Beyonce "Blackface" Controversy

Beyonce was recently in the March edition of the French L’Officiel Magazine. She has been stirring up some controversy with the “Blackface” photo shoot she did in paying homage to African Queens. In honor of the magazines 90th anniversary, and in tribute to Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, the singer, 29, appears in "blackface" makeup and tribal makeup and costume designed by her mom, Tina Knowles. Her fans have recently found it quite offensive based on the term “blackface” and the way it referred to actors with black paint on their face. It was a method used to show actors as black people, although black people were not allowed to be in films.

Blackface was a way for “white” people to play as black people in films as they thought black people acted. It was a discriminatory, subliminally making fun of black people and portraying their skin as extremely dark. The real reason why people felt that Beyonce was being offensive is that at the end of the day she can take the paint off her face, but what are women who are this skin tone everyday supposed to do? How are they going to take their color off and assimilate to the world’s view of beauty? The controversy arouse because if she wanted to pay homage, she could have just done the shoot, why was it necessary to paint on a face?

Is Beyonce wrong for what she has done? Are her fans wrong for taking the shoot the wrong way? Why is her homage for these beautiful African queens, one of actual disrespect? In trying to respect her African queens she thought being black was beautiful, but when you paint your face darker in order to look more 'African,' aren't you reducing an entire continent, full of different nations, tribes, cultures and histories, into one brown color? These are the questions we must ask ourselves before we make our opinion of this so called disrespectful act. I am well aware of what the "blackface" term symbolizes as well how it was used against colored people, but does that mean Beyonce was trying to use it in the same way against her fans. It is no point in going on pointing fingers or saying that it’s wrong or right, but in honor of her intentions it may very well be she did not intend on being offensive to her fans, but that depends on how this article makes you feel.

Alleged Honor Killing

By Women's Center Program Coordinator Ashley Cummings

January 25, 2011, Police arrested family members of 21-year old Pakistanian Saima Bibi. She was electrocuted by family members for going against there demands of a pre-arranged marriage. Police arrested Bibi's father and three other relatives after being tipped off by an anonymous caller, said police official Muhammad Ismail. She had defied her family demands and instead ran away about one month before this to the southern port city of Karachi to marry a fellow villager, police official Rao Zahoor said. Bibi's family told police she committed suicide on Friday in their village in the district of Bahawalpur in Punjab, but a medical report showed signs of torture and electrocution on her hands, legs and back. It was told to police that they had traveled to Karachi to make her come back home and when she didn’t listen they tormented her. A 2009 study by the European Journal of Public Health showed one out of every five homicides in Pakistan was an honor killing. Some Baluch communities in Baluchistan province and parts of Sindh and Punjab provinces still justify honor killings.

These so called honor killings has been a growing problem in Pakistan areas, the murder of a women accused of committing adultery, and behaving in dishonorable behavior. They are seen to bring shame to the homes of their family members and in order for the family to diminish this stigma they gain they must kill the bad seed out of the bunch to bring back honor. This term they state to make it seem as though it is justice to kill these women in honor of the family. I am not the one to judge and diminish their beliefs, but I believe this is horrid. To treat these women with no self-entitlement and to release their rights to life away from them is immoral. I however recently have learned that a lot of countries outside of the U.S., very seldom give women rights. It is unfortunate to think as hard as women in America face issues of discrimination these women have not even a right to state an opinion. It is time for a change, this is not the first nor will it be the last time I state this. I just wish for Saima sake her family would have understood that.

“The right things to do are those that keep our violence in abeyance; the wrong things are those that bring it to the fore”
Robert J. Sawyer

Obama Living Up to his word!

Days like this restore my faith in my vote towards Obama. The Justice Department just announced that President Obama believes the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, and will not stand behind it any longer. Furthermore, US Senator Dianne Fienstein issued a statement Wednesday that she will be introducing a bill that would repeal the act altogether.

For those of you who don’t know, the Defense of Marriage Act was enacted in 1996 and defines Marriage as being between a man and a woman.

I think this is a huge victory. The fact that the President of our country has stated his views alone is tremendous, but that the act may also be repealed in the near future is also great.

Thanks Obamz!

Think about it.

