Mockingjay — Part 2, the final film of The Hunger Games series, is more of an action flick than any of the other iterations. Yet, thanks to its condemnation of greed, its depiction of oil as a killer bent on drowning all in its wake, its satirizing of news as infotainment propaganda and its denunciation […]
Month: December 2015
Coca-Cola CEO Touts Feminist Business Model as Secret to Success
Last month, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent revealed the secret ingredient to the soft drink giant’s success: feminism. “If you’re a male and you’re at the top, you have to be a feminist and you have to be proud of being a feminist,” Kent said during a panel discussion at the Women’s Forum of New York’s […]
Stop Taxing Menstruation: It’s the Fair and Equitable Thing to Do
Since when are tampons a luxury? In recent weeks, hundreds of thousands in the United Kingdom responded with outrage after Parliament failed to muster the votes to abolish the national Tampon Tax—a 5 percent surcharge on “non-essential luxury items,” feminine hygiene included. The debate took a curious turn last week, with the announcement that the £15 million in annual […]
The Gender Demands of Being Commander-in-Chief
With the presidential election now in full swing, the Ms. Blog is excited to bring you a series presented in conjunction with Presidential Gender Watch 2016, a project of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation and the Center for American Women and Politics. They’ll be tracking, analyzing and illuminating gender dynamics during election season—so check back with us regularly! In […]
The Feminist “Hotline Bling” Translation You Didn’t Know You Were Searching For
Unless you’ve been stranded on an icy island somewhere in the Arctic this year, chances are you have heard Drake’s newest hit song, “Hotline Bling.” With its strangely addictive elevator-music-meets-Drizzy-beat—reminiscent of D.R.A.M.’s “Cha Cha”—the song quickly became a hit. While the tune is undoubtedly catchy—and the video wonderfully meme-worthy—the lyrics of “Hotline Bling” are decidedly un-feminist. […]
Marvel Steps Up Its Game With “Jessica Jones”
Reprinted with permission from Women and Hollywood I thought my superhero fatigue was incurable. Then I watched Marvel’s Jessica Jones. The Netflix show, which premiered Nov. 20 and stars Krysten Ritter, is an irresistible feminist noir. I didn’t actually plan to binge-watch all seven review episodes. But, like one of the victims of its mind-controlling […]
HIV Will Not Stop Me: Girls Speak Out on World AIDS Day
It’s been 32 years since HIV was first discovered. Since then, it’s fair to say that we have come a long way. Just slightly more than 2 million people were infected with HIV in 2013, down from more than 3.6 million in 1997, the epidemic’s height. Currently, approximately 15 million people are taking anti-retroviral drugs […]
Women and the Refugee Crisis: An Update from Lebanon
Reprinted with permission from Global Fund for Women “The situation in the [Shatila refugee] camp is just absolutely terrible. We have a lot of problems—health problems, environmental problems, security problems…The woman is the one suffering the most, and the children.” — Nada Al Ajouz With the past month’s deadly attacks in Paris, Beirut and Baghdad, […]