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Vol. LXXII, Issue 23
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Monday, March 8, 2021
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It goes beyond one month
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Now is the time to learn about the contributions women of color have made to society.
Special Projects Assistant Giselle Alexandra Ormeño Photo Assistant Richard Grant Social Media Assistants Ashley Ramos Desiree Aguilera Dominique Hernandez Briet Sarthak Sheladia
By Giselle Ormeño Special Projects Editor
I
n the fourth grade for Women’s History Month, I had to choose from a list of women to dress up as and pretend to be for one day. I remember looking down at the list, reading name after name. All had the same common theme. They were mostly white women. Betsy Ross. Amelia Earhart. Susan B. Anthony. I wondered where my representation was and anybody who looked like me who did something significant. I remember expressing my concern that there were many white women, and I was uncomfortable that there wasn’t enough representation of women of color. My teacher told me that I was wrong and that other women of color were pointing at the only name on the list that wasn’t a white woman: Rosa Parks. There were three Black girls in my class, and I remember they all picked Rosa Parks. As a Latina growing up, I had no exposure to other influential Latinx women in my education. At the same time, my Black female friends were pigeon-holed to have Rosa Parks as their representation. That’s wrong, and it speaks of a deeper-rooted issue at hand. Having only one month to cover the contributions
that extraordinary women have made to our society is not enough. Not including in our classrooms the extraordinary accomplishments BIPOC women have made for our society is damaging to the self-esteem of young girls. Unfortunately, my fourth grade experience wasn’t the last one I had, and it’s the reason I am outspoken about the representation of all women across our education system. I had to take a Chicano studies class in college to learn about Dolores Huerta, and even then, she was covered so little because she was overshadowed by her male counterparts that I had to do my own research to find out more about her. I don’t want the next generation of BIPOC girls to go through what I and others went through. Representation matters. Learning about BIPOC women during this month at an early age is vital to fostering young girls’ confidence. I do believe things are changing, but for that same reason, we need to continue to push harder until the names and stories of BIPOC women are widely known. It’s time to shed light on incredible women of color who have shaped our country and those who are continuing to break down barriers. We are always looking for diverse stories, perspectives and contributors. If you would like to contribute to our special issues, email Peter at vforvillafane@gmail. com and Giselle at gisellexormeno@ gmail.com.
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The worldwide celebration of International Women’s Day This holiday continues to make an impact on the local and global communities of women.
By Lauren Ramirez Staff Writer
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he International Women’s Day movement continues to impact women around the world by recognizing their social, economical, cultural and political achievements annually on March 8. “Choose to Challenge” was announced as the 2021 International Women’s Day campaign theme where “a challenged world is an alert world, and from challenge comes change,” according to the IWD website. While the “Choose to Challenge” campaign theme demonstrates the importance of deciding what to pay attention to, individuals are also encouraged to call out issues such as gender inequality and gender bias in order to take part in International Women’s Day. One way to show support for the campaign theme is having participants to take a photo posing with their hand raised high and share on social media platforms with the hashtags #ChooseToChallenge and #IWD2021 to help promote inclusivity and celebrate women’s accomplishments. As International Women’s Day continues to be celebrated around the world, the historical events have progressed the movement throughout the years. During the early 1900s, industrialization contributed to a growing population, but it did not provide equal working opportunities for women. In 1908, in response to inequality and oppression, about 15,000 working-class women marched the streets of New York City “demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.” As more women continued to advocate for their rights, the Socialist Party of America declared the first National Women’s Day to be held on Feb. 28, 1909, throughout the United States. Throughout the years, “women continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913." Women have continued to experience economic inequality in the workforce. The gender pay gap that “controls the job title, years of experience, industry and location” has decreased because “women in the controlled group make $0.98 for every $1 a man makes,” according to Payscale. According to the Global Gender Gap 2020 report, it is going to take “more than a lifetime to make equality a reality,” as the report has revealed “gender parity will not be attained for 99.5 years.” The Global Gender Gap 2020 report also measured the gender equality progress of 153 countries, and reported countries such as Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden occupied the “top positions” of achieving gender equality. In addition, Spain, Mali, Mexico, Albania and Ethiopia have also shown improvement and continue to make progress toward gender equality, according to the International Women’s Day data. As International Women’s Day continues to advocate for inclusivity, bring gender equality awareness and call out negative stereotypes about women, the movement is also dedicated to ensure a bright future to be filled with an equal and rewarding experience for upcoming generations. To learn more about the International Women's Day resources or how to become involved with the movement, visit https://www. internationalwomensday.com/Resources.
