Location: 5th and Mass Avenue NW, DC Time: Night (7:30pm-12am) I was walking from my house to the Gallery Place Metro Station. I had to stop at the corner of 5th and Mass until the light changed. A teenager (probably between the ages of 16-18) asked me if I had a dollar. I usually dont give out [...]
Tag Archives: sexual harassment
What Facebook Continues To Tell Us About Violence Against Women
There is a photograph being shared in Facebook of a woman cowering in a corner, eyes downcast, as large man standing in the foreground swings his fist at her head. The caption reads, “Women deserve equal rights. And lefts.”
How are children supposed to know about boundaries and consent when there are mixed signals everywhere?
When I was a young the first I heard about sex and all that jazz was through friends. Most of what they ‘knew’ isn’t worth speaking of now but as far as I was aware at the time they were fountains of knowledge on the matter and not to be questioned. I went to a [...]
Marriage Is on the Decline — But Single Still Feels Weird
Even dry British economists are talking about it. It feels like it’s been everywhere lately — even the Supreme Court. Marriage rates: just in a slump, or do we need to talk? The Economist reported earlier this year that marriage rates are continuing to decline in the U.S. and other parts of the developed world. [...]
Tweet chat: International Anti-Street Harassment Week
Tweet Chat: On Monday, April 8, from 1-2PM ET Fem.2.0 will host a Tweet Chat, as part of the International Anti-street Harassment Week with special guests, Shawna Potter, Executive Site Leader & Melanie Keller, site leader of Hollaback! Baltimore to discuss the unique experience of street harassment that the LGBT individuals face. You can join the [...]
Sexual Harassment Hurts Careers
Thanks to Sheryl Sandberg, the media is focused on the absence of women in positions of leadership and power in the corporate world. Ms. Sandberg offers many thoughtful suggestions on overcoming this situation, but makes just one very brief reference to the impediment caused by sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is in itself an obstacle to [...]
The Context for Steubenville: 50 Cases of Rape Involving “Impairment”
A reasonable person might think that certain cases of rape would be clear cut and that it would be all but impossible to blame the victim of a crime, especially one with witnesses, photographs and other documentary evidence, for her own assault. But, we don’t live in a world where a reasonable person can think that at [...]
“I Can’t Forget What Happens, But No One Else Remembers”
These words are the full text of a poem by an anonymous rape survivor. Yesterday they were floated in the Reflecting Pool, with symbolic resonance, between the Lincoln and Washington Memorials in Washington, DC. The letters were put into the pool yesterday afternoon by the guerilla art movement FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture. Over the course [...]
‘Les Miserables,’ Sex Trafficking & Fantine as a Symbol for Women’s Oppression
Some writers, like professor Stacy Wolf, have enjoyed yet criticized the film adaptation of Les Miserables for not being feminist enough and turning the female characters into “bit players.” Whileothers have lauded its feminism. Sure it irks me yet another film focuses on the journey, salvation and redemption of a man. We clearly have enough of those. But that ignores [...]
Knowledge is Power: Modern Day Slavery in America
I remember sitting in church on New Year’s Eve, hearing my Pastor say, “It was on this night, 150 years ago, that slaves sat patiently waiting to hear the verdict of their freedom.” I immediately started to think about when I was enslaved. Enslaved, in 2005, in an America that is now celebrating the 150th anniversary [...]