Global Perspectives

Issue 60, August 2013

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Artist: Charlotte Woolf

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A Feminist & Social Justice Magazine

A feminist is a person who answers “yes” to the question, “Are women human?” Feminism is not about whether women are better than, worse than or identical with men. And it’s certainly not about trading personal liberty--abortion, divorce, sexual self-expression-for social protection as wives and mothers, as pro-life feminists propose. It’s about justice, fairness, and access to the

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range of human experience. It’s about women consulting their own well-being and being judged as individuals rather than as members of a class with one personality, one social function, one road to happiness. It’s about women having intrinsic value as persons rather than contingent value as a means to an end for others: fetuses, children, the “family,” men. ~ Katha Pollitt

broad | brÔd |

adjective 1 having an ample distance from side to side; wide 2 covering a large number and wide scope of subjects or areas: a broad range of experience 3 having or incorporating a wide range of meanings 4 including or coming from many people of many kinds 5 general without detail 6 (of a regional accent) very noticeable and strong 7 full, complete, clear, bright; she was attacked in broad daylight noun (informal) a woman.

broad | brÔd |

slang a promiscuous woman

phrases broad in the beam: with wide hips or large buttocks in broad daylight: during the day, when it is light, and surprising for this reason have broad shoulders: ability to cope with unpleasant responsibilities or to accept criticism City of broad shoulders: Chicago synonyms see: wide, extensive, ample, vast, liberal, open, all-embracing antonyms see: narrow, constricted, limited, subtle, slight, closed see also broadside (n.) historical: a common form of printed material, especially for poetry

BROAD Mission: Broad’s mission is to connect the WSGS program with communities of students, faculty, and staff at Loyola and beyond, continuing and extending the program’s mission. We provide space and support for a variety of voices while bridging communities of scholars, artists, and activists. Our editorial mission is to provoke thought and debate in an open forum characterized by respect and civility.

WSGS Mission: Founded in 1979, Loyola’s Women’s Studies Program is the first women’s studies program at a Jesuit institution and has served as a model for women’s studies programs at other Jesuit and Catholic universities. Our mission is to introduce students to feminist scholarship across the disciplines and the professional schools; to provide innovative, challenging, and thoughtful approaches to learning; and to promote social justice.

Global Perspectives: This issues explores the topics of globalization, international relations, access to education, foreign relations, fear of the “other,” islamophobia, internationalism in the news, the media’s depiction of foreign people, immigration issues, immigration issues, privatization of water, neocolonialism, international health care, women in politics, revolutions, environmental activism around the world, and the application and/or imposition of feminism worldwide.

Emma Steiber

Contetnt and Section Editor

Karolyne Carloss Co-Editor in Chief

Katie Klingel

Co-Editor in Chief

J. Curtis Main

Advisor / Consultant

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BROAD People:

CONTENTS FROM YOUR EDITOR

Emma Steiber

QUOTE CORNER My Story is Never Going to be Told by Anyone but Me

Margaret Cho, From I have I Chosen to Stay and Fight

[GP] Las Patronas: Women and the Train of Death Cassandra Price

QUOTE CORNER The No Nonsense Guide to Women’s Rights

Nicki ven der Gaag

WORDS ARE USELESS Ilopango Prison for Women John Sevigny

WORDS ARE USELESS From the Second Skin Series Charlotte Woolf

QUOTE CORNER I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight

Margaret Cho

MIDDLE EASTERN MUSINGS Islamophobic Point

Abeer Allan

TELL-A-VISION Bad Girls M.I.A.

FACULTY FEED Unauthorized Migration is a Woman’s Issue

Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

QUOTE CORNER

Trauma & Recovery: The aftermath of violence- from domestic abuse to political terror

Judith Herman, M.D.

FEMINIST FIRES Lila Abu-Lughod QUOTE CORNER

Chandra Talpade Mohanty

BROADSIDE Au Pair: One Who Toils in Exchange for a Twin Bed

Angelica Krouwer

QUOTE CORNER Houria Bouteldja

ALTSTYLE Why Help Refugee Girls Katie Klingel

WLA (RE)ANIMATED International Women’s Day by YWCA EX BIBLIOTHECIS The United Nations: Eyewitness, Advocate, Information Source Jane P. Currie

INSIDE R OUT? J. Curtis Main

The US is not the Best; No Country Is...

MADADS Culture and Advertising [GP]

International Girl Group Conspiracy

Nina Berman

TALK TO ANDIE

by Andie Karras

MADADS

Catherine Silvey on Hillary Clinton

Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and Ethnography

Clifton Crais & Pamela Scully

QUOTE CORNER

Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and Ethnography

Clifton Crais & Pamela Scully

TELL-A-VISION Boyz M.I.A.

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CONTRIBUTOR GUIDELINES

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2013-2014 Release Schedule September

Frameworks of Faith & Spirituality October

What’s your LGBTIQ? November pt 1

Health & Wellness November pt 2

Dis(sed)-Abilities December

BROAD Love January

Sex Positivity February

Living in Color: Race, Color, & Ethnicity March pt 1

Feminism: Then & Now March pt 2

Activism, Action, & Academia April

The Body Politic May

GET INVOLVED! BROAD needs visiting editors, artists, poets, contributors, & columnists!

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The Issue of Men

From Your Editor

By Emma Steiber

Dear Readers, Many students find themselves learning a great deal while studying abroad, traveling through Westernized Europe, or “WWOOFing” in a developing country. And who wouldn’t find something empowering, eye-opening, or meaningful when experiencing a culture unlike the one he or she is accustomed to? However,

when I traveled to Asia this past summer, specifically in Thailand, I discovered a reality that I could not escape; full immersion was unobtainable for me. My eyes could not help but be in awe as they looked upon the Grand Palace or the Reclining Buddha. However, my eyes also could not avoid the tourism that Thailand thrived

I cannot immerse myself into a culture so different from my own, and yet has simultaneously been forced into dependence on such a Westernized culture. However, this letter is not meant to deter the reader from the multicultural significance of our planet. For there are those who straddle many cultures, who struggle to lend a hand where is needed, who find ways to influence and be influenced, and who share a struggle that must be recognized on a global scale. One example is seen in the kathoey or the “lady boys” of Thailand, who are seen as a third gender and not quite like a transgender male-to-female. Going through many of the procedures in sexual reassignment surgery, these females become accepted in Thailand, more so than in many other areas in Asia. Yet there is still the social stigma, the risk of familial abandonment, abuse, STIs and lack of proper medical care, and more.

So, why this specific focus? As a citizen of a developed country, I am not on an equal footing with sub-cultures, such as the kathoey of Thailand, much less the sex works in Bangkok.

But, as a country that cannot be redirected from the globalization occurring, it is important to remember that we must work with this new future. While many aim for hierarchical power in the race to the top, there is still cultural plurality. And each culture is significant. But this does not mean we keep separate. Instead, the equality that we strive for in our country must be recognized in others as well. In my opinion, equality and empowerment cannot be achieved, unless it can be strived for globally. The stigmas LGBTQIA societies fight against in America, apply

everywhere, however different they are.

I met a woman named Gina in Thailand. Originally from China, she moved to Thailand to live with her native husband. Even after her divorce from her husband, she continues to live in Thailand as a multilingual speaker, owning and operating a global export business, switching from Cantonese, to Thai, to Chinese on her phone. While her children were raised Thai, she encouraged them to be multilingual. Two of them currently live in Chicago. As a Caucasian female, I cannot fully comprehend the life that Gina lives, as well as the life her children live by assimilating into American culture. However, I can learn, experience, and listen to their stories.

As many of BROAD’s prior magazine issues have done, this international issue strives to engage you, the reader, with multiple stories. There will always be differences, but there can exist intersections upon which the foundations of social justice and change may be built.

Sincerely a singular voice out of many, Emma

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on, whether it was sexual or selling souvenirs.

