Take the Ask a Working Woman Survey

I just took some time out of my night to fill out the Ask a Working Woman Survey created by the AFL-CIO and Working America which will be used to generate a report on the current concerns of working women in America. I thought it had some great, straight-forward questions about where you're at in your career and where you thought you would be, as well as the good and bad things about your employment. It's funny to think that we've come so far, yet we're still fighting ye old glass ceiling in terms of having equality with men when it comes to pay, pensions, and assumptions about your role as a working parent.

According to the AFL-CIO Blog over 22,000 women took the 2006 survey. This is a great way to have your voice heard as the report will be shared with lots of important folks from Congress to the presidential candidates.

So, if you have a minute (or are just plain up late, like me) take the survey and contribute to the report. It's a good project for the hot day tomorrow when most people will be hiding inside in air conditioning. 96 degrees? That's just crazy talk.

Balancing rage and compassion

Guys, I love the internet. Today I came across two articles that seemed totally incongruous and unrelated at first, but actually became a beautiful lesson in balancing the anger I feel when talking about rape culture with the compassion that I feel is a necessary component of creating meaningful change in our often indifferent world.

Jen's amazingly brave post about her experiences with sexual assault and rape culture at Female Impersonator attracted the ever-present shithead: Anonymous Commenter. (Trigger warning, BTW. The post is very graphic, as are the comments.) The comments are nothing unique or special: someone gets defensive about the idea that we live in a rape culture, misinterprets the OP's conclusion that all men are potential rapists as all men are rapists and the rest de-evolves into a big mess of blegh. Same old song and dance.

I get so tired sometimes, you know? Frustrated with the fact that many people (heck, probably most people) don't understand that we live in a rape culture, and that most people victim-blame until the cows come home, often compounding a survivor's stress, depression and isolation.

So today I bookmarked this WikiHow entry: How to Forgive so I can find it again next time I'm in that frustrated, depressed, raging place. I need to remind myself that compassion is just as important as supporting and empowering survivors or engaging in self-care. In fact, reading this article might just be a step in my self-care process from now on.

ETA: As I re-read this, I realized it might sound like I'm advocating for all survivors to forgive the people who abused them, which I am DEFINITELY NOT. I firmly believe that every single individual person in this world knows best how to care for themselves and heal themselves. I connected with the entry's message of compassion, but that is part of my journey so please don't read this as me telling you how to heal.

Good news+sunshine+cupcakes = AWESOME

I'm wicked tired today (cupcake mania last night. of course.), so I'm afraid I'm not going to be eloquent about this, but I'm loving the "Voices of.." series Feministing has going on right now. I absolutely love everything I've read about justice now and it's making me want to get involved with prison activism something fierce.

In other fantastic news, survivors of sexual assault across the U.S. can now undergo anonymous emergency room rape kits that will be kept on file in case they decide to press charges at a later date. Finally! One tiny, long-awaited step in the journey toward making services survivor-focused!

Anyone else have some good news?

Food is a Feminist Issue

Food has been on my mind lately, and not in the usual "Mmmm, chocolate cake" kind of way. Lots of women are writing about the global food crisis that is currently most affecting those who were already struggling with access to food. Even the mainstream media is taking notice of the effect the collapse of the global food system is having on marginalized communities, though the conversation about how the crisis is manifesting in American is far from comprehensive, as Feminocracy eloquently points out. If you have the time, I really recommend reading as many of the linked posts as you can; they are all incredibly informative and invaluable

I struggled with using the word 'crisis' to describe this situation, because I feel that it is often over-used as a bludgeon by folks engaging in scare tactics, but the more I read about this the more apt it felt as a descriptor. Sharon Astyk has written an amazing post about what she calls "The Great Food Kablooey".

Has your life been impacted by the Great Food Kablooey? Are you concerned about it, or do you feel like it's a trend that will pass soon?

Self care - What have you been doing?

The death of Lisa McMurtrey two weeks ago is sticking in brain, even though it has more or less faded from the 5 o'clock news and the Metro section. It's been hard to keep up hope, to stay positive, and to continue up the steep incline that PWCL is on in the anti-violence movement.

