Feminists from across the world will meet on campus this weekend to participate in a feminist conference titled "The Politics of Sexuality: Multicultural Feminist Voices."
Kathryn Hood, a conference coordinator and associate professor of human development, said the conference's organizers expect a large turnout.
"We're addressing issues of sexuality that are important for all young people," Hood said. "We're going to offer a very progressive, positive, feminist alternative to the commercial use of sex and the commercial use of women as toys and objects."
Undergraduate Student Government Department of Women's Concerns co-director Melissa Hardoby encouraged all students to attend.
"I think politics plays a role in everything, and especially with women," Hardoby said. "We're going to have to work through the system to change the system."
Feminist theorist, activist and author Andrea Dworkin will kick off the weekend at 7:30 tonight with her lecture "On Intercourse" in 108 Forum. Dworkin, one of two keynote speakers, is an internationally recognized women's rights activist.
Byllye Avery, president and founder of the National Black Women's Health Project in Atlanta, Ga., is also a keynote speaker.
"(Dworkin and Avery are) absolute pioneers in these areas," Hood said. "Andrea Dworkin has been relentlessly insistent on the rights for women."
Feminists scheduled to speak tomorrow in the HUB Fishbowl include:
-- Avery at 9 a.m. with a lecture "On Early Sex and Teen-age Pregnancy."
-- Janice Raymond, an author and professor of Women's Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, to discuss "Lesbian Resistance: A Conscience of Desire" at 10:45 a.m.
-- An international panel addressing "Prostitution: Free Will or a Violation of Women's Human Rights?" will follow at 1 p.m. including feminists from Bangladesh, the Philippines and England.
-- Evelyne Accad, a Lebanese poet, novelist and scholar at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill., will speak at 2 p.m. about "Unveiling Sexuality in War: Is There Hope for Women in the Middle East?"
-- Peggy Reeves Sanday, an author and anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania, will talk about "Fraternity Gang Rape: A Model of/for Becoming Sexual at College" at 3:15 p.m.
-- Accad will perform songs she composed called "Women in the Arab World," at 4:15 p.m.
-- A panel discussion at 5 p.m. addressing "The Liberation of Sexuality from Patriarchal Power: Feminist Visions and Politics Toward the Year 2000" will end the day with panelists Accad, Avery, Dworkin, Raymond and Sanday.
The conference is sponsored by the Equal Opportunity Planning Commission, the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, the College of Health and Human Development and other University departments.
