UCM Sociology

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UCM Students, this is for you!

On this date (September 30) in 1919, the Elaine Massacre began. The Elaine Massacre in Elaine, Arkansas (Phillips County) stemmed from tense race relations and ...growing concerns about labor unions. A shooting incident that occurred at a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union on September 30, 1919, escalated into mob violence on the part of the white people in Elaine and surrounding areas. Although the exact number is unknown, estimates of the number of African Americans killed by whites range into the hundreds; five white people lost their lives. 100 African Americans, mostly sharecroppers on the plantations of white landowners, attended a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America at a church in Hoop Spur (Phillips County), three miles north of Elaine. The purpose of the meeting was to obtain better payments for their cotton crops from the white plantation owners who dominated the area during the Jim Crow era. After the massacre, 285 African Americans were arrested and taken to the jail in Helena. On October 31, 1919, the Phillips County grand jury charged 122 African Americans with crimes stemming from the racial disturbances, charges ranging from murder to nightriding (a charge akin to terroristic threatening). The trials began the next week, and by November 5, 1919, 12 black men were convicted of murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair. The NAACP began to fight the death sentences. They asked for a new trial. For five years, they fought to save the men from death. Ultimately, the defendants were freed by the Arkansas Supreme Court. On January 14, 1925, Arkansas Governor Thomas McRae ordered the release of the other defendants. The modern view of most historians is that white mobs unjustifiably killed an undetermined number of African Americans. On September 29, 2019, a memorial to those who died during the massacre was dedicated in downtown Helena-West Helena. On November 5, 2019, the Elaine Twelve were memorialized on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail in Little Rock. Source: See more

WGS is a great minor with a Sociology major!

Maybe you've had your first exams or maybe they're coming up. Maybe you're getting anxious preparing for your exams or maybe your exams didn't quite go as plann...ed (that's ok!). The Learning Commons will be offering two test taking/study skills workshops this week! TODAY (9/22) and Thursday (9/24) at 3pm in JCKL 1250. Can't make it to the in-person session? Go to ucmo.edu/learningcommons to join virtually!

Recently I finished writing my Bachelor's thesis about the portrayal of Menstruation in media and society - a real taboo topic. So taboo in fact, that the coord...inator of my German university not only refused to help me but actively discouraged me from formulating this topic in a way to find a supervisor. (She told me that I would never find a professor who would approve this topic. To paraphrase what they said in English, there is no scientific bases for this topic and the reason for that: it's a taboo). Now that I've successfully completed my bachelor thesis and defended it before a panel of professors in my final presentation, everybody involved has recognized the importance of this topic since ignorance surrounding menstruation has wide reaching consequences for the environment, the economy and financial and social gender equality. I'm not trying to convince you to throw a "period party", neither am I going to wave a used tampon underneath your nose. I just want people to be aware of some important facts: Half of the population of the world loses approximately a 30-50 milliliters of blood every month (for approximately 40 years of their live time - this makes up six and a half years in total). Although this process is crucial for the origin of every single human being, menstruating people have been heavily discriminated in many major religious texts and even scientific medical consensus up to the middle of the 20th century. The connotation of menstruating women evokes images of poisonous monsters, the devil, psychological and physical deficits and above all, in the vast majority of cases, being depicted as unclean and inferior. (This is part of the old testament: "When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening." To sum up the entire text, menstruating women should be completely excluded from society and live like a hermit for seven days.After which, in order to return to civilization they are also required to bring two doves to a priest who will sacrifice them in a ceremony to "purify" the woman. If people don't guard against this "uncleanliness" the whole society will collapse. [Leviticus 15:19-33]. No bullshit.) Ofcourse, you can say that as a society we have developed past such extreme views, but in fact this attitude still presents itself in more subtle ways. Nowadays women are still being stigmatized (She´s just grumpy because she's on her period. We can't have a female leader - what if she starts a war when she gets her period!!??) and portrayed as hysterical, over emotional and not being able to make clear decisions. (Remembering Trump's comment about Fox moderator Megyn Kelly....) As a consequence women and girls feel ashamed and uncomfortable, whisper to each other like criminals when they need a tampon because of their "biological weakness" and are not taken seriously when they have ailments related to their period. Worldwide, every day, women and girls are being held back in social situations, education and work, don't have access to sanitary products or are being excluded from society due to lack of education and are being declared as unclean and inferior. In India 20 percent of girls drop out of school with the beginning of their menstruation. In many other countries women are socially prohibited from leaving the house during their menstruation due to a fear that they are contagious and could spread diseases like cancer. Even in Germany, half of the women say that they feel uncomfortable in social situations while menstruating. 16 percent of them have described missing school, work or other engagmentents because they are afraid (!!) that others might notice that they are on their period. So in fact, this social stigma is so strong that people will remove themselves from society during their period! Many women feel shame when buying tampons in a supermarket (in Germany, this is reported as one out of five) and on top of that, it costs them an arm and a leg! Pads and tampons are taxed heavily almost everywhere. In Germany, they are taxed 19 % which is the highest possible for general goods (higher than totally necessary items like salmon caviar or cut flowers). If you ask yourself "who would make up such a rule?" it doesn't take long to realize: People who don't menstruate. Over a lifetime, women pay on average a four-digit number just for their period (according to bloodyluxurytax.de 8600 Euro including almost 1650 in taxes).* This reinforces gender and economic inequality, while there is already a gender pay-gap in Germany and on top of that women are required to pay an extra cost every month for their essential needs. Btw for everybody who hasn't heard of it before, there is a reusable, hygienic alternative to tampons called the menstrual cup (or moon cup) which is of course not made of ceramic but medical silicon . Not only is this a lot cheaper because you buy it once for around 20 Euros, and it lasts for years but it is also a better option for the environment because it prevents thousands of tonnes of disposed tampons and pads ending up in landfill. Luckily, in recent years there is movement starting to grow in order to change the attitude towards periods. In some countries the "tampon tax" has been abolished or lowered. Even on the day I presented my thesis, Scotland decided to give sanitary products away for free to low income women. (In your face university!!) This is part of the reason why I am posting this and why I wrote this thesis in the first place. To stop period shaming, raise awareness of economic inequality and the mistreatment of women because of this natural bodily function. We have to end this taboo in order to create a more fair and equal society. So I ask you to talk about this issue, raise your voice against this stupid tax, write papers about it and embarrass ignorant professors (my examiners - especially the male ones - were left speechless and had to acknowledge the value of this work) - and everybody calm down. It's just a bit of blood. #bloodyluxurytax #period #menstruation #menstruationmatters #erdbeerwoche #SCA #planinternational #unicef #vivalavulva #pinktax #tamponsteuer This is the original post which I created a few days ago in German: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10211997735770830&set=a.1088265418962&type=3&theater¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic¬if_id=1535730007697666 check out my blog: www.frankafrei.com *source: http://www.bloodyluxurytax.de +++Update 2020: I’ve written and published a book about the political dimension of periods in German Periode ist politisch. Ein Manifest gegen das Menstruationstabu. For more info info, follow me on Instagram (@frankafrei) - I’ve been posting a lot in German lately. If you want to get more content about menstruation and menstrual health in English check out Menstrual Health Hub - MH Hub, Chris Bobel, Nadya Okamoto, Chella Quint, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, Lisa Hendrickson-Jack, Lara Briden and Amanda Laird +++

"94% of people in prison are men. So, either percentage-wise men are bad, or we teach them things when they're boys that when they grow up, and they can't live among the free," Ashanti Branch of The Ever Forward Club gives his #BriefButSpectacular take on being a man.