If you were in Tel Aviv a couple of weeks ago, chances are you might have done a double-take as you passed by a certain shopping center storefront. Instead of using mannequins to sell clothing items, there were live models on display–perhaps a more natural way to show off the attire. But then, if you […]
Month: November 2010
Feminists Joking About Feminism: A Chat with Vag Magazine’s Creators
Recently, I had the opportunity to interview the creators of Vag Magazine, a comedy web TV show about a group of feminists starting an anti-patriarchal magazine. Leila Cohan-Miccio and Caitlin Tegart, the co-writers, co-creators and co-executive producers of the show, both hail from New York City’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre; after chatting with them, I […]
Nasrin Sotoudeh Needs our Screams
The Museum of Modern Art in New York is currently exhibiting Yoko Ono’s “living art.” One of the works is an instruction piece called Voice Piece for Soprano, made in 1961. This participatory artwork encourages visitors, in a subtle but attractive manner, to “Scream. 1. against the wind; 2. Against the wall; 3. Against the […]
“Hands on the Freedom Plow”: A Love Song to Ella Baker
Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC provides a much-needed antidote to the male-dominated history of the Civil Rights Movement. It also negates the claim – made by many a historian, citing only Stokely Carmichael’s admittedly priggish comment, “The position of women in SNCC is prone” – that the organization was particularly sexist.
We Are Feminists Because… (Part 2)
Yesterday, we posted a video of Ms. and Feminist Majority staffers talking about why they are feminists; today we want to share more such declarations: We also want to give a face and voice to Natalie Hart of Reclaim the Name fame, who gives us some of the many reasons she is a feminist: How […]
When Isabel Met Kavita and Talked About Militarism
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Global Fund for Women’s event “Resist, Reclaim, Restore,” which featured a conversation between Kavita Ramdas, the former president and CEO of the GFW, and Chilean-American author Isabel Allende. The GFW’s progressive approach to empowering women attracted a diverse set of women who gathered that evening in […]
Take Action for Pay Equity: Call In Today!
As the “lame duck session” of Congress got underway yesterday, the impending vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act gives the current sitting senators the opportunity to prove that they are anything but, well, lame ducks. This legislation, formally known as H.R. 12, is designed to strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963, closing the loopholes […]
Should Teen Girls Be Wary of Social Media?
If you were to form your opinion of Facebook based on media coverage over the past few years, you would believe that, for teenage girls, Facebook is a dangerous social minefield and nothing else. The advent of social networking—with cyber-bullying and the rapid dissemination of sexy photos to entire adolescent ecosystems with a click of […]
Don’t Ms. These Feminist Events: November 15-21 Edition
I need to pull a Hermione Granger (yes, the new Harry Potter film is coming out this week) and get a time turner so I can attend all these fantastic feminist events. In Chicago, on Thursday, November 18, the Center on Halsted is hosting Night of Fallen Stars, an event for the Transgender Day of […]
For Colored Boys Who Have Survived Sexual Abuse, Is “For Colored Girls” Enuf?
On November 5, Oprah Winfrey aired the first of a two-part episode on male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Two hundred men stood in the audience, each holding a photograph taken at the age their innocence was stolen by the priest, babysitter, or parent who molested them. Filmmaker Tyler Perry was among them, just two […]