The Commemorative Issue

THE SIREN

feminist magazine of the university of oregon

the sirens ILLUSTRATION BY SYNCLAIRE HORLINGS

editor-in-chief ANNA BIRD

visual design

ANNA BIRD LEAH BRAUNSTEIN Hailey chamberlain

illustration

TAYLOR WILSON Synclaire horlings

words

SARAH WYER chelsea pfeifer Marika theofelis KATIE DUNN MARINA CLAVERIA JESSI WORLEY JESSiE DAHER ANNA BIRD hailey chamberlain kelly shilhanek stephanie loh sammy cohen laura doroteo-mejia sophia mantheakis Jessica rojas ALDER SHIBLEY photos KARINA ORDELL

publishers

asuo women’s center

office

emu suite 3 university of oregon eugene, oregon 97402

email

sirenwc@gmail.com

phone

541.346.4095

fax

541.346.0620

ONLINE

sirenmag.tumblr.com Twitter @sirenmagazine1 Instagram @sirenmagazine

OFFICIAL BUSINESS

The Siren is published and produced by the ASUO Women’s Center. We are the only student-led feminist publication on campus. It is our mission to cover contemporary feminist issues and act as an outlet for the creative and intellectual development of women. Our staff consists of an editorial board of Women’s Center staff who solicit contributions from volunteer writers and artists.

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WINTER 2014 INSIDE THE

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OMMEMORATIVE ISSUE com·mem·o·rate[ kə mémmə ràyt ] 1. remember something ceremonially: to honor the memory of somebody or something in a ceremony 2. be memorial to something: to serve as a memorial to something

contributors Editor’s Letter neat/hurl WHERE WE ARE GOING Momentum WONDER WOMEN feminist of the issue HERSTORY REVISITED INSIDE THE WC WHERE WE HAVE BEEN WHERE ARE WE NOW reviews back page essay

04 05 06 08 09 10 12 15 18 20 24 28 31

credit where credit is due a tribute IDIOT MYSOGINISTS, lily allen, and more EMU RENOVATIONS equal rights...or not UO CAMPUS LEGACIES 4TH FEMALE PRESIDENT OF THE ASUO a timeline of uo women’s organizations SWAT AND SAFERIDE SHARE THEIR STORIES TESTIMONIES FROM WC ALUMNI MEET THis year’s staff did it suck? did it not suck? WHY? the infamous vagina (suit)

THE COVER

is a collage of all things SIREN and the Women’s Center. Each illustration, logo, and picture was cut out of an old SIREN magazine. We wanted to visually recreate our most recent past. This is only a brief representation of the last four years. In order to learn more about our past and the work we have done, by all means, read on.

THE SIREN WINTER 2014 | 3

HAILEY CHAMBERLAIN

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ontributors

Hailey Chamberlain is a senior in the Women’s and Gender Studies department and is a student in the Clark Honors College. She is currently one of the volunteer coordinators at Safe Ride and is writing her thesis about Safe Ride and the University of Oregon community. She is preparing to graduate in Spring and is planning on doing Americorps next year before applying to grad school in Portland for Social Work.

Sammy Cohen is a sophomore/junior in credits who really, really likes cats, spicy food, social justice, and whatever manages to pop up on her Netflix feed. She was originally born in Las Vegas, Nevada, but she has spent the last 17 years of her life here in the great state of Oregon. Or, as she likes to call it, the “West Coast Best Coast”. She’s active in social justice efforts on campus and she also is an advocate for disability rights and constantly seeks to challenge ableism in our society. When she’s not too busy, she’s usually having a merry time indoors decompressing with either a cup of tea, yummy takeout, or again, the ever-prevalent Netflix. She is thrilled to be writing for the Siren, and hopes to keep contributing throughout her time here at the U of O.

SAMMY COHEN

KARINA ORDELL Karina Ordell is from a small town you’ve probably never heard of in California. She is a professional freelance photographer studying journalism with a passion for magazines. She has always felt strongly about women’s issues but never quite knew how, where or with whom to exert it. That was until The Siren caught her eye last Fall, when she immediately expressed interest in becoming involved in the publication. Photographing the lovely, hard-working and unique women involved with The Siren and the Women’s Center for this issue was a total joy for Karina and gave her the opportunity to connect with some amazing people. She hopes to continue to contribute to the future issues of The Siren!

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editor’s letter

PAYING TRIBUTE TO OUR PAST IN ORDER TO MOVE INTO THE FUTURE, SOMETIMES WE MUST TAKE RETROSPECT AND LEARN FROM PAST MISTAKES. I, FOR INSTANCE, SHOULD NEVER LET MY BROTHER CUT MY BANGS. LESSON LEARNED.

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o commemorate is to celebrate. And because the Women’s Center is facing a couple very significant changes, we wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate the lives of people who have passed in and out of the Women’s Center, the legacies of prominent women on campus, and the roads we have traveled to become the organization we are today.

In 1971 we were 15 students known as the University Feminists.

Rising out of a desperate need to improve the status of women on our campus and end sexist discriminatory practices, the Women’s Center has since evolved to become an inclusive, safe and empowering space for folks of all identities. But our space—EMU Suite 3, in the basement across from the Craft Center, with the soft and worn red couches, the nooks and crannies filled with flyers from past events or tampons and condoms, the library that so proudly boasts of feminist literature, textbooks and how-to guides—will soon cease to exist as we have known it. Starting Spring Term we will be moved temporarily, along with other student organizations, to the halls of Mac Court. And after two years we will have a bright and shiny new space within the new EMU. Not only will this be our last term in what has been the Women’s Center for the last 26 years, but administratively we are facing a significant change as well. During Fall Term of this year, Vice President of Student Affairs Robin Holmes signed the Women’s Center over as a University Department. We are still learning what this means for our program in the long run.

And that is why we chose this issue to reflect on our past and to celebrate the organization we have been before heading off into the unknown.

I remember very vividly the first time I ever walked into the Women’s Center four years ago. I had seen a flyer for a job opening, and as a broke freshman with no idea what resources were available to me, I tore off the tab and went in search for this possible place of employment. Instead, at the risk of sounding terribly cliché, I

found so much more.

I didn’t have the language or the knowledge to express it, but I entered the Women’s Center because I was sick of a society that berates women with impossible beauty standards, perpetuates a victim-blaming rape culture, and negates the successes and ideas of smart and talented women. I needed a change of scenery, and the Women’s Center was unlike any environment I had ever been in.

Back then I was unaware and uneducated; I said senseless things and didn’t understand the weight of words; I was floating between identities. But thankfully Jennifer Busby and Kylie Wray, and all the folks at the Women’s Center, gave me a chance. They gave me a chance to figure it out, and I learned the importance of conscientious thinking.

There are no words that feel appropriate when I try to describe how much I’ve learned while being involved with the Women’s Center. But I think the most important thing, and the thing that I want to celebrate, is the confidence I have gained from this experience. I now respect myself as a smart woman, and that is the greatest lesson I could have ever learned.

After going through the stories and the histories that make up our past, I am thrilled and honored to be among such company. The people who have been involved with the women’s organizations on our campus and the Women’s Center particularly, are an incredibly unique set of activists, writers, students and politicians. Seeing how far we have come in the last 43 years is a true testament to the power of voice, communication and persistence. But as history shows us, we can never become content. I look forward to the future, whatever it may bring, and I have the utmost faith in the feminist community of scholars that has evolved on the UO campus.

-ANNA BIRD, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

NEAT

neat | hurl

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NEAT: Hunger Games Challenging Gender Roles WORDS BY MARIKA THEOFELIS Over the last few years The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins has become a pop culture sensation, for more reasons than one. Not only are the books rich in action, tragedy, and a love triangle that has captures many Americans’ hearts, but the movies have become a pop culture sensation with a lot of credit going to the actors and their ability to genuinely represent the book’s characters and all their raw emotions. Katniss Everdeen, the main character of this phenomenon, is fighting in her own society for equality among people, and in our culture she is breaking down gender roles in every scene. Katniss is athletic, smart, aggressive, and dedicated. She is independent, emotionally unavailable, and cares more about surviving and changing the future, than finding a man to do it for her. She is admired for her archery, her killing, her surviving, and her inspiring of the people in the capitol and districts of Panem. Katniss on her own began to represent a side of women that so often Disney and other media masculinize. The most exciting part of Katniss’ way of redefining gender roles, is not how she is doing it but how her arena partner and one of her lovers, Peeta, is redefining them. In the first movie especially, Peeta was seen as quite the ‘damsel in distress.’ Katniss was continually saving his life and rescuing him out of danger. Peeta, meanwhile has become stronger physically and more able to survive in the arena as the books go on, continues to show a man of sensitivity that is more inclined to use communication than confrontation. He loves Katniss more than himself and his selflessness is what captured so many audience’s hearts. While she is seen as this strong, independent, and emotionally guarded person, she is combated by Peeta’s representation of a good man who encourages her to talk about her feelings and let people into her heart. He is continually shown as better than her but softer. He is just as brave and capable, yet chooses different reactions with less bitterness and more love. He allows her to feel and to trust that he will always be there. These two characters while still somewhat stereotypical and two extremes, are two of the first of my generation to be in media for younger demographics that are making it okay, making it admirable to be an independent and strong woman like Katniss, and an emotional and committed man like Peeta.

Both characters are loved and shown in equally good lights through out the movie and their breaking of gender role stereotypes are hopefully just the beginning of the end of young people growing up watching women in distress and unrequited

Sometimes we find things happening around us that are neat; sometimes we find things that make us want to hurl. Most of the time things make us want to hurl.

Welcome to a patriarchal society.

HURL: My genitals are better than your genitals WORDS BY SARAH WYER The funny twisting in my stomach when a classmate says something like “feminism isn’t needed anymore because we are all equal now” must be the prelude to a hurl. This kind of attitude, while entirely incorrect from a realistic standpoint, is part of the problem. Obviously there was a PR battle years ago and feminism lost. As we try to rebuild ourselves and offer our name, bound together in gentle packets of letters that stand for so much more than the ism that people like Joss Whedon find fault with, we face countless battles with popular culture and media.

This is one of them. The idea that we are already treated equally, so feminism is an unnecessary response to an outdated problem. Well, classmate, I disagree with your smug assertion. Especially when I heard you say, and this is almost verbatim, “men’s sperm is remarkable, because we don’t know how we make so many of them.

We know how women make eggs, which makes eggs unremarkable.” With two parts becoming a whole why is it important for one gender to have better genitalia? Are we really going to have this argument? This “my genitals are better than your genitals” argument? Welcome to equality, ladies and gentlemen. Please check your genitals.

I find it worrisome that so many of my younger colleagues are entering into this world from the often-sheltered cocoon of high school with such a gaping lack of awareness concerning gender disparity. How can we fight this battle, face this problem, if people persist that it is no longer at-issue? No, we are equal now, in the eyes of society. Totally. Except for our genitals.

HURL: Misunderstanding “Rape” WORDS BY JESSIE DAHER (Reader caution: possible triggers in general discussion of rape culture)

adequately protect all survivors of sex crimes.

WORDS BY JESSI WORLEY If you’re like me and you’ve come to adore Lily Allen’s snarky, bitter social commentary over the years, then the lyrics of “Hard Out Here,” her latest triumph, most likely blew a love gasket off your brain. Feminists across the board have been chanting Allen’s name after some of the brilliance in the crafty wording of “Hard Out Here,” my personal favorite being a home-hitting shot in Robin Thicke’s direction: “Don’t you wish you had somebody who objectifies you/Have you thought about your butt, who’s gonna tear it in two?” I mean, come on. Genius.

Unfortunately, the creation as a whole was only half genius, due to the utter folly that was the “Hard Out Here” music video.

While it does have its high points (i.e. Lily dancing crookedly in front of a balloon display reading “LILY HAS A BAGGY PUSSY” (hello again, Mr. Thicke), overall the video screams with under- overtones of blatant racism. Lily’s backup dancers, all women of color, seemingly serve a sole purpose: exemplifying the exploitation of women (usually women of color) commonly seen in music videos. They’re nearly-naked twerking for the cameras, bent over and posing as props, even slow-motion showering champagne over each other’s bare bodies.

The (no-brainer) main issue with this bit of perceived sarcastic commentary is that exploitation for the sake of sarcasm is still exploitation.

If you find yourself shuffling your feet and stuttering to defend Allen’s “message” (“Well... but...

I mean she’s trying to make a statement”), then stop right now and check up on your privilege, folks. This is not something feminists should be ignoring. “Don’t have to shake my ass for you ‘cuz I’ve got a brain” is literally a line in the song.

LILY. COME ON NOW. You just can’t write that kickass lyric and then immediately follow it up with clips of you surrounded by bare-backed, ass-jiggling women of color. MIXED MESSAGES. This is a pretty important example of white privilege in feminism, and it’s direly important that all types of feminists recognize and take issue with it. Although Lily Allen meant well, her choices for the Hard Out Here video only served to thoroughly undermine her message.

