BROAD Magazine, Issue 89, March 2016: The Issue

BROAD The Issue A Digital Media Movement

1

MARCH 2016 | ISSUE 89 PICTURED: Bulldog 2 by Betsy Odom

89

issue

topics SEPT ­­— MEDIA OCT — A-SEXUALITY NOV — FOOD

OUR STORY

DEC — CONSUMERISM JAN — MENTAL HEALTH

BROAD media is an alternative media source founded on the principle that no experience or identity is illegitimate. We aim to embrace all identities, empower all stories, and engage people of all beliefs in constructive dialogue about the topics that really matter. Unlike mainstream media, BROAD does not censor or limit the kinds of expression it publishes.

Instead, we seek to bring marginalized voices from the margins to the front and center of our media consumption. BROAD is a place where people of all ages, races, genders, sexualities, citizenships, abilities, classes, and faiths can find their experience not only represented, but celebrated. Join our digital media movement erasing the margins and placing them inside a broadened spectrum of published expression.

FEB — LIVING IN COLOR MAR — THE ISSUE APR — ENVIRONMENT

YOUR STORY

MAY — EDUCATION

BROAD media is a community of readers and contributors who span a BROAD spectrum of identity and experience. We are proud to be a platform where YOU can empower yourself and others by sharing your stories, opinions, videos, art, and poetry on the topics that really matter to YOU. Create your content, send it to mybroadmedia@gmail.com, and get published.

JUN — POLITICS 2

our army Mandy Keelor

Curtis Main

Ceili Erickson

Senior Editor-in-Chief, Creative Director

Founder & Advisor

Editor-in-Chief

Nikki Busch

Monika Gaiser

Jena DiMaggio

Photography Editor

Senior Layout Editor & Graphic Designer

Website Content Editor, Gannon Scholars Coordinator

Keesha Moliere

Jessica Burstrem

Kimani Rose Goheen

Website Content Editor

Website Director

Magazine Section Editor & Poetry Curator

Ali McAvoy

Connor Tomaka

Lauren DeLapa

Magazine Section Editor

Webstie Blooger, Magazine & Website Chicago Correspondent Copy Editor 3

BROAD

understanding our approach

SECTIONS

OUR COLORS

Critiques, reviews, opinions, and information from your BROAD team in several mediums

red

R=233 G=29 B=41

yellow

R=251 G=203 B=7

COLUMNS Our most passionate contributors share their stories, opinions, and experiences by intersecting each magazine theme with their lives

ARTICLES

light grey

R=217 G=217 B=217

Our BROAD communities contribute expression in many forms: stories, listacles, essays, cathartic 4 am epiphanies, etc.

RATING SYSTEM

FONTS TITLES SECTIONS BODY TEXT CAPTIONS

dark grey

R=175 G=175 B=175

blue

R=16 G=131 B=186

4

5

contents March 2016 | The Issue

COLUMNS Punctuation Marks - (14) Intersectionality and Feminism

C.M.E

Archives in Action - (26) Archives in Action

Nancy Freeman

ARTICLES Where to Begin? - (10) Anonymous The Shoulders We Stand On - (18) Scott Walker The Life of a Faberge Egg - (32) A. Mairead Mac Ms. Magazine and Me - (35) Nancy Freeman Women, Filmmaking, and Opportunities- (38) Megan Bordweyk Feminist Musings From the Toy Aisle - (42) Sarah Hallett Women and Children First Bookstore - (46) Ellen Bushong

Pictured: Bulldog 3D (shoulder pads) 2009 Artist: Betsy Odom 6

SECTIONS words are useless

screen/play

(9) - Placebo Effect Nikki Busch (22) - Bulldog 2 (Space Suit) Betsy Odom (23) - Bulldog 30 (Shoulder Pads) Betsy Odom Double Whistle Betsy Odom I’ve Got the Horse, She’s Got the Saddle Betsy Odom

(34) - What Happened Miss Simone?

(45) - Kiki’s Delivery Service

WLA (re)Animated (37) - The Polish Women’s ALliance

search this (21)

quote corner (17) - Cheryl Clarke (25) - Sheryl Sandberg

liberation leaders

broadside

bookmark here

(40) - Marlene Dietrich

(12) - Beware the Bitch Talyah Puri (24) - The Sins We Have Committed Brittney Abad (29) - Love Letters Pt. 2 Kimani Rose (33) - Balance Kimani Rose (43) - The Objectified Gaze Kimani Rose (50) - Men and the Mind Talyah Puri

(not) buying it (16) - Peta’s “Some Bodily Fluids Are Bad For You”

7

(48) - Her Own Accord

career call (30) - FURIE Interview with Lauren Bianchi

Visiting Organization

WOMEN AND LEADERSHIP ARCHIVES (WLA)

The Women and Leadership Archives (WLA), Loyola University Chicago collects and makes available permanently valuable records of women and women’s organizations, which document women’s lives, roles, and contributions. Part of the Ann Ida Gannon, BVM, Center for Women and Leadership, and the Loyola University Chicago Library system, the WLA serves a wide variety of users ranging from students and scholars to the general public. The WLA makes records available at the Archives and through remote reference services as well as provides program and online resources.

Records at the WLA fall into the following areas: activism and women’s issues; authors; education; environment; Mundelein College; public service; social justice; fine, performance, and visual arts; women religious. The majority of collections at the WLA are from the 20th century.

The WLA is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8:30-4:30 and Tuesdays 11:00-7:00.

Special arrangements can be made to visit the archives on weekends, with advance notice. While appointments are not necessary, users are encouraged to call the WLA general phone number prior to coming for confirmation the Archives is open.

Visit the WLA website at www.luc.edu/wla and explore the unique collections documenting women’s history!

8

Words Are Useless

PLACEBO EFFECT Nikki Busch

9

Article The Issue

WHERE TO BEGIN?

I believe that I have earned that right. I am the angry feminist that pop culture warned you about, but you don’t need to be afraid of me

Anonymous

When I was asked to write for the feminism issue of BROAD, I had nothing to say. Or rather, I had everything to say and nowhere to begin.

ourselves properly. But I like sex and I don’t want kids, and so I need to quite literally control birth. I refuse to feign medical justification to make you more comfortable, but at the same time, I was guilted by just this line alone into making my article anonymous. But universe forbid that a future employer see that I, a woman-identified person and human being with sexual drive, ENJOY SEX!!! IMAGINE THE CONSEQUENCES!!!! (Spoiler alert—zero consequences as long as you let me have access to my fucking birth control.)

Everything I started to write just ended up sounding bitter. And you know what? I am bitter.

I believe that I have earned that right. I am the angry feminist that pop culture warned you about, but you don’t need to be afraid of me.

Allow me to give you the invaluable pleasure of life through my eyes to show you just how I got to be an angry feminist. To paraphrase the immortal words of Atticus Finch, you can climb in my skin and walk around in my shoes for awhile.

I could not go a day, working in retail last summer, without a man of any age (and I do mean from 20 to 80) staring at my chest. It made me feel unclean and upset and I remember hating that the quickest of glances held such power over my emotional and mental well-being. This was power that no glare from me could combat.

I cannot go a day without some politician that will NEVER carry a child trying to tell me and other women that we don’t need birth control or abortion access or even adequate and factually accurate sex education so we can take care of

10

I refuse to feign medical justification to make you more comfortable, but at the same time, I was guilted by just this line alone into making my article anonymous

On a more serious note, I cannot go a day without heartbreaking stories globally of sex slavery, rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, and other heinously intimate crimes.

And for every report, for every news story, for every victim and survivor there are a million hateful sneers that she’s lying for attention or she deserved it because her skirt was too short or

she was drinking or she was leading him on or a line of excuses a mile long to absolve the abuser, more often than not male. If you doubt me, I recommend the book Missoula.

nism, let alone why we need feminism. I am fortunate to have an identity and lifestyle that affords many privileges that many do not enjoy. Those women and men need feminism even more. To be blunt, gender fucking sucks and the more marginalized you are, the more it fucking sucks.

and after all of this ranting I’ll still be a privileged bitch and after all of this ranting I’ll still just be an angry feminazi

And after all of this ranting I’ll still be a privileged bitch and after all of this ranting I’ll still just be an angry feminazi and after all of this heart and soul and life….

I do not go a day without shutting my blinds right when it gets dark enough to see into the rooms because some asshole with a laser pointer thought it was funny to let me know they were watching by shining it onto the floor right before my feet. Someone who has clearly had the privilege of always feeling safe had no idea of the implications of such an idiotic prank, but I walk with pepper spray in my hand, and I am very aware.

Of course, men have reason to be angry as well. The chains of masculinity are no stranger to your everyday guy.

Gender is a restrictive construct, regardless of whether it is femininity or masculinity. The crucial difference, however, is that a patriarchal society is more likely to favor and reward traits socialized as masculine rather than the feminine. And of course, if you present feminine but act with traits that are socialized to be masculine, well, you cheated at the game and you lose too.

Men are objectified in fashion ads right beside their feminine counterparts, but men look strong and powerful while women look weak, docile, and at the mercy of the man’s whim.

I am upset that on top of all of these completely valid problems and complaints, my anger is reduced to my “time of the month.” As if women can’t experience valid anger, and as if the hormone imbalance of menstruation isn’t a valid reason to experience that anger if it is in fact its cause. It is, in reality, a cause of depression and other mental health problems. But I digress. Sometimes I’m not even granted a reason for my anger, I’m just a “fuckin’ psycho.” I’d rather be a psycho bitch than complicit in my own denigration.

What’s worse is that even 800 words into this article and I haven’t even scratched the surface of why I need femi-

11

After all of this, where do I even begin?

BROADside

Beware the Bitch Talyah Puri

Beware The Bitch

By Talyah Puri “Beware the bitch” I won’t take smallness anymore I’ll expand to bigness to greatness to grandeur.

