FGM: THE FINAL CUT

Midwives wait for the next girl to be brought in, Indonesia

Earlier this week it was decided in Parliament that extra measures would be taken in order to protect girls living in the UK (permanently and habitually) from Female Genital Mutilation. If a girl is suspected to be at risk, the government now have the authority to confiscate her passport so that she cannot be taken out of the country and subject her to mandatory medical examinations so that they can check if she has been a victim of the practice. These new measures were introduced as part of the amendments to the serious crime bill; parents now have a legal duty to protect their daughters from mutilation or they'll face prosecution. An estimated 137,000 women and girls in England and Wales have been affected by FGM, most before they reach puberty; and 65,000 are at risk this year. But with so many of our girls falling victim to infection, infertility and even death as a result of it each day, why do we know so little about FGM?

TEEN QUEENS #2 - PETRA COLLINS

Sooo it's been some time since I've written for teen grrrrl - I've been busy exploring america and running around London with my friends screaming horrors lyrics. Today is Wednesday, meaning it's your fav time of the week, TEEN QUEENS. This week I'll be raving about the heavenly Petra Collins.

DEEP END: LITTLE TROUBLE GIRLS

original photo by Olaf Martens

btw this is sort of a companion piece to 50 shades of sasha grey but like an expansion on why sasha grey sucks and her effects on other girls

Now if you've read Melissa's post on porn earlier this week you probably know who Sasha Grey is, if you don't I recommend this super handy vice doc on her. And if you can't be bothered to watch that she's basically the face of sex,kink and porn positive feminism or whatever. And while that's all cool and she's like made all her own choices completely independent from anyone else but herself she still sucks a lot.

FIFTY SHADES OF SASHA GREY

sasha grey durrr

"As you read this, somewhere there is an eleven year old boy curiously typing 'porn' into Google, probably hoping to see some big boobies. Fast forward a couple of years and he is masturbating to a video of a crying woman who is being tied down, simultaneously penetrated by three men, spanked, and being called a whore. Young boys are being de-sensitised to violence and the more they consume, the more abusive, the more graphic the porn has to be to excite them" - Clara Bennathan (Violence, Teenagers, and Gonzo Porn)

Being 16 (for the past ten days) opens a lot of new doors for the British teen; I can get hired (and fired), hitched and - now that I'm allowed to buy lottery tickets - unbelievably rich. But 16 in the UK also means another thing - sex. Unlike many other countries, the legal age of consent here is 16 and now that I've made it I figured I should probably discuss the ins and outs of getting down with the sexies. Now I know it might be hard to believe but I actually found out about sex before I turned 16, thanks to the interweb...

AN OPEN LETTER FROM A TEENAGE GIRL

What's your least favourite thing about being a teenage girl? Have a think, I mean there's a lot to go through. There's the super uncomfy 'bras', the god-awful period cramps and even the constant underlying worry that you'll be next, that you'll be 'the one'. The One out of the 1 in 4 women who are victims of sexual abuse every year. The One who "should've been more careful". The One who wakes up to find that a video of themselves unconcious, half nude and raped has gone viral on social media. According to various sitcoms and cheap magazines, the life of a sixteen year old girl goes along the lines of like pink filtered web surfing, texting, lightning speed boy-talk and like the frequent sentence filler. The media prepares us for an adolescence of absent minded bliss; something I have yet to encounter and something Jada, the sixteen year old from Texas who's rape pictures went viral, will never see.

TEEN QUEENS #1 - KIM GORDON

Ask any one of my friends to give you words that remind them of me and it's highly likely you'll get 'fringe' (i'm infamous for trimming it myself), 'the horrors' and 'sonic youth'. Sonic youth are just my fucking band, okay. They are the shit. So, I decided to combine my two favourite things (cool female role models and baggy nineties alternative rock) and write my first post about Kim Gordon. 

In case you're not familiar with the work of kim gordon/thurston moore/lee ranaldo/steve shelley, Sonic Youth were an experimental rock band from NYC that played together from 1981 to 2011. They practically led the experimental rock genre, creating twelve minute long songs filled with weird, dissonant guitar DIY and politically correct lyrics. Kim Gordon was the bass guitarist and vocalist (along with now ex-husband Moore) and was basically a fucking riot girl pioneer.

DEEP END: SOFTER SOFTEST

collage made by me, original photo credit to andy warhol

Virginity is a strange concept, mainly because at this point no one really knows what it means any more. That sounds like quite a vague description but ask anyone what they think virginity means and I can bet that not everyone will have the same idea of what exactly virginity is. It's a highly personal subject to be wholly honest which means it can be interpreted in various ways but that in turn can become quiet problematic.

You see the problem with virginity at the moment is that most people aren't getting that virginity is a concept. And the definition of concept is an abstract idea. This means that virginity can actually mean a whole range of things and doesn't even have to have one sole definition. But this isn't about defining virginity as such, it's more about what that concept of virginity has become, and it's actually become an oppressive social construct really. 

AIN'T I A WOMAN?

Illustrated by Tyler Feder

In 1851 Sojourner Truth gave the now famous 'Ain't I A Woman' speech, in which she questioned both the maltreatment of women and highlighted the significance of the maltreatment of black women within this. Truth raised the point that the definition of a 'woman' at the time somehow managed to overlook her because of her race; that she, unlike white women at the time, was not a recipient of courteous, gentlemanly treatment that women so rightly 'deserved' as the society she lived had decided that her dark skin made her less of a woman. Over 150 years later and the same issues still stand, women of all different races, genders, sexualities and even abilities are discriminated against accordingly and still ask, "Ain't I a woman?"