These things cannot continue to be swept under the rug if feminism ever hopes to become truly all-inclusive and non-descriminative. It should be a cause that all women feel welcome in, not just white ones.

HURL

Recently, TMZ published a photo of one dog rough-housing with another dog under the headline: “Amanda Seyfriend’s Dog Rapes Another Dog.” Really, TMZ? Rape? This lighthearted approach to a loaded term demonstrates the psychological disconnect in our society concerning rape.

While Urbandictionary might agree that “rape” is interchangeable with “defeat” or “bother,” this verbal obscuring becomes a significant problem when even judiciary courts reflect a deep and disturbing level of ignorance regarding the inherent violence of sex crimes. And when a Montana judge sentences a 54 year old teacher to a lousy 30 days in jail for the rape (and suicide) of a 14 year old student, with comments that the victim appeared “older than her chronological age” and was “as much in control of the situation as was the defendant,” something about the definition of rape has been lost in translation.

Rape is psychologically violent by nature, with or without the presence of physical assault. Rape is the willful disregard of another’s boundaries. It is the shattering of one’s sense of personal safety.

Rape is about power. Rape is a very personal form of violence, carrying a heavy, weighty burden of stigma and shame. Rape is all of these, and so much more. So please stop claiming you are getting “raped” by your course load, or that your neighbor’s music is “raping” your ears.

It’s disrespectful and harmful to survivors. The problem with misusing the word rape is that once a word that should carry emotional, legal, and ethical weight enters into every-day vernacular, that word loses societal credibility and meaning.

The farcically-tragic mishandling of highprofile rape cases in the United States, such as Steubenville (in which two perpetrators were eventually charged and sentenced), and Maryville, (in which no one was charged or sentenced), continues to confuse the public discourse. These two cases are strikingly similar—involving age differences, alcohol, and videotaping. However, only one of these was treated as rape by the judiciary system. The tragic outcomes that result from this misogynistic misunderstanding of “rape,” require that we all more diligently police our societal application of critical terminology, in order to

HURL: Lily Allen’s mixed messages

THE SIREN WINTER 2014 | 7

NEWS/RESPONSE

CHANGE IS ON THE HORIZON...

THE INFAMOUS EMU IS SET TO BE RENOVATED, STUDENT GROUPS ARE MOVING TO TEMPORARY LOCATIONS WORDS BY HAILEY CHAMBERLAIN

A

fter being voted down by the students so many times, the news that the University was moving forward with the renovation came as a confusing surprise. I’ve always subscribed to the belief, “If it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it,” so I didn’t understand why the EMU (which seems to be in fine working order) needed to be changed. The project coordinator for the renovation was quoted in the Emerald saying that one of the biggest problems with the current union is that the building that houses the craft center and the main building “don’t go together visually” and that the architecture from the 1970’s doesn’t communicate well with the rest of the building. Maybe I’m naive, or not an architect, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem to me. The different decades of architecture working together could be seen as a testament to the different achievements and growth we’ve reached as a university since our conception over 100 years ago.

After some research though, it does seem like a lot of good will come from the new EMU, including having an area that’s open 24 hours a day, being more accessible to students, and having a larger area for student groups, but my concern doesn’t lay in the final project. My concern is with what will happen during the interim. Some of the main reasons for creating a new EMU are going to be the biggest problems during the renovation, which is going to take years.

A lot of student organizations are being relocated to the hallways of Mac Court during the renovations. One of the main problems right now is the lack of space, and moving organizations into cramped cubicles in hallways seems like the exact opposite of progress. The hallways also are not very accessible for students with physical limitations, and I don’t know about everyone else but I

think the hallways of Mac Court, directly across from the infamous cemetery, don’t exactly say “student safety” to me. To be fair, my perspective is biased. I work for Safe Ride, and some nights we’re in the office until almost 3 am, and therefore I am on campus later than most students.

Another concern for me is where Safe Ride will be located after the renovation. Not many students know this, but Safe Ride was one of the first organizations to inhabit the Women’s Center. The Women’s Center was created so feminist organizations interested in the well-being of women could be in close proximity to each other, and the fact that Safe Ride was one of those four first organizations on campus is a hugely important part of our history. Safe Ride and the Women’s Center used to work together to create events and teach the community about issues, and if we want that tradition to be revitalized and to continue throughout the years to come, Safe Ride and the Women’s Center need to maintain their physical alliance.

Unfortunately, right now Safe Ride is projected to share a space with DDS after the renovation, an organization that we are similar to and respect, but don’t share the same core values or work towards the same mission that Safe Ride and the Women’s Center do.

Over 100 student organizations like Safe Ride are being uncomfortably displaced during the renovation, to yield a product that many of us don’t agree with and won’t even be students to see.

I recognize and appreciate the changes that need to be made to maintain a safe environment, but it seems like the changes are worth more to the University than the students and organizations comfort and happiness.

SEMANTICS OF HERSTORY WORDS BY SOPHIA MANTHEAKIS “History is from the greek word ‘historia’--it means to recite!

Not ‘his-story’! ‘Her-story’ makes no sense!” This was explained to me exasperatedly by my aunt on the island of Santorini while my sister and I were visiting several family members around Europe and England. I found myself embroiled in conversations about the general misunderstanding of foreign politics or misappropriation of elements of other cultures within U.S. society quite often while there. Everything from foreign policy to Saturday Night Live was debated by my sister and our family members, and much of their criticism and frustration made sense to me. But, this one--this caught me by surprise.

A little back story… In the early ‘80s, my father came to the U.S. on a 6 month visa to work under the table for my great aunt at her

small restaurant in Eugene, OR (the original Poppi’s on 13th for those who remember). After he married my mother in a whirlwind to avoid deportation amidst their budding relationship, his sister came to Eugene to live with him and attend the University of Oregon. She took some Women’s Studies courses and had the aforementioned statement to relay to me 23 years later about my involvement in feminist organizations and movements.

Stemming from a futile conversation she had in a Women’s Studies course about the root-meaning of history and the lack of knowledge and understanding on the part of her classmates and professor, my aunt’s chagrin and distaste of the U.S. feminist movement managed to burn fiercely for two decades before our interaction. My aunt, the savviest, most ruthless business woman I’ve ever

CONTINUES ON PAGE 11...

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MOMENTUM

MOVING FORWARD WITH THE E.R.A. WORDS BY JESSI WORLEY AND SARAH WYER

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omen have come such a long way since the efforts of the first suffragettes. Look at how far we’ve progressed over the past millennium – from no rights at all to equal rights as protected by law. Right? Just in case you’re curious, these rights are listed under the ERA, or Equal Rights Amendment. And, oh, it never became a part of the U.S. Constitution.

The ERA was first proposed by Alice Paul in 1923, during the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the 1848 Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls. In 1943, Paul re-wrote the ERA and titled it the Alice Paul Amendment. The revised edition read: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” After the civil rights movement in the 1960’s, women began to mobilize and demand the constitutional inclusion of the ERA, to establish a legal basis for the enforcement of equal rights.

The Equal Rights Amendment quickly passed the U.S. Senate and then the House of Representatives. On March 22, 1972, it was proposed as the 27th Amendment to the Constitution and was sent to the states for ratification. However, Congress placed a seven-year deadline on the ratification process.

According to the History of the ERA, it “barreled out of Congress, getting 22 of the necessary 38 state ratifications in the first year. But the pace slowed as opposition began to organize – only eight ratifications in 1973, three in 1974, one in 1975, and none in 1976.” Although Congress granted an extension until June 30, 1982, it continued to struggle as U.S. politics became increasingly more conservative. The Equal Rights Amendment was reintroduced in Congress on July 14, 1982 and has come before every session of Congress since that time. It has never been fully ratified, and has yet to gain acceptance as a Constitutional amendment.

Alice Paul created the ERA because she believed that it was essential to establish a legal basis for the enforcement of equal rights. If you find it disturbing that no part of the constitution protects the rights of women, you’re not alone.

In 2010 producer and actress Kamala Lopez started work on a project to raise public awareness about the ERA. The defeat of the ERA trickled from the consciousness of many, and now as many as 75% of young women believe that their rights

are protected under the Constitution. Struck by these numbers and the continuing failure to pass the ERA, Lopez initiated a kickstarter to fund her documentary, “Equal Means Equal.” On October 20, 2013, the kickstarter was proclaimed a success, and Lopez began filming immediately.

A pivotal part of Lopez’s ERA Education Project, “Equal Means Equal” is traveling around the United States to take a “snapshot” of women. What do we, as women, think about our lives in the current socio-economic atmosphere, and do we believe that passing the ERA would have a positive impact on our lives? Lopez firmly believes that educating Americans is the key to victory. Ratifying the ERA and including it in our Constitution is a vital step in protecting women’s rights and encouraging future generations of women to stand up for equality.

Lopez hopes that, once exposed to the truth behind the ERA’s failure to reach the Constitution in the 1980s, the American people will find it imperative to make sure the amendment reaches its proper destination. “Once educated, keeping this injustice in place will be unacceptable to the American people,” Lopez claims. For the sake of all women, I hope she is right. Because, as she says in her documentary’s trailer, “[protecting women’s rights in the Constitution] doesn’t seem like such a crazy thing to ask!”

THE SIREN WINTER 2014 | 9

THE WOMEN BEHIND THE CAMPUS MONUMENTS THE HERSTORY OF THE MUSEUM OF ART AND GERLINGER HALL WORDS BY SARAH WYER

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he University of Oregon’s history is peppered with influential women, and their names have left a mark on our campus. Irene Gerlinger was the U of O’s first female regent and the woman responsible for Gerlinger Hall, the Women’s Building on campus, which was named after her in 1929. Gertrude Bass Warner founded the University’s Art Museum and donated her extensive personal collection to spur the museum into being. The shadows of these women, and many more like them, are still present on our campus in the repetition of their names and the buildings that represent their influence.

Gertrude Bass Warner donated a huge amount of time and money to the University. A widow, she spent years traveling alone though Asia, collecting art and artifacts most notably from Japan and China. The friendships she built throughout her travels connected Eugene to China in new and promising ways, and she took this idea of cultural relativism and mutual understanding and tried to apply it to the UO. In her late husband’s name, she created The Murray Warner Essay Contest, rewarding student applicants varying amounts of money and, on occasion, a trip to Japan or China to learn more about international relations and improving the relationships between America and Asia. Her essay contest always selected a question about this relationship, how to better it, how to increase trade relations, how to bring understanding about Asian culture to somewhere like Eugene, etc.

The topics were molded to encourage thoughtfulness and fight xenophobia.

On top of the essay awards, Warner wanted to encourage the scholarship of women. In the special collections of the UO Knight Library, I read through correspondence concerning the awards and found a conversation through telegrams that Warner instigated on January 20, 1931, where she asked: “Do you consider it safe and desirable for a college girl to go to Japan alone stop I am offering a summer term in a cultural school in Japan as a prize in my essay contest and would like to give the girls the opportunity of winning the prize as well as the boys…”

This was a celebratory find for me, as I huddled in the corner of the Reading Room, sifting through the thin papers of hundreds of letters from Warner’s personal correspondence files. It was no surprise that a woman like Warner, one who traveled alone and forged friendships so strong that they bridged continents and oceans, would be concerned about women’s involvement in scholarship.

Nonetheless, it was a telegram that brought me great joy to read.

Warner’s involvement with the Museum of Art on campus, now known as the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, was instrumental.

She donated her collection, the Murray Warner Collection, to the museum in order to get the institution on its feet. Warner also donated funds, including $15,000 for a basement, to facilitate a museum worthy of her high standards. Irene Gerlinger, as a member of the Board of Regents for the university, stepped in to help Warner raise funds for the museum building.

Gerlinger and Warner, while breathing life into a common goal, did not see eye to eye. Before the University of Oregon’s Art Museum was built, there was very limited space in which to house the Murray Warner collection. Several pieces went to Gerlinger Hall, the women’s building, to share display space with Condon’s collection of fossils and other unrelated works. While Gerlinger did not begrudge lending the space of her lovely Georgian building (a building that she spearheaded the funding efforts to build) to Warner’s collection, what she did mind was the very exacting specifications that Warner had about how her collection was to be cared for, displayed, and stored. Warner worried over lighting, storage, and the safety of her collection, and she was not shy about bringing it up. From the research I have done in the special collections, as well as the article, “The Stormy Birth of a Museum” by UO archivist Keith Richards, Gerlinger was not happy with this arrangement.

Spurred by the idea of building an art museum to house the Murray Warner collection permanently, thus removing pieces of it from her women’s building, Gerlinger jumped on board to help with fundraising. An experienced—and successful—fundraiser, Gerlinger knew the right avenues to dapple with messages of monetary need. She sent students home with instructions to spread the word and collect contributions and donations, offered up gallery names in return for substantial donations. The exact figure was a donation of $30,000 in order to have a gallery named after a person, or their family. Gerlinger scripted and mailed countless letters asking for funding and promoting the idea of having an art museum at the University of Oregon. She worked tirelessly on the project, a parallel effort with then-President Prince Lucien Campbell’s charismatic campaign to build a better campus.

