Latino Sexuality

What Will It Take To End Cervical Cancer?

2012-01-22T21:26:00.002-05:00

cross posted from my RH Reality Check blog

This article is cross-posted from and in partnership with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, and is published as part of a series on cervical cancer.
See all our coverage of Cervical Cancer Awareness Month 2012 here.

Maybe it’s because I’m into getting things done for the New Year, but I really dig lists. Here is my list of things I believe it will take to end cervical cancer.

Comprehensive Sexuality Education (which must include an analysis and centering of race, ethnicity, class, relationship and immigration status, disability, citizenship, and not just a gender binary and sexual orientation),
Collective commitment to valuing the bodies of people of Color,
Collective commitment to valuing the bodies of transgender and intersex people,
Recognize and change the way we police the bodies of women, people of Color and immigrants when it comes to cervical cancer,
Include all men in conversations, education, and efforts around cervical cancer,
Include youth in preparing and implementing educational efforts around HPV and cervical cancer,
Honest dialogues and inclusion of people who have non-traditional and controversial perspectives (i.e. anti-vaccination, conspiracy theories)
Understanding and disseminating of information on non-verbal communication and its connections to cervical cancer,
Challenging ideologies that all forms of cervical cancer are transmitted only through sexual contact,
Connect with all reproductive cancer survivors, communities, prevention and education spaces to build,
Demystify the shame that comes with our reproductive organs and genitals,
Trust all parents (especially young parents) to do what is best for their children versus forcing, coercing, and threatening them (to get their child vaccinated),
Support grassroots efforts to educate, support, and provide care to communities that are under-resourced,
Connecting same gender and same sex relationships to cervical cancer prevention efforts,
Make clear and honest connections between HPV, oral sex, and throat cancer,
Join, support, or host a Walk for Cervical Cancer in your area (find out how here),
Provide support to caregivers of those living with cervical cancer,
Center the testimonios of cervical cancer survivors,
Honor the memories of those who have died of cervical cancer,
Recognize that cervical cancer is preventable!

Puerto Rican “Activists” Workin’ It In The Wrong Way

2012-01-12T19:07:00.001-05:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

By now you’ve heard of the ABC television show “Work It.” A triflin’ and low rating show that features two middle aged men (one racially white another Latino) who dress up as women to secure employment in the US. Yes, you read that correctly; at a time when women still don’t make as much as men (and where transgender people don’t make as much at all!), when the feminization of poverty is still a part of our society and world, and when transgender people are still the most oppressed, underemployed, murdered, invisible anderased members of our communities.

ABC Chief Paul Lee states he “doesn’t get” the big deal about how harmful “Work It” is based on GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign's activism around the show and their efforts to challenge it coming to air. Lee states he doesn’t “get it” because he loved the movie “Tootsie.”

What Lee and others fail to see is that these are characters that are created so that we can laugh at them. These characters are performing stereotypes and misconceptions of what we assume to be a challenge when people “dress up” as the opposite gender. The characters perpetuate a gender binary. These characters are making a choice to dress up which gives the illusion that sex and gender are choices that people can simply change their mind about.

Others that fail to see this problem: some Puerto Rican activists. For the past week I’ve received so many emails about how Puerto Ricans are represented on “Work It” by Latino character Amaury Nolasco, who plays a Puerto Rican character. The “dehumanizing” and “blatantly offensive” comment where the “culture was attacked by an insensitive stereotype” by Nolasco’s character who states: “I’m Puerto Rican, I would be great at selling drugs.”

This statement took less than 10 seconds to say and hear. Because of that 10 seconds a huge storm of protest has erupted among Puerto Ricans.

My heart breaks here. All of this mobilizing and protesting for one line by a character, yet NOTHING from any of the grassroots organizations, such as Boricuas For A Positive Image, celebrities or community activists that have jumped on this protest about how Puerto Rican and Latin@ transgender people are impacted by this show. There is an overwhelming silence. Where is the alliance building with transgender activists? Where is the joining with GLAAD and HRC? Where is the mobilization beyond targeting me as a Puerto Rican, but not as a human being that values all members of our community, especially those who are harmed the most?

The images and video that have been created around the challenging of ABC by Puerto Rican activists are very single issue when we are not a single issue people! The messages being sent: Transmisogyny is alive and well. We don’t care about your gender we care more about your ethnicity (and only if it is Puerto Rican). We don’t care how something may harm and dehumanize the Puerto Rican transgender community unless it impacts us directly.

I understand this response especially since Puerto Rico has been struggling with drugtrafficking, drug use and abuse, and drug related crimes for decades. One of my most vivid memories of Puerto Rico was in 1995 when armed US military would line the streets and randomly pull cars over and check for drugs. It was a scary time, and those times remain today, especially with the high murder rate in Puerto Rico (and a number of those murders are of transgender Puerto Ricans and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer Puerto Ricans) and when the stop and frisk experiences of Latin@ and Black youth living in NYC and in-school arrests are ridiculously high.

What I don’t understand is how can “activists” separate these issues so easily? If we stood with our transgender community in fighting this show when it was being created and knew it centered a Puerto Rican actor who was misrepresenting Puerto Rican transgender women, would we be here today? It’s possible we would, it’s also possible our voices as Puerto Rican consumers, Puerto Rican media makers, and Puerto Rican people would have resulted in a similar apology and a more quick removal of the offensive show. When we partner together to support and make change for our most oppressed members of our community we all benefit.

My hope is that Puerto Rican activists today learn about the anti-oppression legacy that civil rights activist Sylvia Rivera, a Puerto Rican-Venezuelan New Yorker, has left us. And then share her legacy and not keep it just for ourselves, but speak on it to youth, our elders, other Latin@s, everybody! To learn how you can support the Sylvia Rivera Law Project visit their website.

Response to Research On Knowing Woman’s Experience with Vaginal Orgasm from Her Walk

2011-12-27T17:33:00.002-05:00

cross posted from my RH Reality Check blog.

Research by several Belgium sexologists that focuses on determining a woman’s experiences with vaginal orgasm from her walk gained media attention in the United States this year. Neither the research nor the fascination with women’s sexual pleasure and orgasm is new. The research itself was published in 2008 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine and authored by Aurelie Nicholas, Drs. Stuart Brody, Pascal de Sutter, and François de Carufel. A 6-page analysis of the original researcher was published under the title, “A Woman’s History of Vaginal Orgasm is Discernible from Her Walk.”

Researchers had a sample of 16 university psychology students who they identified as “female.” The women volunteered to participate in the research and completed a questionnaire. One question asked women how often they reported having vaginal orgasms as “always,” “often,” “rarely,” and “never.” A woman on the research team was assigned to work with the research subjects as each was asked to walk 100 m while being filmed. The women were first told to think pleasant thoughts “of being on a vacation beach” and then to walk the same distance again but this time “while thinking of being in the same locale but in the company of a man for whom she had thoughts of love.”

The videos were rated by professors of sexology who were trained in Functional-Sexological therapies (“incorporates retraining of muscle use, body movement, and breathing for intercourse-based treatment”) as well as two women research assistants. They judged the videos based on “global impression of the women’s free, fluid, energetic, sensual manner of walking (with an emphasis on energy flow through the rotation of the pelvis and the spine).” The trained sexologists were able to correctly conclude which women had experienced vaginal orgasm with only two “false positives.” They concluded that these findings support past findings and show that women with “vaginal orgasm have better psychological function than women without vaginal orgasm (even if they have clitoral orgasm).” Researchers rationalized the two false positives by suggesting that those two women might “have the capacity for vaginal orgasm, but have not yet had sufficient experience or met a man of sufficient quality to induce vaginal orgasm.”

It is very easy to critique this work as there are many areas and variables not discussed such as:

Sex and gender: “Woman” is used to define people whose sex assigned at birth is female and who identify as woman. Unfortunately, this confuses the two and does not recognize the difference between sex and gender, nor does it include trans or intersex people as it reinforces a gender and sex binary.
Race and class: There is no discussion of race or class of the participants which leaves the reader to make assumptions based on the national origin of the participants who were students at a Belgium University.
Sexual orientation: The work is heterosexist and is used to reinforce heterosexism within the field of sexology, to connect sexual pleasure for women solely with heterosexual sex. In turn it is extremely misogynistic. To claim that a woman needs penile-vaginal penetrative intercourse to experience a vaginal orgasm ignores a huge population of people who have vulvas and vaginas and do not or cannot have penile-vaginal intercourse. There are many other forms of vaginal penetration that may lead to vaginal orgasm.
Sexual dysfunction: The study perpetuates a field of research on women’s sexual dysfunction attached to vaginal orgasm only. This focus ignores the pleasure some women may experience from clitoral stimulation as well as orgasm from other forms of tactile activity. Thus, it creates an emphasis/elevation of vaginal orgasm over all other forms of pleasure and orgasm.
Physical ability: The research is "ableist" as it only examines women who are able to walk and be mobile in a particular way. There is no discussion of women who are mobile in different ways.
Penis size: One of the conclusions regarding a woman’s lack of vaginal orgasm is connected to “the possible anatomical issue of whether her man has a penis of sufficient length to produce cervical buffeting, and the issue of whether the man maintains his erection...intercourse orgasm with men displaying indicators of greater genetic fitness (including physical attractiveness).” This places blame on a man and continues to reinforce the idea/myth that the size of a man’s penis is what determines his partner’s satisfaction.

Despite these flaws, it is an interesting article to read (leave a comment with a way to contact you if you’d like to read the original piece and do not have access). The physiological discussion of theautonomic nervous system, somatic nervous system, and parasympathetic nervous system regarding vaginal and clitoral orgasm is useful. In fact, the one time the authors mention different abilities is when discussing how “women with a completely severed spinal cord can have vaginal-cervical orgasms verifiable by functional magnetic resonance imaging, even in the absence of any clitoral connection to the brain.” The authors also focus on the vagus nerve, a cranial nerve that sends messages to the brain from the central nervous system about what the body is feeling. They focus on the vagus nerve because it is believed that stimulation of the vagus nerve is experienced by “penile buffeting of the cervix--but not produced by clitoral stimulation--appears involved in processes of better cardiovascular and psychological function.”

I also found the discussion of bioenergetics, a bodymind therapy ("psychotheraputic" is the term used in the article) interesting to apply to the field of sexology. Bioenergetics looks to tension in the body but also to how easily/freely we move (i.e. energy flow from the body) and my ideas of what sex and sexuality are very much connected to ideas of sharing energy in certain ways.

Reading the reactions to this research I felt that the field of sexology was being ridiculed again. When I came to this field I knew it was one that had a long history which included people laughing at our work,saying it is not important or needed, and isolating us in various ways. I think also of how work in sexual science remains in a particular place, one that reinforces the normalization of certain bodies and experiences while continuing to oppress and marginalize others. This was one reason I chose to come to this field and stay here as well; to change how we are discussed and how we do research so that it is more inclusive and useful.

When I shared this story with some folks online I did not envision that there would be very specific and thoughtful responses by readers. As I read the amazing responses by readers I asked some if I could quote them in this piece to include a communal response to this research. I find this extremely imperative to the sexology field as much of our work we only discuss among one another, rarely with folks who will be impacted by our findings. I’d also like to share that many of these responses are by folks who we rarely hear from: people of Color, working class, and immigrants.

Some response to my sharing of this research include:

Poopeatoe

i saw this study months ago. it thoroughly has it’s understanding of orgasms mixed up and written up incorrectly. this is showing if a woman has achieved orgasm at all, not this mythical special “type” of orgasm that only super-awesome-normal-sexual ladies can get. i really really REALLY hate this common misunderstanding about female-bodied orgasms because it still leaks it’s way into studies, and for whatever reason it gets questioned very little. vaginal orgasms and clitoral orgasms are not “different”. hell, they’re not even two “types” of orgasm. it’s one. one orgasm. your pc muscles contract and pulse rapidly, without your help. whether this is triggered through pounding your vagina, rubbing your clit, teasing your nipples or doing kegels (or doing all at once, heheh), it’s all the damn same. i’m tired of studies casually mentioning that i have some sort of “sexual dysfunction” because vaginal penetration isn’t leading me to orgasm. it’s normal. the vaginal canal has less nerve endings to be rubbed against. my g-spot swells and aids in getting an orgasm easily. but it doesn’t trigger one. i have no psychosexual issue. i’ve been fucking for years and fucking myself for years. i’ve been freely enjoying it for years. i can reach an orgasm in a minute or two if i’m horny. this “clitoral orgasm/vaginal orgasm” shit still seems to be run-off from freud’s crappy theory that the “mature” woman would achieve vaginal orgasm, and the clitoral one was for girls.
if this bullshit is true, then why aren’t there popular studies that consider orgasms some men achieve through anal penetration “prostate orgasms”, and the ones they get from jacking off “penile orgasms”? oh wait they don’t, they just consider it all one orgasm achieved through different means.
p.s., my hips swing when i walk too.

Jemima Aslana

OMG… this makes me paranoid as all hell. I don’t want random people who randomly saw me walk to know about my sexual history… or orgasmic history or whatever. EEK!!! I’m never going to be able to move in public ever again. As if it wasn’t hard enough already.
/hides under blanket
Dear science, why can’t you focus on things that would actually improve this world?

I think these are extremely important responses to consider. These responses speak to the sexism in the research, problems with binaries, and challenges to psychoanalytical approaches to sexuality. There also exists a real discomfort with such data which in turn can result in a violation of privacy. I recall my first semester of graduate school studying human sexuality and walking into a room with my classmates (all women) to meet the professor. It was cold and all of us were wearing pants. When we came to the section on pregnancy our professor (who was a man) told us he knew none of us had children because of the ways our vulvas looked in our pants. Now, this was done to show us an example of vasocongestion, changes in the body post-pregnancy, and to connect to the themes of the class. Yet, it left many of us feeling violated and uncomfortable and interacting with the professor in a completely different way. Had I known then what I know today, I may have responded differently than sitting quietly and complaining with other students after class.

The comments by two other readers brings up another important topic: ways of knowing that are often not seen as valuable but are normalized for many communities of Color.

Karnythia

Yeah, my grandmother pulled me aside right after the first time I had sex to make sure I used a condom (That was the sum total of my sex ed from her, always use condoms & never use their condoms.) and all I could do was blink at her, because I hadn’t told a soul about it. Sometimes those old wives tales are true I guess.

Zahira Kelly

this is really interesting in that my father and his country kin have used this method to gauge if girls were sexually active or not for a long, long time lol
i always went back and forth about it. now its making me laugh. hmmmmm….
so many things to think about….may come back to it…

Including and understanding how many communities all over the world think about and understand sexuality makes me question this, and other, research. Just because we have come up with something we as sexologists think is useful, what does it mean that these thoughts and approaches have been utilized for generations all over the world in communities that some view as “primitive” and “uncivilized?” I think it very clearly calls out the ethnocentrism that is present in many fields. I believe a more useful form of research would be understanding how communities all over the world may use this methodology and how that challenges us, the “appropriately trained sexologists,” to recognize that much of our training may be a form of knowledge production that has existed for years by people who we do not claim as members of our field.

How does this speak to the field of sexology as having existed in non-academic and medical spaces? Will we include such experiences and knowledge in future work? Or will we be scared and disappointed and attempt to shame and debunk such complementary forms of knowledge as is much of many of our histories?

Conspiracy Theories & HIV

2011-12-27T17:31:00.001-05:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

My last post was a reflection of the many questions and myths I hear from the youth (and sometimes adults) I provide HIV education and prevention in NYC. This post is one where I’d like to discuss a topic I hear almost every time I do a session, especially with youth of Color: HIV was created to eradicate people of Color. I hear this as well from people who identify as queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, and questioning (not so much asexual as this is not yet a sexual orientation they have come to completely understand).

When I hear this statement I know, with every bone in my body, exactly what this young person (or adult) is talking about. I know where that comes from, and how that fear is very much a reality. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that women of Color and women and men with disabilities were forcibly sterilized; researchers in the Tuskegee Experiment ,examining the racial differences of Black and White men infected with Syphilis, did not offer the cure to Black men or their families); and oral birth control pill experiments among Puerto Rican and Haitian women - with these being just the experiments the public knows about.

The experiences and beliefs that people of Color and people who are not heterosexual are hated, devalued, and dehumanized still exists today. Just take a look at some of thecampaign marketing for some US presidential hopefuls; and how popular culture all over the world speak and write about us. Only six years ago a study by Oregon State University and Rand Corp. released data showing that almost half of the 500 Black people living in the US surveyed believed HIV was man-made, by the government, 25% believed it was created in a government lab, and 12% believed the CIA created and dispersed the virus. So, when I hear this argument or belief for why and how HIV is a part of our lives, I get it and I respect it as well.

I do not attempt to debunk such beliefs. My role as an educator is to help people critically and analytically think about various topics, usually sex, sexuality, and decreasing the risk of becoming infected with HIV. Thus, I don’t go on about how “conspiracy theories” are wrong, or useless as that is a judgement that would not be helpful for working with the group and may isolate the person who shared and others who share a similar ideology. Instead, I often remind them that however HIV got here, it is here and if we are HIV negative it is our responsibility to remain negative. And if people are living positive, they are powerful and important people in our communities that can help HIV negative people also stay negative.

The last time I heard this was last week. A young person of Color who identified as queer stated that some people believe HIV was created to get rid of us. I told them “you are right!” Because that young person was right; many people believe that and share it with others. I also stated that one way to “give the middle finger to” the people who did create HIV to eradicate us, is if they are negative, to stay HIV negative, to survive. That will be the ultimate revenge. Every time, I’m talking 100% of the time, when I say this the person who shared that perspective agrees with me, as do many of the people present. Reminding youth and people of Color and queer people they can survive is powerful.

This also leads to an important conversation on testing. That getting tested is the only way to know your HIV status.

Now, if I were teaching a entire course of HIV than that is a different amount of time and objectives. I would completely engage with such perspectives, interrogate, deconstruct and analyze them. However, when there is less than one hour to get so much information in, sometimes recognizing that conspiracy theories do exist and ways to connect them to survival and prevention is the best and most “real” way to address the topic. Plus, many of these “conspiracy theories” have yet to be debunked completely because of the histories mentioned above.

If there is time to explain the origins of HIV, I usually stick to the more widely accepted belief that is connected to the consumption of certain types of primates in hunter-gathering communities or those primates blood infecting a hunter. This is a great way to talk about our mucus membranes found in our mouth and throat. I also make some connections to E.coli which students have often heard of, and how important it is to cook meat for a certain amount of time at a certain degree of heat as this helps kill off various forms of bacteria.

Because most of the research on the origins of HIV are centered in Western Africa, and US specific infection centered in Haiti, people of Color are at the center as is colonialism. This is another reason why when hearing these ideas I am not quick to judge or debunk them specifically because they are real for so many people. Colonial legacies alone are real and many of us are still surviving what comes with being colonial subjects, kinship, and offspring.

How do you manage and discuss conspiracy theories about HIV?

Myths and Messages About HIV

2011-12-18T08:53:00.001-05:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

For World AIDS Day and the week that followed I did several HIV education presentations for high school students in the Bronx. I love doing these presentations, and especially in the borough where I live, because it gives me an opportunity to work with youth that are a part of the same community. Often as a guest speaker it’s sort of a “treat” for students to hear from folks other than their teachers or academic faculty. What I realized this month was that there are some messages, inaccurate and hurtful, that students are still receiving. I wondered if I was the only one (it can’t be that I am), and as an educator I had to share.

