Intersectionality: Feminism Can’t Be Just for White Women by BY JAMIE NESBITT GOLDEN, Salon.com

“Because for most of us, intersectionality isn’t a buzzword or a catchphrase. It’s our life. When Quvenzhané Wallis was insulted by the Onion, brown feminists were told by their white allies to take the joke or reclaim the word used to insult a 9-year-old girl. Others, as Clutch writer Kirsten West Savali pointed out, chose to remain silent. When George Zimmerman was freed by five white women, many white feminist allies still chose to remain silent. Our stories are ignored or half-told or erased completely. (A perfunctory Google search about the hashtag will yield several stories from sites like Jezebel and Al Jazeera where Kendall’s involvement has been minimized or glossed over — Jezebel has since edited the story to include Kendall’s contribution.) These aggressions — both micro and macro — along with a host of others, have made bridging the divide nearly impossible.

Honestly, there is little expectation of real, radical change. If this current kerfuffle has taught us anything, it’s that we don’t need to rely on mainstream feminist sites to tell our stories or champion us. It would be nice, though. But some of us remain hopeful that — now that this conversation is public — it will continue in an open and honest way. And it won’t be nice, or pretty, but it will finally be productive.”

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/15/feminism_cant_be_just_for_white_women/

“Transgender at Five” By Petula Dvorak, Washington Post

Kathryn, from the age of two, insisted that she was a boy. Now he’s Tyler.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/transgender-at-five/2012/05/19/gIQABfFkbU_story.html

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Learning about Gender and Being Female

There is a consensus among scholars that gender is socially constructed, but there is a lot of variation in terms of how it is constructed, both across cultures and within cultures. This is an example of a mother who chose a particularly empowering construction of female identity to share with her daughter!

http://fstoplounge.com/2013/05/real-women-forget-the-disney-princesses/

Angelia Jolie’s Choice – NYTimes Opinion

Angelina Jolie wrote in the New York Times yesterday about her choice to have a double mastectomy, given her genetic predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer. However, she brings up issues of access to testing and the high cost. I’m glad she’s talking about this important issue (and encouraging others to talk about topics that were once taboo), but it also brings up serious issues related to health care in the U.S.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/opinion/my-medical-choice.html?_r=0