The Feminist Forum Fall 2020 by Loyola University New Orleans

The Feminist Forum 4

Feminist Manifesto

Votes For Women

14 16 21

Patricia Boyett

In Memoriam: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Patricia Boyett

Fashion For Feminism Gabriela Barre

100 Years Grace Riddick & Patricia Boyett

Authorization

Loyola University New Orleans Women’s Resource Center

The Feminist Forum Vol. VIII Fall 2020 www.loyno.edu/womenscenter

Feminist Forum is an unofficial publication of the Women’s Resource Center. Views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Women’s Resource Center or Loyola University New Orleans.

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Submissions are welcome and should be submitted to wrc@loyno.edu. The Feminist Forum editors reserve the right to all final decisions.

Loyola University New Orleans has fully supported and fostered in its educational programs, admissions, employment practices, and in the activities it operates the policy of not discriminating on the basis of age, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex/gender, or sexual orientation. This policy is in compliance with all applicable federal regulations and guidelines.

Trans-forming Media

Business Blurb

Jacob Krug

Isabel Dickinson

Feminist Fits

Music in the Movement

Emmaline Bouchillon

Caroylne Shofner

Women on the Frontlines

#MeToo Across the World

Grace Riddick

Delaney Harper

Black Lives Matter Cassie Elizabeth and Tyler Sanchez

Our Mission

In the path of the Ignatius mission at Loyola University New Orleans, we, as a feminist community, seek to educate ourselves through critical analysis; we endeavor to empower the oppressed through devotion to diversity and uplift; and we pursue equality through social justice.

Production Team

Director/Editor in Chief Patricia Boyett

Senior Editor Grace Riddick

Creative Directors Emmaline Bouchillon Gabrielle Hawkins

Art Team Gabi Hawkins Erika Torres Anna Sarquiz Aubrey McClaren

Feminist Manifesto of the Women's Resource Center

C Who We Are We are an intersectional collective of engaged feminists at Loyola University New Orleans that welcomes all people of different races, ethnicities, cultures, religions, nationalities, gender identifications, sexual orientations, ages, and classes. Our manifesto is a result of a persistent revolution. We build upon the work of those who came before us to push the historical struggle forward through our active engagement in the wider feminist discourse and the sociopolitical climate of New Orleans. We believe in, promote, and work towards equality for all genders. We accept, educate, empower, and learn from one another, as well as advance towards a community that embraces and practices gender equality. We work to push the historical fight of feminism forward by using active engagement at Loyola, and in New Orleans, that builds from the work of previous generations in order to better ourselves and future generations.

C Our Goals We will combat gender discrimination by expanding the feminist consciousness and our knowledge through discussion and debate. We seek to engage with all communities by creating a welcoming space for everyone. We challenge ourselves and others to engage in advocacy and activism to facilitate individual and institutional changes in our society

C How We Enact Our Mission We enact our mission through collaborative relationships with student organizations, departments, and centers within the Loyola community in order to develop an array of intersectional feminist programs, events, and literature. We immerse ourselves in the New Orleans community by participating in service, sharing scholarship, and engaging in feminist activism. We discuss various topics at Feminist Fridays, we publish the Feminist Forum to open a greater dialogue, and we host our annual Feminist Festival to bring together feminists from various backgrounds to advance gender equality through forums, workshops, networking opportunities, artistic presentations, performances, and celebrations. At the Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Resource Center we are modern feminists. We are distinct. We are of all ages. We are liberal, radical, cultural and eco feminists. We are an array of colors, creeds, classes, cultures, orientations, and gender identities. And we come together in our common mission to find the path to gender equality.

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Suffragettes at the White House, Wikimedia Commons

The White House today, photo by Aaron Kittredge from Pexels

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VOTES FOR WOMEN By Patricia Boyett

s a child I was in awe of historical images of those bold suffragists in the early 1900s donning gold, white, and purple sashes across their flowing white dresses and marching proudly down the streets of America to demand their right to vote. They seemed like goddesses to me. Pride beamed across their faces as they strode together in a special sisterhood that I yearned to know. Some carried the banners of their states. Others waved flags, “Votes for Women.” So certain of their righteous cause, they wore defiance like a warrior’s shield and strode like soldiers toward the battlefield. A fierceness gleamed in their eyes. I longed to feel a connection to those suffragists seemingly frozen in time in photographs and video clips. Ida B. Wells became my favorite famous suffragist because she fought for the rights of all women. When I learned that my great grandmother was a suffragist, I beamed with pride and hoped that perhaps I had inherited her strength and conviction. Isabelle May Matchett Temple was not famous, but she became legendary to me. At family gatherings, I listened with fascination to the stories of how she stood up to boys and men. She was a short woman, but she would not be trifled with, not even by the big teenage boys that often challenged her in a one-room schoolhouse in the Minnesota farming community where she taught. On one occasion, some of the burly older boys in her class picked her up and put her out of the schoolroom window. She didn’t run or cower. She marched right back into that schoolhouse and made sure that they knew that she

might be short in stature, but she had a giant spirit that they could not dim. Those boys might consider that they had much to learn from her, for she, yes she, a woman, had the power of knowledge to offer. Isabelle May Matchett Temple would not be put out of her own schoolhouse. I never had the joy of meeting my great grandmother as breast cancer stole her from this world before I entered it. I learned of her spirited soul when my grandmother, who we called Nana, my mom, and my aunts spoke about her work as a suffragist and teacher with admiration. Recently, with the passing of one of our beloved family members, the ties that bind a family tugged at my soul and inspired me to learn more about my family’s history. From one of my mother’s cousins, I learned a few more snippets of Isabelle’s fascinating life. While an undergraduate at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, she entered a speech competition reserved for male students. As the story goes, they allowed her to participate because no one expected her to win. Clearly, it proved unwise to underestimate Isabelle. She won. Yet because women were not supposed to participate, the university gave the honor to the man who placed second. I suspect she had a few words to say about that slight, for she never appeared to shy away from standing up for herself and for others. While she lived in Staten Island, she led a successful march in New York City for greater school funding. As my family has always valued education, these stories about Isabelle only increase our admiration for her.

My great grandmother’s work in the Temperance Movement made her less popular among my family and relatives, for we enjoy the festivities of life with a bit of imbibing. Still, I found it rather amusing to picture how she must have rattled some folks. Her husband, Sterling, a kind and studious man, worked for Dupont. As a child, I recall hearing stories that when Isabelle accompanied her husband to business dinners or company celebrations, she made a point of flipping her wine glass upside down on the table to show her disdain for the consumption of alcohol. Through my studies of feminism, I learned why so many feminists supported temperance. During that era, society refused to address social ills stemming from alcoholism. Women had little, if any, access to liberate themselves from

Isabelle May Matchett Temple and granddaughter Bonnie Temple

DIRECTOR'S DESK alcoholic husbands who mistreated them. And social etiquette tended to ban women from bars. I imagine Isabelle, while working as a teacher, came across students who suffered under alcoholic parents. Thus, though I am not a teetotaller, I understand why she was and why many feminist joined the Temperance Movement in those years.

Dr. Spruill. The books and articles we read and Dr. Spruill’s lectures opened to me a world of knowledge about the intricate and powerful movements women led for suffrage, justice, and equal rights. The course deepened my feminist consciousnessness and provided me with the foundational tools I would use many years later in my work at the Women’s Resource Center. Her phenomenal The stories of my great grandmother’s research, including her books, New participation in the feminist struggle are Women of the New South: The Leaders generally vague as most of those who knew of the Women’s Suffrage Movement the details of her work in the Women’s and Divided We Stand: The Battle Over Movement died before I had come into Women’s Rights and Family Values That my feminist consciousness. I have not Polarized American Politics, and the been able to find much about her in my book she edited, One Woman, One Vote: Dr. Marjorie Spruill research. Still, images of her dance in my Rediscovering the Women’s Suffrage photo by Don Doyle mind, and I hope that I have inherited Movement are some of my most prized some of her courage and spirit. The women had mostly male professors, all of whom monographs in my personal library. were amazing scholars, teachers, and in my family have always been strong, and I know my confident and determined mentors. I focused my studies on race at Dr. Spruill also presented us with first, and I learned so much about racial mother inherited Isabelle’s strength. As contemporary struggles and opened class privilege and the long struggle of black I became a historian, a professor, and discussions in which we articulated the liberation from these many wonderful eventually the director of the Women’s relationship between historical movements men. I also had one professor who was a Resource Center, I have thought often and the pervasiveness of sexism in our woman, Professor Marjorie Spruill, and of Isabelle. I imagine her standing society. I recall once that Dr. Spruill read she made an indelible impression upon before her classrooms and wondered to our class a column printed in our local me. She had conducted incredible research newspaper, the Hattiesburg American. how much she dreamed that the girls on suffrage and the feminist movement, that she helped educate would receive as The year was 2000. The man who wrote and her passionate and intelligent teaching this column at the turn of the twentymuch opportunity in this world as the style moved me. boys. I thought of how she endeavored first century claimed that the feminist to enlighten the boys who tried to bully movement was destroying families and During the first semester of my graduate her as well as those who adored her and societies because it took women out of the work, I took a course that focused on how she must have sought to teach them home, where he insisted they belonged. the women’s movement in America with to value the minds of women. I picture He claimed that women’s “abandonment” her in flowing white gowns donning suffrage sashes and marching in the streets of America with a hopeful heart and a determined voice that no sexist could silence. Her footprints made a difference, even though like so many of the masses of women suffragists, she was never named in a history book. But she is my history and my hope. I am one of those masses of unknown women now who march in her footsteps in the fight to obtain the many rights and opportunities still denied to my gender. Stories of my great grandmother teaching inspire me because women like her ensured that I had the opportunity to become a professor. As a graduate student at the University of Southern Mississippi, I

DIRECTOR'S DESK good fathers. Yet I fumbled for the words to articulate my frustration as did so many of us in that class. But Dr. Spruill’s reaction to it, the way she eloquently and intelligently presented the illegitimacy of his argument, taught all of us so much about combatting sexism with logic and reason. In addition, the very example of Dr. Spruill, as an incredibly successful

Ida B. Wells, Wikimedia Commons of the duty of housewife caused chaos in the workforce and in the home. Oh, how it incensed me and my classmates. How I wanted to tell that foolish man that clearly women could work and be good mothers just as men could work and be

scholar who was also raising two amazing sons, proved her own femiminst argument. She had become a history professor in an era where the field was dominated by men. That encouraged me too because she cleared the path for all of us women in graduate school in 2000. In her work and her life example, Dr. Spruill deepened my feminist consciousness and inspired my feminist spirit. Still, how frustrating I found it when I came across far too many people who harbored such sexist attitudes in these years. During graduate school, I argued often with a few of the other graduate students who did not consider women’s

Gloria Steinamand Dorothy Pitman Dan Wynn Archive, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Rosa Parks, Wikimedia Commons history “real history.” I struggled to explain to them the deep importance of studying women and feminism. Did they not see how much they were missing in history by failing to study women and feminism? I toiled to enlighten them about the phenomenal women who advanced many movements to force America to live up to its creed of equality, liberty, and justice for all.. I struggled to explain to them that women had advanced the progress of so many fields despite the overwhelming sexism (as well as other obstacles like racism and bigotry) that women faced. I had lists of these historical figures and books and articles that I insisted they should read. Those lists have only grown over the years as I continue to meet phenomenal women in my readings and research. Ida B. Wells, as I noted earlier, became my favorite suffragist because she fought against racial and gender myths in her anti-lynching campaigns and joined the front of the suffrage march even when racist white women tried to force her to go to the back of the line. In my courses examining the great transformations in the 1940s through the 1970s, it was such a joy to learn that women, yes women, led so many struggles. Ella Baker and Rosa Parks, not only served as leaders at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement, but the Women’s Movement. Sylvia Rivera and Marsha Johnson proved seminal figures in the LGBTQ struggle and led the battle at

