Latest Articles

The H-Word: WTF, America.

November 10, 2011 at 3:01pm

Every now and again I’m struck immobile by the state of our nation. I had wanted to prepare an article on the risks of sex work, real versus imagined, but I’m thinking what the fuck. Why bother. This country sucks. No one’s listening. I turned on the news this morning and they’re rioting at Penn State over the firing of a...

Bringing Up Baby: AskMen.com on Pregnancy and Sex

by Katherine Don

November 10, 2011 at 2:51pm

AskMen.com, an online lifestyle magazine, enjoys a larger readership than Maxim, GQ, and Men’s Health, with 15 millions visitors each month. According the their website, AskMen’s readers are “confident, successful and interesting men,” and AskMen’s mission is to “help guys become Better Men.”

Becoming a Better Man doesn’t have...

**Bibliobitch: “We're fat, we f*ck, it's good, get over it": A Q&A with Hanne Blank**

by Yana Tallon-Hicks

November 10, 2011 at 12:52pm

Sometimes the best books about sex simply state the obvious: masturbation feels good, most women require direct clitoral stimulation to orgasm, fat people have and (gasp!) enjoy sex (and with all kinds of partners!). Hanne Blank’s newly released edition of Big, Big Love is a prime example of how sex shame can be fought hardest by basic acknowledgment and normalization, sending us the...

Douchebag Decree: Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, and the PSU Administration That Covered It Up

by Jacob Dittmer

November 10, 2011 at 11:23am

Trigger warning: This post contains descriptions of rape, molestation, and abuse.

As you probably know, some epic douchiness transpired recently in State College Pa., where Jerry Sandusky exerted his power as an assistant coach at a semi-religious institution (Penn State Football) to (allegedly) rape boys. And in the six days since the...

Bringing Up Baby: Stay Away From That Tuna! (Or I'll Take Your Baby)

by Katherine Don

November 9, 2011 at 12:25pm

During last week’s episode of Parenthood, Julia panicked because Zoe—the young woman carrying the baby Julia plans to adopt—is caught eating sushi. With tuna.

Trade Secrets: The tough talk of the new anti-trafficking movement

by Emi Koyama

November 9, 2011 at 11:19am

In the 2008 film Taken, Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a retired CIA operative whose undercover past is called into action when his daughter is kidnapped while traveling abroad and sold into sexual slavery. Using his counterterrorism skills to torture and murder those who stand between him and his daughter's captors, he eventually rescues his daughter and comes home a hero, with no...

Raise Your Glass If U R A Firework Who Was Born This Way: Who's to say what makes a gay anthem?

by Lauren Elmore

November 9, 2011 at 11:18am

Hey, guys…. Um, this is Ke$ha. I just wanted to say something. Um, to anyone who's being bothered, or abused, or harassed, or bullied, I just wanted to tell you that, um…it will get better. It will. No matter if you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, however you are choosing to live is beautiful, and you have my full support and all of my love. And to be yourself,...

Young, Awkward, and Black: The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl's Issa Rae Gets Comfortable With Success

by Kjerstin Johnson

November 9, 2011 at 11:17am

“Should I say hi again? She knows I’m here.” J slinks along the hallway of Gutbusters, the diet-pill company she works for, to avoid seeing the new hire she keeps running into. Growing impatient with the situation’s awkwardness, J wonders, “Does this girl live in the hallway?”

Whether it’s running into a regrettable one-night stand (who can...

In the Frame: Female Artists in Literature, From Bront

by Polly Allen

November 9, 2011 at 11:16am

Great artists don’t just have to exist in galleries. Books have given us some really inspirational pre- or post-feminist characters that are good at art, and this liberates them either emotionally or physically. What unites them is their independent thinking, as they are determined to go against the grain and not end up like their peers, bitter or vacuous. Some examples here are from...

Mom & Pop Culture: McGender: Unpacking the Happy Meal

by Avital Norman Nathman

November 9, 2011 at 10:32am

I’m not a fan of McDonald’s for a variety of reasons, but beyond their tasty unhealthy food they are a perfect example of how marketing has changed over the years to further push gender stereotypes upon consumers.

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