October 20, 2023

The Secret History of the Vulva

(a lengthy, most interesting article. you might also want to read "Vagina Obscura", a book that covers this at scholarly, fascinating, length)


The Secret History of the Vulva
3/25/2023 by Catherine Faurot



Vulvas carved into the sandstone walls of Carnarvon Gorge in Queensland, Australia. (Aussie Towns / Facebook)

We live in a world so dominated by phallic imagery that the vulva—humanity’s first and most sacred symbol—has been almost completely obscured. Even the term for imagery of the vulva (yonic, in case you’re wondering) is obscure. Once revered, the vulva’s inherent power in bringing forth new life made it dangerous, and men tried—and are still trying—to denude it of power, tame, control and erase it. Let me take you on a tour of the yonic imagery omnipresent in our world. Once you can see it, the vulva is everywhere.

Don’t Call It a Vagina


(“Vulva v. Vagina: What’s The Difference?” / Yoxly)

The vagina and the vulva are not the same thing. The word ‘vagina’ means ‘sheath’ in Latin, as if the penis is a sword, and the vagina: a penis accessory. Referring to the vulva as the vagina is a verbal sleight of hand designed to make the labia and clitoris disappear. Can you imagine this happening to men? No one is going to erase the penis. But culturally there is a huge ignorance about female genitals. This ignorance is not due to prudishness about sex but about female sexuality and female power. The porn industry shows no reluctance in portraying or fulfilling male sexual desires. Underlying this cultural squeamishness is a long history of fear of the vulva and the power of women to create life—hence the erasure.

But it wasn’t always this way.
The Wall of One Thousand Vulvas

The vulva is the oldest and most common object in prehistoric art. Carved in stone or painted on cave walls, images of the vulva were created around the world. In Queensland, Australia, you can visit a stoneface called “The Wall of One Thousand Vulvas.” In contrast, paleolithic images of the penis are rarely found, either by themselves or in ithyphallic images—which is a fantastic way of saying pictures of men with dicks. Why so many images of the vulva? Scholars believe early humans had no awareness of the role men play in fertility, while, in contrast, a woman’s role in creating life is unequivocal. The vulvas carved all over the world are invocations to this creative power. During a span of human existence tenfold the length of recorded history, the vulva was a primary object of devotion. Female bodies and our ability to bring forth life were the focus of reverence. Let this understanding of the sanctity and power of the vulva seep into your cells, your souls. This is fundamentalism in its deepest sense.


. . . .
The origins of the human experience are embodied in reverence for women and our bodies, which are both fully celebrated for sexual and generative powers, and also seen as sanctified portals to the cosmic realm. To say that this history calls into question cultural norms about gender, power, religion and sex is an understatement. But knowledge of the past is useless unless we change the present. One important resource for reclamation is Indigenous women, many of whom still carry this knowledge as living traditions in their communities. Among the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), the vulva is seen as the “sacred door of the mother.” The Mohawk Bear Clan Mother, Iakoiane Wakerahkats:teh, writes, “Inside Indigenous women’s world view, Mother is the LAW!…It is the mother who stands at the threshold of life and death. She is the canoe, the vessel, the rivers from which all life flows or not.”
Life and death, the physical and the metaphysical are all manifest in female sacred power, and the vulva is and will always be the sacred opening.


https://msmagazine.com/2023/03/25/vulva-art-history/

October 20, 2023

The Secret History of the Vulva

(a lengthy, most interesting article. you might also want to read "Vagina Obscura", a book that covers this at scholarly, fascinating, length)
The Secret History of the Vulva
3/25/2023 by Catherine Faurot



Vulvas carved into the sandstone walls of Carnarvon Gorge in Queensland, Australia. (Aussie Towns / Facebook)

We live in a world so dominated by phallic imagery that the vulva—humanity’s first and most sacred symbol—has been almost completely obscured. Even the term for imagery of the vulva (yonic, in case you’re wondering) is obscure. Once revered, the vulva’s inherent power in bringing forth new life made it dangerous, and men tried—and are still trying—to denude it of power, tame, control and erase it. Let me take you on a tour of the yonic imagery omnipresent in our world. Once you can see it, the vulva is everywhere.

