MOASIC conference fangasm

This Sunday, I attended Carnegie Mellon's MOSAIC conference, which focuses on gender. Specifically, it focuses on "promoting gender equity and to open a forum for exploration and discussion of the role that gender plays in the lives, careers, and education of men and women as individuals, and in the larger scheme of culture, society, and government." You can see more on their official site here.

This conference was small (less than 400 people total) but it was AMAZING. Maybe part of the reason it was amazing was that it was small and I felt a real sense of community, but let me cover some of the other reasons I loved it. I'm just gonna run through the day's agenda and praise in chronological order:

It was super accessible. Most conferences like this cost money, and are only open to professionals or students in certain fields. Yet this conference seemed to be open to anyone who wanted to attend, it was free, AND the dress code was very relaxed. I was worried about wearing overly casual business casual, but some people there were in denim and I wasn't the only one with blue or green hair, or gauged ears. I felt like I belonged as soon as I walked in the door...and yet still found myself sitting only a seat away from famous author Kate Bornstein as we watched a presentation together. And the presenters were diverse too; undergrads just starting to define their research interests, PhDs who did international development work, drag performers and other artists, people who ran social service programs, traveling scholars, etc.

The audience was equally diverse; at lunch I sat with people I randomly introduced myself to (always a great idea in spaces like this) and I got to talk to an international student from Portugal who was studying mechanical technology of some sort, it was completely unrelated to the conference. He was just interested in gender as a personal interest. He was wearing a kilt and it was awesome. About 25-50% of the attendees seemed to be local students, not all studying issues related to the conference. Many of the other attendees seemed to be professionals who worked or volunteered in fields relating to public safety, healthcare, social justice, etc. Some attendees were visibly or vocally LGBTQ and it was one of the few environments where I've seen many other androgynous-looking people, and one of the ONLY environments where I've seen non-binary business attire. And let me tell you, I definitely picked up some fashion ideas I will be using in the future.

The content was super useful and like nothing I've ever seen before. I was sad I couldn't go to more sessions but they ran concurrently so you had to choose. My first discussion session was on "Non-binary Individuals and Their Search for Inclusion"...it covered the lack of official terminology to describe non-binary identities, and how this has motivated us to create our own terms and spaces on social media that understand. I am including the official description below for you to see:

"This presentation will examine the emergence of new ways of discussing and naming gender identities that arose out of discourse generated by non-binary individuals on the social microblogging website, Tumblr. Non-binary individuals - people whose gender falls outside the binary of male vs. female - experience a structural erasure of their identity due to the lack of existing, widespread terminology to describe their identity. They are then vulnerable due to a lack of structural support, whether it be judicial, legislative, or social - if society is not aware of who or what they are, society cannot protect them against discrimination. To address this problem, as well as to challenge the role that gender plays in one’s identity, non-binary individuals are creating new terminology to describe their gender identity while changing how gender is discussed. This ultimately has the effect of destabilizing the notion of gender as fixed, inherent, and unambiguous. In addition to an explanation of this process, the presentation will also involve a review of the theoretical frameworks used to frame the analysis of the Tumblr posts, which draw on Judith Butler’s concept of legible versus illegible bodies, as well as an in-depth review of the analysis and categorization of non-binary ways of speaking on Tumblr. The presentation is structured to be accessible to attendees of all backgrounds, and will be followed by a question-answer session."

In contrast, the next session I went to was on international development work, and how it struggles to promote gender diversity rather than reinforce gender norms and stereotypes. The presenter had a master's in Literary and Cultural Studies, and she worked with the United Nations. From her, I learned that Pittsburgh is actually an official resettlement community for international refugees! (So are Harrisburg and Erie). Pittsburgh is actually one of the most popular resettlement communities for refugees from Bhutan, so popular that Bhutanese refugees placed as far away as Massachusetts have later moved here because they hear good things about it! But, I digress. Our presenter mentioned that international development professionals need to include more perspectives of the people they work with, so that we empower people with agency instead of just telling them what to do. She gave me hope for the future of social work, especially how interested she seemed in getting feedback from the audience on how she could do better. She had about 30 people in her audience, and sadly she said that usually only 7-8 people attend her sessions at much larger, more professional conferences. So gender equity in international work still has a long way to go, but at least some professionals are fighting for a very progressive angle on it. You can read the full transcript of her session here in the official schedule.

