History and Research Mission Areas

Established in 1984 by five professors at UCLA, CSW was the University of California’s first organized research unit (ORU) to focus on gender and sexuality. Originally connected to the Women’s Studies Program, the two split so that Women’s Studies could become a department (made official in 2008) and CSW could turn its focus to research only.

The center serves the entire campus and works with students and faculty members regardless of their home department. “We are in touch with and engaged with faculty doing research that has to do with women, gender and sexuality in south campus, all the professional schools and the college,” said Kathleen McHugh, the center’s director. “We have a very broad reach.”

By engaging with scholars across the campus, CSW brings them together and helps them bridge their research and findings. McHugh pointed out that with such a large campus, it is easy for those who would benefit from communication about their projects to never actually meet each other. By focusing on their mission areas of women, gender and sexuality rather than the departments of those involved, the center is able to close these gaps and create new opportunities for all those involved.

Support for Faculty

The center supports faculty members by offering three different levels of grant money. The junior faculty research development grants help those who are pre-tenure and might be working to gain attention and resources on campus. By providing that early support, CSW can help younger faculty members network and gain publicity among the intellectual community.

The faculty research seed grants are designed to help the development of new projects searching for funding, while the faculty research completion grants provide financial aid to those who are nearing the end of their research and might be published in CSW publications.

Past funded faculty projects include “Investigating Tibetan Women’s Pregnancy Care Preferences in Rural China: A Collaborative Pilot Study to Promote Safe Motherhood” and “She’s One of Our Own: Incorporating Black and Latina Lesbians into U.S. Women’s History.”

Opportunities for Graduate Students

Committed to supporting graduate students, CSW offers numerous awards, grants and fellowships to those pursuing higher degrees at UCLA. In addition, the center organizes a number of professionalization workshops designed to help graduate students succeed after graduation. These include workshops on crafting effective CVs and engaging in successful interviews.

Meanwhile, one of the cornerstones of the CSW is the annual graduate student research conference, ‘Thinking Gender.’ At the 22nd annual conference on Feb. 3, 2012, 84 participants came from around the world to present their research in what Julie Childers, CSW’s assistant director, called a “comfortable” setting. “It’s terrifying to present your work for the very first time,” said Childers. “So the moderators are very understanding.” Research at this year’s conference covered everything from social networking and technology to the conditions of women and mothers in jails.

Because CSW is aimed at graduate students, the center also does its best to help them connect with speakers brought to campus through ‘brown bag lunches’ and other networking opportunities. And these possibilities can make the university more appealing to those making a decision about where to further their education. Dayo Spencer-Walters, a graduate student in the School of Public Health, said she knew she wanted to do research related to gender and her knowledge of CSW led her to come to UCLA. She worked at the center throughout her time as a student, and she presented at 2011’s ‘Thinking Gender’ conference on her research entitled “Intersections of Domestic Violence and Food Insecurity in California.”

Annie Fehrenbacher, also a graduate student from the School of Public Health, presented at this year’s conference with her research titled “The Evolution of a Gendered Politics of Trauma: Challenging the Depiction of Rape as ‘A Fate Worse than Death.” She expressed gratitude for the CSW and the support it provides for those pursuing topics related to gender and feminism. Though she never worked for the center, she did receive grant money to attend conferences around the country that she said would have otherwise been impossible to attend.

Resources for Undergraduate Students

Though the center’s focus is on faculty members and graduate students, Childers said that CSW would like to reach as many undergraduate students as possible. There are three annual awards for undergraduate students offered through the research unit, including the ‘Renaissance Award,’ given to a woman who has returned to college after a prolonged absence due to family or career obligations, and the ‘Constance Coiner Award,’ given to an upper-division student who is dedicated to working-class and feminist issues.

Travel grants are also available to those hoping to attend or present at conferences related to the centers mission areas. In addition, CSW employs many undergraduate students, most of whom receive work-study.

