Volunteer to Help Protect Women’s Health!

Planned Parenthood has been a major proponent of Women’s Health rights for over ninety years! They were making sure your Grandma had an opportunity to take care of herself when no one else would. Contrary to popular misconception, PPFA offers way more than access to abortion.

Most major cities have clinics where women have access to checkups, birth control, emergency contraception and other resources. Planned Parenthood is funded by its members and their staff is supplemented by dedicated volunteers.

Check the PPFA in your area to find out about job and volunteer opportunities. Volunteering is not only a great way to get involved in the preservation of women’s health, it shows you appreciate everything the people at Planned Parenthood have done to further the women’s movement. (It looks great on a resume or college application too grrrls)

WAM 2008 Wrap Up

WAM 2008 held at the MIT Stata Center (pictured above) has come to a close. Sniff Sniff.

Organized by The Center for New Words in Cambridge, MA the WAM conference was a huge success this year with over 600 attendees, the highest number yet in its three years in existence. Of the many panels I attended, my favorite was moderated by Jessica Valenti and discussed how to battle the Backlash we receive as Feminists.

There are a lot of people out there who think Feminism is outdated, something women needed in the 60s and 70s but that is no longer relevant in the world of 2008. To those people I say, come out from under your rock! Or as Jessica so eloquently stated:

“Just because you have an umbrella, doesn’t mean it’s not fucking raining!”

Our pop culture glosses over objectification and racism and treats these issues as completely normal and not in any way damaging. Oversimplifying issues of gender and race is a very dangerous thing. Once we become desensitized to issues that blind or oppress us, we have no power to change them. And the goal of the Backlash we are recipients of, is to silence and disempower.

By keeping discussions about Feminism and Backlash current, we keep these issues relevant. There are scores of young women who need to be taught that it is not acceptable to exploit women in our media and culture. We need to teach them that they are not expected to exploit themselves, and that there are other avenues to take to gain power, recognition and respect. It is the general public perpetuates the abusive media by consuming it. In order to make any sort of dent in the mess, there needs to be a fundamental shift in public consciousness. I believe whole heartedly that this CAN be accomplished. It takes the time and dedication of those willing to re-educate and help to open the minds of those who may not even realize the damage being done, but there are plenty of people willing to put in that time.

I had the pleasure of meeting many of them last weekend.

WAM 2008!

For those of you unfamiliar with the WAM conference, let me give you the low down. The “Women, Action & The Media” conference is a yearly event held for women of all walks of life to get together and discuss our roll as females and feminists in the media. I had the pleasure of attending the pre-conference networking seminar this afternoon and will be giving you updates all weekend as the conference progresses.

Miriam Perez, author of the Radical Doula Blog and contributor to Jessica Valenti’s Blog, Feministing lead a discussion about starting out in the world of journalism and media as a woman. One of the major topics of conversation was the All Mighty Blog. Many of our readers no doubt have created their own Blogs and it is a great way to cut your teeth in this industry.

Blog writers are free to speak their opinions (most often) without fear of censorship. In a culture where so much of what is fed to us through mainstream media is inaccurate or just plain lies, this new form of media is especially relevant. From a feminist/riotgrrl perspective, The Blog is one of the few our movement can gain interest and attention without major marketing dollars. In the 90’s we made Zines. This was time consuming and could get expensive. Today any young woman who has something to say can turn on her computer and author a Blog.

In fact, you should! We are strong aggressive women with a lot on our minds. We have this free avenue of expression and an open audience willing to participate. I know this may be an obvious point, but Mariam illustrated so beautifully this afternoon the need for involvement.

You there reading this, what do YOU have to say?