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Women of color ‘have it harder’ in journalism Though the industry is becoming less white male-centric, newsrooms have yet to reflect the country’s actual demographics. By Julia Terbeche News Editor
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field historically dominated by white men, the journalism industry is growing to include more and more women of color. Pew Research Center found that in 2016, white males made up over 75% of newsroom employees. According to a 2018 National Public Radio study, women of color represent just 7.95% of print staff, 6.2% of radio staff and 12.6% of local TV news staff. A freelance broadcast reporter and journalism professor at Long Beach State, Elizabeth Sanchez said she was the first Latina news anchor at the ABC station she worked at in North Carolina. Sanchez said she gravitated toward reporting, specifically broadcast journalism, because she “grew up around news” on her family’s TV. Seeing the impact reporters had on their communities resonated with her. “I wanted to get into journalism because I wanted to help,” Sanchez said. “I wanted to help a parent find a missing child. I wanted to help alert people when they’re in danger in their community. While working in Arizona, she was often turned down for positions in the television industry because “they were looking for a blonde anchor.” “Why can’t they just hire the best person for the position?” Sanchez said. In comparison to men, Sanchez feels it is “harder for women in this business,” having to balance their family life with their career. Working for CBS News, Sanchez traveled over 200 days a year until she decided she wanted to start a family, prompting her to return to local stations. “I had a baby, and it was really hard to leave because I didn’t want someone else to raise my kids,” Sanchez said. “It’s a lot easier for men.” Although her husband is also a journalist, a traveling sports photographer, she feels it is still harder for her to leave home for work than it is for him. She began teaching to be able to have more time to raise her children and found a love for “helping students achieve their goals.” Working at CSULB has given Sanchez the opportunity to guide up-and-coming journalists in their paths. Her favorite part, she said, has been seeing her students
Candace Manriquez, left, Terese Puente, right, and Elizabeth Sanchez, bottom, are a part of the journalism and public relations department.
land jobs in the industry. Teresa Puente, a freelance reporter, journalism professor and adviser for DÍG en Español, has been working in the industry for her 25 years, 15 as an educator. Like Sanchez, Puente said her family always paid attention to the news, which she feels led her to “grow up with a respect for journalism.” “Seeing my dad read the newspaper I think really had an influence on me,” Puente said. “As a child I thought, ‘Oh, there’s something really important in that newspaper.’” Throughout her career, Puente has covered immigration-related issues and said she was one of the first journalists in the U.S. to write about Dreamers while working at the Chicago Tribune 20 years ago. As a freelancer, Puente has worked on stories for publications like TIME Magazine, in which she drove along the southern border in December 2016 interviewing individuals about their thoughts on the border wall. She said she has experienced sexism and racism throughout her career, both “in big and small ways” as a woman of color.
“I have been confused for the other Brown women numerous times. And that’s offensive because I am a person, I’m not a stereotype,” Puente said. Puente said she was often seen as less talented or capable than her male counterparts. While out reporting for one story, she had been “running around interviewing people” while her male coworker was “kind of standing in place and not really husting.” When they returned to the newsroom, she said, he had been given the role of lead writer. “It was just really insulting because I worked harder reporting that story and then I was basically ignored in the editing process,” Puente said. “What I had to do was I had to go over and stand up for myself.” As an educator, Puente teaches about ethics and issues that surround the Latinx community. She is most proud of starting the first Spanish news magazine in Long Beach, DÍG en Español, which has been operating for five semesters now. Tackling issues like how the Latinx community is disproportionately affected by the corona-
virus pandemic, Puente feels she is accomplishing her goal of advocating for “accurate representation of communities of color in the media.” “I told my students the first semester, ‘We made history,’” Puente said. “Because of the large Latinx population on campus and in Long Beach, it’s just really important that we have their voices represented in the media.” Candace Manriquez, a journalism professor at CSULB and podcast producer at Spotify, felt compelled to become a storyteller through sharing experiences and conversations with individuals of different communities. As a woman of color, Manriquez has struggled in her journey because “we live in a country where we are all immersed in white supremacy.” “There have been times where an editor or a host second-guessed my knowledge or was even shocked that I knew something,” she said. “But the most egregious thing I’ve faced is the belief held by many, that Black and Brown folks can’t tell stories about race without bias or inherent investment, but that somehow white
journalists come to every story with a blank slate opinion-wise.” After teaching at a few universities and community colleges in California and Arizona, Manriquez joined the Department of Journalism and Public Relations at CSULB in 2018. She feels that students at the Beach “are some of the most open-minded, intelligent students I have taught” and credits the school’s diverse student body. Emphasizing the importance of networking, Manriquez encouraged student journalists to continue making connections and honing their skills. “It is so often who you know and not what you know,” Manriquez said. She said she “wanted to make a job out of” making connections with strangers through storytelling. “I want to amplify the voices of those who are seldom heard,” Manriquez said. “Whether those voices belong to racially marginalized folks or disabled folks or impoverished folks, I think it’s important that we hear perspectives we’re not familiar with, and sometimes not comfortable with.”
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Women’s rights throughout history Understanding the movement’s past sets people up for taking on the future. By Mikayla Schwartz Staff Writer
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Seneca Falls Convention he women’s rights movement has focused on and advocated for a variety of issues throughout history. Here’s an overview of the waves of the movement’s history.