Here are some of the top questions and myths I receive and challenge/rectify when providing HIV education in high schools (many of which include students of Color and/or working class students):

MYTH: Saliva is one of the top 5 bodily fluids that transmit HIV.

When I talk about HIV and bodily fluids I discuss: blood, semen, vaginal secretions, breast milk, and pre-ejaculatory fluid. Students, without fail, will mention saliva (or spit) as a bodily fluid. I often thank the student for their suggestion, share it’s a common belief, and go into a discussion on how one would have to consume so many gallons of saliva a person living positive with HIV must create. First, it’s hard to find someone who can produce that much spit and second I have yet to meet anyone who is that thirsty to drink all of those gallons in one sitting!

This belief that HIV is transmitted via saliva is so old school! I’m talking when we first began to see and try to understand what HIV and AIDS was and how it impacted our bodies. Folks would not drink after others who were living positive, make them drink out of paper cups, have separate utensils for them to use, and not want to come near, let alone kiss them. We’ve known better for decades, yet, this stereotype is still alive and well.

MYTH: People living with HIV don’t have sex anymore.

There is this idea that folks who are living positive will never, ever experience sexual pleasure again, especially with other people! I often share that if this were the case would we not see a reduction in the new infection rates? It is also a good opportunity to share how many folks who are living positive (an estimated 25%) don’t know they are living positive and thus are not aware of their status and may be transmitting the virus to others. This is also a good time to talk about how to properly use condoms, dental damns, latex gloves and other barrier methods, and abstinence. Just as many people have different definitions of what abstinence means (many students think it means “not having sex” when really it means “waiting to have sex” and that waiting period is usually one where people do not have sex, but it’s not the same as celibacy).

This idea also assumes that pleasure is only for people who are HIV negative. Unfortunately, this idea is dangerous. Who else will be thought to be not good enough to experience pleasure? A good conversation about pleasure and how sexual experiences may be more pleasurable when people feel comfortable, have open and honest communication, and know their partner’s HIV and STI status. This may mean getting to know someone, practicing abstinence, and developing skills to discuss these topics.

MYTH: You can prosecute someone who is HIV positive for transmitting the virus to another person during a consensual sexual encounter.

No. I often explain that it is important to keep in mind the topic of consent. It is also important to keep in mind that if this were true it would need to be proven in a court of law that the person pre-mediated and/or had intentions to infect others with HIV through unprotected sexual activities. Often students hear stories but do not realize these stories may also be connected to domestic violence, rape, assault, and other non-consensual encounters. AVERT, an international HIV and AIDS organization, has a great discussion ofcriminal transmission and laws in countries all over the world.

Good discussions about consent and testing also come about from these ideas and questions. Often the young people rationalize this question and idea to discriminate and hurt the positive person instead of recognizing the power and accountability the other person has in the situation. When people consent to engage in sexual activities together what does that mean? How do we get consent, what does it look and sound like? How do we learn that we have power when it comes to consent and in choosing to have sex of any type with folks means we are taking the responsibility to make a specific decision? A part of that decision is connected to communication, testing, holding ourselves accountable, and being clear about our personal boundaries. This story of William Brawner, a Black man who was a student at Howard University and living positive, spoke out on having numerous sexual partners while at Howard is also a story that comes up with regards to consent. It also speaks to HIV positive people still having active sex lives and the responsibility we all have to be aware of our status and of our partners.

Unfortunately, this music video and song is not helpful in sending this message.

MYTH: Magic Johnson doesn’t have HIV anymore.

Yes he does. Magic Johnson is a wealthy Black man living in the US who has US citizenship. These are all important to keep in mind because they play a role in his status and his health. As someone who has access to eating foods that are “healthy/organic,” have a personal chef, physician, access to many things you and I don’t have impacts his live in positive ways. Magic Johnson has what is called an undetectable viral load. This means the amount of HIV that is detectable in his blood is minimal, but that does NOT mean he is cured from HIV. He is still positive and can still transmit the virus to other people. I often use this as another example of how condoms do work! Magic Johnson is married and his wife, as far as we know, remains HIV negative. If they are still having sex with one another it is most likely while using barrier methods to keep her HIV negative.

MYTH: People catch HIV.

No they don’t. You catch a ball, your shirt may get caught on a nail, but people do not catch HIV. Instead, HIV is transmitted, just as knowledge is. It is passed from one person to another in specific ways. Using the term “catch” to connect to HIV transmission is a judgement. It places blame on the person who is living positive, regardless of how they became positive and is an attempt to shame them for living positive. I also see this use of language as a way to scare people and I’m not a fan of the “scared straight” approach.

MYTH: HIV isn’t a big deal because people are living longer and it’s not a death sentence.

Wrong. The virus impacts each body differently. Not all people will have the same response to HIV medication and treatments as others. What works for Magic Johnson may not work for someone else (or many other people!). The medication and treatment many folks may need to stay as healthy as they can while being HIV positive, is toxic! Taking medication is not fun. Many of the side effects for some HIV medications are things that folks do not enjoy (i.e. diarrhea, vomiting, nausea), but they may also result in death. A side effect of some of these medications is death. That’s a big deal! Not to mention the cost of medication is not cheap!

MYTH: HIV is only something that happens to gay men.

Is this 1984? (pun intended). A homophobic presidency under the Reagan administration that sent the message that HIV in the US was something that impacted gay men only ignored the infections of heterosexual, poor, people of Color, sex workers, and people all over the world! HIV impacts us all and all of us may be at risk for HIV transmission if we make certain choices in our lives. A student asked me “why do people think only gay people can get HIV?” and I had to give a short history lesson. I also talked about assumptions that all gay men have anal sex, when in reality anybody with an anus can have anal sex! It’s a stereotype, and stereotypes like this are not helpful and harmful for us all.

MYTH: Lesbians don’t have to worry about HIV.

No. Everybody must be aware and know their options in living as best they can as an HIV positive person, or as a healthy HIV negative person. Lesbians are not immune to HIV (or any other STI), and the assumption that they are is problematic. If we are sharing and exchanging bodily fluids that may transmit HIV, we are at risk, regardless of the sex assigned at birth and gender of our partners.

At the end of all my presentations I hope that youth realize the power they have. It is such an important and valuable power that many adults often try to take away from them. It’s beyond choice, it’s power. And I believe when we share with youth that we, as adults, recognize and honor their power, they may do the same which may impact their choices and lives.

Revisiting Marianismo

2011-12-02T21:48:00.003-05:00

cross posted from my RH Reality Check blog

Last year I wrote an article called “Deconstructing Marianismo” which was inspired by an article I read about a film called Marianismo by young filmmaker Erica Fletcher which focuses on Latinas living with HIV. The main purpose of my article was to deconstruct how we are discussing Marianismo and it’s connections to Latinas and sexuality, especially by questioning the “cultural values” that are applied to us, often by outsiders.

Earlier this year I got an email from Erica Fletcher. I was very happy to hear from her as it is rare when folks whose media and art we use to spark conversation and education reach out to us. Erica shared with me that her initial response to my article was one of disappointment by she then realized that much of what I had shared, about being trained in a particular way to do a certain type of research on Latin@s, was something that happened to her as well. We have been communicating for most of this year and I had suggested we do an interview with one another to feature her work, but also talk about how we as young(er) people of Color working in the field of sexuality are working together.

Erica is a 20 year-old Taiwanese-Brazilian American and currently a PhD student in Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Her undergraduate work was in Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology at the University of Houston. She received Glamour Magazine’s Top 10 College Women award, a Phi Kappa Phi Majorie Schoch Fellowship, and a Presidential Scholarship from the University of Texas Medical Branch for her work. Erica's last completed film, Pack & Deliver, is about sex trafficking and is continuing to receive media attention. It is featured in November 2011’s Latina Magazine issue.

I sent Erica a few questions about her work and her goals for her films.

How did you come to film/media making?

A couple years ago, I became really interested in applying what I was learning in my social science classes in a way that would be more easily accessible to general audiences. For me, that medium was film. During the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college, I began making my first film, Marianismo, which is about the disproportionate spread of HIV/AIDS among Latinas. I loved the process of filmmaking, especially participating in talkbacks where I could share my research with others. After learning about the field of visual anthropology and finding great mentors at the University of Houston, I started on my second film Pack and Deliver about sex trafficking in Houston.

What sort of support have you received for entering the film/media making field? Any specific challenges?

Having no technical training in filmmaking, I had to learn by trial-and-error with a basic camcorder for my first film. Even after using more professional equipment with my second film, I still have much training to do when it comes to shooting and editing! Still, I am lucky to be born in a time when digital media makes it relatively affordable to do the kind of ethnographic research that I want to do. Aside from the technical aspects, learning more about theories in visual anthropology and interviewing techniques has been an eye-opening experience. There are so many ways that media reporters and ethnographers can manipulate footage, and finding a way to portray my “truth” is definitely an on-going process.

How did you come to do the film Marianismo? What were some of the messages you thought important to include?

As a dual citizen of Brazil and the United States, I have always been interested in Latino cultures, and I wanted to explore a facet of my identity through academic research in Houston. In addition, as an 18-year-old college student who had been home-schooled for most of my life, I had an avid curiosity for understanding the power dynamics between men and women. During high school, I had three of my friends who shared with me that they had been raped or molested, and they had blamed themselves for these horrific events. While I had never experienced anything as traumatizing, I also felt a sort of shame and guilt for a couple uncomfortable situations I had with fellow male students in college.

As I learned more about domestic violence and the threat of STIs, I wanted to do something to show commonalities in larger sociological forces that make power imbalances in romantic relationships a normal occurrence in many women’s lives. I found an anthropology professor doing research on condom use and the spread of HIV/AIDS among women in the African-American community, and she agreed to supervise my film project related to HIV/AIDS among Latinos.

I think the most important message of the film is that economic factors play a large role in health outcomes, and secondly that we should not be quick to make judgments about people’s lives because of their illness. I hope Marianismo illuminates the harmful impact that stigma against HIV/AIDS still has on the lives of the women I interviewed.

Below is the trailer for Marianismo

What questions were asked during screenings?

The question I get most often is what I can do to help this situation? I love this question because it shows that there are many people who really want to improve the world around them, but I know that the answer to that question will be different for everyone based on their talents and interests. If anything, I hope that my films will remind people of our interconnectedness as a species and how we can all make small contributions to improve the whole of society. Houston’s Catholic Charities Cabrini Center andBoatPeople SOS do a lot of good work in immigration locally.

How did you make a connection and come into contact with Latinas living positive?

While working on a certification program for nonprofit management, I met Timeka Walker a social worker from the nonprofit http://www.aidshelp.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AFH_homepage " target="_blank">AIDS Foundation Houston. Its mission is to improve the lives of HIV-positive individuals. We stayed in touch, and with her help I was able to meet and interview three Latinas who were HIV positive.

Were all of the participants documented? Did any address topics of immigration, access to resources (i.e. healthcare, job opportunities, etc.)?

I did not ask about their immigration status. However, the participants I interviewed all had the Gold Card (which in Houston provides free HIV/AIDS treatment), so they were able to access the healthcare system when necessary. One was in a transitional housing program, and the other two were in stable living situations. More than anything else, I saw first-hand the great impact of the social services that Texas does provide. Still, my state provides very limited resources for healthcare and education, and it saddens me how many people go without necessary care.

What were some positive messages the participants shared about living positive?

The most positive message I learned from them was that their lives continued after a HIV-positive diagnosis. Now the disease is a chronic condition, and with proper management, life expectancy has improved drastically. The women I interviewed are all involved in leading STI-prevention workshops and providing support and guidance to others who are HIV positive. Their determination to share their story and help educate others about HIV/AIDS is truly incredible.

What connections to religion and spiritual belief and value systems were discussed?

Contrary to some of the public health articles and anthropological literature I read, the women I interviewed did not think that their religion (two were Catholic, one was Protestant) played a role in how they became infected with HIV or affected how they choose to protect their husbands or boyfriends from the disease. More generally, though, they talked about growing up in homes where sexual health was not discussed.

From my first introduction into research in social science, I learned that individual experiences can vary significantly from what past research indicates, and that it can be very easily to stereotype people into certain culture archetypes that they don’t identify with in their own lives. Doing research is a constant process of learning from mistakes and trying to improve in the future, and I look forward to creating my own filmmaking style in an ethically and culturally sensitive manner.

How did you come to the field of sex trafficking from Marianismo? Do you see a connection between the two?

Themes of urbanization, health disparities, power dynamics, and Latino immigration are common to both my films. An additional connection between the films is that many trafficked women, including the woman I interviewed for Pack and Deliver, contract STIs during their trafficking experience and must cope with a disease and psychological trauma for the rest of their lives.

What are some of your findings from this new film?

I found a major gap between the many different organizations doing anti-trafficking campaigns and the very low number of trafficking survivors accessing services in Houston. Local groups estimate that 2,000 persons are trafficked each year throughout Houston, yet police “rescue” less than 20 trafficked people every year. Still fewer are eligible to remain in the United States and obtain social services in the city. What is really ironic is that Houston is considered to have one of the best collaborative models for ending human trafficking in the country.

From my research, I learned about legal barriers, funding constraints, and, in one case, apathy within law enforcement that deters them from raiding well-known brothels in Houston. However, I also found an objectification and re-commodification of trafficked persons in the way in which nonprofit organizations use visceral images to encourage donors and volunteers to support their missions.

More broadly, there were large ideological differences between lobbyists that were never resolved during the anti-trafficking debate and adoption of public policy in 2000. While, individually, I would say everyone I interviewed is doing the best they can to ameliorate the trafficking situation in Houston, structural violence and institutional barriers are huge factors for why human trafficking remains endemic in the city.

How is trafficking related to other social justice issues?

Human trafficking is only a minuscule extreme of much larger issues related to immigration, domestic violence, labor policies, prison policies, and free trade arrangements at work in our country. It’s so easily to condemn human trafficking, but when it comes to these larger, more taboo issues of contention, hardly anyone wants to touch them. However, I would argue to do good work in anti-trafficking initiatives we have to recognize larger connections to much more common forms of exploitation in the United States.

How are your films connected to a larger social justice/change agenda you may have for yourself?

During my time as an undergrad, I was convinced it was possible to combine science and art with activism. As I learn more in graduate school, I realize some of the ethical dilemmas that this position poses, and one of the main reasons why I am in school is to figure out some of those questions for myself and to learn how to speak to larger audiences in public policy, medicine, the social sciences, and the general public

What do you hope to accomplish and begin in the media you are creating?

My end goal with filmmaking is to create public forums to engage communities and foster discussions about improving their local environment. Films are just one way to raise public awareness about social issues, but they are only small beginnings to catalyzing the kind of social movements necessary to enact real change. I think recognizing and accepting the limitations of the film medium has been a major realization for me, but it has been a freeing experience as well. Now I am learning how to collaborate with others and find interdisciplinary partnerships to strengthen my overarching purpose of promoting education and spurring more critical analysis of the world around us.

What new projects are you working on today?

Right now I’m assisting Professor Rebecca Hester on her film project about sources of suffering on Galveston Island (where I am currently living). This is my first time working in a film team, and I’m excited to contribute to the production process from start to finish.

What other projects do you have in mind or that are coming up or that you'd like to do in the future?

I have way too many ideas and too little time to do them! Some of my goals include purchasing my own photo and video equipment, learning more Portuguese, doing ethnographic work in Brazil, traveling more, planning more film screening events, and continuing my focus on interdisciplinary studies and multimedia communication. I’m not sure what my next film/dissertation topic will be… I’ve been in grad school for less than a semester thus far, so luckily I still have time to figure that out!

How may folks get in contact with you?

ethnographicfilm@gmail.com or my personal website.

foto credit: Gregory Bohuslav

foto credit:

Grading As Media Making

2011-12-02T21:45:00.001-05:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

Imagine it: me surrounded by a never ending abyss of papers to grade with only 2 weeks left before the semester ends. I’m writing this post because it speaks to my life right now. Now, I told my students I would have their papers to them by last Monday, only one of two classes received them. I was sick for most of a holiday break we had and could barely lift my head up. This limited the amount of papers I got to grade. Now, grading seems to never end!

There were math equations I would do to see how many papers I had to grade a day to get through them all. How much time to dedicate to each paper. This isn’t anything new. However, I realized that when I grade a paper, especially a formal paper a student submits, the comments I’m giving them, the things I’m writing in the margins, this is all a form of media. My goal is to help Amplify readers understand this form of media and to get a perspective from an educators point of view on grading (perhaps it may encourage you to go to office hours for support, ask for clarification, or see your teacher as a person too!).

I have a love/hate relationship with grading. I see how it may be useful for many students, schools, organizations and professions. However, I believe there are multiple ways to assess if someone is being critical and analytical around certain topics, to value the quality of work and participation they bring to a classroom. These are some of the things that make up a grade for a student in my class.

Grading is my least favorite part of teaching. No matter what I’m teaching, I dread grading. I think in our society we have created a grading system that is set up to destroy individual students. I have to remind myself that I don’t want to be the educator that broke a student’s spirit or drive because of what or how I’ve written a comment on their paper as I grade. There is also a balancing act between helping students learn how to improve their writing and expressing their thoughts and learning from constructive criticism.

Now, I know all too well how it hurts and destroy’s ones motivation when they are told they are not a good/quality writer or that their writing is poor. It has happened to me numerous times and it probably will again. However, it is from these experiences that I try to really be honest, thoughtful, and grade from a place of love. Not just love for education, but for helping students evolve and grow. A love for the person who w told their writing was not worthy or good enough (i.e. myself). A type of love for the work I do and for the things I do that I don’t always love but that come with the work. A love that is challenging yet rewarding at the same time.

I’m reminded of the Allied Media Conference that I attended this summer. There was a workshop titled Editing as an Act of Love that had my good homegirl Maegan Ortiz of Vivir Latino on the panel. Maegan had posted a video that would be shown during the session by Lisa Factora-Borchers and her experiences editing an anthology, Dear Sister Anthology, for survivors of sexual violence. Check out her video below.

Allied Media Conference Workshop: Editing as an Act of Love from Lisa Factora-Borchers onVimeo.

I really love Factora-Borchers 5 guidelines of editing as I think it speaks so directly to grading as well. These guidelines include:
1. You’re dealing with work that came from someone.
2. Like love, editing is a 2-way street. (with many, many detours).
3. Like love, editing cannot be about power, ultimatums, or one way. It’s often visionary, and takes mounds of patience.
4. Editing is standing shoulder to shoulder, not head to head.
5. Above everything else, editing is all about the relationship.

This video really helps me put into perspective my love/hate of grading. It’s not that I hate or dread it as I think I do, it’s that I’m invested in grading in a way that is not often discussed or taught to educators. I have high expectations for myself, my students, and the effort I put into assessing their work. I value the relationships I build with my students and I would like to be a part of a positive memory of what education, especially higher education, may look like for them.

As someone who enjoys writing in the margins of books and texts (that I own, although I do love the idea of writing in the margins of books owned by others or at the library even though that’s a no-no, but imagine what we can learn from those notes by others! And I’m not the only one into marginalia! The historical context alone is exciting to me, but I digress), I enjoy writing in the margins of my student’s papers as well. It is a way I connect with my students and with the habits I embrace and use when doing personal reading. It’s one way that I find comfort in a difficult task.