In temples or amongst shrines, Thai people surrounded the outskirts of the Grand Palace, selling Buddha key chains, cotton pants with printed elephants, and fans for the heat that most tourists were not used to. The worst sight was the chained elephants with noticeable eye infections, waiting their turn to carry tourists atop their backs. In Thailand, where thirty baht is equivalent to one American dollar, I could see the appeal to Thai persons and tourists alike—many dollars to exchange into baht and many baht to take from these Westerners’ hands.

Quote Corner

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I have never had any desire to play a maid, a liquor store owner kicking a black person out of my store, a rude and harried waitress, a wordly wise acupuncturist, an early-rising, loose black cotton pantswearing elderly woman practicing tai chi in the park, a manicurist, a prostitute, a student in an English as a Second Language course, a purveyor of exotic mushrooms and ginseng, an exchange student, a newscaster covering gang warfare in Chinatown, a woman drowning my newborn baby in a bowl, a daughter crying with my mom over our constant battle between East and West yet finally coming together over a particularly intense game of mah-jongg, a queen sitting on her throne in the Forbidden city being served a bowl of turtle soup by a eunuch, a peasant carrying a yoke on my shoulders like a yak trudging up Gold Mountain delivering precious water to my village, a young girl being raped and killed by GIs in the Killing Fields, a woman balancing a basked of any kind on my head, being the second wife and committing suicide to avenge the first wife by coming back as a ghost and scaring the shit out of everyone, or, alternately, committing suicide because my white lover did not come back to Japan after the war, or having him come back for me and fooling him successfully for years and years into thinking I am a woman when really I’m a dude, as if my race castrates me so much that this deception is completely feasible, or a girl, barely out of grammar school, playing violin for the president in a long, black velvet dress, or a mother, out of nowhere, screaming and then sullenly freezing out my children in an effort to terrorize them into getting better grades in school, especially in math and science, through emotional blackmail and coercion, or a teenager, figure-skating in the Olympics and winning the Gold but never getting a major endorsement contract because even though I fucking won that goddamn medal for America I will never be considered the hero that I truly am because, no matter what anybody says, this is still a racist country, or a woman giving birth to the Dalai Lama, or holding my breath for over three minutes while diving for pearls, or arguing with Elaine from SEINFELD about her dry cleaning, or saying, “Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond,” or being a hired assassin and flinging a ninja star, or sword fighting up a tree, or writing my Geisha memoirs beacuse playing weird musical instruments and powdering my neck is so fucking memorable I need to write a book about it, which actually wasn’t even me writing, just some old white guy who wanted to turn my life of exploitation and prostitution into some “PRETTY WOMAN During the Heien Period” fantasy, or brushing up on those concubine skills, or going anywhere with a chicken under my arm, or traveling all the way around the world to meet my birth mother for the very first time, or eating dog for lunch, or being mail-ordered for marriage

and I don’t have time to be reminded once again that my story is never going to be told by anyone but me.

I know it’s going to be one of those parts,

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to some way-out-of-my-league computer geek I have never met, or getting shot down and then rolled over by a tank in Tiananmen Square, or walking on some Jim Belushi-looking dude’s back, or balancing with five other family members on a bicycle, or being knee-deep and pointy-hatted in a rice paddy, or graduating magna cum laude from Stanford, or wearing a lab coat and goggles and holding that beaker a safe distance away from my body with tongs, or cooking with a wok after speedily cutting all my vegetables vertically, or binding my feet because that’s what all the girls are doing this year, or wearing my long, silky black hair on one side of my head and a big flower on the other side, or doing a dance that requires me to jump over a sword, or getting off a tour bus and taking numerous photographs, or bowing, banging a bong or getting it on, or considering Pearl Harbor some kind of triumph for “my people,” or making the best of being in an internment camp by starting a theater company and staging a production of ANNE FRANK, or taking all my white friends out to a Benihana and ordering for all of them, making sure nothing is too spicy, because they all think I know what to get, or dramatically escaping from Red China with none other than Richard Gere, or arranging flowers or pruning a bonsai tree, or being a “teenager” in pink lipstick and a HELLO KITTY T-shirt and miniskirt, or acting like I am five years old and pressing my knees together while making a big O shape with my mouth in display of cuteness that is really just another expression of the denial of my strength as a woman, which we all know is a way I keep myself from my own power, remaining a safe and ineffectual sexual stereotype, pleasing to the status quo (see the third AUSTIN POWERS, the characters Fook Mi and Fook Yu), or breaking boards with my forehead, or being a prisoner of war or a spy of any kind, but obviously not a very good one or my character would be played by a white man, or explaining the mysteries of the Far East to Richard Chamberlain or to Chris Tucker-or to anyone, for that matter-because the Far East is just as much a mystery to me as it is to them, or letting anybody say, “What do I know . . . I’m just a ROUND EYES!,” because that statement is condescending to me and yet so true, in that, yes, you don’t know shit, and don’t act like acknowledging your own ignorance excuses it, and nobody cares if you can “tell us apart” because we are not doughnuts that you need to first identify to decide if you want to eat us or not. There is no reason to tell us apart because I don’t wish to be classified, as if that makes me more human to you, or makes me more identifiable to you, as if you can understand me better, as if the country my parents came from has affected my life so much that it makes me an exotic and rare bird. In short, don’t call me about your script.

Global Perspectives

Las Patronas: Women and the Train of Death

By Cassandra Price I have not stopped thinking about Las Patronas since our trip. I hope to never lose the steady thumping of the rushing freight train that I still feel each time my heart beats. As I move about my days, slight motion sickness disturbs the remnants of nausea that I felt in the heat of the glaring sun. I know the nausea I felt that day was not just a physical response to the heat (Veracruz is a state with average highs in the 90s during the month of May) but an emotional torrent

pushing and pulling and grasping at my gut—still stirring in the pit of my stomach.

La Patrona is a small pueblo approximately 3 hours by bus from Mexico City and home to “Las Patronas”, a group of local women who offer food, water and shelter to people migrating by train. We had known about this excursion since before arriving to Mexico but were unsure exactly what to expect from our

had read and talked about quickly became more tangible as we listened reverently to their unfathomable experiences of violence, fear and death. Migrants who make this journey are subject to exploitation by predatory gangs and smugglers, along with Mexican immigration authorities and We started the day with introductions to Las police who use the vulnerability of the migrants Patronas. This small family of women grew up for their own gain. Violence in the forms of rape, watching increasing numbers severe beatings or of people travel from Central being thrown from America and southern the speeding train is a Mexico on the freight trains constant threat. Often More and more that pass through Cordoba migrants are even multiple times a day. Now, charged above the women are also hundreds of people attempt going rate for basic feeling the conomic this approximately 1,600 mile necessities such as journey from Central America food and water in the pressure to leave their through Mexico each day. As towns through which children and families free-trade policies like the they pass. In the face North American Free Trade of such great risk, in order to survive Agreement (NAFTA) and each of these young the Central American Free men persisted in their Trade Agreement (CAFTA), profound desire to implemented in the 90s, improve their lives and seemed to be failing in its promises to improve the lives of their families. They expressed a strong Mexican and Central American economies, more belief that this journey was their only way to a better and more people decided to make the treacherous future. Mexico City was their next destination with journey north from Central America and Mexico hopes of eventually heading to the United States in search of economic opportunity. Initially, it was where each of the men already had some family. primarily Mexican and Central American men who were leaving their families to make this trip.