“Beware the bitch” words can’t hurt me I am the lipstick stained ripped tight combat boots of heat of passion ready to ravish “Beware the bitch” Extra extra read all about it Another “Bitch” rises from the masses of “good girls”, “nice girls” Well I won’t be branded anymore

12

“Beware the bitch�

Her head is held high she is upright unwavering Eyes lined and staring Daring Beware Beware the Bitch

13

Column Punctuation Marks To Finish a Conversation, First You Have to Start One...

FEMINISM AND

INTERSECTIONALITY C.M.E

Wikipedia states that “intersectionality (or intersectional theory) is the study of overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination. The theory suggests that—and seeks to examine how—various biological, social and cultural categories such as gender, race, class, ability, sexual orientation, religion, caste, age, and other axes of identity interact on multiple and often simultaneous levels. The theory proposes that we should think of each element or trait of a person as inextricably linked with all of the other elements in order to fully understand one's identity”.

many-layered. No one person’s experience is the same as any other person’s.

Feminism, this issue’s main topic, is often simply defined as “the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes”, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said in a TED Talk that was also sampled on Beyonce’s latest album. Feminism is about the truth that women should be considered equal to men, and should have access to the same opportunities, careers, and life experiences, without discrimination based on their gender.

However, this simple definition doesn’t take into account the complexity and diversity of women in the world. Women are not only defined by their gender. Their social identities are also made up of race, ethnicity, nationality, class status, religion, sexual orientation, and more.

intersectionality is all about the ways that systems of oppression intersect with one another. No form of discrimination exists in a vacuum, and no one’s identity can be summed up in terms of just one thing

It is important to be critical of the ways that some people’s ideas of feminism can exclude certain women and their experiences from the conversation. “White feminism” is a term that refers to feminism that only upholds white, cisgender, straight women and seeks their rights, while forgetting that women of color, trans women, and LBPQA+ women exist and have importance too. For these women, misogyny and sexism often go hand in hand with racism, transphobia, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation.

It’s also true that classism and ableism intersect with misogyny in different ways, so it’s important to consider women from all different economic backgrounds and women with physical disabilities and/or mental illnesses in our feminisms if we aim to be truly intersectional.

Intersectionality. As the above definition states, intersectionality is all about the ways that systems of oppression intersect with one another. No form of discrimination exists in a vacuum, and no one’s identity can be summed up in terms of just one thing, so when we discuss social issues stemming from and involving oppression of the marginalized, we have to take intersectionality into account. Social identities are complex and

Feminism stands for equality, so it should strive to be truly, inclusively active in standing up for the rights of all

14

women, not just straight, cisgender, white, wealthy, and/or physically able women. We are all women, and we are all affected differently by sexism and misogyny every single day. In order to work towards a society that condemns and dismantles misogyny, we also have to condemn and dismantle racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, and ableism. Of course, this seems like an almost impossible job, and in fact, it is a daunting challenge.

en, and that’s something any feminist should want to avoid.

Intersectionality, simply put, means that womanhood is a complex, varied collection of experiences which intersect with every other part of a woman’s identity. There’s no one right way to be a woman, and all women’s experiences are important and worth sharing. All women’s rights are worth fighting for, and we’re strongest when we embrace our differences and amplify all our diverse voices and experiences. We all deserve better than the rampant sexism and misogyny in our world, but we have to fight it from all angles and all experiences.

However, being more intersectional with your feminism doesn’t mean you personally have to fix every single problem in the world. It just means you should always consider other people’s viewpoints, and how they differ from your own. Intersectionality means taking into account the fact that the gender pay gap between men and women is even worse for women of color, and that’s a problem we need to solve. It means accepting that everyone performs their gender differently, and that gender is more complicated and varied than just

when we say that women should be equal to men, we should mean all women, every woman male or female identities. Every woman responds differently to the pressures society places on women and their bodies.

We have to take into account that often pressure to be skinny comes in conjunction with pressure to be young, and to be white, and to be classically pretty and feminine, and that these expectations affect different women in different ways. Intersectionality means accepting that trans women are women, whose gender identity is valid and real, whose safety and rights are relevant and vital to feminist thought and activism.

It means recognizing that the issues faced by women in the Western world are different from those in the Eastern world, and women in developing nations face issues again different from women in the developed world as well. Intersectionality means accepting that it isn’t always your place to speak for women from different backgrounds than your own, even if you think you’re standing up for them. It’s important to listen to and validate each other’s experiences, rather than speaking over women who understand the issues facing their communities far better than you do.

Feminism is a movement, and movements can and should evolve, remaining open to criticism and leaving room for improvement. When we say that women should be equal to men, we should mean all women, every woman. Feminism that doesn’t account for intersectionality is actively harmful to wom-

15

(Not) Buying It

PtTA's "some bodily fluids are bad for you"

WOULD THE THE PUNCHLINE OF THIS AD CHANGE OR DISAPPEAR IF THE MODEL USED WERE A MAN INSTEAD OF A WOMAN? WHY OR WHY NOT? WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST REACTION TO SEEING THIS AD? DID YOU LAUGH? DID YOU SCOFF? WERE YOU REPULSED? WERE YOU ANGRY AT WHAT PETA WAS IMPLYING?

16

Overview: In this ad released by Peta, the consumption of dairy products is discouraged with the image of a woman with a creamy substance all over her face accompanied with the message “Some Bodily Fluids Are Bad For You.” The substance is thought to be a dairy product like cream or milk curds, but the ambiguity of the word “fluids” denotes the implication of the substance being semen spread across the woman’s face after a blow job. As such, the ad then takes on a conservative stance in denouncing the woman for being sexually promiscuous and telling her to “not swallow.”

Quote Corner

cheryl clarke

Women are not taken seriously as arbiters of history, nor are poets.

So, all of us would do well to stop fighting each other for our space at the bottom, because there ain’t no more room.

I COUNT THE SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF WOMEN AS MY PRIMARY MOTIVATION FOR WRITING.

17

Article The Issue

THE SHOULDERS WE STAND ON Scott Walker

Each generation of the women’s movement stands on the shoulders of the previous generation. I am a feminist because my grandmothers and great aunts brought me up to see women as competent and capable. I am a feminist because I came of age during the second wave of the movement, which gave me a vocabulary and understanding of gender roles and relations that seemed natural to me, even if it was beyond the understanding of the women elders of my family. I am a feminist because of what I hope for my ten-year-old daughter, who life could reach across the 21st Century.

dens, and slaughtered chickens. One of them worked at a series of dam projects in the 1930s, running a restaurant out of a tent while her brothers blasted rock. They did whatever needed to be done with a partner or alone.

By the time I knew them, the Depression and the Second World War were behind them; they worked all week, inside and outside the home. They volunteered at church and with the League of Women Voters. They went to church on Sunday confident that they were living out Proverbs 31:10 – 31:

10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

I am a feminist because my grandmothers and great aunts brought me up to see women as competent and capable

11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.

12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

Born into a Navy family, when my dad was deployed my mother would bundle me up and go visiting around the family, the most memorable of whom were the generation of women born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My grandmothers and great aunts were smart, capable women.

They held bible-based, traditional ideas of their role in the world, and insisted on respect for fulfilling that role: survivors who navigated the Great Depression while raising families. It was a rural model with work both inside and outside the home.

They cooked, kept the household accounts, tended kitchen gar-

13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

14 She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.

18

16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

17 She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.

18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.

19 She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.

20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.

23 Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.

My grandmothers and great aunts did not see this as a call to sit in the back seat. They saw no admonition to helplessly defer to men. They read these verses as descriptions of strength, not a recipe for subservience. What I saw in them was not the manipulations of Phyllis Schlafly’s, “Powers of the Positive Woman,” but women who insisted on partnership, didn’t hide their intelligence or opinions, and didn’t tolerate disrespect. They showed no doubt of their sense of self-worth.

Rural strength rooted in traditional roles enabled my mother to seek fairness and respect in mid-century suburbia as she struggled to find a middle path between tradition and liberation. My mom’s identifying and calling my attention to the sexism she experienced influenced my young adulthood and provided a vocabulary to name sexist assumptions in our culture. As a young adult, the goals of second wave feminism made perfect sense to me, and gave me a feminist template for the women I would be attracted to as friends and lovers.

Ironically, my grandmothers and great aunts didn’t see a need for a women’s movement beyond suffrage. They saw their lives as expansive and fulfilling as tradition defined them. In contrast, I felt their confidence and received from it a feminist outlook was the unintentional result of my women elder’s influence; a positive influence with results beyond their understanding.

Now, we are raising a daughter. Merida charging through the Scottish Highlands with her bow has trouble balancing the legions of princesses needing princes to define their stories. Gender role cookie cutters that ignore a child’s individual gifts are built into our society. In first grade, a boy told our daughter she shouldn’t watch Thomas the Train because it was a boy’s show. Last year, a close girl friend announced that math, which our daughter enjoys, was boring. We navigate these things one incident at a time, but the fight is clear. The pop culture, reinforced by peer pressure, is trying to prune our daughter like a bonsai tree. We are determined to give her support and advice that will become her tools to resist being stunted.

But at some point, she will launch out on her own. We’re raising her to be independent, which means eventually we’ll have to stand back and watch.

24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.

25 Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.

26 She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.

28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.

each generation of women in my family has held views and enjoyed freedoms that were unfathomable by the previous generation.

29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.

30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.

Each generation of women in my family has held views and enjoyed freedoms that were unfathomable to the previous generation. Even if our lives stretch over many decades, most of us default to the worldviews we came of age with. Each generation, while standing on the shoulders of those before,

King James Version (KJV) Public Domain

19

enjoys a different view of the world. Someday, my relevance to my daughter will be as one of the shoulders she stands on, and her view from there will not be mine. Mine isn’t my mother’s, and hers wasn’t that of the women elders of our family. But the thread that has run through three generations is that women are smart, they are resilient and they should not tolerate disrespect. What will feminism look like by the time my ten-yearold daughter is an adult? Will I be able to recognize it? If I can help pass the strength and pride of my family’s women on to a fourth generation I will have been a father who honored the women who raised him.

