Painted Windows, Distorted Mirrors: How Banning Books ‘Sterilizes’ Curriculums

PUBLISHED 2/16/2024 by

To meet the demand of a modern world, we need to be expanding our students’ perspectives and engaging them in rich dialogue, critical thinking and global perspectives. Our children need opportunities to share potent books in community with peers and to learn to discuss challenging topics. If we parents are empowered, we ought to use our power to enable our children, not to narrow their perspectives.

In Ron DeSantis’ Florida we hear echoes of George Orwell’s 1984: ‘Do you know that Florida’s school libraries get smaller every year? Don’t you see that the whole aim is to narrow the range of thought?’

The Anti-Gay, Anti-Trans and Anti-Abortion Groups Behind Those ‘He Gets Us’ Super Bowl Commercials

PUBLISHED 2/15/2024 by

Before the news cycle moves on, we must discuss the right-wing He Gets Us campaign’s two religious ads during the Super Bowl, which highlighted that “Jesus loved and cared for anyone and everyone” and which the Washington Post voted “the most controversial” of the game.

This claim of love and acceptance is directly undercut by the campaign’s connections to far-right anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion groups.

What Will Be the Cost of the First Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill?

PUBLISHED 2/15/2024 by

Opill, the first over-the-counter birth control pill, is set to hit drugstores, grocery stores and online shelves in the first quarter of 2024. But the real challenge lies ahead: Will it be affordable and truly accessible to all?

Opill is a progestin-only oral contraceptive pill, boasting a success rate as high as 98 percent in preventing pregnancies.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hailed the approval of Opill as a breakthrough that could “reduce barriers to access” for those seeking contraception. 

However, the promise of accessibility hinges on the crucial factor of affordability.

As British Parliament Inquiries Into Gender Apartheid, Afghan Women Know All Too Well That It’s Already Here

PUBLISHED 2/14/2024 by

A group of British parliamentarians are set to initiate an inquiry into the situation of women and girls in both Afghanistan and Iran. This marks an unprecedented development, as no nation has launched an investigation of this size regarding gender apartheid. 

What this fails to do, however, is acknowledge the actualized claim that gender apartheid is already established within Afghanistan and Iran. 

Fighting Fatphobia and Embracing ‘Unshrinking’: The Ms. Q&A With Kate Manne

PUBLISHED 2/14/2024 by

We live in a society obsessed with fatness. Or, perhaps more accurately, obsessed with fighting it.  Fatness has been rendered a disease, and we are inundated with “cures,” which particularly haunt women’s bodies—and their wallets.

Questioning the devotion to anti-fatness usually prompts a “well, being fat is unhealthy!” But according to Kate Manne, feminist philosopher and author of the recently released Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia, the connection between weight and health is not so clear cut. What is clear, Manne brilliantly reveals, is that fatphobia, not fatness, is the problem.

One Year After Mahsa Amini, Iran’s Women Are Defying Mandatory Hijab Laws

PUBLISHED 2/14/2024 by

After accepting an award for “distinguished doctor” while not wearing a veil, Iranian Dr. Fatemeh Rajaei-Rad was punished by having her medical license revoked, the president of the hospital where she worked was ousted, and authorities shut down her private practice and expelled her from the board of advisors at a medical university she had been a member of.

Despite crackdowns on mandatory veiling in the wake of Mahsa Amini’s killing, Iranian women continue to resist.

Dark Alleys, Empty Spaces: How Construction on College Campuses Impacts Young Women

PUBLISHED 2/13/2024 by

Last semester, I realized how much construction on my college campus impacted my daily routines at Vanderbilt. In the early morning, when the sun had not yet risen, I would fear walking in areas near the construction of Kirkland Hall, one of the areas of our campus under renovation.

Well before women started stepping foot on college campuses, they have been adhering to the rape schedule—the ways women are culturally conditioned to make changes in their daily lives in order to avoid sexual assault. This brings to light what steps colleges and universities should take in order to aid students who are negatively impacted by living in a rape culture.

The Ms. Q&A: Singer-Songwriter Carrie Newcomer on Writing Her 20th Album, ‘A Great Wild Mercy’

PUBLISHED 2/13/2024 by

Singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer has been making music that inspires, challenges, questions, and affirms for nearly 40 years now, and she just released a new album, A Great Wild Mercy, in late 2023. 

Susan M. Shaw sits down with Newcomer to discuss her songwriting process, what it’s like being a musician at 65, and just what it means to have, or show, “great wild mercy.”

Will Men Organize to End Gun Violence?

PUBLISHED 2/13/2024 by

It’s been six years since the Valentine’s Day massacre of 14 students and three teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and gun violence remains as virulent a disease as ever, with regular new outbreaks in states across the country.

Like many debates about social conditions in the U.S., too many men remain silent, rarely weighing in, whether the issue is mass shootings, women’s reproductive rights or the climate emergency. What if, in this critically important election year, men organized themselves as men to speak out?