Stopping Human Trafficking: Campus Conversations & Upcoming Events

Beginning on November 2nd, Purdue will be host to a week’s worth of events aimed at stopping human trafficking. Although we haven’t explicitly discussed this topic in class, Adrienne Rich does mention human trafficking (specifically sex trafficking) as one of the methods used by those in power to maintain the powers of men (see “Compulsory Heterosexuality…”). The events will include  informational talks, a documentary screening (hosted by Marie Kellemen from the YWCA, who spoke with our class earlier this semester), and even guided prayer.

For a complete list of the events and their times and places, check out the Stopping Traffic: Breaking the Chains of Human Exploitation Facebook page.

LEARN MORE…

Want to know more about human trafficking, including who it affects and what forms it takes? Listen to this eye-opening episide of the Diane Rehm Show on NPR. The show features Sophie Hayes, the author of the memoir Trafficked, who went on to create the Sophie Hayes Foundation to stop human trafficking. Hayes was a victim of human trafficking herself.

Artist Confronts Street Harassment by Turning the Gaze Back on Men

Most women have experienced street harassment. Such behaviors can range from a simple whistle to more sexually explicit language, all of which can make a woman feel less safe walking down the street and can reduce her to incredible self-consciousness about her body as an object. Worst case scenario: harassment can become a form of verbal violence that many women learn to accept as part of their everyday lives – particularly women who live in urban environments, like photographer Hannah Price.

Rather than averting her gaze and hurrying past, Price decided to turn her gaze back on the men who cat-called her – with her camera. Her resulting portraits, collectively called City of Brotherly Love, are human and revealing. Read about the artist’s work and see more of her photographs in “Photographer Takes Portraits Of Men Moments After They Catcall Her; The Results Are Mesmerizing.”

“After moving to Philadelphia from Fort Collins, Colorado, artist Hannah Price started experiencing street harassment for the first time, and she came up with a novel way to respond to it: she turned her camera on the men who catcalled her. In a fascinating interview with The Morning News, Price describes how she takes the portraits: ‘Once a guy catcalls me, depending on the situation, I would either candidly take their photograph or walk up to them and ask if I can take their photograph. They usually agree and we talk about our lives as I make their portrait.'”

Or watch the video interview with the artist on NPR, which also shows a number of her portraits. Here are two of Price’s photographs. Click here to see a gallery of her photos:

“Untitled, Pullover”: one from the series City of Brother Love by photographer Hannah Price, in which she turns her camera on her street harrassments to capture them immediately after cat-calling her.

“Every Day After Work, West Philly”: another portrait from Price’s series.

An Indian Miss America? What the Miss America 2013 Backlash Says About Race in America

After our readings on the social construction of race in American, consider the recent backlash regarding this year’s winner of the Miss America pageant, Nina Davuluri, who was criticized for “not being American.” According to  Samhita Mukhopadhyay writing for The Nation, immediately after Davuluri’s crowning, Twitter overflowed with comments from viewers who were upset with the judge’s choice because she wasn’t “American enough.”

Controversy over the crowning of the country’s first non-white Miss America this year made headlines.

Such comments were obviously fueled by post-9/11 racism, as some commenters criticized the contest for crowning an Arab (in fact, Davuluri is a native-born American of Indian descent); such comments point to Americans’ inability to recognize or read races outside of the Black-white binary, what Native American writer Sherman Alexie humorously refers to as “ambiguous brown” people. Other commenters assumed Davuluri was foreign, making statements like, “Miss New York is an Indian. With all due respect, this is America.”

What do such statements reveal about how we imagine “Americans” in regards to race? What connections can you make to Buck’s reading from Friday before break?

Why Steubenville, OH Was a Big Deal

Back in March, two young men from the small town of Steubenville, OH were officially convicted of raping a 16-year-old classmate and were sentenced to one year in a juvenile detention center. An article from Yahoo news featured a photograph of one of the players hugging his mother after the verdict (cue the pathos, but not for the victim):

“The judge sentenced them both to at least one year in juvenile jail and said both can be held until they’re 21. Mays, who’s 17, was sentenced to an additional year in jail on a charge of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, to be served after his rape sentence is completed.”

Read more about what happened in The New York Times.