20

Search This

21

Words Are Useless

Artist’s Statement: Betsy Odom My work explores the ephemera surrounding displays of identity. I work with specific materials like tooled leather, sporty fabrics, cork, graphite, thick silver, and airbrushed paints. These materials signify the cultural phenomena that have surrounded my own development: Southern culture, women’s athletics, tomboys, hobbyists, fantasy, or camp. The aesthetics of these groups, although rooted in functionality, often serve to reinforce embedded messages about gender, class, race, and sexuality. I attempt to use a combination of earnest craftsmanship and humor to extract and subvert these messages, creating objects that entertain a fantasy of moving freely among social groups and confronting the contradictions therein.

I employ a variety of techniques to create my work; I use skills ranging from leather tooling to woodworking, ceramics to airbrushing, sewing to metalworking. Although I often subvert these traditional processes, I try to stay true to the original crafts I reference. I fully engage in the “hubris” of making, examining the ways a well-crafted object can point to a larger sense of pride, value, and identity. I direct my own “pride in making” towards the creation of specific objects with symbolic, romantic, and humorous meaning.

My sculptures embody the ghosts of women’s gym coaches, crushes on camp-counselors, unrecognized athletes, or brassy-old maids--illuminating and conflating the unique aesthetics that accompany these underrepresented cultures.

(ABOVE) BULLDOG 2 (space suit) 2009 64 x 12 x 30” gatorade coolers, canvas, mesh, silicone bracelets, bandages, ect.

Bulldog 2 (spacesuit) is a sculpture inspired by my time playing on a queer women’s softball team. I used the materials native to the culture of the team: mesh, gatorade coolers, knee braces, silicone bracelets,etc. to create a garment that might somehow grant me entry into this highly specific, highly coded subculture.

22

(LEFT) BULLDOG 30 (shoulder pads) 2009 10 x 12 x 30” molded plywood, tooled leather, fabric, foam, ribbon Bulldog 30 (shoulder pads) works on many levels to unpack the workings of gender and sexuality through aesthetic cues. Modeled after a set of football shoulder pads, the piece at once subverts the way gender is expressed in sporting goods, but also appeals to a viewer’s sense of desire.

(ABOVE) Double Whistle 2009 3 x 3 x 4” cast silver, flannel Double Whistle calls attention to the sexuality and sense of desire that can be found in everyday objects, especially when they relate to the highly physical world of athletics. As the viewer experiences this cast silver version of conjoined whistles, they imagine the physical experience of using them. I think of this piece as an homage to the closeted lesbian gym coach.

(ABOVE) I’ve got the Horse, And She’s Got The Saddle 2007 65 x 32 x 8” tooled leather, wood I’ve Got the Horse and She’s Got the Saddle explores the variety of meanings leather conveys. An abstract conglomeration of saddles, sporting gear, and upholstery, this piece intimates the feminine body in its repose and surface detailing. Leather’s associations with fantasy, utility, sport, and skin become information that is inscribed on the bodily form.

23

BROADside

The Sins we have Committed Brittney Abad

Forgive me Father for I have sinned or so they keep telling me. A book of lies that rests upon my shoulders. Burdens for rough hands that wrung wrists; bare legs that bruised thighs; cries that masked a child’s lullaby: hush, hush now little baby don’t say a word, don’t say a word. His smell wants to crush my throat. His name an ugly scent I won’t remember in the winterless morning.

I can’t outrun her rosary. She prays for my salvation offering warnings: lead her not into temptation; she strays from you. Forgive me Father for your kin have sinned. Deliver me from them. Amen.

24

Quote Corner

sheryl sandberg We can each define ambition and progress for ourselves. The goal is to work toward a world where expectations are not set by the stereotypes that hold us back, but by our personal passion, talents and interests.

THE THINGS THAT HOLD WOMEN BACK HOLD THEM BACK FROM SITTING AT THE BOARDROOM TABLE AND THEY HOLD WOMEN BACK FROM SPEAKING AT THE PTA MEETING. I think now is our time. My mother was told by everyone that she had two choices: She could be a nurse or a teacher. The external barriers now are just so much lower. If we start acknowledging what the real issues are, we can solve them.

It’s not that hard.

We call our little girls bossy. Go to a playground; little girls get called bossy all the time - a word that's almost never used for boys - and that leads directly to the problems women face in the workforce.

Success for me is that if my son chooses to be a stayat-home parent, he is cheered on for that decision.

And if my daughter chooses to work outside the home and is successful, she is cheered on and supported

25

Most people assume that women are responsible for households and child care. Most couples operate that way - not all. That fundamental assumption holds women back.

No one talks about gender in the workplace, because if you say the words “I am a woman,” the other person is likely to hear “I want special treatment” or “I’m going to sue you.”A man who runs a large organization told me it’s easier to talk in public about your sex life than it is to talk about gender. But there are real gender-based issues: how we understand ourselves, how we experience each other. One of my goals is to make gender an open and honest topic in the workplace.

Column Archives in Action

ARCHIVES IN ACTION Nancy Freeman

March is Women’s History Month. The WLA really does women’s history all the time given we are an archives about women and leadership. In March every year, however, we work to spread the women’s history word even more. In honor of Women’s History Month, I’d like to share my favorite WLA collection.

After being asked the question repeatedly, I realized I really should pick a favorite so I didn’t just stand there in a slight panic trying to answer the question on the fly. The Mollie West collection is my consistent favorite. I’ve always thought the records incredible and after Mollie’s death in August 2015, my favoritism increased even more.

Often I have Loyola classes schedule a session at the WLA, plus, give tours to Loyola students, community members, donors, and Mundelein alumnae. At several points during the tour, I always ask if anyone has any questions. Over my three years at the WLA, I’ve found the question I am most frequently asked is “what is your favorite collection?”

Mollie Sheiman was born in Poland in 1916 and immigrated to Chicago with her family in 1929 at age 13. The radicalizing point in her life came during her high school years.

In 1934 during the Great Depression, Mollie’s high school threatened to cut extracurricular activities including music, which Mollie participated in by playing the French horn. Mollie organized a student strike. She and several others were arrested and placed in a juvenile home for a short time.

I confess something. The first and even the second time someone asked me that, I felt a tiny bit of panic. I’d never thought of what is my favorite collection. It’s like asking a parent which of their children is their favorite. Sure, I may find a certain collection more fascinating than others but I find them all interesting. I also tend to think the best collection ever is the

After graduation, Mollie became involved in labor organizing. She was present at the Memorial Day Massacre in 1937 and spoke out against the violence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day_massacre_ of_1937

The WLA really does women’s history all the time given we are an archives about women and leadership...

Mollie also became a Communist, initially joining the Young Communist League working as a labor organizer. She served as the secretary of the Illinois Communist Party. Mollie’s first husband, Carl Lieber, was also a Communist and they married in 1940. Carl was drafted into World War II in 1943, spending his time in Europe. Carl died in the war in 1945.

one that someone just donated. Until, of course, the next one is donated and it becomes my new best ever.

Also in 1945, Mollie served as an American Delegate to the World Youth Congress held in London and the World Student Congress in Czechoslovakia. The following photo is one of

26

my favorite historic photos of all time. There is Mollie, the only women in a sea of men, with a smile that transmits through the camera. It is stunning.

James West in 1966 and they divorced in 1969.

Mollie shattered innumerable labor gender barriers. In the early 1960s, she went to night school to learn the printing trade, at the time a profession almost totally made up of men.

She joined the Typographical Union and in 1973, became the first woman elected to a union office in the Chicago Typographical Union (CTU), Local 16, as a delegate to the International Typographic Union Convention in San Diego, CA. Mollie was one of six women out of 350 attending delegates.

Among Mollie’s many notable “firsts” are: the first woman to address the International Convention Union Council; the first female elected to the Executive Committee of CTU; and the first female appointed delegate to the IL state American Federation of Labor-Coalition of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

Mollie also was a founding member of the Chicago Chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) and served on the national executive board.

At age 60, Mollie went to Mundelein College and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in Labor Education through the Weekend College program.

(ABOVE) Mollie wearing the sign Political Prisoner.

Several years later, Mollie married James West, a prominent Communist organizer. They adopted a son, Steve, in 1952.

From 1953-1955, the family went “underground,” in hiding, due to the strong anti-Communist milieu of the time. Mollie broke ties with the Communist Party in 1962. She separated from

(BELOW) Mollie with protestors.

After mandatory retirement at age 65 by her employer, the Daily Racing Form, Mollie began volunteering, mainly for the ILL Labor History Society as the administrative secretary and volunteer. Retirement did not seem to slow Mollie down. She traveled, volunteered, and continued to be active in labor issues.

Eventually Mollie developed Alzheimer’s disease. She died at the age of 99 on August 7, 2015.

What makes Mollie’s collection my favorite? There are two reasons. First, the breadth and depth of the records we have are phenomenal. Mollie donated records to the WLA several times. Her son, Steve, donated many of his mother’s records, including some just after her death last year.

We have photos of Mollie’s relatives including her parents and grandparents in Poland. There are several photos of her in school and one tattered, faded small photo of her playing the French Horn.

The collection contains the letters back and forth between Mollie and Carl when he served in WWII. Both wrote of their daily lives and the correspondence is a fascinating window into life in the European War Theater and on the home front.

27

In late 1944 when Carl came to the US on leave, Mollie

became pregnant.

Unfortunately, she miscarried late in the pregnancy and required surgery that left her unable to have children. The letter to Carl in which she shares this news is heartbreaking.

The collection also contains items of Carl’s including his Army hat and the American flag that was draped on his casket for his military funeral, given to Mollie before his burial.

gold chain. We’ve used it in a display, with the photo of her playing the French horn, to detail her first foray into activism.

Mollie clearly loved jewelry and we now have many pieces, some of which may be able to be matched up with photos and used for display purposes.

We have a copy of a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files on Mollie and James West during her Communist years. While heavily redacted, it is a fascinating window into what type of information the FBI gathered on American Communists.

