College Feminists Connect!

Alumni Spotlight: Catherine Scallen

Hello all!

My name is Catherine Scallen, and I interned with the Minnesota Women’s Consortium the summer of 2010, right before my senior year in college. Meghan asked me to speak a little bit about what I’ve been up to since graduating college, and how my feminist beliefs have played out in that, so here I am!

Catherine when she began at the MWC

I graduated from Notre Dame in 2011 with a degree in American Studies and a minor in Spanish. While I don’t have Gender Studies on my degree, the American Studies major is the greatest thing since sliced bread (seriously—check out this link to understand why I’m so obsessed with my major), and I kept a heavy focus on Gender Studies classes throughout my undergrad experience. 

This culminated in my honors senior thesis—which I ADORED. I know everybody talks about how horrible writing a thesis is, and yes, there were definitely long sleepless nights and mental breakdowns alone in the library, but you can ask any of my friends—I’m completely obsessed with my thesis. Its official title is Bitch: Contemporary Feminism in American Consumer Culture, but I prefer to affectionately refer to it as The Bitch. You can find that little guy here. Good times.

Leave the NFL Alone; Gun Control Will End Domestic Violence, Just Be Careful Dumping Your Boyfriend

On December 1st, Jovan Belcher shot and killed his long-time girlfriend and mother to his child, Kasandra Perkins, before shooting himself. 

While it is not clear the exact catalyst for this murder, apparently the couple's relationships was strained and they had been arguing frequently. It would be unsurprising to discover Perkins had attempted to initiate a break-up before Belcher had shot her. Eight times. Clearly there was a lot of anger involved in this situation, and according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, women who leave their batterers are at a 75% greater risk of severe injury or death. Belcher's mother, who was living with them, reported hearing him say "You can't talk to me like that" shortly before shooting Perkins. The couple had also been getting counseling.

NBC's Bob Costas' response to the tragedy was a call to action for gun control. This is a huge problem. The response of the media blames weapons and excuses domestic violence as the root of the problem. Remember the old adage 'Guns don't kill people, people kill people'? True story. 

Anything can be a deadly weapon, including a person's bare hands. Gun control will not eliminate domestic violence or murders, these horrible things will still happen via different means. The root of the problem needs to be addressed, and the root is domestic violence. 

Approximately 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence during there lifetime. Domestic Violence results in nearly 2 million injuries and 1300 deaths in the US every year. 31% of all women murdered are killed by a current or previous intimate partner.

It is extremely unfortunate that Costas didn't take advantage of such a prime opportunity to address the dangers and unacceptability of domestic violence. He had millions of viewers tuned in, a large percentage of which who would likely not otherwise be reached by anti-violence campaigns. 

The NFL itself may be an important target area for addressing domestic violence. While many NFL coaches claim to uphold certain standards for their players, ultimately those players are hired who will be the best athletes, not the best role models. 21 of 32 NFL teams, at one point this year, had employed at least one player with a domestic violence or sexual assault charge on his record.

Fake Website Campaign Calls Out Victoria's Secret for Condoning Rape Culture

At first glance, the website PINK Loves Consent appears to be genuine. Could it be that Victoria's Secret is actually starting a campaign raising awareness about sexual violence and rape? It sounds too good to be true, and unfortunately it is. 

After further inspection of the website, one finds statistics, a page called 'Then and Now' that calls out misogynist underwear slogans that Victoria's Secret puts on panties and displays an alternative slogan, and some suspiciously photo-shopped looking underwear, but the real giveaway that this site is a commentary on Victoria's Secret is the range of women used to model the 'new campaign. On the home page is a curvy African-American woman, and other pages feature plus-sized white women. All of the women on the website are beautiful, of course, but would Victoria's Secret really go so far as to change their slogans, provide education on healthy sex, AND portray an array of body types? Not likely.

It is obvious this website is attempting to bring awareness to some of the issues with Victoria's Secret, such as the unattainable sizes of the models and promotion of rape culture. Perhaps  you're wondering, what is this 'rape culture' I keep mentioning. Well, let me explain:

"Rape culture is a concept used to describe a culture in which rape and sexual violence are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media normalize, excuse, tolerate, or even condone rape."

Some indicators that you may live in a rape culture include: victim blaming, sexual objectification, and trivializing rape. An example of trivializing rape is rape jokes; rape jokes are not only disrespectful and potentially harmful to victims' feelings, but also communicate a social acceptance of rape as a behavior and may communicate to rapists that their actions are acceptable or even normal. In a rape culture, sexual violence towards women is commonplace and women's bodies are regarded as sexually available by default. 

While there is some debate over whether or not America constitutes a rape culture, personally I believe that it doesn't take a whole lot of thought and observation to recognize that it does. Rape culture is a problem because the behaviors that characterize it are correlated with not only increased sexual violence, but also increased racism, homophobia, ageism, classism, and other forms of discrimination.

Women Leaders: Geena Davis, Coolest Actress Ever

We all are familiar with how fantastically badass Geena Davis is (and if you're not, you should work on that). She's been a baseball player, a pirate, an outlaw, and president. She portrays female leaders who fight against stereotypes, oppression, and occasionally marauders.

Geena Davis goes further than just portraying powerful women, however; she works to advance women in the real world as well.

A little background on how awesome Geena Davis is:

• She was a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist, placing 24th out of 300 auditioners.
• She is fluent in Swedish.
• She's won an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
• She is a member of Mensa, a social organization whose members are in the top 2% of intelligence as measured by an IQ test entrance exam.
• She portrayed the first female president of the United States.
• She's been awarded the Women in Film Lucy Award
• She received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Bates College

In addition to all these fascinating facts, Geena Davis is a prominent activist. 

Geena Davis is a trustee of the Women's Sports Foundation and the face of Geena Takes Aim, a 2007 campaign raising awareness about Title IX and equal opportunities for girls to participate in sports.