I have over 20 papers to grade and three times as many homework assignments, so I’ll keep this short. But I do want to note that those of you who may find yourself in a similar situation, here are some useful tips for grading that a friend provided me via tumblr. I most definitely make a not to avoid red pens, I usually use purple, pink or teal. However, there are times when those pens run out of ink and I must resort to the traditional red, but it’s a rare occasion. Do you view grading a bit differently? What are some of the ways you cope/manage grading?

Discussing Justin Bieber (But Really Talking About How We Treat Young Mothers)

2011-11-21T20:54:00.001-05:00

cross posted from my rh reality check blog

I wrote an article last week about Justin Bieber for a youth focused website, something I didn’t think I’d ever do. However, the piece was more about how we support and discuss young mothers in the US and how that is connected to what is going on regarding Justin Bieber and Mariah Yeater, whose attorney had asked Bieber to take a paternity test.

Many media outlets reported that the paternity test was withdrawn and one of the respondents on my last article asked if I would write a follow-up regarding the paternity test results. Here’s my response to this entire situation with Justin Bieber: I hope he takes notes from Raymond "Boots" Riley of The Coupon how to respond to a young woman who claims you were a part of creating a child with her, regardless of the situation.

The Coup are a hip-hop group from Oakland, California and Boots Riley and Pam the Funkstress, one of the few women DJs, are the main members. In their album Party Music (2001), the song Nowalaters was included. This song is Boots Riley’s open letter to a young woman who had stated he was the person who impregnated her when he was a teenager. I’ve included the song and lyrics below. I’ve bolded parts of the song lyrics that I think are extremely useful and telling when it comes to discussing teen motherhood and pregnancy and how we treat young mothers in the US.

I hope this quick post will be useful for those of you seeking to use this story in the media in your classrooms or groups with youth to discuss abstinence, pregnancy, consent, and assault. Please note there is some profanity in these lyrics, so listening at work may not be appropriate for all readers.

[Boots]

Well if you thrust, eventually you gonna gush

And I'm implyin' I ain't had no business cryin'

Cause we used the rubber twice

And we knew that shit was dyin' to bust

Well we was only seventeen

But you was older in between

And in my fresh Adidas fits

I used to come more clean than Jeru jerkin' off in a can of chlorine

Sophisticated with the game I was spittin' in

A nymphomaniac was with it, that's just a clip, more experience

V on my chest when I was put to the test

You said "Goddamn nigga, that ain't how ya get it in"

Dashboards for the leverage, tall cans for beverage

The weed can make you courageous, make a Honda Civic seem so

spacious Make

five minutes seem like ages, anyway

[Chorus]

You smelled like Care-Free Curl and nowalaters baby

Said you liked high-top fades

And Jesse Johnson’s "Crazy"

Seventeen, all on you like chicken and some gravy

Learned a lot, thank you much today I’m still campaignin'

[Repeat 1]

[Boots]

The lake don't smell so bad now, do it

Don't trip off ya hair baby just re-glue it

The windows is fogged up, can't nobody view it

Put down the O-E and turn up the Howard Hewett

And some more, we had things to discuss

Like how we do it, we got amniotic fluid

And a baby floatin' though it

Hey, imagine if it look like us, it was me up in the vaginary

And I'ma love my kids whether real or imaginary

Quit school, work well depends at the mall next to Fashion Berry

Operation cash and carry

Manual labor from six to noon

Makin' six doubloons, got a baby that's fixin' to bloom

And he need 'fits to groom plus grips the spoon

So let me twist the ploom

And inhale and emit the fumes

[Chorus]

[Boots]

I was composed, I didn't even crack a frown

I was supposed to let my pants fall down

And show my ass when I found

That the baby was four months early and around ten pounds

I heard a lot of bad things about teenage mothers

From those who don't really give a fuck about life

They say "It ain't so much that they startin' out younger"

"It's just they supposed to be more like a wife"

Meanin' you ain't shit without a man to guide you

If ya mama tried to feed you that she lied too

Make ya grab any motherfucker that ride through

If jobs are applied to knots can get tied too

Plus I know that you must have been scared

It made it easy when the feelings were shared

Flashback to 20/20

I know you waitin' for the dollars cause you knew I had funny money

Yellin' all loud like I'ma tear the whole hood up

Don't tempt me cause the real daddy stood up

He said I was a mark for believin' in you

Now it's more that I'm seein' is true

There's a few things I'd like to say in this letter

Like I wish I would've seen him grow

And ask my wife I learned to fuck much better

And thank you for lettin' me go

Yeah, thank you for lettin' me go

For real, thank you for lettin' me go

What if Justin Bieber Has A Baby?

2011-11-13T20:50:00.001-05:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

If you are into popular culture in any way, or watch the news, you probably know who Justin Bieber is and that a young woman alleges 17 year old singer is the the progenitor* of her child. Reports claim that Bieber will take a paternity test, that 20 year old Mariah Yeater requests financial assistance for her child, and that young girls all over the world are pissed off at the young woman and are bullying her and making rationalizations to act out violently! Yeater claims she had sex with Bieber after a show he gave in Los Angeles, CA in a bathroom and that he stated specifically he did not want to use a condom because it was his first time and he wanted to “feel everything.”

I’m not on Team Bieber nor am I on Team Mariah Yeater. I’m not on any team besides Team Media Justice (yes that’s code for Team Bi). I created my team and I encourage readers to do the same. Figure out what all of the information is, and then think about how this information impacts our communities and work. That is what this post is about. What is going on regarding this child, the conversations around children of young parents, how are they supported, targeted, ignored, threatened, and what will we do to change that (if anything!?). An element of this hysteria among young people and Bieber is not that he’s no longer “available” (as he’s been openly dating Selena Gomez for the past several months). Rather, what do we lose if he is the progenitor of this child?

One of the things I do appreciate about Justin Bieber is that he not only demonstrates with his life how media can change one’s entire reality as he was “found” on YouTube (for the most part), but also that he’s been open about practicing abstinence and speaks on it freely and openly. I think it’s important for youth, especially young girls who identify right now as heterosexual, to have a image of a young person who is standing by the choice to be abstinent at this time. I think it’s useful to have this dialogue go on in popular culture that many pre-teens do consume especially at a time when comprehensive sexuality education is not offered for all youth in the U.S.

Something we do lose, I believe, is a huge pop culture icon that speaks and practices abstinence; a useful point of interest to begin discussions on the topic. Ignoring this is a huge problem for many of us working with and mentoring youth. Are we ready to discuss abstinence and how it may and may not work? I think it is safe to say he won’t lose too many fans or be shamed as Yeater and other young parents have been by our society, if the paternity test he takes demonstrates he did play a role in creating this child.

I’ve written about abstinence and talk about it often as I work because it is an option. This is one option many of us choose to practice at different times in our lives.

There are also some very clear messages going on about condoms here. Whether we want to admit it or not, youth hear things about condoms not feeling “good” or “real, even if they have never used them before. This is one reason why i’m in favor of youth having access to condoms, opening them, putting them on things (either themselves or even playfully/educationally on other things) to practice how to properly use condoms. I think it is important for youth to also see how easy it is to put a condom on incorrectly and how important lubrication is to their proper usage. These are all parts of being prepared. This is something not only young people can learn from, but all people. Let’s keep in mind that properly putting on a condom is not only for the person with the penis! Plus, there are also condoms that go into the vagina as well. Both of these require practice and a level of comfort to use them properly.

Yeater claims she asked Bieber to put a condom on for protection and he said no. This to me sounds like a sexual assault, yet folks are targeting her as the abuser for statutory rape as Bieber was 16 at the time and she 19. Don’t get it twisted, she asked to have a consensual sexual act occur with a barrier method to avoid pregnancy and potential STI and HIV transmission (not all STIs require one to have sex, see HPV, and not all people who are living positive with HIV had sex, there are many young people who are living positive and were born positive). Bieber’s alleged “no” in response to using a condom, his fame and power all may have played a role in the fear and discomfort Yeater may have experienced in telling him she no longer wanted to continue to have sex. Being afraid to say “no” during sex is a form of coercion. Please understand and recognize this. These allegations of Yeater being tried for statutory rape could result in up to one year in jail if chargers are pressed and Yeater found guilty. (And that’s just what we need, a young mother in jail away from her child).

The bullying, harassment, and namecalling Yeater is experiencing isn’t just from young fans. The media is also playing along and calling her “crazy”and diagnosing her mental health, judging her as a liar and shaming her as a young parent. This public harassment is ridiculous, and I hope those folks who are engaging in this behavior realize that there are responsibilities that come with using technology and the internet! Ya’ll know that any tweets you send are kept by the Library of Congress right?

“Experts” are even jumping onto this story and encouraging the isolation and harassment of Yeater. Family law specialist Debra Opri tells ABC News that she would not encourage her client to have a paternity test (she’s not Bieber’s attorney just a “expert” they looked to for comment) and states: “I wouldn’t make it easy for her whatsoever,” she said. “I would make her life miserable.” Riiiight. Because that’s EXACTLY what young mothers need: their life to be even more difficult. Good job Opri and all others who think the way she does. I hope that if you ever find yourself in a space similar to Yeater you are supported more than what is offered to her at this time.

Now, when it comes to supporting young mothers, I have to ask: do we really do what we can to support them? At the end of October I saw this image come across the internet with a ton of judgement, shaming, and name calling of young mothers of Color:

I don’t know who posted the image so foto credit is not given, but it is clear that these young pregnant people are proud of their experiences with their pregnancies. The person and people who have things to say about this image are in the thousands! I mean the title of the link alone and the commentary by the person who claims to have posted it states “dis a damnnnn shame.” Why is this shameful? Oh, because young women and pregnant people are taking pride in their experiences.

Perhaps I’m being extra sensitive to young pregnant people, many of which I work with and have supported in various ways. But also because my immediate family is expecting a child as well. Yes! I’m going to be a tia/auntie so there will be a post on children’s books for babies and kids of Color with same gender parents soon! I’m also aware that teen pregnancies and everything that goes with that from parenting, adoption, and termination are topics we must discuss equally. It’s also about being pro-choice. If we claim we are pro-choice then we must support decisions of parenting and pregnancy at all stages. This means supporting young mothers who choose to carry to term and parent.

What is wrong with young moms being proud and supporting one another? What is wrong with finding communities of practice based on our lived realities? What is wrong with sharing that pride? It’s too easy to prove the racism (internalized and otherwise) associated with racially Black women sharing such pride. It’s also too easy to show how our sexist society judges them as women. Would an image of several young fathers holding their infant children and posing in the mirror to take a foto of themselves in the bathroom have resulted in the same response?

As Loretta Ross of Sister Song has said “you can’t save Black babies by attacking Black women.” We also can’t save Justin Bieber (and I’m not interested in saving him or a lot of other people to be honest), but we can be mindful of how Yeater is treated and how post-paternity test she will be treated. What support are we able to offer Yeater, a young mom, and other young moms in our communities?

*I’m choosing to use this term because I don’t want to use the phrases “baby’s father,” “sperm donor,” or other phrases. This is because “father” is an identity not many may claim. I wish to avoid using it in the same way that anti-choicers claim and describe pregnant people are “moms” even if that term is not one they embrace. It is a tactic to shame and make the pregnant person assume an identity that they do not desire or embrace.

Black Beauty in Caribbean, Central & South America

2011-11-06T12:32:00.002-05:00

As you know I'm one of the co-founders of The LatiNegr@s Project and during my search to see if anyone has published images and/or videos from the Afro-Latin@s Now! Conference I came across this media posted (not sure if also created by) a media maker named LaMorenaReina69. I really adore these videos as they represent Black people living in many countries in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and various countries in Central and South America. Check out these videos below.

Black Beauty in Bolivia

Black Beauty in Brazil

Black Beauty in Colombia

Black Beauty in Cuba

Black Beauty in Dominica Republic

Black Beauty in Ecuador

Black Beauty in Mexico

Black Beauty in Panama

Black Beauty in Peru

Black Beauty in Puerto Rico

Black Beauty in Suriname

Black Beauty in Uruguay

Black Beauty in Venezuela

Notes from the Afro-Latin@s Now@ Conference Plenary

2011-11-06T12:28:00.003-05:00

cross posted from my post at Vivir Latino

The Afro-Latin@s Now! Conference is taking place as I write. It began on Thursday at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture with the Plenary and continued through Friday with “traditional” presentations throughout the day and wraps up this Saturday with events targeting youth at El Museo del Barrio.

I was asked to participate in one of the sessions on sexuality but my workload didn’t allow me to attend any of the events except for the Plenary. I’ve included some notes I took on the plenary and some other reflections from other folks who did attend Friday.

The plenary had four extremely well-known people doing work within the Afr@Latin@ community in various capacities. The panelists included Educardo Bonilla-Silva, sociologist at Duke University and author of several texts on white supremacy, Maria Rosario Jackson a researcher and professor who works in urban planning and development and , Evelyne Laurent-Perrault a biologist and historian and founder of the annual Arturo Schomburg Symposium at Taller Puertorriqueno in Philidelphia, and Silvio Torres-Saillant a professor of English and founder of the Dominican Studies Institute at City College and the author of several texts about Dominican identity. The facilitator for the evening was James Counts Early the Director of the Cultural Heritage Policy Center at the Smithsonian instituion. You may read more about each panelist and a fuller bio at the Afro-Latin@ Now! Conference site.

The first question that was posed to the panelist were “why is there this interest in Black Latin@s at this time?” Responses included an increased interest in Blackness, the diaspora. Torres-Saillant shared that when he was growing up Blackness was something one had to apologize for in the Dominican Republic. Rosario Jackson shared that with the browning of the US being more local yet there is still a crisis which she believes may lead to more creative opportunity. Laurent-Perrault mentioned the term “coyuntura” and how there is an increase in energy within particular communities that is leading to this attention. Bonilla-Silva shared that we are living in a “new racial order” which is how the US is moving towards a more Latin Americanist perspective on race, which he believes is NOT a good thing. He states we, in the US, are living in a “multi-racial white supremacist regime” and that there is a three point racial consciousness for Black Latin@s which includes: being racially Black, being ethnically Latino and being US citizens as well.

The next question was about being proactive. Torres-Saillant began by indicating how mestizaje is connected to the “multi-racial white supremacist regime” where the US hides racism under mestizaje in the US in the same way that Latin American’s are currently finding themselves in crisis regarding their mestizaje. Rosario Jackson shared that we must begin to claim racially Black people as a strategy to be proactive. At this point the facilitator Early shared how many Black Latin@s Anglicized their names to pass just as Blacks in the US. He gave the example of actor and producer Terry Carter and several Black Latin@ baseball players who changed their names to simply be in the Negro Leagues and be Black only. Laurent-Perrault indicates this is why she loves history because it already gives us some of the answers we need. It’s at this time that the panelists indicate that Black US folks can learn from LatiNegr@s as we have 100 years longer of Blackness in our countries compared to the US (based on documentation of when the first African slaves were brought to the areas in the 1500s). Bonilla-Silva mentions the connections to the ideas of mixing among Black Latin@s in an effort to “better” (i.e. whiten) the family and community. He also mentions this being connected to a myth of nation building where we validate whiteness by using the same categories and structures that were created by whites to identify and label/mark Latin@s worldwide.

The third question was about action, research and policy. Bonilla-Silva began by discussing how the system of racial domination is distinct to the US (and is specific because of location). He asks how do we organize and politicize within a pigmentocratic logic? Rosario Jackson states that she was thinking about this lately and things the media is one important outlet and believes we need a good comedian. Her thoughts are that we need someone who is witty, smart, and funny to make us laugh and think to move agendas forward. She also thinks media may be one way to help youth (teens specifically) who are at odds with one another when they must recognize they are a community that may work together to address similar issues they both encounter. Torres-Saillant states that we must work to fix the narrative that is created and being created about us. Laurent-Perrault looks to the same myth that all families are the same color and the problem with the ideology of the “raza cósmica.” She uses the television show Dora The Explorer as an example that everyone in her family is the same color, which is not true for a majority of Latino families.

At this time the floor was open to the 100+ participants to ask questions of the panelist or of one another. Some of the questions included:

What about the dis/connections between LatiNegra’s and the experiences that Black Latinas have among one another?
How do we push the connections we build and have with one another from ethnic and racial spaces?
How may dismantling the ideas of what is Latinidad help us in moving forward?

Bonilla-Silva answered the last question by stating that one cannot identify as Black and then try to identify that Blackness to being a member of a nation because this is the game that white supremacy forces us to play. We must either be “Puerto Rican” without recognizing Blackness or Black and not recognize Puerto Rican ethnicity. We must dismantle the moral hierarchy which places Blackness as Other or less than.

More questions from the audience included:

How do we mend and connect more to our relationships to Africa?
There must be the responsibility of racially white Latinos to challenge invisibility and anti-Black racism when they see/hear it as part of action.
If the term “Latino” does not travel outside of the US, how do these conversations become useful (or not) outside of the US with Latinos in Central and South America and the Caribbean?
Assuming that Black skin can unite and solve our problem does not seem to really speak to the complexity. What about bi-ethnic Black people?
How may we begin to get the media to recognize us?
What resources for educators working with youth ages K-6th grade have and where may we find them?

Unfortunately, there was not enough time for the panelist to address the questions presented and they were only given one minute to share final thoughts. The panel was followed by a cultural and musical performance by pianist Kwami Coleman.

It was a good evening and when I stood up to meet friends scattered about I was very happy to see that the auditorium had filled two-fold since I had arrived at 6pm when there was only about 50 people present. I also had a few things I too was thinking about that were not addressed (and yes all of these are a part of the work that I do and why I do such work) which includes:

Colonization: what about the nations that still do not have or even begun a decolonization process and is examining Blackness and challenging anti-Blackness and anti-indigenous ideologies a part of that process? If so how has that occurred? What have been the outcomes? What may we learn from those attempts? And what about those spaces that have yet to experience sovereignty (i.e. Puerto Rico)? What role do those nations and countries play in this work?
What about youth? Where are the young people? What are ways we are open to being mentored by youth and having them be a part of helping us solve, create, and build solutions? I felt an overwhelming exclusion of youth at this plenary. I’m not sure if that was on purpose or if it was something that was not ever considered. I think it is often something adults do to talk about youth versus including them to talk about their experiences. Perhaps their lived realties and solutions will challenge many theories and ideas and then what do we do?
Sexuality: clearly the Blackness that we are discussing is connected to sex and sexuality. We are not experiencing a difference in skin color and pigmentocracy by happenstance, it is because of sex, rape, power and these are topics we are NOT discussing. Why is that?

