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.

IUSB: The Gender Project

Hey all! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I know I am
especially enjoying the 14509345823049 degree heat. Yum. :/

Right. Well, back to business....

"The Gender Project" will be the name of our GenderYOUTH group here
at IUSB, at least to start off with. We're working on a couple
things before classes start in the Fall.

A website is being developed and we plan to have it up and running
by mid-August.

We're also hoping to get the G-Zine printed around the same time.

As mentioned in our last post, we are looking for submissions that
would be topic related - drawings, poems, OpEds, etc.

As for the website, we welcome suggestions for information,
materials, etc. to be included.

Looking forward to hearing from many of you before school starts.

X-posted

For equality & diversity,
Karee

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

Drop the Labels in the Des Moines Register

The Des Moines Register published an article about Drop the Labels at Cornell College & Iowa State University.

Did you want to bring Drop the Labels to your school but didn’t have time to pull it all together for this week? You can still participate – Drop the Labels has been extended!

Take action and raise awareness about bullying and harassment on your campus – look for your Action Kit in the mail & visit the Drop the Labels website for more information.

Students act against gender stereotyping: An effort begins at 24 campuses across the nation to end violence linked to labeling.

By NICOLE PASEKA REGISTER CORRESPONDENT September 23, 2004
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Sara Hoffman's shirt made more than a fashion statement Wednesday.

The Cornell College art student pinned to her clothes 120 sticky notes on which gender slurs such "goddess," "slut," "jock" and "girlie-man" were scrawled.

Hoffman asked students and faculty to write the words - which she said are often cast at students who don't live up to peers' gender expectations - on the notes.

Hoffman, 23, a senior at the Mount Vernon college, said she wants people to be more accepting.

She called the response positive. "Lots of people were really interested in why I was doing it and how I came up with it," she said.

Student groups at 24 campuses nationwide, including Cornell College and Iowa State University in the state, began a coordinated campaign this week to end bullying caused by gender stereotyping.

The campaign, called "Drop the Labels, Back to School," is sponsored by the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, or GenderPAC, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., working to end discrimination and violence linked to gender stereotyping.

Increased attention has been paid to bullying in Iowa in the past year. Gov. Tom Vilsack recently sent a letter to school districts asking officials to adopt policies to prohibit bullying based on "real or perceived race, sex, creed, color, national origin, religion, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, physical appearance, and/or personality characteristics."

Some at Cornell had trouble coming up with gender slurs, "unless it's something they're called frequently," Hoffman said.

A Cornell chemistry teacher, for example, added "girlie-man" to a sticky note, saying he's heard the term too much.

Hoffman said she also is asking students to sign postcards that will be sent to members of Congress, asking that they help protect students from bullying.

The campaign is the first of its kind to focus solely on gender as a cause of school bullying, said Riki Wilchins, GenderPAC's executive director.

Wilchins said that up to 80 percent of high school students will endure bullying or harassment at some point because of gender stereotyping, based on GenderPAC's research. "Those are terrible numbers, and they don't surprise anyone who's been in high school," she said.

The harassment doesn't just affect gay, lesbian and transgender students, Wilchins said. Males who aren't considered "manly" or females who aren't "ladylike" also face bullying from their peers.

"I think for the most part, ISU students are not aware of the importance of gender issues and the complexity of gender issues," said Patricia Coleman, an ISU graduate student.

Coleman said she would like to see more classes at ISU that educate students about sex and gender issues.

"The idea of feminism is still a very demonized idea on the ISU campus. I think that says a lot (about) students' understanding of the gender rights movements," Coleman said.

GenderPAC student activists' goals:

• Gather support for the Federal Anti-Bullying Bill (H.R. 4776), which would make school anti-bullying policies and training mandatory.

• Support colleges in adding gender identity and expression to Equal Employment Opportunity policies. Twenty-one colleges and universities have adopted such policies. Cornell College is in the final stages of adding the language to its policy; Iowa State University has not included gender identity and expression in its policy.

• Educate high school teachers, students and parents on how to recognize and prevent gender-based bullying and harassment.

ISU plans

WHAT : "Drop the Labels, Back to School," sponsored by the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition.
WHEN: 5 p.m. Saturday Sept 25 at Sloss House on the Iowa State University campus in Ames. Film clips addressing gender issues will be shown; conference call at 6 p.m. with other groups across the country.
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SOURCE: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2004409230371

University of Utah events

At the University of Utah, much of the organizing is done through the gender studies department. They hosted a GenderBOOT camp in which folks dressed up as a certain gender and visited the masculinity corner for some boxing. In a Digital Gender party, participants played different games and talked about the role of gender in the video games. They helped organize a gender studies sports team. At movie nights, participants watched films and discussed gender in the films, including the new Derrida documentary. They hosted a poetry slam and an inclusive breast monologues/dialogues where trans people presented too. They protested in response to a traditional wedding held on campus by a conservative group. They hosted a drag show with fraternities that included a pre-discussion. They proposed a weekly Queeries radio show on queer theory and queer issues that is scheduled to launch in September of 2004 and deal with issues of gender and identity.

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.

Planning at UC Berkeley

Students at the University of California at Berkeley are creating an inclusive clothesline project to highlight violence against all people that is caused by gender steretypes). They are also looking to put together a more inclusive Vagina Monologues performance. As teachers and students themselves, some students at UC Berkeley prioritized the need to educate teachers adn empower students through their campaigns. Students are excited about starting a "coalition" (an umbrella group of members/leaders of many other organizations) that will operate as a GenderYOUTH Affiliate. Other interests include a conference for the Spring, a gender-neutral bathrooms campaign (with an explanation for why the signs are removed), and re-writing sex ed curricula as well as planning workshops for youth in high school as well as for younger children. Several students are also interested in intersex issues, including educating peers and community members about the need to end intersex genital mutilation.

Getting Organized at Miami University of Ohio

At Miami University of Ohio, GenderPAC members are strategizing to identify the best ways to organize on a very conservative campus. They fear that the campus isn't ready for the message they are trying to bring. Everything related to sexuality, sexual orientation and gender identity on campus is funneled through an umbrella organization called SPECTRUM, so they are feeling overwhelmed. They have worked on putting together meetings with organizations of students of color, but that fell through, since no one came. They have no yet looked into coordinating with feminist or women's groups on campus, but they will and are considering building a coalition with them. Plans for the future involve meeting with their college's president to discuss adopting inclusive EEO policies.

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.

Gender-Neutral Living/Learning Community at from Maria Kitsinis at Bowling Green State University

We are trying to put together a proposal for a gender neutral living/learning community. This would be an on campus residence Hall where people of any and all genders could live. The community would have a few requirements such as:
Summer reading
Early arrival to school for an orientation educating the community taking courses that relate to gender and/or sexual orientation
Visiting with the other member of the community on a bi-weekly basis
Gender Activism
Bringing in speakers on gender
Working as a liaison to all the gender organizations/centers on campus
I have been doing some research on schools that have programs similar to this one (GLBT floors, queer dorms) but I need some more information. If anyone knows of any schools that have a similar program or ideas about what to put in this proposal, please let me know. Also I am going to need information on backlash that programs like this are hit with. This proposal is going to have to cover every situation as to not cause an uproar with administration. I think that if we can get a GOOD, SOLID proposal written then a gender neutral living/learning community will be well on its way.