All too often, when mainstream media turns its attention toward anything related to feminism, one of two things happens. The first is a heavy-handed criticism of feminism, either for being too radical or too obsolete in “this day and age.” The second is that contemporary feminism is given due credit for its incredible energy and [...]
Twenty years ago, feminist activism might have meant writing a letter to your congress(wo)man or picking up a pen to sign a petition. Nowadays it’s much more likely to involve Twitter, Facebook or online petitions, as feminists begin to use social media to effect change. In a society where communication has never been easier yet [...]
In the seemingly endless war over abortion rights in America, battles are waged in legislatures, in courts and, most recently, on the Internet. The strategy of using abortion-related keywords to send a woman searching the web for abortion information to a nearby crisis pregnancy center is already a few years old. But the scheme only [...]
Several new rape-humor pages have already popped up on Facebook in the days since the original pages were removed. Several more were never taken down in the first place, reports the Huffington Post. The newly created pages include such “jokes” as “you know she is playing hard to get when she resists the chloroform” and [...]
Centuries before Al Gore “invented the Internet” and we began blogging in droves, women were recording the details of their lives in journals, letters, memoirs and newspaper columns. From complaining about their husbands and lamenting their infertility to speaking out for social justice and building community where little existed, these proto-bloggers told it like it [...]
After more than three months of complaints from users, a grand total of over 200,000 petition signatures (186,000 of them on a single Change.org petition), a Twitter campaign, the withdrawal of several major advertisers and an outpouring of harsh criticism from a multitude of feminist activists and writers, Facebook has finally removed rape-humor pages from the [...]
About six weeks ago now, I blogged here about the proliferation of rape-joke pages on Facebook and the company’s refusal to remove them. Though Facebook has policies against hate-speech and threats of violence, a statement issued by Facebook to the BBC compared the rape humor to lewd pub jokes, stating: “Just as telling a rude [...]
Last month, a trailer for a new video game, Slavery the Game, was released on YouTube and instantly went viral. It also elicited worldwide outrage and indignation, as well as racially abusive rhetoric in the YouTube comments section from those who must have eagerly awaited a game that invites players to take on the roles [...]
We didn’t think we could love Ryan Thomas Gosling more than we already do here at the Ms. Blog. He’s so talented, so darn good-looking, so noble–and so willing to call out the patriarchy! I mean, the guy is quoted as saying, It’s misogynistic in nature to try and control a woman’s sexual presentation of self. [...]
People for the Ethical Treatment of Anyone but Women
PETA’s at it again, pissing people off with their latest “Boyfriend Went Vegan” ad campaign. BWVAKTBOOM (Boyfriend Went Vegan and Knocked the Bottom Out of Me) presents the supposed sexual side-effects of a vegan diet as a mock syndrome women may suffer from. The featured video depicts a half-dressed woman in a neck brace returning [...]