Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Just some fun little things.
(originally posted 08/08 at wordpress)
I found the above image today, and the following quote last week. I liked them and thought I'd share. What fun or serious feminist quotes or images are your favorite? "There are very few jobs that actually require a penis or vagina. All other jobs should be open to everybody. " Florynce Kennedy
WRC teams up with Bitch Magazine! "Feminist Perspectives in Pop Culture" Lecture Series
(originally posted 07/08 at wordpress)
&
September 30th: damali ayo
April 28th : Guerilla Girls
Presents!
Feminist Perspectives in Pop Culture Lecture Series
B-Word/Bitch magazine along with PSU Women's Resource Center is thrilled to announce our first lecture series, "Feminist Perspectives in Pop Culture," a four-evening series made possible by the generous funding of the Oregon Council for the Humanities! Tickets will be $8/dollars in advance / $10/night of and $30 for the series.
Check in frequently for confirmed speakers!
www.wrc.pdx.edu
http://www.bitchmagazine.org./post/b-wordbitch-is-starting-a-lecture-series
Two speakers confirmed so far:
April 28th : Guerilla Girls
Sexual Assault Capstone: Finding Voice
(originally posted 07/08 at wordpress)
by Kristyn Stolze
I didn’t think enough about acquaintance rape until it happened to someone close to me. Then one of the women I love was raped by her housemate and the light bulb went on.
I grew up learning that sexual violence happened too much and needed to stop, but never went further than knowing, wishing it were different but feeling totally helpless. It took an act of violence against a friend to light a fire under my ass, and I only regret that it took this long for me to really freak out and get busy. I see the fierce, brilliant pack of people answering back to interpersonal violence with action and wish I had joined sooner. I thought I needed to be someone different to do something about sexual violence, someone more educated, more trained, more informed. But I see now that as long as individuals feel powerless, we give our real power as a group away. Fortunately, a lot of people figured this out a lot faster than I did…and they have been busy. For decades. As I learn more about the realities of sexual violence I find some grim statistics, and I used to make the mistake of only seeing the darkness and missing the hope. After my friend’s rape, I felt crazy and powerless, but driven like never before to find out how to get involved somewhere, with something. I decided to take the Sexual Assault Capstone at PSU to connect with the PSU Women’s Resource Center and get more information, and that connection brought me to the shesheet.
I would like to know who is out there reading and what your thoughts, experiences and reactions are to the topic/issue/reality of sexual violence. Because it’s so pervasive in our culture we all live with it in some way every day; this means we all have a story to tell. I want to know what other people are doing to create change. If you aren’t usually comfortable posting responses and comments to blogs, please consider responding to the things you read on the shesheet and to this blog you are reading now. It’s a great space to interact with people who are shaking things up to make much-needed change.
I personally have never blogged until today, but I think it’s an amazing way to connect to a huge community of incredible folks. I want to take part in a bigger conversation about sexual violence with the readers on the shesheet…please join me with some of your thoughts so we can learn from each other!
by Kristyn Stolze
I didn’t think enough about acquaintance rape until it happened to someone close to me. Then one of the women I love was raped by her housemate and the light bulb went on.
I grew up learning that sexual violence happened too much and needed to stop, but never went further than knowing, wishing it were different but feeling totally helpless. It took an act of violence against a friend to light a fire under my ass, and I only regret that it took this long for me to really freak out and get busy. I see the fierce, brilliant pack of people answering back to interpersonal violence with action and wish I had joined sooner. I thought I needed to be someone different to do something about sexual violence, someone more educated, more trained, more informed. But I see now that as long as individuals feel powerless, we give our real power as a group away. Fortunately, a lot of people figured this out a lot faster than I did…and they have been busy. For decades. As I learn more about the realities of sexual violence I find some grim statistics, and I used to make the mistake of only seeing the darkness and missing the hope. After my friend’s rape, I felt crazy and powerless, but driven like never before to find out how to get involved somewhere, with something. I decided to take the Sexual Assault Capstone at PSU to connect with the PSU Women’s Resource Center and get more information, and that connection brought me to the shesheet.
I would like to know who is out there reading and what your thoughts, experiences and reactions are to the topic/issue/reality of sexual violence. Because it’s so pervasive in our culture we all live with it in some way every day; this means we all have a story to tell. I want to know what other people are doing to create change. If you aren’t usually comfortable posting responses and comments to blogs, please consider responding to the things you read on the shesheet and to this blog you are reading now. It’s a great space to interact with people who are shaking things up to make much-needed change.
I personally have never blogged until today, but I think it’s an amazing way to connect to a huge community of incredible folks. I want to take part in a bigger conversation about sexual violence with the readers on the shesheet…please join me with some of your thoughts so we can learn from each other!
Feminism Isn't a Four-Letter Word, Part II
(originally posted 07/08 at wordpress)
by Blythe Pavlik
A few weeks ago I had a typical college chat, yet this one made it into my mental database as relevant in the ongoing, flowing conversation about feminism. In one of my classes I was tasked to get to know a fellow student and introduce her to the class. As well, this student would get to know me a bit and introduce me to the class. Knowing of my involvement with the Women’s Resource Center, she remarked on our shared interest in Women’s Rights. I responded by asking, “Do you consider yourself to be a feminist?” She grimaced and retorted quickly, maintaining a curl of rejection on her lip, “a feminist? No... no, I don’t.”
by Blythe Pavlik
A few weeks ago I had a typical college chat, yet this one made it into my mental database as relevant in the ongoing, flowing conversation about feminism. In one of my classes I was tasked to get to know a fellow student and introduce her to the class. As well, this student would get to know me a bit and introduce me to the class. Knowing of my involvement with the Women’s Resource Center, she remarked on our shared interest in Women’s Rights. I responded by asking, “Do you consider yourself to be a feminist?” She grimaced and retorted quickly, maintaining a curl of rejection on her lip, “a feminist? No... no, I don’t.”