Writer and Activist Carmen Mojica shared some of her thoughts about the conference Friday on her Tumblr page. Mojica shares the following in her piece “Keeping It Real & Relevant: Reflections After Today’s Panels @ The Afro-Latin@ Conference“:

I felt that the majority of the panels were composed of talented individuals who promoted themselves more than actually talking about the subject at hand. I remember walking out of the discussions unresolved, with more questions than answers. I was also annoyed because their entire bio was in the program pamphlet and it was repeated verbatim in various forms.
I have always been an intellectual. I once had an intimate affair with academia. Then I realized that academia is a public ejaculation session in which academic people talk about their work and themselves until they get off and strive to walk out feeling like their research is comparable to none. That being said, academia is patriarchal in nature. It is a dry documentation of real life and quite individualistic in the pursuit to achieve this illusion of being well-educated. I appreciate my education but also believe the real teacher in this life is experience and the relationships you have with others.
This need to “professionalize” the AfroLatin@ experience or any experience for that matter walks the thin line between absolutely necessary and appeasing the system. On one hand, it is important for our history to be documented in the canons of this world. On the other hand, who really benefits from the information we painstakingly research? Academics with PhDs? How does that information get to our neighborhoods effectively?
Before we began talking about abstract things such as trans-nationalism, appropriation, assimilation and the like, we grew up in [insert urban community i.e The Bronx, Brooklyn, Chicago, etc]. Where is that story? Where is the very human experience of what that was like? And where is the non-academized version of that human story that will connect us on a basic level of interaction? It is my experience that the personal narrative is much more valuable when being in the real world (the one in which people are unemployed, on public assistance and hope not to be evicted tomorrow). How is our research translated to something digestible that does not alienate our real constituents? The conversation that is for the proletariat and not just the privileged individuals that were able to take the day off and discuss social constructs?
Internalized oppression. I cannot say this enough. But this time in the context of, “master’s tools will never dismantle master’s house.” Meaning that we have a long way to go if we think that being academic and “professional” will somehow dismantle the racist system that has affected our communities and their self-esteem, mental, spiritual and emotional health, economic status and overall quality of life. Granted, we need the research but it is not the end all be all. We need real life solutions. We’ve done the research and have tried to apply it and the hood is still struggling. Clearly we need not sit in conferences all day and take action directly.
I do however feel that we are in process. That this conference is important. But we must move out of individualism, self-promotion and strictly research and get to policy and action. Direct action. Action that reaches our families and communities in a very human way. The only panel I genuinely felt like I got something from was the one on youth and education. The panelists came with their experiences as educators and very practical ways of addressing teaching culture to our youth. They also had solutions and resources that could help anyone sitting in that room make their work effective and relevant. And real.

Finally, it was fabulous to run into folks who recognized the work we are doing withThe LatiNegr@s Project and introduced themselves. Our team is growing in ways that I didn’t ever imagine when I co-created the project last year. Today we have doubled in size and have four folks on our team, a twitter account (@BeingAfroLatino) and aFacebook page. We have over 1,000 posts (over 100 pages of content), people stillsubmitting, and almost 500 folks following the project (and that doesn’t include those who are NOT on Tumblr but may still visit the page)! It’s such a great feeling to know this project is growing and it is a useful educational tool, affirming project, and one that will be here to continue to make us visible!

For those of you who did attend the conference what were some of your thoughts? Ideas about what the plenary presented?

Make-Up As Media Making

2011-11-03T12:30:00.000-04:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

Yes! You read correctly. In this piece I will make an argument that using and applying make-up can be a form of media for many folks. Now, this is not to say that folks who use make-up are always choosing or aware they are making media, but I think many of them are aware they are engaging in a form of art. Now, I know there are lots of folks who may disagree with this for several reasons, and I’d like to respond to some of those. Last week was the first time in a long time that I had been complimented on my make-up. A friend and colleague had said to me in the elevator “your make-up is flawless” and I felt good!

I don’t know too many folks who don’t like to be complimented. I felt proud to know that there was someone who recognized the care, skill, and time it took to get my make-up the way I had wanted it to look. This was one of the things that sparked my desire to write this post. Before I get into the specific points I’d like to make, let me share a story with you.

When I went back to school to focus on gender I remember having many comments made towards me about my gender expression. As my bio above mentions, I identify as a “femme” and have always had a gender expression that many read as stereotypical to Western ideas of how women are to look and ideas of femininity. I did not feel welcomed in that space. I questioned if my purple backpack was “gender neutral” enough. I resorted to wearing jeans and t-shirts more often than I cared for. My creative spirit had been broken and I became depressed.

You see for me, and many of the folks I know who “beat their face,” putting on make up, nail polish, etc. is part of our gender expression. It is a part of who we are. For me, it is a creative aspect of my identity that is extremely important. When I don’t have the ability, time, or resources to be creative in ways that fulfill me on a regular basis (photography,dancing, collaging, letter writing, zine making, etc.) I still find space for that creativity to be nurtured in make-up application.

One day at the MAC make up counter (of which I am a MAC Pro, which means I have a membership as a make-up artist and performer and thus receive a large percentage off my purchases, let me know if you want in on this discount as I make purchases for others), I heard a person say “look at all these women trying to change the way they look.” I looked up and it was a racially white woman rushing past and speaking to her pre-teen daughter. It was in that instant that I knew there was something more here. I looked around at the women at the counter and we were all women of Color.

Ideas and standards of beauty for women of Color are not the same for racially white women. Instead of hashing out this history, I encourage readers to do personal research and analysis on their own about how these differences occur and manifest. I once told a psychologist I was working with that I don’t have the pleasure, luxury, or privilege to leave my home without looking “well kept”/”put together” as a woman of Color living in this society. He did not understand and disagreed with me. I expected this and disengaged with him after I shared some resources for him to look into.

There are some folks claim that if someone uses and wears make-up you/us are perpetuating stereotypical ideals of beauty. This is one of the many issues “femmes” like me experience on a regular basis. These messages we hear from folks in and outside of our communities. There are many folks who identify as feminists, radical, revolutionaries who judge us because of our choice to wear make-up. I’ve encountered several of them who claim what I am doing is not revolutionary, is a problem, perpetuates the issue they are attempting to erase. All of a sudden I’m a part of the problem, not a useful member of the community, someone to be ridiculed, reprimanded, and ignored as my voice no longer matters. It is rare when some folks consider how my gender expression challenges them in ways that make them uncomfortable and sit with that discomfort to examine it. I write that as someone who has sat with that discomfort and will continue to do so as I learn about myself and others in such experiences.

One thing I often find interesting is that folks will judge me based on my gender expression and use of make-up, yet will not consider how I paint other parts of my body. Often when folks do recognize or discuss my body art they have vary different responses to the art on my face. The same radical, revolutionaries, and feminists enjoy talking to me about my body ink when they can see it, something that is often not done regarding my make-up.

Many of us recognize how important gender is to our lives. Many of us work regularly to be inclusive of folks who challenge gender binaries, be trans inclusive, and challenge misogyny on a regular basis. For some reason though there remains a disapproval of those of us who have a certain gender expression no matter how demure or exaggerated. There seems to be a disapproval, irritation, and even disgust for what is considered feminine. I wonder what that means for all women. Is there even safety and protection from other women in our communities? Do we really “have each other’s backs”?

Affirming our identities is important for many of us, if not all of us. There are many things we do each day to connect with who we are and where we come from. I know wearing make-up affirms my identity as a radical woman of Color, as a sexual being, as an intellectual, and educator. It also challenges ideas that people have about my identities. My use of color challenges ideas of me wanting to hide who I am and not stand out. This is associated with many parts of our identities that we are socialized to attempt to not make visible whether it is being a woman (and being passive), being fat (and not bringing attention to yourself as you already take up too much room), being a person of Color (especially if you are one of a few, or the only one in a room), being someone with a different ability (see being fat and a person of Color), and being of a certain age (wear color and products that are gender appropriate).

I’ve shared often how media is created and consumed. With this I believe that there are messages that I create when I put on my make-up. Some of my messages may include: I care about my appearance, I’m not afraid of color, I will wear this neon orange lipstick (or other bright non-traditional color) year round if I want, I love my eyelashes, cheekbones, and lips; parts i’ve been told are too broad, wide, and not beautiful. Other messages I choose to convey include: I belong here. This is one thing I hope to leave with many of the youth I work with: that they belong wherever they want to be!

Often I’ve joked that red lipstick is a cultural artifact in my Puerto Rican home. My mother wore the color, my aunts, grandmothers as well. It was a color I was given at a very young age to play with while dressing up. It is a color I continue to use to this day. This color is attached to many things for me and using it has become a ritual. One of the main reasons I adore the color right now is because it is my mother’s favorite. And I miss my ma and when I put it on I remember her, hope she will take pride in me transmitting this practice and color to other generations in our family. I’m connected to my mother through this color and practice.

I’ve also created ritual around make-up application. A ritual that is not only connected to my own forms of self-care, but also to my cultural background. While applying my make-up I put on certain media (usually a song or image) to inspire me. I have a process I follow in figuring out how I’m going to apply the products, in what way, with what brush, what effect do I want to create today, what shapes and lines will I create and how many will there be, and of course: how much sparkle to include. I do the same with nail polish. This ritual, as small or materialistic as some may see it, is a form of self-care for myself. I’m spending time with myself, doing something I love that is connected to my community, roots, and my own sense of self.

Some folks have said to me that my own sense of self can come form being natural. Ideas about natural being beautiful are ones I wholeheartedly agree with. Some folks think there is nothing natural about wearing make-up and I have to disagree. This seems to be a very US-centric perspective; one that does not recognize the diversity and varied cultures that already exist in the US (even before it was considered the US). Body decor and modifications are found all over the world and are not “new” phenomenons. Thus, these ideas of not being “natural” are not only judgmental but also make assumptions of defining “natural” for all people in the same way.

Is there privilege in putting on make-up? Sure, there’s privilege in doing a lot of things. However, if we just focus on the privilege aspect we erase the rituals and traditions of generations of people who do similar practices. That is not always helpful. There are many femmes and folks who use make-up who are using their privilege to access products by supporting certain brands exclusively. Many folks only use products that have organic components, no chemicals, are not tested on animals, do not have different pricing for different shades, are fragrance-free and are run by community members. There is a way to strategically use our privilege and many make-up wearers are aware of this.

At the same time, assuming that people who wear and use make-up only use corporate brand names is erroneous. There are many ways to make your own shades, primers, and glitter. One of my broke femme tips is that I used to (and sometimes still do) fill in my eyebrows with a wooden match. I strike the match, let it burn, then blow it out and take the tip off. The remains on the wooden stick are great for creating black shading. I have many other friends who make primer out of milk of magnesia, pinch their cheeks for blush, use sugar in the raw to get rid of dry skin on the lips, and who use coconut oil as moisturizer.

If we support choice and folks having power over their body to do with it as they wish, how and why is there still this marginalization? My make-up use and application are not about you or them or that over there. It is about me. It is an expression of my creativity, personality, love for self, connections to my culture, commitment to challenging expectations, and it is my choice.

Is being femme a political identity? This is a question I deliberatly chose not to answer as it’s complicated and very layered. For some yes. For others it is just who we are. There is a lot of literature and thought about femme as an identity, a political and queer one and I encourage folks to look into that literature if you are interested. Also consider attending theFemme Conference in 2012 which will be held in Baltimore.

Many folks are familiar with this piece of media below: “To All of the Kick Ass, Beautiful Fierce Femmes Out There” by Ivan Coyote. I think it fits well into this discussion and is an important reminder to us all.

Share with me some of your ideas on media making and the connections to make-up. Do you think there are any?

Introducing The LatiNegr@s Project/Being AfroLatino Team

2011-11-02T20:16:00.002-04:00

So excited that we are expanding! Here's a bit about our team:

Anthony Otero is Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian that was born and raised in the Bronx, NY and currently a staff member at Syracuse University. He is one of the co-founders of The LatiNegr@s Project. A constant writer, he is currently working on his first book of poetry called "My Twisted Life Through Lines of Poetry"set to come out in 2012 and created the blogInside My Head.

As one of few Latino administrators at Syracuse University, he become an adviser to many Latino students and Latino student organizations. Anthony also helped create the Latino Heritage Month celebrations that still occur today. He took graduate courses in Cultural Foundations of Education and finally understood that what it means to be Afro-Latino after soul searching through research papers. This sparked the creation of all his blogs including the newly retitled Tumblr site: Black, Brown, and a little Mestizo. He also created the @beingafrolatino twitter account as a way to promote and unite Afro Latinos.

Bianca I. Laureano is a first generation Puerto Rican sexologist living in NYC. Raised in the Washington, DC area in an activist environment, Bianca is the daughter of an artist and educator and a product of the public school system. In the field of sexuality for over a decade, Bianca has worked with and taught youth of Color, working class communities, speaks at national and international organizations advocating sex-positive social justice agendas. She has presented both locally and internationally on various topics concerning activism, Latino sexual health, feminisms, youth and hip-hop culture, Latinos and race, Caribbean cultural practices and sexuality, dating and relationships, curriculum development, reproductive justice and teaching.

She's a board member at the Black Girl Project, doula with The Doula Project, co-founder of The LatiNegr@s Project, and Monster Girl. Bianca is an instructor and a freelance writer and was awarded the 2010 Mujeres Destacadas’ Award (distinguished woman) from El Diario/La Prensa for her work in sexual health. She hosts the website LatinoSexuality.com and identifies as a LatiNegra, media maker, radical woman of Color, activist, sex-positive, pro-choice femme. Find out more about Bianca by visiting her website BiancaLaureano.com.

Violeta Donawa is a Detroit native, born to a Panamanian father and African American mother. As a doctoral student, she examines racial ideologies and paradigms, as well as the impact of social media on identification processes. She has two publications, entitled, “Exploring the Afro-Latino Presence: The Afro-Panamanian Experience in Michigan” in the journal, Negritud: Revista De Estudios Afro-Latinoamericanos and “Defining and Documenting Afro-Latin America" in the journal, Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies.

Raising visibility of the AfroLatin@ community has always been a passion. She has found multiple ways to integrate this passion into her everyday life through academia and social media. As a freelance writer and emerging blogger, she has contributed to the Voices from Our America ™ project, volunteered with The AfroLatin@ Forum, written forwww.vidaafrolatina.com, and runs her blog La Republica de Detroit.

Kismet Nuñez is a black and Puerto Rican woman of color insurgent who deploys 21st century forms of art, autobiography, and performance against the discursive terrain of race, sex and personality. With the help of new media, Kismet breaks herself into pieces to become more than her parts in a revolutionary act of defiance, affirmation & self-care. Kismet is a blogger, writer, student, teacher, researcher, historian, fangirl, lover, sister, daughter and everything in between. In 2008, she founded iwannalive productions, a social media collective specializing in radical black gyrl media, political education, sex positive empowerment and complete and utter disruption of the archive, academy and hu-MAN-ity as we known and understand it. iwannalive productions manages #AntiJemimas, a social media performance project.

Begun in 2010 out of an earlier blog project exploring self love (and hate) titled Self Care: Revise, Revise, Revise, the #AntiJemimas project is about infinite literacies, multiple beings and the conundrum of trying to build a real black gyrl in a world of 21st century digital engagement. The project's goal is to circumvent the oppressive power of the iconic that traps woc bodies, sexualities and genders into roles labeled Only or Never. Today, #AntiJemimas has evolved into an online universe of blogs, Tumblrs and Twitters committed to the very hard work of building a real gyrl of color in a world of new media. You can find Kismet fomenting rebellion at Zora Walker, making gris-gris in the WOC Survival Kit, living on a distant star as the Sable Fan Gyrl, stroking her thighs as Pretty Magnolia, or twiddling her thumbs on Twitter. Kismet also blogs at Nuñez Daughter, the base blog for #AntiJemimas. Founded in May 2008, Nunez Daughter is an experiment in digital autobiography and archive. It expands on thoughts formulated in a research paper titled, “‘I’m On to You:’ Troubling Performances of Race, Gender and Class.”

We are Team Being Afro-Latino. You can follow on Twitter or on Tumblr. Buckle your seat belts, it will an exciting ride.

We're Still Blaming The Victim?

2011-10-27T17:57:00.001-04:00

cross posted from my media justice column

There’s been a lot of virtual attention towards a young 14 year-old Black woman from Alabama who was videotaped providing oral sex to her ex-boyfriend at their high school. As a Maryland native, this story being centered in Baltimore, hits home and remains enraging. Before I share more about this event, I want to share that two of the young men who participated in creating this video (which the young woman did NOT consent to) and then posted to the internets, have been arrested and the young woman has reportedly changed schools.

The young woman involved (and I’m purposefully not mentioning her name for many reasons, one she’s a minor, two she doesn’t need do a search and find this post about her, and three, it’s not important at this time) did not consent to having the video of her actions posted on the web. It’s unclear if she even consented to having the encounter videotaped, but what is clear is she is hurting, harassed, threatened, targeted, taunted, and isolated. To my knowledge the video is no longer available where it was originally posted (and I did not go searching for the video), however, some news outlets do have the video and use it when reporting on the story and blur out the images. In addition, one online site asked their readers (about 10,000 responded) if they would watch the video and 75% said they would! Unfortunately, there is still an interest in watching this encounter. Lots of conversations around cyber-bullying child pornography, and even sexting have emerged.

Youth responses
I have a love hate relationship with social media and situations such as this is one of those reasons. This is also a reason why some folks are against Net Neutrality (something I’ve encouraged us to consider and even support). Now, opponents of net neutrality would tell me there must be more of a social responsibility and accountability of some of these online spaces that host user content. I don’t think this is such a negative thing, however, how this is implemented is essential to understand and examine.

What I have seen are many youth responding to this situation in specific ways. There are folks who are clearly in support of the younsg woman and asking folks to stop harassing andbullying her. Then there are youth who are creating media of their own and posting it about the young woman (and no I’m not linking to any of them on purpose). Part of the cyber-bullying this young Black woman is experiencing is videos made of her, people reacting to watching the video, several young men (many of Color) creating raps, her first and last name becoming a verb, songs about the young woman, and even adults blaming her for her actions saying “she knew what would happen” and “she chose to perform this act.”

It troubles me because we still are in a society where people are UNCLEAR about what consent includes, what it means to obtain consent from someone, and what it means to violate someone and not obtain consent. I find it troubling that adults are blaming this young woman for experiencing bullying, threats, isolation because of her choice to perform oral sex. This sends many messages, one which is shaming of young women, women of Color in being sexual. Shaming folks has rarely ever had positive outcomes for all people involved, including especially the person it is targeted towards. People think they may be “helping,” or “just sharing their opinion,” or “stating the facts,” when in fact they are essentially rape apologists claiming “she asked for it” and “it’s her fault she is being treated” poorly. These are the same things we hear from people who blame victims and survivors of rape and sexual assault.

Sexting
I know that many of you don’t even think of sexting, instead maybe you think of seeing or sending naked pictures to other folks in your cell phone. Well, the legal term for that which older folks (who also participate in this activity) have come up for is sexting. I’ve shared some of the historical background that is connected to the legislation of sexting and how it is a crime before. I want to be clear that if you or someone you know is under 18 years old and things like this come into your cell phone/handheld device this will be considered a crime. If you are the person sending it you are the person who is considered doing the crime, the perpetuator. If you need or want more information on sexting check out my last article on the topic. Don’t think that just because you don’t know the rules/laws that they don’t apply to you, make sure these are clear and be careful! It’s part of the responsibility that comes with this type of technology today.

Speaking of responsibility, what role do our communities have and each of us individually have in these situations? Earlier this week Nicole Clark, MSW a social worker and sexual health activist/consultant for women and girls of color wrote a post called “Call To Action: Teens, Sex Tapes, and Why We’ve Got To Do Better” where she outlines four questions for readers about this current event and reality for the young woman involved. She writes:

What is the solution here? What can we do as adults to decrease the likelihood of incidences like this from occurring in the future? For one, we can stop sending mixed messages to young people about sex and sexuality. We can put the blame all we want on the media, rappers, models, music, videos, pop culture, social media, and magazines all we want, but young people are looking to the adults in their lives on how to behave.

I agree with Nicole’s perspective of ending mixed messages on sexuality and as adults, mentors, parents, educators who have young people in our lives taking some of this responsibility as well. Not just responsibility but accountability. We can blame the outlets and social media like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr that allowed the video, bullying and harassment to continue (and some folks claim the young woman is using Twitter currently, although this has not been confirmed that it is actually her). However, there is a level of user accountability that we must also recognize. How do we talk to youth about how they behave online? Is it the same as how we teach them to behave in 3D? Why are they different? How can we figure out more solid and useful ways to discuss these methods?

