thefemcolumn-blog

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Rape culture. Coined by second-wave feminists of the 1970s, the term describes a culture that facilitates rape and sexual abuse. Rape culture works by means of misogyny, sex-based roles and stereotypes (gender), and normalized sexual objectification of womyn. Rape culture thrives by blaming and shaming survivors of rape, dismissal of rape as “not that bad,” and trivilization of rape and sexual abuse as something that can be watered down to “just a joke.” With rape culture, there is a hideous fixation on “proving” rape, as if a survivor’s words mean absolutely nothing and there is an unhealthy focus on “regret,” as if something the survivor did (and later regretted) brought on her violation. Oh and don’t get me started about the “false allegation” line, as if rape is something womyn dream about at night and lie about during the day. We live in a rape culture, folks, if you haven’t already noticed. A rape culture is created and supported through mass and social media, everyday encounters that display the aforementioned behaviour, and commonly held beliefs about what rape and sexual abuse “actually is.” Rape culture teaches us that rape and sexual abuse are, most generally, committed by strangers who jump out of alleyways to dramatically snatch their next victim who, of course, puts up one hell of a fight and ends up in a hospital bed before the scene cuts to the show’s opening theme (think: countless episodes of Law & Order: SVU). While, sadly, this sort of situation does occur, this stereotype of a “real rape” and a “good victim” discourages survivors of rape and sexual abuse from coming forward, and encourages rapists to continue offending.

Sam Louise

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: February 22, 2016 at 4:01 am

New York City, New York (TFC) – While there has been such an outpouring of support for Kesha Sebert since a Supreme Court judge ruled that her contract with Sony Music Entertainment will not be dissolved, there has also been a great deal of backlash expressed towards her and the sheer ignorance of her situation has been downright disgusting. With this article, I will demonstrate how Kesha’s ruling is a manifestation of a rape culture, one that devalues womyn and allows sexual abuse to occur unchecked. That being said, the following will contain graphic material that may be upsetting to some. Please contact your local crisis line should you find yourself feeling unwell. I am also available for peer support on Facebook.

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: February 9, 2016 at 1:00 am

New York, New York (TFC) — ​The Superbowl halftime became the talk of the night after Beyoncé’s performance of her new single ‘Formation’ in which she lyrically revels in her blackness and womanhood. Visually however, Beyoncé attempted to take a radical approach.

The performance by Beyoncé was visually impacting, with her backup dancers wearing iconic black berets reminiscent of the Black Panther Party and forming a large ‘X’ on the field, supposedly as a nod to Malcolm X on national TV. This was followed by an ad for her upcoming ‘Formation’ tour in which the proceeds of the tour would supposedly support Flint, Michigan’s water crisis victims.

The music video portrays Beyoncé in the south and had scenes reflective of the Katrina aftermath, showing police officers lined up in front of a child and ‘stop shooting us’ scrawled across a wall.

The internet is split over this, part of the internet boycotting her over her music video’s reference to police brutality while the other part has been championing this song and music video as a revolutionary act.

Read More

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Liberal feminism is a branch of feminism that’s highly individualist, which focuses on personal empowerment rather than collective liberation by putting the wants and needs of the individual womyn above those of womyn as a whole. This puts the onus on womyn to create their own sense of equality through their own actions, rather than eradicating misogyny by dismantling oppressive power structures.

Rowan Thomson

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: February 9, 2016 at 1:00 am

Peterborough, ON (TFC) – Neoliberal feminism, also known as third wave or liberal feminism, is often defined as “the radical notion that womyn are people, too” or “the political, economic, and social equality between all genders.” The first definition, fine – womyn weren’t considered people in the eyes of the law until relatively recently. However, the second definition is far broader and is, I think, purposefully vague. What is equality, and what is gender? Who gets to define these things? How are these concepts and ideas actually applied? Although this seemingly innocuous general definition of feminism would appear on the surface to be progressive and helpful, the exact opposite is true.

Read More

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: February 3, 2016 at 4:26 am

Raleigh, NC (TFC) – What’s been going on in the international worlds of women? TFC’s The Fem Column gives you a list of updates on news that’s impacting women around the world from January 2016.

Read More

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: February 2, 2016 at 2:51 am

Raleigh, NC (TFC) – When I hear about people “being born in the wrong body” I have flashbacks to my childhood. My mother always told me she thought I was going to be a boy because her pregnancy with me was so different than the one with my sister. Also, in my family, there are three sets of cousins, the older sibling is a girl and the younger is a boy…except for me. I was told from a young age that “I should have been a boy”. I had no idea what this meant, but I wished I was one. I wanted to hang out with the boys and do “boy things”, and I didn’t like being the girl, or a girl. I thought I was supposed to be a boy and something had gone wrong.

I remember this feeling of thinking I should have been born a boy as long as I can remember. My whole family was split down the line of male/female. Everyone. The boys all did one thing, the girls did another. I always chose to go with the boys, and I was the only outlier in either group. The boys and girls both made fun of me, as did the men and women, and it became a normal thing to joke about: that I should have been born a boy.

