am I planning on giving up CrossFit any time soon? Not if I can help it. I do my best to ignore what popular culture tells me I should look like, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't affected in some way.

This Is Not An Invitation To Rape Me

2010-05-29T23:06:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, the University of Pennsylvania had a showing of one of my favorite anti-rape campaigns: This Is Not An Invitation to Rape Me. Started in 1993 by Charles Hall in response to a friend's rape, dozens of artists have contributed over the years to the creating and disseminating of these images throughout the United States and the rest of the world. According to the official website,

The campaign has been featured in Playboy, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, Paper Magazine, French Photo, Der Spiegel, Elle, Vibe, George and many other publications. It has also been featured on websites like Feministing.com, Thecurvature.com. and Protectthehuman.com and numerous blogs. The work has been used by The Los Angeles Commission On Assaults Against Women (LACAAW now Peace Over Violence), California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA) and Rape Crisis Scotland. The work has been used in Cal State Northridge's Freshman Orientation Program and exhibited at U.C.L.A's Kershkoff Hall Gallery and Kansas University.

The following are some of my favorite images from the campaign.

These four images come from Rape Crisis Scotland and are free to anyone who wants to download them, slap on some wheat paste, and then put them up around town in poster-form. I'm thinking perhaps we should do that around Santa Monica College. What do you think? I admit it's a bit problematic to put these up around LA considering the posters list a UK-based website with UK-related information and statistics on sexual violence. Ultimately I think the images' message and ability to get the public to (hopefully) reexamine our cultural beliefs related to sexual violence make it worth it.

The Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women (LACAAW), now called Peace Over Violence, ran a similar campaign a number of years back. More images can be viewed here.

LACAAW has also teamed up with Charles Hall to use film in order to combat these pernicious rape myths:

Each of the previous images are designed to challenge common myths about rape: that it "isn't really rape," that women are "asking for it," or that women "deserve it" if they wear provocative clothing, agree to some sexual acts but not others, are sex workers, dance intimately with men, drink in public, get married, and so on and so forth. Other images from the campaign include a homeless woman, a little girl holding hands with an older man, and a woman in a bikini.

The victim-blaming these images attempt to combat has an enormous and dangerous power within our society. Through popular culture, news media, and personal experiences, many women are led to believe from a young age that the responsibility for personal safety lies squarely on our shoulders and that we can blame no one but ourselves if we fail to prevent sexual violence in our lives. These unhealthy beliefs about blame and rape lead to added emotional and mental distress in the wake of sexual violence and sometimes even suicide. In addition to the fear of embarrassment and mistreatment at the hands of the criminal justice system, this sort of "blame culture" encourages women to not report sexual violence to the police. According to the US Department of Justice, 60% of sexual assaults go unreported. RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) created this useful graphic to make clear how this fact combines with rape culture to minimize conviction rates for rapists:

No good can come from women internalizing the belief that they themselves are to blame for their own sexual assaults. The truth is simple: rape is never a woman's fault.

If this study is to be believed, we need Charles Hall's rape myth-busting work now more than ever. In a survey of over 1,000 British individuals, the rape crisis center Havens found that

54 per cent of women believe rape victims should be held accountable for their attack. Women were more likely than men to blame victims, with those aged between 18 and 24 the most likely to judge. Twenty-four per cent of this age group said wearing a short skirt, accepting a drink or having a conversation with the rapist made victims partly responsible. Nearly a fifth of women thought the victim was at fault if she went back to the attacker's house, while more than a tenth (13 per cent) said someone who had been dancing in a provocative way or flirting should be prepared for the consequences.The report also found that 14 per cent of women believe most rape claims are made up. [Emphasis mine]

These statistics are truly terrifying. We desperately need more activism aimed at shifting our cultural perceptions surrounding sexual violence. One way I believe we can achieve this is through implementing new sexual violence prevention programs in our society--specifically programs that focus on men's role in sexual assault. We've touched on the need to address men and the issue of blame in rape prevention before, if you haven't read it already. Until changes like these are made and anti-rape campaigns like Charles Hall's become more mainstream, I fear too many young women will blame themselves for the horrible sexual crimes committed against them.

Want to read more about rape culture and how it affects our daily lives? Check out the following:

Do Skinny Jeans Make You Unrapeable? (an earlier post on FemineUs)
Transforming a Rape Culture by Emilie Buchwald
Melissa McEwan's excellent post on the definition of rape culture and concrete examples of it in our society: Rape Culture 101

Sororities

2010-05-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

Sororities are not the so called sisterhood bonding and support they claim to be. College students joining think that it is beneficial for them to join for a number of reasons, like having rapport with their professors, doing better in school, getting better payed jobs, learning how to socialize better, gaining leadership skills, and making life long friends. This some of the attributes that young women are promised when joining a sorority, often by their schools and often by their mom's who were once in the same sorority, wanting them to continue the tradition. What they often do not know is that there is much darker side to this choice they are about to make. The reality of it is a far cry from those promises and actually the opposite of them. The initiation process is mentally brutal. Some sororities have the young women trying to join do dares naked. Pictures of this is all over the Internet whether they like it or not. I really do not know how these pictures are going to help these young women get higher paying jobs when they graduate. Some even have to have hard core sex on camera. That too is all over the Internet but I do not feel comfortable linking it. Sororities are known to have more emotional torture than psychical torture, which is what the fraternities or brotherhood groups are more known for. However recently they have started to copy cat a lot the the techniques that the fraternities follow. The sororities have become more violent. A guest on the Tyra show said that she was sleeping on the first night that she joined a sorority and in the middle of the night they beat her with socks that had bars of soap in them. They have started hazing like the frats do. It is basically harassing and humiliating someone like they would do in the military. Water hazing has become popular. This is when a person has to drink an observed amount of water in bad conditions. It can be deadly in many cases. For example, in 2005 at the age of twenty-one Mathew Carrington died of a heart attack when he was being water hazed. This is what the females are going too, in the name of sisterhood. Joanne at pen state went through this too and tells her story to Courtney Crowder. She had to cook dinner for the girls and was not into cleaning dishes so they made her repetitively scrub the kitchen floor without gloves. They wanted her to drink black water because she did not want to do it anymore. They would make the girls sing the sororities songs and when they would get it wrong they would emotionally torture them by calling them fat and ugly. How is any of this helping women to develop leadership and social skills. It simply is not- it is doing the exact opposite.

What is shocking is that all these young women who torture the their new "sisters" have been in their shoes before, yet they still do not break the cycle. Many of them live for the day that they can give the pain upon another innocent person to get some sort of revenge for what happened to them. That is what someone said about their mentality behind it on the Tyra show. Many mothers who were in the sororities and experienced it themselves still encourage their daughters to go onto the experience, knowing that their child will have to suffer. Jessica-Fit writes on College Candy that as long as there are people trying to get into the Greek life hazing will live on. This is why the cycle has continued to go on. There are actually websites dedicated to helping girls get through this problem. But why put yourself through this problem if you know you will have to deal with it? The site I mention before that is trying to help them survive tells girls to keep as quit as possible and do what they are told. They tell you to do as you are expected. The site actually tells these young women that the process will help them with time management because of how much of your time it consumes. I rather have my health and sanity than time management. After all that women have gone through to have rights sororities are just giving the women a big "FU." This is not sisterhood to bring down the confidence of your fellow "sisters." Young women thinking of joining sororities should be careful to see if the one they are joining is like these unhealthy ones that we have heard of. The website listed before does recommend seeing what the school policy is on hazing. Stricter punishment may reduce the hazing. Many schools even punish the people being hazed though. It is sad that people are doing it out of fear and then are punished, but at least maybe it will help stop some people from trying to join. Think twice about your dignity, sanity, and health ladies. It is ironic that "soror" sounds much like horror... and that is what it is.

Female Gangsters

2010-05-28T21:50:00.000-07:00

Feminism is not about being violent and "manly"- it is about being proud of the feminine qualities that we are blessed with.
Women are blessed with the aspects of being nurturing and emotional. I do NOT mean to stereotype and say that this is for all women and men, but it is the key characteristic that come to mind. Too many times (esp. when growing up in rough neighborhoods) women feel the need to show that they are just as hard, tough, and violent as men are. Ironically I found an anti women/feminist article that briefly brought this up. The article is regarding nine females including a set of twins who were allegedly female gangsters. They violently beat up and robbed two females who were dipping their feet in the ocean water after a night of clubbing. Even though the twins pleaded guilty they were not charged because the judge said there was too much confusion as to who did what. She also said that they were just growing up and transitioning. Why do these cases occur? Why are females literally ganging up on each other when some men already hate us? It seems like female gangsters have become some sort of trend or even sexy to many men, but it is and always has been deadly. Initiation to be let into a female gang is women on woman crime. I read that often there are two choices for initiation- either you jumped in (or in other words severely beat or "ganged up on") or you can be let in by having sex with five male members of the gang. That is so disturbing!!! To many people that would be considered rape. So many of these women are possibly being rapped to be let into the gang. If the female decides to be let in this way the other women in the gang look down on her, judge her, and mistreat her. On that site I read something very disrespectful to women. Someone said that if a man was choosing to be "sexed in" to the gang by having to have sex with five females they would pull a "trick" on them and make them have sex with the fattest chick because females are "shady." A "trick" is slang or code someone who has sex with prostitutes and does something very shady to them, like abandon them somewhere after they have sex. That is not as serious as having sex with an over weight woman. Any man who has sex with ANY woman should consider himself to be lucky. Why do women decide to be gangsters? Well one thought could be that many times women in bad neighborhoods are sick of being intimidated by men. These are a lot of Hispanic women who are gangsters or "cholas" (of course when I come to find the definition of chola all they have is cholo which is male Hispanic gangsters). I have to admit growing up I have always admired cholas for their fashion sense, beauty, and swagger. There fashions have been inspiring, especially for Gwen stephani who incorporated it into her fashion line. That is a positive way of using the culture. But it is a often a deadly life style.

Many times Hispanic women are sick of having to deal with their man's macho or overly masculine attitude so they go be just as bad and tough as their men. This is not an act of feminism because they are having masculinity traits but imitating male gangsters. Another reason could be that females are plain old mean and competitive sometimes so they need to protect themselves by looking intimidating. They are also often living in neighborhoods filled with danger and crime so they want to show that they are scary and protected from things like rape. A lot of women wish they could be gangsters. There is actually a site I found that is dedicated to showing girls how to be it. The site actually tells women to take a shower everyday because men do not like women who stink. That is so anti women. We as women need to stick together and forget what the guys want from us as sex symbols. Cholas themselves are sex symbols to men, even the ones that fear them. The good thing is that they do not disrespect them to their face. And they really are beautiful. I think it is nice how males can appreciate a woman who is not afraid to be a tom boy. It does help to break some boundaries are woman always having to be "prissy" and needed by a man. On that site that I talked about before there was something semi positive and it was that they told the females to be smart in school. They said that all criminals are supposed to be smart and not be singled out in school because they can get kicked out their home and then killed on the streets. It sure it dangerous on the streets when involved in gangs. Many ex gangster (and gangster females) have stop that life style after seeing so many of their peers die. A lot of them are now religious instead. Many people say they join gangs because they don't have good families and need a family like support system and religion can do that for a person. Many ex female gangsters are making positive personal, inspiring, and career choices out of their experiences. Some are talking to youth, some are starting fashion lines, and many other possibilities. Cholas are beautiful but being a female gangster being a form of feminism is a contraversial one. What is usually not controversial is that it is a dangerous life no matter how fashionable these ladies are.

