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Clothing Catastrophe: Consequences of Fast Fashion

SADIA WAHID 

 Irresistible deals and holiday sales on the latest trends are bound to allure us into the world of fast fashion where stylish clothing is simply cheap. When we explore fast fashion stores such as H&M, ZARA, and Forever 21, chances are clothing made from China, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, etc. are more prevalent. However, the story behind who made these clothes and where they originated from are disregarded due to the obsession and thrill of buying inexpensive clothing. Fast fashion comes with the deadly price of environmental concerns in the form of pollution and exposure to harmful chemicals. This fast fashion frenzy had also led to unjust labor practices and treatment of workers in order for industries to make a profit.

Polyester is immensely prominent among fast fashion industries. However, this synthetic fabric portrays a major role in polluting water due to being composed of non-biodegradable microfibers. These microfibers shed from polyester garments pose as a grave threat to both marine and human life due to the onslaught of plastic in oceans. Hence, marine organisms, such as planktons, are at a higher risk of consuming microfibers found in their natural habitat, which in turn may be exposed to humans as these microfibers progress up the food chain. Microfibers also infiltrate our waterways, thus poisoning drinking water. Also, microfibers host bacteria, thereby exposing humans to diseases and infections, including gastrointestinal infections. In addition to water pollution, the production of polyester contributes to air pollution. Fast fashion industries release substantial emissions of carbon dioxide yearly in order to produce polyester clothing. To elaborate further, the cheap prices of fast fashion creates an environment of consuming and discarding clothes. Thus, microfibers contribute to the overflowing of landfills as numerous clothes are discarded.

Additionally, fast fashion clothing is associated with hazardous chemicals known for their bioaccumulation, hormone disruption, toxicity, and considerable amount of carcinogens. As clothes continue to cast off and accumulate into landfills for several years, toxic chemicals and dyes will contaminate groundwater and soil. Dyes that are used to make leather clothing serve as major polluters of rivers. Some clothes are sprayed with formaldehyde to prevent mildew and wrinkles during shipping. Therefore, an overabundance of clothing with this chemical can engender allergic reactions. This chemical is also linked to cancer, skin ulcerations, heart palpitations, eczema, and asthma.

Cotton production is also highly popular in fast fashion industries with detrimental effects to both humans and the environment. Excessive quantities of water are required to develop cotton clothing, thereby promoting water shortages and droughts in many regions. In fact, the Aral Sea in Central Asia depleted as farmers used the water to make cotton. Large amounts of insecticides and pesticides are also utilized globally in order to prevent crop failure. Hence, for every cotton clothing produced, a small trace of pesticides are used. Traces of these pesticides have also been detected in water used in our everyday lives for drinking, cooking, and bathing.

Clothing factories in various developing countries are not regulated, therefore exposing workers to atrocious labor conditions that often result in major injuries or death. In garment and knitwear factories, workers encounter poor lighting, malfunctioning machines, dust and smoke inhalation, and exposure to electrical wires and poisonous chemicals. For instance, they are exposed to harmful chemicals such as toxic phthalates and amines from specific dyes, thus causing miscarriages, birth defects, cancer, and hormone disruption. Pesticides from cotton are linked with brain tumor, fetal damage, and sterility among these workers.

Factory workers strive to overcome poverty, economic hardships, and provide for themselves and their families by earning a decent pay, having safe working conditions, and basic security. Instead, they confront low salaries for working lengthy hours in a hazardous atmosphere as labor industries become more cheaper and workers become expendable. Child labor is also exploited in these factories as underage workers as young as 10. These workers have long shifts of approximately 10-12 hours, sometimes even for 16-18 hours on a daily basis. In turn, workers are cheated of overtime pay as they acquire low wages for doing grueling tasks for long hours, thus being unable to maintain a living and possess basic needs. In addition to this, breaks are denied to workers and their health and safety are neglected. These factories are also composed of faulty machinery that pose as a threat to workers. In fact, the notorious Rana Plaza collapse of 2013 in Bangladesh is due to advanced machinery being situated in a building  constructed out of cheap and unsturdy material. Also, the poor condition of this building, such as cracks in walls, were being ignored, thus leading to this collapse.

Furthermore, fast fashion is also infamous disempowering women as garment factories are composed of  approximately 80% women on a global scale. These women typically range from 18 to 26 years old and a majority of them earns less than $2 a day for working in this arduous environment. Women encounter discrimination within this workforce as they tend to get paid less compared to men, thus limiting their access to only low paid jobs with inadequate chances of obtaining a promotion. They are also at the risk of being fired due to not being prepared to meet the demands of their employers as the tasks are proven to be too difficult and dangerous. The lack of security also place women in a series of unfortunate predicaments as they become vulnerable to sexual harassment and abuse.

There are numerous ethical alternatives one can take to resolve and reduce the destructive effects of fast fashion. For instance, checking out ethical brands such as Dorsu, Krochet Kids, Alternative Apparel, and Reformation enables us to make a huge difference in the fashion industry. Companies like these use sustainable fabrics and processes in the form of recyclable materials and organic fibers instead of dyes and harmful chemicals. Ethical brands also ensure a safe, fair, and clean work environment along with helping individuals conquer poverty. Although this method of slow fashion is expensive, these high quality clothes are long lasting and these companies value the interests of their workers. If more people invest in slow fashion, then the fast fashion industry will experience a major decline in profit, thus compelling this industry to manage better and partake in fair practices in order to appease their customers.

Donating serves as an ultimatum to both the high-priced slow fashion apparel and the disposable low-quality fast fashion products. These clothing items can be donated to thrift stores, consignment stores, and local recycling centers to prevent landfill excess. The thrift shop staff examines the donations in order to determine what to resell and what to recycle. These clothes are donated to charity by non-profit thrift stores. Consignment stores abide by the same process, except when your clothing is resold you receive part of the earnings. They also return pieces of clothing that they don’t desire back to ensure that the clothing does not waste in landfills. Textile recycling centers tend to break down your clothing into textile fibers to create new garments through yarn and carpet padding. You can also shop at certain thrift stores such as Swap.com and Beacon’s Closet in addition to consignment stores such as ThredUP and Buffalo Exchange to buy sustainable clothing at an affordable price. In addition to second-hand shopping, vintage shopping enables you to recycle clothes and obtain high quality clothing at a lower price. Therefore, you can sport a unique and retro look that is not found in typical stores.

