BROADA Feminist & Social Justice Magazine

Issue 58, May 2013

The Green Issue

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BROADA feminist is a person who answers “yes” to the question, “Are women human?” Feminism is not about whether women are better than, worse than or identical with men. And it’s certainly not abouttrading personal liberty--abortion, divorce, sexual self-expression--for social protection as wives and mothers, as pro-life feminists propose. It’s aboutjustice, fairness, and access to the

range of human experience. It’s about women consulting their own well-being and

being judged as individuals rather than as members of a class with one personality, one social function, one road to happiness. It’s about women having intrinsic value as persons rather than contingent value as a means to an end for others: fetuses, children, the “family,” men. ~ Katha Pollitt

broad | brÔd | adjective1 having an ample distance from side to side; wide 2 covering a large number and wide scope of subjects or areas: a broad range of experience3 having or incorporating a wide range of meanings4 including or coming from many people of many kinds5 general without detail6 (of a regional accent) very noticeable and strong7 full, complete, clear, bright; she was attacked in broad daylight

noun (informal)a woman.

slanga promiscuous woman

broad | brÔd | phrases

broad in the beam: with wide hips or large buttocksin broad daylight: during the day, when it is light, and surprising for this reason

have broad shoulders: ability to cope with unpleasant responsibilities or to accept criticism

City of broad shoulders: Chicago

synonymssee: wide, extensive, ample, vast, liberal, open, all-embracing

antonymssee: narrow, constricted, limited, subtle, slight, closed

see also

broadside (n.) historical: a common form of printed material, especially for poetry

broad | brÔd |

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BROAD Mission: Broad’s mission is to connect the WSGS program with communities of students, faculty, and staff at Loyola and beyond, continuing and extending the program’s mission. We provide space and support for a variety of voices while bridging communities of scholars, artists, and activists. Our editorial mission is to provoke thought and debate in an open forum characterized by respect and civility.

WSGS Mission: Founded in 1979, Loyola’s Women’s Studies Program is the first women’s studies program at a Jesuit institution and has served as a model for women’s studies programs at other Jesuit and Catholic universities. Our mission is to introduce students to feminist scholarship across the disciplines and the professional schools; to provide innovative, challenging, and thoughtful approaches to learning; and to promote social justice.

The Green IssueThis issue explores the topics of environmentalism, including ecofeminism, environmental activism, fracking, recycling and reusing, respecting nature, the intersection of class, race, gender, and environmental issues, and how our bodies are related to the earth. Look for the [GI] symbol for contributions on our theme!

BROAD People:

Katie KlingelCo-Editor in Chief

J. Curtis MainConsulting Editor

Karolyne CarlossCo-Editor in Chief

Emma SteiberContetnt and Section

Editor

CONTENTSFROM YOUR EDITOR

by Katie Klingel

[GI] Una Cultura MestizaJanelle Jones

[GI] My Three MothersJerry Podgorski

WLA RE-ANIMATED 1932: “Higher Botany”

BOOKMARK HERE Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

MIDDLE EASTERN MUSINGS Solar Mamasby Abeer Allan

QUEER THOUGHTS Progressing Past Gender: A Statement on Intersectionality

by Emma Steiber

[GI] Eco-feminismby Audrey Kelly

[GI] A Reflection About My Mother and Your Mother, Mother Earthby Anthony Betori

BROADSIDE Sailor, Sailorby Alex Layman

QUOTE CORNER Wangari Maathai

WORDS ARE USELESS Antelope Canyon, Page, AZby Alex Layman

WORDS ARE USELESS Olympic National Park: Port Angeles, WAby Alex Layman

WORDS ARE USELESS Red Rock Canyon: Nevadaby Alex Layman

FEMINIST FIRES Charlotte Perkins Gilmanby Natalie Beck

[GI] Conscious Consumerism: Raising the Issue of Poverty to Consumersby Ashley Lindemann

WORDS ARE USELESS Angel’s Landing: Zion National Park, UTby Alex Layman

WORDS ARE USELESS Granite Falls, WAby Alex Layman

[GI] The Haves and Have Nots: Eating GreenJulia DeLuca

FEMINIST FIRES Greta Gaard

QUOTE CORNER Vandana Shiva

BROADSIDE Somedays a Twigby Alex Layman

WORDS ARE USELESS Altered Lifeby Ausrine Kerr

INSIDE R OUT? Environmentalism or Looking Out for Humans? What Would Other Species Do?by J. Curtis Main

WORDS ARE USELESS Circle of Timeby Gayle Carloss

WORDS ARE USELESSGrayson Thomas; Sarah Mendiola

EX BIBLIOTHECIS Thinking About Our Planet and Your Futureby Jane P. Currie

MADADS Green: The New Niche and its Effects

[GI] Ghost Lake, TXby Alex Layman

WORDS ARE USELESSby Cassandra Magana

ALUM ALERT Barbara Schwabauer

CONTRIBUTOR GUIDELINES

Seeking submissions on mass media, popular culture, feminist reflections on popular culture, how feminism is depicted in media outlets, romance novels and movies, blogging, feminist publications and podcasts, how queer identities are depicted in pop culture, the representation of women in

video games, racial diversity in pop course, and the discourse of victimization in the media.

Send your poetry, artwork, and reflections to broad.luc@gmail.com by June 24th!

1) Diversity & Outreach EditorResponsibilities include assessment and implementation of diversity and outreach in BROAD magazine’s

content, staff, contributors, themes, sections, and more. This position will work in collaboration with BROAD’s existing editorial team and serve a specialized role, promoting the magazine, targeting outreach to include a

diverse range of contributors, and offering feedback regarding BROAD’s mission, successes, and weaknesses in inclusivity and reaching fringed voices and populations. This person must have a strong sense of self and commitments to social justice movements, in addition to a broad and detailed understanding of cultural

competence and outreach to new and underrepresented areas and people.

2) Website & Archive EditorResponsibilities include management and maintenance of website and archives as they relate to the Women’s

Studies and Gender Studies website, Issuu online publishing platform, file back-up, the Women and Leadership Archives Collection, and LUC organizations and departments, among others. This position will work in

collaboration with BROAD’s existing editorial team and serve an important role in maintaining BROAD’s presence and future in digital formats.

This person must have excellent organizational skills and technological abilities in web design and navigation, digital storage, knowledge in transferring digital files from one form to another, and a passion to

present and archive BROAD magazine to the public in a variety of ways, including finding new avenues to broaden BROAD magazine’s reach.

DUE Monday, June 17Email Curtis Main (jmain@luc.edu) your cover letter and resume in addition to any other materials

you would like to be reviewed for your candidacy. Positions are eligible for LUC course credit in WSGS and COMM classes with approval. Interviews will be conducted after applications have been received.

Positions start the last week of June and run until May 2014.

From Your Editor

As springtime finally reaches Chicago, many of us find ourselves noticing the environment more and more. Just think of the schema we associate with spring: tulips, warm weather, animals waking out of hibernation. “April showers bring May flowers.” A google image search for “springtime” brings up colorful gardens and landscapes, the sun shining, trees blooming, women out and about in their summer dresses. Spring being the time that we as a society seem to value the environment the most,

it seems appropriate for BROAD’s May issue to focus on environmentalism and eco-feminism.

