Vassar College Women's Center Blog: an empowering space for female-identifying people to come speak their mind. Feel free to submit posts, opinions, or original work!
The Womenâs Center hosted its 2nd annual End of the Year Celebration at the Loeb Sculpture Garden on May 7, 2015. Thanks to all who came and celebrated the wonderful accomplishments of Vassar women in 2014-15!!
Remember when activist janetmock spoke at Vassar?
Today she is being recognized in our Women of Color Feminist Gallery! Come visit our interactive exhibit featuring portraits and bios of 15 world changing feminists you should know about in the Women's Center (CC 235).
[Gifset: Laverne Cox speaks at the GLAAD media awards, she says,
"Each and every one of us has the capacity to be an oppressor. I want to encourage each and every one of us to interrogate how we might be an oppressor, and how we might be able to become liberators for ourselves and each other."]
I posted this on Facebook a few days ago, but I think itâs also worth posting in the tumblrverse.
Sexual assault is a problem EVERYWHERE. Iâm getting frustrated that people consistently ask me if interpersonal issues (stalking, relationship abuse, sexual assault, or any kind of dating/domestic violence) are problems âat Vassar.â This is what happens when weâre tabling for Sexual Assault Awareness Month and curious parents of prospective students come up to our display. This is what happens when I try to explain to people what CARES does and why it matters. I consistently get the question, âOh, is that COMMON at Vassar? Is that a BIG DEAL at Vassar?â Yes, it is. But itâs no more common at Vassar than it is anywhere else. Itâs present wherever youâre from - at other colleges, in high schools, in hometowns. Organizations and programs at Vassar - Break the Silence, CARES, and SAVP - know it is present, name it for what it is, and take an active stand to address the needs of survivors and prevent the cycle from continuing. So stop asking me if itâs a problem âat Vassar.â Itâs a problem, period.
The Vassar College Women's Center wants to celebrate female identifying artists! If you're a student and want to submit your art or poetry, we'll feature you on our blog! Click here to submit.
when the lights flicker out i avoid windows and doors
every moment of silence putrefying
like overripe fruit
sagging on a dead branch
the silence before they come out
from wherever they were hiding
and they come for me where i am
i lock my door
these episodes of waiting are considered to be
paranoid delusions
you would not know i had these delusions
if I did not tell you
i do not unlock my door
Until the morning
Never keep your door locked in the morning
Because that is what makes you crazy
being scared of overripe fruit sagging on a dead branch
The shadow growing bigger and bigger that is what makes you crazy
II
We drove down the veins and arteries of the Atlantic seaboard over Spring Break
visiting cemeteries
some of which had commemorative maps sold in huts by men smoking cigarettes because the dead
cannot get any more dead
We saw fetuses suspended in jars in Philidelphia
kidneys (inflamed) lungs (cancerous)
the biggest colon
in the whole world
writhes in Philadelphia
And thatâs what makes you crazy
We came to a park named after a white man
a metal sign by an ugly tree
covered in shit
it read:
Ugh iâm sorry to interrupt your walk
but
someone asked me to tell you
foreign bodies orphaned criminalized plague ridden discarded
unclaimed were dumped here like old christmas trees
For a long time
and thatâs what makes you crazy
III
Do you want to know about the unnamed soldier
do you want to know about George Washington
asked an old man
as we walked through the park
The unnamed soldier he died for our country
the old man said
Licking his lips
Thousands of people turning to dust underneath us
I asked the old man about them
âoh yesâ he said
but the old man could not speak to them
any more than that
their bones crunched under my feet
Yesterday a nurse asked me if I hear voices
like she was asking me what my pants size is
did you have a nice Spring Break among the dead
and
It is necessary to question the presence of people in color in the academy as an unquestioned good. Does tenuring more native or ethnic studies scholars necessarily contribute to a decolonized academy, or does it serve to further retrench a colonial academic system by multiculturalizing it? Does our position in the academy help our communities or does it enable us to engage in what Cathy Cohen describes as a process of secondary marginalization, creating an elite class that can oppress and police the rest of the members of our communities? Have we fallen into the trap Elizabeth Povinelli describes of simply adding social difference to the multicultural academy without social consequence? Does our presence help challenge the political and economic status quo, or does our presence serve as an alibi for the status quo? In asking these questions, I do not suggest that there is politically pure space from which to work outside the academic-industrial complex, and yet still constitute a subversion that matters. However, it is an imperative to ensure our opposition within the academy is more contestatory and less complicit.
Andrea Smith, âNative Studies and Critical Pedagogy : Beyond the Academic-Industrial Complexâ (via lonelyhapax)
The goal of colonialism is not just to kill colonized peoples, but to destroy their sense of being people. It is through sexual violence that a colonizing group attempts to render a colonized people as inherently rapable, their lands inherently invadable, and their resources inherently extractable.
Heteropatriarchy, A Building Block of Empire â Andrea Smith (via whitedenial-ontrial)
Building Living Bridges: Transformative Responses to Violence
This lecture will introduce the concept and framework of transformative justice, a collective approach to violence that seeks to respond to violence in ways that do not cause more harm and violence. What would it take to respond to violence in our communities without relying on state systems? How can we work for prevention and response, individual and collective justice, and individual and systemic transformation in our responses to violence. And even betterâhow do we actively work to create a world where sexual violence is unthinkable? Transformative justice requires us to re-think our work to end violence and offers an inspiring and compelling vision of whatâs possible.
Brought to Vassar by CARES, the Womenâs Center, the Social Justice and Inclusion Fund, the Dean of the College, SAVP, Feminist Alliance, & Main House
Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact the Campus Activities Office, (845) 437-5370Â
Wearing a hijab isnât inherently liberating â but neither is baring oneâs breasts. What is liberating is being able to choose either of these things. Itâs pretty ludicrous to think that oppression is somehow proportional to how covered or uncovered someoneâs body is. Both sides of this argument present a shallow understanding of womenâs empowerment, which only drowns out the substantive challenges facing all women â issues that cannot be encapsulated in a debate about a piece of fabric.
Sara Yasin, Is the Hijab Worth Fighting Over? (via rcabbasi)
titsay
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annaxmalina
yousharknotpass
izzy806
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