THE ART OF SAYING 'NO'

"College is the time when everyone experiences those things such as sex and fun and pleasure. But in those years I've had to rot in loneliness. It's not fair. You girls have never been attracted to me. I don't know why you girls aren't attracted to me. But I will punish you all for it,"

The last time I heard of University College of Santa Barbara was on Hannah Montana circa 2011. As I scrolled down my tumblr dashboard last night I came across the name again, only in a less comical tone. May 23rd saw a killing spree committed by Elliot Rodger who took the lives of at least 6 young people. Prior to the attack Rodger posted a video on YouTube in which he classed his act as one of retribution. Whilst watching the video I realised that I was listening to somebody who has been failed by our society. Not because he couldn't get laid, but because he had been taught that he, as a male, deserved to. Elliot Rodger was acting in retribution for being denied sex from girls - what we have here is a victim of the friend zone:

THE S WORD

"She's such a slut!"

Aged 12, I overheard this being spat out as I walked down the school garden path. It was my second year in an all girls' school and (surprisingly) the first time I had heard the word being said in 'real life'. Standing before me were two girls ejecting a succession of hate-filled words about their (coincidentally absent) peer. That same night I found myself sitting at the desktop and typing the four letters into the urban dictionary search bar - s l u t:

SHOW ME THE LEG

How Media Failed Women 2013

While fulfilling my role as a middle class teenager by watching 'Have I Got News For You' on Sunday evening, my attention was caught at the mention of the name Susanna Reid. Going to school at stupid o'clock every morning leaves me with incredibly small opportunity, if any, to watch breakfast TV so my knowledge was as limited as anybody's when last year's Strictly star was brought into conversation.

"I'VE NEVER BEEN WITH A _____ GIRL BEFORE"

"Stop treating us like samples a grocery store" - 

Sometime last week during my routine twitter procrastination sessions, I scrolled across the tag '#creepywhiteguys'. At a first glance it is understandable why many would have been taken aback by what seemed like an open hatred fest against the white male, but, after reading a few of the tweets it became clear to me that this was nothing of the sort. Through this tag numbers of women had opened up a new world to many twitter users, of all races, sharing their experiences with white men as women of colour. However this didn't stop twitter's very own pathetic parties hauling useless claims of 'reverse-racism' or 'oppression of the white male' into the trending tag (glee). Racism and sexism are two corresponding issues in our society which have, to an extent, been normalised. What many people fail to recognise is that we live in a white-male dominated society, and therefore it is non-white women, trans and non trans, who are the most oppressed.

I'M BRINGING (TAKING) SEXY BACK

Petra Collins

I know it may come as a surprise to some, but I spent quite a large proportion of my childhood at my mother's breast; whether I was sucking or snuggling, there was a 12/10 chance that that's where I'd be. Little did I know that I, as little as I was, had a front row seat at one of the world's sexiest sites - that I spent everyday at the eighth wonder of the world. Watching her blouse unbutton did thrill me, there's no denying that, but it was more because I knew food was coming - not because of a lustful leak in my diaper. Now, aged 15 I sit with set of my own and wonder, what is so sexy about my chest chums? 

WOMEN (AND MEN) OF THE WORLD !!!

Feminism is a foreign concept to many teenagers in today’s society. In many cases the movement fails to actually move a younger audience as it is only seen as relevant to grown women, if it's lucky enough considered to be relevant at all. I mean, borderline misandrist, middle-aged women with razor sharp tongues and not-so razored (you get what I mean) armpits are hardly welcoming invites to your local pussy power party?

RAPE CULTURE IS WHEN...

Art by Georgia Gibson

Rape. She says no, he ignores her and the rest is history - it's pretty simple isn't it?

Starting out as a cyber wave of awareness, last week's twitter trending tag '#rapeculutreiswhen' quickly evolved into a sea littered with snide comments full of ignorance and misconception. Reading through these I came to two conclusions; either our society is infested with ignorant and insensitive imbeciles who need to be removed promptly or there are many people are completely unaware of the issues that people are forced to endure today. Putting my faith in the latter, I figured that it would probably be a good idea to introduce you all to the concept that is rape culture:

HOW TO BE YOU 101

Alina M Reyes

An application form sits in front of you. Name? Easy. Age? Not high enough. Gender? Frick. I guess we answer that one easily enough. You've known it existed since before you even knew what it was for, it's hardly a brain-twister. I mean sex, gender, same thing, right?

"FEMINISM IS JUST AN EXTREME WAY OF SAYING WOMEN ARE BETTER THAN MEN"

Illustrated by Melissa

On Monday, Melissa and I presented an assembly to our year group (year 11) on feminism. It was an opportunity for us, as feminists, to  introduce our year group to the movement. Delivering this assembly was very important to us as we had taken it upon ourselves to teach others about a very large part of our lives that is also relevant to theirs, teachers included.

HELLO WORLD !!!

Illustrated by Phoebe Wahl

Feminism is important for all of us and although this blog is specifically for teenage girls, it doesn't mean that the issues we face aren't affecting others. Regardless of your age or sex we are all victims of a sexist society.

'Sexism is happening all around us, all the time. From women who have lost their jobs for becoming pregnant, transsexuals who are regularly assaulted, men who have been derided for seeking paternity leave, employees who are being constantly harassed at work, to women of all ages who have simply become accustomed to the never-ending recital of sexist comments, jokes, touching, groping, stroking, slapping and wolf-whistling that is the wallpaper to their daily existence.'