DIRECTOR'S DESK incredible staff of over thirty student feminists to host our fifth annual Feminist Festival. It is a year of anniversaries for us. Forty-five years ago, in March 1975, Loyola opened the state of Louisiana’s first university women’s center and named as its first director Carol Mawson, a PhD Candidate at Harvard University and an assistant professor at Loyola’s City College continuing education program. It was closed in 1980 despite making a profit. Yet a new generation of exemplary Loyola women, including Professors Connie Mui, Barbara Ewell, Catherine Wessinger, and Nancy Anderson, toiled in the 1980s to develop a Women’s Studies program in 1989 and to reopen the center in 1995. In 2018, Loyola hired its first layperson and first woman president, Tania Tetlow, Elect Her Conference and she has since worked with amazing women in Loyola’s continuing education Stonewall. Shula Firestone and Jo Freeman gender equality. Women like Isabelle program to create a Women’s Leadership demanded to have women’s rights included Matchett and Marjorie Spruill and the Academy that graduated its first class in in the work of the Left. Marilyn Webb exceptional feminists I have met in books early 2020. All these accomplishments tried to present a declaration on women’s and articles, including Ida B. Wells, Rosa would have never come to pass without rights at an anti-war protest despite men Parks, Gloria Steinam, Sylvia Rivera, and suffrage. So, we celebrate this centennial in the audience shouting at her that she Kimberle Crenshaw, remain a source of when suffragists forced America to finally should be raped. The iconic image of deep inspiration to me in my work. ensure women their Constitutional Gloria Steinam and Dorothy Pittman right to vote. We also work to constantly Hughes raising their fists together in the I am now in my sixth year at the Women’s clarify that for women of color that right air spoke volumes about their efforts to Resource Center preparing with my remained a promise on paper as systematic forge feminist bonds across racial lines and break patriarchy together. Gloria Anzadula, Audre Lorde, and Kimberlé Crenshaw, who all worked to explain the concept that Crenshaw later coined as intersectional feminism, have served as the foundation for all the work we try to do at the Women’s Resource Center. Yes, women’s history is incredibly important. These women proved vital leaders in seeking to force America to live up to its creed. I wondered then and still wonder now how anyone could consider such struggles and victories insignificant. It is because of these phenomenal feminist that my generation of women and those who have come after us have far more opportunities than those who came before us. I now have the great honor of working at Loyola University New Orleans with magnificent colleagues in history and in the women’s studies program as well as with the phenomenal student staff at the Women’s Resource Center to advance

Women's Leadership Academy

DIRECTOR'S DESK racism ensured that in much of America no person of color could vote. Thus, we celebrate with greater joy that 55 years ago, civil rights activists achieved a watershed victory in their long struggle against the myriad of methods to deprive African Americans of their right to vote, when the Selma to Montgomery March finally led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act (1965). Yet as we celebrate, we must also recall that every triumph confronted backlashes and persistent struggles within and outside the feminist movements. To that end, this issue features an article that Grace Riddick and I co-wrote that delves into the internal and external struggles of the feminist movement, including the battles against racism and prejudice within the movement and the effort of racists to prevent persons of color from exercising their right to vote despite the passage of the Fifteenth and Senator Kamala Harris

Photo from the Women's Suffrage Movement, Wikimedia Commons

Nineteenth Amendments. It also addresses the sexism that continues to pervade America. In this election year of 2020 during this centennial year of the Nineteenth Amendment, I wonder of Isabelle Matchett Temple. Did she imagine that 100 years after the success of the women’s suffrage movement, America would still not have elected a woman to serve as President of the United States? We’ve had some brilliant women run, including Shirley Chisolm and Hillary Clinton, as well as the six women who ran in the Democratic Primary this year. At the least, however, one of those candidates, Senator Kamala Harris, is the vice presidential candidate, running with presidential candidate Joe Biden. She already made history by breaking the glass ceiling as the first African American/Asian American vice presidential candidate. Hope persists among feminists. Perhaps, it will take a woman serving as vice president to prove to Americans that women possess, and have always possessed, the intelligence, skills, and temperament to lead this nation. During this election year, I have often thought of those phenomenal suffragists like my great grandmother who marched in the streets for themselves and for all the women yet born. I try to imagine America 100 years from now and think upon the footprints that we, the masses of feminists, might leave behind. As we march and petition the government for our rights, vote and fight against new methods of disenfranchisement, pen articles and host workshops, sign petitions and organize letter-writing campaigns, run for office and dare to break into male-dominated fields, I pray that our footprints lead us and successive generations to a world 100 years from now in which women share power with all genders so equally that a Madam President becomes so common as to not garner much notice. Madam President, the very words make me smile. It will not happen in 2020, but I have faith that someday it will. I only hope it does not take another 100 years. As I finish this writing, I look over the Feminist

Festival poster for 2020 that is the cover of this magazine and that was created by my amazing husband. My eyes fixate on the sashes that read “Votes for Women.” These suffragist sashes meant, of course, that women should have the right to vote. Now that we do have that Constitutional right, I hope that we vote for women when women are the best candidates. I also am acutely aware of the persistent efforts to suppress the vote of marginalized populations across America and work with my student staff to resist voter suppression. Votes for women also means to me that when we step into a voting booth, we should always consider how the candidates treat half the world’s population and that we should only vote for candidates of any gender who are, both by word and by deed, intersectional feminists. The sashes also make me think of Abigail Adams when she wrote to her husband John Adams, who was serving in the 1776 Continental Congress in Philadelphia. She called on him to “remember the ladies” when drafting new laws that would govern an independent America. “If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies,” she warned, “we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” Over 244 years later, I think many of us women have grown tired of asking to be remembered; we have fomented rebellions in our many waves of feminism. It is far past time that women have equal power in government. Senator Kamala Harris’s vice presidential candidacy breathes hope into the dreams of so many of us intersectional feminists, who will cast our votes this November. I dream of a Madam Vice President. I dream of a Madam President. I dream of the words that have moved me since I first saw those images of the brave and bold woman donning white dresses and purple and gold sashes, marching determinedly down the streets of Washington D.C., holding their faces defiantly toward their oppressors with a fierceness in their eyes, demanding with righteous conviction: “Votes for Women!”

In Memoriam: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Legendary Feminist “RBG” By Patricia Boyett

ustice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, beloved RBG, a feminist icon, a hero to so many of us left this world on Friday, September 18, 2020. Her life is a study in courage, conviction, and compassion. In her professional and personal life, she championed the cause of gender equality. Daughter of immigrant shopkeepers, she grew up in Brooklyn, New York. At the tender age of seventeen, she fell in love with Martin Ginsburg because, as she said often in interviews, “he was the only boy I ever met who cared that I had a brain.” Their marriage and family grew out of the roots of a true partnership. Justice Ginsburg discussed publicly the importance of work/life balance that could emerge when partners equally shared the work and responsibilities of the domestic realm.

the Women's Movement. Martin Ginsburg always championed her and enjoyed watching her exceptional career unfold despite the gender obstacles she faced. Eventually, she secured a position with the American Civil Liberties Union and determined to provide the legal basis for gender equality, She became the director of the ACLU’s Women’s Right Project and developed a brilliant strategy to ensure that the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause rendered gender discrimination unconstitutional: she selected cases that demonstrated gender discrimination against men as well as women.

Ginsburg laid a foundation for these cases in Reed v. Reed (1971) in which she convinced the Supreme Court majority The Ginsburgs lived in a patriarchal world, to find unconstitutional an Idaho law but rather than bending to it, they worked that privileged men over women as estate to change it. When Ruth Bader Ginsburg administrators upon the false assumption confronted a sexist society in which New that men had a better understanding York law firms refused to hire her even of business. In Frontiero v. Richardson though she graduated in a tie for first in (1973), she successfully convinced the her class from Columbia University Law Supreme Court majority that a regulation School, she did not give into despair. She which denied widowers the same benefits accepted a clerkship position, taught at widows received because it assumed a man Rutgers University, and fully engaged in would not be economically dependent

upon his wife was unconstitutional. She won several more cases before the Supreme Court that found gender discrimination unconstitutional and laid a strong foundation of precedents. As a supreme court justice, she brought that struggle full circle when she wrote the majority opinion United States v. Virginia (1996) that ordered Virginia Military Institute to admit women. Her dissent in cases on the Supreme Court have also proven vital. In Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (2007), she dissented from the majority ruling that Lilly Ledbetter could not bring a salary discrimination lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964) because the decisions about her salary occurred outside of the 180-day statutory of limitations period. Ginsburg argued that the clock for filing a lawsuit began when the employee discovered the discrimination. She also called on Congress to act to clarify this provision. In 2009, Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which corrected this problem.

Justice Ginsburg consistently demonstrated a commitment to all people’s rights in a representative democracy through both her majority opinions and her dissents. She championed the rights of the LGBTQ community with majority rulings that upheld same-sex marriage in Windsor v. United States (2013) and Hollingsworth v. Perry (2013). In Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), she sided with the majority opinion that LGBTQ discrimination violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964). She delivered a fervent dissent in Shelby County v. Holder (2013), a ruling which she contended undermined the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act (1965). In a 5 to 4 decision, the majority invalidated the provision of the act that required those jurisdictions with a history of voter discrimination to recieve pre-clearance to change voting rights laws. Justice Ginsburg invoked the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in her dissent: “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” The ruling, she declared, undermined that principle. Justice Ginsburg’s devotion to ensuring that the law treats all people as equals has proven monumental in advancing America toward realizing its creed of justice and equality.

in their fifty-six years of marriage before cancer stole him from her in 2010. Justice Ginsburg confronted several of her own battles with cancer. She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999 and had five more bouts with cancer over the next twenty-one years. She fought like a warrior with a fierce determination as she continued to serve this country on the Supreme Court, even joining court sessions remotely from her hospital bed this year in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Justice Ginsburg inspired those who battle cancer; those who fight against injustice; those who struggle for equal rights; and those who demand that “we the people” means all of us. How her death breaks the heart of feminists at Loyola University New Orleans and across the United States of Amerca. Yet I imagine RBG expects us to rise from grief to continue the battle for equality under

the law with courage, conviction, and compassion. Feminists, in our mourning, may we celebrate her beautiful spirit by garnering the courage to fight sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of bigotry. May we devote ourselves to journey in this life as people with and for others with an unwavering conviction to pursue social justice. May we practice compassion as we work to change the world with reason, activism, and justice. May we not falter in the face of great challenges. May we, like the legendary and “notorious” RBG, rise to confront the challenges of our era.