SECOND WAVE: 1963-1980s The second wave of feminism began to push the envelope and forced women to consider their role in society, demanding more. Published in 1949 by Simone de Beauvoir, “The Second Sex” questioned the role women play in society in comparison to men. Betty Friedan’s “The Feminist Mystique,” published in 1963, focused on challenging the traditional roles of married women in the middle-class family structure. Both women of color and white women were advocating for reproductive freedom, access to contraception and control over their finances, including being able to get credit cards in their own name and apply for mortgages. Monumental legislation was passed during this time, which assisted in pushing forward feminists’ efforts of equality. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made it illegal for companies to provide unequal wages on the basis of sex. Introduced to Congress in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment was set to prevent discrimination on the account of sex under the law. It was passed by the Senate in March 1972 but did not receive the 38 states’ ratification requirement to pass. To this day it has still not been fully ratified. According to the amendment, “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or
FIRST WAVE
1870 15th Amendment passed Feb. 3
FIRST WAVE: 1848-1920
The first wave of the feminist movement focused on championing basic rights of women, including a push for equality and women’s suffrage. Feminist leaders gathered in New York in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention to advocate for a variety of issues surrounding equality including women’s suffrage and hosted abolitionists like Frederick Douglas. Women of color like Sojourner Truth, Maria Stewart and Frances E.W. Harper were also advocating for the suffrage of Black women at the same time. Issues of racism arose among white suffragettes as many felt deserving of the right to vote before Black men did. Black men ultimately received the right to vote on Feb. 3, 1870 through the 15th Amendment. However, discriminatory practices such as grandfather clauses and “one drop rules” part of Jim Crow laws prevented many Black men from voting until the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Early feminist advocacy work went beyond the right to vote and included a focus on equal opportunities in education and employment, and the right to own property. The 19th Amendment was ultimately ratified on Aug. 18, 1920.
1848-1920
1920 19th Amendment ratified Aug. 18
1930-1940s Women increase in workforce Great Depression & WWII
1963-1980s
SECOND WAVE
1919 House passes 19th Amendment May 21, followed by Senate two weeks later
1923 ERA introduced to Congress
1949 “The Second Sex” published “The Feminine Mystique” published
Equal Pay Act
1972
1973 Roe v. Wade legalizing abortion
Equal Rights Amendment passes Senate, fails ratification
1980S ACTUP HIV/AIDs group work, Intersectionality- Kimberlé Crenshaw
1991- PRESENT
THIRD WAVE
Anita Hill case
1992 “Year of the Woman”
2020 #MeToo movement
by any state on account of sex.” In 1973 Roe v. Wade federally protected abortion in all 50 states after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of women’s choice. This case remains a landmark decision for the pro-choice movement and despite efforts to overrule it, has stood the test of time.
THIRD WAVE: 1991-PRESENT The early third wave movement of feminism focused on fighting against “workplace sexual harassment” and increasing the number of women in leadership roles. Anita Hill, American lawyer and academic, testified before the Senate in 1991 that she had been sexually harassed by
Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Despite these allegations, Thomas was later confirmed and remains a justice. This inspired a movement of advocacy against sexual harassment in the workplace and sparked conversations surrounding the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles. A year later, 1992 was deemed the “Year of the Woman” when 24 women won seats in the House of Representatives and three in the Senate. A new wave of feminism began focusing on the concept a intersectionality, which focuses on how multiple factors of oppression are intertwined with one another. This concept was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a lawyer and civil rights advocate, intersectionality in the early ‘80s and began to gain traction in the ‘90s. During this time the AIDS crisis was at an all time high and LGBTQ rights advocacy groups, such as the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, continued advocacy work pushing for affordable medical support from the government in the fight against HIV/AIDs. Advocacy work included staged die-ins and occupation of politicians’ and pharmaceutical companies’ offices to emphasize the cause. “Feminists are doing important work in regards to promoting awareness about racism, intersectionality, sexuality,” said Shira Tarrant, a women, gender and sexualities studies professor at CSULB who has written extensively on gender justice. “At the same time, there are a lot of purity politics involved in the feminist movement.” According to Tarrant, purity politics is like an “internal cancel culture” within the movement that tends to overlook broader issues. She said it involves people doing “me search” instead of research. With the rise of social media, people can more easily connect and become involved with different movements, such as feminist movements like the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns. However, some argue that social media has given rise to a culture of “performative action” advocacy rather than organic allyship and support. “On the one hand, we have social media, that’s amazing. We can send out blasts through Twitter. We can get on Instagram and find our people,” Tarrant said. “That’s really, really valuable, but at the same time it invites this performativity. ‘Yeah I posted this link or I raised my fist so I’m, like, down’—but not actually going to do anything else.” Tarrant said some of the main issues being advocated for now, in what some feminists have labeled the fourth wave of feminism, include reproductive justice, intersectional politics, sex worker rights, equality in the workforce and access to education. Tarrant said though she understands the purpose of the wave construct, she feels it does not accurately represent the feminism movement as it leaves out advocacy work between the time periods. The rise of the #MeToo movement has raised questions regarding whether or not a fourth wave of feminism has begun. “If we don’t understand our history, we’re erasing those radical, awesome people who were doing this stuff before us,” Tarrant said.
