The Pansy Project: Raising awareness of homophobic abuse with guerrilla gardening
In addition to Beutiful, I co-write/admin for a website called I Acknowledge Beauty Exists. Between these two ventures, I am constantly being exposed to great projects and bits of news. A few days ago, a link to The Pansy Project was posted on the I Acknowledge Beauty Exists’ facebook page and I decided to check it out. As I was looking at the website, I became so moved by the project and the images that I made the photo you see above my personal cover photo and my laptop background….
Suit Urself: Body image, fashion and disabilities
Last week, we posted an article called “Are we leaving men out?” in regards to body image. I want to talk about another huge demographic that is basically invisible when it comes to body image, much less media and advertisement. Let’s discuss disabilities. People with disabilities are dehumanized in our culture. People with disabilities are America’s largest minority population, yet the only model of disability is a medical one. Entire industries serve the medical needs of people with disabilities. Durable medical goods are produced to meet their medical needs, pharmaceutical industries…
Women shout out sexism in the music industry
Just a few days ago, Nathaniel Khaleel wrote in an article on Policymag “Women are by and large the most victimized by the music industry, on multiple fronts. The label would lose its mind if a female artist did anything to shatter her image as a femme-fatale or appear anything other than ultra-sexual and provocative. The ubiquitous double standard in regards to sexual behavior is the most obvious example — where men can speak about women in sultry ways and aggrandize their own ego, women must be perceived as powerless and abject…
Pope Francis: Who Am I To Judge A Gay Person?
It’s not news that much of the Catholic faith has been excluding of the LGBT community. Although the majority of the general population (53% according to a Gallup poll) has accepted same-sex marriage, religion has been slower to catch on. Those attitudes may be shifting. Recently, Pope Francis issued a comment about homosexuality in the priesthood – specifically, regarding how he would respond to learning that a cleric in his ranks was gay but not sexually active. Previously, Pope Benedict XVI (Pope Francis’ predecessor) barred homosexual men from entering the…
Trayvon Martin? Not On My Watch
SANFORD, Fla. — Saturday July 13, 2013, George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, was found not guilty of second-degree murder and was acquitted of a lesser charge of manslaughter. You will hear details of the news story from sources everywhere in the coming weeks – or so I hope. What I want to focus on now is the conversation this has started and what we can do so it never, ever happens again. I saw news of the verdict for the first time through…
