Feminism | Posted by Roberta Nin Feliz on 08/9/2017
The Adultification Of Black Girls
Black girls are seen as older and less innocent than their white counterparts
The results of a recently published Georgetown Law study that found Black girls experience “adultification”—or are seen as older and less innocent than their white counterparts—might be surprising to some, but certainly not to those in the Black community. While this study isn’t the first to validate the inequitable experiences of Black women or Blackness in general, this study reflects the specific experiences of Black girls.
Many black girls are familiar with being seen as more adult than our peers. Hearing comments like being told to “cover up” when I was going through puberty made me feel like I was older and more mature than my age. That perception of maturity gave me an awareness about …
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Feminism | Posted by Karla Majdancic on 08/7/2017
DACA Might Be At Risk. Here’s What That Means.
Support DACA.
After immigrant youth spent years relentlessly organizing and protesting against U.S. deportation laws, President Obama signed an executive order called Deferred Action for Children Act (DACA) in 2012. DACA was created to provide temporary deportation relief to eligible undocumented youth who had migrated to the United States as children. But those protected by DACA now fear its rescission due to the current administration’s toxic rhetoric surrounding immigrants—a fear most recently reiterated on July 20, when then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that the Deferred Action for Children Act might be at risk.
This announcement notably came after the introduction of a bipartisan bill by Senators Durbin and Graham that would “provide Dreamers with a path to citizenship.” But despite the bill’s …
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Feminism | Posted by Dayton Uttinger on 08/2/2017
Why Is There Still A Rape Kit Backlog?
We need justice for survivors.
There are very few (if any) women who haven’t thought about it. We think about it as we walk to our cars after a night out, as we jog around the block after the sun’s been down for hours, as we watch our little sisters leave home. We clutch our keys between our fingers and tense our muscles.
One in six women has been raped, as have 1 in 33 men. The numbers are even more depressing for transgender, genderqueer, or non-conforming individuals. We tell ourselves that our friends and family could never be rapists, but studies show that rapists are much more likely to admit their crimes as long as the word “rape” is never used; they will admit to forcing their partner …
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Feminism | Posted by Farha Khalidi on 07/26/2017
How This Youth Council Is Helping Queer Muslims
Urooj Arshad
Our government has a way of minimizing its destructive influence on the minorities of this nation by convincing us that we’re the problem—that we’re all out to get each other and everyone else—so we lose focus on the systemic oppression inflicted upon us by our highest-ranking officials and start to point fingers at each other, until we reach mutually assured destruction.
Take, for instance, the Muslim and LGBTQ+ communities in the United States. Both of these communities are marginalized in our conservative Christian society, and as such are pitted against each other. Urooj Arshad, founder of the Muslim Youth Leadership Council, told the FBomb that she believes the U.S. government is “bigoted towards the LGBT and Muslim communities, but tries to use the LGBT community as a proxy …
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Feminism | Posted by Kadin Burnett on 07/21/2017
The Fight To Exclude Gender On This Baby’s Birth Certificate
Why do we assign genders at birth?
“Is it a boy or a girl?” everyone asks immediately upon learning of a pregnancy or birth. It’s a question that dictates the name parents give their baby, determines the color they paint the nursery, and even catalyzes the shade of powder for a viral gender reveal at baby showers. But one Canadian family recently rejected this tradition: eight months ago, Searyl Atli Doty was born to a non-binary transgender parent by the name of Kori Doty, who declined to assign the baby a gender.
Searyl Atli was born outside of the medical system and was issued a health document that did not specify gender. The issued health card (a document that …
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Feminism | Posted by Chloe H on 07/19/2017
What We Can Learn From The Seneca Falls Convention Over 160 Years Later
Seneca Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention, which is perhaps best remembered for its demand for women’s suffrage, was held on July 19, 1848. And yet 169 years later, American women continue to struggle within the confines of a patriarchal and misogynistic society—and to honor the legacy of the Seneca Falls Convention nonetheless by continuing to fight for their rights.
The convention produced an influential feminist document called the “Declaration of Sentiments,” which highlighted the ironic lack of freedom women had in their country given their nation’s founding document and overall purpose. As the Declaration of Sentiments pointed out, “the history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.” …
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Feminism | Posted by Angela Liu on 07/18/2017
The Troubling Sexism That Persists In Tech
Lack of representation isn’t the only problem
Last April, I attended a meeting of Angel investors—individuals who invest personal funds in startups and other early-stage companies—that gathers every couple of months in Portland, Oregon to hear pitches and decide whether to invest. Angel investors are unlike venture capitalists in that they invest their personal funds, but all too similar when it comes to the reality that most are male.
I found this firsthand when, fifteen minutes before the event started, I found I was the only woman in the room—and only two more entered by the time the meeting convened. The men in the room stood around in clumps chatting with each other, trading business cards, and sipping wine while, taken aback, I wondered where all the female investors …
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Feminism | Posted by Farha Khalidi on 07/12/2017
We Can’t Ignore Trump’s Sexist Treatment Of Female Reporters
Trump’s sexism has to stop
From his comments about “pussy grabbing” to the restrictive reproductive policies he pushes to the lack of women on his staff, it’s understandable why so many women are uncomfortable with and resistant to President Trump. And Trump’s misogyny only continues: Caitriona Perry, an RTE News Washington Correspondent, was the latest woman to endure an upsetting interaction with the president. Perry was in the oval office this past week alongside other members of the Irish press, all of whom were there reporting on Trump’s conversation with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. In a video Perry later tweeted, Trump told Varadkar about “all this beautiful Irish press” during the phone call. Specifically, he singled out Perry, who he noted “has a nice smile,” and therefore, “I bet …
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