Women In Iran

2010-05-27T17:40:00.001-07:00

When we think of Iran we don't really think of feminism.
It does exist but the women their need much more rights. In 1979 the Iranian Royal Pahlavi family was executed from Iran. Instead came the Islamic Revolution. They promised free water and electricity for everyone and democracy. What the people got was a far cry from democracy. Women in Iran do NOT have equal rights and are treated inhumanly. This is why there are large protest in Iran, especially after a fraud election in which the votes of the people against the Islamic government wasn't counted. Many times the protesters are imprisoned, beat, rapped, and even killed. Take the case of protestor Tarahneh. She war brutally rapped in the prison she was thrown in for protesting by a guard there. She was mentally and psychically abused there. It has also been rumored that someone witnessed someone who looked like her being treated in a hospital for psychical abuse but then being transported out of there was unconscious. Rape is a big stigma in Iran and after it happens the victims often still continue to be victims amongst their friends and families. Sometimes it is believed that the person is better off dead. Most the people living in Iran are victims of their government. They don't move because that is their home and often when they do move to places like America ignorant people ask them why they don't go back to where they came from. However there are a minority of people who live their that are just as bad as the government. Some people actually start to believe their government after hearing their view points for so long. That is where the tragedy of Farzaneh comes into play. Fifty three year old Ahmad was the father of two girls. His son in law Saeed was married to his eldest daughter but got uninterested after a while and divorced her. He want to be with her seventeen year old sister Farzaneh. Her father would not allow such a thing so Saeed kidnapped the seventeen year old girl and kept her for ten days. Her parents did not want to get the authorities involved. It may be because they did not want to draw attention and have the family named "ruined." It is crazy to me that they wouldnt want to call the police. Most people find out their child has been ubducted and that is the first thing that they do. Eventually they got the police involved and BOTH Saeed and Farzaneh were imprisoned. When Farzaeneh was released and home, the first thing Ahmad did was beat her. You would think that the first thing would be to hug her or feed her with a normal person. After her father beat her she kissed his forehead and kept apologizing. She actually felt that it was her fault that she had been kidnapped. Farzaneh and her sister went to sleep that night. Their father said his prayer and then decided to wake them up. The three of them talked and then decided one of the sisters needed to be killed to honor the family. I really do not understand that. Why is that honoring your family to die? It is like saying Saeed liked both girls so only one should survive to solve the problem. Seventeen year old Farzaneh volunteered to be the one to be shot and killed. She planned it to look like a suicide but the family told the authorities the truth anyways because they would be punished. In Iran, article 220 states that if someones father or his ancestor kills his child he will not be prosecuted and article 1179 stated that parents can punish their kids however they like. This is insane! I did not know this at all. I cannot believe that such an old country with such rich history has laws that allow fathers to kill and abuse their children. This murder is walking the streets of Isfahan right now. I cannot bear to imagine the guilt that Farzaneh's sister is feeling right now.

Thank G-d that is just a small portion of society. Everywhere has good and bad people but what gets out of hand is when the government is so corrupt. I am surprised more father's have not gotten away with murder. There are a lot of people fighting for women's rights in Iran. Am iconic woman who made a large statement when she died in the Iranian election protest was Neda Agha- Soltan. She was protesting when a civilian who disagreed with her shot her in the thought with a bow and arrow. Ironically her name meant voice in Farsi and that is what she was. Her image of her dyeing was the voice for the people and the hatred they go through for wanting some rights. According to wikipidea it has been said that it could be the most widely witnessed death in history.

An honorable feminist in Iran is Shirin Ebadi. She won the Nobel peace prize in 2003 but it 2009 she says it was taken away from her from the Iranian government, but they deny it. Ebadi was the first female judge in Iran. They Islamic government believed that women are too emotional and it could get in the way of their judgement. She is a lawyer that specializes in cases for women in children. She also lectures at the University Of Tehran on giving more power to women and children. Ebadi has been living in Canada since 2009 in exile because of the increase of prosecution on Iran of the people who are against the government.

Before the Islamic revolution took over Iran the women their had freedom. There was a great amount of sexuality. A big thing to do for fun was go to clubs to watch belly dancers and all sorts or sexy dancers. One iconic sexy dancer in Iran during the Pahlavi era was Jamileh. I think she it a feminist because even at her age now she is still proud of her sexuality and dancing. She performs here in the US at cabaret Tehran. She is full figured yet still wears sexy midriff showing belly dance costumes. She dances on chairs and plays with the audience members. She is also teaching classes that she is successful for and that is empowering for young females in the Persian community who's sexual feeling are often suppressed due to strict parents. Before the Islamic revolution women would wear mini skirts and Europe's latest fashions because it is so close to Iran. But now they are covered head to toe. Iran has taken many steps back but the people will continue to fight on until they one day can walk down the beautiful streets of Tehran with their hair blowing in the wind and their legs getting a tan from their mini skirts.

Sexist Burger Commercial

2010-05-26T01:49:00.000-07:00

Can I just say how annoyed I am at the audrina partridge carls jr commercial?
The reality star of The Hills is in a bikini as she is sexually eating a burger... ok she is picking at the fruit on it. So not only is the media telling us that we have to be supermodel thin and volumtious but now we also need to be able to maintain that while eating burgers. The last time I heard of that it was sadly called bulimia. When men are doing the Carl's jr commercials they are shown dirty and sloppy. But we need to be sexy on the beach wearing almost nothing.

Take a look for yourself please...

Ode to a Diva

2010-05-26T00:45:00.001-07:00

I generally hate the word "diva" unless A) Beyonce's singing it or B) it's used in reference to my beloved Diva Cup.

This here is an ode to my true-blue friend who's always there for me when my uterine lining starts a-leakin', when I'm fed up with diaper-like pads and scratchy tampons, and when I'm scared about the health and environmental impact of disposable menstrual products. Yes ma'am, my Diva Cup has been good to me over these past three years. And you know what? I'd like nothing more than to convince each and every one of you reading this to at least consider using one yourself.

So, what am I yammering on about anyway? For folks who don't know already, a Diva Cup is just one of the many types of menstrual cups available in today's marketplace. Instead of absorbing your flow like a tampon or catching it after it (achingly) trickles out of you à la a pad, a Diva Cup is worn internally and collects your blood in a soft, rubbery cup that can be emptied every 12 hours.

One of the biggest factors motivating my initial switch from tampons to menstrual cups was the simple fact that the Diva Cup does not pose any threat to my health when I wear it every month. While some menstrual cups are made of rubber or other materials, the Diva Cup is made of medical-grade silicone and is completely safe for regular use. It is free of pthalates, latex, plastic and other chemicals. A short soak in boiling water leaves the Diva Cup perfectly sterilized, unlike pads and tampons which are—contrary to popular belief—not sterilized before they are packaged and sent to shelves. Unlike a tampon, the Diva Cup does not absorb the good along with the bad (though I have trouble thinking of menstrual blood as "bad," but I'll get to that in a bit) and it does not introduce any unnecessary chemicals into the flora and fauna of the vagina. Although seldom discussed, tampons contain dangerous chemicals that can be absorbed by the sensitive tissue of the vaginal walls, including dioxins as well as residue from chlorine bleach, pesticides and other chemicals involved in the growing and treating of cotton used in manufacturing tampons.

According to the World Health Organization, we are exposed to dioxins throughout our lives through the food we eat (particularly meat, dairy, and fish), herbicides, pesticides, and emissions from waste incinerators. Women, however, are exposed to dioxin at even greater rates because of tampon usage. Repeated exposure to the chemical—say, during the 38 years the average woman menstruates during her lifetime—inflicts the greatest risk to women's health.

In The Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo: Menstruation, Karen Houppert explains that in 1992,

several FDA scientists... discovered trace levels of dioxin, a potentially harmful by-product of the chlorine-bleaching process at paper and wood-pulp mills, in some commercially produced tampons. (Most tampons today contain rayon, a wood-pulp derivative.) Citing studies that indicated dioxin was unsafe at any level—not only potentially carcinogenic, but toxic to the immune system and a cause of birth defects—subcommittee chair Ted Weiss, a Democrat from New York, accused the FDA of purposely downplaying the dangers to women by ignoring one of its own scientist's warnings.

Since that time, no significant changes have been made to reduce the amount of dioxin found in tampons. Tampon manufacturers continue to argue that dioxin levels in their products are negligible at best and therefore harmless, but Houppert begs to differ.

"Drawing on the results of scientific research around the world—from sources as diverse as a U.S. Air Force study that documented decreased testis size in men exposed to dioxin and a University of South Florida study that saw a connection between dioxin exposure and endometriosis in monkeys—it's clear that tests are showing something even more important than the potential carcinogenic link: dioxin, in levels once thought acceptably low, affects the reproductive and immune systems. There is evidence that dioxin may be linked to lower sperm counts in men, a higher probability of endometriosis in women, and a depressed immune system in both. ... Among females, hormonal changes associated with dioxin have been linked to decreased fertility, an inability to maintain pregnancy, and ovarian dysfunction.

If all of that doesn't scare you, then get a load of this: According to Laurie Garett, author of The Coming Plague, "over the years manufacturers have mixed a variety of fibres with cotton to improve absorbency and maintain the tampon’s shape inside the body. These include polyester, collagen, acetyl cellulose, carboxymethyl cellulose, polyvinyl alcohol, polyurethane—and even asbestos."

Another reason I love my Diva Cup: it's reusable! No more frantically asking friends if they have a spare tampon or desperately banging on those rusty old pad dispensers in public restrooms. No more running to the store in the middle of the night to buy new supplies. And best of all, no more contributing to the enormous amount of waste women create by disposing of menstrual products each and every cycle. The average woman sends 250 to 350 tampons or pads to rot in landfills across the country each year. That's roughly 9,500 to 13,500 tampons or pads in a lifetime or, to put it another way, 250 to 300 pounds of waste from the time of menarche to menopause for a single woman. Considering how many women populate the United States alone, it's easy to see how the usage of disposable menstrual products can be framed as a significant environmental problem.

Only using one menstrual product to deal with your period for up to ten years (it's true!) is great for the environment, but it's also great for your wallet. I bought my Diva Cup for about $24 dollars three years ago, which means that I've saved roughly $178 so far. That's $178 I chose not to invest in major corporations like Tampax or Playtex who do not seem to have the consumer's interests in preserving their health and the environment in mind.

More than anything, though, I love my Diva Cup because it has helped highlight the cultural stigma surrounding menstruation while simultaneously bringing me closer to my own body.

Don't get me wrong, I love my period and have since it first appeared on my 12th birthday. As one of those lucky women whose period usually arrives unaccompanied by cramps, migraines, and general discomfort, I've always had neutral to positive feelings about my period. But ever since I switched to using a Diva Cup, I feel a rush of genuine excitement every time I get my period. Using a Diva Cup allows me to observe just how much I bleed each day of my cycle, how the color and consistency changes, and much more. The simple act of inserting and removing the Diva Cup every twelve or so hours has literally forced me to get comfortable touching my own body and my own blood. I feel like I know my body better now and I think that is a beautiful thing.

So many women I've talked to about the Diva Cup (because yes, I am something akin to a walking Diva Cup advertisement in real life) have expressed discomfort or disgust at the prospect of having to—gasp!—touch themselves "down there" and potentially risk touching their own blood in order to use a menstrual cup. And I'm not just talking about young women—I've encountered this reaction in grown women who have been menstruating for over half of their lives! I really wish more women could see that our periods and our bodies don’t have to be something we’re grossed out by, or bothered by (in the absence of cramps, extra sensitivity and whatnot).

Despite the awesome power our female bodies possess, our culture has a way of devaluing women's bodies when considered outside of a sexual context. Our breasts are only for titillating, not for breastfeeding. Our vaginas are for providing pleasure, not for birthing. Sadly, if our bodies aren't being used for sex, they're all too often seen as dirty, shameful and gross. This goes double for our vaginas and triple for our periods. How else do you explain the way our periods are used in gross-out jokes in popular culture, like in 2007's Superbad? To quote our friend and fellow classmate Nasser, periods "should be something celebrated--not treated like Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter as something we don't speak of!" Even advertisements for pads and tampons have typically skirted around actually admitting that their products are used for catching the blood that comes out of our vaginas every month.

