24 May 2013
Kristen E. Nelson is the author of Write, Dad (Unthinkable Creatures Press, 2012). She has recently published work in The Volta, Denver Quarterly Drunken Boat, Tarpaulin Sky Journal, Trickhouse, and Everyday Genius, among others. She is a founder and the Executive Director of Casa Libre en la Solana, a non-profit writing center in Tucson, Arizona; a production editor for Tarpaulin [...]
22 May 2013
By Elizabeth Dorssom I first started referring to myself as a feminist when I was 17. Even though I didn’t identify as a feminist until I was older I was definitely a feminist from a very young age. When I was in elementary school I enjoyed playing with Hot Wheels cars instead [...]
20 May 2013
By Molly Baker On April 23, University of Arizona student Dean Saxton, better known as Brother Dean, stood on a bench brandishing a sign that bluntly stated in bold, black letters “You Deserve Rape.” Saxton proceeded to verbally harass many women that walked by on their way to class, calling them [...]
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 [...]
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 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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Dr. Connie Ruzich and I first met soon after I walked onto the Robert Morris University campus in 1999. I thought I’d become a Finance & Economics major. Then, I thought I’d become an Accounting major. Then, I thought I’d become a Mathematics major. Then, I thought…you get the point. I changed my major seven times as an undergraduate. As a result, while most of my peers were taking...
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By Marlaina H. Martin For every one of the countless times that I have thought about race, I can name a handful in which I felt it. And while I could easily sit here and spout stories about the outright racist banter that has come my way, or passing comments that have made me stop and think twice, I will speak instead of a time that I experienced “post”-race,...
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By Rebecca Miriam The thing is: you can let it go. You can shut down your browser, or throw away that newspaper, or turn off your radio and TV, or walk past that poster, or end the conversation – and forget all about it. You can publish a statement about why everyone else is wrong, and countless media outlets will print it word for word, because they do not see...
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By Lisa Factora-Borchers I’m aware that religion, faith, and spirituality are not physical attributes. But for some of us who were inculcated in Filipino Catholicism, there’s very little separation between what runs through your veins and what runs through your soul. There was never a time when I wasn’t a cisgender girl or woman. There was never a time when I wasn’t Filipino. And there was never a time,...
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By Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz Have you ever had moments in your life that you know have changed you forever? Moments that shifted your consciousness, changed how you organize or opened up a whole new world of relationships and authentic expressions of solidarity you never knew were possible? As organizers we don’t often have the space and time to talk about the moments that shape us. Nor do we often have time...
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22 May 2013
By Aditi Rao Dear Mr. Yadav, I too am an Indian Woman “Referring to the recent ‘Slut Walk’ held in the Capital, Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav said we had naked women walking down the streets with tattoos on their cheeks, whereas Indian women did not even look up while [...]
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 [...]
7 May 2013
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