High schooler Madeline Conrique and the other members of the Women’s Health and Issues Club at Arcadia High in Arcadia, California spent the weeks leading up to their prom (held this past weekend) fighting for the event to be misogyny-free. Their target? Opprobrious song lyrics degrading to women:
“Some of the songs call women `bitches’ and `hos,’ or refer to them as objects and treat them like animals,” Conrique said. “We find that offensive.”
To this end, the girls successfully garnered 130 signatures on a petition circulated around school. Of course, not all students were in favour of their efforts–sadly, other girls were among the petition’s staunchest opponents:
“The girls, surprisingly, were turned off,” Conrique said. “They were telling us that we were ruining their prom and that they liked to dance to those songs.”
Unfortunate, to say the least.
Nonetheless, Conrique and the others were successful in having some twenty offensive songs pulled from the prom playlist. Even before this it was obvious they were already winners–how great must it be to attend a high school with a sustained Women’s Health and Issues Club?
To honour their success, we give you the now-classic Queen Latifah ditty U.N.I.T.Y., a challenge to those who refer to women using derogatory language (please click on the unfortunate–sorry–gun graphic to rock out).
Are you engaged in some fun, flashy, or otherwise fab feminist or womanist activity, event, or campaign? You are! Well, we want to know about it so we can help you share it with the world. Send us your PSAs, press releases, photos, whatever, and we’ll post an announcement to help big up you and your crew. Email us at anastasia [at] confabulous [dot] ca or sabine [at] confabulous [dot] ca to give us the news!
Wow. I never knew that Mother’s Day (rolling around on May 10 this year) was initiated by an activist. This vid (with a voiceover narration that is a teeny bit on the annoyingly breathy side) gives a little history behind the day. It’s produced by Inter Pares, an activist organization that promotes social justice in Canada and abroad. Check it out, and give it some thought when you’re debating between buying mom some chocolates or making a donation to a worthy cause.
There’s a very thoughtful piece by Courtney E. Martin over at the American Prospect today called “The End of the Women’s Movement.” In it, Martin argues that the possibility of renewing a single, unified women’s movement is over, and that this is a good thing. Instead, women of all ages have the communication tools at their disposal to engage in gender-based activism. Being a feminist in her 30s, I’m inclined to agree.
But at the end of Martin’s article, she writes,
Instead of pining over days far gone or talking about how we might resurrect them, we could put our energy into supporting the good work on the ground going on right now — the Young Women’s Empowerment Project in Chicago, the Student Action with Farmworkers in Durham, Exhale after-abortion counseling in Oakland, Domestic Workers United in New York, and more. [...]
Call me cynical, but I don’t think there will ever be a global, or even national, uprising of women focused on one singular goal. There will be no singular feminist agenda.
Martin may be right about the multitude of political action taking place on the ground in a variety of settings, but it is still important to remember the inter-relatedness of these actions. Moreover, it’s crucial to keep our own regional blinders in check. Sure, this article is written for The American Prospect, but it’s published on the global web–so the examples of actions from Chicago, Oakland, Durham and New York rankled me (a Canadian) a bit. It suggests that there are, in fact, feminist concerns of a national nature (if not a national American feminist agenda); as feminists, we just need to be honest with ourselves about those concerns as we pursue them.
Update: This is really timely: over at Shakesville, they’re soliciting comments on the question, “What was the last encouraging sign (outside the blogosphere) you saw that womanism/feminism is still on the march?” It’s yielding some lovely answers.
Can't express how much I love my husband. Feel I should attach a hashtag indicating #sincerity, or perhaps #unabashedsincerity or just #TMI15 hours ago
Just came back from playing squash. I still play like a dork, but I still love it. 2010/03/09
High schooler Madeline Conrique and the other members of the Women’s Health and Issues Club at Arcadia High in Arcadia, California spent the weeks leading up to their prom (held this past weekend) fighting for the event to be misogyny-free. Their target? Opprobrious song lyrics degrading to women:
Confabulous badges!