Warner, to protect her collection, was very specific concerning what the museum building needed to have. While a group of architects, headed by Ellis Lawrence, designed an ideal building, Warner scrutinized the fundraising campaign in-between trips to China and Japan to collect more pieces for the collection. She faced off with Gerlinger on various issues. Warner did not want to name galleries after people, she preferred the idea of naming collections after people. Gerlinger, who had promised a gallery to generous donors, did not wish to go back on her word and fail to deliver. The

“

Gerlinger and Warner, while breathing life into a common goal, did not see eye to eye.

”

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power struggle over executive decisions was palpable, event through the old documents, and reached a head when Gerlinger refused to see the project through to the end result. She would raise a certain amount of funds and then, she said, she regrettably declined to continue with the project. This, coupled with Prince Lucien Campbell’s death due to cancer, promoted tensions for both women. In fact, Gerlinger was reported to have said “I want that damn woman out of my building!” at least once during the fundraising process.

To make certain that the museum building would be suitable for her large collection, Warner prolonged the process of installing it once building had begun. Although the ever-growing Murray Warner collection had been a gift to the university, Warner still held tightly

to the reins of control over where it went. Her particularism, while nit-picky to some, ensured the best possible outcome for the museum and the collections housed within it for years to come. Finally opened in 1932, the art museum continued to grow, both physically and in prestige, over the years. Today it proudly boasts three wings, including two reception halls, a large basement, a huge permanent collection, and the Prince Lucien Campbell Memorial Courtyard.

Warner and Gerlinger, while at odds with one another, both contributed to the lasting monument that, today, is the Jordan Schniter Museum of Art. They gave their time, energy, and money to the University of Oregon to help build a legacy for students, faculty, and Eugenians.

GERLINGER HALL

“HERSTORY”CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 met (and single mother to boot), refuses to call herself a feminist... over ‘herstory’. I realized I had never thought about the original root of ‘history’ or ‘herstory’ until this conversation. But, when did this begin? Where did ‘history’ and ‘herstory’ come from?

The word ‘history’ itself, as my aunt described, is descended from the greek ‘historia’, meaning recitation, inquiry, or the pursuit of knowledge. Largely referring to past events insofar as they pertain to written record, the term can be used to describe documentation, collection, interpretation, and study. It does not have anything to do with the gender and narrative connotations that many read into it (something that many etymologists are quick to point out). As any good feminist can tell you, history the concept has largely been told and controlled by men in many societies, and, ironically, greek men in greek history have been cited far more for their contributions to history than greek women. Herodotus, Socrates, Aristotle, Thucydides, and the like will come rolling out of the mouths of anyone asked to name the great minds in greek history, but most people will stare blankly at the mention of Hypatia. One of the earliest women philosophers and mathematicians among many hundreds women and marginalized peoples who’ve gone unacknowledged for their contributions to society, Hypatia was flayed alive near the end of the Classical age by Christian extremists. Since, her story and many others have been drowned out in the voices recounting the history of men.

This is where ‘herstory’ comes in. The term was coined sometime during the 2nd wave with the emergence of texts, such as Sisterhood is Powerful and Words and Women, to refer dually to the under-representation and/or omission of women’s voices within historical analysis, study, and documentation and the alternate account and interpretation of women’s experience of and contributions to

history. Originally meant with a revolutionary and somewhat humorous tone, the term has become commonplace in many academic programs and feminist organizations as an alternative to ‘history’.

My aunt’s protest of the misuse and alteration of ‘history’ comes from her view of U.S. culture as ignorant and appropriative. Though I agree there is a serious lack of interest paid to the origins of words in U.S. English, our society is also guilty of misunderstanding and misappropriating so many additional aspects of countless cultures-even moreso over indigenous and non-western cultures. The misunderstanding itself of the false gender-implications of the word ‘history’ might hold as extreme within the world of etymology (The Global Language Monitor threw a fit over ‘herstory’ in 2006), but I can’t help but to recognize that that the root of a word does not equate someone’s lived experience of it. In a society so controlled and oppressed by the actions of the few and mostly white, wealthy, cisgender, heterosexual, and abled men, recognizing the gendered parts of our actions and our words is an essential part of questioning a gender-oppressive system. It was only a matter of time until the the feminist movement would question the word and many others and their connotations in dominant society.

But, our herstory is not just guilty of overlooking a lived experience other than that of U.S. society--it has overlooked countless marginalized women within our own movement, too. I hope that inquiry of language and practice remains acute, and I hope that we can turn that inquiry on ourselves to examine what it means for us to use language without knowledge of origin and to exclude women within our own movement from helping tell their stories and their histories, or herstories, too.

THE SIREN WINTER 2014 | 11

feminist of the issue

MOTHER MARY THE UNCONVENTIONAL STORY OF THE 4TH FEMALE PRESIDENT OF THE ASUO

WORDS BY ANNA BIRD

A

t the age of 17 Mary Hotchkiss made a list of 23 things a woman of her time should experience before writing a book.

At the age of 18, Hotchkiss left her hometown of Camillus, NY to begin a hitchhiking adventure around the country with her first female lover. They hitched a ride to Texas and lived on the banks of Lake Austin for the summer. She then scratched several things off The List.

A few of the other experiences that would make her worthy to write a book: write a perfect poem; be a rock star groupie; climb a mountain; smoke Alcapulco Gold and learn to roll perfect j’s; memorize a page of the dictionary every three days; and hitchhike through all 48 contiguous states.

“The best part about hitchhiking was standing on the side of the road and sticking out my thumb to see what would happen,” Hotchkiss says. She was a young woman in the ‘70s and modeled her life around adventure and having the experience for the story of it.

Becoming a single mother in the Clark D. Honors College and being elected as the fourth female Student Body president of the University of Oregon weren’t among the MARY HOTCHKISS SINGING AT THE PAINTED HILLS IN things on her list. But the kind of open curiosity and wanderlust that drives a person like Mary Hotchkiss has endless possibilities.

It was 1977 when Hotchkiss came to Eugene, OR with her husband of four years. She was 23 and ready to settle down, and he was a Vietnam vet with “a lot of problems.” “By the time I got to Eugene I had hitchhiked around the country and had quite some wild adventures,” Hotchkiss says. Soon after moving to Eugene, she decided to end her marriage and six weeks later found out she was pregnant from the very last time she was intimate with her husband.

But for Hotchkiss, a detour in the road wasn’t going to hang her up.

Plus, giving birth at home was one of the things on her list.

During that time, if you gave birth at home in New York you were arrested for child endangerment, so she stayed in Eugene to have her baby. When she started her 21 hours of labor, he was “sunny side up,” so the midwives advised her to exercise. Hotchkiss,

12 | WINTER 2014 THE SIREN

of course, took this seriously and hopped on a bicycle with a friend, and rode around Eugene, stopping every once in awhile for labor pains. “The midwives were actually horrified by that. They didn’t mean on a bike.” She had three midwives to coach her through the birthing process and a doctor to back them up if things went awry.

“It was learning how to mold my raw energy to what needed to happen, and to know when it was time to push and when it wasn’t.”

After six more hours and some warm olive oil, she gave birth to her 10-pound baby boy, Gabe.

“Let’s talk about feminism—where do you ever, ever have that much power and knowledge over your body…? It was the most empowering thing that I did,” Hotchkiss says. “It let me know that I could do anything I wanted to.”

For a while after Gabe was born, she worked as a wet nurse for six other babies while their parents worked. She was a licensed practical nurse and also worked nights in a nursing home. About a year and a half later, she decided to do something she had never done before, something that wasn’t on her list—she decided to go to college, and she enrolled at the University of Oregon.

“When I got to college I found out my brains were still intact.” They decided to put her in the Robert D. Clark Honors College, where they had never had a single mother, non-traditional student, and Hotchkiss fit the bill.

Having had the range of experiences that she had, she was able to connect very easily with her professors. She majored in English with a minor in Women’s Studies and French, while also being a full-time single mother and working full-time in the nursing home until her last year in school. Even with all these things on her plate, she received mostly A’s and only six B’s. Four of those B’s were from Dr. Marilyn Farwell. “She is so wicked smart, and a good feminist lesbian…she was just monumental towards challenging me,” she says. “I wanted the A’s from Marilyn Farwell.”

Another challenge throughout her years in college: childcare for little Gabe. When the entirely fraternity-ran ASUO threatened to defund the daycare budget, which was critical to her existence as

a student, she decided to get involved with student government. vulnerable was I?” she says.

For the first year she mostly volunteered in various capacities, but By spring term she would come in to work and find offensive ended up in a coalition of all the minority student unions who had slurs spray painted on her door, such as “Crotchkiss is a dyke” or been disenfranchised during the “fraternity reign.” They became a “Crotchkiss has penis envy.” As a 30-year-old non-traditional student large enough voting block to win the next elections in 1983—not in the midst of finishing her senior thesis in the Honors College, by a landslide, but it was a huge triumph “for the little people,” as this wasn’t something that she expected from adults in an academic Hotchkiss puts it. environment. In turn she decided to give the people what they As the fourth female preswanted. “I went and ident of the ASUO, Hotchhad (a friend) buzz my kiss brought together an head, and I walked into integrated slate of students the office and said, ‘You and received a lot of backguys wanted a dyke in lash for her liberal politics. the office, now you The fact that she was getting have a dyke.’” a minor in Women’s Studies Hotchkiss has always was well known among the prided herself on student body, which brought being a conversationalon more negative feelings ist when it comes to about her as a feminist and a controversial matters, woman in power. Additionally, she and her team had overthrown the and not wasting her time with yelling and arguing. With the breadth fraternity-based patriarchy and challenged the systemic oppressions of experience she had under her belt by that time, she had a broader on campus, which did not sit well with the conservative students on perspective in relation to most of her peers, as well as the matercampus—more specifically, our conservative friends at the Oregon nal perspective of being a mother. Besides buzzing her head or Commentator, which was threatening to cut the consequently founded by Commentator’s funda group of “concerned ing, she didn’t like to student journalists” the same retort when provoked. year Hotchkiss was elected.

She didn’t identify The Commentator had with the anger that much to say when she was so often involved petitioned the administration with radical feminism to change the quote that was during that time, and embellished on the wall of instead strived for the EMU lobby. The quote courtesy over rule. was written in 1951 by Dean “I’m a courteous William C. Jones. It included feminist. What that your run-of-the-mill sexmeans is my job is not ist language in which the to have power over word “man” was used as a someone,” Hotchkiss universal term for students: says. “It’s just to make “The University of Oregon sure that my power is … guardian of the noble in understood and recogman’s aspiration … leader nized.” That principle in the quest of the good life helped her connect MARY HOTCHKISS TAKING A REMINISCENT TRIP TO EUGENE IN 2013 for all men…” with different folks Hotchkiss says, “To and create change in understand the level of exclusion in that sentence, on somewhat her communities while obviously ruffling some feathers along the of a personal level having seen the ‘60s and seen how women were way. treated—I really knew what that they meant that when they wrote After surmounting the obstacles of her twenties—holding down it.” a night job while being a single mother in college and enduring the In an especially charming argument against her petition to change flack of being ASUO president—Hotchkiss finally got that A- from the sign, in an “Open Letter to Hotchkiss,” Publisher Dane Claussen Farwell on her senior thesis. She then graduated from the Clark D. makes some tired arguments about equality in respect to men’s Honors College with Phi Beta Kappa honors. “Twenty one hours rights. “…I favor equal treatment. Gerlinger Hall, emblazoned with of labor for a ten-pound baby—you can’t fake that. That was the ‘Women’s Memorial Hall,’ should be sandblasted to ‘People’s Memoknowledge that I had for the rest of my life that did get me through rial Hall’…the women’s studies program should be complemented the tough places in college.” by a men’s studies progam…” and so on it goes.

She left a legacy at the UO when her campaign against sexism and They also posted a death threat against her in their April Fool’s the quote in the EMU was successful. In the Fall of 1984, the EMU issue. This was crossing the line from political to personal, and it Board decided to erase the existing quote until a more suitable, and caused her great fear to a point where she even called the police. “I more inclusive quote was agreed upon. In 1986 the board decided felt so vulnerable—I was out on a bike with my son, you know, how on the famous “I have a dream” quote from Martin Luther King Jr.

“

The best part about hitchhiking was standing on the side of the road and sticking out my thumb to see what would happen.

”

CONTINUES ON THE NEXT PAGE...