Don’t Call It a Vagina


(“Vulva v. Vagina: What’s The Difference?” / Yoxly)

The vagina and the vulva are not the same thing. The word ‘vagina’ means ‘sheath’ in Latin, as if the penis is a sword, and the vagina: a penis accessory. Referring to the vulva as the vagina is a verbal sleight of hand designed to make the labia and clitoris disappear. Can you imagine this happening to men? No one is going to erase the penis. But culturally there is a huge ignorance about female genitals. This ignorance is not due to prudishness about sex but about female sexuality and female power. The porn industry shows no reluctance in portraying or fulfilling male sexual desires. Underlying this cultural squeamishness is a long history of fear of the vulva and the power of women to create life—hence the erasure.

But it wasn’t always this way.
The Wall of One Thousand Vulvas

The vulva is the oldest and most common object in prehistoric art. Carved in stone or painted on cave walls, images of the vulva were created around the world. In Queensland, Australia, you can visit a stoneface called “The Wall of One Thousand Vulvas.” In contrast, paleolithic images of the penis are rarely found, either by themselves or in ithyphallic images—which is a fantastic way of saying pictures of men with dicks. Why so many images of the vulva? Scholars believe early humans had no awareness of the role men play in fertility, while, in contrast, a woman’s role in creating life is unequivocal. The vulvas carved all over the world are invocations to this creative power. During a span of human existence tenfold the length of recorded history, the vulva was a primary object of devotion. Female bodies and our ability to bring forth life were the focus of reverence. Let this understanding of the sanctity and power of the vulva seep into your cells, your souls. This is fundamentalism in its deepest sense.


. . . .
The origins of the human experience are embodied in reverence for women and our bodies, which are both fully celebrated for sexual and generative powers, and also seen as sanctified portals to the cosmic realm. To say that this history calls into question cultural norms about gender, power, religion and sex is an understatement. But knowledge of the past is useless unless we change the present. One important resource for reclamation is Indigenous women, many of whom still carry this knowledge as living traditions in their communities. Among the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), the vulva is seen as the “sacred door of the mother.” The Mohawk Bear Clan Mother, Iakoiane Wakerahkats:teh, writes, “Inside Indigenous women’s world view, Mother is the LAW!…It is the mother who stands at the threshold of life and death. She is the canoe, the vessel, the rivers from which all life flows or not.”
Life and death, the physical and the metaphysical are all manifest in female sacred power, and the vulva is and will always be the sacred opening.


https://msmagazine.com/2023/03/25/vulva-art-history/

October 20, 2023

Welcome to Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, The S'mores Martini!

Welcome to Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, The S'mores Martini!
Sometimes, we deserve a fancy-pants dessert cocktail.
Matthew Hooper
Oct 13, 2023


https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff5f3a42b-03c0-4148-aeb0-41ce5cde9c7e_4032x3024.jpeg
This thing looks so ridiculous and tasty.

Greetings, Wonketeers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. After Wednesday’s excitement, I wanted to indulge myself and make a fiddly dessert cocktail. It’s selfish of me. These kinds of cocktails can become ridiculous, over-the-top productions. But a phrase popped into my head, and I just could not shake the notion of making it real: “S’mores Martini.” The end result is a hella thing, but it is supremely yummy. Here’s the recipe.



S’mores Martini

Cocktail:

½ oz Hershey’s Special Dark Syrup

2 oz Absolut Vanilla Vodka

4 oz Old Smokey Bourbon Ball Creme Liquor

3 shakes cocoa bitters

Garnish/Glass Prep:

2 graham crackers, crushed into fine crumbs

3-4 T marshmallow fluff

2-3 T simple syrup

To prepare the glass: Roll the rim of the martini glass in marshmallow fluff. Lightly toast the rim of the glass with a kitchen torch. Paint the outside of the glass with simple syrup. Sprinkle the exterior of the glass with crushed graham crackers. Place the martini glass in the fridge to set for at least 5 minutes.

To make the drink: Add all ingredients to a tumbler, beginning with the chocolate syrup. Shake well and pour into the prepared glass.

