Tag Archives: feminist

15 Things To Know About Feminist Icon Gloria Steinem

Jessica WakemanMarch 25, 2013 //
Gloria's Style
Unlikely style inspiration? Feminist activist Gloria Steinem. Read More »
Gloria Steinem Doc
We loved "Gloria: In Her Own Words." Read More »
No Kids For Gloria
Gloria Steinem on Chelsea Lately
Gloria Steinem explains why she never wanted children. Read More »
happy birthday, gloria!
gloria steinem

Happy 79th birthday, Gloria Steinem! Journalist, feminist icon, and one of the founding members of Ms. magazine, Steinem is the woman I wanted to be when I was 17 … and, who am I kidding, who I still want to be today.

If you’re not familiar with Gloria Steinem’s place in Second Wave feminism — that is, the movement in the 1960s and 1970s that fought sexism in the workforce, legalized abortion, invented the birth control pill, criminalized domestic violence, and a whole host of other gains we take for granted today — then you’d best read up. Because if you’re not down with Gloria, we can’t be friends.

Keep reading »

Feminist Blogger Reveals Eating Disorder, Apologizes To Readers

Jessica WakemanMarch 22, 2013 //
My Eating Disorder
Katie struggled for an eating disorder in high school and college. Read More »
Feminist Joins WW
Jessica joined Weight Watchers, but felt kinda guilty about it. Read More »
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
One woman's experience battling this disorder. Read More »
Chloe Angyal

Living one’s values are difficult for any human. Living one’s values when those values are idealistic, compassionate, and come from a deep and open heart can be extremely difficult. Life throws “life” at you and you seek to respond in the way that would make you feel proud of yourself.

That doesn’t always work.

This morning, an editor from Feministing.com Chloe Angyal published an essay confessing that she’s been starving herself. You can read the whole essay here. The tl;dr is that Chloe (I’m calling her Chloe because I’ve known her socially for years and it feels weird to refer to her in the formal “Angyal”) became interested in eating disorders awareness after she became artistic director of her all-girls dance company in college. She made a mandate within the company to stop with negative body-talk and then became involved in a campus eating disorders awareness and prevention group. (Through that group, she met the lovely Courtney E. Martin, who brought her to Feministing.) She’s been reading, blogging and editing Feministing for several years.

And for the past two years, she’s also been starving herself. Keep reading »

Sexist Job Listing Only Wants You If You’re Female, Attractive & Under 25

Sarah GrayMarch 22, 2013 //
Sexist Beer Marketing
Lady beer expert pens open letter letter to beer enthusiasts. Read More »
Sexist Parking Spaces
parking
German mayor helpfully allocates parking spaces just for dudes. Read More »
Sexism Vs. Pelosi
nancy pelosi photo
Nancy Pelosi portrayed as the Wicked Witch of the West. Read More »
job posting 3.20.2013

Sexism in the workplace is manifested in a slew of ways: pay inequality, dress code regulations, getting hit on by your boss. In this case, on the site Australia InfoMine, sexism reared its ugly head before the job even started! According to News.Com.Au, the first requirement on a posting for the Korean coal company Pt. Karya Bumi Baratama is that receptionist applicants  be “female, single, max 25 years old.”

While the post does ask for appropropriate qualities such as an education “from reputable university” and “good interpersonal and communication skill,” it rounds itself out with the last bullet point asking for the candidate to be “good looking.”  Keep reading »

Developer Evangelist Adria Richards Fired After Tweeting About Sexual Jokes At Tech Conference

Jessica WakemanMarch 21, 2013 //
Shaming "Nice Guys"
nice guys of OK Cupid
All about the Nice Guys Of OK Cupid Tumblr. Read More »
Bullies Of Tumblr
The self-righteous bullies of Tumblr and their feminist apologists. Read More »
Women In Tech
Cutesy pink infographic patronizes women in tech. Read More »
Tech Prodigy dies
An amazing female tech prodigy passes away at 16. Read More »
adria richards tweet

Developer evangelist Adria Richards has been fired from her job at SendGrid after she tweeted a picture of a developer cracking sexual innuendo-filled jokes behind her at a recent tech conference. “Not cool. Jokes about forking repo’s in a sexual way and ‘big dongles,’ #pycon” Richards tweeted, referring to PyCon, a conference for the Python programming community. The tweet was accompanied by a TwitPic of the man who’d been making nerdy insider jokes. Richards added in another tweet, “Can someone talk to these guys about their conduct? I’m in lightning talks, top right near stage, 10 rows back #pycon.”

