Category: Gender

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Evaluating the Male Gaze in Classrooms

This essay is published as part of WYV Young Voices, a column highlighting upcoming writers under the age of 21.  Upholding the male gaze in education encourages male students to view women as pleasure objects devoid of any personhood CW: The following article discusses racism, sexism, adultification, and sexualization of women. However, there is no...

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Loving Magical Girls As A Black Non-binary Person

Although the magical girl genre inspires cisgender girls and women, the genre also has the potential to do the same for transgender and non-binary people. By Latonya Pennington Originating in Japan as a sub genre of Japanese anime, the magical girl genre is known for young girls utilizing special abilities, femininity, and cuteness to save...

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#DecolonialLove: On Building A More Liberatory Culture of Love

Decolonial love, liberated love, is true love. “Feminism is, nevertheless, very threatening to the majority of Black people because it calls into question some of the most basic assumptions about our existence, i.e., that gender should be a determinant of power relationships.” – The Cohambee River Collective I have ended or paused two relationships recently–both...

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We Owe Domestic Abuse Survivors More Than What We Gave Bresha Meadows

The fact that Bresha is considered one of “the lucky ones” points to systemic failures within our justice system. (TW- Mentions of domestic/physical violence, self-harm and incarceration.) After almost a year of being dragged through the legal system, there’s finally some good news in the Bresha Meadows case. The 15-year-old entered a “true” plea on...

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Your Romphim Jokes Are Perpetuating Gender Norms

The popularity of Romphim suggests that it’s time we moved beyond limiting, boring ideas about clothing and gender. When someone first showed me the Romphim — a romper for men — my first thought was “yeah, of course.”  This is, perhaps, because I am fascinated by the ’70s, where jumpsuits of all types clinging to your...

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I Came Out As a Lesbian — And Then Fell in Love With a Man

I can’t remember ever not feeling like a lesbian. It’s who I am. But then I met this boy. Last spring, I fell deeply, deliriously, overwhelmingly in love. I’ve been in love before, but never like this. This is the cliched, over-the-top-Hollywood-romantic-comedy-nonsense-I-didn’t-think-actually-existed-oh-my-god-I-get-love-songs-now kind of love. I didn’t know it was possible to be so compatible...