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A Call to Men
(Trigger warning: Rape) Check out this TED Talk by activist Tony Porter about how the expectations of masculinity and restrictive gender roles lead to disrespect of and violence against women. He shares powerful stories from different points in his life and encourages men to act outside of the narrow box that society places them in.
Read MoreWhy I Call Her My ‘Partner’ and Not My ‘Girlfriend’
She is my partner. She is not my girlfriend. Choosing to use the word “partner” is somewhat political, but it is also very personal. I choose to use “partner” to not only indicate to society that I desire equality in my relationship, but more importantly, to indicate to my partner that, above all else, I unconditionally respect her as a completely autonomous and equal companion.
Read MoreFeminism Now: What the Third Wave is Really About
Feminism is a creature with many faces these days. But bottom line, the goal is homogenous: Feminism aims for gender equality within a currently patriarchal society. Sometimes it’s just hard to get massive amounts of people to agree exactly what the best means to achieving that goal is. So here is a list of five things that the current movement of feminism absolutely is.
Read MoreWhy We Shouldn’t Call Little Girls ‘Bad Asses’
I am all for rethinking, reforming, and in most cases, smashing gender-based norms. But if bucking gender norms is going to be the key criterion for bad-assitude, I wonder: Would a boy earn bad-ass points for choosing a Tinkerbell Halloween costume, or for getting a pedicure, as my son once did with me (at his request) before he stumbled face-first into the gender divide? My guess is no.
Read MoreWhy It’s Harder to Be a T(w)een Girl Now Than It Was in the 90s
Teen and “tween” (that difficult, in-between age of 9-12) girls nowadays have it rough. Contrast this with the caveman era that I grew up in, that oh-so-long-ago decade known as the 1990s, in which girls could simply chillax and be themselves…kind of. But before we roll our eyes at the behavior of “kids these days,” we should at least consider how our adolescence was different.
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