Read More

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: February 1, 2016 at 2:27 am

Kitchener, Ontario (TFC) – There was one night I stayed at his mother’s house, early on in our relationship. We had had a little to drink and I wanted to have sex; this would have been my first time experiencing PIV (penis in vagina). That night he told me that I wasn’t ready, and I was confused. He had already implored me to do this and that and I didn’t think too much of it at the time. Isn’t this and that what couples did together? So, young as I was, I thought I was ready. What we had done prior certainly led me to think I was. Regardless, his no was enough for me and I didn’t push it. For years, this night has lay dormant deep in my memories.

Flash forward to I don’t know how many weeks or months later and to another night that I had wanted to become intimate. This was well after we had become “sexually active,” (why I use quotes will, hopefully, become apparent soon). No, not tonight, he was too tired. While I admit I teased him briefly, again, his words were enough to stop anything that may have happened. We fell asleep and that was it. These two memories became central to my unraveling of what he was doing to me. And what was he doing to me?

Read More

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: January 24, 2016 at 1:10 am

Washington, DC (TFC) – Most of us have heard this little bit of phrasing at some point in our lives. What does it mean? What does it imply? How does it affect us? How are men being hurt? When men find themselves to be victim of some kind of injustice, it is not because they are men, rather they are impoverished, disabled, a person of color, etcetera. Either that or they are subjected to what I call oppressive recoil.

Read More

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: January 22, 2016 at 12:44 am

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (TFC) – Yesterday, serial rapist and racist Daniel Holtzclaw was sentenced to 263 consecutive years in prison for the rape, sodomy, and sexual assault of at least thirteen womyn while facading as a police officer in Oklahoma City. Today, police violence against womyn makes headlines.

Read More

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: January 21, 2016 at 12:30 am

(TFC) – Radical Feminist Michelle Peixinho Smith answers Rae’s questions on Vancouver Rape Relief’s women’s conference from the end of 2015. Smith works with other activists, as well as with women in need, to fight patriarchal standards.

Read More

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: January 21, 2016 at 12:01 am

Raleigh, North Carolina (TFC) – There have been some hairy online debates lately between two formed sects of feminism. Many people think that these women should set aside their differences and find a way to come together in working towards the same goal of ending patriarchy. Unfortunately, these two sects of feminism’s ideologies are antithesis to one another, and that is why the divide has become so well-established, and seems irreparable.

Read More

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: January 19, 2016 at 12:19 am

Islamabad, Pakistan (HRW) – A female member of Pakistan’s parliament recently introduced legislation to set the minimum age for marriage at 18 for women as well as men. Under current Pakistani law, it’s 16 for women. On January 14, her proposal was withdrawn by a parliamentary committee after the Council of Islamic Ideology, a body established in 1962 to advise the parliament on Islamic law, denounced the change as “anti-Islamic” and “blasphemous.”

This decision keeps Pakistan on the wrong side of human rights protections in the Islamic world. Change is happening on child marriage, including in countries that, like Pakistan, are committed to upholding Islamic values. In 2009, Afghanistan, an Islamic republic, set tough new penalties for child marriage. The prime minister of Bangladesh, another majority Muslim country, has pledged to end all child marriage by 2041.

Read More

[thefemcolumn-blog]

If you are interested in writing for FEM email a sample of your work to thefemcolumn@gmail.com

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: January 18, 2016 at 6:56 am

Raleigh, North Carolina (TFC) – Wikipedia describes objectification as “the act of treating a person as an object or thing as though they were a possession of another.”

I find myself confused when I ponder liberal views of the sex industry. The term industry itself means the processing of raw materials. This is inherently dehumanizing. If women are defined within their job status as raw materials, finalizing of their objectified status has taken place in terminology alone.

Read More

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: January 18, 2016 at 6:56 am

(TFC) – Gaslighting is an abuse tactic. The term comes from a play called Angel Street dating back to 1938. It’s about a husband who manipulates his wife’s at-home environment to psychologically confuse her. Wikipedia defines it as “a form of mental abuse in which information is twisted or spun, selectively omitted to favor the abuser, or false information is presented with the intent of making victims doubt their own memory, perception, and sanity.”

When someone has been gaslit for a long time, they sometimes develop what I’ve coined as Detective Syndrome. Detective Syndrome is a phenomenon where one has been on the receiving end of the mental abuse known as gaslighting so much, that they become obsessive about finding the truth. This can happen on micro and macro scales.

Read More

[thefemcolumn-blog]

Published: January 14, 2016 at 2:02 pm

Kitchener, Ontario (TFC) – There is no fear in stating that womyn who love womyn have it difficult. There is not wool enough to cover the fact that world-wide patriarchy has been deliberately constructed against our will and without our existence in mind. That so many of us are afraid to profess our affection for it being a crime, often social and legal, is no coincidence. It is because we dare to live and love female that we are jailed, beaten and raped by men, further mocked and harassed by male-identified womyn. There is no untruth in realizing the world we live in has been instructed not only to deny our living selves but to actively undermine our loving selves.

With that being said, how do we even begin to approach the reality of living and loving female with the added experience I will define broadly as abuse at the hands of womyn? I find myself almost lost for words to describe this paradox despite it being so personally relatable. For how can I even begin to unravel a knot that may only be related to through personal experiences of love and trauma. In the closet I’ve survived and in between broken boundaries I am still alive; so how can I learn to thrive? Like myself, how can womyn realize love for womyn after having been abused by womyn? I will let my story speak for itself:

Read More