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 [...]
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 Al Cunningham My perspective on HIV prevention continues to be driven by the circumstances under which I became involved in this work 25 years ago. What Reggie Williams (founding Executive Director) and I, and most, if not all of the original volunteer members of the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention (NTFAP) had in common was the altruistic urge to make a difference. In that regard, I often...
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By: C. Jones The Feminist Wire has decided to place the voices of persons living with HIV/AIDS at the center of its 2011 World AIDS Day forum. From my perspective as an HIV-positive person, elevating the voices of persons living with HIV/AIDS in the ivory tower, public square, and media sphere is a vitally important step in educating the public about HIV and AIDS. Yet, our voices and experiences...
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What will need to happen to achieve the goal of eliminating new HIV infections, AIDS related deaths, and discrimination? What can we do, collectively, to get to zero? Monica J. Casper Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases is Goal 6 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. It follows Goals 4 (Reduce Child Mortality) and 5 (Improve Maternal Health). Goal 1 is to end poverty and hunger. Around...
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The Japanese Teahouse To Greg Witcher I can now see the skirt hems of hants stitched by the hands of the living they keep with them in this sphere the shame and vanity of us all and so hide their naked spirits in calico gowns shielding indigo slips made loose for easy movementLa Fleur cannot see the ghosts of this house vying for perfume and overripe papaya spreading like...
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one million black women and no mention of HIV/AIDS? vi. In this hostile corridor A quickening nostalgia suffuses me, this late evening fin de siecle between two endangered sites. The marvelous have been blighted by a blood borne scourge. Flamboyantly frail, good looking, still marvelous you nourish these failing geographies. As I face your graceful soliticitous- ness over the counter of this nasty KFC and am dazzled...
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“medicine” how i do it this not-always-easy how i keep strong on weak(er) days is i think of the joy beckoning for me to claim the stuff of dreams and fantasy the weightlessness my pillows hold holding them like a wish how i do it is i keep keepin’ the promise i make to myself daily that i deserve and am gonna get it and think… this might...
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If the AIDS epidemic has revealed the fragmentation of our society and more importantly the breakdown of African American communities, then, in the end, to truly contain it, we must find the political will to make it whole. What is needed goes far beyond federal support of innovative and creative programs to reach and help individuals and their families. What is needed is a Civil Rights Movement organized around...
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Volume II: 2012, “Queer Interventions and Intersections” Journal Publication Date: April 15, 2012 Deadline for the submission of papers: January 1, 2012 Trans-Scripts – a new interdisciplinary online journal in the Humanities and Social Sciences based at the University of California, Irvine – invites graduate students to submit their work for publication. The theme of the second volume will be “Queer Interventions and Intersections.” While some argue that the...
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I didn’t know Tayshana Murphy was gay. I’m from Harlem, and I like to think I’m tapped into important conversations among New York’s LGBTQ people of color communities. I learned of 18-year-old Murphy’s murder early on September 11th of this year—heard about it, in fact, from an auntie of mine before I heard it on the news. Both sources framed it as a modern-day Sophoclean-style tragedy, in which someone...
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The first time I encountered Paule (silent ‘e’) Marshall, I was an undergraduate—a first-generation college student—at the University of Chicago. I was majoring in sociology and trying to figure out my place in the world of ideas. I vividly remember the frisson of excitement I felt when I pulled one of Marshall’s books off the shelf at the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore. My selection was The Chosen Place, The Timeless...
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All of us at TFW wish you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving! While you are enjoying your day with family and friends, we hope that you will take a moment to read just a few of our “notables” of which we are most thankful for this holiday season: 11 Months of feminist reporting since our founding 241 New feminist essays 20,000 Monthly readers 32 Pingbacks 7,918 Active Facebook users...
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Oscar Wilde once described the game of Rugby as “a good occasion for keeping thirty bullies far from the center of the city.” While Wilde may have been somewhat dismissive of a sport that requires considerable skill, courage, and physical fitness, he did point to the reputation, often deserved, that players and fans of the sport have. To those unfamiliar with rugby, I would say the nearest stateside equivalent...
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By Charles E. Bowie As a former athlete and football player I struggled in coming to terms with what happened at Penn State. The cult of masculine discourse surrounding football locker rooms and the structures of meaning associated with being “a man” blinded me to the possibility of Penn State. So blinded by these meanings that my initial response was, this cannot be true. I hope it is not true. ...
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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
7 May 2013
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