I’ve seen people try to openly emasculate my boyfriend, implying that he can’t be a proper man with a headstrong girlfriend like me. Want to hear a few stories about pants-wearing in relationships? Here’s just a few from my recent experience… Yesterday morning, Medellín, Colombia. Migs and I are at a stoplight and, like always, a street […]
Is there a way to use the time we’ve been given not more productively, but more meaningfully? Everyone (well, mostly women) keeps talking about how BUSY they are all the time. —I see in an email from my editor on Monday at 7:48am—It’s like suddenly, being “busy” is a badge of honor or something. I just want […]
On Tuesday Jessica Valenti at the Guardian argued that the French have better sex because of our “American prudishness and male-centric sex.” Can the same be said for Latinos? The Guardian’s feminist columnist Jessica Valenti has to be admired for her chutzpah, even if sometimes her execution is a bit messy. In her column on Tuesday, […]
Could a simple change of phrase help to change the world? Today I want to ask you to start paying more attention to your metaphors. I know what you’re thinking: “What the hell do metaphors have to do with social change?” A lot, actually, so I hope you’ll hear me out. I believe some of the […]
I didn’t start drinking because of my alcoholic daddy issues, but in spite of them. Last week Jezebel ran a piece on women who drink like men, and I saw myself in it. Lisa Wade, commenting on why women overdo it with the bottle, pointed out that many of us drink competitively, to keep up with the boys. In […]
A new study reports that adolescent girls think sexual aggression is “normal stuff.” Samantha Eyler asks: What are we telling our kids to make them believe rape culture is normal? On Sunday, Melissa Harris-Perry hosted a roundtable on new findings about how young people conceive of and respond to sexual harassment. The study, from the journal Gender […]
Unfortunately, many of us straight women developed our ideas of “sexiness” based on images of female sexuality distorted to serve men. The first time I got off to a sex scene that didn’t happen to be porn, it left me overcome by your standard feelings of female dirtiness and guilt and weirdness. I was 22, […]
Last week Jezebel decried the terribleness of a new trend of sharing post-coital happy snaps with the hashtag #AfterSexSelfie. Samantha Eyler argues this trend offers a much-needed opportunity for women to show a bit of self-perspective on their own sexuality. So apparently the new annoying thing in social media is the #AfterSexSelfie, a trend among digital exhibitionists […]
Little girls aren’t taught to be brave, leading to fully-grown women having dreams far bigger than their sense of agency can execute. You’ve seen Nymphomaniac, right? Art cinema is slow in arriving to the small Colombian mountain town where I live, but even I have managed to (start) watching Volume 1 of Lars von Trier’s […]
Some of the world’s most insulting—to women and men—dating “advice” is currently gaining steam online. Who, exactly, does this guy think he is? What should Every Woman know about sleeping with an Every Man? Well, Chuck Henderson of Wall Street Insanity is an Every Man, or at least he thinks he is, and probably most […]
According to J. Lo, the solution to female objectification is simply more universal objectification of everybody. Objectification of women in music videos: It seems like everybody’s talking about it these days. Last year, it was Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and the string of parodies it inspired, followed by Lily Allen’s “Hard Out Here” and the ensuing […]
Does making a beautiful child with a beautiful man have to lead to ferocious women turning into feeble doormats? International pop sensation Shakira has started acting a bit strange since she and her Spanish boyfriend Gerard Piqué, a soccer player for Barcelona, announced the birth of baby Milan in February last year. Shak—as we compulsive […]
