Original Target logo. 1962. Image via Wikipedia Recently, Change.org‘s Michael A. Jones covered a “public relations” misstep by the highly-recognized corporation, Target. It was revealed that the chain had donated $150,000 to a known antigay political figure in Minnesota (home to Target HQ). The matter of whether or not Target officials will work on rebuilding [...]
Read more global feminist posts at Gender Across Borders.
Comedy has never been a welcoming profession for women, and gender equality is clearly not the field’s strong suit. Over the last few years, feminist writers and cultural critics have repeatedly exposed the systemic sexism and racism inherent to late night television, and similar work has been done in regards to stand-up. A particularly poignant [...]
As of yesterday afternoon, when Federal Judge Walker overturned Proposition 8 in California, gay rights in the US have been looking up. Thousands celebrated in California and across the country last night, and rightfully so. And yet, true equality, especially when it comes to the military, still seems so far off. Since Obama was elected [...]
In early June, I interviewed Nora Shourd, the mother of Sarah Shourd, one of the three young Americans detained in Iran for allegedly crossing the Iraq/Iran border while on a vacation from working in Damascus last summer. Saturday, July 31st, marks the one-year anniversary of Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal’s arrest. Since I [...]
Trigger warning: Most of Eminem’s lyrics should probably come with a trigger warning attached. In this post, I’ll mark all particularly graphic lyrics with a “**” on either end. What happens when hip-hop’s most notorious woman-hater releases a frank and somewhat on point song about domestic violence from the point of view of a perpetrator…and [...]
A few weeks ago I posted about abortion access in Brazil, and since then I have read several pieces about abortion access in other countries. Last week the New York Times published an article about abortion providers in the United States. (Lest anyone feels inclined to step up on an America-is-better pedestal, 87% of counties [...]
On Sunday, I saw The Kids Are All Right, a new film directed by Lisa Cholodenko. I enjoyed the film for many reasons, but perhaps the most significant one is that I loved watching a mainstream movie depicting lesbian parenting as completely normal. The family is never overtly politicized, and none of the characters question [...]
Despite a title that makes skins crawl among Muslim women the world around, The New York Times’ “Behind the Veil” article published a few weeks ago was a welcome relief from the usual sensationalist and mystery-clad coverage of veiled women. In a funny, inspiring and down-to-earth fashion, Lorraine Ali recounted the stories of two niqabi [...]
A week prior to its July 13th release, M.I.A.’s new album, /\/\/\Y/\ (or Maya), was made available streaming on the artist’s MySpace page. The agitprop-meets-cyberpunk video for “Born Free” is the most inspiring thing I’ve seen all year (a clear indication that M.I.A.’s message is as much visual as it is aural), and my guess [...]
Janelle Monae is a groundbreaking new artist with the musical chops to back up her bold and sweeping sci-fi narratives and confident persona. She fuses a wide range of musical styles (r&b, funk, punk, hip-hop, classical, glam rock) seamlessly and crafts an intricate and provocative story through her lyrics. In interviews, Monae repeatedly speaks of [...]
