Our speaking up about series is all about bringing you the best articles from School of Visibility students, and our founder Samantha Nolan-Smith, on topics you’ve told us you want to learn more about. We’ll be growing these throughout 2019 so be sure to check back over the coming months.

NB: we curate the collection of articles for each of the subject areas and the first people we go to for articles are the students of our classes and programs. If you’d like to submit an article for inclusion in one of our subject areas, please email us at hello(at)theschoolofvisibility(dot)com.

It’s time to disrupt the dominant narrative

Anyone of the diverse majority who presumes to take up space, except in accordance with the pre-determined norms about what is and isn’t acceptable for that group of people, is an aberration. They challenge the dominant narrative. A narrative that’s sexist, racist, ableist, and heteronormative.

• A woman who doesn’t want children subverts the narrative about ‘expected behaviour’ for women
• A person of colour speaking up about their civil rights subverts the narrative that people of colour are less worthy and/or should be subservient to white people

Read the rest here.

The five steps to seeing your privilege

Across the globe women are speaking up about sexist and misogynistic behaviour that they’re no longer willing to tolerate on any level. Women and men of colour are speaking up about racist behaviour that must stop. Activists and those who care about social justice are speaking about the intersectionality of oppressive systems and the need to break them all down.

The responses, by those who haven’t taken the time to deconstruct how their own privilege influences their experience of the world, are predictably similar. (And of course, almost all of us have some level of privilege to deconstruct and most of us have intersecting privileges.)

Read the rest here.