A Look Back at Sexism from 2013: Our Work is Far from Over

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NswJ4kO9uHc

The video you are about to see, created by "The Representation Project," highlights the highs and mostly lows of female portrayal in the world media. There is a reason why women struggle with anorexia, belemia, depression and various other disorders. That reason is significantly due to hyper-sexualized women in ads, magazines, movies, etc. We live in a world where everyone is constantly exposed to the media. So when a 12-year old turns on the TV, she is immediately watching a commercial with a tall, thin,  large-breasted woman sensually driving a car. The perfect woman is always a non-existent human-being. 

Even though women have made significant strides in the world of politics, female leaders are constantly treated as inferior to their male colleagues. The news will pay more attention to the quality of her clothes rather than the quality of her work. Young girls need role models, but if we continue to silence scrutinize the women who should be looked to, those girls will look to Victoria's Secret models.

This video outrages me. But it is also a call to action. The first thing that needs to be done to combat this injustice is to refuse to buy certain magazines. Change the channel when a sexist commercial comes on. Better yet, don't buy from corporations that make these ads. When a news anchor makes a sexist comment, write the station. Refuse to watch the program. These media channels and corporations rely on viewers. Without viewers they cannot exist. 

   

http://perezhilton.com/2013-04-03-beyonce-responds-critics-modern-day-feminist

Get Your Hands Off Me! : Why Grinding is Sexual Assault

(http://pagesay.com/16-reasons-why-grinding-is-the-worst-thing-to-ever-happen-to-humanity/)

Picture this: you enter a large and darkened room full of hundreds of dancing bodies. The DJ is playing rap or techno or skrillex, or whatever the kids are listening to these days. It's hot and you can't see a thing. But you and your friends join the dancing mob. As you sway to the beat, you notice somethings. As all the women are moving their hips from side to side and playing with their hair suggestively, an outer layer of men are watching attentively. Together, like lions spotting gazelles at the watering hole, the men infiltrate the mob. You continue to dance with your friends. You're having a pretty good time. Good DJ. Good friends. Good dancing. But all of a sudden you feel a pair of cold and clammy hands wrap around your waste from behind. Before you have time to process the situation, those hands grab on tight to your thighs and something else is rubbing up against your derriere. This is called grinding, though many people like to call it "dancing."The definition of grinding is simply: the rubbing of ones genital area against the butox of another. It requires no eye-contact or any verbal communication. This is not just an occasional occurrence at high school or college dances It has replaced all forms of dancing. Walking on to the dance floor, you are going to see hundreds of people grinding up against each other. The further you go into the crowd, the more crude the "dancing."It's essentially a large mass of intensely hormonal students. 

(http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/picture/16814/)

This description may sound funny on paper but it is a serious problem. I cannot recall a dance where at least one guy did not grab me from behind. It happens so fast that women, most of the time, submit to it. I have. The main reason why most young people attend dances it to meet people. So if the only way to interact with someone is through grinding, then we feel we have no choice. But there is a choice. What should stick out to you as the essential problem is that men or women (but mainly men) do not wait for consent when engaging in this intensely sexual act. So when you go up to a woman and rub your pelvis against her body, you are sexually assaulting her. 

Grinding is a form of sexual assault. If a woman doesn't say anything it doesn't mean she likes it. As Sandy Banks from the LA Times puts it, "Silence is not consent. Body movements and...moans are not consent, and grinding on the dance floor is not consent." 

In my experience with grinding, guys certainly leave the situation more satisfied than the partner. It becomes a form of competition to men. Who can grind the most girls? Women are something to be dominated and thrown away. As a woman, you are left feeling empty and vulnerable. Your body has just been used and everyone just saw it. Your friends call you "slutty" while everyone gives a pat on the back to your partner. You never saw each other's faces and never spoke a word. It was completely anonymous. "Take away the music and turn on the lights, and grinding dances quickly turn into sexual assault charges," writes Joshua Lipson of the Harvard Crimson.

The more we submit ourselves to this treatment, the more men will think it is okay to do it. But women are not the only victims here. Men find themselves under an enormous amount of pressure from their male-counterparts. It's a sign of masculinity and creates the identity of "the player." Not all men want to grind. They are just convinced that there is no other option.