Recently, our Women in Pop Culture class, taught by Feminist Fatale's Melanie Klein, watched Diana Fabianova's documentary Red Moon: Menstruation, Culture, and the Politics of Gender. While the film had some weak spots, I still think it does a great job of highlighting the cultural taboo of menstruation. Check out the trailer here:

In short, from the time we are very young, we hear our periods referred to as a "curse" and a nightmare. In polite company we are instructed from the onset of puberty to never ever mention our monthly cycles, especially if there are men present. Young women absorb these messages about the taboo of menstruation and all too often hold onto these negative attitudes until late in life. The cultural silence surrounding one of the most natural bodily processes women deal with in their lives speaks volumes about the way women and women's bodies are valued in our society.

I'd like to change all of that, and one way I think we can achieve that goal is to encourage women to use a Diva Cup or other type of menstrual cup.

My period is a beautiful thing that reminds me each month that (hooray!) I am not yet pregnant and (double hooray!) my healthy body is capable of creating a living, breathing human being. Did you know that scientists today are closing in on the ability to use stem cells from menstrual blood to repair hearts and other organs? Menstrual stem cells have even been described as potentially "more potent than bone marrow" and as "one of the most promising, renewable, non-invasive sources of stem cells." So not only do our monthly periods remind us of our awe-inspiring ability to create life but also our ability to aid in the healing of our own bodies and the bodies of others.

I'm not saying all women should start throwing menarche parties for the young women in their lives or painting with their period blood, although I'm personally down with both of those things. Women don't have to be crunchy hippie-types to embrace their periods or use reusable menstrual cups or cloth pads. I just hope we can all do our part to challenge the cultural taboo surrounding menstruation.

Want to read more on the subject? These are some excellent sources related to menstruation:

Karen Houppert's The Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo: Menstruation
Elissa Stein's Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation
Rachel Kauder Nalebuff's My Little Red Book
Chris Bobel's New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation
Thomas Buckley's Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation. [Definitely an older book than the rest (published in 1988) but a great resource if you're looking to learn about how periods are treated in various cultures around the world.]

Body Image

2010-05-26T00:40:00.000-07:00

My whole life like many women I have been dealing with body image. Sometimes it is in a good light but for the most part it has been negative. The earliest birthday wish I can remember is "I wish I become really skinny." As a chubby child I always wanted to be stick thin. I remember one time I was in the third grade and it was a hot day but I was wearing a big puffy jacket the whole day. My checks were bright red and my teacher kept telling me to take it off but I wouldn't. Finally I remember she looked at me in my eyes and started to cry and she said, "You can choose to keep that jacket on but I just want you to know that you are beautiful."

My mom was a working mother and was never home during the day. I would stay at my grandmas house where I would refuse to eat until I went home when my mom would come home from work. I would litterly starve myself as a little girl the way an adult or teen anorexic would, until I was home with my mom. This resulted to late eating. Then my sister became old enough to stay home with me after her high school classes and my working mother knowing that I was a finicky eater would be afraid I wouldn't eat so she would leave me frozen microwavable pizza almost everyday. I vividly remember my routine of popping in the pizza and watching Ricky Lake or Jenny (talk shows). My teenage sister let me be as she would be in the other room talking on the phone with her boyfriend. Even watching these 90's talk shows taught me some stuff about body image and being a women. Many times there would be out of control teen girls or women being interviewed with the audience freely judging and yelling out to them. Teenage girls were always punished for being sexual. All teens have raging hormones. If sex was so bad then why we the guys they were having sex with not being yelled at in the audience? Sure these girls should not be sleeping around, especially because they are young and don't have knowledge of how to protect themselves from STDs and such, usually. But these girls needed psychological help. They should not have had cameras and lights in their faces while hearing audience members yell to them that they are whores. Then my favorite for a long time- MAKE OVERS! There would be girls who were so "ugly and geeky" in high school and then would show off to their past bully or crush how dramatically good they looked now. Most the times the woman now had fake breast and tight revealing clothes on. The worst part was they would often end up getting together with the same guy that bullied them for being not of the norm in high school. I remember one day I was waiting outside the doctors office with my old cousin (I was about seven and she was about thirteen) and Jenny (the host) who I looked up to came out in a wheel chair with something over her nose. My cousin talked to her a little bit and I remember her saying "Don't worry Jenny I wont say anything." When Jenny left my cousin explained to me that she had just gotten a nose job. I didn't understand what that was or why people did it. She told me that sometimes people don't look pretty and need to go fix things. That was the first time I really remember learning about plastic surgery. Plastic surgery was still kind of a big secret back then. Now a days though it is no secret and it is almost praised. American Society of Plastic Surgeons has reported 48% increase of cosmetic surgery since 2000. I remember around that time that we saw Jenny it was the rise of the trend of plastic surgery amongst the elite teenage girls. I remember my sister saying that her friends that Beverly High made to sure to come to school with the mask on their noses after their nose jobs just to show to everyone that they were rich enough to afford it. It showed you status amongst the rich popular girls. When I had heard this I was only like six years old and I didn't understand the purpose of the surgery, "Why are these girls showing off that they are breaking their noses?" I would think to my self. And quite litterly that is what it is. Back then that was the minority elite of Beverly Hills but are seeing an alarming amount in trend of teens getting plastic surgery.

I read an article that talked about to teen sisters who ask their dad for breast implants at the dinner table. He tells them that it could prevent them from getting breast feeding and they don't care. One of them says, "They're sex objects to me." She says she would be repulsed by a child sucking on them. This is what society has done to our future. Our body has become sexual objects. I am ashamed to admit that the reason that it struck me so hard to hear about this was because I felt the same way for a while. I felt ridiculous when in my women in pop culture course Professor Klein pointed out that this is how some women feel. I have actually heard that a lot of men get jealous of their own newborn babies for sucking on the mother of their child's nipples. The baby is not getting sexual pleasure! She has them because they are for feeding the baby!

Why does the Palin debate continue?

2010-05-25T17:55:00.000-07:00

Like many feminists out there, I do not consider Sarah Palin to be a feminist. So upon reading that Palin recently spoke about being a part of a "new conservative feminist movement", I just rolled my eyes. Being anti-choice is inherently anti-feminist and I'm appalled that she is co-opting feminism for her cause. And I'm not alone with these feelings. Meghan Daum, a self-declared feminist, recently published an editorial in the Los Angeles Times arguing that Palin is, indeed, a feminist.
Here's Daum's justification for calling Palin a feminist:

Now, there are a lot of ways in which this logic is contorted, not least of all the suggestion that supporting the right to choose represents a no-confidence vote for the idea of mothers leading fulfilling professional and personal lives. But putting that aside, I feel a duty (a feminist duty, in fact) to say this about Palin's declaration: If she has the guts to call herself a feminist, then she's entitled to be accepted as one.

Palin can call herself a feminist over and over. But in the end, actions speak louder than words. If you dig further into what she stands for, you'll find that she's hardly pro-woman, family, or feminist:

Sarah Palin, you can call yourself a feminist as much as you'd like, but limiting the rights of women is hardly in line with the principles of feminism.

Feminist Street Art

2010-05-25T00:22:00.000-07:00

(Source)

The First Wives Club

2010-05-24T00:29:00.000-07:00

That is the new woman standing next to the first wife, Brenda.

For the first time on Saturday I saw The First Wives Club (1996 version). In the first few minutes of watching it I knew I would want to blog about.
A woman kills herself because she is neglected by her husband who takes her money and leaves her for a young and attractive woman. Her three friends from college reunite and catch up. They discover that all of them have been left by their husbands for more attractive women too. One of the woman is a drunk who is also addicted to plastic surgery(Elise), the other is an over weight Jewish mother(Brenda), and the other one is a conservative push over who can't seem to get angry and gets taken advantage of (Annie).

There were so many scenarios that disgusted me for the women and they were real situations that I have witnessed or been apart of. The first thing was when Elise was in the plastic surgeons office and he was telling her that she cannot get anymore work done but she was refusing to listen to and still go her lips injected more. It is saddening to me that there are so many women out there that put their lives at risk and don't listen to their doctors because they want to look a certain way. They cannot accept themselves for who they are. Then she goes to addition for a part but they want her to play the mother of the person she is auditioning to play. They want to show the wrinkles and natural ageing. The worst part is that the girl is dating her ex husband who is now suing her for what she has and wants alimony. She starts to cry and drink because she doesn't want to be the mother. What is sad and so real is that so many woman are not comfortable with the fact that they are ageing. It has such a negative connotation to age and be called someones mother. It is a blessing to be told that someone looks like someones mother because it is a blessing to be looked at as nurturing. Instead many women think of it as an end to their youthfulness.

Brenda is always putting her son and ex husbands needs first and when she has problems she snacks. She wishes to buy new clothes but doesn't because she wants to have enough money to put her son through college while her ex husband is off having a midlife crisis and spending millions of dollars on an attractive woman. She stuck by his side when he didn't have money by helping him in his business and her family helped him too. But now that he has money he thinks he can just have some hot gold digger. The scene that really upset me and triggered something in me was when she went to the mall and was looking at beautiful clothes she wished she could buy and then she saw her ex husband there. He was telling her that he has no money and then she see's the woman he is blowing the money on. The woman turns around and says, "maybe you should go try something on in your size." This situation upset me because so many times men become older and rich so they are now called dignified and get any young woman they want- leaving their wives to be called things like old and let gown.

Annie is seeing a therapist and trying to help her egotistical husband with his commitment issues while they are separated. She meets up with him for dinner and dancing and they end having sex. He tells her he loves her and as she is going on and on about moving back together and how excited she is about it he tells her that he wants a divorce. She feels totally used that he had sex with her before he told her the news. And as if she wasn't feeling used enough she finds out that he is leaving her for their therapist that she trusted and confided in. This scene upset me. Women should stick together not betray each other over arrogant ass wholes. This woman was seen as sexually confident and powerful. Why does she have to turn into a husband stealer to suit her in the media? I am sick of womanizing men who think that they are G-d's gift to earth. They like the man in the movie take advantage of kind hearted women like Annie and it is wrong. It is because of men like this that many woman are guarded which is when they are told that they have trust issues. And then there are the women who are savvy with men like this and are called bitches and sluts. By the way would she have been such a slut if she didn't feel used after they had sex and walked away from it being the one that wanted a divorce?

Finally the women plot a way to make their husband pay for what they did and they open a center for women in crisis. Annie and Else dump their men. Else starts dating some hot actor. But what makes me upset about the ending is that Brenda takes her ex husband back as soon as he comes to his senses and misses her. Oh so now he is done with his midlife crisis and f***ing that gold digger and it is okay for him to just sweep the "fat lady" off her feet and sleep by her side again? That is wrong she should not have taken him back so easily. She is worth more than that- all women are. This movie really meant a lot to me because I am sick of men leaving their normal wives and girlfriends for supper model looking woman who are after their money.

Brenda's husband was going through a mid like crisis and replaced her before with the skinny gold digger. She kept making excuses for him because so many times in society women are fed BS in the media about mens feelings. Not to say men's feelings dont matter, but it should not be an excuss to leave their wives and upgrade them like they do cars. I found an article on the top five reasons men have mid life crisis. Jed Diamond had the nerve to blame the "liberated woman" as the number two reason. He says that men get sick of pretending to be nice: washing the dishes and changing diapers. So we should play the submissive role to make sure our husbands dont leave us? Then it gets really disturbing when I come across a question on the internet..."My wife was skinny when we married and now is so fat I can't stand the sight of her. Should I dump her?She takes up the whole couch when she sits next to me. She is disgusting."
Does this pig really think that his wife is going to give birth to his kids and look the same as she did when they first met? What ever happend to growing old together? Did he think that his wife was going to go into a time machine on her birthdays? I bet this guy is bald with a beer belly. I bet he was broke as hell when they met and she stuck by his side. I cannot beleive that there are shovanistic jerks out there doing this to women's confidence. Every woman is not going to be a "MILF." He clearly did not love her to begin with if he is going to be talking about her like this. I hope she realizes the person she is with a dumps him for good unlike Brenda.