Eating Disorder Awareness Week

Shout out to our co-worker Michelle! She spearheaded Eating Disorder Awareness Week, which is taking place this week! Check out the awesome events we have coming up:

Love Yourself Campaign

Co-sponsored with Active Minds & Yoga Club

Wednesday, February 23rd

Tabling: Fishbowl/B-C Corridor, 10am-3pm

Yoga Sessions: H-Wing, 1pm and 5pm

Zumba Sessions: Friends Hall, 5pm and 9pm

Massage Therapy: Spirituality Center, 12pm-4pm

Relaxation Room: The Women’s Center, 10am-7pm

“Mind of An Eating Disorder” Display

Co-sponsored with Theta Phi Alpha

Thursday, February 24^th, All Day to

Friday, February 25^th, until 3pm

Friends Hall

Presidents' Day at the Women's Center!

Condom 101

In honor of our continued celebration of National Condom Month check out this awesome new flowchart that debuted earlier this month at the Valentine's Healthy Love Party! Most people know that condoms are one of the most effective methods of pregnancy and STI prevention... but many people still don't know how to correctly put on a condom in order to maximize its effectiveness. Condoms are around 95% effective at preventing pregnancy, about 98% effective at preventing HIV transmission, and so on... but that's  only when they're used perfectly which means putting them on correctly before any contact between genitals every time.

Read on to perfect your condom usage skills!

 

More Resources:

One Feminist’s Search for Masculinity

After reading about the recent sexual assault/rape (reports differ) of CBS correspondent Lara Logan during her coverage of the popular uprising in Egypt, as reported by CBS and commented on by Jim C. Hines – a male-identified, extremely feminist-friendly author and outspoken critic of America’s “rape culture”– there are so many things I want to say. Partly in an attempt to keep my anger in check and thus increase the chances that this will be coherent, I’ll begin with a few quick tangents.

First tangent: Jim C. Hines. This guy is fantastic. I am a huge fan of his Princesses series, which features a number of strong female/women-identified heroes, and strongly recommend this series for all fans of fantasy and anyone looking for books with good role models for teenage girls. There’s a million other things I want to say about these books (especially about Talia – one of the main characters), but I want everyone to read them and not spoil any part of the ongoing storylines. So – read them, call me, and we’ll talk.

Jim maintains his own website and part of it is dedicated, as are a number of his blog posts, to combating America’s “rape culture” and the pervasive norms of victim blaming and sexualizing assault cases in our media. In short: he’s amazing, he’s my friend on Facebook and I get a geeky, fan-boy thrill out of talking to him online.

Second tangent: I am a trans-man. Understanding gender identity both on a personal level and on an abstract I-am-a-sociology-major-and-a-feminist-LGBTQ-activist level continues to be an ongoing, difficult process for me. I am at a point now where I am comfortable with people knowing that I identify as transgendered, but only somewhat. I would probably be mortified if people in my family read this rant/blog post, for a complicated host of interconnected reasons. However, I feel like I really have something to say and my personal comfort level tends to take a backseat when the activist in my head starts poking me to do something.

So now that I’ve made clear who Jim is, since I reference him both for information and as a role model; and pointed out the fact that you’re reading about American culture and media coverage concerning sexual assault and rape victims as written by a trans-guy, let’s go.

America’s “rape culture” is disgusting. The end. No exceptions. Typically, I subscribe to the idea that just because your kink isn’t my kink doesn’t mean it’s wrong, but when it comes to rape fantasies and the glorification of sexual assault in the name of arousal, I draw a line. What you do in your bedroom is not my business, but when something permeates our culture and influences the ways in which media covers highly sensitive issues, I start to feel justified in saying that, yeah, it’s sick and wrong.

The problem here is not individuals. I honestly don’t care if you play out rape fantasies with your significant other, your current hook-up, or your own hand. Really, I don’t. What I care about is the fact that a rather large segment of Americans seem to think that it’s No Big Deal to treat victims of sexual crimes as if being brutalized is somehow their fault and how media works off this thinking when detailing sexual crimes. I care about the excuses made by and for rapists and other perpetrators of sexual crimes. I care about the messages being sent to our generation and to young kids.

