Leah627
Facebook
It’s my second year back at Hampshire College, for what is, in my mind, one of the most empowering weekends of the year. This conference, entitled “From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom,” and sponsored by the Civil Liberties & Public Policy Group, brings together student and community activists from around the country to share their stories, build the movement for reproductive justice, and, as Marlene Gerber Fried put it, “to re-charge and inspire each other.” In the following series of posts, I will feature notable words, moments and ideas from the opening plenary session as well as various workshops.
Marlene Gerber Fried, longtime CLPP director and current interim President of Hampshire College, shared three lessons from her years as a reproductive justice activist at the Opening Plenary Session.
Here they are:
Lesson 1: Stay close to the reality that drives your activism."
Gerber Fried told conference attendants one woman’s story to illustrate her point. She had come across this particular woman at an abortion clinic. When the woman got there, she realized that she was short $100 needed for the abortion. The woman had her 11-month old baby along with her, and, panicked and desperate, she began to take items out of the baby’s diaper bag and try to sell them to the other women in the waiting room. Gerber Fried concludes that,"Last night’s [abortion] speak-out grounded all of us in the reality of women’s reproductive and sexual lives," Gerber Fried reminded us. "My work puts me daily in touch with the reality of abortion in this country, not the rhetoric-- the reality.”
Lesson 2: Resist the fragmentation of issues and movements.“Listening to women on the margins tells us what we need to be fighting for.”
As Audre Lorde said,
Gerber Fried built on Lorde’s words, emphasizing that“There is no such thing as a single issue struggle because we do not live single issue lives.”
Lesson 3: Go deep. Understand the fight that we are in, so that we will understand what we are fighting for.CLPP is “a reproductive justice organization…and we are committed to keep pushing the margins and the edges out so that more people will come into that circle.”
Gerber Freid shared a quote from the late Dr. Tiller, emphasizing the urgency of abortion rights:
Finally, she shared some words of encouragement, words that are needed especially in these past few months full of legislative threats to essential women’s health care:“This battle is about the self-determination of women over the direction and course of their lives. Abortion is about women’s hopes and dreams. Abortion is a matter of survival. Abortion is not a choice. It’s a right.”
I’m looking forward to more re-charging and inspiration—stay tuned for more radical roundups from the CLPP 30th Anniversary Conference.“Be bold visionaries. It’s hard these days, but it’s really been hard for many days. It seems really acute right now . . . here we are fighting to save Planned Parenthood. But there’s also much to inspire us that’s going on in the streets in Wisconsin, in Mexico, in Egypt, with freedom fighters throughout the world. We’ll hear a lot of things that make us angry and a lot of things that make us sad, but we’ll also hear about the fight and the resistance so that we can keep our fires lit. We don’t have to come here to learn about everything that’s wrong-- that’s what brings us here. We come here so that we can re-charge our batteries, we can inspire each other.”
Leah627This is my second year back at Hampshire College, for what is, in my mind, one of the most empowering weekends of the year. This conference, entitled “From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom,” and sponsored by the Civil Liberties & Public Policy Group (CLPP), brings together student and community activists from around the country to share their stories, build the movement for reproductive justice, and, as Marlene Gerber Fried put it, “to re-charge and inspire each other.” In the following series of posts, I will feature notable words, moments and ideas from the 30th Anniversary of the CLPP Conference.
Since this conference is hosted by Hampshire College, I thought it fitting to start with some inspirational words by CLPP student organizers.
What is the point of looking at your cervix? The point? I can’t really put feminist self-help aside, because it’s what drives me every day . . . women must be given the opportunity to see themselves and participate in their health care. I know women who have given birth and their male medical practitioners have seen their cervix before they have . . . [women must] have agency over what enters our bodies and what does not. We all should have a choice in that matter. We must celebrate what so many religions and societies and groups have deemed as dirty and sinful and shameful, because when I see my cervix I feel joy.
-Tina Oza, on the importance of self-help and self-exams
Reproductive justice inspires me because it encourages people from within the movement to . . . challenge their own thinking. Choice isn’t enough—many lack the luxury of choice. We are here to have discussions, to hear from others, to share our expertise, and to challenge our own thinking . . . I see the movement’s eternal self-reflection as reproductive justice’s strongest asset.
