American women are in the midst of an unprecedented societal “moment.” #MeToo and #TimesUp shine a light on what women have endured from men throughout history. So why is domestic violence still flying below the radar of our media and our national conscience when one in four women experiences severe physical violence by an intimate partner in her lifetime? When over half of American female homicide victims are murdered by intimate partners? Read more…
In an opinion piece for NBC News, Sady Doyle writes, “Sam Rockwell, one of the few men pressed to talk about #MeToo on the red carpet who stars in a movie about the aftermath of a brutal rape in a small town, stammered out a vague answer about the movement that said nothing about sexism: ‘I don’t really know the answer to that. But I suppose the issue is bullying.’ The issue, as a matter of fact, is men — male power, male predators and the men who cover for the predators in their midst or turn a blind eye to the damage they cause.” Read more…
Man on the subway
Masturbating at women,
What is wrong with you?
When I was a child, I saw a stage production of Oliver Twist. To this day, what sticks with me the most from that early theater experience is one of Dickens’ most vicious characters, Bill Sikes. I remember the scene where Sikes kicked and swore at his cowering dog until the poor creature bit his boot, resulting in Sikes grabbing for a nearby fireplace poker with one hand, and flipping open his pocketknife with the other. Only Fagin’s well-timed entrance allowed the dog to escape. Sikes’ girlfriend Nancy, however, was not so lucky. Sikes later beat her to death for turning on him to protect Oliver. Read more…
How did we get here? It’s an existential question that can be taken several ways. From the primordial soup emerged microscopic life forms that evolved across millennia until, in the Pleistocene Epoch, early humans walked the Earth. That’s one version of how “we” got “here.” Read more…
October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and we need to discuss some numbers.
From September 11, 2001, to June 6, 2012, more American women were killed by intimate partners than all of the victims of 9/11 plus all of the American military fatalities due to the ensuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined. The numbers aren’t even close. According to the FBI, 11,766 women lost their lives to domestic violence during the years that 6,614 citizens and troops were killed in terror attacks and war. Read more…
October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and we need to discuss some numbers.
From Sept. 11, 2001 to June 6, 2012, more American women were killed by intimate partners than all of the victims of 9/11 plus all of the American military fatalities due to the ensuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined. The numbers aren’t even close. According to the FBI, 11,766 women lost their lives to domestic violence during the years that 6,614 citizens and troops were killed in terror attacks and war. Read more…
October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and we need to discuss some numbers.
From September 11, 2001 to June 6, 2012, more American women were killed by intimate partners than all of the victims of 9/11 plus all of the American military fatalities due to the ensuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,combined. The numbers aren’t even close.According to the FBI, 11,766 women lost their lives to domestic violence during the years that 6,614 citizens and troops were killed in terror attacks and war. Read more…
For the twenty-plus years I have owned this decorative country-style wooden calendar, I have experienced a flashpoint of rage every June 1st when I flip the banner tile over from May to June, and move the date tiles around. I always check my paper calendar to see if there are any special holiday tiles to be displayed each month. My calendar has a painted Christmas tree on the back of the #25 tile, a red Valentine’s heart on the back of the #14 tile, and various other special tiles not associated with specific dates, like birthday cakes, a cornucopia of gourds for Thanksgiving, and oh, this tile with two little white flowers on it that says “Moms Day.” It’s not even grammatically correct. Apostrophes people! Read more…
Misogyny is a window that goes up and down. Sometimes when it’s down, I forget the window is even there. When it is abruptly thrown open, I remember that it was never actually gone. It is only closed now and then.
2016 is the year I have realized that the men on the other side of the window are not all religious or political conservatives. Many of them are liberal in their worldview and the champions of progressive causes. They talk about how black lives matter. They denounce Donald Trump for wanting to deport eleven million immigrants. They are on the right side of history when it comes to gay marriage and who can use which bathroom. They stand up for a woman’s right to choose! Read more…
There are not enough baby elephant videos in the world to soothe and distract me from all of the pain and suffering I see daily in the news. At the moment, I am obsessed with the Zika virus, which has just been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization. As more and more babies are born with microcephaly, male politicians in Latin American countries are requesting that women not get pregnant for the next two years, while simultaneously denying them access to contraception and abortion. Read more…
How do I restore my sanity? It is currently tethered to a ventilator. It took me years to cull my Facebook friends so that my virtual living room contains no more misogynistic buffoons sprawled out on sofas, bloviating until I unfriend or block them. I am left with only a handful of friends from high school and college—the ones who are not racist, sexist, or homophobic. Read more…
Do you remember being a little kid in your early years of school, sitting on the floor in a circle with your legs crossed? Maybe your teacher was reading a story or maybe you were singing a song and shaking maracas and tambourines. Sometimes a child would arrive late — late to school in the morning, or perhaps just returning from the nurse’s office or the bathroom. For some reason that child was not there when the circle formed, and as that child approaches — let’s call her Katie — the teacher says something.
“Ok everyone, scooch back a bit to make room in the circle for Katie.” Read more…
We all know that, in a patriarchy, the world revolves around men’s penises in a general sense, but here are 15 ways we can see this reality manifest itself, more specifically:
1) Male genitalia taking up space
Manspreading on public transportation and in other public seating situations is epidemic. The viral load in this miasma of douchiness has so far eluded all disease management techniques. If we’ve reached the point of needing to put up “Dude… Stop the Spread, Please” signs in subway cars — and we have — that tells me we see this phenomenon as an infection of sorts,hopefully addressed by PSAs… You know, like “Get Your Flu Shot Today” signs at CVS. Read more…
Ladies, have I got a protip for you! Do not Google any topic that includes the words female,leadership, and hormones. Don’t do it because you will see pages and pages of articles like this and this and this, leading you to assault your own computer, and repairs will be expensive. Also, “hormones” will be blamed for the tech-assault. Read more…
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