Tag Archives: social movements

Free Your Mind

Posted on by Rachel A. Hanson

Prejudice, wrote a song about it
Like to hear it? Here it go . . .

Okay, no, I didn’t actually write a song about prejudice. But I felt like En Vogue was the perfect way to start this post.

I haven’t been super active in blogging recently (more on that later) but I have has a post fermenting in my mind for the past week or so that is finally ready for sharing. Often I’ll have an idea of something I want to write about but there is a piece missing. This piece was just delivered to me by one of my excellent co-workers on Saturday when we were driving back from a weekend conference.

I am reading a book of essays called “The Veil: Women Writers on it’s History, Lore, and Politics” by Jennifer Heath for my last assignment of my college career.

This is exactly how I feel about this development

One essay in this book is talking about the power that veiling can give to women in Islam. The line that really stood out to me is that (and I’m para-phrasing here) there is great power is seeing but not actually being seen. What an interesting idea. I’ll say it again: There is great power is seeing but not being seen.

How many of us feel that Islamic women are being oppressed when we see them fully veiled?

Are you more likely to see this?

Or this?

On the flip side, my co-worker was telling me about an experience he had while visiting St. Louis recently. He was there with his girlfriend to celebrate his grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. They were at a fairly trendy restaurant in downtown St. Louis when they saw a parade of bikes go past. It took them several seconds to realize that all the people on the bikes were naked. Utilizing mobile technology his cousins realized that this was a nationwide movement to promote body acceptance.

To me, this is amazing. However, I realize how two such polar opposites accomplishing the same thing could be difficult to digest. How can showing off your entire body or showing almost none of your body accomplish the same goal?

In short, I believe this is possible because the individuals on both sides of the spectrum are doing whatever it is that they’re doing because they choose to. Choice is so critical in empowerment. However, it is difficult to tell from the outside if a person is making a choice or not. While this results in usually negative results (judgement, etc) I believe this could actually be a positive. Rather than closing dialogue we can open it up and understand our mutual goals.

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Minneapolis Slut Walk

Posted on by Rachel A. Hanson

As the days get closer and closer to the Minneapolis Slut Walk I’ve been considering if I’m going to go.

When I first heard about it I knew that I was going to go.  Anything to end victim-blaming is something that is very easy for me to get on board with.  When I first heard about it I was blogging over on Hub Pages, and these are my original thoughts.  As you can tell by the date at this point, it was not held on August 6th.  And the last few months have really given me the opportunity for some introspection.  The big question being, am I going to go?  Because I think this is a really important movement I did donate to the cause.  But do I want to do more than just give (limited) financial support?

Yesterday, CBS Minnesota reported on Slut Walk and the comments were extremely disheartening to me.  As is often the case, commenters only read the headline before commenting.  As a result the majority of comments were blatantly ignorant, sexist, and just plain stupid.  To be honest, it was the comments that were both sexist and stupid (although, do I really need to add those qualifiers?) that really put fear into my heart.  The question “am I going to go?” became slightly bigger.  “Do I feel safe going?” and “I can accept that there will be people around calling participants sluts.  Is that something I can deal with?”  These are questions that I’m going to be battling over the next few days.  And to be honest, my personal emotional state on Saturday will probably be the biggest determining factor as to my participation. 

If you’ve gone to a Slut Walk or are thinking about going to one, what are some of the thoughts that you’ve had prior to your participation?

Women in Leadership

Posted on by Rachel A. Hanson

Yesterday I wrote about the Slut Walk movement and why it’s important to woman across the globe.  If you didn’t guess by reading that particular piece I’m a feminist.  I believe that every single person, regardless of their sex or gender identity, deserves equal rights, responsibilites, and opportunity.  And this particular morning I’m proud to be a feminist of Danish descent. Early this morning the BBC reported that Helle Thorning-Schmidt has been elected to be the Prime Minister of Denmark. She is the first woman to have ever been elected to that position in Denmark.

Despite this exciting news, there are some attitudes surrounding it that are troubling to me.  Indeed, I’m sure that these attitudes are troubling to a lot of feminists. The former Prime Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, congratulated Thorning-Schmidt.  However, he also had this to say. “Tonight I hand over the keys to the prime minister’s office to Helle Thorning-Schmidt. And dear Helle, take good care of them. You’re only borrowing them.”

Dear readers, I have to admit, when I read that comment it was all I could to to keep my snarky comment in my head. Rasmussen’s comment came across to me as extremely sexist.  That perhaps the good people of Denmark were confused when the elected a woman who ran on a platform of raising taxes and increases in public spending.

*side note: can you imagine anyone in the U.S. getting elected on that platform?*

While Thorning-Schmidt didn’t exactly win by a landslide, Rasmussen is saying that 92 of 179 parlimentary seats are “confused” about what’s best for the nation.

You may not identify as a feminist, and that’s okay. What is critical is for people everywhere to understand is that while people have different hormone levels or reproductive organs those differences should not translate into different rights, responsibilites, or opportunities.

Slut Walks

Posted on by Rachel A. Hanson

In terms of third-wave feminism in the U.S. this year has been a pretty busy one.  Partially because the rights of women all over the nation are being stipped away (reproductive health, anyone?) but also because of a massive social movement that started earlier this year and has blossomed into an international movement.

I am refering, of course, to the Slut Walk movement.  For those of you who don’t know what it is I’ll give a brief history.

In January of this year (2011) Toronto Police Constable Michael Sanguinetti told students at York University that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”  This article appeared on Canada’s CBC news on April 3rd to talk about the birth of this movement.  Several students were extremely bothered by this statement and began to organize what they called a Slut Walk even in Toronto.  The point of the event was to show that women wearing all kinds of clothes could be victimized.  The point is not that women (or men) are wearing provocative clothing.  The point is that there is someone in the vicinity that has decided to victimize that person through a variety of means.  Clothes have nothing to do with it.

Due in part to the fact that we live in a world were news travels very quickly this event turned into a movement. There have been Slut Walk events all over the globe.  Women are not only being victimized in Toronto.  They are being victimized all over the world.

You’re probably asking at this point why I’m talking about the Slut Walk movement.  If this started in April then this is old news, right?  Wrong, because Slut Walk events are still happening all over the world and women are still being victimized.   In the United States 1 in 6 women will be the victim of an attempted or successful rape in their lifetime.  Of that 1 in 6, 44% are under the age of 18. 

I feel that the Slut Walk movement is important to bring visibility to an issue that women have been dealing with for an extremely long time.  It’s important because we need to change the way that our society thinks about sexual assault.  IT IS NOT THE VICTIMS FAULT!

Whether or not you think that the name of the movement lacks credibility is somewhat beside the point.  If you understand the historical context to it I think it makes perfect sense.  If you agree with what they’re trying to do you should do everything that you can to bring that movement forward.  Attend a Slut Walk event if there’s one close to you.  If you can afford it donate to an event.  I urge you to support anybody who is trying to bring an end to gender inequality.