Kate Bornstein was the keynote speaker and she also mentioned how gender issues contribute to global welfare. (Kate is a 60-something year old author who focuses on trans and non-binary gender issues.) Kate went over her basic way to fight suicide, which is "do whatever you have to do to make your life more worth living, with one rule: don't be mean." Then she went on to explain how identity, desire and power relate to our mental health, and how kyriarchy (existing power systems based on race, gender, religion, wealth, etc) fuck with our identity, desire and power because they give us prescribed messages on who to be. She went so far as to propose a world order based on desire, rather than one based on power or identity. The world order we have now she described as power dynamics masquerading as identity-based democracy, which was kind of mind-blowing to me. A world order based on power means those who have more control others; and it's the easiest to set up, and the most painful for obvious reasons. A world order based on identity is one where everyone has a voice, but these voices group together around shared ideas and principles, (like countries, religion, workers unions etc) and in these groups, every person has a small control over the larger group. She mentioned how we used to feel this way in the USA with one person, one vote, but that system is falling apart now because the average voter controls very little of actual politics. In contrast, a world order based on desire, could be motivated to push compassion for others as the primary politic and controlling force. It is the hardest to set up, and has never been done before, but it would be something that rejects all forms of kyriarchy and tries to give people the freedom to be individuals free from prescribed behavior, except for the concept "don't be mean." Even if we can't do this on a global level, we can do it now at an individual level by giving ourselves the freedom to break prescribed rules and norms, and respecting and making space for others who do the same.

Kate also made some jokes about Doctor Who and Star Wars that made my geek heart do somersaults. This woman was already a hero of sorts to me before I saw her speak, and seeing her tied into all the other content at this conference, was like a 4 hour brain orgasm.

iHollaback & Inti Maria Fight Street Harassment, Kick Ass

(note: this happened in 2011 but is still relevant)

Inti Maria is a hero who worked with this international campaign to track and map street harassment. She was publicly threatened by a journalist in Buenos Aires for her work. Amazingly, her organization (ihollaback.org) won a petition campaign against the journalist who threatened her and got him fired, after a lot of work. Their story is amazing:

As we weighed our options, I just kept coming back to one of our core organizational values: “we’ve got your back.” We needed a response that showed Inti Maria that we had her back, and showed all our site leaders that if this happened to them, we would have their backs too.

When the publication that Juan Terranova worked for – El Guardian – wouldn’t budge, Inti Maria, Violet, and Gaby worked with the incredible team at change.org to target the magazine’s two main advertisers. We organized another petition that put pressure on Fiat and Lacoste pull their advertising, and it was signed by over 1,700 people. In historic and precedent setting move for the Argentinean media, both companies pulled their advertising and publicly announced their disapproval of Terranova’s threat. Lacoste wrote, “our brand has suffered from being associated to comments we disapprove of.”

Juan was pretty mad about it, too. Apparently, he tried to claim that he wasn't a bad guy, and that his rape threat was only a misinterpreted attempt at "violent seduction." (source) Hmmm....

You can read the latest on what iHollaback is up to here: http://www.ihollaback.org/blog/category/a-week-in-our-shoes/

Suki Kim, Unsung Hero

This woman went UNDERCOVER into North Korea. She posed as a schoolteacher (she's actually a writer) and got accepted to teach at their top private school, where she reported on what life is like for their students. Kim wanted to humanize North Korea and show us where their next generation of leaders was coming  from. Suki Kim tells us that these kids were good people, but terrified every minute and made to turn on each other for survival:

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Now, isn't that pretty brave? And an interesting way to help improve the world's relations with North Korea? And have you heard about her in the mainstream news lately? Or, have you heard only negative stuff and drama about the Sony Pictures movie fiasco...