Justice Ginsburg has also inspired many by living her convictions and facing personal battles with courage and compassion. She achieved extraordinary success in her career and for her clients while raising a family with Martin. In such actions, she showed women by her word and her deeds that, yes we have the right, and the ability, to have it all too. So too, she inspired so many people when she confronted the brutal disease of cancer with a ferocious determination to defeat it. When her husband was diagnosed with testicular cancer as a young man attending Harvard Law School, they conquered the challenge together. She took on more of the household and parenting work and helped him study. He beat the disease, and during the rest of their marriage, he remained her greatest champion and equal partner, taking on as much of the domestic work as she did, even in a time when it was not fashionable to do so. They shared an incredible bond and equal partnership

FEATURES

Fashion FOR Feminism By Gabriela Barre

hen you think of a strong woman fighting for feminism, probably not many of you would consider a woman advocating for the fashion industry. The concepts of the fashion industry and women has carried quite a negative reputation from its harsh critique of women’s bodies to Hollywood’s

many negative references of the field in movies such as The Devil Wears Prada. Many women would probably imagine a woman in the fashion field as the helpless assistant Andrea, in The Devil Wears Prada, forced to perform the many laborious tasks from her high maintenance boss, while trying to cope with vindictive

coworkers. This idea could not be more untrue! The fashion field has actually grown from its more capricious days and is becoming a staple for the acceptance and movements in relations to uplifting women and young girls’ confidence. Magazines such as Vogue are eschewing demeaning social standards and are

FEATURES becoming more inclusive by incorporating women with all body types, races, and backgrounds into their magazine. Ladies, fashion is becoming the vehicle for women representation worldwide and it’s time that we stand by it! Fashion’s appeal and relevance to pop culture are one of the major reasons the ideals of feminism are being spread within this industry. Thus I encourage feminist to take a stand with the fashion industry. The Gender Pay Gap between men and women is one of the many issues that feminists are fighting to change. According to payscale, “in 2016 women made 76 cents for every dollar earned by men.” The gender pay gap is a serious issue that many women and feminists alike are trying to mitigate. In the majority of jobs most men will get paid more than women; however, this is not the case for models in the fashion industry. Effron states,“Sean O'Pry, a 24-year-old male model from Kennesaw, Ga., and the face of several major campaigns, including Versace, H&M, Hugo Boss and Giorgio Armani made an estimated $1.5 million, which is a pittance compared to the $42 million that Gisele Bundchen received, the world's topearning female model.” Models, the face of many campaigns, have opportunities to earn more money in the fashion industry than in many other male dominated businesses. Even though modeling is a difficult career to gain fame and success through, many women are still persisting and are able to reach recognition. Gisele Bundchen, for example, started her humble modeling career in South Brazil and soared to fame, later on becoming the 16th richest woman in the entertainment industry and an advocate for women’s rights. Modeling may not be an ideal pursuit for everyone, but the fact that many women have more exposure, success, and higher pay from this outlet makes it worth recognizing. Not only are models dominating the field of fashion, but also the editorial side of fashion is leaning more towards women’s favor. One of the highest and most praised people in the fashion industry, who can make or break anyone's career is, you

guessed it, a woman.

of fashion gives reasoning to the ideal that fashion is more than just a glorification Anna Wintour is no force to be reckoned of clothes, but rather a blank canvas to with and is, without a doubt, one of the express your beliefs. People sometimes fail most elite in the entertainment industry. to realize that fashion is intermingled with Her iconic bob and glasses have become an current events, pop culture, and personal icon for fashion and represents women’s views. The avant garde designs that dazzle power in this so called “man’s world.” the runway are not just patched up fabrics, Anna Wintour, chief editor of Vogue but a wearable expression of a passionate magazine, has kept the magazine's prestige artist. Knowing this, I cannot stress and relevance in today’s mass media since enough why fashion is important to the 1988. Anna Wintour’s prestigious position feminist cause. Many feminists recognize in the fashion community proves that that the world is filled with unjust a woman can make it in any business, reasonings to bring down women, but it especially fashion. Wintour’s woman is a choice to spread knowledge to reverse power is displayed in her fierce demeanor misogynist views. Clothing is more than and her empowering magazine features. just an everyday attire, but rather a segway In an interview with NYTimes, Anna to spread the feminist cause and fight for Wintour discusses that “Vogue’s goal is rights that need to be voiced to the world. to celebrate the stories of 125 different By joining the fashion industry and its women in the fashion industry;” in this many subdivisions (editorial, designing, interview, Wintour also acknowledges how modeling) there are endless possibilities to current events are leading to inspirational inspire others with only the limit of one’s fashion designs. Anna Wintour’s insight creativity.

FEATURES Similarly, I became inspired with the opportunities that fashion provided me to convey my perspectives and beliefs. At eight years old I took a sewing class that practically shaped and inspired me in ways that I did not know possible in my life. From personal experience, I can tell you that there is nothing like the thrill of taking a small piece of lifeless fabric and making it living, wearable art. After my first sewing class, I was determined to become a fashion designer. Sketching, drawing, sewing, you name it- I wanted to do it! Fashion became a staple for me, but it was not until I took my passion to a serious stage by enrolling in the Ogden museum summer fashion camp that I learned the power of the artform. The camp gave me the tools to garner every possible information of the field of fashion. Fashion editors, designers, and model agencies described the industry and the creative tenacity needed to keep relevance in current times. The thought process of fashion could be perfectly summed up by The Incredibles Eda Moles, who iconically states “never look in the

Dress made by Barre past darling it distracts from the now.” In some ways this quote is true, current

events, social turmoil, or trends that occur near to the present time seem to have more of a hold on the public than our past. Likewise, around the time of the camp in 2013 the social turmoil of American society was something that had grasped the minds and attention of many. The social turmoil to which I refer to is the infamous shooting of the teen Trayvon Martin. Being a woman of color and naive to the world of racism, I was quite stunned to see an event like this take place. I was always raised to understand, respect, and learn from people despite their differences; seeing the horrifying event on the news, I realized that not all people shared this perspective. The final days of camp were perhaps the most nerve wrecking experiences for me. My fellow campers and I were required to make a runway ready garment in two days, certainly no easy task. My ideas were distorted, jumbled, and uncertain, the pressure of coming up with something meaningful and aesthetically pleasing was a challenge. Being thirteen at the time, I felt that the garment should be more mature and more than just a frivolous piece made to look nice. What is meaningful, what is important? These questions bounced in my head and left me with no answer. It was not until I sat down exhausted from camp and left with only energy to slump on the couch did I see the message on the news that I wanted to convey. Perhaps, now recalling my dress design, I realize that the message was not overtly clear. The dress was completely made of skittle wrappers and was displayed in the fashion show. Some people did not catch the meaning behind the dress, but others did. In my opinion, I have learned that in fashion it is not so important if everyone gets the message, the job of the artist is to get their attention and make them think. That is the power behind fashion, like every art, is to make something crazy, different, and weird to make people stop and think. Your audience may not understand or get the meaning, but a good fashion designer can make the public ponder for a deeper purpose, something that the majority of us should all do. The skittle dress represented Trayvon Martin’s

death and how when he died he was holding a skittles pack and an Arizona green tea. I chose skittles wrappers because it was simple. In my opinion, his death was motivated by a simple reason, racism. Whether or not people agree or disagree with me on this, the importance behind this story is to express that what might seem simple to the eye has a deeper meaning. We all wear clothes everyday, it might seem like a redundant, mundane object because of its commonality, but it is not. To everyone who depicts fashion as a simplistic, misconstrued depiction of clothing, I invite you to ponder this thought. Fashion, the clothes you wear everyday, subconsciously or purposely expresses who you are. To further this idea a simple hoody led to Trayvon Martin’s death, what may seem like just a jacket held a stereotypical view. Racism, sexism, discrimination is embodied in everything especially fashion. It is the simple truth, fashion carries meaning in ourselves, in stereotypes, and in current events. People’s fashion has a lot to do with our culture, perspectives, and views! Fashion is why I design and support this artform because as a woman and a minority I believe that the message I make with my hands carries a deeper purpose that deserves to be spread to others. I hope that others can understand this and support, design, and inspire others with what might seem like a simple blank canvas. Fashion and people's stereotypical views on minorities, ethnic groups, and women can be reversed by activists creating fashion that challenges negative aspects of society. Feminists believe in a simple cause, gender equality, I believe that it just needs fashion, a simple canvas, to express its solutions. One solution that can and is being solved through fashion is gender violence. Acid throwing is an issue that is not only an injustice on women, but an act of injustice in every field of humanity. Acid throwing, also called an acid attack, a vitriol attack or vitriolage, is a form of violent assault defined as the act of throwing acid or a similarly corrosive substance onto the body of another. One infamous victim of

FEATURES this violent act was 15-year-old Laxmi, who had acid thrown on her face by an obsessed lover. According to Kate Lyons, “the acid burned the skin on Laxmi’s face and arms and she spent two and a half months after the attack in the hospital.” As you can imagine this attack left the teen with scars deeper than the surface; however, this did not stop Laxmi from doing what was right. Thirteen years after her incident, Laxmi catwalked at a London fashion show to raise awareness about violence against women. Her

campaign, Stop Acid Attacks in India and London, has proved that Laxmi is a fighter. Instead of being a victim in this situation, Laxmi describes how she would rather be portrayed as a fighter, standing up for injustices faced by women like her. Laxmi’s catwalk and confidence have proved to many women that fashion is not just filled with artificial fluff but can actually carry a deeper understanding of beauty. With so many women worldwide facing abuse, acid attacks, and confidence issues with their body it is humbling to

know that beauty in the fashion field is filled with inspirational, strong women that challenge society’s one-dimensional perceptions of beauty. In comparison, fashion magazines are encouraging girls to have positive body images by including women of all backgrounds in their magazines. Most recently, plus size model Ashley Graham graced Vogue magazine's front cover and displayed a powerful message that all body types are beautiful. Not only does this

movement fecund confidence in the minds of females but also the incorporation of powerful stories of strong, everyday women. One particular story I read was included in Vogue magazine, written by Hamna Zubair. The story described a women named Mukhtaran Mai, a victim of revenge gang rape. Rather than let her attackers silence her voice, Mai “refused to go down quietly as her assailants expected her to,” states Zubair. Despite her adversity, Mai went on to inspire a movement against gender violence. According to Zubair, “Mai wrote a book, started a school that caters to children in her village, and traveled the world at the invitation of influencers.” Mai’s uplifting story gives hope, strength, and empowerment to females of all ages going through tribulations. Currently at age 16, it is enriching and humanizing for me to read real life experiences of women who have eschewed negative influences in their life. Real life problems, real life people, and real life activism is what is making these so called “banal” magazines purposeful. Whether you are young or old the feeling of empowerment you receive from reading about strong minded people is a sense of confidence that cannot be downplayed. I am proud of the fashion industry, in this sense, that they are able to bring a cause to fight for. Feminism is embodied with fashion because everyone deserves to feel beautiful, confident, and powerful and fashion is reflecting this truth. I have grown up with fashion practically my whole life. Sewing, drawing, and designing are a big part of my life, but they are not just a routine. Fashion design has become a way of life and expression of my values and opinions. As a feminist, I am shocked everyday of how much these two concepts, feminism and fashion, coincide. While so many people consider fashion an innate artform, it contains much culture, current events, and relevance to our everyday lives. The attire that we wear is more than just clothes but a reflection of beliefs, perspectives, and differences in all people. The love I have of fashion comes from the excitement and power, I, feel when I inspire people with the work of my hands. The hours and hours of

sewing might seem like a wasteful task, to people against the fashion industry, but it is placing confidence, purpose, and spreading inspiration to many women worldwide. Everything in the world has a negative outlook, but look beyond this stereotypical perception of fashion. This artform is more than eating disorders, crazy garments, and artificial societal ideals, it is empowerment from women such as Mukhtaran Mai and Laxmi. Women like Mukhtaran Mai and Laxmi are revealing that with every step on the catwalk, they are proving that women’s activism and confidence is the true display of beauty. The opportunities in the fashion field is allowing for activism, campaigns, and the fight for gender rights to disperse amongst the public. Fashion has given me the opportunity to display my perspective on race, gender inequality, and injustice in the world. When I grow up I wish to prompt excitement and knowledge of the fashion field to others. I want to share my knowledge of sewing, fashion, and the joy of creating art. So to all my feminists, believe me and pursue and support fashion. Feminism thrives on the ideals of a simple message of gender equality, let that message enkindle in the minds of other women worldwide by bringing awareness through fashion. Fashion has made me into the young woman I am today, ready to make the world a better place for women one garment at a time.