-Micaela Linder
One of the most exciting things about the CLPP conference is its investment in youth, and the power it allows young people to claim in the reproductive justice movement. I have not once felt excluded, belittled, or delegitimized as a teenaged activist in the movement. If anything, young people here are treated with the highest degree of enthusiasm and respect. We are recognized as the future of the movement, and the inter-generational conflict that has pervaded the feminist movement for generations seems conspicuously absent, replaced instead by mutual appreciation.CLPP has changed my life. I was too worried about being accepted into this college society to say the four words I really needed to say: “I had an abortion.” My activism has been a way for me to channel my emotions into something important for millions of people…breaking [that silence] has made me the women I am today. We can’t accomplish anything alone in silence . . . [this movement] is built from stories from the front lines, from people who have had abortions, from immigrants . . . whole, real people…
-Ellen Green
The words of these student activists indicate that my peers and the next generation of activists and leaders have much to offer. I feel heartened in the knowledge that the struggle for equality and justice will be energized, and not forgotten, as our generation takes the reins.
Stay tuned for more updates from the CLPP 30th Anniversary Conference!
Leah627Imagine a world where no woman has to pay for prescription birth control—a world where the government subsidizes voluntary family planning and actively promotes safer sex by eliminating all co-pays for birth control. This world, one in which financial obstacles would no longer prevent women from regulating their reproduction, could become a reality in the near future, thanks to a provision under the new health care reform law that allocates funds for “maternal health.” A new campaign sponsored by Planned Parenthood entitled “Birth Control Matters” seeks to translate the vague language of “maternal health” into tangible preventive care: free contraceptive access for all women.
Birth control does matter—and so does its cost. Even women with insurance coverage (women like myself), still turn out their pockets for co-pays that add up (most co-pays fall between $30 and $60 a month). Women without health insurance pay even more. So what’s a woman to do when she must choose between birth control and her other bills? What’s a higher priority—a heated house or the ability to exercise reproductive autonomy?
Cecile Richards, the President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, discussed these quandaries last Tuesday at Harvard University in a room packed with cupcakes, pizza, condoms, and over 60 students ready to campaign for no-cost contraceptive access under the new federal health care reform law. At Harvard, we’re gathering forces to undertake a student-driven campaign of our own in conjunction with the Planned Parenthood’s Birth Control Matters: the Accessible Birth Control Campaign, or ABC. Although we have yet to determine a specific course of action, we plan on targeting decision makers in the US Department of Health and Human Services by gathering petition signatures, creating multimedia youth-focused messages, and delivering as many personal pleas as we can to drive home our point: accessible birth control is a youth issue that students are ready to fight for.
Leah627Whenever I come across an easy opportunity to make a difference in the lives of women around the world, Amplify is my first stop. The online blogging community represents a powerful force in the dissemination of awareness about global health concerns, and can play an equally significant role in the current of funding toward supporting people in developing countries, promoting universal health systems, and encouraging health programs.
Girl2Woman, a project of Pathfinder International, launched an initiative yesterday called 200 Thousand for 200 Million. According to their website, their goal is to achieve 200,000 video shares of the videos on their website by International Women’s Day (this coming Monday, March 8) “to raise critical awareness about the more than 200 million women around the world who lack access to modern contraceptives.” For each time the video is “shared,” a generous donor will contribute $1 to Pathfinder International programs.
Pathfinder International, a non-profit organization that seeks to “ensure that people everywhere have the right and opportunity to live a healthy life,” has provided reproductive health care to men and women in over 120 countries worldwide. Its programs stem from the belief that women’s reproductive health care affects every aspect of their lives; the ability to make reproductive choices, the knowledge and resources to protect oneself against sexually transmitted infections, and the support to actively engage in family planning, lead to higher education levels, larger earning potentials, and a greater abundance of opportunities. On a larger scale, women’s empowerment and self-possession raise developing countries’ economic profiles, as women achieve more in the classroom and, eventually, in the workforce.
