College Feminists Connect!

Highlights: Catch Up On This Week's Exciting News

"Finally, Finally! FBI's 'Forcible Rape' Definition is Officially History"

It's official, the FBI has changed their definition of rape - which means statistics will better reflect actual incidences of sexual assault. This change will also help highlight better ways to fight rape culture and stop sexual violence. Get the full story at Ms. Magazine's Blog.

"Yale University Discovers Firsthand the Awful Results of Gender Cohabitation"

The results are in! And they're not awful - they're actually exactly what you might expect. Check out Yale University's foray into mixed gender on-campus housing in this Jezebel article.

"The Tea Party's Not-So-Civil War"

For an in-depth look at how the Tea Party functions, what they're thinking about the upcoming election and an all in all great read, hit up this New York Times Magazine article.

"Who Needs New Hampshire? Minneapolis Election Winners: Susan Allen and Kari Dziedzic"

In a special election this week Susan Allen became the first Native American woman elected to the Minnesota legislature and Kari Dziedzic won in Senate District 59. For more details on the elections and the elected visit the article on Twin Cities Daily Planet.

"Victims of Eugenics Sterilization in NC to be Compensated"

North Caroline intends to compensate victims of its former eugenics program $50,000 each. Get the full story at Feministing.com.

What the hell is a male feminist?

                                 

    So what exactly is a male feminist? What does he look like and what are his beliefs? Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of black popular culture in the department of African studies at Duke University can answer all of those questions! On Thursday, Novemer 3rd at 11 am in the Hoversten chapel at Augsburg college he will be speaking on the topic, "What the Hell is a Male Feminist?" 

Mark Anthony Neal uses interdisciplinary scholarly work in the fields of African-American, cultural, and gender studies and examines fields of work such as literary theory, urban sociology, social history, postmodern philosophy, Queer theory, and most notably popular culture. It is his belief that popular culture represents an arena of knowledge that has a profound impact on societal and cultural norms in the United States and globally, but one that has been largely underscrutinized as a "serious" site of scholarly and theoretical study. He also believes that commercial popular culture represents a distinct site of ideological production; thus, his work aims to engage the ideological undercurrents within commercial popular culture particularly within the context of race, gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity.

This event is free and open to the public! Find out more here: http://newblackman.blogspot.com/ 

Thursday, November 3, 2011
11 a.m
Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center
Augsburg College
625 22nd Ave. South, Minneapolis  

Our Future, Our Choice, Our Fight

 

We have some very exciting news! On Thursday November 3rd you are all welcome and encouraged to join St. Cloud State's Women's Center, College Feminists Connect, Minnesota Women's Consortium, Women'sAction, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, and others for a discussion about women's reproductive health, sex education, and whats at stake in Minnesota! Along with the discussion about women's reproductive health in MN there will also be discussion about what's at stake during the upcoming legislative session and elections.  The discussion takes place on November 3, 2011 at 11-12:15pm in Miller Center, Room 122 and 2-3:15pm in Glacier South, Atwood Memorial Center at St. Cloud State University.  College Feminists Connect will be tabling in between sessions. Drop by our table to learn more about this great program! We hope to see you there!

How Are You Recruiting Your Future Feminists?

With every new semester comes the excitement of new classes, new faces, and more chances to participate as an activist on your college campus! This is an exhilarating time of the semester, as students are feeling re-energized and invigorated, and aren’t yet burnt out from huge amounts of tedious homework assignments (although, it won’t take long, but I’m optimistic.)

Over here at St. Cloud State University, the Women’s Center is eagerly planning our approach on acquiring new students that are interested in participating in our feminist community. Not only are we reaching out to the feminist minded students on campus, we are also attempting to create an awareness of the Women’s Center. Surprisingly, most students at SCSU do not even know that there is a fully staffed Women’s Center available to them on campus.

On the basis of how we are planning on getting the word out on campus, the University does much of that for us. Every Fall and Spring semester, the University puts on what we call a “Main Street” event. For those unfamiliar with this event, it’s where the entire campus basically advertises every single student organization, campus department, and off-site/community resource that a student will ever need. It is quite a huge event, one that takes up most of the available space on campus. The Women’s Center has participated in this event every year, and is very well known for the women’s symbol pens we hand out (trust me, you WANT a Women’s Center pen – you are not cool without one, I swear). 

 

UofM Women's Center Seeking Name of Outstanding Women Faculty

The University of Minnesota's Women's Center is in the process of naming an award and are seeking names of outstanding UofM women faculty from the past. Please send the names along with a few sentences describing their major achievements to pegquist@umn.edu by October 3.

Don't Talk About Sexual Violence Prevention On Campus

It’s the beginning of the school year, and on campuses across Minnesota young women are exercising their new-found freedom to explore new relationships and new experiences.  The majority will look back on these halcyon years fondly, but nearly one in four women will have their college years ruined by sexual violence.

