Just a reminder...

For those of you who haven't heard, the Halloween installment has been canceled. However, if you're a member of PRIDE (and there is a bit of an overlap, here), you're more than welcome to wear your costume to the PRIDE meeting today! It's at 2:00 PM, in room 122 of the old nursing building.

-Sarah

A busy week and lots of info.

This week is going to be busy for Upstate Feminists, and it's going to be good. Today, Monday, October 27, 2008, UF is hosting a discussion for Daphne Gottlieb's book Kissing Dead Girls at the Center For Women's and Gender Studies (aka room 122 of the old nursing building).

Tomorrow on the 28th Daphne Gottlieb will be reading selections from Kissing Dead Girls at the Hub-Bub in downtown Spartanburg. Here's a link to information about the event and the poet on Hub-Bub's website: http://www.hub-bub.com/index.php?option=com_thyme&calendar=1&category=0&d=27&m=10&y=2008&vcat=&Itemid=&event=508&instance=2008-10-28

If you'd like to get a copy of Kissing Dead Girls, stop by the center; just note that if you get one, you kind of have to come to the reading tomorrow. For more information, call the center at 503-5926.

Also, be on the lookout for some interesting things happening on campus this Halloween Friday....

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In other news, flyers with the list of women's studies courses being offered in the Spring are now posted in various places around campus. Keep that in mind when you sign up for classes this week!

Have a good week, everyone!

-Sarah

Like It or Not, You Just Can't Take the Sex out of (Sex)uality...

There has been a bit of a buzz about the iFuk campaign. Largely a really great buzz. But some notsomuch. SO I thought that I'd go ahead and post a response to a comment to that particular blog thread in which I think I cover most of the bases of concern. Also, I've noticed that the few people who have expressed that they find the sticker campaign both offensive and disturbing have eschewed calm discussion of the matter in favor of some pretty biting attacks, which I find to be interestingly demonstrative of a high level of personal discomfort surrounding the topic. The fact that people react so virulently against opening the discourse surrounding sexuality I think speaks to exactly why we need to open up the discourse surrounding sexuality. And if you have any questions regarding the choices we've made to take such an in-your-face approach to this campaign, I invite you to contact me by email and I will be happy to discuss the matter further. This was not something that was decided haphazardly or without considering its implications, so I would be more than happy, I promise, to discuss that.

-- Andrea

p.s. May I just add in further response to this individual's post that though sex is a personal choice, it does not exist outside of the political arena. It is not "half-politicized;" it is inherently and wholly political.

Cheers, folks! And here's the comment:

"Even Better..."

October 20, 2008 7:21 PM
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Blogger mediocritease said...

Culture jamming is really kind of dubious. What difference exactly are these stickers going to make? Sexuality is a personal choice, not some kind of half-politicized, mildly offensive, self-indulgent graffiti. Throwing something in someone's face doesn't make them want to respect you anymore than they did before. Have you thought about whether or not flaunting it really helps your cause? And just out of curiosity, do you think the free love movement did anything truly positive for human relations? Am I for gay marriage? Absolutely. Equal rights for all walks of life? Most definitely. Are there better ways to get there? Probably.

October 20, 2008 7:24 PM
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Blogger Upstarts said...

The logo is one component of a much broader campaign. The stickers are just one element that is 1) a catchy and provocative image that plays not only on a largely unpopular word (apparently... eh hemmm...) but 2) also reappropriates a brand of consumer culture that connotes a whole other element of capitalist critique and inquiry. Controversy breeds interest and reactions (apparently again...)demonstrate discomfort. For instance, some people's skins crawl when they see the word "fuck," (eh-hemmm...) which might lead them to disavow an entire campaign because they can't stomach the implications of one of the dirtiest of words. All this before they even decide to do their homework on what the campaign entails. I would invite you, mediocritease, not only to reconsider such a reductive stance before engaging in discourse surrounding a subject, but also to do a little more research about the terms sex-positive and sex-radical, which engender a lot more than simply fucking. Sex-positive and sex-radical are not synonymous with the free love movement, either. Nor is the free love movement just about having lots of sex. I'll even provide you with the wikipedia pages to get you started:

Sex-positive

Free love

Also, there are many elements of Upstate Feminists that seek to be inclusive, take a less offensive approach to sort of placate people's discomforts. However, providing people with an innocent, feel-good sort of movement that they can feel entirely at ease with is not the aim of this campaign -- it is to draw attention to sexual stigmatizing that occurs on a constant basis in American society and the media and to bring awareness to sexual diversity (which includes but is not limited to the LGBTQ community, alternative forms of heterosexuality, and even asexuality). We want to make people uneasy. So, in-your-face is kinda the goal with this one. AND there is a body of evidence suggesting that short-term strategies such as toning down radical rhetoric to increase general interest are not always effective in the long-run, that they may even serve to compound and reinforce existing conservatism.

So yes, in short -- the stickers are at least (and thank you for demonstrating this) opening up discourse surrounding the subject. They also speak to the larger issues of sex in the media and consumer culture, and they reinforce in a very poignant and simple way that personal choice involved in sexuality.

Thanks for askin'...

-- Andrea

This is just beautiful...

As we discuss the seeming retreat from activism in feminism, or at least its ebb and flow, I offer this photograph from an Obama rally in St. Louis on Saturday. If this doesn't inspire you, I don't know what will. I stole it from another friend's blog EYEROLL and you can read the full story on the Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire."

