The purpose of the Audre Lorde Scholars Women Symposium is to bring together college women leaders from across the St. Louis region to participate in a half day of interactive workshops, presentations and speakers with a focus on women's issues while amplifying women's voices and stories.
The 2022 Audre Lorde Scholars Women Symposium will be held on Saturday, May 7, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Busch Student Center St. Louis Room.
The theme for the 2022 Audre Lorde Scholars Women Symposium is 鈥淲ho Said It Was Simple? Navigating the 21st Century as Women of Color" and examines challenges faced by women in current times when seen through an intersectional lens of race, gender, sexuality and more.
Empowered women empower women. The Audre Lorde Scholars Women Symposium thus serves as a catalyst for the voices of marginalized women to be amplified. The Symposium has four main goals:
- To increase awareness and promote discussion on current and ongoing women and gender issues through informative presentations and workshops.
- To inspire informative engagement with activism that is intersectional in its scope, focus and intention.
- To build a community that is forged through a sisterhood that recognizes and celebrates the inherent talent and dignity of all that identify as women, especially Women of Color and other marginalized women.
- To promote the Audre Lorde Scholars Program at SLU.
Events
Please see the ful schedule of events for the 2022 symposium below.
The Impact of British Colonialism on South Asian Beauty Standards*
Busch Student Center 251A
The ideals of imperialism led to what became the "British Empire," in which Britain,
like many other western countries, sought to assert their superiority by conquering
lands beyond their own. This led to the pillaging, destruction, and overall ruin of
many developing countries and people. Britain, for instance, had control over South
Asia, parts of Africa (during the scramble of Africa), parts of China, etc. South
Asia, which was known as the British Raj (meaning British Rule) consisted of modern
Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Through this, they were able to spread their power
through their control of natural resources and the people of these countries. Although
British Imperialism came to an end in terms of control over the land, its influence
never truly did. An instance of this is the struggle of women in South Asia to meet
modern beauty standards. From a distant, outside perspective, there is nothing suspicious.
But, a closer look reveals the desire for lighter skin, smaller noses, lack of hair,
etc. and connects this to how British oppression and influence lead to these ideals.
This presentation will tell a story from start to finish, beginning with an understanding
of the British Raj, life under imperial rule, to how women suffer due to societal
pressure to fit into beauty norms defined by South Asia's oppressed past. South Asia's
current issues in furthering British beauty standards will further be discussed, with
a possibility of either expanding to other countries/areas of the world or narrowing
down to a particular case (to be decided based on research).
Presenter: Esha Dani (she, hers), Audre Lorde Scholar
Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Busch Student Center 251B
The focus of this presentation is to raise awareness on the coercive nature of Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs), which are institutions that purport as legitimate medical facilities, when, in reality, they often don't have a licensed provider in-clinic and don't adhere to evidence based medical practices -- instead relying on religious ideology. The purpose of CPCs is to manipulate pregnant persons to carry their child to term, using tactics like withholding pregnancy test results until the individual agrees to not abort the fetus. One such CPC near SLU, called Thrive, has had a history of their leadership and staff expressing bigoted views, including racism, transphobia, and slut shaming, in addition to victim blaming sexual assault survivors. This presentation will highlight local reproductive resources that offer comprehensive medical options, as well as foster a safe and non-judgmental environment for women of color.
Presenter: Deepa Shukla (she, hers) and Casey Nichols (they, them)
The BBL Effect*
Busch Student Center 253D
The BBL effect is a viral trend on TikTok created by Antoni Bumba to the song 鈥淜nock Knock鈥 by SoFaygo, poking fun at the current cultural emphasis of this liposuction and fat replacement surgery that has engendered a dramatic increase in the procedure leading it to become a borderline epidemic, despite its concerningly high mortality rates relative to other plastic surgery procedures. The trend satirizes these women鈥檚 bougie and elitist attitude that they develop after their surgery. This shift in attitude and subsequent increasing desire to receive a BBL procedure has led to the concept of an 鈥淚nsta baddie鈥 where many women undergo procedures that transform them into what has become the ideal image of a woman that is amplified on Instagram. Inspired by the likenesses of women like Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, and Amber Rose, the 鈥淚nsta baddie'' takes on an amalgamation of many ethnic features along with an hourglass shaped figure the surgery achieves. The ideal 鈥淚nsta baddie鈥 becomes a naturally unattainable beauty standard that many women desire to achieve through various plastic surgeries.
The BBL surgery is a part of an overwhelming plastic surgery craze that is creating
uniform beauty standards where women of color鈥檚 features and body types are being
erased almost to the point of eugenics. From individual women of color to groups of
friends or families, many of them dedicate an incredible amount of time and money
to have their ethnic features removed, while white women are spending time and money
to have those ethnic features installed. Through the internet, discourse on what has
been coined 鈥淎sian-fishing鈥 and 鈥淏lack-fishing鈥 has been centered on how women of
color鈥檚 features have been appropriated to the extent that white women are being mistaken
as people of color. This selective body modification has worked on already existing
white, colonial beauty standards, like colorism and featurism, creating the expectation
that women of color are expected to look like the white women whose features are artificially
attained. In this societal critique of the 21st century鈥檚 standards for beauty shaped
by current media trends, the presenters hope to instill a sense of appreciation for
the ethnic features women of color possess as they remind us of our ancestors and
contain our rich culture. We want to convey how damaging the surgical erasure of ethnic
features can be, especially as we work to dismantle white supremacy鈥檚 hold on our
society.
Presenters: Shruti Punnachalil (she, hers), Audre Lorde Scholar and Alexandria Flowers
(she, hers), Audre Lorde Scholar
Warrior鈥檚 Epistemology: Building an Accessible Future by Responding to The Failures of Sickle Cell Care
Busch Student Center 253A
12:20-1:30 p.m.
* Repeats in Session 2
Roles of Gender and Race in Healthcare
Busch Student Center 254
This presentation explores how intersectionality plays a role in health care, focusing on gender bias and racial background. It will examine how these two areas might affect the level of care patients receive and how it might result in detrimental issues for the patient and the system at large. For instance, there is a lack of awareness of how diseases affect women because many research studies observe men. This gap in knowledge, although not the physician鈥檚 fault but rather a systemic problem, can be extremely detrimental to the patient-physician relationship because it leads to less accurate diagnoses since all diseases cannot be applied to women and men in a similar way. As a result, there is less trust due to delays in diagnosis and a lack of proper progression of treatment. Furthermore, there are other notions that affect physicians鈥 understanding of their patients, impacting the quality of care. Sometimes healthcare professionals think women exaggerate their pain or misdiagnose their pain for other pain. It could just be simply because they do not understand the pain as they are not women themselves, not dependent on their capabilities as a physician. However, it is still important to consider as it can be endangering the patient because they might be in serious pain but are not given attention because the doctors do not have the same experience. Furthermore, there are certain circumstances unique to those of a particular race that those of different racial backgrounds might not understand yet those factors play an important role in the person鈥檚 health and need to be addressed. Attendees will be able to learn more about the gender disparities and inequities present in the health care system while reviewing potential solutions.Presenter: Sugandha Bollu (she, hers), Audre Lorde Scholar