Overall, as consumers, we are responsible for encouraging this appalling and addicting environment of fast fashion as we continue to demand for cheap clothing. Thus, we need to be more conscious of who made our clothes and how the danger of death looms over them everyday as they try to fulfill our greedy demands. We also need to be mindful of many suffering from environmental issues caused by the production of these vile clothing. By spreading awareness to the cruelty behind fast fashion, we can fashion forward by saving our environment and people through a sustainable mindset and approach.

This article was published on the HerCulture blog. If you would like to submit an article, head on over to HerCulture to learn more about our writers and our magzine. Additionally, check out our social media (twitter, instagram, facebook, and tumblr!), our handles are herculture. Give this post a like and make sure you follow us on any of our accounts. By the end of December, we would like to reach our goal of 400 people on this tumblr account!

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x Likhita

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Do You Know What You Are Eating?

Geo Sique (Guest Poster)

As a teenager, I was one of those people who could eat whatever they wanted and still be skinny. I remember coming home from school and eating ice cream, chips, and popcorn — sometimes all in one day. I knew it wasn’t healthy, but I didn’t think it was hurting me since I remained skinny. As I started reading articles about eating healthy, I tried to avoid eating foods that were bad for my health. First, I stopped eating fast food. Then, I stopped drinking soda. Though I knew that I ate some unhealthy meals, it wasn’t until I graduated college that I learned just how awful my diet still was.

At that point, I got a job as a writer and two things happened. The first was that I started gaining weight, mostly from sitting down all day. My clothes started fitting me tighter and I started noticing a few stretch marks. The second was that as I wrote health articles, I learned more about what healthy eating really meant and discovered hidden dangers in my general diet, and I learned how bad sitting all day was. After that, I tried sticking to better health guidelines for my diet and exercise.

Recommended Daily Servings

The first thing I learned was the truth about recommended daily servings. Though I knew that I should limit my sugar and sodium intake, I never paid attention to what the limit should be or how much I was eating. All health intake guidelines will vary depending on each individual, but the recommended daily servings are still important to know to have a baseline knowledge of what you should be eating. Here is what I learned.

Regarding pre-packaged foods, the FDA recommends looking at the Percent Daily Value. Servings, with 5 percent daily value being low and 20 percent being high. Looking at this percentage is a good way to get an idea of how much of something your food has in it.

Another way to get a grasp on what you should be eating every day is to envision the portions you should be having every day. The daily recommendations are usually given in grams, which can be hard to grasp. Converting those from grams to teaspoons or daily spoons is a great way to process what your body needs everyday as well as help you know how much is too much.

Upper Limits

In researching the recommended daily servings, I was shocked to learn that the recommended daily value is not in fact the daily value that doctors recommend, but it is an upper limit. So, it is important to note that the daily value on the nutrition level does not necessarily reflect what you should be eating, but what you should not be surpassing. To say the least, it’s challenging to monitor and maintain your macronutrients.

For a starting baseline, here are the basic recommended daily servings for the average adult in the U.S.:

Carbohydrates: 225-325 grams of carbohydrates

Calories: the average adult man should consume 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day, and the average adult woman should consume 1,600 to 2,000 calories per day

Sodium: less than 2400 milligrams

Fat: 44-77 grams of fat per day

Other factors beyond age and sex should also be considered, including weight and activity level. For example, sedentary people need fewer calories while active people need more.

Too Sweet?

The biggest shock for me was learning about sugar. The daily value for sugar, as implemented by the American Heart Association, is about 25 grams, or 6 teaspoons of sugar. If that sounds like an unreasonably small amount to you, it’s because the average American consumes 82 grams or 19.5 teaspoons per day. That is more than triple this guideline, which is already an upper limit.

If that hasn’t sent you running to search your kitchen cabinets and fridge to check the levels of sugar in the foods you consume daily, you might want to consider doing it now. Many drinks, sweet snacks, and miscellaneous sauces are packed with more than the daily value recommended by the FDA.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that there is a lot of sugar in most food products found at the grocery store, but learning the sheer amount is shocking. One Vitamin Water contains over 100 percent of the daily value, one yogurt can have half the daily value. Add a couple servings of sugary cereal (the serving size, one cup, is not enough) and you are looking at twice the upper limit for your sugar intake, all before lunch.

Eating Better

After I started paying attention to all of these things, I recognized many signs that I needed to change my diet. Trying to lower my intake of sugar was the most important to me, and I realized that unless you cook your own food most of the time, it can feel impossible. I realized that my breakfast alone sometimes had more than enough sugar for the day. At first, this made me panic and I had anxiety about eating sugary foods. After awhile, this subsided and I just tried to limit sugar whenever possible, but still treat myself occasionally. I didn’t want to develop an unhealthy relationship with food and become obsessed with counting everything.

A few things I did to reduce my intake of sugar was trading all your sugary drinks — including juice — for water. It’s difficult to find any drinks that don’t have any sugar in them without making them yourself, and since you’ll definitely be getting enough sugar from your meals and snacks, it’s best not to add on to it with what you drink.

I also limited my intake of condiments, as sauces, dressings, and ketchup, as they all add up to frightening quantities of sugar. A sad reality that I had have to face is that I needed to cut out desserts from my daily diet — though I do indulge occasionally. You can even just cut back to weekends and special occasions; this can massively cut down the harmful sugar entering your body.

Also, you can try staying away from foods that contain a lot of sodium, such as lunch meat, hamburgers, savory snacks, and bread. You can also make a habit of not adding extra salt to your meals, instead finding other ways to flavor your food like adding herbs or pepper instead.

