Culture

Douchebag Decree: Douche Coach Distributes Douchey Survey

After witnessing some of the ugliest effects of sports culture play out this past week, it’s good to see that some douchebags are being held (somewhat) accountable for their actions... Read more »

The H-Word:

A sometime writer, social worker, dancer, artist and yogi, Dylan Ryan is also one of adult entertainment’s favorite feminist porn stars. She has been the recipient of The Feminist Porn Award’s Heartthrob of the Year Award and was named one of... Read more »

Bringing Up Baby: Women of Color with Wailing Babies in TVLand

To date, I’ve written 19 posts about representations of pregnancy, childbirth, and infant care in the media. I’ve proffered examples from a variety of television series and films: Up All Night, The Office, True Grit, Glee, Knocked Up, Look Who’s Talking, The Rachel Zoe... Read more »

The H-Word: "Cleaning Up" OWS and Our Country's Historic Fear of Contagion

Not so good morning, America. I woke up yesterday to discover that on Monday night the police had cleared Zuccotti Park. As of this morning, Zuccotti Park remains largely unoccupied and quiet,... Read more »

Mom & Pop Culture: Remakes

This trend of remaking childhood classics holds no nostalgia for me. It only holds anger that companies feel that they can update a part of my childhood in order to double their profit margins and, in the same breath, insult my child by suggesting he won’t enjoy something with a simple,... Read more »

In the Frame: Woman Offers Her Body as Men

23-year-old Shauna Taylor is proud to own an original piece by Damien Hirst. If you want to have a look, she’s showing it within the pages of Garage magazine—a new publication edited by Dasha Zhukova, who runs a gallery in Moscow and used to edit Pop, the biannual fashion... Read more »

The H-Word: Essence, Revealed

The first time I met Essence Revealed was two years ago at the Sex Workers Cabaret, an annual event in New York City where sex workers take the stage to tell their diverse stories through performance, narrative, puppetry, burlesque, comedy and more. Essence is a dual degreed, former lap dance... Read more »

Adventures in Feministory: Gloria Anzald

Gloria Anzaldúa lived a pedal-to-the-metal life, refusing to deny any aspects of her dynamic identity and writing her own page in the great book of queer/feminist/critical theory by tearing out 20 others. Her writings are enactments of the “borderland/frontera” concept that she pioneered; her books... Read more »

On Our Radar

Here’s what we’ve been reading (and watching, and thinking about) this week. Have you been reading Ladydrawers’ interview comic with Alison Bechdel? Catch up with part two of three over at... Read more »

In The Frame: Tracey Emin

As one of the most controversial artists of modern times, Tracey Emin has generated serious column inches for her overtly personal work, including the installation My Bed (complete with condoms) and her series of autobiographical appliquéd blankets, littered with swear words. David Bowie called her... Read more »

Pages

Know & Tell: The Literary Renaissance of Trans Women Writers

For so long, the people who wrote about us were not us. Finally, that is beginning to change. Read more »

Ms. Opinionated: I'm a Man. How Can I Help the Feminist Movement?

Welcome to Ms. Opinionated, our weekly advice column dealing with questions of life, love, feminism, and pop culture. This week, a reader... Read more »

Politically Correct Language Isn't Just About Being Polite—It's About Survival

Photo by Phillipe Leroyer (Creative Commons). Two weeks ago, Jonathan Chait published the lengthy essay “Not a Very P.C.... Read more »

The Dramatic History of American Sex-Ed Films

In 1948, in a seventh grade classroom in Eugene, Oregon, a teacher dimmed the lights and flipped on 16mm projector. A film called Human... Read more »