Dances are meant to be fun. Instead, the majority of women leave dances feeling dirty and embarrassed. The CDC recently reported that 1 in 5 women have been raped or have experienced sexual assault. I believe grinding is very much a part of that statistic. This means that I have been sexually assaulted. My friends have been sexually assaulted. Most of the women I know have been sexually assaulted. 

Sources:

• http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-banks-campus-assaults-20140510-column.html
• http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/9/16/grinding-dance-culture-harvard/
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/09/05/cdc-nearly-1-in-5-women-have-been-raped/

An Attack on the Uterus

The title for this blog post as you can see is very "in your face." Most people are taken aback by the word...uterus. You might get a wince at "vagina or "clitoris." Anything related to the female reproductive system seems to scare the heck out of Americans, especially conservative Americans.

(http://www.thinkspin.com/2012/09/a-uterus-speaks-out-on-womens-reproductive-rights/)

Throughout human history, especially the past one hundred years, there has been a war on female reproductive rights. A woman's sexuality has always threatened men in power and therefore, many have tried to set limits on our bodies. Everything from sex out of wed-lock, to abortion and birth control, the government can't seem to stay out of a woman's pants. For some women, these arguments seem to be a thing of the past. Of coarse there has been significant improvements in sexual freedom. According to the CDC, 99.1 % of sexually experienced women ages 15-44 use some form of contraception. But you would have to be living under a rock to not realize that the war is far from over.

Let's talk about Hobby Lobby shall we? Over the summer the Supreme Court made a few decisions that have outraged women across the United States. The first was "The Buffer Zone" ruling which struck down a Massachusetts law that required anti-abortion protestors to stay at least 35-feet away from an abortion clinic. It also struck down the ability for female home health care workers employed by the government to have representation in unions. But the most blood-curdling decision of all was the Hobby Lobby ruling.

(http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/06/30/3454509/public-opinion-hobby-lobby-case/)

Two corporations, Conestoga Wood Specialties (wood cabinet maker) and Hobby Lobby (craft store chain) contested contraceptive coverage do to the fact that they run their business under Christian values. As a family-corportation following the values of Christianity, Hobby Lobby and CWS did not want to pay for employee contraceptive insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Essentially, female employees of these two companies would be left to pay for their own reproductive health with working wages. So in June the Supreme Court ruled, in a 5 to 4 decision, that "requiring family-owned corporations o pay for insurance coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act violated a federal law protecting religious freedom." (nytimes, Adam Liptalk) In other words, "corporations are people and have religious rights."

This ruling is a major set back in reproductive rights. This directly attacks low-income women who cannot afford reproductive health care and rely on employer coverage. This will increase the level of poverty amongst women and will leave some women dependent on violent partners. A woman's right to choose has been destroyed. According to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who voted against the ruling, "It bears note in this regard that the cost of an IUD (intrauterine device) is nearly equivalent to a month's full-time pay for workers earning the minimum wage." Now any corporation can claim religious rights in order to save money. It should also be noted that the majority decision was made by men.

This is truly an outrage. An attack on a woman's freedom has been made. Now thousands if not millions of women will suffer the consequences of this decision. There will be more unwanted pregnancies leading to even more abortions. Conservatives should realize that in order to stop people from getting abortions, contraception can decrease the amount. But now low-income women can't afford contraception. Many people like to say, if men could get pregnant, contraception would be affordable to available on every street corner.

(http://www.beatricebiologist.com/2012/10/the-great-cartoon-nether-challenge.html)

Sources:

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/birth-control-use-cdc-study_n_2686941.html
• http://www.socialistalternative.org/2014/08/24/supreme-court-attacks-womens-rights-is-voting-democrat-the-answer/
• http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/us/hobby-lobby-case-supreme-court-contraception.html

Sexism, Threats and Politics in the World of Gaming

(http://fanboygaming.com/a-weekly-fangirl-disclosure-video-games-that-women-love-to-play/)

Today I'm going to step away for a moment from the world of issues surrounding violence. Let's talk about violence against women in the virtual or gaming world. For as long as videogames have existed, be it 30 years or so, it has predominantly been viewed a boy's activity. You say gamer, I think teenage boy covered in acne playing World of Warcraft in in the darkness of his mother's basement. But image is just a stereotype. The gaming community has become extremely diverse over the past ten years. It has become a part of pop culture. Thanks to the "hypster" identity you can find game logos on shirts, iPhone covers, computer backgrounds and every other piece of merchandise you can think of. The gaming world couldn't't be more popular.