Suki Kim's book should be the real story.

A Protest that Actually Helped People

Last January, low-income residents of San Francisco were REALLY MAD at the Google buses using their bus stops. Why? They viewed these buses as symbols of gentrification and displacement in a city where the rapid growth of the tech sector has driven up their rent. And Google wasn't paying anyone  anything to use the bus stops, but they were getting in the way of their regular buses, causing delays and overcrowding at the bus stops.  Imagine, seeing your own public transit cutback due to budget cuts, while some dude in a suit takes your spot in the bus shelter to wait for his fancy-pants Google shuttle that you can't even ride.

So, angry protestors began blocking the tech company's buses from leaving the stops. Google employees got so disturbed, some of them even called this a hate crime.

But, these protests actually produced a REAL BENEFIT:

On January 21, 2014, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (also known as MUNI)  imposed a fee of $1 per day for each public stop used by a private company. This fee was expected to raise $1.5 million a year and was the largest the agency could impose without a vote from San Francisco residents! Then in February, Google donated $6.8 million to the transit agency to provide free public transit for low-income children in San Francisco.

It's interesting that both the local government and Google here were influenced by the protestors, unlike other protests we've seen in the past, who get ignored or even fined.

Japan Returns Lost Cash Post-Earthquake

Gawker recently bragged that Japanese people have been notably selfless after their earthquake distaster, returning over (the equivalent of) $70 MILLION dollars in cash to it's rightful owners.  By cutting open safes that washed up on shore, turning in lost wallets & purses found in the rubble to the police, ect.

One commenter complained that praising the Japanese for this altruism is romanticizing and racist:

But ColdBloodedSerialCommenter seems to have missed the point.  In Japan, savings are more commonly stored in cash AND their population is less desperate and less impoverished than the USA, as he admitted when he said "is it especially remarkable for people to return lost property in a ... economically developed nation with universal education, robust law enforcement, and extensive social support structures?"  Because yea, that sounds nothing like the USA to me.  While technically we do have public schools and law enforcement, are school quality is hardly consistent across neighborhoods and a free high school degree is not enough to get a good job, most ppl have to pay for higher education if they want a salaried job.  And don't even get me started on law enforcement...

In America, people would never turn in large quantities of cash like this.  Our law enforcement SEIZES cash when it's found, more often than not, and holds it as "Evidence," never returning it to anyone.  And the average person would the money too if they found it, not turn it in to the authorities (because the authorities would just keep the cash anyway.) 

So yea, it's not romanticization to point out that Japan is vastly different.  And maybe it's partially BECAUSE they don't have the desperation and corruption that USA does...we don't really HAVE universal education,  healthcare or a good standard of living.  And we have a high amount of corruption in government and law enforcement.  See how these things make a difference when a crisis hits.

Government of the Year: Nordic Social Democracy

Ironically, capitalism works best when accompanied by a little socialism.

The Nordic Model (developed by Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland & Denmark) consists of  "a universalist welfare state which is aimed specifically at enhancing individual autonomy, promoting social mobility and ensuring the universal provision of basic human rights, as well as for stabilizing the economy." And for some reason, when you give people all that freedom and safety, they are able to be reliable, informed consumers, and keep your market strong.

It really works. This year, The Economist declared that the Nordic countries are probably the best-governed in the world. Their report shows that the happiest nations of the world are concentrated in Northern Europe, with Denmark topping the list. Nordics beat out other countries on real GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, perceived freedom to make life choices, freedom from corruption, and generosity.

