Feminism is both simplistic and complex, which lends itself as a concept to be inaccurately conveyed or misunderstood. In truth, ‘the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes,” as defined by Oxford Dictionaries, is an advocacy which takes into account the contexts of the time.
In this sense, the evolution of the theory of feminism, from the 19th century to Third-Wave and beyond, is seen as natural progression. In focusing on women’s suffrage, gender neutrality, reproductive rights, sexual harassment, autonomy, and equal pay, it aims to address every facet of the female struggle.
Yet modern feminism lacks awareness about race issues and the nuances of the gender spectrum. These are important issues within our society, seen as part of feminist theory due to their influence. Modern feminism treads a difficult line, one which desperately needs to consider the concept of intersectionality – the inclusion of race, gender and class in feminism discourse – when following the example of prominent feminist celebrity figures.
For Lena Dunham, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Emma Watson, the label given to the feminism they practice is a reflection of their privileged positions: White Feminism.
White Feminism addresses the issues of only those who are straight, cis-sexual, white and middle-to-upper-class. Though not all white feminists practice White Feminism, it refuses to place emphasis on anything but issues which are reserved for those who fit this standard. It is a sheltered, inaccurate movement which has not only bred a dissatisfaction with this definition of feminism, but which has emphasized inequality between lives of women.
One example of the struggle of feminists of color can be found in the words of Sandra Cisneros in her book Chicana Feminist Thought:
“I guess my feminism and my race are the same thing to me. They’re tied in one to another, and I don’t feel an alliance or an allegiance with upper-class white women. I don’t. I can listen to them and on some level as a human being I can feel great compassion and friendships; but they have to move from their territory to mine, because I know their world. But they don’t know mine.”
From the fact that white women make more money than women of color, to the appropriation of different cultures and the objectification of the black body and black culture, our society is one which features a multitude of oppressions. The feminism of these privileged white women, then, is not cutting it.
But what is surprising is just who is now championing the need for a feminist discourse which does not casually discriminate, which calls to attention the flaws of White Feminism, which attempts to fill in the gaps of all the disparities. 16-year-old Amandla Stenberg, actress and activist mostly known for her role as Rue in The Hunger Games, and 13-year-old Rowan Blanchard, star of Disney’s Girl Meets World, can both be recognized as trailblazers in noting that there is more to feminism than blanket statements about equality and the lives of the privileged middle-classes.
Two brilliant young actresses, Amandla Stenberg and Rowan Blanchard, dispel the myth of the apathetic teenage voice, as they champion the need for intersectionality and articulate oppressions faced by women of color.
From Stenberg’s school-project video on cultural appropriation ‘Don’t Cash Crop My Cornrows,’ to her using social platforms like Twitter and Tumblr to offer insights on police brutality, America’s relationship with the black community, essays on representation and more, comes a keen awareness in youth feminism which has a pulse on social justice. To scroll through her Instagram is to come face to face with the thoughts of someone who refuses to let her age hold her back from being vocal. An example of one of her posts:
https://instagram.com/p/6nOKNMG1Tr/?taken-by=amandlastenberg
For this 16-year-old, race issues and being aware of the nuances of social oppressions are not only a valid component of feminism, but should be integral to one’s practices.
Similarly, when 13-year-old Blanchard answered a question by a fan on intersectional feminism, posting it on her Instagram later, she joined Stenberg’s crew of progressive, young, clued-up female voices:
https://instagram.com/p/6rWaNSJddb/?taken-by=rowanblanchard
So what does it mean when teenagers are showing up their adult contemporaries in recognizing the facets of social justice and the depth of intersectionality paired with the practice of feminism? It reveals a shifting of tides and the acceleration of social justice in our modern world. As Stenberg noted for Dazed:
“I think people discredit teenagers and how wise they can be. Sometimes I meet teenagers who are much wiser than many adults I’ve met, because they haven’t let any insecurities or doubts about themselves get in the way of their thoughts.”
Blanchard and Stenberg seem to understand the need to open up dialogues through the social medias which are open to them, utilizing their fame to further causes. This also suggests that within the fractured nature of our society, of race issues and power structures which have manifested themselves in shows of police brutality, appropriation of cultures in the music industry, one does well to learn about these things and speak up on them than to stay enclosed in the protective bubble fame could trap.
Stenberg and Blanchard have shown this to be true. The pair sit comfortably along the likes of 19-year-old Rookie Mag creator Tavi Gevinson, Willow Smith and Kiernan Shipka under the label ‘youth feminism,’ using the influential nature of their age to their advantage by refusing to stay silent about issues close to them and choosing to remain open to that which they can educate themselves on.
The fact is, their feminism is intersectional and so the truths they dish out are aligned to not only their age, but their intelligence. The face of feminism they portray is inspiring because it exists with little ego, and perhaps this is a trademark of youth: it posits the desire to continue to learn, to listen, and to grow. It is refreshing in its honesty, compassion, accepts the existence of flawed feminist theory, but aims to change it. It’s something many would do well to learn from.
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Japan’s Supreme Court Rules That Married Couples Must Have Same Last Name
Japan’s Supreme Court upheld Wednesday a law requiring married couples to have the same name, despite campaigners calling the provision a violation of women’s rights. Opponents of the law have called it discriminatory because most couples in Japan use the husband’s name, the BBC reported. The issue has become controversial in Japan, as those advocating for… Read More
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AT&T Disputes Miami Shores PD’s Version Of Station Call Outage
What’s News With This Story:–AT&T disputed the cause of the Miami Shores Police Department (MSPD) inbound call outage.