You can also try these tips from Arizona State University’s nutritional program:

Eat mindfully and intentionally

Try superfoods that are good for your health

Consider the long-term effects of your eating habits

Don’t make yourself hangry or starve yourself to be skinny

Don’t drink too much caffeine

Don’t follow trending diets that don’t feel healthy to you

What you eat is a personal responsibility that needs to be taken seriously. You can talk to your nurse practitioner on ways to optimize your diet as part of your preventative health plan. It’s not always easy and your diet doesn’t have to be perfect, and mentality plays a large role. Avoiding diet culture is important to me, and instead, I try to avoid unhealthy foods and eat a wholesome, nutritious diet.

I measure my health by how I look and feel rather than by how much I weigh. Weight can be a scary thing to look at, especially when gaining muscle can make the pounds go up, even though you’re losing fat. However, I feel more confident after working out, and I feel healthier when I keep an eye on what I’m eating. I feel in control of my health. I even had a doctor check up and for the first time I wasn’t underweight, but at a healthy one, and being healthy is what counts.

This article was published on the HerCulture blog. If you would like to submit an article, head on over to HerCulture to learn more about our writers and our magzine. Additionally, check out our social media (twitter, instagram, facebook, and tumblr!), our handles are herculture. Give this post a like and make sure you follow us on any of our accounts. By the end of December, we would like to reach our goal of 400 people on this tumblr account!

Start a culture revolution!

x Likhita

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21st Century Worship: The Positive Influence Tech Is Having On Religion

Tech is something that is having an effect on just about every part of our lives in the 21st century, and our religious practices are no exception to that. In fact, there are plenty of ways that tech is having a positive influence on religion that are explained below. Read on to find out more.

Relevance

One way that tech is having a positive effect on religion is that it is being used to make it much more relevant to modern life. A particularly compelling example of this is in Christian churches in the US and UK that have adopted a tech-savvy way of presenting sermons, connecting members and even running their services.

In fact, increasingly you will find drafty old churches replaced by modern buildings that have large projector screens at the front where sound bites and videos are shown.

Then there is also the use of sound and lighting equipment to make the music and spoken parts of the services more dynamic. Tech influence can even be seen in the LED Signs for Churches that are used outside of the building to appeal to a younger and more tech-savvy generation. Something that is essentially helping these institutions from becoming outmoded and only serving an aging congregation.

Information

Next, tech is hugely essential to individual religious choices because of all the information that we can so easily access now, online. This means if we have any particular questions about the Torah, Bible, Quran or any other religious text we can quickly look these up along with commentary to help us get a better understanding.

Such an ability should not be overlooked either, as it provides people with not only the opportunity to research into their own faith, but also look for the common themes that run between all of the major religions. Something that can help to foster ecumenical understanding and a greater tolerance in the world.

Access

Next, a fantastic benefit that tech is having on religion is that it provides easy access to worship for many people that would not be able to attend the religious services or sermons that they want.

For example, you will find many videos of services, and celebrations from religions of all types on platforms such as Youtube, as well as embedded in religious organisations own sites.  Something that can allow those separated by distance, circumstance, or ill health to still access to their chosen organisation and the messages that they are preaching.

Integration

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly one of the key positives that tech is having on religious practice is the way it can integrate it into our everyday's life. This is, of course, a message that many religions preach, with Buddhists referring to it as 'taking their practice off the cushion.'

This integration can happen mainly because of the introduction of mobile apps. Some good examples of which are one that reminds Muslims of the times of call to prayer and the direction of Mecca, Christians of a bible verse for each day, and ones that provide Buddhists with dharma talks from which they can gather inspiration, to name but a few.

This article was published on the HerCulture blog. If you would like to submit an article, head on over to HerCulture to learn more about our writers and our magzine. Additionally, check out our social media (twitter, instagram, facebook, and tumblr!), our handles are herculture. Give this post a like and make sure you follow us on any of our accounts. By the end of December, we would like to reach our goal of 400 people on this tumblr account!

Start a culture revolution!

x Likhita

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BDSM as a Logical Reaction to Monopoly Capitalistic Society

KATHERINE MEADOWS

Popular culture depicts BDSM (Bondage, Discipline/Domination, Submission/Sadism, Masochism), which utilizes sexual power dynamics as a means of furthering excitement and eroticism, in a way that generally distorts mainstream perception of practitioners. Ironically, by enforcing just one extreme of BDSM play, thereby painting the culture in a biased light, the media is demonstrating exactly what BDSM is confronting. Power is everywhere: present in institution-to-individual interactions as well as individual-to-individual interactions—including sexual relationships. In understanding how inextricably combined power and sex are, we can understand why power dynamics are the linchpin of BDSM play and get a more holistic view of this heavily misunderstood subculture.

Power is Everywhere

On bold-type phrases, interpret “power.”

To understand this concept, we have to examine what gives an entity power or what characterizes something with power. Power lends agency, running everything from machinery to the White House. As an abstract, power allows us to hold some capacity of control. Necessarily, this concept involves an exchange between an empowered entity and an entity lacking empowerment.

Forces in our atmosphere as well as the ground beneath our feet have a capacity to control where populations decide to live due to natural disasters and the motion of tectonic plates can kill.

Police officers also have the license to end a life—if they deem it necessary—and to deprive individuals of their freedom. Elected officials and representatives have abundant influence on the laws that govern our society and can even sway the governing forces of other nations. Power decides the rules and, if those rules are not followed, the repercussions. Those who have power can wage wars; the masses are the pawns of those with power.

Even micro interactions involve power exchange. The professor has the qualifications to grant a grade, and therefore, influence the likelihood that a student’s invested time, money, and hard work will result in a degree. It is within a parent’s hands to decide everything for their child until that child becomes an adult.

The Problem with Power

All of these positions that we identify with power also come with the potential for corruption. The parent, meant to act in the best interest of the child, may abuse that child or use the child in a myriad of inappropriate and dangerous ways. The professor may blackmail the student for something that they want.Those that govern our nation may cater to their own interests rather than those of the citizens they are in place to serve.

The police officer may use an unmonitored prejudice when they rationalize whether or not to use deadly force. The officer is prone to biases like anyone else, but because their position in society holds considerably more power, these biases carry more weight. If you’ve been paying any level of attention to the news or social media trends, you are probably aware that all of these problematic dynamics are both present and in a number of instances, allowed by the Monopoly Capitalist system to persist.