The Term Abortion to Include Preventative Contraception?
(originally posted 07/08 at wordpress)
"A Bush administration plan to define several widely used contraception methods as abortion is a "gratuitous, unnecessary insult" to women and faces tough opposition, Sen. Hillary Clinton said on Friday" (Nichols, M., Reuters).
The Gits: The Band, The Story, The Documentary 7/05-7/10 7PM & 9PM
(originally posted 07/08 at wordpress)
by mae stephenson
As a fan of local music, I fell in love with the Gits a long time ago. As a feminist, I fell in love with their story shortly there after. Tomorrow, I get to see their story on the big screen.
The Gits were a Seattle-based punk rock band from 1986-1993. Singer-songwriter Mia Zapata was a fiery, bold, talented, bad-ass of a woman who had a knack for adding a bluesy edge to her passionate songs about determination, struggle, drinking buddies and survival. In 1993, after a night at the bar she was raped and killed in park on her way home. Her body was found maybe an hour after she left her friends, but her rapist and killer wasn't found until 2004. People were shocked: how could this happen to a strong, confident woman like Mia? It was a wake up call for many-- sexual violence can truly happen to any woman. In response, her friends immediately and organically got together to discuss violence and safety in their community and utilized their skills as artists and musicians-- and their passion to move forward proactively after Mia's murder-- to start the non-profit anti-violence organization Home Alive!, which offers sliding scale and free self-defense workshops to the community. The story is at once heart-breaking and inspiring. The community lost an incredible woman and artist, but gained an important organization working to prevent violence and to empower women.
The 2008 documentary (directed by Kerri O'Kane) entitled The Gits tells the whole story, and I strongly encourage you to attend. It's showing at the Clinton Street Theater July 5th-10th at 7pm & 9pm. General Admission: $6. Tuesday Admission: $4.
On Tuesday July 8th, Portland has the honor of hosting special guests the director and the surviving members of the band at both showings.
Check out the following links for more info:
http://www.clintonsttheater.com/calendar.html#GITS
http://www.thegitsmovie.com/
http://www.thegits.com/news.html
http://www.homealive.org/
by mae stephenson
As a fan of local music, I fell in love with the Gits a long time ago. As a feminist, I fell in love with their story shortly there after. Tomorrow, I get to see their story on the big screen.
The Gits were a Seattle-based punk rock band from 1986-1993. Singer-songwriter Mia Zapata was a fiery, bold, talented, bad-ass of a woman who had a knack for adding a bluesy edge to her passionate songs about determination, struggle, drinking buddies and survival. In 1993, after a night at the bar she was raped and killed in park on her way home. Her body was found maybe an hour after she left her friends, but her rapist and killer wasn't found until 2004. People were shocked: how could this happen to a strong, confident woman like Mia? It was a wake up call for many-- sexual violence can truly happen to any woman. In response, her friends immediately and organically got together to discuss violence and safety in their community and utilized their skills as artists and musicians-- and their passion to move forward proactively after Mia's murder-- to start the non-profit anti-violence organization Home Alive!, which offers sliding scale and free self-defense workshops to the community. The story is at once heart-breaking and inspiring. The community lost an incredible woman and artist, but gained an important organization working to prevent violence and to empower women.
The 2008 documentary (directed by Kerri O'Kane) entitled The Gits tells the whole story, and I strongly encourage you to attend. It's showing at the Clinton Street Theater July 5th-10th at 7pm & 9pm. General Admission: $6. Tuesday Admission: $4.
On Tuesday July 8th, Portland has the honor of hosting special guests the director and the surviving members of the band at both showings.
Check out the following links for more info:
http://www.clintonsttheater.com/calendar.html#GITS
http://www.thegitsmovie.com/
http://www.thegits.com/news.html
http://www.homealive.org/
Feminism isn't a Four-Letter Word, Part 1
(originally posted 06/08 at wordpress)
by Blythe Pavlik
I consider myself a feminist. I haven’t always. In fact, it was only recently that I began to use the term “feminist” as part of my own self-identification. Prior to my involvement with the Women’s Resource Center, I had little information on what, exactly, feminism is. Just like with anything, a small amount of information can often times be more dangerous and misleading than no information at all. I think this is certainly the case with feminism. What I once knew of feminism was blunt, reactionary sound-bites from people and media who had too little information to make a reasonable statement about the matter. And unfortunately, as a culture we like to share information without critical analysis or further investigation. So, it is no surprise that the term feminism has become synonymous with terms like man-hater, butch, bitch, abortion-lover and anti-god... to name a few that I have heard in my lifetime.
by Blythe Pavlik
I consider myself a feminist. I haven’t always. In fact, it was only recently that I began to use the term “feminist” as part of my own self-identification. Prior to my involvement with the Women’s Resource Center, I had little information on what, exactly, feminism is. Just like with anything, a small amount of information can often times be more dangerous and misleading than no information at all. I think this is certainly the case with feminism. What I once knew of feminism was blunt, reactionary sound-bites from people and media who had too little information to make a reasonable statement about the matter. And unfortunately, as a culture we like to share information without critical analysis or further investigation. So, it is no surprise that the term feminism has become synonymous with terms like man-hater, butch, bitch, abortion-lover and anti-god... to name a few that I have heard in my lifetime.
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