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100 Years:

The Nineteenth Amendment & the Persistent Struggle to Empower All Women By Grace Riddick & Patricia Boyett

Marsha P. Johnson, Joseph Rantaski, & Sylvia Rivera

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Women's Suffrage Movement , 1917

”

otes for Women,” the battle cry of the suffrage movement became law after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920. The simple words had the power to transform the nation: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” With the vote, women, who represented roughly half the American citizenry in the 1920s, could have begun to dismantle the patriarchal landscape by using their ballots to influence politicians, to elect women candidates, to ensure that women would obtain an equal voice to their male counterparts, and to lay the foundation for women to achieve equal power with men. However, so many obstacles prevented the full empowerment of women. The persistent links between white supremacy and patriarchy deeply embedded in the soul of the American landscape ensured the persistent disfranchisement of people of color. Women and men of color in the South, particularly African Americans,

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continued to confront a wall of white supremacy around the ballot box in the form of poll tax laws, registration exams graded by white registrars, intimidation, and violence. Native American women and many immigrants of color also confronted obstacles to citizenship and thus the ballot. Moreover, racism and bigotry had divided the suffrage movement. Although some white women fought for the suffrage of all women, others used racism to fight for the vote for white women only. Women of color fought back both by creating their own organizations and by working with anti-racist white suffragists in integrated groups. In addition, black women continued to stand at the forefront of the next several waves of feminism. They linked feminist movements to struggles against racism and bigotry that chipped away at divides between women and that advanced universal adult suffrage. Still, anti-feminist movements, some launched by women, continued to impede

the advancement of gender equality and the establishment of women as a voting block. In Divided We Stand, historian Marjorie Spruill explores the watershed moment in Houston, Texas in 1977 in which leaders of the Women’s Rights Movement, supported by funding from the federal government, hosted the National Women’s Conference and antifeminists of the Conservative Women’s Movement held an opposition rally. As Spruill demonstrates, Houston forced a schism between the parties. Prior to 1977, feminists had lobbied both parties and found supporters among the GOP and the Democrats. After Houston, Democrats became the party aligned with feminism and the GOP with family values. Conservatives succeeded in preventing the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by the extended deadline of 1982. However, conservatives did not defeat feminism. Feminists built upon the many successes achieved in the second wave to launch a third and now a fourth wave of

FEATURES feminism and advanced momentous goals with their persistence. The recent struggle to revive the Equal Rights Amendment reflects such persistence. Moreover, as political scientists Christina Wolbrecht and J. Kevin Corder argue in A Century of Votes for Women, since the early 1980s, “women remain more likely to vote and more likely to vote Demoncratic than similarly situated men.” However, Wolbrecht and Corder also point out that many factors influence the voting patterns of men and women, including their class, race, social status, and educational backgrounds. Women of color, particularly African American women, mostly vote as a bloc on issues and on party. Yet some studies show that only a slight majority of Latinx women vote Democrat. According to an August 2018 study by the Pew Research Center, white women tend to remain relatively divided. The study shows that white women voted for Donald Trump by a slimmer majority than previously thought. Rather than supporting him over Hillary Clinton in a 52 to 43 percent majority, it appears they supported him in a 47 to 45 percent majority. Consequently, the power of a women’s bloc and identity politics based on gender to advance gender equality will remain impaired until the majority of women and their allies embrace the goals of intersectional feminism. Important developments in the fourth wave of feminism, including #SayHerName, LGBTQ movements, the Women’s March on Washington, the #MeToo Movement, the many organizations that support and train women to run for office (particularly women of color), and the 2018 election that led to an increase of women in office are encouraging developments. Throughout history, women of color have stood at the forefront of struggles for equality that intersected across racial, gender, ethnic, religious, and class lines. Many scholars and activists have explored this history, including but not limited to: Deborah Gray White, Danielle McGuire, Audre Lourde, Rosalyn Terborg

Penn, Gloria Anzadula, Alice Walker, Rebecca Walker, Ada María Isasi-Díaz, Jo Freeman, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Anna Gordon, Bettye Collier, Patricia Hill Collins, Betty Thompson, Deborah King, Kimberle Crenshaw, and Cherise Charleswell. African American women’s involvement traces back to the origins of the movement, in the phase now known as the “first wave.” The first wave emerged from the Abolition Movement and many abolitionists, like Sojourner Truth, served as a significant pioneer of first wave feminism. During the turn of the century, African American activist Ida B. Wells became a powerful force against racial and gender oppressions. Chicana activist, Jovita Idar, exposed the epidemic of lynchings and police brutality against people of color in Texas. Both Idar and Wells proved influential in formulating feminist organizations. Idar founded the League of Mexican Women, and Wells organized the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago. Despite their centrality to the struggle, women of color constantly had to confront exclusion within the movement. White feminists Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone came out of the abolitionist movement. However, Anthony and Stanton, infuriated that the proposed Fifteenth Amendment left out “sex” as a prohibited discriminatory class for suffrage, campaigned against its ratification using racist arguments, including claims that black people were inferior. In contrast, Stone supported and actively campaigned for the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. Activists like Stone, Idar, and Wells worked across racial lines to fight for women’s suffrage. Moreover, women of color boldly stood up to the racism they confronted from white suffragists. For example, when Wells and the founders of the African American sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, arrived for the Suffrage Parade organized by Alice Paul in 1913, they refused an order by racist white women to go to the back of the march. Wells joined the Illinois delegation, and some of the white women in that

delegation welcomed her. Persistent protests and advocacy by suffragists led Congress to ratify and President Woodrow Wilson to sign the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 giving women the right to vote. Feminists perceived suffrage as a major victory, but it failed to provide women with equal rights. Alice Paul introduced the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 in hopes that a constitutional amendment would force American law to recognize women as equals in all realms. In the 1920s, the ERA failed to obtain much support. Women continued to suffer from a variety of oppressions, including unequal pay, lack of educational and career opportunities, gender violence, and little access to socioeconomic independence and equal justice. Women of color suffered from even deeper oppressions as they faced both sexism and racism. Most women of color, like their male counterparts, continued to lack access to the ballot because of racial intimidation, state laws like poll taxes designed to keep people of color from the polls, and the constant threat of violence. Although laws are only as powerful as

Flapper from the 1920s Wikimedia Commons

FEATURES the enforcement power behind them, the Nineteenth Amendment served as the first legal step towards equality for all women. It also contributed to cultural changes as women had publicly rebelled against their oppression and won an important battle. The 1920s flapper became a symbol of the rebellious woman. She cut her hair, raised her hemline, danced and drank alcohol at speakeasies, spoke her mind, explored her sexuality, pursued a college degree, and dared to dream of a career. Certainly, most women were not flappers, but that cultural icon helped advance the Women’s Movement. The Harlem Renaissance created a space for black women like Zora Neale Hurston to challenge patriarchy and white supremacy.

Yet President Roosevelt’s call to fight for the four freedoms opened the space for African Americans to highlight the hypocrisy of fighting tyranny abroad when lynching and discrimination persisted at home in movements like the Double V campaign. As Danielle McGuire demonstrates in her book, At The Dark End of the Street, African American women highlighted such hypocrisy when Rosa Parks and many others launched massive protests against the failure of the Alabama judicial system to indict the six white men who raped Recy Taylor. The movement they initiated helped lay the foundation for the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Movement of the 1960s Rosie the Riveter and 1970s. Wikimedia Commons The Civil Rights Movement remained one The Great Depression had a mixed impact secretarial work were also considered of the most vital forces and foundations women’s work, but for the most part, white of the Women’s Movement. Civil rights on the women’s movement. Delayed women had the greatest access to these marriages led more single women than activism ultimately led President Kennedy jobs. usual into the workforce. Economic to introduce the Civil Rights Act and hardships also led more married women President Lyndon Baines Johnson to On the political front, Hattie Wyatt to seek jobs. Although employers tended persuade enough members of Congress Caraway, who hailed from Arkansas, to hire white men first and fire them to pass it. The final bill focused on the became the first female U.S. Senator. First prohibition of racial discrimination and last, the pervasiveness of racism and Lady Eleanor Roosevelt used her influence segregation. However, it also included sexism ensured that domestic work over President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Title VII, which prohibited discrimination tended to be reserved for women of to advance gender and racial issues and color and immigrant women of a variety based on “sex.” Feminism also gained became a feminist icon. With the First of demographics. Teaching, nursing, ground within Kennedy’s inner circle Lady’s urging, President Roosevelt opened when Esther Peterson convinced settlement house employment, and the first cabinet position to a woman when President John F. Kennedy to establish he appointed Francis Perkins to serve the President’s Commission on the Status as Secretary of Labor. However, under of Women. The Commission, chaired Perkins, the National Recovery Act, which by Eleanor Roosevelt, created a circle of permitted only one person in a family to politically active women, which helped work a government job, led many women foster a feminist base. It also produced to lose their jobs. a 1963 report that revealed vast gender inequities. That same year, Betty Friedan World War II brought the Great published The Feminine Mystique, which Depression to an end and laid the summoned women to reevaluate their foundations for the second wave of status in society and ultimately led to the feminism. As President Roosevelt formation of the National Organization mobilized the entire nation for war, the for Women (NOW) in 1966. dearth of men on the homefront forced Women activists in a variety of social the government to recruit women into the movements also dared to confront the workforce. Rosie the Riveter became the sexism and racism that emerged within symbol of the patriotic woman working these struggles. White activists Casey in the war production factories. The Hayden and Mary King and Jo Freeman, military also recruited women to serve as Marilyn Webb, and Shulamith Firestone test pilots, nurses, and clerical workers. were among liberal activists who publicly However, institutional racism ensured that identified the sexism that permeated the Hattie Caraway, 1914 white women had far more opportunities Civil Rights Movement and the New Wikimedia Commons in these fields. Left movements, respectively. Feminist

FEATURES The efforts of the legion of feminists from diverse backgrounds advanced second wave feminism to new places. Feminists made incredible strides and achieved increased educational and career

