Project SAFE Volunteers Needed

Hey Ladies, do you care about women's sexual health? Then Project SAFE needs your help!

 

Project SAFE, an all volunteer public health organization for women participating in street based sex work in Philadelphia, is looking for new volunteers to help distribute safer sex and harm reduction supplies on the streets of Kensington.  This is a great way to help women stay safe and really make a difference.  For more information, please visit our website at www.safephila.org or email us at safe.phila@gmail.com. 

 

If you are not able to volunteer but would like to help out, donations are much appreciated. Click here to donate now!  Thank you for your support!

Sincerely, Unconvinced Spice Girl Fan

When I was younger I lived and died for the Spice Girls. I loved their sparkly outfits, their sassy personalities and I loved their message: Girl Power. I remember when I was in first grade I dressed up as a brunette Baby Spice for Halloween, donning thigh-highs, a “Baby” nameplate necklace and a t-shirt which my mother wrote “GIRL POWER” on in big black letters. As a kid I ate it up, but once I got older I started to think about the idea of Girl Power in a different way.

The basic idea behind the phrase is that girls are powerful. We can do anything we want and if you’re a lady then life is pretty good. Unfortunately, I think there are some problems with teaching these kinds of blind positives to young women.

The first problem that I find with this whole idea is the word choice: Girl Power, power to girls. Actually I’m not a girl, I’m a woman and I would appreciate being addressed that way. It is bizarre to me that within a phrase that is supposed to empower me there is a term used for a child. Kind of demeaning, don’t you think?

To me, the most obvious reason to why the whole idea of girl power is kind of an issue is that it teaches girls and women that it’s all good. It tells us that everything is fine and our position in the world is one of strength and power and everything is awesome. When guess what, women are far from holding such a place in our society. I think the idea of Girl Power encourages complacency in our position, when really we should be telling our young women to get angry, stand up and fight for what we deserve.

I started thinking about this more when Beyonce came out with her song, Run The World. The hook is, “Who run the world? GIRLS” and the song is all about how girls run the world and can make men do whatever they want. This is obviously ridiculous and again teaches girls the same complacency and comfort with their marginalized position in society that Girl Power does.

When the song came out I found this awesome video. This woman is saying exactly what I was thinking, and exactly what I hope people listening to the song start thinking about too.

So as much as it kills me to go against my childhood idols, I don’t think that the Spice Girls’ message to young women was actually so helpful. Maybe we should come up with a new phrase to encourage women to fight for equality, not simply affirm them for no reason.

Blog contributor Julia A. Birnbaum is a 19-year old student at Sarah Lawrence College. Having lived outside the city since she was 3, Julia is a proud Philadelphian who has begun a recent love affair with New York. Though she is not entirely sure of what she’d like to major in during her collegiate years, Julia anticipates focusing on something involving writing and art. Julia suffers from an addiction to reality television and likes to spend her time with friends, writing poetry or blowing bubbles for her cat to pop.

To Shave or Not to Shave?

Every woman has a different relationship with her body hair, and for this blog post I want to talk about it. It’s kind of awkward, I know, but the question of shaven verses unshaven legs specifically is one that I see causing so many problems with women in my life, and myself included. So let’s talk about it.

What I’ve found is that the problem with female leg hair starts with the social statement that is seemingly attached to it. The thing is, that most people see a woman’s unshaven legs as a symbol of her indignation towards society’s expectation for her to go against something her body naturally does. In other words, hairy legs are often perceived as a badge of courage in the fight against societal pressures on women.

I know women who do not shave their legs to make a statement. They do it because they see no reason that they have to take the time to do it while men don’t, or because it’s not right for societal norms to encourage them to do anything to their body that is unnatural. There are women who make all kinds of social statements with their unshaven legs, and I am so into it! I too am a pissed off feminist and I love all the things these women are trying to say! The problem? I don’t really think unshaven legs are a cute look. I would love to walk around in shorts in the summer with my leg hair flowing in the breeze, loud and proud all to prove to the world that I don’t care what they want me to look like, but truthfully, I just don’t think it’s a good look. I wish there was another way that I could display my identity as an angry feminist without having to go hairy. But this problem is not the only one I think women have with the decision to go natural or not.

I have a very close friend who I think represents a large group of women in her leg hair turmoil. You see my friend hates shaving her legs. She hates the time it takes, the fact that she has to spend money on razors and shaving cream… she just hates it all. So she lives her life with natural legs, and she doesn’t mind. The only time it is a problem is when people look at her legs and think she is trying to make the big social statement I talked about earlier. Unlike myself and other women, she doesn’t want to wear her feminist identity on her sleeve; she simply just doesn’t want to have to take the time to shave her legs, which is totally fair also!

So I think the problem with leg hair verses no leg hair is the big, heavy statement that people have attached to it. It seems like things would be so much easier if we just let it be a choice about shaving or not shaving, and kept it just as simple as that. If a woman chooses to shave it doesn’t mean she is a slave to the popular opinion of how women should look, and if she doesn’t shave then it doesn’t always mean she’s waiting for an opportunity to rant about man’s control on her and her body. I mean, come on everybody; it’s just leg hair.