According to a post on the Feminist Majority Foundation website, the presiding Judge Lipps described the evidence as “profane and ugly” and a cautionary tale of teenagers with alcohol and “how you record things on social media that are so prevalent today,” effectively reducing the violation and dehumanization of a young woman’s body (the video shows the young men urinating on her as well as dragging her around and penetrating her unconscious body) becomes little more than a cautionary tale for teens not to drink while underage and be smarter about how they use social media.

In the meantime, the young woman who charged her two attackers has received enough anonymous death threats to warrant posting two police officers at her house for her protection. Both the incident and the verdict resulted in nationwide activism on behalf of the victim, though the media tended to side with the rapists in the case. Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry was a prominent exceptionin her television address to the young woman from Steubenville, “Dear Steubenville Survivor, I Believe You” (the survivor’s name has been kept private).

RAPE AND SPORTS CULTURE

What’s notable about this case is that Steubenville is a town that prides itself on its high school football team, and both of the men convicted in this case were “star” football players on the team. Perhaps the most damaging message we get from this is that sports and male bonding among athletes are more important than the bodily integrity of a young woman, their peer. The victim was publicly accused of trying to ruin the reputation of the team  and thereby destroy the morale of the town – out of jealousy, perhaps? It’s not made clear what her motivations might be for doing so. But the implication is – and this is another “rape myth” that supports victim-blaming – that this was revenge for a “regretted sexual experience.”

The Power of Language: "Legitimate Rape" and Efforts to Change the Definition of Rape

Last year, former senator Todd Aikin (R-MO) made the following comments about “legitimate rape” that outraged women and feminists nationwide. (Not insignificantly, Senator Aikin sat on the Science Committee in the House of Representatives at the time he made these comments…the science committee.)

Shortly following the senator’s debacle, then-Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan insinuated that rape was simply another form of conception in an interview in which he was asked to comment on Aikin’s comments. So here’s the important context to their public comments: both Ryan and Aikin have been proponents of trying to change the language that legally defines rape in an effort to make it illegal for women to have access to abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. Read more about their efforts to narrow the definition of rape to proven ‘forcible rape.’

What’s the current legal definition of rape? As of 2012, according to the Department of Justice, the definition is: “The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”  The definition is used by the FBI.

Purdue Becomes More Inclusive of LGBTQ Community

Left to right: Aiden Powell, a graduate student and part of Purdue’s trans* community, Lowell Kane, and Gail Walenga, Director of Purdue’s student Health Center.

The Exponent ran a front page article in its Friday edition on Purdue’s new inclusion of hormone therapy in its health care benefits. PGSG pased the bill that approved the change that will certainly affect Purdue’s trans* community. This change puts Purdue in a rather elite position among other U.S. universities.

Lowell Kane, the Director of Purdue’s LGBTQ Center, stated “I’m very excited that Purdue is being elevated amongst our peer institutions as not only having an inclusive nondiscrimination policy – a claim that only 6 percent of universities in the nation can make – but also taking the next step of putting policy into practice with the coverage of hormone therapy – which only approximately two dozen campuses nationwide can say.”

Read the whole article from The Exponent here.

 

A More Recent “Child X” Experiment: Toronto Parents Won’t Reveal the Sex of Their Baby, Despite Criticism

Baby Storm and another sibling. Storm’s parents faced criticism of their parenting of all their children when they decided to raise Storm genderless.

If you were interested in or surprised by Lorber’s reference to a 1972 article in Ms. Magazine that discussed the possibility of raising a genderless child, a child who might grow up free from the limiting gendered behaviors that we’re taught from the moment we’re born, you might be interested to know that contemporary parents are still searching for ways to move beyond such rigid gender stereotyping. While that article was a fantasy in 1972, it might be a reality for a pair of parents in Toronto.

In 2012, Storm’s parents decided not to reveal Storm’s sex. The only people who know are Storm’s siblings and the two midwives who oversaw Storm’s birth. While some have been supportive, the couple has faced criticism, not just from neighbors, but from the right-wing news media.

Take a look at the full article about Storm and Storm’s parents here.

This year, Germany became the first country in Europe to list a third choice on its birth certificates in addition to its two traditional gender options, allowing parents to opt out of listing their child’s gender as simply male or female:

“The legislative change allows parents to opt out of determining their baby’s gender, thereby allowing those born with characteristics of both sexes to choose whether to become male or female in later life. Under the new law, individuals can also opt to remain outside the gender binary altogether” (Heine).

However, it’s unclear whether this will spark a revision of other legal documents that require someone to identify their gender. But consider what a difference such an option might have made for someone like Cheryl Chase and her parents.

