We Remember & We Demand: Feminist Generation Mourns Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax and Calls for an End to Gendered Partner Violence

We remember Dr. Cerina Fairfax. Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax was a deeply loved person, a mother of three, and a dentist with her own clinic in Fairfax, Virginia. Dr. Fairfax was an active and energetic runner, reader, traveler, and an award-winning business owner. She combined her passion for DIY projects with her love for her children in building activities for them, like a zipline and an above-ground pool.

Dr. Fairfax was in the process of getting a divorce when she was killed by her husband, the former Lieutenant. Governor of Virginia. Feminist Generation is heartbroken by her killing and calls for the immediate end of gendered partner violence and violent acts of misogynoir. We are outraged at the recent string of Black femicides in the United States and refuse to allow the headlines to move on. We will fight until we are all free, and until every woman can be safe in her home, community, and society at large.

Dr. Fairfax’s murder is based in misogynoir, patriarchal violence, and gendered violence. One in three women face intimate partner violence in the United States. Over half of all homicides against women are related to intimate partner violence. Over 45% of Black women have experienced intimate partner violence. These realities are unacceptable. The status quo is unacceptable. And we refuse to be quiet about it.

The United States as a whole, and in states like Virginia where Dr. Fairfax lived, must do more NOW to protect Black women and all women from gendered partner violence. Issues of misogynoir and gendered violence are further fueled by the extreme access to guns in American households and a violent patriarchal culture that sees women, trans, and queer people as less. Feminist Generation calls for the end of misogynoir, patriarchy, anti-Blackness, gun culture, and militarism that is stealing the lives of Black women in this country. We refuse to accept the status quo. We refuse to sit quietly as men continue to kill women.

We mourn Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax, and we urge our elected leaders to take immediate action to address misogynoir, domestic abuse, and gendered violence in our communities.

Anti-Black White supremacist Cisheteropatriarchy must fall.

If you or someone you know is experiencing intimate partner violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 and can be reached by calling (800) 799-7233 or by texting 88788.

Misogynoir was a term created and coined by Moya Bailey, a Black feminist scholar, writer, activist, and award winning documentarian, to describe the specific and unique experience of misogyny and anti-Black racism faced by Black women. Dr. Bailey is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University, you can learn more about and read her work here: moyabailey.com.