“MOTHER MARY” CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

THE LIST: 23 THINGS A WOMAN OF MY TIME SHOULD DO BEFORE WRITING A BOOK

BY MARY HOTCHKISS

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Paint a mural Write a perfect poem Play a piano piece perfectly Memorize a page of the dictionary every three days Lose my virginity Make love with as many men and women as necessary to understand my full sexual potential Earn money for having sex Go streaking and do naked cartwheels to protest women’s subjugation Help draft dodgers across the border Fight for women’s and civil rights Live in a commune in Boulder, CO Be a rockstar groupie Smoke Alcapulco Gold and learn to roll perfect j’s Take LSD 25 Be a junkie and stop Drink double shots of JD Black straight up with water chasers Learn to drive Be a pinball wizard and learn to play pool Surf Climb a mountain Give birth at home Hitchhike through all 48 contiguous states

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Hotchkiss sees it as a wonderful opportunity she had to have that kind of influence given the time. “It does make me feel good every time I walk in and see that quote now.”

When Hotchkiss graduated, she continued working within activist communities and engaging with her little band of political followers—which she describes as an “eclectic” group. She was a grant writer, fundraiser and board member for the Rape Crisis Network for a period after college; she started a group called LOGIC (Lesbians, Others and Gays In Community Service) during “the really hateful times that the Christian right was vicious and ugly;” she worked on the board of the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation for a number of years, which was an organization where “a bunch of trust-fund-hippies got together and endowed a huge sum so that alternative groups in the community can get funding.”

She used her various experiences, knowledge, and her instincts as a caregiver and a nurturer to help people who came to her for advice. At the age of 36, she started her own business called “Mother’s Income Tax Service,” a word-of-mouth business through which she has been able to help people “without giving naked strangers baths.” People still contact her not only for her tax services, but advice on a number of different things because of her vast background in nursing, teaching, grant writing, organizing and motherhood—among many other things. “There’s hardly any piece of life I haven’t touched in some way, and it’s wonderful that I can be helpful on all those levels.”

Hotchkiss added so many aspects to her life by making a list at the age of 17. She was a young woman in the ‘70s and modeled her life around adventure and having the experience for the story of it. Now, at the age of 59, she has quite a few stories. She lived her life fueled by a desire to see what would happen next, and in order to pay homage to that philosophy, she finally wrote a book. The book is called Curiosophy (a word invented by Hotchkiss herself)and will be published on the internet later this year. She chronicles her experiences that were driven by the “philosophy of being curious.”

Besides the release of her book, she has no idea what she’s going to do next, which of course isn’t a concern for Mary Hotchkiss. “My job right now is not to push. Usually it’s my job to push; usually it’s my job to go out and change things, but sometimes your job is just to sit down and shut up, and wait for the answer to come.”

THE DEATH THREAT PRINTED AGAINST MARY HOTCHKISS. ISSUE 10 OF THE OREGON COMMENTATOR. THIS WAS PART OF THEIR “APRIL FOOLS” ISSUE.

herstory

REVISITING OUR STORY TO APPRECIATE WHERE WE ARE, WE MUST REMEMBER THE WORK OF UO FEMINISTS WORDS BY ANNA BIRD ILLUSTRATIONS BY SYNCLAIRE HORLINGS “The past reminds us of timeless human truths and allows for the perpetuation of cultural traditions that can be nourishing; it contains examples of mistakes to avoid, preserves the memory of alternative ways of doing things, and is the basis for self-understanding…” – Bettina Drew, writer In the Summer of 2011, the SIREN published a 40-page Herstory Issue in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Women’s Center. Jennifer Busby, then Editor-in-Chief, hoped to contextualize our past and pay tribute to the legacies that women left across the UO campus. In the Herstory Issue she and Brandy Teel, the Director of the Women’s Center, wrote an extensive article on the herstory of the Women’s Center. In “Consciousness Rising: Unearthing the Tangled Roots of the University’s Feminist Organizations,” Teel and Busby laid out the chronology of how we came to be as a center, and the influence feminism has had on our campus.

At the risk of being all “been-there-done-that,” that’s exactly what I’m going to do again. Why? Because history never stops being relevant, and as Bettnia Drew puts it, “the past…is the basis for self-understanding.” In light of the changes we are facing, both in terms of our physical location and in administrative changes, we would be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn’t revisit our herstory. Honoring the roads we have traveled and learning from our past is the only way we can progress as we move forward.

In 1971 we started off as 15 undergraduate and graduate students who were known as the University Feminists. Today we have twenty paid staff members, one of the largest student program budgets, and our annual events continue to grow in attendance. The path from there to here was a long and intricate web of trial and error around an evolving consciousness.

The Climate

From the 1960s to the 1970s there was very much a social shift in ideology as well as a shifting of the power dynamics from government and top business organizations down to individuals and groups who previously had been disenfranchised. The 1960s were characterized by protests for peace, the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. By the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, the Women’s Liberation Movement was in full swing. The LGBTQQI movement had been sparked by the Stonewall Riots in 1969; the radical feminist group, Redstockings, were shaking things up with critical dialogue; and Kate Millet had just published Sexual Politics.

1970s 1970

1971

1972

A group of female professors at the UO authored a report on “The Status of Women at the University of Oregon.” The findings indicated that women were greatly underrepresented on the faculty, that women faculty earn significantly lower salaries than male faculty, that women professors are clustered around “traditionally stereotyped disciplines,” and that 43 percent of female faculty had experienced “sex discrimination” at the UO. Joan Acker was the first woman ever hired as a regular faculty member in the Sociology department, and only the second woman to earn her PhD from that department. “It was a very alienating environment,” Acker said. In the same year, Acker taught the first Women’s Studies course through the Sociology Department. To which one professor reportedly argued, “If we can have a women’s studies, why not a dog studies!”

The Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) investigated the UO and determined that the UO was guilty of discriminatory policies towards women employees.

15 undergraduate and graduate students came together and formed the “University Feminists” in response to the “Status of Women at the UO” report. Prior to this time, there had not been an organized student group devoted solely to women’s issues on campus. They worked on issues like course and textbook content, healthcare, crimes against women and sexual assault support services; they held workshops, rallies and conferences. The University Feminists successfully worked with community members to bring a gynecologist to the Health Center for 2 hours a week to address wide spread misinformation and provide women’s healthcare to UO students.

The University Feminists formed the Women’s Rights Defense Committee that offered a place for women who experienced discrimination to discuss incidents of discrimination without fear of reprisals. The committee provided support and assistance to women and the ability to file a report. In 1972 the University Feminists also obtained funding from the Incidental Fee Committee.

“Women on this campus are living in an environment which constantly and overtly discriminates against us, insults us, physically assaults us, and continuously reminds us that we are thought to be weak, inferior and unimportant and had better stay that way.” –A commentary piece in the ODE on 5/5/1972 Graduate assistant, Jeanette Silveira, working with Joan Acker taught the first Women’s Studies course – Intro to Women’s Studies.

“

Women on this campus are living in an environment which constantly and overtly discriminates against us, insults us, physically assaults us, and continuously reminds us that we are thought to be weak, inferior and unimportant and had better stay that way.

”

THE SIREN WINTER 2014 | 15

“

The State Board of Higher Education approved the Women’s Studies program as a “certified course of study.”

Joan Acker, Marilyn Farwell and other female faculty formed the Center for the Sociological Study of Women. They looked for support from all the department heads to make it an interdisciplinary research center, but only Richard Hill, the head of the Sociology Department would support it. It was the first center in the nation that focused its research on women. “The Center focused most of its energy on problems at the University of Oregon. For example, using the data from its study, the Center pushed the University to adopt Affirmative Action policies and fought for changes to the institutional structure of the University so that women students would be better encouraged and accommodated,” said Acker in 2006.

The University Feminists staged a 40-woman sit-in on the steps of Johnson Hall to demand six things: daycare facilities for all university women, immediate hiring of a full time acting coordinator of Women’s Studies, money to hire faculty to teach Intro to Women’s Studies, free access for low-income women to continuing education courses, a campus Women’s Center, and a women’s health clinic at the Student Health Center to be held one day a week. All were dismissed by University President Clark who said that most of them were not possible because of the UO’s financial constraints at the time.

Women in Transition (WIT) program began in order to assist women who were part of an unprecedented trend of students entering higher education during this time. The “older than average” students who started WIT wanted to: “address particular issues facing this population including; divorce, widowhood, single parenthood, financial hardships, emotional crises, emptiness created by children who no longer need mothering, the lack of family understanding and appreciation, a need to create a new self-image and identity, an inner belief that one has something unique to contribute to society, and a need to do more than just survive.” (Statement of Purpose, 1977) Because the group was run by and for women in transition, their motto became, “we know, we’ve been there, we care.”

First Women’s Symposium was held, which was a week-long event that offered films, speakers, workshops, panels and live entertainment on campus. Speakers included Margaret Sloan (one of the founders of Ms. Magazine) and Barbara Ehrenreich, a socialist feminist writer.

Project Saferide was started as a way to address the needs of women’s safety on campus. They acted as an after-hours shuttle service run by women, for women.

When the group started, they were housed in the ASUO office.

1973

1977

1985

1975

The University Feminists changed their name to “Women’s Resource and Referral Center” (WRRC). The organization decided to move away from some of their more radical politics and become a center of information and support for women who sought information, services, organizations and functions that serve women both on and off campus. They wanted to provide more accessible services for all types of women, no matter their politics. This shift was greatly influenced by the decreases in funding from the Incidental Fee Committee who felt the group “wasn’t doing much.”

The group’s goals had been revised to include both an activist component and a resource and referral component. The goals statement claimed that the group was ‘aiding women in their search for information, skills, tools and services which will help them gain autonomy in a sexist culture.

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1976

The women who started CSSW and the women from WRRC advocated for an Affirmative Action office on campus. They had been meeting with folks to discuss this possibility and the logistics of it, but were met with negativity and, again, questions of legitimacy.

The WRRC hosted the first Women’s Film Festival, which served to raise awareness around women’s issues as well as funds for their organization.

The Women’s Diversity Program began (which would later evolve to become the Women of Color Conference we hold today) in response to ongoing lack of inclusion and representation in previous programming.

1978

The WRRC received a budget increase that grew their budget from it’s original $379.50 in 1975 to $3,000.

USING THE DATA FROM ITS STUDY, THE CENTER PUSHED THE UNIVERSITY TO ADOPT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICIES AND FOUGHT FOR CHANGES TO THE INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSITY SO THAT WOMEN STUDENTS WOULD BE BETTER ENCOURAGED AND ACCOMODATED.

1983

”

William Harris, husband of Jane Grant, made an endowment in her name to the Center for the Sociological Study of Women. Jane Grant was dedicated to giving the money to research on women, and after her death Harris began searching for the perfect organization or institution. He originally wanted to give the money to Harvard, but they weren’t interested in funding research on women, so his search continued. After meeting with University of Oregon President Robert D. Clark and then talking more with the women from CSSW, he decided to endow $3.5 million to the center. They then renamed themselves as the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS).

A Women’s Task Force was established in the ASUO Student Government Office.

The annual Women’s Symposium was boycotted to protest lack of participation by women of color.

At an ASUO staff meeting, Project Saferide brings up the issue of possibly moving out of the ASUO office to a bigger, less chaotic environment where they had more opportunities to network with other groups that served women on campus.

Karen Hoag is hired as the Women’s Task Force Coordinator, and she talks with Women’s Studies Professor Barbara Pope and ASUO Executive Coordinator Susan Sowards about the boycott of the symposium and the idea of a women’s center as a way to bring all the women’s groups together.

Project Saferide, WIT, WRRC, and WTF begin to meet up with Susan Sowards and Karen Gaffney to form the planning committee for the Women’s Center and discuss the pros and cons of having a the groups merge to form a joint center. Some of the “pros” they came up with were the following: more accessible; offering better services; having a support staff person to use for continuity; support to directors; could merge services that are similar, like WRRC, but keep primary services with separate roles.

The “cons”: less services due to possible polarization and exclusion, ie, only a straight women’s place/only a lesbians’ place; possible shrinking due to ineffective staffing; each group might lose once co-director each; need to secure a useful space.

1987 1988

March: The organizational goals are prioritized, like funding and location; A mission statement, budget and job description for a Coordinator is drafted.

April: Final proposal is made to the Incidental Fee Committee, and funding is approved; EMU Housing Board approves relocation of all offices from Suite 3 in the EMU, and assigns the space to the Women’s Center.

Summer: Search Committee formed and interview process begun; Barb Ryan is hired as the first Coordinator.

Fall: The Women’s Center opens in its new location.

BARB RYAN I was fortunate enough to get an interview with Barb Ryan at the beginning of this year, and she explained to me how she came to become the Women’s Center’s first Coordinator, and what that position looked like in its very beginning stages. Ryan had previously been involved with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance, the WRRC and Students with a Progressive Agenda (she was in PSA with Mary Hotchkiss who is profiled as our Feminist of the Issue on page 12).

Ryan admits she was initially opposed to the idea of a Women’s Center because in her eyes they could have just expanded the WRRC. But after more discussions of what it could look like and what it would mean for all the involved groups, she agreed that it would be a good move, and felt that she was fit for the job of Coordinator with all her past experience in student women’s organizations. Because the Center was new, and everybody was trying to create a collective organization, there was a lot of error in the breakdown of information and the power structure. “At times it got a little bit messy.

