I would argue that fostering empathy might be the single most important task in undoing a rape culture and replacing destructive entitlement that is at the heart of toxic masculinity. In the United States, where competition, winner-takes-all, survival of the fittest mentalities are seen as the epitome of being “American,” creating a culture that is… Keep reading...
In an expose spanning more than 30 years, NY Magazine gives voice to the 35 women who have accused Bill Cosby of drug-induced rape and sexual assault. As this piece highlights, women and victim/survivors of sexual violence are too-often silenced and ignored, especially when their perpetrators are celebrities or popular within their social circle. The… Keep reading...
Tickling conveys incredibly confusing messages around consent, pleasure, discomfort, autonomy and agency to young children. Kids may ask to be tickled, but when they say to stop, or say no more, the tickling often continues. Sometimes tickling is used as a threat, although intended jokingly, it may be enacted as a form of punishment. This… Keep reading...
Listen more than you speak. Reflect on what oppressed people say. Speak up against oppression. Becoming an ally is an important step in undoing cultures of oppression. Thanks to Anne Bishop for compiling this list on steps people of privilege can take to support oppressed people and work to end oppression. – Brett Goldberg Read… Keep reading...
Make no mistake, the police are the enforcement arm of a racist, sexist, transmysognist, and ableist State. Disarming the police, abolishing the prison-industrial complex, and establishing community-based systems of accountability and restorative justice is fundamental to anti-oppressive struggles, anti-racist movements, and furthering gender equity and reproductive justice. This article provides tangible and immediate steps that… Keep reading...
Just as the male-as-neutral form of our language invisiblizes numerous demographics of people, the way that language casually infantilizes women perpetuates rape culture and normalizes sexism. To refer to a woman–a female-identifying person over the age of 18–as a “girl,” is not only disrespectful, treating them as a child, removing agency and autonomy, but it… Keep reading...
Racism in the United States is in many ways a gendered oppression. The threat of rape, specifically of white women, has been used to justify mob violence against black men for centuries. Dylann Roof used the need to protect white women’s purity as justification for opening fire inside a South Carolina church, murdering six black… Keep reading...
Benevolent sexism is a double edged sword; utilizing positive traits to perpetuate women’s subordination and dependence on men. Roof, who murdered nine African-American people during a church service, is reported to have said that white women need to be protected from rape by black men prior to opening fire. It is rhetoric as old as… Keep reading...