The following review of All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister appears in the spring 2016 issue of Ms. Subscribe today for more reviews and to read our cover story on Lupita Nyong’o! Unmarried women have had it rough. Viewed with suspicion and outright hostility throughout history, single ladies—the […]
Author: Audrey Bilger
Audrey Bilger is the current president of Reed College, and previously served as vice president and dean of Pomona College. She is also a former professor of literature at Claremont McKenna College and faculty director of the Center for Writing and Public Discourse. She also teaches gender studies, and occasionally yoga. Her latest book, which she co-edited with Michele Kort, is Here Come the Brides! Reflections on Lesbian Love and Marriage (Seal Press, 2012). She is also the author of Laughing Feminism, editor of an edition of Jane Collier’s 1753 satire "An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting," and a frequent contributor to Bitch magazine. Her work has been featured in The Paris Review, Rockrgrl, the Huffington Post and the Women's Media Center.
Through the Glass Ceiling and Beyond! Sally Ride’s Feminist Legacy
In the early 1960s, when Sally Ride was a child, her parents gave her a chemistry set and a subscription to Scientific American. They got her a microscope and a telescope, too, and so, from an early age, she learned to ask questions about the universe and her place within it. Along with the other students in her […]
Sexism in the Music Business? Taylor Swift & Ryan Adams Shake it Off!
It may have started as a joke. Or maybe a form of break-up therapy. Whatever led alt-rock singer-songwriter Ryan Adams to record his own track-by-track version of Taylor Swift’s mega-hit album 1989, it’s turning out to be a big win for the two artists on many fronts. In what has to be a music history first, both […]
Proof That Jane Austen and Amy Schumer Would Have Been Friends
[Spoilers ahead!] Jane Austen would have appreciated Amy Schumer’s blockbuster summer rom-com Trainwreck. With its flawed protagonist, who alternately feels superior to those around her and unworthy of love, the film draws on themes that could have come straight out of Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. Like Austen, Schumer knows how to give the people what they want: girl meets boy, […]
How Feminism Helped Pave the Way for Marriage Equality
The Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality is, as President Obama declared in his remarks following the ruling, “a victory for America.” It’s also a major win for feminism. In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy recounted the history of marriage in brief, emphasizing that even though the institution has existed for millennia and across civilizations, “it […]
Marriage Equality Forecast: Victory Is Near!
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has taken up the broad question of whether marriage is a constitutionally protected right for same-sex couples, a nationwide victory may be less than two months away. There were no surprises in last week’s hearings. Opponents of marriage equality had nothing new to say. They made the same unconvincing claims that […]
Marriage Equality Keeps on Winning
Six months ago, when Marc Solomon went to press with his new book, Winning Marriage: The Inside Story of How Same-Sex Couples Took on the Politicians and Pundits—and Won, there were 17 states with marriage equality and the movement was gaining ground at an unprecedented pace. In recounting the struggles that led to that point, Solomon, […]
For Amy Poehler, Writing is Hard, Feminism Comes Naturally
You’ve probably heard the saying, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.” Well, Amy Poehler makes comedy look easy, but her new memoir, Yes Please, nearly killed her. Or so she says at great length in the preface (aptly titled “Writing is Hard”). Anyone who has ever written anything will relate to her account of the procrastination, […]
The Private Life and Natural Feminism of Sally Ride
When astronaut/physicist Sally Ride passed away in 2012, her obituary revealed for the first time publicly that she was a lesbian. In the recently published biography, Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space, Lynn Sherr fills out the story of this American hero, who worked tirelessly during her lifetime to encourage girls and boys […]
Joan Rivers: Certainly Unforgettable, But a Paragon of Feminism?
Since her death a week ago, a number of tributes to Joan Rivers have called her a “feminist icon“—mainly, it seems, because she was a trailblazer and door-opener for women who wanted to make it to the major leagues of comedy and because she was so unstoppably driven in her own ambition. On the other […]