Future of Feminism: The Complete Works

I got a little behind last week chronicling the final few Future of Feminism posts over at the Ms. blog, so I thought I would list them all, in order, here. All posts, unless otherwise noted, were written by me. I also owe a great debt of gratitude to my tremendous editors over at Ms., Michele Kort and Jessica Stites, as well as the amazing fact-checkers, interns Catherine Scott and Kristen Schuetz!

Here's the 2012 Future of Feminism Complete Works:

March 1: Welcome to the Future of Feminism!

March 2: Flipping the Gender Script

March 3: Ending Rape as a Tool of War

March 4: Building Bridges to World Peace

March 5: The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

March 6: Not Your Ordinary Mother's Blog by Avital Norman Nathman

March 7: Music to Our Ears by Avital Norman Nathman

March 8: 50 Global Solutions for Women and Girls by Amanda Montei

March 9: No More Media Sexualization of Women

March 10: Let's Talk About Sex

March 11: The Power of Local Journalism

March 12: Rachel Maddow and Melissa Harris-Perry

March 13: Beating the Gender Gap in Tech

March 14: It's Easy Being Green

March 15: Sex Workers Deserve Dignity and Care

March 16: One World, Many Gendered Voices

March 17: Girding Girls to Win Debates

March 18: Freedom from Body Shaming Regardless of Size

March 19: Encouraging Girls and Women in Sports

March 20: Transfeminism and Its Conundrums

March 21: Young, Queer and Sociologically Informed by Jessica Holden Sherwood

March 22: VAWA Goes Viral

March 23: The Hashtag is Mightier Than the Sword by Catherine Scott

March 24: Anti-Bully Pulpits

March 25: Shaping Feminist Spirituality

March 26: Hip Hop Critiques Gender

March 27: Telling Our Stories Out Loud

March 28: Sex Education as a Human Right by Kristen Schuetz

March 29: Girls and Women, Don't Be Camera-Shy!

March 30: Say No to Human Trafficking

March 31: Future of Feminism: Is Now!

Facebook Group

In the transition to the new groups pages, Facebook deleted all of the old group members for the Fourth Wave Feminism site there...and I just realized it. Now we only have five members!

Join Us!

Future of Feminism, Days Twenty thru Twenty-Five

I was at a conference in Boston Wednesday-Sunday, so I'm a little behind posting my Future of Feminism Ms. posts to this blog. Sorry! Here are the blog posts from the past few days:

Day Twenty, Transfeminism and Its Conundrums (this one has a super-contentious comment section!)

Day Twenty-one (a guest post), Young, Queer and Sociologically Informed

Day Twenty-two, VAWA Goes Viral

Day Twenty-three (a guest post), The Hashtag is Mightier Than the Sword

Day Twenty-four, Anti-Bully Pulpits

Day Twenty-five, Shaping Feminist Spirituality

Future of Feminism, Day Nineteen: Women and Sports

I'm not a huge follower of sports, but that doesn't mean I don't understand its importance...especially for women and girls:

I’m not much of a sports fan, but I can certainly appreciate the strength, time and sweat that goes into the training of a top athlete. Also, it’s hard to miss that in the hubbub around March Madness, women’s college basketball, despite its long history of stunning athleticism, is yet again being largely ignored in the media–or, at the very least, not receiving anywhere near the representation that men’s basketball does.

[...]

While the passing of Title IX in 1972 did much to encourage and support girls and women who wanted to take part in sports, there are still many prejudices with which women have to contend if they’re interested in sports–from automatic assumptions of weakness or inability to assertions like, “Oh, you’re pretty good for a girl.” These stereotypes, combined with the fact that women’s sports are still often thought of as less interesting/important/worthy/difficult than men’s sports mean that young girls need reassurance that being good at sports has absolutely nothing to do with sex or gender. See the UN’s 2007 report, “Women, gender equality and sport” for more on the benefits and stumbling blocks for women athletes.

Click here for more.

Future of Feminism, Day Eighteen: Size Acceptance

On day eighteen, I give a brief overview of the importance of the fat acceptance movement:

While I’ve already spent some time discussing the dangerous ways the media sexualizes women and girls, and how it gives the false impression that to be attractive, popular and interesting you must be skinny and hyper-feminine, today I want to switch things up little and talk about the body acceptance movement (also called “size acceptance” or “fat acceptance”), which attempts to combat the negative stereotypes around women and men who are conventionally considered overweight or obese.

One thing bears mentioning upfront: Fighting for body acceptance does not mean promoting an unhealthy lifestyle. In fact, according to Linda Bacon’s landmark book, Health at Every Size, and other recent studies, dieting is often ineffective at handling obesity, and sometimes the extreme measures used to combat obesity–surgery, liposuction, aggressive exercise programs–are more harmful than the extra weight. Not to mention that it’s far from true that all thin people are healthy. The myth that skinny equals healthy is rooted in our cultural obsession with weight and the media’s idolization of rail-thin actors and models.

Read the rest here.

Future of Feminism, Day Seventeen: Girls and Women in Debate

Today's post features the great Women's Debate Institute:

Everyone has a right to speak out about the injustices they see in the world, but how to shape that rhetoric so that people actually listen? That’s something many of us spend years mastering. Mentoring girls in these skills is a central goal of the Women’s Debate Institute, a yearly summer workshop in debate for high school girls.

Debate not only helps students learn how to articulate themselves, it can also lead to successful careers in fields such as politics, business, the law and academia. And yet high school and college debate teams are not always welcoming for women; there’s a sharp drop-off in girls’ participation rates between the novice and senior divisions.

Read the rest here.

Future of Feminism, Day Sixteen: Gender Across Borders

Today's post features another wonderful global organization, one that highlights the many varied voices of speaking out for gender equality:

Profiling globally-minded organizations this month has reinforced for me one of the main underpinnings of feminism’s future: expanding the movement’s mission outside of our immediate comfort zones. In other words, moving beyond a personal-is-political philosophy to a politics of global humanity.

“Solely discussing gender [is] not enough,” says Colleen Hodgetts, associate editor of the collaborative blog Gender Across Borders. “Feminism as a movement needs to directly confront all other power struggles, namely racism, ableism and heterosexism, in order to be a movement that even attempt[s] to represent a broad spectrum of women.”

C0-founded as a “global voice for gender justice” in 2009 by a group of women, including executive editor Emily Heroy and staff writer Carrie Nelson, Gender Across Borders has quickly become a popular clearinghouse for a variety of perspectives on global issues. Its six staff writers, five monthly contributors, five interns and a host of other contributing writers collectively represent “10 different countries from every continent except Antarctica,” according to Hodgetts.

Click here to read the rest!