This is such overkill. I could have just toasted a marshmallow, put it on a cocktail skewer, and called it good. But I wanted to get a taste, or at least an aroma, of graham, toasted marshmallow, and chocolate into every sip of the drink. It’s not too hard to make a chocolate dessert martini, but the graham and marshmallow were a challenge.

Of course, even getting good chocolate liquor is a problem these days. Godiva chocolate liqueur was my standby for chocolate martinis for years. The bottle screamed “luxury” on the shelves, and the chocolate flavor was utterly decadent. Regrettably, the liqueur was discontinued in September. It had disappeared off grocery shelves in Winter 2022, but Godiva kept making excuses about demand outstripping supply until they finally threw in the towel. The company’s been deep in the red after COVID killed their retail stores, as far as I can tell. You can’t even find Godiva chocolate bars on the shelves anymore.

After months of scrambling for a substitute, Bailey’s has finally stepped up to the plate and provided us with a “Belgian Chocolate Liqueur” that seems pretty good. Per Bailey’s website, the product uses “real Belgian chocolate,” so it’s clearly meant as a Godiva substitute. It does use Bailey’s as a base, however, and sometimes I like a chocolate flavor without Irish whiskey in the mix. I’m still exploring options.

I’m going to start this recipe by walking you through the glass prep. You can skip all of this and make a really good chocolate martini, honest. If you’d like a project for the weekend, though, let’s dive in:

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5703b757-b998-4d37-9cf7-3e8f462f1650_4032x3024.jpeg
Ingredient Shot. The cocktail disappeared shortly after this phot was taken. The martini glass will be in the dishwasher for days.

. . . . . .

https://www.wonkette.com/p/welcome-to-wonkette-happy-hour-with-a17

October 20, 2023

At the National Mall, Artist Tiffany Shlain Is Rewriting Women into U.S. History

(the events can be read at the link below--absolutely fascinating)


At the National Mall, Artist Tiffany Shlain Is Rewriting Women into U.S. History
9/12/2023 by Bonnie Stabile
On display from Nov. 1-4 in Washington, D.C., Tiffany Shlain’s Dendrofemonology remakes the historical tree ring into a timeline of the story of women and power in society.



Tiffany Shlain’s Dendrofemonology, presented by the National Women’s History Museum and Women Connect4Good, remakes the historical tree ring into a timeline of the story of women and power in society. (Courtesy of the National Women’s History Museum)

The architecture of Washington, D.C., was self-consciously designed to evoke power, permanence and ancient Greek and Roman ideals of democracy and liberty, as espoused by the Founding Fathers. However, with erosion threatening architectural and human rights landmarks, artist and activist Tiffany Shlain says it is time to imagine a new national monument. Sponsored by the National Women’s History Museum and Women Connect4Good, she has undertaken such a project.

Shlain, a veteran commentator on the modern human condition, is orchestrating a moveable monument on the national mall: a tree ring roughly five feet in diameter, with text burned into the wood showing a timeline of the story of women and power in society.
Her ambitious take on the historical tree rings was inspired by her childhood visits to national parks. This ring begins by noting that goddesses were worshipped in 50,000 BCE. It ends with the outermost ring demarcating the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade as “eviscerating federal protection of reproductive rights in the U.S.” (See a full list of the tree ring’s milestones at the end of this article.)

Shlain’s feminist history tree ring is named Dendrofemonology, a play on the term dendrochronology—the science of “dating events in former periods by the comparative study of growth rings in trees.” It offers an intentional counternarrative to more typical patriarchal fare—such as narratives that credit colonialist Christopher Columbus for setting sail in 1492, as the Cross-Section of Time landmark does at Muir Woods National Monument, an example of what Shlain calls “mansplained history.” The feminist history tree ring will be on display from Nov. 1-4, 2023, between the Washington Monument and the imposing Capitol building. Unlike the stone structures that will tower over it on all sides, the tree ring is evocative of a once-living thing, majestic in its own right, that has witnessed history and aspires to be a part of correcting its oversights and injustices.