Now, this incident is not isolated. Black women and women of Color have been targeted, harassed, threatened, bullied, isolated, shamed, silenced, violated, and victimized for being sexual beings in this country and world. We have not been protected the same way other women have, and even victimized by the same communities and organizations created to provide us some form of protection.

I believe the first things we must do is think about what consent means to us and then have conversations with others on the topic. How do folks have different definitions of consent? How do you obtain consent? What are the challenges to getting consent? What are the pleasures in getting consent? Then follow that up with a conversation with family members, community members, classmates, professors, mentors, and other folks in the communities of practice of which we have membership.

Next, think about what it means to have the privilege of social media, access to the internet, and how that gives us a unique yet important type of power. What are the ways we may practice power with versus power over in social media? How are these connected to our ideas of respect and I’m not saying this is an easy one as I see adults on social media acting out too!

Finally, what may we learn from young people about the uses and necessities of social media? I think it is important to look to young people as those experts who can help with creating solutions and holding their peers accountable. This is NOT just something that adults must do. It is something we ALL must do, it is all of our responsibility to speak out towards injustice, oppression, and isolation of young people because of a choice they made. To think it is up to adults to lead these efforts is a problem already. I’m committed to working with everyone in our community to challenge and find ways to make sure this does not happen again to another young person, young person of Color or community. What are ideas and ways others are working to help end these incidences as well?

What's It Mean To Project Yourself?

2011-10-23T22:12:00.001-04:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

This weekend is the first Sisterhood Summit http://sisterhoodsummit.blackgirlproject.org/ presented by the Black Girl Project (BGP) of which I am a advisory board member. Created by Aiesha Turman (who did a media maker’s salon with me a while ago), the Black Girl Project provides educational and community based workshops and there is a documentary out of the same name. Some of you may remember other Amplify writers sharing informationon BGP.

Aiesha has asked me to present on the plenary panel of other women of Color speaking about the them of the conference: Projecting Yourself: Standing Up, Standing Out. I have yet to really sit and think about what I want to share in the 4-5 minutes I have to speak. Although I have spent various times of the day thinking about themes that I’d like to focus on and share.

I’ll be in the fabulous company of several activists which include: Tanya Fields (@BlkGrlInc on Twitter), who is the executive director of The BLK ProjeK which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating women-led local economies in underserved and marginalized communities. DJ TastyKeish (@TastyKeish on Twitter), who is the weekend host of WBAI 99.5 FM’s Rise Up Radio on Friday nights will also be on the panel. Verneda White of Human Intonation (@HumanIntonation on Twitter), which is an organization that centers fashion, human rights, and social justice. Amplify readers may remember the collaboration Advocates for Youth did with Human Intonation earlier this year. Ghylian Bell of Urban Yoga Foundation will also be present and discussing holistic health.

To say the Sisterhood Summit will be amazing is truly an understatement. I know this because I’ve been a part of creating the summit, selecting workshops, scheduling HIV and STI testing, figuring out the use of social media during the summit, hearing about donations of food and goodies, and setting up ground rules. A majority of the workshops are youth-led and interactive. Participants will leave with new knowledge, but also with tools and media they create on this day. Workshops include topics in politics, relationships, health, social justice, sexuality, identity, and empowerment. There are still some openings for those interested inregistering (and yes this does take place in Brooklyn, NY, and no you do not have to identify as Black to register).

Some themes that come up for me during my presentation include conversations of power, resilience, revolutionary love, and asking for help/healing. When I started writing this piece I had it on my mind when I went to bed and had this great speech laid out in my mind. Of course when I’m awake, conscious, and able to write things down they are not as clear. Since we are asked to speak about how the theme of the summit impacts the work we do I definitely want to tease out the discussions of power, love and healing. Here are some things I’m thinking about including. Let me know if you have suggestions or other ideas/ways to go and I’ll definitely give you a shout-out in my presentation!

-Power is something we all have
-How I learned and discovered the various types of power I embody and own
-Ways I misused my power and how I came back from that
-What acknowledging our power means for us and our community
-How others can see the power we have
-How our core essence/qualities/identities is/are attached to this power
-How loving ourselves in a world that does not love us back as much is revolutionary
-That part of revolutionary love is to be happy as young women of Color and to survive
-Asking for help is a gift we give ourselves and others
-Asking for help can assist with healing, individually or communally
-Healing and coping are parts of revolutionary love
-Boundaries are a part of healing and revolutionary love
-Survival, love, healing and resilience are connected
-It is ok to rest

I know these are lots of thoughts to string together and I wonder if I need to include media-making as part of this discussion. And I keep reminding myself I only have at most 5 minutes! Maybe I can edit and hope that some of the questions we are asked offer me the opportunity to get to what I couldn’t share in my first statement. What would you want to hear about at a Sisterhood Summit from panelist as they discuss their work and connections to projecting yourself?

Flashback to Revolutionary TV: The Golden Girls

2011-10-16T18:44:00.002-04:00

cross posted from my Media Justice blog

Part of me has wanted to feature some revolutionary television shows that have inspired me in so many ways. These are shows that we don’t often have accessible on basic television (not including cable) but that were available when I was growing up on basic national networks. This may be a series depending on the response I receive from readers, or this may be a one-shot deal. Either way, I’m too excited to write about The Golden Girls!

Earlier last week I saw an image shared on a social media site of The Golden Girls and it inspired this post. I remember watching The Golden Girls on television growing up and I would not be surprised that watching this show encouraged me to go into the field of reproductive justice. Growing up with this type of media really impacted me and still does today and I knew I had to share, even if just a bit, with readers.

Many of you reading may have a background with The Golden Girls as the one surviving cast member of the show is Betty White who is experiencing what some may call a “come back” (but it’s not like she went anywhere to begin with). With White being at the center of a hugely successful social media campaign to get her to host Saturday Night Live and now with a “rap” song released called “I’m Still Hot,” she’s making it clear she’s not going anywhere. Her song also makes references to The Golden Girls either by name or by referencing cheese cake.

For those not knowledgeable of the show, it takes place in Miami, Florida and features four women: Rose performed by Betty White, Blanche performed by Rue McClanahan, Dorothy performed Bea Arthur and Sofia, Dorothy’s mother, performed by . We follow the four women who are all over 55 years old in their everyday lives as single women. Estelle Getty. All of the women are widows except for Dorothy who is divorced and her husband Stan has a returning storyline. They are all parents and some even grandparents. We follow them as they age, find work, date, and remarry.

The Golden Girls discussed and represented so many aspects of our lived realities. How is it that I connected so much to a show that featured older white women living in Florida? I do believe it is because of how the characters are created and the topics they discuss. This was also one of the first times I saw a representation of a Caribbean gay man in a television series who was normalized and not targeted or harassed. Each episode had an amazing script written and the performances were stellar! Some of the topics they discussed, and that I remember to this day, include: HIV, condom usage, dating, sexism, homophobia, single parenting, marriage, divorce, healthcare, aging, disability, race, and of course friendship.

They were, and still are, on the vanguard of television.

Homophobia

In the pilot episode of The Golden Girls where we are introduced to all of the characters, Blanche, who owns the home all the ladies rent a room from, is seeking roommates. We are also introduced to her cook named Coco who is a gay Latino man. Throughout the series homophobia was challenged by normalizing lesbian, gay, and bisexual people.

For example, check out the conversation Dorothy, Sophia and Blanche have about one of Dorothy’s childhood friends who identifies as a lesbian.

When Blanche’s brother wants to marry his partner, she struggles with understanding why two gay men would want to be married. Their discussion is one that has been used often during the various conversations in the US regarding same gender marriage.

And they discuss the term “queer” and cross-dressing among Dorothy’s older brother. Sophia explains how she finds the term to be useful in certain ways. Blanche’s discussion of queer shows us how time specific language may be, but also how it evolves, especially how we use the term today.

Teen Pregnancy, Single Mothers & Birthing Options

The characters often discuss pregnancy and parenting on a regular basis as each of them are mothers. However, teen pregnancy is specifically featured as Dorothy became pregnant while still in high school. She carried the pregnancy to term and parented her child while marrying her partner Stan. Many of the stereotypes about teenage mothers and familial (specifically Italian as Dorothy and Sophia’s characters are and originally from Brooklyn, NY) responses to teenage pregnancy are presented in a humorous way. We hear Sophia’s narratives of how she responded when Dorothy told her she was pregnant, Dorothy’s fear and challenges in being a teen mother and married so young, and we see the successes their family has experienced.

Blanche’s daughter Rebecca chooses to have a child without a partner and raise the child as a single mother. She also chooses to have her child in a birthing center. Here is a clip of the visit to the birthing center which also discusses some of the challenges Rebecca experiences.

Normalizing Sexuality In Older Adults

Blanche is the most infamous character for normalizing sex and sexual activities for older adults. Her character is the main one who was dating often and easily discussed her experiences and dates with her male partners. She dated the most and was also not as monogamous as the other women. A part of the series did make fun of her experiences with men, but Blanche didn’t let that phase her. The wealthy up-bringing and self-entitlement she had only normalized her choices: why couldn’t she have as many lovers as she desired? Why couldn’t any of us? Blanche’s ideas definitely impact the ability to date among her roommates. Here is one clip of Blanche setting up a double date. Rose agrees to go and shares her frustrations with dating as an older woman. She also shares her resistance and fear of having sex with other men besides her husband. This is real talk!

HIV

As this show was seen during the mid to late 80s, HIV became a topic of discussion around the US. In the episode on HIV and AIDS, Rose has a blood transfusion that may have been contaminated with HIV positive blood. This was something that happened many times in the US early when we were beginning to understand HIV. Today, however, we have not had a case of HIV transmission through a blood transfusion in decades. However, Rose is sad and scared about her HIV test results she’s waiting 2 weeks to receive. She talks with Blanche about her fears and concerns and states that she thinks Blanche is the more likely person who “deserves” to contract HIV because of her active sex life. Check out Blanche’s response to that assumption.

Aging and Dying

One part of our lives that we often don’t enjoy discussing is dying and aging. Because The Golden Girls are all over 55 years old, this is a recurring theme. Sophia often is the one character who talks the most about aging and dying. In this clip Sophia believes her dead husband has sent her messages about her upcoming death and she is preparing for it with the girls. Also in this episode Blanche’s brother Clayton comes out to her as a gay man.

Infidelity

With all of the women having been married, Dorothy’s storyline is the one that features infidelity the most as her husband Stan left her for a younger woman. However, the ideas all the women have about their dead husbands are sometimes shaken. In one episode Blanche is challenged when a man comes to her home claiming he is the son of her dead husband George. Some of the things that come up for a person who believed their partner was not one who went outside of their monogamous marriage are shared in this episode.

Race & Ethnicity

Although race and ethnicity were not paramount in the show, which is something that is defintely one issue that is problematic. However, when The Golden Girls did address race and ethnicity it was done in a way that brings attention to the ridiculousness of racially white people being cast as people of Color. It also brings attention to what happens when folks try to do race, and fail. In this clip we see how the ladies go to a high school reunion and Rose gives all of the women other identities taking the one of a Korean exchange student for herself.

Another scene when Dorothy begins dating exclusively and finds a man whose company she enjoys. Her mother Sophia acts out her happiness by embracing some southern stereotypes laced with racialized ones as well. This is a great example of how some skits can be funny even without the blackface.

If you’d like to see how they ended the show without any spoilers check out this scene and see who gets remarried and moves away, who stays with Blanche in her home, and how the women decide to continue their friendships.

Media Justice Mash-Up: Latino Heritage Month Edition

2011-10-06T18:50:00.002-04:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

’ve been struggling with what to write for this weeks article. I’ve fluctuated from writing about the protests and movements going on currently in NYC and all over the U.S. Then I’ve thought about writing about different topics that have come up for Latino Heritage Month (September-October). I also considered writing a longer piece about class and how that’s connected to so many ideas but our social realities of class and access are different. I’d still like to write about that topic sometime soon, but before I could write about that topic I had to get this out of my system: triflin’ and offensive advertisements.

It all seems to come together, those topics I wanted to discuss. The movements against corporate greed and wealth, class issues in this commercial for Verizon. There’s no transcript, but you can imagine just from the image what is going on or being sold.

In this advertisement Verizon has chosen to sell their latest cellular telephone using symbols that are appropriations of the Hindu religion. This occurring so close to when folks are dressing up for Halloween. I want to be clear with readers who are not familiar with this value and belief system: this is not okay. This is problematic on numerous levels! This advertisement is in no way praising or respecting any aspect of Hinduism. It is actually mocking the belief system and attempting to sell aspects of the religion to consumers.

And this is why this column exists. For media such as these. For us to be thoughtful and aware consumers and media makers. This is one of the reasons why when Latino Heritage Month comes around I try to focus attention on folks who are doing work that impacts reproductive justice movements. Often organizations and spaces celebrating this month often forget or consciously exclude topics of sexuality and reproductive justice. Instead of taking advantage of normalizing HIV testing (October 15 is the National Latino AIDS Awareness Day), or discussing how to combat transmisogny within our communities and prepare forTransgender Day of Remembrance (November 20), I’ve often experienced conversations that are about watching groups perform, having authors discuss their work and watching films. I see these forms of celebrations useful in a very general sense, yet there needs to be more of a challenge among us and from within our communities.

Do we know the geography of Central and South America and the Caribbean? What type of conversations do we have during Latino Heritage Month when it intersects with Columbus Day? Are any of the events bilingual or are they English-only? Do we include countries that are a part of South America but not colonized by the Spanish (i.e. Brazil, Guyana, Suriname)?

A small form of my activism during this month is to highlight Latinos doing work this month in the field of reproductive justice and will feature several folks. The first part of this series has been posted on my RH Reality Check blog along with a link on where you can read last year’s posts as well. I have several other folks in mind, but if there's someone you think must be included this year definitely let me know!

I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite media that has been produced for Latino Heritage Month.

Cristo Negro is a film in production. This is the trailer. Here is what the film is about “In Countries like Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Panama and more there are Black Christs found in many churches. These mystery images have interesting legends, connected with miracles and the practitioners do unique rituals. Get a sneak peek of this documentary that will discover the worshipers of the Black Christ.”

A quick history of the National Young Lords organization.

And yes, I still do adore elements of popular culture, so that is why this MTV Made “I want to be a rapper” featuring a young high school student in Florida, Rafael. He is a little person whose parents are Puerto Rican and Dominican. What I love about this episode is that his Made coach gave him assignments and “homework” that will help him for the rest of his life, not just to accomplish this goal he’s set for himself. For example, it was clear to me as a educator that Rafael was working on getting a good grasp on the English language (as many high school students do) and his Made coach gave him vocabulary to focus on. I really love this episode!

Latino Heritage Month Meets Reproductive Justice 2011: The Work of Harmony Santana

2011-10-05T19:27:00.002-04:00

cross posted from my RH Reality Check blog

Last year during Latino Heritage month I did a series of posts highlighting various Latinos in the U.S. and abroad who do important work on reproductive justice. I often find, and this is still the case, that many events celebrating Latino Heritage during this time rarely discusse or include conversations about reproductive justice, sexual and reproductive health, sexual orientation, or other topics that intersect with these. These posts are attempts to shed light on these issues during this time of Latino Heritage Month in hopes that we can continue to have them year-round.

One of the things I wanted to include this year that I didn’t last year during this time was featuring young people who are influencing reproductive justice, but also who are having a huge impact on our communities. Last year I did not include youth or youth activists and this year I’d like to change that for many reasons. One reason being that we, as older folks (some may even consider us elders), can learn a lot from youth. We not only have the privilege of mentoring some of them, but we get mentored by them as well.

Harmony Santana, Getty Images

This year the first person I’d like to highlight is actress Harmony Santana. Many of you who are into films, especially independent films by people of Color may have already heard of Harmony Santana as she is the transgender Latina who was cast in the film Gun Hill Road as the lead character: a transgender Latina.

The film was one of the largest grossing independent films in the United States. It shares the story of Vanessa a trans-Latina poet whose father Ernesto (Esai Morales) is released from prison after several years of being incarcerated. Vanessa lives with and is raised by her mother Angela (Judy Reyes) and experiences challenges when her father reunites with the family. Ernesto and Angela work with and find ways to support their daughter as she establishes herself as a member of the family and community. This is not a review of the film, I wrote one of those and if you want to hear my perspective on the film, some critiques and some adoration you can read it in full here.

Harmony Santana is a young Latina whose existence is a reminder to us all that that the reproductive justice movement must be a space for all people in our community to be welcomed and help do important work. Including youth and trans people strengthens our community, work, and impact. They are essential to our community and recognizing the ways some of the work we may do may not be as inclusive as we think is an opportunity to make lasting changes.

She is a young person who is a representative of a community that is often ignored oppressed and excluded; even by those who claim to be allies. For many of us working within our communities, we may have come into contact with youth who have similar experiences to Harmony. Indiewire’s reporter Nigel M. Smith reports that Harmony was living in a LGBTQI group home in Harlem called Green Chimneys. Growing up one of 13 children in a Puerto Rican-Dominican home, Harmony is a Bronx native who hasshared in several interviews that her relationships with her siblings and mother are strong, yet she remains estranged from her father. She’s not just an up and coming actress, she is many of the trans youth who experience homelessness and isolation. She is also representative of the youth who survive and thrive when discovering their worth and space in the community.

I’m thankful I am able to be a witness to Harmony Santana’s work, to see her thrive as a young person, but also as a leading Latina in film. She and her work are a part of and advocate for media justice. During an interview with Rev. Chris Carpenter at Movie Dearest, Harmony gave the following advice for trans people “Be yourself, be happy, and have hope in your family; they might not be supportive now but it takes time.”

Media Literacy At Work

2011-09-30T19:21:00.001-04:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

It’s been a while since I wrote about using media literacy skills, one important step towards understanding and creating media justice. I really enjoy this article by Elizabeth Thoman at the Center for Media Literacy as it outlines what media literacy is and its various components. As I wondered what to write about this week, I realized that I had been thinking about a segment I watched this weekend on 60 minutes. I’ve decided to share some of my questions and analysis to show how I use my media literacy skills to examine the media I’m consuming. One of the things I’d like to highlight is that different people experience the same media message differently and I know this may occur and I welcome it. So, if you have a different or other response to the media please share it! I wrote this article before writing this introduction, so there may be a more conversation style of writing below.

Did ya’ll see this past Sunday’s 60 Minutes? It had some interesting stories. One on a white supremacist militia leader who was murdered at close range by his 10 year old son (not on the rise of white supremacist militias). Another story was about the creators of South Park, but it was the first story about NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly speaking about what the NYPD have done since September 11th, 2001 to make the city “safer.” Here’s the entire segment to watch (sorry no transcript). I found myself using a lot of my media literacy skills and focusing on media justice at the same time. The story is called “Fighting Terrorism in New York City.”

It’s important for readers to know that when I watched this I was with a group of racially Black New Yorkers who ranged in age from mid-thirties to mid-sixties (I being one of the youngest folks there). All of us identify as radically left leaning as well and I’m sure others may identify us as “radicals.” As we watched, I had a LOT to say, but said it mostly under my breath as the room was very silent as we sat and watched. I want to share some of my personal thoughts as well as some of the conversations that occurred during commercial breaks.