[Image Source]

There have been countless articulate academic and media articles, blog posts, etc. written about this “rape culture” – where No doesn’t always mean No; perceived moral or character flaws can be used to not only rob victims of justice, but to make a mockery of our justice system; rape jokes are an acceptable form of humor; and the word “rape” can acceptably be used in reference to nearly anything in order to add negativity to a statement, while simultaneously distorting our collective understanding of the gravity of this life-altering act of dominance and abuse.

Those counter-culture voices, though, don’t seem to be having much success in battling the insanity of currently popular ideas about rape, sexual violence, and victim’s rights. As a man, it makes me… Well, a lot of things: angry, baffled, disgusted, horrified and just damn confused. Confused because, as a trans-guy, my attempts to understand and claim my own masculinity are increasingly important to me. I pay close attention to how male-bodied men dress, walk, sit, stand and talk. I listen to what they say, how they say it, what their opinions are rooted in and the ways in which they express those opinions.

I pay such close attention because I want to better understand what makes a man. Obviously, at least for me, a penis does not make a man. Neither does a beard, or a tie, or wearing predominately dark and neutral colors. Men don’t need to have or do those things in order to be men, but as a trans-man I struggle with wanting to be true to myself and wanting to have my masculinity externally validated on a daily basis – something many male-bodied men take for granted. For example, if I wear women’s jeans, does that make me less of a man? No. Would it make a male-bodied man less of a man? No. Does it make me feel like, somehow, I’m failing myself in my quest for masculine expression – depends on the day.

I also pay close attention to male-bodied men because, as a feminist, I’m having a lot of trouble reconciling my beliefs about gender equality and many notions of “being a man” that our culture and society promote. Part of me wants so badly to internalize gentlemanly behavior. I want to hold doors for women more than I do for other men. I want to be in a position financially so that the next time I start dating someone, I can pay for dinner (or whatever) on the first date – because I’m the guy and I’m supposed to pay for my date. I want to be chivalrous. I want to find the woman of my dreams and be her champion. I want these things, but the feminist in me hates me for it. In a society that regularly allows (if not promotes) victim blaming in cases of sexual violence against women, I find myself lost – because I know so many of the things I associate with being a “real man” are based in patriarchal ideas about gender inequality. I fear that if I reject normative ideals about manhood and about gender relations, I risk being seen as an imposter, a dude-impersonator, instead of the man I know I am.

Then things like this happen, and I remember that being true to my beliefs is more important than being validated by people around me, even those people whose opinions I put so much stock in. Following LA Weekly’s initial coverage of Logan’s assault (and the resulting backlash that led to a “rape is awful” post-script), I feel more confident in my identity as a feminist. Victim blaming is wrong – there is no question in my mind about that. Mainstream, persistently discriminatory views on women and on gender relations perpetuate this and a multitude of other problems. If less people validate my gender identity because I’m a feminist and I refuse to compromise gender equality in some misguided attempt to prove myself as a man, so be it. America’s “rape culture” is a bigger problem than my confusion over how to “be a man.” If there is a right way to be a man, I think it needs to include recognizing that standing on the sidelines or using “it’s just a joke” excuses for trivializing the seriousness of rape, means being part of the problem. Life is not a multiple choice exam, there is no partial credit, and the only right choice is to be part of the solution. If continually striving to be part of that solution doesn’t make me a “real man,” nothing will.

Blog by Women's Center Volunteer Riles Partick Murphy!

Ke$ha's "Grow A Pear"

While many artists are bringing people together with their music (i.e. - Katy Perry's "Firework", Lady Gaga's "Born This Way"), there are some artists who are dividing their fan base.

Many are offended by Ke$ha's "Grow A Pear". The lyrics are very anti-woman and anti-trans, for example, "You should know / That I love / You a lot / But I just can't date a dude with a vag"

The entire chorus is women bashing:

When we fell in love, you made my heart drop
Then you had me thinking 'bout you nonstop
But you cry 'bout this and whine about that
When you grow a pear, you can call me back
Yeah, I think you're hot, I think you're alright
But you're acting like a chick all the time
You were cool and now you're not just like that
When you grow a pear, you can call me back

Is Ke$ha intentionally being offensive or is she simply mirroring what we're taught from birth- the worst thing you can be called is a woman.