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Women at risk when using Uber or Lyft Rideshare companies face thousands of sexual assault claims and hundreds of lawsuits.
By Julia Terbeche News Editor
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o nce-beloved transportation option frequented by bar-hoppers and partygoers, rideshare services like Uber and Lyft have become the faces of thousands of sexual assault cases. Initially deemed a safe way for women to get around as an alternative to drunk driving or walking home alone at night, rideshare companies have been forced to address the harsh reality that drivers and passengers are both at risk when using these services. According to The Meneo Law Group, a firm that provides resources and support for survivors of sexual abuse and assault, several characteristics of rideshare services put both drivers and riders in danger, including a lack of sufficient safety features in comparison to taxis. Since rideshare drivers operate using their own vehicles, there often lacks plexiglass or plastic windows separating the front and back seats, something that can act as a protective barrier between strangers. Rideshare services also often operate during nights and weekends, which tend to be times of high crime, and features like Uber Pool that allow shared rides increase the risk of passenger-on-passenger assault. Uber released a safety report in December of 2019 that revealed nearly 6,000 sexual assault cases between 2017 and 2018. Of the reported cases, 54% involved accused drivers and 45% involved accused passengers. Rina Poh, a fourth-year management major at Long Beach State, said she had an experience with an Uber driver making sexual comments toward her, which she said made her “uncomfortable.” Women are more likely to be victims of sexual violence than men, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Meneo Law
Group found that Uber passengers made up 92% of victims of “non-consensual sexual penetration” between 2017 and 2018, and “female drivers are at risk of unwanted touching, sexual violence or other acts of sexual misconduct.” Isabelle Wang, a first-year math education major at Long Beach State, said she feels unsafe using rideshare services as getting into a stranger’s car is “frightening” and tries to remain alert during her trips. During one of Wang’s “relatively uncomfortable” Uber trips, the driver had explicit text messages visible on his phone from the backseat, where she was seated. “It has made me much more cautious when riding,” Wang said. “[I] always hover over the ‘help’ button in case anything goes wrong.” Among hundreds of lawsuits against Uber, one from a woman in Oregon sued the company in January 2020 for over $1 million. According to the lawsuit, the driver allegedly made sexual remarks, touched her legs and sexually assaulted the woman after locking the back doors and forcing her to sit in the passenger seat. Though the company has faced lawsuits due to sexual assault allegations since 2017, “little is known about these early lawsuits,” The Meneo Law Group said, because Uber “used mandatory arbitration clauses to settle claims of abuse” before 2018. In May 2018, Uber eliminated its policy of mandatory arbitration, which previously had customers consent to resolving any disputes outside of a court. This forced silence of victims, according to The Meneo Law Group, kept the public unaware of these cases and may have contributed to female passengers feeling a false sense of security when using rideshare services. Uber has since implemented safety features such as mandatory background checks for drivers, annual screenings for drivers’ criminal history, verification of driver identification and, most recently, coronavirus-related regulations. First-year pre-production ma-
ANDREA RAMOS | Daily Forty-Niner
Uber and Lyft drivers have implemented additional safety precautions and coronavirus-related regulations. jor Lillian Li said she “doesn’t like the idea” of using rideshare apps, especially as a woman. “I’m a woman, so being alone in a car alone with a stranger just seems straight up dangerous. It’s just not a chance I really want to take,” Li said. “It’s just not something I’m comfortable with.” The Meneo Law Group main-
tains that while companies like Uber have made steps in the right direction, women must understand the risks of continuing to use rideshare services. It is recommended that women avoid riding alone whenever possible, especially when intoxicated, and share their location and trip information with friends
and family as well as sit in the back seat. Wang said she makes sure to ride with someone she knows whenever possible to make herself feel more safe. “I think it’s always good to stay cautious and aware for your your own safety,” Wang said.
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SPECIAL 9
The only women in the room Experiences in higher education are not the same between women and men. By Bella Arnold Assistant Opinions Editor
“E
ducation opens doors for women like nothing else can,” said Faildo. “Education allows women, especially women of color, to enter the labor force and [have] a seat at the table where decisions and policies are being made so that real systemic change can occur. We’re making progress, but we have a long way to go.” Kylie Faildo is on her way to becoming a doctor of physical therapy at CSULB. Faildo’s journey to the medical field was paved by her desire to assist people with disabilities and older adults. She graduated Colorado State University in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies with a minor in women’s studies. Though she enjoyed the social work field, she recognized the lack of potential for growth and financial stability. “People with this degree usually become teachers, social workers or therapists, which are femaledominated fields and not-socoincidentally underpaid,” Faildo said. “I don’t have regrets about choosing the degree I did, but I wish I had more knowledge about the STEM fields before making such a big decision.” According to Business Insider, women working full time earned 81.6 cents for every dollar that their male counterparts made in 2018. For Faildo, the importance of destigmatizing conversations about wage among women is imperative. She hopes that, going forward, female mentorship in the STEM field becomes the norm. As a woman of color entering the medical field, she recognizes the power that comes with higher education and financial independence and wants women to know their options before pursuing higher education. Jaysyn Green graduated from CSULB with her bachelor’s degree in history in 2020. She is currently in her first year of graduate school at CSULB where she is furthering her history education. During her undergraduate career at CSULB, Green was a seasoned member of the Beach Forensics team where she competed in both speech and debate. When Green competed on the policy debate team, she learned more than just obscure arguments and argumentative tactics.
