kriti ki kahaani

emilyvu: Matador pride I remember seeing this in sketches and...

Mon, 28 May 2012 00:32:27 -0700

Matador pride

I remember seeing this in sketches and PowerPoint presentations and readings for board meetings last year and it’s finally up! When everything is done the fields and all the additions yet to come are going to be fantastic! Super excited to see 2012 graduate on their home field :)

lifeisliterallylimited: The Dictator and The Zionist - The...

Sun, 27 May 2012 21:19:09 -0700

lifeisliterallylimited:

The Dictator and The Zionist - The Trouble with Sacha Baron Cohen.

This morning, Sacha Baron Cohen is on my mind. Not a pleasant image to have to confront, but he’s been all over the place with the press for his new movie, The Dictator, which premiered in London earlier this week. He plays a composite character based on Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi - but I also see a lot of Iran’s Ahmedinijad in there. I don’t even really know what the plot of the movie is, but SBC’s movies have never really been big on plot.

I read this blog on CNN by Dean Obeidallah which calls out Cohen on the racism he displays in “browning up” to play an Arab man. Obeidallah’s argument is that Arabs and Indians themselves should be in movies that make fun of them. Fair enough. He doesn’t go far enough, in my opinion, to address all the stereotypes of Arabs that come out to play in the movie, but that’s because he hadn’t seen the movie when he wrote the piece. I wonder if he will.

What bothers me is that nobody’s addressing something more complex and, in my mind, more dangerous. So I’m going to attempt to do it. I know what I’m going to say is controversial, but I believe in speaking my mind when I see something that bothers me.

You see, SBC is a Zionist, a very publicly declared one. Which is not a problem for me personally, really. He’s got the right to hold his political views even if they are very bigoted ones that have been the root of most of the strife in the Middle East since 1948. But he’s got a very deliberate agenda which he expresses not-so-subtly in all his movies, and it’s not being said by commentators because of the fear that they will be called anti-Semitic.

Zionism is the belief in a Jewish nation, and the accompanying fierce loyalty to that nation, no matter what it does in the name of protecting itself and perpetuating its survival. It’s Zionism, not Judaism, that has seen the worst atrocities committed against the people of Palestine. Now, SBC doesn’t go around spouting things about the greatness of Israel in his movies. But if you look carefully, each one of his productions - from Ali G to Borat to Bruno to now, The Dictator, advances a certain element of Zionist propaganda against Muslims. Which is that Muslims are laughable, unintelligent, idiotic people with no intellect at best, and terrorists at worst. And Cohen uses buffoonery to do this.

How? By taking the stereotypes, derived both from Orientalism and from anti-Islamic Zionism, and playing them out to such ridiculous extremes, that his audiences laugh. And in laughing, they feel entertained. And in being entertained, they swallow the stereotypes and the racism whole, without pausing to critically analyze what they’ve been presented with. You could call this SBC’s particular genius. Yes, it’s pretty clever. But it’s also dangerous.

With Ali G, Cohen presented a fairly innocuous character: a rudeboy of uncertain ethnicity* (but everyone assumed he was Asian, or at least an Asian persona taken on by a white man for even more irony and laughs) who was stupid, racist, anti-Semitic, and sexist. A genius comedic character who made people laugh and believe that Asians, especially Muslim ones, of a certain age, class, and educational level, are all like this.

With Borat, I almost don’t have to say anything. We all know the buffoon he played who was from Kazakhstan who went to the United States and displayed all sorts of inappropriate behavior. He spouted off truisms about life in Kazakhstan, which included some pretty nasty jibes at village life - “My sister is best prostitute in village” - implying that again, Kazakhs - who happen to be Muslim - are backwards, idiotic yokels who engage in incest and bestiality. Of course it’s ridiculous, you say, we know it’s not true. Yes, but when you pick a country that most people know virtually nothing about and you assign values and mores to it, you know that because of the vacuum of knowledge, people will subconsciously adopt those values, or at least associate them with the country in the absence of better knowledge. Again, very, very clever.

In Bruno, the story of a gay Austrian fashionista, there’s no overt racism against Arabs or Muslims for a while. But then Cohen pulls the stunt of interviewing a Palestinian man who he claims is a dangerous Muslim terrorist. The man, in real life, is a Palestinian Christian who has nothing to do with terrorism. Cohen made him sign a release form before appearing in the movie, and didn’t tell him that he was going to brand him as a terrorist. On screen, this is a big joke, but in real-life Palestine, this can result in your death at the hands of Israeli security forces.

