Culture

Exploring Gender in Cowgirl Narratives

Cowgirl narratives—films, shows, and books featuring women and horses—often show women who are at home in their bodies, connected with nature, and many times, disrupting traditional gender roles. As cowgirls, women are shown in acts of blissful physicality. They follow their dreams. They are... Read more »

Food, Family, and Identity: Q&A with Author of New Memoir Licking the Spoon

There’s a difficult scene in toward the beginning of Candace Walsh’s memoir, Licking The Spoon, where five-year-old Walsh is essentially force-fed her dinner amidst tears, gagging, and vomit. This particularly heartbreaking image... Read more »

Ms. Opinionated: All the Advice You Asked For, and Some You Didn't

Welcome to the latest installment of Ms. Opinionated, in which readers have questions about the pesky day-to-day choices we all face, and I give advice about how to make ones that (hopefully) best reflect our shared commitment to feminist values—as well as advice on what to do when they don’... Read more »

On Our Radar: Today's Feminist News Roundup

You’ve made it to the proverbial hump.  Here’s some of the latest news to get through it. With the prevalence and move towards “neat and tight” labia, women who don’t fit into this category and don’t care to are taking to the Internet to support one another... Read more »

RuPaul's Drag Race Comic Recap: The Six Best Moments from Episode Four

Continuing our weekly illustrated recap of the most fabulous show on TV, in the fourth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the competition gets fierce in a dance battle. Ghosts of mothers are present. The whip is cracked. One... Read more »

Girls, Girls, Girls: Recap of Episode Six, “Boys”

  Last week’s weirdly controversial Girls episode “One Man’s Trash”, was defined by melancholy. This week’s episode, “Boys”, articulates that melancholy in a precise way... Read more »

Six Tips From Women Working Male-Dominated Engineering Fields

One of my greatest high school regrets is that I never took an auto shop class. I would have had a chance to learn some practical skills like changing oil and changing a tire. At the time, I doubt it fit into my schedule, but entering a class of mostly boys scared me as well. It’s not that I... Read more »

On Our Radar: Today's Feminist News Roundup

Hey, it’s Friday! Happy early weekend, and here’s a bunch of news from around the web. • The champion Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius has been charged with the murder of... Read more »

RuPaul's Drag Race Comic: The Six Best Moments from Episode Three

In the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, twelve queens remain to fight tooth and nail polish for the crown. In this leg of the competition, a children’s show challenge separated the Muppets from the babies. I’ve illustrated my six favorite moments from ... Read more »

Ms. Opinionated: All the Advice You Asked For, and Some You Didn't

Welcome to the latest installment of Ms. Opinionated, in which readers have questions about the pesky day-to-day choices we all face, and I give advice about how to make ones that (hopefully) best reflect our shared commitment to feminist values—as well as advice on what to do when they don’t... Read more »

Pages

Hot Under the Bonnet: The Cooptation of Amish Culture in Mass-Market Fiction

Dubbed “Amish romance novels,” “Amish fiction,” or the more waggish “bonnet rippers,” these novels just one entry point into the varying images of Amish communities in U.S. popular culture. Read more »

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 »

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 »

Eat, Pray, Spend: Priv-Lit and the New, Enlightened American Dream

Even as reports on joblessness, economic recovery, and home foreclosures suggest that no one is immune to risk during this recession, the popularity of women’s wellness media has persisted and, indeed, grown stronger.  Read more »