this list
is long.
VERY
LONG.
i haven’t even gone through all of it myself, but please take a look because it might be useful to you (or someone else so REBLOG!)
and DON’T FORGET to check the sidebar.
yeesh, this was a lucky find.
SHARE IT!
there’s a lot of Canadian material on there so check it out!
(via fsufeministalumna)
Meet Aparna Bhola, India’s teen sex educator
“There’s nothing to giggle or be shy about; there’s no shame in it. It’s important for us to learn about these things. Be totally bindaas (carefree) and ask me questions,” says Aparna Bhola, with a wide smile.
It’s a hot Sunday afternoon, but the stifling Mumbai summer air does nothing to curb the enthusiasm of the girls surrounding her. Aparna, a spunky 16-year-old, is in the midst of giving a group of her peers a candid sex-education class, and today’s topic is pregnancy. She leads the class confidently, dispelling superstitions with funny stories and apologizing disarmingly for her chalk drawing skills.
Aparna is member of a nongovernmental organization called Kranti, meaning “revolution,” which strives to give young women rescued from prostitution access to education and new opportunities. She was teaching the class as part of a partnership with an organization called Project Crayons, which runs a shelter for girls in Mumbai’s Malad neighborhood.
The daughter of a sex worker, Aparna grew up in Kolkata. Her mother, Malti, was married when she was 9 and was beaten by her husband. When she ran away and returned to her hometown in the Sundarbans, her aunt took her to Kolkata under the pretense of sending her to school. There, Malti was sold into sex work for 10,000 rupees ($180 at current exchange rates) when she was 12 years old. When she initially refused to be a prostitute, the brothel owner stuffed chili powder in her genitals to force her into submission, says Aparna.
Growing up in red-light districts, Aparna says she was distressed by the way doctors routinely mistreated sex workers because of the stigma against their profession. Her mother, diagnosed with uterine cysts, was unable to get treatment for them because of the bias against sex workers. Aparna remembers a niece being refused treatment by a doctor who said he didn’t want to bother with such poor people.
When sex workers like Aparna’s mother would become pregnant, the “doctors would treat them so badly,” Aparna recalls. “They would yell at them, and even slap them sometimes. They would say things like ‘You go and pick up anyone’s child and come to me with your stomach swollen. When you were doing it, you enjoyed yourself and now what happened?’ ”
These encounters made Aparna want to become a gynecologist. Even when she was younger, she would share with her friends and peers whatever sexual health-related information she could find.
“I want to work with gynecology to cater to sex workers because I know the issues they faced,” says Aparna, her face set in a determined expression. “If I became a doctor, I could give whatever information the mothers need when they are pregnant. There would be someone to talk to them nicely when they are in pain.”
In the time that she has spent at Kranti, Aparna has stopped drinking, improved her English, gained confidence and branched out into a number of extracurricular activities. She just completed grade 11, and is working toward her dream of becoming a gynecologist. This year she will enter the 12th grade and is planning to take the entrance examinations for medical school.
She also represented Maharashtra state in the Youth Parliament, an advisory group to the state government, where participants recently discussed whether sex education should be introduced in Indian schools.
“I used to think that my whole world is within the four walls of my room, of the house,” says Aparna. “Now I see that there is a big, big world beyond that where many things are possible for me.”
“What I really want is that girls become powerful and aren’t scared of anyone,” says Aparna. “They should think in their minds that ‘I will go ahead and progress and no one can hold me back.”
(via all-about-male-privilege)
What does same-sex marriage do for homeless queer youth? What does it do for the trans people being murdered in the streets? What does it do for the poor, of which many, many are queer people of color? Who does all this same-sex marriage stuff really benefit?
Until we stop giving value to certain kinds of relationships over others, until we stop projecting our personal values onto the lives of other consenting adults and making laws about it, until we stop being distracted by the crumbs that the few people in power throw at us so that we are too busy fighting over them to see that the actual pie is still forever off-limits to us, we’ll never break down these oppressive systems that let a few people through the door just so they can help hold it closed to the masses of people still being kept on the other side.
mia mckenzie, black girl dangerous.
(Source: blackgirldangerous, via all-about-male-privilege)
This is fucking gross and racist.
Yup, I knew. And so did my parents who were often used as Blockbusters without their knowledge.
(via dionthesocialist)
Hi, just your local Mayan here reminding you the world isn’t ending tomorrow.
Also, that Mayans still exist.
And finally, that we have a language that is still spoken, and written, and that our science and other studies have developed…
Las Otras: (Re)Imaging Queer Latin@s By Lupe Salinas
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30TH, 6-8pm
Complimentary wine will be served!
Location: Tisch (721 Broadway and 8th street, Ground Floor)
If you can not make it to the opening, please drop by and take a look after that date.
ON VIEW: November 30th - January 17th
Las Otras is the culmination of a year long project photographing Latin@s in the LGBTQ Community in New York City. Accompanied by personal anecdotes this exhibition explores the Queer Latin@ identity.
This project is funded by the Leon and Michaela Constantiner Fellowship.
Originally from Idaho, Lupe Salinas (Tisch ’11) is a New York-based artist who explores themes of home, family, and identity within the Latino/a culture, reflected in her BFA Thesis, Our House On Main.
www.lupesalinas.comNYC guap@s, you gotta check this out!!!
(Source: , via thelesbianguide)
This is why I don’t believe guys who tell me that the condom is too small.
When I was in middle school, we had a woman come teach us about contraception, and literally the first thing she told us was ‘Ladies, if a guy ever tells you he can’t wear condoms because they’re too small, he’s lying’ and then proceeded to open a condom and stretch it up her forearm up to her elbow.
well clearly I’ve been spending too much on socks
My health teacher did the same thing, but she put the entire contents of a 2-liter bottle of soda into a condom and said, “So girls, if a boy ever says that he’s too big for condoms, you run. You run so far.”
my mother just saw this picture on my dashboard as she walked in and stopped what she was saying just so she could go
‘why is that condom on their foot are they going to do someone in the butt with their foot’
(Source: jonnovstheinternet, via devotchkax)
This is great. Houston Texan Andre Johnson’s receipts for $19K he spent on Xmas gifts for kids in Child Protective Services.
That is the best receipt ever.
The shit you DON’T hear about!!!
Guy gets a DUI - news for 6 weeks. Guy spends his money on kids in need for Xmas - no one cares.
Real good, world.
That is the good stuff right there. Wow.
Just gonna spread some cheer here because this is pretty awesome.
- Jax
(via all-about-male-privilege)
