Love Your Rebellion

"I hate this idea that people will love you in spite of something. Or find you attractive because..."

Fri, 24 May 2013 01:30:15 -0400

“I hate this idea that people will love you in spite of something. Or find you attractive because they’re “looking past” something. What’s wrong with dating someone who thinks I’m sexy as hell? Not just someone who is looking past my hideousness for the sake of my shining personality.”

- Fat Girl Posing (via fatgirlposing)

(via cynicalapathy)

"The street harasser communicates to women that the street belongs to him, not her; that she is not..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 22:30:06 -0400

“The street harasser communicates to women that the street belongs to him, not her; that she is not free to go where she likes, when she likes; that if she behaves as though she is free, he will prove to her that the street is his by sexually violating her. Sexual harassment by “the man on the street” is so frequent in women’s lives that we have learned to see this behaviour as normal for men and inescapable for women.”

-
Dee Graham, Edna Rawlings & Roberta Rigsby. Loving to Survive: sexual terror, men’s violence, and women’s lives. NYU Press. July 1 1994. (p. 11 - 12)

"The ratio of males to females in my “Masculinity and Femininity” course remains only 1 to 5, despite..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 21:40:15 -0400

“

The ratio of males to females in my “Masculinity and Femininity” course remains only 1 to 5, despite the fact that the course gives equal attention to each gender. Males encouraged to enroll often respond, “I don’t need another semester of male-bashing.” … These students, like most other American males, usually know about only one side of feminism, the social-political side.

They know feminism raises fundamental social and political questions, questions about justice and equality and power for women—which necessarily involve criticism of male dominance, of male attitudes, of men. … Yet for the most part they—again, in company with most males, have not yet begun to hear the second set of questions posed by feminism, the personal-psychological-spiritual ones that call for an honest probing of men’s needs and aspirations, as well as women’s, and imply empathy and compassion for both.

Some of these questions are: Why do you define manhood as being tough, in control, in charge, superior to what is non-male, detached—even from your own feelings? If that’s what it means, do you really want to be a man?

”

- William H. Becker, “Feminism’s Personal Questions—for Men” (via ellesugars)

think-different-think-freely: Happy birthday, Malcolm. He was a...

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:30:19 -0400

think-different-think-freely:

Happy birthday, Malcolm.

He was a man who believed in fighting for what was yours, whatever means necessary. He believed in your right to defend yourself from anyone or thing, be it the police or government, if they were violating your rights. He was a man who believed in action.

Gone too soon.

Thoughtfully Risque: White Privilege is

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:00:32 -0400

Thoughtfully Risque: White Privilege is:

bosactivist08:

being able to write about your experience with public housing and having people see your need as legitimate. It is getting to write about your living situation in a major metropolitan newspaper. It is being able to gain access to those types of connections despite not having much education because people see that you are working hard and that you are an inherently good person who is down on their luck.

Even though I do experience a lot of class hate, whiteness definitely allows me to navigate the world easier. It definitely gives me access to more class privileged spaces, people are far more likely to see me as “inspiring” than lazy. It also causes people to give me the benefit of the doubt more. I have been able to talk my way into resources because I appealed to folks sense of morality, which I fucking doubt I could do if I was black or had an accent or was an immigrant.

Basically, our culture gives me power over poor black and latin@ folks (basically the people I share my building with). I can get almost any person of color in my building, especially if they are a guy, kicked out and sent to bangor Maine (yea, not kidding- they are shipping undesirable poor folks from my bulding in metro Boston to public housing units in Bangor- so far its only been somalian immigrants)*. I was basically told this when I moved in.

*There seems to be obvious racial bias going with the relocation thing, but I have no idea how to approach this. The POC in my building avoid me and for good reason. I would avoid me too if I was in their position. I have had barely any chance to talk to folks about this except from the commentary from the racist white men in my building. If anyone has any suggestions- I am all ears. I think I should just try to get information from the housing department first, see how they are billing it. I know nothing for sure, just chatter around the building.

BOOM

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:38:15 -0400

BOOM

continueplease: nbcnews: Teen’s invention could charge your...

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:00:29 -0400

continueplease:

nbcnews:

Teen’s invention could charge your phone in 20 seconds

(Photo: Intel)

Waiting hours for a cellphone to charge may become a thing of the past, thanks to an 18-year-old high-school student’s invention. She won a $50,000 prize Friday at an international science fair for creating an energy storage device that can be fully juiced in 20 to 30 seconds.

