FEM Newsmagazine – UCLA's Feminist Newsmagazine Since 1973

Feminism 101

Feminism 101: Misogynoir

In 1851, Sojourner Truth asked, “Ain’t I a woman?” Ever since race was conceptualized, Black women have wondered what makes them different from other women. Why is Black womanhood discredited? Why do Black women have…
Feminism 101: What is Greenwashing?

While large corporations label themselves as “green,” people, communities, and ecosystems are suffering.
Feminism 101: What is Heteronormativity?

Heteronormative society ingrains the prejudice or dislike of people who are ‘different.’ Due to gender roles within heteronormativity, it is ‘natural’ to assume that if someone does not fit in one category, they must be…
Feminism 101: What is Environmental Racism?

Within the world of social media, the scrutiny we place on individuals' choices alienates people who aren’t able to be vegan, zero-waste, or adopt other inaccessible lifestyle changes. The people who are able to participate…

Theorist Thursdays

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Sonia Sanchez

“I wanted to tell people how I became this woman with razor blades between her teeth.”

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Sara Ahmed

Sara Ahmed is a British-Australian author who describes herself as a “feminist killjoy, affect alien, [and] angry queer woman of color.” Ahmed's work focuses on…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde was a Black poet, feminist, and activist who wrote and spoke powerfully about race, gender, sexuality, and class.

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Fawn Brodie

Fawn McKay Brodie (1915-1981) was one of the first women to become a tenured professor at UCLA, a controversial biographer, and a noted ex-member of…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Kate Millett

Kate Millett (1934-2017) was an American feminist theorist, activist, writer, educator and filmmaker. Her main areas of interest were mental health reform, human rights advocacy…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: bell hooks

Image from Wikimedia Commons. bell hooks is a Black feminist theorist, professor, and cultural critic who has authored over 30 books, in addition to dozens…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Mitsuye Yamada

Mitsuye Yamada is a Japanese American writer, educator, and activist. Her works expose the discrimination faced by Japanese Americans during and after World War II,…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Angela Davis

Davis has since become the figurehead for the prison abolition movement, a movement that calls into question what it means to be a criminal within…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Patricia Hill Collins

Patricia Hill Collins is an acclaimed social theorist known for her intersectional approach to the sociologies of feminism, Black liberation, and nationalism.

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Gayatri Spivak

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is an Indian scholar who continues to add to many academic disciplines. She is known mainly for her work in post-colonial studies,…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Simone de Beauvoir

“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” This provocative assertion from Simone de Beauvoir’s acclaimed book, “The Second Sex,” helped destroy the notion…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Adrienne Rich

In her letter to the NEA chair, Rich stated: “There is no simple formula for the relationship of art to justice. But I do know…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Gloria Anzaldúa

Throughout her lifetime of writing, Anzaldúa consistently contributed to theories countering social oppression, spanning topics that encompassed her intersectional identities. She let her spirituality and…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Assata Shakur

A teacher, healer, freedom fighter, and aunt to hip hop legend Tupac, Assata Shakur has organized against the prison-industrial complex, police brutality, discriminatory education, poverty,…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Adichie, a Nigerian novelist, is one of the latest women to join the lineage of iconic feminist writers like Maya Angelou, Adrienne Rich and Toni…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Judith Butler

In her 1988 essay “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution,” Judith Butler—philosopher, gender theorist, and professor at UC Berkeley—proposed the theory that gender is behavior, rather…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Kimberlé Crenshaw

Crenshaw’s great theoretical contribution, that of intersectionality, is a call to action at every moment. In light of the Trump regime’s past few weeks in…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Susan McClary

Susan McClary is one of the most important musicologists responsible for introducing feminist critique to musicology. Her work, though controversial, was some of the first…

Feminist Theorist Thursdays: Cynthia Enloe

Cynthia Enloe’s book was and is part of the movement to open political spaces to women, deconstructing the exclusionary structure of international relations. This remains…

Gendertainment

“May December,” Comedy, and the Ill of Moralizing Media Consumption

Discrediting the humor in “May December” and placing a strict, oversimplified moral code on it is an exercise in poor media literacy. It disregards what…
Why I’m Still Thinking About Tracy Chapman’s Grammy Performance: A Deep Dive into her Career, Legacy, and Timeless Message

The internet’s instant reconnection with the ubiquitous memory of Chapman communicates her timeless appeal and how we can still learn from this revolutionary folk musician…
“Squid Game: The Challenge” & The Game of Life under Capitalism

The underlying messages of commodification and desensitization embedded within "Squid Game: The Challenge" stand in stark contrast to the conclusion of the original show, and…
Female Autonomy in Film: Comparing and Contrasting “Priscilla” and “Spencer”

