FEM Newsmagazine – UCLA's Feminist Newsmagazine Since 1973

Feminism 101

FEM 101: What is Afropessimism?

“I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes.” - Zora Neale Hurston
FEM 101: Eugenics

Image description: Throughout the image are blue stick figures in white squares depicting someone with a cane, a woman holding a child’s hand, someone with their arm in a sling, someone walking a service dog,…
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.

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

Tribute or cosplay? Aprons on the runway at Miu Miu

Dressing up like the lower class is a time-honored tradition for the rich, but the apron dresses that walked down the runway at Miu Miu…
Together for Palestine: The importance of benefit concerts

Image description: A band of four people plays music in front of the Palestinian flag.Designed by Justine Charroux Benefit concerts have become a very powerful…
In defense of ‘Anora’

Designed by: Leeann Remiker Image description: Anora wears a red dress and lounges in repose. Behind her, a pair of beady eyes stares at her. In…
Joni Mitchell: An intersectional retrospective

Design by: Emily Hu Description: A blue and orange image, the left half is Joni Mitchell in blackface on the cover of “Don Juan’s Reckless…
Ms. Lauryn Hill and What Could Have Been

“But deep in my heart, the answer, it was in me/ And I made up my mind to define my own destiny” — Lauryn Hill,…
Taking Music off the Silver Platter: Profit and Palatability in Political Anthems

Music has long been a force for political expression, giving a voice to the oppressed and mobilizing communities towards resistance. Protest music is an all-encompassing…

Campus Life

ICE off our campus: Students protest law enforcement activity

Image description: USAC Internal Vice President Tommy Contreras leads the strike across the Tongva Steps; “As students, we show up for each other, we fight…
Every plate counts: An analysis of waste in an era of food insecurity

Designers Name/Image Source(s): Alice Tilley via Pinterest Background: UCLA’s dining program is consistently ranked #1 in the nation, but at what cost? At the end…
“Genociders not welcome here”: Jewish Voices for Peace rejects Israeli Defense Forces soldier presence near campus

Student members of Jewish Voices for Peace protested the arrival of two Israeli Defense Forces soldiers near campus on Nov. 6. They held signs and…
College students are hungry, CalFresh cuts leave them stranded

The Trump Administration makes nationwide funding cuts burdening student food assistance programs.
The fight for a fair contract continues: Nov. 2025 AFSCME 3299 strike

Photo taken by author.Image description: A crowd of picketing workers gather outside Bruin Plaza. On November 17th and 18th, over 40,000 UC employees went on…
Students confront the UC Regents on divestment, equity and democracy

Each comment was passionate, urgent and reflective of the broader crisis of governance, transparency and student trust within the UC system — a trust I…

Featured UCLA Feminist: Asli Bilgili

To Asli, “feminism is realizing that you don’t have to act the way society wants you to act.”

Featured UCLA Feminist: Sapna Ramappa

Sapna Ramappa, a 2nd-year undergraduate student, shares her journey into activism and advocacy. From producing a podcast to singing on…

Featured UCLA Feminist: Anjali Singhal

Anjali Singhal views intersectional feminism in the context of her life and environmentalism.

Featured UCLA Feminist: Lena Rodriguez

“I want to be visible and unapologetic about claiming my space.”

Featured UCLA Feminist: Skylar Kang

Skylar’s feminism is rooted in her experience with sharing her story as an Asian trans woman who’s broken through representational…

Featured UCLA Feminist: Elizabeth Rogers

Elizabeth hopes that “the feminism word can be reclaimed, and its understanding be reclaimed, so that it is not just…

Politics

The Cost of the American Dream for Undocumented Indian Immigrants

Undocumented Indian immigrants are rarely represented in mainstream media or the focus of political rhetoric. However, they make up the third-largest undocumented group in the…
A Silent Threat Looming Over Our Unhoused Neighbors: What History Can Tell Us About What To Expect Before The Los Angeles 2028 Olympics

As Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Olympics, nearby unhoused communities face mounting uncertainty.
“Eating Cats and Dogs”: How Lies Impact Lives

What Trump’s outlandish debate-stage comments imply for Haitian-Americans and immigrants as a whole over the course of his administration.
Discostan as a Radical Act of Community

Discostan is a radical multimedia collective that supersedes the boundaries of nationality by enabling people to build a community around music from the Southwest Asia…
American Capitalism Enables its Citizens to Hate the Unhoused

"A majority of Americans have misguided views of unhoused communities, ranging from neglect to cruel dehumanization. This is not a cultural anomaly, but the result…
Banana Republic: The U.S.’ Violent Pursuit for Hegemony

The U.S.’ ruthless pursuit of hegemony is encapsulated in Chiquita’s 100 year long pursuit of corporatocracy in the banana republic and is emblematic of a…

Dialogue and Opinion

What’s wrong with museums?

Despite their identities as sites for public knowledge, the structure of many museums make them inaccessible instead of welcoming.
The cultural swallowing of yoga

Welcome to California, where “downward dog” and “crow” are as common as the morning coffee.
‘It’s really a we story’: A discussion with disability activist Leroy Moore

“The bigger vision of me being at UCLA … is to come out and to build what's called the Krip-Hop Institute … A place where…
Making eugenics great again: How Trump’s America is attacking disability

Donald Trump’s rhetoric and policy decisions revive eugenic ideas that devalue disabled lives. Going through moments from his 2016 campaign to the COVID-19 pandemic and…
To be young, gifted, Black and queer: Black queer representation in media

Design by Jazlynn Gardner “I speak with you on this occasion because you are young, gifted, and Black… Write about our people. Tell their story.”…
The power of education: An interview with Anna Markowitz

Design by Carina Moser Education cannot exist independently from matters of freedom. Education empowers individuals with the freedom to pursue knowledge, to express oneself, to…