UCSB Feminist Studies

Located in Santa Barbara, California, the Department of Feminist Studies began as the Women's Studies Program in 1988 when feminist professors came together to focus on gender, race, class, sexualities, and nationalities from intersectional and transnational perspectives. Follow us to learn more! Tweets by @UCSBfemst !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

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Elliot Rodger's California shooting spree: further proof that misogyny kills

Jessica Valenti: Attributing the rampage in Isla Vista to mental health issues ignores the stark truth

"I have to wonder how much police dismissed Rodger's video rants because of the expectation that violent misogyny in young men is normal and expected."

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Seth Rogen Is Not Pleased with Washington Post Critic Ann Hornaday

Ann Hornaday, the Washington Post's film critic, published an op-ed yesterday that implied that one of the principal reasons for Elliot Rodger's mass killing in Isla Vista was the white men of Hollywood's "escapist fantasies [that] so often revolve around vigilantism and sexual wish-fulfillment." Hornaday specifically called out both Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen's recently-released Neighbors as an example.

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#YesAllWomen: Elliot Rodger’s misogynistic ravings inspire a powerful response on Twitter

The unfiltered misogyny of Elliot Rodger is extreme, but it’s an indicator of the hatred that remains a stubborn part of our society’s fabric. No, #NotAllMen are like Elliot Rodger. But #YesAllWomen reveal the little pieces of him we encounter every single day.

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Elliot Rodger was a misogynist but is that all he was?

Hadley Freeman discusses misogyny, race, mental illness, gun violence, and how our culture enables violence against women.

"Was misogyny the reason a 22-year-old man went on a killing spree? Hell yes. Were other factors at play here, too, such as mental health, a financially straitened mental health system and an American political system cowed by the NRA, leading to too much access to guns? Yes, yes and yes. And to say that doesn't diminish the part played by any of these reasons. In fact, they underline the dangers in one another."

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The Power of #YesAllWomen by Sasha Weiss

"Rodger’s fantasies are so patently strange and so extreme that they’re easy to dismiss as simply crazy. But, reading his manifesto, you can make out, through the distortions of his raging mind, the outlines of mainstream American cultural values: Beauty and strength are rewarded. Women are prizes to be won, reflections of a man’s social capital. Wealth, a large house, and fame are the highest attainments. The lonely and the poor are invisible. Rodger was crazier and more violent than most people, but his beliefs are on a continuum with misogynistic, class-based ideas that are held by many"

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A Statement from Feminist Studies

The Feminist Studies community joins the rest of UCSB and our friends everywhere in mourning the tragic loss in Isla Vista on May 23 of George Chen, Katherine Cooper, James Hong, Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez, David Wang and Veronika Weiss in Isla Vista--and celebrating their life. We recognize that individual acts occur in larger cultural, social, economic, and political circumstances. This event too provokes a host of difficult conversations: about dominant masculinities, misogyny, sexuality, violence, class privilege, and race. A feminist intersectional approach that accounts for the complexity of structures and identities provides other ways of understanding often ignored by mainstream media. During the next few days the department will be posting a series of articles discussing the diverse reactions circulating on feminist blogs and elsewhere. We ask that readers remain critical of the intersecting underlying issues surrounding this event. We grieve for our place but also for all the children--and adults--subject to gun violence whether in the inner cities of this nation or the streets of gated communities because they have been targeted as disposable people by their gender, race, class, religion, nationality, or other factors. With Richard Martinez, the father of one of the slain students, we declare, "Not One More!"

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Janet Mock returns to Piers Morgan Live. (x)

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My people are everything. Thank you for supporting me tonight. I exist among giants. I love you all. 

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Thanks to the RCSGD, Janet Mock will be at UCSB today!

An Evening with Janet Mock

Tuesday, April 29

The Hub, UCen

Doors open at 7:30p.m.

Limited Seating, RSVP encouraged

tinyurl.com/JanetMockUCSB

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This is happening tomorrow!

Imagining the State: Body Politics, Utopian Concepts, Gay Recognition And Conservative Christian Refusal by Davina Cooper (Law & Political Theory,University of Kent)

Tuesday, March 4 / 12:30 PM South Hall 2635

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But we are more than our bodies.

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This woman’s place is in the House—the House of Representatives.

-Bella Abzug, another Congresswoman whose activism will be discussed at the Re-Reading the Feminist Conference!

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Re-Reading the Feminist Sixties Conference this Friday, February 7!

9:30-5:30AM, 6020 HSSB

Patsy Mink's activism will be one of the topics discussed during the conference:

"The late 12-term Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii was the first Asian American woman and the first woman of color to be elected to Congress.  She was a co-author of Title IX, the law that forbids discrimination based on sex in federally-funded education, and served as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans & International Environmental & Scientific Affairs in the Carter Administration."

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View the full conference schedule on our website

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Welcome to the Department of Feminist Studies tumblr!

Stay tuned for info + news about the department!