Read the complete story.

Everybody, remember this face.
Remember this name.
If this becomes a commonly used & highly lauded discovery, at some point a White guy is going to take credit, even if he has to word it like “Improved upon a previous…”
No no no
Fuck that guy.
Remember this brown girl.
Remeeeemmmmmberrrrr

"The big secret about the golden age of “male providers” is that it never existed. First,..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 04:30:23 -0400

“The big secret about the golden age of “male providers” is that it never existed. First, women have always worked. Second, and just as importantly, there have always been men who were too poor, too queer, too sensitive, too disabled, too compassionate or simply too clever to submit to whatever model of “masculinity” society relied upon to keep its wars fought and its factories staffed. “Traditional masculinity”, like “traditional femininity”, is a form of social control, and seeking to reassert that control is no answer to a generation of young men who are quietly drowning in a world that doesn’t seem to want them.”

- We need to talk about masculinity

"Yesterday, President Obama demonstrated his continued commitment to increasing the diversity of our..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 03:00:30 -0400

“

Yesterday, President Obama demonstrated his continued commitment to increasing the diversity of our federal judiciary, so that it better reflects the nation it serves. He nominated four distinguished women to serve on four different courts—women who not only have the necessary intellect, integrity and fair-mindedness to serve as federal judges, but whose nominations also represent important “firsts” in their state or district:

If confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, Judge Carolyn McHugh would be the first woman from Utah to serve on that court. Currently, the Tenth Circuit only has one woman judge serving among its nine active members.

Pamela Reeves and Elizabeth Wolford would be the first women to serve as district court judges in the Eastern District of Tennessee and Western District of New York, respectively, if confirmed.

Debra Brown would be the first African-American district court judge to serve in the Northern District of Mississippi and the first African-American woman to serve as an Article III judge in the entire state of Mississippi, if confirmed.

”

- President Obama Nominates Four Distinguished Women to Serve as Federal Judges

"Across the country, young girls are being told what not to wear because it might be a “distraction”..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 01:30:26 -0400

“

Across the country, young girls are being told what not to wear because it might be a “distraction” for boys, or because adults decide it makes them look “inappropriate.” At its core, every incident has a common thread: Putting the onus on young women to prevent from being ogled or objectified, instead of teaching those responsible to learn to respect a woman’s body. Here are five other recent examples:

1. A middle school in California banned tight pants. At the beginning of last month, a middle school in Northern California began telling girls to avoid wearing pants that are “too tight” because it “distracts the boys.” At a mandatory assembly for just the female students, the middle school girls were told that they’re no longer allowed to wear leggings or yoga pants. “We didn’t think it was fair how we have all these restrictions on our clothing while boys didn’t have to sit through [the assembly] at all,” one student told local press. Some parents also complained, leading the school’s assistant principal to record a voicemail explaining the new policy. “The guiding principle in all dress codes is that the manner in which students dress does not become a distraction in the learning environment,” the message said.

2. A high school principal in Minnesota emailed parents to ask them to cover up their daughters. A principal in Minnetonka, MN recently wrote an email telling parents to stop letting their daughters wear leggings or yoga pants to school. He says the tight-fitting pants are fine with longer shirts but, when worn with a shorter top, a girl’s “backside” can be “too closely defined.” The big risk of having a defined backside, he thinks, is that it can “be highly distracting for other students.”

3. Two girls in Ohio were turned away from their prom for being “improperly dressed.” Laneisha Williams and Nyasia Mitchell were barred from prom this spring for wearing dresses that administrators considered “too revealing.” The girls say that they didn’t believe they were violating a dress code that said dresses couldn’t be too short or show too much cleavage. But one administrator told local news that the high school girls were only allowed to wear dresses that had “no curvature of their breasts showing.”

4. A kindergarten student in Georgia was forced to change her “short” skirt because it was a “distraction to other students.” It’s hard to imagine that a kindergartener’s outfit could be “a distraction to other students,” but a mother in Georgia told locals news there that her daughter had been outfitted in someone else’s pants — without parental permission — after the principal deemed the skirt the young girl was wearing too short.” The girl had apparently wore the skirt, and accompanying leggings, just one week before without incident.

