Last Friday, the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo. became the site of an hours-long standoff between police and a gunman, resulting in three deaths—including a police officer—and many others injured. In interviews with investigators following the attacks, suspected shooter Robert Lewis Dear spoke of “baby parts” and expressed anti-abortion sentiments. What many following the case […]
Month: November 2015
How to Talk to the Teenage Girls at Your Thanksgiving Table
If you want to make a real connection with the teenage girl in your life this holiday, here are a few tips from a mother who has soothed her daughters’ hurt feelings more times than she cares to count.
How America Bought and Sold Racism, and Why it Still Matters
Excerpted with permission from Collectors Weekly Today, very few white Americans openly celebrate the horrors of Black enslavement—most refuse to recognize the brutal nature of the institution or actively seek to distance themselves from it. “The modern American sees slavery as a regrettable period when Blacks worked without wages,” writes Dr. David Pilgrim, the vice […]
Hollywood, the Sexual Violence Factory
“The statement that the primary function of movies is entertainment is clearly not the end of the question. All entertainment is education in some way, many times more effective than schools because of the appeal to the emotions rather than to the intellect.” — Hortense Powdermaker, Hollywood, the Dream Factory As of this writing, more […]
The Elizabeth Cady Stanton Bicentennial: A Missed Opportunity for Study and Reflection
November 12 was the bicentennial of the birth of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of America’s most prominent and extraordinary women’s right leaders. The event passed largely un-noticed. We missed a chance to pause and reflect on her leadership and also on the issues she wrestled with, some of which are still with us. Stanton deserves […]
How Family Planning Could Help Slow Climate Change
In the mid-1990s, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in a village in Niger, a West African country consistently ranked as one of the poorest in the world. I lived in a mud hut, learned a local language, made lasting friendships and did interesting work. Nearly 20 years later, two memories stand out from those years: It was […]
Uterus Transplants and the Social Pressures of Biological Motherhood
Last week, the Cleveland Clinic announced that it would begin performing uterus transplants on U.S. women. Over the next several years, 10 women participating in the clinic’s transplant trial will receive a uterus from a deceased donor. They’ll spend the following year healing, and then they’ll attempt to get pregnant through in-vitro fertilization. If a […]
The Film That’s Taking on Campus Rape—And Winning
The Hunting Ground, a documentary directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering—the team behind The Invisible War—has received critical acclaim for bringing new light to the campus rape crisis facing schools across the country, and breaking the silence on sexual assault reports suppressed by college officials. Since its release in February, The Hunting Ground has screened at more than 700 universities, high schools, […]
Spotify Announces Impressive Parental Leave Program
On Thursday, music-streaming service Spotify announced the launch of a broad parental leave program that includes six months’ leave for new mothers and fathers. Effective immediately, the Swedish-born company is offering full-time employees time off with 100 percent pay, which can be broken up into three separate periods and taken within the first three years of a child’s life (employees who become […]
Open Our Borders
In the wake of recent tragic events in Paris, Beirut and Afghanistan my heart is broken. As an Afghan American Muslim who came to the U.S. as a refugee after the Russian invasion in 1980, I am saddened to see the nation that sheltered and embraced my family and me become divided. Over the last […]