As a kid growing up in the Midwest, I was always outside. I was one of those adventurous, slightly tom-boyish types. If it was above 70 degrees outside, you could find me out searching the creek or the woods, climbing trees, or playing with worms. While I spent plenty of time in the outdoors, I never really had an appreciation for it, or an understanding that it might not be there

Dear Readers,

one day. As I got older, and my seasonal allergies started to kick in, I began to spend less and less time outside. Air conditioning became my best friend when I moved to Southern Florida, and the closest I got to “nature” was laying out by the pool. Even the ocean was something I avoided.

As I look back at my experiences with nature, I realize that I was never very appreciative of it. Yes, I enjoyed my time playing explorer in the neighborhood, and soaking up the sun, but I was using what our Earth has to give for my own advantage. In a sense, I was exploiting the land for my own means. While this might seem like a harsh criticism to lay on a young girl, it most accurately describes what I thought of nature, something to bring about my own enjoyment. Thankfully, my views have changed, and I now know the importance of seeing Earth in a different light.

While researching these topics, and the concept/persona of “Mother Earth,” I became fascinated with the views of Haunani-Kay Trask, a native Hawaiian woman who writes criticisms of the Hawaiian tourism industry. For her, and for many other native Hawaiians, the land is their mother, and they are her children. Following this, she is very defensive of her motherland, and opposes many of the outside forces, including Americanized tourism, that turn her mother into “a female object of degraded and victimized value.”

For Trask, environmentalism, and how it relates to Hawaii, is an inherently feminist issue. The environment, the land, the country, are all part of one female entity. I encourage you, our readers, to view our Mother Earth in this way. By recognizing that she is pillaged, destroyed, taken advantage of, and disrespected every day, similar to the experiences of too many other women, we can see how environmentalism and feminism have much in common. So, readers, I challenge you to read this issue with specific attention to yourself, and your own relationship with our Mother Earth. Do you take the time to smell the roses? If you do, what do you think of? The pleasure it brings your senses?

An amazement at what nature can do? An appreciation for what our mother has to offer? Or a concern to continue the necessary and beautiful aspects of the world we live in? Maybe even it brings about a warm feeling of connectedness with nature. This issue of BROAD, like all of our issues, should prompt much reevaluation of ourselves and our communities, especially in how we interact with and view our Earth.

While this issue is not a step-by-step intro into how to be a greener individual, it has much more to offer than just that. Here we fully delve into what it means to be an eco-feminist, and why such a stance is important. Join us as we critically analyze the “green” industry, reminisce in some beautiful memories concerning nature, and recognize how environmentalism, like feminism, has many cross-sections with other social justice issues. My hope is that each reader ends up with a greater and more appreciative understanding of what eco-feminism is, and how we can more deeply connect with our communal mother, Mother Earth, on a spiritual, political, natural, and even familial level.

As they say, it ain’t easy being green... Or is it?

Stay strong,Katie

By Janelle Jones

Una cultura mestiza

IOrganic farming? What a white girl’s sham. “There’s no such thing as organic farming in Mexico, Mariposa,” addressing the Japanese intern Shanobu. They had deemed her Mariposa, a strangely appropriate name for the timid creature. Was it because they couldn’t pronounce it? Maybe. Would they have called her Shanobu even if they could? Probably not. I was called by

my given name. Gee-nel. Janelle. “The ladies” or so they called them, were the sum of three parts, Margarita, Herberta or “Berta”, and Kim, none exceeding five feet. I was the fourth wheel that summer. What a white girl’s sham.

These are your new coworkers. Introductions etc. etc. etc. Look at the harvest chart, don’t loose

The Green Issue

track of how many bundles you have, and you’ll need to bring a harvest knife tomorrow, call me if you have problems. I lock eyes with the women I am now sharing a spinach bed with. They are at least twenty years my senior dressed in denim, turtlenecks and hats. They only allow the sun access to their brown hands, their livelihood. We haphazardly string together pleasantries in English, while the Spanish seems to linger, unspoken. A linguistic void they know at first glance I will leave unfulfilled. We do not engage fully. We do not make use of our full faculties. “Why you here, if you go to school?” They are friendly but reserved. Wading.

It is hotter than fucking Hades and I’m weeding the tomato green house. I am all alone and thinking thoughts suited for a correctional facility. We shiver in separate cells in enclosed cities, shoulders hunched, barely keeping the panic below the surface of the skin…Get a normal job Jan, your liberal image is not worth this indentured servitude. I rack my brain for excuses, illnesses. I pray for an injury. Revelation: Physical labor is profoundly mental. The ultimate drudgery, it wears both body and mind to exhaustion. I need “the ladies” who I don’t know and can hardly speak to. Jose, the irrigation guy, shows me how to prop open the “windows”. I could have married him. It’s only my second day.

45+ hours a week. Monday through Friday 7am to 4pm. Washington State Law, agricultural workers are exempt from overtime wages. So don’t give me your tenets and your laws. Amy, my manager, tells me that Agricultural laborers on large commercial farms are not allowed to speak while working. Time is literally money in the business of vegetables and it takes time to talk. Don’t give me your lukewarm Gods. Praise dinero before dignity in the eyes a law. I am now invested.

Their brown faces change form. The ladies are no longer an inextricable group. Margareta nurtures. “Is your novio católico”? Berta’s a

cynic. “Same caca Gee-nel, different día”. Berta has left her unfaithful husband “Hombre malo.” I imagine the space she inhabits, a one-bedroom apartment. Two children. A portion of her space is now my own, her words are evidence. I was totally immersed en lo mexicano,

a rural, peasant, isolated, mexicanismo. Mexican in nothing but industry. The line I’m straddling is surprisingly tranquil.

Eating a lunch feast prepared in my honor the ladies are absent. I go back to school next week. I am forced to spend my final hours on the farm answering

formulaic questions from the non-laboring staff. “Oh women’s studies? That’s interesting. What are you planning on doing with that?” Petrified, she cannot respond, her face caught between los intersticios, the spaces between the different worlds she inhabits. Conversation is contrived. I want to bring my meal to our usual venue.

Lunch. It’s our time. They don’t tolerate tardiness. Twelve sharp. “Gee-nell lunch loca!” We sit in the shade against the barn. Compost is to our left. Cardboard boxes between our tired limbs and the dirt. Margareta brings pictures to show Mariposa, who now takes refuge in our spot. Slightly browned pictures of Mexico mix with pixilated photos of grinning children. Amidst the rubble a cultural history reveals itself, disclosed within a setting of disorder. Mexico. Japan. America. I will have to stand and claim my space, making a new culture—una cultura mestiza—with my own lumber, my own bricks and mortar and my own feminist architecture. The ladies.

Janelle Jones is a rising senior at Loyola, double majoring in English and Women’s and Gender Studies. When she is not producing the Vagina Monologues or organizing with the Gannon Scholars she enjoys knitting, listening to public radio and sitting in her rocking chair for hours on end.

By turning to extremism, some feminists often lose themselves in the hierarchal society that originally oppressed them.

My Three Mothers

The Green Issue

By Jerry Podgorski

It was my first mother who gave me life, my second who saved it, and my third mother who showed me how to live it. I loved all three of them. On Mother’s Day, I’ll thank them in silent prayers for their priceless gifts. Mother’s Day gives us the opportunity to gather the heartfelt thoughts we have about our mother and say them to her, however we can. Joan, my biological mother, was a 25-year-old

patient in the Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium when she gave birth to me in 1938. She died there nearly three years later. I have only one vague memory of her picking me up, but I’m not even certain it was she. My sister and I saw Mom only on the occasional home visits she was allowed if her contagion level was within safe limits. When I was born, my father and two-year-old sister lived with my grandparents in their

small home along with my dad’s two unmarried sisters.