One of the first things discussed was the mispronunciation of the word “hierarchical” by Commissioner Kelly and then followed by the journalist. This occurs at the 2:42 mark if you want to go back and hear. We wondered what does that mean when the journalist, who probably knows the proper way of pronouncing that term, mirrors what their interview subject states, even if it’s wrong? Is this a good thing? A sign that the journalist was listening and centering the interviewer? Or is this poor choice? I’m still not sure where I’m at on this because often I think when folks mirror slang or terms that a community has created, especially when youth-centered, it becomes almost a performance of that term/word when it is mirrored. What do others think?

The counter terrorism division that was created in NYC was the focus of the segment. As I shared in a previous post regarding coping and healing during September 11th, I was here in NYC at the time, and have returned and witness first hand the work of the counter terrorism division. In the beginning of the segment we are told that NYPD are “armed like soldiers” and they are! Now, seeing ginormous guns in the hands of NYPD where I may go in the city does not make me personally feel more safe. Instead it actually makes me more tense. It triggers memories I have of visiting Puerto Rico during one of the height of the US war on drugs in the early 1990s where military occupied Puerto Rico and armed military men were pulling over random cars and searching them. This is a jarring experience to have and witness at any age. Yet, this is what may spaces such as Penn Station has turned into in NYC.

In the piece we learn that the NYPD is working with the secret service, military, FBI, federal emergency management, state and local first responders, but not the CIA. The absence of the CIA was something we discussed as well. Reports citing that the NYPD has been working with the CIA since 2002 are not new. What may be new is that folks didn’t realize this is not something the CIA is allowed to do: collect information/spy on “Americans” (I put “Americans” in quotes because America is NOT just the US, geographically speaking America includes Canada, the US, Central and South America. Yet, when people in the US use it, the purposes are primarily to mean US citizens or people living in the continental US. I put this note here because it is important to show that even the media we consume don’t always get it “right” or craft language in a particular way. Language is powerful!) Yet, this is exactly what has been done for almost 10 years. Currently the CIA is investigating the legality of working with the NYPD to focus on Muslim communities.

$3 billion has been spent to prepare NYPD for “every kind of threat” including having the ability to “take down a plane.” This includes training assault teams in specific ways like the hostage situation in a subway car we were shown. But, I wondered: why are there NO dummies or masses that could be people in that space, which is the reality of subway cars in NYC? How is this a good training simulation without having the knowledge that folks may be occupying space, screaming, terrified? This reminds me of the Maryland driving test where you take the driving test in a closed parking lot versus on the road where people actually drive in real life in this country!

Another part of the segment I struggled with was how it is impossible to walk a block in lower Manhattan without being monitored. There are currently 2000 cameras and soon to be 3000 that feed into the system created to monitor us. This alone a $150 million project. The artificial intelligence created, we are told, can identify packages that are left in a place too often (as we have been socialized for ten years to “if you see something say something” yet often there are no ways for us to “say something” until we are off the subway and find an employee, which the MTA has limited due to financial burdens). Now, the technology can also identify the description of a person. The example used was a person wearing a red shirt, but I wondered how sophisticated this was, as in would it racially profile people as well? This reminded me of the movement of young men of Color wearing white t-shirts all over their communities to make racial profiling harder for officers. I also wonder, if it can identify people why do we still have so many missing person’s reports in that area? Oh, right this is only for counter terrorism.....

And that counter terrorism effort is not just in the US, it’s abroad, where other NYPD are located. They are said to be “gathering intelligence all over the world” including Jordan, France, Madrid, Tel Aviv, London, Toronto, Singapore, and Dominican Republic. From a globalization perspective these countries must have agreed to have these folks placed in their country right? Well, that’s not stated, but i would like to think that’s the case and Commissioner Kelly would have not discussed things in this way if they were not agreed upon through a collaboration between nations.

The parts of the segment that I’ve also experienced where when NYPD signal subway cars to stop so that they can eyeball every passenger before letting the train go. Many folks may say all of these things are efforts to keep us safe, that who cares if we are a few minutes late for whatever we are going to do. But this is still racial profiling! What exactly are these officers looking for, or whom? What is considered a suspicious package or person? I really do still believe this is a form of institutionalized Islamaphobia.

One of the aspects of the counter terrorism efforts that the journalist was impressed by was one that I found to be deeply troubling. This was the NYPD Cricket group that consists of 12 teams and 200 Pakistani youth. The officer who coordinated the league stated that cricket is national pastime of Pakistan. Yet, cricket is also the sport in many Caribbean countries, so why the focus on Pakistani youth? Journalist stated that “Hundreds of Muslim immigrant parents have kids playing for the NYPD.” This is impressive to our journalist and media providers? This leaves me frustrated.

Finally, this whole conversation about being “lucky” in catching the bomb that was in Times Square last year. That wasn’t because of the $3 billion training or technology, that was luck? So then how do we know any of this will actually ever work for reasons it’s been created? We just heard a 12 minute discussion and presentation on how this new approach is great and impressive, yet we are still holding onto luck. Again, I don’t feel any more safe after watching this segment.

I learned that the US and NYPD define terrorism in a very rigid and specific way. Terrorism is not connected to the number of rapes, domestic violence, or hate crimes that are committed often by US citizens towards and upon other US citizens. Oh the irony of it all! What would our society (at least in lower Manhattan) look like if these resources shifted to social issues and experiences that a larger group of people experience and are impacted by? What more are we willing to give up regarding privacy and safety for a city and government counter terrorism plan of action? We’ve learned that the Patriot Act has resulted in more arrests for drugs (over 1500) than for terrorism (15).

What are your thoughts about how counter terrorism efforts have been presented and shared in our communities? Are there other aspects that came up for you while reading and watching the clip? If you live outside NYC what are ways your communities have seen counter terrorism efforts? What are the advantages and challenges experienced?

What I Learned When I Made My First Zine

2011-09-25T19:25:00.000-04:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

I made my first zine ever in life over last weekend. It became the program for entrepreneur, author, and artist Erika Lopez’s east coast The Welfare Queen tour that is on limited run in NYC for Latino Heritage Month. Erika had given me all of her hard drives that had all of her artwork on them and that was amazing!

A zine is very do-it-yourself (DIY) form of media making. Some folks say zines are similar to magazines where they have stories, interviews, poems, words, images, and other forms of text similar to how we read books and magazines. Sometimes the text is handwritten, but it is definitely a way for the use of radical typography. So, even though I was making a program for an off Broadway show, it worked out.

I’ve read so many zines, have many friends who create them, and have toyed with the idea of creating one and this seemed like a good time. One of the ways I found this to be a useful activity was that I only had to credit all of the artwork to one person, Erika. That made things so much easier, as does having access to all of her artwork. When the artist supports you using their art, it’s such a great way to begin.

I asked one of my homegirls Aaminah (whom I’m trying to get a Media Makers Salon interview with where she shares her background, interests, and experiences creating zines) for some mentorship and guidance for creating the zine. She sent me to this post she created online about making zines. I specifically wanted to know how to set up the pages for making copies of the zine (my zine was all black and white).

Here are some lessons I learned:

1. For the zine I was making, spelling is important (unless part of your media making is to challenge conventional modes of spelling and language/grammar rules).

2. It’s important to pace yourself while creating the zine. This means setting realistic goals. For me this was also connected to planning and printing things out well.

3. Organization will really help you create the product you want. I knew I had to have certain elements, logos, and text in the zine, so I made sure that if I didn’t want to use my own printer and ink to get to campus or the library early.

4. Embracing a “gritty” look, or not being adverse to such, will help when you need to make copies and end up at a copier that is less expensive.

5. Making edits after first run is not as frustrating as it could be, especially if the zine has a “gritty” feel and various fonts. I had to make 3 changes and each was easy since I cut up another one and made the edits and copied them.

6. Sometimes big corporations who specialize in copying and printing mass quantities are worth the extra pennies per page. I tried to make copies low budget at first but the machine kept breaking and the paper getting caught. It took me almost 15 min to make 50 copies of one page. Then I went to Staples, added money to my copy card and made 50 copies in less than 5 minutes of all the pages of my zine! It costs more, but it was worth it to save time, have folks there to help, and know what I’m paying for is quality and these services.

7. Text and typography are important to keep in mind especially if you want to reach many folks and make an accessible zine. For example, I knew I had to save some space, and I know my zine has small lettering, so folks who have vision differences will not be able to read my zine as well/quickly as folks who don’t have vision challenges.

8. Make sure to credit folks, especially if you use their artwork and text. I included an acknowledgement page that helped me to also identify folks who were helpful in the process and needed to be included.

9. Keep a master copy for yourself and file it away. Also keep one copy for yourself as well. My zine was not for sale, but if you are selling your zine keeping these makes additional copies useful and helpful.

10. Give yourself credit. It wasn’t until Erika said “plug yourself - you are making it” that I thought to write that I had created the zine.

What are some things that you have learned as you have created your zines? What are some things you’d like to know about zines (for my media makers salon with Aaminah)?

Media Justice & September 11, 2001: How Do We Prepare & Cope?

2011-09-17T14:01:00.002-04:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

This was going to be a short article. That’s mainly because I’d like to hear from you all and what your ideas are about this topic. Perhaps I could have written this more timely and had it posted last week. However, it was not until last Friday when a student asked me for some guidance that I considered this topic for discussion and to even write about it here. As I began to write I realized it wasn’t so short as I had thought.

As you all know I live in NYC and we recently commemorated the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001 (it’s important to put a date as many events in history have occurred on September 11th). I don’t want to share my own personal story of surviving that day, as I was living in NYC and a grad student at NYU, or have others feel that they need to do that. I knew in preparing to teach this semester that there were events that were planned and that this topic would come up.

To prepare I had asked folks in my network who are educators in various spaces how they are preparing for such conversations to begin in their classrooms. I asked specifically for suggestions and ideas for facilitating a conversation. Here are some of the topics I asked about:

• How to approach Islamaphobia in the classroom?
• How do we negotiate some of the –isms that may come up in this discussion with conversations of social justice?
• How may we interrogate ideas of patriotism?
• How may we approach the complexity of defining patriotism as perpetuating oppressions against others? (i.e. racial profiling by police, at check points, at airport, etc.)

There were several suggestions for establishing ground rules, to reminding ourselves as educators that statements our students make are not about us, and sharing up front that our classes will bring into the conversation voices that are often ignored or isolated. These are all great suggestions and I wonder how folks reading this may have experienced conversations in class when their instructors make such statements to facilitate conversations. Has it worked? What has been your experience?

What led me specifically to this topic was a student’s request after class. As one of our first assignments due date approaches there are more students who wish to speak to me after class. One student waited after class and after several other students asked me their questions about the assignment. We were alone in our classroom when the student asked me “do you have any resources for teaching about September 11, 2001?” I asked what specific type of resources the student was looking for. The student shared that curriculums, approaches, or activities would be useful. I asked what the population was and the student shared that this was for a group of youth of various ages that the student has worked with for over a year. They were scheduled to visit the memorial site where the World Trade Center was and is being reconstructed.

We had a good discussion. I asked first if the student knew what their boundaries were in having this conversation. For example, do they know what they are un/comfortable talking about regarding this issue? The student shared that they wanted to be prepared for a discussion. I suggested one approach could be to ask the youth they are working with what their understanding is of what happened in NYC on September 11, 2001. That this may mean to be prepared to hear a range of comments from very detailed and biased ideas to very general understandings of what occurred. To be prepared to approach biased commentary and ideas in a way that is not isolating for those youth, but welcomes a discussion about those ideas, where they come from and why.

I also shared that I don’t know of any curriculum or resource that has been established or created to discuss the events of September 11, 2001. I’m not sure why this may be. Perhaps the curriculums that have been created are less than exceptional, only for an age group I do not work with, or are not widely developed. I do know I have seen some biased, stereotypical, and racist images and narratives for children about September 11th, 2001, such as coloring books and pamphlets.

At the end of our conversation the key things I shared with my student for preparing included: know your own boundaries around the conversations that may occur, be ready for very emotional responses (i.e. anger, crying), and to encourage each person to learn more about the events that occurred on their own in various ways. My student thanked me and left the classroom. I’m not sure of what the outcome was of that conversation(s) the student had with the youth, but I felt that the little bit of advice I gave was honest, centered self-care, and was what I may find useful if I were in their same position. I also think this question for guidance and resources speaks to why media literacy and media justice as so important!

What I find interesting is that my students were probably 8-10 years old when this occurred. This means that their memories and ideas about what happened are very much informed by personal testimony and various media representations. As a New Yorker, this past Sunday was one where I consciously chose not to leave my apartment or turn on the television. This is because I need to center my own self-care as well regarding these media representations and how people are treated in our society and city. Many of you may know that NYC increased police presence during the weekend, which for me does not make me feel safer. Instead it makes me sadder for the folks who are targeted and racially profiled, and to think for one moment that a woman of Color would not be targeted is not unrealistic. The people who know their rights, who may not consent to a search by police in the subways, but because they know their rights, are seen as a threat. (And for those who don’t know NYC already has armed military in certain places every day to help us all feel more “safe.”)

I don’t want to witness such abuses, especially on the weekend, my time off. I also planned ahead and made sure I had the X-Files season 4 (which is 25 episodes!) at home to keep me company and that my partner was with me as well as we prepared for the week. This would distract me from turning on the television and watching the news, seeing images, and hearing testimonies. I know some folks really need to witness those forms of media to heal and cope. For me, this is not useful. In fact it is very triggering.

I share this with you because I think it is important to know that whatever form of self-care you find useful, selecting isolation like I practiced that day, communal gathering, reflection, writing in a journal, lighting a candle, whatever else you may do is alright. There is no right or wrong way to heal and cope with such experiences. And this goes for other things we experience, especially in the reproductive justice movements.

We are fighting to end oppressions and allow folks the ability to make the best choices for themselves and stay healthy and centered regarding their sexual and reproductive health. This work can become very personal, difficult, and overwhelming. It’s important to remember that we are doing the work that we find to be right and just and that we are not alone.

I’d love to have a space here where those of you in the reproductive justice movement share ways that you cope and find support and healing. Also, what are some useful forms of approaching conversations around September 11, 2001 that have been productive and helpful for you? What additional advice would you have offered to my student?

Revisiting Abstinence In Media

2011-09-10T14:06:00.000-04:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

As I prepare for a new season of some of my favorite shows (can’t wait to check out the Sons of Anarchy (which I’ve discussed here before) I’ve been indulging in watching some of my favorite shows that I own on DVD. One of the shows that I’m constantly in awe of is Pushing Daises.

Pushing Daises is one of those rare shows that is not only entertaining with a strong, funny and intelligent script, but also mixes magical realism into the plot. One additional element to this show that I really adore is the representation of abstinence as well as the create ways characters find to express their love and attraction to one another. I find this type of narrative often omitted from stories of courtship or experiences in dating and forming relationships. Check out the trailer below:

I find this series extremely useful when discussing abstinence. Not only does this show center abstinence since this is a reality for the main characters, but it also offers a look into how we can be and get creative in our expressions of love and attraction to others that is safe in many ways. The premise of the show is that Ned (Lee Pace) is a pie maker who works with Olive (Kristin Chenoweth) but also has a secret power, which is where the magical realism comes in, in that he can “awaken the dead” for one minute, but if he leaves them alive something/one else must die in its place. He may touch them again and they are dead for good. Ned is using his power to help solve crimes of people who are murdered with private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride). When his childhood sweetheart Chuck (Anna Friel) is murdered he awakens her but is so caught up in his love for her he does not touch her again. Their entire courtship and relationship centers around Chuck and Ned not touching one another’s skin, which of course limits their ability to show love and affection. But they find ways to do so.

This show is one of the few that has only had two seasons but has been so influential, at least for me as an educator. Using this in a classroom setting for a sexuality class is how I envision this piece of media being a good guide into conversations on affection, attraction, abstinence, limiting transmission of STIs, and safety. For example, take Ned and Chuck’s experiences kissing one another. This is something that if done without any barrier methods for Ned and Chuck, can result in Chuck’s death. As a result, they get creative. Check it out below:

Chuck and Ned use plastic wrap as a barrier method to protect themselves from coming into skin-to-skin contact with one another. This may not be a perfect example of reality, but it is a good example of how using plastic wrap can be used as a barrier method. For example, it’s not rare to hear that plastic wrap (as long as it is not microwavable) can be used in place of a dental dam to limit exposure to bodily fluids when engaging in oral sex. They also do similar things when holding hands as they wear gloves. Early in the show they did not hold one another’s hands, instead they made eye contact and held it and held onto their own hands. http://youtu.be/0raikOcfgi4 It’s a great example of showing affection towards someone by holding hands, but it’s also a great example of a safe activity that may limit STIs. The use of a glove for this safety speaks also to the use of latex gloves as barriers for various types of sexual activities.

Ned also finds his co-worker Olive is infatuated with him and desiring him as well. Their experiences are ones that are honest, hopeful, charming, and realistic for many folks. Being able to talk to someone we are attracted to, have a crush on, or want to get to know better takes courage. Olive is all of these things and so much more! Take a look at the witty and fun exchange Olive and Ned often have here.

Ned and Olive’s relationship is one that evolves in ways that I find realistic and supportive. At the end of season one Olive goes to a convent and there discovers that Chuck’s birth mother is also her Aunt Lilly. Here we have a narrative of young mothers being sent away to birth their children. This was not uncommon in many communities at particular times in the US, but today we don’t really have young mothers being sent away for fear of embarrassment (of themselves or their families) as we did years ago. Here’s a great clip of how Ned discovers the secret Olive has discovered.

I also appreciate how Ned and Chuck discuss their relationship with one another. Sometimes these conversations are scary and difficult to have, but Ned is very much the type to “spit it out” to get the conversation going and the statement out! This is a characteristic I enjoy about Ned, but also one that I can relate to because often when you think about something so much you become anxious, often some folks may just blurt out what is on their mind to find piece of mind. Here is the exchange Ned and Chuck have about being in a relationship with one another. Chuck wants to be realistic and acknowledges that Ned may want and need different types of affection that she cannot give and share with him because of their situation. Ned’s response to Chuck’s statement is that “just because we want things doesn’t mean we need them to be happy” and reminds Chuck that he wants to be with her even if they cannot be together in certain ways.

I find this interaction between Chuck and Ned one that speaks to how relationships may work even if/when one sexual encounters are not at the center. In our society we usually assume that a partnered, monogamous couple, especially one that is married and/or in love are engaging in sexual activity. Rarely do we imagine that their relationship works for them in ways that bring them both joy but does not include sexual activities. It really does challenge our way of thinking about relationships.

This is such a great show and I miss it dearly! Not just because it’s great content and stories, but it’s also useful in the classroom and entertaining. I’ve yet to find another show that embraces all of these conversations in such a unique and complete way. What are some forms of media that you all enjoy that discuss and represents abstinence that is accessible?

Media Justice Mash-Up

2011-09-01T14:09:00.000-04:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

The past 5 weeks of sharing notes from my Human Sexuality course (read all 5 parts here) meant I wasn’t writing about what was going on in our communities for a bit. A media mash-up seemed like a good place to start as there is so much going on and being discussed! But more importantly, there is a lot of action around things that folks believe are connected to injustice.

