Listen up, ladies. Tilly’s, the popular surf and skate clothing chain, is “teaching women how to listen,” according to an LRG-brand t-shirt it’s selling. The front features a woman, nude from the shoulders up, with tape over her mouth, captioned “enjoy the silence,” and below in parentheses, “drawing of girl with tape on mouth.” Offered […]
Year: 2010
NEWSFLASH: Ashtiani’s Husband Allegedly Sold Her for Sex … to Pay for His Drugs
As if Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s struggle for freedom could get any worse—especially considering the recently aired state-produced documentary that Amnesty International proclaimed was being used to paint her as a criminal—her lawyer told the press today that the imprisoned Iranian woman was abused and sold for sex by her husband in order to fuel his […]
True Grit’s Ad Campaign Buries the Lead
The other night, I got to see an advance screening for the Coen brothers‘ latest, the revisionist Western True Grit. The movie was no Fargo or No Country For Old Men, but it was still predictably excellent. It also bore only the faintest resemblance to whatever commercial blockbuster this TV spot is supposed to be […]
We Heart: Darlene Love
For the second year in a row, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame failed to honor deserving nominee Laura Nyro, but happily Hall voters elected the great Darlene Love–the only woman admitted this year into the heavily boys’ club. You might not have been familiar with Love’s name in the 1960s, when she was […]
Dexter: Feminist Serial Killer?
(SPOILER ALERT: Proceed with caution if you’re not caught up!) Dexter’s eye-for-an-eye vigilantism came to a gripping fifth-season finale this week with Jordan Chase (Jonny Lee Miller), serial rapist and murderer, brought to a bloody end by one of his victims, Lumen (Julia Stiles). If you are not familiar with the show, go here for […]
“20 Under 40” Highlights Great Women Writers
Each writer featured in 20 Under 40: Stories from The New Yorker represents a unique strand of what the future holds for American fiction, but as their characters ran through the post-Emancipation American South and stumbled through futuristic Rome, nearly every author examined loneliness. Similar to Freedom’s female protagonist, Patty, many of the women described throughout 20 Under 40 faced anxious isolation in the face of limitless options.
Childless by CHOICE, Get It?
I don’t want kids. Never have. I consider birth control the greatest invention of the 20th century and I’ve been taking it religiously for nearly a decade. No pregnancies to date, and in the rare event of one I’d be first in line at my local abortion clinic before that zygote even mildly resembled a […]
Let the Women Fly
The calendar may say 2010, but for women ski jumpers it’s still feeling like the 1950s when men competed and women watched. Ski jumping is the only winter Olympic event that doesn’t have a female competition. In October, the 12-member executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) met in Acapulco, Mexico to consider adding […]
We Heart: Feminist Sarah Silverman
Those of you who caught Conan last night on TBS might have noticed a surprise shout-out to Ms. How did this come to pass? Well, back in October, a team of Ms. interns and staffers wo-manned a booth at the West Hollywood Book Fair. Not only did we get to enjoy the pet psychic, the […]
Excluded Workers Have Plenty to Say on Human Rights Day
The U.S. Social Forum in Detroit earlier this year saw the launch of the the Excluded Workers Congress (EWC), a coalition of workers historically left out of the labor movement: domestic workers, farm workers, taxi drivers, restaurant workers, day laborers, guest workers, workers from Southern right-to-work states, workfare workers and formerly incarcerated workers. Now, on […]