*JOIN THE CONVERSATION ABOUT OUR LEGS OVER HERE ON THE WCC WEBSITE*

Blog contributor Julia A. Birnbaum is a 19-year old student at Sarah Lawrence College. Having lived outside the city since she was 3, Julia is a proud Philadelphian who has begun a recent love affair with New York. Though she is not entirely sure of what she’d like to major in during her collegiate years, Julia anticipates focusing on something involving writing and art. Julia suffers from an addiction to reality television and likes to spend her time with friends, writing poetry or blowing bubbles for her cat to pop.

The Right Way? Musings of a Mid-Semester Junior

1. Think about what I want to do with my life.

2. Make a plan.

3. Meet with the guidance counselor.

4. Have doubts about plan. (See look #3)

5. Make a new plan.

6. Feel confident about new plan. (See look # 2)

7. Meet with guidance counselor.

8. Have more doubts.

9. Make new plan.

10. Feel truly set with your new plan.

11. Mull over new plan.

12. Talk about new plan with multiple people.

13. Have doubts about new plan.

14. Go crazy from going from plan to plan.

15. Make a final plan.

16. Laugh about how you think this is going to be your final plan. (See look #5)

17. Repeat steps 1-16

Typical expressions for a mid-semester Junior:


Look #1 - Huh?

Look #2 - I feel confident.

Look #3 - I have doubts.

Look #4 - Look works for multiple statements like, "I have no idea what you are saying" or " I have no idea what I am going to do with the rest of my life" or  even "Why does her face look like that when I told her about my new plan?"

Look #5 - Insane laughing.  Look works for when you are making your millionth plan for your future and you actually believe this is going to be your last plan.

Ariana is a guest post contributor to the WCC blog with her NEW ongoing column, The Right Way? Ariana is currently a junior at Bryn Mawr College where she is majoring in Political Science and minoring in Gender and Sexuality Studies.  Her intention for the column is to share her experiences during the last two years in her college bubble before she enters the big and scary real world.  She hopes you enjoy her posts because she certainly enjoys writing them. 

{Disclaimer - WCC guest blog contributor, Ariana has now completed her junior year! Due to technical difficulties we are just posting her contribution now.  The WCC community looks forward to following her on her continued journey.}

The F-Word

It is no secret that the word “fat” comes with negative connotations for everyone in our society.  It is also safe to say that the negativity of the word in many cases weighs far heavier (no pun intended) on females as apposed to men.  In fact, this has been proven in research tests in which people were shown pictures of overweight individuals and where the men were given cute labels like “cuddly” or “stocky”, the women got branded with “lazy” and the classic, “fat”.

This gross word is one that has rolled off of mean girls’ tongues for so long, but there is a group of people who think they can turn it around.  The Fat Acceptance Movement, in particular, NAAFA, The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance is a group of people who are committed to creating a society where no one is discriminated against because of their size or health situation.  Many of them believe that part of their battle is taking back the F word by making it either neutral or synonymous with words like  “fabulous” and “beautiful.”

I think that sounds lovely! The damage that the word has done on our girls is immeasurable. It’s true that people should be able to live their lives free of discriminatory words no matter what. But can it’s meaning really be taken back?

Although I am obviously crazy about the idea of women being encouraged to love themselves and their bodies regardless of its shape, as a woman of a certain size I find it hard to imagine a day when someone drops the F bomb on me and I don’t immediately deliver them a swift punch to the face.  So is the word’s ickiness too tightly knit into our cultural vocabulary to be turned into a positive? People in the fat acceptance community say no.

I decided to talk to my friend, a believer in the fat acceptance movement who often attends conferences and events within the community. When I asked him why he prefers to use the word “fat” as opposed to a less controversial adjective, he told me that he doesn’t think it’s a term that needs to be avoided, “I think that using a euphemism implies that there's something that needs a euphemism, you know? Because I don't think of fatness as having an intrinsic negativity, I don't want to speak about it in a way that makes it sound like I do.” When I asked my friend if he could see his positive use of the word contributing to the construction of a world where fat was used in a friendly way he was hopeful, “Obviously that's going to take a long time, but I'm personally really excited about the impact that it can have on individuals. You have to admit that it's a pretty revolutionary concept. A lot of people have never ever been told that fat can be ok, and that's hurting them and the people around them regardless of their size.”

What do you think? As a woman, can you picture yourself standing in front of the mirror asking your friend if you look fat in a dress and their response being “Yes, and it’s fantastic!” Could you be able to take the power out of that 3-letter weapon and feel comfortable hearing the word connected to you?

For more information on NAAFA and the fat acceptance movement, here’s a link to their website: www.naafa.org.

***JOIN THE CONVERSATION ABOUT THE F-WORD HERE ON THE WCC WEBSITE***

Blog contributor Julia A. Birnbaum is a 19-year old student at Sarah Lawrence College. Having lived outside the city since she was 3, Julia is a proud Philadelphian who has begun a recent love affair with New York. Though she is not entirely sure of what she’d like to major in during her collegiate years, Julia anticipates focusing on something involving writing and art. Julia suffers from an addiction to reality television and likes to spend her time with friends, writing poetry or blowing bubbles for her cat to pop.