Gender: Womb to Tomb

Gender is such fluid and complex social construction. The gender socialization process begins before a person is even born and plays such a large role in their development. Gender has absolutely nothing to do with ones biological anatomy yet, socially, sex defines gender which in turn assumes everyone’s attracted to the opposite sex because our culture is black and white, strictly binary.  You are male or female, you are masculine or feminine,  you are tall or short, you are blonde or brunette,  you are a democrat or a republican, and I could go on but I hope you see my point.

Not so black and white now.

Where’s the wiggle room?  Why are we, as a society, obsessed with labels? We have the constant need to understand everything and have a name for everything. Anything outside our binary system of labels dumfounds us then we try to understand why things aren’t the way they’re “supposed to be.”  We should be able to look at a woman and not expect her to want kids, love to cook, be attracted to men, and she could be a body builder for all we know.  We should be able to look at a man and not automatically assume that he doesn’t wear make-up or high heels in his spare time, that he doesn’t stay home with the kids or that he doesn’t like men…you know what they say about assuming.

Call of Duty: Women in Combat

In the weeks following the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s decision to lift a near 20 year ban prohibiting women from serving in combat, a wide gap has formed between those for and against this this equal opportunity measure. While many arguments have been brought up and counter argued from both positions, I’d like to highlight some of the prominent ones that continue to reoccur in the discussion.

Links Round-Up

This week at ShoutOut!:

shieldkt saw this on fbomb blog. This caught my attention because she thought it was so insane that somewhere else in the world is having worse trouble with eating disorders then the US.

devystation says that  Beyonce can get away with ALMOST anything….

ElFeminissto found this post on Secretary of Defense’s decision to lift the ban on women serving in combat. He thought this article was an interesting take on the situation of young women’s desire to fight for our country, because it pairing it with the real l the life account of Sarah Edmonds, who disguised herself as a man during the Civil War to do more than she would as a nurse.

Sick and Tired [TW: Racism, Rape, Homophobia]

Maybe it’s because I’ve been beyond stressed out lately. Maybe it’s because I haven’t slept much in the last week. Maybe it’s because I’m struggling to juggle a full-time job, a full course load, and still maintain some kind of social life.

Whatever the reason is, I am sick and tired of being a feminist. I’m tired of constantly defending myself, of trying to explain things. Like all of this:

I am tired of female politicians getting asked silly, vapid questions. As if who your favorite designer is has ANY impact on your ability to lead.

I know that feel, Hil.

I am tired of having to walk down the quad after class and listen to a group of fraternity brothers refer to people as “fags,” as if being LGBTQ is an insult.

I am tired of hearing my male friends complain about being “friendzoned.” I am tired of the idea that just because you are nice to a girl and give her a shoulder to lean on, she should automatically fall in love with you and/or enter into a sexual relationship with you.

Clearly your logic is perfect.

I’m sick and tired of listening to male politicians trying to make decisions about MY body. I’m tired of people like Paul Ryan, the VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE of the Republican Party, trying to argue that RAPE is a form of conception.

I’m tired of not being able to have a conversation about poverty in America without someone bringing up “welfare queens.” Just like Melissa Harris-Perry, I am sick of hearing that poor people are lazy, that they don’t work hard, that single mothers struggling to make ends meet just want to suck on the government tit.

I’m tired of telling people that I write and edit for a feminist blog and getting looks of disdain and dismissal. I’m tired of people assuming anything about me or my sexuality because I’m a feminist. I’m tired of being told that I make a big deal out of “stupid” things. I’m tired of being told to learn to take a joke. I’m tired of my very righteous anger being dismissed as the rantings of a silly young person who will calm down once she’s out of school.

Mythbusting Mondays: Women Must Think Safety of First

Hello ShoutOut readers. Today, I want to bust one myth that I had not really considered until it was brought up on a show that I had been watching. I was recently re-watching a few episodes of one of my favorite shows, Reba, where Reba’s teenage daughter, Cheyenne, gets pregnant at seventeen. Her principal tries to expel her from school because she does not want the school’s reputation to be ruined because of a pregnant teen. However, Reba asks if Van (Cheyenne’s boyfriend and the expectant father) will also be expelled and the principal says, “Setting limits has always been the girl’s responsibility. You know the old saying – boys will be boys.”

From Women’s Studies to Humanity Studies: Men and Abortion

I took WMST 200, Introduction to Women’s Studies, as an elective credit last semester. I knew from my social work classes that women and girls were a population I wanted to work with professionally and figured an intro class was the way to jump into the field. And it worked — here I am, writing for ShoutOut!JMU.

