It’s undeniable that the YouTube community is becoming a powerful and influential force in the entertainment industry. Vloggers appear on magazine covers (such as Seventeen and Fast Company), red carp...
I used to be scared I would be “brainwashed” into being a feminist. I never believed the stereotype that feminists are all lesbians who meet in dark places to discuss the abomination that is the male ...
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...
I like to think that feminism is becoming a topic of household discussion now. Celebrities are increasingly claiming the feminist label, sexist media depictions are causing more of an uproar and femin...
I'm sorry to say that I’ve witnessed far too many conversations in which my friends attack other girls for their sexual experiences. I have finally had enough of the way teen girls (or women of all ag...
On March 27th, 2014, former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was arrested and indicted for third-degree aggravated assault. He had punched his fiancee, Janay Palmer, in the face, knocking her un...
So many of my peers have an unhealthy obsession with how many "likes" their pictures (especially selfies) receive on Instagram. Many of my friends seem to give a simple "like" so much more weight than...
I always expected that I’d spend my last summer before starting college binge-watching TV, eating pizza, and dealing with anxiety about my freshman year. Instead, I ended up exploring my recent acqua...
Many activists have brought attention to the fact that the LGBTQ movement – or at least the public perception of it is -- is too focused on marriage. It seems that the media has almost made the entire...
“Be careful, you’re just a girl!” I heard this phrase far too many times this summer as I prepared to leave for Brazil and Peru. Every Spring Break since I can remember I’ve traveled to Peru, and I’m ...
Campus sexual assault is a harrowing issue: approximately one in five college women will experience attempted or completed rape while at school. Lawmakers of the American House and Senate have recentl...
“The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says.” -- 1 Corinthians 14:34, from the New American Standard B...
Shut up he barked
Sit down he wined
Raise your voice he howled
Raise your cup to me he giggled
Make pure and tender love to me he snapped
Pick me up in your arms and tell me how to change he snak...
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....
We need feminism now more than ever for many reasons, but rampant internalized misogyny -- which often goes unnoticed and, in some situations, is even understood as social norms – is as good a reason ...
Dear Adult,
So, you have teens in your life that you want to support and encourage to be the best, bravest, raddest activists they can be. But teens are a little scary, confusing and intimidating. I ...
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...
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...
“I’m just another lady without a baby.”
Jenny Lewis’ delivery of this line in “Just One of the Guys,” the third song on her new album, The Voyager, is quiet, yet powerful. She seems almost to be taun...
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...
What do astronaut Neil Armstrong, President Bill Clinton, basketball star Michael Jordan, and singer Bon Jovi all have in common? When they were juniors in high school, they all attended a prestigious...
Home Economics, renamed Family and Consumer Sciences in 1994, had its heyday in the mid-1900s. It was taught in almost all schools and offered as a major in college. Unfortunately, despite being conce...
Most do not realize that
they have swallowed you up
today along with their breakfast
and that you are their favorite cereal
Yours is a deceptive brand
claiming to have enough
servings of...
It has been almost two years since I heard the infamous Todd Akin remark about “legitimate rape” and abortions and I am still as angry as I was then. Recently, Todd Akin rereleased a statement in his ...
I live in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, which has historically been considered one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in New York City. My parents never let me walk around the neighborhood alone when...