Speakers and the Local Community 

In order to further its goal of engaging an intellectual community, CSW offers numerous free speaker and film events throughout the year. On May 15, Kathryn Stockton, author of “The Queer Child, or Growing Sideways in the Twentieth Century,” will speak from 4 to 6 pm in Royce 314. Past speakers include Gayatri Spivak, known for her work on global and postcolonial feminism, and Patricia Hill Collins, author of “Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment.” Most events are free and open to the public, and the video recordings of many of them become available online.

CSW is also committed to forging relationships with those outside of the university, and is currently working with the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives to process and digitize their collections. The center brokered a relationship between the archives and the UCLA Library System, and the complete archives will ultimately be available online and at Special Collections in the Young Research Library. The main five collections are already available for the community to enjoy.

Ultimately, CSW prides itself on creating a space in which the intellectual community can engage in discussions about women, gender and sexuality. And McHugh insisted that it is important such a center exist because it has the unique ability to encourage research on these topics across departments, disciplines and communities.

This article originally ran in the Winter 2012 issue of Fem.

As a child, Yasmin Lee moved around refugee camps in war-torn Cambodia with her family. At a young age, the United States sponsored her and her family to come to America. They were so grateful to the U.S. government that by the time she reached fifth grade, she and several of her brothers were determined to pay back the country for its help. “We feel like everybody should contribute to the country some way or somehow,” said Lee. Although she does not believe in war, Lee enlisted in the U.S. Navy when she turned 18.

While in the Navy, Lee struggled with her sexual identity. “Back then, I said I was gay, because I didn’t know what my sexuality was, I just knew I was attracted to men.” With Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell still in place, Lee kept her sexuality under wraps, but somehow another recruit found out and started verbally abusing her. “He called me all kinds of derogatory names, and instead of just sitting there and taking it I decided to challenge him on it.” She reported him, but he was never punished and Lee refused to retract her statements, so she was allowed to leave with an honorable discharge.

Only 19 years old but with a much better understanding of who she was and who she wanted to be, Lee moved to Los Angeles. She found work as a drag performer and a makeup artist for The Pussycat Dolls, living as a man during the day and a woman at night. Once she turned 21, Lee decided to make the full transition, so she left her job to avoid further harassment.

Now living as a transsexual woman, Lee started working in porn, first as an assistant then later as a casting director. She was catapulted into the spotlight and onto film one day when a woman she had cast for a scene never showed up, so Lee stepped in and acted the part. When she found that this experience was both exciting and paid the bills, Lee pursued a career in porn. Although she is a sole contractor, meaning she can work for any studio she wants, Lee is frequently found at TS Seduction, which, according to its website, is “the premiere bondage sex destination where straight men experience hot tgirls and TS cock for the first time.” After only seven years working in porn, Lee has appeared in 86 films.

Porn is “really about pushing your limits,” explained Lee. As her popularity has grown, she has also encountered some of society’s limits. “I was actually the first transsexual to be released in Japan, and there were so many restrictions. There are dominant and submissive roles, and I’m more of a dominant … but they weren’t allowed to show the guy being submissive.”

For her work in transsexual porn, Lee has twice been nominated for the Adult Video News, the “Oscars of porn,” Transsexual Performer of the Year award. She is also the first transsexual woman to be nominated for AVN’s Breakout Star into mainstream.

Lee found mainstream fame for her role as a succubus, a female demon who has sex with sleeping men, in the 2011 film “Red Ice.” Her role in this film caught the attention of the casting director for “The Hangover Part II,” who got in touch with her and asked her to audition. “I realized they were flying people in from all over the world to audition … so I didn’t really think I was gonna get it,” reminisced Lee. Ultimately, Lee found out she landed the role of Kimmy, a Thai “ladyboy” who has sex with Stu (played by Ed Helms). Although the actual sex scene was not shown, she did show full-frontal nudity during the film. Lee made film history by being the first transsexual woman to show full-frontal nudity in theater.

