More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Twenty-three antiabortion extremists convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) were pardoned by President Donald Trump on Thursday. The pardons place extremists responsible for invading and blockading reproductive healthcare clinics in dozens of states back on the street, inviting more violence and chaos against patients and abortion providers.
On Feb. 28, 2025, the lookback window under New York City’s Gender-Motivated Violence Act (GMVA) will expire, erasing an essential opportunity for survivors of gender-based offenses, sex trafficking, sexual assault, workplace harassment, reproductive coercion and other forms of violence to seek justice.
The National Organization for Women, New York City, urges individuals to act quickly to protect their right to file civil claims for incidents of gender-motivated violence.
What if many of the working and middle-class men who voted for Trump were misled into thinking that feminists and racial justice advocates were their antagonists, instead of the denizens of what David Graham referred to in The Atlantic as a new “Gilded Age,” who were seated right behind Trump at his second inaugural?
To use a Star Wars analogy: What if many of the average men who supported Trump fancied themselves members of the Rebel Alliance, but one day came to understand they were actually working for the Empire?
Democrats don’t need to convert the MAGA faithful. I’m convinced that millions of men and young men who voted for Trump have not gone that far down the rabbit hole of hero-worship, conspiracy and delusion. That’s the source of my defiant hope.
Across the 2000s, a series of child sex exploitation cases affected British towns, including Telford, Rochdale, Oxford and Rotherham, scarring the lives of hundreds of children. In 2011, Times journalist Andrew Norfolk reported that networks—so-called “grooming gangs”—of largely British Asian men of Pakistani heritage had trafficked and raped hundreds of mainly girls and young women. Elon Musk—the billionaire owner of social media platform X and incoming lead on US government efficiency—has, it seems, just found out about this devastating national scandal.
Musk has aligned himself with a gendered narrative: It is men’s duty to protect women—even when it means breaking rules or using force. This gender binary—strong men must be ready to use force to protect weak women, especially from hostile alien men—is the core narrative of patriarchal, nationalist, ultra nationalist and also Nazi groups.
In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.
This week: Getting pregnant doubles the risk of dying by homicide for women under 25; Biden has appointed a record 40 Black women to federal judgeships; Louisiana’s abortion ban has a chilling effect on maternal healthcare and miscarriage treatment; N.C. Republicans try to overturn the fair election of a Democratic justice; the psychological toll on children in Gaza is severe; Biden’s Title IX protections struck down; Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against actor and director Justin Baldoni for repeated sexual harassment and retaliation; Trump’s Cabinet will be the wealthiest in American history; and more.
Much ink has been spilled on the extraordinary series Baby Reindeer, especially its refusal to be reductive in depicting complex and charged sexually subjects and the groundbreaking nature of its portrayal of male-on-male sexual assault and its consequences. What gets overlooked: Baby Reindeer is a vivid, visceral lesson in how to film a rape scene.
The filming of episode four—the construction, the point of view, the relentless focus, the utter absence of sensationalism and exploitation—can serve as a valuable lesson in how to film a rape scene: steering difficult scenes away from the abuser’s point of view, placing them in a space that allows the audience to understand, defend and respect the survivor.
As we enter 2025 at what seems to be a heyday of impunity for human rights abuses worldwide, autocratic leaders worldwide are taking note. In countries rich and poor, these leaders are flexing their muscles by curtailing our rights—to speak our minds, control our bodies, vote our consciences and have access to fundamental things as safe shelter, clean water and affordable nutrition, education and healthcare.
At WomenStrong International, our partners across the globe are seeing this ramp-up of restrictions up close.
For years, many have nicknamed January “Divorce Month” and the first working Monday as “Divorce Day,” as if floods of filings hit courthouses across the country right after the ball drops. But that’s not the case.
March is a bigger month for the D-word. August is nothing to sneeze at either, according to a study by the University of Washington. So what’s the big deal with January? You could say the first of the year pushes sideline spectators, who’ve watched others split, to start dipping their toes in the divorce waters. In the end, nearly 70 percent of divorces are initiated by women.
Last week, Iran confirmed the arrest and detention of journalist Cecilia Sala—a rare official statement coming from Iranian authorities. Sala is in Evin Prison, a facility synonymous with the systemic repression of dissent.
At Women Press Freedom, we have called for international condemnation and for European and international leaders to take immediate action toward Sala’s release.
Rewarding people who tried to ignite an insurrection turns the pardon power on its head.
Trump’s pardons are not about people and their communities—they are about personal loyalty to him. Trump summoned these individuals to the Capitol to support him and now he will pardon them to complete that transaction. Trump will use the pardon power to make it clear that violence and violation of the law can be forgiven in service to himself.