“I literally was finishing it as the Dobbs decision happened,” said Shlain of the project. The Dobbs ruling “felt like a punch to the soul”—the same one she experienced in 2016 when she “thought we were going to get our first woman president.” After the 2016 election, she again turned to art as activism, creating a global event about gender equity called 50/50 Day in 2017, which featured a 20-minute film, “50/50: Rethinking the Past, Present and Future of Women + Power.” As rights for underrepresented groups, never fully realized, are being threatened by a deluge of legal setbacks, Dendrofemonology offers itself as a bullseye for collective action. The concentric circles in its chronology point to eroding status and reproductive rights for women, mortally threatening their health and autonomy.

“We need a visual, and we need a coming together,” said Shlain of her motivation for the project, with the taglines #ReclaimOurHistory and #VoteOurFuture.

. . . . . . .

https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/12/women-history-usa-tree-ring-washington-dc-tiffany-shlain/

October 20, 2023

At the National Mall, Artist Tiffany Shlain Is Rewriting Women into U.S. History

(the events can be read at the link below--absolutely fascinating)


At the National Mall, Artist Tiffany Shlain Is Rewriting Women into U.S. History
9/12/2023 by Bonnie Stabile
On display from Nov. 1-4 in Washington, D.C., Tiffany Shlain’s Dendrofemonology remakes the historical tree ring into a timeline of the story of women and power in society.



Tiffany Shlain’s Dendrofemonology, presented by the National Women’s History Museum and Women Connect4Good, remakes the historical tree ring into a timeline of the story of women and power in society. (Courtesy of the National Women’s History Museum)

The architecture of Washington, D.C., was self-consciously designed to evoke power, permanence and ancient Greek and Roman ideals of democracy and liberty, as espoused by the Founding Fathers. However, with erosion threatening architectural and human rights landmarks, artist and activist Tiffany Shlain says it is time to imagine a new national monument. Sponsored by the National Women’s History Museum and Women Connect4Good, she has undertaken such a project.

Shlain, a veteran commentator on the modern human condition, is orchestrating a moveable monument on the national mall: a tree ring roughly five feet in diameter, with text burned into the wood showing a timeline of the story of women and power in society.
Her ambitious take on the historical tree rings was inspired by her childhood visits to national parks. This ring begins by noting that goddesses were worshipped in 50,000 BCE. It ends with the outermost ring demarcating the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade as “eviscerating federal protection of reproductive rights in the U.S.” (See a full list of the tree ring’s milestones at the end of this article.)

Shlain’s feminist history tree ring is named Dendrofemonology, a play on the term dendrochronology—the science of “dating events in former periods by the comparative study of growth rings in trees.” It offers an intentional counternarrative to more typical patriarchal fare—such as narratives that credit colonialist Christopher Columbus for setting sail in 1492, as the Cross-Section of Time landmark does at Muir Woods National Monument, an example of what Shlain calls “mansplained history.” The feminist history tree ring will be on display from Nov. 1-4, 2023, between the Washington Monument and the imposing Capitol building. Unlike the stone structures that will tower over it on all sides, the tree ring is evocative of a once-living thing, majestic in its own right, that has witnessed history and aspires to be a part of correcting its oversights and injustices.

“I literally was finishing it as the Dobbs decision happened,” said Shlain of the project. The Dobbs ruling “felt like a punch to the soul”—the same one she experienced in 2016 when she “thought we were going to get our first woman president.” After the 2016 election, she again turned to art as activism, creating a global event about gender equity called 50/50 Day in 2017, which featured a 20-minute film, “50/50: Rethinking the Past, Present and Future of Women + Power.” As rights for underrepresented groups, never fully realized, are being threatened by a deluge of legal setbacks, Dendrofemonology offers itself as a bullseye for collective action. The concentric circles in its chronology point to eroding status and reproductive rights for women, mortally threatening their health and autonomy.

“We need a visual, and we need a coming together,” said Shlain of her motivation for the project, with the taglines #ReclaimOurHistory and #VoteOurFuture.