-- Andrea

Even Better...

So we couldn't resist and had to take our new iFuk campaign to the next level with this logo:





iFuk is a sex-radical/ sex-positive campaign highlighting the individual choice entailed in sexuality. It is committed to raising awareness of alternative forms of sexuality, sex education, and working toward breaking through culturally imposed barriers and limitations through activism and information. Utilizing a strategy that media scholar John Fiske terms "localized tactical resistance," iFuk intends to raise consciousness in the Upstate regarding issues of sexuality through guerrilla-stye feminist marketing.

So that means when the stickers are printed, they are going to be EVERYWHERE!!!!

-- Andrea

Heck yeah...

Dig it:



New sex-positive campaign.

Stickers to come.

-- Andrea

Un-Bee-Effing-Lievable... Well Not Really. But I Was Really Excited for a Hot Minute!!!

So as I sat avoiding the more substantive things I should be doing with my Sunday evening, I decided to bide my time until the next episode of Californication by watching Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie... At first I got all excited. The obvious parallels to a marxist critique of American society were just too good to be true, I thought. Bee comes of age in hive, realizes he's just a cog, leaves the hive, realizes he's a cog in a much larger system. And lo and behold, the bees themselves are blind to their own real oppression. And too good to be true it was...

After a successful and controversial lawsuit against the human exploitation of bees (the defense in full-throttle right-wing fundamentalist mode à la John Goodman), the bees renew their commitment to the system they fought against. How can there be a Rose Bowl if there aren't any pollenized roses?!?! Tragedy strikes!!!! Rather than salvaging the progressive elements to the plot and forging some Utopian society that could only work in a cartoon, the narrative exhorts a loud "no!" and our little protagonist buys into the system he worked to subvert. At the end, he is like any main male character in any ol' movie out there: savin' the human woman he loves and everybody around him as business continues as usual. Literally. Cows can talk and file complaints in the Insects at Law office, but they just couldn't take the extra step and make it really progressive... Not sure whether I want to blame Seinfeld or society, but it definitely doesn't do much in the way of dismantling any capitalist ideology for the kiddies who might be watching it, radical potential or not...

Here I was, all excited about transgressive Pixar movies and alas, foiled again...

I hear that if I really wanted marxist, I should have just waited to see Wall E.

-- Andrea

Oh So Very Riot Grrrl (and Boy) of Us...

Finally a fun feminist share moment! Whoo hoo!

I walk into a bar in Greenville last night with two friends. We're all wearing black. They have tattoos and scars from whiskey, their BMX bikes, and who knows what else. I stand at the bar with my back to the overweight yuppie beside us who proceeds to interrupt me to alert my friend that "your girlfriend is fucking sexy" as he scans me through his thick glasses from toe to tits. Excuse me? First of all, I ain't nobody's girlfriend. And second of all, he did not just say and do that.

As my friend proceeds to puff up a little, poised to defend me (and really, I'm sure, just itching to punch someone), I think that perhaps I can address this academically: Excuse me, asshole, but I'm actually in the process of getting a four-year degree in feminism. I explain with a straight face that, this guy next to me is actually my ex-husband. We're madly in love but had to get divorced because I don't believe in the institution of marriage. So I would really appreciate it if you'd take your overprivileged yuppie entitlement and fuck off. It doesn't work. I tried. I did. He actually then has the audacity to explain to us that our appearances are obvious indicators of our class statuses and insignificance and that he pretty much has the right to a) say anything he wants, b) do anything he wants, and c) have anything that he wants.

Really? That so?

He wasn't singin' such a pretty tune when we resorted to the next logical step, which was to dump a full bottle of beer over his head. Kicking and screaming about just how fucked up it was because he can a) say anything he wants, b) do anything he wants, and c) have anything that he wants, he was escorted from the bar as we and all of our peon friends fell to the floor with laughter. Him and his starched, beer-soaked shirt could just take it back to the wife in his pretty little box in his pretty little development.

I was proud.

--Andrea

Who's for the Increased Commodification of Healthcare? Not "That One!"

I'm not even going to touch the murky yet tangible implications of Senator McCain's reference to Senator Obama as "that one" in last night's Presidential debate, but I will offer up this little gem that audience member Lindsey Trella presented regarding the commodification of healthcare:



I don't take any measures to conceal my pretty ardent disdain for the soiled bed where the American government and big business (i.e. big insurance companies) hold congress. It gives me acid stomach and I tell you all the time. This I know. But I still want to point out that this topic is as relevant to feminists (not to mention young people at large) as ever. Economic crisis = increased healthcare-as-commodity costs = disproportionate burden on those in this country already at a disadvantage (many if not most of those being women). And that's putting it mildly, with an estimated 43 million Americans already without health insurance in 2007. SO though I don't claim perfection or innocence from either camp because, let's face it -- I'm about as cynical as any defector from capitalist ideology, I think it's pretty effing obvious which of the two mattresses has the most stains. Just a thought. I'm also not so naive as to think that the debates are accurate gauges of ANY candidate's policies. However, I think they are good jumping-off points into really evaluating the issues. And what better time to get informed than less than a month away from the election? Hmmm...

So watch the clip. Maybe think about it a little bit. And then mosey on over to the place that does the homework for you: votesmart.org

And in case you don't feel like navigating their site to find your way to each candidate's info, I'll go ahead and give you that too:

Full List of Presidential Candidates for South Carolina Voters
Senator Barack Obama
Senator John McCain

--Andrea