Menstruation...Have you heard?

2010-05-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

So I had a conversation with my mother about my period cycle because I had a few questions about it. I asked her why sometimes I have a heavy flow. She looked at me as if I were from another planet. Even today, when I am a full grown woman, she feels uncomfortable talking about women issues. I remember when I was first told about my period and guess what? It wasn't from my mother. My sister had to tell me about my period cycles and teach me the birds and the bees because my mother didn't have the confidence to inform me. I came to realize that my mother did not grow in the same atmosphere as me.

Growing up, my mother was taught that women were dirty when they had their menstrual cycle. They were banned from temples and other religious activities. A man should never hear conversations about women bodily functions and/or fluids. If there is a problem with you, you were deemed to be a problem! Either you were punished for asking such questions or condemned to do more chores. It was a way to shut your mouth and to never ask anything again. My mother grew up dealing with the problems herself like many women today. Because my mother was conditioned to be silent, I am going to exploit my problems to those that I may seek help from. It's not my fault if they feel offended when I approach them for help.

I am just a woman trying to make an understanding about myself and my body. Why should I be shunned to explore the actions of my body? It is not taboo! It's practically a conversation that women are trying to have with their companions but don't know how to approach their friends. I shouldn't be suppressed by anyone's reactions or signs of displeasing. Shit, it's not my fucking fault that there is blood flowing like crazy through my vagina! My curiosity lies within my determination of understanding my body and analyze what is wrong with me if there is in fact anything wrong. If there isn't, then hell, I will be feeling fucking fantastic! This way, I have increased my knowledge on this particular situation and can share my experience with other women that also encounter on similar predicaments. On that note, I believe every woman should be able to talk freely about their menstrual cycle.

Here is my story.

Dateing, Relationships, Hooking Up, and Growing Up.

2010-05-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

As I am getting a little bit older I keep learning lessons about guys and dating as a heterosexual female. I've noticed that I am really good at giving advice but not as good as taking it. (I'm sure a lot of females would say the same about themselves.) A lot of my friends are envious of my so called "knowledge" but they don't realize that I have gone through and still go through so much.

The other day I was having lunch with my older cousin and she said, "If I was as smart as you are at your age, I would have been married by now." That's the thing. My whole life like many other women I've based it on getting married. But after cutting out a garbage boy who doesn't want the best for me I've realized that at nineteen years old I should be having fun. A few years ago as a teenage girl I was naive and submissive. I thought that in order for a man to love me I needed to be less superior than him. But soon enough I would know that that's in fact why I wasn't being loved the way I deserved to be. This happened when I took a course in Women's Studies. The myth behind men being intimidated by feminist is so not true. When I took that class I learned to respect myself. In order to love someone and be loved you need to love and respect yourself first. That is when everything falls into place naturally. So what if I get called a bitch? I am a bitch, but I'm a "nice bitch"- as my cousin calls it. I met up with a now ex boyfriend and when I though he cheated I told him, "I'm not wanting to know the truth because I care about you, I'm wanting to know because I am looking out for myself to not be taken advantage of." I was that girl who closed her mouth when she felt something so that the guy doesn't judge her. As I look back from all the text messages and diary entries in that dysfunction relationship I see that I began to open my eyes more and stand up for myself. I learn now that hasn't been that the relationship was deteriorating or gaining problems. It's that I was getting wiser with time and realizing that it was dysfunctional and that I was not being treated the way a women should- respectfully. For two years I did not know whether this was even a real relationship. I just got no emotional support or stability from this person. Whenever he distrusted me I was mainly worried about word getting around in the community and not being able to marry well. But as I got more wise I realized it's my own sanity that matters. I felt emotionally tortured and embarrassed because I was not raised to be a weak woman. As I started respecting myself more so did he- but not fully yet. But it did not help mend the overall relationship because I still remembered all the suffering and disrespect I went through. I thought it was normal that we saw each other whenever he called but not all the time but it wasn't. Because my best friend who is a female was so supportive and called me everyday, so that showed me the difference of someone who cares. He loved me but sometimes that is not enough. The other day I was on facebook and ran into a status that said, "Just because somebody doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have." Reading this upset me because 's it buys into the settling and "it complicated" type of relationship being portrayed these days. I am sick of it. Lets stop making excuses for men and stick together. So many guys in

LA these days just want to hook up with girls and not commit to them. If the girl wants that then that is fine but in many cases that's not what is going on. So many girls are hooking up with guys and wanting more but that they are not standing up for themselves to tell them what they really want, because they want to be cool. Why should we settle? Is it really that bad not having a man around? Whats going to happen? Are we going to break our "little wrist" trying to pick up our own bags? C'mon ladies I'm not judging you, I have always been afraid of being with out a man till now. But just think about what you really want and deserve. I am not saying that you should cut men out of your lives or make the men in your lives into the feminine energy but there should be a balance and you feeling should be known. Another thing that pisses me off is this other mentality that I have noticed LA guys have where they think just because they've got a little money they are entitled to a girlfriend that looks like a fu**ing super model. G-d am so sick of killing myself for not being a size zero because my big shot boyfriend thinks that he is rich- even if he were it's wrong. I think I have finally come to terms with the fact that I am not going to stay with this person who emotionally tormented me because it's not worth fixing. I deserve someone who from the beginning knows my worth because he knows a woman's worth, someone who wants the best of the best for me and had a kind heart. Currently I am having fun juggling as many guys as I can till I find the one that is deserving of my love. I told my friend today, Boys are like toys and you need to make sure that you end up with a collectible. When I was in high school I was so attracted to the school bullies. But I don't want to be bullied anymore so I am going to follow my own advice for once. The other day I uploaded some pictures to facebook and my cleavage was showing in the shirt I was wearing. My friend told me to take it down because it is slutty. The old me would have never even posted that but now I am going to embrace my sexuality. Why should I hide a picture where my face looks so beautiful just because my breast are big and obvious? I have big ones and only a collectible "toy" can have them. So it eat your hearts out "toys!"

Many times women go around hooking up with a bunch of guys no strings attached because they think that it is empowering them to "think like a man" and be total "man eaters". In reality they are giving into what men want. They are being feminist that men want to see. (Dominating sexual beings.) We cannot deny what we want and out feminine side- love, compassion and commitment. So here is the question... "Can hooking up empower you?" In most cases I say no because in most cases it is not done right. It has to be what one truly wants and it doesn't seem that most the women hooking up want that. The article that I linked states that whether or not you choose to have sex it is still empowering because it is your sex choice. I agree. Another thing it says that I agree with is the fact that most women don't usually want to have sex with strangers and want some kind of commitment. But men will want to have sex with almost anyone. We cannot deny the fact that men and women are different- equal but different. We have different Psyche. Woman and Men are affected by what they are stereotyped to feel. Woman are usually more emotional- feminine quality. That is not a bad thing. It should be embraced. We should share our emotions freely to men and everyone without being fearful of being looked at as weak. If you don't want to hook up with someone take control over your body and don't do it.

The Clothesline Project, Part II

2010-05-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

Professor Klein has posted more coverage and pictures at her blog. Click here to check it out!

The Clothesline Project at SMC

2010-05-11T15:07:00.000-07:00

Started in 1990, The Clothesline Project was created to let women affected by violence express their emotions by decorating t-shirts. Today some of our classmates organized and put on their very own Clothesline Project:

FemineUs blogger Laylee participating by making her own shirt!

Laylee, our classmate Nasser, and another SMC student work on t-shirts

Spreading the word in Farsi

The shirt I made

All of these pictures were taken within an hour after the event started. I was not able to stay for the entire duration of this important and very moving event, but my classmates and Professor Klein will be writing their own blog on the event soon- I'll post links to those posts when they go up.

For those of you not from our class, have you ever hosted or participated in the Clothesline Project? If you have, you are more than welcome to share your stories and experiences.

This is what a Real Woman Looks Like

2010-05-10T19:30:00.000-07:00

Ask yourself this: What does a real woman look like? If you pay attention to the images that the mainstream media sends out, you'd think a real woman is...not real. Last Thursday our class collected images of these "real" women and created a massive collection of these images. It started out something like this:

We have a pretty sizable class, so watching all of these posters go up was stunning:

Having struggled with body image issues in the past, taking this all in was a little overwhelming. Seeing the images of all of these women all stare back at me at the same time brought back memories of my less confident and calorie-obsessed days. Thankfully those days are long-gone now, but the memories are still there.

But let's get back to our question! What does a real woman look like? Well, here's what Women's Studies 30 has to show for that:

L-R: Jessica, Bella, Laylee, me, Niaz

And last but not least, the woman who made this whole blog possible:

Professor Klein!

Interested in reading more? Interested in seeing more and higher quality photographs? Click here to go to Professor Klein's blog and read more.

Creating the PERFECT Body

2010-05-10T18:41:00.000-07:00

Creating the Perfect body has been around forever, an has affected many. When I thought about this topic the one of the first things that came to mind was the 1985 movie, Weird Science, which is about "Two nerdish boys attempting to create the perfect woman, but she turns out to be more than that," that's according to the brief summary. When I saw this movie it went to want guys want in a women, so what do they do they create their "perfect woman." Of course this woman is tall, skinny waist, big breast, perfect hair, and every guys dream. In case you haven't seen this movie here's the original poster.

Then I got to thinking nothing has really changed. I mean there's has been countless times where I have thought and you may have thought to yourself too, "why am I not beautiful?" or maybe have thought to yourself, "why can't I be skinner?" or "Why can't I be taller?" just things like that. The reason that we think like this is becasue of the constant image that we are being fed by the media.
In the article Eating Disorders: Body Image and Advertising, stated that in a Seventeen Magazine poll 27% of girls feel that the media has pressured them into having a perfect body. In this article I also read that a single girls see's about 400-600 ads in a single day, these ads displaying "perfect women." It's no wonder girls are so affected by what they see. It's sad this is pretty much the only form of beauty that they see, it's rare that a girl see's an ad with a beautiful full figured real women. In this article I also read that, "9% of commericals have direct statement about beauty, but more implicity emphasize the importance of beauty- particularly the ones that target women and girls." I find it so frustrating that these images of "beauty" are not even attainable. For example the "beautiful" women these companies use to sell products don't even look like that. They use lighting, angles, airbrush, and makeup to cover up their imperfections. Of course you don't ever see any of this, all you see is the finished product the hard work has done.
These images play such a huge role in how women and girls feel about themselves, and what some do to themselves to fit the mold of what beautiful is considered in today's society. In a Body Image Survey girls reported, "that "very thin" models made them feel insecure about themselves." In the article Eating Disorders: Body Image and Advertising it states that the "number one wish among girls ages 11 to 17 is to be thinner." Thank the media for that one. Thanks to this standard and the crap that the media feeds people about what beauty is, this has driven many individuals to starve themselves, plastic surgery, and in some cases even worse death.
Being around kids alot of the time, I'm shocked to see how young some of the girls that are being affected by this are. I was also very taken back my a story my mom had shared with me, and it's one that really opened up my eyes to this and I would like to share with you. This little girl we know is a beautiful "real" girl, one of her skinner classmates decided to tell her that she was fat. She told her "hi fatty," these little girl got so mean that in the lunch room she told my little friend, "here fatty eat this," while throwing a piece of ham on her plate. My little friend went home that day and aked her mom, "Am I pretty?" followed with, " Why do you tell me that I'm pretty, if she call me fatty?" Let me tell you these two girls are in the 3rd grade. When I heard this I teared up and couldn't believe how young these girls were, and one was already depressed and the other calling some one fat. I guess until people start speaking out about what beauty is to them, how there are other forms of beauty, and how there are other types of women out there, we are going to continueley fed the same image/ standard of what beauty really is.

