Feministing blogger to lecture at Smith
Sarah Billian
Issue date: 3/4/10 Section: Features
Smith College has long been viewed as a bastion of liberal thinking. Long before it became known as a place where queer and lesbian students could feel at home, the institution was founded with the then-radical notion that women deserved the "means and facilities for education equal to those which are afforded now in our colleges to young men."
In this spirit, campus reproductive rights group Voices for Change (VOX) will bring feminist writer, reproductive justice and birth activist Miriam Perez to Smith tomorrow.
"It's true that as an exceptionally liberal student body, Smithies are likely to already be supportive of LGBTQ and reproductive rights," said VOX Vice President Anna McNeary '12. "However, I also think it's common for us to take social change for granted, thinking that as long as we support an issue in theory, we've done our part."
VOX hopes, McNeary continued, "that by inviting a speaker such as [Perez] to our campus to address these social justice issues, we can inspire more activism and participation, or at least dialogue, among students."
Organization president Catherine Dodson '11 said that the "shocking level of complacency surrounding reproductive rights" among students, as well as the lack of knowledge "bridging the gap between the LGBTQ community and the movement for full and protected reproductive freedom" make Perez an excellent and vital source of information to the Smith community.
Dodson continued, "We are a nation with an ever-rising teen pregnancy problem, no federal mandate regarding comprehensive sex education, and the rates for HIV/AIDS transmission continues to grow … and yet, where is the uproar?"
"Even at a progressive school like Smith, it's important to have conversations that highlight how disparate movements can work together. I've found, being an activist in these two movements, that they don't do a lot of working together," Perez said herself.
A common argument, Perez said, asks " 'Why would gay people, who can't get accidentally pregnant, care about abortion?' Not only does this ignore large parts of the LGBTQ community - bisexual folks, for example - it also unfairly paints the RJ movement as all about abortion. It's much broader than that."
In this spirit, campus reproductive rights group Voices for Change (VOX) will bring feminist writer, reproductive justice and birth activist Miriam Perez to Smith tomorrow.
"It's true that as an exceptionally liberal student body, Smithies are likely to already be supportive of LGBTQ and reproductive rights," said VOX Vice President Anna McNeary '12. "However, I also think it's common for us to take social change for granted, thinking that as long as we support an issue in theory, we've done our part."
VOX hopes, McNeary continued, "that by inviting a speaker such as [Perez] to our campus to address these social justice issues, we can inspire more activism and participation, or at least dialogue, among students."
Organization president Catherine Dodson '11 said that the "shocking level of complacency surrounding reproductive rights" among students, as well as the lack of knowledge "bridging the gap between the LGBTQ community and the movement for full and protected reproductive freedom" make Perez an excellent and vital source of information to the Smith community.
Dodson continued, "We are a nation with an ever-rising teen pregnancy problem, no federal mandate regarding comprehensive sex education, and the rates for HIV/AIDS transmission continues to grow … and yet, where is the uproar?"
"Even at a progressive school like Smith, it's important to have conversations that highlight how disparate movements can work together. I've found, being an activist in these two movements, that they don't do a lot of working together," Perez said herself.
A common argument, Perez said, asks " 'Why would gay people, who can't get accidentally pregnant, care about abortion?' Not only does this ignore large parts of the LGBTQ community - bisexual folks, for example - it also unfairly paints the RJ movement as all about abortion. It's much broader than that."
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