What are Sexual Rights about?

#IPPF #SRHR 

Hello, hello, happy 2013!

Let's be (more) serious this year. Let's be active. Let's be vocal. Let's be brave and angry. And let's start the year with going back to the basics.
So what are Sexual Rights and how do we make sure the people responsible to protect and ensure them actually do so?!

The one video up there is a very short and emotional introduction on what are we talking about.

And a longer version below spells out the Sexual Rights: An IPPF Declaration, step by step.

 

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Rent (2005)

#inspirational movies 

While marking a World AIDS Day in the calendar again tomorrow, putting your red ribbon on (though we hope you raise HIV/AIDS awareness all the other days of the year too) and going to do some activism...

We suggest you combine the useful with the entertaining and turn to Rent (2005) for this week's inspiration. This is a screen version of a ground-breaking Broadway musical, adaptation of the Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème, that was the first musical that was explicitly - and in a normalizing way - featuring bisexuality, homosexuality, transsexuality, sex work, the urbane HIV/AIDS crisis, drug use... not your classical fluffy musical!

On the other hand, it's still very scenic, very melodic, very romantic, very musical, really, and, yes, inspirational too.

And reminding that HIV/AIDS is not what it once was provided that you have access to treatment.

IPPF ♥ - YSAFE for #IPPF60

#IPPF60 #SRHR

As we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of IPPF, listen to what YSAFE young people have to say about it!

IPPF ♥ for #IPPF60

#IPPF60 #SRHR

  

"IPPF started its journey in 1952, when 8 family planning associations joined together to fight for a cause.

60 years later and the organization is nearly 20 times larger. It works in 172 countries, delivers millions of services all over the world. And drives major changes in global policy.

Together, IPPF’s family makes up the largest sexual and reproductive health and rights organization in the world. None of this would have been achieved without the untiring efforts of IPPF’s staff and volunteers, and our partners in government, civil society and business.

There is so much the Federation can be proud of: it continues to improve the health of millions by contributing to health systems strengthening around the world. It provides services where no government facilities exist, it trains health workers, reacts rapidly in emergency situations and provides expertise that others can learn from."

LET'S EAT CAKE!

This is the cake that IPPF Western Hemisphere Region enjoyed!

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Kinsey (2004)

A shout-out to our dedication to comprehensive sexuality education, here we go with a feature film about Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956), the entomologist turned sexologist that opened eyes in USA regarding what people do with their sexualities and the great diversity that exists in human sexual behavior (yes, even in places where sex is claimed to be sinful and desire - always heterosexual!).

Kinsey (2004, Bill Condon) establishes a link between personal struggles and what becomes a vocation to a man who changed his scientific interest from gall wasps to human sexual behavior in the USA of 1940's and 1950's. 

A reminder that the work of an activist / expert / researcher might not be all that rosy, especially if it's something new, even revolutionary that she is doing.
And that - despite oppositions and people afraid to stand with you - it is worth to follow what you (and the Scientific Method) find to be the right thing to do!

Inspirational (short) movie: Gordita (2009)

Gordita from RaqC Cordova on Vimeo.

"GORDITA is an HD short film about a young, plus size Latina who reconnects with her lost confidence through the help of a cassette tape she recorded as a sassy, booty-shakin’ teen in 1994.

We all have moments of self doubt and depression, but sometimes remembering who we were before the pressures of adulthood consumed us helps us get out of our funk and realize our full potential."

Here we are back to talking about bodies and how to inhabit them. This time, a short and very moving gem that brings together the intersectionalities of body expectations and race, culture, class. 

More info here.

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Dirty Dancing (1987)

Yes, you are allowed to be surprised. Dirty Dancing (1987, Emile Ardolino) might seem to be the close-to-last movie when it comes to empowerment if you haven't really stopped to think about it. Yes, it is about the very sexist dancing industry that teaches you how to bend your wrists in a feminine way. And, yes, it is the all over good-girl-falling-for-the-bad-guy story. Sort of.

But then again, it is a story of a young woman breaking away from the taught perfection of being the ideal daughter and decides to grow up. By doing things. By daring. By challenging her parents and other authority figures. By dancing. By learning to live with her body. By having sex with a man she wants to and doing it on her own terms. That is a whole lot of things.

Also, there are subplots of class conflicts, on the importance of intergenerational communication, on the importance of the access to safe and legal abortion, on how complex (and counterproductive) is to - contrary to what Baby does - to try to use sex and virginities as means to maintain somebody's attention/affection...

+ The soundtrack is really cute. Go, download it from the internets!

And if it's not enough for you, read a whole essay on the topic by Melissa McEwan in the Guardian: Dirty Dancing, Feminist Masterpiece.

Now, think again while we dance away.

 

Body image, again... (the topic that never gets old in Patriarchy)

Since very young age...

Surrounding us everywhere...

Affecting all of us, all the time... unless we rebel against it!

Although these are Dove ads and a submission for the Dove Fund, the conversation on bodies and how we inhabit them is relevant. Refuse to chip into the "I hate myself so much" bla-bla!

Think about the relationship you have with your body.
Read about it*! Get inspired!  

