If you’re a student at Boston University, you’re surely familiar with the trend of Facebook pages that feature anonymous submissions. BU Confessions and BU Crushes are each entertaining in their own right, but they contain a minefield of problems for the socially conscious. For those wary of the racism (often in the form of fetishization) and sexism that occur in some … Continue reading
Category Archives: Awareness
SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS WEEK (SAAW)
From the BU’s center facebook page about the EVENT. Please join The Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Center (SARP), the Center for Gender, Sexuality, and Activism (CGSA), The Feminist Collective, Students for Reproductive Justice, and the Queer Activist Collective as we kick off this year’s Sexual Assault Awareness Week! This week will be filled with … Continue reading
Mount Rushmore with Women?
In honor of Women’s History Month, author Anne Snyder for Verily Magazine chose four women who she believes should be on the topof Mt. Rushmore – Harriet Beecher Stowe. Susan B. Anthony. Eleanor Roosevelt. Mom. Explanation? Here. It’s interesting to consider how different Mount Rushmore would be with women sculptures added. So, which women do … Continue reading
I’m not Bossy, I’m the Boss
A new campaign by Lifetime and BBDO New York called “Ban Bossy” has recently gained a lot of public attention. The campaign urges us to stop using the word bossy when we describe people, in particular women. Studies have found that young girls are less likely to seek power positions because they fear being called “the … Continue reading
Toggle the Patriarchy
Ever wondered what a gender-swapped world would look like? Well now there’s an app that can let you experience such a world firsthand. Jailbreak the Patriarchy genderswaps the world for you. When it’s installed, everything you read in Chrome (except for gmail, so far) loads with pronouns and a reasonably thorough set of other gendered words … Continue reading
International Women’s Day: yay or nay?
So today is International Women’s Day. Most people have probably heard of this holiday solely due to Google changing its front page. Another means? Facebook. One of our guest post contributors, fegossen made this is her status, and here’s the conversation that followed between her and two other BU students. Frances: I don’t understand International … Continue reading
International Women’s Day is Today
Visitors to the Google Homepage today will see a new Google doodle celebrating… what now exactly? Womanness, or womaninity? Well at least it has something to do with women. Women world-wide. Pardon this blogger’s confusion; I was not familiar with International Women’s Day before yesterday — when the Humanist Observances calendar linked to my personal … Continue reading
The Fetishization of Lupita Nyong’o
Lupita! I assume I’m not the only one who falls into the “oh-my-god-I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-myself-she’s-so-beautiful” category. But it’s important consider various perspectives on the subject of Lupita’s recent visibility in the media: Black and white people, alike, are enamored with Nyong’o for what I believe, are different reasons. Blacks are proud that Nyong’o crushed it in her … Continue reading
Ellen Page: Coming Out of the Closet and Into Focus
Ellen Page (the actress best known for her role in Juno), recently came out as a lesbian on February 14th in the middle of a speech given at an Human Rights Campaigns conference promoting the well-being of LGBTQ youth. Her coming out has caused quite a stir in the media and thankfully, a great deal … Continue reading
Why we’re fighting “Blurred Lines” at BU
Enough sound bites, status updates, Tweets, and other too-brief snippets of discussion. Let’s take some time, at length, to talk through the reasons and theory behind this whole Robin Thicke thing. 1) Why is the BU community petitioning against Robin Thicke, when many other pop artists have hit songs featuring analogous misogynistic content? Continue reading