What Makes A Whore.

What is up, Readers?

Quick question:
What do you call a woman that enjoys sex with multiple partners?
A philanderer? Harlot? Floozy?
(shout outs to the Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, by the way)

Yesterday morning, the GirlSpeak 2010 editorial board had an in-depth discussion regarding the definition of a word that's been carelessly tossed about among many; without full comprehension of what it means exactly.
Whore.

What makes a whore?
Does she dress like one? Does she fool around with her friend's ex-boyfriends? With strangers? Is she a famous character among a group of guys?
Essentially, the decision has been up to you this whole time, Reader.
But as we all know, a whore (also known as a prostitute) is a woman paid to have sex.
Personally, I've never sold my body for a dollar bill in any of my 15 years of living, & yet I've been called a whore on more occasions than I'm willing to share.

Sure, I'm a fairly flirtatious individual. & yes, I've been known to sport more cleavage than neccessary, sometimes. But by what means does that make me a whore?
I think somewhere along the way, probably between the catty girltalks & excessive reruns of Mean Girls on TBS, society rewrote the definition & ran with it.

During yesterday morning's discussion, a "whore" in my eyes was a woman that would compromise herself for the sake of a man's pleasure; a more vague variation of the actual translation.
The other editors' descriptions of "whore" were things like,
someone that has sex with someone she doesn't know and someone that has sex with people that know eachother & eventually, we had to dig into what makes a "sex partner" a "sex partner you know".. and, quite frankly, I walked away fuzzy-headed & educated.

Readers, sex partners we know are sex partners that know us.
They know what we want because they care to know. & we, as women, are comfortable with asking them questions to ensure our comfort. Sex is sheer intimacy at its finest, & the sex partners we know treat it as such.

And so, apparently, this factor (alongside a few others) draws the line between a "whore" and a "sexually liberated woman".
SLWs enjoy sex with multiple partners, much like the whore, but not nearly with the same footnote.
The SLW is comfortable with her sexuality & carries her own best interest at heart.
She wants to please herself & her sexual partners, of which she is selective. She understands the strength in intimacy during sex.
She may not be seen as the classiest woman in the world, but she isn't spreading her legs for cash, mind you.

The moral of the story, Readers?
Be an SLW or be a virgin (:
& know a whore before you call her one.

-O.G. Kush

International Superstar

Hello Readers,


On August 3, 2010 we were visited by an inspirational woman name Ugochi Nwaogwugwu. She is an well-known national singer, songwriter, poet and traveler. During her visit, Ugochi talked about her traveling experiences and how she took risks in order to fulfill her dreams. Also explained, how stepping out on faith opened doors to the music world. Originally, she is Nigerian but she was born in Chicago Illinois, this is where she began singing. Ugochi’s music has allowed her to travel to many countries in Europe, including performing her extremely individualized form of sound power in Paris, Nigeria, Amsterdam and London. Currently, she has completed her debut album project appropriately titled “African Buttafly.” Ugochi’s hope is that she will see more of the planet through her music. She was an interesting person to hear from because she accomplished so much and experienced things I would like to experience like traveling to different countries. As Ugochi said"The world is so BIG"and like I will travel this world. In my eyes, she"s a International Superstar.


Dueces
Jewel

Likes and Dislikes: We all have them

Hello Readers,

This morning, we had an discussion about the things we like and dislike about ourselves.First, we had to write fifteen dislikes and one of the girls noticed that there was no second thoughts about things they wanted to change. Secondly,we had to write fifteen likes and I observed the majority of everyone pens slowing down,eyes were roaming around room. Once the list was completed it was told to us to not dwell on the negative things and to be happy with what you have. Also,to think about other girls features and to reflect on rather or not we could handle what the other girl have. For example, bigger breast or long hair is something a girl might desire but on the other hand they may not know the problems that could follow. It was a great excerise to do because it opened my as well as the other girls to embrace the positive and appreciate ourselves.
Dueces!!!!
Jewel

Opression: GirlSpeak's Outlook

Hola, Readers!

So lately, the GirlSpeak staff and I have been working on a visual art piece that incorporates each of the ways that we as young women have been opressed. One of our mentors decided that it would be interesting and unique for us to take long pieces of fabric and write text that expresses these forms of oppression onto these fabric strips.

Many of the GirlSpeak members wrote poems or journal entries that dealt with this concept. The process of creating these "fabric film strips" surprisingly involved a lot of time and, to our disappointment, usage of simple mathematics to calculate how the text would fit onto the strips. This involved counting each character that our text composed of and by dividing that number by the lengths of the strips that we were using.

Some of us will be wrapping this fabric around certain parts of our bodies that are related to our writing pieces. Kush, for instance, created a mask that was molded out of her own faces with paper mache. She also created a frame for this mask and, inside of it, she pasted random letters that she cut out to form her writing piece.