I could only imagine the unexpressed difficulty However, more and more women are also feeling that these young men must have encountered and the economic pressure to leave their children and would continue to face during the remainder of families in order to survive. their journey. In recent years, especially following the attacks of September 11th 2001, the United In Mexico, Central American migrants are often States Department of Homeland Security has made used as scapegoats for the increased violence and consistent efforts to increase military enforcement economic issues that exist in Mexico with little at the U.S. –Mexico border in the name of national acknowledgement that migration is a symptom of security. The current proposals for reform to U.S. a much larger set of problems. Yet, despite limited immigration policies continue to push for increased resources and the social and political risk that security measures at the U.S. - Mexico border with comes with helping migrant persons, the women no discussion surrounding the impact of U.S. free of Las Patronas continue to offer what they can in trade policies on the economies and ultimately, a courageous effort to stand in solidarity with the the people of Mexico and the countries of Central hundreds of people who pass by each day.

America.

After learning of the great risks these women take in carrying out such work, we were introduced to 6 young men who arrived to Las Patronas just days before from El Salvador. The terror of la bestia we

We began preparing bags of food and bottles of water to distribute. We heard the first alert, “the train is coming!” Quickly, we gathered our provisions and carried them to the tracks. The women and

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encounter with ‘la bestia’ (the beast) or “el tren de muerte,” (the train of death as it is called by many people who ride the trains) when our group of social work students and professors arrived at Las Patronas.

regular volunteers warned us of the physical dangers of the train and showed us how to hold the bags of food and bottles of water in order to be more safe and efficient. I was in a daze. My heart began to thump as the train came into view. Only 5 or 6 people passed by on this first train. We quickly passed out a small amount of food and water, and returned to preparing food bags—slightly disappointed, my heart was still pounding.

adrenaline rush. We returned with the remaining supplies back to the shelter in disbelief of what we had just experienced. Tears began to flow.

We were speechless. Javier Urbano, a professor who regularly brings groups to Las Patronas from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, stepped in to support us as we debriefed. He asked us to remember that amidst the great tragedy that we had just witnessed so closely, there is something good in what we did. He asked us to bring word The second alert “the train is coming!” We ran to to our friends and families in the U.S. that Mexico the tracks and watched as English spackled barrels is not just filled with violence and corruption but carrying petroleum and a there are many vibrant few armed guards raced people, like the women north. False alarm. Return of Las Patronas, who to work. are working for justice The women and regular At this point, the and human rights. thumping of the rushing Javier said, with great volunteers warned us freight trains pounded urgency, that what of the physical dangers in my head and nausea was happening on the set in. I decided that I trains was “not simply a of the train and showed needed to rest and focus tragedy, but genocide” us how to hold the bags on rehydrating. The and we must act. reality of what was likely of food and bottles of a combination of heat I had reached my limit. water in order to be the exhaustion and altitude I walked dizzily back sickness began to set to the bus to sit down more safe and efficient. in. The thumping in my out of the sun and head persisted as I sat in try to stay hydrated. the shade of our rental I felt my condition bus. “The train is here!” I worsening. I could ran to carry food and water to the tracks without hear the group sharing a beautiful meal, filled with a thought. As the train approached, my heart and laughter and true gratefulness. I couldn’t eat. I sat head were pounding. I slung bottles of water tied on the bus slowly drinking water and waiting for together over my shoulders and brought as many the sweltering heat to break for the day. Since the bags of food as I could near my spot on the path. I moment the train had passed, I felt my entire body got my footing near the tracks, making sure not inside and out begin to boil. I closed my eyes and to stand too close. This was it. Car after car flew began thinking about the way the dehydration can by as this freight train appeared to be another make a person delirious. I imagined the heat of the disappointment and then we saw them: hundreds metal and unsheltered freight cars in the scorching of people on the top of the speeding freight train, sun. I thought of what it must take to drive a person others leaning off the side to gather up our offering. to leave behind everything and everyone they I managed to hand off most of my supply of food know and love. I thought of how so many people and water before the last car had past. We waved as are forced to take such risks in hope of a better the people shouted “gracias!” in the distance. future for their families. I thought of my family, my friends and how I would likely never have to make “Este es que es ser vivo!” “This is what it means such a journey. I breathed in and out slowly to the to be alive!” said one of the regular volunteers of beat of the freight car still thumping in my head.

Las Patronas. I smiled in shock, realizing slowly that I had just used the last of my energy on this

[GP]

Quote Corner Nikki van der Gaag

More girls are being educated by 2005, 63 percent of countries had equal numbers of boys and girls in primary school and 37 percent at secondary.

Women and children are the main victims of conflict and are increasingly targeted for rape and sexual assault. One in three women worldwide will experience violence in her lifetime.

In 2007, only 19 countries had achieved the benchmark of 30 percent representation of women in parliament and this number actually fell from 20 in 2006.

The 20th century has seen an unprecedented rise in the number of people dying in wars - increasing numbers of these are civilians and the majority are now women and children.

Century: 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th Est. Deaths 1.6 6.1 7.0 19.4 109.7

(millions)

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More women are working - since 1980, the growth in women’s labor force has been substantially higher than that of men in every region of the world except Africa.

words are

Artist: : Joh

Title: Ilopango Pr Project Statement The Ilopango Prison for Women in El Salvador feels more like a locked-down high school than a penitentiary.

Most of the women inside are between 19 and 25 years old. Inmates aren't required to wear uniforms and are allowed to use make-up.

It's only when you talk to inmates that you remember where you are, and the nature of the people surrounding you.

Why did they send you here?

"Extortion." "Homicide." "Drugs." "Armed robbery."

And there I was thinking women never started wars, did anything violent, or caused problems (except with me).

In reality, half the women I met shouldn't have been there. They were sent up because their husbands, lovers, or boyfriends - in many cases gang members - killed people. For refusing to testify against the guilty, because prison is better than being buried alive or dismembered by gangsters, they were punitively charged with "illicit association," put more simply, knowing a criminal, an offense of which at least three quarters of the global population finds itself guilty, particularly cops, bankers and at least half the Vatican.

I was there for an International Women's Day event in which a priest told inmates that they had done very bad things but were not, by nature, bad people. Which doesn't alleviate your sense of grief when you're 23 and serving an 80 year sentence. In other words, you're a good person but you don't deserve freedom.

I met a woman who started her career in crime making and selling forged, autographed photos of soccer stars.

She became an expert at faking signatures and later moved on to checks and property deeds. I met a lot of women who'd extorted money from friends, neighbors and people at the churches they attended. Many of them had never met anyone from the United States before. I don't think any of them had ever seen a man from the United States with tattoos.

"You can have tattoos in North America and not get arrested?" one young woman asked me - a reference to a get-tough-on-gangs law in most of Central America that allows cops to send anyone with tattoos to prison for connections to organized crime. "That's right, I said. Many people see it as an art."

What I remember most is having guards on my back wherever I went. Every time I turned around there was some man or woman behind me with a rifle, listening to my conversations or just staring at me. After about 15 minutes it was driving me up the wall. I'm sure that after 15 days I'd break down. I think you have to be strong to survive prison. Stronger than I am.

I left questioning the nature of a society that can only deal with its problems by declaring war on foreign countries, or putting people in cages. Certainly, there are some people who must be locked up. But half the people in prisons today pose no threat to society. Necessary or not, imprisonment is a cruel and inhuman practice, far below the standards of our so-called civilized world.

e useless

hn Sevigny

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rison for Women

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Artist: : Joh

Title: Ilopango Pr

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Title: Ilopango Pr

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rison for Women

words are useless Artist: Charlotte Woolf

From the Second Skin Series

Charlotte Woolf is a photographer from Charlotte, North Carolina. She graduated from Kenyon College in May 2012 with a double major in Studio Art and Women’s and Gender Studies. During fall semester of Charlotte’s junior year, she studied abroad in Stockholm, Sweden, where she discovered her passion for photography. She has danced ballet since she was three and recently began studying and performing modern dance. Informed by the unique wisdom and geometric expanse of the body, her work combines the creative and the documentary. She has worked on a handful of organic farms in Maine, North Carolina, and Ohio - experiences which have also inspired her documentary photography. Charlotte aspires to continue her artistic work in Chicago, Illinois and throughout the world, not only through a camera lens, but also a progressive and adventurous point-of-view.

