*Trigger warning*
I have been sexually assaulted twice, although I didn't recognize either event as such at the time.
The first time, I was 18, asleep next to my boyfriend. I had passed out almost i...
I was a teen in the '90s, and heavily influenced by Riot Grrrl feminism. Everything was DIY, dress how you want, and live with a militant independence. My feminism was raw, precocious, and wild. Now t...
Shopping for school clothes was a nightmare in high school. Attending a private Christian school with a strict dress code, I had a lot of rules to follow: No jeans, sweat pants, yoga pants, or anythin...
The “ideal figure” of a woman has changed a lot over the years. But beauty has undeniably always been determined in relation to patriarchal standards.
During the Italian Renaissance, fuller figures w...
A friend of mine recently shared #SpreadFeminism, a challenge campaign encouraging fellow feminists to post a video, picture, poem, or anything else related to feminism on their Facebook page for five...
I was 11 years old when I succumbed to buying my first tube of "fairness" cream. It was right after a popular boy teased me by calling out "Weh blackie" to me.
Before he teased me, I internalized mos...
I'm a fan of both Lena Dunham and Mindy Kaling. Yet I found myself somewhat surprised by just how impressive I found both women while recently watching their contributions to a Sundance live panel mod...
When Nika Shelby, a student at Union College, started weightlifting it wasn’t to get fit. She was fighting to save her life.
In high school, her friends knew her as a powerhouse. She was the stronges...
A few weeks ago, I was at a party with a few of my friends. I had been casually using a new dating app and had been talking to a guy that seemed pretty nice. He mentioned that he happened to be out in...
To say sexism and gender-based discrimination don’t exist would be like claiming oceans aren’t wet. There are, in fact, many issues facing women of the present, and they need to be addressed. So thank...
Lammily, a crowdfunded plastic doll based on the proportions of an average 19-year-old girl (according to CDC data), has been named the new Barbie by dozens of top publications. Trading a tiny waist a...
The mannequin has been a popular topic for debate for years, but has recently reached the headlines once again. Specifically, Topshop stores across the UK are under scrutiny for mannequins that appear...
Dear Urban Outfitters,
My thirteen-year-old self thanks you for having provided trendy, vintage looking clothing at an affordable price. You are cheaper than Aritzia, edgier than American Apparel, an...
Whether it’s the annoyingly catchy five-dollar footlong jingle or Jared Fogle’s promise that you will lose weight by eating sandwiches, Subway commercials are abundantly recognizable in our culture. T...
Listening to (and belting out) Top 40 songs in the car is non-negotiable if you’re riding along with me. I love the bubble-gum-for-your-brain songs and gush over new pop tunes. However, I also identif...
I must say for a teenage girl I have always been pretty confident about my body. I have never been a twig but am also not overweight and have never felt bothered by my appearance. Every year, I fly to...
Typically, the heterosexual male gaze controls the depiction of women’s bodies and sexuality in pop culture. Music videos especially tend to enforce the idea that female sexuality is defined by what i...
As a Latina living in a society in which white privilege is very real, I have come to understand the importance of colored feminism. It turns out that while the fight against racism and the feminist m...
In popular culture, women’s breasts are often seen as the ultimate symbol of sex. Women are bombarded with a variety of consumeristic options to “improve” our breasts: we can buy numerous types of bra...
We must, we must, we must increase our bust. The bigger, the better, the tighter the sweater, the boys will like us.
This is the jingle my friends taught me in the gym locker room in the fifth grade....
As a kid I was very chubby and sturdy, but that all changed once puberty kicked in. People wondered if I went on a diet to lose weight when I was younger, but my eating habits hadn’t changed. This com...
It is almost impossible to deny that millennials are obsessed with documenting everything. We think that something funny we see at Target, or a friend’s drunken rant at a party, or just a quick selfie...
Lately, I have been swept up in the flurry of beautiful videos detailing why what we say to young girls matters - videos from companies like Always and Verizon. Videos that remind me why I am thankful...
When I look in the mirror, I do not see someone that I understand to be handsome by Western standards. I look mostly Asian, and like so many other heterosexual Asian males before me, I have internaliz...
Whether it was the commencement speech given during my high school graduation last summer or comments made to me by adults throughout my first year of college, I have heard time and time again about h...