The second reason Mollie’s collection is my favorite is the connection I now have with her son Steve and others who knew her. On October 2, 2015, the WLA and the Illinois Labor History Society held a memorial program in honor of Mollie’s life. Relatives, friends, and folks who knew and worked with Mollie told stories and shared fond memories. While I know many things about Mollie from her collection, hearing about her in person gave me insights records cannot.

There are innumerable photos of Steve as a child growing up. My favorite is the one of him at oneof his birthday parties. Steve’s little bow tie is just as adorable as his beaming smile.

Now you see what make’s Mollie’s collection my favorite. The breadth and depth of records is phenomenal and her life is a lens through which to view labor and women’s rights history in Chicago. Plus, Mollie sounds like a feisty, wonderful person, someone I wish I could have met and known in person.

Many records in the collection document Mollie’s tremendous activism in the areas of labor and women’s rights.

Photos, documents, and awards show her commitment and tireless efforts over many years. She fought hard for women to have a seat at the labor table. This photo is one of many we have that shows Mollie in the midst of mainly men at a union event.

We also have objects that round out Mollie’s story. An example is the delicate, small, gold French horn charm on a

28

BROADside

Love Letters Pt. 2 Kimani Rose

Write me love letters telling me the 365 reasons why loving me is so easy, why loving someone, anyone, else would be so hard and what metaphors come to mind when you see me I’ll write it for myself, actually.

Because I already know.

I know my eyes are dark chocolate pools of expressive desire.

I know my body has curves that rise and fall and wrap around like waves in the ocean, they just won’t quit.

I know that my skin, mocha and caramel, smells like cocoa butter, and feels like home.

I know all these things you need to earn the right to know the words behind my metaphors.

29

Career Call

furie interview with lauren bianchi

By Eleanor Diaz

Note: This interview, conducted last year, was intended to appear in the June 2015 edition of BROAD. We apologize profusely to FURIE for the error, and thank them for the opportunity to speak with them and share this conversation to shed light on their great work and the importance of intersectional feminist activism this month.

– Ceili Erickson, Editor in Chief This week, I had the opportunity to chat with Lauren Bianchi, a member of Feminist Uprising to Resist Inequality and Exploitation. FURIE is a Chicago grassroots feminist organization that fights “sexism and misogyny in all forms.” It recognizes that feminism is intersectional and advocates for workers’ rights, living wages and job security.

ED: How did you get involved with FURIE? LB: I was actually one of the members that helped start FURIE. Right before Slutwalk Chicago 2014, some organizers of that event decided we wanted to continue organizing year round, around a range of feminist issues—not just rape culture, but also abortion rights and fighting attacks on women’s services for example. After Slutwalk, we put out a call for anyone who was interested in building feminist activism to attend our first meeting. We had two really successful first meetings and since then, FURIE has been actively organizing around many issues like we

first hoped.

FURIE is a dream come true for me and many other members. I studied gender and women’s studies at UIC, and I was really inspired by studying the activists of the Women’s Liberation Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. I was frustrated that there wasn’t really a city-wide grassroots feminist group in the area—just nonprofit orgs, which are very important, but we also need groups focusing on activism if we want to make change.

group, this was a very big deal. We had a speakout where people shared their stories about accessing birth control and abortion and how those services allowed them to get education and live the lives they wanted.

It felt amazing to [shut] down the anti-choicers and make it known that they can’t come to Chicago without opposition anymore. That’s the thing— these people are rarely protested. They harass people outside of our clinic every single day across the country, but we haven’t had an organized prochoice movement that can fight back for decades now. It’s time that we take the fight on the offensive.

ED: As a member of FURIE, can you share a positive experience you’ve had while advocating for equality?

LB: For me, one of my proudest moments with FURIE was when we “They harass people outside organized a counter protest of a large of our clinic every single day anti-choice event, IL March for Life (or March for Lies as we called it!) We put a across the country, but we call out over social media for a dance haven’t had an organized party counter protest across the street pro-choice movement that from the March for Lies. About 200 can fight back for decades people turned out, which might not sound like a lot, but for a newly formed now. It’s time that we take

30

the fight on the offensive.”

ED: BROAD magazine’s new issue, “In Labor,” is about how feminism fits into the workforce. What are some current feminist labor topics, either in the United States or abroad?

LB: I’m so excited to hear that BROAD is devoting a whole issue to feminism and labor! Personally, I am a Marxist feminist. My feminism is completely rooted in my experience as a workingclass woman. It was my experience working several low-wage jobs, starting when I was 14 years old, that deeply politicized me and made me want to fight for a different kind of world—one where workers actually share in the wealth that our labor produces.

I think the most important feminist labor issue today is the right to a living wage. The Fight for 15 campaign for $15 an hour and a union is a struggle being led by women workers, mainly women of color because of course, we are the majority of low-wage workers in the U.S. and globally. I think some people still think of the working class as like only white men who work in factories, but really, the working class is majority women, and non-white. In the 1970s, some socialist feminists argued for “wages for housework” to compensate for women’s unpaid domestic labor in the home. What’s exciting about today’s living wage campaign is that a living wage does what wages for housework set out to do. A living wage must be high enough that workers can reasonably afford the costs of living for ourselves and our families.

Marxist feminists refer to the labor that we do in order reproduce ourselves as workers as social reproduction.

It’s basically everything we do to get ourselves fed, rested and cared for so we can go to work the next day.

Beyond the living wage, other key

issues for women in labor today include paid sick leave, paid maternity and access to birth control and abortion.

ED: How can activists help?

LB: First of all, anyone can be an activist. Alone, we have very limited power, but when we get together, activists can do so much. All historical feminist, anti-racist, labor, etc. victories were won by activists and organizers.

No one will give us anything unless we make them.

“anyone can be an activist. Alone, we have very limited power, but when we get together, activists can do so much.”

What everyone should do is get involved with a group, organization or movement in your area. I think people associate activism with protest (as they should!) but most of what activists do is attend organizing meetings [and] network with other activists and new people that want to get involved. And read—so much reading. We have to learn from the mistakes and victories of the past so we don’t have to make the same mistakes again.

So go out and join a group, or start your own! And join a reading group or start one on your campus or in your community. FURIE has a reading group on Angela Davis’ Women Race and Class right now. It is super relevant for anyone wanting to learn about feminism, racism and labor.

ED: Have you experienced discrimination in the workforce?

What did you do in the situation?

LB: Yes, definitely. I mostly think about exploitation in the workplace because

31

when I’m making 9 dollars an hour, and the CEO of the grocery store I work in makes millions, that’s not discrimination so much as exploitation.

And the fact that so many women work these low-wage jobs is not an accident.

Women as a group are discriminated against and tracked into these types of work.

One time where I can say I was discriminated against was when I was a barista and a manger told me I was grinding espresso “like a girl.” It’s so ridiculous [that] I have to laugh, but at the time it was pretty humiliating. And I might be a militant feminist outside of work, but when you don’t have a union, and your boss mistreats you, you can’t really say anything without risking your job.

ED: What are some ways readers can get involved with FURIE? LB: Anyone can become a member of FURIE by attending two of our bi-weekly meetings and asking to join. If you aren’t sure about joining but just want to check out our events and campaigns, follow our Facebook page (facebook.com/chicagofurie) and Twitter (@FURIEChi). That’s where we share our most updated information and post event pages for our meetings and protests.

The more people who join, the more active we can be, so we encourage anyone who has an idea for a campaign or event to check us out!

Send us an email at furie.chicago@ gmail for more information and to be added to our announcements list.

ED: Anything else to add?

Thanks so much for the opportunity to do this interview! We hope to keep in touch with feminists in the Loyola community.

Article The Issue

THE LIFE OF A FABERGE EGG

er could go wherever he was going without being touched or bothered.

Something about my brother granted him the right to walk. But me? Something about me made me some sort of trigger object for my parents; for you see, I was their precious Faberge egg – no one could touch, breathe, or stare at me for too long without me breaking or getting stolen.

Which wouldn’t have been so bad, had I not been born with eyes that craved to see, legs that yearned to explore, lungs that needed to breathe the air of independence.

As fate had it, though, I was born the youngest daughter.

Today, at twenty-two years old, I enjoy some more freedom than I did when I was ten. I can make that trip around the block to my grandparents’ house without my parents watching anxiously from the window to see that I make it all right. I can go to school in the city on my own with only periodic texts from my Dad asking about where I am and what I’m doing. I can pursue my own career path and do the things I love without feeling the measured breath of my parents beating on my neck.

A. Mairead Mac

I was an artifact that had to be perpetually preserved at all costs.

“Be aware of your surroundings.”

I wasn’t allowed to walk around the block to my grandparents’ house until I was ten years old. Even in a suburb of less than twenty thousand, in the middle of the day, with family friends living on every street corner along the way, my parents quivered at the thought of me walking only a couple minutes away on my own, for fear of what might happen.

But even now, as I walk the streets of Chicago, a much bigger suburb of more than two million people living on their own will and conducting their own affairs without a care, I still receive the same message every time I talk to my Dad on the phone.

What if I get abducted? What if a gang approaches?

What if someone drives up in a white van and offers me candy, and I’m so gullible and devoid of reasoning that I believe them?

While they worried themselves over these questions, I was left asking one myself: Why weren’t they getting this worked up over the thought of my brother walking alone?

“Be aware of your surroundings.”

But I still have the same question I had when I was ten: Why does my brother, also now a resident of big bad Chicago, never receive that same text message from our father?

something about my brother granted him the right to walk. But me? Something about me made me some sort of trigger object

Why doesn’t Ian have to be aware of his surroundings, when we both share the same exact same one?

Is it the surroundings themselves we need to worry about, or the ways in which they force women to con duct themselves differently than men?

Ian was allowed to walk all over town without a care in the world. Trips to the snack store, the playground, and his neighborhood friends’ houses were taken without a worry in the world, my parents feeling confident in knowing that my broth-

32

Do I need to change the way I act? Or should the surroundings change the way they act towards me?