In a Monopoly Capitalist society, citizens serve a few functions. Not only are they the worker bees slaving away their libidos for the benefit of the 1 percent, they are simultaneously the consumers latching that dulled desire & stimulation to empty entertainment and luxury after unnecessary luxury; Lending their meager paychecks to those who make the profits. The Protestant values our society was built on (hard work is necessary for rewards and status) helped construct the path that most Americans are pressured to take. The school system teaches us that we must get a job to earn money so that we can buy the food and shelter that we need to survive, along with the most recent iPhone, clothing fad and other necessities.This system pressures us to go to places of higher education that shackle us to our debt in the name of a more prestigious existence (a specialized job with a higher income—and a more costly certification process). Yet, this upward mobility—a cornerstone of the “American Dream”—has never been easy in America. According to the The Equality of Opportunity Project, a child’s chances of “earning more than their parents have fallen from 90 percent to 50 percent over the past half century,” while the wage gap between the top and bottom percentiles grows broader. The America that is okay with these blatant disparities is the same nation that drives home the values, legislation, and economy that keep it this way.

The Role of Power in Identity

The world that we live in carries many forms of power that consistently determine our environment by limiting options, directing individuals toward one route instead of another, and largely shaping who we are. Foucault argued that power can now be understood as the “boundaries that enable and constrain [an individual’s] possibilities for action, and on people’s relative capacities to know and shape these boundaries.” Power sculpts who we are by being present in the influences on our “possibilities” from birth.

If you are born an American citizen, you were probably born in a hospital current on specific regulatory codes enforced by the dictation of the Department of Health. You were born in a healthy, clean environment, away from toxins and unsafe conditions. If you were born in a developing country, you may have come into the world undernourished, in a war zone, or into a poverty-stricken family. Already, two very separate tracks have been paved. If you went to public school growing up, you were taught logic and the scientific method for determining truth—as well as accepted organizations that presumably follow these methods and present the facts that the masses can invest in. If you went on to higher education, you learned the acceptable and unacceptable ways in which information is integrated into cultural understanding. The process by which we determine what information to let into the canon of accepted ideas is monitored by those with the responsibility to dictate which educational facilities will elevate or condemn. As a contrasting example, religious facilities may use other measures for truth, such as what is outlined in a sacred text. Socially, some use anecdotal (subjective, empirical) evidence, which is generally unaccepted in the scientific community. As Foucault detailed, “scientific discourse and institutions...are reinforced (and redefined) constantly through the education system, the media, and the flux of political and economic ideologies."

In the American school systems, you were taught the rules of this society by parents and peers alike: red means stop, killing people is wrong, the most important goal of life is to make money, etc. We gleaned all of our symbolic recognition, moral understandings, and ideological brainwashing from the culture and society we were socialized in. We were taught everything within the confines of what the overarching systems of control allowed us to learn.

Maybe we learned about these systems: ideology, corruption, etc.—and decided that we want less restriction and more freedom of action. Sometimes, we tested the limits of these systems of control; went over the speed limit one too many times and faced the repercussions. Sometimes, we learned and sometimes, we became more curious. Sometimes, we go farther and find ourselves in the almighty face of power—facing something more than just a $100 fine—facing a life sentence, facing mortality, facing crippling debt and repossession, facing ostracization and isolation—all methods of intense control.

Even if we didn’t encounter this backlash, we certainly grew up hearing about those who did. Part of our societal education is to learn about those who did not play by the rules and how they were made examples of. Now, fear becomes a mechanism of control, wielding power. Institutions, especially “prisons, schools, and mental hospitals” set a clear standard and promoting conformity in society. “Their systems of surveillance and assessment no longer required force or violence, as people learned to discipline themselves and behave in expected ways,”John Gaventa of adds.

Where BDSM Enters the Picture

Power permeates life in the ability to provoke something. Because of this fact, we are constantly surrounded by very subtle, inbred modes of control— constantly subjected to unquantifiable power dynamics, that we largely avoid consciously recognizing, because it would hinder functioning smoothly in this social system.

BDSM brings these power dynamics to the table and forces participants to recognize them and move within them. To understand these dynamics is a kind of power in itself because it is the first step in expanding the capacity for changing the instruments that alter and dictate who we are. Practitioners experience what it feels like to be entirely in control of the situation or to experience complete impotence (and not just if the scene gets weird). By allowing them to fully invest in roles they do and do not play within society, BDSM allows people to confront their staggering lack of power as an individual. Play can be very cathartic, with a potential for both great healing and great shattering.

Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby

Power permeates the sexual field similarly to the way it permeates institution-to-individual interactions. For example, sex may be used as an exchange for money or advantageous situations. Some individuals may find it empowering to entice others through sexual attraction, just as it is a show of empowerment to deny sexual interactions. Maybe you find the physical show of power (domination) as a turn on.

Generally in sex, a duo can be classified into one of two categories that do not necessarily align themselves with the opposing: Dominant and Submissive. One gives, one receives. One controls the situation, the other allows themself to be operated. This juxtaposition can go as vanilla as one person initiating or guiding the other or as intense as a BDSM scene that is orchestrated to follow an agreed upon script. There may be pairings of two Dominants and two Submissives, but the power play remains the same. How pronounced the power dynamics are determines where on the scale from “Conforming” to “Deviant” the sexual act falls.

Think about the nonverbal conversation that goes on during sex (inside and outside BDSM play), from the point of initiation. Perhaps it starts with a dialogue between the eyes—lingering just too long on the lips or body. When a hand crosses the threshold and is placed on a knee, an arm, or directly onto the other’s genitals, a question has been asked—namely, “is this okay?” If the person being touched is uninterested or has been read wrong, they will [ideally] verbally or nonverbally respond conveying that information. Or they may respond with another question: moving in to kiss the initiator or touching them back. The one acting is the one showing power, as power is the ability to do something specific. A couple may show power equally and at the same time. Or perhaps, one member of the group will take a stronger leading role, directing which positions are utilized. This isn’t to say that the passive member is void of power, as they always have the power to refuse advances (except in cases of harassment, coercion, sexual assault, and rape). Even during a sex act, if the Dominant directs the Submissive in a way that the sub dislikes, they can respond either verbally (“stop”) or physically by assuming a role of power and redirecting the action to something that does please them. Power often operates to benefit the entity with power; and in sex, the goal is generally that all parties involved get off in some way. To directly facilitate one’s own orgasm or excitement is to assume a role of power. To negate another’s eroticism is also a utilization of personal power. In this light, BDSM becomes a “set of tools for sandboxing...mainstream power dynamics,” according to freaksexual.com, “by providing a safe space to experience and confront, in a corporeal way, all levels of power and control.”

