Last Sunday, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia gave a speech to the Shura Council in which he granted Saudi women the right to vote and run in municipal elections starting in 2015 and promised to appoint women to the Shura Council in 2013. Such political rights are welcome because of their social implications. That a […]
Month: September 2011
Hark, A Vagrant: Turning Women’s History Comical
Comics often get a bad rap when it comes to their portrayals of women. In many cases these critiques are well-deserved; In others, this generalization is unfair; women in comics are vibrant, hilarious, and sometimes more stereotype-defying than their counterparts on TV. Enter Kate Beaton, author of the immensely popular Hark, a Vagrant, and one of […]
Where Are All the Sitcom Lesbians?
News broke last week that Portia de Rossi will star in a sitcom produced by her wife, Ellen DeGeneres. NBC has signed on for a “put pilot”, which means they’ve committed to screening the first episode (and thus, hopefully the whole first season). So far, all we know is that the show is about two […]
Playing With Gender
I am gendered, just not in all the ways you might think. Whatever part of my brain makes me like makeup and sparkly jewelry isn’t going away any more than is my tendency to argue, solve problems and boss people around. I have no problem emphasizing different aspects of my sometimes feminine, sometimes masculine gender […]
We Heart: Rock ‘N’ Roll
When the sister-led rock band Heart emerged in the early 1970s, lead singer Ann Wilson says, she and guitarist-sister Nancy were pretty much sui generis: When I first started my career, the words ‘women who rock’ were nonexistent. …There were ‘singer/songwriters’… but there was no ‘women who rock’ category. It was entirely a boy’s club […]
Poverty in the U.S.: Do the Math
For the first time in many years, poverty is news again. Newspaper headlines, television report and the blogosphere have reacted to the latest Census Bureau report showing that U.S. poverty increased last year, and that women and children are among the poorest of the poor. In fact, poverty among women is at the highest level in […]
Should Black Women Oppose the SlutWalk?
An Open Letter from Black Women to the SlutWalk, signed by a hefty list of black anti-violence activists, scholars and community leaders, has been stirring conversation online since it was posted on Friday. Like previous Black feminist critiques of SlutWalk, the letter calls into question the anti-rape march’s reclamation of the word slut. The authors […]
Remembering Dr. Wangari Maathai: “We Must Persist”
Fearless human rights and anti-poverty crusader. Visionary environmental leader. Global women’s rights activist. Advocate for democracy. More than one phrase is required to begin to sum up the contributions the late Dr. Wangari Maathai made to the global community through her tireless work for a more just and sustainable world. Born in Nyeri, Kenya in […]
BREAKING NEWS FROM SAUDI ARABIA
Women in Saudi Arabia live under some of the world’s harshest restrictions on basic freedoms, including a de facto driving ban. But the 2011 Arab Spring and an accompanying campaign for driving rights have heralded new hope for Saudi women. Ms. is deeply committed to reporting the news on Saudi women’s struggle as it happens. […]
The Cost of a Non-Diverse Media
“I had journalists say to me: ‘I saw the women on the field. But they were so pitiful-looking that I didn’t film them,’” recalls Gini Reticker, director of the 2008 documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which documents women’s peace efforts in Liberia. While she had trouble finding footage of Liberian women’s peace actions, […]