As a result of online misogyny, many women renounce political careers, self-censor or refrain from speaking out, while illiberal actors and authoritarians become ever bolder in their use of social media as a tool to silence opposition, roll back women’s rights and erode democratic institutions. We cannot let these practices continue, and we cannot let platforms who are able to make substantive change continue to skirt their responsibilities.
Applause and Allyship: Our Fave Feminist Social Media Moments This Week
Welcome back to Feminist Faves social media roundup! This week, we’re celebrating athletes using their influence to shed light on underrepresented communities, disability advocates calling in able-bodied allies this Disability Pride month, and the beautiful art made during the pandemic.
AMC’s ‘Kevin Can F**k Himself’ Deconstructs the Sitcom and Liberates Its Women
AMC’s new drama “Kevin Can F**k Himself” upends the “sitcom wife” trope we all know and hate. When Allison—or Kevin—leaves the room, the lighting gets darker, the camera angle shifts, and suddenly, Allison is no longer a supporting character but rather the star, increasingly frustrated with her life and role.
The Old Guard: Revisiting an Exceptional Feminist Action Film on its One-Year Anniversary
Released exactly a year ago on Saturday, ‘The Old Guard’ was overwhelmingly well-received by critics and was my favorite film of 2020, easily making it onto my end-of-year best feminist films list. And yet, the film is deserving of even more fanfare and continued accolades (especially with a sequel in the works). Consider this my ‘The Old Guard’ one-year anniversary present, masquerading as a review.
A Memoir Of Family, Caregiving and Redemption: “Some Things Can Be Deleted, Just Often Not The Memory”
Deborah J. Cohan’s ‘Welcome to Wherever We Are: A Memoir of Family, Caregiving, and Redemption’ shows the complexities of unconditional love.
“My dad’s erratic meanness … was all mixed up with his erratic kindness. The erratic nature of it all actually became predictable—predictable erraticness, erratic predictability. … my dad’s behavior was all too often so impossible that I questioned her loyalty and why she stayed; I never really understood them together. Now at 49, I understand it better, through the prism of my own love for my dad, my own loyalty to him, even amid all that went on.”
“Plan B” Highlights the Struggle To Find Emergency Contraception—But Options Are Growing
“Plan B” depicts the struggle of two students to find emergency contraception, an all-too-familiar story—but groups like Emergency Contraception 4 Every Campus are working to change that. EC4EC focuses on supporting college students and activists to increase the accessibility of EC on their campuses.
July 2021 Reads for the Rest of Us
This month’s list of 26 new books has a little something for everyone. From memoirs to histories to romances and short stories, July is nothing short of remarkable for the variety of unmissable books coming out.
Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Fight for Freedom
“Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America” by Karen Cook Bell tells the stories of enslaved women who escaped from and resisted slavery during and after the Revolutionary War.
Fighting for Freedom and Abolition from Across the Border
Free-soil havens abroad formed the international stage upon which the fight to end American slavery took place.
Weaving together themes of Black mobility, information circulation, jurisdictional dispute, and transnational abolitionism, ‘Beacons of Liberty’ investigates the individual and collective influence these international free-soil havens had on the American anti-slavery movement over the 50-year period between 1813 and 1863.
Does Freedom Really Ring? Michele Pred’s Art Calls Attention to Inequity in America
In her latest exhibition, “Freedom is for Everybody,” artist-activist Michele Pred uses sculpture, assemblage and performance as a call-to-action to uplift marginalized voices, activate and mobilize around the protection of freedom for *all* bodies—now more than ever.