Sexism
Pop Culture
The Sex(ism) in Orwell’s “1984”

April 4th is the day Winston starts his diary in 1984. Like a million other book clubs across the country, mine just (re)read George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel, 1984. Its current publisher said sales increased by 10,000 percent after Trump’s inauguration, and it skyrocketed to #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list shortly after his counselor Kellyanne […]

Pop Culture
No Kellyanne Conway, “Feminism” Is NOT a Dirty Word

Like it or not, as the first woman campaign manager to successfully win a Presidential election, Kellyanne Conway has made history for women. Not that she entirely agrees.  While being interviewed about this historic achievement, Kellyanne called herself a post-feminist.  Here’s what she had to say about feminism in full: “I don’t consider myself a feminist. […]

Personal Essays
Why You Shouldn’t Be Offended by the P-Word Anymore

At Least When It’s Uttered with Love A friend’s middle school daughter wore a hat to school the other day. You know the one: pink, hand-knit, with two points resembling cat ears. An adult at her school asked her to remove it because she found it “offensive.” Later in the day this person, most likely encouraged […]

TV
Bachelor Contestants Are Like Trump Voters

After the historic Women’s March this past weekend (and that little, tiny thing called The Inauguration), we couldn’t help but watch this week’s Bachelor with a sense of depression — or should we say, an even greater sense of depression than normal? The women on this show (except for maybe the reasonable Rachel this season) don’t […]

News
Our 45 Favorite #GirlPower Signs from the #WomensMarch

View & share video via YouTube here. I hope someone keeps documenting these signs. Some real gems. #WomensMarchOnWashington @mkr_ultra @catehamm pic.twitter.com/wCCJEWZe7d — Joe (@ImmortanJo3) January 21, 2017 We still haven’t reached parity. This is why #wemarch. #Sfwomensmarch pic.twitter.com/sZaChZXECH — The Bold Italic (@thebolditalic) January 22, 2017 I love this sign @SarahLerner made for the #WomensMarch. […]

News
2016: The Year in Bad Sex

This year sucked — and not in a good, consensual, non-transactional, mutually satisfying way. Here are the top 10 worst sex- and gender-related events, trends, crimes and tragedies of 2016. Good riddance! 1. Trump Admits to Sexual Assault on Tape, Still Gets Elected:   2. The New Jared: Glee Star Indicted on Child Porn Charges:   […]

Movies
Hate Actually Is All Around: An Obligatory Critique of That Infernal Holiday Movie

Miranda Levy is a major in Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Elon University where she pens a sex column for its student-run lifestyle magazine, The Edge.    It happens every year around the holidays: screenings (and awesome parodies) of the 2003 Christmas movie Love Actually, followed by impassioned rants by both the lovers and the haters. So […]

Personal Essays
An Everywoman’s Visceral Reaction to the Election of Trump

A few days after November 8th, I was talking to a friend, a progressive everywoman, who said she couldn’t stop crying or throwing up. I wasn’t sure if she was kidding. “Are you really throwing up?” She said yes, that she could only manage the occasional piece of chocolate and cup of tea, even though […]

Confessions
Yay, Our First Trump-Inspired Hater!

Well, that didn’t take long. A sad Trump-supporter who projects his own self-hatred onto women went on a tear through the comments of the post “My Boyfriend Has a Small Penis…At Least It’s Small to Me.” Add this to the growing number of public expressions of hate now legitimized by Trump’s win. We’ll keep loathsome comments up as long […]

News
Why Donald Trump, America’s Abusive Boyfriend, Won the Election

How did the least qualified person ever to run for the presidency of the United States manage to win? In large part, by negging us. Negging is one of the pick-up artist community’s cynical and manipulative strategies for seducing women. A man deliberately delivers backhanded compliments and other sly insults to his “target” in order […]

How To
10 Super Easy Ways NOT to Be a Misogynist Pig Like Trump*

*Or Billy Bush Can’t seem to view women as human beings? Is that psychic club from Cro-magnon Man days weighing you down and holding you back? Well we’ve got 10 easy ways to help you conquer your ass-backward ways. Follow these simple steps, and soon you’ll be striding upright with confidence into the 21st century! 1. First […]

Confessions
The Great Strap-On Debate: Can a Woman Pressure Her Boyfriend to Get Pegged?

Every few months, a new debate pops up in the comments section of one of our most popular, evergreen posts — “Confession: I Want to Do My Boyfriend with a Strap-On” — written by an anonymous female contributor a few years ago. The standard fare is usually something tired about how “it’s gay and feminizing […]

Confessions
The Negative Power of Porn

Porn is a tricky thing. On the one hand, you can’t legislate people’s fantasies, especially when pornography may be the one sexual outlet they have.  As sexual liberator, educator or tension reliever, it can be a positive thing. But, it can also be a destructive thing: ruining relationships, setting up unrealistic expectations, perpetuating misogyny. Certainly some porn […]

TV
Asking for Permission to Marry a Woman Is Total Effing Bulls*&t!

Is it the 21st century? Is a woman about to become President of the United States? Do all the best crime dramas feature women in the lead roles (Marcella, Happy Valley, The Fall, The [Swedish] Bridge, The Bletchley Circle…the list goes on)? Yes, women still don’t make the same as men yet — yet — but we’ve come […]

Sexual Health
If America Made Abortion Illegal…

by By Carla McKirdy for Bust Magazine If you’ve ever wondered what life in America would be like if the laws protecting a woman’s right to choose were reversed, look no further than Argentina. Underground abortion clinics whose addresses are revealed only in hushed tones via word of mouth. The paralyzing fear of undergoing what […]