The rage, concern, and suffering of oppressed people seem like a game to most conservatives, says Khadijah Costley White. Over the last few weeks, protests on (and off) social media helped draw international attention to the plight of over 270 girls kidnapped while at school in Nigeria. Using the Twitter hashtag #bringbackourgirls, people across the […]
This originally appeared on BossedUp.org. Republished here with permission. The same qualities deemed necessary for leadership in our culture are positively correlated with likeability for men and negatively correlated with likeability for women. Lean in, they say. Crack the confidence code, we’re told. Boss up, we say, by investing in your personal sustainability to achieve […]
We live in a culture that tells boys it’s OK to shed clothing in the heat in order to be more comfortable, but tells girls that their comfort is secondary to how others perceive them. If you’re a teenage girl, you may have seen the photo of a message taped to a high school window making the […]
This originally appeared on Alternet. Republished here with permission. Women of color have never had the privilege to solely focus on women’s issues. Feminism is much more than simply addressing the wage gap, climbing the corporate ladder, or even ensuring access to abortion services. Many times racism, classism, and sexism are so tightly enmeshed they’re […]
What happens at home usually stays at home, but in this case what happened in an elevator made its rounds for the whole world to see. After a physical altercation took place between Solange Knowles and Jay Z, social media joyfully exploded—with hashtags like #WhatJaySaidToSolange and enough memes to last a lifetime—for a chance to […]
This originally appeared on Of Sugar-Baited Words. Republished here with permission. We all say things offhandedly that we don’t mean or wouldn’t want to communicate if we thought more about the implications of those words and phrases. Here are a few. Words matter. I spent seven years studying English literature and I really, really believe […]
Men interrupt women, speak over them, and discount their contributions to a discussion with surprising regularity. Here’s how women should respond. “Stop interrupting me.” “I just said that.” “No explanation needed.” In fifth grade, I won the school courtesy prize. In other words, I won for being polite. My brother, on the other hand, was […]
Women are told that they could have prevented the rape by wearing more modest clothing or not walking alone late at night. Men are told that there wasn’t a rape to prevent. My student stood braced against the wooden podium at the front of our public speaking classroom and, with a deep breath, addressed the […]
