It's Abuse conference

OSU's It's Abuse student group works on a lot of the same issues that we do, and they're having a mixer next month.

Here's what the invitation says:

SAVE THE DATE…

You are invited to

A Winter Mixer

On Tuesday, January 12, 2010

from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Where? Recreation Physical Activity Center (RPAC)

Meeting Room Two

337 W. 17^th Avenue

Columbus, Ohio 43210

Who should come? All students, staff, faculty and community members who would like to work with us to end sexual violence at the Ohio State University are invited.

Why? To meet others who are interested in this issue. To become more involved with efforts for Spring 2010, to find out more about the Sexual Violence Assistance Fund.

Pizza and refreshments will be provided. We will have a drawing for two $50 gift cards from

Barnes & Noble.

Please R.S.V.P. to sves@osu.edu

Check out our website www.swc.osu.edu for more

information or call

614-292-4527 and ask for Nancy.

I think this might be a good opportunity to meet other students involved (maybe recruit?) and also get some tips on how they throw their event, so that we can better ours in the future.

Anyone interested in attending with me?

-Lucy

Save Darfur and gender violence

US Group Warns of Sexual Violence Against Darfur Refugees

16 Days Of Activism Against Gender Violence

Even in the circumstances of genocide where an entire population suffers, women are especially targeted and oppressed.

For those who say women's initiatives should not be addressed because issues like the conflict in Darfur are more deserving of our attention, here is a great example of how these issues intertwine and can be approached simultaneously.

Please comment!

-Lucy

event marketing

Our group has had its ups and downs when it comes to attendance at our programs. On a campus as big as ours, it can be hard to compete for a student's leisure time. Layers of flyers coat the walls of dorms, classroom buildings and bulletin boards. Everyone's got a facebook group, sidewalk chalk and an e-mail list. Invitations, reminders and re-reminders are sent and received constantly. It's no wonder why students become jaded to all of these activities, events, lectures, what have you.

I was trying to think of ways to really get the attendance up at the events we host and support. What makes people know that an event is worthwhile? Time is valuable; people are busy! We have to let them know that our events are something to get excited about.

I think that the best way to go about this is to go old-school. Like Kae said last night at our meeting,

"I'm the one calling you up the night before and saying 'Hey, are you coming to my party?! I've been doing it since I was four."

When you're having a party, you call your friends, you text them and whenever you see them you remind them and re-remind them. You tell them to bring their friends, roommates, teammates, anyone! It's the personal contact that makes something memorable to potential attendees. If it's worth getting excited for, (more excited than a couple of facebook-invitational mouse clicks) show it!

I know that all of the members of US have charisma, so let's harness it and make these BIG! The more people that come, the better off our program and any other beneficiaries will be, and the more fun we will have hosting/supporting the actual events!

Also, I'll be in contact with Joe Ferg about our Web site so that we can have an at-a-glance calendar of all of these exciting events.

-Lucy

If it happens to YOU, it happens to US...

Hello Everyone!
As we get into the swing of this for US programs, events and meetings I want to put a new emphasis and importance on our blog. I think that this is a great way to keep conversation and the Think Tank constant between meetings and events. I want this to be a place where we can talk about anything and everything that is going on in our lives and is important to US.
My ultimate goal for US is to stimulate conversation and continually "unplug" ourselves from the institutional oppressions and inequalities within our society, community and world. This blog is a tool we can use to keep conversations going. It allow US an outlet for critical and analytical thoughts and ideas, as well as a way to keep in touch and build stronger bonds between all of US. I want to thank you all ahead of time for you passion and energy for this upcoming year.
And remember if it happens to YOU, it happens to US..... so lets BLOG about it!

CONGRATULATIONS

to D'Andrea Kinley, Homecoming Queen 2009!

stolen from Patty's blog.

