Your email preview

Hello Golden Rams!

We sincerely hope your semester has gotten off to a good start.

The Center for Women & Gender Equity is excited to announce that proposal submissions are open for our First Annual Gender Justice Conference.

The conference committee invites all WCU students, faculty, staff, and members of the community to submit a session, roundtable discussion, artwork, or pre-recorded session. This year's conference experience is dedicated to exploring knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to engage in social change work with a specific focus on disrupting gender oppression.

The theme for this year's conference is exploring sexual citizenship and its connection to identity, experiences of harm, and wider questions of restorative and transformative justice. This theme is informed by Hirsch and Khan's profound book, "Sexual Citizens." Learn more about this book here. Facilitators who are selected for the conference will receive a free copy of this book.

The conference committee encourages proposals on topics including dismantling leadership barriers commonly linked to gender identities, coalition building across difference, developing strategies for engaging in social change work and cultivating a community of collaborators, mentors, and allies. Participants will critically examine social justice issues through an intersectional lens and be encouraged to apply what they learn into their day to day lives and in their communities.

All submissions are due by February 26, 2021 by 11:59pm. Questions or concerns can be directed to Tess Benser at TBENSER@wcupa.edu. You can find the proposal form here.

Wishing you all the best!

Mx. Tess Benser
Assistant Director of Outreach & Engagement

Sex Education on Instagram

In recent months, many social media platforms have changed their terms of service to be more restrictive about what sexual content will be allowed on their platforms. In particular, Instagram made changes which went into effect in December 2020. These terms require Instagram users to adhere to Facebook's Sexual Solitation rules. Facebook, which owns Instagram, says in its policy that users cannot post "sexually explicit and implicit content, including suggestive emojis."

Magenta instagram terms of service graphic

Magenta instagram terms of service graphic

Unfortunately, the enforcement of these guidelines means that sometimes people who participate in sex education on Instagram are concerned that their content could be removed. As many sex educators rely on social media platforms like Instagram to advertise and provide their sex education services, this is a serious threat to their income, livelihoods, and access to their audiences. These policies also negatively impact folks who participate in sex work and use Instagram to market their services.

In many cases, these terms of service mean that some accounts - particularly BIPOC folks, queer and trans folks, sex educators, sex workers, those who have experienced sexual violence, fat folks, and activists - are targeted and see their content removed and accounts flagged more frequently than white, cisgender, heterosexual, thin folks.

The consequence of this means that a lot of sex education is no longer accessible to folks on platforms like Instagram. Many sex educators of color, sex educators with fat bodies, queer and trans sex educators, and sex educators with disability are being a lot more cautious about the content they post. And if the content is still available, many creators are censoring themselves to avoid being banned or shadowbanned. They will use alternate spellings of sex - such as "seggs" or "s//ex" or "s*x" and omit or censor references to body parts, pleasure, orgasm, or sex acts. While this means the content is still made availble, it also makes the information less readable, searchable, and legible (especially to folks who use assistive devices like screen readers which cannot read censored words like s*x).

This is really concerning because we know that comprehensive, diverse, and accessible sex education is vital not only to developing a healthy sex life and sexual projects, but also to teaching young folks how to identify harmful and negative sexual experiences. As illustrated below, without sex education, people learn about sex from non-ideal sources, like porn, risky experimentation, word of mouth from similarly uninformed peers, and unsafe or harmful experiences.

So what can we do?

Support sex educators through alternative means. You can subscribe to newsletters or subscription websites. You can support them financially by paying for their services or merchandise. And you can voice your displeasure with these Terms of Service on Facebook and Instagram publically!

Bystander Intervention Skill Building: Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month

Februrary is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month.

According to loveisrespect.org, one in three teens in the US will experience physical, sexual, or emotional abuse from someone they’re in a relationship with before they become adults, and nearly half (43%) of college women report experiencing violent or abusive dating behaviors.

Many college students are in their teens and still learning how to navigate some of their first relationships. It's good to learn to recognize some red flags and warning signs that a relationship may be harmful or abusive.

If someone you know is in a relationship with any of the above qualities, you may struggle with how to respond or act. It can be challenging to know how best to approach someone you care about who might be experiencing this kind of harm without causing additional harm, so here are some suggestions:

1. Be a source of support and kindness. Validate their feelings and demonstrate that you are someone safe to talk to about their relationships.

2. Avoid judgmental questions (such as asking why your loved one is staying with an abusive partner) or ultimatums (such as telling them they must leave in order to maintain the relationship with you).

3. Help them to identify resources they can rely on for support, like community support services such as the Domestic Violence Center of Chest County.

Advocacy in Action: Including Pronouns in Email Signatures

If you are looking for an easy way to visibly fight gender oppression and transphobia, consider taking the simple step of including your pronouns in your email signature line especially if you are cisgender.

Here are some great reasons to consider taking this step.

It normalizes the process of sharing your pronouns. Especially when practiced by cisgender folks, including your pronouns in your email helps to migigate the burden and risks experienced by trans and nonbinary folks when they share their pronouns. Normalizing the practice increases trans safety.
It disrupts oppressive systems. Sharing pronouns helps to demonstrate that gender cannot be assumed based on markers such as appearance or name, and instead communicates the expectation that everyone's gender is self-determined and only known when shared.
It helps to create safes environments for trans and queer folks by making pronoun sharing a typical part of the introduction process.
It's really easy. Including pronouns in your signature takes very little work, but it a big impact on the community around you.

So what does this look like?

You can read more about putting pronouns in your email signature here.

Gender Justice Conference Graphic in purple and teal

WCU students, faculty, staff, and members of the community are invited to participate in a conference experience dedicated to exploring knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to engage in social change work with a specific focus on disrupting gender oppression. Topics will include dismantling leadership barriers commonly linked to gender identities, coalition building across difference, developing strategies for engaging in social change work and cultivating a community of collaborators, mentors, and allies. Participants will critically examine social justice issues through an intersectional lens and be encouraged to apply what they learn into their day to day lives and in their communities.

The conference will be held virtually on March 24 & 25th 2021.
We hope you can join us!
Register on RamConnect

Keynote:

Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus compiles years of research conducted at Columbia University. It offers many insights on how individuals’ identities are tied to power, privilege, oppression, and marginalization, and the critical role these identities play both in sexual projects and in sexual assaults.

Drawing on the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) at Columbia University, the most comprehensive study to date of sexual assault on a campus, Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan present a new framework for sexual assault prevention that emphasizes sexual assault’s social roots, based on the powerful concepts of “sexual projects,” “sexual citizenship,” and “sexual geographies.”

Please join us on March 24th for a conversation with the authors.
Register on RamConnect

EVENT

A Gathering of Brothers - February 22

Monday, February 22
6:00pm - 7:00pm