For the first four months of my life, I lived in the Saint Vincent DePaul orphanage in Chicago. My father said there simply was no room for another child at home, but I suspect my grandparents feared that coming from the TB sanitarium and from the womb of my sick mother, I would contaminate the household.

I treasure the photos I have of Mom, especially the one of me sitting on her lap with my hand in hers. We know she was a kind and gentle person from the accounts of others and from the tone of letters she wrote to her sister who lived in a convent. In one letter, Mom unintentionally describes herself: “When I read what you wrote about me in your letter to Edwin [my father], those are just the things I always saw in you, so refined, so gentle and ideal in your ways.” Our aunt, Sister Agnese, saved Mom’s letters and passed them on to us. I treasure these letters that help me feel closer to Mom; I sometimes re-read them on my birthday.

My mother died in the TB sanitarium when she was 27 years old, and I was almost three. I sometimes wonder how her guiding hand would have influenced my life.

I love you Mom. I’m sorry your wish to be with us couldn’t happen. Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

My dad’s Aunt Frances, “Auntie,” became my second mother in time to save my life. She and my Uncle Billy rescued me from the orphanage, when after four months I was diagnosed as “failing to thrive.” Auntie’s family doctor counseled her, “don’t blame yourself if he dies. He’s a sick baby from a sick mother.” I think Auntie took this as a challenge and worked hard to bring me to health.

When I look at pictures of me under Auntie’s care, I see a fat and happy baby thriving on the

rich diet she provided. I lived with Auntie for five years until my father remarried and took me to my new home. My father knew it would be painful for Auntie to give up “her little boy,” but he was fulfilling a promise he made to my mother as she lay dying, that my sister and I would grow

up together.

Happy Mother’s Day Auntie. I love you for saving my life and for all the loving care you gave me.

I was five when my dad married Florence, the young woman who would become my third mother. “Mother,” was only 21 when she became my dad’s wife and an instant mother to a

five and seven year old. I can only imagine how overwhelming her new roles must have been. It was Mother who would guide me through my early school years; I still remember her patient tutoring as I learned to read. It was Mother who much later told me how proud she was when she attended my master’s degree graduation.

Thank you Mother for all your hard work and guidance. I’m sorry you had to leave this world when you did. I wish I could tell you in person now what I failed to say when you were here. I love you Mother. Happy Mother’s Day!

These are my three mothers to whom I’ll be forever grateful. I hope that somehow they’ll hear my silent prayers. And perhaps I can do something else. That is, urge anyone whose mother is still alive to take the time, while she is still here, to hold her hand, look into her eyes with genuine love, and tell her how much she means to you. Do it now before you can only do it in memory!

Jerome (Jerry) Podgorski. He earned an MA from Loyola University Chicago in 1984, in the Center for Organizational Development (CORD). He now lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife Joan

[GI]

Happy Mother’s Day Auntie. I love you for saving my life and for all the loving care you gave me.

WLA Re-AnimatedArtifacts from the vaults of the Women’s & Leadership Archives

1932: “Higher Botany” Description: A group of women take their botany lessons in the solarium skyscraper lounger at Mundelein College in 1932.

Commentary:These group of women take their botany lessons with the resources provided them by Loyola University of Chicago. Studying tropical specimen and more, these female students set an example for how far women extended their education within the early twentieth century.

WLA Mission Statement:Established in 1994, the Women and Leadership Archives (WLA) collects, preserves, organizes, describes, and makes available materials of enduring value to researchers studying women’s contributions to society.

Bookmark HereAnimal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

By Barbara Kingsolver

First Published:2007

Current Publisher:HarperCollins

MSRP:$10.66

Genre:Non-fiction

Summary:

“The average food item on a U.S. grocery shelf has traveled farther than most families go on their annual vacations. True Fact. Fossil fuels were consumed for the food’s transport, refrigeration, and processing, with the obvious environmental consequences. The option of getting our household’s food from closer to home, in Tucson, seemed no better to us.”

This non-fiction work details a year of Barbara Kingsolver and her family as they attempt to eat only organic food that they grew themselves or bought locally. Starting a farm in Virginia, v and her family grow tomatoes, raise roosters, and eat food that is only in season. Overall, this work is a commentary on the struggle between organic farms and factory farms that chemically “harvest” food in order to preserve it.

Pros:This non-fiction work received wide acclaim from news sources, such as Time magazine and The Boston Globe, for its prose-like telling of discovering a healthier way of living. Set against the backdrop of the United States’ industrial drive and chemical preservations, Kingsolver asserts that food defines how one lives and organic living is a group effort. Kingsolver and her family’s commitment are seen through her narrative voice. .

Cons:This story illustrates that a family can turn organic by finding a farm and living the organic, processed-free lifestyle. While this is inspiring and influential, Kingsolver’s story is told within the mindset of a middle to upper-class family. Thus, this raises an important question; can this be achieved within a lower middle-class or poverty-stricken family? Although Kingsolver does not uphold an elitist point of view, this change in lifestyle cannot be easily extended across class.

Middle Eastern Musingsb

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llan A Dive into the Dead Sea

Solar MamasIt is common that we combine the term feminism with cultural, social, political and economical issues, but it is rarely that we relate feminism to nature and ecology.

Thanks to the French writer Françoise d’Eaubonne in her book, Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974), she started this whole connection and pointed out the vital role of women towards nature.

Women’s roles cannot be ignored, not anymore. They raise generations as they are in charge -most times- of spreading awareness among their kids and passing values to them; to guide them on how to use water, to plant flowers, not to cut trees, to value the environment and much more. This is why the role of women in environmental matters should not be neglected.

Bunker Roy, an Indian social activist and educator who founded the Barefoot College, refused to give up on women; he acknowledged their role in environment so he went personally to convince women from all over the world to participate in his new project of turning illiterate women into solar engineers. “Solar Mamas” is a documentary that shows the lives of two Jordanian women who come from the village to join the other women in this project. Convincing two illiterate Bedouin women to travel to India and leave their husbands and families behind is never an easy mission, but Bunker Roy did it; and he convinced their families to let them travel to India. These two women thought of solar energy as a path to change their lives and the lives of other women, and have decided they are leaving and will come back to make a difference.

Rafee’a Anad, 32 years old, was fed up from the life that had been forced on her, a life without an education, a job or a purpose, so she decided to join this program to be part of something bigger; she hoped to come home with a project in hand to make a difference.

Rafee’a went to India against her husband’s will, leaving her daughters with her mother since their father would rarely visit them as he is busy with his first family. Rafee’a and Umm Bader went on this journey along with Umm Bader’s son Bader, since women from that village are not allowed to travel alone without a male family member.

After Rafee’a left to India, her husband started calling constantly trying to find excuses to make her come back. When he gave up on all excuses that didn’t seem to get to her, he used the big word threat, divorce.

Yes, he threatened to divorce her and to take away her daughters if she didn’t go back. With

her heart full of sadness, anger, and a million other feelings that we would not understand, she packed and went home.

But this woman turned out to be stronger than anyone of us thought, she went back to Jordan

but only to fight for her right to finish the internship, and so she did.

With her determination she went back to India and joined her new friends at the workshop, after fighting for her right to travel, learn, to become a solar engineer and to make a difference in her daughters’ lives and the lives of the women in the village.

Rafee’a did it... Umm Bader did it...

They came back to the village as solar engineers carrying hopes and so much to teach to all of the women in the village who

were so excited to welcome the engineers back and to have the chance to learn from them.

