You’ll Never Look at Pink Ribbons the Same

Pink Ribbons, Inc., a documentary based on the 2008 book by Samantha King, looks at the effects of “pinkwashing” (when companies use the ubiquitous breast cancer-related pink ribbon to promote a product while also selling products linked to the disease), damns the ribbon as contaminated by profit. At first, the ominous soundtrack feels heavy-handed as it […]

Victory! Detroit High School Will Stay Open

June 17 was supposed to be the day Catherine Ferguson Academy, the much-lauded Detroit school for pregnant and parenting students, would close. The news since the closing announcement had been bleak. A demonstration by students in April had been quickly quashed by police, and the community had little power as the decision to close the […]

Amy Martin, Mighty Fine

Amy Martin’s cartoons are like a heavily inked mirage of what Sex and the City should have been and almost once was: non-vomitous. Martin’s women do the same as the SATC gals–they drink cocktails, wear heels, mope in front of their laptops and lust after partners who don’t return their calls. However, this time it’s like […]

10 Ways to Girls’ Healthy Sexuality

We know that the sexualization of women and girls is rampant. It is the stuff of Ms. magazine’s “No Comment” section, eyes rolled at reality television, training bras for 7-year-olds and high heels for infants. But maybe we don’t realize the full effect of these images. Did you know that 92.8 percent of music videos […]

The New Old-Girls’ Club

Why can’t we have an organization of female writers … one that would really be a forum for discussion along any lines of the female writer’s experience? An opportunity for women writers to be exposed to everything (or almost everything) that’s going on in our country with regard to women’s literature? That’s the notion that […]

Why Not Take International Women’s Day Off?

While flowers and greeting cards are lovely, the women behind International Women’s Day weren’t organizing a celebration as much as a unified call for alarm. Just as women do today, they marched for safe workplaces, peace and equality. Exploring even a brief history of the event, I realize it’s not just simply about honoring women: It’s about recognizing the very hard labor of women as workers, mothers, partners and activists.