GenderYOUTH Network

IUSB: Blurr zine calls for submissions

Call for submissions... on gender.

Greetings!

Gender Project is well underway at Indiana University of South Bend. We are a new, student organized, gender advocacy group on campus associated with GenderPAC.

Last month we distributed our first issue of Blurr, a new zine with a focus on gender. It was a great success here at IUSB and soon we hope to be able to share the zine with a much larger audience by making the publication available online.

In the meantime, we are currently compiling works for the second issue. We hope to begin printing in just a few short weeks.

This zine is a focus on all aspects of gender and how it crosses lines of socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and more.

A call for submissions... more info below.

With as much diversity as we have among our students and faculty here at IUSB (and the larger community), I know there is just as wide a range of creativity. I would like to use these creative voices in order to educate and advocate the versatility and complications of gender as they are portrayed and interpreted in our society.

We're looking for artists, poets, essayists, personal stories, etc. -anything that can be related to gender, be it positive or negative.

Can you help or do you know someone who would be interested? If you would like to send us a submission or if you have questions, please contact us via e-mail.

Karrie Blevins
Coordinator, The Gender Project
Indiana University at South Bend

For submissions:
E-mail: blurr@iusb.edu

For questions:
E-mail: kblevins@iusb.edu

For snail mail:

The Gender Project
Indiana University South Bend
1700 Mishawaka Ave
South Bend, IN 46634

X-posted to relevant online communities including the GenderYOUTH Network on Yahoo.

RSS feed available via Livejournal.

Zine: IUSB chapter calls for submissions...

We are working on putting a zine together for the beginning of the Fall semester here at IU-South Bend. This first issue will be geared towards incoming freshmen students and student organizations getting back into the swing of things. This is a call for submissions (or suggestions)... So, if you have some artistic talent that you'd like to share... along the lines of gender, stereotypes, labels, etc., let us hear 'em! Interesting articles, poems, or other written works would be greatly appreciated too. (Plus, we can send you a copy once its ready to distribute.) *Feel free to pass this message along to any person(s) or group(s) you feel might be interested. Karee B. e-mail: karee23@hotmail.com

Mentoring at the University of North Carolina

Students at the University of North Carolina plan to start a mentor program with local high school students during the 2004-2005 school year. They will have a lot of support available to them from adults including administrators and community activists.

Community Involvement at Johnson County Community College

Johnson County Community College students scheduled presentations with at least two youth groups in November of 2003. They planned to speak to a church for outreach as well as to a four-year school. Tentatively, they have discussed hosting an event bringing all of these groups together (GenderCONNECTIONS maybe). The GenderPAC chapter leader will serve on the Board of Directors of the Kansas City Democratic Organization this year. The chapter will table at Kentucky Gay Pride. They are also working to help uphold the Domestic Partner Registry Ordinance, which will serve as a springboard for more community involvement. In doing so, chapter members stress how GenderYOUTH helps young people of any background that face oppression due to gender non-conformity.

Chatham College Event Brainstorming

Members of Chatham College's GPAC chapter came up with lots of great ideas for campaigns and activities in a brainstorming session. Some ideas:
-Ask professors if you can be involved in curriculum development. For example, in psychology the discussion of depression, suicide, various "disorders" including GID, and histrionics can all be examined through a gendered lens.
-Survey curriculums and ask if you can be a part of adding gender to the curriculum for the next semester (maybe you can TA).
-Plan an event around a popular TV show. Meet (weekly/monthly) during that TV show and talk gender during the commercials and afterwards.
-Place an event around a popular movie and address the gender-related issues in an open form. Invite other group to give their critical perspectives too (i.e. race, heterosexism, etc).
-GenderDIALOGUES: Have everyone give an example of how a gender stereotype has affected them. People love to talk about themselves and tell their stories. If people do not want to tell personal stories, they can tell how they think gender stereotypes cause discrimination and violence. End the session by telling people what they can do to bring an end to discrimination and violence caused by gender stereotypes.
-Ask teachers if they will give extra credit for GenderPAC events.
-See if you can fulfill a service learning requirement for starting a GenderROOTS Mentoring Program at a local high school or work with children who may already be on campus for other service projects. For example, if local grade school children already meet with college students to organize plays once a week, you could piggyback off this effort and participate every week or plan a one-time workshop about preventing school bullying.
-Direct your campaigns at students who are studying to be psychologists, teachers, social workers, medical school students, lawyers, etc. Many of these students have multicultural requirements or you may be able to convince some of their professors to give you some air time since when these teachers-to-be learn will translate into how they deal with bullying when it occurs in their classroom or when they need to address the needs of their clients.
-In your initial meetings with your groups, you can have everyone identify what their areas of interest are, so that you can identify campaigns that are shaped by members' interests but still related to gender stereotyping. If someone is passionate about Abstinence Only until Marriage Sex Education, outline some of the ways in which this issue is influenced by gender stereotypes.
-Piggyback on other events. For example, Take Back the Night is often a big event and they are often looking for many speakers. Someone from your group could talk about gender stereotypes and could even explain how gender stereotyping affects perceptions of violence and as a result makes violence against men and same-sex violence (between men and especially between women) nearly invisible.
Hopefully these ideas will help out others! Any additional suggestions?

Youth outreach at the University of San Francisco

The University of San Francisco's GenderROOTS chapter worked on plans to do some community service at a local conference for youth. They plan to host a workshop about language, definitions, vocabulary, etc. They also hope to reserve a table and advertise a bit about their group and the University of San Francisco, and also maybe about GenderROOTS and the conference, to let the kids know what's out there and what the university in their area is doing. In addition, they are organizing a big campaign to expose the harmful effects of advertising that reinforces narrow gender norms that cause violence and discrimination. They will also volunteer at a local conference for youth where they will present workshops that empower younger students to confront the bullying and harassment they experience as a result of narrow gender stereotypes. They will lead workshops for their peers challenging them to recognize gender stereotypes and eliminate the harmful effects of violence and discrimination that result from the enforcement of restrictive gender norms.