What you are about to read is a transgender teen's suicide note that has recently sparked internet news:
"...a complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm . . . In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable . . . However . . . much of what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can change. Rape culture includes jokes, TV, music, advertising, legal jargon, laws, words and imagery, that make violence against women and sexual coercion seem so normal that people believe that rape is inevitable. Rather than viewing the culture of rape as a problem to change, people in a rape culture think about the persistence of rape as “just the way things are.” wavaw.ca/what-is-rape-culture
Hello friends!
I'd like to talk about someone who currently inspires me not just as a feminist, but also as a growing artist. You might have heard of Emma Sulkowicz or what she is known for through articles online or in print. If you haven't, Emma is a visual arts major at Columbia University who was raped by a fellow student during her sophomore year two years ago. Now that she's graduating, her final thesis project is a very elaborate performance art called Mattress Performance: Carry That Weight in which she carries a bed mattress around the campus until her alleged rapist is expelled from the university. The idea of her art piece is basically physically carrying something that symbolically represents the burden of having been raped and having her case poorly handled by the school. As we speak, she is still carrying that mattress around and would still continue to do so even after she graduates if nothing would change about the several rape issues in Columbia University. What is so inspiring about her project is that it has developed into a movement. Other students from the university [as well as from other parts of the country] have created a union called "Carrying The Weight Together" in which they carry their own mattresses and pledge to support survivors of any form of sexual violence. I've always loved the idea of taking art as a way of trying to convey a message and to make a difference in our society. It's a creative form of protest. That is what I'm hoping to do with SMASH THE PATRIARCHY and I am thankful for Emma for motivating me even more. Also, check out Reinvent Magazine's article on Emma as their #WomanCrushWednesday for December. I hope you are inspired as much as I am! With love, Reign Hello friends!
Since this is the first time that I'll be posting on this blog, I'd like to take this opportunity to give you a little background on how this project started. Since the age of thirteen, I've tried to build several online shops in the hopes of earning extra cash whilst in high school. Evidently, those past endeavours failed. I think the reason why I didn't take them seriously enough is because they were so money-driven. Of course, monetary gain is an aspect as to why you'd want to create a business in the first place but I feel like there should be something about your business that you have to be passionate about in order for it to work. Most, if not all, my previous businesses sold whatever was in trend at that time. But with trends, they come and go. It's hard to sell items that will potentially only be seen as relevant for a while and so I thought, "Why not sell something that stands for something?". An indestructible movement perhaps. That's when I realized that I should start a business/project that advocates something I believe in; and that is: feminism and women empowerment. I've been wanting to start this project for quite a while [by the way, I mainly refer to this as a 'project' because calling it a business feels too money-driven to me], but I sort of pushed it a side because the fear of it being added to my lost list of failed endeavours was at the back of my head. Then again I wouldn't know if I wouldn't try, right? At first, I started creating digital art pieces for fun and I guess it led me to create button pin designs for some reason. I wanted to produce products that would be relevant or seen as "cool" to the youth but at the same time, would still uphold the ideas of feminism and women empowerment. As a young woman who supports such movements, I feel like I should help others as well, even in the smallest way possible. A good friend of mine introduced me to the CRIBS Foundation which is an organization that helps take care of foster children and sexually abused minors. I found their programs very interesting and very promising, so as a way to give back, part of the profits gained from this project will go to CRIBS. This is still in the works as I'm still trying to figure out just how to operate this whole thing, but hopefully SMASH THE PATRIARCHY makes a great difference in the future. Thanks for your support! With love, Reign |
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