Photos courtesy of Faildo, Greenberg, Green and Botelho Clockwise: Kylie Faildo, top right, Suzanna Greenberg, Jaysyn Green and Amanda Botelho share their experiences in higer education.
Gender bias continues to plague the collegiate debate community. Gender marginalized individuals often are underrepresented in tournaments. According to the National Forensic journal, 85% of the competitors at the 1984 National Debate Tournament were male and only 15% were female. Among those participants, only 3% of the teams were entirely non-male. Though the community has made efforts to close that disparity through gender minority tournaments and organizations like the American Parliamentary Debate Association have introduced initiatives like the Gender Empowerment Initiative to combat misogyny in the community, Green still experienced a slew of sexism as a debater. “My experiences in policy debate allowed me to understand passive misogyny and identify when I was experiencing it,” Green said. Since she was a child, Green has had an interest in history. According to Green, she felt passionate about education but discouraged when it came to the
Green is one of three women in her cohort of 12 graduate students. According to Green, she feels “hypervisible” as a Black woman in these spaces. “When in smaller grad classes gendered dynamics does [overdetermine] classroom interactions and even levels of professionalism,” Green said. “My gender feels hypervisible as a Black woman in these spaces as well.” Even through remote instruction, Green has experienced a “fair share” of microaggressions and sexism. “Male colleagues have skipped over me in breakout rooms, male professors have looked over my hand, male colleagues think it’s ok to volunteer me to represent the group in lecture or to pass off my ideas or input as their own,” Green said. Green aspires to pursue a degree in education and hopes that people understand how rampant casual sexism is in higher education. According to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the presence of women pursuing collegiate history degrees have
fluctuated over the past decades. In 2004, the amount of women in undergraduate history programs peaked at 42% before falling below 40% in 2014. For graduate students like Green, the amount of women in graduate history programs increased from 27.9% of women in 1966 to 49.6% in 2012. Two years later, in 2014, this fell to only 48.9% of women earning master’s degrees in history. “The gender binary is a myth,” Green said. “Stop treating gender marginalized individuals so badly. Capitalism is a mutual enemy of all humans. Why be sexist when you can be anti-capitalist?” Amanda Botelho is a firstgeneration college student and recent CSULB graduate. She earned her bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in communications studies and has adapted her passion for writing, history and public speaking into a law degree from UCLA. From a young age, Botelho had her sights set on becoming an attorney and knew that higher education would be a part of her path to the courtroom. “In law school I have done one or two interviews with law
firms where an all male panel was interviewing me,” Botelho said. “There’s just some questions that you know for a fact wouldn’t have been asked to your male counterpart.” A PR Newswire study found that female lawyers outperformed their male counterparts with winning cases, yet only 46% of associate attorneys were female and only 22% were partners. “I just wish people would understand that although women have come extremely far in this country, there is still an undertone of different expectations for us in higher education and the workplace,” Botelho said. After a national search for a full-time faculty member for CSULB’s new creative writing MFA, Suzanne Greenberg made history in 1995 as the first female full-time faculty member in the English department. “I had several female graduate students tell me how grateful they were to have me here, and that meant a lot to me,” Greenberg said. “[I felt] particularly responsible to the female students looking for [a] mentor of their own.” Greenberg has a bachelor’s degree in English from Hampshire College and a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Maryland. After leaving her career in book publishing, she decided to return to school to develop her writing. During her graduate studies, she discovered that she loved being a teaching assistant and wanted to fuse her passions for writing and teaching. “Teaching in higher ed can be [a] balancing act for women,” Greenberg said. “You have to publish, teach, develop classes, serve communities and, if you decide to have children, are often the one making sure their lives run smoothly as well.” During her second year at CSULB, Greenberg had to take maternity leave. According to Greenberg, at this time maternity leave was limited to whatever sick leave an employee had accrued. “I remember leaving my tiny baby and going back to finish my fall semester,” Greenberg said. “I had never been more exhausted in my life, I don’t think.” Years later when Greenberg had her second child she had worked with colleagues to advocate for changes within the maternity leave policy to make it a more “humane and reasonable” experience. We are seeing a reckoning of social issues, including gender inequality. Students like Green, Faildo and Botehlo as well as professors like Greenberg are proof that lecture halls are becoming more diverse and the people teaching the lectures are too.
