WMC FBomb
The Truth About High Heels and Confidence
I hate wearing high heels. I wear Converse All Stars in black and white, black Adidas I got on sale, Nike running shoes, Birkenstocks, and flat brown suede boots — but not a single pair of heels can b...
WMC FBomb
How I Learned Being Seen As "Sexy" Doesn't Equate To Happiness
I was 10 years old the first time someone commented on my appearance in public. I was walking with a boy in my class down the narrow, dark street of East 86th street in New York City. As we reac...
WMC FBomb
The Truth About Having "Bad" Hair
I am a young Senegalese woman with “kinky” hair — specifically, type 4A/4B according to Andre Walker’s hair chart — and I have heard every comment in the book about it. Since preschool I have been to...
WMC News & Features
April 22, 2016 | Kathleen Downes |
Body image and body standards,
Disability,
WMC Loreen Arbus Journalism Program
The power of holding hands
The author, a disability activist, shares an insight from the “sisterhood of disability”—that handholding between friends is not just for children.
WMC FBomb
The Surprising Way Social Media Can Shape Young Girls' Bodies
The colossal expansion of technology has revolutionzed young women's lives in many ways. With the click of a button, girls can immediately become informed about what’s trending and playing, who’...
WMC FBomb
April 03, 2016 | Rachael H |
Body image and body standards,
Disability,
Feminism,
Health,
WMC Loreen Arbus Journalism Program
Growing Pains: What Growing Up With Cerebral Palsy Taught Me About Life
Like so many others my age, at 14 I desperately wanted to be just like everyone else. But unlike most of my peers, I had spent 14 years trapped inside of a body that wouldn’t let me move. I was born w...
WMC FBomb
Bust Ghosts, Not Women: Sexist Responses To The 'Ghostbusters' Trailer Have Got To Go
From Fantastic Four, to Zoolander 2, to Disney’s live-action remake of The Jungle Book, it seems that 2016 might be the year of cinematic reboots, remakes and sequels. Perhaps one of the most anticipa...
WMC FBomb
This Burn Survivor's Story Proves Wearing Makeup Can Truly Be Empowering
I have never met a woman who isn’t plagued by insecurities about her appearance. It seems so much easier to pinpoint the qualities you lack or dislike instead of those you have and admire. I'll admit,...
WMC FBomb
These Eating Disorder Activists Shared Incredible Advice About Recovery
20 million women and 10 million men in the United States will struggle with an eating disorder at some point in their life. Our culture has come a long way in terms of demanding that the public pay at...
WMC FBomb
Are Diverse Barbies Really Progress?
I played with Barbies a lot as a little girl. I remember looking at the nude body of one plastic, blonde doll and marveling at her wrinkle-free knees, being baffled by her hard breasts, and wishing my...
WMC FBomb
February 06, 2016 | Siena R |
Body image and body standards,
Disability,
Feminism,
Health,
WMC Loreen Arbus Journalism Program
This Is What It's Really Like To Recover From An Eating Disorder
I have anorexia. My first instinct was to at least shield you, random stranger on the Internet, from that truth, to ease you in. But there's no way to put that gently. That's not my reality. My realit...
WMC FBomb
The Hypersexualization of Female News Broadcasters Proves Sexism Is Alive and Well
If you google “Fox News female anchors,” the first few results that pop up include, "Top Ten Hottest Fox News Girls," "Sexy Fox News Anchor Suffers HUMILIATING Wardrobe Malfunction," "19 Sexiest Women...
WMC FBomb
How To Put Your Resolution of Self-Love Into Action in the New Year
I have always struggled with New Year's resolutions because they so often revolve around losing weight — to look “good” in that bikini this summer and to achieve that “perfect body.” I am no stranger ...
WMC FBomb
How I Discovered The Power Of Black Womanhood
After spending the last school year immersed in political turmoil and tension on my college campus, I decided this past summer that it was time to actively choose to either eject or change the things ...
WMC FBomb
Are You Beach Body Ready?
The words claw at my brain
digging between the intricate folds of my unconscious
the instant I step onto the crowded subway.
My legs move to a seat as if they had brains of their own
because my ey...
WMC FBomb
What I Learned When I Refused To Shave
I recently decided to conduct an experiment. I decided to stop shaving my armpits to see if the seemingly insignificant factor of visible body hair would cause people to treat me differently — especia...
WMC FBomb
Should We 'Drop The Plus'?
When I recently opened the September issue of Vogue, I was (for once) surprised by what I found. Hidden in the midst of 832 pages of fashion coverage was a 2-page ad featuring plus-size models dramati...
WMC FBomb
Why 'Free The Nipple' Is An Important Feminist Movement
“It’s just an excuse for sluts to be naked all the time.”
This was my mother's response to my attempt to explain the importance of the Free the Nipple movement. Although I disagree, I also know that ...
WMC FBomb
Are "No Makeup" Campaigns Really Empowering?
Though it appeared in Vanity Fair last year, a photo for which Kate Winslet posed sans makeup recently inspired a social media-based no-makeup selfie campaign. Fans were encouraged to post their own n...
WMC FBomb
August 25, 2015 | Saskia G |
Body image and body standards,
Education,
Feminism,
Misogyny,
Race/Ethnicity
On Women's Equality Day, Let's Talk About White Feminism
I used to be a White Feminist. As a white woman, I thought it was my only option. But, as a video produced by the Huffington Post and a thoughtful post by the young star Rowan Blanchard both explai...
WMC FBomb
August 24, 2015 | Kinder L |
Body image and body standards,
Media
How Television Continues to Normalize Eating Disorders
“Please don’t hurl too much, because if you get any thinner I’m gonna start looking fat,” Brooke, the head cheerleader in the show One Tree Hill, nonchalantly says to her best friend in an early episo...
WMC FBomb
We Need To Stop Trying to Convince Girls They're Beautiful
I was lucky enough to have a healthy body image for most of my childhood. I consistently played on various soccer and basketball teams, and between going to practice and scrambling to finish my homewo...
WMC FBomb
What Misty Copeland's Success Reveals About Race In The Arts
Misty Copeland made history on June 30th when she was promoted within the American Ballet Theatre, becoming the first African American ballerina to reach the rank of Principal Dancer after being the ...
WMC FBomb
How One Anti-Body Shaming Campaign Actually Reinforced Beauty Standards
I have a mole on my right cheek. As a child, it was the physical feature about which I felt the most insecure. For years, however, my mother insisted that what I considered a flaw was actually a "beau...
WMC FBomb
'Miss USA' Switched Networks, But Should It Be Retired Altogether?
NBC recently dropped the Miss USA Pageant, but the pageant quickly found a new home with cable network REELZ. However, it seems like this could have been a good time to stop televising the pageant alt...