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 [...]
By Hana Riaz For many Women of Colour feminists globally and in the West, our struggle with mainstream feminism remains an arduous and painful one. Despite the great body of work that Women of Colour have created – speaking to diverse experiences of race, gender, class, ethnicity, religion, disability and sexuality –mainstream feminism remains hegemonically white and middle-class, and often colonialist and racist (amongst many other –isms). Its exclusion...
Read more »
By Juliana Britto Schwartz “You Americans, why are you so obsessed with labels?” The way my Brazilian cousin looks at me, she might as well replace the term “labels” with “chains,” or “torture.” And she’s not the first person to have asked me this during my stay in Brazil. Brazilian students always seem to find it strange when I describe myself with words like “Brazilian-American,” or a “feminist.” I...
Read more »
By James Bliss And I wonder what I may be risking as I become more and more committed to telling whatever truth comes across my eyes my tongue my pen… ‘A Burst of Light: Living with Cancer’ I want to write about Audre Lorde. Because this is a forum on what to do about the recalcitrance of ‘feminism’ unmodified, its desire not to engage or be concerned with the lives...
Read more »
On Friday, April 26, TFW published Part I of a conversation between myself and Dr. Connie Ruzich about all things feminism, race, socioeconomic status, religion, and age, just to name a few! Connie and I contributed our conversation to the Race & Feminisms forum, because we believe it models just one of the many ways in which feminists across various backgrounds and ideals can appreciate and reconcile their differences in...
Read more »
By Vickie Nam The rift that steadily deepened between my mother and I emerged in the throes of adolescence, and mid-90s White feminism did little to mitigate my feelings of estrangement from her. Back in 1993, I was a first-year college student wading through writings, then, unfamiliar to me, by Mary Wollstonecraft, Betty Friedan, Catherine Mackinnon, Susan Faludi and Susan Bordo. This was my rite of passage into the...
Read more »
By John Murillo III The University of California, Irvine’s Black Student Union continues to act in response to one instance in a lengthy genealogy of antiblack events on the university campus, in the UC System, and in the world writ large. Lambda Theta Delta, self-described as the largest Asian-American interest fraternity on UCI’s campus, a group that professes “cultural awareness,” posted a video that parodies Justin Timberlake’s “Suit ant...
Read more »
By Wendy Cheng When I heard what writers at The Onion had tweeted about nine-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis during the Oscars, I felt it as a blow to the gut. How could a person think and write such a thing about this beautiful, spirited child? It made me feel – as I often do these days, living much of the time in SB 1070-era Arizona– that there was a hard...
Read more »
By Shannon Craigo-Snell I was weeping in the parking lot. The required seminar in the Ivy League graduate program had just let out for the evening, and I managed to leave the building before losing my composure. We met each week to discuss the classic texts in our field. Roughly one dozen people. Approximately the same number of students and professors. Predominantly male. Almost exclusively white. Here, we were...
Read more »
By Rosa Cabrera When the door opened, my grandmother’s arms wound lightly around my torso as she kissed the air beside my cheek, missing the flesh as my mouth landed on droopy, toasted cinnamon skin. Her eyes quickly scanned the distance between us, aiming right before my body. I waited for disapproval. No comments made. My lover followed behind me. I was relieved to see her offer my lover...
Read more »
By Qui Dorian Alexander I came into feminism as a butch Latina lesbian at a women’s college. Today I stand as a brown queer trans masculine person who moves through the world read as a cis brown man. I have often felt like my place in feminism has not always been welcomed, thought it has always been an integral part of my identity. I came into my feminism hearing...
Read more »
The Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Connecticut applauds Ms. Luby for creating an open dialogue about the relationship among the UConn brand, discourses of masculinity, systems of violence, and the responsibility of the University to create civil and welcoming environments for all students. We are appalled at the threatening comments against Ms. Luby on our campus and posted online. However, we believe it is...
Read more »
By Soraya L. Chemaly Two days ago, Carolyn Luby, an undergraduate at University of Connecticut published a remarkable open letter to the school’s president, Susan Herbst, in The Feminist Wire. In the letter she made her case and argued persuasively that the school’s new mascot and branding should be reconsidered. The school had decided as part of this visual identity revamping to change its Husky Dog logo from the current mascot to...
Read more »
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 26, 2013 In light of the recent vitriolic, anti-feminist, misogynist, and malevolent backlash directed at UConn senior Carolyn Luby in response to her courageous Op-Ed, “An Open Letter to UConn President Susan Herbst,” published in The Feminist Wire’s College column last Tuesday, we want to express our unequivocal support for her and our disgust with those who have threatened both her well-being and life–whether through...
Read more »
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
25 Apr 2013
20 Apr 2013