Most people think of Sacha Baron Cohen as a comedic genius, as I said before, as a trickster, someone who stands conventions on their heads to get laughs. I see him as someone else: a very intelligent man with a political stance and a stage on which to make that stance known. That he’s being subversively funny about it and using comedy rather than straight political discourse to do so is a sign of his brilliance, but also of his duplicity. He is advancing the worst of Zionist propaganda against Muslims with his movies, and the worst part is, you’re paying $15 each time to see him do it.

*I’ve had several people tell me Ali G was a parody of whites who want to be gangsta, Jamaican, or black. This wasn’t revealed until later in the series, though - and to be honest, when I saw him, the first thing that popped into my mind was that he was a parody of an Asian. Perhaps it was the name “Ali” (which was later revealed to be short for Alistair), a Muslim name that is very common amongst British Pakistanis, not so common amongst Afro-Carribbeans. Anyway, even if it was a white wannabe, critics rounded on him for making it “safe” to laugh at that culture from an imagined politically correct stance because it was buffoonery. I stick to my original claim that he was lampooning Asians (in addition to blacks, a more definite identity that I think evolved and became clearer as the series went on), and that his Zionist, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab stance has become more bold over time and become more and more overt in his films. And one thing people don’t know is that when he talks in the supposed language of each character, he’s actually making in-jokes in Hebrew.

(x)

futurejournalismproject: It was tense. Via.

Sun, 27 May 2012 19:27:38 -0700

futurejournalismproject:

It was tense.

Via.

thedailywhat: Kickass Kid of the Day: Yes, this shot is real —...

Sat, 26 May 2012 13:21:26 -0700

thedailywhat:

Kickass Kid of the Day: Yes, this shot is real — photographer James Morgan submitted it to this year’sNational Geographic Traveler Photo Contest:

Enal, a young sea nomad, rides on the tail of a tawny nurse shark, in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Marine nomadism has almost completely disappeared in South East Asia as a result of severe marine degradation. I believe children such as Enal have stories that could prove pivotal in contemporary marine conservation.

Just… wow. Our money’s on Morgan for the win.

[boingboing]

mohandasgandhi: fearandwar: To anyone who doesn’t see how The...

Sat, 26 May 2012 12:49:18 -0700

mohandasgandhi:

fearandwar:

To anyone who doesn’t see how The Dictator is part of a long history of Hollywood slandering Arabs and Muslims, read this book. Until then, I really don’t give two shits about how “it’s just comedy, dude! Stop being so serious!”

One of the saddest things this book revealed to me was not just how bad the stereotypes. It’s the way even movies that have nothing at all to do with the Middle East or anything like that throw in Arab/Muslim (because in Hollywood, the two are always the same) as asides. For instance, Father of the Bride Part 2. It’s a movie about a father upset about his daughter’s pregnancy. Midway through, though, they throw in a horrible Arab/Persian stereotype of a dictatorial Middle Eastern male who is greedy, oppresses his wife, and screws over an honest white guy.

That’s how Hollywood works.

The Dictator is hardly alone in its racist portrayal of Arabs. Arabs are the new token villains in Hollywood films, similar to the way Russians were during the Cold War only, it’s a lot more racist.

And thus we have the Timeline of International Villainy. To create drama, especially in action and war movies, Hollywood needs bad guys, and in their time, the Japanese and Germans, and later the Koreans and Vietnamese, served that role. For a long while, commies were useful foils (with their taste for world domination, nukes and vodka), but with the end of the Cold War, the Soviets became the Russians, and the Russians only worked if they were gangsters, and Hollywood already had the Italians to do that job. Colombian drug traffickers were employed as handy replacements, but then coke just felt … dated. Transnational corporate evildoers are okay, if not that sexy. But there just has been something about those Arabs. They’ve got legs.

In an interview before the premiere, Shaheen says that the OPEC oil embargo, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis all conspired to cast the Arab as film villain beginning in the 1970s. “We pray and we kill,” Shaheen says of the depiction. Like other stereotypes on film — of blacks, Jews, gays, Latinos, Native Americans — Arabs are now in the crosshairs.