5. Forty high school girls were sent home from a winter dance in California after “degrading” clothing inspections “bordering on sexual harassment.” A school board member’s daughter was among the 40 girls turned away from Capistrano Valley High’s February dance for wearing dresses that either exposed their midriffs or were cut too low. Before the dance, girls were apparently required to flap their arms up and down and turn around for male administrators’ inspection. The school issues image guidelines for appropriate dress on its website — though the images were nearly all of women, and the only male image depicted proper attire. One girl alleges that the principal told her, “Not all dresses look good on certain body shapes.” A grandmother of one of the girls who was turned away from the dance also said that a teacher remarked about her granddaughter, “What mother would allow her daughter to wear a dress like that?” Apparently the school did receive some praise, though, from the parents of two male students.
When most Americans think about “rape culture,” they may think about the Steubenvill

”

- How ‘Slut Shaming’ Has Been Written Into School Dress Codes Across The Country

BBC World Service - The Age Of Reason, Dr Nawal el Saadawi

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:30:26 -0400

BBC World Service - The Age Of Reason, Dr Nawal el Saadawi :

Nawal El Saadawi is a leading Egyptian feminist, physician and writer. She qualified as a doctor in the 1950s and has spent much of her life drawing attention to the oppression of women. Her work has been banned and she has been imprisoned for her beliefs. Now aged 81 she continues to campaign. She’s in conversation with Lyse Doucet about her life and work.

Armed Forces Sexual Assault Crisis Reaches New Heights

Sun, 19 May 2013 21:00:33 -0400

Armed Forces Sexual Assault Crisis Reaches New Heights:

[TW: Rape] Ahead of possible major actions from the Pentagon and Congress on sexual assault in the military, the U.S. Army is forced to confront yet another instance of a member of the armed forces involved in a shocking sexual assault scandal. In the latest incident, the Department of Defense revealed on Tuesday a sergeant first class […]

In the early 1970s, Ethel Winant had to place her high heels...

Sun, 19 May 2013 19:30:26 -0400

In the early 1970s, Ethel Winant had to place her high heels outside the restroom at her office at CBS to alert men that the room was occupied. As vice president of talent and casting, she was the first female executive in network television. But there was no ladies’ room at work, let alone a lock on the door.

This glimpse into life in the TV business is one of many details that make Jennifer Keishin Armstrong’s book, Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And All the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic, a rich chronicle of women making history. Characters Mary Richards and her sidekick, Rhoda Morgenstern, represented independent and empowered women. But it was the women behind the scenes, Armstrong argues, who were role models for women who wanted to start a career. It was the first time in television history when a woman’s perspective was not only highly regarded, but crucial to the success of the show.

Read More

#streetharassment #stopcatcalling

Sun, 19 May 2013 18:59:57 -0400

#streetharassment #stopcatcalling

Gina Calaya, arrested for Tucson murder at 14, released at 34

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:30:15 -0400

Gina Calaya, arrested for Tucson murder at 14, released at 34:

thisisrapeculture:

socialismartnature:

When then-14-year-old Gina Celaya killed the man who tried to rape her, the state of Arizona sentenced her to life in prison.

Today — after twenty years in prison, and almost as many years of legal battles fought from state courts up to the federal court of appeals — Gina is finally free.

That’s the American “justice system” for you. Serving up injustice to poor people, people of color, and women, since 1776 … She has served more years in jail than the number of years she had been on this Earth at the time of her supposed “crime.”

Meanwhile, actual murderers and rapists walk around freely if they wear a police badge or serve in the U.S. military.

There are no words for how much I fucking hate this country.

There is no justice system.

I hope no one ever interferes with her life again.

motherjones: pbsthisdayinhistory: May 17, 1954: The Supreme...

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:26:28 -0400

motherjones:

pbsthisdayinhistory:

May 17, 1954: The Supreme Court Rules on Brown v. Board of Education

On this day in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which says that no state may deny equal protection of the laws to any person within its jurisdiction.

Although the decision did not succeed in fully desegregating public education in the United States, it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and galvanized the nascent civil rights movement into a full revolution.

Can you name all the key players behind Brown v. Board of Education? Revisit the landmark case with PBS’ The Supreme Court site.

You can also learn more about Brown v. Board of Education with “The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow” and explore more events of the Civil Rights Movement with PBS Black Culture Connection.

School integration, Barnard School, Washington, D.C., 1955 (Library of Congress).

Woo.

Photo

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:27:08 -0400

is there a difference between humanism and feminism or are they both the same?

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:16:22 -0400

I had to take some time to think about how to frame my response to this ask:

Humanism and feminism are not mutually exclusive, yet are not the same thing. One can be a humanist and a feminist, or not: not all humanists are feminists and not all feminists are humanists.