Lee started work on the set soon after being cast and it was such an open and welcoming environment that it felt like home. “I went in there being professional and expecting the same from them, and they all were. They were the sweetest, all the actors I was hanging out with. I was hanging out with everybody, and they were sweet and open-minded and nice,” she said.

Many transsexual activists have criticized the film for Lee’s role as a Thai sex worker, accusing the film of portraying transsexuals in an unflattering light. Nonetheless, Lee believes her role was beneficial. “Any exposure at all is a platform for conversation. [The film] definitely brought a lot of light to the transsexual community, not the 100 percent positive light that we all hope for in an Oprah interview, but it reached millions and millions of people that now either know about transsexuals or questions what’s going on and ask,” said Lee. “That’s the platform you want to create to educate people.”

This article originally ran in the Winter 2012 issue of Fem. Image courtesy of Yasmin Lee.

This exercise is a part of Bruin Self Defense, a free program designed to teach UCLA students and Recreation members the basic self defense techniques that could save their lives should they be in a dangerous situation. By teaching students what it is liked to be choked, instructors also teach them what to do if they ever find themselves in that position.

“People need to know that life isn’t like the movies,” said Ashley Castro, an assistant instructor of the UCLA Martial Arts Leadership Team. According to her and the other class instructors, many people believe the common misconception that no matter how many cases they hear about, it will not happen to them. Though hopefully true, that sort of thinking will not help matters should a precarious situation arise.

“It is important to actually go through the physical motions of how to protect yourself,” stated Dong-Je Lee, a fourth-year earth science studies student and a student assistant to the Martial Arts program.

In the classes, Paul McCarthy, the Instructional Programs Coordinator responsible for managing and developing all martial arts classes at the Wooden Center, stresses to students that in a moment of panic, no one knows how he or she will react. The purpose of these classes is to teach participants proper and effective ways to protect themselves. Meanwhile, the repetition of these classes each week helps make the motions more instinctive so that if one is faced with an unknown attackers, the moves will be automatic.

The Bruin Self Defense Program began during Winter quarter and, though the Martial Arts program had offered self defense classes in the past, marked the first time a free class has been offered on a regular basis. Though McCarthy was initially unsure of how many people would come, the first class had over 55 attendees and the sessions continue to be very popular amongst students of all genders.

“My hope is that someone can take just one piece of our class and one-day save their own life, ” shared McCarthy. “The more people we help the better.”

Tami Bi, a fourth-year sociology and Asian American studies student, said that she decided to attend the classes after repeatedly seeing friends status’ on Facebook and hearing about attacks on college campuses. She wanted to learn different ways to be aware of her surroundings.

At the classes, instructors strive to teach participants both the physical motions and mental alertness for everyday situations. This includes things like being aware of every exit in a room, and sitting facing the entrance of a building, so that one can always see who is entering and exiting.

After participating in a Wednesday class, students shared that not only did they learn something, but they also had fun while doing it.  “I had a lot of fun, and it went by quickly,” said Stephanie Gordon, a forth-year nursing student. “I think I am more scared after the class, realizing my little ability … I will definitely be back.”

Bruin Self Defense is offered every Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:00 pm in Yates Gymnasium in the Wooden Center. Register online up to a week in advance.

This article originally ran in the Winter 2012 issue of Fem. Illustration by Raquel Livson.

Giggans, who started a women’s karate school in the late 1970s, first joined POV as a self-defense instructor. She said that she applies the same simple motto to self-defense and to life in general. “Empower your spirit,” she shared. “Spirit first, techniques second.”

While Giggans values spirit above all else, it takes a special technique to oversee POV’s dynamic services and projects. Peace Over Violence has its headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, but its reach extends far beyond the office. The organization is in hospitals, police stations and courtrooms. Staff members accompany rape survivors to receive treatment, identify suspects and seek justice.

