Flip the Syllabus #1: Gospel of Matthew

Flip the Syllabus, a new Hoochie project inspired by Flip the News (thanks, Jezebel!) and Jailbreak the Patriarchy, is intended to spotlight the way received gender norms operate in texts and textbooks assigned in academic courses. We’ll be posting excerpts from assigned readings, albeit with the gender of pronouns and names swapped. Let’s see if you can tell the difference.

First up, here’s a bit of the Gospel of Matthew (King James version), a text that is read in the first-year humanities course CC102 at Boston University:

When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.

And here’s the flip:

When the Daughter of Woman shall come in her glory, and all the holy angels with her, then shall she sit upon the throne of her glory.

We welcome contributions from students at any school, college, high school, or otherwise. Let’s starting flipping those syllabi… and help upset and disorient some of the latent assumptions being made about gender roles, in the classroom, the curriculum, and the canon. #flipthesyllabus #hoochierox

Meet-up with Boston Feminists

Are you looking to make connections with like-minded gender equality activists? Check out New Wave Young Boston Feminists. From their about page:

New Wave is a group that incorporates the myriad perspectives of our members to build a radically-welcoming feminist community. This isn’t our grandmothers’ Feminism – we draw on the great progress of previous generations while forging ahead and creating our own path. As a diverse group of Feminists, Womanists, Gender Studies students, professionals, and other folks with an interest in gender equality, we welcome ALL voices, Queer or straight, cis or trans, all genders and all backgrounds.

While you’re at Meetup, you might also visit the pages for Boston Pro-choice Supporters and the Boston NOW Chapter.

SARPC@BU now open

We read it at Jezebel first: “The Sexual Assault Response & Prevention Center at Boston University (which has had issues) is now open for business.”

Hoochie is seeking….

… new writers and editors to pick up the Hoochie Woman brand and put out a new issue. If you are an undergraduate with the desire to commentate on culture from a feminist perspective, please drop us a line.

More than meets the eye, perhaps

As is noted in the comments section of the original post at Crates and Ribbons, the identity of those pictured is contested. But even so — imagine even if the photo was staged — that the image is so productive of interpretations that fail to take into account the possibility that something untoward is going on, is an object lesson in the way that a rape culture works upon the collective consciousness.

From Dig Boston: “BEYOND BINARY BIGOTRY”

Both bisexual and transgender communities bump up against a social norm of dichotomous rather than spectral classification, and until society excludes the binary and embraces the rainbow of identities that truly exist in the world, we will be ignoring and hurting our brothers and sisters (and everything in between).
[...]
No one has the right to tell anyone who to be or how to love and whom, even if that love or identity conflicts with the ideas of sexuality and gender we’ve always had.

– BU lit student / journalist / activist Emily Hopkins (@emihop), writing in the Dig Boston public opinion column in June 2012

Seriously… Breast Ironing? The Damnation of Women’s Bodies

Thanks to civilizeme for this link to The Frisky’s post “What the Hell is ‘Breast Ironing’?“

I haven’t seen the documentary referenced, but the concept is pretty hard to stomach. By flattening a young girl’s developing nipples so she doesn’t incite men to lust, a girl is not only held responsible for men’s actions, but subject to all sorts of health problems. As Jessica Wakeman for The Frisky points out, “breast ironing” is similar to female genital mutilation. Both hold women entirely (and unfairly!) accountable for the sexual misconduct of men. Women are portrayed and treated as temptresses who distract and destroy otherwise innocent men. Subduing a woman’s “negative” sexual power is considered much more important than protecting her health or dignity. One can only imagine the shame and deep psychological damage that must come with both breast ironing and female genital mutilation. Women are taught that there is nothing positive about their bodies or sexuality – which can only perpetuate a cycle of smothering  repression.