Welcome back readers! Lucilleontheball here and I’m proud to be serving you as editor for this semester’s blog. We have a lot of great blogging, ranting, and advocating ahead…

I’ve been putting off writing this post because I’ve never been good with goodbyes (who is, really?) and I’ve always had a hard time embracing change. Not to mention how…

Applications are now open for Fall 2017 bloggers and editors! We are looking for passionate, intersectional feminists ready to write about everything from reproductive health and…

Picture this… We’re driving down a traffic-less Port Republic Road (just go along with it, ok?). Windows rolled down, hair whipping in the summer breeze, a cloudless…

I cannot begin to wrap my mind around the fact that my time as an undergraduate student and, consequently, ShoutOut! blogger/editor have come to an end. I’ve been lucky…

As I prepare to graduate in just 6 short days (*sobs), I’m looking back at all my time here while also looking forward to my next adventure. Part of what defined my…

The following post was written by guest blogger, Stephen Roddewig. In 2014, JMU found three fraternity men “responsible” for the forceful sexual assault of Sarah Butters…

Note to the reader: if you’re unsure of what some of the terms in this post mean, check out ShoutOut’s definition page! Feminism is my buzzword. Say the “f” word once and…

Feminism seems to be a popular topic nowadays, as we delve deeper into the Trump administration and it’s raging terror. The March for Science this past Saturday,…

I spent this past weekend playing very challenging, high-level rugby games in the Women’s D1 Round of Sixteen for Nationals. Truthfully, we got our butts kicked, having…

I used to love watching companies come out with new products that claim to help fight for gender equality or women’s rights.  I used to think WOW!! I’m so glad that companies…

Dear Mom, When I called you last week, we talked about children. You could barely contain your excitement – Christine just gave birth and cousin Amelia is pregnant with her…

This is likely going to be my last blog post before I enter the pulsating caffeine and home-made taco infused vortex that is Graduate School life. I figured I’d talk about a…

**TW: Mentions of sexual assault/abuse and suicide** For fans of the popular YA novel, Thirteen Reasons Why, March 31st was an exciting day. Netflix released the much awaited…

About a month ago, I was out dancing with a friend of mine. It was just us two, and we were clearly content being on our own. Then, two guys came up behind my friend and made some…

Tensions are flying high in the East – the bombing of a Syrian Air Base after only two days of deliberation, which provoked a threat of nuclear war by North Korea,…

A letter to the reader; Instructions: Throughout the letter, quite a few phrases are highlighted in red. They’re linked to different links, sites, and articles. In order to…

The other night I was sitting in the photo lab on campus, sorting negatives, when I started Speaking Up, one of NPR’s Ted Radio Hour podcast episodes. It began with the…

“I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act. It is an act that can be met with hostility, exclusion,…

I was talking to my dad on the phone yesterday, and I told him that it was looking like my family should pick up and move to New York. You see, my younger brother graduates from…

Once again, it’s been a little while since your favorite feminists bloggers have had the opportunity to talk about what’s going on in the world, and we certainly had a…

*Note on WWIII: I am referring to all the commotion about the possibility of World War III, but also making a point that the war on terror counts as WWIII. War is a struggle of…

Let me preface by saying that the National Young Feminist Leadership conference provided a substantial service in its education on cultivating political involvement. Teaching…

Click here for the link to part 1. Prisons who endorse the negligence of women benefit financially. Period. The BOP (Bureau of Prisons) reported that, as of last month, 6% of…

For centuries, collections of people have called up to Mother Nature, through dance, ceremony, or a desperate plea. Though, these days, it is far easier for most to bask in a…

Why would you deliberately decide to go to an all-girls boarding school? Don’t you wish that you could see boys every day? Why would you choose to live at school? These are…

Most people know Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for her TED talk We Should All Be Feminists, or excerpts from this talk included in Beyonce’s “Flawless”. However,…

The last page of Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel Fun Home is of a younger Bechdel jumping into the outstretched arms of her father in a swimming pool, a fully realized moment of…

If you’re like me and maybe don’t follow the news as closely as you should (but sometimes don’t like to admit it), you’ve probably heard the term “bathroom bill” being…

As many other bloggers have been discussing this week, ShoutOut! had the privilege of attending the National Young Feminist Leadership Conference (NYFLC) this past weekend. We…

“A singular pronoun should agree in number with the antecedent.” It seems like an innocent comment that a professor would leave in the margins of my senior honors…

                                                         Apparently, JMU has a pride week. But, who’s hosting it? Madison Equality is…

If we take an aerial view of Harrisonburg, Virginia, for example, a majority of what we see is parking lots. 84% to be exact. Naturally, the blacktop exists primarily in the…