Real Housewives

2010-05-09T23:44:00.001-07:00

Hey guys! Let me start off with saying that I am loving the new photo on top of the blog tittle of FemineUs. But what I really want to discuss today is the Real Housewives reality show. I don't know how many of you watch these series but I am obsessed.
The reality series is a show that follows around or keeps up with real housewives. There is a series for OC (Orange County), NY, New Jersey, Atlanta, and Beverly Hills is now in the making. I have been following the show since it came out five years ago in Orange County. Sometimes they have marathons on Bravo where it is shown. A few days ago I was watching these marathons of the original housewives which was based in Orange county and it started with the ones from five years ago. I was so shocked in how much more real these housewives actually looked five years ago in comparison to the newer episodes. It's like with each season they "killed off" the normal ones. Tamera, the "hottest" one then is now an average one now. I am starting to wonder if the ones that left the show really wanted to get off or if they were asked to so that newer more youthful women took there spot on the show. Now a days the ladies of the OC housewives are more plastic than ever. One of the newer housewives on the show was shown getting a face lift with her i believe it was eighteen year old daughter who was getting a nose job. i just wonder these days if it gets to real women like my mom when they see these women on television. They have bodies of teenagers and plastic surgery all over. The only one that looks like a "real woman" is Vicki the outcast of the show recently. She is also the only original one left from five years ago. There was one other one who was still there with her but she left the show because she started to not fit in. It wasn't such a surprise because she was overweight. She left and two barbie looking ones came instead of her. As a nineteen year old female audience member I feel really self contuse sometimes when I watch- especially the ones of OC because these women are my mothers age and look ten times better than me. They're in such good shape and whenever something "goes wrong" on there face they rely on plastic surgery. It makes me feel like I have to be so perfect to be able to get married like them. Tamera one of the housewives said something once that she got some heat for and it stuck out to me. Her husband asked to if she wanted to eat something and she replied, "Honey you know I don't eat in the summer." Women watching might take that seriously and stop eating in the summer to look good in a bathing suit. In that episode Alexis the newest and "hottest" housewife was in Tamera's pool when she said that and she was feeling kind of jealous of her body. It is ridiculous that as women we have to start getting jealous of other women because they appear to be more think and youthful. We should feel secure with our self to not starve because of seeing that. Alexis this new housewife looks so perfect. She is tall, thin, tan, blond and beautiful. (She has had everything done by the way.) Her husband is fat, short, frumpy, and arrogant.... oh yeah "but" he's rich. It pisses me off that a women that beautiful is selling her pride to this man and being submissive to him. She always trying to make sure he feels like a man and cooks for him and stuff. She is not allowed to travel without him and always agrees with him. But when a women pissed her off she suddenly grows "balls" and yells at them. Don't be taking out your anger on us, your husband is the one that had you in jail bitch. When I was watching this one episode from five years ago it made me realize that the stands the show is setting for women to be "worth marrying" is becoming more unfair. It was the episode where Laurie one of the original housewives was getting married. She was a single mother of two who had been married twice already. She was marrying George a handsome and respectful millionaire with two kids. Before she met George a friend of hers told her she needs to settle but she refused to and it payed off. George could have easily married a twenty-five year old gold digger but he stayed realistic and married another single parent that was the same age. But here Alexis is five years later being married to someone who is out of her league because he has money and she is being all submissive to him. By the way the above picture is of Alexis buying underwear with her ugly over controlling husband in back of her.

On Sluttiness

2010-05-09T23:33:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to point out two interesting posts on "sluttiness": one at Feministe and one at Feministing. They're both definitely worth reading so you should check them out!

If you want to read more about the slut label and its power, look into Leora Tanebaum's Slut! Growing Up Female With a Bad Reputation.

The Price of Beauty

2010-05-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but when I was in 7th grade I wore an embarrassing amount of makeup. I thought I looked fantastic with my glitter-lined eyes, blackish-blue mascara, shimmery pink blush, and metallic pink lip gloss (this was 1999, don't judge). Looking back at old photos from that year I can't help but cringe at the fact that I left the house that way, but hey, at least I wasn't alone. Indeed, almost all of the girls in my grade shellacked their faces with cosmetics newly purchased from the mall or the Walgreens down the street. And you know what? I turned out alright. I wear almost no make up now save for some occasional eyeliner and mascara. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I wore more make up during my 7th grade year than I have in every year thereafter added together. So when I first came across this article in the New York Times this week, I rolled my eyes and dismissed it as all-too-familiar hand-wringing over the "horror" of preteen girls experimenting with "mature femininity" -- something I care about but have heard over and over and over again. I mean, I made it through unscathed, didn't I? Things can't have changed that much in the last ten to fifteen years, right?

Well, apparently I was wrong.

My interest in cosmetics started at a young age. If you look in my old photo albums, you'll find at least a handful of photos of me as a four year old with a full-on face of (smudged, extremely poorly applied) makeup. I adored my Tinkerbell Pink-A-Boo nail polish that I could brush on and peel off at will. I even had hard plastic tubes that looked like lipstick that I would swipe across my lips and then follow with a satisfied lipsmack. What was I doing? I was mostly imitating my mother, my aunts, and my grandmother, all of whom I had watched meticulously apply makeup in the morning or before a party. I was just having fun pretending to be a grown-up.

Fast forward to the first decade of the 2000s. Makeover parties are now de rigueur among preschoolers and elementary school kids. Spas and salons aimed at the three to nine year old crowd are popping up across the United States and Europe. Brits across the pond have marketed padded bikinis and pole dancing kits to little girls. Companies stateside market high heeled shoes to little girls as well as kid-sized thongs emblazoned with lines like "wink wink" and "eye candy." Trampy Bratz dolls have largely replaced a comparatively tame Barbie, a much maligned figure who at least had a job. I think it's fair to say that things have worsened since I was a little girl.

I'm not saying that this sexualization of young girls is something new or that the makeup-play in my own childhood was entirely innocent and unworthy of feminist examination. I was actually kinda obsessed with the trappings of femininity as a wee tot. But the key difference here is that I was pretending to be a grown-up in the comfort and security of my own home. I was playing a game. I didn't wear makeup out of the house until middle school, I didn't think it was normal or appropriate to get professional manicures and pedicures (I knew those were for moms only), and I certainly didn't wear high heeled shoes except when I was playing dress up in my own room. As a third grader, I wanted to grow up to be a scientist, not Hannah Montana.

It should come as no surprise that the girls affected by this trend of getting older younger wind up using cosmetics as they become tweens and teens at higher rates than girls of older generations. The New York Times reports that

Regular use of certain cosmetics is rising sharply among tween girls, according to a new report from the NPD Group, a consumer research company. From 2007 to 2009, the percentage of girls ages 8 to 12 who regularly use mascara and eyeliner nearly doubled — to 18 percent from 10 percent for mascara, and to 15 percent from 9 percent for eyeliner. The percentage of them using lipstick also rose, to 15 percent from 10 percent.

And according to a Neutrogena representative, "at least three out of four consumers age 14 to 17 are using a foundation product, and usage is actually a bit higher for mascara and lip gloss."

If that sounds like exaggeration to you, consider these statistics:

In a study [done in 2007], 55 percent of 6- to 9-year-old girls said they used lip gloss or lipstick, and nearly two-thirds said they used nail polish, according to Experian, a market research company based in New York. In 2003, 49 percent of 6- to 9-year-old girls said they used lip gloss or lipstick.

What's wrong with wearing a little lipstick, you might ask? Well, in 2005 Better Nutrition magazine published a run-down of some of the harmful chemicals commonly found in lipstick:

"In addition to phthalates (which can cause kidney and liver damage and harm a developing fetus), lipstick may contain the possible human carcinogens butylated hydroxytoluene, polyethylene, dimethicone and a slew of artificial colors derived from coal tar. And if you wear lipstick every day, you'll ingest at least 4 pounds of it over your lifetime."

Frightening, right? And this problem isn't confined to just lipstick either. As girls get older, they use more and more beauty products with dangerous chemical contents on a daily basis. Most teens use between 15 - 20 products daily, while adult women use at least 5 fewer than teens and men use about 6 products total. 15 - 20 may sound like a whole lot of beauty products, but think again about what you use in an average day. Almost every day I personally use shampoo, conditioner, facial cleanser, body wash, sunscreen, deodorant, chapstick and sometimes eyeliner and mascara. That's 9 products right there. It doesn't seem too much of a stretch to get to fifteen or even twenty if you add in the average woman's makeup and hair styling routine.

Given how many young girls consume cosmetic products with contaminants, there ought to be an uproar about the damage being done to the next generation's health. In addition to causing simple irritation, many of these chemicals have been found to be carcinogenic, lead to fertility problems, and disrupt regular hormone levels.

These chemicals are particularly damaging to young women who are just beginning puberty and who have not finished developing fully. In an article for RHRealityCheck, Sarah Seltzer reminds us that

in adolescence, when hormones are fluctuating, the reproductive system is developing, ...[and] sensitivity to these chemicals may in fact increase. "We're certainly concerned about teens in particular because during adolescence they're going through a lot of radical changes to their physiology," says Dr. Rebecca Sutton, the staff scientist for [Environmental Working Group] ... "All these changes are guided by hormones, so if we've got hormonally active ingredients in personal care product entering their bodies, there's a higher risk."

Jeanne Rizzo, executive director of the Breast Cancer Fund, adds onto this explanation that “puberty is a time of rapid cell development. Tissues are more sensitive to external toxicants, including those that can impair fertility and increase the risk of breast cancer.”

In a different study, "the Mount Sinai School of Medicine looked at girls younger than 10 with early onset puberty and discovered a high incidence of endocrine disruptors that are found in some nail polishes and other cosmetics."

Although young girls are at high risk of developing problems linked with chemicals in cosmetics, they of course are not the only group affected. In men, exposure to phthalates has been shown to "interfere with the production of testosterone, and they're linked to health effects like lower sperm counts, birth defects of the penis, testicular tumors." As with most environmental pollutants, these harmful chemicals disproportionately affect women of color as beauty products aimed at this specific demographic--like chemical hair straighteners and skin whitening creams--tend to have a higher concentration of toxins. Women who come into regular contact with toxic beauty products by working at hair and nail salons are perhaps in the gravest danger--and are likely to be women of color. In addition, pregnant women of all races and ages who are regular cosmetic users are at particularly high risk, according to the New York Times.

[The recently released President's Cancer Panel] report warns about exposures to chemicals during pregnancy, when risk of damage seems to be greatest. Noting that 300 contaminants have been detected in umbilical cord blood of newborn babies, the study warns that: “to a disturbing extent, babies are born ‘pre-polluted.'"

Equally disturbing: A 2005 study found that babies exposed to phthalates while in utero "were more likely to exhibit what may be anomalies in the placement of their penises."

How can cosmetics companies justify the use of dangerous chemicals in the face of such evidence? Well, most cosmetics companies claim that the dangerous chemicals found in their beauty products only appear in small quantities and therefore are nothing to worry about. I couldn't disagree more. Repeated daily exposure to harmful chemicals like phthalates and parabens do add up and can very easily lead to health problems. Scientists have shown repeatedly that toxic chemicals in cosmetics, regardless of amount, "accumulate in the body's fatty tissues, where they can remain for years and damage your cells." That obviously creates a problem if a young woman begins using lipstick (61% of lipsticks, by the way, contain lead) at the age of 13 and continues to use it almost daily for the rest of her life.

As of right now, the cosmetics industry is largely unregulated. Unlike food or drugs, beauty products do not require FDA approval or safety testing before they are sent to market. There is no standard which must be met for beauty products to carry the "natural" or "organic" label either. As a result, thousands of chemicals that could potentially threaten consumer health can be found in the personal products we use on our bodies every day.

As someone who lost a loved one to breast cancer less than a year ago and is interested in someday becoming a mother, consumer safety matters a whole lot to me. So what are we the consumers to do? Thankfully there's Skin Deep, a database of cosmetic products and their contained contaminants, but it's unrealistic to think the majority of women--especially young women--will utilize this website. I've known about it for over a year now and I almost always forget to check it before I go out and buy a new bottle of conditioner or lotion or what have you. What we really need is legislation that mandates safety testing for cosmetics as well as legislation that outlaws the use of harmful chemicals in our everyday products.