PyCon saw her tweets. “Thank you @AdriaRichards for bringing the inappropriate comments to our attention. We’ve dealt with the situation,” @PyCon tweeted. The man was identified and fired by his employer, PlayHaven. Then, earlier today, SendGrid announced it had fired Adria Richards, too.  Keep reading »

Study: Single Mothers The Reason For The Decline Of Men?

Sarah GrayMarch 21, 2013 //
A War On Men?
caveman
Absurd allegations from a Fox News' scare piece. Read More »
Single Mom Speaks
Rick Santorum is super-freaking ignorant about single moms. Read More »
What To Know
... about single moms. Read More »
say what?
single mom

Nerd alert!  I feel very “Lord of the Rings” whenever I read about the “fall” of men: dramatic, old fashioned, and spoken in Cate Blanchett’s voice.  And the conversation (like the trilogy) seems never-ending.  From Hanna Rosin’s book The End of Men to Charles Murray’s Coming Apart, everybody must add their two cents about why male incomes as a whole are declining.

So here’s mine.  I personally find this male-centric view frustrating.  Yes, according to a 2010 USA Today article, women are entering institutions of higher education at record-high rates, surrpassing that of men. Though I may think, Who cares?  Men have been dominating for millennia!, economists are worried about employment eligibility and opportunity for men. As reported by The New York Times, a new study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor David H. Autor, takes a stab at explaining this puzzling societal problem. Keep reading »

Girl Talk: Why I Love MMA Fighting

Courtney YoungMarch 19, 2013 //
Meet Gina Carano
Meet Gina Carano, the female face of mixed martial arts. Read More »
9YO MMA Fighter
Caitlin Kelley is a nine-year-old MMA fighter. Read More »
Trans MMA Fighter
fallon fox
Fighter Fallon Fox comes out as trans. Read More »
MMA fighting

The first MMA fight that I saw was by accident. I was visiting a friend at her apartment and her boyfriend and his friends were watching the last battle in a trio of fights between Quinton Jackson and Wanderlei Silva, two notable MMA fighters. I’d always had a healthy respect for the craft of boxing but this was unlike anything I’d ever seen. The extreme violence of it paired with the variety of fighting styles in the ring was especially jarring.

It was awhile before I saw my next fight. But this time it was between two women: Cristiane Santos and Gina Carano. I watched with a couple girlfriends of mine. All three of us were interested in fitness. We wanted to not only tone our bodies but also incorporate some kind of self-defense into our weekly workouts. The fight between Carano and Santos piqued our interest in not only learning how to fight in self-defense, but also in taking our fitness regime to the next level. Keep reading »

Frisky Q&A: Authors Jennifer Armstrong & Heather Wood Rudulph Discuss “Sexy Feminism”

Avital Norman NathmanMarch 15, 2013 //
Supporting Women
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey
Taylor Swift, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler prompt dumb convo about feminism. Read More »
Unfashionista Blog
louise mensch
Former UK politician Louise Mensch starts a blog with "man pleasing" tips. Read More »
She Founded "Bust" Mag!
Marcelle Karp of Bust Magazine
"Bust" co-founder Marcelle Karp on what it means to be a feminist. Read More »

It’s no big secret that one of the many battles the feminist movement fights against is its own poor PR. Many see feminism as the other “F-word” due to  stereotypes that paint feminists as mean harpies with no sense of humor who hate men, makeup, bras, and shaving their legs. Despite the majority of feminists falling way outside these parameters, there are still many people — women in particular — who write off feminism as “not for them,” without bothering to dig a little deeper and explore if that’s truly the case.