And when less than 91% of the population isn't happy with their economic climate, they consider it news:

(Unlike America, where we think only 1% is happy with our economy.  And Congress has an approval rating of only 11% .)

Nordic democracies lift up their poor, redistribute a lot of money through taxes, and therefore everyone gets a living wage no matter what their employer pays them.  If you live in the country, you help support everyone in the country.

Meanwhile, Americans hate their poor so much, that we want to make it illegal to even FEED homeless people in public. Across 50 different cities!

But we're still the land of opportunity, right?

Snapchat: Live your Life in Real Time

Snapchat is trying to bring social media to a healthier place:

"The social media profile attempts to convince us that life, in all its ephemeral flow, should also be its simulation; the ephemeral flow of lived experience is to be hacked into a collection of separate, discrete, objects to be shoved into the profile containers. The logic of the profile is that life should be captured, preserved, and put behind glass. It asks us to be collectors of our lives, to create a museum of our self. Moments are chunked off, put in a grid, quantified, and ranked. Permanent social media are based on such profiles, with each being more or less constraining and grid-like. Rethinking permanence means rethinking this kind of social media profile, and it introduces the possibility of a profile not as a collection preserved behind glass but something more living, fluid, and always changing."

First becoming popular in September, CNN already predicts Snapchat is here to stay.

Media Education

Just read about a great kids program being run in Washington, DC:

It's called the Kids World Film Festival, and it teaches kids to become thoughtful consumers of media and resist oppressive thinking: "The media literacy sessions help teach the students to utilize their critical thinking skills in order to understand how messages are created through film. The program is also designed to demonstrate the value of becoming savvy media consumers."

"The Kids World Film Festival exposes elementary-aged children to short films that promote cultural understanding, tolerance, reconciliation, unity and peace. "

It's only in DC now, but I wish this was a part of elementary schools everywhere.  As my friend said this morning, "Maybe the members of Congress can watch this while they're on their collective vacation."

Some films they feature:

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Life Advice for Young Adults

Written specifically for the 22- year olds who are struggling to find jobs and a meaningful existence in our current climate (from Neal Wu at Quora):

1. Make friends as opposed to networking. Your friends will go a lot further than the professional contacts you make, especially since only one of the two groups is invested in your personal happiness.
2. Become an expert by learning as much as you can and deeply seeking out the things you are curious about. Find the things you enjoy and practice the skills you want to develop. If you can achieve expertise then it will be easy to obtain an audience.
3. Volunteer to help out those less fortunate than you. In the process you will gain a ton of new perspective and will better understand other people's real problems. In a society that always looks upward, those can be easy to forget.
4. Become as independent as possible. Even if you work at a big company, constantly make small steps to reduce your dependence on your job. Write a book, build an app, or start a small business on the side. Release your inner entrepreneur.
5. Don't spend too much time worrying about your personal brand. Accomplish things, and the recognition will follow.
6. Stop treating life as a competition and do things for their own sake. Genuine interest should be what drives you to improve yourself, rather than simply a desire to beat others. Find a community of people who are interested in the things you are, and drive each other to be the best you can be.

...

This was in response to some more traditional advice given by Robert Wagner.

Norway Tidbit

"In my country there are not really any stay at home moms.. we stay home the first 1-2 years .. part time dad does, part of the time mom does.. Its our culture.. equality among genders is big for us.. also in men having the right to be equal ;) .. like equal rights to parenthood =)"

--Norway business owner, 33-year old female.

A friend said this today to me online, when I asked her if she was a stay-at-home mom.  I was really impressed by the answer.

Dear USA, why can't we be more like this?

"Norway has been, in many regards, an early adopter of women's rights, minority rights, and LGBT rights.  For example, in 1990 Norway was the first country to recognize the ILO-convention 169 on indigenous people, and in 1913 became one of the first countries to grant women universal suffrage (without conditions on civil status). It was also the first independent nation to allow women to run for elected office." (from Wikipedia)