Sadly, these successful women did not find the right funding for their project, but Rafee’a will not give up, and neither will Umm Bader, even after her son Bader stole some circuits and pieces (worth 15000$) from the workshop and sold them to the black market as Mr. Raouf Dabbas, the senior advisor to the Ministry of Environment in Jordan claimed. Even after her husband divorced her because he refused to believe that Umm Bader would get a job and actually work, she still won’t give up. Umm Bader stands now hand in hand with Rafee’a hoping for this project to see the light.

To learn more about the documentary and watch a trailer subtitled in English, kindly visit http://www.itvs.org/films/solar-mamas

With her determination she went back to India and joined her new friends at the workshop, after fighting for her right to travel, learn, to become a solar engineer and to make a difference in her daughters’ lives and the lives of the women in the village.

Progressing Past Gender: A

Statement on Intersectionality

Queer ThoughtsBy

Em

ma

Stei

ber A Transgressive Approach

Ecofeminism is the link between feminism and ecology that emphasizes the shared oppression between Western domination of land and patriarchal domination of women. Vandana Shiva, an advocate for preserving the land and activist against Monsanto’s GMOs, expresses the critical connection between women and the environment that is continuously ignored by patriarchal society. This is true, for women have dominated holistic and ecological preservation of nature. Yet, while Shiva puts an emphasis on the importance of women’s “roots” to nature, it is often forgotten that cooperation between humans and the land is a necessary aim. We focus on gender empowerment in order to overcome hierarchy and, consequently, head back into a hierarchal realm. This is seen in the contention between matriarchy and patriarchy.

This statement (I’d rather call this writing a statement, for it is nowhere near the length of an in-depth essay or discussion) is not meant to destabilize the mystical quality of the environment. Nature provides experiences that enlighten the mind and clear the head. Social ecologist Janet Biehl frowns upon ecofeminism’s spiritual relationship between women and the environment. However, my aim is not to contest the spiritual. I question ecofeminism’s exclusivity within the relationship between women and the environment. Intersectionaility is a critical concept that must not be ignored.

As feminism has progressed through its many movements, intersectional cooperation seems to be left behind. I do not intend to overlook that some movements, such as queer or cross-cultural movements, have not forgotten this ideology. However, I reiterate this importance because it is crucial to ecological sustainability and environmental preservation. We cannot leave behind in the march those who do not define themselves as feminists or who straddle the lines of different identities. Sojourner Truth highlighted at the Ohio Women’s Convention in 1851 that

African American women must not be ignored in the fight for women’s rights. Ecofeminists should learn from Truth and not ignore the multiple identities that equally find importance in spiritual connectedness and in protecting the environment.

By turning to extremism, some feminists often lose themselves in the hierarchal society that originally oppressed them. One can forget, by attempting to find an equal level between men and women, that these terms are based on the premise of hierarchy. In order to find a balance with the environment,

society must also find a balance with the human population; one that is not centered on matriarch and patriarch. Let us look at a basic principle of philosophy as an example; philosophy allows ideas to branch into other fields of study. In Bertrand Russell’s philosophical work The Problems of Philosophy, he stated, “[A]s soon as definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject ceases to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science.” This is often a misperception with advocacy, more specifically with feminism. Ecofeminists find themselves distinct from ecological advocacy and other feminist-centered groups. This is true, but it does not work the same way as philosophy. Intersectional awareness must not be forgotten in the expansive landscape that is feminism.

By turning to extremism, some feminists often lose themselves in the hierarchal society that originally oppressed them.

By Audrey Kelly

Eco-feminismWhen I identify as a feminist, I am sure to articulate that the causes I support are not exclusively “women’s issues;” rather, these causes have the greater good of humanity, and the earth itself, in mind. So, I generally like to make clear that I identify with eco-feminism, not strictly feminism as a movement. This is because the eco-feminist movement is more centered in the way that the respect (or lack thereof) of women is

contingent on how humanity respects the natural world, and vise versa.

A movement that focuses on the unity of respecting all things—from people that are different from ourselves, to the resources that sustain our way of life—is essential to an ideological shift in society that will bring us away from the exploitative practices we engage in to a

The Green Issue

society that respects the processes and functions of all life forms, not just what those processes and functions can give us. In that, I see eco-feminism as a movement that is fighting for the respect of all people, regardless of race, class, or gender, which by consequence, would mean respect for the earth.

The way that humanity currently exploits the natural resources of the earth, and disregards all other parts of the natural world that do not have an obvious monetary (human-based) value, in a way justifies the exploitation of other human-beings. Resource exploitation generally justifies, or at least leads to, the exploitation of different groups of people. An example of this is the current battle for clean drinking water. Because certain countries are able to afford to go beyond their nation to obtain drinking water, other less-endowed nations end up struggling to obtain any sort of drinkable water for themselves. This problem occurs because wealthier nations are irresponsible with how they use clean water, but since they have already exploited other resources and are now wealthy enough to exploit more, the cycle persists. Therefore, certain groups of people do not suffer for their actions, while the environmental and social consequences of their actions get displaced onto already suffering groups of people.

Riane Eisler’s novel, The Chalice and the Blade, lays out the implications of a world that respects nature. If humanity is able to respect the earth, the one thing that unifies us all in that it provides us with the means to survive, then humanity would also respect itself. That idea alone is beautiful; the unity of the environmental movement with the feminist movement makes the unity of man and women, man-kind and nature, possible, and it promises a future where no one (nor thing) is exploited for selfish gains. I think that eco-feminism is important because it is all-encompassing; it connects issues that have not

always been connected, and in that, it provides an outline of how change in one aspect of society actually could have positive effects on many other aspects of society. Ultimately, eco-feminism is about respect. If

society as a whole does not respect its source of life (the earth), how should it be expected to respect other living things (people) that also find their source of life to be from the earth? These two things come hand-in-hand, and once that concept is embraced and understood, then whites and blacks, men and women, and culture and nature, will understand that they all must walk hand-in-hand in order to fulfill the same goal: basic survival and happiness for all.

Audrey is majoring in WSGS and English, I’m currently working on making money this summer because I am studying abroad in Vietnam this fall and a fun fact about me iss that (on the latest count) I have over 20 sweaters in my thrifted sweater collection.

If society as a whole does not respect its source of life (the earth), how should it be expected to respect other living things (people) that also find their source of life to be from the earth?

[GI]

The Green Issue

By Anthony Betori

A Reflection About My Mother and Your

Mother, Mother Earth

[GI]

A long time ago, when I was much younger, I was in the basement moving boxes and this porcelain platter fell off a shelf and broke into two or three pieces. My mom came downstairs to see what had happened, and then she cried. She was crying because the platter had belonged to her mother, who about ten years before had passed away. This platter, something that remained longer than the cancer, longer than the house Mom grew up in, part of a larger collection of porcelain, was now making its slow transition into memory, where it is now.

Ten or so years later, my mother gave me two very important gifts: a set of teacups and a teapot, and then later, a twelve-person china set that previously belonged to Mary Alice, that same grandmother.

When the young men of my Dad’s side turn twelve or so, they are given a cookbook filled with the recipes of the ancestresses of the family. This cookbook is meant to be given to the wife of each son. I am the first out gay man on that side of the family, and it remains unclear to whom my cookbook will be given, especially if I never marry.

At Christmas, my grandma was cleaning up and I was trying to get her to stop because she is getting very arthritic, and I took that moment to ask her about her family. She came from Slavic peoples before the Slovenia, before Yugoslavia and the Soviets. She told me about her German side too, the wine shop they once owned in the mother country.