10 SPECIAL Remembering a ‘role model’
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Proud feminist Wendy Griffin was the first full-time faculty member in the women’s studies department. By Julia Terbeche News Editor
W
endy Griffin was a longtime advocate of women’s rights and a professor of women’s studies at Long Beach State who brought “style, flair and effective activism” to the campus. Griffin, who was described as “short in stature but mighty in energy,” died in her sleep on Feb. 12 after battling with a stroke, according to former student Danielle Sawyer. She was 79. Appointed in 1991 as the first full-time faculty member in the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Griffin “played a significant role in the history of WGSS at CSULB,” according to Interim Chair Lori Baralt. Griffin was also department chair. Sawyer met Griffin in 2002 after she enrolled in a women’s studies course in her late 20s in an effort to pursue a second degree. She now considers Griffin her “spiritual mother” and mentor. “I’ve never said this out loud, but my last 20 years have been the best years of my entire life, and so much of that is due to Wendy,” Sawyer said. “When she passed, I really felt that the world was different for me because she’s no longer here on Earth.” Griffin wrote several books on spirituality. According to Sawyer, she’s the “guru for women in religion in the goddess movement.” On her first day in her women and religion class, Sawyer said she was immediately intrigued as she could tell Griffin was a “powerful woman in her word, her knowledge and her life experiences.” Norma Chinchilla, professor emerita of WGSS and sociology, said Griffin was the most influential in transforming women’s studies from a program to an official department at CSULB. She met Griffin decades ago as a student when she was teaching at University of California, Irvine. According to Chinchilla, Griffin first became interested in feminism working as a single mother as a cocktail waitress, facing discrimination and inequality in the workforce. As a graduate student at UCI, Griffin was involved in the fight to create women’s studies, Chinchilla said. “For Wendy, it wasn’t a job,” Chinchilla said. “It was a passion and a social movement and an academic enterprise. I don’t know anybody who spent as much time empowering students as she did. It was her life’s goal to create this
strong, stable women’s studies program with activist students at its core.” Griffin’s husband, Doug Cox, created a virtual memorial page in her honor and includes information she wrote herself to be shared after her death. “I want it to be known that I had a wonderful life,” she had written prior to her death. During the 1960s, Griffin moved to New York to do offBroadway theater and performed with Dustin Hoffman, according to her memorial page. She worked as a cocktail waitress, bartender, puppeteer, diamond courier, singer, drummer, researcher and academic and received her doctorate in the interdisciplinary social sciences. She also wrote romance novels and traveled the world. A resident of Long Beach and Orange County, Griffin was an activist in her communities. In 2004, she married Cox, who worked as the university’s webmaster from 1999 to 2009, and had a pagan ritual-filled, shoeless wedding at the Long Beach Museum of Art, at which Sawyer and others played a drum. “The joy Doug has brought into my life has been so intense that sometimes I feel my heart welling up and spilling over,” Griffin wrote. “I’ve lived and loved passionately, and have been blessed with loving family and friends. My life has been incredibly rich.” Griffin was given an award for Excellence in Teaching in 1988 from the Friends of Women’s Studies, and again in 1993 from the College of Liberal Arts. “[She] will be missed dearly by many who knew her over the years,” Baralt wrote in an email to liberal arts faculty. Griffin retired from CSULB in 2011 and returned to her “first love” — writing novels. “There’s so many things that I learned from that women’s studies department, and it’s all thanks to Wendy,” Sawyer said. “She just created an addiction within me that I just wanted to learn more. I couldn’t wait to get to class.” When Sawyer was part of the department, there were only about 15 individuals majoring in women’s studies and about five full-time faculty members, she said. Today, the department has 59 majors, 67 minors and 14 faculty members, six of whom are full time. Decades ago, much of the campus community believed that women’s studies was a “passing fad” that would “go away,” according to Chinchilla. She said members of the program were told they “don’t need any special department,” something they always wanted.
“It was really a task to convince people that we were legitimate, academically legitimate,” Chinchilla said. While it was common for male faculty members to attack the women’s studies program, Chinchilla maintained that Griffin knew how to challenge them with her “very snarky, sarcastic sense of humor.” “She had a really wonderful way of silencing them in the middle of a meeting, not silencing them but undercutting their argument or making them rethink what they were saying,” Chinchilla said. “She was the one that told me how you could make good trouble at the university and offer a good cause.” Sawyer echoed Chinchilla’s sentiments, stating how she looked up to Griffin in her ability to prove disapproving men wrong. “They knew that she was right and they were wrong,” Sawyer said. “She did it every time, every single time with her little sassiness. I don’t know how she did it.” Griffin is survived by her husband and sister, Gay Riseborough. A virtual ceremony in Griffin’s honor is in the planning stages. To avoid large gatherings during this time, friends and loved ones are encouraged to individually visit her “beloved places like the ocean or the CSULB campus or their backyard or a park.” On the day after Griffin’s death, Sawyer attended a sound
Photo courtesy of the virtual memorial page and taken by her husband, Doug Cox
Wendy Griffin, top, in high school. Wendy Griffin, above, at her 75th birthday party on the Queen Mary, which was a murder mystery theme. bath meditation at which she felt Griffin’s presence, giving her chills. There were high winds that day, she said, which prompted her to say to herself, “Gosh, it’s so windy,” emphasizing how it sounded like “Wendy.” “I started to cry,” Sawyer said. “I instantly thought of her. I knew
she was there, I knew she was doing what she always does for me, in cradling me with her spirit and her magic.” This story was updated on March 8 at 12:18 p.m to clarify dates and again at 4:27 p.m. to correct details of her life.
