Culture

Thinking Kink: Safewords

In light of the Daniel Tosh firestorm this week, I probably don’t need to make the point that joking about sexual abuse is harmful, not funny. However, in the context of kink, a subculture that... Read more »

Introducing a New Series on Love and Afrofeminism!

My name is Spectra, and I’ll be your resident Cupid for the summer. Kinda. I’m a Nigerian writer, women’s rights and media activist, and editor at the afrofeminist blog Spectra Speaks, which publishes news, opinions, and... Read more »

Louis C.K. thinks "feminists can't take a joke," but his Daily Show interview wasn't ALL bad.

Louis C.K. claims he was vacationing sans Internet when the story broke about Daniel Tosh’s rape “jokes.” Kind of a coincidence that he’d... Read more »

Adventures in Feministory: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Queer Pioneer

As a good queer studies (not to be confused with lgbt studies, gender studies, and women’s studies–though, they’re all related) student, it’s important to have your bases covered. You start with the foundational texts, because as an incredibly new (we’re talking about my age... Read more »

Thinking Kink: Is Vanilla Sex Boring? Who Gets to Decide?

As kink continues to infiltrate the mainstream media so does its accompanying lingo, and one of the terms that’s bugging non-kinksters is “vanilla.” As folks who’ve fought against negative labels themselves, should BDSM practitioners quit bandying around this term? Or do we just need to... Read more »

Thinking Kink: Secretary and the Female Submissive

A decade before 50 Shades, closet kinksters were finding a way to come out via Steven Shainberg’s exercise in office S&M, Secretary. While this tense and sexy movie may have avoided coming off like a bad porn script, did Secretary do much to challenge the... Read more »

WTF Files: New York Times Wonders, "Are Modern Men Manly Enough?"

The headline alone is enough to bring on an eye-roll headache: “Are Modern Men Manly Enough?” And the head-desk-inducing subheaders will only make it worse: “... Read more »

Douchebag Decree: Daniel Tosh and the "Comedy" of Rape Culture

Some weeks it’s tough to choose who gets the Douchebag Decree. I’ll admit that I’ve written posts that were a bit of a stretch in the past, or tried to cram two stories into one because I couldn’t decide who was the bigger douche. This week, however, the guesswork’s... Read more »

Thinking Kink: No, Female Submission Doesn't Mean Oppression

This is the second part of a two-part series on female submission and oppression. Read the first post here. The woman who admits to enjoying sexual submission often finds herself stuck... Read more »

WTF Files: Video-Making Plastic Surgeon "Booty Doc" is a Total Ass

Elective cosmetic surgery is a complicated issue, but that hasn’t stopped Michael Salzhauer, Miami’s Wackiest Plastic Surgeon, from making cringe-worthy—and controversial—Internet parody videos. Read more »

Pages

"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 »

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 »

A Look at How Media Writes Women of Color

Nearly every Saturday morning, feminists of color hold Twitter discussions taking a deeper look at issues, such as gender violence. It’s the... 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 »