I was looking out my window during the thunderstorm last night and my mother, Mother Earth was thrashing and waving her trees in the wind. She is my loudest and largest mother, the one who is oldest, with the most stories. She is the most broken, the dying one, the one whose peace remains a shattered platter on a basement floor as drilling and fracking and wars rage on.

She withers in heat and is suffocated by carbon and pollution.

Her land yields warm earth to my hands as I dig in to plant seedlings, and I hear her sigh

in relief when I water my plot, a gesture of love that only begins the thanks that I should have always been giving her--for a world worth living in, for mountains, for clouds, for history, for peace.

Anthony Betori is a barista and community organizer in Rogers Park. Anthony is organizing a radical free library for the neighborhood.

She is the most broken, the dying one, the one whose peace remains a shattered platter on a basement floor as drilling and fracking and wars rage on.

[GI]

BroadsideExpressions in Poetry via Street Literature Style

Sailor, sailor, come take me home,I’ve been stuck on this island for so long;Stuck in this place and oh, so alone.

Sailor, sailor, come set me free.I thought I was escaping myself,But I am shackled to my history.

Sailor, sailor, come tell me it’s alright.That there’s more than this empty sunshine,And the loneliness of night.

Sailor, sailor, come save my soul,Stop the affects of these elements,Taking such a toll.

Sailor, sailor, where have you gone?I saw you passing so many years ago,Following your own siren song.

Sailor, Sailor

Alex lives in Austin, TX and is currently seeking representation for a manuscript about his travels (and misadventures) throughout the Panamanian countryside. When not writing, he can usually be found rock climbing or hiking in the Texas hill country. Read more of Alex’s work at his website, http://scribbledwanderland.weebly.com/ or follow him on Twitter @AlexLayman

But sailor, sailor, who sings for the lost?The deserters and gypsiesSearching for “home” at all costs.

Sailor, Sailor, hear my pleas.My island is sinking,Water up to my knees.

Sailor, Sailor, come take me home.I’ve been stuck on this island for far too long;Stuck in this place and oh, too alone.

By: Alex Layman

”

Quote Corner

Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you

haven’t done a thing. You are just talking.

“

If you don’t raise your voice, then your environmentalism means nothing; it’s mere tokenism or opportunism.

Wangari Maathai, Environmental and Political Activist

In Kenya women are the first victims of environmental degradation, because they are the ones who walk for hours looking for water, who fetch firewood, who

provide food for their families.

You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them.

In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and peace.

We are called to assist the Earth to heal her

wounds and in the

process heal our own - indeed,

to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty, and wonder. This will happen if we see the need to revive our sense of belonging to a larger family of life, with which we have shared our evolutionary process.

Words are UselessPhotographer: Alex Layman

Antelope Canyon: Page, AZ

Artist: Alex Layman

Olympic National Park: Port Angeles, WA

Antelope Canyon: Page, AZ

Artist: Alex Layman

Artist: Alex Layman

Red Rock Canyon: Nevada

Artist: Alex Layman

Angel’s Landing: Zion National Park, UT

Alex lives in Austin, TX and is currently seeking representation for a manuscript about his travels (and misadventures) throughout the Panamanian countryside. When not writing, he can usually be found rock climbing or hiking in the Texas hill country. Read more of Alex’s work at his website, http://scribbledwanderland.weebly.com/ or follow him on Twitter @AlexLayman

Artist: Alex Layman

Granite Falls, WA

By Julia DeLuca

The Haves and Have-Nots: Eating

GreenFor the past three years, I have converted to a pescetarian diet. No meat, but on occasions I will splurge on fish. To me, I could not justify eating meat if I was against the exploitation and mistreatment of people, and animals. How could I rationalize being against the beating

and starvation of a helpless animal or a person, and five minutes later sit down to eat a burger? The way society treats its animals is a reflection of how we as a whole regard how we treat people overall. However, I have not been able to bring myself to completely let go of fish,

The Green Issue

including salmon and shellfish. Not only is the taste something hard for me to live without, but it is the only way I can survive reunions with extended family as they live in areas where vegetarian lifestyles are not heard of, let alone accepted. In fact, some of my extended family sees me as bizarre, partially for trading hamburgers for patties made from beans or lentils.

Yet I know a pescetarian, vegetarian, or vegan lifestyle is not feasible for many for whatever reasons (i.e. love of meat, availability of fresh fruits and vegetables in one’s neighborhood). Just like with anything, our dietary habits have become another marker of the haves and have-nots. As someone who works on the south side of Chicago, I can honestly say the “food desert” epidemic is a truth, and is becoming worse. Many people live in neighborhoods where there are no grocery stores to buy fresh or canned produce, and instead rely on stores which sell not only meat but snacks such as potato chips and cake, and often the processed kind which is dangerous to one’s health. Not even applesauce or raisins. To be able to have the option to eat food which will nourish our bodies and provide them with vital nutrients for generations to come has ceased becoming an everyday purchase, and has become now a marker of who has money and who does not. To be healthy is a have and have-not class issue.

Many generations ago, having meat was a status symbol as only the wealthy could afford to eat meat (many needed to keep their animals alive in order to have milk and eggs available regularly). Now having vegetables, the food provided by nature, is our generation’s new status symbol. Health and healthy green eating is now the luxury few can afford, and that gap is increasing everyday. It is the new way we are judged. We are either seen as weird for swapping hamburgers for beans, lentils and produce, or looked on as classist for having healthy and natural food which was provided to humankind by nature. Food is

now a new factor added to demonstrating the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Many people live in neighborhoods where there are no grocery stores to buy fresh or canned produce, and instead rely on stores which sell not only meat but snacks such as potato chips and cake, and often the processed kind which is dangerous to one’s health.

Feminist FiresGreta Gaard, Writer

Was An Inspiration to: Gaard has influenced the fields of ecoeroticism and ecocomposition through her feminist contributions, ideologies and theories, and her literary critiques.

Personal Life:Gaard was born in Hollywood, California in 1960. Becoming a huge advocate and educator in intersectional subjects, such as in ecofeminism and queer theory, Gaard additionally became a feminist activist for animal rights. She is currently an English professor at University of Wisconsin-River Falls and a community faculty member in the Women’s Studies department at Metropolitan State University in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. In addition to her major works, Gaard also writes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.

Importance to Feminism: Gaard believes that more headway has to be made in the integration of ecofeminism and queer theory. She advocates for “queering” the heteronormative structures of colonialism, Christianity, and other social norms. Furthermore, Gaard has written essays on feminist ethics across cultures, as well as on the triple oppression of “environmental sexism,” “environmental classism,” and “environmental racism.”

Major Works:“Toward a Queer Ecofeminism” (1997)“Women, Water, Energy” (2001) “Vegetarian Ecofeminism” (2002)Books-Ecological Politics (1998)The Nature of Home (2007)

Inspired By: Gaard was inspired by the Green movement, which formed in the West in the 1970s. Tied in with grassroots democracy and social justice, this movement aimed at creating a sustainable society. From there, Gaard became a co-founder of the Minnesota Green Party.

”

Quote Corner“Nature shrinks as capital grows. The growth of the market cannot solve

the very crisis it creates.

Vandana Shiva, Environmental Activist and Anti-Globalization Author

We are either going to have a future where

women lead the way to make

peace with the Earth or we are

not going to have a human

future at all

I do not allow myself to be overcome by hopelessness, no matter how tough the situation. I believe that if you just do your little bit without thinking of the bigness of

what you stand against, if you turn to the enlargement of your own

capacities, just that itself creates new potential

You are not Atlas carrying the world on your shoulder. It is good to remember that the planet is carrying you.

