Camp Mossandsticks, named after moss and sticks--two of the most rudimentary tools with which one can spark fire--is a site for young women and girls to become resourceful, defiant, and self-sufficient revolutionaries of today. Started on November 6, 2012, the camp hosts workshops to spark the attendees’ inner political flames, challenging them to confront disenfranchisement created by the status quo and to take matters into their own hands.
In the Ukraine, a country where females are victims of sexual trafficking and gender oppression, a new tribe of empowered women is emerging. Calling themselves the “Asgarda”, the women seek complete autonomy from men. Residing in the Carpathian Mountains, the tribe is comprised of 150 women of varying ages, primarily students, led by 30 year-old Katerina Tarnouska.
Amplify HER is a visually dynamic, character driven feature documentary that offers intimate access into the lives of numerous emerging female artists. By combining ecstatic energy and feminine artistry, these talented young women in the global electronic music scene are harbingers for the emerging paradigm.
Riot grrrl is a feminist punk rock movement started in the early 90's, particularly in Washington DC, Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. Bands that follow the movement include Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Jack Off Jill, Bratmobile, Adickdid, The Butchies, Heavens to Betsy, Huggy Bear, Bangs, and Calamity Jane, amongst others.
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a worldwide marketing/public relations campaign launched in 2004 that includes advertisements, video, workshops, sleepover events and the publication of a book and the production of a play. The principle behind the campaign is to celebrate the natural physical variation embodied by all women and inspire them to have the confidence to be comfortable with themselves.
A new comic book with a female rape survivor as its "super hero" has been launched to focus attention on the problem of sexual violence in India.
Priya's Shakti, inspired by Hindu mythological tales, tells the story of Priya, a young woman and gang-rape survivor, and Goddess Parvati as they fight against gender crimes in India.
She seeks to utilize her feminist art to spread awareness on mental health issues. Sravy is a nomad in her own right, and throughout her experiences in Asia she has noticed that there are stimas surrounding women's autonomy and how they handle mental health struggles.
Cheril Linett is a female artist from Chile, with a background in performance art and stage performance, who primarily focuses her artwork on feminist issues in Chile, especially ones involving violence, murder, hate crime and different kinds of oppression and assault, but also creates artwork reflecting issues in other parts of Latin America.
Las Vulpes was the first spanish punk rock band formed only by women. It was founded in Baracaldo (Vizcaya, Basque Country) in the summer of 1982, as a result of the guitarist´s desire on creating an all women punk band. After a few changes, the final formation consisted on: Loles Vázquez (guitar), Mamen Rodrigo (voice), Begoña Astigarraga (bass) and Lupe Vázquez (drums), all between 17 and 22 years of age.
Isabelle Wenzel's series of photographs entitled 'Building Images' is a striking view on the idea of the office/ workplace. Not only do her images ironically translate the uncomfortable positions office workers endure sitting in a single position for 8 hours a day, but she also takes on a feminist approach by focusing on feminine models in her photographs that center upon the contorted body and office fashion worn.
In 1984, a group of women in New York gathered outside the Museum of Modern Art as part of a protest. A group show, An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, was showing 165 artists, 152 male artists exhibited alongside just 13 women.
Outraged, they attended the protest, bringing placards and chanting outside the museum. But a handful of women within the larger crowd learned something.
On June 17, 1911, a week before the coronation of King George V, women from diverse backgrounds united in costume and with installations over a shared political view - that of rallying the right for women to vote. Known as the Women's Coronation March, women thronged the streets between Blackfriars Bridge and Albert hall in a five-linked chain, dressed for the most part in white.
This project served as an educational tool to demystify the female body and bring awareness to the issues of reproductive rights and the ignorance that sometimes plagues common misconceptions about the reproductive system. I think this campaign is very successful in its approach. It exhibits paintings and displays of uterus and the female form in a non-sexual way.
Grammys 2015: Abuse survivor Brooke Axtell talks Katy Perry, advocacy
by Nardine Saad
Domestic abuse survivor and advocate Brooke Axtell captivated audiences watching the Grammy Awards on Sunday with a stirring spoken-word piece before Katy Perry's performance of her ballad "By the Grace of God" at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The Guerilla Girls are masked art activists who seek to bring attention to women in the art world and expose the unfair dominance of white males in the field. Their research into the racial and gender inequality in the art world is exposed through ironically worded public posters and billboards.
The development of the Nights from the oriental oral and literary traditions of the Middle Ages into a classical work for Western readers is a fascinating one. The notebook of a Jewish book dealer from Cairo around the year 1150 contains the first documentary evidence for the Arabic title. The oldest preserved manuscripts, comprising a core corpus of about 270 nights, appear to date from the 15th century.
Rokudenashiko is on a mission to free the vagina. In her native country of Japan, the vaginal slang word “manko” is considered taboo while the penis equivalent, “chinko,” is used freely. Rokudenashiko (the pseudonym of artist Megumi Igarashi) uses her manko art to destigmatize the vagina, using it as the basis for whimsical figurines, iPhone cases, dioramas, and, in her most infamous piece, a kayak.
The Vulvatron was created specifically for Burning Man 2014. A multi-sensory experience, the Vulvatron attempts to communicate to those whom interact with it a distinctly feminine mystery. What is woman? In a world that has politicized, exoticized, sexualized, objectified, made their stake in women, what remains? Creating a gigantic object inspired by female anatomy in a world surrounded by phallic objects is a medicine story in itself.
DEPENDING on your taste, punk died in 1979, or maybe 1994, or whenever studded leather cuffs became a must-have mall-girl accessory. Now, suddenly, punk has been resurrected, stitched together anew in the form of the well-accessorized Russian women who call themselves Pussy Riot.
Today’s Bad Bitch Award goes to Karmenife Paulino, a 22-year-old graduate of Wesleyan University. Raped at a fraternity during her freshman year, she reasserted her sexual agency in a photoshoot entitled “Reclamation,” where she poses as a dominatrix on fraternity grounds.
Herself.com may not be safe for work, but it FEELS safe for work. That's how intimate and gorgeous the shots of these naked women are, they transcend, for some, the feeling that you are looking at the taboo. You are simply looking at a person, in a quality of artistry that you might not be used to seeing on what are deemed "regular people".
On March 10, 1914, Mary Richardson slashed Velasquez's "Rokeby Venus" with a small axe during public hours at the National Gallery in London. A militant suffragette protesting the force-feeding of imprisoned suffragettes in prison (and the Cat and Mouse Act which released the starving women only until they were slightly healthier only to imprison them again), Richardson released this statement after her arrest: