NYC considers public awareness campaign, legislation to discourage catcalling

New York City councilmembers are considering enacting legislation to help eliminate catcalling in the city.

Recently, some ladies from Hollaback NYC gave testimony to the Council about their experiences with catcalling and harassment. The group is pushing the city to commission a study, a public awareness campaign and maybe even legislation, including "no-harassment zones" around schools, according to NBC New York.

This has spurred some controversy for a few years. There are questions of legislation potentially interfering with First Amendment rights and there is concern over whether this is the wisest way to use lawmakers' time as well as taxpayer dollars.

Fair points. However, as one Hollaback speaker said,

"Because of street harassment, from a young age women learn that public spaces are male territory," Kearl said. "They learn to limit the places they go, they try not to be in public alone — especially at night — and when they are alone, they stay on guard."

Street harassment is a systemic problem that is way too normalized in our culture. I remember the first time I was catcalled, back when I was in high school. I was embarrassed but otherwise didn't think much of it. I thought it was just a part of being a female, but that's an attitude that should no longer be tolerated.

If using taxpayer dollars is not the way to deal with this problem, what is? We should be teaching children from a young age to respect other people as well as respect others' personal space - that way we can get at the root of the problem. But for now, a public awareness campaign and legislation to protect school kids seems like the best solution we've got.

Either way, here's to the Hollaback ladies for taking such a strong stand on the issue.

High school cheerleaders want less skimpy uniforms

A group of high school cheerleaders in Connecticut has garnered national media attention because they want new uniforms that are less revealing.



As one student says:

"It really hurts our self esteem," Bridgeport Central senior Ariana Mesaros told the Board of Education, according to the Post. "I am embarrassed to stand up here dressed like this. Is this really how you want Bridgeport to be represented?"

The girls took their concerns all the way to the Board of Education, which is now working on making changes to the uniform.

I tip my hat to these girls for taking a stand about something they care so much about. Good job, ladies!

Sheryl WuDunn, author of Half the Sky, on TED Talks

Sheryl WuDunn on the global oppression of women: "The central moral challenge of this century is gender inequity."




I plan to check out Sheryl WuDunn's new book Half the Sky.

Children's books revisited: Putting children's lit theory into practice

My niece and nephew are visiting for the summer. In an effort to keep them from being bored and to encourage them to participate in educational activities, I brought them to the local library today. I tried looking up books with a feminist message, but had little luck. I tried using Jackie's list of books featuring girls and boys acting in non-traditional gender roles, but none of them were available. I wasn't surprised. My town is a small, conservative one, so I didn't have high expectations. But I kept wandering the aisles and 'lo and behold, I found political books in the Juvenile section.
Jacob, my nephew, and I browsed the books and I encouraged him to check out one about Racism. We are Puerto Rican and "being a little brown boy," as he put it, is something he can understand. I told him to try it out and, if he liked it, we'd check out more political books in the future.

Finding a good book for my niece, Ariana, was a little trickier. She's only seven, and not yet at an advanced reading age. But we found a small - very small - section of books in Spanish. Jacob and Ariana both want to learn the language, but she's especially shy about speaking it. But we picked out one called I am Latino: The Beauty in Me and another, an old Cuban story, that was entirely all in Spanish.

We sat down to read I am Latino. She was really hesitant at first, but ended up liking it. There are Spanish words interspersed throughout the book, so she was speaking Spanish without even realizing it. By the end, she decided to check it out. It's frustrating that Latinos even need a book to convince them that they're beautiful, but I'll take what I can get.

I'm still looking for good books for the kids, so if you know of any, please leave your suggestions in the comments. For more information about feminist books for kids, check out The Amelia Bloomer Project, Nontraditional Pursuits of Boys and Girls, Veganfamily.co.uk and this list on Amazon.

$1 a Day Keeps Pregnancy Away?

In Greensboro, N.C. the College-Bound Sisters program pays teenage girls $1 a day to not get pregnant. The money is saved in a college fund and each girls receives the money upon her enrollment in college. The program, funded by a state grant, requires that the girls attend a weekly meeting in order to receive their incentives. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's a rather unorthodox system, but it seems to be working. But I wonder if the program leaders teach the girls how to avoid pregnancy. Thoughts?

Gender Roles in Children's Books

This semester, I took a Children's Literature class. It's been an interesting class so far; we've learned about nursery rhymes and picture books and novels. We've discussed illustrations as art. And we've discussed censorship and "different perspectives" (which my teacher defined as, books about individuals who are "different" from us). Two weeks from finals, and we haven't discussed a certain topic, and this really surprises/upsets me.

Gender roles portrayed in children's books!

Traditional gender roles are typically forced onto children from a young age through images they see on TV, the toys they play with, their parents, and yes even children's books.
Girls are typically nurturers and passive. Boys are typically adventurers and independent.
But, let's face it, not every girl wants to play with dolls and restaurant sets, and not every boy wants to play sports or cops and robbers.

I'll bypass fairy tales and tall tales, because I'm sure we all know those are filled to the brim with sexist bull crap. But, several decades after women's rights movements, books portraying traditional gender roles (and occasionally, in the case of Douglas Wood's What Moms Can't Do ans What Dads Can't Do, sexist bull crap) line the shelves of libraries.



Of 35 of these recommended picture books showing girls pursuing non-traditional gender roles I could find only 15 in my university library.
Of 21 of these recommended picture books showing boys pursuing non-traditional gender roles I could only find 6 in my university library.



Strictly considering picture books, of my university's there are about 16 other books portraying non-traditional gender roles. In a library with four long rows of children's book


I'm not saying boycott the rest of the books because many still teach important values. I'm saying add more books that portray non-traditional gender roles. Books are important in helping young readers develop a perception of themselves as well as society. To incorporate most books portraying non-traditional gender roles could help relieve totally preposterous gender stereotypes.



To read more on gender roles in children's books, check out this article.

-Jackie

My Little Red Book

Check out Rachel Kauder Nalebuff's website for more info!

- Bianca