Want to cut down on the toxic chemicals in your cosmetics? Start reading the labels on all the beauty products you purchase and make use of Skin Deep if possible. The following are some of the worst and most common chemical offenders as identified by the Breast Cancer Fund:

Phthalates are a group of endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are found in cosmetics like nail polish and in synthetic fragrance—both perfumes and fragrance ingredients in other cosmetic products. Phthalate exposure has been linked to early puberty in girls, a risk factor for later-life breast cancer. Some phthalates also act as weak estrogens in cell culture systems. (Edited to add: Phthalates can also be found in most sex toys. Check out Babeland.com if you want to find phthalate-free toys)
1,4-dioxane is not listed on ingredient labels. It is a petroleum-derived contaminant formed in the manufacture of shampoos, body wash, children’s bath products and other sudsing cosmetics. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has ranked it as a possible carcinogen, and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) has identified it as a reasonably anticipated carcinogen.

Parabens are a group of compounds widely used as an antifungal agent, preservative and antimicrobial in creams, lotions, ointments and other cosmetics, including underarm deodorants. They are absorbed through the skin and have been identified in biopsy samples from breast tumors.

Ethylene oxide is found in fragrances and is commonly used to manufacture popular brands of shampoo. It is classified as a known human carcinogen and is one of the 48 chemicals that the National Toxicology Program (NTP) identifies as mammary carcinogens in animals.

Placental extract is derived from human or animal placentas and is used in hair conditioners, shampoos and other grooming aids, particularly those marketed to women of color. The National Toxicology Program (NTP) has identified progesterone, the major hormonal contaminant in placental extracts, as a reasonably anticipated carcinogen. (Okay, this one is just gross!)

Lead may be a contaminant in over 650 cosmetic products, including sunscreens, foundation, nail colors, lipsticks and whitening toothpaste. Lead is a proven neurotoxin, linked to learning, language and behavioral problems. It has also been linked to miscarriage, reduced fertility in men and women, and delays in puberty onset in girls.

Aluminum is found in some underarm antiperspirants. Like cadmium, aluminum is a metal that mimics estrogen and can also cause direct damage to DNA. Studies have not shown a direct causal link to breast cancer risk, but breast tissue has been shown to concentrate aluminum in the same area where the highest proportion of breast cancers are originally diagnosed.

Many sunscreens contain chemicals that exert significant estrogenic activity, as measured by the increase in proliferation rates of human breast cancer cells in vitro. Studies show these chemicals are accumulating in wildlife and humans.

Want to take action now? Click here to tell Congress that we need to be protected from dangerous chemicals in cosmetics.

Want to read more? Check out Stacy Malkan's awesome book Not Just A Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry.

Want to read more without a trip to the bookstore or library? Check out the following:

Toxic Nail Salons: Why Your Nail Polish Color Could Be The Next Agent Orange [Alternet]
Toxic Chemicals: Neglected Threats to Health and Reproduction [RH Reality Check]
Saving Face: How Safe Are Cosmetics and Body Care Products? [Scientific American]
5 Ugly Truths You May Not Know About the Beauty Industry [Treehugger]
Cosmetics Popular with Teenagers Linked to Breast Cancer, Other Serious Health Problems [Breast Cancer Fund]

Want to watch a slightly corny but highly informative video on the scientific connection between cosmetics & breast cancer?

In the end, I think it's important to acknowledge that the beauty industry does not have our best interests in mind. As an industry that works hand in hand with advertising to prey on women's insecurities, it's highly unlikely that you've ever thought of the beauty industry as your friend. But in addition to pushing unrealistic beauty ideals and notions of femininity, the beauty industry simply does not care about your health.

When it comes to young women wearing makeup, I used to agree with the approach taken by one mother quoted in the New York Times:

“... I’d rather my girls try it and decide they don’t need all these products to be beautiful, and then do something more vital with their time and money and efforts, like write a poem or take a walk or save the world.”

Now that I know how dangerous cosmetics can be, I'm not sure sure I'd say the same thing.

What do you think?

Happy 50th, Hormonal Birth Control!

2010-05-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrate 50 years of the hormonal birth control being on the market for contraceptive use. I feel that it can be said safely that the pill has changed the lives of millions of women around the world. While I do not have any cake to share, I can provide you with an article covering the history of the pill and even a song to enjoy for today's anniversary:

Feminist Graffiti at Oxy

2010-05-09T16:35:00.000-07:00

Alexa's photo post reminded me of this little bit of graffiti I spotted in a bathroom stall on the Occidental campus:

I'm thinking perhaps we should start posting photos of feminist graffiti every weekend. How does that sound to you?

Ethnic Minorities Everywhere....but lack of REPRESENTATION in Media

2010-05-09T15:01:00.000-07:00

Chances are that if you watch T.V., movies, or have even played some video games you have noticed that people of a certain ethnic group are stereotyped against, or even just a lack of ethnic minorities people. I know that when I watch certain T.V. shows, or even movies they portray Lationo's as "cholo's" in other words a gangster, African American's as drug dealers and both these groups of people were also depicted as Lazy and good for nothing people. I thought to myself not all Latino's and African American's are like this.

Then when I started seeing the women of these groups being portrayed as prostitutes, the "hot tamale", the seductive virgin, or even victims of abuse. Then I thought why are these women only portrayed as this and nothing else?, Why aren't there Latina's, Latino's, African American men and women in leading roles?, After reading, Ethnic and Visible Minorities in Enternaiment Media (www.media-awareness.ca/english/issu es/stereotyping/ethnics_and_minorities/minorities_entertainment.cfm) I was suprised with the findings by the U.S. organization Children Now, which was " 86% protaganist were white males, non white males where portrayed in stereotypical ways- 7 out of 10 Asian characters as fighters, and 9 out of 10 African Americans as sport competitors, 9 out of 10 African American females were victims of violence (twice the rate of white females), and 79% of African males were shown as verbally and physically aggressive, compared to 57% of white males." It's horribe to see to this on television because I think that if affects the way some people start to view people of these ethnic groups.

Video games I was suprised with, when I saw the video games my brothers were playing I couldn't belive how these stereotypes played into video games as well.I was also in shock with how these women where portrayed. These women were in tight if any clothing, big breast, and their waist skinny as possibe. The games were grand theft auto, manhunt2, etc. Below are some images that I found:

Feminist Activism at UC San Diego

2010-05-09T07:08:00.000-07:00

I am sick of your bullshit beauty standards

Spotted at UC San Diego, May 8, 2010

Are you willing to go under the knife to be beautiful?

2010-05-08T22:02:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know the reality t.v. show actress Heidi Montag, who recently under went another plastic surgery involving her boobs. The question that always lingers in my mind is "Why would anyone want to cut themselves open to fix something that isn't broken?" How are people so comfortable going underneath the knife? I was deathly afraid of needles because I thought I would get an infection from an open wound but I learned to grow out of that. It's still a possibility but highly unlikely. I would be really scared if someone opened my breasts, shoved something in there and then sewed it back up. I mean, what if they left something inside your boobs which led to an infection?? Infections are not pretty and if one receives it, there is a high potential for death. Not only was her breast altered but her face as well. Again, I would be scared to go under anesthesia, have someone alter my face and possibly break something that shouldn't have been broken in the first place.

Heidi was born in Crested Butte(Pun Intended!), Colorado. She got her debut by being friends with a chick named Conrad who was filmed during the show titled "The Hills." She had her first plastic surgery done in April 2007 and has admitted of having 10 surgeries in one day. She almost died of an aesthetic called Demerol in her surgies but claims that it was all worth it!

The picture up above shows the unopened Heidi that looks absolutely stunning. The photo may have been photo touched but it still carries Heidi's real assets. The second photo is pretty ridiculous. Her boobs may look great but the proportion is completely off. It is not the correct fit for her body size. I mean, isn't is obvious that it's fake anyway? Her boobs are so perky (that is definitely not natural) that her bikini can't even fit her properly. The place to insert your nipples are way below her current nipples. She definitely can't wear regular swimwear. She has to custom make her clothes or attend a porn shop to buy clothing that would fit her. I believe that if you alter your physical being to make yourself happy, you definitely do not appreciate what has been given to you. That is completely different from people who actually need plastic surgery like soldiers out of combat or deformities.

So my question lies within you. Would you go under the knife to alter your physical appearance just to boost your confidence? Are you truly happy with what you have physically?

I know I am.

B

Facebook: A Place for Friends...and Promoting Violence Against Women

2010-05-05T21:51:00.000-07:00

[Screen caps embedded after the jump]

If you're on Facebook, chances are you've been invited to join all sorts of groups. Perhaps for a game of Farmville or an event invitation for who knows what. Some people out there have gone out and created their own national or global days for all sorts of activities. Most of these are harmless (Hug a Jew Day, anyone?), but every now and then I stumble across something that is downright disgusting. What am I talking about? Well, April 30th was declared National Punch a Slut Day.

National Punch a Slut Day is described by its creator as a day to "PUNCH SLUTTS". A whopping 37, 377 people have enthusiastically confirmed their attendance and happily commented about their joy in punching sluts all over the event's wall. I spent about 10 minutes reading over the first couple of pages of comments and couldn't believe what I was seeing. To spare you from having to dig through all of the garbage, I've screen capped a few comments that stood out to me for all of the wrong reasons:

I have no doubt in my mind that there are plenty of people out there who think this is "just a joke" or that I need to "unwind a little". But if you are one of those people who think this is "just a joke", please take a moment to think this over. If this is all a "joke" then why are there so many comments that actually sound serious? Whether or not they actually hurt anyone is unknown to me. But if they are just joking, why are there so many people commenting with pride about all of the women (or men) they punched? So many of these people that participated in this "event" (I have to use the term loosely here) sound pretty serious to me when they talk about how women deserve to be beaten for having sex lives. And it's not even limited to that because as you have seen above, some men have justified beating women because they "won't shut the fuck up". Cute.

And the slut-bashing isn't limited only to men. Plenty of women were happy to join in and talk about all of the sluts they beat up. Don't believe me? Behold:

And maybe someone out there still thinks this is nothing to get bent up out of shape over. But if this is nothing to sweat over, then why are responses like these posted when someone tries to step in and comment against this nonsense:

Why is stuff like this even allowed on Facebook in the first place? I looked over Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to see how this was even allowed to fly to begin with. Rule number 7 under Safety goes something like this:

You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.

The title of this group alone promotes and has the potential to incite violence. While it doesn't specifically say to punch women, it's easily implied that the group is directed towards women, not men. Regardless of who it's directed towards, it's still horrifying that tens of thousands of people "attended" this event. Whether or not they actually participated in it, I don't know. Sadly, I would not be shocked if some of the commenters actually carried through with what they were talking about.

What does this say about our culture? That we're happy to bring violence upon "sluts" who deserve it? That it's alright to create groups on the internet that encourage violence against women? I'm aware that world we live in is full of jerks, but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow the fact that this many people have joined such a group.

A brief history

2010-05-04T23:02:00.000-07:00

Hello peeps! I do apologize with the late blog but I must introduce myself. My name is Bellarina (Bella for short...FUCK TWILIGHT!) and I am a Feminist. I didn't like the thought of being labeled as a feminist until I took a course in Women's Studies with Professor Melanie Klein. It also let me develop a stronger relationship with my sister because it pinched my narrow mind into a wider perception.