But that beginning part of who was whose boss, who was working for who, who cut whose paycheck—not who could tell who what to do—but who made final decisions, who even had a vote?” Ryan says now as she reflects on the confusions that were laid out in the preliminary structure.

The Women’s Center worked with the University Counseling and Testing Center to create a liason position between the Counseling Center and the Women’s Center.

Women And Gender Studies became availProject Saferide and able as a major area of study, following Ethnic Nightride merged to become Assault PreStudies and Environvention Shuttle. mental Studies.

1992

1997

1991

The Women’s Center worked with UO and community members to designate a small amount of seed money towards the creation of Sexual Assault Support Services. This came after the closing the Rape Crisis Center in Eugene at a time of growing concern around sexual assault.

2003 2000

Out/Loud, then known as Lesbopoloza celebrates their first year in the backyard of one of the student’s rental property. It was run out of the LGBTQA office.

*Information was compiled from past research projects and memos. “The History of Women’s Resource and Referral and Women in Transition on the University of Oregon Campus: A Research Project” by Kimberly F. Balsam; “The ASUO Women’s Center: An Analysis of Organizational History” by Edwina Welch

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SAFE RIDE: AN EVOLUTION PROJECT SAFE RIDE —> ASSAULT PREVENTION SHUTTLE —> SAFE RIDE

WORDS BY HAILEY CHAMBERLAIN

T

here is no question that in 1985, when Project Safe Ride first originated, there was a dire and pertinent need for women to have safe access to and from campus. In the almost three decades since it’s conception, through administration changes, policy changes, and name changes, the organization that is currently known as Safe Ride has stayed true to the original mission-providing women (and now everyone) an alternative to walking alone at night, relying on others to take them home, or being stuck in a potentially dangerous situation.

Project Safe Ride was created in the 1985-86 school year by the ASUO President and Vice-President, Lynn Pickney and John Dreezen , after conducting a poll where they discovered that most women felt unsafe walking on campus at night due to growing numbers of assault and poor lighting conditions.

The early years of Project Safe Ride were memorable not only for their impressive size and huge volunteer base, but also for the amount of attention they were receiving from the media and from students. In Fall term of 1987, Project Safe Ride gave 380 total rides, which increased to 1048 in Fall of 1988, 1169 in Fall of 1989, and 1484 in Winter of 1990. These numbers are staggering in themselves for such a new organization, especially considering there were only 8 people on staff. Project Safe Ride relied on, and achieved, getting 30-50 volunteers or interns a term to help maintain the ability to give so many rides.

Between 1985 and 2001, Project Safe Ride maintained their presence on campus and in the media, bringing light and recognition to the problem of sexual assault on our campus, and with relative fame came backlash. Project Safe Ride was the victim of three separate grievances filed, being criticized for being discriminatory against men and violating Title IX. In 2001, despite only having three grivances filed in 16 years, staff advisor for the ASUO, Jennifer Creighton, acted on her belief that there was a “percieved threat” of more grievances, and decided to make Project Safe Ride inclusive for all people, regardless of gender.

This dramatic change brought a flood of emotions for the people who ran and relied on Project Safe Ride. Many felt that this violated the basic message of the mission statement, in a previous issue of the Siren Jen McWeeny is quoted saying “Now the drunk guy at the party that a girl may have been trying to get away from all night will be getting on the van with her.” While there was an incredible sense of loss in the transition from Project Safe Ride to the Assault Prevention Shuttle, the staff tried to look at things in a positive light, vowing to maintain feminist ideals while taking the opportunity to “accommodate even more of the community,” as former Co-Director Elizabeth Jackson said.

The Assault Prevention Shuttle functioned from 2001-2010, serving any rider regardless of gender, but in 2010 another change was necessary. Because of the name, some people were getting confused about the actual mission, and were calling in with requests that the organization could not fulfill, so the name changed again to Safe Ride, which is what it is today.

Today, Safe Ride doesn’t make headlines nearly as much as it did in the beginning, but changes are still being made and the staff remains as passionate about helping the community as ever. This year, Safe Ride received a huge budget increase, which has allowed us to increase the size of our staff and offer more rides than ever before.

In the 2012-2013 school year, around 11,000 rides were given, and for the 2013-2014 year we are projecting offering almost 25,000.

As we move towards the future, we never forget our past, we know the sadness that was felt when Safe Ride was forced into changing the policy not so long ago, but we appreciate the change because it means that today, in a society that is a lot more inclusive, where we understand gender in much more complex ways, we can offer a ride to anyone in need without needing to ask for an explanation or clarification of identity.

The Women’s Center secured two consecutive Office of Violence Against Women (VAWA) Grants to start SWAT and Sexual Violence Prevention and Education position at UO, as well as the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART).

Lesbopolooza became OUT/LOUD.

Women’s and Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies become departments.

2002-2006

2006

2009

2005

2007

The WC brought Bell Hooks to campus.

Folks from the WC stage campus protests against Axe Body Spray.

18 | WINTER 2014 THE SIREN

2010

Queer Studies minor was added to the UO (WGS) curriculum.

CONSENT IS SEXY SWAT EDUCATES TO COMBAT RAPE CULTURE

WORDS BY ALDER SHIBLEY

R

ape Culture is best defined as a culture in which rape is prevalent, pervasive, and is sanctioned and maintained through fundamental attitudes and beliefs about gender, sexuality, and violence. Many feminists, scholars, and activists argue that the United States of America is the paradigmatic Rape Culture, as culturally traditional gender roles polarize the sexes and enforce rigid ideologies of sexual behavior and practice. In a Rape Culture, rape is seen as inevitable, as a result of the sexual subject/ object relation maintained between men and women. The irony is, that within a Rape Culture, the act of rape is not seen as a culturally sanctioned practice, but rather an isolated and unrelated incident that occurs between individuals. The harmful attitudes produced by Rape Culture create a social environment that is fueled by fear, violence, and the ever-present possibility of violation.

healthy sexual attitudes and practices through the use of multimedia and theater. Abigail Leeder, the Director of Sexual Violence Prevention and Education, and coordinator of SWAT has made it her mission to utilize theater for social change; a process which she believes has the power to alter the mentality of Rape Culture. As an interactive message, sexual violence prevention becomes a realistic and encouraged possibility for all students, as SWAT workshops perform and explore relatable situations, and encourage audience reflection and participation.

The Sexual Wellness Advocacy Team has been actively taking steps to help people of all genders educate themselves about the prevailing issue of sexual assault. The most common response when confronted with the reality of sexual violence is to shut down, to tune out, and to distance oneself from the problem with dismissive

Here are some facts that illuminate the reality of Rape Culture: · · · · · · ·

·

The United States has the highest rate of sexual assault of any industrialized nation.

A woman is sexually assaulted every two minutes in the United States.

Nine in ten rape survivors are women.

One in five women are sexually assaulted by the time they are 21.

One in four women are victims of rape or attempted rape in their lifetime.

At least 90% of women who are raped know their attacker.

Among felonies, sexual assault is the fastest increasing and the one with the highest rate of unreported incidents.

Only one in twenty rapists will serve jail time.

In the fall of 2001, leaders at the ASUO Women’s Center took positive steps to combat Rape Culture. The Sexual Wellness Advocacy Team (SWAT), a group of empowered students determined to promote healthy sexual attitudes and practices on campus, began as a Sexual Violence Prevention and Education Internship opportunity for students of all disciplines. After receiving federal funding from the Office of Violence Against Women in early 2002, the SWAT team evolved into a program with a fulltime staff position, allowing for the expansion of campus outreach through the utilization of resources and close relations with two local violence prevention groups: Women’s Space and Sexual Assault Support Services (SASS).

After a successful few years spent in combat with the issue of sexual violence, SWAT was welcomed as an institutionalized addition to the University of Oregon, which created a permanent position for a Director of Sexual Violence Prevention and Education.

Currently, SWAT consists of 15-18 students who present workshops to various student organizations, in which they promote

2011

comments. Therefore, one of the main goals of the SWAT team is to engage their audiences by building a sense of community in which the discourse surrounding the issue of sexual violence is positively changed. SWAT’s mission, along with interactive and comprehensive education, is to challenge our community of students and staff to come forward as allies. Because of the rigid ideologies surrounding sexual behavior and practice, we are too often confronted with degrading slang, like slut, skank, pimp—all of which enforce the attitude of Rape Culture by normalizing and allowing individual sexual behavior to be ridiculed by cultural ideals. To change the reality of Rape Culture, we must first alter our individual attitudes. What we allow is what will continue; therefore, change is only possible through individual education, communication, and action.

For more information about SWAT, resources for survivors, scheduling a workshop, or ways to get involved, please visit our website at swat.uoregon.edu

OUT/LOUD closes downtown Eugene for an all-day festival headlined

by Nina Sky, Andrea Gibson, Krudas Cabensi and Tender Forever; Queer Glee Club is formed call themselves “Rainbow Connection.”

The Women’s Center moves out of EMU Suite 3 into the halls of Mac Court during the EMU renovations.

2012

2014

WC brought Vandana Shiva for International Women’s Day; The WC celebrated its 40th anniversary; The Women of Color Speaker Series was named in honor of Ms. Lylle B. Parker; The WC collaborated with WGS textbook “Women’s Lives” editor Gwyn Kirk, Code Pink and WAND for the Fashion Resistance to Militarism fashion show protesting military actions.

2013

Vice President of Student Affairs Robin Holmes transitioned the Women’s Center from the ASUO Controllers Office to a University Department.

THE SIREN WINTER 2014 | 19

testimonies

FINDING COMMUNITY, FRIENDSHIP, SUPPORT WORDS BY STEPH LO, PUBLIC RELATIONS COORDINATOR 2004-2007

I

distinctly remember the day I interviewed for a position as the ASUO Women’s Center’s public relations coordinator.

It was 2004, the beginning of my sophomore year – and the year that would turn out to be one of the most liberating of my life.

I think, looking back, I knew I was gay, even then. And I answered the Women’s Center’s ad in the Emerald because I secretly thought that putting myself in that sort of an environment would help me confront what I was starting to realize about myself.

Months later, the women who interviewed me that day, and who had since become my friends, told me they’d known I was gay since the minute I walked in the door of that interview room in my grey cords, blue button down and green sweater vest – I mean c’mon, I was in a sweater vest for Pete’s sake.

Of course at the time they said nothing, content to let me figure it all out on my own.

Best move ever.

I got the job, but didn’t realize what I was getting into. For a kid from Singapore who’d never given much thought to how she fit into the world as a Chinese immigrant to the United States who might just happen to be gay, the first few months on the job were abject culture shock for me.

Working as the Women’s Center’s spokesperson for the next three years probably taught me more about feminism, queer politics, and minority issues than I’d ever thought about in my life.

It opened my eyes to the swirl of issues enmeshed in debates about race, color, gender and sexuality. But most of all, during a time when I was questioning my sexual identity, it gave me a safe space to just grow into myself.

Everyone knew I was gay from the get-go. No one pushed me to decide one way or the other. They all played along and humored me as I attended every LGBT event imaginable as an “ally,” then dipped my toe into the waters and started telling people I was bisexual. Yet they all supported me, and above all else, they made me feel like it was OK, that nobody gave a shit if I liked girls better than guys.

As months went by, I started to realized that I liked who I was

becoming. I had friends. This was my community now. I’d finally found my people. By the beginning of my junior year, I was out.

By my senior year, I was out and proud enough about it that I no longer cared what anyone thought. That year, I even helped to plan Out/Loud – something my sophomore year self might have recoiled from (lest anyone think she might be gay!)

I ended up working as the PR coordinator for three years and by the time I graduated in 2007, the Women’s Center’s EMU office had become my campus home and WC Director Brandy Teel was the big sister I never had. Brandy and I worked together seamlessly. We were on the same page, we “got” each other, and the efficiency flowed effortlessly. It was great. Her office door always open whether you wanted to check in about an event or plop down on the beat up old couch and spill guts, tears and repetitive stories about love and loss, triumph and heartbreak.

Along the way, I also met a multitude of strong, funny, personable women whom I still consider friends today, I learned what to do and what not to do when interviewing job candidates – note to self: telling a job candidate that a certain staff member can queef on command is not acceptable – and honed my own leadership skills.

I don’t think there’s any other organization on the face of the planet that had as much of an impact on me during my formative years of young adulthood, and for that I say thank you.

Thank you to the Women’s Center staffers who came before me, to the friends and role models I got to know so well from 2004-07, and to those who will come after us – forever continuing the WC’s mission.

Without the Women’s Center, I might not be the person I am today. I’d bet my house that hundreds of others will share that sentiment.

Stef Loh is a 2007 graduate of the University of Oregon. She is now a college football reporter for the San Diego Union Tribune.

“WC GAVE ME A CHANCE TO DO SOMETHING.” WORDS BY JESSICA ROJAS, OFFICE GODDESS, NON-TRAD STUDENT ADVOCATE, DIVERSITY COORDINATOR

I

came into the Women’s Center as an Office Goddess. In the beginning, I was intimidated by all the badass young feminists in the office. But I, too, am a badass, so I just played a supportive and observational role in the WC office for awhile.