. . . . . . .

https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/12/women-history-usa-tree-ring-washington-dc-tiffany-shlain/

October 20, 2023

At the National Mall, Artist Tiffany Shlain Is Rewriting Women into U.S. History

(the events can be read at the link below--absolutely fascinating)


At the National Mall, Artist Tiffany Shlain Is Rewriting Women into U.S. History
9/12/2023 by Bonnie Stabile
On display from Nov. 1-4 in Washington, D.C., Tiffany Shlain’s Dendrofemonology remakes the historical tree ring into a timeline of the story of women and power in society.



Tiffany Shlain’s Dendrofemonology, presented by the National Women’s History Museum and Women Connect4Good, remakes the historical tree ring into a timeline of the story of women and power in society. (Courtesy of the National Women’s History Museum)

The architecture of Washington, D.C., was self-consciously designed to evoke power, permanence and ancient Greek and Roman ideals of democracy and liberty, as espoused by the Founding Fathers. However, with erosion threatening architectural and human rights landmarks, artist and activist Tiffany Shlain says it is time to imagine a new national monument. Sponsored by the National Women’s History Museum and Women Connect4Good, she has undertaken such a project.

Shlain, a veteran commentator on the modern human condition, is orchestrating a moveable monument on the national mall: a tree ring roughly five feet in diameter, with text burned into the wood showing a timeline of the story of women and power in society.
Her ambitious take on the historical tree rings was inspired by her childhood visits to national parks. This ring begins by noting that goddesses were worshipped in 50,000 BCE. It ends with the outermost ring demarcating the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade as “eviscerating federal protection of reproductive rights in the U.S.” (See a full list of the tree ring’s milestones at the end of this article.)

Shlain’s feminist history tree ring is named Dendrofemonology, a play on the term dendrochronology—the science of “dating events in former periods by the comparative study of growth rings in trees.” It offers an intentional counternarrative to more typical patriarchal fare—such as narratives that credit colonialist Christopher Columbus for setting sail in 1492, as the Cross-Section of Time landmark does at Muir Woods National Monument, an example of what Shlain calls “mansplained history.” The feminist history tree ring will be on display from Nov. 1-4, 2023, between the Washington Monument and the imposing Capitol building. Unlike the stone structures that will tower over it on all sides, the tree ring is evocative of a once-living thing, majestic in its own right, that has witnessed history and aspires to be a part of correcting its oversights and injustices.

“I literally was finishing it as the Dobbs decision happened,” said Shlain of the project. The Dobbs ruling “felt like a punch to the soul”—the same one she experienced in 2016 when she “thought we were going to get our first woman president.” After the 2016 election, she again turned to art as activism, creating a global event about gender equity called 50/50 Day in 2017, which featured a 20-minute film, “50/50: Rethinking the Past, Present and Future of Women + Power.” As rights for underrepresented groups, never fully realized, are being threatened by a deluge of legal setbacks, Dendrofemonology offers itself as a bullseye for collective action. The concentric circles in its chronology point to eroding status and reproductive rights for women, mortally threatening their health and autonomy.

“We need a visual, and we need a coming together,” said Shlain of her motivation for the project, with the taglines #ReclaimOurHistory and #VoteOurFuture.

. . . . . . .

https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/12/women-history-usa-tree-ring-washington-dc-tiffany-shlain/

October 20, 2023

To Fight the 'War on Woke,' We Need Poetry and Poets

To Fight the ‘War on Woke,’ We Need Poetry and Poets
10/12/2023 by Emily Carr

Ms. Classroom wants to hear from educators and students being impacted by legislation attacking public education, higher education, gender, race and sexuality studies, activism and social justice in education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Cue: a new series from Ms., ‘Banned! Voices from the Classroom.’ Submit pitches and/or op-eds and reflections (between 500-800 words) to Ms. contributing editor Aviva Dove-Viebahn at [email protected]. Posts will be accepted on a rolling basis.

I’m a former professor at the New College of Florida—I resigned the end of July. In 2019, I was hired as the first and only professor of creative writing at the New College. I am trained as an ecofeminist poet and was affiliated with gender studies and environmental studies. I taught courses like “The Sexual Politics of Meat,” “Poetry Recess” and “How a Woman Becomes A Lake, and Other Unheroic Acts: a Seminar in Gender and Genre Bending.”