Whenever we engage in consumption or production patterns which take more than we need, we are engaging in violence

If you are doing the right

thing for the Earth, she’s giving you great company

Broadside

Some days, I am nothing more than a twig, hiding in a tree full of branches and leaves.

It is on these days when the gentle Texas winds breathe deep and rattle me clean, shaking me bare as my first day on earth. My skin knots and stiffens in the breeze, bristling beneath the canopy of gold and green.

Naked and outstretching for the sun’s warm hands, I can’t help wondering what stories lie buried beneath the steel breastplates of my peers, what wounds their armor conceals.

Some days, I ponder harshness and forgiveness and how the meek seem so outnumbered, which doesn’t bode well for me.

By Alex Layman

Somedays a Twig

Expressions in Poetry via Street Literature Style

The storms blow my hair, careless hands grasp my forearms, and I am redirected—left twisted to my core—but in tact.

A limb here, a belief there, what I lose only returns in fractions.

Despite my best efforts, the successive years of winter and summer extremes turn the scars harder.

When I was younger I was more resilient, more malleable; it was easier to adapt.

Now? Now I cannot stop tripping on my own roots.

Some days, I am nothing more than a twig, splintered from its unforgiving host.

But each time I am broken, I rejoice, because I know at first light I will begin to re-grow.

Words Are UselessFeatured Cover Artist: Ausrine Kerr

Altered Life

About the work: The philosophy behind this installation is such that everything that was made some time ago could be refurbished, transformed, redirected in a many ways by meaning, shape and function. Art makes into the “ bloom” any forgotten object, nothing else. Just as our imagination creates something new and unseen before from the old and worn down piece and gives another lifetime or two to whatever it touches.

Website: www.ausrinesartsroom.net

Environmentalism or Looking out for

Humans? What Would Others

Species Do?

Inside R Out?b

y J.

Cur

tis

Mai

n White? Male? Feminist? YES.

I love the dirt. And trees. And the smell of plants and rain and mud. I can watch any animal—turtle, fly, bacteria, snail—for hours and continually be amused and in awe. I majored in biology and worked in labs and went on field trips because of my love of wildlife. I have always gardened, outdoor and indoor, and crave soil in my hands. I adore eating fresh fruit and vegetables straight off the plants—plants I appreciate and respect. For years I have fed birds and squirrels at work and home and watch them for hours. Since a child, my fascination, passion, and respect for wildlife and nature abounds.

I recycle. I walk to work. I rarely throw away or waste food. I do my best to use reusable tools and dishes and clothes and so on. I do not litter. When possible I try to have discussions with others regarding ways to live in the world and enjoy the world but not ruin it. I keep up with news regarding nature and biology and environmentalism. And, all in all, go ahead, call me an environmentalist.

But there is a grand caveat to my environmentalism: I do not believe humans are destroying the earth, and also, I do not believe nature is peaceful nor should humans “save” other species. Animals, be they dolphins, worms, snakes, fish, cattle, or whatever, do not care about humans as a whole. Wildlife is just that- wild. Competition is fierce, dark, tough, deadly, and most importantly, it most often if not always boils down to replicating DNA and battling other DNA that does not help that process.

Consider Chicago right now. Humans and our crap our covered in yellow and green pollen. Which is what exactly? Plant sperm... gross? Maybe. Or just plants trying to reproduce. Plants literally spray their sperm any and everywhere in a battle to continue their DNA. I will not even make a comparison to humans doing similarly, but hopefully you get the point. That is but one example of reproduction and competition in nature we rarely consider.

Yet this example takes us to another superb example. Humans often think of plants as

peaceful, glowing, lovely, etc. Sure, we make them out to be this way, and so do I at times. Again, plants are competing to replicate their own DNA. Plants are constantly, albeit slowly, blocking one another’s sunlight, soil access, water access, roots, and so on in a fight to survive. In other words, plants, too, kill one

another. Ever see a tree grow taller than others, eventually blocking other’s sunlight? Like it or not, they are vying for the same resources. Sure, plants have different niches. But when those niches overlap, you can be certain plants are not making compromises nor sharing nor looking out for one another. Again, they are trying to survive. And like in humans, fighting for survival can and does result in competition, death, and

so on.

Now look at humans—especially our environmentalists—and see us “caring” for other species. Taking them in, “helping” them reproduce and not die off, worrying about their futures, cautioning each other to look out for them. Are humans naturally altruistic, especially toward other species? I say highly doubtful and most likely no. Why? Because true altruism is selflessness. In all environmentalisms, unless one believes in an end to humans and one’s self, there is some level of human selfishness. Animals, usually just some animals, are nice to have around. They are good company. Dolphins are smart. Chimps have feelings. Flowers are beautiful. Horses think. And so on.

Forgive me for perhaps being dark or keeping it real, but I feel that it is important. I am often aggravated for what I consider to be a fake environmentalism- one that claims that humans are not looking out for their best interests first AND/OR one that hypes wildlife as peaceful, whole, and loving as the reasons for that environmentalism. Again, no offense, but show me an environmentalism that puts humans second, or even last? And even if there is one, which I believe would be difficult, is that what other species would do for us? Would, if another species took over the world, meningitis bacteria, for example, look out for humans if our numbers

I believe we are doing nearly the same as most if not all other species-trying to survive and propagate our DNA into future generations in greater and more fit numbers.

grew too small? Okay, that example is too obvious. Would cats? Okay, again, too obvious. Cats would make us into slaves. Seriously, think of other species. Maybe they don’t have our mental capacities, but would they, like many humans are trying to do, save us? I believe the answer is most likely no. Not that humans should not do it; this is more about why are we doing it? For what reasons?

And this brings me to my main point. I hear all the time that humans are NOT doing what we should be doing—that we are destroying the earth and taking it over. This is where I disagree. I believe we are doing nearly the same as most if not all other species- trying to survive and propagate our DNA into future generations in greater and more fit numbers. Perhaps we, as humans, make it more complex than this sounds, but ultimately, we try to survive and live and make better for future generations. Making “better” is not necessarily saving the earth and wildlife, but rather, saving the earth and wildlife for ourselves. Nothing wrong with that, as is the case for so many other millions of species.

I will continue to not waste, for selfish reasons, for future humans, and because I prefer not to trash the world. I wholeheartedly accept the idea that it is okay for humans to take over the world, kill off as many species as we ultimately end, and spreading our species around. Why? It is what animals do, and we are animals. I am fine with us being animals.

After all, this idea that we are ending nature and wildlife as we know it is untrue. We are affecting our natural world (the animal kingdom) in intense ways, but we are changing it, not ending it. Cockroaches, ants, mold, viruses, rats, algae, mice, chickens, pigeons, Asian carp, cattle and thousands of other species are benefitting from humans in that they are in record numbers. Is this bad or good? No, it is neither, it is natural. It is evolution. If humans did indeed wipe out all life on earth but the tiniest of bacteria, those bacteria would evolve into tens then thousands then millions of new species, as has happened before and will happen again.

If some people want to save nature and the earth and wildlife, be my guest; I think the work is great and I respect it. But just remember that when you put yourself and human interests first, who are you saving, and why? Is that what nature intended? Are we all one big happy family? Most of all, what would other species

do and what are they doing?If humans did indeed

wipe out all life on earth but the tiniest of bacteria, those bacteria would evolve into tens thens thousands the millions of new species, as has happened before and will happen again.