An Iowa Grandmother's Views on Equal Marriage

Watch this woman from Iowa give another compelling view on equal marriage in Iowa, much as Zach Wahls recently did. It's great to see people of all ages and backgrounds standing up and defending the rights that all people should be able to enjoy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentines Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. I understand the reasons people have for hating it, I went through many Valentines rejections when I was younger (including one time that I thought it would be a great idea to give my crush a card that I made in the Spanish class that we shared, in front of everyone, before the glue had even dried... that did not go over well.) Still, single or taken, I have always loved Valentines Day because of what it symbolizes: a day focused solely on reminding people that you care about them.

The history about the holiday is a bit confusing... no one can seem to agree on exactly why and how Valentine's Day came to life.

We do know that Valentine's Day has roots in a Pagan holiday called The annual pagan celebration, called Lupercalia, which was widely celebrated on February 15th of each year into the fifth century A.D. Many historians believe that Christian leaders decided to adopt this holiday and convert it into a Christian holiday after it became clear that people were not going to stop celebrating it.

Thus, In 469 A.D., Pope Gelasius declared Feb. 14 a day to honor St. Valentine... the only problem is there are actually three St. Valentine's -- one was a priest, one was a bishop, and we don't know all that much about the third.

One popular Velentine's legend says that a Roman emperor banned soldiers from marrying in the third century, but St. Valentine took issue with this. He became an advocate for soldiers and was executed as a result of his outspokenness. Another legend says St. Valentine was executed for his beliefs in Christianity and just before he died, he left a farewell note for a loved one and signed it "From Your Valentine."

Regardless of the exact origins, Valentines day has become a day to celebrate love in its many forms and I, for one, think that is awesome! I understand that not everyone shares my feelings, so to help I've decided to provide a short list of ways to celebrate the holiday that have nothing to do with overpriced and overcrowded "romantic" dinner dates or generic flowers/candy/hallmark cards...

• Bring small candies to school and give them out to your friends and people you don't know... look for the people who are having a crummy Valentines day and try to make it a little better by taking a moment to talk to them. Free chocolate is such a great icebreaker that it doesn't matter if you don't know each-other well! Who knows, you may start February 15th with a brand new friend or two.
• Gather up some friends and spend time crafting handmade Valentines to scatter in random public places for people to find and enjoy.
• Organize a secret-admirer Valentine swap (just like a Secret Santa) and spend the day dropping hints to your secret Valentine, while trying to figure out who your secret admirer is!
• Embrace the spirit of activism and spend some time on Valentine's day advocating for Equal Marriage because shouldn't we live in a  world where EVERYONE is free to marry the person they love? 
• Call up your parents, or your siblings, or that one person who was always there for you growing up and remind them of how much you appreciate them... who says Valentines day has to be all about romantic love?
• Buy yourself a Valentines gift because you love yourself and you've earned it!

Finally... why not spend Valentine's Eve with me and a bunch of other Ramapo students at the Women's Center's Let's Play a Love Game: Healthy Love Party! Come partake in free chocolate fondue, the debut of Healthy Love Catchphrase, and the chance to win some awesome sex toys along with our usual free condoms and safer sex information.

I hope to see you there and, even if I don't, I hope you all have a very happy Valentine's Day!

Lady Gaga's glorious return!

As I'm sure most of you know, Lady Gaga released her much anticipated new single "Born This Way" this weekend, and then performed it live for the first time at the Grammy's last night.



Now I've always been on Team Gaga, but this single really made me adore her. First off, I love that she is reinventing herself. It's still Gaga in it's roots but the vocals are much more pop and Madonna-ish. However, I think the root of how much I love "Born This Way"is really in it's lyrics and message. I've never heard of a commercial pop song that is this affirming and totally Women's Ceneter-ey. She breaks down into a bit of a rap at one point which really has a ton of great messages:

Don't be drag, just be a queen
Whether you're broke or evergreen
You're black, white, beige, chola descent
You're lebanese, you're orient
Whether life's disabilities
Left you outcast, bullied or teased
Rejoice and love yourself today
'Cause baby, you were born this way

No matter gay, straight or bi
Lesbian, transgendered life
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born to survive

Need I say more??!

