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 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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Back in February 2010, 11 Muslim students from UC Irvine and UC Riverside interrupted a speech given on the Irvine campus by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren to protest against that nation’s occupation of the Gaza strip. Although each protester only spoke for a few seconds, and although Oren’s speech was delayed by only a few minutes, the students were arrested and subjected to university sanctions. Afterwards, criminal charges were...
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Black feminism lives as an abundant and hopeful critique of our everyday circumstances. Black feminism lives as a perpetual readiness to engage and instigate transformation grounded in a deep love for our people and all oppressed communities. Jessica Solomon, of the groundbreaking, healing performance collective the Saartjie Project, faced a moment for a Black feminist response, when she encountered a disturbingly racist and dehumanizing exhibit at the Crime and Punishment...
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Tamura Lomax has rightly called for an interrogation of (and action in response to) the sexist, misogynist, and violent resonances lurking within some iterations of the Occupy movement in her important piece, “Occupy Rape Culture.” Tamura is (damn) right when stating, “Rape and all other sexist and misogynist behavior occurring at Occupy events, must be called out and addressed. Nothing short of Zero tolerance needs to be demanded, by...
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TFW welcomes Darnell L. Moore to our Editorial Collective. Darnell L. Moore is a writer/poet and activist who lives in Bedstuy, Broooklyn, NY and hails from Camden, NJ. He is a 2011-2012 Visiting Scholar in the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at NYU and a Fellow of the Global Justice Institute. His writings, which have been published in peer-reviewed and popular publications, focus on issues of race and sexuality.
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The last few months have been received by most as a foreign policy boon for our fledgling sitting President. In a global climate dominated by a “war on terror,” ever-expanding and apparently without end, Mr. Obama has distinguished himself as a war president in troubled times. He presided over the tracking and killing of Osama Bin Laden; oversaw the country’s role in the NATO intervention in Libya that resulted...
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By Linda Martín Alcoff The Oakland occupation was shut the last week of October, albeit temporarily, on the grounds of concerns about safety and security. Sexual assaults of various sorts had been rumored, as well as thefts, drug use, and transgressions on public property. Marijuana use is hardly a major concern in Oakland California, where it has been effectively decriminalized through medical permissions, and the smell pervades the...
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I expected to love Chelsea Settles. I expected to hate Chelsea Settles. On both counts, I was wrong. MTV’s newest (semi)reality protagonist— spun, as the network puts it, as “A New Kind of Heroine”—the 23-year-old, 324-lb Pennsylvania native is likeable, but not quite loveable. She is sweet, and pretty, and her dialogue gestures toward intelligence. Yet her sweetness stops short of vulnerability, the intelligence short of brilliance, and at...
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If you enjoy the luxury of living under a rock, you may have missed the news that the planet’s population has reached (and now exceeded) seven billion people. The media made quite a fuss about it, briefly rocketing the issue of population control ahead of the economy and unemployment rates. What is alarming about so many of these conversations is that the United States is constantly compared to other...
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Taking its dangerous “life begins at conception” assault from State Legislature to State Legislature, one of the most dangerous political forces in the United States is stepping up its crusade for the “rights” of the unborn. Backed by an organization called Personhood USA, the latest offensive by anti-choice Christian fascists involves a renewed movement to amend state constitutions to establish human rights and personhood status for fertilized eggs. On...
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By Kalen Young “Alabama’s got me so upset, Tennessee made me lose my rest, and everybody knows about Mississsippi Goddam…” Little did anyone assume Nina Simone’s infamous lyrics would be reverberating in the groans of women residing in Mississippi 47 years later. Nina Simone wrote “Mississippi Goddamn” as a response to racial violence that murdered Medgar Evers in the state and led to the bombing of a church...
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By Wanda Kolomyjec and Monica J. Casper Some disturbingly familiar scenes from the campaign trail… “Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?” (1988, Bernard Shaw to presidential candidate Michael Dukakis) “But you’ve had children, grandchildren. If one of your female children, grand children was raped, you would honestly want her to bring up that baby as her own?”...
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Today in TFW, we begin a series of articles about reproductive justice, one of the most urgent issues of our time. Indeed, few issues so viscerally embody the profound conservative attacks on women and girls. From assaults on abortion rights to “personhood” initiatives to diminished funding for sexual assault services, women’s bodies are the fleshy terrain on/in which contemporary politics are played out, typically by men in power. Yet,...
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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
30 Apr 2013
25 Apr 2013
20 Apr 2013
The Guardian