Fashion, like so many other things associated primarily with women, may be dismissed as trivial, but it shapes how we’re read by others, especially on the levels of gender, class and race. In turn, how we’re read determines how we are treated, especially in the workforce—whether we are hired, promoted and respected, and how well we are paid. That most ordinary and intimate of acts, getting dressed, has very real political and economic consequences.
Fall 2011
Birth Control For Men? For Real This Time?
When the birth control pill hit the U.S. market 51 years ago, the hope had been for a male method to follow close at its heels. Yet, despite decades of research and periodic hopeful headlines, progress has been largely indiscernible. But now, researchers are touting new developments.
Senegal’s Feminist Hip-Hop Star
Senegalese rapper Fatou Mandiang Diatta defied her country’s traditional expectations for women in order to succeed in Senegal’s male-dominated hip-hop scene. A new documentary shows how, using her music as a medium, “Sister Fa” campaigns against female genital mutilation, which she herself endured as a child.