Missiles, Memes and Masculinity: When the White House Turns War Into Entertainment

PUBLISHED 3/10/2026 by

Following the illegal strikes of war against Iran, the White House transitioned from traditional diplomacy to digital propaganda, releasing a series of highly stylized videos that blurred the lines between state-sanctioned violence and Hollywood entertainment. By splicing real military strikes with iconic imagery from films like Gladiator and John Wick, the administration did more than just trivialize the human cost of an illegal war; it reanimated an antiquated patriarchal script that equates manhood with domination.

Beyond the troubling optics of movie tropes and videogame aesthetics lies a deeper systemic framework. As we navigate the twenty-first century, the real challenge facing American society is not the defeat of “enemies” abroad, but the transformation of manhood at home. To build a more humane world, we must move beyond the spectacle and embrace a courage defined by care, empathy and the bravery to reject violence, even when our own government insists that violence is what makes a man.

Young Feminists Prepare to Gather in D.C. for National Leadership Conference, March 28-30

PUBLISHED 3/10/2026 by

Hundreds of student activists will gather in Washington, D.C., later this month for the 2026 National Young Feminist Leadership Conference, a three-day event focused on organizing, policy advocacy and building the next generation of feminist leaders. (There’s still time to register!)

Hosted by the Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms.), the conference will take place March 28-30 at the DoubleTree Crystal City in Arlington, Va., bringing together high school and college students from across the country.

Teens Avoid Coercive Parental Involvement Laws by Using Telehealth Abortion Services 

PUBLISHED 3/10/2026 by and

The majority of U.S. teenagers live in states that require parental involvement in abortion healthcare decision-making. If parents are unavailable or teens under 18 do not want to involve their parents, they must go to court and convince a judge that they are mature enough to decide on their own or that the abortion is in their best interest.

To avoid this invasive and burdensome process, resourceful teens are now turning to abortion care from telehealth providers located outside their restrictive states.

The Grok Generation: The Consent Crisis No One Is Stopping

PUBLISHED 3/10/2026 by

Grok, the AI chatbot used on Musk’s platform X, has been under fire for generating nude or sexualized images of real people, including individuals who are minors. In one estimate, Grok produced one nonconsensual sexual image per minute over a 24-hour period. Prompts such as “put her in a transparent bikini” produced altered images that were then circulated publicly, some accumulating thousands of likes. The targets are real women and underage girls whose images were manipulated without their knowledge or permission.

Elon Musk responded by making a joke, requesting a Grok-generated image of himself in a bikini and reacting with laughing emojis. When the platform’s most powerful figure and one of the country’s most powerful men treats the abuse as a punchline, it sends a message about what is actually harmful versus what he thinks should be considered humor—and provides a tacit granting of consent to young men on the platform to keep making these images.

Much of the public conversation about young people and AI has focused on cheating in school or declining literacy. Far less attention has been paid to what it means when a middle school boy can type a sentence and produce a sexualized image of a female classmate in seconds as a joke or for attention—or to pretend he received it from her for status.

For girls growing up in this online environment, the message is unmistakable: Your image is not protected as yours. Your body can be altered, distributed and consumed for entertainment. Its violation can be dismissed as a joke. 

Teachers, parents, lawmakers and platform leaders are behind. The question is not whether this will shape the next generation’s understanding of power and intimacy—but what we will step in to do about it. 

Equity Cannot Wait: Confronting the Unequal Burden of HIV and AIDS on Women of Color

PUBLISHED 3/10/2026 by , and

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first reported what would later be called AIDS in 1981, public narratives narrowly centered on white gay men. Globally, women account for more than half of all people living with HIV today. But, women were present in the epidemic from the start, but their experiences were marginalized in surveillance and public discourse.

‘America’s Next Top Model’ Was a Microcosm of the Modeling Industry’s Power Problem

PUBLISHED 3/10/2026 by

Modeling appears glamorous. Beautiful people, high end clothing and photo shoots in exotic locations. But the reality is far more bleak. 

I was ecstatic when I was selected to be on America’s Next Top Model. By the time I understood how little control I had, it felt too late to ask questions. Personal phones were gone. Contact with the outside world was restricted.

When Netflix released Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, my reaction was not shock. It was recognition.