The dismissal of our anger as a racial minority is worse than any slur or epithet because it undermines our ability to react to it. I would love to be a nice, happy, model minority and say that race isn’t important, racism doesn’t exist, but I would be lying.

Margaret Cho

Crazy eyes is wildly contagious. Everybody has some form of it. The people who pick and choose the images we seedaily on TV, in movies, in magazines and advertisingeverywhere-have the craziest eyes of all, which is why this malady is worse than most other forms of biological warfare.

I have so much hate it has turned into love.

So if we play our consensually agreed upon societal roles, deny our voice and aquiesce to a kind of resigned powerlessness, let the powerful have their way, support the exploitation of our rights and raise no voice in opposition, then we, the meek, shall inherit the world. Then, by default, since the powers that be no longer have to be concerned with the meek, they can strike out against one another, and violently self-destruct, leaving us with an empty shell of a world, bombed out, like a burned out house with broken windows about to collapse in on itself. What kind of inheritance is that? It’s a pitiful dowry, a worthless and dusty heirloom that nobody wants. What good does it do to inherit the earth when the earth is no longer worth inheriting?

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“

Quote Corner

by Abeer Allan

Middle Eastern Musings A Dive into the Dead Sea

Islamophobic Point September 11th was the turning point to many Islam-haters all around. Ever since that tragedy many people became more open about spreading hatred against Islam and causing attacks against Muslims, or even worse, attacks against whoever is suspected to be a Muslim.

What happened to the media credibility? What happened to honesty when delivering the news?

Media channels nowadays seem to be controlled by some political scheme/plan, making the ignorant part of the world believe whatever they want to believe.

One recent sad story I came across a few days ago is about a guy who killed six people and then himself at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee,Wisconsin, as a number of people were gathered there to

people seem to know about these kinds of stories?

Muslims are just targeted now more than ever for racism and religious discrimination attacks, and it is hard for us to feel safe outside of Muslim countries because we know we are not protected or given the right and free will to be ourselves.

This, if true, is a shameful incident which reflects the ignorance of people, and how narrow-minded A quite funny email I received the other day just people can be. It surprises me how people always goes to show that Islamophobes are turning into a call for Muslims to be open-minded yet these very interesting movement! This email, if it reflects callers themselves are very narrow-minded. They anything, absolutely reflects the ignorance of the find it very hard to accept a religion that is different haters and how they work so hard on spreading lies from their beliefs or how they to increase their number. are used to living their lives, and that in particular is the worst type Well it was just pathetic Media channels of narrow-mindedness, not to and sad for me to read nowadays seem to be accept the different. this email as it showed me how people would controlled by some Is it this bad that Islamophobes say unbelievable things political scheme/plan, got to a point where they just in order to set grounds walk around and kill Muslims for their accusations and making the ignorant because they happen to be Musfears. part of the world believe lims? This is definitely religious discrimination and a serious I would like to seize whatever they want to problem rising all over the world. this chance to post this believe.

Every attack now would bring up email here, I have to say the word terrorist, and this word it is quite a scenario the itself only brings to mind “ Musauthor has made, but he lims,” because we got used to it being linked like should have definitely made more of an effort to that through media channels. make it believable to those of us who are far from being ignorant.

Muslims can’t have the freedom outside of their countries because apparently freedom of religion is Email as received:not applicable to Islam. If only people gave a closer look to Islam they would have understood it better, “WHAT’S AN INFIDEL ? but they’d rather judge, without even knowing that This is a true story and the author, Rick Mathes, is a Islam is a religion that respects all other religions well-known leader in prison ministry. and it gave them their freedom throughout the “The man who walks with God always gets to his history. I live in the United Arab Emirates which is destination.” The Muslim religion is the fastest a Muslim country that gave all other nationalities growing religion per capita in the United States and religions the freedom to practice their own , especially in the minority races!! Last month I rituals, as long as they are not being disrespectful attended my annual training session that’s required to Islam. for maintaining my state prison security clearance.

During the training session there was a presenProphet Mohammed, Peace be upon him, was tation by three speakers representing the Roman known to be there in all events for non-muslims. He Catholic, Protestant and Muslim faiths, celebrated their weddings with them, he stood by who each explained their beliefs. I was particularly their side in times of grief and he made it very clear interested in what the Islamic had to say. The Musthat we, muslims, should respect other religions lim gave a great presentation of the basics of Islam, and make people feel safe in our land. Why don’t complete with a video. After the presentations,

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practice their rituals. The killer had a tattoo on his arm that said 9/11. Although nothing is confirmed yet about the details of this shameful event, it has been suggested that since he has that tattoo that he mistakenly thought his victims to be Muslims.

time was provided for questions and answers.

When it was my turn, I directed my question to the Muslim and asked: “Please, correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand that most Imams and clerics of So let me get this straight, apart from all the false Islam have declared a holy jihad [Holy war] against accusations, (and if true they only represent a the infidels of the world and, that by killing an inminority), how could an Imam who is supposed to fidel, (which is a command to all Muslims) they are be lecturing about Islam, when opened the chance assured of a place in heaven.” “If that’s the case, can for questions his answers seem to be a one-word you give me the definition of an infidel?” There was which only confirms the authors’ accusations? I say no disagreement with my statements and, without the author has failed big time in making a realistic hesitation, he replied, “Non-believers!” I responded, scenario.

“So, let me make sure I have this straight. All followers of And just for the sake Allah are taught that to kill of clarifying, I shall say And just for the sake of anyone who is not of your again that Islam reclarifying, I shall say again faith will assure them of a spects all religions and place in heaven. Is that corwe are all asked to do that Islam respects all rect?” He replied, “Yes.” I then so, and that’s exactly religions and we are all stated, “Well, sir, I have a real why a lot of people are problem trying to imagine converting to Islam; beasked to do so, and that’s The Pope commanding all cause they saw the real exactly why a lot of people Catholics to kill those of your side of Muslims away faith, or Dr..Stanley orderfrom propaganda and are converting to Islam; ing all Protestants to do the all of these false accusabecause they saw the real same in order to guarantee tions. them a place in heaven!” The side of Muslims away from Muslim was silent. I continI hope Islamophobia propaganda and all of these ued, “I also have a problem will be dealt with as a with being your friend when serious issue, just like false accusations. you and your brother clerics when the term was are telling your followers created. Then the issue to kill me! Let me ask you a should be recognized question: Would you rather have your Allah, who and be brought up in different awareness lectures, tells you to kill me in order for you to go to heaven, programs and all kinds of media to let people be or my Jesus who tells me to love you because I am more open-minded about accepting Muslims and going to heaven and He wants you to be there with making them at least feel safe and respected. Just me?” You could have heard a pin drop as the Imam like we respect non-Muslims in our own lands. looked away without a comment. Needless to say, the organizers and/or promoters of the ‘Diversification’ training seminar were not happy with my way of dealing with the Islamic Imam, and exposing the truth about the Muslims’ beliefs. In twenty years there will be enough Muslim voters in the U.S. to elect the President! I think everyone in the U.S. should be required to read this, but with the ACLU, there is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on! This is your chance to make a difference...”

tell-a-vision Artist: M.I.A.

Tell-A-Vision?

In the same year, M.I.A. performed in the Super Bowl Halftime show and released her “Bad Girls” video. What do you see in her vision? Who is included? Who is excluded? How does this differ from other popular video media?

M.I.A. M.I.A. is a social and political activist through art, fashion, and music. She began her career in 2002.

She is British and of Tamil descent. Much of her work involves challenging ethnocentrism, racism, sexism, genocide, Islamophobia, and other related issues. M.I.A. is the first person to ever refuse to be included in People magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful List.

