Construction is complete on the Enbridge corporation’s Line 3 pipeline, which was dug under the Mississippi River to carry expensive, dirty tar sand oil from Alberta, Canada, to be refined in Wisconsin. In Aitkin County, Minn., the trial of Mylene Vialard (aka Ocean) reveals a pipeline of injustice—the structural violence of white settler-colonial capitalist patriarchy. Vialard’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 20.
Author: Carolyn Elerding
Carolyn Elerding, PhD, is a feminist author and freelance editor. Find her on Twitter @celerding and Mastodon @celerding@toot.io.
Colorado-Based Water Protector Faces Trial for Involvement in Line 3 Pipeline Protest: ‘I Don’t Feel Guilty. Enbridge Should Feel Guilty.’
When Mylene Vialard followed her 21-year-old daughter across the U.S. to join the thousands of the resistance by Water Protectors led by Indigenous women at Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, her aim was clear: to help make change. The Boulder-based activist is one of several around the U.S. who face felony charges in northern Minnesota’s Aitkin County for allegedly “obstructing legal process.” Her trial is the week of Aug. 28.
“Not taking the plea deal and going to trial is using my voice to point out where the problems are, what the issues are. And, you know, I don’t have that big of a voice, but it’s what I can do right now. The outcome of the trial is secondary to me. If we can raise the awareness and can plant seeds, it’s a victory for me.”
‘Yellowjackets’: A Tale of Cannibalism and … Feminism?
Another season of the award-winning Showtime series Yellowjackets compares female empowerment then and now, contrasting girls of the 1990s with the women they are today.
There’s a lot going on in this brilliantly suspenseful show, including some spectacular deconstructions of stereotypes—good and bad—but what really stands out to me are the questions it asks about competition. For this viewer who came of age in the ‘90s—benefiting from a lot of self-empowerment messaging but not much feminism, let alone intersectional feminism—Yellowjackets really hits.
A Community Says Yes to Drag Queen Storytime
In Boulder County, Colo., right-wing protesters faced a “wall of rainbows” as supporters of drag queen storytime rose up for their community.
How to ‘Intention’ a Feminist World: Ringing in the New Year with Leadership Icon Gloria Feldt
For years, Gloria Feldt has focused on women’s leadership—and as we flip the calendar to 2022, her resolve is stronger than ever. I decided to find out more about her insights into women and power.
“One of the hardest things is to shift our focus from battling negative power reactively to embracing our positive power to implement change proactively and set our own agenda in a disciplined way.”
Together in Song: Women’s and LGBT Choruses Safely Thrive Amidst the Pandemic
Women’s and LGBT choruses have used communal singing to network in support of social causes. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose major challenges for arts and culture involving the prohibition of large, in-person gatherings. However, these choruses are not just surviving, but thriving—thanks to their savvy use of digital networks and webs of long-standing relationships.
A Feminist Reflection On Mass Shootings: How to Turn Sorrow and Rage Into Change
“Tears well up when I think about returning to my King Soopers to shop for groceries, but I plan to—for personal and political reasons. … Perhaps what will most heal our communities is social change, so that the deaths in Atlanta, Orlando, Parkland, Las Vegas and so many other places, as well as here in Boulder, will not have been entirely in vain.”
#MeToon: How Courageous Feminists United to Reshape the Animation Community
Fundamentally, the catalyst driving #MeToon was the group of courageous women who empowered one another to speak out.
#MeToon has not only advanced strategies for resisting the prevalence of sexual harassment in Hollywood, but also demonstrated how allies such as trade unions can actively promote social equality. Together, women and their allies drew a line—in bold—and the animation industry seems to be getting the picture.
Who Writes the Herstory of Animation?
The launch of Disney+ raised a critical question: To what extent can a multinational conglomerate further social equality when it has so much prejudice in its past? (And why isn’t “The Proud Family” available to stream?)