“Nobody should have to go through the trauma of sexual or domestic violence alone,” Giggans said. POV is in high schools, offering teen dating violence prevention curricula and organizing anti-violence clubs.

It is also in legislation; the agency initiated the “Sexual Assault Victim’s DNA Bill of Rights,” which states that every rape survivor has a right to know the status of her or his rape kit (the evidence that has been taken from her or his body and clothing). The bill arose after the 2002 rape kit backlog scandal, when it was discovered that rape kits all across the country had been untested and discarded. Now, under the bill, survivors have the right to know, at all times, the whereabouts and results of their rape kits.

“Peace Over Violence is not the average agency,” said Peggie Reyna, the project director of their deaf, disabled and elder services. Reyna, who started the agency’s deaf services program in 1989, was emphatic about the need to offer such services. “I said (to) Patti (Giggans), ‘I understand you don’t have funding for deaf services. But if you hire me you’ll get funding’… And that’s how deaf services started,” shared Reyna.

Her tenacity did not stop there. One day, when she was ordering business cards, Reyna added the words “and disabled” to their information. “When (the cards) came Patti said, ‘We have a new program?’ So I said that if we made it formal we could get some funding for disability services too,” said Reyna. “We became deaf and disabled services.”

Laura Ripplinger works alongside Reyna as the program coordinator of deaf, disabled and elder services. A former interpreter, Ripplinger said she came to POV because her heart is with the survivors. “Being an interpreter and working for so many years in that field, I constantly saw where survivors weren’t able to get the help they needed,” said Ripplinger. “I really didn’t want to see them get re-victimized because they weren’t able to communicate.”

For Ripplinger, POV is about “the look in somebody’s eyes when you see that first glimmer of hope that they never had … Just to know that there is somebody here for them, that they can be heard and understood and (guided) through whatever it is they need to do.”

Founded in 1971, Peace Over Violence recently celebrated its fortieth year of providing that “first glimmer of hope” to survivors of violence. POV, formerly known as the Los Angeles Commission Against the Abuse of Women, has expanded and evolved since its establishment by feminist founders.

“We were founded by feminists. We’re proud of that. And (proud) that we have feminists at our organization – all different kinds of feminists – there’s no one feminist anymore!” explained Giggans. “We utilize and respect the feminist perspective, but we have added other perspectives … no (single) perspective answers all of the questions about violence.”

This article originally ran in the Winter 2012 issue of Fem.

On Jan. 27, 2012, I was invited to live tweet a conversation taking place on the 27th floor of City Hall, in the Tom Bradley Tower. Entitled “Storying Violence: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation at the Top of City Hall,” it was a part of LACE (Los Angeles  Contemporary Exhibitions)’s “Three Weeks in  January: End Rape in Los Angeles” – a public art performance by artist Suzanne Lacy.

The conversation, meant to focus on the narratives of rape and the ways in which they are shaped by society, included civic and cultural leaders from Los Angeles: Gail Abarbanel from the Rape Treatment Center, Deputy Mayor Aileen Adams, Chief Charles Beck from the Los Angeles Police Department, Jodie Evans of Code Pink, writer and director Julie Hebert, Dr. Jackson Katz, Professor Rose Monteiro and Dr. Francesca Polletta. The discussion was moderated by veteran journalist Ana Garcia, an investigative reporter for NBC4 Los Angeles.

Lacy opened the event by talking about the importance of social media in today’s society and the way it is transforming how information is transmitted from one generation to the next. We bloggers and tweeters were invited to the event because our coverage would show how information could be relayed in different ways. And we were asked to end our tweets with #RapeEndsHere in order to both help the outside world follow our conversation and raise awareness about the campaign.

Lacy then introduced the main themes of the conversation. “What’s wrong with the stories told of rape?” she asked. “How do we change those stories in order to change consciousness?”

The panelists began by emphasizing the need to look at sexual assault as a societal issue. It is not just about the people who commit these crimes but the ways in which society creates a space in which rape can occur.