On July 19, 2023, Robert Allen published an opinion piece in the Sarasota Herald Tribune criticizing the lack of ideological balance in the New College faculty and listing myself, faculty chair Amy Reid and gender studies professor Nick Clarkson as “pedagogical aberrations” that exemplified his point. Shortly thereafter, I resigned—which would have happened regardless of Allen’s piece. However, Allen’s piece has invited me to speak up and, after much deliberation and careful wordsmithing, I’ve decided I want to share my story, below. I hope it helps to raise awareness on the plight of education in this country—because New College isn’t an anomaly, it’s the future of the “war on woke.”

Because so many voices are lost or silenced in this battle.

Because we need to share our personal, intimate, vulnerable and authentic experiences of the American culture wars.

Because we are more than just collateral damage.

Because—particularly in the midst of this massive cultural dysfunction—we need poetry and poets, too.

*
. . . .
About Emily Carr
Dr. Emily Carr is a beach witch, love poet, eco-feminist professor and author of four collections of poetry. Carr was the founding director of the MFA in creative writing at Oregon State University–Cascades and creator of the B.A. in creative writing at the New College of Florida. These days she’s the first poetry professor on faculty at the Southern Illinois School of Medicine, with a mission of injecting healthy doses of awe, creativity, zest, hope and perspective into the problem-based learning curriculum.

https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/12/new-college-of-florida-poetry-gender-studies-women/

October 20, 2023

To Fight the 'War on Woke,' We Need Poetry and Poets

To Fight the ‘War on Woke,’ We Need Poetry and Poets
10/12/2023 by Emily Carr

Ms. Classroom wants to hear from educators and students being impacted by legislation attacking public education, higher education, gender, race and sexuality studies, activism and social justice in education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Cue: a new series from Ms., ‘Banned! Voices from the Classroom.’ Submit pitches and/or op-eds and reflections (between 500-800 words) to Ms. contributing editor Aviva Dove-Viebahn at [email protected]. Posts will be accepted on a rolling basis.

I’m a former professor at the New College of Florida—I resigned the end of July. In 2019, I was hired as the first and only professor of creative writing at the New College. I am trained as an ecofeminist poet and was affiliated with gender studies and environmental studies. I taught courses like “The Sexual Politics of Meat,” “Poetry Recess” and “How a Woman Becomes A Lake, and Other Unheroic Acts: a Seminar in Gender and Genre Bending.”

On July 19, 2023, Robert Allen published an opinion piece in the Sarasota Herald Tribune criticizing the lack of ideological balance in the New College faculty and listing myself, faculty chair Amy Reid and gender studies professor Nick Clarkson as “pedagogical aberrations” that exemplified his point. Shortly thereafter, I resigned—which would have happened regardless of Allen’s piece. However, Allen’s piece has invited me to speak up and, after much deliberation and careful wordsmithing, I’ve decided I want to share my story, below. I hope it helps to raise awareness on the plight of education in this country—because New College isn’t an anomaly, it’s the future of the “war on woke.”

Because so many voices are lost or silenced in this battle.

Because we need to share our personal, intimate, vulnerable and authentic experiences of the American culture wars.

Because we are more than just collateral damage.

Because—particularly in the midst of this massive cultural dysfunction—we need poetry and poets, too.

*
. . . .
About Emily Carr
Dr. Emily Carr is a beach witch, love poet, eco-feminist professor and author of four collections of poetry. Carr was the founding director of the MFA in creative writing at Oregon State University–Cascades and creator of the B.A. in creative writing at the New College of Florida. These days she’s the first poetry professor on faculty at the Southern Illinois School of Medicine, with a mission of injecting healthy doses of awe, creativity, zest, hope and perspective into the problem-based learning curriculum.

https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/12/new-college-of-florida-poetry-gender-studies-women/

October 20, 2023

To Fight the 'War on Woke,' We Need Poetry and Poets

To Fight the ‘War on Woke,’ We Need Poetry and Poets
10/12/2023 by Emily Carr

Ms. Classroom wants to hear from educators and students being impacted by legislation attacking public education, higher education, gender, race and sexuality studies, activism and social justice in education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Cue: a new series from Ms., ‘Banned! Voices from the Classroom.’ Submit pitches and/or op-eds and reflections (between 500-800 words) to Ms. contributing editor Aviva Dove-Viebahn at [email protected]. Posts will be accepted on a rolling basis.

