Making History: One Step at a Time

The most recent things that have been viral lately are the #MeToo posts, which I, along with many others, are feeling conflicted about. First, let me explain the hashtag in case you're reading and don't understand what I'm talking about. There's a viral post going around, and it began on Twitter, followed by Facebook, and then Instagram. This is the initial post: "Me too. If all women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote "Me too." as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem." At a first glance, it seems to be an effective use of your status, right? Raising awareness about sexual assault? Sign me the heck up. As you begin to question this movement, however, it becomes clear that there are many people missing from the conversation with this viral post. Men are sexually assaulted, LGBTQ+ are sexually assaulted, POC are sexually assaulted. If It's On Us has taught me anything, it's tha...

As many of you might be aware, Betsy Devos rolled back portions of Title IX that were put into place under the Obama administration. If you have not read up on it, please do so here before finishing this post. In summary, DeVos would like even more evidence from survivors that they were sexually assaulted and thus, they should punish the perpetrator. You may think that is not problematic, but let me tell you why it is. Yes, it definitely cuts down on wrongful prosecution of those being accused. The issue is, though, that wrongful prosecution barely happens. Only 2-8% of sexual assault cases are proved to be inaccurate. That leaves 92-98% of sexual assault cases to be proven to be correct. Why that means we should make the reporting process harder, I cannot say. This is also problematic because it not only disrespects everything that the Obama Administration did prior, but it shows that Betsy DeVos is more concerned with protecting rapists than she is survivors. It shows tha...

Please bear with me during this post. While it is long, it's very important to me, and reading it would raise awareness. It was hard for me to type this all out, but I do hope that it helps somebody for me to tell my story.  This past week, I experienced the first ounce of being uninsured by healthcare. I'd like to start this blog post with stating that I'm so lucky to have healthcare, and to not have to worry about it very much in the past. My parents are so lucky to have jobs that insure healthcare, and I couldn't imagine not being able to be insured, for whatever reason. This past week I took a trip to the gynecology office. I've only gone once before, just to discuss birth control methods that were best for me, and that trip was over two years ago. The trip consisted of discussing methods with my doctor, learning what they all do to your body, thanking her, and leaving. This next trip was a bit more complicated. Let me explain. Ever since I started dating m...

Yesterday, I felt conflicted all day. Due to my growing insights into activism, I have become so clearly aware of the lack of freedom that we have; as women, LGBTQ+ people, disabled, and people of color. We are not free. I woke up yesterday morning feeling that I have no right to celebrate. It's become so clear in the past few months since November that much of our country is more discriminatory than I noticed in the past. In November, discrimination, misogyny, inequality, and racism won. On July 4, discrimination, misogyny, inequality, and racism was still present. I don't want to speak for anybody else, but I do know that every 4th of July, I feel more vulnerable. I carry myself differently, I hide myself more, and I feel more endangered than I usually do, because for many people, I've found that patriotism is synonymous to violence. I don't know how to feel patriotic anymore. I used to adore the 4th of July, and this year, I couldn't get into the...

I haven't posted in a while because this semester has been wild. As a quick recap: - I went to the National Young Feminist Leadership Conference over my spring break in Washington, D.C. It was an incredible experience, albeit a little overwhelming. I met incredibly passionate and wonderful feminists, and, although I wish there was more focus on fighting against sexual assault, I learned so much and met many wonderful professional feminists. I learned that there is such a thing as being a Professional Activist / Feminist, and I have thus made business cards and a LinkedIn, having finally found my right path. The President of NOW, Terry O'Neill - I spoke on a panel with congresswoman Kuster from New Hampshire about her new bipartisan task force to ending sexual violence on college campuses. What an incredible honor. - I was honored a fellowship via Campus Compact, so now I am a Campus Compact Newman Fellow for the school year of 2017-2018. - My org...

I've been taking some time away from social media for a few days- hence the hiatus of posting. I noticed that my mood is directly affected by social media: it was my main form of the news, as well as the emotions/opinions attached to it. I realized that my opinions were coming from unbiased news sources, not to mention that the people posting the news (my friends on Facebook), were tagging it with their own biases. That's not to say that is a bad thing, necessarily, but I wanted to be able to form my own opinion about these changes that our happening in our everyday lives. Plymouth State University offers an American Government course that I've been taking. Our misogyny, racism, xenophobia, etc, has been a part of American history for so many centuries. Taking a course in the history of Government is inherently important, and it's definitely helped me understand our history, as well as what's happening today. Which brings me to my next point. On 1/27/17 , Presid...

Today, millions of people marched in solidarity with the thousands at Washington, D.C. in order to show that we, all people of minorities that have been attacked in President Trump's election period, are here to fight, to stand tall, and to resist bigotry and hate. I marched at Montpelier, which was set out to have at least 5,000 people and at most 9,000 people. We began the morning by moving sluggish, under the impression that, "it's Vermont. We can leave half an hour later than we were going to." Which we did. And we would later regret. My brother made a sign, my mom made a sign, and my friend and I made two signs each. We piled in the car, coats jammed between seats, and were on our way. Once we hit the highway, we realized: there are a lot more people than we envisioned. Traffic was backed up all the way to the exit. A trip that should have taken at most thirty minutes, took close to two hours. It was the best traffic I've been in. People opened their wi...

Today is Inauguration Day, and 8 hours ago (12pm), Donald J. Trump became our President of the United States. I feel a sense of defeat tonight. Maybe it's because our president is as easily swayed of his beliefs as an insecure pre-teenager trying to make friends (yes, I'm talking about me), or maybe it's because he can't even hold a strong conversation with anyone older than third grade , but I'm feeling conflicted about our 45th president. I feel heartbroken that the people of our country voted for somebody so bigoted, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, sexist, and immature as Donald Trump. Tomorrow, hundreds of marches will be happening during the day, all sistering with the Women's March On Washington, or #WMW, that is to "send a bold message to our new government on their first day of office, and to the world, that women's rights are human rights." I will be attending one near me with my close friend and family member in Montpelier at 1pm . As ...