Garcia responded by mentioning that television journalism rarely covers rape unless it can sensationalized. “What’s the twist? What’s interesting about it?” These are the questions she said reporters ask themselves as they approach a story about sexual assault. She also admitted that even though she was a huge part of this event, she still could not get NBC to cover the panel in their nightly news report.

Many of the other panelists focused on the ways in which rape is portrayed in pop culture and asked how Hollywood can ensure that the story is not only told from a male point of view when the majority of those controlling television and film are men. Only seven percent of directors in Hollywood are women, and the number has not improved much over the years, regardless of Kathryn Bigelow’s historic Academy Award win in 2010.

As the conversation continued, Katz brought up the fact that there are male victims of rape and they are not discussed nearly as much as female victims. He argued that it was problematic that there were only two men at a panel about the narratives of sexual assault. And the other panelists agreed that in order for there to be progress, men need to be just as much a part of the conversation as women.

Monteiro brought attention to the fact that just because a victim does not look like she has been harmed does not mean that she has not been and stated that there needs to be a serious conversation about the long-term effects of rape. “This trauma is life long and affects every aspect of the survivor’s life,” added Monteiro.

Ultimately, the panelists agreed that the answer lies in prevention and changing the discussion to make sure that the victim is never implied to be at fault. “We have to focus more on prevention. There are too few voices,” commented Adams. And the panelists argued that everyone needs to be held accountable to make sure that these necessary changes actually occur. This involves speaking up when someone makes a comment that normalizes sexual assault, such as when one jokes about rape.

The consensus in the room was that the vast majority of people know that rape is wrong, but they feel like it is acceptable when they hear others talk about it as though it is no big deal. Garcia, for her part, promised to never again claim that the victim is “ok.”

This article originally ran in the Winter 2012 issue of Fem.

The Mercury 13: This refers to the 13 women who trained to be astronauts as a part of a private program in 1959, at the same time as the seven men (the Mercury Seven) who took part in NASA’s official astronaut program. Though NASA refused to believe that women could take part in such a rigorous training, one of the men who helped create the government’s program believed that women were better suited for space because of their smaller height and weight. Jerrie Cobb (pictured above) became the first woman to join the program, quickly followed by Myrtle Cagle, Janet Dietrich, Marion Dietrich, Wally Funk, Sarah Gorelick, Janey Hart, Jean Hixson, Rhea Hurrie, Gene Nora, Irene Leverton, Jerri Sloan and Bernice Steadman. Though these women proved that they could pass all of the tests, none of the Mercury 13 ever reached space. Almost 25 years later, in 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to do so.

Claude Cahun (born Lucy Schwob): Cahun was a French artist, photographer and writer who enjoyed playing with gender and sexuality in her work. Cahun and her partner, Marcel Moore (born Suzanne Malherbe) collaborated on numerous pieces as they became known in the art world for the artists’ salons they held at their home (attracting the likes of Henri Michaux and Sylvia Beach). Cahun and Moore, resistance workers during World War II, were jailed by the Nazis and sentenced to death in 1944. Though they survived the war and were freed by the Allies, Cahun suffered from poor health and died in 1954. Remembered for her work with identity, role reversal and gender bending, Cahun’s name has been mostly forgotten outside of the art world.

Jane Addams: In 1889, Addams founded the Hull House in Chicago – a settlement house that served those in need as it empowered women and men working to improve the opportunities available to working class people. She also fought for suffrage, became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and was named the “most dangerous woman in America” by J. Edgar Hoover.

Shirley Chisholm: The first African American woman elected to Congress, Chisholm was also the first African American major-party candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. During her time in Congress from 1969 to 1983, she opposed the draft, supported legislation to increase spending in education and healthcare, and worked to improve the conditions of Haitian refugees.

