Thanks to Lindsay, who may have graduated and moved on but is still sending me things to post, for this excellent editorial that reminds us all of the privilege we have as feminists in the US. Amidst our daily work and struggles, as well as continued and pervasive sex, race, ... inequality, it can be far to easy to forget the powerful freedom of being able to actually think, focus, and act on them. We would all do well to remember that calling ourselves feminist is a privilege.

It's Hard to Debate Feminism When You're Dodging Bullets

Farewell

elle

I don't know if any of you are old enough to remember this the way I do, but when Dr. Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald made headlines for treating her own breast cancer while over-wintering at the South Pole (there, summer here) it was one of those ultimate girl power moments for the impressionable me. Not only was performing a biopsy and chemotherapy on yourself pretty bad ass, she was over-wintering at the South Pole! How cool is that (about 75 below on a good day...)! Her death yesterday, from a return of the cancer, has taken an wife, mother, activist, and crazy role model. Our best to her family and all those who knew her.

World Refugee Day

June 20th is World Refugee Day, so take some time to reflect back on the gendered nature of violence, the gendered nature of peace, and the ways in which community upheaval (be it violent, natural, or otherwise) affects the ways in which that community rebuilds.

Here We Go Again...

elle

Didn't I already tell people this!! Reports have come out indicating that the number of the world's hungry has topped 1 billion people--up 11% from last year (which comes out to 100 million people, FYI). However, what this article fails to mention is that the majority of the hungry in the world are women and girls, and that the World Food Programme specifically calls gender inequality a 'major cause and effect of hunger'. There are a lot of issues at hand when discussing hunger and food insecurity, but articles like this that make no mention of the reality that women around the world eat less and eat last--which has a major impact on everything from health to education--aren't helping us face up to that reality.

Time for face up to it. Denying women and girls education, personal and economic autonomy, and legal rights affects EVERYTHING, including how many of them go to bed hungry every night.

In Memoriam

elle

No matter where you stand on reproductive rights, I hope that we can all acknowledge the tragedy of the murder of Dr. George Tiller in the vestibule of his church in Wichita Kansas yesterday. Dr. Tiller, targeted for decades because of his work providing abortions in Kansas, is survived by his widow Jeanne, 4 children, and 10 grandchildren; our hearts go out to them all.