Britni de la Cretaz

Britni de la Cretaz

Bio

Britni de la Cretaz is a feminist mama, recovered alcoholic, and community organizer in Boston, MA. She's a founding member of Safe Hub Collective. You can find her on Twitter at @britnidlc.

Britni de la Cretaz Articles

I Changed My Name When I Got Married...But I Didn't Take His

Women have changed their last names from their father’s to their new husband’s — a tradition that used to symbolize the transfer of “property” from one man to another. That property, of course, was the virgin bride. Many people will argue that it no longer has that implication, but for me, as a feminist, partaking in a tradition that is so rooted in the literal oppression of women is something that left an incredibly bad taste in my mouth.

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When men and boys watch the sports media fat-shame professional athletes, how must that make them feel about their own bodies? Image: Keith Allison

Fat Shaming Has No Place On The Baseball Field

Boston.com recently published an incredibly offensive hit-piece mocking Sandoval and making fat jokes, complete with accompanying photos that showed Sandoval’s stomach hanging over the top of his pants as he threw a baseball. It was lazy and offensive at best, but dangerous at worst.

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If you were a woman, at least in the United States, you just shaved your legs. So I did.

I Had A Lot Of Feelings When I Shaved My Legs For The First Time In Two Years

So after years of feeling incredibly conflicted about the topic of my leg hair because FUCK YOUR PATRIARCHAL BEAUTY STANDARDS, it came to be winter.

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Things I Wish I'd Known In High School

Other girls are awesome. I never had any close female friends. I always said girls were “vapid, “catty,” and “annoying.” In reality, I was threatened by other girls.

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Seven Years After The Abuse, And Triggers Still Remain

It’s been seven years since I left him. Most days he doesn’t cross my mind. I forget that he existed. The things that he put me through are filed away somewhere that never gets opened. I’ve done the work of understanding what I went through, of forgiving him for the abuse, of moving on with my life.

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Contemplation.

I Named My Rapist On Facebook. I Wasn’t Prepared For What Happened Next.

I’m working on an essay about the time I was raped my freshman year of college. For the very first time, I’m naming my perpetrator. Even if it’s only his first name, there’s still so much power in it.

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How Feminism And Recovery Go Hand In Hand

When I first got sober, I was resistant to a lot of the things I was hearing in 12-step communities and recovery circles. I’ve always been a feminist and much of the rhetoric I was hearing seemed to go against everything I stood for.

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Street Harassment With Kids

Not OK: Street Harassment When I'm With My Child

It’s bad enough when I’m street harassed out by myself — I feel vulnerable and deciding how to respond can be hard. But it gets really complicated when I’m harassed and with my child.

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No. Heroin isn't humor.

Dear SNL: Addiction Is No Laughing Matter

This ad is the furthest thing from funny. It’s not humor, it’s not satire, it’s just plain distasteful. Good humor punches up. But there’s no humor to be found in an issue that, according to the Center For Disease Control, killed 47,055 people in 2014. Of those over 47,000 people that died of a drug overdose, opiates — like heroin — were involved in 61% of those deaths.

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Why The Women On 20s Campaign Is Crap

History books are full of white men Doing Things. White men are the default, it's through their lens that we view history. It's why when a white man is the first person to do something, they're just the "first person to do something," but we have to specify the "first woman" or "first African American" to do that same thing. Men are people, women are women.

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