According to the Department of Justice, “Women ages 16 to 24 experience rape at four times higher than the assault rate of all women, making the college (and high school) years the most vulnerable for women.”  The DOJ estimates that “almost 25 percent of college women have been victims of rape or attempted rape.”  In addition, the DOJ notes women enrolled in private colleges and major universities experience higher than national average rates of sexual violence. (Source: “Acquaintance Rape of College Students," www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/e03021472.pdf, page 2).

Especially during these first few weeks of school, we need to talk about rape and other forms of sexual violence:  what it is, who does it, and why they think it’s ok.  But don't try to raise awareness about sexual violence, rape, or harassment on campus, because you will be called "Self-righteous," "corrosive," "confrontational," and accused of "browbeating moralizing that effectively ensures our campus will never engage in a forthright dialogue about sexual violence."  How do I know this?  Because this is what happened at Hamline University when the Women’s Resource Center (WRC) tried to get campus talking about rape and sexual violence prevention. 

Last April, Hamline WRC students conducted a guerrilla poster campaign for Sexual Violence Prevention Awareness Week designed to confront common attitudes about rape and sexual violence.  Using images cut from People Magazine, they designed posters with slogans such as 

• Is it rape if she’s isn’t a 10? Yes!
• The most common drug used in rape is alcohol
• You don’t have to be straight to be raped, and
• Know your power – step in, speak up

Immediately after they placed the posters in their display cabinet and around campus, the cabinet was vandalized with a large handwritten sign taped to it that read: "Using images of overly-sexualized females to discourage sexual assault is ill-conceived and counter intuitive."  WRC staff immediately removed the sign as was their right; however, the student newspaper, the Oracle, jumped into the fray and published an editorial condemning the posters.

Judge for yourself: are these images taken from People Magazine "overly-sexualized"?

An Awesome Opportunity: Go, Girls Go!

The Women’s Center over at St. Cloud State University has been busy all summer. We’ve been brainstorming and planning for the coming semesters and we have quite a few fun, interesting, and cool things in store for SCSU campus and surrounding communities.

Aside from our (top secret) planning, we’ve been asked by a local Boys and Girls Club to organize an afternoon for a group of young girls (ages K-4). The young girls are a part a group called, Go, Girls Go!; a young girl’s summer empowerment group focusing on creating positive body image/self esteem, cultivating and inspiring personal growth and independence. Needless to say, this group of young girls is definitely creating their destiny in feminism, and that couldn’t make me or the ladies at Women’s Center any happier.

Obviously, the Women’s Center agreed to take on this opportunity with a resounding, “YES!”, but at the same time we were all puzzled and curious as to how we were going to keep 15 girl’s attention for over an hour. I mean, come on, since when are college students used to working/collaborating with children when it’s not required for class? Never, that’s when, but we were all eager to find the perfect activity and create conversation surrounding positive body image and self esteem, which was the theme we decided to go with.

When brainstorming, I couldn’t help but think about my little nieces (ages 10, 9, 7, and 5) and what types of activities they would be receptive to – and then I thought of a conversation that was had a few months ago involving said body image topic.

Babysitting these girls is always such a treat.  They're always teaching me new things and never fail to keep me informed on "what's cool" now-a-days (because apparently, I'm old and totally out of the loop).

Does Your Women's Center Have a Link?

Does your women's center have a link to College Feminist Connect? 

The College of Saint Benedict's Women's Center has a direct link for the College Feminist Connect. This link enables students to easily access information that College Feminist Connect posts and allows students to post blogs or find resources. The hope for College Feminist Connect is to have direct links on every women's centers page from every college or university in Minnesota. If you are interested in getting you school involved or applying to be a college feminist connect liaison please send a letter of intent and your resume to the College Feminist Connect Coordinator. 

Sad News: A Loss to our Community

It is with a heavy heart that I write with sad news about a member of our community. Last night, Jessica Nathanson, Augsburg College's Director of the Women's Studies Program and Director of the Women's Resource Center, passed away due to complications caused by cancer. Jessica played a role in the early planning stages of College Feminists Connect. In addition, Jessica's passion for and knowledge of social justice and gender issues was instrumental in shaping the women's studies community on Augsburg's campus. She will be deeply missed by all.

Students, faculty, and staff from Augsburg College are invited to gather for community and support in the Women's Resource Center today from 2-4 PM; Monday, April 11 from 9-11 AM; and Thursday, April 14 from 10-11 AM. A memorial service at Augsburg College is being planned and more information will follow. Cards and notes for Jessica's family can be delivered to the Dean's Office in Memorial Hall at Augsburg College.  

Please keep Jessica's family in your thoughts and prayers through this difficult time.

MSU Mankato Women's Center Events

MSU Mankato's Women's Center is hosting awesome events this month! Check out times for the Vagina Monologues or the YWCA's Walking in Two Worlds International Festival of Fashion. For more information and too view the full flyer download this file: MSU Events.