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SPECIAL 13
Intersectionality is the heart of modern-day feminism By Kelsey Brown Opinions Editor
S
ince the conception of the feminist movement, there’s been a valid critique of its monolithic approach to issues. For a long time, the standard definition of feminism only focused on white women’s experiences and progression. In approaching feminism in the 21st century, it is crucial that all conversations must include intersectionality. Though women’s experiences may hum the same melody, each individual’s experiences and identity are distorted notes, completely changing the song. If we truly hope to honor and uplift all women, we must listen to all of their songs. Historically, members of the feminist movement who were regarded as equal rights pioneers for women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were later exposed to have solely focused on the progression of white women and held racist beliefs. Though it’s clearly hypocritical to be fighting oppression for your gender while perpetuating oppression through racism, this is a common paradox women of color face in the feminist movement to this day. The definition of feminism is “the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.” Though the movement aims to uplift women’s voices and unify our struggles, the basis of it is equality, and equality must appear on all fronts. Though universal women’s issues include sexual harassment, unequal wages and societal views and expectations, this is only the surface. Every woman who is a part of a minority experiences complex issues that combine modes of oppression to constrain women further. “All inequality is not created equal,” American law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw said. When addressing inequality through the feminist lens, we must remember the myriad of factors at play perpetuating oppression. It’s important to realize that inequality faced by women is not only a gender issue—but also a result of differences in race, sexuality, class and immigration status. It is impossible to attempt to uplift women while simultaneously denying the part that their race plays in their
experiences. Black women, like Breonna Taylor, are being murdered by the police at alarming rates, a fear white women don’t experience. Latin American women are being separated from their babies at the border. Asian American women are being harassed and assaulted nationwide. But intersectionality goes beyond race. You cannot claim to want to fight for women’s rights while contributing to the marginalization of trans women. Actively barring trans women from the feminist movement contributes to the myth that they are dangerous. That they are predatory men pretending to be women. That they don’t belong in the world. This mindset leads to violence. How can you call yourself a feminist if you further the narrative that led to the death of Alexandria Winchester? Of Courtney Key? Of Aerrion Burnett? Of Tracy Green? Or any of the 350 transgender people in 75 countries who were killed between October 2019 and the end of September 2020?
The life expectancy of trans women in the United States ranges from 30 to 35, while that of cisgender people is 78. The risk of being killed is even higher if the trans person is a person of color. Audre Lorde, a Black, lesbian feminist, famously said, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” We must advocate for all our sisters, whether having experienced their same oppressions or not. We must care equally for the issues we haven’t experienced as we do the issues plaguing our own existence.
Any woman’s issue is a feminist issue. All of these issues need to be met with the same level of compassion and concern as you’d like your own issues to be met. To truly embark on a pursuit of equality among all, we must recognize the differences in the oppressions limiting us instead of acting as if our experiences are one note. Though our experiences are different, the goal of the feminist movement is the
Illustartion by Peter Villafañe
same: equality among all sexes. Special projects editor Peter Villafañe contributed to this article.
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OPINION
Thank you, next I’ve tried dating apps and found out that they don’t work for me. By Giselle Ormeño Special Projects Editor
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hen I was a freshman in college, a friend of mine mentioned that she had recently gone on a date with someone she met through a dating app called Bumble. I knew of Tinder, but I have never heard of Bumble. Bumble launched in the fall of 2014, and it was fairly new to the market during my freshman year. My friend explained Bumble as the female-friendlier version of Tinder, and I was sold. I immediately downloaded the dating app and started my journey, but I quit after four months of using it. It was very frustrating to see your friends having a good experience on dating apps, even getting into relationships because of them. I started to question if there was something wrong with me. Maybe I wasn’t as forthcoming as I should have been. Maybe my pictures weren’t photogenic
enough and my bio wasn’t as engaging as it should be. The moment I would “swipe right” on someone, I got extremely anxious, wondering if I was “pretty enough” or “hot enough” to match with them. All I thought about while using Bumble and other dating apps was my looks and appearance. I never once thought about myself as an actual person who has a lot to offer. At the time, I was struggling with self-confidence, and my self-esteem was very fragile. Though it may sound dramatic, using dating apps made me very judgmental of myself and others. I found that the conversations I had with people I connected with didn’t go anywhere. It was all surface-level. There was no way that I felt I could have deeper conversations. Also, I was having multiple discussions at the same time, so it became hard to stay emotionally invested. I became flakier in my responses and became less active. Rather than trying to keep the conversation going, I would
move on. It came to the point that I had enough with dating apps and their culture. I don’t use dating apps anymore because I don’t think they show an accurate representation of who we are as people. I know for me, I wasn’t sincere on there. I saw how people overdid it with dating apps and only told the best parts of themselves, which inevitably led to me be disappointed when I met them in person. They turn out to be completely different. Some people believe that dating apps are more secure than meeting someone at a bar or a coffee shop since they’re online. It perpetuates a false sense of security because we all know someone who has been catfished before or harassed on dating apps. A recent Pew Research Center survey reported that 60% of female users ages 18 to 34 said someone on a dating app or website continued to contact them after they said they weren’t interested. I’m not saying that dating
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Dating apps are not for everyone. apps are not worth using because in some circumstances they are. I am fortunate to live in a big city and go to a large university where the women to men ratio is good. But for some people, that may not be the case and they need to use dating apps to find a partner. I wouldn’t say I hate dating
apps, but I won’t be going out of my way to download them back onto my phone anytime soon. I tried using dating apps when I was younger, and it didn’t work for me. I used to feel awkward and at times uncomfortable for feeling this way about my experience.