Think about it.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell- The Fight’s Not Over

As most of us know Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the policy that prevented members of the queer community from serving openly in the military, was repealed in December after a long struggle. While this is definitely a victory for the queer community and one that I personally was thrilled to see come to fruition, the fight is not over. To date, Transgendered and Transsexual individuals are not permitted to serve in the military openly.

It worries me that since Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’s initial repeal Queer Activists seem to have stopped worrying about its continued affect on members of our community. After all, the T’s in LGBTTQQA stand for those members of our community who we seem to have forgotten in the wake of a victory. I hope the community recognizes this injustice, and that further victories (and there will be many) do not stop us from being inclusive.

Think about it.

Loving Yourself So You Can Love the One You're With

Just a few hours ago the Ramapo College Women’s Center was lucky enough to welcome Maria Falzone (the “Sex Rules” lady) onto our campus to give a BRAND NEW presentation (that she had never done for a college before) about healthy relationships. I wish I had a video camera at this event, because the lecture was something that everyone can benefit from. Unfortunately, we didn’t… so blogging about it is the next best thing! What follows is my best recollection of (my favorite parts of) her presentation. My memory isn’t perfect, and I had to duck out a few times to grab things for the presentation so if you were there and you have a favorite part (or want to correct something I said) please leave a comment on this post!
 
Maria took anonymous questions from the audience to answer during her presentation. One of the questions collected asked: “Approximately how long would you recommend waiting before having sex with my boyfriend?” Another audience member quickly chimed in to advise: “When you’re ready, you’re ready.” Maria agreed with this assessment and went on to add. She referenced her Sex Rules presentation, telling the audience that if you want to have really good sex you should be able to do it with “the lights on, covers off” and you should feel comfortable enough to tell your partner “what you want, how you want it, and why you want it.” In short, she was advocating open communication and total honesty between sex partners.

Maria went on to explain the importance of “interviewing” your partner to find out what they consider sex, and what they want to do in any given encounter. Some audience members objected to this advice because they felt that having these conversations before hooking up ruins the romance of relationships. Maria responded to them with blunt honesty, explaining that she doesn’t believe in the picture movies (and porn) paint of sex as something that just spontaneously happens. When these conversations don’t happen… “That’s how date rape happens,” Maria said at one point. I think she’s completely right.

Sure, you can assume that your partner wants to have sex with you, and start to initiate things without asking… and sometimes, maybe even most of the time it will be fine. If you don’t ask though, how will you know it was fine? How will you KNOW that your partner really wanted to have sex in that moment, that they felt totally comfortable and happy and not pressured? Why WOULDN’T you ask when asking is all you need to do to remove ANY doubt about your partner’s feelings? Why WOULDN’T you want to make sure you weren’t violating your sex partner?

Some people in the crowd claimed that it ruined the romance… I can understand where they’re coming from, because the way our culture paints consent is decidedly not sexy. Our culture is wrong. Campaigns like Consent is Sexy are awesome, because they explain how you can ask for consent in ways that don’t ruin the mood… if you also think asking for consent can ruin the moment, check this website out!

Maria also stressed the importance of being able to say no as a method of self care. She used a funny, but also sad, example of a boyfriend who tried to convince her that she owed him oral sex when she didn’t want to give it to him because he picked her up from the airport and bought her Kentucky Fried Chicken. Looking back, she says that that moment should have been the warning signal that got her out of that relationship, because her boyfriend cared more about HIS desires than her needs.

She explained that it is so important to be comfortable saying no, and that a lot of times our families or our past relationships make us feel guilty for setting and upholding our boundaries because it is seen as being “selfish.” People aren’t always obvious about it, she pointed out that sometimes not accepting no comes in the form of smoothly trying to “convince” us to change our minds (and sometimes it comes really obviously, in angry yelling.) This was another very powerful message of the night – it is so important to see the danger in people who don’t accept our “no” and avoid these relationships because it is dangerous to be close to people who don’t respect your boundaries.

Maria touched on many more topics than the one listed here over the hour that she talked about the various lessons she has learned in her life. If you were at the event and you’d like to add your favorite lessons/jokes/moments feel free to comment here!

