Category Archives: Feminism

Must-Read Links: Everything’s Coming Up Hillary Rodham Clinton | Dame Magazine

This week we witnessed history in the making, when Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first woman in America’s 240 years to secure the presidential nomination for a major political party. Even many of the feminists who solidly feel the Bern, couldn’t help but get a little verklempt listening to Clinton’s speech after the delegate-clinching Tuesday primaries. She began with a shout out to Seneca Falls, “when a small but determined group of women and men came together with the idea that women deserved equal rights,” and continued with a gracious celebration of that monumental crack in the political glass ceiling. Here, we relish in the groundbreaking nature of this week’s events, with a roundup dedicated solely to HRC.

Source: Must-Read Links: Everything’s Coming Up Hillary Rodham Clinton | Dame Magazine

Yes, Hillary’s Nomination For President Really Is a Big Effin’ Deal | Dame Magazine

Jen DeaderickHillary Rodham Clinton has become the first woman to secure the nomination for president in the primary of a major political party. This was no coronation. This has been a tough, grueling primary, and it’s the second one she’s been through in the last ten years. Even before her first run for president in 2008, she had spent decades working on progressive causes, wearing out her shoe leather learning how to work in the grassroots ground games, and in the corridors of power. She earned this nomination by working a lot harder, by being a lot smarter, by being a self-starter.She earned it, but she also stood on a lot of shoulders to get to where she is, walked though a lot of doors that others had opened, or left ajar. Since 1776, women have fought, over and over again, to be full participants in this great political experiment: the United States of America.When the Founders wrote “All Men are Created Equal,” they really did mean to say “men.” It was not meant as a universal word meaning humans. Elizabeth “Mum Bett” Freeman saw herself in the Declaration of Independence and sued for her freedom, and Abigail Adams famously urged John to “remember the ladies” in his work at the Constitutional Convention:

Source: Yes, Hillary’s Nomination For President Really Is a Big Effin’ Deal | Dame Magazine

A Response to George Will’s Latest: Campus Rape Is Not a “Fiction”

More than any other federal law today, Title IX is fundamentally concerned with guaranteeing all students access to education.Will does a disservice to accused and accusing students alike by misrepresenting the basic facts of the prevalence of campus rape, as well as the protections legally entitled to those who accuse and are accused of perpetrating it. It’s time we stop putting up with his rape apology and focus on what’s really at stake: students’ right to education.

Source: A Response to George Will’s Latest: Campus Rape Is Not a “Fiction”

Gloria Steinem On Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, & Beyonce’s Daring Feminism: Gothamist

Why do you think it’s important that we elect Hillary Clinton? Well, setting gender aside, because obviously I wouldn’t vote for Sarah Palin, she may be the most experienced and effective candidate we’ve ever had. I can’t think of another presidential candidate who has had the kind of experience she has. Also from her Wellesley graduation speech, to her struggle for health care, she’s always been out there. Neither she, nor you, nor I, agrees with everything that emerges from a democratic process. She knows how to go in there and make it better than it would have been without her.

Source: Gloria Steinem On Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, & Beyonce’s Daring Feminism: Gothamist

Video of the Day: 100 Years of Hijab as Political Defiance

It surprises me how in the most liberal of feminist American spaces, there remains incredible discomfort — if not outright bigotry and discrimination — towards women who choose to wear a headscarf. As a Muslim woman who does not wear a headscarf and is often read as racially (and religiously) ambiguous, I’ve been around far too many self-proclaimed liberals and feminists who feel comfortable indulging their racism around me—commenting on how Muslim women are oppressed, naive, brainwashed, being beaten by scary brown and black men, and/or suffering from intense mind control by choosing to cover their hair. Other times, parents of white friends (or white friends themselves) will connect my lack of a headscarf to progressivism, labeling me as a “good” Muslim woman who is politically sharp enough not to adorn the hijab.Well I do adorn hijab. Almost every day. I cover most of my legs, arms, and try to wear loose clothing. The Qur’an requires men and women to wear hijab—or dress modestly—but does not specify exactly what covering up looks like. Muslims are not a monolith (surprise!) and therefore differ on what modesty requires, meaning that there are a variety of practices in different cultures and countries: for some, including my family, hijab means a headscarf, for others like myself, it means wanting to wear a headscarf but not feeling safe enough to do so in their home country. For others it means a style of dress that includes a niqab (face covering), abaya (loose black gown), or none of the above.

