Posts Categorized: Uncategorized
Minors Know Best: Whats Wrong with West Virginia’s New Anti-Abortion Law
Last week, the West Virginia state senate passed legislation for a bill that would prevent physicians from performing an abortion for unemancipated minors unless they have prior parental consent 48 before the procedure. Currently, West Virginia’s law surrounding a minor’s abortion access allows doctors to waive the need for parental notification for an abortion if the physician believes that is in the patients best interest. If the proposed bill went through, physicians would no longer legally be able to waive the need for parental notification. The bill, HB 2002, is yet another example of anti-choice legislation. With a large population of West Virginians considering themselves anti-choice, the law suggests that most parents would opt for their minor not to have an abortion. The bill also represents a continuous push to pull… Read more »
How Ro Elori Cutno’s Message is Harmful to Black Women
As a black woman, I have a deep-seated anger for people who attempt to emphasize the qualities that all black women should have to be more desirable on social circles. Those who criticize their poise, their grace, their idea of elegance use blatant misogynoir to disprove the humanity of black women. This dissatisfaction of black women comes from many people, including black men and black women. One black woman who is gaining momentum for her views on black women, equality and sexual and reproductive freedom: Ro Elori Cutno. Ro Elori Cutno is the author of Man Leads, Woman Follows, Everyone Wins that claims to be a manifesto for black woman to keep a man. While Cutno claims to be an expert and professional consultant of culture and language, her rhetoric… Read more »
I Am Fat — And That’s More Than OK
I am fat. Of all the things that shape my identity, being fat probably falls within the top 5 most important. I’ve been fat for about as long as I can remember. My mother sometimes tells me forgotten old memories about the first few years of my life when I was thinner but those days are long gone. One of my most well-read pieces of published writing even centers in part, around me being a fat woman. So, once again — I am fat. Over the past few weeks I’ve found myself thinking more about my future life plans. One plan in particular had stuck out for me. Many people who know me know that I’d like to have four children. As an only child, I’ve always longed for a… Read more »
I Don’t Identify, I Am
As a person who has spent the last few years desperately trying to divorce who I am from who I’ve been taught to be, the role of language in identity formation has become increasingly apparent. It was on a trip during my senior year that I was first prompted to think about the language I used to describe myself. A friend and I were leading a forum on sexuality and gender, and for the ice-breaker, we had folks share their name, pronouns and their gender and sexuality if they felt comfortable. As more people shared and we moved around the circle, a pattern quickly became visible. Every person who wasn’t cisgender or heterosexual qualified their chosen terms with “identify.” Meanwhile, cis hetero folks would just say “I am ______” and… Read more »
Taking Space
On a typical school night, I’m usually texting my friends about Bravo reality television, and catching up on some major assignment that I’ve procrastinated on. Last week I was working on a major assignment, and couldn’t find the page count needed. Stressed out once again, I fought back tears as I struggled to finish the assignment. After a dramatic 30 minutes of me crying over school, I decide to look over the rubric one last time. The fog of stress had lifted, and I could clearly see that the assignment was to be no more than five pages. So why was I having such an intense emotional reaction to making such a simple mistake? I think the reason is that I’ve been alive for 22 years, and only truly thought… Read more »
Surprise! Anti-choice group fails to provide healthcare to Texans
As you may remember, this past August Texas shunted over $1 million away from women’s health funding and gave it to anti-choice extremist organization The Heidi Group. The Group was tasked with expanding availability and accessibility of women’s health care services through out the state, with the intention of focusing on strengthening the presence of Crisis Pregnancy Centers. Last week, The Associated Press reported that the Heidi Group has failed in these and its own measures of success. According to the Associated Press, the Heidi Group has failed in three simple but significant areas since accepting the award money. The group was supposed to create a 1-800 number to answer Texans’ questions, massively increase public outreach and availability of the centers through social media, and update all of the participating… Read more »
Spring is Here! Good News in Dark Times
With President Trump under FBI investigation and the Affordable Care Act up for repeal there is really nothing to be happy about – at least that is what it feels like. Despite feelings of discouragement and helplessness there are plenty of things going on in this world that would put a smile on even the Grinch’s face. When the weight of the world gets to be more than any person can humanly handle, the only thing left to do is find ways to cheer yourself up. One of those ways is to look at the a few of the smaller more positive things happening. So – here are 2 pieces of important and positive news. Flint, Michigan On March 17th, the EPA awarded the state of Michigan $100 million to… Read more »
Context not Content: Today’s Political Climate
One of my most interesting classes this semester just so happens to be named Social Problems, a 300 level sociology course that I figured would be more than a breeze. I consider myself pretty well informed with an aptitude toward sociology and the social sciences. My work at URGE, a domestic violence shelter, and my studies in social work were only going to make me more prepared when entering the classroom. During our most recent online discussion, a topic came up that gave me an actual term for a phenomena I’ve seen in recent politics — namely the 2016 presidential election. Dog Whistle Politics (DWP) is the strategic and coded appeals to a certain groups of people while seemingly addressing another subject altogether. DWP and racism in politics go hand… Read more »
When the Hashtag becomes the Mic
Social media has been used in a variety of ways to connect a vast amount of people to the current news, whether it be accurate, satire, or false. This knowledge is then broken down into little tidbits of tweets, posts, or stories across major platforms. In this context, hashtags have become the tools of keyboard courage and the microphone for keyboard warriors. Although hashtags work to see others’ contribution to the world’s view, it removes the identity of words, language, and photos. By and by, social media becomes a double edged sword that discredits issues of oppression and privilege and discriminate against other users unknowingly. Unintentionally, hashtags make one experience the universal experience while making the other facets of what defines that experience invisible. An array of experiences shouldn’t be… Read more »
Ginger Snaps, Get Out, and my search for feminist horror films
In October, inspired by the Canadian horror film “Ginger Snaps,” I tried to write a piece about feminist horror films. This brief foray ended in disgust after a 6-hour search through feminist horror movie recommendations and reviews left me feeling like there might not be such a thing as a feminist horror film. I thought perhaps Ginger Snaps was a rare, shining exception in the trash bag of horror films I researched and watched. I knew, of course, that this couldn’t be the case; that there were undoubtedly other insightful horror movies circulating somewhere that I might enjoy. But at the time, I had fear fatigue, and the piece never happened. The recent release of Jordan Peele’s new horror film “Get Out” redirected me to this question of horror’s social… Read more »
