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Saturday Vids: The Equal Pay Act Turns 50
In honor of the Equal Pay Act's 50th anniversary, BTRtv talked with Patricia Gatling, Commissioner and Chair of The New York City Commission on Human Rights, and took to the streets to ask men and wom...
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The Congresswoman v. The General
Lt. Gen. David H. Huntoon, Jr. has not had the best of luck in the past two weeks. Seven days following the results of an investigation by the Pentagon that the West Point Superintendent "improperly u...
WMC Women Under Siege
Rape accounts still surface from India’s partition 65 years on
War stories are often framed by convenient lines, two clear-cut sides, campaigns and directives. Partition in India reads very differently. In the aftermath of the 1947 declaration of Indian independence, the roughly drawn new state boundaries triggered what may have been the biggest migration in human history.
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Will Girls Really Rise?
I recently watched the documentary film "Girl Rising" with my high school (of about 80 students) and subsequently helped to lead a forum to discuss it. The movie artistically illustrates the stories o...
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The Indomitable Female Fortress: Queen Elizabeth I
When I think of Elizabeth I, Queen of England from 1558 to 1603, I think of a beguiling and Machiavellian woman who, against all odds, led her country to a golden age while battling against the acute ...
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Support Women Artists Sunday: Elliphant
Sounding like the twisted illegitimate offspring of MIA and Diplo – as deliciously fierce as the former but as intelligently playful as the latter – Elliphant pulls the balls of this dancehall slayer ...
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Saturday Vids: Pretty Little Liars "Food Horror"
Graham Kolbeins recently created this mashup of PLL scenes displaying the characters' food issues on his blog Future Shipwreck. He says:
In 'Food Horror,' I set out to examine the many moments in "Pre...
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Curtains
It could not be said that the moment was unusual. There was a room and within it there was a table. The weather outside was unimportant, as the temperature within the house was tolerable aside from a ...
WMC FBomb
On Having Big Boobs: My Anatomy Has Nothing To Do With My Morality
As a kid, I was taught to believe many restricting things about my body, but one stuck with me more than others: the bigger your boobs, the better -- but they better be covered. I accepted that. Then,...
WMC Women Under Siege
'Take your portion': A victim speaks out about rape in Syria
Alma Abdulrahman is lying gaunt and unable to move anything below her diaphragm in a hospital bed in Amman. Some bedsores have become so deep she’s having surgery tomorrow. Screws hold together her upper vertebrae, and cigarette burns pock her right shoulder. Her voice fades in and out, hoarse from either weakness or morphine.
WMC Women Under Siege
The G8’s PR strategy on rape in conflict
On the same day in April that I listened to the harrowing stories of Syrian women over endless glasses of tea in Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp, leaders of the world’s eight richest countries promised to take action against rape as a weapon of war. But the high-profile statement failed to offer a deadline, measurable metric, or concrete plan for a single recommendation it put forward.
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What If I AM Like The Feminist Stereotype?
Am I giving feminism a bad rap by not shaving my armpits? I worry that people will take one look at my pits, label me as “one of those feminists” (the only kind they think exists), and dismiss what I ...
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Saturday Vids: "Ask A Grown Man" Featuring The Lonely Island
I assure you that everything about this video (part of Rookie's "Ask A Grown Man" series) is perfect. The Lonely Island officially gets the FBomb's seal of approval.
...
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Tomboy Exceptionalism: “I’m Not Like The Other Girls”
I grew up a tomboy. That meant no dresses, no dolls, and even biting my kindergarten boyfriend who dared to give me a party favour bag at his birthday that was princess themed. It meant playing in the...
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Female Stereotypes on Glee
Glee gets a lot of crap for the way they portray their female characters. They are mostly vain, obsessed with themselves, or are solely focused on their love interests. Since it's probably way too muc...
WMC Women Under Siege
Nicaraguan women could be forced into mediation with their attackers
In June 2012, a Nicaraguan law aimed at protecting women from gender-based violence took effect. Called Law 779, it “stipulates that the state and its institutions have a duty to guarantee the physical, psychic, moral, sexual, patrimonial, and economic integrity of women,” Inter Press Service reports. But since last year, the law has been jeopardized by opponents, including the vice president of the country’s Supreme Court.
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On Internalized Misogyny
The other day, as I sat in math class, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on a couple of girls seated directly in front of me. They were discussing the volleyball game that was supposed to happen that day ...
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Support Women Artists Sunday: Niki & The Dove
Niki & The Dove is a band from Stockholm, Sweden with two members, Malin Dahlström and Gustaf Karlöf. Getting together in February 2010, Malin and Gustaf have spent the time since writing togethe...
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Saturday Vids: La Barbe
Who says feminist activism is dead? If you haven't heard of La Barbe - a group of French feminists who fight inequality with sarcastic humor and fake beards - you're missing out.
About La Barbe (in F...
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In Defense of "Freshperson"
Next Fall, I’ll be enrolling in my first year of college. I'll be a freshman - a concept that's giving me pause not just because I'm questioning the existentialist quality of being a freshman, but bec...
WMC Women Under Siege
Inching forward against military sexual assault
U.S. legislators voted Wednesday to help stanch the overwhelming problem of sexualized violence in the armed forces, Reuters reports. The idea is to make it easier for victims of sexualized violence to come forward while decreasing the threat of retaliation from superiors in the chain of command.
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On Sexism in High School
I recently got out for summer break from my local high school, and I really only had one thing that bothered me this year. It wasn’t any sort of drama, nor was it an event. My main source of irritatio...
WMC Women Under Siege
Mali conflict is latest to employ forced marriage as tool of war
Saran Keïta Diakité painted a dismal reality for women in Mali in a speech she gave to the UN Security Council in April. “They carry out a form of ‘marriage’ so that, at night, you can be treated as a sexual slave,” Diakité said. “During the day, you are there to serve tea to the men and attend to their every need. This is why I always say that what’s happened in Mali is unprecedented."
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I Will Not Be Scared Off The Streets
So, the other day, I was walking downtown on my own (or as I like to say, "independently"), and this guy in a truck hooted at me while I passed the Shell gas station. I shrunk a little, turned around,...
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Support Women Artists Sunday: Lianne La Havas
La Havas was born in London, England to a Greek father and Jamaican mother. She was raised in Tooting and Streatham, spending the majority of her time with her grandparents following her parents' sepa...