“The Arab serves as the ultimate outsider, the other, who doesn’t pray to the same God, and who can be made to be less human,” says Shaheen, who argues that movies and TV shows do matter — that they shape public opinion at home and abroad. “Do you have any idea what it must be like to be a young person watching this stuff over in the Middle East?” he says. And if you ask Shaheen who even cares about an old Chuck Norris film, he answers, “Have you ever looked through a TV Guide? These movies are on television constantly. The images last forever. They never go away.” [Source]

rabba-ve: anjaanidastaan: d0wntime: ohmygod so much...

Sat, 26 May 2012 12:44:40 -0700

rabba-ve:

anjaanidastaan:

d0wntime:

ohmygod

so much win.

This is like a street away from my house lol

"Without Black Studies, what would we know of black protest of Jim Crow, slave revolts (and white..."

Sat, 26 May 2012 00:37:31 -0700

“

Without Black Studies, what would we know of black protest of Jim Crow, slave revolts (and white suppression of records of these revolts), or the medical exploitation of black and brown bodies? Who would chronicle not just the struggle, but the achievements, creativity, and joys of black lives and experiences? Do naysayers really imagine white scholarship, on its own, has given an honest account on these topics? Or are such accounts simply irrelevant to them?

If anything is intellectually fraudulent, it’s scholarship that, consciously and not, excludes POC scholars or ignores race and ethnicity as categories of analysis. We all, white people included, need Ethnic Studies. Both academic scholarship and our understanding of the world are better, more honest, more robust with them than otherwise.

None of this is to say that black studies is perfect. Like many academic disciplines, it can be deeply bound to “traditional” approaches that marginalize scholarship from or about women, queer, and/or trans people. But it’s also the case that substantive critiques of Black Studies by scholars who take race and racism seriously (i.e., not Sowell and Steele) already exist. That critics are wholly ignorant of both the contributions and critiques of Black Studies is an example of what Spelman anthropologist Erica L. Williams describes as the “emotional labor” PoC scholars “must perform … beyond our job descriptions” and not just in the humanities. The considerable stresses of educating and producing scholarship are compounded by the suspicion and racial hostility PoC scholars routinely face.

PoCs are constantly expected to be emotional midwives to white people. Attempts to claim space or identity for ourselves—without deference to whiteness—are inevitably met with suspicion, anger, fear, and guilt (witness white anger over the President’s racial self-identification). We’re expected to have a conversation on race and racism that centers and assuages white emotions, to speak about race in terms and frameworks that are neither by, for, or ultimately about us. What little space we’re afforded in mainstream media is taken up with 101-level education, demands that we justify our existence, and prove the merit of our perspectives and accomplishments beyond the shadow of a doubt. White critics and, occasionally, other people of color, often feel a casual entitlement to pass judgment on PoC narratives of our own experiences, and on our scholarship, without putting in the effort to learn about or engage with either.

”

- I don’t have enough church fans to wave my “Amen!” with what T.F. Charlton says it on the R today on how Schafer Riley’s attacks on Black Studies scholars Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, La TaSha B. Levy, and Ruth Hays decenters them and became (yet another) attempt for white society to (once again!) force Black folks to justify our humanity. (via racialicious)

A new report finds more than 2,000 people were wrongly convicted of crimes since 1989

Fri, 25 May 2012 10:21:08 -0700

theweekmagazine:

50: Percent who are black

10.7: Average time, in years, from conviction to exoneration

10,000: Combined time, in years, the 891 exonerated prisoners spent behind bars

1,170: Convicted defendants cleared in 13 “group exonerations” since 1995, following large police-corruption scandals, usually involving planted drugs or guns

25 years of wrongful convictions, by the numbers

ilovecharts: whereinthehellisnowherenow: for the second...

Fri, 25 May 2012 10:14:17 -0700

ilovecharts:

whereinthehellisnowherenow:

for the second straight year, FDU has found that watching no news is more informative than watching Fox News…

Further, on international questions, No News comes in higher than Fox News and MSNBC

And The Daily Show comes in higher than CNN.

mehreenkasana: Heh. Truth.

Thu, 24 May 2012 01:32:41 -0700

mehreenkasana:

Heh. Truth.

"All the documents of “homesteaders” stealing land from Native Americans is bumming me out."

Thu, 24 May 2012 01:30:59 -0700

“All the documents of “homesteaders” stealing land from Native Americans is bumming me out.”

- We got a range of reactions to our recent series on the Homestead Act’s 150th anniversary - from angry to enthusiastic to, well, bummed out.

The Homestead Act is a difficult document. When we think of homesteaders, most of us probably think of “Little House on the Prairie” and not the Trail of Tears*.  In many cases those recent immigrants who may have been disenfranchised at home and eager for opportunities of their own were now participating in the dispossession of another culture.   It’s hard not to be conflicted.