Civil Rights Protestors

Florida Memory, https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/34010

scholars and writers, including Kimberlee Crenshaw, Patricia Collins, Danielle McGuire, Deborah K. King, Becky Thompson, Alice Walker, Audre Lourde, and bell hooks have shown the centrality of women of color and marginalized gender populations to the advancement of feminism. Black women leaders, including Rosa Parks, Ella Baker, Diane Nash, Septima Clark, Dorothy Height, Angela Davis, Asaata Shakur, Elaine Brown, Kathleen Cleaver (to name a few) challenged patriarchy and racism in a variety of ways. Feminist leaders also emerged out of a variety of other racial and ethnic groups and movements. The Chicana groupHijas de Cuauhtemoc, Asian Sisters, and Women of all Red Nations (WARN) became some of the more effective organizations during the Second Wave. Hijas de Cuauhtemoc members developed a newspaper and launched the first national Chicana studies journal. One of the founders of WARN, Mary Jane Wilson, had also co-founded the American Indian Movement with male activists Dennis Banks and George Mitchell. WARN fought the practice of sterilization in public hospitals and sued the federal government when it tried to sell Pine Ridge water in South Dakota to corporations. WARN also expanded its scale of influence when it reached out to indigenous populations in Nicaragua and Guatemala. Asian American feminists engaged in a variety of significant activities, including

providing services for abused women, helping refugees and immigrants, and highlighting the culture of Asian women. In addition, they helped foster relationships with other feminists of color. Women of color were also prominent in the Gay Liberation Movement that increasingly became part of second wave feminism. Two transgender women, a Latina, Sylvia Rivera, and an African American, Marsha P. Johnson, served as primary forces for the Stonewall Rebellion that resisted discrimination of the queer community. In addition, many women of color worked in a variety of racial and ethnic rights movements and fought for gender rights within and outside those struggles.

opportunities for women, reproductive rights, stronger laws against domestic abuse and rape, and greater access to socioeconomic independence. They also made advancements in the political world. African American educator Shirley Chisolm became the first black woman elected to the House of Representatives in 1968, and she ran for president in the Democratic primaries in 1972. Still vast forms of gender oppression, including gender violence, unequal pay, glass ceilings, sexual harassment, and exclusion from so many areas of the workforce and cultural mediums persisted. In hopes of forcing America to prohibit all forms of gender discrimination, prominent feminists including Shirley Chisolm, Gloria Steinem, and Bella Abzug resurrected the Equal Rights Amendment in 1969. At first, it seemed as if it would pass. However, anti-feminists led by Phyllis Schlafly launched a massive campaign against its passage and ensured that it fell three states short of the required 38 in 1982. The second wave also illuminated deep racial divisions. Many women of color viewed white women as only interested in â&#x20AC;&#x153;white feminism.â&#x20AC;? They perceived them as either having no interest in advancing women of color or as ignorant that women of color confronted deeper

Shirley Chisholm

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Kimberlee Crenshaw

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oppressions. Consequently, some African American women began to refer to themselves as black feminists or use the term “womanist” (developed by author Alice Walker). For similar reasons, Latina feminists launched the mujerista movement. These developments led to the birth of multiracial feminism, which attracted women of color and appealed to marginalized white women, particularly lesbians and women who practiced minority religions, because they too felt alienated from white feminism. The development of women’s studies programs that began in the late sixties grew over the years to become increasingly multiracial and multicultural and helped foster deeper understandings of the complexities of the struggle for gender equality. During the mid to late eighties, Kimberlee Crenshaw, law professor and one of the founders of critical race theory, provided a linguistic base for black feminism when she coined the term intersectionality to explain that black women confronted dual forms of oppression because of their intersecting identities of an oppressed race and gender. Although the concept was not new, the term and Crenshaw’s development of it articulated the dual discriminatory experience in clear and applicable language. Crenshaw demonstrated that the American legal system and traditional scholarship failed to understand that discrimination often emerged precisely because of a person’s intersecting identities. Gloria Anzadula and Cherrie Moraga’s 1981 book This Bridge Called My Back: Writing by Radical Women of Color and Anzadula’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza made similar arguments. Moraga used the term “interlocking” oppressions to address the multiple oppressions that Latinas faced. Anzadula, who referred to herself as “Chicana/ Tejana/lesbian/ dyke/feminist/writer/poet/cultural theorist” focused on the overlapping oppressions of “gender, race, sexual orientation, and class” in her book. From these arguments, Crenshaw, Anzadula, Moraga and others laid the foundation for

Black Lives Matter Protest intersectional feminism. These shifts in understanding combined with multiracial feminism eventually led to the third wave. Scholars debate the exact birth of third wave feminism, but many of them locate its origins in the controversy surrounding Anita Hill’s testimony that Supreme Court judicial nominee, Clarence Thomas, had sexually harassed her. Kimbrele Crennshaw, who served on Hill’s legal team, later noted the difficulty in advocating for a black woman against a black man in the public arena in the 1990s as many African Americans publicly supported Thomas. Although white feminists took up Hill’s cause, they focused on a broad attack on sexual harassment. Both sides ignored the intersections of race and gender and its impact on the case. Nevertheless, it helped reinvigorate the feminist movement and deepen understandings of intersectionality. In Rebecca Walker’s discussion of that case as well as other feminist issues in a 1993 essay in Ms. Magazine, she declared “I am not a postfeminist feminist. I am the third wave.” Third wave feminism was defined by its efforts to become fully inclusive. First, the ideal new feminists were expected to embrace all women of all races, ethnicities, cultures, religions, classes, nationalities, and orientations. Second, they had the

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right to choose their particular feminist ideology, including liberal, radical, Marxist, eco, and cultural feminism. Third, they chose their own lifestyles. Thus, a feminist could practice sexual freedom or monogamy; be a stay-at-home mom, a working mom, or not a mom at all; and identify as a heterosexual, a bisexual, or a homosexual. Scholar and feminist Linda Hirshman derided this manifestation of the women’s struggle as “choice feminism” because she argued it failed to stand for anything. Michaele L. Ferguson argued that choice feminism reflected a fear of such feminists to engage in the necessary political battles to demand change. In contrast, Clarie Snyder-Hall defended “choice feminism” as far more inclusive and pluralistic and applauded its values of providing women much greater agency in their lives. Consequently, third wave feminism proved far more inclusive and open than any previous wave, but it fell short of its goals of full inclusion. It still struggled with intersectionality in general, and it tended to completely leave out transgender persons. In addition to issues with intersectionality, feminists also confronted a frustrating setback after major political gains in the nineties. Many feminists were initially excited about President Bill Clinton

because he pushed forward a progressive agenda for women, appointed ten women to the cabinet, and appointed Ruth Bader Ginsberg to the United States Supreme Court. President Clinton seemed like a feminist until the stories broke about his adulterous affairs and the many sexual harassment allegations against him. Moreover, he frustrated some feminists by signing the Welfare Reform Bill and issuing the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy in the military. These challenges placed serious obstacles in the path of third wave feminism as far too many feminists refused to publicly condemn the President’s sexist personal behavior or some of his prejudicial policies because several of his policies benefited middle and upper class women. Yet during these controversies, feminism also achieved major victories. Congress, led by Joe Biden, introduced and passed the Violence Against Women Act. The 1990s seemed in many ways a decade of contradictions. Perhaps because of those contradictions and the third wave’s individualistic nature, the wave never formed into a highly mobilized, collective movement. Some exceptions include the Million Women March organized by Phile Chionesu and Asia Coney, who brought 750,000 black women to march in Philadelphia to discredit negative images of black women and to focus on the rebuilding of black communities. Despite some powerful grassroots efforts and progressive gender legislation, feminism struggled for its survival in the late 1990s. But, with continued persistence and protest like their predecessors, feminists evolved and adapted, which led to significant changes at the dawn of the 21st century. Scholars will likely engage in debates over where the third wave ended and the fourth wave began as so many different forces have emerged that have produced a variety of intersectional feminist movements. That struggle is an evolutionary one with its deepest roots planted by the most marginalized reaching back to Sojourner Truth who fought the dual oppressions of race and gender. It found its name in Crenshaw’s work and burgeoned in

Photographs Courtesy of Becky Boyett who suffered abuse and death at the hands of police. Their struggle included an examination, as did Black Lives Matter, of brutality against queer women of color. Another important root stemmed from a series of LGBTQ+ struggles in the 21st century for the right to marry, for the elimination of discriminatory policies in the military, for the rights of transgender persons to use public facilities associated with their gender identity, and for broader hate crime legislation to protect the LGBTQ community. Tarana Burke

Feminism also achieved many victories within the system during the the Million Woman March. In the new Obama years. The U.S. Congress and millennium, it emerged within the Black President Barack Obama ensured the Lives Matter Movement initiated in 2013 implementation of progressive gender by three black women: Opal Tometi, legislation, including the Lilly Ledbetter Alicia Garza, and Patisse Cullors. When Act, the Shepard-Byrd Act, the renewal the media focused on African American of the Violence Against Women Act, and men, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Luke Harris the repealing of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell of the African American Policy Forum legislation. The Obama Administration initiated the #SayHerName movement that also made a series of efforts to prevent sought to bring awareness to black women and react to sexual assault on college Wikimedia Commons

campuses, to ensure same-sex couples had access to insurance, and to address police brutality by developing a task force and working with the Department of Justice to investigate racism in policing. The transition between the third and fourth wave rolled steadily forward. Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 election, ironically, fueled fourth wave feminism. It became quite clear to many Americans, if it had been unclear before, that the country is not living in a post-feminist, post-racial, or postprejudice nation. It rallied the activists and awakened many others to this reality. The Women’s March on Washington and its Sister Marches in every state, in nearly 500 American cities, on every continent, and in over 200 cities around the globe infused feminists with hope that the fourth wave would gather into a massive movement. During the Women’s March on Washington, iconic feminist Angela Davis articulated this hope: “At a challenging moment in our history, let us remind ourselves that we . . . women, trans-people, men and youth who are here at the Women's March, we represent the powerful forces of change that are determined to prevent the dying cultures of racism, hetero-patriarchy from rising again. . . . This is just the beginning and in the words of the inimitable Ella Baker, 'We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.'’” The march became a movement.

Temporary mural by Cita Sadeli (MISS CHELOVE) 21 June 2020, 10:35:50, link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DC_Stands_United_Against_ Hate_Mural.jpg

Yet every step forward always seems to come with waves of backlashes. As COVID-19 emerged in America and continues to spread across the nation, it has exposed ever more blatantly the On the political inclusion front, 2018 deeply entrenched systemic racism became “the year of the woman.” and sexism that persists in this nation. According to Li Zhou at Vox, 117 women Women, particularly women of color, were elected to Congress, with 102 women have borne many of the challenges of elected to the House, and 15 women serving as frontline workers constantly elected or appointed to the Senate. Twenty- exposed to the dangerous virus. Moreover, three of the freshman House members they have lost their jobs at much higher elected were women of color. “The year of rates than men. As Charbelli Carrazana the woman” certainly proved to many that reports in USA Today (August 5, 2020), Some of the most significant mass persistent activism and protest can lead women have constantly confronted gender struggles built upon the foundations to great gains for equality for all women. discrimination in the workforce and created by African Americans. The Many feminists hoped 2020 would break women of color have confronted both #MeToo hashtag popularized on social the most persistent glass ceiling when sexism and racism. Thus, they have found media by Alyssa Milano in October 2017, six women ran for the presidency in the themselves often stuck in managerial or emerged from a movement started in 2006 Democratic primary. But a white man labor positions in which they are the first by an African American woman, Tarana won the candidacy. Nevertheless, hope to be laid off during recessions. Many Burke. Although the #MeToo Movement persists. Biden selected Senator Kamala women work in fields in which their jobs has confronted backlashes, it has also Harris as the vice presidential candidate. disappeared overnight when the pandemic achieved significant successes, including Important organizations like Emerge spread across America. Others work in cases against celebrities Bill Cosby and and Citizen SHE United work to support low-paying frontline positions in which Harvey Weinstein that resulted in guilty women candidates for a variety of offices. they became essential workers as grocery verdicts and imprisonment. Women of As intersectional feminism draws in more clerks and factory workers and yet do all races have also worked together to women of all demographics as well as not have sick leave or childcare nor do reintroduce the effort to ratify the Equal men and persons of all genders, it will they receive hazard pay. Women are the Rights Amendment. Virginia became the continue to advance feminist candidates primary caretakers of children still. Thus, 38th state needed to ratify the amendment. for political office. when schools went online, many married However, attorney generals in several women had no choice but to leave the job

states launched lawsuits to prevent its inclusion in the United States Constitution on the grounds that the deadline for passage expired decades ago.

