Today marks the celebration of the 100th International Women’s Day, Feminist Coming Out Day–and the one-year anniversary of the Ms. Blog!
And what a year it’s been. We’ve published more than 1,000 articles from 200+ bloggers around the world. We’ve covered stories in Haiti, Guyana, Afghanistan, Sweden, Bahrain, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, Egypt and beyond, and the Blog has been visited by people from six continents, as Google shows us below. (For all we know, it might be 7–Google omits Antarctica!–so give us a heads up if you know Ms. Blog readers in or around the South Pole.)
We covered a lot in our first year. Here’s a look back:
- We celebrated milestones on the path towards equality, from Elena Kagan’s appointment to the Supreme Court to the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to the 50th anniversary of the birth control pill to the passage of health-care reform, and we even witnessed the inevitable downfall of men at the hands of feminism. (Oh wait, that one didn’t actually happen. Yet)
- However it hasn’t been all celebratory this year; there were plenty of outrage-inducing stories, from the IRS’s decision to give tax-breaks for penis pumps, but not breast pumps to the cheerleader required to cheer for the man who raped her to the rash of suicides among young victims of gay bashing.
- In spite of all the doom and gloom, we’ve made it a point not to talk strictly about problems but to also offer possible solutions. Check out 10 things men and boys can do to stop human trafficking, 16 ways to reduce maternal mortality, 4 ways young people can be proud feminist evangelists in their high schools and 4 ways to respect sex workers.
- We’ve even managed to start our fair share of squabbles–from the many porn-related debates (is it for pleasure or for profit? Has it hijacked our sexuality? Is it racist, or can it empower women of color?) to the controversy over women’s place in the atheist movement to the surprisingly contentious My Little Pony.
- Throughout the year we took a look back at some classic contents of vintage issues of Ms. magazine. When you feel like today’s world is all just too much, sometimes it helps to look back at a No Comment from an early issue.
- But then again sometimes it doesn’t.
- Our bloggers are never short on personal advice, and over the past year they’ve helped readers through various life dilemmas, such as:
- How to win a fight with an anti-choicer
- How to lose your virginity
- How and where to find a feminist partner online
- How to prepare for your first pap smear
- How to pick the right birth control
- Who to follow on Twitter
- How to love your body
- How to come out
- How to tell a creeper to stop hitting on you
- How to have the sex talk(s) with kids
- We’ve interviewed, profiled or otherwise honored some amazing feminists this year: the first woman Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, 14- year-old fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson, brilliant Twitter phenomenon @FEMINISTHULK, the Roller Derby LA Dolls, bell hooks, Annie Oakley, Temple Grandin, Willow Smith, Rosa Parks and countless others.
- We also paid tribute to the lives of some incredible people we lost: Baseball player Dorothy “Dottie” Kamenshek, the legendary Ms. Lena Horne, the brilliant Lynn Redgrave, iconic feminist and civil rights leader Dr. Dorothy Height, feminist Cherokee leader Wilma Mankiller and inspirational activist Doris ‘Granny D’ Haddock.
- Many of our most popular posts came from our male bloggers, who showed readers that men can make great feminists. Ned Resnikoff earned himself a few secret admirers on our summer intern staff with his post “Can Feminism Liberate Men?”, while Michael Kimmel always impressed with his dispatches from “Guyland”. And our resident feminist historian Dave Dismore’s women’s history expertise and artifacts were always a huge hit with readers. He shared plenty of rare treasures on the Ms. Blog this year.
What would earlier feminists have thought of blogging? In the words of Dave Dismore, “If they’d had blogging, it wouldn’t have taken until 1920 to get the vote!” We certainly love doing the Ms. Blog, as much as we love making Ms. magazine. In fact, to celebrate our “paper” anniversary, why not subscribe to our print magazine? That’s where we go into greater depth about the crucial feminist issues of the time. And, frankly, the blog doesn’t exist without the flagship magazine, so we can’t keep up the blog without the support of our subscribers. Already a subscriber? It makes a great gift!!
With your support, we’ll continue to see you in feminist cyberspace for years to come!