Hello, and welcome to the weekly women+’s issues/health thread!
Each Wednesday, someone will post a discussion with a few relevant news items from the last week, as well as a topic for further conversation. The prompt will serve as a starting point for those who may want to participate but don’t have a topic of their own they’d like to discuss – as long as it’s relevant to the discussion as a whole, anything goes.
Some guidelines to help this space be a positive experience for everyone:
☮ As always with the AVCAD, don’t feel compelled to share beyond your comfort level.
☮ Anyone who identifies as female, or who was socialized female/AFAB/otherwise has firsthand experience with the issues being discussed, is welcome to post. If you identify as cis-male, we ask that you please set your participation to “lurk” mode, unless otherwise explicitly invited to participate further (i.e. if we did an AMA kind of thread). I’m sure there’s plenty to be gleaned just by reading!
☮ Please do your best to be mindful of others’ experiences when commenting or posing questions for the group. The female identity is Legion and contains multitudes, and not everyone who has experience with being treated as female by society identifies as female. Furthermore, racial and ethnic identities, sexual orientation, and many other factors can color how one experiences their gender identity on a day-to-day basis. Simply put,
Updates from the world of womanity:
#MeToo was there. #TimesUp was there. But where were, like, the actual women? Apparently Lorde was the only Album of the Year nominee not to be invited to perform during the ceremony. And women where nowhere in the nominations either.
The Democratic Women’s Working Group wore all-black to the State of the Union, to protest a President who has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by multiple people. 2018, folks.
AND IRA-A-AN, NOT SO FAR AWA-A-AY
Do forgive the pun – I’m writing this in advance and I’m operating on minimal sleep.
Iran’s been seeing a bit of slow-building protest fomenting against the strict religious dictum of the state, particularly from women. And at least in Tehran, there seems to be a good deal of support from the general populace for women flouting the hijab mandate. The general sentiment among those protesting seems to be “if you choose it, fine, but it should be a choice.” Are we going to see some changes for women in this part of the world soon?
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“Perhaps the rare and simple pleasure of being seen for what one is compensates for the misery of being it.” – Margaret Drabble
DISCUSSION TOPIC OF THE WEEK:
I’m actually in Costa Rica right now (yay post scheduling!) so let’s talk about travel. What you like about it, what you don’t, where you’ve been and where you wish to go, how your various identities play into it, et cetera.
If you want to sign up to do this post in a future week, go right ahead! This list serves as both a sign-up sheet and as an archive for old topics. Check it out! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nBFdVjBdMVCwjw_H7R-k9qwthgV6HrzNiOtkKjxq8sk/edit?usp=sharing