Words Are UselessFeatured Cover Artist: Gayle Carloss

Circle of Time

Biography: Gayle Carloss is a professional artist and beloved art teacher in Sugar Land, TX. She received her B.F.A. in Studio Art from the University of Texas and has sold a number of her works in galleries and auctions across the Houston area. Gayle specializes in oil and water-based paints as well as pastel. She has taught in the Texas school system for 15 years and has four wonderful daughters. Gayle believes that “Women should reveal their talents. Art is mine and I cherish it, as it has given me that area of life that knows no true boundaries”.

Words are UselessArtists: Grayson Thomas, 8th & Sarah Mendiola, 8th:

Ex Bibliothecis

Cudahy Library’s reference collection contains a beautiful set of volumes titled American Nature Writers and in it many woman authors are featured. A selection of their works may be found on a WorldCat Local catalog list that I created. You will find lots of great summer reading there. I created a second list of recent books on women and ecology, ecofeminism, and the role women have had in the environmental movement. Not all of the books on the lists are in our library collection but many are and those that are not may be requested by interlibrary loan.

For the graduates, I have some ideas for looking ahead. Remember to use libraries! Alumni are welcome in Loyola’s libraries--our print collections remain available for checkout and research databases are accessible in-house.

Access starts with obtaining your alumni card. Information about services for alumni is at our website. I hope that you will also discover your local library’s resources and services, wherever “local” happens to be. Many public libraries, and not just the big ones, have a selection of research databases as well as a borrowing network that provides not only a local collection but a larger, regional one. You are entirely welcome to send me an e-mail asking for more information about the libraries in your new home, public or academic. I’ll look into what is available and send a reply with suggestions.

It has been my pleasure to serve as subject librarian for the Women’s Studies and Gender Studies Program this year. I hope that you will continue to send me your questions and suggestions at jcurrie@luc.edu.

Thinking About Our Planet and Your

Future

From Loyola’s Libraries to you.Assisting you in your search for information. By Jane P. C

urrie

MADADSBusted Advertising, Bustling Economy

Green: The New Niche and its Effects on Society

Are these advertisements accurate portrayals of what it means to live green?

What demographics are these advertisements looking to target?

Do these advertisements seek to mislead individuals who are not as familiar with environmental activism?

Are these products really green?

Do these ads fuel the fires of consumerism and needless waste already present in contemporary American society?

What do you think?

Green: The New Niche and its Effects on Society

MadAds contributed by Katie Klingel

By Alex LaymanGhost Lake, Tx

Today smells of change. Air sticks to my forearms like consequence, smearing with each calculatedly apathetic pass to wipe it from my body. A thirty-degree uptick outside has brought summer to our doorstep with a vicious flurry, but I say let the daylight burn. It’s time for molting, anyhow; this skin has seen better days.

Soon I’ll be heading west to escape the Texas heat. It is becoming a personal tradition in the

ilk of our forefathers, who have always attached words like “majesty” and “destiny” to our western shores, and written about them with even more admiration. Our capacity for dreaming has long been tethered to the notion of wide-open spaces and fresh sea air ripe for the taking. The Pacific Ocean is an American haven, a vault to safeguard our misplaced or forgotten moralities, as if we can retrieve them at our leisure.

The Green Issue

Yesterday, I left metaphors behind as I hoisted sails onto a mast for the first time in tepid, central Texas waters. An old, refurbished catamaran with thirty-foot high rainbow sails, which my friend purchased for less than the cost of a new kayak, was our vessel for the afternoon. I took helm of the jib, adjusted to shifting winds upon his command and sprawled my body to rebalance hulls as they neared their tipping point. There is something to be said about having a rope in one’s hands; something intensely gratifying about having tangible control of balance.

Yet, despite the invigoration of setting sail, the direness of the sunken lake with which we cut across—eighty feet below its livable level—was jarring. I could not help but feel I was squeezing life out of forsaken earth. We were getting our kicks on what equated to Texas’ version of the hyena’s shadow lands in Disney’s The Lion King. Twisted PVC pipes covered in hardened mud reached desperately from their canyon-topped mansions. Their exposed, added-on joints only expounded their inevitable, and eventually realized, ineptness. Rusted oil drums, old cars, busted boats, dilapidated docks and twisted grey treetops have sprouted from the ground in the three years since the water’s recession began. For the lake, married to old contracts to sell off its water and void of refilling rain, there has been no abrupt end to its suffering, but rather a death still being realized—the slow evaporation of a resource, the agonizing erosion of a community built upon a fluid foundation.

In Ghost Lake, TX, we’re carrying on tradition: ghost towns are as entrenched in America’s history as our persistence to prosper. (There are approximately 1,200 cities in Texas , and 800 ghost towns ). We have a tendency to slash and burn or dig until the land is charred and hollowed beneath our feet. With more dry mouths to quench, and less room for error, a fine line is being drawn on the dusty banks. But let’s retreat for a moment to the beginning: Texas has 6,736 reservoirs and more square-footage of inland waters than any other state in the contiguous U.S. All but a handful of these are

man-made. This number will begin to dwindle because water, like languages and cities, will continue being consolidated into reservoirs for the masses as urbanization (or globalization) spreads.

Ghost Lake, TX, its water level below ten percent of its capacity, will likely die sooner than later, save for a flood of epic proportions. It may be gone by the time I return to Texas, but either way it is likely my last visit to its brown waters. In my mind, its memory will become a synecdoche for my molting state. Texas is rebranding itself for the future. Much has been

written about our drought, but honestly, as a whole, there is little importance placed on saving ghost towns while metropolises like Austin and San Antonio swell in size and demand. Like I said, today smells like change. While we do not control the way the winds blow, we do hold the ropes that dictate which way it carries us.

Thoughts of tomorrow, though, harken back to yesterday. Once home from the murky lake, the mirror revealed an arch of scorched red skin across my shoulders where I’d failed to apply sunscreen lotion. It was an egregious misstep, one that I feel deeply today. That said, this pain is fortunately, and disconcertingly, temporary. The red will fade quickly, and despite my best efforts, I’ll undoubtedly get burned again. So goes History, and our velocity to forget its lessons, until the day we can no longer rub consequence from our skin.

While we do not control the way the winds blow, we do hold the ropes that dictate which way it carries us.

Words are UselessPhotographer: Cassandra Magana

Biography: Cassie Magana is an 8th grader at Peck Elementary School. She worked hard throughout middle school and earned a spot at ChiArts next Fall. Cassie enjoys drawing, painting, art, photography, animals, and singing.

Artist: Cassandra Magana

Alum AlertRe-connect with WSGS Alumnae

Tell us a little about yourself and your time at Loyola.My name is Barbara Schwabauer. I am originally from Cleveland, Ohio, and I graduated from Loyola in 2004. As a student at Loyola, I majored in History and Women’s Studies, minored in English, and received a Certificate in Urban Studies. I was also a Gannon Scholar, which was one of the richest experiences of my time at Loyola. Not only did I develop invaluable leaderships skill that have been essential to my career path, but I also made lasting friendships and connections with other women who shared my passion for social justice.