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Bad Girls

Faculty Feed

Unauthorized Migration is a Women’s Issue

By Ruth Gomberg-Munoz

“If you’re a woman, you already face certain vulnerabilities: vulnerability to violence, vulnerability at work. But if you’re a migrant woman? You pay double.” – “Anakin,” 36, migrant from Mexico and community organizer in Chicago

a shift toward growing employment-based visas while cutting family reunification visas, a move that will further block access to legal status for women migrants.

When some family members have legal status and others do not, a power inequality All five of these exists that can create or exacerbate women have gendered violence and rightfully gained exploitation within families. Dozens of repeated recognition migrant women have confronting issues of recounted to me how their partners or violence, politics, and other family members sexuality head on. exploited their fears of police and 1. Men are more likely to have and get immigration agents legal status in the U.S. than women. to keep the women

from leaving abusive One reason why men are more likely than women relationships or from reporting abuse. Recent to have legal status has its roots in the labor history intensifications of immigration enforcement of migrants in the United States. For certain sectors measures leave anyone who has contact with of the low-wage workforce, especially agriculture, police vulnerable to deportation, increasing U.S. businesses have long recruited men to work the likelihood that migrant women will tolerate on seasonal bases and have given them temporary abuse rather than report it. Intentional or not, U.S. visas that are not extended to their wives or immigration policies are in this way complicit in the children. This practice has had several implications: abuse and exploitation of migrant women. first, it allowed men to grow their social and cultural connections in the U.S., which in turn made 2. Women face special pressures surrounding it easier for them to apply for legal status; second, migration. it qualified men for subsequent legalization

programs, and it was then up to those men to Gendered social roles mean that women, both include their families or not; third, because women in the U.S. and the rest of the world, are typically were and are more likely to work in informal sectors the primary caretakers of children. The desire to of the economy (e.g. as nannies or housekeepers), provide the best life possible for their children, they have been less able to produce the necessary coupled with a lack of viable employment paperwork to qualify for legalization programs. opportunities where they live, puts women under

special pressures to migrate; this pressure is In the high-skill work force, an overwhelming exacerbated when women are raising their children majority (about 85 percent) of temporary work alone. For most women in developing countries, visas are granted to men. This is probably primarily attaining a visa to come to the U.S. legally is simply due to gendered inequalities in migrants’ home not an option. Thus, the number of women who countries, where women face obstacles to migrate without authorization has risen sharply in education and the attainment of professional recent decades, and women now make up about careers. Recent political maneuverings on half of the total of all unauthorized migrants in the immigration policies in Washington D.C. suggest U.S.

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U.S. immigration policies are not explicitly gender-biased. After all, gendered discrimination would violate both U.S. law and the mainstream values of our culture. Nevertheless, because gendered inequalities pervade societies both here and abroad, U.S. immigration policies tend to reproduce practices and privileges that disadvantage migrant women in specific ways. Here I discuss some of the ways in which U.S. immigration policies uphold gender hierarchies in the United States.

The decision to migrate is only the first difficulty women from seeking such basic services as that migrant mothers face. Women encounter prenatal care, medical care for children, and public scrutiny and stigma both if they leave their children education, especially in states that have passed behind and if they bring their children with them. punitive immigration policies (such as California, If they leave their children behind, women are Arizona, and Georgia). Again, women migrants branded as bad mothers who have abandoned are more likely than their male counterparts to their families. If they migrate with their children, work in informal sectors, such as private homes, they are accused of taking advantage of free social where they are unlikely to be covered by health services (such as education) in the United States. insurance. Together, these differences suppress In fact, women-as-mothers are especially targeted women’s abilities to provide for the basic needs of by punitive immigration policies that cut social themselves and their children. services, including prenatal care, for unauthorized people. The stigma For more information on surrounding migrant mothers gendered dimensions is found in wider society of migration, check out and also within the migrant these resources: Perhaps the most community, exacerbating The Latino Threat the sense of isolation and Narrative by Leo Chavez interesting aspect of shame that many women (Stanford University these texts is the way experience.

Press, 2008)

Gendered Transitions by bodies are represented.

The actual crossing of borders Pierrette HondagneuUnlike Batwoman, Sonya is difficult and dangerous for Sotelo (U California all migrants, and women face Press, 1994) and Marzi are not overtly special risks. In particular, Maid in the U.S.A. sexualized in picture or women say that they are

by Mary Romero forewarned that they will (Routledge, 2002) words. Rather their bodies probably be raped multiple are sources of anxiety. times as they attempt to Ruth Gomberg-Munoz is cross. Potential assailants an assistant professor of include fellow migrants, anthropology at Loyola “coyotes” charged with University Chicago. guiding migrants across the border, gangs on She is author of the book, Labor and Legality: An both sides of the border that prey on migrants, Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network. Her and police officers. Women who cross with their work on migration, race, and labor has also been children are actually at heightened risk of assault, published in American Anthropologist, The DuBois because women say they will “consent” to an Review, and Human Organization. assault in order to protect their children from threats.

3. Women migrants face racialized and gendered stigma in the United States.

Women are particularly targeted by antiimmigrant rhetoric and policy in the United States.

Widespread rhetoric disparaging “anchor babies,” or U.S. citizen children born to unauthorized parents, “welfare abuse,” and reproductive rates of Latinas vilify migrant women who have children.

This vilification can discourage many migrant

[GP]

Quote Corner

The standard treatment of acute trauma in combat veterans or rape survivors focuses almost entirely on crisis intervention. The military model of brief treatment and rapid return to normal functioning has dominated the therapeutic literature.

Under the threat of renewed violence, one country after another played out the conflict between knowing and not knowing, speech and silence, remembering and forgetting.

The core experiences of psychological trauma are disempowerment and disconnection from others.

The ultimate effect of these techniques is to convince the victim that the perpetrator is omnipotent, that resistance is futile, and that [their] life depends upon winning [the perpetrator’s] indulgence through absolute compliance. The goal of the perpetrator is to instill in their victim not only fear of death but also gratitude for being allowed to live.

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“

Thus, former prisoners carry their captors’ hatred with them even after release, and sometimes they continue to carry out their captors’ desctructive purposes with their own hand.

Judith Herman, M.D.

Feminist Fires Lila Abu-Lughod Major Works: - Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East (Editor-1998) - Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society (2000) - Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt (2004) - Local Contexts of Islamism in Popular Media (2007) - Do Muslim Women Need Saving? (To Be Released on Oct. 2013) Inspired By: Abu-Lughod is inspired by the cultural diversity in the world. Within her anthropological work, she has researched cultures, from the Bedouin of the Awaid ‘Ali tribe in Egypt to Muslim women and their rights. She is inspired by her familial history and its multicultural background, which includes a Palestinian academic for a father and a Jewish urban sociologist for a mother.

Is An Inspiration to: Through her works on Middle Eastern women and the politics of power, Abu-Lughod has become an inspiration to Middle Eastern women and their fight for rights. On a grander scale, Abu-Lughod has become an inspiration to modernity, especially within the Middle East.

Personal Life: Abu-Lughod graduated from Carleton College in 1974 and obtained a PhD from Harvard University in 1984.

Following her studies, she taught at academic institutions, which included Williams College, Princeton University, and New York University. She is now the professor of Anthropology and Women and Gender Studies at Columbia University.

Importance to Feminism: Her research on Muslim women’s rights in the Middle East is important to feminism on a global level. Her research being strongly ethnographic, Abu-Lughod states that her work focuses primarily on three issues: “the relationship between cultural forms and power; the politics of knowledge and representation; and the dynamics of gender and the question of women’s rights in the Middle East.” Looking at ways of how gender works in other regions of the world, Abu-Lughod challenges transnational feminist representations of Arab women and, thus, creates a stronger voice and a greater discourse for women in the Middle East.