ERA Road Tour: Weekly Road Diary (March 2-7)

PUBLISHED 3/9/2026 by

Inspired by the 1916 suffrage road trip that helped win women the vote, activists behind Driving the Vote for Equality are traveling across the country in the restored Golden Flyer II to build support for recognizing the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment.

Each week, Ms. will share highlights from the road.

During its first week on the road, the Golden Flyer II carried the push for the ERA through the Mid-Atlantic. In New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, ERA advocates connected historic sites of feminist resistance with renewed calls for constitutional equality.

Reproductive Justice Demands We Call In, Not Just Call Out

PUBLISHED 3/9/2026 by and

Reproductive justice is not simply about the right to abortion or access to contraception; it is about the right to have a child, to not have a child, and to raise families in safe and sustainable communities. This framework, created by Black women in the 1990s, recognizes that race, class, gender and immigration status all intersect with reproductive health and freedom. At its core, reproductive justice is about dignity and self-determination.

We must call out systems of oppression. We must call out elected officials who use the law to control our bodies and futures. But we must also call in those who are silent, those who are uncertain, and those who are still learning. Not everyone understands the full weight of these attacks. Not everyone sees how racism, poverty and patriarchy are connected to abortion bans. That is where our movement’s compassion must meet its courage.

It’s about helping a young person in a conservative home understand that their freedom to plan their life is a human right. It’s about showing a voter in a swing state that abortion bans are government overreach and economic violence. It’s about connecting the dots between forced pregnancy and the erosion of democracy itself.

Let us call in, where we can, those around us to join the work. Let us call on our government to honor its duty to protect, not control, our bodies—because true justice cannot wait.

Oscar-Nominated Documentary ‘The Devil Is Busy’ Shows What It Takes to Keep an Abortion Clinic Safe

PUBLISHED 3/9/2026 by

Tracii’s day begins early—before dawn. She arrives at work, turns on the lights and thoroughly searches the building for intruders. Then she checks outside, where it’s still dark, making sure no one is hiding in the woods or behind a dumpster.

Tracii is the head of security at an abortion clinic in Atlanta, and is also the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary short, The Devil Is Busy. Directed by Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir, the film follows Tracii over the course of a long, stressful day at the clinic, as she works tirelessly to ensure not just the safety but the comfort of the women seeking care. (Neither her last name, nor the name of the clinic, gets mentioned in the film.)

Available to stream on HBO Max, The Devil Is Busy is a compelling portrait of a deeply compassionate woman on the frontlines of the abortion war. It packs a lot into 31 minutes, exploring not just the precarious status of abortion care post-Roe v. Wade, but also the fraught intersection of race, religion and women’s health.

The film arrives just as advocates mark Abortion Provider Appreciation Day, observed each year on March 10. The date honors Dr. David Gunn, an abortion provider murdered by a white supremacist anti-abortion extremist in 1993. Since 1996, supporters have used the day to recognize the courage and compassion of abortion providers—people like Tracii—whose work continues despite harassment, threats and political attacks.

Kristi Noem Is Out at DHS—But Women May Not Be Safer Under Her Replacement

PUBLISHED 3/9/2026 by

As frontline witnesses to the worst of humanity, physicians carry the heavy burden of moral distress—the anguish of seeing harm unfold and feeling powerless to stop it. This feeling has only grown with the rise of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in its current form. Its inhumanity under former DHS Security Kristi Noem’s leadership—reflected in the anxieties of our patients, many of whom are avoiding essential medical care out of fear—has us despairing with helplessness.

So, yes, many of us were excited to see Noem go.

The hope that swelled with Noem’s ousting vanished quickly with news of President Trump tapping Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) as her replacement, a former MMA fighter and co-sponsor of the SAVE America Act, which disproportionately targets women’s voting eligibility. Mullin holds extremist views on abortion, opposing even exceptions to save the mother’s life. Deeply disturbing is Mullin’s 2013 vote against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.

While Noem’s firing is a step in the right direction, appointing a manosphere-adjacent fitness bro whose rhetoric of “protection” echoes the same ideology predicated on women’s forced subjugation—and whose political track record shows a distinct disdain for women’s lives—as her replacement is absolutely not the move.