BROADside

Balance Kimani Rose

Balance me In softness and strength.

Let me be soft enough to love to be adored to know But strong enough to know better to see better to feel better Balance me like night and day equal parts; mysterious, dark, lovely, and, bright, sparkling enthusiasm Let me be just as warm as the sun, but beautiful like the moon. grand like the stars, but understanding, free, like blue blue skies.

Let me be balanced the mixtures of everything and its other.

33

Screen/Play

what happened miss simone?

RELEASE DATE: 2015 GENRE: Documentary Currently sreaming on Netflix Overview: Nina Simone was an icon. This documentary is a testament to her life, told by the people who were in it. There is so much to learn from the mind of a legend; and musical genius and perfection that Nina Simone strived for can now only be told through the people who knew her.

BROAD Thumbs Up: This documentary is authentic and raw. Like it should be when discussing a raw and authentic woman such as Nina Simone. It is a beautiful tribute to her memory, while being incredibly realistic about her. It is not romanticized; it is not sugar-coated. To do so would be an insult to her memory.

34

Article The Issue

MS. MAGAZINE AND ME Nancy Freeman

In late summer 2015, I learned Gloria Steinem would be appearing in Chicago for her forthcoming book “My Life on the Road.” The book signing was scheduled for October 29th, 2015 and appearing with Gloria would be Roxanne Gay, reading from her book Bad Feminist.

Steinem so bad that my mother scheduled her surgery around the book signing!

I first became aware of Gloria Steinem through Ms. Magazine in the early 1970s, when I was in my early teens growing up in rural Northwest Iowa on a farm. I believe Ms. Magazine made me a feminist, planting the seeds that would later grow. How I learned of Gloria Steinem and the magazine is all about my Aunt Carol.

I felt a very strong need to attend this event. I confess I didn’t know Gloria Steinem had a new book coming out, nor had I heard of Bad Feminist and Roxanne Gay. (After the event, in an ironic twist, I felt a twinge or two about being a bad feminist not knowing of Roxanne Gay.) All I knew was I had to go.

Gloria Steinem was coming to Chicago and I needed to see her in person. My friend Kathleen and I both bought tickets in late August and we were set.

My father’s sister, the only female among four male siblings, Aunt Carol went to college to be a teacher. She joined the Peace Corps in the first several years of its existence and traveled to the Philippines’ to teach English. There she met the man who would be her husband. They came to Minneapolis, married, then later divorced. Aunt Carol taught in the Minneapolis public schools and became very active in the Association of Federated Teachers (AFT), eventually earning a law degree and becoming a negotiator for the AFT. Somewhere in the late 1960s/early 1970s she became a feminist.

The desire to attend this event ended up affecting my 76-year-old mother. In September, my mother who lives in Southeast South Dakota called me waiting to schedule hip replacement surgery. Being the dutiful, first-born, only daughter that I am, I wholeheartedly agreed to be nurse maid. This would be my mother’s fourth joint replacement, having undergone both knees and a hip. By fall 2015, she knew she needed the other hip replaced.

Ms. Mazazine began in January 1972, with monthly issues starting in July 1972

My mother wanted to do the surgery prior to the holidays, say late October or early November. “No problem, Mom,” I said in a phone call, “We just have to work around Gloria.” With the book signing on October 29th, my mother decided to have the surgery on the 27th. She’d be discharged from the hospital on the 30th and have someone stay with her during the day until I arrived from Chicago that evening.

Ms. Magazine began in January 1972, with monthly issues starting in July 1972. Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes co-founded Ms. I turned 10 the summer the magazine went monthly.

My mother totally supported me in my quest to see Gloria Steinem. So much so, she had no problem scheduling her surgery in such a way I could attend. It became a joke between us, and one I shared with others: I wanted to see Gloria

At some point in the early years of the magazine, Aunt Carol gave her four sister-in-laws a yearlong subscription. Ms. Magazine thus began coming to my home, an Iowa farm, with

35

the address of Rural Route 2, Sutherland, IA. I’ve always wondered if the mailman (they were all male in my rural area then) delivered any other Ms. Magazines on his route.

Or, to even widening it, if anyone else received Ms. within the address of Sutherland, IA. The town itself numbered about 800 people, although many folks lived, as I did, on farms in the area.

I’m unsure exactly when we started receiving Ms. Magazine.

What I am sure about are my vivid memories of reading the magazine. I always read the column “Stories for Free Children.”

I’ve remembered the title after all these years and double-checked it via Google. Memory can be faulty sometimes, however, at 53, I’m pleased to know that the correct title still sticks in my mind. While I cannot recall specifics about it, what I do remember is I loved it and read the column every month.

Via Google, I see that Stories for Free Children “contained stories, fables, or fairy tales emphasizing non-sexist, multi-racial, multi-cultural themes.”

it is hard to quantify how Ms. Magazine and Gloria Steinem affected me. All I really know is that they did in a huge way.

My other, most clear memory about Ms., is reading an article in April 1975 (thanks again, Google) at age 12, about Karen Silkwood’s death. In my mind, I can still see the pictures of her car crash from the article. I remember reading the Karen Silkwood article and thinking over and over again that she’d been killed intentionally. Plus, I became aware of nuclear energy and concerns regarding worker safety.

A fascinating article in NY Magazine details an interview with Ms. Founders, including Gloria Steinem. The Silkwood article comes up because internal debate occurred whether to put the photo of the crumpled car on the cover. They did not and you can see the reasons, plus regrets about the decision at http://nymag.com/news/features/ms-magazine-2011-11/index5. html

It is hard for me to quantify how Ms. Magazine and Gloria Steinem affected me. All I really know is that they did in a huge way. The fact I can remember the “Stories for Free Children” column and the Karen Silkwood article so vividly attest to the impact. I wonder how everything else I read in Ms. affected me at a more unconscious level, broadening my horizons and encouraging me to think in new ways.

By the time I graduated high school and entered college in 1980, I self-identified as a feminist. I stayed in Northwest Iowa for college, attending Briar Cliff University (at that time Briar Cliff College), a small, Catholic, and Liberal Arts College begun by the women religious order of the Dubuque Franciscans. It wasn’t like I went off to a big school with a certain bent, like Berkley, and then called myself a feminist. No, I stayed small and within my faith tradition at the time. The Dubuque Franciscans contained many women that called themselves feminists and Briar Cliff nurtured my budding ideas of feminism.

Now, you see that I had to go hear Gloria Steinem read from her new book. She, Ms. Magazine, and my Aunt Carol will forever be linked in my mind as planting the seeds of my feminist consciousness on an Iowa farm in the early 1970s.

Wikipedia states: Karen Gay Silkwood (February 19, 1946 – November 13, 1974) was an American chemical technician and labor union activist known for raising concerns about corporate practices related to health and safety of workers in a nuclear facility. Her mysterious death received extensive coverage and was the subject of a victorious lawsuit against chemical company Kerr-McGee. Silkwood was portrayed by Meryl Streep in Mike Nichols' 1983 Academy Award-nominated film Silkwood. https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Karen_Silkwood

36

WLA Reanimated

the polish women's alliance of america

by Caroline Lynd Giannakopoulos

The Polish Women’s Alliance of America was founded in 1898 as a fraternal benefit society for Polish Women in Chicago. Founder Stefania Chmielinska, a seamstress who began to speak out against women’s inequality, created the society to promote selfsufficiency, offer financial stability to women and families, as well as inspire pride in Polish heritage. In its early years, the PWA was granted the right to sell life insurance, began publication of their newspaper, Głos Polek (The Polish Women’s Voice) and put on local cultural programs. During the two world wars the PWA was active in humanitarian relief for Poland. In 1943, in appreciation for the enthusiastic contributions to the war effort, the U.S. War Department named two of its B-25 bomber planes in honor of the Alliance.

(ABOVE) In 1928, at the height of the Roaring Twenties, the Alliance sponsored its first pilgrimage to Poland, giving many members their only opportunity to visit the cherished homeland.

By 1991, the PWA had spread to seventeen states and had 60,000 members. The organization has continued to be a major force within the Polish-American community through cultural events, charitable aid, fundraising and political power. It has also demonstrated the leadership capabilities of women and provided insurance to thousands of people.

The records of the Polish Women’s Alliance are held at the WLA. Established in 1994, the Women and Leadership Archives (WLA) collects and makes available permanently valuable records of women and women's organizations, which document women's lives, roles, and contributions.

(ABOVE) The PWA aided the people in Poland throughout both world wars by raising money and shipping supplies. In 1941, they began a campaign to aid Polish families relocating because of harsh Soviet Union governmental policies.

37

Article The Issue

WOMEN, FILMAKING, AND OPPORTUNITIES Megan Bordewyk WLA GA

Issues of inequality in Hollywood have persisted since the dawn of film. In the last few years, efforts have increased by mainstream media to shine a light on these inequalities. Celebrities are speaking out in the news and on social media. Jennifer Lawrence wrote that now infamous letter posted to Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner’s feminist website “Lenny Letter” that is focused on feminism, politics, style, and work. Manohla Dargis wrote a three-part series on female filmmakers fight for equality for The New York Times. This was followed up by Maureen Dowd’s article, “The Women of Hollywood Speak Out”, that echoed many of the same statistics and sentiments by Dargis. A six-part douc-series on gender inequality in Hollywood airs in March on Epix. Many well-known faces in Hollywood are participating in the series and the project has the support of Meryl Streep and Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

Even though discussions have been ongoing for years, USA Today recently published their review of close to 200 movies to be released in 2016. In both gender and ethnic diversity, the numbers are vastly similar to previous years and the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag is prepped and ready for next year’s Academy Awards. Let’s remember; inequality issues in Hollywood are just as much about race as they are gender.

