A Little F'd Up: Why Feminism Is Not A Dirty Word by Julie Zeilinger now available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Feminism | Posted by Chloe H on 05/22/2013
I recently read an article posted on Yahoo News about prostitution during World War II in Japan. Prostitution is a difficult and controversial subject for feminists, but what most can agree on is that forced prostitution is a horror equivalent to slavery that needs to be stopped. However, the mayor of Osaka, Japan, Toru Hashimoto disagrees. When reflecting on the horrors of World War II, Hashimoto publicly claimed that the Japanese military’s forced prostitution of Asian women was crucial in order for the army to “maintain discipline” and provide a release for soldiers risking their lives in battle.
During World War II, Hashimoto’s opinion on forced prostitution was probably shared by the majority of military officials and soldiers who were serving, but that obviously doesn’t make it right, and …
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Feminism | Posted by Becka W on 05/20/2013
My senior year of college, two of my roommates and I watched Teen Mom CONSTANTLY. I liked to pretend I wasn’t watching it, but the conversation usually went something like this:
Becka (standing in doorway): “Oh jeez, guys. You’re watching this?”
Arielle: “Yes. Absolutely.”
[10 minutes later]
Rachel: “…Do you want to sit down?”
Becka (still standing in doorway): “…..Yes. FARRAH’S CRYING FACE IS CRAZY.”
When you watch the show, the difficulties of teen parents and pregnant students become painfully clear. Recently, I was re-watching Season 1 on Netflix Instant, and it clicked – wow. The Pregnant and Parenting Student Access to Education Act would REALLY help these girls.
Title IX already affords a number of protections to pregnant & parenting students. This law requires that schools receiving federal funds
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Feminism | Posted by Jocelyn S on 05/10/2013
I would jump at any opportunity to participate in another workshop with Rachel Simmons, who is someone I’ve admired since her first book, Odd Girl Out, came out back in 2002. I got the opportunity to be a part of one of Rachel’s workshops during my time at the Omega Institute. I participated in the Say What You Mean, Be Who You Are workshop, which Rachel managed to cram with a ton of valuable lessons. Taking any workshop at Omega is incredible — it’s a truly magnificent place where people from all over can reflect and learn in a peaceful and nurturing environment that feeds the mind, body, and soul in more ways than you could imagine — but I especially loved the engaging ways Rachel taught us to advocate …
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Feminism | Posted by Charles Clymer on 05/8/2013
A friend of mine has a young son. She recently asked me, and other men, to write a letter to our sons who exist or have yet to be born that she could show to her own child, someday. This is my letter.
Dear Son,
If you’re reading this, you are now set to embark on a journey into that wonderful, stressful, often-sticky phase we call “young adulthood”.
I want you to know that my love for you, my personal stake in your existence, could never be adequately measured.
As you have grown over the last 18 years, all I have ever sought to do is give you the best possible start on happiness in life and to respect and love others as equals.
You are a man in our …
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Feminism, Pop-Culture | Posted by Shavon M on 05/6/2013
In recent years, Disney has been toying around with their “Princess” brand, making their popular films and characters even more marketable to children–namely, to young girls. This isn’t really new: Disney has changed the designs of their princesses to fit with market trends numerous times since the first princess, Snow White, debuted in 1937. Controversy arose, however, when Disney began retooling their princess brand for new products last summer, tweaking their make-up and outfits, and changing other, more integral aspects of their characters.
The redesigns are noticeably more glamorous and more bedazzled. Princess Aurora (from Sleeping Beauty, 1959) and Belle (Beauty and the Beast, 1991) no longer have the visually-flat hair of their movie counterparts, and are instead featured with the shimmering, flowing locks frequently seen in magazine …
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Creative | Posted by Tiffany C on 05/3/2013
Let me ask you this:
What do we teach our daughters
When the bestselling doll on the market, Barbie,
Has a made-up face and mascara-ed eyes and lips as pink as grapefruit,
But not enough ambition or intelligence to calculate her net worth?
What do I tell my daughter
when we pass through Toys-R-Us
And she wants that artificial décolletage in a box,
This trickery, chicanery of Mattel
who fashioned this doll, this plastic piece of shit
With a serial number lingering on her lower back like a tramp stamp
Above slim thighs which gap and disproportionate legs,
Legs, I tell her, that would snap beneath
Barbie’s weight if she were real
That would make her fall at the slightest step,
Only for the purpose of mass-production and consumerism
which …
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Feminism | Posted by Dani R on 04/29/2013
I thought I would stop being defined by my weight after middle school. When it kept happening, I thought, Okay, maybe after high school people will leave me alone. Again, I haven’t been so lucky and something that happened today only emphasizes that. While this incident is hard for me to repeat, I want everyone to know that even as an adult, I am still defined by my weight.
I went to the Pin Up BOOtique today in Ontario Mills, California and I spotted a really cute halter top that I wanted to try on. I asked a girl working there if she could get it for me in an XL and she said, “It runs small, so it’s not going to fit you.” I told her I wanted …
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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 04/28/2013
Of Norwegian and Pakistani ancestry, British born Nadine Shah is an uncompromising vocalist/composer hailing from a small coastal village in the North East of England called Whitburn. Her dark tales of love, loss and lust are fast earning her favourable comparisons such as ‘the female Nick Cave’. Sonically, she counts her inspirations as artists such as Scott Waker, PJ Harvey and Dirty Projectors, though lyrically her tales are better informed by love, tragedy, the sea and more abstractly the works of Philip Larkin and Frida Kahlo. ?Nadine is currently working on her debut album with producer Ben Hillier.
via MySpace
Dreary Town
Aching Bones
Nadine Shah on iTunes: 
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