Lauren Chief Elk

Lauren Chief Elk is a Native American feminist educator and writer with a sizeable Twitter following.^[1]

Biography

She is Assiniboine and Blackfeet from Fort Belknap, Montana, raised in San Francisco, California. She has worked at San Francisco City Hall, planned SlutWalk and AIDS Walk, and is a legal assistant. Lauren is the co-founder of Save Wiyabi Project and the Media Coordinator of Operation Thunderbird.

She was involved with the 2007 De Anza rape investigation, as one of three women soccer players who interrupted the gang rape. She testified against ten members of the De Anza College Men's baseball team, but the criminal case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence and difficulties in positively identifying the participants. The victim pursued damages against two alleged participants, losing a civil trial presided over by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky.

Save Wiyabi Project

She co-founded the Save Wiyabi Project in August 2011 with Jessa Rae which focuses on serving Native American women who have experienced sexual violence and create solutions in urban and rural environments. The project was created as a social media campaign to assist in the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization with full tribal provisions.^[2]

In an interview with As Us Journal, she said that she is motivated by the progress she has seen in Indian Country on VAWA, especially the people from Indian Country in Montana who have been moved to share their stories and experiences with sexual violence and healing.^[3]

With this project they started a "All Nations Rising" VDay movement to highlight Indigenous Women within the One Billion Rising events.

#GiveYourMoneyToWomen

Along with fellow activist and friend Nick Mullen, Chief Elk cofounded the Twitter hashtag that encourages men on Twitter to directly give money to women as a way of balancing gender-based income inequality.^[4]

Jennifer Schaffer explains, "Women were banding together to demand payment for all the emotional work we do that goes completely unpaid—the exhausting work of being a tolerant, gentle, nurturing, listening woman in our relationships with men, at all times. Women put up with a lot of bullshit, and we have a science-backed term for it: Emotional labor. And as with any kind of labor, women are now ready and eager to get paid."^[5]

This controversial movement has not been devoid of criticism. Katy Horwood, a Huffington Post writer and dating industry expert, wrote the following regarding the movement,

"Maybe I am totally missing a trick here and it’s some kind of faux-femininst, ironic social media experiment, but if it’s not, and let’s presume it’s not - then this isn’t an act of feminism, it’s an embarrassing attempt for ‘feminists’, and self-pitying women to drag men through the mud again - a social media witch hunt, once again victimizing all women and vilifying all men, and it makes my blood boil."^[6]

Writing

She contributes regularly to many publications, including Salon.com, Truthout and Model View Culture, in addition to the opinions she shares on her Twitter account.^[7][8]

References

1. "Lauren Chief Elk (@ChiefElk) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
2. Elk, Lauren Chief. "The missing women you don't hear about: How the media fails Indigenous communities". Salon. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
3. "Lauren Chief Elk – Save Wiyabi, Co-Founder". As Us. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
4. "Give Your Money To Women: The End Game of Capitalism". Model View Culture. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
5. "We Spoke to Lauren Chief Elk, the Woman Behind #GiveYourMoneytoWomen, About the Power of Cold Hard Cash | VICE | United States". VICE. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
6. "#GiveYourMoneyToWomen - Giving Feminism a Bad Name | Huffington Post | United States". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
7. "Lauren Chief Elk-Young Bear". Model View Culture. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
8. Lauren Chief Elk, Truthout author list. Retrieved 13 June 2016