Conclusion

In a world where power permeates every interaction, social construct, and institution, human beings are constantly sculpted and directed by subtle forces that surround everything we know. By bringing these power dynamics into a space where they can be physically confronted, negotiated, and controlled in a way that is ultimately pleasurable, BDSM provides a cathartic release for the tensions that a Monopoly Capitalist society presents.

This article was published on the HerCulture blog. If you would like to submit an article, head on over to HerCulture to learn more about our writers and our magzine. Additionally, check out our social media (twitter, instagram, facebook, and tumblr!), our handles are herculture. Give this post a like and make sure you follow us on any of our accounts. By the end of December, we would like to reach our goal of 400 people on this tumblr account!

Start a culture revolution!

x Likhita

[her-culture]

Ready to Make Some Trouble: Lessons from an Evening with Cecile Richards

MORGAN LEVY

Planned Parenthood is an organization that works for the reproductive health rights of all by providing services in their health clinics and through advocacy work.  As an aspiring Obstetrics and Gynecology physician, the opportunity to learn from Cecile Richards, the former President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America was quite exciting.  Following the release of her book, Make Trouble, Richards went on a book tour to promote the release and meet supporters across the nation.  

“It wouldn’t be an event relating Planned Parenthood without the protesters guiding me about where to go,” remarked Richards upon her entrance. Not only did this evening teach me a lot from her illustrious career, but it also inspired me to adopt her spirit in my own life.

Richard’s spoke about her initial decision to make a huge leap and accept the position at as the President of Planned Parenthood.  She described the inspiration she found in traveling across the country and meeting the advocates who fought tirelessly for the rights of others. Towards the end of her speech, she encouraged us, the next generation, to keep working and to make our voices heard.  

One of the most impactful moments for me came after Richard’s talk, when we chatted as she signed my copy of her book. During our discussion of  the work I had done with the Gender Center at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where I worked on creating an educational video about fertility preservation for transgender patients and piloted videos on hormonal affirmation treatment with patients, she genuinely expressed gratitude for my passion and perseverance in this pursuit for social justice and change. In the larger landscape of advocacy work, your impact may seem small but it does matter. Seeing the smiles on transgender patients’ faces when you use the correct pronoun and the gratitude of parents who feel more informed about treatment options after watching the videos you created may seem less impactful than policy and legislative work, but can still have a tremendous impact on the life of another person.

The title of Richards’ new book, Make Trouble, highlights a crucial theme in social justice work and advocacy today. In order to be effective advocates, we must not be passive or compliant in any way. We must use our voices in every opportunity, no matter how small the stage appears to be.  

Now, I challenge all of you to adopt this spirit of troublemaking in your life. Get involved in activism efforts, join clubs on your campus, call your senators - whatever you can contribute.  The next generation of troublemakers are the ones who will change the world.

This article was published on the HerCulture blog. If you would like to submit an article, head on over to HerCulture to learn more about our writers and our magzine. Additionally, check out our social media (twitter, instagram, facebook, and tumblr!), our handles are herculture. Give this post a like and make sure you follow us on any of our accounts. By the end December, we would like to reach our goal of 400 people on this tumblr account! 

x Likhita

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WRITTEN BY HERCULTURE BLOG WRITER AMULYA AGRAWAL 

Click the post to read more blog entries written HerCulture staff writers and check out our August/September magazine!

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Poem: "We Never Win"

BY PREETI PASUPULATI

Sometimes when they look at me, my insides churn.

I see stares, I hear words, I sense judgement,

upon my body where I placed years and years of self-inflicted wounds.

Metaphorical, physical, tangible, intangible.

I threw everyone’s words into a growing pile on my shoulders.

It’s not just him, sometimes it’s her too.

His chuckles hurt, but her comments burn,

deep into the fractures of my concealed blues.

Moisturize, prime, conceal, powder,

every morning before I pretend I’m ready to take on the world.

I spend dollars on the outside, while my insides tear apart.

I wish to be invisible with my mind working alone,

detached from the boulder I carry around.

Because if my brain stood alone,

my words, and only my words, would carry more meaning.

It’s my words that I want plastered on the screen,

yelled from the voices of cheerful crowds

believing that there is more to life than the lies

told in every magazine on every store shelf

in every city and every country around the world.

I look for a day when I’m not beaten to the ground

by the eyes that tell me I don’t belong.

For every small joke made at the expense

of a creative soul whose body is full of flaws,

I pray for that day where we discard all our frowns.

If it’s too much or too little,

it has to be only mine.

Whispers from ear to ear

shouldn’t destruct my path of where I want to go.

I am the only navigator of my own compass.

[her-culture]

"What Are You?" BY GEO SIQUE

“Oh, I get it now.”

That’s what I was told by my boyfriend’s coworker when we walked by the front desk where he works. Confused, I didn’t know what to say, but I soon realized she wasn’t looking for a reply. She went on.

“I heard you were Mexican, but you looked Indian from far away. I couldn’t tell what you were, but I see it now.”

She then walked away, without waiting for a reply. I called out the only thing that came to mind, something like, “Yeah, I get that a lot,” and didn’t even receive a look back in reply.

I do get that a lot. It doesn’t happen every day, but it’s happened enough that it’s not surprising when it happens. However, it never gets less insulting.

In this case, I knew this coworker to have no filter. I had heard she was nice, hilarious, and often inappropriate. This didn’t make the bad taste in my mouth any more pleasant.

