17 May 2013
“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes, if they know that that knowledge will help [...]
15 May 2013
By Mohadesa Najumi When I think about what modesty means in today’s political, cultural and religious environment, I am inclined to believe that the concept itself does not involve choice, or any dimension of freedom or independent thought. Rather, modesty constitutes a dictatorial concept forced upon women whether they agree [...]
13 May 2013
By Kristen Reynolds As I sit here on the eve of my graduation, cataloging what I’ve learned over the last few years as a Black woman coming into (what I hope is) consciousness – I feel a great deal of shame. Shame and, if I am going to be incredibly honest, [...]
10 May 2013
By Alyssa Gockley Several weeks ago, Bucknell University published its weekly campus newspaper. While just about every edition of The Bucknellian has some article or opinion piece that makes you raise an eyebrow or shake your head, this particular week’s paper contained something that sparked outrage across campus. There was [...]
7 May 2013
*Trigger warning* Sometimes I feel like the NRA is actively just trying to lose all the credibility it has left in this world. Just when you thought the NRA’s annual convention in Houston this weekend couldn’t draw any more negative attention, it goes out and casually promotes a company selling a product [...]
29 Mar 2013
By Monica Torres When I sign my name, it’s Monica, not Mónica. When I order pupusas at my favorite restaurant, the waiter will give my accent an approving nod, as if to say, you’re one of us. But it will only take a harder question for me to reveal the [...]
18 Mar 2013
By Alexa Lambertis At an early age, I was exposed to a woman who essentially changed my life. A sweet lady with a southern background, she was introduced to me as a family friend. I met her in her own home, where we would spend a majority of our time [...]
Last week, while grieving parents of the children killed in Newtown were tearfully urging gun control measures, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.) boldly launched—to well deserved criticism—a new “pro-life” campaign slogan: “If babies had guns they wouldn’t be aborted.” The slogan, printed on a campaign bumper sticker, is a ridiculous statement from a politician known...
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Liora K is an Arizona photographer who produces art not only for work and pleasure, but also for Feminism. When I first discovered Liora’s provocative and powerful images, it was in the context of her feminist project featuring text written on women’s nude bodies. My collaborator (Soraya Chemaly) and I were looking for images...
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The 85th Annual Academy Awards have come and gone. According to some, including my 11-year old daughter Mason (a TFW Collective Member), the show was the “worst ever.” I have to agree; it was spectacularly awful, from Seth MacFarlane’s not-so-edgy sexist, racist, and just plain ugly jokes, to strange blasts from the past, to...
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Almost a decade ago, I eagerly awaited the release of Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, thinking it was a boxing movie. It wasn’t, really—any more than Flight is a movie about flying. Yet both films are very much about gravity: the histories, behaviors, demons, dreams, and failures—technical and otherwise—that can pull people fast, flat,...
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In the wake of the Newtown shootings, the airwaves have been vibrating—often furiously—with conversations about guns. And as always in the United States, the issue is framed as a rigid binary of pro and con, them and us. Gun control advocates, including President Obama, want to place the discursive emphasis firmly on violence and...
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“For every well-known black woman whose death has been noted and marked, there are countless other black women who have died in the shadows. These are the black women in our neighborhoods and communities who suffer in silence from AIDS, hypertension, diabetes or domestic violence. They are the black women who die without anyone...
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For several weeks now, I’ve been posting to Facebook articles about women’s reproductive health, and in particular the Romney campaign’s misogynist disregard for crucial aspects of women’s lives. I’ve taken to adding the tagline “because women matter” to my posts. Perhaps more than any election in recent memory, this one hinges on what pundits...
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When I was a child, I lost one father and gained another. Damaged and blessed simultaneously, as many of us are, my girlhood was shaped by both a profound absence and a solid presence. This liminal position, which to some degree I still inhabit, hinged between longing and hope, loss and normality, the past...
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In 1977, I won my elementary school’s spelling bee, sending me to the regional match where, after several rounds, I was defeated by the word jaundice. I was eleven years old, an exacting, bright, precocious little Virgo. In a local newspaper article about my achievement, I was quoted as saying, “I’m a big fan...
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By Daniel R. Morrison and Monica J. Casper Last year in TFW, we wrote about the gendered aspects of traumatic brain injury (TBI), noting stark differences between men’s experiences as aggressors in combat and on the playing field and women’s experiences as targets of intimate violence. In the wake of Junior Seau’s suicide and the initial announcement by his family...
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17 May 2013
Assata do not dry like dissipated plums under castro’s bronzing sun you mural fortress you live memorial spirited artifice rouged sea salt that marinates america’s wound Assata you like stripped bone road unaware of which exit is free birth brown coagulated rhythm redefined reborn rumba queen Assata dusk breath [...]
16 May 2013
“Affirmation” by Assata Shakur* ___ I believe in living. I believe in the spectrum of Beta days and Gamma people. I believe in sunshine. In windmills and waterfalls, tricycles and rocking chairs. And i believe that seeds grow into sprouts. And sprouts grow into trees. I believe in the magic [...]
16 May 2013
for Assata Amira Nakati Carter-Goff on her tenth birthday call down the name freedom call up the spirit of no matter what now call your shared name liberation veins steel will fierce focus shielding sacred smile laugh your own name radiant as cuba laugh your yawning name into language [...]
7 May 2013
7 May 2013
30 Apr 2013
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20 Apr 2013