QUESTIONS

• How does criticism of Storm’s parents’ decision reveal what Lorber says about the importance we ascribe to a two-gender system in Western culture?
• What obstacles do parents face in trying to create less rigid gender identity in raising their child? What obstacles do you think the child will face as he/she gets older?
• Last week, we talked about education/schools being a form of social control. What obligation do you think schools and educators have in enabling less rigid gender stereotypes? Why do you think this hasn’t yet been part of the discussions about education reform in this country?

Dream with Me…

Today, August 28, 2013, is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. King was a dynamic speaker, and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was one of the largest rallies for human rights in America’s history, with estimates of the number of participants ranging from 20,000 to 300,000, the vast majority of whom were African-American.

In celebration of that historic 1963 rally for human rights, watch Dr. King deliver his speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Or better yet, gather around the Peace Pole in front of the Baptist Student Foundation here at Purdue today from 4:30-5:00pm for a local reading of the speech.  For more info, check out the Facebook page for the event.

“I HAVE A DREAM”

Campus Activism: Purdue’s Anti-Racism Coalition (PARC) Demands Not Just Diversity but Equality

As some of you know, Monday morning, a group of almost 200 people, including mainly students as well as faculty, marched through campus and up the steps of Hovde Hall to the Office of the President to demand that administration effectively address, publicly and in a real way, the racism that pervades Purdue’s campus.

Students stand on the steps of Purdue’s Hovde Hall on Monday, demanding that administration act to combat racism prevalent in the campus community.

The march was a moving event, but it has also stirred the fires of those made nervous by the students’ activism. One of the march signs, left in front of Hovde Monday afternoon along with candles, was defaced with racist hate speech and was accompanied by the image of a body hanging from a tree, evoking America’s dark history of lynchings.

HOW TO JOIN IN

In response – and to maintain the productive energy rallied by Monday’s march, PARC (Purdue Anti-Racism Coalition) will be holding a meeting TONIGHT, in BRNG B323, at 5:30pm, right after our class. I would strongly encourage those of you who wish to help make our campus a hate-free, accountable environment to attend. People of any race, gender, etc. are welcome at the meeting. For more information, check out the “The Fire This Time” Facebook page.

The War on Ethnic Studies Programs: Arizona’s Public School System

Last year, Arizona’s public school system received a great deal of attention after Superintendent Huppenthal shut down the state’s acclaimed Mexican American Studies program (called Raza Studies), claiming that it fostered resentment toward white people and promoted ethnic solidarity and disrespect toward American (i.e., white western European) history, or “anti-Americanism,” and that it inculcated leftist ideas.

Students and teachers from the Raza Studies program protest to protect ethnic studies programs in Arizona’s public schools.

To put this whole issue in perspective, let’s first remember that parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas used to be Mexico.

The following quote is pulled from the documentary Precious Knowledge (2012), about Arizona students’ and educators’ battle to keep the program:

• “The [Raza] program was a national model of educational success — 93 percent of its enrolled students graduating from high school and 85 percent going on to attend college, bucking a statewide trend that saw only 48 percent of Latino students graduating at all. The program taught Mexican and American history, as well as Central and South American literature and culture. But the political tide shifted in Arizona in the 2000s. The state passed extremely controversial immigration laws…”

So why would state officials shut down such a successful program? Huppenthal cited Arizona House Bill 2281 to make his arguments that what the teachers in the Raza Studies program were teaching was illegal. Read an HB 2281 excerpt below:

“A school district o charter school in this state shall not include in its program of instruction any courses or classes that include any of the following:

• Promote the overthrow of the United States Government.
• Promote resentment toward a race or class of people.
• Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.
• Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

AND NOW?

As of March this year, an Arizona judge upheld certain provisions of a state law that bans ethnic studies in Tucson’s schools;however, the judge ruled that the section of the law prohibiting courses tailored to serve students of a particular ethnicity was unconstitutional, a small win. The teachers of the Raza Studies program – some of whom have been volunteering their time to continue teaching ethnic studies to interested students in the community – are continuing to fight the decision.

QUESTIONS

• What connections can you make between Kozol’s “Preparing Minds for Markets” and recent attacks on ethnic studies programs?
• How do race and ethnicity make students vulnerable in educational institutions?
• How do you see recent public debates about immigration reflected in Arizona’s reactionary education policies?