“Priscilla” and “Spencer” are fixed on either side of a mirror. These films are more than the perfect double feature— they manage to depict women…
Just to be Queer Here: “Bottoms” is Only the Beginning

This movie is more than a gay reclamation of the genre and tropes that excluded it for decades, it’s an emblem of the uninhibited joy…
The Musical Shift from Sound to Poetic Lyricism: A Rise in Feminine Qualities

This new wave of “girl music” reimagines “feminine rage” as a slow burn of emotion. It features introspective emotive songs with haunting atmospheric soundscapes to…

Campus Life

Remnants: Embodied Archives of the Armenian Genocide: Book Talk With Dr. Elyse Semerdjian

On the morning of November 15, communicating with a sea of faces perched neatly within miniscule Zoom rectangles, Dr. Elyse Semerdjian asserted a startling, but…
People Over Profit: The UC Divest Coalition

“The coalition’s work is based on the maxim “work local, think global.” The group’s global mission — societal liberation from systems of oppression — is…
Profit Over People: UC Investments

Endowments for schools like UCLA are, in the long run, only growing — but their spending has not kept pace, showing that those in charge…
Recovering From Winter Quarter Burn Out: A Guide to Navigating Mental Health Resources at UCLA

Whether it be medical or non-medical care, in a professional setting or a social one, someone at UCLA is ready to help.
Dancing in Heels: On the Road to Passion and Liberation with the Bruin Burlesque Cabaret

By stripping off the layers of smothering clothing and logos made by our institution, a notoriously “serious school” whose departments, norms, and regulations tend to…
Feeling Through at UCLA: A Glimpse into the DeafBlind Experience

The program concluded with parting words from Francis who urged inspired students to see past the “fear of coming up to people who are Deaf…

Politics

Islam Could Not Disagree More With the Iranian Government; Standing With Iran’s Women

The main premise of Islam rests on the significance of freedom, intention, and choice. Iran cannot logically force wearing a scarf in the name of…
Why Your Anti-Gun Control Arguments Are Baseless, From A US Debate Champion

AR-15s are not a rational threat to a government with F-35s, aircraft carriers, and a multi-trillion-dollar nuclear arsenal. They are a threat to a classroom…
Eurovision, Your Personal Guide to Understanding European Politics

As 10 million Europeans sat in front of their televisions on Saturday night, May 15th, a screen of blue and yellow lit up their rooms.…
Creativity Secures People’s Voice on Women Trafficking under Censorship

Through the creative derivation of and active adaptation to censorship, feminist netizens in China generate enormous power which attests to their resilience and determination.
The Republican Culture War on LGBTQ+ Youth

From the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” to the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” 2022 has seen an overwhelming increase in state legislation filed to promote anti-LGBTQ+…
Show’s Over: Ending The Miserable Cycle of LA Politics

Mejia reveals a unique talent for bridging the gap between big data and normal people, based on his firm belief that the people, empowered with…

Dialogue and Opinion

Your White Boy of the Month Is Perpetuating Racism

The “white boy of the month:” a rotating selection of conventionally attractive and “ugly hot” white celebrities who are thrust into the lustful teenage eye.…
The Problem With “Women in STEM”

As it stands, the Women in STEM movement has perpetuated harmful social expectations for women by shaming them for pursuing creative careers and constraining them…
Pick-Me Girls: Feminism’s Phony Villains

Since its inception, the term has been flattened and defanged, turned into nothing but a new kind of misogyny with the kind of frightening speed…
Space Lasers and the Death of Imagination

Science fiction can be creative, exploratory, and deeply revealing about the nature and problems of society today, all within the vehicle of a fiction story…
Disability is Not a Metaphor

Disabled people and their experiences are not metaphors. Still, we often co-opt disability terminology and utilize casually ableist language for other purposes.
What’s Wrong With BookTok

Why can’t we escape Colleen Hoover’s chokehold?

Arts and Creative

First Light

"First Light" comprises mornings in UCLA’s Palestine Solidarity Encampment. Included are images…
Untitled

"How is a plea of righteous anger / ‘gainst the profiteering off…
Campus in Full Bloom and Other Poems

"we skirmish like kettled dogs, / armed to the k9 teeth with…
Mixed Medium Encampment Reflections

I was at the encampment last Thursday, when an organized team rolled…
Upwards

Hold the line, she hears, shouted over the din, and it’s automatic,…
Hidden Tears / Our campus, their war ground

"Our campus, their war ground" is a digital rendering capturing the poignant…