But going back to the stereotype. That teenage boy with acne now has to share his grease stained coach with his sister. The popularity of videogames has to be attributed to an increasing number of women holding the console. According to the Washington Post, although men still make up 52 % of the gaming community, women make up 48 %. From 2010 to the present, there has been an 8 % increase. That percentage will continue to increase.

(http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Your-Girlfriend-to-Play-Video-Games)

Now that women are playing, most certainly game designers are making games with strong female characters, right? Unfortunately that is not the case. Despite the large percentage of women, the majority video games are still a "boy's game." Sexism is rampant in most games. With little to no main female characters, the only appearance women really make in video games are as prostitutes, murdered victims or just scantily clad amusement. Vice magazine writes, " be it through the normalization of sexual harassment  video game tournaments, or out-of-control rape joke controversies, propagated by close-minded webcomic titans - a large portion of video game culture is disappointingly determined to make women uncomfortable." This is a serious problem, especially if the video game industry wants to continue to profit from women's participation. 

Here some examples of female portrayal:

Grand Theft Auto

(http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/grand-theft-auto-continues-to-treat-female-gamers-like-roadkill-with-latest-installment/)

Hitman

(http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.858995-Anita-Sarkeesians-TvW-Women-as-Background-Decoration-Part-2?page=9)

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

(http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/exploring-the-treatment-of-women-in-video-games/)

This is just an idea of the type of roles women receive in video games.

This issue has recently led to a new and life threatening issue. Those trying to combat sexism in videogames, especially female game designers, are receiving serious threats from the gaming community.

After designing and releasing, "Depression Quest," a fiction game where you portray someone suffering depression on "Steam," Zoe Quinn began receiving a number of threats from angry gamers. "We already had half a million players at that point and a bunch of awards. When it hit Greenlight, people were leaving foul comments there, and suddenly I started getting stuff sent to my email, 'oh I saw your gam on Greenlight and I hope you kill yourself,'" said Quinn. That led to claims that her address had been discovered and detailed rape threats. These gamers were both upset by her different approach to gaming as well as her being a woman. She soon removed the game from Greenlight but would later return. But upon her return the threats got worse. 

Quinn stated that, "I got some phone calls where I could tell someone was masturbating on the other end of the line. I got another call shortly after where a guy was just spewing as many rape-type threats as possible."

Zoe Quinn is not the only one facing this type of harassment. Anita Sarkeesian is a pop-culture critic who does a video series called "The Feminist Frequency Banner," where she analyzes the sexism in video games. But her work has come to a halt as a result of death threats. On August 26th, she posted on Twitter, "Some very scary threats have just been made against me and my family. Contacting authorities now."

The majority of the gaming community is peaceful and only sticks to the love of the game. But a small group of misogynist players are ruining the reputation of this community. Overall, players and the gaming industry are working together to bring this form of violence to an end. This month, 2,400 "industry professionals" signed a letter seeking to stop offensive acts in the gaming industry. Indie game designer, Andreas Zecher wrote an online petition that states, "We believe that everyone, no matter what gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or disability, has the right to play games, criticize games and make games without getting harassed or threatened. It is the diversity of our community that allows games to flourish."

Sources:

• http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/female-game-designers-are-being-threatened-with-rape
• http://herocomplex.latimes.com/games/gamergate-related-controversy-reveals-ugly-side-of-gaming-community/
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/24/female-gamers_n_5207137.html

Update on the Captured Yazidi Women: Crimes Against Humanity

(http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/minority-iraqis-fear-execution-islamic-state-jihadists-article-1.1892472)

The Huffington Post recently reported on an interview with a 17-year old captured Yazidi girl. Over the summer, hundreds of women from the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq were kidnapped by ISIS militants. There have been several speculations regarding their treatment. But this 17-year old, who is not named, describes the conditions in which these women have had to endure.

