Posts Categorized: Uncategorized
Don’t call me exotic: terms to stop using that sexualize Latinas
It’s Hispanic heritage month which means American public schools will most likely just spend a little bit of time talking about Cinco de Mayo and white-wash history. It means kids will continue to grow up in America not learning about the history of beautiful and diverse cultures all year round. It also means this is a great time to bring up the sexualization of Latina women and some of the really terrible things society calls us instead of just terms like “pretty” or “beautiful” that white women receive. So buckle up everyone because we need to have a serious talk about the ways society “compliments” Latina women. One of my least favorites: exotic, for many reasons. Just for a little bit of background, exotic is most commonly used to describe… Read more »
Straight Outta Respect: Hip Hop and Domestic Violence
In late August of this year, Straight Outta Compton, the film biopic that told the story of the famous ‘90s hip hip group N.W.A. (Niggas With Attitude), hit theaters nationwide. The film was met with a widespread positive response from hip hop historians and fans of traditional Black rap music as well. I still have not seen the film, and in some ways, I’m glad I didn’t. N.W.A is a rap group from the late 80s, early 90s that first brought gritty, inner city gangsta rap to the forefront of mainstream music. The group was primarily comprised of O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson, Andre “Dr. Dre” Young, and Eric “Eazy-E” Wright. The group released the album “Straight Outta Compton” to the tune of 750,000 copies in 1989. The film documents critical moments… Read more »
Denying Marriage Rights to Same-Sex Couples is Un-Christian
If you’re someone even just mildly paying attention to the news lately, chances are you’ve heard about Kim Davis. The county clerk decided that her religious beliefs supersede the rights of same-sex couples to enjoy equal protection under the law. Unfortunately, people like Kim Davis are trying to claim the First Amendment right of freedom of religion as an excuse to hate and act “un-Christian.” When it comes to religion, I fall into the agnostic and undecided category. I’ve been curious about and researched various religions, mainly the big three. The ideals of loving people regardless of their mistakes or background is a common theme, especially in Christianity, so why do non-religious people automatically associate Catholicism and Christianity with hate? Personally, being someone who is openly bisexual and a raging… Read more »
18 and pregnant: how a young mom is challenging the stigma of “teen pregnancy”
The thought of having a baby has always been difficult for me to grasp and a vision I never really had for myself. I just do not feel like I am the type of person fit to be a mother. Maybe one day I will feel differently, people do change after all, but maybe I won’t, and that’s okay too. In 2013, there were 26.5 births for every 1,000 adolescent females ages 15-19. I never thought I would fit into that statistic. And when I found out one of my best friends, Liliana Lucio, did the summer after our senior year, I was shocked. We grew up together, we went to school together from the time we were three years old to our high school graduation. We knew everything about… Read more »
This “classist, sexist, anti-child” California Policy Must Go
Over twenty years ago, California was swept up in the fervor of President Clinton’s “welfare reform” policies, and, following suit, cut welfare to low income families by instituting the Maximum Family Grant Rule. The rule denies additional aid to children born to mothers who already receive cash aid through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKS) welfare program. This means that families who are enrolled in CalWORKS when they have a child can’t receive an extra $128 a month in order to pay for housing, food, and other necessary expenses that new parents inevitably incur. In December 2014, California Senator Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) proposed SB-23 in order to repeal the Maximum Family Grant rule, calling it “a classit, sexist, anti-democratic, anti-child policy” because of the ugly welfare queen stereotype (a woman who… Read more »
Beauty and the Beast: Kalief Browder, Mental Illness and the Black Community
Mental illness. Depression. Schizophrenia. Bipolar disorder. Anxiety. Whatever one suffers from, mental illness has always been the elephant in the room, especially in the African-American community. It’s taboo, something to be brushed off, kept quiet, a simple “storm or phase” that a person is going through. But the African-American community has been caught in a vicious storm for as long as I can remember. Slavery was the beginning of a long history of mental abuse, with slave masters raping, killing, beating, and verbally and physically abusing African-Americans, which gave many Black the mentality not to show weakness and survive this inhumanity. This long suffering abuse (something which America tells us to simply ‘get over’ in various ways through the media and government treatment) did not go away when slavery was… Read more »
Transphobia in Hollywood: Trans Stories Without Trans Actors
With the upcoming debut of the new movie About Ray where another non-trans actor, in this case Elle Fanning, plays a trans character, I believe it is relevant to discuss trans exclusion in Hollywood. We see this time and time again, cisgender actors being hired to play trans characters. Buzzfeed has an article citing 21 different instances of this dating all the way back to 1975. Some may argue that this is at least bringing light to the trans community, which may be true; but it isn’t okay that they are taking valuable opportunities from an already marginalized group. However, as Mari Brighe of Autostraddle argues, the repetition of Hollywood’s choice of actors shows more than meets the eye. Hollywood is clearly sitting up and taking notice of the increased attention being paid… Read more »
Everything is Bigger in Texas, Except for Abortion Access
In 2013, Texans, yet again, had to endure other people making decisions about our bodies for us. When I say for us, I don’t mean to benefit us, I mean taking the decision out of our hands and the right to our bodies away. Wendy Davis fought for Texans in her pink tennis shoes and famous filibuster, unfortunately, HB2 was still passed in Texas. All clinics were required to meet ambulatory surgical center standards and abortion doctors were required to have local hospital-admitting privileges. The local requirement means a hospital within 30 miles and Texas is huge. There are rural areas all over this state. In 2012 there were 41 clinics open, if HB2 becomes fully implemented, only ten clinics will remain. Ten. Let that sink in. Everything is supposed… Read more »
Fight for $15 Comes to UC…Sort Of
I got a what I thought was a welcome surprise during summer vacation leading into my last year at UC San Diego when Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California, announced that the UC system would raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2017 for all of its workers and contract workers. The initial boost to $13 starting Fall Quarter would’ve given me a $2 an hour raise at my on campus jobs, exciting news for a debt-saddled coffee-dependent college student. Yet, for all of the great press the University of California has received in the wake of their announcement, it was a lukewarm response to a broader grassroots effort to secure a living wage for everyone. One aspect of the plan that has been largely overlooked is that it fails… Read more »
Oy With the Victim Blaming Already!
Trigger warning: rape, victim-blaming, and pure ignorance Sometimes you get a harsh reminder that rape culture is alive and well. Far too often that reminder is on facebook. I considered refraining from saying anything about this because my head was spinning and I honestly couldn’t figure out how to put my thoughts, anger, and frustration into words. But it’s been several days now and I can form coherent sentences about this, and I want to share. I wish I had taken screenshots of the post I’m about to describe, but I was too shocked at the time and it goes without saying that I have since unfriended the person in question. The other day, I was mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, as I often do, when I saw that an acquaintance… Read more »