But as the National Archives, we are supposed to present the records in our safekeeping. Our job is not interpret them beyond explaining the context of the time, although we exist for researchers, historians, and the public to use our records to research, understand, and interpret the past. However, we don’t always have the records from both sides—a challenge faced by many researchers and historians.   As it was we could only allude to the impact on Native Americans with the digitized items that we found on short notice (thanks to some amazing colleagues who came through in a pinch), so this is a reminder to us to delve more deeply into our holdings to give a fuller idea of the documents that we hold, even if this part of history is difficult one to acknowledge.

Yes, history can get us down too: it’s full of stolen land, genocide, child labor, war, disasters and murder.  But we’re obligated to present the records of U.S. history—the good, bad & ugly. If you’re not bummed out sometimes by our posts, then we’re probably not doing our job.

Of course we hope that’s not always the case—and we appreciate everyone that took time to comment, reblog or retweet with their own opinions on these posts.

(* Admittedly the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and Trail of Tears predate the Homestead Act but the effects are similar.)

kajolsunibrow: vinyaya: remix meme | aladdin re-imagined as a...

Thu, 24 May 2012 01:30:38 -0700

kajolsunibrow:

vinyaya:

remix meme | aladdin re-imagined as a jodhaa&akbar-esque historical romance

suggested by slattern

OMG YESSSSS

On the new avatar

Thu, 24 May 2012 01:13:09 -0700

On the new avatar:

mehreenkasana:

You might be wondering: What is that? A blindfolded woman?

In the face of brutal and extensive Israeli detention, many brave Palestinian men and women have resorted to one of the most resilient forms of protest: Hunger strikes. With dignity and strength, they continue to fight against Israeli-led oppression and occupation. While many of us are unable to be physically present with these amazing individuals, we have decided to show our support and solidarity by speaking up for their rights. A small part of that includes changing our avatars to represent #PalHunger.

Like my friend Ghazala said: “Share it and don’t let the western media bury their case, all they are asking for is their basic rights as prisoners of war. Stop the use of administrative detention, and grant visitation rights, right to education and other rights that are declared by international law.”

You can pick a #PalHunger avatar from here.

"I guess I never caught that bug where you’re only supposed to care about your own country or your..."

Mon, 21 May 2012 14:32:55 -0700

“I guess I never caught that bug where you’re only supposed to care about your own country or your own local area. To me, 49 decapitated Mexicans is just as bad as 49 decapitated Americans and I know if there were 49 decapitated Americans in the street anywhere in the country, it would be like 9/11 all over again. It would be the largest news story for years - if it just happened once - but it happens time and time again in Mexico… and I guess as long as Americans aren’t getting decapitated, apparently the rest of the country, and especially our media, couldn’t give a damn and that’s part of what’s sick and wrong with this country’s media. And so, we march on as if nothing is wrong, as if everything is hunky dory, as if the war on drugs makes sense and hasn’t created these grotesque gangs that grow larger and more grotesque by the day - and it’s not because of the drugs. It’s because the drugs are illegal.”

- Cenk Uygur commenting on the 49 bodies that were recently found decapitated in Mexico and on the continued War on Drugs, which has claimed over 62,000 lives since just 2006 (via mohandasgandhi)

mehreenkasana: Whitewashing, a history From “Tiffany’s” to...

Sun, 20 May 2012 18:30:47 -0700

mehreenkasana:

Whitewashing, a history

From “Tiffany’s” to “Khan,” we look at Hollywood’s illustrious tradition of casting white actors in non-white roles

My point is, I’m not the bad guy. I’m just the rich guy. When you look at it through my studio executive lens, you understand how important it is that both white people and non-white people believe that Indians, Asians, Mexicans and Arabs are truly just white people in brown makeup. I don’t like thinking that way. I just don’t have the luxury not to. I’m a businessman. White people spend more money on shit than anyone else. (Except on fast food, which is mostly blacks and Mexicans … at least that’s what I have heard. I’m a vegan.) So hey, non-Caucasians, stop buying tacos and start buying Cadillacs.

