Update: On April 26, 2018 Cosby was found guilty on three counts of sexual assault, after his first trial in 2017 ended with a deadlocked jury after six days of deliberations.Over the p...
During the first week of study abroad, my program offered an informational session about street harassment to the 35 students enrolled (29 of whom are women). The area of the city in which we were stu...
It was Friday, October 9th. My best friends and I were out celebrating another friend's birthday. I knew the majority of people at the party (most were friends or at least acquaintances) and I felt sa...
When I was 23 years old I dated two men at once. One taught me how I should be treated and the other taught me just the opposite. I regret neither relationship.
I met Noel first and he was everything...
The mainstream media has been fascinated with (especially female) college students’ sexuality for years. Rather than reflect the nuanced reality of their lives, however, women have largely been reduce...
Trigger Warning: Mention of sexual assault.
Out of every 6 American women, at least 1 will be the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. This horrifying yet all too common experien...
The Hunting Ground is an unabashed and damning portrayal of the still crucial and widespread problem of rape culture on college campuses. In fact, an estimated 20 to 25% of women in higher educational...
A few weeks ago, I sat in the Chapel at Vassar College, surrounded by a multitude of individuals with varying intersectional identities and causes, listening to feminist scholar Angela Davis speak. Th...
A few weeks ago, I took my seat in the huge auditorium of my East Coast college preparatory boarding school for Proctor Training. The week-long event involved a series of workshops and lectures that t...
It happened a couple of weeks after my 12th birthday. I hadn't entered high school, I didn't have my period or a crush on anyone. I was too young to experience the best, empowering parts of my sexuali...
Despite composing the majority of video game players, women are frequently attacked within the gaming community. Though it has persisted for years, this horrifying treatment entered the public conscio...
“Why does she stay?”
It's a question outsiders continue to ask about those in abusive relationships. The situation may seem black and white to many: If someone is assaulting you, then you should leav...
At the end of his VMA performance on Sunday night, Justin Bieber began to cry. This image has already launched debates about his motivations and as someone who has spent the past 4 years imme...
He whistles. "Hey beautiful, look at that ass. Damn, can't you at least smile?"
I have faced plenty of unfair, gender-based double standards in my life. I've been told from a young age to never be alo...
One evening last week, I stopped at home after work to change my clothes before dance class. It was a hot day and I wanted to shed my workplace-appropriate pants in favor of more comfortable attire be...
"Why doesn't she just leave her abusive partner?"
It seems like a simple question and it's one that's often posed when people learn others are experiencing abuse. Leaving seems like the most obvious ...
As anyone even mildly interested in pop culture likely knows, Rihanna recently dropped a new music video for her song Bitch Better Have My Money. I found the video itself interesting, but honestly fou...
Since 2011, Syria has been embroiled in a civil war. Millions of people have been displaced — the majority of whom have fled to Jordan and Lebanon — and over 220,000 have been killed so far, according...
This is my thought process before leaving the house: I want to look nice and appreciate fashion, but also know that if I’m going to be on public transport or walking down the street, I must actively c...
I remember watching my mother get ready for work in the mornings as a little girl. Every day she went through the careful, time-consuming process of doing her makeup and selecting a button down shirt ...
*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...
Much lip service has been paid to feminism's supposed comeback — especially in terms of more authentic representations of women in pop culture. Charlize Theron's recent portrayal of the badass protago...
“Two of us were sexually assaulted before class even started,” activist Annie Clark says in the recently released documentary The Hunting Ground. “I thought if I told [administrators] they would take ...
Like many other privileged American kids, my biggest concerns at ten years old were whether or not I could finish my homework before soccer practice or if my dad was going to buy me the new marine bio...
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...