I must warn that I am a straight forward person that loves to speak her mind and doesn't abide my the norms. I am a norm breaker and feed off of the power of difference in many aspects. I love to fart, eat a lot of food, and hang out with my best friend/boyfriend Casey. I don't understand why women are shunned from farting or burping in public because it isn't lady like. What the fuck does lady like mean anyway? How can a woman not fart in public? If she keeps in her farts, she is more likely to receive hemorrhoids so why is releasing so bad? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Anyway, I don't believe in farting and excusing myself either. Apologizing is the least I could do and will only be delivered if I interrupted someone speaking. Also, I hate the idea that men should pay for expenses when on a date. I believe in cutting right down the middle. If we attend a dinner, that check is split between our credit cards. That goes for groceries and other such necessities. Which I think prenuptial agreement is the best policy when it comes to marriage. Why should someone else that didn't do any of the work or money that you received into their pockets just because of marriage? FUCK THAT! You work hard for what you get and you fucking decided what you want to do with it. The women and men that leech off of their ex-husbands or wives are pathetic losers and shouldn't even be allowed to marry until they have learned the actual understanding of marriage.

On that note, I enjoy being myself. I have made myself confortable in this body that my boyfriend does not oppose anything about it. He loves me for who I am and I feel so lucky to have such a partner. As much as I am open minded, he becomes more and more attracted to me. It's a perfect situation that I just happened to land on.

I hope you enjoy our blog for which it will contain raunchy and racy topics. I enjoy Women's Studies 30 and would take the course again if I had the opportunity to.

Thank you,

B

Will Self-Defense Classes Be Taught in San Diego Schools?

2010-05-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

[Video embedded after the jump]

My first thought upon watching this clip was "Awesome! I wish more cities would implement something like this!" But then I thought some more about the approach/language used ("The idea here is to not focus on the bad guys. Instead focus on the potential victims.") and the comparatively minuscule efforts to target the actual people most responsible for committing rape: men. While I fully support and applaud Sen. Christine Kehoe's efforts, I can't help but feel frustrated that she isn't also pushing for rape prevention education aimed at young men.

Have you seen this excellent piece of satire floating around the internet that manipulates all those "rape prevention" tips aimed at women? I kinda wish it could be posted all over the place in real life too.

Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work!
1. Don’t put drugs in people’s drinks in order to control their behavior.
2. When you see someone walking by themselves, leave them alone!
3. If you pull over to help someone with car problems, remember not to assault them!
4. NEVER open an unlocked door or window uninvited.
5. If you are in an elevator and someone else gets in, DON’T ASSAULT THEM!
6. Remember, people go to laundry to do their laundry, do not attempt to molest someone who is alone in a laundry room.
7. USE THE BUDDY SYSTEM! If you are not able to stop yourself from assaulting people, ask a friend to stay with you while you are in public.
8. Always be honest with people! Don’t pretend to be a caring friend in order to gain the trust of someone you want to assault. Consider telling them you plan to assault them. If you don’t communicate your intentions, the other person may take that as a sign that you do not plan to rape them.
9. Don’t forget: you can’t have sex with someone unless they are awake!
10. Carry a whistle! If you are worried you might assault someone “on accident” you can hand it to the person you are with, so they can blow it if you do.
And, ALWAYS REMEMBER: if you didn’t ask permission and then respect the answer the first time, you are commiting a crime- no matter how “into it” others appear to be.

Reading this list might throw you for a moment because--gasp--it's talking to men about all the things you as a young woman have had drilled into your head for years and years. Don't go out alone. Don't go out at night, period. Don't drink. Don't be honest with others about how much you enjoy sex. This list could go on and on but I'll stop here because I'm sure you're already overly familiar with the types of messages I'm talking about.

As my blogger-crush of the week Heather Corinna at Scarleteen explains in her post How You Guys--that's right, you GUYS--Can Prevent Rape,

Rape is often framed as about women, but it's not. Something done TO us really isn't about us. It's the things that we choose to do which are about us, which is why it's such an error for rape to be framed as a women's issue or about women: it's almost always a men's issue and really about men.

Took the words right out of my mouth.

So, what can men do to stop sexual violence against women? This list of suggestions comes from the Florida Council against Sexual Violence.

Be aware of language. Words are very powerful, especially when spoken by people with power over others. We live in a society in which derogatory words are often used to put women down. Such language sends a message that females are less than fully human. When women are seen as inferior, it becomes easier to treat them with less respect, disregard their rights and ignore their well-being.
Communicate. Sexual violence often goes hand in hand with poor communication. Our discomfort with talking honestly and openly about sex dramatically raises the risk of rape. By learning effective sexual communication -- stating your desires clearly, listening to your partner, and asking when the situation is unclear -- men make sex safer for themselves and others.
Speak up. You will probably never see a rape in progress, but you will see and hear attitudes and behaviors that degrade women and promote rape. When your best friend tells a joke about rape, say you don't find it funny. When you read an article that blames a rape survivor for being assaulted, write a letter to the editor. When laws are proposed that limit women's rights, let politicians know that you won't support them. Do anything but remain silent.
Support survivors of rape. Rape will not be taken seriously until everyone knows how common it is. One out of every four women and one in seven men will be sexually assaulted during their lives. By learning to sensitively support survivors in their lives, men can help both women and other men feel safer to speak out about being raped and let the world know how serious a problem rape is.
Contribute your time or money. Join or donate to an organization working to prevent violence against women. Rape crisis centers, domestic violence agencies and men's anti-rape groups count on donations for their survival and always need volunteers to share the workload.
Talk with women... about how the risk of being raped affects their daily lives; about how they want to be supported if it has happened to them; about what they think men can do to prevent sexual violence. If you're willing to listen, you can learn a lot from women about the impact of rape and how to stop it.
Talk with men... about how it feels to be seen as a potential rapist; about the fact that 10-20% of all males will be sexually abused in their lifetimes; about whether they know someone who's been raped. Learn about how sexual violence touches the lives of men and what we can do to stop it.
Organize. Form your own organization of men focused on stopping sexual violence. Men's anti-rape groups are becoming more and more common around the country, especially on college campuses.
Don't ever have sex with anyone against his or her will. No matter what!

One men's organization worthy of your time and respect is Men Can Stop Rape. Their website has tons of great resources related to ending sexual violence against women. For example, take a look at their state-by-state list of men's anti-rape organizations and pass it on to the guys in your life. I've seen their Strength Media campaign posters around and I have to say I like them. Gotta love any anti-rape campaign that's bilingual, acknowledges racial diversity, gays & lesbians, and the prevalence of sexual assault within the military. Here are some of my favorites:

Here are some other organizations and (hopefully) useful links related to ending sexual violence:

Males and Rape Prevention from Wayne State University
Safety & Crime Prevention Tips for New Students With Emphasis on Sexual Violence
National Organization For Men Against Sexism's Taskforce on Ending Men's Violence
A Call To Men Committed to Ending Violence Against Women
Working with Men and Boys to Prevent Gender-Based Violence
Men Stopping Violence
Defining Masculinity: Fraternity Men, Media Analysis, and Violence Prevention ("A blog that provides community support for people working in the primary prevention movement and for those interested in masculinity issues.")

What do you think about all of this? What steps do you think men can take toward ending rape?

Greetings!

2010-05-02T23:16:00.000-07:00

Hello, Feminists! I apologize for the late introduction, but I promise that I will be posting plenty within the coming week. Anyway, my name is Alexa and I am very happy to be a part of this group. Laylee (known as the Ampoo around here) has been doing an excellent job of keeping this blog lively and I fully intend to do my part. In addition to regular postings, Laylee has also covered what this blog is about. FemineUs is about uniting a community of young feminists and letting them freely express their opinions.

That being said, I wanted to let everyone know that we've got an awesome in-class project coming up this week. I will be bringing my camera and reporting back soon. I'd love to give you more details- but I'll let the excitement build.

If anyone wants to get in touch and chat, leave a comment and we will be in touch.

Do Skinny Jeans Make You Un-Rapeable?

2010-05-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

Apparently, according to a jury in a sexual assault case in Sydney, Australia. Bizarre and infuriating, right? Clearly no one on that jury has ever tried on a pair of skinny jeans. Some may be so tight that they're a bit difficult to remove but pretty much any pair of pants can be removed with force. Hell, most skinny jeans don't even require that much effort to take off! They certainly don't require "collaboration and consent" on the part of the jeans-wearer. I'm just sayin', sometimes my girlfriend wears skinny jeans and I have no trouble getting them off her without help. Considering how many young women wear skinny jeans, this is a truly frightening and potentially damaging precedent to set.

Holly Kearl of Stop Street Harassment! poses an interesting question in response to the Australian court's use of the skinny jeans defense. In keeping with this logic,

What if a man was wearing skinny jeans and he got robbed? Is he going to be blamed for the robbery? After all, he is the one who must have taken his wallet out of his jeans right? And maybe the skinny jeans made it more apparent that he had a wallet in his pocket to begin with.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time the skinny jeans defense has been used internationally. In 2008 a jury in Seoul, Korea overturned a rape conviction because the victim was wearing tight pants. After 11 years of getting it all wrong, Italy thankfully seems to have come around to the understanding that wearing skinny jeans does not equal consent. As Julie Bindel explains in The Guardian,

The ruling [in 1999 implying that wearers of tight pants are un-rapeable] came about as a result of a line of defense run by a 45-year-old man accused of raping a young woman during a driving lesson. He was convicted, but on appeal put forward a defense that the victim must have consented, as her jeans were too tight for him to get into by himself. The judges agreed, and his conviction was quashed.

The same defense has been used successfully in rape cases since, but luck ran out for the latest man to try it when he was accused of sexually assaulting his partner's daughter, aged 16, by pushing his hands down the front of her jeans. Using the 1999 case, he argued that he could not have committed the alleged acts against the will of the girl because her jeans were too tight. But the court did not accept his excuse, ruling that "jeans cannot be compared to any type of chastity belt."

In the second Italian case, "the defendant... claimed that because the jeans were so tight the girl had unbuttoned them to allow him to fondle her and in doing so had consented to his sexual advances." Really though, why should we believe him that the girl unbuttoned her jeans? And if she did unbutton her own jeans, why not ask if she was coerced into doing so? Thankfully the original conviction of this man was upheld despite the use of this bogus defense.

So now we have one more item to add to the Blame-The-Victim-For-This list. Apparently we as women cannot be raped if we wear tight jeans, short skirts, or low-cut tops, walk alone at night in a "bad neighborhood," drink too much, do drugs, go to parties, are sexually active, choose to not lock our dorm doors, earn our living through sex work, get a ride home from a police officer when we're drunk, use public parking garages, appear "intoxicated" because we've been given a date-rape drug, are transgender, are working class, are female soldiers, are lesbians, the list goes on and on -- because either we are "asking for it" or we are simply un-rapeable.

None of this would be possible if we didn't live in a rape culture. (More on that later.)

I'll leave you with this passage from Amanda Hess of The Sexist:

When a rapist blames his victims, we’re appalled. When we do it, we’re just being “realistic,” “concerned,” “protective,” “responsible.” Why are we outraged when rapists blame their victims, but not when we blame them? Because while it’s unseemly to blatantly support the sorry excuses of a convicted rapist, we’re still invested in supporting a culture of victim-blaming that shifts the responsibility of eliminating rape away from society as a whole, and onto individual victims.

What do you think about all of this?

Excerpt From S.E.X. On Trans-Friendliness

2010-04-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

So I just stumbled upon Heather Corinna's book S.E.X.: The All-You-Need-To-Know Progressive Sexuality Guide to Get You Through High School and College through Scarleteen's Genderpalooza: A Sex & Gender Primer and I think I already like it. This part in particular pleased me:

How to Be Trans-friendly and Subvert Crummy Gender Roles at the Same Time, in Five Easy Steps!

1) Try not to assume someone’s gender identity only based on appearance or behavior. Call others what they want to be called, identify them as they want to be identified, and find that out by either asking or listening attentively for their own cues. Many women don’t like being called “Miss, Ladies, Honey or Ma’am.” Some people don’t dig gender identifiers at all, and just like to be called their names. When in doubt as to someone’s gender or how someone prefers to ID, just ask.

2) Turn the switch in your brain that makes you say things like “All men are jerks,” or “Women just want money,” or “She looks/acts/sounds like a boy.” There are NO sex or gender absolutes, and the less we fall for or support them, the less power they have to keep everybody down.

