Barack Obama and the Obama Administration

Michelle Obama’s Milkshake and Other Non-Stories About Women

PUBLISHED 7/26/2011 by

Want to know how women politicians accessorize? How many calories they consume? Us neither. And yet that’s exactly the kind of hard-hitting journalism we’ve been seeing from major news outlets this month. A few weeks ago, Washington Post reporter Natalie Jennings hit us with the investigative scoop, “Michelle Obama Orders 1,700-calorie meal at Shake Shack“: […]

Respect Marriage, Repeal DOMA!

PUBLISHED 7/20/2011 by

The past 24 hours have been exciting ones for supporters of gay marriage rights. If the President and progressive members of the Senate get their way, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is on its way out. At a press conference yesterday, White House press secretary Jay Carney released word that President Obama supports the pending […]

Take Off the Cap: How to Protect Women Under Social Security

PUBLISHED 7/8/2011 by

by Martha Burk When former senator Alan Simpson, Republican co-chair of President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, called Social Security “a milk cow with 310 million tits” last summer, it was not only a misogynistic insult but a symbolic shot at the benefit program older women depend on most. Started in 1935, […]

A Single Lady Watches “Single Ladies”

PUBLISHED 6/3/2011 by

For the past few years, single women of all races, shapes and sizes have pumped their fists in the air, lip-synced, writhed their hips and/or done the ring-finger-hand-flip dance to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” an anthem for unattached women who know what they want and when they want it. But on Monday night as I, a […]

Beyonce: Girls Run the World (Cue the Apocalypse!)

PUBLISHED 5/20/2011 by

I’ve been an admirer of Beyonce since her Destiny’s Child days and always appreciated that group’s “girl power” anthems (think “Bills, Bills, Bills,” “Independent Women,” or “I’m a Survivor,” ignoring for the moment that they’ve also put out more submissive songs like “Cater 2  U“–which I’ve been guilty of playing on a loop).  I’ve attempted to […]

Today is the 2011 International Day Against Transphobia and Homophobia

PUBLISHED 5/17/2011 by

Today marks the 4th annual International Day Against Transphobia and Homophobia, spearheaded by Quebec-based organization Fondation Émergence. The holiday commemorates the date–May 17, 1990–that the World Health Organization (WHO) removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. The years since have been an up-and-down battle for LGBTQ folks on the international level, with the criminalization […]

Women Cops, the White Male Brat Pack and Bicycling Towards Equality: Editors’ Picks, 3/27-4/2

PUBLISHED 4/2/2011 by

This week, Dilbert creator Scott Adams managed to offend both feminists and anti-feminists with a “satirical” blog post on the all-too-real Men’s Rights Movement. If you haven’t heard about the uproar, get filled in here and here; if you’re confused about “men’s rights” (and it’s easy to be), Salon.com has a great interview with Ms. […]

Let’s Talk About “Choice” in the Sciences

PUBLISHED 3/31/2011 by

“Choices, not discrimination, deter women scientists.” So read the headline that summed up a few weeks of articles, blog posts and opinion pieces about  Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams’ article “Understanding current causes of women’s underrepresentation in science” in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And that’s the conclusion I would come […]

Michelle Obama’s Fashionability Has Precedents

PUBLISHED 2/25/2011 by

Whether she gets it right or wrong, and who can please every eye, Michelle Obama’s taste gets noticed, written and talked about, tweeted, blogged, photographed and copied. Her style sets trends. Belts are big again–because of her penchant for a neat waist, we have her in part to thank for the cinched-in look now in […]