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 […]
Author: Danielle Roderick
“Young Adult” Breaks All the Rules for Women in Film
I love seeing disgusting women on the big screen. Every time we have an incorrect, impolite or flat-out mean woman as a protagonist, the angelic female figure of our cultural imagination loses her wings. Onscreen, leading men are often allowed to be ugly in spirit and action, (think Greenberg, Curb Your Enthusiasm), but there are very […]
Our Bodies, Ourselves Is 40 and Fabulous
Here are the cliff notes to this review of the new Our Bodies, Ourselves: Get this book. Get it because you have always seen it but never opened it. Get it because you have an older version and want to see what’s new. Get it because you will find yourself in these pages, whether you are […]
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 […]
School for Teen Mothers, “Jewel of Detroit,” Closes
How many stories do we have of education that works right? How many stories do we have of young women being empowered? How many stories do we have of pregnant and parenting students being given childcare, support and a chance at completing their education and going to college? How many stories do we have of […]
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 […]
If You’re Pregnant, You’ve Been F****d: Maternal Mortality in the U.S.
After reading Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Healthcare Crisis in the USA, an Amnesty International report released last Friday, my first thought was of a speaker I heard at a conference years ago who aptly said, “If you’re pregnant, you’ve probably been fucked.”
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.