BLOGVOICE: OUT Book Review

OUT By: Natuo Kirio

A Book Review by: Junko Yanagi, WRC Intern and Blogger

ISBN：1-4000-7837-7

OUT was awarded the Grand Prix of the Mystery Writers of Japan in 1997-the Asian equivalent of an Edgar award. The story begins when a young mother kills her husband after years of enduring his abuse. She had been working at a lunch-box factory in the suburbs of Tokyo and had confided in her co-worker that she could no longer endure the domestic abuse forced upon her by her husband. She admitted to having killed him out of defense the night before and asks her friend to help her cover up her crime, out of fear that she couldn’t convince a patriarchal judicial system to view the murder as an act of defense. At that time, main character

of this novel, Masako, her co-worker, planned to cut up the body in the bathroom of her house and throw away as garbage—what ensues provides the basis for a story of a surreal quality. Yet, while this story may seem strange or eccentric, but it is also a story of women asserting their power and defending themselves against the violence done unto them. The reason these four women were involved in such violent series of events is because of their own deadlock as women of the working class and their oppression as women in Japan. These women had always been eager to escape the oppression forced upon them in their daily lives and it was their frustration that facilitated their committing such a serious crime.

Welcome Back to a New Semester

Welcome Back Spring 2010
to the Women’s Resources Center

Welcome to spring semester 2010 at the Women’s Resources Center. The WRC will be celebrating our first birthday on February 22nd (stay tuned for birthday celebration information) and we’re delighted to be serving students in services, programming, scholarships, and events. We were very busy our first fall semester on campus and we’d like to take this time to share with you some glimpses into just what was cookin’ at the WRC.

First and foremost, the Women’s Resources Center is the powerhouse on campus for sexual assault prevention education. We hosted over 200 FYCARE (First Year Campus Acquaintance Rape Education) workshops for freshmen students, led by trained student facilitators on sexual assault and prevention.

The Women’s Resources Center welcomed a new Coordinator of Sexual Assault Education, Jennifer Scott, this past fall and her efforts with classes have been tremendous. We here at the WRC are extremely proud of the strength and energy that Jenn has brought to the program!

The WRC welcomed another new kid to the block, WRC Program Coordinator Rachel Storm. Her work meant the WRC was aflutter with programs and events, including Knit Happens (a bimonthly knitting circle), Writ n’ Rhymed Poetry Open Mic Nights, the Dish It Up Lunch Series, House Concerts, local student art exhibitions, and a documentary film series.

Our Dish It Up Lunch Series featured topics ranging from “Women in the Military”with Srgt. Geri Underwood to “Celebrating Female Sexuality” with McKinley Health Educator Kim Rice. We went from serving lunch to approximately 25 students to over 45 by the end of the semester--a tight but cozy squeeze for our humble center!

A very remarkable accomplishment is our recruiting of over 40 volunteers to help us conduct programs, plan events, and support staff in the office. Our volunteers have taken on projects ranging from organizing the growing WRC library, to the expanding upon the [WRC Clothesline Project via hosting workshops wherein t-shirts can be made documenting personal stories related to gender violence.] We are forever grateful to our amazing WRC volunteers for all their hard work. (Eager to learn more about them? Check out a full list of their names and bios on our website!)

And like with all things, we both celebrate joys and weather our sorrows, this past semester was the last full semester we’d have our secretary, Bethany Socie and our graduate intern, Megan Paceley, working with us full time. Bethany will now be the secretary for the LGBT Resources Center this upcoming February and Megan earned her masters in social work this past December and will no longer be interning with us.

Although we are sad to see them go we are so excited for them to go on and experience new things. We wish Bethany all the best in her new position and are so proud of Megan for her accomplishment, and we collectively shout to her “good luck exploring the infinite abyss!”

It has been a real pleasure working together with students, faculty, and staff this past semester and we’re looking forward to an even more fantastic semester this spring 2010. Welcome to a brand new semester. Please stop on by the Women’s Resources Center, take your coat off, and relax. We are eager to be your home away from home.

Happy New Year,
UIUC Women’s Resources Center

P.S. For more information about the WRC and what’s happening in our space, please take a gander at our:

WRC Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Champaign-IL/University-of-Illinois-Womens-Resources-Center/164120746133?ref=ts
WRC Blog:http://dailydivulgences.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-08-12T08:20:00-07:00&max-results=7

BLOGVOICE: Gender Inequality in Sports

Gender Inequality in Sports

Jini Hernandez, WRC Intern and Blogger

Over winter break I started to play basketball with my sister. She’s a sophomore on her high school Varsity team and pulls double duty as Captain of the JV team. She has been into basketball since the 6^th grade and practices at least 4 hours a day during the week. Basketball is her life. I’ve always been into athletics but I was specifically trying to get more into basketball since I wanted to support her. This is why we started playing and doing drills at my mom’s school and in our house. A week or so into my break we decided to go to our local public park to practice.

The field house was open but when we asked the guy at the front desk if we could use the gym we were told we couldn’t…because there is only one day a week women could use the basketball courts and that wasn’t the day. I was stunned, I grabbed the facilities schedule and sure enough the days were separated by who could use the gym. Certain days were for tournaments (all male), other days specifically said Men’s Basketball, another day said 5 on 5 teams but then had Men Only written in a column off to the side and then there was one day a week set aside that said co-ed basketball.

The first thing that popped into my mind were the Jim Crow laws of the South, while obviously not as severe I did not expect to see this level of ignorance at a Chicago Park District, a public place that my taxes helped pay for. How is it that no one has noticed or complained about this before? I know a lot of people would probably say "well women don’t play a lot of basketball so it’s not necessary to have anymore co-ed basketball." I dare them to say that to my sister’s face, or better yet her whole varsity team…

I could understand having a time set aside in the gym specifically for men. However, if you are going to do this it is only fair to have the same amount of time set aside for women. Honestly, it surprises me that there aren’t more women fighting for a time on the court specifically for females, simply because it is pretty intimidating to walk onto a male-dominated court and play like you’re no different than they are. So I give my sister and all female basketball players respect for doing that on a daily basis.

I cannot understand how today we still have public facilities like basketball courts separated by gender. I cannot express how angry I was when told, “no you can’t use this court because you’re a woman.” It’s hard for me to think that my sister who has made this sport her life will be denied places to practice because of her gender. I know how hard she practices, and for people to tell her she can’t use the local basketball courts because they don’t think women play ball, they’re not just being sexist they’re denying how hard she’s worked to gain the skills she has. They are denying her passion.