Source: Video of the Day: 100 Years of Hijab as Political Defiance

Muslim families shouldn′t use birth control, says Erdogan | News | DW.COM | 30.05.2016

Turkey’s president has slammed family planning, calling for an increase in “descendents.” The leader has previously faced criticism for urging mothers to have at least three children and calling birth control “treason.”

Source: Muslim families shouldn′t use birth control, says Erdogan | News | DW.COM | 30.05.2016

A Girl from a Nairobi Slum Issues a Resonant Call for Post-Tribal Unity in Kenya – The New York Times

Shanize’s poem of unity: It is very sad what’s happening to our country. Imagine. A nation that is known to be safe – no violence – now turned into a nation living in fear. No security. Why does it have to come down to this? Religions. You have grown up together. The Kikuyu, M’Kamba, Luo, Abalughya and others. Why do you want to fight each other? As Kenyans, youth – Christian and Muslim – we should stand up as one and say no to violence, no to terrorism, no to instability and live as one. Let no one convince you to pick up a panga, a gun, grenades, bombs, and harm one another. No one has the right to take anyone’s life. Stand up. Get up. Show up. And say no to violence, no to terrorism, no to instability, and live as one.

Source: A Girl from a Nairobi Slum Issues a Resonant Call for Post-Tribal Unity in Kenya – The New York Times

Race Report: Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga | Fit and Feminist

This was definitely a tough race, and while I would have liked to have gone into it with better training, I still can’t complain about it too much.  I mean, for one, I PRed.  It would be completely obnoxious for me to be upset about that. I also managed to finally have an OK run during a half-ironman. I think that’s because I finally have a bit of experience at this distance to draw on, so I knew when to pull back and when to push and how to manage my nutrition. That said, I still have a LOT to learn.  Which is great!  It makes for a fun adventure. And then of course there’s the fitness side of things.  I’ve noticed over the years that my level of base fitness has gradually increased to the point where races I used to have to train my ass off for – like, say, half-marathons or Olympic distance triathlons – are now things where I can go out and race pretty hard without a ton of preparation, and I’m apparently starting to reach that level with even longer events. I have to say I’m pretty pleased by this.  I enjoy feeling strong and fit and healthy. I like being capable of doing hard physical shit. I particularly like seeing how my body and my mind continue to develop into a person who would have been unrecognizable to previous versions of myself.

Source: Race Report: Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga | Fit and Feminist

Quote of the Day: “You’re a Bigot, Lady”

The witness, University of San Diego law professor Gail Heriot, lambasted the recent Departments of Justice and Education guidance on transgender students’ rights, declaring that “[i]f someone had said in 1972 that one day Title IX would be interpreted to force schools to allow anatomically intact boys who psychologically ‘identify’ as girls to use the girls’ locker room, he would have been greeted with hoots of laughter.” Heriot went on to dismiss trans students’ gender identities as “a fantasy,” asserting that, “I [am not] a great-horned owl just because, as I have been told, I happen to share some personality traits with those feathered creatures.”

Lofgren wasn’t having any of it. She condemned Heriot’s transphobia, noted the disproportionately high rates of violence and discrimination that trans students suffer, and declared her objection that Heriot’s hateful comments — many of which, by the way, are legally suspect in addition to unethical and bigoted — were ever entered into the record to begin with. Then, over the objections of Republican Chairman King — who demanded “civil” language from Lofgren but (of course) not from Heriot — Lofgren declared: I think you’re a bigot lady. I think you’re an ignorant bigot. Mic drop.

Source: Quote of the Day: “You’re a Bigot, Lady”