3) Nix staring and whispering. When someone looks or acts in a way which you think is incongruent to their sex or gender, check yourself out. Think about WHY you think that way, where those ideas come from, and if it’s reasonable or positive. Take a few minutes to wonder how much the criteria you’re thinking about even matters. It’s okay to be curious or confused and to ask respectful questions. What’s not cool is making someone else feel unsafe, insulted or demeaned because you’re uncomfortable with your own lack of knowledge or understanding (or insecure about your own gender identity).

4) Be a gender outlaw. If there’s something in your school that is unfairly closed to a given sex, gender or gender identity, that is based on gender appearance, that excludes others on the basis of sex or gender when it just isn’t reasonable or fair, question it. If in your relationships, you have a partner who is clearly holding you to a gender role or status that isn’t okay with you, or which you aren’t interested in meeting, speak up. Challenge sex and gender issues directly when need be, and gather your forces to do so. Write letters. Engage discussion and awareness. Be visible. Don’t accept gender norms, roles or status at face value (even if they are just fine for you): question.

5) Work on tolerance and compassion. You don’t have to agree with someone or understand where they’re at to be kind, humane, accepting and fair. Imagine yourself walking a mile in another person’s shoes, including the blisters you’d wind up with in their heels.

...

A lot of us would be safer, happier, healthier and more whole if sex and gender -- and very rigid ideas about them -- weren’t such big deals in the world. But for now, it still is to a great majority of people, and a very limiting view of sex and gender is accepted, supported and encouraged in numerous ways. So, gender identity tends to be pretty important, as does the sex we’re born with or assigned. Our challenges based on those things may be great or small, but a rare few of us will have none.
Like anything else, it is only one part of you, a whole person with a million facets. How you identify and what genitalia or chromosomes you were born with, gets to be only as important and relevant to YOU, alone, as you want it to be. Even if you can’t identify and present exactly – or at all - like you’d like to out and about yet, what goes on in your head is all yours, the relationships you’re in and the roles you accept and live out in them is up to you, and the way you choose to define yourself – and the latitude you give others around you in their gender identities -- is your choice.

If you're interested in locating resources, groups, and clinics for transgender youth in the Los Angeles area, look no further.

Transgender Youth Clinic LA is a great clinic that assists young transmen and women through transition, horomone replacement therapy, mental health counseling, and of course STD and HIV prevention. This clinic is special in that its doctors, psychologists, and case workers are dedicated exclusively to youth from ages 12 - 25. As their website explains, it can be difficult for teens to acquire hormone replacement therapy as little research has been done on young subjects and "even less data is available regarding the use of medication to halt puberty in younger patients."

TransYouth Family Allies "empowers children and families by partnering with educators, service providers and communities, to develop supportive environments in which gender may be expressed and respected." Their website has a lot going on, from forums to a section for media coverage on trans issues to a list of recommended reading for children, teens, and adults on trans issues.

Image Source: Scott Beale/Laughing Squid under Creative Commons

Note to Self: Never Move to Mississippi

2010-04-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

Just weeks after the horrible hullabulloo in Mississippi over Constance McMillen--an out lesbian teen--being banned from her prom and then sent to a fake prom instead comes this news story of another lesbian teen from Mississippi being denied a spot in her school's yearbook. Why, you ask? Take a look at the photo in question.

Pretty cute photo, right?

You may recall reading about this case last October when Ceara Sturgis's school in Wesson, Mississippi banned her from posing in a tuxedo for her senior yearbook portrait. Now that the school's yearbooks have finally arrived, it seems as though her picture isn't the only thing missing from its pages. Rather than print her name along with the list of graduating seniors not photographed, the school instead opted to completely erase any mention of her name from the yearbook.

"It's like she's nobody there, even though she's gone to school there for 12 years," [her mother Veronica] Rodriguez said. "They mentioned none of her accolades, even though she's one of the smartest students there with wonderful grades. They've got kids in the book that have been busted for drugs. There's even a picture of one of the seniors who dropped out of school. I don’t get it. Ceara is a top student. Why would they do this to her?”

Why? Because she's a lesbian, simple as that. Because she doesn't dress in "appropriately" feminine attire. Because existing civil rights protections for students cover race, sex, religion, disability and national origin but not sexual orientation or gender expression. Because we live in a homophobic, heterosexist society. The list goes on and on.

How heartbreaking is this?

"I feel like I'm not important, that the school is dismissing who I am as a gay student and that they don't even care about me. All I want is to be able to be me, and to be included in the yearbook," Sturgis said in a statement.

Thankfully Ceara's classmates have shown her tremendous support, going as far as to nominate her for prom queen as a demonstration of solidarity. I can only imagine how much that support must mean to her, and having personally attended not one but two different Southern public high schools I can say she's a lucky lady indeed to have it.

By the way, it's not like this hasn't happened before. In 2005, another lesbian student named Kelli Davis faced a similar exclusion from her Florida high school's yearbook because of her choice to don a tux for her senior portrait. In 2002, according to the Student Press Law Center, an almost identical situation arose in a Tampa, Florida when Robinson High School refused to allow one of their lesbian students to wear a tuxedo in her portrait. And I'm sure the list doesn't end there.

This January Representative Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced H.R. 4530, a Student Nondiscrimination Act intended to protect students like Ceara and Constance and and Kelli and every other student kicked out of school, banned from school functions, erased from school yearbooks, or discriminated in any other way by their own schools for being gay or transgender. According to OpenCongress,

Under this bill, no school program that receives public funding would be allowed to exclude children because of their gender identity or sexual orientation, be they gay, transgender or straight. Harassment based on gender or sexual orientation, defined as “conduct that is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive to limit a student’s ability to participate,” would also not be allowed as a sanctioned element of a public school program. If schools discriminate or sanction harassment in their federally funded programs, federal education agencies would be given the authority to terminate their funding.

Change.org has a petition you can sign to support the Student Nondiscrimination Act.

I think Dan Savage also has the right idea about how we can help Ceara, though:

Time for an accountability moment: the website for the Wesson Attendance Center is here. Ronald Greer is WAC's principal and you can email him here. Oscar Hawkins is WAC's high school principal and you can email him here. The school's phone number is (601) 643-2221. The school's fax number is (601) 643-2458. Go get 'em.

Incarcerated Girls & The HPV Vaccine

2010-04-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

A report released today by the Miriam Hospital and Brown University has revealed that most states now offer HPV vaccinations to girls within the juvenile justice system. Setting aside the issue of drug safety for now, this is exciting news since some have argued that HPV vaccines such as Gardasil and Cervarix have been marketed to the wrong groups of women in the first place. As Liz Szabo, Sheila Rothman and Charlotte Haug argue in this USA Today article,

Some doctors now question whether the vaccine has been overpromoted to affluent women who need it least instead of patients most at risk of dying from the disease...Women who die from [cervical] cancer tend to be poor women without access to routine medical care that allows doctors to find and remove growths before they turn malignant.... Many of those deaths are among poor white women in Appalachia, blacks in the South and Latinas along the Texas-Mexico border... Vaccinating women who already get annual exams does little to reduce the number of deaths.

Studies show that incarcerated girls are less likely to have health insurance and more likely to live in poverty than their peers in the mainstream population. These young women are often in the exact vulnerable positions described by Szabo and others.

In a more recent article, Szabo explains that

Mississippi and Arkansas, two of the nation's poorest states, also have the highest death rates from cervical cancer — a result of poor access to basic screenings and health care for a large number of women, says Peter Bach of New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Yet in Mississippi, where the vaccine could perhaps save the greatest number of lives, only 16% of teen girls in 2008 received the shot, called Gardasil, according to Bach's paper in Saturday's The Lancet. About 22% of Arkansas girls ages 13 to 17 got the vaccine, which costs $390 for three shots.
In the wealthier state of Rhode Island, where cervical cancer mortality is half as high as in Mississippi and Arkansas, 55% of girls received Gardasil, the paper says. Though there's nothing wrong with wealthier girls getting the vaccine, Bach says, the low vaccination rates in poor states are "a failure."

Thankfully, small steps are being taken to address this issue: in addition to (some) incarcerated girls getting the vaccine, the CDC website states that girls under 18 "may be eligible to get vaccines, including the HPV vaccine, for free through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program if they are: Medicaid eligible; uninsured; or American Indian or Alaska Native." Merck, maker of Gardasil, also offers a Vaccine Patient Assistance Program for low-income women--but of course there's a catch. Only women over the age of 19 qualify for the program despite the fact that the vaccine's makers themselves recommend administering the HPV vaccine before the onset of sexual activity in order to ensure maximum effectiveness. Somehow I think the majority of women are sexually active by age 19 so this whole thing doesn't make much sense.

To put it bluntly, these efforts just aren't enough.

Women's health needs to be taken seriously--and that includes the health of all women. Poor and incarcerated girls are often treated as different and "less than" in our classist society but they deserve the exact same access to health care services as every other woman. As the original report on incarcerated girls reminds us, "Young girls in juvenile justice facilities will eventually become part of the general population again... Any opportunity we have to improve their health will ultimately lead to improvements in the overall health of our communities."

Greetings, feminists!

2010-04-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone! My name is Laylee (despite what my blogger handle may say) and I am excited to be part of this new blog on youth feminism. Although FemineUS is technically a project for the amazing Melanie Klein's Women and Popular Culture class at Santa Monica College, it is also a project I've always personally wanted to undertake. All too often young women are made to be the topic of feminist discourse and not equal participants in those very discussions. All too often young women's activism is overlooked or ignored. And all too often today's young feminists are criticized for only being interested in "pole dancing, walking around half-naked, posting drunk photos on Facebook, and blogging about [our] sex lives." We here at FemineUS would like to change all that.

We hope that through this blog we can build a community of young feminists who are interested in discussing issues relevant to our own young lives -- be it body image, teen sexuality, sexual harassment, violence against young women,sexism in youth culture, or the influence of the media on the youth of today.

We invite any and all feedback you may have. If you know any young feminists (or people you wish would own up to being feminist), please direct them our way! Pass the blog's address on to your friends, post about it on Facebook, tweet about posts you like on Twitter, whatever you feel like doing. We want to start a conversation and we want you to be part of it.

Introduction

2010-04-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, I'm part of this blog because as a group we wanted a chance to have our voices heard and allow others to have their voices heard as well. Before taking a Women Studies Class I only knew some things about feminism, feminist, etc. Lets just put it this way, I wasn't well informed about this subject. Now that I'm taking this class my eyes have become open to things, I now see certain things in a whole new light. For example I always I always knew that the media played a role in the way that women (and men) feel about themselves, the way they sell the idea of "true" beauty. I also knew that women and girls are treated differently from men and boys, but I never knew there were certain things out there that proved this. I feel as if my voice has become stronger, there are things out there I would have never questioned, but now I think about it and ask why? Hopefully out of this blog our voices will become even STRONGER, and hopefully this blog will allow us to give people out there a place to have their voices be HEARD, without being afraid of speaking up.

Self Introduction

2010-04-22T18:19:00.000-07:00

We started this blog because of our course in Women in Pop Culture. We want to spread ideas, knowledge, and demographics on feminism. I am very excited to see what we come up with and learn together. I wasn't as fond or educated on feminism until I took this course. Becoming educated on feminism has changed the way I perceive things, from the media and women to the way men treat me. It has really helped me to know my worth and demand respect. It doesn't make me a "bitch" or a "lesbian" it makes me a strong and intelligent woman. Like many women I used to think that a man won't want me if i express my feminist thoughts but now I see that it has made me MUCH more desirable. It attracts the right attention because the men see that I respect myself and know my worth so they believe the same thoughts about me too. I get so mad at myself when I think of the way I was before because I think that I was a weak, submissive, and naive girl. But then I realize that I was young and ignorant. Once I was opened up to the knowledge I have now I changed. Everyone makes mistakes and learns from them. Now I would like to help spread feminism through this blog and help young (and all) women like myself know their worth and rights as women. Looking forward to it! :)