Fearless: One Billion Rising

One Billion Rising is the annual global celebration associated with the kick-off of the Vagina Monologues. It is a day that encourages women to dance, taking ownership of their bodies, of the space they occupy, and of the rights to expression that they deserve. Over 200 men and women joined in the celebration which took place in the Junction on Feb 14th. Speakers included Professor Stephanie Sellers and Terri Hamrick (CEO of Survivors, Inc.), a student choreographed performance by Elle Rupert (’13) and Riccardo Purita (’13), and ended with a group zumba dance to ring in One Billion Rising! [excerpt

How to Look Like a Lesbian Without Even Trying

“Ugh. I hate those pictures. I look like such a lesbian in them,” my cousin explained to me while her family and I sat around their kitchen table. After she said this, her younger brother laughed into his chicken noodle soup and she hit him over the head. “Shut up. I’m telling you. They’re so bad,” she said. As the conversation went on, I learn that she was referring to pictures that had been taken at one of her lacrosse practices. The important part is that she was displeased with the photos. And it’s certainly not because someone had caught her in a tryst with a woman and taken pictures of the incident. [excerpt

The F-Word

I’m thinking of a word. Can you guess it? This word is considered negative and harsh. It’s generally avoided in everyday conversations. You wouldn’t normally hear this word spoken by professors or sophisticated celebrities. It starts with an F… Do you know it? That’s right folks! It’s “feminist”. [excerpt

Mobile Activism: What Your Profile Picture Says About You

I know you’ve all been seeing this image all of your Facebook news feeds. All of the sudden a few weeks ago it became everyone’s profile picture. People were sharing it, along with other images, explaining why Prop. 8 and the Defense Of Marriage Act should be repealed, and were generally expressing their support of marriage equality. [excerpt

Object to Your Affection

Recently a guy in one of my classes defended objectification of women on the grounds that if he cares for a girl, he will treat her like he treats his most treasured objects; he used his coat as an example. He said that he loved his coat, he wouldn’t let it touch the ground, and he took great care of it; he would do the same for any girl he cared about, for “his girl.” [excerpt

The Queer Truth

I remember learning about intersexuality (then called hermaphrodism) for the first time in my health class when I was twelve years old. In that lesson, my teacher mentioned that when a child is born intersex, the parents will likely choose a binary sex (male or female) for the child, have the child undergo sex reassignment surgery, and raise the child to fit the corresponding gender. My teacher went on to explain that sometimes the parents pick the “wrong” sex for their child, and the child grows up feeling like he or she should be the “opposite” gender. Implied in this discussion was the notion that binary gender is predestined, an inevitable part of your essential self, as explained in this Surge article. [excerpt

A Is Not For Ally

Most people can recall their first crush. They think fondly back to age ten or eleven when they first “went boy-crazy” or couldn’t focus on sixth-grade English because that cute girl was in their class. This did not happen for me. I do, however, vividly remember it happening for everyone around me. [excerpt

Shieldmaiden

Shieldmaiden is a poem that examines J.R.R. Tolkien\u27s Lord of the Rings series from a feminist perspective, focusing on the character of Éowyn and her influence on female readers of Tolkien\u27s novels

Information Literacy at the Intersection of Scholarly Communications and Social Justice

Undergraduate outreach about Open Access (OA) lies at the intersection of information literacy and Scholarly Communications. Reframing undergraduates as current and future scholars allows us to treat them as agents within the Scholarly Communications network. Students who have mastered fundamental research skills are prepared to view them through the critical lens of Scholarly Communications in order to learn both how to locate resources and how those resources are created. This educational approach highlights the various barriers scholars can face in the research process, as well as provides an awareness of information privilege. This poster will provide a model for how OA can be integrated into information literacy instruction by describing a one-shot session delivered to a 300-level Women and Gender Studies (WGS) course. For librarians looking to integrate OA into their teaching, WGS courses are a logical starting point. There is a moral imperative for WGS scholars to be aware of OA due to its corresponding values of equality, justice, and the belief in the capacity for all people to be participants in the scholarly conversation. Advanced WGS students are prepared to apply high level critical thinking to their own research practices. Situating their scholarly activity in the greater ecosystem of scholarly communications reveals how these students are agents within this system whose choices can have an impact on the larger network

Fearless Friday: Erin Duran

As we conclude PRIDE Week, we honor Erin Duran, the fearless director of LGBTQA Advocacy and Education. In Erin’s three years at Gettysburg, he has established institutional support for the LGBTQA community and has worked to make the campus more inclusive and accepting of all students. [excerpt