According to Mayat (fake name), the militants are "people without a heart" who "do not even spare the women with small children."They are held in prison-like cells and are sexually abused daily.

"They treat us as if we are slaves. The men hit us and threaten us when we try to resist. Often I wish they would beat me so severely that I would die," Mayat exclaims. The women and girls are begging for death but the men of ISIS believe that women should be enjoyed for sex and can be discarded or sold as slaves.

Last month, the UN made this statement in regards to the violence committed by the ISIS fighters:

"We condemn, in the strongest terms, the explicit targeting of women and children and the barbaric acts the 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' has perpetrated on minorities in areas under its control, and we remind all armed groups that acts of sexual violence are grave human rights violations that can be considered as war crimes and crimes against humanity."(statement from social representative Nickolay Mladenov)

These are most certainly crimes against humanity. Girls like Mayat are enduring extreme pain and heart ache but continue to wait for their rescue.

Let me leave you with Mayat's chilling statement: "I don't know how much longer I can stand this. They've killed my body. Now they're killing my mind."

Sources:

• http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/08/yazidi-sex-slave-islamic-state-isis_n_5782714.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

The Enslavement of the Yazidi Women

(http://news.163.com/14/0809/05/A36BBEUR0001121M.html)

I feel that my first post on this blog should address the current tragedy taking place in Iraq. After a decade of fighting in Iraq it seemed that Pandora's Box had finally been shut. The world's attention has now since been directed towards places such as Syria and Gaza. But what seems like out of no where, a new and wealthy terrorist organization, known as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), made it's debut last June. ISIS, through its numbers and large arsenal, has been able to establish control in the major cities of Iraq and areas of Syria.

(http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/baghdad-bomb-blitz-feared-next-stage-isis-offensive-n13884)

The goal of ISIS is to create an Islamic caliphate in these areas and to establish authority over all 1.5 billion Muslims on Earth. An estimated 1.2 million Iraqi's have been driven from their homes. This terrorist group is so ruthless that even Al-Queda has cut ties with them.

(http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28016834)

ISIS has since started to target a minority in Iraq, the Yazidis. Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking minority who's faith is tied to Abrahamic (the belief that Judaism, Islam and Christianity come from the same source, Abraham) and  Zoroastrianism (one of the oldest and smallest monotheistic religions). There are about 700,000 to 800,000 Yazidis in the world, with 90% of them in Iraq. ISIS militants have denounced the Yazidi culture and will not hesitate to kill without cause. They view their culture as blasphemous and unorthodox. 

This past August, ISIS began to storm Yazidi villages in the Mount Sinjar area (northern Iraq near the Syrian boarder). Around 400,000 Yazidi's have fled their homes in pursuit of refuge. But many have not been able to escape torture and execution.

Now to the crux of the story: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has reported that around 300 Yazidi women have been sold to ISIS fighters for $1,000 each. The fighters call them "al Sabaya," or "women captured in war." The SOHR has officially confirmed that 27 of these women have been sold as brides. They have been taken from Iraq to Syria, married off and forced to convert to Islam.

According to Heiner Beilfeldt, the UN religious rights monitor, "We have reports of women being executed and unverified reports that strongly suggest that hundreds of women and children have been kidnapped-many of the teenagers have been sexually assaulted, and women have been assigned or sold to ISIS fighters."

The whereabouts of the rest of the 300 women are unknown.

This is truly a crime against humanity that must be stopped. Women are being treated as objects and sold as brides. This is the 21st century and yet this story seems as if it were an event from the Medieval period. Thousands of Yazidi refugees are lost in their agony as they wait for the return of their wives, daughters, mothers and sisters. But now 27 of those 300 may be lost forever.

After a pointless decade-long war, I as well as many others cringe at the thought of entering into another war in Iraq. But as human beings, should we just sit and watch as other human beings are bought and sold as slaves?

I do not want to enter into another war, but I do want these women to be returned to their people. I want these people to be given back their religious freedom. 

(http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/10/kurdish-rebels-yazidi-iraq-isis)

Sources: 

• http://www.ibtimes.com/isis-sells-300-yazidi-women-brides-fighters-recent-weeks-1674452
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/zoroastrian/ataglance/glance.shtml
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religions