So, where do we go from here? There are articles, websites, and now a docu-series dedicated to spotlighting inequalities in Hollywood. But if big studies are not making changes, what are the next steps toward equality? Dr. Elizabeth Coffman, an associate professor in the School of Communication at Loyola University Chicago and a documentary filmmaker and film scholar, says seizing opportunities is important. “I think

there is plenty of opportunity; it’s just about taking it,” Dr. Coffman said.

if big studies are not making changes, what are the next steps toward equality?

Dr. Elizabeth Coffman...says seizing opportunities is important

Women are indeed seizing opportunities in film by creating their own opportunities. Numerous women have their own production companies. Reese Witherspoon started Type A Films (now defunct) and recently partnered with Bruna Papandrea to create Pacific Standard, a self-funded company not associated with any one studio. Pacific Standard opens up opportunities for women as the goal of the company is to push for female-driven material. The company is responsible for the film versions of Gone Girl and Wild. Drew Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen started their production company, Flower Films back in 1995. Flower Films produced Donnie Darko, 50 First Dates, Whip It!, and more recently How to Be Single. Jessica Chastain and Elise Siegel are one of the most recent partnerships to start a production company. Freckle Films will focus on strong characters. Among a long list of women with production companies, a few actresses include, Queen Latifah (Flavor Unit

38

Productions), Hilary Swank (25 Films), Eva Longoria (Unbelievable Entertainment), Ashley Tisdale (Blondie Girl Productions), Jessica Biel (Iron Ocean Films), Jennifer Aniston (Echo Films), Natalie Portman (Handsomecharlie Films), and Virginia Madsen (Title IX Productions).

that exist for them. Perseverance is key and as Dr. Coffman said, celebrities and the media must continue to voice these inequalities and make noise. Now is the time to use the attention to highlight everything women and minorities have accomplished and continue to accomplish in filmmaking, despite the obstacles placed in their path to success.

In talking with Dr. Coffman, there is an optimistic trend in her thoughts and words on women in filmmaking that is missing from the numerous articles out there on the same topic. These thoughts stem from the same awareness we all have about men and women in Hollywood.

celebrities and the media must continue to voice these inequalities and make noise.

Now is the time to use the attention to highlight everything women and minorities have accomplished

“Jennifer Lawrence is being paid less than Bradley Copper. What’s that about? That is sheer economic prejudice at the highest level.” Dr. Coffman continues on by suggesting how women continue to voice the inequalities. “It’s obvious that those kinds of differences are happening for women in every field and every level and we just have to keep making noise and bringing lawsuits about it.” Dr. Coffman stresses she does not want to seem too negative and reiterates that there are opportunities. Her thoughts in no way reduce the issues in Hollywood and filmmaking but instead point to areas where change is occurring.

Dr. Coffman stresses the important role moviegoers and television viewers play in changing the projects studios finance. The audience plays a vital role in determining where money goes by purchasing tickets to movies as well as contributing to the popularity of TV shows. Dr. Coffman believes women have a large role in this. “The female population out there is buying tickets, watching television. There are more women watching television than men.” This is important as Dr. Coffman points out that Netflix and Amazon are proving to be “more successful for certain kinds of storytelling.” She continues on saying, “I think we are right in the middle of that transformation so it is hard to tell that there are some interesting things happening.” As Dr. Coffman points out, there is competition for viewers in journalism, in television, and by cable channels.

Viewers not only impact the kinds of stories being told but the people involved in creating and telling those stories. Dr. Coffman’s advises that “the most important thing you can do is go out and buy a ticket to films produced by women and filmmakers of color.”

Here is a quick rundown of upcoming movies made by and about women:

The Huntsman: Winter’s War comes out April 22 and features three leading ladies. The new Ghostbusters comes out July 15. Not only does the film consist of a female cast, but Katie Dipplod co-wrote the screenplay. Bridget Jones’s Baby, out September 16, is written and directed by women. The adaptation of the novel, Girl on the Train is released October 7 and the screenplay is by Erin Cressida Wilson. There are several other films directed and written by women to be released this year, although exact dates are still unknown, including Queen of Katwe, A United Kingdom, and American Honey. Be sure, as well, to keep an eye out for Dr. Elizabeth Coffman’s documentary film Flannery O’Connor: Mystery & Manners. The documentary is expected to be broadcast within the year and will hopefully be on PBS’s “American Masters” series. Dr. Coffman is directing and co-producing the film with Loyola University Chicago’s Mark Bosco, S.J. of the Hank Center. Buy tickets and tune in to these films and more to support women in filmmaking.

Anyone denying racial and gender inequality in filmmaking or even the severity of the issue can easily be proven wrong with a plethora of statistics, firsthand accounts, and what can be seen with your own eyes on the silver screen.

Moving forward, media needs to focus on the achievements of women and minorities in film as well as the opportunities

39

Liberation Leaders

Marlene Dietrich

“For women, beauty is more important than the mind, because the man is easier to watch than to think.”

“When you prostitute yourself, you have to get paid for it.”

“ONCE A WOMAN HAS FORGIVEN HER MAN, SHE MUST NOT REHEAT HIS SINS FOR BREAKFAST.” Born Marie Magdalene Dietrich in Berlin, Germany, Marlene Dietrich would become one of the most controversial, popular celebrities to grace the world of entertainment in the Golden Age of Cinema. Known for dressing in top hats and coat tails during her musical performances and speaking her mind when it came to politics, Dietrich’s commitment to inverting sexual stereotypes inspired several theoretical frameworks to analyze what it means to be a woman or a man, and what those concepts can look like physically.

Dietrich began her professional career in vaudeville as a chorus girl in several musical acts floating around Berlin in the 1920s. As her musical persona starting garnering attention, Dietrich began flexing her acting abilities, starting with small roles in films ranging from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to George Bernard Shaw’s Back to Methuselah and Misalliance.

Yet it was her role as Lola Lola in the German-produced The Blue Angel (1930) that would prove to be Dietrich’s breakthrough

40

performance, drawing the eyes of countless directors and producers in Hollywood.

Dietrich soon skyrocketed to fame under her contract with Paramount, where she made a name for herself as Hollywood’s first femme fatale.

Starring in such blockbusters as Shanghai Express (1932) and Desire (1936) defined Dietrich as one of the most glamorous, powerful stars of her day, but it was her actions off-screen that solidified Dietrich’s role as an outspoken activist uncharacteristic of women during

“I AM AT HEART A GENTLMAN.” “IN EUROPE, IT DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU’RE A MAN OR A WOMAN – WE MAKE LOVE WITH ANYONE WE FIND ATTRACTIVE.”

“Darling, the legs aren’t so beautiful, I just know what to do with them.” that time. Dietrich was known for vocalizing her views of political tensions at the time, particularly those coming out of her home country of Germany. Dietrich strongly opposed the Nazi Party and even joined the ranks of other celebrities to raise war bonds for the American troops, even going so far as to tour for the USO on the front lines.

Her heritage as a German, however, attracted negative attention from many who considered her a secret supporter of the Nazis, or a betrayer of her own people. Regardless, the United States rewarded Dietrich for her wartime efforts and commitment to peace with a Medal of Freedom, which she called her proudest accomplishment. In a similar gesture, the French government even awarded Dietrich the role of a Chevalier (rank just below a Commandeur) of the National Order of the Legion of Honor.

Spending the rest of her life on stage as a cabaret artist with intermittent film roles, Dietrich took special care in how she was perceived publically. One of her many priorities

in the public eye was to appear as professional as possible, often shedding traditional feminine appearances in preference for pantsuits and top hats in an effort to be taken just as seriously as her male counterparts. Dietrich also markedly defied conventional gender roles in her several androgynous film roles and when she boxed at a Turkish boxing studio in Berlin, which had only recently become available to women. As a closeted bisexual, Dietrich also reveled in the thriving gay scene of 1920s Berlin, where she would frequent popular drag balls.

Because of her refusal to fall into traditional expectations for women and actresses of her day, Marlene Dietrich’s legacy has allowed for women everywhere to break from the mold and enjoy life in nonconventional ways. As such, through her image, scholars everywhere have undertaken a study of the fetishistic manipulation of the female image not only in Hollywood, but in society in general.

41

“I dress for myself.

Not for the image, not for the public, not for the fashion, not for men.”

“I am not a myth.”

Article The Issue

FEMINIST MUSINGS FROM THE

TOYAISLE Sarah Hallett

Around December, many Loyola departments participate in “Loyola Gives”: a holiday-time campaign to buy Christmas gifts for families in need. This year, I was responsible for shopping for a four-year-old girl in the Gannon Center’s adopted family.

Predictably, this girl’s wish-list included all things princess: Elsa and Anna from “Frozen,” Princess Sofia, and Barbie - the who’s who of little girls. Seeking to fulfill her Christmas wishes, I dutifully perused the Target toy aisles.

And I perused and perused. In fact, I made several laps of the aisles, seeking to find something – anything – that would delight this girl and yet not terribly offend my feminist sensibilities.

More than the princesses themselves, it was the accompanying merchandise that bothered me. These toys primarily consisted of various forms of beautification: dress up in a gown and heels like Princess Sofia, carry a matching purse to Barbie’s, bejewel your own tiara like Elsa’s. Whereas, the “boy” aisles included options to construct buildings, drive cars, spar with swords, and throw balls. The “girl” toys focused almost exclusively on emulating their idols’ physical appearance – a sense of beauty, I might add, that is largely white, thin, and hyper-sexualized.

As I continued my laps of the toy aisles, it struck me that this shopping experience was a quite apt analogy for how I see feminism in my work within the field of women’s leadership.

In so many important ways, we have made great progress toward recognizing the dignity and equality of women. In the U.S., women vote, go to college, serve in the military, lead

companies, and so much more. Target made headlines this fall for removing the pink and blue backings on their toy aisles, seeking to lessen the gendered nature of children’s toys.

Yet, as evidenced so clearly through my shopping experience, young women today are still socialized in what it means to “be” women – to be passive agents, to value physical beauty over intellectual development, to minimize their own abilities and contributions, and so on and so forth. While in all likelihood, no one explicitly barred this little girl from choosing toys from the “boy” aisles, it was clear to her, even at the young age of four, which toys she “should” want for Christmas.