Mildred McAfee: The first female commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, McAfee is best known as the first director of the WAVES (“Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services”), a division of the Navy that started during World War II and consisted only of women. The group came about after Eleanor Roosevelt lobbied Congress into letting women serve.

The purpose of sharing these women’s stories is to point out how important it is to continue learning about the amazing women who have helped shape our society. This probably sounds obvious, but it’s easy to forget about the women who are so rarely mentioned in history. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was right when she wrote that “well-behaved women seldom make history.” But even so, those who have done pretty kick ass things get lost as curricula stick to the ‘classic’ men who are assumed to be more important. So even though March is over, let’s all promise to pay better attention to those who deserve recognition. After all, history classes of the future don’t need to consist entirely of men’s history. Instead, they can be our history inclusive of all genders, sexualities, races, ethnicities and classes.

- Melissa van Gelder, Editor in Chief

This article originally ran in the Winter 2012 issue of Fem.

May 9: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice, 7:30 pm at the Mark Taper Auditorium. Author Terry Tempest Williams will explore what it means to have a voice.

May 10: Alison Bechdel in conversation with Deborah Vankin, 7 pm at Mark Taper Auditorium. Bechdel will speak about her new graphic novel and the nature of mother-daughter relationships.

May 11: Life (Un)Ltd: A symposium on feminism, race, and biopolitics, 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, YRL. Must RSVP (for free) at the link provided.

until May 20: Women Hold Up Half the Sky, at Skirball Cultural Center.

First, I think it’s necessary to point out some of the influencers of Riot Grrrl who paved the way for our grrrls in the ‘90s:

10. The Slits – “Typical Girls”

The Slits began in 1976 when the singer Ari Up was just fourteen with nothing but borrowed instruments and a basic knowledge of how to make music.  She decided it was time for all-girl punk band and within a year of forming the band was opening for the Clash on their White Riot tour in 1977.  Their early success suggested a desire for a female perspective to the British punk scene.  Typical Girls is off of their first recorded album Cut in 1979.

9. Crass – Systematic Death

Systematic Death comes off of the 1981 album Penis Envy, named after Freud’s ideas concerning gender and sexual identity, and was a step away from the macho image of the group’s previous albums with Eve Libertine on vocals.   Feminist themes are expressed throughout the album while also criticizing the mechanics of the system like marriage and hetero-normative gender relations.

8. X-Ray Spex – “Oh Bondage Up Yours!”

“Oh Bondage Up Yours!” was released by X-Ray Spex as a single in September 1977.  The singer of X-Ray Spex, Poly Styrene, wrote the song from an anti-consumerist perspective not intending for it to have feminist associations though it would later be adopted by the riot grrrls as a feminist catchphrase for their own movement.  Styrene was a natural Riot Grrrl role-model because she rejected any typical notions of beauty and opened her shows by screaming, “Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard but I think, oh bondage, up yours!”

Riot Grrrl songs are loaded with feminist lyrics ranging from boy problems to superficial friends and most notably to political commentary about the state of being a woman in a male-centered world.

7. Viva Knieval – Boy Poison

It would be impossible to compile this list without a heavy Kathleen Hanna presence.  Viva Knieval was Hanna’s second band after Amy Carter and before meeting Tobi Vail and forming Bikini Kill.  “Boy Poison” was playing the first time Allison Wolfe saw Hanna perform and would inspire her to form her own band, Bratmobile.  This song is perfect for so many reasons, but I especially love the sweetness of Hanna’s voice in the beginning and ending with the screaming of boy poison as a way of telling girls not to give up control.

6. Bikini Kill –  “Alien She” (Honorable mentions: “I Like Fucking” and “Rebel Girl”)

Bikini Kill is synonymous with Riot Grrrl because the front woman, Kathleen Hanna, was without a doubt the biggest personality and influence within the movement.  I love so many Bikini Kill songs so it was super hard to choose just one, thus the honorable mentions, but I decided to go with “Alien She” off of Pussy Whipped simply because I identify with it so much.  As a feminist, it is often hard to balance a powerful side with a girly side and this song deals with the struggle between societal expectations of femininity and what we actually feel as women and feminists.  This song talks about the balancing of this sort of split personality between what is bad (feminist, dyke, whore) and good (pretty, pretty alien).