On Mother's Day, which I spent with my daughter completely unplugged from work, online discussions and my cell phone (well, except for talking to my mother, sisters and my best friend), I was reminded that there is one thing I can do to help replenish when my well of determination and inspiration seems desperately low: Self-Care.

Here's one thing I did. I picked early blooming flowers (lilacs and spanish lavender) out of my yard and added a big sprig of fennel for fun. You might not think it, but the three smells together are wonderful - like my own personal anti-stress balm.



What have you advocates done lately to fill up? PWCL wants to know! :)

I stand corrected. Mrs. Bush is alright on Burma.

Well, she's right on the name anyway. I'm not going stick my shoe any further in my mouth with discussions of global politics.

So, despite my quick jump to assuming she was wrong (assumptions are mostly always bad, I know!) I did learn a lot from investigating after I made this post. Next time, the investigating will happen prior to posting, I promise.

So in place of Mrs. Bush's twang, here is another video for you:

Example #2394802834: We Live in a Rape Culture

We received this article from a regular PWCL blogger in our e-mail today, coming via Feministing.com. A young woman was sexually assaulted on her campus, and after fighting back using so-called lifesaving self-defense skills, she was attacked again by a group of young men because she fought back in the first place.

What's interesting about this story is how it highlights a few scary things that take place in our rape culture:

1. When survivors fight back, it often doesn't work or backfires. Yet we are continually taught that self-defense is one of the key elements to ending sexual violence.
2. Mob mentality. If you've seen Dreamworlds 3, you know what I'm talking about. It highlights the idea that some men participate in the mob mentality around rape culture and sexual violence. In this case, they did not stick up for the survivor but rather participated in the violence being perpetrated against her.
3. The normalcy of rape in our culture, and even more on college campuses. See the "rape trail" in this story. Ugh.

What's really upsetting to me is that this story isn't on national news. Why? Because, sadly, these sorts of instances of sexual violence happen to people, and moreover women-identified people far too often. I was physically assaulted by a group of teenage boys last year, outside of a PETCO no less, and it reminded me of all the times I experienced similar violence when I was in high school and my early college years. It was normal to me back then, and only when we start talking about stories like the one featured above on feministing.com do we realize what an epidemic physical and sexual violence is against all sorts of oppressed groups, and in this case, women.

Posting issues! This message comes via Crystal, one of our Sexual Assault advocates who also runs our Sex Industry Outreach program. Please check out her message about her upcoming fundraiser and enjoy your very sunny Portland day! - Kelsey

Hello friends!
I wanted to invite all of you to an awesome fundraiser event this Thursday, May 8th at the Chaos Cafe and Parlor on SE 26th and Powell at 8pm. I am working with a Ph.D candidate at PSU on a creative participatory research study focusing on the needs and aspirations of female sex workers in Portland Oregon. We are using photovoice method which is a participatory action research method that involves placing cameras in the hands of community people so that they may visually represent and communicate to others their lived experience.

The Goals of Photovoice are to enable people to:

1. Record and reflect their personal and community’s strengths and concerns through taking photographs.
2. Promote critical dialogue and knowledge about important issues through discussion of their photographs.
3. Reach policy makers and decision makers who can influence positive social change through public forums and showing of their photographs.
   

Ultimately we will be showing the photographs at various venues around Portland and inviting policymakers, community leaders and advocates to come to these showings with the intent of affecting positive change in our community in regard to the rights of sex workers.

We are compensating all of our participants for their time and also paying for the film, processing and framing (we had all the cameras donated by some of you) so we are trying to raise some money to help us out. All of the proceeds from this fundraiser will go directly to this project and the sex workers who will participate. We are asking 5-10 dollar donations at the door. For those of you who can't make it but still want to donate to the project you can make checks out to me Crystal Tenty and mail them to me at PWCL at P.O. Box 42610 Portland, OR 97215. Unfortunately these donations are not tax deductible as we are doing this project as students and do not have a 501 (c)(3) status.

This fundraiser will be a dance party featuring global beats by DJ Niko. http://www.myspace.com/gypsyfunkglobalbeats

There will be free snacks and wine and beer for purchase. You can also check out our myspace: http://www.myspace.com/sexworkartasactivism

Feel free to e-mail me or call me for more information at 503-997-4078

Hope to see you all there!!!

Crystal Tenty