Why All of Our Girls Needed #ToTheGirls

This post originally appeared on April 30, 2015 written by Shannon Miller. This was Shannon’s first post for Hashtag Feminism.

---

For those of us who had to navigate our preteen/teenage years without today’s wealth of social media, it might be difficult for us to imagine thousands of women from all over the world reaching out to us to show their support. On Tuesday, April 14, author Courtney Summers launched a campaign to achieve that very idea.

Summers published a call-to-action via a blog post, urging her followers to pass along words of encouragement, wisdom and positivity under the hashtag #ToTheGirls. “Take the opportunity to tell the girls you know—and the ones you don’t—that they are seen, heard and loved,” she writes. “Share advice. Be encouraging. Tell us about or thank the girls in your life who have made a difference in yours.” Her request garnered over 70,000 tweets last Tuesday as women (and a few men) offered helpful advice on confidence, body image, sex, friendship or to simply provide words of love and kindness.

This campaign comes at a critical time for the girls of today. In terms of body image, statistics released in December 2013 showed that an alarming 42% of girls between the first and third grade wanted to be thinner. Eighty-one percent of girls ten years of age feared being overweight and more than half of teenage girls were either on diets or thought they should be dieting. Thankfully there was no shortage of wise words for those who needed a quick reminder that they are worth so much more.

As of February 2015, the murders of seven transgender women have been reported in the US alone, nearly doubling the total recorded last year (a disturbing phenomenon that has not been widely covered). As the number continues to climb – and especially in the wake of Leelah Alcorn and other trans girls we’ve lost to suicide – it’s vital that the visibility of the trans/non-binary community is not only encouraged, but emphatically welcomed.

While women of color strive for basic representation in our government (only 33 women of color currently serve in Congress), educational system (see #BlackGirlsMatter), and even our entertainment, we should take the time to uplift our girls of color and assure them that we will continue to honor their significance, beauty, and agency.

And while our journey in the fight against the continued stigmatization of mental illness and disability is a long one, our unwavering advocacy is essential.

#tothegirls with social anxiety & mental illness: you are still strong, have strong beliefs, and are still able to take up space

— YA FAVE MIXED GIRL (@IDontTextBack) April 14, 2015

Courtney Summers’ effort is an example of why the continued cultivation of safe spaces for girls is necessary. As theirs (and ours) livelihoods continue to be challenged and undermined, our love and support need to be not only heard, but amplified. More importantly, that very solidarity should continue to be as inclusive as possible; for all of our girls need and deserve a thriving sisterhood.

#BlackGirlsMatter Too: Ending the Exclusion of Black Girls

This post originally appeared on February 26, 2015 written by Aisha Springer.

---

Earlier this month, the African American Policy Forum released a report, Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected, written by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, a Columbia University law professor. The report provides data from Boston and New York public schools on the ways girls are disciplined depending on race. Not surprisingly, girls of color and especially black girls are exposed to harsher punishment and at a higher frequency. Though more boys are suspended than girls overall, racial and gender disparities are significant. Black males were suspended three times as often as white males, while Black girls were suspended six times more than white female students.

As a result of zero-tolerance policies applied with gender and racial bias, students of color are removed from their learning environments and unnecessarily exposed to the criminal justice system, something referred to as the school-to-prison pipeline. Girls in particular face unique challenges when it comes to zero-tolerance policies that don’t allow for individual discretion by a teacher or counselor. Sexual trauma and harassment, high incidence of interpersonal violence, teen pregnancy, and family responsibilities contribute to emotional, behavioral, and practical challenges that affect a girls’ school life.

Excessive discipline cases have been making the news for years now, bringing the issue to light. Recently, video footage from a Baltimore middle school shows the beating and pepper-spraying of three girls by a school security officer. In 2014, a Detroit honor roll student was suspended during her senior year for accidentally bringing a pocketknife to a football game and in 2007, and a six-year-old Florida girl was arrested for having a tantrum. This report is the first of its kind to bring attention to the fact that girls of color are nowhere near exempt from harsh treatment and it does not make sense to focus policy on boys alone.

News coverage of stories like these helps to inform a wider audience of issues facing Black girls and the AAPF report includes a social media campaign to do the same.

The hashtag #BlackGirlsMatter tracks the conversation on Twitter and has produced thoughtful responses regarding Black girls in the school-to-prison pipeline, the gender and race biases that cause this disparity, and the way Black women and girls have long been left out of conversations on addressing racially biased policies and practices.

An important fact raised in the report is that girls are largely excluded from current efforts to break down the school-to-prison pipeline. It’s generally thought that boys suffer worse consequences than their female counterparts, and unfortunately, this myopic thinking influences policy. While the overall number of Black men who are the direct victims of a racially biased criminal justice system is higher than the number of Black women, this often translates to a complete disregard for Black women and girls. Just as it is possible to address the difficulties officers face in policing while at the same time holding them accountable to the public, it is also possible to tackle the needs of Black men and women at the same time. Outside of the Black feminist community, not enough attention is paid to Black women and girls who suffer the same injustices, but are not acknowledged.

Black feminists have increasingly been pushing back on this type of thinking and their outspokenness has spurred real-world action. Women leaders of #BlackLivesMatter protests have made a conscious effort to include the names of Black female victims in protests to make sure their lives and deaths are not ignored in the process. In 2014, when President Obama announced the My Brother’s Keeper program feminists activists, scholars, and organizations including Alice Walker and Rosario Dawson, signed onto an open letter. The letter made it clear that leaving out Black girls perpetuates the myth that girls are doing just fine and ends up neglecting them to the detriment of the entire community. Also publicized by the AAPF, the letter and its topic were discussed on Twitter using the hashtag #WhyWeCantWait and has become a full campaign to realign MBK.

Stereotypes of Black women contribute to the erasure of Black girls from the conversation about excessive use of force and discipline. Historically, Black women have endured racial and sexual abuse and fought tirelessly for justice, but despite their many contributions have been relegated to the sidelines in public.

Now, in the age of social media activism, Black women activists have an expanded platform to resist these entrenched biases and insist that Black women and girls be considered and involved in policy decisions. Hopefully, this is a continuing trend and we see a greater understanding of and concern for the future of Black girls in this country.