5. Julie Ruin – “The Punk Singer”

Julie Ruin, Kathleen Hanna’s solo project, came about in 1998 after Bikini Kill finally broke up.  The band first began as a solo act but later picked up Sadie Benning and Johanna Fateman to perform live before becoming the more well-known trio Le Tigre.  Hanna has always been really explicit with her feminist lyrics and this song talks about the difference between male and female musicians’ objectives.  “The Punk Singer” is alluding to all the singers of all those typical male punk bands who want recognition and to be remembered as a sort of macho mark while female bands are trying change things.

4. Bratmobile – “Cool Schmool”

Since my entire article is exclusively centered on Bratmobile, I will skip the backstory and force you to read all about it in the Winter issue (out this week!).  This is my favorite Bratmobile song because it’s fun and calls out those superficial people who take themselves too seriously.

3. Heavens to Betsy – Terrorist

Quintessential riot grrrl band Heavens to Betsy began in Olympia, Washington in 1991 and Tucker would later form Sleater-Kinney.  This song is great because it talks about going from innocent victim to active assailant against a presumably male attacker.  Corin Tucker is such a badass and this song makes me really believe she’ll actually kill someone.

2. Sleater-Kinney – “Dig Me Out”

This song comes from the album of the same name released in 1997 and is considered by critics to be the best Sleater-Kinney album.  In 2005, Dig Me Out was ranked #24 in Spin’s “100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005” and in 2008 the song “Dig Me Out” was ranked #44 in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.”  Not bad.

1. The Frumpies – “We Don’t Wanna Go Home”

The Frumpies formed in 1992 with the original line-up consisting of Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, Billy Karren (all of whom were previously part of Bikini Kill), and the drummer of Bratmobile Molly Neuman.  Not every Riot Grrrl song has to be angry and super political as the Frumpies demonstrate here.  “We Don’t Wanna Go Home” is about girl ol’ fashioned girlfriends and being bummed out when your friends move away.

So there you have it.  Just like any decent top ten list, there will be some dispute which I will gladly embrace.  If you are super pissed off about a song that I might have missed (which I surely have) by all means post it in the comments.  A top ten list of any nature is bound to exclude some but hopefully this gives you an idea of who inspired the riot grrrls and how they made feminist music their own.  Read our latest issue online and learn more about the Riot Grrrl movement!

I work at the Hammer museum and, as an art lover, regularly haunt museums. But I’ve never seen an art exhibit that resonated so much with me as a feminist. The exhibit trumpeted the notion that women are more than beautiful ornaments or objects of sexual desire and eroticism, the usual roles allotted to them in the world of visual arts. Traditional art pieces prize women for an ephemeral, transitory beauty; their bodies are consumed by the male gaze and their emotions, intellect, and creativity are completely disregarded. The surrealist women painters featured in “In Wonderland” shatter their traditional roles in the art world.

First of all, roles are reversed as they escape the frames that have bound them for centuries and take a well-deserved place behind a canvas. In these paintings, bodies are de-eroticized and an emphasis is placed on female emotions and their creative potential. They flee to the world of dreams, where they become free and explore their emotions. Indeed, despite the pervasive presence of nude females in the exhibit, these bodies are far from more sensual traditions of the female form; it’s a far cry from Manet’s sexy and provocative Olympia. Body parts are scattered and become sites of intellectual discourse, not sensual pleasure. Indeed, the portrayed women in “In Wonderland” are de-eroticized in order to finally humanize them on the canvas.