force to care for children as their husbands Muriel Bowser of Washington DC, Mayor made more money. For the first time since Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, and Mayor 1948 when the Bureau of Labor Statistics London Breed of San Francisco have all began tracking women’s unemployment, it skyrocketed into the double digits. Before the pandemic, women’s unemployment rate was lower than men; that statistic has flipped. Women also confront a series of issues in the healthcare field. As Deekshita Ramanarayanan argues in New Security Beat (May 12, 2020), women represent 70 percent of the global health workforce and they represent the majority of caretakers and social workers, they are exposed to the virus at far greater rates. However, men are dying more often from the virus than women. Persons of color of all genders are contracting the virus and dying from it at much higher rates than whites. Centuries of discrimination that created deep disparities in acccess to healthcare and perpetuated enviornmental racism and wide socioeconomic gaps have permitted the virus to ravage communities of color. Ramanarayanan also points out that women, though overrepresented on the frontlines of healthcare workers, are greatly underrepresented in making decisions about healthcare. Katja Iverson, President and CEO of Women Deliver, points out that women leaders have generally proved far more efficacious in their response to COVID-10. New Zealand, Denmark, Thailand, and Germany have all developed some of the most effective responses to the virus, and they are all run by women leaders. Women, one might argue, are also needed in leadership roles to address gender and racial violence. The killings of Breona Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery brought the Black Lives Matter Movement to the forefront of America’s struggle as it inspired waves of interracial protests to spread across the nation. Maya King’s spotlight in Politico (June 9 2020) of four African American women who are serving as mayors of cities engulfed in protests and racial tensions reveals the intense challenges women of color confront in these roles. Although Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, Mayor

history of inequities and injustices that have fostered systematic racism. So too, the voices of the women who initiated the

faced criticism both from the left and Black Lives Matter Movement, Tometi, Suffragists March on Washington 1913, Photograph the right, they have all Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons worked diligently to create space for reform and change and Garza, and Cullors and Crenshaw, who have helped shine a spotlight on the long along with Luke Charles Harris, founded

Women’s March on Washington 2017

Photograph courtesy of Mobilus in Mobili/Flickr/CreativeCommons

the #SayHerName Movement, are vital to the effort to dismantle the systemic racism and sexism that has fostered not only police brutality, but the many forms of racial and gender injustices that created and perpetuates socioeconomic, healthcare, and environmental inequities. As America approaches the 2020 election, 100 years has passed since the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. In those 100 years, feminist struggles and their intersections with many other social justice movements have chipped away at the patriarchy and have increasingly empowered women. Still, the movement has confronted so many backlashes from anti-feminists, racists, and bigots. Moreover, the struggle to encourage all women, particularly a majority of white women, to embrace intersectional feminism remains a challenge. Hope emerged with the 2018 election results as women proved a decisive factor in electing women and women of color to office. The rise of Kamala Harris to vice presidential nominee on the Democratic ticket with Joe Biden represents hope to many that a new day might be dawning in America after the long night of backlashes in the Trump years. She is the first African American and Asian American woman to be selected as a candidate for vice president. Certainly, like the aforementioned mayors, she has received her share of criticism from the left and from the right, but she also represents great hope to many intersectional feminists that changes are coming. America stands at an important crossroads with this election. The votes women make will prove incredibly vital to the outcome. Such votes could determine if women will have the power to stem the massive backlashes they have faced under the Trump Administration. Biden and Harris have promised to create a diverse cabinet attuned to and responsive to racial and gender justice. 100 Years after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, women will prove one of the most significant constituencies to make that decision. As they exercise their right to vote granted to them by the struggle of suffragists, perhaps enough of them have become

intersectional feminists and will use the power of their numbers to cultivate a new day in America where â&#x20AC;&#x153;We the Peopleâ&#x20AC;? is far more reflective of the American people than in any time in its history.

COLUMNS

By Jacob Krug

ccurate representation of LGBT+ people within the media is becoming more and more visible in today’s social climate, but not every LGBT+ character is written respectfully. The purpose of this column is to highlight iconic and influential fictional characters, bring to light how authentic their representation feels, and possibly criticize the way each character/storyline is portrayed. First, we’ll start with a personal favorite character of mine: Richie Tozier. (Huge spoiler alert for Stephen King’s IT franchise!)

Chapter Two in 2019 to portray Richie as explicitly gay; King goes on to state that “it’s one of those things that’s kind of genius.” The 2019 film is the only portrayal of Richie in which he is gay; however, since its release, IT fans have widely accepted this sexuality confirmation, and Richie is hardly ever referred to as anything other than gay. Thousands of works of art and fanfictions have been released by fans since Richie’s reveal, showing how important it is to have representation within the media.

Despite the character’s sexuality being handled respectfully by both Muschietti Richie Tozier is a character originally and Richie’s actor, Bill Hader, fans have from the Stephen King novel titled IT and criticized the storyline involved within additionally in the 1990 TV miniseries the plot. Richie’s sexuality is revealed after and movies IT (2017) and IT: Chapter Two. his first love and childhood friend, Eddie Richie is a perfect example of a character Kaspbrak, dies in IT: Chapter Two. I asked who can be portrayed and interpreted in a my Twitter followers to put in their two number of different ways across different cents, and Maddy (@amourlmaginaire) media platforms. Stephen King has stated replied: “The way [the writers] handled that he never intended for Richie to be his romantic storyline and how he didn’t gay while writing his novel, but he is fully get a happy ending really should’ve been on board with the storyline that director changed. We’ve seen this story arc time Andrés Muschietti inserted into IT: and time again where gay characters never

get a happy ending and it could have been better.” The story arc Maddy was referring to is called the “bury your gays” trope -- the presentation of deaths of LGBT+ characters where these characters are commonly viewed as more expendable than their heteronormative counterparts, and that the supposed natural conclusion of their story is an early death. Unfortunately, the majority of LGBT+ characters are killed off or given a tragic ending, even when such a conclusion of their stories doesn’t make sense in relation to the plot. While a main character within a movie series as huge as IT being revealed to be gay was a huge step in the right direction of accurate and respectful representation in the media, it’s clear that fans (including myself) would have preferred a happier ending for both Richie Tozier and Eddie Kaspbrak. LGBT+ characters deserve happy endings and solutions; they shouldn’t exist just to illustrate tragedies and lost loves.

COLUMNS

By Isabel Dickinson

hen paid menstrual leave is brought up there is always an initial reaction of confusion. Why would that be necessary when we already have paid sick leave? Would paid menstrual leave be beneficial to women's healthcare or would the fact that periods could further exclude people from the workplace just cause more problems? If the entirety of the working world was subject to monthly menstruation, then there would be no question as to if a menstrual leave policy would be beneficial, because it would be! But working alongside men we have the problem of whether or not a menstrual leave policy would hinder the hiring process for women and further separate men and women in the workplace. This discussion is not only about women though, paid menstrual leave would need to include transgender men as well, this

could present problems for the transgender community potentially leading to further exclusion. To most people paid menstrual leave seems unreasonable and pretty far fetched, but to people who suffer from severe periods or endometriosis, menstrual leave may sound like a dream come true. Women are already taking more sick days than men in jobs that offer paid sick leave, but there is no federal law requiring paid sick leave be provided. According to the Health Affairs Blog, as of 2019, 90% of U.S. managers and professionals have access to paid sick leave compared to only 56% of service workers, which the larger portion of working women fall into. Before answering the question of whether or not there should be access to a paid menstrual leave, more lower income workers first need access to paid sick leave. Overall there should be more options for women to have access to days off due to

being severely affected by periods, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a stepping stone that comes after general sick days which everyone deserves access to. Another problem also lies within women's healthcare, where the stereotype of women being over-dramatic is used as an excuse to deter any actual serious medical issues. As of now it seems that paid menstrual leave would further the idea that menstruation differentiates workers and hinders women from doing their jobs effectively and that the United States needs to worry about providing all of its workers with paid sick leave first.

COLUMNS

By Emmaline Bouchillon

f Loyola had a list of style icons, Victoria Williams would be at the top. If you don’t know her then you’ve probably seen her, and if you haven’t then you’re missing out. Victoria dons well-styled and seemingly effortless looks that bounce from goth princess to vintage angel, covering everything in between. Victoria cites her fluid aesthetic to her eclectic tastes, as she draws inspiration from everything and anything. Victoria doesn’t sport clothing to make a statement, she does it because it’s simply what she wants to do. She’s unafraid to be bold and wouldn’t have it any other way. Victoria stays true to herself through her fashion and style, deciding what to wear based on her morning’s mood. She takes each look one day at a time, “everyday is an opportunity to reinvent myself, I get to embody a different character whenever I want.” Her vibrance radiates beyond her clothes, serving as inspiration for others to craft different looks and embrace whatever mood they feel. Victoria’s fearlessness and taste can be summed up in her words perfectly: “I’m not afraid to wear whatever I want and to me that doesn’t feel like an act of defiance or making a statement. It’s just me being me because I can’t be anything other than myself.” Victoria’s identity ties into her style by “trusting myself, and having complete and total confidence in what I am and what I’m wearing.” With an eye for funk, Victoria stated “feminist fashion is not being afraid to be bold, to make a statement in what you’re wearing and to be loud about it.” Victoria’s rebellion against men being the only peacocks, the flashy ones, has left quite an impact on those around her. Her commitment to being ferociously herself is enough to make anyone say, “if she can do it, so can I.” As Victoria said best, “I can be this person, I can be strong, I can be in your face and you’re going to have to just accept it because that’s just who I am.” With Victoria having graduated this past spring, Loyola will miss her vibrance and kindness. Leaving my interview with her, I found myself feeling inspired and excited to try new looks because why the heck not, and I urge you to do the same.

photos courtesy of @toriamour on Istagram

COLUMNS Fall of 2019, Cohen co-created the collective For The Record, comprised of Cohen and other local DJs: virtue_signal, Nvture.Morte, Airbag, and Edgar Allen Po'boy. According to the collective’s instagram, For The Record is a “collective rooted in community, compassion, solidarity, and have a damn good time.” Cohen expanded upon this definition, citing a saying within the collective called “Wholesome Hedonism.” Cohen explained this by first defining hedonism on its own. Hedonism is defined as “the pursuit for pleasure and sensual self-indulgence,” according to Merriam Webster Dictionary. “You can chase after pleasure and be selfindulgent in a way that doesn’t negatively affect other people. We support self expression and wanting to provide a space eth Cohen graduated fall 2020 for people to express themselves and feel from Loyola's music industry comfortable in doing that—I think that’s department; student by day important,” Cohen said. To ensure the and underground dance music DJ by safety and self-expression of the people night. Cohen’s interest as a DJ began in that attend For The Record shows, Cohen high school, watching her friends DJ in said collective members enforce and California and learning some skills along adhere to a code of conduct. This code the way. In November of 2018, Cohen of conduct differentiates For The Record decided to finally drop some money on her shows from regular concerts and shows. own equipment, launching her DJ career The collective members play shows in the as Lady Lavender in January of 2019. “It New Orleans area, along with an event was worth it,” said Cohen. called “BRghainn” in Baton Rouge.