I have had plenty of people inspect me with the question, “what are you?” It’s a simple question; I know what they are asking. “What race are you?” is what they really mean, but this simple question has no simple answer.

A Loaded Question

Our society is obsessed with race, and it is no surprise with our oppressive, racist history. While I was taught in elementary school that discoverers and scientists found the new world, I learned in college that these historic figures were not heroes but colonizers. Their effects on modern society are largely prevalent, even if not everyone can recognize it.

Although slavery has been abolished for more than a couple centuries now and discrimination is technically illegal, racism runs rampant in our everyday lives. All the vestiges of the savage past result from those who conquered occupied territory and tried to conform the lives of already-built civilizations. They are vestiges of those who oppressed thousands for the power and control, they are phenomenons such as whitewashing, xenophobia, and people generally being afraid of the unfamiliar.

I know this particular conversation in the lobby was spoken with no malintent. I expect some people will read this story and think I am being dramatic, that I shouldn’t take things personally, that it was just a comment. However, I don’t believe that any phrase, whether asked as a question, muttered as a comment, or pointed out as a declaration is “harmless.”

Words are powerful beyond what we realize. The words we use can either accurately portray what we are thinking or, if they do not align with the values of the person speaking, reflect some idea of society. In this case, asking a stranger what race they are with no meaningful interaction signifies that race is what defines them as a person. Something many people of color experience constantly.

Talking About Culture

My family is from Mexico. I love talking about my culture. From the food we eat, to our traditions, to the most beautiful places I have visited in Mexico. I can talk with you for hours about tacos al pastor, my favorite tacos that I had for the first time in Guadalajara. I can tell you all the reasons why Puerto Vallarta is my favorite beach I’ve ever been to – and I’ve been to a more than a few. I can tell you about the day trips my family has taken across the border since it is less than a 20-minute drive from my grandma’s house.

I love talking about my culture, but it should never be the first thing I am asked. My culture is a big part of who I am, but it is not the most important part. I get tired of being looked at like someone from a certain race and not as a person. When people ask me what race I am, they do not want to get to know my culture, they want to put me into a box.

Talking about culture is fun and interesting, but it is also vital for a functioning society. While you shouldn’t define people by their race, you shouldn’t ignore their culture either. This can lead to many problems. For example, in the medical world, embracing culture has been proven to lead to better care of patients. According to a report by Duquesne University, cultural competence can reduce medical errors, number of treatments necessary, and legal fees, while at the same time creating community inclusion, and increasing trust between patients and doctors, among other benefits.

Likewise, it is important to recognize cultural incompetence, such as racial discrimination in the workplace. Being aware and accepting of others’ cultures can make a huge difference in reducing discrimination and oppression and can help us have pleasant conversations about culture. Additionally, the report by Duquesne University also states that the United States is more ethnically and racially diverse than ever before, and that by the year 2055, there will be no racial or ethnic majority. Hopefully, this will lead to a more tolerant atmosphere in the country.

Finding an Answer

I know when I get asked this question, the answer the person is looking for is that I am Mexican, but that is not the phrase that immediately comes to my head. Instead, this question brings a 100 more questions to my mind.

Instead of replying with the answer they are looking for, I want to ask them what they mean by “what are you?” I am not a “what,” I am a “who.” I want to throw the question back at them and ask what they are. Perhaps if they experienced the absurdity of the question, they would no longer ask it. I want to answer aggressively and ask them exactly what they mean by the question, I want to ask them why they want to know. I want to calmly inform them that the question they have asked is rude, that it shouldn’t matter.

All these answers seem to work for me, but actually saying them is not so easy. If my answer is too aggressive, the other person can get defensive and not listen to what I say. My goal with my answer is to get the other person to think, this is not something that is easily done with a short reply.

I read a story about a woman who was constantly asked this question, but her experience was unique in that she didn’t know her answer. Her mother was adopted and she didn’t know her father, so she couldn’t even answer the question for herself. Even after a genealogical investigation, a large percentage of her own DNA showed up as unknown. In the end, she decided to answer the question with her name. Her answer became, “I am Simone.”

I like the simplicity of this answer. I am me, a whole made up of different parts. Sure, part of this whole is comprised by my culture, and while I treasure that part dearly, it is not my one defining characteristic. I hope that next time I am faced with this question, I can have a better answer. More than that, I hope next time I can have a meaningful conversation in which someone gets to know me and I get to know them.

[her-culture]

Just a little quote from our HerCulture instagram page to motivate your day 🧡

[her-culture]

This article was published on the HerCulture blog. If you would like to submit an article, head on over to HerCulture to learn more about our writers and our magzine. Additionally, check out our social media (twitter, instagram, facebook, and tumblr!), our handles are herculture. Give this post a like and make sure you follow us on any of our accounts. By the end of December, we would like to reach our goal of 400 people on this tumblr account!

Start a culture revolution!

x Likhita

[her-culture]

Do It Yourself, For Yourself: What a DIY Project Taught Me About Myself.

GLORIA YANEZ

There comes a point in our lives, for some of us, when we realize that we’re not doing enough… for ourselves. I came to this realization while re-painting a floor lamp for the second time. I had decided to repaint my floor lamp rose gold because I found its original brown matte color to be too plain for my taste. After making my way to the closest Home Depot to buy the paint and brush kit (because spray paint would be just too easy), I finally started to work on the project that I had left written on my laptop’s to-do list for the past month. As I opened the paint bottle, I read the recommendation that I should use a primer or sand the lamp before applying the paint for better results. However, in my mind, I thought it’s just a lamp, it doesn’t need to look its best, especially since it will only be me who sees it  daily. Fast forward to 12 hours later, I went back to Home Depot to get a sanding block, slightly annoyed at the little voice in my head mimicking “it’s just a lamp.”

