Students of history know that 355 was the code name assigned to a woman who spied on behalf of George Washington, during the war for independence. We never learned who she was and the digits have been immortalized in pop culture ever since. Most recently, it was appended to the female empowerment action film The…
If you can read the stories of a whole bunch of women pioneers — such as the ones in the book I’m about to discuss — without being at least a little bit annoyed at men in general, frankly there’s something wrong with you. And you can take “men in general” as expansively as you…
I don’t carry a sign over my head announcing my feminism—I do it with a tote bag from Emily’s List, which I use to, uh, tote my lunch and papers and such back and forth from work. Said bag is inscribed with the following: feminism noun fem-i-nism ‘fe-ma-,ni-zam The belief that men and women should…
“I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me.” —Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1 Joss Whedon created Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is credited with writing strong female roles and espousing feminist ideals – but not by his ex-wife,…
Meninist: A (satirical) belief showing the hypocrisy of first world feminism by flipping the sexes and complaining about men’s rights in a similar way to what first world feminists do. Tip of the hat to ComicMixâÂÂs Adriane Nash for introducing me to the term via her always well-observed, vitriolic Facebook posts where she often denotes…
My jealousy nearly deprived me of Girls. You see, Lena Dunham went to the same college I did, albeit several decades later. And here she was, a successful filmmaker with a series on HBO. That should have been me! She was being hailed as a feminist hero. I should have been the feminist hero. How…
Today is A Day Without A Woman, a demonstration of solidarity to show the need for human rights for all. Throughout the country (and perhaps the world), you will see women wearing red, not spending money, and not working to protest gender inequality. I admit I was torn about having a column posted today. I…
Time to hurl a hand grenade. Some portions of the modern American feminist movement â which is not and has never been a monolithic force â conflate sex with sexism. Others in this movement think they are two different things. To me, itâÂÂs all about choice and, as Margo St. Jamesàsaid, âÂÂcall off your…
This week we took a little trip to one of our favorite places in the world… Target to check out the new DC Superhero Girls dolls and the new Black Widow doll (action figure, if you wish) from Marvel. Maddy also explores the choice of geek socks made for women that somehow forgot to include…
Iâve spent the past week or so in a bubble, apparently hiding from the news of the world. Which is why I was startled by the influx of posts yesterday announcing it was International Womenâs Day. A day to recognize all the inspirational women in our lives. It seems odd that I would miss such…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dldfYRZJ1vg
I was thinking about heroines the other day, which led to thinking about fictional role models for girls and young women growing up over the last twenty years or so. Role models which, I think, have reflected the way American society thought about women during that same time period. Heroines and role models with the…