Cohen’s career has advanced quickly in just a year, forming a creative collective with other local DJs and is set to play Buku Music Festival in 2020. Her short, yet impressive time as a DJ has been met with some challenges and many positives. “I think that I could probably sit here for about an hour or so on the hardships that I’ve had, but I think just to sum it up: getting people to take me seriously,” said Cohen. As a young female DJ, Cohen cites gatekeeping within the scene as a main issue. “In all styles, all forms of music there is a huge divide and a huge gap between the opportunities that men and women get,” Cohen said. Cohen looks at this problem optimistically, recalling women like Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B becoming the main artists at the forefront of their genre. “I think that a similar thing is happening in dance music, which I’m really excited about because that benefits me in the long run,” said Cohen.

As for the future, Cohen said she would love to see the collective grow. “I think always having that tie back to New Orleans is kind of where I see my vision for For The Record, but definitely, as a whole, I would say our vision is to continue growing our scene in New Orleans, making it the best that it can be,” Cohen said. Concerning her own future, she “would love to travel DJing, and plans to found [my] own record label & open [my own] club in New Orleans,” according to Cohen. To other young, female DJs curating their own career, Cohen gave a few words of advice: “Be yourself. Only play what you like and be authentic to your taste.” She emphasizes the importance of authenticity when drawing an audience and booking shows. Cohen’s second piece of advice emphasized the importance of networking. “I was definitely very scared to just talk to people, but you’d be surprised how many people are just willing to sit with you, have a drink, and have a conversation,” said Cohen. Cohen ended her advice with one last important lesson: “Don’t be afraid to ask for advice, or ask for help because more people than you know will be willing to help you.”

Photography by Ronnie Tremblay

Women on the Frontlines In the Time of Covid

Spotlight: Loyola Alumna Kelsey Brehm Living Loyola’s Mission by Making Masks for Healthcare Workers By Grace Riddick

oyola alumna Kelsey Brehm is usually a creator of women’s lingerie for her business A Little Something LLC, but these days she’s sewing for other reasons. Brehm is using her skills to make masks for fellow frontline workers who are desperately searching for PPE. According to The Maroon journalist Tess Rowland, Brehm’s masks have already been delivered to healthcare workers at Ochsner, Touro and various senior facilities. Additionally, Brehm is looking to deliver masks to other frontline workers who are not in healthcare in case they can not take a sick day. The amount of masks that Brehm produced, and continues to produce, has certainly made a sizable impact on the protection of frontline workers across New Orleans. In the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Brehm made 25 to 40 masks every day, with a goal of 100 a week, for New Orleans frontline workers. After 5 weeks she met the goal, resulting in 500 masks to donate. Despite the substantial amount of masks Brehm made, this number does not even include the masks she made for family and friends living in

various COVID-19 hotspots across the country. One of the main appeals of Brehm’s masks are the carefully thought out details that are meant to establish safety and comfort. The masks are made of 100% high end cottons, as recommended by the CDC. One convenient detail of the masks are the twist ties on the nose area that allow for a customized fit, something especially appealing to frontline workers who must wear their masks throughout the entire workday. If requested, she will also make the masks with ties that secure the masks around the ears. Even though the demand for masks is still high, a reality shaped by the ongoing COVID-19 cases in New Orleans, Brehm finds time throughout the day to still make lingerie. With the chaos of current global events, she finds solace in her designs. In fact, the thoroughness and thoughtfulness that she applies to the design of her masks originated in lingerie. While living in Amsterdam in 2013, Brehm came across neighborhood markets

that motivated her with their vibrant colors, smells, and sights. At the markets she discovered beautiful lace fabrics which inspired her to start her lingerie business, A Little Something LLC. Brehm believes that “...women everywhere deserve a little something special, just for themselves, to make them feel good about themselves and who they are.” Her belief of having “a little something” for everyone certainly translates into her work because today as Chief Designer, Brehm hopes to continue to create lingerie that inspires all women, regardless of size, shape, color of their skin, fantasies or lifestyles. Brehm’s philosophy on making a little something for everyone is certainly reflective of her time at Loyola as an undergraduate. According to Brehm, attending Loyola contributed to her desire to make masks for frontline workers. Embracing Loyola’s social justice philosophies, Brehm decided that making masks was the best way she could help during the current pandemic. Loyola cultivates an environment of collective action and social justice, but it also focuses

on individual talents and how students can use those talents to make the world a better place. Brehm, having found her inspiration for making use of her talents back in the Amsterdam markets in 2013, continuously finds new ways to contribute. Recently, she handed out masks to protestors and first responders at the protests in New Orleans against police brutality. Since the coronavirus outbreak has left many people feeling stuck, Brehm has advice for those who want to help frontline workers but do not know where to start: “First, think about what you do well. Then look for volunteer opportunities in the community that you can utilize your skills. Also, be creative. Sometimes it is the simple gestures of making people smile that helps so much in times of crisis. There are countless opportunities to help.” Brehm ended her advice with a simple question that everyone should ask themselves when looking for ways to get involved, “How can I help?” Following the wisdom of Bill Withers’ 1972 lyrics “Sometime in our life, we all have pain, we all have sorrow, but if we are wise, we know that there’s always tomorrow,” Brehm stated that the best moment she experienced while making masks was the realization that the New Orleans community is one of perseverance, courage, and strength. Brehm concluded, “As we stand together as one, we will achieve and overcome the challenges we face and we will all share in a brighter tomorrow.”

Photos courtesy of Kelsey Brehm

#MeToo

Around the World By Delaney Harper

n January 2018, less than a year after American actress Alyssa Milano popularized Tarana Burke’s #MeToo on Twitter, parents Mohammed Amin and Nusrat Ansari received a call while on a religious pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. They learned that their 7-year-old daughter, Zainab Ansari, had not attended her Quran lesson back home in Kasur, Pakistan. Her body was found 4 days later on a trash heap. Young Zainab had been abducted, raped, and murdered by Mohammad Imran, who had abducted and raped 7 other young children, murdering 6 of them. Zainab was not the first child who suffered at the hands of Imran, but protestors in Kasur made sure she would be the last to die because of him. In tandem with local protestors, prominent Pakistani women like former model Frieha Altaf shared their own stories of childhood sexual abuse with the hashtag #JusticeforZainab. These efforts galvinized families across Pakistan, encouraging them to report cases of sexual abuse. 7 months later Imran was executed, and Pakistan’s parliament passed unprecedented child abuse legislation. Though #MeToo coincided with Zainab’s slaying, it was no arbitrary coincidence. #MeToo spread to nearly every pocket of the globe, and Pakistan was no exception. It’s influ-

ence can be measured against the culture of shame that inhibits it. Instructor Saba Karim Khan insists that the Pakistani government and the culture normalizes harassment and abuse against women of all ages; the woman who speaks out about abuse is silenced by social pressures and charges of adultery and subsequent imprisonment. In spite of these efforts to suppress resistance, Altaf, among many others, joined the rallying cry of #MeToo. In light of Pakistan’s culture of suppression, Khan asserts that the American #MeToo movement, while an essential motivation behind the catalytic Zainab Ansari slaying, is not as effective when enacted as a one-size-fitsall movement. Activist Tarana Burke’s movement, established in 2006 on Myspace, specifically hoped to raise up the voices of women of color, transgender women, nonbinary individuals, queer women, and women with disabilities. However, movements such as this rarely work when applied without consideration of cultural nuances or particular obstacles. An exact replica of the western #MeToo movement in Pakistan, for example, would pinball within elite bubbles and remain exclusive to

those who are already hyper-aware of the “feminist rhetoric,” as Khan describes it. She asserts, “By replicating a movement developed in a vastly different context, we end up neglecting those most susceptible to harassment.” Instead, she suggests using the western #MeToo as a springboard for Pakistan by implementing sex education, sexual harassment, and consent programs in government schools, as well as creating an environment that allows survivors to speak up. Activists have also launched a movement modelled after the western #MeToo but adapted specifically for Pakistan called #MainBhi. #MeToo’s global influence is not exclusive to Pakistan, of course. South Korea, not unlike Pakistan, had a catalytic case that allowed activists to capitalize on the

movement’s momentum. Seo Ji-hyun, a lawyer, made unprecedented accusations of sexual misconduct against her former boss and senior prosecutor Ahn Taegeun. The support that followed was astonishing and revealed the anticipation of a much-needed movement. Even Mayor Oh Keo-don, mayor of Busan, the country’s second-largest city, resigned after admitting to sexually assaulting a female public servant. A continent away, Egypt’s #MeToo equivalent #AnaKarman is cited as a catalyst in and of itself in a country notorious for rampant sexual assault. Founder of the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance, Azza Soliman, expresses the impact of the movement, emphasizing the importance of the atmosphere created by #AnaKaman. Although resistance efforts date back before the globalization of #MeToo, 2017 and 2018 were particularly busy year for activists with social media campaigns like a hashtag of the “first

time to encounter sexual harassment was when.” While the Egyptian constitution criminalizes sexual harassment, women are often discoruaged frm reporting. The government even froze Soliman’s assets and imposed a travel ban as a result of her activism. Still, she fights, and more recently her resistance efforts have yielded positive results. After describing rapes of women who wear ripped jeans as a “national duty,” lawyer Nabih al-Wahsh was sentenced to three years and a 20,000 Eyptian Pound fine (US: $1261.27) on the charges of inciting rape and sexual harassment. In Europe, countries like France and Italy developed similar campaigns. The French hashtag #BalanceTonPorc, or #ExposeYourPig in English, encourages survivors to name their harassers. Further, Marlène Schiappa, Minister for Gender Equality wrote and passed a

comprehensive bill on sexual harassment that extends the statue of limitaitions for sex crimes and imposes new sanctions for cyberstalking, street harassment, and upskirting. Italy’s hashtag #QuellaVoltaChe (#ThatTimeWhen) erupted throughout the country after Italian model Asia Argento exposed Harvey Weinstein in the United States. Mainstream Italian media wasted no time in attacking her, insisting she was an opportunistic slut, and Italian activists

Tarana Burke - Lauren Duca interviews winners Sherry Marts, Tarana Burke, and BethAnn McLaughlin. 38

sexual violence and harassment and reveal the pervasiveness of patriarchal oppression and suppression. Many have raised their voices and joined the call, and many have, for whatever reason, stayed silent and joined the call in spirit. Yet some of those who have spoken out have remained unheard. According to statistics from the Human Rights Campaign.