My class was composed of something like twenty women and three men. The first day, I mentally applauded the men in my class for being there, for having the guts to be minority students in a class focused on studying a marginalized (and unfamiliar to them) part of society. All of them had different reasons for being there. One said “my mom called me a misogynist and said I should take this class to try to like women more” (you think I’m kidding. I’m not). The other two quickly disaligned themselves with this perspective, and were valuable contributors to group discussions on gender. At the end of the semester, I had a great deal of respect for them; they restrained themselves from making reflexive comments for the sake of protecting majority culture. They really did their research on the subject matter and were empathetic listeners when class time became “rant against patriarchy” time. (Snaps for you, feminist men!)

One of our main discussion themes centered on what constitutes a feminist. Naturally, there are many different definitions of the word – how do you take an entire movement of diverse people and create a common profile? The definition we finally agreed upon was “someone who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the genders”. By this definition, can men be feminists? Heck yeah! Men can be feminists, women can be feminists, and individuals fighting the gender binary can be feminists. Feminism (defined in context of the general movement) isn’t about women “taking over” in retribution for thousands of years of male domination; rather, mainstream feminists look to bring women to the same level of equality as men. No more and nothing less than that.

By this definition, many of us likely know men who are feminists (and whom maybe don’t even realize they’re feminists). I can understand the reluctance of many men to claim the title; the majority of Americans still imagine ”feminists” to be the stereotypical hairy bra-burners (note on grammar: that’s bra-burners who are hairy, not burners of hairy bras. Hairy bras…eww) . But whether men claim the title or not, there is one field of activism where female feminists could use “a few good men” : the abortion debate.

Myth-bustin’ Mondays: Young women don’t care

(Really incredible video, seen on feministing, giving more reasons why Planned Parenthood’s funding shouldn’t be cut).

So this weekend I went home to attend DC’s Walk for Choice, a largescale response to the current attacks on women’s health and women’s rights. Rallies were held all round the country at the same time to signify that women will not take these GOP assaults lying down, and that we will fight back. The New York rally boasted a 6,000 person attendance, with a cadre of pro-choice leaders speaking at the event, including Kathleen Hanna, Cecile Richards, and Rep. Anthony Weiner whose amazing defense of women’s rights has been circulating the internet for a few days now.

Quickhit – All Rape is “Rape Rape”

We have narrowly won a victory today.

 For those of you who don’t know, the “Smith Bill,” is an antiabortion GOP-backed House bill that was proposed by Republicans a few weeks ago. The bill proposed changing current abortion laws, which provides federal money for abortions in the case of life-threatening pregnancies or rape. The Smith Bill hoped to limit the spending of this money by mandating that all raped must be “forcible.” In many cases, this would involve having visible bruises, lacerations, or broken bones (and reporting the incident in time to have them documented). The bill would no longer cover abortions women who were drugged and date raped, women with mental handicaps, or any other cases where lack of consent was not proven by bodily harm.

The term “forcible” has now been removed from the bill, and that is due to the outcry of feminists and women’s rights groups like us. However, the fight is not over! There is still a clause in the bill that makes it impossible for military women stationed overseas to have an abortion, even if they pay for it with their own funds; even if they were also raped. Ms magazine has been following and reporting on the ongoing issue, so further information can be found here: http://msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=12844

 Even Jon Stewart (God love him) had something to say about all this. And he broke it down in terms that show just how asinine the bill was in the first place. In 2006, 191 federally-funded abortions took place – which cost each taxpayer 2/10 of a penny. I am no math major, but I am guessing there are other ways in which American could cut back it’s spending; ways that would not create yet another channel of embarrassment, victimization, discomfort, and trauma for sexual assault survivors within the legal system.

See what Jon Stewart had to say for yourself at: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-february-2-2011/rape-victim-abortion-funding?xrs=share_copy

The Bitchin’ Table: Spanx a lot, say pregnant women everywhere

Hello, lovely readers! Before I introduce you to the first Bitchin’ Table of 2011 (whoop whoop!), I’d like to say a quick hi. My name is TrippingOnSunshine, I’m a new addition to ShoutOut!JMU, and I’m super pumped to be writing today’s post. I like feminism, feminist men, feminist women, feminist prose, feminist walks on the beach… needless to say, I’m looking to live and breathe (and increase) women’s rights. Because, as Madeleine Albright said in her 2008 interview with TIME Magazine, “I also think it is important for women to help one another. I have a saying: There is a special place in hell for women who don’t,” and I’m not looking to head that way!

So, without further ado, your Bitchin’ Table, brought to you by moi and the spectacular SomethingBeany…