history

Bad Mouths: The Long History of Sanitizing Women’s Language

Image of Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl Earring overlaid with a photo of Rhianna lighting a cigarette
by Rachel Klein
July 15, 2019 at 2:12pm
Many of us think of washing someone’s mouth out with soap as an outdated punishment for ill-tempered children, but for a long time it was also commonplace as a corrective for women.
a black and white photo of women protestors in the 1900s holding a large PEACE banner

8 Ways to Reclaim Mother’s Day

by Ariel Gore
May 10, 2019 at 9:17am
The founder of Mother’s Day was a righteous, anti-capitalist activist.  Read more »
Baker, Joseph E. "The Witch No. 1," 1892.

What 17th Century Witch Burnings Teach Us About Evangelical Extremism

by Ann Foster
April 29, 2019 at 8:00am
The descendants of those brought up amid the height of the witch-burning craze who became among the first to colonize settlements like Salem, Massachusetts, continuing the misogynistic and prejudiced witch trials in the United States. Read more »
Against Our Will by Vivien Green Fryd

Vivien Green Fryd Charts the Feminist Artists Who’ve Painted #MeToo for Decades

by Dahlia Balcazar
April 23, 2019 at 10:59am
Against Our Will challenges us to witness without looking away, exploring sexual violence as a discrete subject of American art with unflinching analysis. Read more »
an illustration of a woman with colorful snakes on her head staring at a gray statue

Snake Eyes: The Power to Turn the Patriarchy into Stone

by McKenzie Schwark
April 23, 2019 at 10:00am
A feminist analysis of the myth of Medusa reclaims her curse as a powerful protection against the male gaze. Read more »
Dark book cover picturing man with tiki torch giving a Hitler salute

Here, Now, Everywhere: Deborah E. Lipstadt’s New Book Charts the Resurgence of Antisemitism

by Talia Lavin
April 10, 2019 at 12:24pm
Lipstadt’s uncompromising perspective is guaranteed to leave readers uneasy, no matter where they lie on the political spectrum. Read more »

When #MeToo Was a Blank Canvas: Joy McCullough Wants Teens to Know About Artemisia Gentileschi

by Dahlia Balcazar
March 25, 2019 at 10:00am
Joy McCullough’s novel Blood Water Paint offers a stunning portrait of the painter Artemisia Gentileschi. Read more »
a portrait of a white woman with a crown holding a feather

In the Frame: Artemisia Gentileschi, the Artist Who Broke the Mold

by Polly Allen
March 25, 2019 at 9:00am
My ultimate empowered female art heroine is a woman who made a career for herself long before the word “feminist” was in use. Read more »
a white woman smoking a cigarette walks through an office with a box

The Forgotten History of the Women Who Shaped Modern Advertising

by Ciara Lavelle
March 21, 2019 at 9:00am
It’s easy to dismiss advertising as an anti-feminist industry. Read more »
Esther Hobart Morris, the first female Justice of the Peace in the United States

Suffragette City: The Reluctant, History-Making story of Wyoming’s Esther Morris

by emmieodea@gmail.com
March 19, 2019 at 2:14pm
“Although I have often regretted I was not better qualified to fill the position,” she wrote, “like all pioneers, I have labored in faith and hope.” Read more »
three hikers standing at the summit of a mountain

The History of Manless Climbing

by Vivian Underhill
March 19, 2019 at 9:00am
What does true gender equality look like in the climbing world? Read more »

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

by Tina Vasquez
May 20, 2016 at 11:28am
To imply that trans women pose a threat to cisgender women in restrooms is misinformation that preys on unfounded fears. Read more »

The Forgotten History of the Women Who Shaped Modern Advertising

a white woman smoking a cigarette walks through an office with a box
by Ciara Lavelle
March 21, 2019 at 9:00am
It's easy to dismiss advertising as an anti-feminist industry. Read more »

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

by Sarah Mirk
April 23, 2014 at 3:52pm
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 »

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 »