Herstory: Barbara Lee

(originally posted 05/08 at wordpress)



by Katherine Johncock

Barbara Lee is a fearless leader protecting the American people’s rights. She is a member (democrat) of the House of Representatives for California’s 9^th district. Born July 16, 1946 in El Paso, Texas Lee moved to California in 1960 with her military family parents. As a young single mother of two, Lee received her Bachelor’s degree from Mill’s College in Oakland, California and went on for a Master of Social Work at the University of California, Berkeley. Barbara Lee is probably most well known for being the only elected representative (including both the house and the senate) who voted “no” on granting the executive branch unchecked military power after the September 11, 2001 attacks. This heroic act is often overlooked although it demonstrated unwavering dedication to the people’s freedom. After serving on the International Relations and Financial Services Committees in 2007 she joined the House Appropriations committee. Check out the video of her speech to the house after September 11^th! She sounds so prophetic. Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf1N-y9Mbo4For more information about Barbara Lee check out: http://lee.house.gov/

On Rape Culture

(originally posted 05/08 at wordpress)

 

 

by Katie Johncock

 

 

 

“Rape culture” is a scary phrase. At least I think so. The first time I heard it I was taking the basic advocacy training at Portland Women’s Crisis Hotline and I remember thinking: “Whoa, that sounds really intense…does our culture really support rape?” What I found out was that rape culture is so normalized that it’s easy to miss it. What exactly is rape culture?

Herstory: Marjane Satrapi

(originally posted 04/08 at wordpress)



by Katie Johncock

Marjane Satrapi

 

A comic about life in 20th century Iran? No really! Marjane Satrapi retells the story of her life growing up in Iran first under British puppet Shah and then later Ayahtolla Komeini in her illustrated novel, Persepolis. The strength of Satrapi’s work is in her ability convey the politics and massive social change in 20th century Iran with humanity and, importantly, from a woman's perspective. Her graphic novel has recently been made into a film, Persepolis.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjane_Satrapi for more information.