“We felt it our responsibility to depict the war on Black women’s bodies raging in this conservative state,” said Katori Hall, creator of Starz’s P-Valley.
Prostitution or Sex Work
Sex work or prostitution is the selling of sexual activity for payment, which can be dangerous if coercive or unregulated.
May 2022 Reads for the Rest of Us
Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
Whether you read for knowledge or leisure, books are so important. May is a big month for new releases by women and writers of historically excluded communities; I’ve highlighted 60 of them here, but there are many more. I hope you’ll find some here that will help you reflect and act in whatever ways you can.
The Pornification of War in Ukraine
The trending of #Ukraine on porn sites is only a recent development of an age-old misogyny, as old as warfare itself.
Research shows that habitual users of online porn seek ever more explicit and graphic images in order to sustain the same level of arousal. This partly explains the uptick in searches for pornographic videos of Ukrainian women after the invasion. It also accounts for the horrifying genres known as “refugee porn” and “war porn.” These videos link sex with desperation and violence. But not just any violence will do. The user is mainly interested in videos that feature the utter degradation of women and girls.
Ukraine’s Ticking Time Bomb: Women, War and HIV
The catastrophic destruction triggered by the Russian invasion has rapidly escalated the risk of HIV infection and concomitant violence for women in Ukraine.
Applause and Allyship: Our Fave Feminist Social Media Moments This Week
Welcome back to Feminist Faves social media roundup! This week, we’re celebrating athletes using their influence to shed light on underrepresented communities, disability advocates calling in able-bodied allies this Disability Pride month, and the beautiful art made during the pandemic.
Why Are Perpetrators’ Motives Given More Importance Than the Lives They Take?
Daoyou Feng, 44; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Xiaojie Tan, 49; Yong Ae Yue, 63. Their lives, along with customers Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, and Paul Andre Michels, 54, deserve to be respected and remembered in their full humanity, not reduced to the fantasies of their killer.
Supreme Court Upholds Bush-Era Policy Endangering Women’s Health
Publicly opposing sex work while also providing social and health services to sex workers both further stigmatizes sex workers and is hypocritical.
“This ruling is disconcerting and shameful. The [anti-prostitution loyalty oath] hurts public health outcomes and it has always been bad policy. Social stigmas that disproportionately impact and undermine the sexual and reproductive health rights of people across the globe do not belong in our nation’s foreign aid programs.”
Sex Work, the “Girlfriend Experience” and the Labors of Feminine Beauty
During the final year of my undergraduate degree, in a small, rural city in the south of England, I was supplementing my fragile self esteem with an over-the-counter laxative habit. I told people around me that my newly svelte frame came courtesy of my giving up alcohol (a fair-weather friend) and adopting a Japanese “eating […]
Sister to Sister: Why a Group of Nuns are Going Undercover as Sex Workers
For the last five years, more 1,000 nuns have been going undercover as sex workers to help women trafficked into prostitution and sex slavery. And while you’ve probably never heard of them, the sisters of Talitha Kum—a reference to the Gospel of Mark meaning, “Maiden, I say to you, arise” in Aramaic—are worthy of your attention. The sisters run prevention […]