Gun Hill Road in Theaters
The film Gun Hill Road was released in NYC (and soon LA) a few weeks ago and there has been a ton of media attention for the film, as there should be. Not only is the film one of the first independent movies to get such acclaim and notice in theaters, it also shares the story of a young transgender Latina from the Bronx and has cast a young transgender Latina from the Bronx to portray this character! The film introduces Harmony Santana who plays Vanessa (who is also called Michael in the film). Harmony has been interviewed numerous times since her role and speaks about her experiences preparing for the film, her experiences with her family, and what she is planning to do today.

Check out the trailer below

Here’s an interview with Harmony at the Sundance Film Festival this year (sorry, no transcript).

It took me a few weeks to watch Gun Hill Road in the theater, but when I did, I was glad I did. You may read my review here, where I share some questions that still remain for me about this film and include some areas that were deeply uncomfortable and triggering. If you’ve seen the film I’d love to hear your thoughts. To see the next cities Gun Hill Road will be at visit the official website.

Reactions to “The Help”
Another film that is receiving tons of attention is the novel turned film “The Help.” I’ll admit I have not seen this film, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to before it leaves theaters (mainly because the next time I go to the movies I really want to see Attack The Block!). Yet, I do remember seeing the trailer for it when I went to see Bridesmaids and sharing my initial reaction then. Many folks are not happy about the film and the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH) has released a statement to all fans of the film stating their concern to be:

Despite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers. We are specifically concerned about the representations of black life and the lack of attention given to sexual harassment and civil rights activism.

A lot of talk among women of Color and those who did/not see the film has flooded my social media! One good friend of mine has posted a list of historical readings to help folks challenge the representations of the film and provide a more inclusive experience of Black domestic workers. Even Latina Magazine jumped on The Help bandwagon reminding us of 10 Latinas Who Have Played The Help (and they thought this was a useful article!) Most recently, Jamia Wilson, has written about the film from a different perspective, one that is positive. Wilson argues that the film “made us talk about race.” She shares how her father encouraged her to see the film and she left agreeing with many critics, but not hating the film. She writes:

But I confess: I didn’t hate The Help. It has sparked a rare and much-needed public dialogue about race, something very few blockbusters ever do, and has given a platform to a powerful cast of black women actors to showcase their talents, expand their audiences, and possibly snag some Oscar wins.

If you haven’t seen the trailer I’ve posted it below, and if you haven’t read Amplify columnists' reviews of the film I encourage you to do so as well.

Nivea Advertisement Targeting Men
Another August media image that has resulted in action, is Nivea’s ad targeting racially Black men and their grooming products. In the foto you see a young Black man dressed in a v-neck sweater, button down white shirt, and dark jeans with a low cut hairstyle and no facial hair. He is in a position to throw a head that he holds by the hair. The head is of a racially Black man with a long afro hairstyle and goatee facial hair. The text next to the image reads “Re-Civilize Yourself.” In a text box on the upper right hand corner the comment “Look like you give a damn. Nivea for men. Face Body Shave.”

Many folks have found this advertisement offensive for multiple reasons. Not only does it argue that natural hairstyles and full facial hair is undesirable, gives the impression people do not care about their appearances, and are “sloppy,” but it also brings into the conversation colonial and ethnocentric ideologies connected to physical features, class, race, ethnicity, and gender that are a part of a larger system of oppression. One system of oppression you may be more knowledgeable of would be that of US slavery. Others would be the extensive discussions of Eurocentric standards of beauty, and ideas of cleanliness and decency as they are tied to religion and class status. All of these are a part of a larger history of colonization which has used terms such as “primative” and “civil” to assign to people into a dichotomy of what is right/wrong, un/desirable.

I was not surprised when Nivea pulled the ad and issued an apology. Or when I heard that there was an ad geared towards racially white/lighter skinned men which has a man with low cut hairstyle and limited facial hair standing in a full suit holding a head of a lighter skinned person with long hair and full facial hair. His ad says “Sin city isn’t an excuse to look like hell.” See the difference in phrasing?

Femmes Of Color Symposium Keynote
And it’s from this advertisement of standards and expectations of bodies and beauty that leads me to this next piece of media. If you were in the San Francisco area you may have heard of the Butch Voices and Femmes of Color Symposium. Mia Mingus, a “queer disabled woman of color korean adoptee working, creating and loving towards wholeness and connection, love and liberation” was the Femmes of Color Symposium keynote speaker. Mia’s speech titled “Moving Toward The Ugly: A Politic Beyond Desirability” is stunning. I saw many friends tweet parts of her speech while she was orating and was all too happy when she published the speech in full on her site. Highlights for me, a person who identifies as femme, include the following:

“To me, femme must include ending ableism, white supremacy, heterosexism, the gender binary, economic exploitation, sexual violence, population control, male supremacy, war and militarization, and ownership of children and land.”

“It seems so basic in our communities, but I think we need to stop making assumptions about each other’s identities and make distinctions between how someone identifies verses what someone’s lived experience is. We need to make the distinction between descriptively femme and politically femme.”

“As femmes of color—however we identify—we have to push ourselves to go deeper than consumerism, ableism, transphobia and building a politic of desirability. Especially as femmes of color. We cannot leave our folks behind, just to join the femmes of color contingent in the giant white femme parade.”

“If we are ever unsure about what femme should be or how to be femme, we must move toward the ugly. Not just the ugly in ourselves, but the people and communities that are ugly, undesirable, unwanted, disposable, hidden, displaced. This is the only way that we will ever create a femme-ness that can hold physically disabled folks, dark skinned people, trans and gender non-conforming folks, poor and working class folks, HIV positive folks, people living in the global south and so many more of us who are the freaks, monsters, criminals, villains of our fairytales, movies, news stories, neighborhoods and world. This is our work as femmes of color: to take the notion of beauty (and most importantly the value placed upon it) and dismantle it (challenge it), not just in gender, but wherever it is being used to harm people, to exclude people, to shame people; as a justification for violence, colonization and genocide.

If you leave with anything today, leave with this: you are magnificent. There is magnificence in our ugliness. There is power in it, far greater than beauty can ever wield. Work to not be afraid of the Ugly—in each other or ourselves. Work to learn from it, to value it. Know that every time we turn away from ugliness, we turn away from ourselves. And always remember this: I would rather you be magnificent, than beautiful, any day of the week. I would rather you be ugly—magnificently ugly.”
(emphasis in original)

Freeing Ourselves: A Guide to Health and Self Love for Brown Bois
Released this summer at the Sister Song National Conference, The Brown Boi Project is making revolutionary media. They have released a new health guide by and for transgender men of Color and masculine-identified women of Color. The press release shares that
“Freeing Ourselves”

serves as an exciting new tool for empowerment, as transgender men and women on the masculine spectrum continue to face a health sector in which they are largely invisible. For people of color in these communities, who are often uninsured, these challenges are often compounded; high levels of unemployment, discrimination in public service delivery, and income inequality are the norm, not the exception.

The book is available for purchase online and don’t be shy to request that this book be purchased at your school or local library. It’s also a useful tool to have if you are a part of a health center or group working with the population targeted in this book.

FREE College Guide E-book
The Black Girl Project’s Guide to College is the first e-book featuring advice directly from The Black Girl Project (BGP) participants! You may remember my interview with (BGP) director, founder, and media maker Aiesha Turman when she discussed her film (of the same name) and the work she is creating. The e-book is FREE and just in time for back to school. If you or anyone you know is interested in advice in preparation for college please check this book out. It’s accessible and less than 30 pages. It’s also FREE!

Online Course: Sociology of Human Sexuality Part 5

2011-08-21T16:53:00.001-04:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column.

This is the final post on the notes from a summer class I’m teaching and wanted to offer readers a refresher and/or opportunity to take the course along with me. Read thefirst, second, third, and fourth posts for each week of topics.

This post will focus on our final class: an evaluation and a discussion with author and artistIvan Velez, Jr. who created Tales Of The Closet , one of the required books for this course. Ivan’s book is one of the first comic books to include youth of Color in NYC, queer identified youth in high school, and their experiences, challenges, and ways of building community.

Evaluation

Students were provided with the opportunity to write anonymous evaluations of the course. I asked them to focus on things that I have control over such as the topics discussed in class, texts used, assignments, grading, guest speakers, films, use of online teaching tools, their expectations of the class and if they were met. Students had 15-20 minutes to write as much or as little they desired regarding the course. After, we discussed the course as a group and they had the opportunity to share with me non-anonymously their thoughts regarding our course.

I was overwhelmed with how many students shared that their expectations for our class were not only met but exceeded them as well! Some admitted that they thought this class would be an “easy A,” but quickly realized they not only were learning a lot of information regarding health, society, and their own ideas and beliefs; but they were also doing a lot of work. This was something that challenged their expectations, but many said they did not find the readings or “work” for our class to be stressful or too much (which is often a critique of many upper level courses).

Some student’s thought that our class would make a good fall or spring course and some thought this was a course many students must be required to take versus an elective course. They also indicated that both books were useful and engaging, that they were affordable and could find the textbook for under $10 and thus, spent less than $20 for the texts for our class (Ivan offered his books to students for $5, almost a 50% off discount). I then shared with students how much I enjoyed being their instructor and mentor for the summer. They asked very thoughtful questions, had great discussions and respectful dialogues on many topics, and for being present in class for each session. I also learned a lot about myself as an educator and thanked them for being a part of my growth as well.

Tales Of The Closet
***SPOILERS***

Some folks have often wondered why or how a comic book may be a text for a course. I’ve learned early in my teaching experience, that people learn things in different ways. Some people are visual learners and gain more information from watching films or looking at images, other folks are good at taking notes and rereading them to obtain information, other folks gain more understanding through doing activities individually or as a group. For this reason, many of my classes attempt to offer students with various learning styles the opportunity to excel.

I also believe that comic books are different ways of reading. It requires people to understand that there is a protocol for reading comics, that there is a cultural element to them being created, and they are artifacts from particular communities. It’s also important to be challenged and explore why and how we may become uncomfortable with a particular reading so that we can better discuss and explore that discomfort. It challenges readers to think and read in different ways, some that may not always be linear. Comic books require reading not only the words, but the images, and the cells help to guide the readers in understanding how time elapses, how the story progresses, changes in characters, tone, and perspectives.

Some students have had a lot of experience reading comic books before our class and did not have a difficult time reading the book. A handful of students had never read a comic book before our class and were at first finding the first few pages difficult, questioned if they were reading it correctly, and if they understood the story. When they got the “hang of it” they quickly moved through the comic book and understood what was going on in the story. I think it is also useful for students to have the opportunity to interact with the authors and artists of the texts we discuss. It is not often we can offer this opportunity to our students, but I believe when it is possible it’s important to take advantage of the occasion.

When Ivan Velez, Jr. joined us we were finishing up our class discussion and evaluation. I had him sit in the center of the class so students could see and hear him well. The first question was very direct and many students wanted to know “why did he end the book the way he did!” and where could they find the next books. Students read the first 3 comic books ofTales Of The Closet out of nine books. Ivan shared that as with many comic books, you end the story in a way to encourage the reader to want to buy the next issue. This is a common approach to writing and creating comics.

For readers who are not familiar with the book here is a brief overview of the characters and story:

Synopsis: A group of teenagers at a high school in Queens, NY build community together that creates networks of safety, affirmation, and support for them as they work with and through their desires, attraction, gender, and sexual orientation in their family, at school, and in their communities.

Tony: a Latino raised by a single-father who is an alcoholic, Tony is the first person to stand up for his friend Scotty when he was being bullied and targeted with violence by students in school. He enters the foster care system and then street prostitution.

Scotty: is the first openly gay character in the novel. He is racially white, comes from a middle-class background, “out” to his family, and fashion forward. He is also seen as an easy target for harassment and violence at school, which has made him a “loner.” His parents made him go to therapy to discuss his sexual orientation, but his therapist quickly realized this was not a choice Scotty was making and helped his family support him.

Kyle: is the only racially Black man in the first 3 books. He embraces certain aspects of femininity in his everyday gender expression, which results in his sexual orientation being assumed. Kyle is the first friend that Shorty makes on the first day of school.

Shorty: is a young middle-class Italian woman whose family is expecting another child. She is attracted to Mary, but is shy. She meets Tony at the principal’s office as they both are in trouble for different reasons. Shorty realizes her parents are supportive and do not discriminate against people who are not heterosexual towards the end of book 3.

Mary: is a very popular racially white upper-class woman who partners with Ben. After Ben shares on their first date that he is attracted to men, Mary shares that she has the same attraction and they become known as a couple at the school. Mary and Ben are invited to parties that the others are not invited to, even though they prefer the groups friendship.

Ben: is a racially white football player who is very popular. Most of his friends are on the football team and these are the same people who beat up and bully Scotty. He is set up on a date with Mary, and they agree to date one another for safety purposes even though they both identify as being attracted to the same gender. Ben’s father is a wrestler who encourages his son to be active and athletic.

Jenny: is an Filipina who comes from a large family. She has a history of drug and alcohol abuse and is attracted to Ramona. After she creates a friendship with the group she stops using substances but relapses one day, which may have long term repercussions.

Ramona: is a racially Black woman whose family comes from the Caribbean and has a strong religious ideology. Ramona is very shy and struggles with anti-homophobia that she is taught at home and believes she is not loved by her family or her spiritual community and deity because of her attraction and desires toward the same gender. She is an artist and writer who experiences physical abuse at home, isolation from the group, and forced heterosexual dating with a man her mother requires her to be with.

Wilson: an older racially white gay man who finds Tony beaten and mutilated by one of his clients and takes him to the hospital. He represents the “old guard” of the queer community and visits Tony often to check up on him and make sure he’s healing. He is best friends with Imelda who was with Wilson when the found Tony.

Imelda: is a transgender Latina who is best friends with Wilson. She is introduced at the end of book 3 when she is brutally beaten by tranmisogynists while walking with Wilson. Their attack is how book 3 ends and we do not know if she will survive.

Ivan then gave the class a historical overview of why he created the comic book. He created this text in 1985, which makes the book over 25 years old! Many students were surprised to hear that the book was this old and still relevant (a classic!). He shared how he grew up very similar to some of the characters, especially Tony. During his time with the Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI), which is home to one of the first high schools (Harvey Milk High School) and shelters for LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, and asexual) youth in NYC, which is still open and providing services today, Ivan proposed writing a comic that represented the youth he worked with at HMI.

Ivan shared that he grew up reading comics, his favorites being Super Man, Hercules, and Casper. He wanted to first do a comic that he said would be like “a gay Archie,” but quickly realized what queer youth were experiencing were not even touched upon in the Archie comics such as survival sex, suicide, murder, drug use and abuse, and these numbers, 25 years later, are still not decreasing.

Students asked how he came up with each character and Ivan shared that each of the characters are a piece of him. He relates to each of the characters in some way. For Tony, it was a similar father-figure situation, Kyle, his mother was similar to Ivan’s, Ramona’s artwork, but also the abuse she experiences by her mother because of her religious beliefs and values. There were some critiques that Ivan did experience with his initial characters. He shared that because HMI were to help publish the comic there were several meetings and edits to the comic. One critique he shared was that Kyle was seen as a stereotype because he was created as a flamboyant character. Ivan argued that excluding characters like Kyle would be a disservice and misrepresent the community.

Ivan shared that as the comic evolved, he wrote this comic for heterosexual readers as well. Although some of the main characters are not heterosexual, there are many heterosexual characters in the book: family members, teachers, friends, and other classmates. Ivan stated that he wanted youth to read his book and understand that we all have a role to play in created a safe and inclusive environment that it is not just up to LGBTQIA youth, but all people. He also wanted to create something realistic. In books 4 and 5 Ivan shares that the characters realize that just because they have come to accept and support one another does not mean they find that anywhere else.

At first publication of Tales Of The Closet, 70,000 copies were distributed. This was part of a NYC attempt to include a multi-cultural curriculum in classrooms, which only lasted one year. To date, Tales Of The Closet has sold over 100,000 copies, this is more than any of the most popular comic books in the US. Students asked how they could get all of the copies, including the final book. Ivan shared that he is currently finishing up the final book, and promised to email our class book 4 for free. However, you may purchase (for a very affordable price) each book online at Net Comics (select the book number 1-8 that you wish to read).

Some changes that Ivan would like to make to the stories are to include a story all about one character’s pregnancy and what they experienced. He shared that some young lesbian-identified women choose to become pregnant as a way to not come out to family and friends. Often when someone is pregnant there is an assumption of heterosexuality, which in turn for many queer women may mean safety. He is also working on aging the characters, showing how they have evolved. Plus, he gave us a good overview of some additional characters and scenarios that come up later in the books, such as a new character Ana, more information on Mark, Ben’s best friend on the football team who experiences childhood sexual abuse, a planned pregnancy by two characters (which challenges ideas of them being exclusively gay and/or lesbian), unplanned pregnancies, and characters going for HIV tests.

I asked the groups why they think the book, over 25 years old, still has relevance. One student stated that they believe it may be because people were not able to come out or felt safe to do so until recently and that is why we see similar issues of violence, discrimination, and lack of resources and support for LGBTQIA youth. Ivan agreed with some of this and also wanted us to keep in mind that there are very encouraging and empowering parts of the book, it is not just about negative experiences. He gave us examples of the creativity of the characters: Ramona’s writings and drawings, Scotty’s musical talents, and Mary’s fashion and sewing skills. He hopes folks also recognize these positive aspects of the text as well.

After our discussion, Ivan signed each student’s book that remembered to bring it to class and we thanked him for taking time out to talk with us. A few days later Ivan sent me an email thanking me for inviting him to his class, he said he felt a lot of love from the group and it was very nourishing. I shared his email with the class because I think it’s important to let students know the affirming compliments they share when they visit us. It’s not often students get group/communal compliments from guest speakers whose work they question, critique, and embrace, and I think these are important things to share to help students understand they are appreciated and seen as thoughtful public intellectuals and scholars.

To purchase the book in bulk for your community or space contact Ivan at his publication company Planet Bronx (you can even tell him Bianca sent you!).

Online Course: Sociology of Human Sexuality Part 4

2011-08-11T16:51:00.001-04:00

cross posted from my Media Justice column

This is a series of posts from the sexuality course I am teaching this summer. Check out thefirst, second and third weeks. If you are interested in receiving some of the readings, syllabus, and workbook assignments please leave a comment with a way to contact you.

The last week of class has a series of guest speakers discussing topics that range from sex work, HIV and AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STI) and our final class will be an evaluation of the course, turning in of the final projects (information below of those) and a conversation with author and artists Ivan Velez, Jr. regarding his book Tales of the Closet.

There are two options for the final project: either a traditional research paper on the topic of the student’s choice or rewriting a form of media to represent inclusivity, responsibility, and accountability regarding sexual health, sexuality, and reproductive justice from the student’s perspective which is accompanied by an analysis. The final post will be about our conversation with Ivan Velez, Jr., what questions folks had for him and how he responded to them and I’ll share some of the topics students chose to (re)write about. Because we spend a good amount of time discussing the final project this week’s discussion and notes are not as long as the previous ones but still include good information and highlights of our conversations!

Day 9
Sex Work
This class discussion required students to do some reading in their textbook as well as a chapter from the book Sun, Sex and Gold: Tourism and Sex Work in the Caribbean, an anthology by Kamala Kempadoo. This anthology was one of the first by Caribbean scholars discussing and addressing gender, race, class, ethnicity, im/migration, citizenship, and how it intersects with sex work in the Caribbean. They read Joan Phillips article “The Case of the Beach Boy and White Female Tourist” which focuses on a historical analysis of sex work in Barbados from colonization to present. Her article turns the stereotype that primarily women engage in sex work and men as their clients by sharing her qualitative data of Bajan men who court and partner with racially White women (mostly from Europe) who are on vacation in exchange for profit. The profit in this case may be food, shelter, alcohol, access to places only tourists and their company may enter, clothing, and sometimes money.