African Ancestry Month

February marks the celebration of African Ancestry Month, created in remembrance of the history of the African Diaspora in 1976. As a history major, the celebration of the history of a criminally underrepresented population is very important, because it allows issues to be brought to the forefront and discussed that otherwise might get overlooked or ignored in favor of what is viewed as more mainstream versions of history, or to use the common phrase, “Dead white guys.” Given that in the history of the United States alone members of the African Diaspora played crucial roles in shaping this country, it is highly necessary to discuss these events, figures, and issues.

However, there are some very major drawbacks to having one month a year dedicated to the history of the African Diaspora in that it tends to still marginalize and box off that section of history to being taught and discussed to February alone. Much like Women’s Herstory month, this relegation of very important parts of history to certain months apart from the rest of the academic year has the effect of keeping the history of a key population out of the mainstream curriculum and therefore not equal to the rest of history being taught.

Whatever the drawbacks may be of African Ancestry Month, it is undeniable that it plays a significant role in helping to educate people about the rich history of the members of the African Diaspora and allows great figures to be celebrated in a way that they might otherwise not be. The knowledge of one’s past allows for a greater appreciation of the present and understanding of how the world came to be in its present state.

What’s your take?

February Events!

Check out the awesome events we have coming up for you this month!

(Click the calendar to enlarge.)

To pick up your own copy of this calendar stop by the Women's Center (C220). They're right by the door!

Valentine's Day = Fake Holiday

Alright, I'm going to be the stereotypical angry feminist and write about how I hate Valentine's Day.

It's like Jersey Shore...you can't get away from talks about it (see, I just did it. Damn!). The world revolves around this one particular day where people feel obligated to confess their love to their significant other, spend an obscene amount of money on jewelry, flowers, chocolates, dinner, mushy love letters/cards, etc. GAAAAAAAG

It might sound cliche, but if you really care about someone, shouldn't you strive to make sure they know it EVERYDAY. Why do you need a holiday to remind you to let them know how much you care, and in turn, remind single people that...well, they're single? It's just another commercial holiday that we feed into.

Now, I know you're probably thinking: "She's single, she's jealous, blah blah."
My answer to that: "Yes, no, and meow meow."

Even if I was seeing someone, I'd treat Feb. 14 like any other day. I HATE mushy gushy shit.

Jewelry: Have enough.
Flowers: I kill them.
Chocolates: I love chocolate...can't wait to have it just 1 day out of the year. And the special V-Day ones usually suck.
Dinner: Save $$ and dine in. I like cooking.
Love Letters/V-Day Cards: Don't make me vom. Show me; don't tell me.

Maybe I've just never had a good experience with Valentine's Day, but I dare people to make me change my mind...any takers? Tell me about your favorite Valentine's Day or describe your perfect Valentine's Day.

Yet another bill to ban abortion:

A recent article from Feministing says that a “heartbeat” bill in Ohio seeks to make abortion illegal just 18 days after conception. Anti-choice groups have always made efforts to curb the legal issues about abortion, whether by giving rights to zygotes (or whatever they can think of). But 18 days??? Come on, many women who get pregnant don't even realize that they are pregnant after a month or more. Now, having a window of 18 days does not really help that much does it? That would give women 2 weeks to decide on what to do about the pregnancy, save some money for the abortion and deal with all the emotional stress that goes with it, and also the 24 hour counseling that they have to go through.

These people need to realize that there are conflicting sides to every story, a person is or should be entitled to their own body and they are or should be free to do whatever they want. This issue is not just a matter of religion, political views, morals and values but for me it is mostly a personal issue, not something to be taken on a public eye but rather private. This is a decision that should be made by the person but not the laws that are surrounding her.

This bill will be introduced later this month, after Valentines Day and if the bill passes be sure to see more of it to come in Texas and Oklahoma.

To read more about this article visit Feministing!

An Online Community Supporting One Another in their Desires to be Thin: Pro-Ana sites re-emerge

*Trigger Warning

In a recent tweet, former editor of our favorite blog Feministing (and kick-ass feminist icon) Jessica Valenti referenced a blog post by her colleague Natasha Vargas-Cooper at The Daily. This article, entitled "Anorexics are finding 'thinspiration' on the Web" discusses how users on the popular social media site Tumblr have started a community in which they share their sentiments of wanting to be thin. It seems to be that the pro-Ana sites that were an epidemic a few years back (and were even taken off the Web by Yahoo) have taken a more modern twist and re-surfaced.

