Culture

Close to Home: Donna Freitas on the Stalking Professor Who Irrevocably Changed Her Life

“It’s just a relief not to be alone with it anymore.” Read more »

“Four Weddings” Is Still a Pop Culture Starting Point for Sign Language

It helps not to think of a signed language, a written language, and a spoken one as being in any way connected to each other at all, but to recognize them as distinct, each one a living, breathing entity. Read more »

In Hot Water: “The Kitchen” Is a Comic-Book Adaptation Whose Diversity Feels Forced

The film pushes a shallow image of female unity, flattening the complex characters from the comic into easily readable types. Read more »

Very Online: The Chicken Sandwich Debacle Shows How Brands Co-Opt Black Twitter

Popeyes didn’t notice the opportunity to be found in responding to the Chick-fil-A tweet—until Black Twitter did. Read more »

BitchTapes: Anti-Fascist Heavy Metal Tunes

Metal is too good for Nazis and there are a growing number of artists who agree. Read more »

Hot Mic: Priyanka Chopra’s Selectively Woke Stardom Is a Strategic—and Risky—Decision

Diasporas and communities of color often feel that we must pedestalize even the least bit of representation that comes our way. Read more »

What Do We Do with “Good Boys?”

“The internet really flattens a lot of conversations that require a lot of nuance.” Read more »

Stop Steaming Your Vagina and Other Wisdom from Dr. Jen Gunter

The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina: Separating the Myth from the Medicine  tackles every old wives’ tale you heard as a teen. Read more »

Weapons of Mass Distraction: The Bikini Turned Sexuality into a Threat

From the moment it debuted, the bikini was a scandal. Read more »

Cruel Bummer: “Lover” Is an Odd Litmus Test for Taylor Swift’s Politics

Taylor Swift is turning 30 in December, so it’s no surprise that she’s released an album that feels more authentic and honest than her previous two. 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 »

What I Learned About Gender and Power from Sailor Moon

My life began in 1995 — the year I turned eight and became a divorced kid.    Read more »

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

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 »

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 »