This excerpt from the book CREDIBLE: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers by Deborah Tuerkheimer explores 19-year-old Mechelle Vinson’s experience of sexual assault and how the world has changed since then.
AOC vs. Boebert: Addressing the Hollow at the Heart of Trumpism
Comparing the poltiical fashion statements of AOC’s “Tax The Rich” dress to Lauren Boebert’s “Let’s Go Brandon” dress reveals that the Trumpist message seems to be whatever gets attention and supposedly makes liberals mad. There’s no substance to their style: no policy agenda or plans to make America greater—just trolling, fame seeking and self-enrichment.
Pushed to be Betty Draper, I Was Always More Like Don
Despite growing up in the age of Mad Men, as a child, I was more like Don Draper than his wife Betty. At 16, it was in the pages of Ms. magazine that I realized I didn’t have to be either one.
Ms. gave me my first feminist click, that moment of recognition and I had a name for what I long felt. Feminism. Like their first cover girl, any one of us could be Wonder Woman. Or a cover girl. The pages were filled with women filmmakers, athletes, sculptors, writers, lawyers and activists. In time, I discovered I didn’t have to be someone I wasn’t in order to be who I was.
What’s Wrong With the Truth?
On July 1, Tennessee enacted legislation that inherently bans schools from teaching anything related to the truth of Tennessee or American history in all state public and charter schools.
Is history all pretty? Hell, no! But it is the truth, and the truth isn’t always pretty. However, teaching the truth is the gateway to learning, understanding and not repeating the past’s errors. So again, I ask, what’s wrong with the truth? Absolutely nothing if one isn’t encased in fear with blinders to hold onto the past.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland: The Difference an Indigenous Leader Makes
Interior Secretary Haaland is working to finally hold the U.S. government accountable not only for the derogatory place names plastered across the nation, but for its history of violence against Native American children, families and communities, as well as its failure to address the ongoing epidemic of violence against Native American women and girls.
The White Lotus: Lessons on Black Lives Matter, Reparations and Queer Liberation
This summer’s finale of The White Lotus (TWL) garnered 1.9 million viewers and has been renewed by HBO for a second season. Overall, critics cast the first season of TWL as an entertaining, if bleak, satire of wealthy whiteness. In the words of one headline, “Nothing changes on The White Lotus. That’s the point.”
What’s missing from previous critical reviews is how TWL explores themes related to Black Lives Matter, reparations and queer liberation—or how TWL offers useful lessons for white progressives.
The Repression of Women in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan: A Human Rights Issue
Women are under threat from radical Islamist obscurantism in many countries, such as Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, while the U.S. and the international community fail to defend them. Women are subject to a pattern of extremists that aims to repress women in the name of religion, but eventually devastate the rights of the entire population.
The control of women is tolerated in society, as it grants men the perks of preferential status, but this dominant control is seen in every aspect of life and weakens these countries at their core. Leaving them powerless and vulnerable, systematically leading to the loss of basic human rights and the suppression of everyone’s individual choices.
How to Have a Thanksgiving Conversation on Immigration That’s Unifying, Not Polarizing
This holiday could give us a chance to start over with a national conversation on immigration that is unifying, rather than polarizing.
Such a conversation starts with identifying shared values and employing active listening. This is also an opportunity to bring our values as feminists to the table.
Ms. Global: #WhereIsPengShuai?; Sweden May Get Its First Woman PM; Bolivia Debates Abortion Rights; The End of COP 26
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: Romania’s massive coronavirus outbreak; Afghan families forced to sell their daughters; the aftermath of COP 26; where is Peng Shuai?; Sweden may get its first woman PM; and more.
Keeping Score: VP Harris Becomes First Woman to Hold Presidential Power; Rep. Gosar Censured for Violence; 2021 Is Deadliest Year for Trans People
This week: Scotland hosts the UN’s COP 26 climate summit; the House passed Biden’s Build Back Better plan; VP Kamala Harris becomes first woman to hold presidential power; IOC releases new inclusion and Olympic eligibility guidelines; and more.