This March, for Women’s History Month, the Ms. Blog is profiling Wonder Women who have made history—and those who are making history right now. Join us each day as we bring you the stories of iconic and soon-to-be-famous feminist change-makers. This interview was first published in the Winter 2013 issue of Ms. Click here to get a copy! On […]
Author: Michele Kort
Michele Kort is senior editor of Ms. She is the author of Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro and coeditor (with Audrey Bilger) of Here Come the Brides: Reflections on Lesbian Love and Marriage.
We Spleen: Baby Fat-Shaming
UPDATE: Wry Baby has taken its “I Hate My Thighs” snapsuit off its website in response to the uproar caused by the following Ms. Blog post! Yes, we know—it’s meant to be funny. After all, the company that sells this onesie with the saying “I Hate My Thighs” is named Wry Baby. And we feminists […]
Of Rape Culture, “Grievance Culture” and Mike Tyson
I’m lucky. I made it through my college years without being raped. I did have a couple of close calls, both times when I was alone with men I had considered friends. Fortunately, my angry bravado—which covered up my fear—proved enough to short-circuit their plans. Fortunately I hadn’t been given a spiked drink that would […]
Duke Basketball Star Dismissed, But Not Until A Year After Rape Allegations Surface
Remember what happened to beloved Penn State football coach Joe Paterno? In 2001 he was fired from his position of 45 years after it was revealed that he hadn’t taken action upon learning that one of his assistant coaches, Jerry Sandusky, was allegedly molesting boys. Take note, Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. Last month, Krzyzewski […]
Interview: The Activist Survivors of “The Hunting Ground”
It’s strange to think of Annie Clark and Andrea Pino as “stars” of the new documentary The Hunting Ground, since their “stardom” arose from traumatic real-life experiences. But they’re indeed the main protagonists of this game-changing film about campus rape, which opened yesterday today in New York and Los Angeles (and, in two weeks, in Boston, […]
Alterna-Oscars 2015
As many of us get ready to attend Oscar viewing parties tomorrow and throw a few bucks into a betting pool—hoping to pick the most winners and take home the pot—we still have a nagging sense about those who were not nominated. So here are some suggestions of Oscars that should be given out tomorrow. Best Director […]
Angelina Jolie and the Courage to Resist Child Marriage
The article below is excerpted from a longer piece on the film Difret and child marriage in the Winter 2015 issue of Ms. The film will be released widely on Oct. 23—pre-order your tickets today! A 14-year-old girl runs joyfully across a field, celebrating her advancement to 5th grade at her rural Ethiopian school. Suddenly she’s surrounded by a half-dozen […]
A Feminist Ode to Bobbie Gentry
It was the 3rd of June, another sleepy dusty delta day I was out choppin’ cotton and my brother was balin’ hay … In the summer of 1967, there wasn’t anyone listening to AM radio who wasn’t familiar with these opening lines to the #1 hit record “Ode to Billie Joe.” Sung by long-dark-haired Bobbie […]
Supreme Court to Decide (Once and for All?) on Same-Sex Marriage
The U.S. Supreme Court today has decided it will take up four consolidated cases on same-sex marriage. According to the order it issued [pdf], the Court will consider only the following two questions: 1) Does the 14th Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex? 2) Does the […]
White, Male
The 2015 Oscar nominations, announced this morning, loudly echo Martha Lauzen’s most recent report on the “celluloid ceiling” for women in Hollywood. What Lauzen said about her findings can equally be said of today’s nominees: [They] drive home the point that men continue to construct the vast majority of the visual and aural worlds featured […]