Students were also asked to watch the first 15 minutes of the documentary “Rent A Rasta” which discusses the same exchange Phillips discusses, however the sex tourism occurs in Jamaica. The second part of the documentary focuses on Rastafarian religion and connections to exploiting the identity of being a Rasta based on stereotypes people living abroad may have. The film is also narrated in a way that is, in my opinion, misogynistic and sexist. It is one thing to state how this is a social issue and how it is impacted and influenced by colonization, racism, classism and religious inequality versus identifying the women in the film in degrading ways. The film is a useful example for folks who “don’t believe” the Philips article is true or relevant today and a useful tool in deconstructing and being a critical media consumer.

RENT A RASTA from cinepobre.com on Vimeo.

At the beginning of this lecture I write the following terms on the board: “Sex Worker,” “Prostitute,” and “Trafficking.” I begin by asking students how they would define the term “prostitute.” I start with this term because it is the terms that out of the three, folks have a working understanding or knowledge of. Because this is an upper level course, students have very inclusive definitions for “prostitute.” Students came up with the definition of “exchanging sex/ual services for profit/shelter/food/security/clothing/etc.” Students did not come to an agreement as to if this term was only applicable to street prostitution or “high end escorts” (similar to whom government officials/politicians have been connected to). From this conversation I was able to discuss a hierarchy that exists not just in our society and community, but also within the sex work field. It is not uncommon to hear that street prostitution is the “lowest” form of sex work, being connected to ideas of class, access, race, ethnicity, documentation status, ability, gender, and age.

I then introduced the term “sex worker” as a self-identifier that many sex workers have come to use as a term to identify themselves (this is of course personal choice/preference for each individual sex worker). The term has a few points that are important to understand, especially for people who may work with this population. It is:

1. A term some use to self-identify
2. A term that challenges ideas on what work is and to recognize that sex work is a form of labor and work (i.e. working certain hours, being organized, having the tools of the trade (i.e. condoms, barrier methods, safety outlets, healthcare), professionalism, negotiation, etc.)
3. Inclusive of a range of types of work in the sex field (listed below from our conversation)
4. Recognizes that sex workers are not just their job/career. That sex workers are more than just sex workers - they are activists, parents, writers, artists, partners, children, siblings, etc. This one identity does not describe the entire person.

I then asked students what types of work they think would be included in the term “sex work” and her is a list they came up with: video dancer, nude model, exotic dancer/”stripper,” phone operator, cyber sex, massaging, dominatrix, escort, street prostitution, and pornography.

We then discussed the difference between “sex work” and “trafficking.” Students had heard of the term “trafficking” and I made clear that people who are trafficked are:
1. NOT consenting, but forced to engage in such work
2. Often considered kidnapped or held hostage against their will
3. May be drugged or manipulated in other abusive ways
4. May be considered missing in their homeland/location of origin
5. Are victims/survivors of a crime, as trafficking is a crime
6. Also trafficked for other types of work, such as forced labor in unsafe and unsanitary conditions

For many students it was necessary to make clear that sex workers make conscious decisions to engage in the work they are doing. Even if their options and choices are minimal, sex workers may make a choice to do that particular work. Whereas, people who are trafficked are not making a choice, that choice is being taken from them and this is an example of sexualization in a negative way from when we discussed the Circles of Sexuality.

At this time we had a guest speaker join us. She helped me co-lecture on a few additional points I wanted to make about sex work. We discussed how sex work in some forms, such as street prostitution is a crime in the US. We discussed how this is a good example of the social construction of crime: how crimes are determined by societies and thus given certain types of punishments. In the US, many argue that sex work is a “quality of life crime,” something that in NYC has a very specific history.

I had mentioned again the three camps that emerged from the Feminist Sex Wars in the US. These included anti-pornography, anti-censorship, and pro-sex. I shared how for many folks in these spaces, they fall in the same space when it comes to sex work: anti-pornography folks may often argue that sex work and prostitution must be criminalized and remain illegal. Some ideas connected to this are that sex work harms women; it is not “good” for women, and focusing on using police resources to limit this is a good thing. Folks who identified as anti-censorship may fall in a similar space in that some people may argue that people who engage in sex work should not be targeted as criminals, especially for consenting encounters, and often make this point for folks who are over 18 years old. Pro-sex folks may argue that sex workers must be supported, provided with resources that are useful for them at that time and not centered on recruiting them out of their field (unless they indicate that they wish for that themselves). There is also a focus on de-criminalizing sex work with the idea that police resources can be used more effectively on other crimes beyond consensual sexual encounters among adults. Again, I shared that some students may find themselves falling into one of these three categories, but there are others as well, such as being in between certain categories, and that our opinions and ideas do shift and change and people have been known to be on one side of the debate and after having a particular experience or knowledge they shift to another.

I shared some data that indicates that women are arrested at higher rates for sex work when all genders go into sex work at equal rates. We discussed why the focus would be on women and some of the comments by students included:
1. gender stereotypes about women and men, masculinity and femininity
2. fear of safety
3. to curb violence
4. ideas that boys/men can protect themselves (goes back to gender stereotypes)
5. patriarchal views of women needing to be “saved” and “protected”
6. Homophobia by police (in that policemen will go undercover as clients for sex workers who are women, but will not do the same for sex workers that are men when they are expected to “uphold the law” for everyone, not just women)

I mentioned briefly the Safe Harbor for Exploited Children Act in New York will provide specific services for youth who are trafficked and/or sexually exploited. This law (which was passed) in NY provides youth with services versus incarceration via the juvenile justice system. It may provide youth with social workers, shelter via foster care, and Medicaid (to name a few specifics), which are many of the resources that are already offered to youth who are considered “persons in need of supervision” (PINS).

Most of the guest speaker’s presentation focused on current experiences and laws that have been enacted in the US regarding sex work. She spoke about the “Craigslist Killer” who was targeting women who posted ads on Craigslist and identified as escorts. A good discussion of how the media represents such crimes emerged; along with the ways women (especially women of Color, immigrant women, working class women, and women with disabilities) are portrayed by the media when they come forward regarding experiencing abuse and violence. Two NY-specific examples were shared and these include: the case of reported sexual assault by Dominique Strauss-Kahn towards a Guinean hotel worker and the two NYC police officers that were recently acquitted of raping a fashion executive who was intoxicated (the officers were convicted of police misconduct and sentenced to a year in prison).

Our guest speaker also discussed how technology and the internet have changed the way our society views sex work and criminalizes and protects us. For example, we have not always had specific laws regarding online encounters, harassment, stalking, and violence. As our society evolves our need to examine, implement, and update our laws and protections shifts as well. The class made connections to the Phillips reading and how women are treated when they come forward regarding abuse, as the men interviewed by Phillips did not have any positive statements to make about Bajan women in their communities. They saw these as examples of gender discrimination.

Day 10
HIV and AIDS

This class solely focused on HIV and AIDS in the US and worldwide, rates of infection, ways HIV is transmitted, media impact on messaging regarding HIV, and ways to live healthy if people are living positive, and how to stay HIV negative. I lectured for an hour before we were joined by two presenters from Love Heals, the Allison Gertz Foundation for AIDS Education .

Students were asked to watch the entire PBS Frontline series online: The Age of AIDS.
The documentary is extremely thorough and gives a good background to the origins and history of HIV in the US and around the world. If you too want to watch this documentary make sure to turn your pop-up blockers off as another screen is needed to view the films by chapter. They also read the article: As AIDS Turns 30, Fewer Americans Feel At Risk, which highlights how long HIV has been known to have existed in the US.

To start I asked students what new information they learned from watching the documentary The Age of AIDS. Students shared that they learned how scientists first began to understand the disease, how the disease is spread through IV drug use/syringes, the media’s role in HIV messaging, and stigma still attached to people living with HIV. I began by sharing how there are many beliefs from many different people about how HIV came to exist among us. Many students were familiar with the ideas of HIV being a government conspiracy against certain populations as a form of population control and eugenics; HIV being a curse for some past decision/experience a person made. I shared that regardless of how folks believe HIV to have arrived, it is here and it is our individual and collective job to know about it and how to prevent ourselves from contracting HIV and living healthy if we are living positive with HIV.

I shared that scientists believe, as stated in the film (part four “Scientific Breakthroughs”), that HIV is a virus that originated through hunter gathering communities (those that hunted their own food and cooked it). The belief is that some primates that were eaten had the virus and because they were consumed in ways that their meat was not completely cooked (perhaps raw) that the mucus membranes in our mouth, throat, and esophagus absorbed that virus and it mutated into a form that impacted humans in a specific way.

When HIV was first seen in the US the population that were dying were overwhelmingly gay white men. It is homophobia that lead to the first name for HIV which was GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency) which narrowly and inaccurately gave the impression only gay men can contract the virus. US doctors and government knew that this diagnosis and label was incorrect because all over the world people with similar illnesses were arriving at hospitals and seeking treatment. Heterosexual women in Haiti who were mothers, wives, daughters; heterosexual men in Angola, men and women in Europe, of all sexual orientations were exhibiting the exact same immune deficiencies as the gay white men in the US. However, our government chose to promote a message that it only impacted certain communities by ignoring what the rest of the world was experiencing.

Shortly after an increase in the numbers of IV drug users who use syringes for drugs were found to be a community at risk and experiencing similar immune deficiencies. Thus the name GRID was no longer applicable and the term HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) emerged. I shared how the rates of HIV infection for this population have gone down dramatically. Today more than 95% of new HIV infections in the US are contracted through unprotected sexual activities. Much of the reason why IV drug users rates have declined is because of harm reduction approaches that teach users how to clean their needles, provide needle exchange programs, and support for folks in need at any given time. Even though such harm reductionists approaches have worked for that population, they have not been implemented for other groups at risk for contracting HIV in the same way.

The number of newly infected people each year includes women, women of Color, heterosexual women, and older adults. All of these people report contracting HIV through unprotected sex. We then discussed the NPR article regarding stigma. I shared that they have all lived in a world where HIV has existed, that for many of their parents and professors and older people in their lives, this is not the case; we remember times when there was never any HIV. I asked why they think people in the US do not think they are at risk for HIV infection and their reasons included: stigma, denial, ignorance, fear, stereotypes, lack of education, age, cultural beliefs, and believing it “can’t happen to them.” We discussed each in detail. For example, when discussing denial, students mentioned how choosing to be in denial about HIV and the risk of infection means that people don’t have to be prepared, or get tested, or know their options.

At this time our two guest speakers from Love Heals arrived and they provided much needed HIV 101 regarding how HIV is transmitted, what bodily fluids transmit HIV (semen, vaginal secretions, pre-ejaculatory fluid, blood, and breast milk) and which do not (sweat, saliva). Sharing a statistic that every hour two young people in the US are infected with HIV, they discussed the difference between HIV (the virus) and AIDS (the syndrome) and how in the US an AIDS diagnosis is given when a person is living with less than 200 T-cells/white blood cells. They also discussed what T-cells/white blood cells are (fighter cells in our immune system) and how they impact HIV status (HIV destroys them lowering the immune system). They also discussed modes of protection for contracting HIV (abstinence, getting tested, using barrier methods, communication, and education) and took other questions as they came up.

As Love Heals often does, they partner a health educator who provides the HIV 101 with a speaker who is living positive with HIV. Students heard the other speaker share their story of infection, which occurred during their first sexual encounter where a barrier method was not used. The speaker shared their experience discovering their status, getting tested, disclosing to family and friends, finding support, and living healthy today. There were many questions for the positive speaker, such as why they chose not to use a barrier method, how are they coping with family issues, how does this impact their dating life today, and what goals do they have in the future.

After the speakers left students shared that this was one of the best presentations they have had regarding HIV, and as a group they have seen a lot of presentations! NYC has an HIV mandate that requires public schools (and charter schools) to provide a certain amount of HIV education to students. They shared that hearing a personal account of living with HIV helped them understand and humanize the virus, they felt that the presentation was conversation, it was a discussion not a lecture where they were being talked at, but talked to, and that they were encouraged to talk to their friends and family members about HIV.

Day 11
Sexually Transmitted Infections

This session focused on all other STIs (sexually transmitted infections) which the textbook highlights in a very accessible way and includes, transmission, symptoms, and ways some STIs may be cured. An additional reading for this class was Guatemalans Sue Over US Syphilis Tests which highlights how Guatemalans were deliberately infected with Syphilis and gonorrhea are seeking compensation.

I asked if there were any questions about HIV from last class that may have come up after class that they wanted to discuss. There were several questions! Students asked if there are laws regarding someone who does not disclose their status but has unprotected sex with someone, can the HIV positive person be prosecuted. In NY there are no laws, however in other states there are, but these laws are often focused on proving the person who is living positive had intent to infect other people. There must be an understanding of responsibility for all people involved. If a person who is HIV negative does not ask about their partner’s status, does not choose to use barrier methods, and then wants to claim their partner may have infected them, that person must take responsibility for their actions. This person chose to engage in sexual activity that was consensual, they chose not to use a barrier method, and they chose not to ask about their partners sexual health history and HIV status. This is one of the reasons communication, education, barrier methods and waiting to have sex work very well to limit HIV infection.

Other questions included how HIV positive people can give birth to HIV negative babies, how HIV can be transmitted via oral sex, and specific questions about getting tested. We had a good conversation about HIV and the connections to class and wealth. Many students know that the former NBA basketball player Magic Johnson is living positive with HIV, but they had heard he was no longer testing positive for the virus. I shared that he has a low viral load, but he still has the virus in his body, can still transmit it to his wife, and that they probably will use barrier methods for the remainder of their marriage when they have sex. Many students believe that his viral load is low because of his wealth. We discussed this as one possibility. As someone who can afford to live in environmentally safe and healthy spaces, can eat organic and locally grown foods, and afford the newest and most effective HIV medications, he has a great advantage in comparison to folks without his status and wealth.

This great dialogue took up a majority of the time I had planned to lecture before our guest speaker arrived. I quickly listed the following STIs by categories: Viral: HIV, HPV, Herpes, Hepatitis B &C; Bacterial: Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Urinary Tract Infections; Parasites: Crabs, Scabies and Lice; Fungal: Yeast Infections (for all genders, yes people with penis’ can get yeast infections!). Although these are not all of the STIs these are some of the most common that I wanted to highlight.

For viral infections I shared how these are always with someone once they contract the virus. That some medications can help with symptoms of the virus (i.e. herpes outbreaks) but that does not mean it is a cure for the virus, it is just helping alleviate the symptoms. Bacterial infections are all curable, but they require a diagnosis, which means access to a medical provider. The first two STIs: Gonorrhea and Chlamydia are the most common not only on college campuses but also in NYC. If a person is diagnosed with either of these they can take a dosage of medication, which can be administered either orally or via a injection. This person must also share with their partner(s) who must also get tested and treated. If this does not occur re-infection is likely.

When discussing Syphilis I highlighted the reading they did for this session on Guatemalans being given this illness and connected this to the Tuskegee Experiments which monitored the affects of Syphilis on Black men in Alabama over a forty year period beginning in 1932. I shared that during this time a cure for Syphilis was discovered, but a racist and classist agenda was still being used to see how Syphilis impacted racially Black people versus racially white people. This experiment is one reason why we have informed consent for medical and health practices. It may also be one of the reasons some communities have difficulty trusting medical providers and professionals.

We spoke about crabs briefly, and I shared how this is also a curable STI and some symptoms include intense itching, redness and sometimes a rash for some people. The treatment may include foam for the pubic hair to be washed and an oral pill as well. There were questions about if urinary tract infections can be transmitted to a partner and if herbal remedies can cure some of the fungal issues. I shared that some folks believe that drinking 100% pure cranberry juice (not the name brand stuff with tons of sugar), eating yogurt, and drinking some forms of tea do help in curbing some illnesses like yeast and tract infections. However, it is likely that if a person goes to a Western medical doctor, the doctor will most likely encourage the patient to use medication and then go about preventative measures after using the medication and healing.

Our guest speaker for this hour joined us. Pattie Murillo-Casa is the NYC Chapter President ofTamika and Friends, Inc. a national organization that has a focus to eliminate cervical cancer through HPV education. Pattie is a survivor of cervical cancer, which she was diagnosed with 3 years ago. She is a NYer and a retired NY police officer. She shared her personal story of being diagnosed with the HPV strain that causes cervical cancer, her chemotherapy and radiation treatments, healing, coping, and her marriage to her husband.

Patti wanted all the students to know that cervical cancer is preventable! She went through how HPV is transmitted (via skin to skin contact) and that just because someone has an HPV diagnosis does NOT mean they are promiscuous as HPV can remain dormant in the body for 10-15 years after exposure. She shared the four strains we know lead to genital warts (9 & 10) and the ones that lead to cervical cancer (16 & 18) as being considered “high risk” out of the hundreds of HPV strains. Patti made it clear that HPV is something that all sexually active people may come into contact with and compared it to the common cold. Just as our bodies and immune system can heal itself from a cold, our bodies may do the same with other strains of HPV.

Currently, there is only an HPV test for women and people with vulvas, even though men and people with penis’ are carriers as well. She discussed the two vaccines that are available for young men and women. The most popular being Gardasil www.gardasil.com which helps protect against the four strains above and has been approved for all genders ages 9-26. She also discussed Cervarix which only focuses on strains 16 & 18 so it is only for people with vulvas and cervix. She also discussed that the vaccines are controversial as are all vaccines and it is a conversation to have with a medical provider before deciding to obtain the vaccine.

She spent some time talking about how HPV can lead to cancers that impact men and people with penis’ because penile and throat cancer are caused by strains of HPV. Patti spoke about how historically throat cancer was linked to smoking, but today we are seeing a link to HPV infection. She used the actor Michael Douglass as an example of a throat cancer survivor and that throat cancer is on the rise due to HPV infection in the throat linked to oral sex. She also shared a folder of information on how to talk to a medical provider about HPV and requesting an HPV test (they are different from pap smears as they are an additional test with samples from the cervix). Also included were resources for young people living with cancer.

Questions from the class regarding HPV were great! Students wanted to know that if HPV was passed via skin-to-skin contact could it be passed through kissing. Patti answered that at this time there is little research that indicates that but more research is being done to give us better insight. Other questions focused on ideas of being “intimate” while limiting potential HPV infection. Patti and I shared that depending on how people define abstinence, for some it may mean no penetrative intercourse, but activities such as showering together, nude cuddling, body massage near/on genitals, or rubbing of the genitals against one another may be forms of intimacy that some folks consider forms of abstinence as well, but the risk for HPV is still present.

As is the usual Tamika & Friends, Inc, way, Patti had a raffle of items for the students and one was randomly selected and given a bag of goodies that included a water bottle, jewelry, and the Pearl of Wisdom. All other students received small gift bags of the cervical cancer rubber bracelet, buttons and pens. It was a great way to end a class about illness and symptoms. I think students learned a lot from Patti’s personal story and the information she gave them about HPV.

Patti’s goal is to reach as many NYers as possible and educate the on HPV. If you would like to have Pattie visit your community, classroom, or organization you may contact her via theTamika & Friends, Inc. website. She is currently preparing and planning for the Walk for Cervical Cancer in NY on September 17 2011. To register for the walk or learn more about it visit the website.