Enter: Sexy Feminism: A Girl’s Guide to Love, Success and Style by Jennifer Armstrong and Heather Wood Rudúlph. Their book, out this month, acts as a guide to help young women understand how feminism is not only great for the world, but for all aspects of their own lives as well. Keep reading »

Kathleen Hanna Gives Taylor Swift Her Feminist Seal Of Approval

Jessica WakemanMarch 15, 2013 //
Be More Like Beyonce
kathleen hanna and beyonce photo
Kathleen Hanna says Beyonce doesn't sit around reading mean comments. Read More »
Kathleen On Katy
She calls "I Kissed A Girl" a straight up offensive song. Read More »
Kathleen Hanna Rocks
Le Tigre photo
Kathleen Hanna of Le Tigre on being a feminist ambassador. Read More »
quotable
kathleen hanna

I’m totally into Taylor Swift. I think she has super-clever lyrics, and I love that she writes her own music. Some of the themes she writes about are stuff I wish was there for me when I was in high school, and I’m so happy she really cares about her female fans. She’s not catering to a male audience and is writing music for other girls. I don’t care if she calls herself a feminist or not. There is something that she’s doing that feels feminist to me in that she really seems to have a lot of control over what her career is doing. She’s 23. People say she’s dating all these guys. Well, yeah, she’s a young person and is dating all these people ’cause that’s what you do when you’re young. John Mayer can fuck 84 people in one day and nobody calls him a slut. I think that’s the subtext of some of the things she’s said recently.

– Kathleen Hanna, patron saint of all things feminist and formerly of the bands Le Tigre and Bikini Kill, dips her toe in the most pressing social issue of our time: Is Taylor Swift a feminist? In an interview with The Daily Beast, Hanna makes a point that I hadn’t considered before: Taylor Swift definitely isn’t catering to a male audience — posing nearly naked in lad mags, performing sexually provocative dance numbers, tweeting scantily glad pictures of herself — in the same way that Katy Perry, Rihanna or Britney Spears do. That alone does not make Swift a feminist, of course. The content of the messages she’s sending to her female audiences are important. But I suspect part of the reason that Swift gets so much shit for being a girly-girl making music for girls is because she doesn’t necessarily have a legion of straight male fans wanking off to/supporting her. (And FWIW, Kathleen Hanna is also a fan of Beyoncé, so I think we can agree she’s more of a lover than a hater.) [The Daily Beast] [Photo: Getty]

Mexican Town Bans Slutty, Slutty Miniskirts & Gay, Gay Cross-Dressing

Jessica WakemanFebruary 28, 2013 //
Miniskirt Ban
Indonesia to thoughtfully ban miniskirts so women don't "invite" rape. Read More »
On Slutshaming
It's about controlling women through guilt and shame. Read More »
Another Miniskirt Man
Italian town considers a miniskirt ban to "restore urban decorum." Read More »
Cops Warn Vs. Skirts
skirt photo
NYC police warned women not to wear skirts to avoid a serial rapist. Read More »
miniskirt

Because no man in the history of the world has ever been able to control his rape-alicious sexual urges, a Mexican town has banned women from wearing slutty, slutty miniskirts.

And they’ve also banned crossdressing. Because, you know, gays. Keep reading »

Conservative Writer Compares Ashley Judd To Todd Akin

Sarah GrayFebruary 27, 2013 //
Senate Run?
Ashley Judd
Ashley Judd is serious about a Senate run. Read More »
Akin's Rape Science
Rep. Todd Akin says "legitimate rape victims" don't get pregnant. Read More »
Ashley On Feminism
Ashley Judd discusses the patriarchy and misogyny like a pro. Read More »
um, what?
Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd was compared to Todd Akin by conservative writer for The Daily Caller, Alex Pappas. Seriously?

Ashley Judd’s name has been floated around as possible Democratic candidate to run Senator Mitch McConnell in Kentucky in 2014. But haters have already come out swinging, with a writer for conservative blog The Daily Caller comparing the actress/humantarian/women’s rights activist to Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin. No, seriously. He did:

“Judd runs the risk of being portrayed as a Todd Akin-esque candidate — meaning voters simply decide she’s unqualified to serve as a senator, because her comments are so outrageous.”

They both have the initial “A” in their names and when people talk about them the word “senate” is thrown around, but that’s where the similarities end. Judd’s comments may be on the liberal end of the spectrum, but they are not “outrageous” in the way that Akin’s uneducated comments were. Last I checked, Ashley Judd understands actual biology. Keep reading »

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