Organize a Tea Party and talk about it. 

Eat cake and love every bite of it! 

* Some reading matter on bodies (there's a gazillion out there, happy reading!):

• “Mom, I’m Fat:” One Mother’s Inspired Response to Her 7 Year Old
• Fat Grrrl Activism
• EMILY ASKS LESLEY: How Do I Stop Hating My Body? Backsliding Edition
• It Gets Fatter 
• “Dating While Fat And Feminist,” And The Nasty Things You Learn About People After You Lose Weight
• Me, My Boobs, and I
• Lazy Femme
• Beauty Privilege: Can We Talk?

World Summit Youth Award for I ♥ Being a Girl!

As announced earlier and much earlier on our Twitters, I ♥ Being a Girl just received one of the World Summit Youth Awards 2012 in the category Power to Women.

This video explains the award and showcases all the amazingness:

All this took us to Montréal to meet other people and show what we've got...

 +  I ♥ Being a Girl even managed a media mention, yes! Thank you, Montréal Gazette.

Women at AIDS2012: U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee: If We Don't End Discrimination, We Will not End AIDS

Although there are things that seem forgotten and overlooked in the global response to AIDS, like condoms that are present everywhere on the Conference venue but not that much in the speeches. The Pleasure Project shares their disappointment with it here, and we can only agree that condoms are still the very popular, accepted and cheap double protection device we shall keep working with...

Although the tensions between structural disadvantage women keep facing and shortcomings of health care providers failing to work in human rights framework are still piling up (today's workshop My Body, My Rights: Ethics and Human Rights for Women Living with HIV in Research, Care and Treatment Settings tried to shed light on these issues)...

Still, there are also a lot of very inspirational people in the Conference, not only among all the amazing activists but also among people holding offices. So, since yesterday U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee is our hero!

Sonya Renee Taylor: The Body is Not An Apology

Sonya Renee Taylor @ Seattle Poetry Slam Feb 2011

launching the revolutionary idea that the body is not an apology, that radical self love and body empowerment is as needed as it is a radical notion

"In this picture I am 230lbs.  In this picture, i have stretch marks and an unfortunate decision in the shape of a melting Hershey's kiss on my left thigh.  I am smiling, like a woman who knows your watching and likes it.  For this one camera flash, I am unashamed, unapologetic."

You can find the story and the movement here
+ check out the tumblr

Media & Body Image

Although this is a Dove corporate responsibility add, it still makes a relevant point about where do our mental images of the perfect body come from...

As an additional reading, Real Women Have... Bodies by Hugo Schwyzer

Love Your Vagina Song

Love Your Vagina song brought to you by Mooncup. In this case it's not about what you think of the Mooncup, we just find the song inspirational and hilarious!

Inspirational movies: Evening (2007)

Evening (2007) is a more than your usual chick flick... Set paralelly in 1950s US and nowadays it explores the mother-daughter relationships, female friendship, making important life choices and living with them afterwards, pursuing your dreams and trying to do what you feel like even if the spirit of your time or rational reasoning do not seem to support you.

Perfect for an august evening!

Courtney Martin on reinventing feminism

Courtney Martin on actual, the generation(s) after ways of feministing
+ a lecture on how to succeed in activism in general

...you can get more of her at feministing.com

Inspirational movies: Towelhead (2007)

Towelhead (2007) is a movie on what happens when you, being 13, are forced to deal with multiple discrimination (gender + age + race/etnicity) and puberty at the same time.

And the fact that, if everybody around you seem to be crazy and somehow wrong... it might actually be so, although it may occur to them to blame you for your body, your desires, for who you are.

If I should have a daughter ... (Smaranda)

"I found this video absolutely inspirational, if for no other reason, than the passionate honesty it portrays. In essence, it's all about having the power and courage of transforming something you are passionate about, into something that can help others, while staying true to yourself."

Sarah Kay has been writing and performing spoken word poetry since she was 14. Now 23, Sarah is a successful spoken word poet and co-directs Project V.O.I.C.E. (Vocal Outreach Into Creative Expression) which encourages people, particularly young people, to use spoken word as a tool for understanding the world and self, and a medium for vital expression. It encourages them to engage and explore the world around them to better understand their culture, their society, and ultimately themselves.

Inspirational movies: Orlando (1992)

Orlando (1992, Sally Potter) is based on a novel by Virginia Woolf.

A tale about a young nobleman who doesn't grow old and who, after a long sleep, wakes up to find out that he has metamorphosed into a woman...

A tale on how gender might and might not be important... and how it's importance has changed since XVI century.

(Mind that Orlando throughout the movie and despite the sex change is played by Tilda Swinton and Queen Elizabeth I - by Quentin Crisp...)

Jessica's "Daily Affirmation" (Marius)

Jessica, a very content 4 year old, telling how marvelous the life is and how
she can do "anything good".

Inspirational movies: Juno (2007)

This movie is about Juno who is a funny, confident girl that "beats to her own drummer" and isn't bothered by what others may think of her. She has sex with a boy, becomes pregnant and goes through the process of weighing her options as to whether she should keep or terminate the pregnancy.