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I’m a survivor, not a victim Nearly 10 years after I was last assaulted, I’ve finally decided to own my experience publicly in an effort to begin healing.
By Madalyn Amato Editor in chief
T
he sound of pants zipping still triggers me. I sleep with a nightlight because it always happened in the
dark. But it didn’t happen because of what I was wearing or I was too inebriated to say “no.” It happened because a man in my life saw me as an object rather than what I really was: a 5-yearold little girl. That’s when it first happened, at age 5. And it continued until I was 11. I’ve long struggled with whether or not I should write about it. Talking about it is hard enough. But to sign my name to something such as this is something I’ve always been too afraid to do. But I’m not afraid anymore. Because I, like one in six women, was sexually abused before I reached the age of 18. There’s always been some amount of guilt and shame I’ve carried with it. Some societally assigned feeling of dirtiness and unworthiness, as if I’m already used and abused goods. If I could go back in time and whisk that little doe-eyed girl away from the nightmare she was living in I absolutely would. But we’re lightyears away from those technological advancements, so for now, she has to live through it. Little does she know that in 12 years, she is going to be a powerful woman shaped by the experience she was facing on nearly a daily basis. She’s going to be headstrong and determined to succeed, fueled by a desire to disprove naysayers and critics that point to sexual abuse as a root of failure, addiction and strife. She’s going to be a fierce defender of human rights because she knows what it’s like to be stripped of all your humanity. She will be an outspoken critic of the justice system, a system that is anything but “just.” But she’s also going to be broken in many places. She’ll fear the touch of a man’s hand and the sound of a zipper. She’ll be set into a panic every time she’s
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Madalyn Amato at around age 3 or 4.
alone in a dark room, and she will dissociate at the simple mention of her abuser. She, like so many others, will have to carry the burden of shame and disgust laid upon her tiny shoulders by a patriarchal society that places the virtue of virginity above all else and a man’s needs for release above a
woman’s need for sanity. But neither she, nor any of 433,648 individuals over the age of 12 that have walked the same road she has, are not alone. This is something that no one should, firstly, have to experience, let alone be ashamed of. According to RAINN, every nine minutes a child becomes the
Photo courtesy of Madalyn Amato
victim of a sexual assault, and 82% of victims are female. I remember sitting in my fourth grade classroom getting “the talk” about periods, sex and protecting yourself against rape while the boys went and played on the playground. Some may argue that we need to teach our boys not to rape rather than our
girls how to not get raped, but the fact is that the idea of “stranger danger” is simply a myth. Now I’m a big fan of the show “Criminal Minds” and have worked out in my head a million different ways to get away from a sexual sadist, but the truth is that rape and sexual abuse occurring in the home is much more likely than being assaulted by a Richard Ramirez type. In 2019, RAINN found that 93% of perpetrators of sexual abuse against children were known to the victim before the assault; 34% of them were family members. I won’t identify who my rapist was because I’m not here to give them that power, but what I will say is that those statistics are true. You’re more likely to be in danger in your own home than you are out on the street, especially as a child. More than anything I wish I had a magic wand to make this all go away—the pain, the shame, the fear—but I don’t. No one does. I wish I had something revolutionary and groundbreaking to say that would stop widespread rape and sexual abuse globally, but I don’t. All I have is my personal experience, my truth, to live by, and I hope that those reading this can find some solace, some inspiration, in what I’ve said. Being a survivor doesn’t mean your value has lessened in any way. It doesn’t mean that you’re used goods or less deserving of love and respect. It means that someone at some point in your life decided to use their power against you and there was absolutely nothing you could do about it. There is no timetable for healing. There is never any “right time” to speak up or to own what’s happened to you. In the time it took me to write this piece I went from being inspired to absolutely petrified to sign my name to this. Healing is not linear and it’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey there. Some days will be harder than others. Some days you’ll be able to stand the smell of that same cologne or hear the sound of a zipper and be okay. Other days you will be propelled back into a suffocating rehashing of all your trauma. But it’s important to remember: you’ve made it this far, now keep going. They didn’t break you then, and they sure as shit can’t break you now.
Little does she know that in 12 years, she is going to be a powerful woman shaped by the experience she was facing on nearly a daily basis.
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