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Pop Pedestal: Toph Bei Fong

Welcome back to Pop Pedestal, the blog series about pop culture personalities we admire. Today’s tribute goes to Toph Bei Fong, earthbender extraordinaire from the Nickelodeon cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

In The Frame: Women of the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a major cultural movement in the 20th century by black artists from the Harlem neighborhood in New York. Although the precise dates of the Renaissance are vague, the artwork remains strong and powerful to this day. Here are some of the women artists of the era.

Sebelius Overrules FDA: Plan B Won't Be Sold Over the Counter

By now you’ve probably heard the bad news:

In what can only be called an astounding move by an Administration that pledged on inauguration day that medical and health decisions would be based on fact not ideology and for which women are a major constituency, today Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) overruled a much-awaited decision...

The 99%: The Hidden Class Politics of Teen Mom 2

Those things we think we know about teen moms? The limited education, welfare use, the doomed romantic partnerships, the poor outcomes for their children? When we control for poverty, those adverse outcomes virtually disappear. It’s not that they had a child while they were young, it’s that they had a child while they were poor.

Mom & Pop Culture: Beyond Pink & Blue Toys

If you know even one kid, you already know they’re more than a stereotype of their gender with a myriad of interests—so why don’t toy manufacturers and ad executives acknowledge this?

In The Frame: How Did You Discover Feminist Art?

Not only is this guest blog about exploring who has made a contribution to feminist art, which movements embrace women and which galleries support it, but also how we all encountered (and continue to encounter) it. When did you first see an artwork that portrayed women in a positive light? What are your must-see images? How would you introduce the topic to someone who only thinks of the “great...

Bechdel Test Canon: Passion Fish

A look back at John Sayles’ 1992 feature Passion Fish in order to consider interracial friendship and white filmmakers telling black people’s stories.

Bitch in a Box: Holiday Gift Guide, Jet-Set Sex Edition!

Holidays are a time of giving, food, and family. And travel. And stress. Some of us are going to want to relieve some of that stress. And those of us who do don’t need to be reminded by a certain airline-employed stranger to “Get your freak on, girl” upon arriving at our destination. While we fully encourage flying your “freak” flag often and proudly, between full-body pat downs and X-...

B-Sides: Is She & Him's Gender-Swapped “Baby It's Cold Outside” Less Date Rape-y Than the Original?

On their latest album A Very She & Him Christmas, Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward cover the creepy (yet catchy—creetchy?) classic with a twist: Deschanel is the “wolf” to M. Ward’s “mouse.” Does this make the song any less of a problem?

Adventures in Feministory: Ella Baker

Ella Baker is best known for her involvement in the civil rights movement during the late 1950s and 1960s, when she helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. These organizations were indeed pivotal, but, as Baker herself said, “One of the things that has to be faced is the process of waiting to change the system, how much we...

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