The necessary and integral connection between feminist scholarship and feminist political practice and organizing determines the significance and status of Western feminist writings on women in the third world

It is time to move beyond the Marx who found it possible to say: ‘They cannot represent themselves; they must be represented’

Chandra Talpade Mohanty

Western feminisms appropriate and ‘colonize’ the fundamental complexities and conflicts which characterize the lives of women of different classes, religions, cultures, races, and castes Sisterhood cannot be assumed on the basis of gender; it must be forged in concrete historical and political practice

What is problematical, then, about this kind of use of ‘women’ as a group, as a stable category of analysis, is that it assumes an ahistorical, universal unity between women based on a generalized notion of their subordination.

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“

Quote Corner

Broadside Expressions in Poetry via Street Literature Style

Au pair: one who toils in exchange for a twin bed

By Janna Payne

“dignity belongs to the conquered” – Kenneth Burke. stroking hair, backs, necks, egos. responding to tears, yawns, sneezes. compromising, coddling, cooing. living simply, barely, hardly. singing kumbayah, tiptoeing, taking it. mopping up the floors of injustice, lopping up the pain of others, & sopping up the points in heaven. reaching out to the little, lonely, loaded family of four. reaching out in loving arms. reaching the point in your mid-twenties when it becomes: too painful to be an au pair, too painful to be rocking someone else’s baby to sleep, too painful to be creating someone else’s fantasy while forfeiting your own. hunkering, trudging, trekking. realizing: your faith hinges on a translation error, your job description is half scapegoat, half tragic hero, & your need for intimacy & autonomy cannot—must not!— be shelved for a later date. from then on, vowing to reclaim, regain, & salvage your body. to, one day, rake in enough cash to hire your very own young, fun, foreign, and feeble twin bedded helper.

Quote Corner

I don’t believe it makes sense to characterize Islamophobia as a ‘feeling.’ The terms ‘representation’ and ‘imaginary’ are often used, even as Islamophobia is institutionalized.

To speak of Islamophobia as sentiment is a euphemism.

Islamophobia is first and foremost state racism

I do not consider any society to be primitive.

Why should you, white women, have the privilege of solidarity?

I don’t necessarily consider progress to be progressive, but sometimes, even often, it is regressive

”

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“

Houria Bouteldja

AltStyle

by Katie Klingel

Musings of a Non-Normative Feminazi

Why Help Refugee Girls?

When I think back to my high school years, some themes stick out. Keeping up with grades, 3-hour water polo practices, moving from guy to guy, navigating the social stratification of a private school, getting away with as much as I could at

parties. Mostly, your typical suburban teenager stuff.

Now, juxtapose this against the girls that I work with. Most of them have only come to the United States in the last few years, and have a whole new set of struggles to deal with. Take all of the

Once in the United States, the girls still face challenges, but they also gain opportunities.

GirlForward helps these young women in these challenges, but also aids them in taking advantage of the opportunities before them. GirlForward goes beyond the basics. It is not just about making it through, assimilating. It is about thriving, and bettering yourself and your community. The organization is based on The Girl Effect, a concept stating that by educating and bettering the lives

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usual issues that high school girls usually have to of girls, we can combat poverty. The video can encounter, and add a few things. Dealing with a be seen here: http://www.girleffect.org/whylanguage barrier, catching up in school, living in girls/#&panel1-1 poverty, being pressured to give up academics to work, being separated from So what does this mean? It friends and family, resisting being the international issue, arranged marriage, even it seems fitting to speak about being haunted by memories an idea that needs to be spread The reason that from their past. These are and implemented throughout only some of the things that the world. While I can talk on Pride is so successful teenage refugee girls face. and on about my experiences is because everyone at GirlForward, it’s the Girl Effect But GirlForward, a nonthat really started it all. At age 12, there supports profit organization in West a girl, living in poverty, can have each other, it would Rogers Park, is reaching her life go drastically downhill. If out to help girls overcome she doesn’t stay in school, she is not work if it was any these obstacles. I have more likely to be forced into child other way. been an intern there for a marriage, teenage pregnancy, and couple of months now, but a life of dependency. Regardless of my experience with the people’s ideas on female equality, organization started last the Girl Effect expresses how a summer. As part of the Loyola Writing Center, a few village, a city, an entire nation’s economy is missing of the other tutors and I ran a personal statement out by not educating girls to enter the workforce. It’s writing seminar for the girls of GirlForward. We a matter of numbers: lost potential earnings. created an exercise where the girls explained their experiences, what they had learned from them, GirlForward takes this concept, and applies it and how that would help them in the future. This to refugee girls in Chicago. With the barriers of was when my eyes were first opened to what these coming to a new country, especially when you girls had been through. While some of them had are in poverty, keeping up with academics can be witnessed war, violence, and crime, even those who incredibly challenging. But the program is geared grew up in refugee camps had quite a story to tell. towards this exact goal, as well as supporting wellThere was one thing they all had in common, from being for the girls in general. In the end, it’s about their lives in their home countries. They didn’t really helping the girls become independent young have a childhood. From the moment they could, women, creating a space for themselves in the they were working, cooking, cleaning, and taking world. care of siblings. But this isn’t like your usual “chores” that one imagines for kids; these tasks were crucial in the survival and well-being of the family. A lot of pressure for a young girl.

WLA (Re)Animated Artifacts from the vaults of the Women’s & Leadership Archives Description: A flyer noting the events and location of the International Women’s Day Celebration on March 8, 1975.

Commentary: Created by the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, this flyer promotes the uniting of cultures, genders, and races, through discourse, music, and film. One of the many flyers from Loyola’s Archives that promote equality, this particular one represents Loyola’s aim for equality over time.

WLA Mission Statement: Established in 1994, the Women & Leadership Archives (WLA) collects, preserves, organizes, describes, and makes available materials of enduring value to researchers studying women’s leadership activities.

Ex Bibliothecis

By Jane P. Currie

From Loyola’s Libraries to you.

Assisting you in your search for information.

The United Nations: Eyewitness, Advocate, Information Source

To begin discovering what the United Nations is doing with and for women, consider starting with UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. You may also find interesting materials at the Global

Issues page on women or through WomenWatch, a portal created by the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality.

Learn more about United Nations publications and activities in our library’s research databases and books. For assistance with any of these sources or suggestions, please write to jcurrie@luc.edu.

* This resource is accessible on-campus or offcampus to students, faculty, and staff after log-in with a Loyola Universal ID and password.

URLs for the links above: http://www.unwomen.org/ http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/women/ http://www.un.org/womenwatch/

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The United Nations has a presence throughout the world and a voice that reaches governments far from its headquarters in New York. Statistical data collected by the United Nations can begin to tell the story of women in any country. United Nations workers collect and share the stories of women globally. The library once acquired many United Nations publications but today, not unlike government documents, much of the information is freely available online. By limiting a search result to the un.org domain, it is possible to locate only United Nations-based websites.

Inside R Out?

by J. Curtis Main

White? Male? Feminist? YES.

The US is not the Best; No Country Is...

I asked my mother, years ago, if she were planning on getting a US passport since the federal government was leaning toward making all travel outside the US require a passport. Her response?

“No, why would I need a passport? I don’t. I have no reason to travel outside the greatest country in the world.”

Whether or not I had traveled outside the country myself, her comment struck a chord with me.

Indeed, calling the US the “greatest country in the world” has increasingly bothered me, especially since the September 11 attacks. I was born in the US, raised here, and have spent 29 of my nearly 30 years in the US. I am a privileged citizen. There are

Like any country, or place, in the world, the US has advantages and issues, opportunities and inequalities. We are no better than other countries just like one family dynamic is no better than the next; how can one compare? I love my own family for who we are and what we have tried to build together, not because we are “the best” or are in some competition to outdo other families. We try, I have come to know over the years, to do what we deem best for us. Which, if anyone knows in a family, friendship, relationship, etc., doing what seems/works best changes often!

