Baylor told Brittney Griner not to talk about the, y’know, lesbian thing
When Brittney Griner, the first pick in this year’s WNBA draft, mentioned to SI.com last month that she’s a lesbian, it wasn’t a huge coming-out moment for anyone who knew her, because she’d been open about her sexuality since her freshman year of high school. It might have been a surprise to anyone who was only familiar with her college career, though, because she was on strict orders from Baylor University to keep quiet about it.
...read moreLiving in a pretty ugly world
Living for five years in California and then Oregon, Samantha Escobar felt okay about her appearance, more satisfied with her career and family and friends than she was concerned about weight gain or loss. After just over a month living in New York, she’s begun to feel ugly — “[u]gly enough that I view myself unpresentable to be in front of other human beings, as though I am literally disrespecting them by looking how I do.” It’s heartbreaking.
...read moreAngelina Jolie and her mastectomy. (It was going to come up eventually.)
In February, Angelina Jolie had a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy. This week, she wrote an op-ed about it for the New York Times. And here’s all I’m going to say about it.
...read moreNo, actually. No. Violence against women actually isn’t funny.
No, The Onion. No, Hanna Rosin. A joke about beating a woman to death is not funny.
...read moreLGBT community to the state of Minnesota: “YOU’RE WELCOME.”
Well, you’ve done it now, Minnesota. You’ve gone and okayed same-sex marriage, and now Michele Bachmann is leaving.
[Update: Okay, so I'm a sucker. It's satire. Wishful thinking on my part, I suppose.]
...read moreElizabeth Smart didn’t run because she felt dirty and worthless.
Elizabeth Smart, kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom at age 14 and subject to horrible abuses for the next nine months, says she didn’t run from her captors because her abstinence-only education had taught her to feel like a worthless, chewed-up piece of gum.
...read moreMountain Dew sells racism and violence against women
PepsiCo has pulled a Mountain Dew commercial that social commentator Dr. Boyce Watkins calls “arguably the most racist commercial in history.” [Content warning for racism, battery, and basically everything that's wrong with the world]
...read moreOkay, lay off Beyonce, already.
So we know that Beyonce’s numerous sins include dressing sexy, being married, and saying that girls run the world when that isn’t technically true. But did you also know she’s singlehandedly responsible for luring young girls into sexual exploitation?
...read moreOn being one of those girls
Something about this piece at Delusions of Equality really resonated with me — and I’m not sure why, because it doesn’t describe my experience in the slightest. While I couldn’t pull off girly-girl convincingly or hide my good grades, my desperate efforts were definitely in the direction of conforming. I hung out with guys in carefully unoffensive yet girly casual outfits and talked about having more guy friends than girlfriends because girls were too dramatic and emotional. Without undue pressure I would acknowledge that I believed all the things feminists believe but I just wasn’t a feminist because, y’know, I wasn’t one of them.
Anyway, so what I’m saying is… sorry for college, I guess.
...read moreToday in Badass Young Women
A high-school senior and her classmates speak up for accurate information and against a terrible abstinence-only speaker. An eight-year-old girl chases down a Tennessee state senator to get some answers. And an Oscar nominee shows she’s more than just an exceptionally talented young actress. Today, on Today in Badass Young Women.
...read moreThe future of #FemFuture
#FemFuture is a report and ongoing project aimed at creating a sustainable online feminism for the future by relieving the burdens that place feminists at a disadvantage to opposing forces. It’s a solid concept and jumping-off point. But there’s room for “Hey, good stuff!” and “… with some problematic implications” in the same conversation. So: Congratulations to all the women who worked hard to contribute to #FemFuture. It’s good stuff. With some problematic implications. That people are pointing out. Which is not antifeminist.
...read moreYou know what? Go for it. Do it! Compliment women!
So last week, President Obama delivered an inappropriate compliment to California Attorney General Kamala Harris — inappropriate not because it was insulting or prurient but because, well, it concerned her appearance, and they were at a political event, and that’s not the place you talk about a woman’s appearance. He said:
She’s brilliant and she’s dedicated, she’s tough. She also happens to be, by far, the best-looking attorney general. … It’s true! C’mon.
he apologized for it.
But some people don’t like to hear important men apologize for stuff. At Jezebel, Lindy West responds to Washington Times columnist Jack Engelhard, who is pissed that Obama apologized because just for a moment, just for one shining moment, it seemed okay for Engelhard to do any damn thing he wanted without taking any time out to consider the feelings of women. Luckily, West provides for us a handy list of times when it’s appropriate to compliment a woman so you don’t have to go to jail over it.
...read more
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