Southern Girls Convention

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Birmingham Weekly 2001-07-19 (cover story): Southern girls speak out Feminists and activists gather in Auburn for Southern Girls Convention 2001

Several nights in the last few weeks, a group of young activists have commandeered the office of Ruscin Real Estate in Auburn; they spread out across desks and tables and plot how to make the world a better place, particularly for women.

Activist Ailecia Ruscin, the daughter of the real estate agent providing the use of her office, has temporarily left her graduate studies in Lawrence, Ks., to come to her family's home in Auburn and join forces with like-minded feminists and activists. Together with Auburn undergraduates Claire Rumore and Charles Johnson, she has organized the Southern Girls Convention 2001, one of the largest feminist/activist conference ever held in the South. The convention takes place this weekend on the campus of Auburn University.

According to organizers, the Deep South is a crucial proving ground for an event like the Southern Girl Convention.

The issues that the Southern Girls Convention deals with—sexism and racism in particular—these issues have deep roots here, Rumore says.

The original Southern Girls Convention (SGC), the brainchild of the Women's Action Coalition in Memphis, brought 100 participants from all over the nation to the campus of the University of Memphis and featured workshops on reproductive rights, sexuality, 'zine-making and many more issues of particular relevance to women.

I was totally inspired to see rad Southern girls, Ruscin says. I didn't know they existed.

Ruscin attended both inaugural convention in Memphis and the second one held in 2000 Louisville, Ky., where she met the 22-year-old Rumore, an Auburn student majoring in sociology and Spanish. The two women had crossed paths a few times in Auburn and the renewed connection in Louisville was based on the shared ambition of bringing the SGC down into the Deep South. Two days into the 2000 convention, Rumore and Ruscin were already suggesting Alabama as a venue for the annual gathering.

We were so well received, Rumore says. The idea was immediately embraced.

At least one participant planning to attend the conference agress with the organizers that the Deep South has a major need for an event like the SGC.

When I found out there was something called a Southern Girls Convention, I was very happy, says New York native Josh Peele. The fact that something like this is going on here shows that the South isn't just racist, homophobic rednecks, that there are people here who care about these issues.

The SGC organizers each have wrestled with stereotypes against Southerners, and not just stereotypes from outsiders but also a few that are self-imposed.

All the evils that happen in the South are pushed off onto the archetypal hillbilly, redneck farmer, Johnson says.

And when you travel to other parts of the world, you realize the degree to which all that's internatlized by Southerners, Rumore adds.

Such ralizations seem common among people who leave the South and then return to push for social chang ein their region.

I went off to college in Pennsylvania, telling myself I had to get out of the racist South, says Ruscin. Once I was out of the South, I realized how completely I had bought into the myth.

One goal of the conference is to provide a venue where people can confront not only the myths about the South, but also the harsh realities of life here.

With the conference a week away, 45 men and more than 300 women had pre-registered, and SGC organizers expect that the number of workshop participants could double with on-site registration. Participants are coming from 27 states, from as far away as Oregon and Colorado; they are coming from Vancouver, British Columbia; provided that visas come through on time, three women will travel to Auburn from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Most convention-goers will be housed in campus dorms and church space, while some will camp or crash at individual houses. The organizers request a $15 registration fee, but convention goers may pay what they can afford. The fee gets participants entrance to all workshops, free childcare, housing on Friday and Saturday and several vegan meals. Any money left over will go to support next year's conference.

Trying to organize the clerical details of the conference—not to mention arranging food and housing for more than 300 people—have proved the greatest challenge for Johnson, Rumore, and Ruscin. Although the three have faced some minor setbacks, they maintain that any administrative run-around they get only speaks to the need for a conference focused on networking.

It's crazy when you realize that our taxes go to pay for all these public spaces that we don't even get access to, says Ruscin.

The titles of the workshops are provocative: Sew Yer Own Damn Clothes, Organizing for Women's Human Rights, Anti-IMF Organizing, Origami Fun: Creative De-Stressing and Pry Your Security Deposit Money Out of Your Stingy Landlord's Hands. Participants can choose from 60 workshops on women's health, sexuality, reproductive rights, 'zine making, Internet literacy and many more topics that affect women. The idea is to have workshops focused on skill-sharing coupled with informative workshops on issues that affect women in the South and all over the world.

During the few moments Johnson, Rumore, and Ruscin get to escape from organizational duties, all three will leave workshops and attend as many as possible during the weekend. In Ruscin's workshop, Even My Mama Writes a 'Zine, she and other 'zine-makers will share mailing lists, distribution strategies and discuss the several asepcts of publishing independent magazines.

Johnson will lead a workshop designed particularly for men attending the convention, listed as Peer Education for Men and Ending Violence Against Women. Rumore describes Johnson as even more of a feminist than she is. The 19-year old major in computer science and philosophy recounts his intellectual path into feminism.

I came to feminist in stages, just beginning wth equal rights, he says. As my personal politics became more radical, so did my feminism, partially because of incidents of sexual violence expereienced by people I knew.

Johnson emphasizes the importance of educating men on feminist issues.

In groups of men, we have to work toward changing norms of behavior toward women, he says.

Rumore's workshop is titled Re-Examining Relationships: Monogamy and Its Discontents. The workshops is reprisal of one she did at the 2000 Southern Girls Convention titled Ethical Sluthood: An Introduction to Non-Monogamy. Rumore anticipates that the new workshop will provide a deeper exploration into altrnatives to monogamy.

Rumore is proud that the convention will play house to so many diverse workshops, particularly those that emphasize communities not traditionally of activists.

This convention is a convergence of alternative communities, Rumore says. We all represent different spheres of interest and we're all committed to sharing our knowledge.