More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Sabrina Carpenter’s “sexual revolution” is not unprecedented; in fact, it has been paved for her. Yet, there is still something refreshing—and controversial—about her sexual expression that uniquely contributes to the constant effort of normalizing and embracing female sexuality through art. And perhaps it boils down to a simple truth: Carpenter is making it explicitly clear she enjoys sex, and she’s having fun with it.
With all the upheaval, just two weeks in, that has accompanied the second term of the current presidential administration, the 67th annual Grammy Awards show came and went Sunday night like a welcome distraction. Even calling the event a “distraction” misses the serious work of art and its purpose in troubled times: to mobilize the masses, reaffirm our values and spread joy and light amid the darkness.
The big night, however, went to pop star Beyoncé, who not only made history as the first Black woman to win Best Country Album, but finally earned Album of the Year for her politically salient album Cowboy Carter, after previously losing in the category. The album, which opened with a “requiem” for America and closed on a prayer that “we’ll be the ones to purify our fathers’ sins,” calls on all of us to witness this nation’s history and its present, to reckon with its “sins” of exclusion and discrimination and demand that we purify it toward the democratic promise it has always held out for all of us and not just a select few determined to set us back on a backward course.
Roxanne Shanté made history once as the first solo female MC in hip-hop, and now she has made history again. On Feb. 1, 2025, the Recording Academy honored her with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, making her the first solo female rapper to receive this recognition. She received the award at the Special Merit Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles, just one day before the official Grammy Awards.
As she reflected on receiving one of the most prestigious honors in music, Shanté opened up about her career, her impact and her ongoing mission to support at-risk youth in this exclusive interview.
The year 2024 had promised an era of women rising to the top. This was spectacularly highlighted by the historic presidential run of Vice President Kamala Harris, who had mounted an unprecedented campaign in just over 100 days. Sadly, Harris fell short of the necessary votes.
2024 nonetheless demonstrated that women still hold powerful sway across our popular culture, even as they struggle for the highest political position. We continue to hold onto hope for a feminist future with more opportunities for gender and racial breakthroughs, which are still possible because they have been imagined and envisioned in our pop culture. Here are our picks for the year’s top 10 feminist moments.
Every day of 2024, Ms. writers and editors set out to create content that empowered, informed and infuriated readers. We sought out the truth, sounded alarms, asked tough questions, mourned feminist losses (and feminists we lost), looked to gender justice advocates abroad, and handed the microphone over to experts. Dear reader: As we enter a new year and a new era of the movement, we promise you more of this.
Explore the 30 most popular articles published this year on MsMagazine.com—the articles feminists most clicked, shared, studied, bookmarked and passed out at marches.
Music feels healing, but can it actually heal us? The answer is a resounding yes—according to Sound Health, a collaborative project run by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The Sound Health Network began in 2016 after a chance meeting of Dr. Francis Collins, the former NIH director, and Renée Fleming, the globally renowned and five-time-Grammy-award-winning American soprano. Over the past eight years, the partnership, in association with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), has raised awareness about the healing benefits of music and advanced research at the intersection of arts and wellness.
Ms. recently spoke with Fleming and Collins about their journeys to connecting music with health, what we know so far about music’s effect on the brain, and how we can use that knowledge to heal ourselves.
Gen Z and millennials are officially the largest voting bloc in the U.S., making up 48 percent of eligible voters. In 2022, it’s estimated that 27 percent of people aged 18-29 cast a ballot, marking the second highest youth voter turnout in a midterm election in almost three decades. Since then, 8 million young people have reached voting age, and just under half of them are people of color.
(This essay is part of a Women & Democracy multimedia package focused on Gen Z and student voters. The future envisioned by young leaders is bright—it’s built on reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, sustainability, freedom from violence and economic opportunity. Explore essays, a brand-new podcast, videos and more from some of your most loved [or soon to be!] influencers and writers, brought to you by Ms., DoSomething, the nonprofit that helps make volunteerism “cool,” and The Anthem Awards, the social impact arm of The Webbys.)
Ordinarily, celebrity endorsements don’t matter much in a presidential race. But Taylor Swift is no ordinary celebrity.
The sonic power of Beyoncé’s “Freedom” has done the work in freeing our minds to imagine women’s leadership on the world stage. It has found new life articulating a “Freedom” agenda for presidential nominee Harris. Harris’ campaign insists on forward movement. This freedom story of the nation and the world is far from over. It’s this possibility of leadership that is quite on brand with Beyoncé’s “Freedom.”
RepresentWomen’s new Spotify playlist “It’s Kamencing” is an empowering, playful blend of 56 songs that represent the overwhelming energy of young America right now.