Countries are like giant, even more dysfunctional families. Rather than several members, some whose leadership is often more obvious in a family due to age, parentage, wisdom, and so on, countries have millions of people; people arguing and fighting and connecting and loving in order to do the best they can as both individuals and as a “country.”

Has someone ever said to you, “My family is the best; we are perfect, while your family is a mess. You should be more like us.” That kind of thinking often burns. It can sting. It carries assumptions that one way of living and loving is the right way, and other approaches that may differ are inherently faulty and lesser.

Now has someone ever dissed your country and/ or your culture? That often burns too. Again, who is best is not really applicable when it comes to families and countries. We are all trying to balance resources, love, conflict, aging, change, and in general survival, and hopefully as the billions of humans that have existed and currently live demonstrate, there is no one right or best way.

So before you, or my mom, or an entire country of people claim to be the best, think about what that means, where it comes from, and what it conveys.

Is there some sort of competition to be the best country in the world? Maybe. Is there internal competition in every country to be the best country for one’s own people and environment? Always, or at least we hope so, right?

Ethnocentrism is a belief that one’s way of life, one’s culture and ethnicity, is better and more valuable than others. Perhaps a person’s ethnicity is more valauble to their own self and relations, yes, this makes sense. But more right and better, and worst of all, more entitled than other ethnicities? This kind of thinking, called ethnocentrism, has helped lead to genocide, war, femicide, white racism, the Crusades, witch burning, slavery, forced deportation, and a slew of other wordly and local issues that seem better left alone than “tried and false.”

When I was younger, many of my friend’s families often had lots of snacks in their homes; Gushers, Sara Lee, Little Debbie, Hi-C, Gatorade, Chips-O-Hoy, Ben & Jerrys, Slim Jim, Oreos, Pringles . . . I could go on and on and make myself quite hungry. This discrepency between my family and their families would bother me. I would think that my parents were mean or lesser or keeping us from enjoying things. As I got older, though, I came to realize better that my parents did what they could do best with us, it was less about right and wrong and more about the gray of living. What there was, and is, and always will be, are people, families, cultures, and countries doing what they can, often what they think is best, nearly always with disagreements and lots of change, for their “own.”

We are not the “best” country in the world, we are a country among many countries; of several hundred, actually. And what is “best” about how the US is situated, or how any country is situated, is that it often takes lots of different approaches to life to find one’s own preferred way of living. Which, of course, will probably change!

In a world full of difference, different families, people, countries, and so on, rather than compare to see who is “best,” we always have the choice to learn from one another, to try new things and respect the infinite ways of living full lives. Remember this.

And, if what my mom is really trying to say is that her life is full, varied, colorful, and rich here, and she is content without exploration, then thanks, Mom, you make my life a lot fuller too. But I still want to take you to Brazil!

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many aspects of the US that make me proud, and still many more that make me shudder.

MadAds Busted Advertising, Bustling Economy

Do these advertisements cross the line?

What do these advertisements say about race, culture, and international relations?

Do these advertisements hinder the possibility for international dialogue?

How often do you see advertisements like this in your every day life?

What do you think?

Culture and

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d Avertising

Global Perspectives

International Girl Gang Conspiracy

By Nina Berman A small sampler of some of the hippest happinest ladies music from places that aren’t the US or England (or Scotland and Ireland for that matter).

Unfortunately lots of the songs are in English because, you know, colonialism and cultural imperialism.

1. Shake Baby Shake—Sodsai Chaengkij So when the US military was all up in Southeast Asia, US music came too. A lot of Thai people got really into garage rock and started to put their own twists on it.

Sodsai Chaengkij is one of them.

2. Flying Jelly Attack—Shonen Knife Shonen Knife is a Japanese girl group whose name apparently translates literally into “Boy Knife.” They do a totally awesome combination of The Ramones, 60s girl groups sounds and a DIY recording aesthetic.

Describe themselves this way: “oo-oo-ultra-eccentricsuper-cult-punk-pop-band-shonen-knife!” This song is about eating jelly beans.

3. Teenie Weenie Boppie—France Gall In the 60s, there was a magical time in French pop music and it was called ye-ye. It was all about

4. Die Schule Ist Aust—Die Sweetles Another totally bangin’ 60s girl group—this time from Germany. Die Sweetles are so ready for school to be out and for it to be summer already. Song to be sung to oneself during the clustercuss that is finals week.

5. Look Up The Sky—The Pebbles Japanese group just reminding us that we ought to look up every so often. Oh yeah and they’re not shy around the tambourine neither.

6. Tomoko—Hafdis Huld Charming song by Icelandic lady, Hafdis Huld. It’s about having a friend that’s cooler than you and haven’t we all been there? Also as a fun fact I saw a video where she tries to get elves to come out of their hiding places in the Icelandic countryside by luring them with blueberries.

7. Treat Her Kindly—Olof Arnalds Another Icelandic lady with a beautiful voice (what is it in the water there? First Bjork now all these gals!)

Folksy pretty tune about treatin’ people nice. From her 2013 release, Sudden Elevation.

8. Kantoi—Zee Avi Malaysian ukulele songstress Zee Avi first got famous because she posted a video on Youtube for a friend who had missed her concert. This song mixes languages and is all about infidelity.

9. Vou Recomecar—Gal Costa Gal Costa was a heavy hitter in the Brazilian music genre Tropicalia. In the late 60s, artists like Costa and Caetano Veloso and Os Mutantes combined traditional Brazilian sounds with rock and roll. Gal Costa has recorded almost 30 studio albums. Show some respect y’all.

10. Tu M’as Trop Menti—Chantal Goya Like France Gall, Chantal Goya is a French ye-ye girl.

She was born in what was then French Indochina and now is Vietnam but had her career in France. This song is about someone who lies too much to the

singer and was featured in the soundtrack to Masculin Feminin, the Godard film, which Goya also starred in.

11. Amor Inimigo—As Mercenarias Brazilian all girl funk/post-punk band. Need I say more? These grrrls have attitude through the roof.

12. Palida Luna—Lydia Mendoza Ok, so Lydia Mendoza was technically a US American but she sang songs in the Tejano style of music and in Spanish. She was known as “La Alondra de la Frontera” or “The Lark of the Border” in her heyday and since we’re all about La Frontera, I thought I could make an exception and include her on the list.

13. Yang Yang—Anika With Anika, we have a few different nationalities going on. She herself is British and German but “Yang Yang” is actually originally by the supreme art goddess witch mother herself, Yoko Ono, so we’ve got Japan in there too. Such a weird and wacked out song and this version is super dubbed so its even weirder.

Also call me crazy but I think I prefer Yoko to John.

14. Sunshowers—M.I.A. One of the most popular contemporary female artists who consciously blends her multiple national and cultural identities, M.I.A. draws on London underground culture as well as her Sri Lankan political identity. The result is the most danceable and least whiney political music I can think of. There’s even reference to the PLO. 15. Royals—Lorde 16 year old Lorde from New Zealand basically just blew up a few weeks ago here in the states. She has been topping kiwi charts for a while longer than that but this song looks to be the song of summer for us here in these United States. Also there’s a thinly veiled Beyonce reference (“You can call me queen B/bey”).

Just sayin.

Nina Berman is the Music Director at WLUW and is as always looking for people to be in her real/fake riot grrrl band, Feather Underground.

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teenagers singing songs about being teenagers, having crushes, liking fashion and losing pet dogs. Oh the glory days. This song seems super adorable and innocent but is secretly (or if you know French) about dropping acid.

Talk to Andie

by Andie Karras

My 77 Cents with Feminist Favorites We spoke with Catherine (Cat) Silvey, research consultant and graduate student about policy, politics, and life on Hillary Clinton’s campaign trail.

Talktoandie: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us.

Talktoandie: How’d you get into politics?