Pathfinder International develops local partnerships and engages with communities in developing countries to effect positive change for reproductive health care in its many forms: providing family planning services, birth control access, prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, AIDS response, maternal and newborn care, abortion services, delaying childbearing, and promoting safe sex. The long term benefits of ensuring universal reproductive rights and investing in sexual and reproductive health could alleviate poverty, empower women, and save lives.
As a college student, I often struggle to reconcile my desire to contribute to important efforts like Pathfinder International’s project, and my lack of a steady income. I frequently receive emails from the different organizations that I belong to asking me to contribute to their cause, and a feeling of heavy guilt settles over me as I press “delete” on my keyboard. The Girl2Woman project presents an ideal way to involve youth and educate others regarding the fundamental need for global reproductive health care access. Two hundred thousand views is a lot to accomplish in a week, but this video is well worth the effort. Take advantage of this opportunity to make a difference from your computer screen, and not your credit card: please share this video as much as you can, and let’s push Girl2Woman to 200 Thousand for 200 Million!
Leah627A recent editorial in the Daily Princetonian, Princeton University’s official daily newspaper, indicates that, although rape-apologist discourse is perhaps not pervasive on most campuses (or even at Princeton, necessarily), support for victim blaming still exists. Let’s take a look.
This Monday, Iulia Neagu, a freshman at Princeton, wrote a bold opinion piece questioning the legitimacy behind a friend’s recent charge of sexual assault against another student. Neagu’s public treatise on the legitimacy of rape accusations likely puts the aforementioned “friend” and victim in an uncomfortable space of public recognition. And if I had just experienced an encounter that I had perceived as sexual assault, regardless of its “legitimacy,” no real friend of mine would question my honesty, sobriety, or culpability in a public setting, if at all. But beyond Neagu’s qualities as a friend, let’s examine her reasoning. Why would a female freshman student call out one of her “friends” as a perpetrator or complacent participant in her traumatic sexual encounter, when she could instead act to support her?
Leah627This week, I’m performing in The Vagina Monologues. As robocoko has written on Amplify, The Vagina Monologues are composed of performances expressing individual women’s stories about their vaginas, and asks how we might collectively change the negative social discourse around women’s bodies.
Leah627- Scott Brown ran a solid campaign. The former nude model and “eligible bachelor” for Cosmo made good use of his charisma and vitality, as well as his constituents’ frustration with the lack of results emanating from the Democratic party, to win votes.
- The health care bill has spiraled into a series of concessions and disappointments, many of which have selfish Democratic congressmen to blame (Representative Stupak of Michigan, Senator Nelson of Nebraska, and Senator Lieberman of Connecticut—although he’s no longer a Democrat).
- Had the Republican candidate for the Senate seat been a woman who had posed nude for a Cosmo centerfold, would the GOP have given her as enthusiastic an endorsement?
- Was Coakley the best Democratic candidate? Would, say, Alan Khazei (an earnest underdog from the Democratic primary), have run a more effective and ultimately more successful campaign?
- Was Massachusetts afraid to elect a female Senator? Why does the gender gap still pervade Congress? Had Martha Coakley won, the Senate would have reached 18 female members, its highest ever number.
- Did Coakley’s admirable and unwavering pro-choice stance, and her unwillingness to compromise women’s reproductive rights in the health care bill have a significant impact on her candidacy?
- Why didn’t Coakley do more to campaign and raise money from the outset of her candidacy? Her campaign professed that it didn’t have enough money to poll voters until Brown had already surged ahead.
- Did the general disappointment in Obama’s failure to deliver “real change” affect voter turnout? How did democrats let Scott Brown appropriate the mantra of “real change”?
- Is there any hope that a health care bill might be passed that would include real reproductive health care coverage for women?
Leah627 The Congress could run over women's right to choose in the upcoming health care bill negotiations. Will you get stuck under the bus?