Women’s leadership, to me, means something more than the mere existence of a variety of opportunities for women. In saying that, I do not mean to denigrate the many ways in which my fellow “millennials” and I have benefitted from the accomplishments of the groundbreaking women who have come before us. The imperative today, though, seems to be not only to ensure the availability of leadership opportunities for women but also to ensure that women are empowered and enabled to pursue them. It is not enough to open a seat at the table; women must actually be willing and able to sit down.

For me, this dynamic illuminates the crucial importance of feminism in women’s leadership. Promoting women’s leadership necessarily involves examining and challenging the subtle, entrenched notions of “womanhood” and “femininity” in order to facilitate women transcending their traditional boundaries. At its best, this process is adaptive and wide-reaching. The realities and perceptions faced by, say, a Latina first-generation college student will naturally differ from a white transgender one. Hence, the importance of “feminisms” in its plurality.

promoting women’s leadership necessarily involves examining and challenging the subtle, entrenched notions of “womanhood” and “feminity”

This work of the Gannon Center often reminds me of lines from the famous prayer attributed to Oscar Romero: “We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.” By fostering women who are passionate and knowledgeable about the intersection of feminism and women’s leadership, we hope to engender a society in which little girls put more toys on their Christmas lists than princesses.

42

BROADside

The Objectified Gaze Kimani Rose

How it follows you. Us. Dressed, less dressed, undressed. The gaze remains.

There was a promise made, at young ages of things we could never keep.

Legs closed, heart open, shirts buttoned and hands to yourself. Be innocent.

Be fragile. Be untouchable and then they’ll want to touch you. Promises broken. Be teasing, be submissive, be ready. Be their fetish and their perfection. At the drop of a pin, a slight glance. Bow to the whims that you may not agree with.

Promises we made to society, by being baby girls. Fear the ‘Jezebel’. Beware the ‘Bitch’. But be his bitch in bed. Hypocrite Society’s Scarlet Letter will be placed upon out clothes if we break society’s promise.

Somehow I’ve embraced the Scarlet Promise.

Somehow, I’ve been captured, by red-purple lipstick and ripped tights, black nail polish and lingerie. Embraced my bark, my bite, and my roar. And the gaze became deeper, harder, more viciously intense. Good girls are bad girls that haven’t been caught. But caught I was. And the Scarlet Letter placed on my clothes. But still objectified. Still pushed to be fragile, submissive, small.

Smallness becomes no one. Let me be big. Let me shine in the objectified gaze. Shine in the gaze of heat, of lust, of possession. But let them not posses me. Breaking Society’s Promise. A promise I never meant to make. A promise I was too young to make. I can live in the gaze, objectified. Sexualized.

Sexualize me. Because I am. Because I need not have to keep promises that were mistakes. Because I make mistakes. Because I could be Scarlet Lettered, embraced in the Scarlet Promise, and drowned in the Objectified Gaze.

Promised, from birth, to be exotic. Maybe I'll be different than those other girls because I look different. Maybe I'll feel different, taste different, because a little chocolate goes a long way. Promised mystery in place of humanity, womanhood.

43

Chocolate and brown sugar, a little vanilla for good measure. Cinnamon, spice, everything nice. Is it me? Or is it the new recipe for cake in a mug you saw on Buzzfeed? Do I hold any worth, other than consumption?

I am woman, hear me roar. From the depths of ages of silence. Hear me fight, cry, laugh, scream. Who out there will silence me now?

I see you there, across the bar. Across the room, closing in.

Be sweet for me, little lady. Be the prize the world has asked you to be. Not asked. Told. Your skin looks so soft, little lady, why don't you give me a smile?

First of all, fuck off. Second, fuck you. Not the action, the insult, and I'll smile when I tell you.

I am not a walking yes. A walking, talking, prize to be won. A quest to be conquered. Shall my womanhood only mean that? Why have you chosen to reduce me, minimize, drown the fire you see?

I am not who looks at me. I am not who pays me attention. I am no slave. Not to man, not to Scarlet, and not to the Objectified Gaze.

44

Screen/Play

kiki's delivery service RELEASE DATE: 1989 GENRE: Children’s, Animated

DIRECTED BY: Hayao Miyazaki

Found on Amazon, Streaming Websites, Retailing Stores

BROAD THUMBS UP! Studio Ghibli films always hit the mark with their female characters, mostly because of the precedence and strength their leader, Hayao Miyazaki, places upon young women. Miyazaki has said that many of his movies “have strong female leads – brave, self-sufficient girls that don’t think twice about fighting for what they believe in with all their heart. They’ll need a friend, or a supporter, but never a savior.” Nowhere else does his message make more sense than in Kiki’s Delivery Service, where the only way the conflict of the film can resolve is through Kiki’s own personal method of salvation, without her reliance on anyone else. Viewers see the movement of one individual through key moments of life – moving out, getting a job, securing a homestead – all of which Kiki masters at the tender age of thirteen. Not to mention, the movie doesn’t settle for a romantic interest to motivate Kiki either. As is common for movies where the main character struggles with inner despair (Pride and Prejudice, Titanic, The Little Mermaid), the reliance upon a man to swoop in and save the young heroine from the darkness within her is an easy way out to tie the story together.

Miyazaki, however, takes a different route in allowing Kiki herself to be her own hero, and not allowing her male friends, like Tombo, distract her romantically. In fact, the two remain platonic throughout the entire film.

45

Overview: On the eve of her thirteenth birthday, Kiki leaves her home to complete her training as a witch in the real world with her cat Jiji as her only companion. Landing on her broomstick in the port city of Koriko, Kiki searches to find a place to live and a suitable job to support herself. She eventually takes shelter in the home of Osono, a kindly baker who agrees to house Kiki if she delivers baked goods to her customers on her broomstick.

Kiki must then learn how to balance her the struggles of her new job, her social life, and caring for herself, a task whose difficulty Kiki doesn’t expect.

The stress of her new adult life proves intense for young Kiki as she succumbs to a brief depression, which causes her to lose her flying ability and resign from her delivery business until she can find a new purpose for herself. When a local airship accident leaves one of her friends in danger, Kiki finds the purpose she’s been missing and regains her flying power, rescuing him and later restarting her delivery service.

Article The Issue

WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST BOOKSTORE Ellen Bushong

The first time I visited Women and Children First Bookstore, perhaps Chicago’s best known independent feminist book-seller, and one of the largest feminist bookstores in the entire country, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I wasn’t expecting what I found, either. As a liberal, college-educated woman, now a woman working on a Master’s degree, I am both personally and professionally familiar with independent bookstores and hold a working knowledge of the history of feminism and its central figures. I have even read some of its seminal works: The Yellow Wallpaper, Herland, The Bell Jar, and The Feminine Mystique among others. However, my own personal relationship with feminism in my late teens and very early twenties was always complex and nebulous. I jokingly referred to myself as a “non-practicing” feminist, happy to support the beliefs of a historical movement that I now benefit from but not do much else.

Now, in my mid-twenties, I still hesitate to participate in what I used to refer to as “actively” feminist activities—like going to a self-proclaimed feminist bookstore. For this month’s BROAD theme “the Issue”, I decided it would be the perfect time to act against this naïve hypocrisy.

As a Graduate Assistant for the Women & Leadership Archives, I know a bit of the administrative past of the store as well as the shop’s historical presence in local and national press, since the archives houses records of Women and Children First throughout its history to 2009. Women and Children First bookstore first opened in 1979, owned by a pair of former English graduate students that became frustrated with the lack of female authors—even the greats such as Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath, in independent bookstores throughout Chicago.

They moved twice, first from their original location in Lincoln Park to a larger location on Halsted, then to their present location on Clarke Street in Andersonville. Women and Children First have remained at this location since 1989. Their initiative and purpose, as advertised on their website, continues to be to promote the work of women writers in order to “create a place

in which all women can find books reflecting their lives and interests” and most significantly, to encourage an “atmosphere in which all are respected, valued, and well served.” Along with providing works of both local and national female authors, from the classics to up and comers, Women and Children First has also served as a meeting ground for women to share their ideas and foster constructive conversation about female identity in the arts, politics, and popular culture. They frequently host author events that comprise of talks and book signings with noted female writers, politicians, or cultural icons. Visitors such as Sandra Cisneros, Gloria Steinem, and current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, all held events at the esteemed bookstore.

“The Great Alaska Hustle” Event Photo Loyola University Chicago. Women and Leadership Archives. Women and Children First Records. Box 1, Folder 22.

I visited the store right before Valentine’s Day. Cheerful, festive decorations adorned the walls and display tables with florid red and pink lettering, hearts, and flowers. Of course,

46

books littered every available surface. A “personal ad” theme was fixed on prominent display in the store-front window, playfully identifying book suggestions to its audience. One read, “Feminist seeking non-hetero romance. Enjoys travel, video games, and visual art. Searching for the perfect person to smash the patriarchy with.” This particular sign hung beside both Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance and The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff, now an Oscar-nominated motion picture. For some misguided reason, my brain stumbled over the idea of “serious” feminists reading from the New York Times Bestseller list.

ative impressions, as I first believed. My experience at Women and Children First allowed me to perceive my own false notions of feminism, and recognize just how misrepresented the ideology remains for many people, even those like me who consider themselves “feminists.” http://images.amcnetworks.com/ifc.com/wp-content/up-

When people think of feminism, some retain the notion of an angry, man-hating woman that works aggressively to dismantle the sexist status quo. Yet, apart from the tongue-incheek comments about “smashing the patriarchy” with a significant other, apparent references to protesting feminists were demonstrably absent.