During my second year, I served as the Nontraditional Student Advocate. I worked to build a relationship between the Women’s Center and nontraditional students on campus. During this time, I began to ponder what makes a student “nontraditional” in a predominately white, privileged campus.

I took up the Diversity Coordinator position in my third and final year.

20 | WINTER 2014 THE SIREN

In my time at the WC I facilitated a Women and Gender Studies 101 section in the lounge for a term.

I have received support from the WC as a recipient of the Mary Minner Scholarship; I had the opportunity to introduce Angela Davis as our keynote for the Women of Color Conference; I contributed workshops to WOC conference as well as SJRJ and authored several articles to the SIREN. I also served as a WC representative to entities on campus such as the Native American Student Union (NASU), Multicultural Center (MCC) board, Associated Students Advisory Committee (ASPAC), Prison Justice Working Group as well as the UO Many

Nations Longhouse. Although most of these groups I connected to on my own, to be a bridge between these groups and the WC was something I worked to achieve.

As an Environmental Studies major, with a minor in Ethnic Studies, I was able to connect my educational path to our work in the WC, highlighting the intersection of gender, race and the environment. One way I did this, was by bringing a speaker to our campus for the Lylle B. Parker Women of Color Speaker Series who could not only speak to these experiences but also was someone actively shaping policy and perception in these three arenas.

Throughout the experience of bringing Chief Caleen Sisk to UO, I wanted to make sure that overall everything I was doing reflected the intent of highlighting how race, gender and environment are connected. I believe every step of the process, beginning with the person I chose as the speaker, our outreach to build an audience and what we were going to do once we had the audience’s attention, was critical because I do not believe in wasting precious resources, whether it be time, money or energy.

I wanted to make sure that women’s work was honored and valued as most of the time it is women cooking, cleaning, volunteering and giving their time, heart and soul into so much that makes this world function, but that work is largely unrecognized financially and socially. During the Lyllye B. Parker speaker series we honored our cooks by putting them up there in recognition with our

guest speaker. The salmon that was served was locally caught and prepared by one of our fellow students who not only is a local tribal fisher-woman but a Fine Arts major here at our campus. I contracted women in our community and campus who I know have a gift to share because I want to see all their work being recognized for what it is, the heartbeat of the people, what keeps us all alive. That is just what I believe and I cannot speak for anyone else.

WC gave me a chance to do something. The staff took a leap with me and pushed boundaries with structural entities as well as comfort zones when needed. They also help me set realistic goals and boundaries. I learned hard lessons in life about pacing ones self, not trying to be superwoman all the time, and the importance of selfcare. I had to learn the hard way to not get used by others. I look back and am so grateful to have had the support I received from our mentors, Brandy and Erin. Not only are they a wealth of knowledge, they are real people who should never be taken for granted.

For all those who thirst for social justice, gender equality and a better way...take a step into the Women’s Center. It’s a huge punch bowl so take a good stir, fill up your cup and sip with intention.

Jessica Rojas graduated from the UO with a BS in Environmental Studies and a minor in Ethnic Studies; she is now a Policy Assistant to the Metro Council in Portland.

TOP LEFT AND TOP RIGHT: WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP BRUNCH AND LYLLE B. PARKER WOMEN OF COLOR SPEAKER SERIES, 2013 (TOP RIGHT: CALEEN SISK AND JESSICA ROJAS) BOTTOM LEFT: STEPH LO (2ND FROM THE LEFT, BACK ROW) AND THE WOMEN’S CENTER STAFF AT THE BELL HOOKS EVENT

THE SIREN WINTER 2014 | 21

testimonies

EXPLORING OUTSIDE THE BOX WORDS BY KELLY SHILHANEK, VOLUNTEER

S

ometimes your life changes when you least expect it. I imagine this shift kind of like being on a train in the middle of the night, when you hear the slow creak of the wheels and feel the cars almost intangibly shift their direction. There are no loud gasps on board, no one fell out of the bunk in the sleeper car—you just sense in your bones that the train is now taking you in a different direction than you were previously moving.

On a fateful Tuesday in January of 2011, sophomore year, Liz, one of my best friends at UO, and I decided to attend a Volunteer meeting at the Women’s Center. Late in the evenings the previous term, on the couch in our large, drafty house, we had secretly been watching the “L Word.” That sophomore fall was quiet and boring, apart from our classes in International Studies. The L Word awakened curiosity and conversations about women—this represented completely new terrain for our friendship and I am thankful to Liz for her acceptance of and enthusiasm for this process. After returning from winter break, I think both of us knew we had to act on the fact that we had been watching the “L Word.” My head was full of questions. I was ready for something new, but I could not anticipate the ways in which this seemingly benign action—going to a Women’s Center volunteer meeting—would manifest and change me.

There are snapshots and captions in my head, not quite organized chronologically, that catch moments in time I spent over the next year and a half as a volunteer and intern at the Women’s Center. One caption would read “you guys,” but would be crossed out multiple times with the correction, “y’all.” An image would show my young face and other new friends glowing with the excitement of embracing a new identity and finding community. Of course, another photo would have two sets of hands with fingers intertwined on the red couch in the lounge—because where else but the

Women’s Center, bashful and still uncomfortable in my queerness, could I feel safe holding my girlfriend’s hand? A simple text would accompany this picture: “Meet you in the dub.”

There are other moments in the atmosphere of the WC that cameras cannot capture. The realization that I am a survivor, and never was nor ever will be guilty in any way for what happened.

The feeling of freedom because those narrow, patriarchal norms that determined how I dressed and whose gaze I was seeking didn’t matter anymore. The development of my understanding around privilege and oppression and recognizing my role (especially as an International Studies student) as a change-maker within my own community rather than an individual bringing an agenda to other places.

My mother said, when I told her I was seeing a girl and that this was the result of a long process I had been exploring with Liz, “maybe this is environmental.” I had entertained that thought as well. Did I fit the lesbian until graduation stereotype—was I too wrapped up in the WC to know what was true to me? My hindsight can answer. Yes, I’ve questioned myself again and again: “are you really queer?” I have told myself “no” many times, thinking that no matter how awesome the Women’s Center was, it was a time of my life and I’ve moved on. But when I was there, I stepped out of the box, and to me, queerness is that space outside. My life took a different direction than it would have if I had never walked into Suite 3 on the bottom floor of the EMU. I know that I am standing solidly outside of that box, and wherever I walk, it won’t be stepping back inside.

Kelly graduated in 2012; she now works as a Nutrition Educator for the AmeriCorps School in Seattle.

ILLUSTRATION BY SYNCLAIRE HORLINGS

22 | WINTER 2014 THE SIREN

ON THE PATH TO SELF DISCOVERY WORDS BY LAURA DOROTEO-MEJIA, VOLUNTEER AND OFFICE GODDESS

I

t has been a little over a year since I came to the University of later, I received an email an early Tuesday afternoon congratulating Oregon and joined the Women’s Center. It has always been hard me on being hired. I actually went through my e-mail and found the for me to see any progress in myself, but when I think back to my exact date: October 22, 2012 at 8:48 am. first few weeks here, the change is clear. I arrived to the University I’m not going to lie, the first few months on staff at the Women’s with a heavy heart. I had loans I didn’t fully understand, and a mediCenter was complete confusion. My office training I had received cal condition I barely understood. My first few days were filled with earlier was completely forgotten, and I depended completely on the doctor’s visits and insurance headaches. I was feeling lost, adrift in flippy thing on the front desk to tell me what to do. I had so many the vastness that was my new life. I yearned to ground myself once questions in my head, some so completely inane that I am embarmore, and sought out places that could provide me stability. I can’t rassed that I was ever worried about it. Not wanting to alert the staff quite remember how I heard about the Women’s Center, (which of my obsessive behavior just yet, I kept most of my questions to would be very helpful to me myself. I survived somehow right now seeing as a lot of all the while finding balance my job involves outreach) to this strange new life of There was only me, an identity-less individual who I just remember attendwas just going through the motions of what it meant mine. ing a volunteer meeting One of the primary reato be human. I am now on the opposite end of that sons for my anxiety in my with a friend who was also interested in the Women’s last two years of high school spectrum...

Center. was my environment. I was Feminism was a word I had not heard for a long time. I do attending a school full of seemingly white middle-class kids. Being remember feeling rather frustrated at the role women played in my the obsessive go-getter I am, I challenged myself with the classes I culture, and I do remember making a vague connection to feminism. took, opting for advanced courses where practically no one looked I had always assumed that this inequality was a well-known fact. like me. I truly seemed like the only brown person in all my classes.

I was quite the passionate feminist for my first two years in high I just could not connect with them, and they made no effort to conschool. My last two were unfortunately riddled with problems that nect to me. At the Women’s Center, I found myself connecting to pretty much pushed out all thoughts on gender inequality and filled people like me, and those different from me as well. I found people them with crippling anxiety. At the time of that volunteer meeting, like me at the Women’s Center and other student unions. I came to the Women’s Center reminded me of past me, and reminded me that these places trying to put myself back together again, and I ended I once saw more to life than my anxiety. up finding pieces of myself I thought I had lost a long time ago.

Less than a month later from my first volunteer meeting, I found Before I came to the Women’s Center, I had reached a point in my myself on staff. During my second volunteer meeting, we were life where I thought none of this mattered anymore. Race, gender, asked to sign up for an office training to get to know the Women’s sexuality, and other issues were dismissed. There was only me, an Center better. I signed up on the same timeslot as my friend and identity-less individual who was just going through the motions of arrived at the time specified. Erin showed us around the lovely office what it meant to be human. I am now on the opposite end of that and was in the middle of showing us the paperwork in the main spectrum, chock full of identities such as a woman of color, a MEdesk when she mentioned that the Women’s Center was hiring OfChista, a Mujer, a writer, a nerdfighter, an SRSter a late riser and of fice Assistants. I hesitated for a moment, wanting to ask for one, but course, a feminist. And this hasn’t even scratched the surface of this too nervous to say anything. I may not have asked at all if my friend wonderful complex thing known as my identity. It is fluid, and I look hadn’t spoken up asking for an application. Her words spurred me forward to seeing what shape it takes next. to ask for one too, and one hasty resume brush-up and interview

“

”

A TRULY SAFE SPACE I WORDS BY SAMMY COHEN, VOLUNTEER

t’s hard to put into words the impact the Women’s Center has on my life. I guess I can begin with how I was first introduced to the place that I consider my second home.

I remember shyly walking in during the fall term of my freshman year. I was greeted with a smile and asked if there was anything I needed help with. I asked how I could volunteer and immediately filled out one of the little sheets we all know and love. It wasn’t much longer that I went to my first volunteer meeting and wound up meeting some people who I still consider to be my closest friends.

I then signed up to volunteer for my office hours for the following term.

The first day of winter term my freshman year, I walked in and asked one of the Office Goddesses what to do. I told her it was my

first day and that I had no clue what I was doing. She said that it was her first day there as well, so we both stood in first-day-at-the-office solidarity with each other. I should also mention that the same Office Goddess that helped me out is also the same Office Goddess that is now one of my best friends. I began to talk to more people there as I came in more and more, and I felt safe.

This feeling of safety was significant for me. Even though I’m a naturally very bubbly person and can now befriend people very easily, it wasn’t always easy for me to make friends or feel safe with people. I came to college hiding something that I had hidden for years. I was very young when I was diagnosed with Autism. I went through my early childhood with intensive interventional education and therapies and with a lot of support. I was in special education

CONTINUED ON PAGE 27...

2013-2014 STAFF PHOTOS BY KARINA ORDELL ILLUSTRATIONS BY TAYLOR WILSON In the year of The Bat, amidst all the chaos and confusion that this year started off to be, we took it in stride as a team.

At the beginning of the year, there were some familiar faces and some new. But it was clear from the get-go that this would be a year full of trials and triumphs. With 40 conscious eyes toward intersectionality and 20 open and intentional minds working together to create an environment of empowerment, we carry on the Women’s Center legacy.

ALI BYERS OFFICE ASSISTANT

My name is Ali, and I am from Springfield, Oregon, where I grew up out in the booneys surrounded by trees, and also from Eugene, Oregon, where I always hung out because there’s basically nothing to do in Springfield. (Kidding. Springtucky is actually alright, but I really just wanted to make a “get out of this town” joke.

Sometimes I’m too punk-rock for my own good.) Feminism being an immensely important part of my ideological identity, I found solace at the Women’s Center, where a flock of fabulous people unite for a greater common cause, bringing services and equality education to the U of O. I hope that through the WC, I can change people’s lives for the better, starting with the free coffee.

