16ToVote and an awesome new YOUTH movement!
Cross Posted from StudentActivism:
A group of Florida high school students is waging war against a local curfew.
The law — which bars under-18s from downtown West Palm Beach after 10 o’clock on weeknights and eleven on weekends — is, they say, unconscionable age discrimination. But that’s not all.
The law exempts married young people, but not those who are out with parental permission. On the contrary, it imposes fines on parents who “knowingly permit or by insufficient control allow” their children to break the curfew. “Insufficient control” is apparently nowhere defined — is a parent whose 17-year-old is in college expected to exercise “sufficient control” to keep him or her indoors at night?
The most bizarre — and, in a bizarre way, comforting — provision of the two-year-old law is one which exempts young people who are “attending or traveling directly to or from an activity that involves the exercise of rights protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution” from the curfew.
That’s right. The curfew as written only applies to those young people who don’t intend to speak while they’re out on the town. If you’re going to be exercising your freedom of speech (or assembly, or religion, or the press, or, you know, petitioning the government for redress of grievances), you’re golden. If you’re heading out to sit by your grandmother who’s in a coma, though, you’re getting a ticket.
(Only not really. The city is mostly just using the law as a mechanism for rousting young people rather than going through the hassle of ticketing them — as of the end of March it had issued a thousand warnings but only five citations.)
It’s ridiculous, is what it is, and the National Youth Rights Association of Southeast Florida is doing something about it.
NYRASEFL leaders Zach Goodman and Jeffrey Nadel (both 16) spent a big chunk of the spring explaining to the mayor and city commission just how farkakte the law is, but didn’t get anywhere. Then in late March they retained local civil rights attorney Barry Silver, who managed to get a law that criminalized feeding the homeless (yes, really) overturned last year. But so far he hasn’t had any luck either.
So on the evening of May 1, they took to the streets, letting the city know when and where they would defy the curfew.
During the protest they were tailed by two officers on Segways, but otherwise left alone. Their presence does seem to have gotten under the cops’ skin, though, as police ticketed several teens who were waiting for their parents outside a nearby movie theater as the protest was going on.
NYRASEFL intends to make one final effort to convince the city commission to repeal the curfew law before filing suit against the city. We’ll keep you informed as the story develops.
Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women
 Two weeks ago, young adult women in the state of Karnataka were beaten publicly by members of the Sri Rama Sena and Dajrang Dal because they were drinking in a bar and "dressing indecently." :Gasp!:
As I posted earlier, ultraviolet has written an open letter to the Indian goverment urging them to...um...protect democracy and disable this informal gender policing that rules the night. Also developed out of this mess is as adhoc campaign called the Pink Chaddi Campaign. Chaddi is a slang term in India denoting short little underwear or boxer shorts. The Pink Chaddi Campaign is urgining feminists, egalitarians, freedom-lovers, people with mothers or sisters or aunts of grandmothers, anyone who cares about women really to send pink underwear to the head of Sri Ram Sena. More infor here and here.
But I can't just leave this post at that. I need to ask: What the fuck, patriarchy?
What exactly is it that enables men to view women as objects and women to view men as subjects in this little dreamland we seem to be living in: society? Why is it so difficult for men to give up power and allow women to live fully conscious lives? What is power anyway, and why won't anyone give it up?
Someone answer at least one of these questions.
Misinformation Special: Telling Young People That Their Bodies Are Shameful
 Same old crap, cool new look. Passion for Christ Movement has jumped on the bandwagon of hundreds of other Evangelical groups that are infecting the airways of youth, trying to suck them in by making Pauline Christianity look "hip" and "cool," but ultimately selling the same old crap.
Passion for Christ Movement has launched the sale of "ex-masturbator" tees in some pretty ugly fonts. Some non-paid lackey at the church writes:
"Yeah we said it….Nobody talks about it, but most people have done it or are still doing it. It's seems to be a rite of passage for both girls and guys into the world of sex. Some say masturbation is not a sin, some say that it is. But is it really okay in the eyes of God?"
Why is God watching me masturbate? Doesn't that make him a bit pervy. Anyhow, Pauline Christianity, i.e. the books of the New Testament attributed to (St.) Paul, really aren't cool. For example:
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Romans 1:24-27
I mean, for serious, young people are ashamed enough about sex due to the misinformation soaked into their brains by MTV which is then rigorously contradicted at church, synagogue, or what have you the next day. I am all up for discussing bodily functions, especially as they are sometimes used as addictions, but I am not up for discussing them with the implication that I will discontinue using my organs by the end of that discussion. And, to clarify, I am defining "addictions" in the context as: a distraction from the reality of life.
As a male I am more than aware of how masturbation, especially with the advent of pornography, may be used as an addiction. However, only when placed in the context of addiction does the act of masturbation become harmful. I know because I have enjoyed my body sexually separately from an addiction.
Hey, their the ones who wanted us to talk about it...
What About Solutions: Running Start Young Women’s Political Leadership Program for High School GirlsFrom the Website:
Another What About Solutions post from WAOD reader Lorraine:
A great opportunity for our girls!
Let’s start them young. This program also builds self-esteem…they do not need to be interested in politics to be chosen to attend!
COST: The program is entirely FREE of charge, and travel scholarships are available to sophomores, juniors and seniors!
Running Start is accepting applications for their 2009 Young Woman’s Political Leadership Retreat. Please share with teachers and encourage any high school girls you know to apply!!!
WHAT: Running Start encourages high school girls from across the country to channel their leadership into politics. Participants will meet extraordinary women leaders of diverse backgrounds and learn the importance of having more women in political leadership and running for office. EVEN if the girls are not interested in politics, this is a great program way for them to build self-esteem, practice public speaking and learn to collaborate with other young women.
