The ‘B’ Is Silent: How Skepticism About Bisexuality Harms Women’s Health

Among straight women, the prevalence of rape is 18.7 percent, but among bisexual women it soars to 46.1 percent. Hypersexualization of bi women is so widespread that it’s barely noticed—unless, of course, you’re a bi woman.

And hypersexualization isn’t the only threat facing bi women. Myths and stereotypes give rise to discrimination against bi women in the workplace, in school and in other arenas.

‘Yellowjackets’: A Tale of Cannibalism and … Feminism?

Another season of the award-winning Showtime series Yellowjackets compares female empowerment then and now, contrasting girls of the 1990s with the women they are today.

There’s a lot going on in this brilliantly suspenseful show, including some spectacular deconstructions of stereotypes—good and bad—but what really stands out to me are the questions it asks about competition. For this viewer who came of age in the ‘90s—benefiting from a lot of self-empowerment messaging but not much feminism, let alone intersectional feminism—Yellowjackets really hits.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Remembering Women Civil Rights Leaders; Toni Morrison’s New USPS Forever Stamp

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: 15 women who were key figures in the Montgomery bus boycott; the U.S. Postal Service features writer Toni Morrison on a new forever stamp; what motivates women to consider running for office, and the systematic barriers they face; and more.

Ms. Global: Polish Reproductive Rights Activist Convicted; Dance as Protest In Iran; Spain Announces Gender-Parity Law

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The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.

This week: news from Poland, Iran, Spain, Cameroon, and more.

Destroying Myths and Misogyny in Endometriosis Care: ‘Unless I Was Trying to Conceive, No One Cared About Bleeding and Pain’

In Tracey Lindeman’s new book BLEED: Destroying Myths and Misogyny in Endometriosis Care, Stephanie Lepage wonders how different her life could have been if only the doctors had bothered to look for endometriosis before her mid-30s. She had developed constant pain in her right lower abdomen that was so intense that rolling onto her side would shoot her out of a dead sleep on an almost nightly basis. When Lepage finally got in to see a gynecologist about it, that doctor said it was little more than a red herring. She remained in agony for two years without reprieve until it mysteriously subsided.

“The thing that stood out to me the most was like, unless I was trying to conceive, no one even cared about bleeding and pain.”

Women Displaced by Climate Change Are Telling Us What They Need. It’s Past Time for Us To Listen.

Women and girls account for 80 percent of the people displaced by climate change. In Somalia, laws that limit women’s abilities to own assets mean they have less access to economic opportunities and tend to depend more on natural resources for their livelihoods, which makes them more vulnerable to displacement.

Once women are displaced, not only do they have to survive, they have to care for their families, all while evading the heightened risk of violence.