CAITLIN CORONA SEXUAL VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND EDUCATION

My name is Caitlin Corona, and I’m originally from Sacramento, California. I come from a multi-ethnic family---my dad is from Sierra Leone, West Africa, and my mom is of mixed Western European ancestry (but was born in Hood River, Oregon). I’m involved with the Women’s Center because I come from a line of strong women. For instance, my greatgrandmother (my feminist muse) was the first female superintendent in her county, among other things. After graduation, I plan on pursuing an MD/Ph.D in the field of computational neuroscience. I also plan on continuing my advocacy work for survivors of sexual assault/domestic abuse well after graduation. I have two orange cats named Loki and Zuky, my favorite person is my 7 year old nephew.

BERNICE OFORI-PARKU NON-TRADITIONAL STUDENT ADVOCATE

After joining my husband who is pursuing a PhD in Communication and Society, I decided to use the four years I will be spending here in the U.S. to further develop my professional skills, by pursing a graduate degree. I am currently an International Undergraduate Transfer student and my major is General Social Sciences and my concentration is Applied Business, Economics and Society. Unfortunately, my three-year Higher National Diploma (HND) in Marketing does not meet the University of Oregon’s four-year degree requirement for graduate applications. The first section of my education (in Ghana) and life allowed me to witness and experience countless individual stories and heartbreaking poverty, traumas, and struggles against poverty. As a result, I developed an interest in interacting with and helping people meet their needs as much as I can. I currently work at the Women’s Center as the Nontraditional Student Advocate and the Co-op Family Center as a teacher Aid.

24 | WINTER 2014 THE SIREN

ANA ARELI RODRIGUEZ VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

Trying to go by Areli this year, changing my preferred name is hard. My name is Ana Areli Rodriguez, I like the name Areli, and it’s not as common, plus its sounds beautiful. Personally I’ve always liked Areli, but always chose to accommodate with people. I was born and raised in Eugene; I went to Willamette High School. My parents are from Latin America: Mexico and El Salvador. I am the first generation going to college, and the first female to attend a 4 year-university.

The first time I went inside the Women’s Center was for the free printing, I went in printed my paper and left. I first got involved with the Women’s Center last year; I was an Office Goddess AKA Office Assistant. My original purpose for becoming involved with the Women’s Center was to be in an environment where people are positive. I loved the events that the Women’s Center does, and that is why I applied for Volunteer Coordinator. I wanted to be more involved with the events the Women Center does, and being the Volunteer Coordinator would make sure I’d be heavily involved with the events.

After college I plan to travel. I want to do something different that no one in my family has ever done, I tend to like doing that. My life goals are to own a miniature pig, to live in China for a year, and to own a house.

JUSTINA OLAND OFFICE ASSISTANT

I’m Justina Oland, and I’ve lived in Oregon my whole life. My family is primarily from Ireland, Scotland, and Spain. I’m a Christian in faith, and I got involved with the Women’s mainly from my mom, who worked here before, and my own personal interest. I hope to learn more about feminism and add onto the things I know bits of. After college I want to be a book translator and an author!

LAURA DOROTEO-MEJIA OFFICE ASSISTANT

A baby radical and barista-in-training, I hail from the small unincorporated community of Boring, Oregon (We’re not allowed to be called a town). Identities are too complicated for me. I’m a Latina woman of color as well as well as other various things that I will leave off for future pesky applications. In exchange for being able to meet wonderful people and having a fridge away from home, I must fight our evil nemesis patriarchy.

My main interests include destroying the notion of the gender binary and addressing oppression and patriarchy as a woman of color. My goal now is to educate myself in these topics, and that could mean possibly mean more school. Career-wise, I have no set goal in mind. Hopefully with the knowledge I gain here, I can make an impact wherever it is the dice fall. When I’m not snoozing in the lounge, you can probably find me pretending to do work in the MEChA office, or attending meetings in the MCC. My outside hobbies include anxiety-driven googling (You can learn a surprising amount of stuff this way), writing the first few paragraphs to a long and epic tale of friendship and misery (just the first paragraphs though), mooching off my roommate’s fantastic cooking, and taking away free peaches from MRA’s and the like.

KATIE DUNN EVENTS COORDINATOR

I’m Katie. I come from a little town South of Portland, called West Linn.

Many of my memories growing up revolve around taking walks with my pup, Dixie and rocking out to angsty new wave music. I look up to my family elders a lot for their ambition and hardwork. They inspire and inform many of the important decisions I have faced so far. After graduating high school I crossed the border into Canada, my grandparents’ homeland. I began my undergraduate career at the University of British Columbia where I ate a lot of cheap sushi, played on Wreck Beach and made friends from around the world. A little over a year ago my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and I transferred to the University of Oregon so that my family and I could better support each other. This transition was difficult. When I first started at the Women’s Center it gave me a strong sense of motivation and purpose.

Not to mention great friendships. Just a couple months after first volunteering I found myself hanging out in the lounge on a daily basis. The Women’s Center has allowed me to meet inspiring feminists, develop professional skills and channel my energy into organized activism. When not doing the work of feminism I enjoy hooping to the beats of Crystal Castles, hiking, doodling, creative writing and thrash-dancing to live music.

LISBET RIVAS RUIZ OFFICE ASSISTANT

My name is Lisbet Rivas and I would say that I am from many places. I was originally born in California in a small town called Martinez. However, I grew up in Corvallis, Oregon where I have spent most of my life. I would like to say that I am also from Mexico. Even though I wasn’t born there my parents were and many of my family still lives there. My culture plays a big part of my identity which is why I consider myself to be both from the United States as well as from Mexico. I first came into the Women Center as a freshman not really knowing what the center was or had to offer. I knew that it was a space I wanted to explore and learn more about. As the years went by I came to love and appreciate all the Women Center has to offer. I have found a space where I can talk and learn about important issues, as well as working together to empower women. Working at the Women Center I also help educate others on issues that aren’t talked about in our everyday lives. I am majoring in Family and Human services and when I graduate I want to be able to help individuals, whether it be by becoming a counselor or working in an agency that provides services for others just like the Women Center does.

THE SIREN WINTER 2014 | 25

TAYLOR WILSON VISUAL DESIGN COORDINATOR

Hi there! My name is Taylor, I’m a senior this year and I’m majoring in art. I was born in Port Angeles Washington, however I’ve basically lived in Eugene my whole life, so I definitely consider myself a tie-dyed and true Eugeneian. I love all kinds of art, but for my personal practice I mostly focus on drawing, painting, and digital media. Outside of school I love singing, playing guitar, writing, reading, hiking, biking, running, cooking, excessive amounts of Netflix, and playing with every animal I can find. I’m graduating this year! (Scary!) After graduation, I’m hoping to travel internationally for a while, start my freelance work as an artist and designer, move to Portland, and eventually go for my masters in art.

SYNCLAIRE HORLINGS OFFICE ASSISTANT

My name is Synclaire. For the most part I have lived in the suburbs (Tigard, OR). I was adopted from South Korea. To be honest, the Women’s Center was initially just a job listing. However in the short amount of time I have been part staff I have learned that it is much more than a center or just a job. I have found a home away from home here, and I believe the WC has the power to create this welcoming and comforting energy to everyone who comes in. I can learn a lot from something capable of doing something as awesome as that. After college I would like to travel, maybe get paid to do some weird doodles, and paint giant oil paintings of nude people. And if that falls through, I think I will apply to an international English teaching program. Also at some point, I would love to finish a tube of chapstick without losing it first. I feel like that will be what truly transcends me into adulthood.

MICHELE AGGREY PUBLIC RELATIONS COORDINATOR

I am Michele, and I am happy to have an international background. I have lived in Oregon since I was eight after living in Okinawa, Japan. Originally, I am from Ghana, West Africa and have been able to visit Ghana a few times since living in Oregon. I am a junior at the University of Oregon majoring in Public Relations. Last spring, I developed a strong interest for the Women’s Center and presently work as the Public Relations Coordinator. Working to educate and empower women in the community is significantly rewarding for me. Through my work at the Women’s Center, I hope to learn more about the feminist cause and how it relates to diversity and inclusion. Upon graduation, I hope to work for a PR firm within the West coast. In my free time, I enjoy Zumba, leisure reading, watching my favorite TV shows, and dining at the great restaurants Eugene has to offer.

BIOGRAPHIES NOT INCLUDED, BUT NONETHELESS RAD AND IMPORTANT: BRANDY TEEL - Director ERIN MCGLADREY- Program Assistant

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MEERAH POWELL OFFICE ASSISTANT

Hey, I’m Meerah. I’m a freshman at the UO this year, as well as a new hire at the Women’s Center. Although I’m new to the UO, I’m definitely not new to Eugene. In fact, I’ve actually never lived anywhere else throughout my whole life (sadly). Although I might have not wanted to necessarily stay here for college, I’m trying to make the most of it - and all my friends at the Women’s Center are definitely making it a whole lot easier. I got involved with the Women’s Center because being a feminist, biracial woman of color I am not only focused on feminism (and the education of feminism) but also overarching equality for every underrepresented and misrepresented group of people. I hope to aid the Women’s Center in bringing awareness to the wants and needs of every female identified person that needs to be heard. I just recently (as in a couple weeks ago) declared my major as psychology, although I have absolutely no idea whatsoever of what I actually want to do with it once I graduate college, but I guess I have a bit of time to think about that. In my spare time I enjoy petting my cat (as well as other cats and maybe even a dog here and there), sitting in my house, playing bass in a band called Martian Manhunter, roller skating, Netflix, trying things on at American Apparel but never actually buying anything, drinking blended red bulls, eating Thai food (specifically Tasty Thai’s Pad See Eu – if you haven’t had it I highly recommend it), spending copious amounts of time on the internet and going to concerts, as well as various other activities. If ever you see me in real life please don’t hesitate to come say hello!

SOPHIA MANTHEAKIS LBTQQIA COORDINATOR

I was born to lightning fires and a hot, hot summer in the Applegate Valley. My childhood was spent catching crawdads and lizards, dancing to my mom’s records, and making hippie crafts while listening to my dad cuss in Greek. Due to strange and serendipitous circumstances, my parents came to meet each other in Eugene after my father came to the US from Tanzania. It is all because of the original Poppi’s restaurant on 13th that I even exist...and that I came to University of Oregon. I am the LGBTQQIA Coordinator at the Women’s Center because I believe creative student activism and programming (like OUT/LOUD) can save people and foster growth and happiness in my community. After I finish post-bacc work and a MA, I’m going to run away with the circus as a pole-dancer extraordinaire. When the revolution is over, I’m going to own a restaurant that serves only pie.

TRAN DINH OFFICE ASSISTANT

SHIRUI ZHANG INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ADVOCATE

My name is Shirui Zhang. I come from China and studied in Japan for almost three years when I was in primary school, so I speak Chinese, English and some Japanese. I am studying accounting in UO and I am a junior now. I got to know Women’s Center since last spring. I took the ethnic class at that time and got a volunteer application form on that class. At the beginning, I just feel curious about the Women’s Center, but later I realized that it might be a safe and great place for international women to stay and even ask for help. I have heard of many difficulties that international female students face on campus such as sexual violence and homesick problems. I thought there should have some space for them to share their experience and overcome their difficulties. Then I applied for the position of International Student Advocate and hoped that I could do something to support international women and bring them together with native students. I think I will do the jobs associated with accounting after graduation. I hope and I would like to still get chance of doing something voluntarily to benefit women even after graduation. The primary meaning of feminist is living independently, so I think I will work hard on my job with professional skills to live better and help others.

I’m Tran, I’m currently an Office Goddess at the WC! I’m from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the land of humidity and incessant rain. Three years ago, I took a 16-hours-plus plane to Eugene, USA, for an education. Sometimes I feel like a hybrid for being so engrossed in American culture via the Internet, then to move here and realizing the discrepancy between perception and actuality, sometimes I’m just confused. I believe that is why I am involved with the Women’s Center, because I am a 20-year-old who has realized some aspects of their identity while still wildly torn about others. Joining the WC has been a life-changing decision for me as this center offered me a sense of camaraderie that I haven’t been able to find at college before. By being involved, I hope to help maintain if not expand the nest’s accessibility and empowerment for women-identified people in the community or those who are looking for a community. After graduation, I would like to find work in the intersection of media and ethnic studies, perhaps in America, perhaps in Vietnam, perhaps in Switzerland; this question terrifies me.

“SAFE SPACE” CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23... for a few years in Elementary School and was simultaneously mainstreamed into what you all would consider a typical classroom. My educational therapist in the 3rd grade told my family that it might be a good idea if I educated my class about what having autism was like. She made the call in good faith, as she thought that I was in a safe and welcoming environment. She, unfortunately, was wrong.

“Retard”. “Autistic Crybaby.” “Are you gonna keep crying, retard?” “You should go kill yourself.” “Nobody cares about you.” “Nobody loves you.” These words were thrown at me every day for three years as I entered into middle school. My peers saw my disability as a weapon they could use against me, to shame me, to make me feel like a lesser being. For those 3 years, my bullies won. I had teachers that were frustrated by how often I would come in crying because I couldn’t take the bullying. The bullying was more than just words thrown at me.