WHO: Open to rising sophomores, juniors and seniors in high school
WHERE: American University, Washington D.C.
WHEN: July 15-19, 2009 (no applications will be accepted after February 16, 2009)
COST: The program is entirely FREE of charge, and travel scholarships are available.
APPLY ONLINE: http://www.runningstartonline.org/leadership-program/index.php
Please Stop Dancing
I recently saw the video for Lady GaGa's "Just Dance," to which I will only link, I ain't posting that crap. First of all, I hate her weave. Ok, ok, I will stop discounting her (stupid) song by referencing her physical appearence. However, I am dismayed by both the song and video's misrepresentation of excessive drinking and the dangers implicit in the act like, um, death, and the dangers not implicet like, um, rape. The lyrics follow:
I've had a little bit too much, much
All of the people start to rush, start to rush by
How does he twist the dance? Can't find a drink, oh man
Where are my keys? I lost my phone, phone
What's going on on the floor?
I love this record baby but I can't see straight anymore
Keep it cool, what's the name of this club?
I can't remember but it's alright, a-alright
Just dance, gonna be okay, da da doo-doo-mmm
Just dance, spin that record babe, da da doo-doo-mmm
Just dance, gonna be okay, d-d-d-dance
Dance, dance, just, j-j-just dance
Don't be alarmed, I didn't write that shit out myself. I found it on one of those music lyric website, you know, the ones that infect the life out of your computer so you can know what whether Xtina sang "my hymen broke" or "hi, man, I'm broke."
Ok, I'm not a doctor, but if you drank so much that you can't find your phone, which you may need to call the police department via 9-1-1, and you can't find your keys, which you will need to eventually get back into your house, you should stop drinking. Further, it isn't going to be alright. Nightclubs and houseparties are wonderful places to network and dance with friends and meet a potential significant other, but they aren't safezones for intoxicated young people, especially in the society in which we live. According to RAINN, 1 in 6 American women have been victims of attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. If you can't see straight anymore, then that means someone else will have to lead you out when you want to leave, hopefully that doesn't turn out to be, um, a rapist.
The video grossly misrepresents public intoxication and re-instate terrible drinking habits which may be best describes as "drink till you pass out." I was in the UK this summer while recent high school graduates were receiving their "A levels," qualifications for university which I believe are comparable to the SATs. Anyhow, its a huge partying time, and I got to see a lot of young people equipped with tons of misinformation about alcohol as well as, well, alcohol. At one point I was sitting by the window of a bar, enjoying my friends and my cup of beer, when I saw a young, heavily, intoxicated woman skid across the pavement and bash her head againt a wall. She was subsequently unconscious. I told her "friends" crowding around her that I was going to call an ambulence. They yelled for me to "mind my own bloody business." Um...possible dead girl on the floor sounds like my business. She awoke a few seconds before the ambulence arrived although I never followed up on the state of her health.
I would love to see Lady GaGa add that glamour to her video.
A glimpse of the Feministing community
Yes, its a lazy g/day, so I'll just post some things another mind envisioned and verbalized. This is a snippet from a post on the community board on feministing.com, a young feminist site I urge you to check out.
"My understanding of reproduction is that it is the basis of the institutions of marriage and family, and those two provide the moorings to the structure of gender and sexual oppression. Family is the social institution that ensures unpaid reproductive and domestic labor, and is concerned with initiating a new generation into the gendered (as I analyzed here) and classed social set-up. Not only that, families prevent money [sic] the flow of money from the rich to the poor: wealth accumulates in a few hands to be squandered on and bequeathed to the next generation, and that makes families as economic units selfishly pursue their own interests and become especially prone to consumerism."
Post-shopping thought...
 Is anyone else tired of low-rise jeans?
Most stores don't offer much else to young women. But doing anything other than standing up straight while wearing them often leaves you with plumber's crack. (Has anyone else ever experienced holding onto your belt loops while walking up a flight of stairs?)
I always see women sitting in class fidgeting with the backs of their shirts and pants, constantly checking to make sure their underwear or butt cleavage isn't making any guest appearances. But think about it: women already struggle against seeing themselves as objects. A study in 1998 showed that after trying on bathingsuits, women's math performance decreased significantly. My guess is that worrying about how exposed their pants leave them would just exacerbate the problem. Not to mention that most young women are students wearing low-rise jeans in classrooms, worrying about their butts and underwear showing and subconsciously hurting themselves. Let's rise a little a higher.
Let's say it aloud: Bulimia.
 In Germany, anti-Bulimia ads are being placed inside the lids of women's public toilets in college areas. Bulimia is the act of filling one's stomach with food to the point that throwing up is necessary or appears to be necessary. Many, many women or all ages are affected by Bulimia.
My gut reaction (or wayward yet intellectualized reaction) is that these ads may de-sensitize Bulimia, i.e. make it commonplace, and thus young women would not think twice about doing it because, well, everyone does it. But then I thought about the isolating aspect of Bulimia, namely, that it is a hidden activity and thus women are expected to just fix the problem and not make a fuss of it.
But please, make a fuss of it.
I am actually interested in the "control" aspect of Bulimia and its intersection with general feelings of a lack of control among youth. Some psychologists who specialize in easting disorders insist that control is central to eating disorders such as bulimia and that the strong desire for women to regulate their eating habits functions as a convenient method of conforming to societal standards of beauty. For young men its mostly internet pornography - they get to control their sexual situations while conforming to their roles as "predators."
See, we're alike!
Feministing also has an article.
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