After reading her article, I took it upon myself to do some investigating of the thinspo community. Having admittedly perused pro-Ana and pro-Mia sites at the height of my own eating disorder, I had an idea of the kinds of things I would see. There was, however, one thing that still shocked me: many of the users posting these thinspirations are just 15 and 16 year-old girls. Vargas-Cooper writes of an e-mail exchange she had with a 17 year-old thinspo blogger and when asked why the new-wave thinspo sites are different than the pro-Ana sites that were popular nearly a decade ago, her response was that they, "eat fruits and veggies and foods that have nutrients and also aid with weight loss." This young blogger was also quoted as believing that "food is meant to be for survival, not for pleasure" and that she is "just like every other girl, except I'm public about my goal to be thin."

She is certainly not alone; each day, hundreds of Tumblr users post pictures of rail-thin models, tips on how to control hunger and cravings, and even their own statistics such as current weight, goal weight, and a breakdown of everything they have eaten that day. It is clear that social media sites are capable of doing a lot of harm and this is just another example of how people, especially young women, are willing to share personal information and reveal secrets they would not otherwise want to when they are hiding behind the computer screen. Thinspiration posts and pro-Ana/Mia sites are especially harmful to sufferers of eating disorders because while they are able to see that they are not alone in their struggle, it is so much easier for them to share what they know with other suffers and further reinforce the harmful behaviors they are practicing.

Better Know a Condom

In honor of National Condom Month I want to spend some time talking about the condoms that the Women's Center offers (as well as some of the strange & awesome condoms that we don't stock)! Look for this feature a few times over the next month...

The condoms that I want to talk about today are Snugger Fit condoms.  Contrary to popular belief these condoms are NOT shorter than the rest of the condoms that we offer. These condoms fit the slightest bit snugger at the base and throughout the shaft of the condom; this provides less friction. This effect is pleasurable for many people because it can make the condom less noticeable and it also makes the condom just slightly less likely to break because the reduction in friction creates less wear and tear on the condom when it is in use. Its kind of like wearing a pair of skinny jeans instead of bell bottoms... your legs are still the same size, the jeans are just different. Snugger fit & plenty of other Lifestyles Condoms are available in the Women's Center for 10 Cents each!

February: Much More than Just Valentines Day!

The Women's Center sponsored two
information tables about Go Red today!
Thank you to our awesome volunteers 
who staffed them!

Tomorrow is National Go Red for Women Day, an annual event dedicated to raising awareness about heart disease and women. This yearly event is incredibly important because heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States and many of the women who die of heart disease each year could have lived if they'd just been educated on the causes and symptoms of heart disease.

In 2008 Kate Harding wrote an incredibly powerful article for Salon entitled, Heart Disease is a Feminist Issue. This article changed my way of thinking about heart disease in a major way, I really recommend taking ten minutes to read it! Here's an excerpt:

"Women's heart attack symptoms can be different from men's -- we might feel pain in the back, jaw or stomach instead of the chest, for instance, and the radiating pain down the left arm we all hear about doesn't show up as often in women. Why, I asked the doctor, had I never heard that before, at 25 years old? "Well," he said, "until about 20 years ago, they just didn't test much on women. The assumption was that it would be the same for them as for men."

Try that for a kick in the gut. They just didn't test much on women. Until, I guess, it occurred to the medical community that the No. 1 killer of women ought to be studied in women. Worse yet, the information they did have by the time my mom died wasn't even common knowledge for some reason -- and still isn't."

It's fitting that Go Red for Women day falls during February because February is Black History Month and black women (and other women of color) are disproportionately effected by heart disease. Doctors and activists all have different theories as to why this occurs including, a lack of education campaigns reaching these specific demographics and  decreased access to preventative care. Regardless of the reasoning, it is impossible to deny that there is a major disparity here that needs to be addressed:

African-American women are 35% more likely to die of heart disease than Caucasian women, while Hispanic women face heart disease nearly 10 years earlier than Caucasian women.

Statistics show that about 68% of white women know that heart disease is the leading killer of women, compared to only 31% of black women and 29% of Hispanic women.

[Source]

CHECK OUT THE BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVENTS GOING ON @ RAMAPO! You have to do a little bit of digging to find them on the calendar but events include: a screening of the move "For Colored Girls" (2/18/11 and 2/20/11) and the Cotton Club at Ramapo (new date TBA).

