Tools of the Patriarchy: Diet Culture and How We All Perpetuate the Stigma

Diet culture is a patriarchal tool.

Diet culture forces individuals, notably women, to center their lives around their physical appearance. It additionally promotes an unachievable physical appearance while offering a vast array of products—paradoxically advertising that one can achieve the unachievable.

But having conversations about our bodies in healthy, productive ways—not critical, accusatory ways—is the only way that we can end diet culture once and for all.

The Lost Season: COVID-19’s Impact on Underrepresented Playwrights

Donnetta Grays is just one of many playwrights whose productions were cut short this year due to COVID-19—since the spring season is generally when theaters “take more risks” in producing shows outside of the traditional canon. So the pandemic, unsurprisingly, is disproportionately affecting playwrights who produce such “radical” work—namely, Black, queer and marginalized writers.

The Kilroys’ LIST aims to memorialize those productions.

Black Mothers Are Still Fighting For Their Murdered Children

Black mothers of those killed as a result of police brutality and racially motivated gun violence are making positive change in the wake of their children’s deaths.

“When George Floyd called his mama,” said Diallo, “all of the mothers were summoned to push forward and make things happen. Our strength, our strength is to really push forward the change we need because we’re not going to give up.”

Tools of the Patriarchy: The Naming Tool

“Tools of the Patriarchy” is a biweekly column on the tools that establish men’s dominance in society, or, in other words, uphold the patriarchy. Whether or not these tools are used intentionally, they contribute to a world in which women are not equal to men.

The naming tool is a long-standing tradition dictating that after marriage, a woman should give up her birth name and take on her husband’s last name. Children also frequently take their father’s last name, carrying the tradition on into the next generation.