I’m a former professor at the New College of Florida—I resigned the end of July. In 2019, I was hired as the first and only professor of creative writing at the New College. I am trained as an ecofeminist poet and was affiliated with gender studies and environmental studies. I taught courses like “The Sexual Politics of Meat,” “Poetry Recess” and “How a Woman Becomes A Lake, and Other Unheroic Acts: a Seminar in Gender and Genre Bending.”

On July 19, 2023, Robert Allen published an opinion piece in the Sarasota Herald Tribune criticizing the lack of ideological balance in the New College faculty and listing myself, faculty chair Amy Reid and gender studies professor Nick Clarkson as “pedagogical aberrations” that exemplified his point. Shortly thereafter, I resigned—which would have happened regardless of Allen’s piece. However, Allen’s piece has invited me to speak up and, after much deliberation and careful wordsmithing, I’ve decided I want to share my story, below. I hope it helps to raise awareness on the plight of education in this country—because New College isn’t an anomaly, it’s the future of the “war on woke.”

Because so many voices are lost or silenced in this battle.

Because we need to share our personal, intimate, vulnerable and authentic experiences of the American culture wars.

Because we are more than just collateral damage.

Because—particularly in the midst of this massive cultural dysfunction—we need poetry and poets, too.

*
. . . .
About Emily Carr
Dr. Emily Carr is a beach witch, love poet, eco-feminist professor and author of four collections of poetry. Carr was the founding director of the MFA in creative writing at Oregon State University–Cascades and creator of the B.A. in creative writing at the New College of Florida. These days she’s the first poetry professor on faculty at the Southern Illinois School of Medicine, with a mission of injecting healthy doses of awe, creativity, zest, hope and perspective into the problem-based learning curriculum.

https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/12/new-college-of-florida-poetry-gender-studies-women/

October 20, 2023

Devastation from Earthquakes in Afghanistan Strikes an Already-Shaky Foundation

Devastation from Earthquakes in Afghanistan Strikes an Already-Shaky Foundation
Anselma Ellingwood | October 9, 2023

Authorities have confirmed over 2000 casualties following a devastating earthquake that hit northwestern Afghanistan’s Herat province. Two 6.3-magnitude earthquakes hit several districts on Saturday, followed by 7 tremors, causing mud-brick homes to collapse. Thousands of people have since been sleeping outside in freezing temperatures to protect themselves from aftershocks that could destroy their homes. Several villages have been reduced to rubble with the count of fatalities and injuries continuing to climb.

Aid workers on Sunday encountered devastating effects from the earthquake: people’s homes destroyed, entire families killed, and hospitals and clinics overwhelmed with injured people – hospitals and clinics that were already close to collapsing due to lack of funding. The earthquakes are one the deadliest disasters Afghanistan has seen in decades and recently, the country has grappled with flooding and mudslides too. The earthquakes and other disasters have exacerbated the precarious humanitarian aid situation and economic crisis caused by the takeover of the government in Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2021.

The consequent disappearance of millions of jobs have led to almost half of the population’s 39 million people facing severe hunger and 3 million on the brink of starvation, according to the United Nations World Food Program. The Taliban released edicts earlier this year to prevent women from working for NGOs and delivering much-needed aid. Aid money has begun to peter out as the world’s attention goes elsewhere and the Taliban’s gender apartheid policies against women have led to calls to stop funding the country entirely.

Taliban officials claim to be directing military and service organizations to help those injured and provide food and shelter to remote areas but volunteers shared that “little” if any aid had been received from the Taliban. Distribution of tents and blankets in Herat only begins to scratch at the surface of people’s needs.

https://feminist.org/news/devastation-from-earthquakes-in-afghanistan-strikes-an-already-shaky-foundation/