Nike recently announced its new Nike Pro Hijab, the brand’s first single-layer stretchy hijab for athletes. The Pro Hijab is the product of a yearlong design process between…

If you follow ShoutOut!’s twitter, you may have noticed that this weekend some of us got the opportunity to go to the 13th annual National Young Feminist Leadership…

The first time I learned about love was through watching Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland.” I was four years old when I witnessed Alice eat that cookie, grow a hundred feet and…

USA Amnesty International reports that 148,000 women are incarcerated in state and federal prisons worldwide, yet among these prisons, 70% of the guards are male. And among most…

I grew up in a less typical American household, where my mother was the primary breadwinner. Working days and nights on end as a midwife, my mother pushed through sleepless days…

I remember being in 7th grade, sitting in on those uncomfortable sex education classes during P.E. where my teacher would lecture us about safe sex practices. He demonstrated to…

WARNING!!!!!  This post will not contain any major details that are new to the live action Beauty and the Beast, but will include some minor details that weren’t a part of…

It has been quite some time since the writers of ShoutOut! were brought up to date on current events, so we managed to cover a lot during class. Among the most popular? A…

Rewind back to Tuesday, February 28. That feels like forever ago, right? Well let me tell you a story. I hate public speaking. I shake, mumble, forget words, and sweat. But I…

I never had to argue with my mother about birth control in high school. I suppose it was either because I was not very sexually active at the time or because I was a male and thus…

At the end of freshman year, I went out with a group of friends. The night started innocently enough— we tried on different outfits, played our favorite songs and took millions…

One of my favorite parts of feminism is the emphasis that is put on being an ally. ShoutOut has seen many bloggers and editors come and go, but they have all remained a part of…

Texas Rep. Jessica Farrar introduced a state bill, HB4260, on Friday, March 10th which is truly amazing. HB4260 has multiple parts, all of which mimic and mirror current Texas…

I once had a long conversation with a man who proudly hung confederate flags from his house and his truck, and belonged to the Sons of the Confederacy. On his fridge there was a…

When I was ten years old, a boy in my class relayed a discouraging message from his parents. “Boys are better at math and science and girls are better at…

In the fight for fairness, equity, and acceptance, the true equalizer for all humankind is the rugby pitch. According to rugby folklore, some 200 years ago, William Webb Ellis…

Around 4 p.m. last Saturday afternoon, I sat in Elephant and Castle on Pennsylvania Avenue as President Trump delivered a televised speech to the intelligence community in front…

Caitlyn Jenner. A trans* woman paving her path into visibility, and making it known that it is never too late to embrace yourself and feel comfortable in your own skin. The news…

As this is the final post of the semester, I figured it would be fun to take it back to the inception of ShoutOut! JMU. I am lucky enough to know and work under one of the…

Vulnerability is an interesting concept all about being able to be transparent and allowing others to see your true self, and not this face that we all put on that life is going…

As a blogger for ShoutOut!, I am constantly using the internet to engage with other feminists from around the world, and I love it. Online activism is al amazing too; for…

This post was written by former ShoutOut blogger SpongebobBloggerpants ! Enjoy: Matilda Kahl of Harper’s Bazaar magazine recently wrote an enlightening piece about why she…

This past year, I participated in JMU’s Alternative Break Program as a trip leader. From September until March, I attended training each week that helped me prepare to be…

Andrew Jackson has been the face of the 20 dollar bill for 87 years, and many people including the WomenOn20s campaign believe that it is time a woman took his spot. The…

As many of JMU’s students traveled this past week for Spring Break, I took myself out to California to visit an old friend from high school who moved out there after we…

When I first heard of there being a race for women, I had mixed signals in my head. At first, I thought “Hell yeah! Some kind of athletic activity for women that men…

Today, March 6th is #BlackOutDay. The campaign aims to celebrate black beauty and fight against negative and damaging stereotypes that are often perpetrated by the media.…

My love of art has grown over the years because it can be political, moving and simply stunning. But, I fell love when I saw underlying feminist messages. I want to share my…

Recently, accusations of white washing of women of color by magazines have flooded social media. Fashion and beauty publications like Vogue, Instyle, and Vanity Fair are some of…

I love listening to hip-hop because of how trendy and fast paced the genre is. Although I think that hip-hop is the most musically progressive genre today, its definitely not the…

How many times have you heard someone say, “It’s just a word, it doesn’t matter.”? Typically, this is said in defense of saying something that might be considered…