February is also home to National Eating Disorder Awareness Week (2/ 21-2/25) which is an annual week of events that serve to bring awareness about eating disorders and support for people living with and in recovery from disorders. One of the after-effects of an Eating Disorder is higher risk for Heart Disease, so it is fitting that these two events occupy the same month. Check out the Women's Center blog and facebook for more information about EDAW as the week grows closer!

CHECK OUT THE RAMAPO EATING DISORDER AWARENESS WEEK EVENTS HERE!

On a slightly less serious note February is also National Condom Month! Some hormonal birth controls can increase a woman's risk of heart disease, but condoms do not! Expect some fun posts about how to put a condom on properly, different kinds of unique condoms, and much more as the month continues. In the meantime remember condoms can be purchased any time the Women's Center is open for just 10 cents a piece!

Barbara Bush for marriage equality

Pretty cool stuff!

SAY NO to the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act”

I haven't written about this yet because I am just so f*cking angry that I see red every time I try to even think, let alone write or speak, about the GOP's attempt to redefine rape.

I am speaking of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. A bill that, "seeks to revamp the current allowances for victims of rape or incest to use government funds to pay for abortions. Instead, the bill aims to limit the rape exemption to cases of "forcible rape." Also, the bill would make it so that federal funds would only cover abortions in cases of incest if the woman is younger than 18-years-old."

This act is terrifying because it leaves out women who are coerced into drinking too much and losing control, or blackmailed into having sex, or tricked, or are just too paralyzed by fear to even speak let alone put up a fight... but it is also terrifying because many times even rape achieved through plain old brute force does not qualify as forcible rape in our legal system. Sometimes, even if a woman says no and the rapist acknowledges on the stand that he heard her say no... well, that's still not rape because she didn't fight back hard enough (maybe because she was afraid of being beaten on top of being raped, or because she is paralyzed by fear? Just sayin.) The Republican party would have us believe that this woman hadn't been raped, even though she was forced to have sex that she didn't want to have and had to go through the same emotional responses and struggle that any other rape survivor has to deal with... how is this okay? Its not. It wasn't when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court levied this decision in 1994, and its no more okay today in 2011.

There's only one thing to say: we can't let them do this.

When I think about this bill I don't think about it in the abstract. When I think about this bill I think about the multitudes of wonderful, strong women who I have connected with through the Rape Crisis Center, both on the phone and in person. Women who have been violated by people with no respect for them, their independence, or their autonomy. When I think about this bill I see a reflection of that same disrespect that rapists have for their targets, because it is a bill that seeks to take bodily autonomy away from the women who need it the most.

When I speak to someone who has been sexually assaulted in any way my main goal is simply facilitating them in taking back control over their lives. Part of that control for a rape survivor could very easily mean aborting a fetus that was produced as a result of their assault. To pass legislation that would make it even harder for a rape victim to regain that control, when she is already struggling with so much uncertainty and pain inside of herself, is absolutely reprehensible.

Please, please join me in writing and calling your representative to beg them not to do this. Say what's in your heart but please, do what you can to make it personal because if we can just get them to understand that these are lives that they are dealing with, lives of people who deserve a break not to be broken down even further... if they realize these are lives that they are playing with, there is no way this bill can pass.

Some information to help us all fight back...

Democratic Representatives Who Support the Bill:

Dan Boren [D-OK2]
Jerry Costello [D-IL12]
Mark Critz [D-PA12]
Joe Donnelly [D-IN2]
Daniel Lipinski [D-IL3]
Collin Peterson [D-MN7]
Nick Rahall [D-WV3]
Mike Ross [D-AR4]
Heath Shuler [D-NC11]

A sample letter written by a blogger, use it to help you write one of your own! If you live in a district represented by one of the Senators listed above, or if you are represented by a Republican (who is most likely supporting this bill out of party loyalty, if not personal investment) then please, please take the time to call or e-mail them to share your story and let them know that your support for them is riding on them voting against this terrible bill.

Sign the petition!

Join in the #DearJohn twitter campaign directed at Speaker Bahner.

Make your voice heard however you can because we cannot let injustice like this pass.