Although I intellectuloads/2014/01/portlandia-season-three-winter-620x340.jpg ally know this per“Season 3 Episode 1.” Candance and Toni from Portception of feminism landia's Women and Women First Bookstore. to be false, I realize Photo courtesy of http://www.ifc.com upon reflection that this societal notion

While at the store, I purchased a book recommended of “serious” feminism, to me by the staff called Bad Feminist written by author and however subconacademic Roxane Gay. In Bad Feminist, Gay attributes her own sciously, dictated my early complicated relationship with feminism to an idea of pre-conceptions of “essential feminism,” the belief that to be a “true” feminist one what visiting a femimust act a certain way, read certain books, or disparage certain nist bookstore might elements of popular culture. Gay articulates that these essenentail. Except for the tial feminists are placed on a pedestal that most women have sections addressing a hard time identifying with— those situated as the “examples” feminist literature create an expectation of perfection that is unrealistic to the ex“Event Flyer” Loyola University specifically, Women treme. Gay proclaims that she embraced being a feminist only Chicago. Women & Leadership and Children First Archives. Women and Children after she shed the desire to become a part of this lofty ideal.

First Bookstore Records. Box 1, appears in all aspects Not everyone’s idea of feminism will ultimately be the same, Folder 22. to be a well-stocked and that’s okay. As long as we are respectful of one another’s and friendly neighborhood bookstore –I did not experience feminisms, and to borrow Gay’s words, “give a damn” about discomfort or guilt regarding my delinquent feminist tendenbridging the gaps between varying experiences, in particular cies, as I wrongfully expected I might. women of color and LGBTQ women, we can change people’s perceptions of what feminism actually is.

In the sketch comedy show Portlandia, the show’s stars When I first began the process of writing this article, I expectFred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein portray characters Toni ed to simply document my visit as an exercise in contextualand Candace, owners of Women and Women First, a fictional izing the current Women and Children First within the history feminist bookstore located in Portland, Oregon. The recurring I know about the store. What I found when I went there was sketch highlights the stereotypical elitism I think most people so much more meaningful than that, and certainly not what I expect when encountering mainstream feminism: the owners expected to learn. I will take this experience with me when I only sell books that aren’t top sellers, they judge women who ultimately re-examine the Women and Children First records participate in hypersexual activities (in one episode, Aubrey for a researcher at some point in the future, and I will know Plaza plays a customer who tells Candace and Toni she’s late the importance of the service that this store provides for the for a pole dancing class-- the owners throw a fit), and espouse community. As I exited the store, I quickly snapped a picture “new wave” religious or cultural ideologies (such as worshipping of the banner that hangs in the store-front window. “Opened goddesses), etc. Of course, sketches like these are simply meant 1979. Open Today. Open Forever.” Now, more than ever, I need to satirize the various activities and proprietors of these shops this to stay true. and do not actually represent feminist bookstores or their owners; yet, the fact that I expected in some way to have these stereotypes come true before my eyes demonstrated that my ideas of feminism were not as removed from bias, or from neg-

47

Bookmark Here

her own accord:

american women on identity, culture, and community editted by D. Ahlquist, N. Carr, J. Coulson, L. Galphine, S. McDonald, D.H. Whitfield GENRE:LITERARY ANTHOLOGY YEAR PUBLISHED: Forthcoming from Great Books Foundation Chicago, April 2016 Summary: The selections in Her Own Accord: American Women on Identity, Culture, and Community explore the experiences, challenges, and achievements of women from a contemporary point of view. Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, short stories, memoirs, and journalistic works are all included. Together, these selections and their accompanying discussion questions allow readers to explore how gender informs every aspect of a woman's life— identity, family, relationships, work, and politics. Her Own Accord: American Women on Identity, Culture, and Community includes works by powerful contemporary writers such as Cristina Henríquez, Sharon Olds, Roxane Gay, ZZ Packer, and more. (From Great Books Foundation Chicago website.)

BROAD Thumbs Up!: Her Own Accord is the definition of intersectionality in feminist writing, featuring short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from a truly diverse pool of women writers working today. The writings in this anthology aim to amplify all women’s voices and experiences, exploring the ways that gender affects the lives of trans and cis women, straight and LBPQA women, and women from many different racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds alike. Every piece shines with a unique voice and perspective on womanhood, from the guarded, bitter, Cover painting: Carrie Moyer, Four Dreams In darkly funny voice of ZZ Packer’s Drinking Coffee Elsewhere and An Open Room, 2013. Acrylic and glitter on the calm, gentle, yet frustrated tone of Perri Klass’s meditation on canvas, 66 x 56 in.© Carrie Moyer. Courtesy motherhood, pregnancy, and female friendship, Freedom Fighter, of DC Moore Gallery, New York. to the dreamlike, aching The Box House and the Snow by Cristina Henriquez and the strength and fury of poems like Kim Addonizio’s “What Women Want” and Anne Sexton’s “Rowing”, to the long process of overcoming fear and guilt and lack of resources that keeps trans women like Julia Serano At Odds with the rest of the world, as discussed in her autobiographical piece. Separating the anthology into sections based on topics such as identity, family, relationships, and politics means that the stories and poems in each section complement each other perfectly, fleshing out each topic with plenty of fascinating perspectives. Any woman would see herself somewhere in these pages, and any person regardless of gender can appreciate the excellent writing presented here. Her Own Accord is a fascinating celebration of the real lives and consciousness’ of American women, their relationship to their gender identity, and how the world perceives them. The forthcoming anthology certainly receives a big Thumbs Up from us at BROAD!

48

Quote Corner

"At the new Basilica with the souvenir shop

in the basement, I waited for mass to be over to go see you the only blessed woman among all women. My dignity wanted to taste your cherry sweet skin as it mixed with my own that burned your throat like cheap whisky."

--Laura Negrete, "Apple Picking" (107)

notble quotes from her own accord "As for what I looked like—well, I suddenly realized I thought of "I" primarily as being my mind. I had always measured myself by work, first in sixteen years of school, then in book publishing, then in journalism, so wasn't I actually an identity that existed most really on paper?"

--Nina Barrett, "Mind-Body Story" (141)

"She dreamed she was stuck underwater. She was submerged in a tank, floating in pale gray water. She was holding her breath but her lungs were losing air."

--Cristina HenrĂ­quez, "The Box House and the Snow" (93-94)

49

BROADside

Men and the Mind Talyah Puri

I’m tired of men, Who either, Want to fuck me, Or want to be my superhero.

I don’t need fixing, I don’t need to be saved, And I certainly don’t need, A lie-in in bed.

Let me find, Someone who falls in love with my mind, And how my eyes, Are the kind of brown, That looks like melted chocolate, drizzled on strawberries.

Fall in love with the contrast between, My laugh when I mean it, And my laugh when I don’t.

With the difference, In my facial expressions, And the sarcastic commentary.

I’m so tired of the kind that I find, Especially when I think, That I’m not the only one who sees, What’s underneath.

50

CONTRIBUTOR GUIDELINES

PRINCIPLES

How to be BROAD

1. Feminist Consciousness:

(a) recognizes all voices and experiences as important, and not in a hierarchicl form.

(b) takes responsibility for the self and does not assume false objectivity.

(c) is not absolutist or detached, but rather, is more inclusive and sensitive to others.

2. Accessibility:

(a) means utilizing accessible language, theory, knowledge, and structure in your writing.

(b) maintains a connection with your diverse audience by not using unfamiliar/obscure words, overly long

sentences, or abstraction.

(c) does not assume a specific audience, for example, white 20-year-old college students 2. Jesuit Social Justice Education & Effort:

(a) promotes justice in openhanded and generous ways to ensure freedom of inquiry, the pursuit of truth and

care for others.

(b) is made possible through value-based leadership that ensures a consistent focus on personal integrity,

ethical behavior, and the appropriate balance between justice and fairness.

(c) focuses on global awareness by demonstrating an understanding that the world’s people and societies are

interrelated and interdependent.

GUIDELINES & EXPECTATIONS • You may request to identify yourself by name, alias, or as “anonymous” for publication in the digest. For reasons of accountability, the staff must know who you are, first and last name plus email address.

• We promote accountability of our contributors, and prefer your real name and your preferred title (i.e., Maruka Hernandez, CTA Operations Director, 34 years old, mother of 4; or J. Curtis Main, Loyola graduate student in WSGS, white, 27 years old), but understand, in terms of safety, privacy, and controversy, if you desire limitations. We are happy to publish imagery of you along with your submission, at our discretion.

• We gladly accept submissions of varying length- from a quick comment to several pages. Comments may be reserved for a special “feedback” section. In order to process and include a submission for a particular issue, please send your submission at least two days prior to the desired publication date.

• Please include a short statement of context when submitting imagery, audio, and video.

• We appreciate various styles of scholarship; the best work reveals thoughtfulness, insight, and fresh perspectives.

• Such submissions should be clear, concise, and impactful. We aim to be socially conscious and inclusive of various cultures, identities, opinions, and lifestyles.

• As a product of the support and resources of Loyola University and its Women Studies and Gender Studies department, all contributors must be respectful of the origin of the magazine; this can be accomplished in part by ensuring that each article is part of an open discourse rather than an exclusive manifesto.

• All articles must have some clear connection to the mission of the magazine. It may be helpful to provide a sentence or two describing how your article fits into the magazine as a whole.

• The writing must be the original work of the author and may be personal, theoretical, or a combination of the two. When quoting or using the ideas of others, it must be properly quoted and annotated. Please fact-check your work and double-check any quotes, allusions and references. When referencing members of Loyola and the surrounding community, an effort should be made to allow each person to review the section of the article that involves them to allow for fairness and accuracy.

• Gratuitous use of expletives and other inflammatory or degrading words and imagery may be censored if it does not fit with the overall message of the article or magazine. We do not wish to edit content, but if we feel we must insist on changes other than fixing typos and grammar, we will do so with the intent that it does not compromise the author’s original message. If no compromise can be made, the editor reserves the right not to publish an article.

• All articles are assumed to be the opinion of the contributor and not necessarily a reflection of the views of Loyola University Chicago.

We very much look forward to your submissions and your contribution to our overall mission.

Please send your submissions with a title and short bio to Broad People through mybroadmedia@gmail.com.

51