created the social media campaign as a response. Senegal activists Ndambaw Kama Thiat and Olivia Codou knew that their #MeToo could not function without necessary adjustments for their country in West Africa. Together, they created a platform for first steps: getting survivors to share in solidarity, which is a feat in and of itself. They launched #Nopiwouma, which is Wolof for “I will not shut up,” in November 2017 on Twitter in conjunction with setting up a google form so survivors could file anonymous reports and have received 100 verified accounts of sexual harassment and abuse. They have received even more accounts through emails, DMs, texts, and in-person encounters. Most of the respondents admitted that their account through Thiat and Codou are the first times they’ve spoken about it outside of their families, who often reinforced suppression of their stories. Though the intent was to encourage women to share their stories, they knew they could not ask the survivors to name the perpetrators—a different approach than America’s #MeToo

sent Love to a maximum-security men’s prison, where she served 3 years and 9 months. Her case was fairly-well publicised, especially among transgender rights activist—however, when discussing #MeToo, transgender voices are too often pushed to the sidelines. Similarly, nonbinary individuals struggle to find a space in the movement and garner support from cisgender women. Some note that Foundation, transgender women, while there isn’t blatant hostility toward specifically and especially transwomen of non-binary individuals, there is a feeling color, experience a disproportionate rate of exclusivity in the #MeToo movement. of sexual assault and gender violence: 54% Gender-queer writer for Huffpost, Tris of all transwomen will experience intimate Mamone, explains that their non-binary partner violence, and nearly half will be friend, who they refer to as Ollie, felt sexually assaulted in her lifetime. Of excluded from the conversation of sexual that 54%, black transwomen make up the assault and harassment because of the majority of the victims and survivors. presumption that cisgender women were Gabriel Arkles, a senior staff attorney for the only ones who could be the focus of the the ACLU, emphasizes the importance movement. Ollie, who was assigned female of understanding intersectionality when at birth, initially posted their experience reviewing anti-transgender violence. Eisha on Facebook before they noticed that Love, a black transwoman, for example, most attached the word “woman” to the was prosecuted for aggravated assault movement. Feeling restricted by the binary when trying to flee from a group of men gender, Ollie quickly deleted their post. who had accosted her. Authorities Mamone notes that LGBTQ+ websites are

movement, but influential and imperative nonetheless. Some of the hesitance to speak out is due to the loopholes in legislation against sexual violence and harassment in Sengal. Although Senegal's legal system prohibits rape, it neglects to specifically address marital rape. Further, authorities rarely enforce rape laws. Thiat and Codou’s ingenuity represents the necessity of change as well as the abolishment of the idea that change must come in one form. Make no mistake: the globalization of #MeToo has produced and revitalized movements that aim to lift up survivors of

usually the primary sources for publicising trans and non-binary marginalization, and calls for mainstream media to call attention to the disparity. Perhaps the lack of attention to transgender and nonbinary individuals is because of a prioritization and centralization of cisgender women’s campaigns. “You’ll get your chance,” some may say, “we just have to focus on this first.” It is especially difficult in countries that still mandate compulsory heterosexuality and cisgenderism, or countries that fail to recognize the fluidity of gender at all and outlaw homosexuality, like Senegal. Many countries mentioned that have been influenced by #MeToo, however, have some sort of wiggleroom when it comes to transgender rights. Pakistan, for example, outlaws homosexuality but grants citizens the right to change their gender and has instituted legal protections against discrimination and harassment for those who are transgender and intersex. In France, the law required transgender individuals to undego sex reassignment surgery to change gender markers. Transgender rights activists persisted, and by 2016, their campaigns pressured the government to retract that law. Still, hindrances remain. France still mandates that transgender persons go before a court and prove “by an adequate combination of facts that their legal gender status does not match their lived gender” in order for the court to change their gender marker. So, the question must be asked: if not now, then when? Activists can demand change for cisgender and transgender women alike. They can take advantage of widespread attention of sexual harassment and abuse and utilize cisgender privilege. They can pass the microphone to transwomen— there is no more time to wait. Though #MeToo began in the United States, it’s influence has resounded across continents and captured the attention of activists throughout the world. They have adapted movements to address particular struggles in their countries, and their social or legislative progress speaks to the necessity of change. Such progress should not go unrecognized, and the adoption

and adaptation of #MeToo, as well as the voices of those typically pushed to the side, should be at the forefront of the discussion of the pervasiveness of inequality. Otherwise, the movement will fizzle out, and its impact will be severely limited because of the fickle nature of social media attention. Further, the changes activists make in order to overcome those struggles are not slights to the original movement. Rather, they are signs of a revolution. That being said, revolutionaries cannot fight in a revolution if their allies are divided and silenced. When movements resisting gender violence and movements resisting binary concepts of gender integrate, the unification strengthens the campaign as the number of activists grows and the progress intensifies. It is simply activists’ duty to the movement to listen to the fact Jari Jones, a black trans actress and photographer, emphasizes that transwomen have labored to establish for years. She affirms that there are “black trans women out there who are doing the work to survive and to live, and some of them are screaming ‘Me too’ from the ground that they've just been beaten up on. Some of them are screaming ‘Me too’ from the hospital that they’re laying in. And some of them can't scream because they’re dead.”

Join the Women’s Resource Center and our university and community partners to stand in solidarity with survivors with our annual Take Back the Night Events Global #MeToo is the theme of this year’s Take Back the Night, which will be split into two phases. The first phase in October will focus on the struggle against domestic violence and intimate partner violence. The second phase will be held in April and will focus on the struggle against sexual violence. See our website for event information updates: http://www.loyno. edu/womenscenter/programs-events Please join us in standing in solidarity with survivors at Take Back the Night. Poster created by Gabrielle Hawkins.

References 1

Jaime Dunaway, “Why the #MeToo Movement Just Took Off in Kenya, Pakistan, and China,” Slate, January 27, 2018, accessed May 22, 2020, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/metoo-spreads-to-kenya-pakistan-and-china-after-sexual-harassment-and-assaultallegations.html; Emily Sullivan, “Pakistan Executes 'Serial Killer' Who Raped And Murdered 7-Year-Old Zainab Ansari,” National Public Radio, October 17, 2018, accessed May 22, 2020, https://www.npr.org/2018/10/17/658065143/pakistan-executes-serial-killer-who-raped-and-murdered-7-year-old-zainab-ansari.

Saba Karim Khan,“Women are suffering silently in Pakistan—is #MeToo the answer?” The Guardian, April 11, 2019, accessed May 22, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/apr/11/women-are-suffering-silently-in-pakistan-is-metoo-the-answer.

Ibid.

Damary Rodriguez, “Centering Trans Survivors in the #MeToo Movement,” NSVRC, November 8, 2018, accessed May 25, 2020, https://www.nsvrc.org/blogs/centering-trans-survivors-metoo-movement

Khan,“Is #MeToo the answer?”

Meighan Stone and Rachel Vogelstein, “Celebrating #MeToo’s Global Impact,” Foreign Policy, March 7, 2019, accessed May 20, 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/07/metooglobalimpactinternationalwomens-day/.

Choe Sang-Hun, “Mayor of South Korean City Resigns in #MeToo Case,” The New York Times, April 23, 2020, accessed May 22, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/world/asia/south-korea-busan-mayor-resigns-metoo.html.

Jana Bou Matar, “#AnaKaman: How #MeToo Has Helped Egyptian and Middle Eastern Women Break The Silence,” Egyptian Streets, May 24, 2018, accessed May 22, 2020, https://egyptianstreets.com/2018/05/24/ anakaman-how-metoo-has-helped-egyptian-and-middle-eastern-women-break-the-silence/

Stone and Vogelstein, “Celebrating #MeToo’s Global Impact.”

Jessica Phelan, “'That time when...': Italian women speak up about sexual harassment,” The Local, October 16, 2017, accessed May 22, 2020, https://www.thelocal.it/20171016/italy-sexual-harassment-hashtag-quellavoltache.

Eliza Mackintosh, “The Me Too movement was silent in Senegal. These women are trying to change that,” CNN, December 19, 2018, accessed May 22, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/19/africa/senegal-as-equals-intl/index.html.

“Dismantling A Culture of Violence:Understanding Anti-Transgender Violence and Ending the Crisis,” Human Rights Campaign, 2018: 19, accessed May 21, 2020, https://assets2.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/2018AntiTransViolenceReportSHORTENED.pdf.

Gabriel Arkles, “Making Space for Trans People in the #MeToo Movement,” ACLU, April 13, 2018, accessed May 25, 2020, https:// www.aclu.org/blog/womens-rights/violence-against-women/making-space-trans-people-metoo-movement.

Tris Mamone, “The #MeToo Conversation Erases Trans People,” Huffpost, February 21, 2018, accessed May 30, 2020, https://www. huffpost.com/entry/opinion-mamone-trans-metoo_n_5a8c5c61e4b0273053a539d1.

LGBT Rights in Senegal,” Equaldex, https://www.equaldex.com/region/senegal.

LGBT Rights in Pakistan,” Equaldex, https://www.equaldex.com/region/pakistan.

Jane Fae, “Transgender people winmajor victory in France,” Gay Star News, July 13, 2016, accessed May 25, 2020, https://www. gaystarnews.com/article/transgender-people-victory-france/#gs.vzYBN0g.

Meredith Talusan, “Trans Women and Femmes Are Shouting #MeToo—But Are You Listening?” them., March 2, 2018, accessed May 25, 2020, https://www.them.us/story/trans-women-me-too.

Black Lives Matter & Students in the Movement By Carrie Elizabeth and Tyler Sanchez

he Black Lives Matter movement has been one of the largest movements in American history and arguably one of the most divisive. The BLM movement was founded in response to the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police brutality. Notably, the first large scale protests and the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter gained momentum after the shooting and killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Since 2013, the Black Lives Matter movement has been at the forefront of most social justice causes resulting in controversy and seemingly increasing racial tension. As the movement has grown from a community to national to an international movement, there are now various ways in which an individual can support or participate in the movement. As Loyola students, we wanted to share ways that we have involved ourselves in this important and vital movement.

of the most influential civil rights activists such as John Lewis, Martin Luther King Jr, and Ralph David Abernathy, activism is ingrained in Atlantaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s culture. As someone born and raised in Atlanta, I have always understood the importance of fighting for equality and making change within your own community. It was not until this year with the murder of Rayshard Brooks

and the tasing of two college students in Atlanta that I realized my home was not a perfect bubble of social justice or equality. As tensions grew between the citizens and the Atlanta Police Department as well as the ever-growing protests and marches, I found myself involved in the Black Lives Matter movement outside of the work I was doing via social media. In doing so, I

Carrie Elizabeth Smith In Atlanta, the Black Lives Matter movement has added to the already diverse social and political climate. Considering the fact that Atlanta was shaped by some

co-founded Protest Kit ATL with two of my peers from high school. Protest Kit ATL aimed to provide protesters and resistors with the resources they need. The kit consisted of masks, alcohol wipes, basic first aid, pre-packaged snacks, water, a list of the ACLU Know Your Rights, and essential contacts in case individuals were apprehended. Protest Kit ATL received about $1000 in donations within a matter of days and as a result, we were able to provide 500 kits to protesters over the course of 4 weeks. That is the beauty of the Black Lives Matter movement--there is no right way to get involved and it looks different everywhere.

Tyler Sanchez In New Orleans, the Black Lives Matter movement has followed a national trend of consistent marches, rallies, and events centered around ideals of social justice. These events have turned a critical lens on the history of New Orleans and added to the diverse discourse of our community. Creating an almost perfect climate to get involved. While I have not created supportive systems like my colleague, I have eagerly participated in several marches and rallies. There is no correct way to get involved. It is important that we have people working and engaging in all areas of the movement. We need people out there marching, We need people to spread awareness and the correct information on social media. We need people to create support systems to prop up those marching and fighting on the frontlines. Bring what you can to the movement, and cause, as the late freedom fighter and United States Congressman John Lewis often said, some â&#x20AC;&#x153;good troubleâ&#x20AC;?.

Photo courtesy of Maria Oswalt

The Feminist Forum Volume VIII