[…]

Now, look: I am trying to do the right thing. America has changed and Hollywood should attempt to portray a truer depiction of the ethnic diversity that makes up this country. The fact that many television shows now hire a certain percentage of non-white actors is a step in the right direction, right? I am even prepared to make a deal with you ethnic people out there. Every time you let me cast a non-Caucasian character with a Caucasian actor, I will give you two or three non-white actors in smaller supporting roles. Why not lead roles? Because I’m trying to make a living here. I have spent a lot of time and money throughout history convincing everyone that white is normal. I have even convinced non-white people that white is better, prettier, smarter, stronger, and that only white people can truly be the heroes. Everyone has bought into it, and now you want me to just abandon all my hard work?

[x]

Aasif Mandvi’s sarcasm is razor sharp in this. Simply excellent. I mean, obviously look at us ethnic people. Forget we exist. Want someone to play a Pakistani woman’s role? Find a white woman and do the brownface. How creative, god damn!

The slide show is so sad, it’s funny. White people as Chinese people, white people as Arab people, white people as black people (look at Othello, holy what), white people as Indian people, white people as Native Americans with the redface on (yes, it’s in there) and so much more. Hollywood, you’re so original.

Mother's Day ... or not

Sun, 20 May 2012 18:09:27 -0700

politicalprof:

Something worth thinking about the next time the family values people start squawking about the love of motherhood … from Moms in Maine. (h/t: JP.) By contrast, under some circumstances you can get AS MUCH AS 12 weeks UNPAID leave in the US … if you qualify.

Did you know that the United States in one of the only industrialized nations that does not provide a mandatory maternity leave benefit? It’s true. Just look at some of these international examples:

Canada, up to 50 weeks at 55% paid.

France, 16 weeks rising to 26 weeks for third child – and up to 104 weeks unpaid. Yup, that’s 2 years.

Germany, 14 weeks (100% paid) 6 of which taken before birth, then 12/14 months at 65% paid.

Sweden, 16 months parental leave (that’s right – for both mom and dad) at 80% paid.

United Kingdom, currently 39 weeks paid, due to rise to 52 weeks paid.

hinduthug: The Empire Line by artist Gavin Fernandes,...

Sun, 20 May 2012 17:41:04 -0700

hinduthug:

The Empire Line by artist Gavin Fernandes, explores the politics of clothing and its relationship with class and caste in 19th century India ruled by the British Raj. (2007) (via wired)

Photo

Sun, 20 May 2012 12:28:27 -0700

kohenari: It seems that a bunch of people either somehow find...

Sun, 20 May 2012 12:27:30 -0700

kohenari:

It seems that a bunch of people either somehow find it amusing to take pictures of themselves posing as a deceased Trayvon Martin or else they just don’t understand the difference between getting good attention and bad attention for your actions.

As my friend who blogs over at The Noob Yorker rightly points out:

When you mock and belittle the death of Trayvon, you reinforce the racism that underpins our social institutions and in the process produce more events akin those in Florida.

I understand that everyone wants to make the next hot meme and get the internet to pay attention to them for a minute. But, seriously, stop behaving this way. It is awful.

This is disgusting.

fuckyeahxicanapower: “The Ovarian-Psycos Bicycle Brigade Make a...

Sat, 19 May 2012 13:42:53 -0700

The Ovas at Olvera Street in protest.

The Ovas end one of their bi-weekly meet

fuckyeahxicanapower:

“The Ovarian-Psycos Bicycle Brigade Make a Space for Women on the Eastside

Two months ago, when 22-year-old Bree’Anna Guzman was murdered in Lincoln Heights, the all-women bike group Ovarian-Pscyos Bicycle Brigade scrapped their previously planned ride to ride instead through the neighborhood to protest the killing.

“Whose Streets,” one woman called out.

“Our Streets” the more than 30 women riding answered.

While many recent bike groups are either bicycling for recreation, bringing awareness to bicyclists on the road, or use the bicycle for social justice movement events, the Ovarian-Psycos Bicycle Brigade is a community inspired women’s movement that does all of the above and then some.

In Los Angeles, fewer than 1 in 5 people cycling were female, according to preliminary data from the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition’s most recent bicycle count. While this trend has been the constant in cities across the nation, the number of female bicycle groups in Los Angeles has grown from just a couple a few years ago, to at least four.

The currently all-Latina collective with roots from various parts of the Eastside pride themselves with their exclusivity to women, with sticker slogans like “Ovaries so big, we don’t need no fucking balls.” Their monthly all-women Luna Rides, which takes its name from the moons connection with a woman’s menstrual cycle, bring up to 30 women riders each ride. For their two-year anniversary in July, the Ovarian-Psycos are also planning the first female version of the monthly Critical Mass, which will be called Clitoral Mass.