-AT&T blamed MSPD’s server for the outage while MSPD blamed AT&T’s phone line.
-It is not clear whether the station’s phone system is back to running as it was before the outage.
-Inbound calls to the police station were unable to go through for at least an hour and a half on January 3. The outage could have been longer, however.
-Residents of the village were directed to call 911 or the Miami-Dade PD who would then forward requests for assistance to MSPD.
-A MSPD spokesperson said that it wasn’t the first time the department has lost inbound phone service.
-She also said that the department doesn’t have the budget to get a more sophisticated phone system.
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Residents in Miami Shores were unable to directly reach their police department for at least an hour and a half on Jan. 3, and it’s not entirely clear why.
The Miami Shores Police Department (MSPD) said that AT&T’s phone line went down, causing them to lose connection to inbound phone calls.
But AT&T said that isn’t what happened.
The company blames MSPD’s server for the outage and say there was nothing wrong with their phone line connection.
MSPD sent out a text alert to residents signed up with the Nixle service at 10:53 AM on Jan. 3.
That alert said that inbound phone lines were down at the station and that residents would have to call 911 or the Miami-Dade County Police Department in order for “requests for assistance” to be forward to MSPD.
The next text alert indicating that the phone lines were working again didn’t come until 4:50 PM.
MSPD spokesperson Elizabeth Keeley told RISE NEWS that inbound phone service was only down for around an hour and a half, after the station was notified of the outage by a Miami Shores resident.
Keeley said that MSPD was investigating how long the lines were down in total.
Kelley said that the station implemented a “workaround” that is used as a backup plan in case the analog line goes down.
AT&T didn’t respond to the station’s outage call until earlier today, nearly 48 hours after it was first announced to the Miami Shores community.
But according to a AT&T spokesperson, when one of their technicians responded to the station, he was unable to find anything wrong with their phone line.
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“We sent a tech to the Miami Shores police department this morning,” AT&T spokesperson Kelly Starling said in an email to RISE NEWS today. “The issue the city experienced was with its server, not our network.”
Starling also said that when MSPD’s server went down, their IT department requested AT&T forward its lines until its IT team could fix the problem.
But MSPD spokesperson Elizabeth Keeley said that AT&T is wrong.
“Their information is not correct,” Keeley said. “They can not say who they spoke to. They didn’t speak to the chief. I don’t know how they came to that conclusion.”
Keeley said that AT&T’s analog system was the problem and that the station’s server indicated that it never went down.
When pressed, Keeley could not say whether the station’s phone system was back up and running in the way it was before the outage.
“It is running currently to accept incoming calls in a way that the chief is satisfied with,” Keeley said, while refusing to answer whether inbound calls on the AT&T analog line were now being received.
Keeley said that it wasn’t the first time that the station has lost inbound call service.
When asked why the station has to rely on an AT&T analog phone line for service, she said that it had to do with lack of resources.
“There’s plenty of options, but it all costs money,” Keeley said. “We don’t really have that budget [that Miami-Dade County PD has, for example].”
Keeley said there will not a report on the matter released to the public and that Chief of Police Kevin Lystad was en route to a conference and unable to answer questions about the situation.
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I Found An Old Dog Tag In The Middle Of My Street And It Led Me On An Amazing Journey
By Morgan Moran
Last weekend, I was walking down my street in a Washington, D.C. suburb and found an old military dog tag in the middle of the road.
It looked pretty old, so I assumed it probably holds a lot of value for the owner and his family.
I decided I would try to track down the owner and do my best to return the keepsake.
It took me a while to decipher the name, as the tag was green with tarnish and misshapen from time.
I could make up the name Victor E. Muniec, Jr., plus some numbers which probably designated his battalion and provided additional identification.
Had I found this piece if history before the age of the Internet, I might not have ever found him.
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But luckily, thanks to Google, I found an old registry from the U.S. Naval Commands, which listed his name along with an address just a few blocks from my house.
I also found his obituary, which announced that he had passed away in April of 2012, at the ripe old age of 87. I learned that Mr. Muniec had been a radio operator with the 53rd Battalion in World War II.
He held a Master’s from Boston University and had worked as an information specialist in the Office of International Cooperation and Development at the Department of Agriculture, working with foreign countries to share new agriculture technology practices.
But what was most interesting to me was his passion for his community.
My search found that he had served on several civic associations in my city, supporting efforts to improve life for its citizens.
Mr. Muniec’s obituary noted that he and his wife were “lifelong advocates of historic preservation,” and requested that donations be made in his name to the local historical society. It was this fact that reassured me that I was doing the right thing; that it was important to return this piece of history to its proper place.
Thankfully, the obituary also listed the names of his children. I tracked down the contact info of his daughter, who still lives in the area, and gave her a call.
I was worried that I had contacted the wrong person, or that she wouldn’t care about maintaining her father’s legacy.
Instead, she was surprised and grateful. She said she had been meaning to send the dog tag and her father’s flag to her brother, but she had lost it and didn’t know if she would ever see it again. I placed it in an envelope and mailed it to her address that afternoon.
We will probably never learn how the military ID mysteriously moved from Mr. Muniec’s daughter’s house to the middle of my street, but from the strange ordeal I gained a greater appreciation for historic preservation, our veterans, and the wealth of knowledge at our fingertips via the internet.
Morgan Moran is a global health advocate and policy professional in Washington, D.C. She graduated from the University of Alabama in 2015, where she studied Political Science, Public Health, and Global Studies.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Sarah Bresnahan/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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