The funny and revealing part about this occasion is that I recognized this voice in my head, the voice of my inner femme libre that lives for herself and her tastes, and the feeling that she drapes over me when she wants to remind me that I should take myself into consideration… I should put myself first. I don’t do this enough. For example, when it comes to my meals, I’ve noticed, and particularly within the last two weeks, that I don’t try to make them taste amazing or even look aesthetically appealing. I have videos of food recipes saved on my Instagram, but I never think of making those meals for myself – when I save them, I save them for later, for a special occasion involving friends, family, or people I have only met a few times. On the rare occasions that I cook for friends, family, and guests, I do as above and beyond as my culinary challenged self can go. As for the failed lamp makeover, in that case, I convinced myself that my looking at the lamp alone wouldn’t be enough of a reason to make it look good. However, once the first coat of paint dried, I wondered whether people would notice the streaks from the paint brush or the dried-up drips of excess paint, and it wasn’t after the direct sunlight exposed them that I figured I should make it look good for others. As I write this blog, my inner femme libre is raging, “why didn’t you think of making it look good for yourself?”

This tendency to put myself, my preferences, and my dislikes second to those of others, as far as I see it, stems from an ingrained fear of being too much or not enough, of either being a selfish woman or a woman that doesn’t know what she wants. In fact, this is a fear that many girls and women grow up with. We’re either too emotional or not affectionate enough. We’re either too closed-off or not mysterious enough. We’re either too bossy or not ambitious enough. I have become more  aware of this struggle within the past six months after a painful breakup following a relationship that with all of its beauty and adventure, brought me face to face with the reality that I confuse my joys, truths, and preferences with the joys, truths, and preferences of others to soften any of my less-palatable extraness.

Here you might think, is this another blog that’s going to give a simple act, such as painting, a life-changing meaning? Well, Yes. Hear me out. A couple of months ago, I read an essay titled Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power* written by Audre Lorde. For those who do not know this warrior goddess of a woman, Audre Lorde was a “black feminist lesbian mother poet” who dedicated her life and career to the bringing together of seemingly incompatible perspectives (race, gender, sexual orientation, class, age and ability) to explore pride, love, anger, fear, and sexual oppression.

In her essay, Audre Lorde focuses on the importance of living our day-to-day lives as if we were experiencing one never-ending orgasm. A braingasm of some sorts that encourages us to accept, feel, and seek again and again this unapologetic energy within ourselves to do anything and everything that turns us on emotionally and mentally. In Lorde’s words, we are to “find the erotic such a kernel within [ourselves]. When released from its intense and constrained pellet, it flows through and colors [our lives] with a kind of energy that heightens and sensitizes and strengthens all [our experiences].” The erotic can be such a power-inducing energy, which is why society has convinced women to be suspicious of their erotic selves. Its badness and dirtiness are what make women inferior, and only those who suppress it are truly strong. “But that strength is illusory, for it is fashioned within the context of male models of power,” Lorde explains. As she so intelligently chips away at this mentality, she stresses that the sexual and pornographic presence of the erotic is but one of its many tones. The erotic doesn’t have to be merely and exclusively sexual, it can be “an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire.” In other words, it’s that being-turned-on feeling that we experience when we do something that makes us feel so happy and complete that we want to shout it from the rooftops. For me, it’s that highness I get after adding one more .decimal to my previous mile run, it was that weight-off my shoulders after completing a 60-page thesis, it was the last sigh I took while squeegeeing off the rose gold residue from the paint brush after adding the last coat of paint.

So yes, a simple act such as repainting a piece of furniture can be very eye-opening because of the therapeutic atmosphere that it places one in. Imagine, you’re creating something for yourself that you’ll get to look at in the following months or years and say to yourself, “yeah! I did that,” and when people comment on it, you’ll gladly add “thanks, I painted/drew/assembled it myself.” As for my own floor lamp makeover, although it took me a second try to realize that I should make it look good for myself, now when I look at it I’m reminded to put myself and my satisfaction first in every aspect of my life. This might sound selfish, but in all honesty, it’s okay to be a little selfish when it means living your best life, according to your own tastes, likes, and preferences

This article was published on the HerCulture blog. If you would like to submit an article, head on over to HerCulture to learn more about our writers and our magzine. Additionally, check out our social media (twitter, instagram, facebook, and tumblr!), our handles are herculture. Give this post a like and make sure you follow us on any of our accounts. By the end of December, we would like to reach our goal of 400 people on this tumblr account!

Start a culture revolution!

x Likhita

[her-culture]

My Experience Taking a Course in Vipassana

KATHERINE MEADOWS

What is Vipassana?

Gautama Buddha taught a specific process of meditation that would lead to enlightenment if practiced diligently and seriously. It begins with Anapana meditation (observing the breath) and when the mind is sharpened from this observation, it graduates to observing the sensations in the body (the Vipassana technique). The idea is to be aware of everything in the body from pain to pleasure and regard each of these sensations with equanimity, and to not react with aversion or with craving but allow each sensation to exist until it changes. At the base of this approach to sensation is an understanding that the nature of everything, is changing. Anicca. During these 10 days, I vowed to disengage from harming all other beings (we ate vegetarian meals twice a day), to not speak or read or write, to meditate for ten hours every day, and to follow the general life of a monk in pursuit of enlightenment. What I encountered was a very valuable experience that has been strange to contextualize.

Living the Life of a Nun

We had the same schedule almost every day of the course: Rise at 4 a.m., from 4:30-6:30 a.m., we meditated in our rooms, then ate breakfast and had time to rest and digest. Then from 8 to 9 a.m., we all meditated together and from 9 to 11 a.m., meditated alone in our rooms. Next, we had lunch and a little more free time to walk around or stretch or shower. Strangely enough, we were not permitted to practice yoga. Then from 1 to 2:30 p.m., we meditated alone, then all meditated for another hour in the hall together. After meditating alone again until 5 p.m., we were allowed to have tea and fruit but no dinner. After this evening rest, we reconvened in the meditation hall (the Dhamma Hall) for an hour meditation from 6 to 7 p.m. Then each evening, the teacher, S. N. Goenka,  gave a discourse explaining the technique and discussing the philosophies behind the technique and how it came to be. During the most trying days (the first four), he offered help from generations of former students along with support for us on our journey through stories, analogies, and sometimes humour. After the roughly hour-long lecture, we meditated until 9 p.m. and then went to bed. Lather, rinse, repeat the next day!

