Addressing Our History

FEM’s mission for 46 years has been to push the conversation forward regarding the experiences of marginalized people such as people of color, trans people, queer people, women, people with disabilities, and many others. As we become more aware of the ways violent systems operate and manifest in our language and actions, we must critically look at our past and acknowledge our participation in such systems. This has led us to retroactively understand that our history as an organization has included transphobic, anti-black, fatphobic, bioessentialist, second-wave feminist, white feminist, and other oppressive rhetoric.

This is a history that we continue to interrogate and confront as our organization grows and moves forward. We see and reflect upon these insidious ideologies as they are reinforced in our social media content, subject matter, art and article production, themes and other projects.

For all of that, we apologize and commit to doing better.

In an attempt to not participate in these systems and to stop reproducing the content that does not reflect our updated mission statement, we archived and deleted content we no longer believe in.  Moving forward, we plan to:

We commit to decentering white, cisgender, thin, able-bodied people in the visual and textual content we produce and repost. This includes forms such as: articles, prints, photography, video, design, and more.

We commit to actively reconstructing language and visuals so that they are accessible to people whose livelihoods have been inadequately represented such as transgender and queer people, people of color, people with disabilities, fat people, dark skin people and more. 

We consciously choose to move away from images that reproduce stereotypical notions of femininity such as associations with weakness, fragility, bioessentialism amongst other things. 

We recognize the inherent privilege of existing as a western organization in an institution like UCLA. We intend to partner with individuals and collectives that advocate for causes similar to our overall mission.

NEW MISSION STATEMENT

FEM, UCLA’s feminist newsmagazine since 1973, is dedicated to the empowerment of all people, the recognition of gender diversity, the dismantling of systems of oppression, and the application of intersectional feminist ideology for the liberation of all peoples. FEM operates within an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-racist framework. Our organization seeks to challenge oppression based on sexuality, gender, race, class, ability, religion, and other hegemonic power structures. We create a wide range of compassionate multimedia content that recenter narratives often rejected or ignored within mainstream media. Beyond journalism, FEM engages in actionable praxes by building coalitions with other campus and community members. As self-reflective feminists, we are committed to unlearning and relearning alongside our global audience as the sociopolitical landscape in which we are situated continues to transform.

If you have any questions/suggestions/concerns regarding the changes to our organization, please contact us at [email protected]