It was the posts on myspace. It was the being chosen last (if chosen at all) in PE. It was being stabbed in the arm by a boy in the 8th grade. I began to realize that my IEP (Individualized Education Plan. If you have any sort of disability and you go through an American public school, you’re usually put on one of these) was more or less used as a way of ‘othering’ me. The administration didn’t really seem to care that I was being bullied and did nothing about it, seeing as how my principal favored the bullies and saw their treatment of me as “boys will

be boys”. I guess that’s the patriarchy for ya.

The bullying got so bad that I began to hurt myself and then, thankfully, I transferred schools. At this time, I passed for normal. I could make eye contact, I had decent social skills, and could verbalize what I was feeling and thinking incredibly well. I ended up lying to the school I transferred to about having a disability and having an IEP. I was treated like an equal. But my experience made me hide my disability. It made me ashamed of who I was.

That is, of course, until I came to the women’s center and realized that there IS such a thing as a truly safe space. I broke down crying spring term and told the then-volunteer coordinator the story I just told you, the reader, above. For once, I didn’t feel judged. I felt respected. That fundamental shift in treatment made me realize that I was truly at home and I knew I made the right choice opening up.

So here’s to the women’s center, for teaching me that my voice and my experiences and my identity is valid and true.

Here’s to the Women’s Center, for being a safe place. I cannot thank everyone there enough for giving me the great opportunity to grow as a human being. And I hope you, the reader, can find the courage within yourself to feel safe and strong in your identity. I don’t know you, but chances are, you rock. Stay strong, my friends.

“

For once, I didn’t feel judged.

I felt respected.

”

THE SIREN WINTER 2014 | 27

reviews

GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE EQUALITY THE POLITICS OF COVERING A SONG WITH FEMINIST INFLUENCE WORDS BY CHELSEA PFEIFER ILLUSTRATION BY TAYLOR WILSON

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eflecting on feminist roots in popular culture, I’d like to take this time to honor and discuss the infectious 80s Classic, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”. If you haven’t seen this music video, you’re surly missing out, because it’s perfectly ridiculous and hilarious. Cyndi Lauper starts by telling off her mom and dad for having all these expectations of her to, in more words, be “ladylike”. She gathers a dancing posse of young women to party it up and enjoy themselves, shirking any foretold responsibilities they have to be any certain way.

Something you might not know about this song is that it was initially written by a guy from a guy’s perspective (Robert Hazard).

Lauper edited it to be from a woman’s perspective to both perform it as a female lead and to make a statement about gender roles in the early 1980s. Since then artists have been covering and recovering that song with any given opportunity. Over the past few years, musicians like Katy Perry/Nicki Minaj, Miley Cyrus, the Cheetah Girls, Strfkr, Shaggy, and even Alvin and the Chipmunks have taken a shot at it. Mostly it’s covered with a very similar tone to Lauper’s, but not necessarily with the same implications. For example, many of the artists don’t identify with feminism.

What does it mean when women like Katy Perry, who has refused to be called “feminist”, cover a song that was intentionally framed as a feminist anthem by Cyndi Lauper? Of course, it’s been exactly 30 years since this song was released, so perhaps the influence of this song doesn’t hold the same weight as it did. Does this song have a different meaning now, as other artists cover it? That is to say, is this song still a feminist song in today’s context?

Many third-wave and post-thirdwave feminists advocate for addressing different consequences of patriarchyoppressions that are arguably more imperative than whether a girl can “have fun” and act individually from her parents’ expectations. Lauper’s anthem might not effectively liberate folks who don’t have parents in their lives, who have to work long hours

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to support themselves and their families, who are rejected by their families because of their gender or sexual identity. The assumptions of upper-middle class, white, cisgender, able-bodied privilege just isn’t applicable to the lives of most women.

Before we completely disregard this song, though, we must consider where we are as a society today. The second wave (60s, 70s, 80s feminism) is still very much alive. Women in the US are still fighting for the right over their own bodies and reproduction. We still are considered less valuable in the work force. Expectations of marriage and motherhood are still engrained into our culture. We are still not, as the lyrics claim, “the fortunate ones.” This song, lack of intersectional experience considered, is still relevant in feminist movements towards male-female gender equity.

When artists perform this song without politics in mind, so much is lost. Co-opting this anthem to essentially undermine the actual strength and abilities of women (I’m looking at you, Cam’Ron) reverses the impact of a girl finally being told that she can do whatever the f*** she wants with her own life. Similarly, when this song is covered by a boy band to promote angsty teen guy freedom,

it neutralizes the feminist message to give even more privilege to kids growing up already excused with “boys will be boys” (see Trick or Treat cover). I get that music should be shared, that there shouldn’t be any criteria over who can perform a song that’s meaningful to them. But it’s also okay to feel frustrated with artists who appropriate REAL problems in our society and use it to distract from the realities of the movement. To musicians who use this song to propel girls’ agency: Thank you. Music is political, whether we want it to be or not. Think about whose words you’re repeating. That’s all we really want: to be taken seriously as people with ambition, drive and a selfhood that no one can diminish.

“Music is political, whether we want it to be or not.”

QUEER REPRESENTATION IN “BLUE” THE CONCERNS OF CRITICS, THE GUISE OF GAZE WORDS BY MARINA CLAVERIA

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f you have heard anything about “Blue is the Warmest Color,” it very well may have been a genuinely curious question about the likelihood of real-life-scissoring in queer lady relationships by a straight audience member. I want to talk about the sex scenes, but first would like to acknowledge the incredible strength of this film, indebted both to the graphic novel from which it was adapted, Le bleu est une couleur chaude (2010) by Julie Maroh, and the emotional generosity in performance by actors Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux.

“Blue is the Warmest Color,” tells the coming-of-age of a high school student named Adèle. The camera follows her transfixed gaze as she first encounters the blue haired art student Emma in the city plaza. As the story unfolds we are reminded again of what it means to fall in love for the first time, or more so, what it means to be totally overcome by another person.

Despite how much I think there is to love about this film, the sex scenes did raise a lot of questions. What disappoints me is the simplicity of most of the questions being asked: is it porn? Do lesbians really scissor? Even if we call it porn that is not what leaves this film to be interpreted as anti-feminist.

What I want to know is whether or not the indulgence of the sex scenes diminishes the strength of Adèle and Emma’s relationship as queer women in love.

The scene is explicit (especially by American standards), but it would be a shame to reduce this film to the voyeuristic product of its director Abdellatif Kechiche. The sex scene is rumored to be anywhere from 7 to 30 minutes long, depending on the article you read. Believe who you will, but 7 minutes of sex is still more sex (and way more queer sex) than most people have witnessed in one movie theater sitting.

Within the larger framework of the film, the long runtime makes

sense. The director Kechiche is obviously indulgent: he’s making a 3 hour-long movie (and only covers a couple chapters of the graphic novel). Simultaneously it is this indulgence in his naturalistic filming style that allows the film to capture the subtleties of real life—like their scene in the park where the camera pans ever so slightly to glance at Emma’s armpit. It is moments like this in which “Blue is the Warmest Color” captures what is mesmerizingly insignificant. They are moments too true to real life to be allowed in film.

Looking back again to the sex scene I think the reality of things is what was lost. The explicit nudity, and length of the scene are not the problem. What becomes troublesome is the lens through which we are viewing the scene. It is no longer the lover’s eyes of Adèle, rather very obviously the male gaze of Kechiche. It is as if this part of Adèle’s life was rewritten from someone else’s perspective, leaving a jarring incongruity. Still, there are moments in which the vulnerability between Exarchopoulos and Seydoux fights to take the forefront, but in the end, is lost to the director’s desires.

This should be a lesson to artists depicting LGBQT relationships. There is too much trivialization and, simultaneously, too much inaction, or not wanting to talk about sex. In a perfect world queer people would see representations of themselves having smoking hot consensual sex. I think as feminists we are often scared to talk about sex, because it is so closely bound to physical desire. It is hard to navigate the line between sexual desire and objectification, but it is something that needs to be done if we are to ever see representations of women, who simultaneously feel, think, eat, work, AND fuck.

THE SIREN WINTER 2014 | 29

HEAD BANGING WITH

TENDER FOREVER

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WORDS BY KATIE DUNN PHOTOGRAPH BY KATIE DUNN

ender Forever is known for delivering upbeat, emotive performances and no one left disappointed when she played Eugene this October. WOW Hall had a particular buzz about it when Melanie Valera, the woman behind Tender Forever, took the stage. Born and raised in France, Melanie now resides in Portland- a city fit for her quirky personality. She opened up the night by feeding the crowd exactly what they’ve been craving with her hit “Got to Let Go”. Most fans found themselves involuntarily swaying to this tender tune.

Melanie then directs our attention to a slideshow and the show became a multi-media exhibit. On screen is a photograph of bald Britney Spears slamming an umbrella into the paparazzi’s car window. Melanie cites Britney’s “freak out” as an important moment of self-discoverybeautiful in its chaos. This whimsical insight continues to pop up throughout the show. Her next few songs ramped up the energy with heavy beats, which she emphasized by rhythmically pounding a Wii remote in the air. Her forth song, “The Feeling of Love”, Melanie made sure to dedicate to Beyoncé because “someday she will be in the audience”.

At this point the performance became a series of personal photos and favorite youtube videos punctuated with songs. For Melanie youtube is a place where people are able to share their stories, a privilege often otherwise reserved for performers like herself. These kinds of personal stories inspire her and she feels that including them

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in her shows is a way to break down the wall between audience and performer.

Then the head banging began.

Melanie’s brother recently developed an interest in the art of head banging, which she since adopted and shared with us at the show. As a group we enjoyed a rich youtube head banging video spectrum, from half-naked adult men to adolescent suburban girls. Without further prompting, the crowd became a sea of sweeping hair.

When I asked Melanie, ‘why so much head banging?’ And ‘does you neck hurt?’ She told me that she is fascinated by this practice because of its masculinity and what an interesting form of self-expression it is. Her neck used to get sore but she has since found a softer way to bang-itout.

Many critics are quick to point out that Tender Forever’s recent music has taken on more serious themes and they would be correct. Melanie says she has been writing songs concerned with issues of mental illness. She mediates on our societal perspective of mental health as well as the lack of resources available to this community.

Her latest album, Where Are We From, has been strongly influenced by her brother.

When not being a badass rock star, Melanie enjoys a good table tennis match. Her league meets twice a week and is looking forward to heading to Cleveland for the 2014 Gay Games.

THE SOFT, FRILLY, VELVETY

VAG I NA SUI T WORDS BY CHELSEA PFEIFER ILLUSTRATION BY HOLLIE PUTNAM

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JULIA RILEY GETTIN’ FUNKY IN THE V-SUIT. PHOTOS BY PACE TAYLOR, OUT/LOUD 2013

can proudly say I was there for the birth of what we now know as the shimmering, velvety vagina suit. I helped sew its frilly edges, giving the suit its somewhat indicative impression of a vulva. It was rebuilt in the winter of 2012. The slightly less impressive- yet still loveable- original vagina suit had been stolen the past spring. It was time for another, and we had the technology.

We needed another for the ever-popular Vaginagrams. Every Valentine’s Day season, a handful of Women’s Center volunteers get together and take turns singing a medley of classic romantic jams to an unsuspecting student/faculty member. The Vagina suit is a critical part of this experience. I’ve never seen so many beet-red embarrassed faces as when a vagina is singing them Shania Twain at full volume in a lecture hall.

Of course this is all fun, and definitely makes my Valentine’s Day all the better, but there are actual valid reasons behind this suit’s presence. Think for a minute- just a minute- of all the penis drawings, references and depictions you have seen on our school campus.

They’re frickin everywhere. Not to hate on the phallus, but it’s nice to have a little genital representation equality, you know? The vagina/vulva is often seen as somehow MORE dirty, LESS appropriate and- to many- more of a mystery than penises in our culture. The V-suit, in a sense, educates the masses, as well as de-sensationalizes

yonical presence. Even though it is pretty funny to see someone dancing in a big, pink vagina suit, it also in a way normalizes what is normally associated with a female body. It makes the vulva, I believe, less scandalous or intimidating.

To have this suit as the Women’s Center emblem is not without problems. The suit might be viewed as perpetuating a notion that womanhood can be reduced to physicality, which also operates under a false assumption that all women have vaginas/vulvas and all people with vaginas/vulvas are women.

This criticism in mind, we can still celebrate all the vagina suit brings to the Women’s Center. I know I personally feel really comfortable in the suit, and it has certainly enhanced my confidence.

From showing up to large classrooms with 0-1 other people, running up and down 13th street, and even dancing- in the spotlight- at this year’s Condom Fashion Show, I have had plenty of opportunities to test my comfort level. And the vagina lends a certain empowerment, I would say, that is unique from just any ole suit.

If you get the chance to sing/dance/sit/walk/stand in the V-suit, I insist that you do so. I know that I will always honor and cherish my time with it.

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THE COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE W H E R E W E H AV E B E E N . W H E R E W E A R E N O W. WHERE WE ARE GOING.