Thought Observation

The first three days of the journey were devoted to Anapana (breath observation) meditation. We spent these days focusing our minds on our breath—is it passing through the left nostril? right nostril? both? is it heavy? evenly spaced? shallow? This evolved into observing the “touch of the breath” and the sensations that breathing left on the nostrils and upper lip area, serving to sharpen our minds and build up our body consciousness and sensitivity.

Cycles became prominent in this aspect of the experience. Much of what we practiced was focusing on breathing. You can practice this for 10 days or 10 years; thoughts will still summon themselves from the ether of your mind and start telling their own narrative. This was very frustrating to confront…until I accepted it. Accepting the unconscious structures in the mind was par for this course. Goenka described the process as a very deep surgery of the mind, diving below the conscious mind (awareness of thought) and subconscious mind (strings of thought that characterize our mental “duration”) mind, into the unconscious realm (the formula-like structures that gear our minds into patterns of craving and aversion, or direct our thoughts towards past and future). These unconscious processes will be with us for the entirety of our lifetimes. Instead, it’s about learning not to react to them—not to act on our cravings and aversion—but to allow ourselves to sit with both pleasant and unpleasant sensations in the body, listen to and acknowledge them them [as impermanent], and let them be.

I know what you’re thinking: “this sounds like one of those things that’s really easy to say in a faux-Guru-dreadlocked-hippie-lounging-on-a-

stoop-smoking-a-joint kinda way.” Well, you’d be right! In practice, this process consisted of realizing I was drilling into something with my mind and turning back to my breath only to realize I was thinking again less than a minute later…but for two hours straight. In combination with the un-ignorable pain in my body, I was a very distracted pupil for the first couple of days. Because we were meditating so much each day, I cycled in and out of “productive” sessions to ones spent more in the thought realm than the breath observation realm.

Meditating for 10 Hours a Day for 10 Days

As relaxing as this sounds, it was excruciatingly painful to endure for the first five-seven days. In the last five days of the experience, the pain slowly went away as my body either acclimated or learned to look at and detach from the experiences of pain. My posture improved significantly, as much of the experience consisted of sitting up straight, focusing on breath, slowly moving back into a slouch, realizing I was slouching, and starting over from the top. As you can imagine, this required all the patience that many do not have.

An important lesson was learned here: it is useless to spend your time trying to force yourself to be something that you simply aren’t. When it comes down to it, you have to accept where you are and start again from the beginning. And start again, and again, and again. Perseverance was difficult to grapple with the many times I failed to stay focused. Many times, I gave up halfway through a meditation and decided to just think or just breathe without observation.

Isolation

One of the vows we all took going into this experience was to deny ourselves speech, eye contact, and physical contact. It was meant to be a solitary experience, without help from others. We were instructed to pretend that we were alone on this journey. However, the four hours we had between registration on Day 0 and the official start of the course (during which we were allowed to speak and associate with each other) made it difficult to not feel a strong presence and kinship with the 40-some others I was embarking on this journey with. It can be noted the moment we were told we should start to observe, the no speaking/touching or making eye contact tenants, the considerable amount of social anxiety I’d been working through vanished. I found a new power in the reservation of speech and [nine days later] realized that speech can make you unconscious of your actions. This realization struck as I was talking to one of the girls I’d shared a room with—on Day 10, we were allowed to talk to each other part way through the day. I suddenly became aware of the massive amount of ego I was lobbying in the conversation that I was dominating. I became suddenly quiet and made efforts to coax her into sharing and adding to the conversation, but I would find myself once again rattling on and on as she stared, smiling and blinking. I was horrified to find such a monster inside of my ability to share my thoughts. It felt like I COULDN’T TURN IT OFF. The feeling was akin to the frustration I experienced when my thoughts continually invaded my meditation. It felt like unconsciousness in the pursuit of complete sentence.

Accepting my Own Self-Centeredness

Vipassana prides itself on being an unadulterated teaching, passed down through a will to share peace with others and a compassionate loving-kindness that serves to alleviate suffering. Supporting this image, Vipassana centers around the world are unfunded by any corporation, fueled only by the donations of people who have taken the course. This 10-day course was entirely free for me to take—I did not have to pay for any of my meals, for the room where I slept, or for the teaching. All those that cooked for us, taught us, served us, and helped maintain the facility were volunteers who had also received Vipassana instruction. All the food and funds for electricity, hot water, and heat were also donated. I feel now that I should have been kissing the feet of everyone who gave of themselves and yet on the last day of the course, I could not deny a sense of entitlement. This deserving feeling, and a general lack of care for those who donated 10 days’ worth of their time to give me a good experience, deeply shocked me. I was very uncomfortable realizing these feelings were inside me and tried desperately to understand them because I knew that I should be overflowing with gratitude. It didn’t take long for me to apply what I had been learning the whole course: acceptance and starting again. Since I took this course, I have been embarking on a process of incorporating what I learned. The first step was accepting that part of my shadow self includes this self-centered attitude and a lack of gratitude. The next step was [and is] working to acknowledge gratitude in my everyday life for the people I live with, my coworkers, my family, my friends, and the opportunities that just spring up in my life. Above all, I learned that everything is a constant process. There is no destination, just a direction from moment to moment.

Conclusion

All in all, this wound up being a very valuable and intense experience. I doubted myself many times, but I was still touched by deep appreciations for life and all that I’ve experienced just as many times. In the month that’s passed since I finished the course, I have slacked off from my continued meditation practice, but the philosophies have very much remained: viewing all intense emotions as Anicca, changing. I confronted many weaknesses within myself and have since developed a better understanding of the way my mind works. I would like to take another course after a year or so has passed because I really do appreciate the multi-faceted aspects that gave me such a genuine and renewing experience.

This article was published on the HerCulture blog. If you would like to submit an article, head on over to HerCulture to learn more about our writers and our magzine. Additionally, check out our social media (twitter, instagram, facebook, and tumblr!), our handles are herculture. Give this post a like and make sure you follow us on any of our accounts. By the end of December, we would like to reach our goal of 400 people on this tumblr account!

Start a culture revolution!

x Likhita