For many of the women it’s their first time being involved in an all-female collective. The oldest members are 33 and the youngest is 20. Some are artists that ride bikes, and some are pure bicyclists. Yet the Ovarian-Psycos has become a type of sisterhood that, for many, they have never had before.

“Being around women, learning that we can interact in a way that was not hostile or competitive; it’s been a very new experience,” said Magally “Maga” Miranda.

Though the group has found stability recently, the group’s continued existence was never a sure bet. On the very first Luna Ride in July 2010, Xela, the de facto leader of the group at the time, hit a pothole on the road and fell face forward off her bike, hospitalizing her for two weeks. Andrea Ramirez, or “La Blackbird,” recalls that many bike riders didn’t come back after the first ride because they were scared.

Though one half left, and another came back for the second Luna Ride, Xela said, the group stagnated for the first year, never topping more than 20 riders.

“I was worried always that it’s going to die someday,” Xela said.

Yet, right before the Ovarians one-year anniversary, Xela started to recruit core members to better organize the group. After the one-year anniversary at Solidarty ink, and with a fairly consistent 12 core members, the group finally started to take off. Like before, each ride had a theme. Specific workshops involved speakers, and teachers on a range of social issues, and bicycle issues. Some workshops talked about women’s health, while other covered self-defense. Yet, the groups were getting bigger, and the core members were helping spread the word.

Many of the women say they feel they are not taken seriously in the biking community because their rides aren’t as long as traditional rides, there are usually many first-time riders, and the ride will stop and wait for one person. But, these limitations, Ova member Natalie Fraire said, can be a positive.

“We are encouraging a lot more riders and that’s more important,” said Fraire.

Riding as a women group has also made the riders more aware of the difficulties of riding in the city as a woman. Individually, or in small groups, Ova Elvira “Ashes” Arvizo has been catcalled by men on the street, and during one Luna Ride, the group noticed a male motorist was trailing the group. The women stopped and started to yell at the motorist, which caused him to flee.

Creating Sisterhood

As the group has grown, the women have needed to get closer. Many of their biweekly meetings resemble the chaos of a family dinner. At a recent meeting, Maryann “La Fingers” Aguirre would belch across the room, giving many of the girls a laugh, and Fraire ran to the oven to find she burned the artichoke dish brought. If the meeting ever got out of order, a clit checker (meeting organizer) would bellow out a warning to get the meeting back on track.

Each Ova have brought various skills in community organizing, photography, graphic design and bike mechanics which they also share with the rest of the group. Gloria “GLoTography” Vasquez takes most of the photos that are on the groups websites, but she has also taken the time to teach Ovas like Fraire how to use a camera. The group has also helped Vasquez to break her shyness and talk more with women on rides.

“Now run into women across streets and able to converse with them than just pass them by,” said Vasquez.

Each season there are rotating leaders of the group called a left and right ovary, and many of the women are expected to step up to take care of a portion of their work.

Many of the women have never ridden with an all female bike crew, and let alone worked with an all-women group. Yet, the same reason Xela started the group is the same reason the women joined: they couldn’t connect with the rides already in LA.

Andrea “La Blackbird” Ramirez said she could never get comfortable riding with the Midnight Ridazz because men always outnumbered women. Aside from men outnumbering women during Critical Mass, Arvizo said will leave riders behind, and that can deter a young woman-rider to join a ride.

The Ovas offer a space for women, Xela said. And the rides though recreational, can become extremely personal, with some events bringing women to tears. During a stop on their ride that was themed on domestic violence, many women came forward about their experiences.

The personal nature of the rides, and the already numerous LA bike rides is the reason Xela said, why it’s exclusive to women.

“It’s just a time for women. If they are trying to open up, won’t be comfortable opening up if there are men around,” said Aguirre.

Xela, whose been a part of women collectives that have never lasted, said she knew the Ovarian-Pscyos was a different type of all woman collective at the one-year anniversary. Jocelyn “Joss the boss” Hernandez brought a cake she made and designed to the group at the end of an interview at the Boyle Heights online radio station Centro de Comunicación Comunitaria. The cake had a symbol of a car with a slash over it.

“You do that for your sister, your best friend, and she did this for the Ovas. “That’s nice”

For more information on the Ovarians, send an email to ovarian.psycos@gmail.com or go to their website at ovarianpsycos.com.

Thought a lot of you would enjoy this article.