Culture

Tessa Miller, a white woman with short blond hair, poses in a black and white photo with her small, brown dog

“What Doesn’t Kill You” Tells the Gut-Churning Truth about Chronic Illness

by Jordan Davidson

February 10, 2021 at 10:17am

Crohn’s disease is unpredictable, cruel, and gross. There’s no way around that. Read more »

In “We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire,” Women’s History is Lifesaving

by Ashley Bardhan

February 10, 2021 at 9:31am

The novel is a meditation on the power of uncovering past heroines. Read more »

Zendaya, a light skinned black girl with long hair, wears a dress and is held by John David Washington, a black man who wears a white dress shirt.

Twisted Trauma: “Malcolm & Marie” Evaluates the Young, Female Muse

by Jordan Taliha McDonald

February 5, 2021 at 7:07am

Marie is a muse without divine favor: She must know invisibility so that he might know its opposite. Read more »

a thin, Black woman poses naked behind a red filter for the TikTok Silhouette Challenge

Under the Red Light: Privacy Concerns Abound with the Silhouette Challenge

by Ope Adedeji

February 5, 2021 at 7:05am

Though the challenge was meant to be empowering, it quickly backfired. Read more »

T.I. is wearing a purple snapback hat, a grey t-shirt with purple writing, and a denim vest that says "Akon"

What the T.I. and Tiny Abuse Allegations Reveal about Hip Hop and Power

by Shamira Ibrahim

February 3, 2021 at 10:26am

We don’t live in a society where the abused get justice. Read more »

Fantastic Frankey, a brown-skinned Black woman with curly hair, smiles at the camera with red lipstick

Meet Fantastic Frankey, the YouTuber Changing Nerdom from Inside Out

by Evette Dionne

February 2, 2021 at 11:23am

That’s what the Fanboy Fighter moniker is: fighting men who are protecting the genre. Read more »

screenshot of a video game where two female anime characters are embracing each other about to kiss

In It Not to Win It: Indie Game Designers Queer Time, Space, and Play

by Nina St. Pierre

February 2, 2021 at 10:01am

Queering virtual worlds goes beyond including LGBTQ characters or storylines. Read more »

an Asian woman with jet black hair hides her face behind her hands as she lays across a bed

No, Shitty Men Have Not Been Purged From Media

by Jessica Wakeman

January 29, 2021 at 5:23pm

Every woman, nonbinary person, or person of color who is driven from journalism because of the shitty men in charge leaves us poorer as a culture. Read more »

Claudia Conway, a white teenage girl with brown hair. Text reads, “Is Claudia Conway safe?”

Very Online: Can Claudia Conway’s Platform Save Her?

by Rachel Charlene Lewis

January 29, 2021 at 11:00am

“My mom deserves to go to jail—that’s unreal.” Read more »

Harry Styles, a white boy with a small frame, is covered in tattoos and shirtless. He wears a yellow rain hat and stands on a cliff by a river.

Slippery Soft: The Rise of the Manic Pixie Dream Boy

by Madeleine Pollard

January 28, 2021 at 11:03am

Manic Pixie Dream Boyism resists the clean-cut mold of macho masculinity. Read more »

Will Filming the Police Keep Us Safe?

by Victoria Law

February 5, 2015 at 10:31am

There’s a cultural idea that having someone looking over our shoulder makes us behave better. From fake security cameras to Elf... Read more »

Why You Should Pay for Porn

by Casey Quinlan

April 29, 2015 at 7:27pm

If you’re a progressive middle-class individual, chances are you think about where your food comes from. Maybe you try to buy shoes that are... Read more »

It's Time to End the Long History of Feminism Failing Transgender Women

by Tina Vasquez

February 17, 2014 at 1:26pm

The marginalization of transgender women in feminism is not new, but the decades-long debate has taken on new dimension thanks to social media and the ease of finding strangers’ personal information online. Read more »