Culture

Three Surgeons General Speak Out Against Abstinence-Only Sex-Ed

Three former Surgeons General banded together for a common cause this week: supporting sex education. Read more »

Got the World in a Jug: The legacy of the blueswoman transcends genre

All brazen women in popular music, it could be argued, owe a debt to Bessie Smith. The no-nonsense, deep-voiced singer, nicknamed the Empress of the Blues, made more money than any other Black performer of her time, recording 160 songs between 1923 and 1931, many about sexual desire, abusive... Read more »

The Best Thing About "Tomorrowland" Is the Spunky Teen Girl Genius

Disney’s Tomorrowland is a feel-good film built around a simple, optimistic idea: If all the dreamers, artists, and geniuses truly pitched in, we humans could work our way out of this current mess of climate change, constant war, and global inequality. Read more »

The Ecofeminism of “Mad Max”

I went into Mad Max: Fury Road expecting to see a lot of explosions.  Read more »

The Thrilling Adventures of Ada Lovelace Are Now a Lovely Science Comic

Ada Lovelace was a brilliant mathematician. Her mind raced with big ideas on abstract mathematics—in 1843, she wrote what historians regard as the first paper on... Read more »

What if We Thought of Virginity as a Punch Card?

An ad seen in the documentary How to Lose Your Virginity. Photo by Therese Schechter. In How To Lose Your Virginity, director Therese Shechter explores some of life’s big... Read more »

A Comic About One Woman's Pregnancy

Cartoonist Rebecca Roher drew this beautiful comic for the Moms issue of Canadian feminist magazine GUTS. Enjoy. Read more »

The 20-Week Abortion Ban Shows How Little Politicians Care About Science

Photo by Sylvia McFadden. On Wednesday, the House passed a bill that would ban abortion 20 weeks after conception across the United States.  Read more »

Six Queer Lady Comedians I Now Know and Love

From top left: Funny people Caitlin Gill, Sam Jay, Scout Durwood, Maggie Farris, Jessica Sele, & Ever Mainard. On the first night of Portland’s Bridgetown Comedy Festival this weekend, six brilliant queer ladies... Read more »

Popaganda Episode: Women of Science

  The world has a long history of excluding women from science and—when women have been able to bust into the male-dominated halls of science—of overlooking their work.  But against all odds, women have made astounding contributions to the fields of science, technology,... Read more »

Pages

In a Bizarre 1976 Comic Book, Spider-Man Fought the Villain of Misleading Sex Education

Last week, I came across a very strange comic book: in 1976, Planned Parenthood teamed up with Marvel to publish a one-off comic in which... Read more »

"Moonlight" is an Essential Work of Art for the Current Political Moment

Moonlight displays the kind of empathy and humanity that we desperately need right now. Read more »

Oh Joy Sex Toy: How I Realized I'm Asexual

Artist Kiku H shares her personal experiences learning what it means to be asexual. Read more »