Why can’t more families talk openly about the benefits of having hired help, especially when there’s a newborn in the household? Aren’t the days of the harried, overworked mom over?
Tag: Media Representation
Gender Is Still Burning: The Ms. Q&A with Jennie Livingston
When filmmaker Jennie Livingston stumbled upon drag ball culture in the late 1980s, they had no idea how much the resulting film would resonate. Released in 1990, Livingston’s first documentary Paris Is Burning showcases drag balls during the late 1980s in Harlem, New York City, and features interviews with numerous queer and trans Black and Latinx performers who comprised the various “houses” in competition at the balls. Decades later, the film continues to resonate.
The Unexamined Misogyny of the Term ‘Thirst Trap’
I refuse to use the term “thirst trap” because it reinforces misogynistic ideas that are already too pervasive in our culture. It implies women’s bodies are inherently sexual; it goes hand in hand with rape culture and slut-shaming; the term assumes that sexual attractiveness is objective and implies women are at fault for men’s sexual frustration.
‘The News That Didn’t Make the News’: How the Media Ignores Important Stories About Gender Violence and Inequity
News coverage of women by the nation’s most prominent news outlets is consistently skin deep and fleeting. The establishment press should stop treating women merely as spectacle, novelty or eye-candy and begin taking women and gender issues seriously.
Centering Trans Voices Is Essential in News Coverage, New HRC Report Finds
A new report from the the Human Rights Campaign gives new insight on how media coverage and broader “visibility” can both affect society’s perception of the transgender community as well as transgender individuals.
Hip Hop’s ‘Hidden Figures’: The Feminist Herstory and Future of Hip Hop
Black women have historically played a crucial role in the origins of hip hop, but are often unacknowledged. Learning the rich herstory of hip hop feminism shows what an important role women have played in the past and the future of the genre.
Our Favorite Feminist Moments From the 2022 Oscars
From calling out pay disparity to defiantly saying ‘gay,’ enjoy these feminist wins from the 94th Academy Awards. (After all, we can’t let two grown men steal *all* of the headlines.)
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Unwavering Composure: Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was a “model of composure” in the face of “egregious behavior” from some Republican senators; the “exhaustion of being the first Black women”; the impact of switching from gender ‘discrimination’ to gender ‘privilege’; women’s representation in post-Soviet states; how the Oscar winner for Best Picture will be decided using ranked-choice voting; rest in power Madeleine Albright, who knew how to “move beyond her talking points and to engage her counterparts in frank oval-table bargaining”; and more.
Here’s Why The ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Won’t Work
I was 25 when I was finally ready to admit I wasn’t straight. I was lucky politics didn’t factor into my journey. It’s a luxury today’s students don’t have, between policies like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and the Texas directive that orders state agencies to investigate gender-confirming care. Avoiding these topics won’t stop kids from being queer—it will just leave them feeling isolated. It will leave them closeted and at risk.
Pro-War Rhetoric Around Ukraine Perpetuates the Patriarchy and Plays Right Into Putin’s Hands
Watching cable news coverage of the tragic events in Ukraine, I hear again and again how brave the Ukrainian men who are staying to fight are. But we should be very careful about who we worship because fetishizing the masculinist and militarist response of war will hurt women and LGBTQ people for decades to come.
Putin is a madman, but his regime depends on these century-old notions of binary gender and “normal” sexuality. The way the U.S. mainstream media is covering the illegal invasion of Ukraine is doing similar cultural work.