The treatment of the female body was extraordinarily fascinating, but the overarching post-structuralist feminist message that the exhibit was touting was even more liberatory. The portrayal of female identity was refreshingly modern. Paintings that depicted issues of identity stressed the multiplicitous nature of identity. Women are not trapped in the traditional roles of obedient housewife, doting mother, loving wife, enchanting muse, or alluring mistress. Indeed, they can embody all of those roles, if they wish. The painters of “In Wonderland” convey the message that gender (and identity overall) is merely a performance. Thus, these women are not only freed from the confines of their bodies, perpetually objectified and hyper-sensualized by the predatory male gaze, but identities impinged upon them by society. At first glance, many of these paintings may appear to be a result of an identity crisis (and that very well may be true!), but a closer examination will reveal that these women are toying with their identities and exploring a duality, or even a multiplicity, that exists within them. Many paintings denounce domesticity and depict the tension between the roles of artist, mother, and wife.

Here are some highlights from the exhibit that explore these themes:

“The Chess Queens” by Muriel Streeter

This painting may call to mind several motifs and tropes. One may think of the female stereotypes expounded in the 2011 film “Black Swan” or even the biblical dichotomy of the Madonna (Virgin Mary) and the Whore (Mary Magdalen). This painting destabilizes these binaries. For example, the black castle is behind the white queen – their roles and identities are interchangeable and are not fixed.

“Self-Portrait of My Sister” by Gertrude Abercrombie

I ended up becoming a huge Gertrude Abercrombie fan after seeing this exhibit. In this painting, the eccentric Chicago painter gave her self-portrait a rather unusual name. Abercrombie had a twin, but the title speaks to “the Other” that exists within all of us. Here, Abercrombie is not only embracing duality, but exploring performative identity. The blues of the painting emphasize the emotional content of the painting.

“Courtship” by Gertrude Abercrombie

This was my favorite piece of the exhibit. The painting is a witty commentary on the traditional and essentially predatory depictions of heteronormative courtship in paintings, literature, theater, and other forms of art. The painting not only slyly lampoons traditional romance, but also reveals a darker message of the power that many men hold in relationships.

“The Two Fridas” by Frida Kahlo

This huge canvas by Kahlo is the highlight of the exhibit – many visitors vied for a spot in front of this emotionally overwhelming piece. Here, like her contemporaries, Kahlo also explores duality and identity. The painting is a manifestation of Frida’s tension between her  Mexican roots and identity as a burgeoning successful artist after an exhibit in Paris. On the right, Frida is dressed in traditional Mexican garb and on the left, she is wearing a white European costume. However, more importantly, the painting tells the story of an identity crisis resulting from heartbreak, betrayal, and a haunting obsessive love. The painting was done after her divorce with the artist Diego Rivera, with whom she was madly in love. A childhood photo of Rivera is seen in the hand of the Frida on the right.

The “In Wonderland” exhibit runs until May 6, 2012. Due to the fact that women are often ignored or play a minor role in Surrealist discussions and exhibits, “In Wonderland” is a unique opportunity and must-see! Tickets are $20.

Here at Fem, we believe that feminism matters because we still live in a world in which people are judged and treated differently based on their gender, race, ethnicity, class and sexuality. And we strive to cover the news that matters most to our community and isn’t highlighted in the mainstream media.

In our latest issue, the feature story covers Riot Grrrl – a ’90s punk rock movement that gave feminist musicians a chance to express themselves in ways that had previously been impossible because of the prejudice that existed in the music industry. It also created a space in which women could create their own zines and broadcast their voices to the world. As the saying goes, “every girl is a riot grrrl.”

We also have an article about Yasmin Lee, a transsexual porn star who’s famous for her stint in “The Hangover II,” an open letter to President Obama concerning his administration’s decision to keep Plan B behind the counter, and one woman’s personal story about dealing with anorexia. Our other articles cover everything from politics to self defense classes to video games.

So please, pick up a copy on newsstands today (next to the Daily Bruin) or read it online below. And let us know what you think – we always love to hear what our readers have to say!