Sure, this project was very timely but in the end, we had the chance to powerfully address our emotions through text. We also planned how we each want to incorporate this text-covered fabric into pictures that a professional photographer will be taking of us (which is exciting 'cause few of us had the privelege to ever be photographed by a pro!).

These pics will be up on our blog most likely by Thursday or Friday of this week, since they will be taken on Thursday afternoon. So keep checking up on us to see those soon!

Peace,
Anita

PRIVILEGE

HELLO READERS ! =)

Yesterday in our time at YCA the girlspeak editiors, mentors, and boythink had a conversation on privilege of white people, abled body people and heterosexual people.

we were all baffled at the realization of what we have that other people don't. we have become so accustomed to dwelling on what we don't have and on what we think we need and what we want, we lack to see other peoples predicaments. Toni told us we need to have compassion. i agree to the fullest. we need to hold compassion for all and including yourself sometimes. if you lack compassion than you are holding onto negativity and you are stuck inside your own box and never really get to see the world for what it is and people for who thy are.

i had a funny experience with my best friend the other day. we were on the rain , when this drunk, crazy old man came and sat next to us. he made no type of sense but he said one thing that did. "don't be afraid of the person sitting next to you." this is true in so many ways. going back to privilege, people are so compelled to forget about the rest of the world and stay in their own lives. the world is bigger than just what you allow yourself to see. if you have fear of the world around you how will you evolve as a person, easy, you wont. don't be afraid of your environment cause as privileged people you are lucky enough to be able to walk out your door and have the world at your feet. some of us aren't that lucky.

REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE, AND HELP OTHERS DO THE SAME ! =)

*_OMAIRA_* <3>

Social Networking

Hello Readers!

Yesterday the ladies at GirlSpeak had the privilege of speaking with journalist Lolly Bowean from the Chicago Tribune about her life as a journalist. The talk was very inspiring for all of us, and afterwards she stayed to interview a few of us GirlSpeak ladies (along with one of our young men from BoyThink) about social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.

While talking to her, we came to the conclusion that for the most part boys were less likely than girls to spend their time on social networking sites. One of the major reasons we cited for this aversion was that boys preferred to stay away from the gossip and drama that occurs on such sites. With cyber-bullying becoming more and more problematic in schools today, perhaps it would be better if all of us stayed away from it. This led us to discussing the potential benefits of social networking. Our major point for this argument was that it allows teens to keep in touch with old, distant friends, or with people they would feel awkward calling or texting. We also thought it could be used to help with homework or to get in touch with classmates quickly.

Overall, our talk left us with one major thought; social networking sites are a privilege, and like all privileges should be used correctly. Cyber-bullying and posting pictures of you and your friends can seem harmless now, but can have serious repercussion in the long run. Its important that we remember that what we post now can come back to haunt us later, and act accordingly.

~Gabibi~

PS: Don't forget to submit to the GirlSpeak. The deadline is fast approaching =)

Men: The Endangered Species.

Waaaaaaaasup, Readers?

This morning, GirlSpeak discussed a topic that rested heavier on my heart (if I can't speak for anyone else) than any of the previous.
After an audio presentation of highly acclaimed writer, Patricia Smith's "Undertaker", we picked at the subject of young men becoming the endangered species of America.

It has been 6 weeks & 3 days since my next-door-neighbor, Jeremy Baggett, lost his life to gang violence. I can still feel tears well up in my eyes when I pass his house on my way to work, so - like I said, the topic rested heavily.
On more levels than one, could I relate to being attracted to young men with a thug mentality & reckless lifestyle. With one of my exes cooped up in a cell in the Cook County Correctional Facility & another's speech reduced to a whisper as a result of a bullet to the throat, I couldn't help but feel like Krista Franklin was speaking to me.

Sometimes, there really is nothing sexier than a boy with a rough neck & dangerous eyes. However, there isn't anything more devastating than having them taken away. Lust and heartbreak tend to go hand-in-hand, don't they?

To make a long story short, the moral of the story (so to speak) was what part should we, as young women, play in protecting the lives of this endangered species.
My take?
After watching close friends fall to the streets like soldiers on a battlefield & watching others pull on the same uniform, I'm at the point now where I feel completely powerless.

What are we supposed to do? Jump in front of the bullets?
Or do we try to stop the soldier from fighting the war?
I had hoped that I'd have an answer by the time I neared the end of this post, but it hasn't come to me just yet.

Maybe that's why there are so many graves with patriotic flags planted beside them these days.
Maybe there's just an entire nation of women that haven't found the perfect solution to rescuing them.

-O.G. Kush