More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Movies like Barbie and Oppenheimer are impossible without actors and writers, and women are still getting paid less in the industry; Christopher Nolan’s film had the opportunity to mention critical women of the atomic age but failed; Emily’s List’s new Madam Mayor program will “serve as a critical touchpoint” for woman mayors to receive support; and more.
With opening weekend now in the rearview mirror (of her pink convertible), Barbie has raked in more than $200 million at the box office—smashing prior records for women-directed and summer blockbusters. Reviews have run the gamut. But it is the Wall Street Journal’s take, in particular, that caught our eye—and reviewer Kyle Smith’s quip that Barbie “contains more swipes at ‘the patriarchy’ than a year’s worth of Ms. magazine.”
To this, we at Ms. say: Hear, hear! We’ve been tackling feminist issues for five decades—including in our forthcoming book, 50 YEARS OF Ms.: THE BEST OF THE PATHFINDING MAGAZINE THAT IGNITED A REVOLUTION. So we know firsthand the force behind this magazine and its vast community of readers.
A Ms. conversation with legal scholar Diane Rosenfeld and activist Ashley Judd reveals what some of our closest relatives can teach us about preventing sexual violence.
(This story also appears in the Summer 2023 issue of Ms. magazine. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get the Summer issue delivered straight to your mailbox!)
Girls are showing up, shaping popular culture for the better. Their choices tell us about friendship, connection, and how to forge joy in this world.
Of course, the power of girls as consumers and taste-makers isn’t new. And life remains pretty damn hard for young people. But when I see the Swifties in their ecstatic thrall, or the pink-clad Barbie hordes stampeding toward the theater, I think: We could all use a little more of that sincerity and exuberance in our lives.
Some lawmakers want to change the masculine default in government documents. Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) are introducing legislation that would replace masculine generics with gender-neutral language in the U.S. legal code.
The Equality in Our Laws Act would direct the Office of Law Revision Counsel (OLRC) to to make non-substantive, gender-neutral revisions to many portions of the legal code.
The case of Carlethia “Carlee” Russell has taken an even more unsettling turn as she apologized through her attorney and admitted that she was not kidnapped in a hoax that flooded social media and dominated national news. The headlines that Russell received were not the norm for missing Black people, especially Black women, who disappear or are kidnapped. It was an “unprecedented” level of news and social media coverage, said Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation.
Capital B is taking this moment to look at just a handful of cases of missing Black women.
Black Women’s Equal Pay Day is being observed on Thursday, July 27, this year—meaning it takes Black women seven months to earn what white men made in 2021 alone.
Inequities in pay only exacerbate the compounding oppression of being both Black and a woman in this country. Gender justice must be married to racial justice in order for there to ever be a semblance of equal pay.
Elaine Richardson—or Dr. E—a professor of literacy studies at the Ohio State University, founded the Hip-Hop Literacies Conference. Kyra Gaunt, an assistant professor of music and women’s, gender and sexuality Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York, is the author of the groundbreaking The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop (2006). She is currently writing a book on the impact of YouTube and music technologies on the sexualization of young Black girls. Richardson and Gaunt spoke with Ms. contributing editor Janell Hobson to discuss the upcoming 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
(This series is part of “Turning 50,” which recognizes the women who shaped hip-hop.)
On July 22, 1923, the National Women’s Party unveiled the Equal Rights Amendment at the First Presbyterian Church of Seneca Falls in New York. Precisely 100 years later, contemporary ERA advocates gathered to mark this important historic milestone and plan for the final push for recognition of the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new law ending permanent alimony sends the message that in order to be eligible for any financial support after marriage—whether that is support in service of eventual independence, or compensation for years spent supporting the other spouses’ career—women must choose to stay single. And, it gives their exes permission to monitor their behavior.
It’s not surprising that a governor who has been gleefully taking away women’s autonomy would sign this law. Women continue to have fewer and fewer choices in Florida.