CS: I started out in college. I went to Wellesley (in the Boston area). Through our College Democrats club, I got a flavor and taste for campaigning on the weekends. After graduation, I got a job with Hillary Clinton’s campaign. I moved to Iowa, then to New York (my home state where I volunteered with a local group), then got back on the campaign in Ohio, then moved on to Pennsylvania. It was 9 months in total and 30,000 miles on my car.

Talktoandie: Wow! Sounds a lot like living in Los Angeles!

CS: Then I was hired by a consulting firm that had hired a number of Hillary’s staffers. The campaign ended in June and by July, I was in D.C. working for Hillary’s direct mail firm. I worked the fall cycle.

Talktoandie: What is direct mail (other than the junk mail we’re used to!).

CS: There’s a whole industry behind the fliers that come to your house, behind designing those.

How often you get them, and what biographical information should be included. It also includes online advertising.

Talktoandie: And from there, what was your evolution?

CS: Once that finished, I joined Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a major Democratic polling and consulting firm. They also do international consulting, such as campaigns in Latin America, Europe, Asia.

Talktoandie: What has been the most exciting part of this work?

CS: Well, I left the firm about a year ago. The absence of female candidates left me frustrated. 3 years in, and I’m like, this is ridiculous. I’m here, I’m working on great campaigns, but I’m not seeing women in the fold. You can change the outcomes for women, but how do you get more women in office?

Talktoandie: What are you doing now?

CS: I’m pursuing a Master’s degree at George Washington University, focusing on women and politics, and gender and development.

Talktoandie: What is the most exciting part about your program?

CS: There aren’t many gender-focused departments that have an international component. I haven’t found another school that has this, so it’s been the right choice.

Talktoandie: Where do you see yourself after graduation?

CS: I love politics! I’m a political junkie. I‘m not sure I would go back to campaigning, but I am interested in women’s political participation, and helping women up into the ranks. For example, there’s a Women in Public Service project, seminars that bring women from the Middle East (or anywhere in the world) together for two weeks, they teach them basic skills for governing, such as how do you write a constitution? How do you make yourself heard?

Catherine Silvey

on Hillary Clinton

Talktoandie: Where do you see the future of politics moving for women?

CS: The more female candidates we have, the less of an anomaly it is, the less it’s a shock like is this woman really going to be making the decisions?

Part of the issue is historical; if a man died, then his wife was a placeholder. Part of it is breaking the mold. There’s this gender stereotype: Women aren’t capable of making decisions. Julia Gillard (who is no longer the Prime Minister of Australia) said being the first female prime minister didn’t define all of her tenure, but it did define some of it. And whether women win or lose, what’s important is to get their names on the ballet. Women are just as likely to raise as much money as a man can, just as likely to win.

Just getting women to be the candidate is difficult because women, generally, have to be asked before they consider running for office. Someone has to say, “You should really run because you’d be great,” or “Oh, you’re unhappy about X, so you should change that.” You talk to a 25 year old guy, ask him if he is thinking of running for office, and he says, ‘sure.’ Women have to be asked. Men feel they get qualified while they’re doing it.

Talktoandie: Can you talk about some of the scrutiny Hillary experienced?

CS: She received a lot of scrutiny from day 1, a lot of it gender-based, but she is no stranger to it. Nobody would make two hoots if Obama or John McCain spent money on Armani Suits, but Hillary’s pantsuit was always subject to the media’s eye.

Talktoandie: Almost like granted permission? Sort of like what happened in Texas. Senator Wendy Davis filibusters for 13 hours, and all people care about are her pink sneakers. How about not going to the bathroom for that many hours? Talk about strength! The reviews on Amazon for those shoes are quite funny. It’s her shoes. It’s her blonde hair.

It’s what the media chooses to focus on. How can

we change the conversation so it’s less of a novelty?

I went to a conference entitled “Challenging Status Quo: Women in Politics” where Mary Bono, Former Member of Congress (R-CA) and Senior VicePresident, FaegreBD Consulting, Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Member, U.S. House of Representatives, Alex Smith, National Chair, Republican National Committee, and Linda Thompson, Mayor, City of Harrisburg, PA were all in attendance. Tammy was asked about what she thought of the media. She mentioned a story where her opponent criticized her for a photo of her trying to decide between a red and a blue dress before the Democratic National Convention. Her response was, “I’m sorry it takes me awhile to decide because I live in camouflage.”

Talktoandie: Do you think it was more of a statement that if she can’t make a decision about insignificant issues, then how is she going to tackle larger issues?

CS: More like this is what she’s thinking about versus the big issues. Nobody criticizes President Obama for choosing between a black or blue suit. It’s kind of like how do you dress in a way that gets you noticed, but not drab? She has to be comfortable. If you look at Rosa DeLauro, she has an amazing sense of style; she’ll wear leather jackets on the floor of the House. But she keeps a low profile, so the media doesn’t focus on her clothes, and she’s able to work on legislation without being targeted for her choice of scarf. Once we get past how a woman looks, then change can happen.

To learn more about the information presented in this story, check out: http://gqrr.com/ http://www.gwu.edu/~ggi/about/who-we-are.cfm http://www.nationaljournal.com/events/women-2020conference http://www.amazon.com/Mizuno-Womens-Wave-RiderRunning/dp/B008FFQVIM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=137 4869951&sr=8-1&keywords=wendy+davis+shoes http://delauro.house.gov/ http://womeninpublicservice.wilsoncenter.org/

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Mentoring is an extremely important resource because it provides a support system that these women don’t have.

MadAds Busted Advertising, Bustling Economy

Sara Baartman and t A Ghost Story a

How have past advertising and media affected future generations?

What do these advertisements say about race, ethnicity, culture, and international relations?

Do these advertisements hinder the possibility for international dialogue?

Does the Hottentot Venus approach of objectifying bodies happen today, and if so, in what ways? Is it harmful?

What do you think?

Displayed on European stages from 1810 to 1 Hottentot Venus, Sara Baartman was one of t women of her day, and also one of the least k Hottentot Venus, she was seen by Westerner primitive, a reflection of their fears and supp who was Sara Baartman? Who was the woma the Hottentot Venus? Based on research and span three continents, Sara Baartman and th tells the entwined histories of an illusive life a In doing so, the book raises questions about and limits of biography for understanding th between and among different cultures.

Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus offe tive account of one woman’s life and reinstat complexity of her history.

the Hottentot Venus: and a Biography

1815 as the the most famous known. As the rs as alluring and pressed desires. But an who became d interviews that he Hottentot Venus and a famous icon. the possibilities hose who live

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ers the authoritates her to the full

Quote Corner

“

Clifton Crais & Pamela Scully

The Hottentot Venus created juxtapositions of difference around gender, race, the body, and culture in a way that created something new-the The Hottentot Venus’ greatest notoriety came with the spectacular proliferation of scientific racism in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Sara would have had an array of names connected to the conditions of her birth, daily life, kin, clan, duties, and rights. The Gonaqua had no clearly marked word for either ‘I’ or ‘me’ or, for that matter, ‘you.’

Ancestors, beloved and respected, are also allowed to finally die, to disappear from memory.

Baartman remained too powerful, too linked with the present, to be able to be given back to the winds and the stars.

Sara Baartman was an African woman in a city with a small black population and few black women. With the appropriate dress and presentation, her bottom could be rendered grotesque. The Hottentot Venus would stand at the line between the sexual, the wondrous, and the ethnographic.

”

tell-a-vision Artist: M.I.A.

Tell-A-Vision?

What do you see in her vision? Who is included? Who is excluded? How does this differ from other popular video media?

M.I.A. M.I.A. is a social and political activist through art, fashion, and music. She began her career in 2002.

She is British and of Tamil descent. Much of her work involves challenging ethnocentrism, racism, sexism, genocide, Islamophobia, and other related issues. M.I.A. is the first person to ever refuse to be included in People magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful List.

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Boyz

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