How were you connected to WSGS? What are some of your favorite memories from the program?I became passionate about Women’s Studies and decided to double major because of the amazing professors I had who taught me to think critically about gender, race, and class. Although I had always been encouraged to think critically as a student, I didn’t really understand what critical thinking meant until I started taking Women’s Studies courses in History that taught me about the impact these issues can have on social and historical change. My coursework in Women’s Studies shook up my worldview, and I loved the challenge of developing a new perspective on the things I’ve always been taught and the things I’ve taken for granted in my life. I think one of the moments I am most proud of from my time at Loyola is when the Women’s Studies program put on a production of The Vagina Monologues, which was a very powerful and moving experience for many on campus. At the time, many Catholic leaders (and other Jesuit universities) were severely criticizing students who performed it. However, by creating a dialogue and through tireless advocacy, the students, faculty, and leadership in Women’s Studies and the Gannon Center gained the blessing of Father Garanzini for our performance, and he very vocally supported it despite the resistance in the Catholic community.

Tell us what you have been up to since graduation. The Women’s Studies program put me on solid footing when I entered the job market after graduation. I was considering going to law school at the time, but felt uncertain about what a career in the law would look like. As a Women’s Studies major, I had the opportunity to do an internship for credit during my senior year with the Domestic Violence Legal Aid Clinic (which was called Pro Bono Advocates). I spent a semester working side by side with attorneys assisting victims of domestic violence who were seeking orders of protection against abusive partners. After my internship ended, I was offered a full-time job as the clinic coordinator once I graduated.

During my time working for DVLC, I began to see in practice what I had learned in my studies, and in particular, the ways in which gender, race, and class shaped the ability of the victims I worked with to seek the relief they needed. I was resolved to become an attorney, but I also felt that I needed additional tools to address the inequities I perceived in access to the legal system. I decided to pursue a master’s degree in Women’s Studies, with a focus in public policy, in order to better understand the complexities of gender, race, and class and the impact they have on the law. After graduating with my M.A. in Women’s Studies from Ohio State University, I attended law school at Ohio State University as well.

Barbara Schwabauer B.A. History & WSGS

Barbara Schwabauer B.A. History & WSGS

Where are you currently working? How did you get the job? Did you use your degrees, specifically WSGS, to get the job? What do you do?Since graduating law school in 2010, I have been working as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. My practice area is employment discrimination, and I represent the United States in enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion. I bring cases against state and local government employers who discriminate against their employees in violation of Title VII.

Both of my Women’s Studies degrees have helped me in my career. In significant part, these degrees have made clear to all who read my resume that I am firmly committed to social justice and that I am very focused on issues of equality, which are central to serving the public interest in eradicating employment discrimination. I have also put the critical thinking skills I have gained through my experience in Women’s Studies to the test every day as an attorney.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your education? What could have been better? What helped? How do you apply feminism in the everyday?I think one of the difficult things about being a feminist or having a background in Women’s Studies is the disconnect you can feel from other people who don’t understand (or are unwilling to accept) the systemic nature of sexism, racism, homophobia, ableism, and classism. It can be tiring to be one of a few people willing to take a stand on these issues, and you can often be pegged as difficult or rocking the boat. Discussing these issues can also be alienating to others because it is uncomfortable to interrogate privilege and to think critically about the impact that “differences” from the “norm” have on everyone’s lives. I think that one of the great things about WSGS that is not often taken advantage of enough is the ability to focus on creating and fostering a sense of community. Having a community of feminist friends and allies is essential to avoiding “feminist fatigue,” particularly when you are outside of an academic setting.

Lastly, tell us what to do...your suggestions for current Loyola students. What do you miss? What would you do the same? Differently?There’s the saying that you should be the change you want to see in the world, and I think that many of my Women’s Studies classmates and Gannon Scholar cohorts spent our time at Loyola trying to live by that motto. But don’t underestimate the importance of institutionalizing that change so that it can go on after you leave campus. If you’re the one person who is doing public education at Loyola on date rape or reaching out to community centers in Rogers Park, then chances are no one is going to serve that role once you graduate. It’s important to build community around your activism and to make it a part of the culture at Loyola with support from a diverse group of students, faculty, and staff.

Alum Alert contributed by Julia DeLuca

WSGS graduate Nicole Carrasco’s podcast series, Negotiating Space, is preparing to launch a whole new format, with brand new content. Stay tuned

and keep up with Nicole on Facebook and Twitter! You can follow Negotiating Space on Twitter, @

NegotiateSpace, read the blog and listen to episodes at http://negotiatingspace.tumblr.com/,

and connect on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NegotiatingSpace.

We want you to Submit!Contributor Guidelines

Principles:i) Feminist Consciousness: (a) recognizes all voices and experiences as important, and not in a hierarchical form. (b) takes responsibility for the self and does not assume false objectivity. (c) is not absolutist or detached, but rather, is more inclusive and sensitive to others.

ii) Accessibility: (a) means utilizing accessible language, theory, knowledge, and structure in your writing. (b) maintains a connection with your diverse audience by not using unfamiliar/obscure words, overly long sentences, or abstraction. (c) does not assume a specific audience, for example, white 20-year-old college students.

iii) Jesuit Social Justice Education & Effort: (a) promotes justice in openhanded and generous ways to ensure freedom of inquiry, the pursuit of truth and care for others. (b) is made possible through value-based leadership that ensures a consistent focus on personal integrity, ethical behavior, and the appropriate balance between justice and fairness. (c) focuses on global awareness by demonstrating an understanding that the world’s people and societies are interrelated and interdependent.

Expectations and Specifics:• You may request to identify yourself by name, alias, or as “anonymous” for publication in the digest. For reasons of accountability, the staff must know who you are, first and last name plus email address.

• We promote accountability of our contributors, and prefer your real name and your preferred title (i.e., Maruka Hernandez, CTA Operations Director, 34 years old, mother of 4; or J. Curtis Main, Loyola graduate student in WSGS, white, 27 years old), but understand, in terms of safety, privacy, and controversy, if you desire limitations. We are happy to publish imagery of you along with your submission, at our discretion.

• We gladly accept submission of varying length- from a quick comment to several pages. Comments may be reserved for a special “feedback” section. In order to process and include a submission for a particular issue, please send your submission at least two days prior to the desired publication date.

• Please include a short statement of context when submitting imagery, audio, and video.

• We appreciate various styles of scholarship; the best work reveals thoughtfulness, insight, and fresh perspectives.

• Such submissions should be clear, concise, and impactful. We aim to be socially conscious and inclusive of various cultures, identities, opinions, and lifestyles.

• As a product of the support and resources of Loyola University and its Women Studies and Gender Studies department, all contributors must be respectful of the origin of the magazine; this can be accomplished in part by ensuring that each article is part of an open discourse rather than an exclusive manifesto.

• All articles must have some clear connection to the mission of the magazine. It may be helpful to provide a sentence or two describing how your article fits into the magazine as a whole.

• The writing must be the original work of the author and may be personal, theoretical, or a combination of the two. When quoting or using the ideas of others, it must be properly quoted and annotated. Please fact-check your work and double-check any quotes, allusions and references. When referencing members of Loyola and the surrounding community, an effort should be made to allow each person to review the section of the article that involves them to allow for fairness and accuracy.

• Gratuitous use of expletives and other inflammatory or degrading words and imagery may be censored if it does not fit with the overall message of the article or magazine. We do not wish to edit content, but if we feel we must insist on changes other than fixing typos and grammar, we will do so with the intent that it does not compromise the author’s original message. If no compromise can be made, the editor reserves the right not to publish an article.

• All articles are assumed to be the opinion of the contributor and not necessarily a reflection of the views of Loyola University Chicago.

We very much look forward to your submissions and your contribution to our overall mission. Please send your submissions with a title and short bio to Broad People through broad.luc@gmail.com.