The biggest thing about both these terms—feminism and humanism—is that no one truly, actually knows where these terms originate and what they have come to mean (besides academics in the fields). For instance, are you talking about humanism as it was established in the Middle Ages, or are you talking about a post-modern iteration of humanism? Same with feminism: who coined this term, and what development has gone on within the movement that has redefined it over time?

The main problem with both of these terms is that people amount their meaning to the face value of the word. Since most people don’t take the time to do extensive research into -isms, people believe that humanism is about humans while feminist is about females simply due to etemology. Feminists get told they are not humanists because the movement is about the advancement of one group—women—instead of all humans. This is absolutely untrue: the inequity of women is a humanist issue in that women are humans, and many feminist issues also encompas issues of race, class, sexual orientation, and masculinity (etc.). Many anti-feminists claim that feminism is anti-humanist because they simply don’t believe in the white supremicist, capitalist, patriarchy which systematically oppresses POCs, women, homosexuals, trans* people, etc. By default, those who decide that feminism does not equal humanism act as if there isn’t an inequity between men and women; many also deny racism, classism, etc. under the guise that “we are all human.” This does not factor in the hierarchy of priviledge that feminism works to dismantle, which is why feminists have a huge problem with humanism.

So I hope this, at least, grazed the surface of answering your question.

—Angela Page

Become a Contributor to Love Your Rebellion

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:37:00 -0400

Become a Contributor to loveyourrebellion.com and/or the LYR App!

In addition to our .com and print issues, Love Your Rebellion will be releasing an Ipad and Iphone App this summer that will feature original content from feminist writers, artists, and musicians.

Work submitted does not have to be by women, but must be feminist in content. We encourage intersectional submissions.

What we are looking for:

Essays (500 — 1500 Words)

Non-fiction

Feminist Theory

Feminist Criticism

Poetry (No more than 2 pages in length per poem)

Prose Poetry

Free Verse

Hybrid

Fiction (250 — 1500 Words)

Flash Fiction

Short Stories

Art

Digital Art

Photography

Fine Art (Scans)

Comics

Guidelines for Submissions

Send to: loveyourrebellion.submissions@gmail.com

In the email subject line: Author Name; Genre

Writing

Please write in the body of the email: name, address, phone number, e-mail address, title of piece, and 50-word maximum third-person bio.

Text: Times New Roman, 12-point font, standard one-inch margins, attach to email.

Title: Place on page that text begins. No page numbers and no author name anywhere on the text.

Attach .doc or .docx only.

Prose: 1.5 space.

Poetry: single space.

Feminist criticism/theory must site sources if sources are used.

Sources must be sited in MLA format.

Art

Please write in the body of the email: name, address, phone number, e-mail address, title of piece, and 50-word maximum third-person bio.

The attached image must be a minimum of 300 dpi. Scan image if needed, but please, 300dpi minimum.

All art must be submitted in .JPEG extension only.

**You may submit to more than one genre.

**Only one submission per genre, please.

**Please send a separate email per submission.

**We will be sure to let you know if your work has been chosen within 3 months of your submission.
**Online contributors may be asked to publish on a continuing basis.

**Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please let us know if you have been accepted elsewhere.

**At this time we are not offering financial compensation, but published authors will receive a free 1 year App subscription.

**We encourage submissions from all over the world, but text must be written in English.

**We accept online/App submissions all year long.

**Anything that does not follow the submission guidelines will not be considered for publication.

**Should your work appear on LYR.com or in the App, your name will be added to the contributing authors list indefinitely.

"Rap music is so diverse in its themes, its style, its content but when it becomes a vehicle to be..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 04:30:30 -0400

“Rap music is so diverse in its themes, its style, its content but when it becomes a vehicle to be talked about in mainstream news, the rap that gets in national news is always the rap music that perpetuates misogyny that is most obscene in its lyrics and then this comes to stand for what rap is. Really its for me the perfect paradigm of colonialism, that is to say, we think of rap music as a little third-world country, that young white consumers are able to go to and take out of it whatever they want. We would have to acknowledge that what young white consumers, primarily male, oftentimes suburban, most got energized by in rap music was misogyny, obscenity, pugilistic eroticism and therefore that form of rap began to make the largest sums of money.”

- bell hooks, cultural criticism — rap: authentic expression or market construct?

BAM. there it is.

(via tahlalaliaaa)