Not Under The Bus, a campaign for Women's Health Care sponsored by the Women's Media Center, has taken the Stop Stupak movement by storm. Their website, in addition to offering compelling graphics and multimedia efforts to inspire action, compiles a list of every petition, blog, and movement aimed at passing comprehensive health care in the Congress. And by comprehensive, I mean health care that fully covers women in addition to the male congressional majority, that doesn't ask women to plan for unplanned pregnancies, and that values reproductive health care as an integral and normal part of the medical world.
Not Under The Bus presents would-be activists and health care reform aficionados alike with a concrete plan of action: Get Informed. Send Your Message. Be a Voice in the Media. Connect. Tell Your Friends.
Tomorrow, Thursday January 13th, is the official day of action sponsored by Not Under The Bus, but it is never too late or too early to stand up for women's health. I encourage you to visit their website, sign their petition to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, or better yet, to sign all of the petitions floating around online. Not Under The Bus provides a user-friendly compilation of efforts from the ACLU, NARAL, and NOW, among others, and is trying to reach 1000 signatures on its own petition by tomorrow.
Tomorrow, spread the word: follow Not Under The Bus on twitter, or post an action alert on facebook.
Will you let Congress run you over? Or will you stop the bus, get on, and drive it toward fair, safe, coverage for women?
Leah627When I was little, my mom had a few signature phrases. She served us foods that were “good and good for you,” she relished hearing “you were right and I was wrong” when we realized that, yes, Mother does know best, and she reprimanded my brother and me for roughhousing, because “it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.” This last warning may well have stopped the facebook fan page for “The D.E.N.N.I.S. System” before it spiraled out of control; before a memorable element from a so-so episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” became a potpourri of frightening, violent, and misogynistic acronyms posing as “jokes.”
Yes, I know, the page is meant as an Internet troll—an empty provocation meant to amuse its 85,000 fans, and provoke gullible Internet roamers. One of the group’s photos pictures a sign labeled “Don’t Feed the Trolls!” and maybe my reaction is the one they were hoping to elicit.
But, even if it started out as “fun and games” as my mother would say, its disgustingly threatening wall posts reveal that the troll has surpassed any reasonable level and merits concern. The original D.E.N.N.I.S. system outlines a “tried and true” method for men who want to take advantage of as many women as possible. It instructs men to Demonstrate value, Engage physically, Nurture dependence, Neglect Emotionally, Inspire hope, and then Separate entirely. While this system may bother, offend, or annoy many women (including myself, to be honest), it’s a fairly pedestrian, if idiotic, method that many men seem to employ, whether consciously as a “system” or otherwise. It may be misogynistic, but not necessarily a cause for outrage—Dennis, the character from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and the creator of the D.E.N.N.I.S. system is just that: a character, and, whether for good or for bad, a pretty realistic one.
The acronyms littering the wall of the D.E.N.N.I.S. system fan page, however, paint violent images of date rape, sexual and emotional violence, and physical threats. Let’s take a look:
Leah627Here comes the next generation of leaders.
Ever since the Stupak amendment forced students nationwide to wake up from their complacency surrounding the fight for choice and comprehensive women’s health care, there has been a reinvigoration of student passion, verve, and drive to act. Two weeks ago, I wrote about the first Students Stop Stupak rally that we planned here at Harvard University. That event proved a success: upwards of a hundred people, undergraduates, graduate students, and engaged passersby, joined in to protest. Shouting, “Health Care YES, Stupak NO” and “Stop Stupak Now!” we forced Cambridge residents, Harvard students, and local and national media to listen to us.
As we are now discovering, this is not just a one shot deal or a one-time success. Students Stop Stupak is flourishing, not shriveling: it has quickly grown from a singular event to a movement of its own, both at Harvard and at campuses across the country. On our campus, Students for Choice membership has exploded, with membership increasing over 800% (ok, maybe we only had five to begin with, but still…). Harvard’s Stop Stupak activism has grown exponentially within the past two weeks alone (our facebook group, composed only of Harvard students already boasts over 250 members), and now we’re joining in with the national current. This week, in conjunction with action events around the country, student representatives from 72 different campuses (including Harvard) are storming the capitol to lobby Senators to stand up for women’s choice and to oppose Stupak.
