More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Leslie Absher’s new memoir Spy Daughter, Queer Girl isn’t a story about secrets, but rather a testament to what happens when one commits to unwinding those secrets. The very nature of memoir is to reveal and make vulnerable—which is a perfect subversion of another type of work: spying for the CIA.
Join us live (or RSVP and tune later!) to learn everything you need to know about abortion pills on Wednesday, Jan 18, 2023, at 4 p.m. Pacific / 7 p.m. ET.
Now is the time for President Biden to act—to do everything in this administration’s power in increase access to abortion at home and abroad. That starts today with the President Bidens’s 2024 budget being free of all abortion funding and coverage restrictions, including the Hyde, Helms and Weldon Amendments.
The U.S. Postal Service can continue to deliver mifepristone and misoprostol, despite the overturning of Roe v. Wade, says the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. An archaic 19th-century anti-obscenity law, the Comstock Law, can’t stop the mailing of abortion pills.
Most of Andrew Tate’s alleged criminal conduct took place in private. But his rise to fame—or infamy—took place in full public view. It is important to understand how and why all of this happened. Here are four “teachable moment” topics raised by the Andrew Tate saga:
1. Tate’s normalization of misogyny harms girls and young women.
2. The ideal of “manhood” Tate promotes harms boys and young men.
3. 3. For many uninformed young men, feminism is a hostile philosophy and feminists are caricatured villains.
4. There is a strong connection between misogyny and right-wing politics.
The Super Bowl Halftime Show is a time-honored but impossible set-up. Women artists have experienced especially harsh post-show takes. So what will it be in Rihanna’s case?
There’s a tremendous amount of pressure on her performance post-baby, her first live appearance since 2018. The gendered expectations and sexist labeling of women in music vary by individual, and racism has a significant impact in certain cases. But this abuse in all cases works to enforce norms of behavior expected of women.
Perhaps if we recognize the cycle, we might better tune out the toxic takes to come.
The 80th Golden Globes is days away. Viola Davis is the only Black female actor nominated in the Motion Pictures-Drama category.
In The Woman King, Davis plays the Agojie general of an all-female warrior unit and embodies the fierceness of this leader, while delivering a performance characterized by maternal softness and emotional vulnerability—traits often reserved on screen for white femininity. While not nominated for any Golden Globes this year, Bridgerton received 15 Emmy Award nominations in 2022 and this spring another powerful Black woman graces the screen, Queen Charlotte. Bridgerton is an opportunity to reevaluate diversity, equity and inclusion on the screen. Casting people of color provides jobs to talented actors who would otherwise be overlooked, but mere “inclusion” in the frame is insufficient.
Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. Here’s to a new year and, hopefully, a better one for us all. I wish you a year of peace, collectivity, good health, bountiful joy and, of course, fantastic reading! You can start with these 33 titles that I am most excited about this month.
It has been just over two years since the imposition of a near-total ban on abortion across Poland. The ban removed almost all conditions in which a woman can access abortion care, leaving millions of women in the dark when it comes to deciding what happens to their bodies.
It is more critical than ever that we stand up to support access to life-saving abortion care, especially those with the power to liberalize laws. There are millions of lives depending on it.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: as the House begins its fourth day of speaker voting, a reminder that ranked-choice voting could save time and energy; Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) has been elected president pro-tempore, making her third in line to the presidency; the percentage of women in Congress is just 27.9 percent; and more.