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At the Gloria Awards, Feeling the Promise of My Generation

I walk past a fancy New York hotel every day, on the way from my dorm at Fordham College at Lincoln Center to the subway at Columbus Circle. But on May 21st, I actually had the opportunity to go inside the Mandarin Oriental for the Ms. Foundation’s 20th Annual Gloria Awards.

Both figuratively and literally, the event elevated me. From the 36th floor window, I gazed out and looked down at the places where I spent hours grocery shopping, doing homework, walking in Central Park with friends. But I was surveying the world in another way as well, glancing back and looking ahead to consider my role and that of other women at this particular moment in time.

All of the women honored that night were an inspiration to me, but none so much as one whose birth was only two years ahead of mine: Yuneun Rodriguez, recipient of the Young Woman’s Leadership Award. A Chicago-based student at Harold Washington College, she testified before the FCC about the way the media portrays women of color. In late 2005 she brought down one Chicago radio station’s misogynistic ad campaign. The ads pictured a row of Latinas dressed in short shorts with their backsides facing the camera, and the words “25 pegaditas” (slang for slaps) written across. Because of her work—an inundation of press releases and emails and a dialogue with the press—the ads were removed from billboards, trains, buses, and Spanish-language newspapers all over the city.

Yuneun is getting to the root causes of violence against women. She told the audience that she resents the way that the media limits 21st Century society, negatively portraying women who are “short, fat, dark-skinned” as less than those who are “white, skinny, rich, English-speaking.” During her first year of college in 2005, Yenuen joined Females United for Action and later became its first youth co-president. Through activism, speaking engagements and workshops, she works through the group to show how negative media images that objectify women and girls feed into gender-based violence.

When Yenuen was presented and took the stage, it was like a torch had been passed not only to her but also to me. Her presenter talked about my generation and the connections we forge using technology. My friends and I made those personal connections with Yunuen after the awards, when we spoke and exchanged email addresses. For such a proactive and forward thinking person, she was so—to use that Gen-Y adjective—chill.

Gloria Steinem as well spoke of us as easily the most progressive generation the world has seen, not only because of our capabilities with the internet (which are proving critical during this election), but because we want social change even if that means increased taxes. The intense looks on the faces of other young women in the audience, as we listened to and watched these powerful women, seemed to confirm that she was right in calling us “a force of hope for the future.”

A “Woman of Vision” award that night went to Brenda Dardar Robichaux, founder of the United Houma Nation Relief Fund, who works to improve educational programs for Houma children and has been a driving force in the Katrina/Rita relief effort in Louisiana. Another went to Lucy C. Félix, a leader in the community-based reproductive justice movement, who, through Migrant Health Promotion works with women in South Texas colonias.

Before the evening had even begun, the sold-out event had raised over $1 million dollars to support Ms. Foundation work. Along with three other college students, I had Amy Sewell, director of the new political documentary, “What’s Your Point, Honey?” to thank for my seat. Troubled by the exploitation of others my age who are forced to put off careers and defer dreams, I consider Yunuen’s work. Here I am: a white-skinned, blue-eyed, blonde-haired, English-speaking, middle-class American finally understanding in full the progress that has been made in 35 years. I commit to holding onto that momentum, and to being actively involved in driving social change over the next three decades. And I challenge any young person who believes in an equitable democratic society to join me.



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