Some things you just have to laugh at, because, really… I realize that I should not be surprised by this, but even the Fox News anchor haltingly continued her broadcast as the pictures appeared on the screen. As she said words like “Women’s History Month,” “women’s accomplishments in Connecticut,” “Young Women’s Leadership Program,” a constant [...]
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The Awful Gender Politics of “We Saw Your Boobs”
This post is originally published at The World’s Most Famous Man and is cross-posted with permission. So let me just get two things out of the way before I get really, really deep in detail about one specific aspect of the Oscars intro last night: 1) it was super, super-long and self-indulgent. Even by Oscar [...]
Who Gets To Be A Leader? The Athena Film Festival
When you think of what a leader looks like, what comes to mind? A strong person. With influence over their lives and environments. A man, probably white. Maybe he’s part of a group of men who lead and take action. How about weak people, needing protection? Mean people in groups? Do images of women and [...]
Surprise! Attempted Rape Scene In Episode of “The Walking Dead”
AMC, I have a bone to pick with you. Your “rape-fest for ratings” sneak attack on this week’s episode of “The Walking Dead” pissed me off. Ever heard of a trigger warning, assholes? From what I understand, “The Walking Dead” is a show about killing zombies. Your viewers want blood and gore and violence [...]
PUH-Leez: IKEA is US
IKEA is scrambling to explain the fact that they photo-shopped women and girls out of the IKEA catalog distributed in Saudi Arabia. Last year, in December, Jewish women in the United States and Great Britain joined together to confront a similar situation in which they took photographs of themselves holding up a sign that read [...]
A Hope for the Future: An Open Letter to Lady Gaga
Dear Lady Gaga, Let me start off my prefacing this open letter. I’m not writing this in the hopes of pulling at proverbial heartstrings nor am I hoping to gain unwanted attention. I’m writing this to thank you. Over the past few weeks you have been maliciously attacked because of your appearance. To say this [...]
“Badly Covered” Woman Sends Cleric to Hospital for Harassing Her
I write all the time about how the everyday harassment of women on streets around the world is gendered regulation of public space. How the threat of real violence perpetuates male dominance. On one end of the spectrum harassment is superficially benign and women can feel flattered by strangers’ attention. I say superficially because a) [...]
New Pay Gap Data Shows It’s Not “The End of Men”
Hanna Rosin’s new book, The End of Men, came out yesterday. While I haven’t yet read it, I saw her recent New York Times Magazine cover story and watched a couple of her Daily Beast videos. Rosin’s overall message is that today’s economy favors women over men. While the three Alabama wives Rosin follows in [...]
The Disturbing Symbolism of the GOP Convention
Like tens of millions of other people, I watched the Republican National Convention. During the week we were subjected to a new high in the political dangers of the narrow-casting of our media world and the debasement of public discourse, both of which were most startlingly demonstrated by Paul Ryan’s willingness deceive the American public [...]
Olympic Sexism! Why Does Mama Got The Magic?
The 2012 Olympics in London have been heralded as a win for feminism in many ways — some calling it the Title IX games even. And there’s a lot to celebrate for women in these games. But as the old poem says, we have miles to go before we sleep. If you’ve watched any part [...]