October Highlights in US Women's History

· Oct 3, 1904 - Mary McLeod Bethune opens her first school for black students in Daytona Beach, FL
· Oct 23, 1910 - Blanche Stuart Scott is the first American woman pilot to make a public flight
· Oct 16, 1916 - Margaret Sanger opens the U.S.'s first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, NY
· Oct 15, 1948 - Dr. Frances L. Willoughby is the first woman doctor in the regular U.S. Navy
· Oct 24, 1956 - Reverend Margaret Towner is the first woman ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church
· Oct 28, 1958 - Mary Roebling is the first woman director of a stock exchange (American Stock Exchange)
· Oct 4, 1976 - Barbara Walters becomes first woman co-anchor of the evening news (at ABC)
· Oct 10, 1983 - Dr. Barbara McClintock receives the Nobel Prize for Medicine for her discovery in genetics of mobile genetic elements
· Oct 11, 1984 - Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan is the first U.S. woman astronaut to "walk" in space during Challenger flight
· Oct 4, 1993 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg joins the U.S. Supreme Court as its second woman
· Oct 8, 1993 - Toni Morrison becomes the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature

October Birthdays

· Oct 6, 1917 (1977) - Fannie Lou Hamer , voting rights crusader; helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964
· Oct 11, 1884 (1962) - Eleanor Roosevelt, civil rights advocate; feminist; author; world diplomat; former First Lady (1933-1945)
· Oct 13, c.1754 (1832) - Mary Hays McCauley, "Molly Pitcher" of Battle of Monmouth, 1778; legendary water-carrying heroine of the American Revolution
· Oct 17, 1943 - Vilma Socorro Martinez, lawyer; first female U.S. Ambassador to Argentina (2009); civil rights crusader; one of first women on the board of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
· Oct 18, 1956 - Martina Navratilova, tennis champion; nine-time Wimbledon singles winner
· Oct 23, 1906 (2003) - Gertrude Ederle, first woman to swim the English Channel, 1926
· Oct 24, 1830 (1917) - Belva Lockwood, first woman admitted to practice law before Supreme Court, 1879; ran for office of US President 1884 and 1888
· Oct 26, 1911 (1972) - Mahalia Jackson, considered world's greatest gospel singer, sang at Martin Luther King's 1963 March on Washington
· Oct 27, 1940 - Maxine Hong Kingston , award-winning author of The Woman Warrior, an autobiography about the Chinese-American female experience
· Oct 31, 1860 (1927) - Juliette Low, founder and first president of Girl Scouts of the USA

Can't wait to see everyone and get this year started! it's going to be a great one.

-Lucy

Something got me thinking a few days ago and I was curious what you guys would think of it:

In my journalism class we were discussing ethics and how rape victim's names are never published because rape is such a violent, sensitive crime that usually the victim's don't want their names published.
What really got me was that the professor said that there is a stigma that can be related to the victim, like, well why was she out alone at night? was she drunk? was she dressing provocatively?
And to me, this doesn't make sense because, people can always read a story and misconstrue it in a certain way. The questions should obviously be a focus on WHY CANT we go out at night alone? etc... but since people do sometimes blame the victim in rape cases, does that mean that we have to hide it?
By not publishing these victims' identities, it's going to be harder for readers in the community to really understand the severity of the situation, because the identity of the victim is so vague.
Also, by keeping the rape victim's name confidential, because SHE might catch blame, doesn't that assume that the paper making that decision agrees that she is (at least partly) to blame? And if you're placing any potential blame on the victim, doesn't that take responsibility away from the perpetrator?
I said this in class and the professor seemed to agree, but then mentioned how ideally women might all band together and start identifying themselves, but that no one can tell that victim, "YOU are going to start this new progressive way of identifying yourself as a rape victim, so that others will in the future and the seriousness of rape will be better understood by our community."
So I kind of agree with that, too. I know that being in a position like that must make someone feel vulnerable and uncomfortable speaking about it, let alone to be published for all to see. I can't make up my mind what is really 'right' and 'wrong' in the situation.
I guess when it comes down to it, you can't force a person to expose themself like that if they don't want to.

What do you think?

yayyy.

I'm such a blogger nerd.
Anyway, last night's meeting:

I think it's great that we are able to re-format our structure for decision making, and I think it says a lot about our group simply that we can raise concerns about disagreements and handle them like big girls. I agree that "focusing on a focus" will be beneficial in staying true to our ultimate objective, and will help us with the 'spreading ourselves too thin' problem.

patty: Don't have sex and not be good at it.
courtney: Well, you gotta start somewhere...

i just wanted to see if this worked!!!

Cool, now all of us should be able to post to the blog! I wasn't thinking; I just had us all set to readers, not authors.

I felt that meeting was really effective at determining where we are and what we're trying to do. Thanks for being fabulous, ladies!

Brit

Seeing if this works...