By Courtney • 12 years ago

The triumphs and failures of Ms. Oprah Winfrey

I remember snuggling into the big, ratty L-shaped couch in my childhood home with my mom, and by junior high, my girlfriends, and watching the patron saint of suburban living rooms: Oprah Winfrey. She didn’t just get celebrities to cry about their childhoods or make us laugh with her bestie antics with Gail. She also taught us about so many things that were otherwise forbidden topics among most families in Colorado Springs: incest, infidelity, eating disorders, mental illness, among so many others.

In this regard, losing O is, without a doubt, to lose a great bridge builder and teacher. As O, herself, said in her last show yesterday: “It is no coincidence that I always wanted to be a teacher. I ...

I remember snuggling into the big, ratty L-shaped couch in my childhood home with my mom, and by junior high, my girlfriends, and watching the patron saint of suburban living rooms: Oprah Winfrey. She didn’t just get ...
By Courtney • 12 years ago

Ed Shultz apologizes for calling Laura Ingraham a slut

A rare, deeply sincere apology from the realm of mainstream media. In my opinion, Ed Shultz of MSNBC deserves serious props for owning his failures and speaking to them so openly. The only thing that could have made it better, would be to hear him speak to the larger culture within which his language operates, but my guess is that he’s properly unprepared to do that. Thanks to the Women’s Media Center for highlighting this indignity.

A rare, deeply sincere apology from the realm of mainstream media. In my opinion, Ed Shultz of MSNBC deserves serious props for owning his failures and speaking to them so openly. The only thing that could have ...
By Courtney • 12 years ago

Academic feminists pay my mortgage

Much has been said and written about the academic-activist feminist divide. Some of us, such as our very own Samhita, have written about the ways in which academic feminism actually serves as a site of transformation. Others, including myself, have expressed feeling alienated by some of the more esoteric language and theoretical posturing that goes on in academic circles. Both experiences beg questions like: what are the benefits and risks of establishing feminism as an academic discourse? How can academic feminism resist and transform the (often sexist, often racist, often classist) academy itself? Who is the intended audience for feminist theory?

Rather than exploring any of these questions, however, I’d like to point towards some new ones. It ...

Much has been said and written about the academic-activist feminist divide. Some of us, such as our very own Samhita, have written about the ways in which academic feminism actually serves as a site of transformation. ...
By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

What We Missed

The de-fund Planned Parenthood bandwagon has rolled east, and New York has jumped on. New Yorkers, contact your representative and stand up for Planned Parenthood today.

Texans, do the same! Planned Parenthood TX is also facing de-funding!

Jennifer Thorpe makes the connection between fracking and feminism.

Hugo Schwyzer on why men should join the SlutWalk.

Our own Courtney on why gender equity drops off after graduation.

In the UK, an anti-abortion and pro-abstinence group has been included in the government’s new Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV.

The de-fund Planned Parenthood bandwagon has rolled east, and New York has jumped on. New Yorkers, contact your representative and stand up for Planned Parenthood today.

Texans, do the same! Planned Parenthood TX is also facing ...
By Lori Adelman • 12 years ago

Steven Tyler, Julia Holcomb, and abortion remorse as political fodder


Anti-choicers are practically drooling over the testimony of Julia Holcomb, Steven Tyler’s ex-girlfriend from her teenage years, who this week is speaking out about her choice to abort after becoming pregnant by Tyler many years ago — and her subsequent remorse and religious awakening.

Complete with a near-death experience, her story is as heartbreaking as it is frustrating, an altogether too-common tale of a teenager’s physical, financial, and emotional vulnerability.

Holcomb describes in painstaking detail the circumstances that led to her situation with Tyler. Her brother died in a car crash, her father was largely absent, she disliked her mother’s new husband, her stepfather, and her sister was also out of the picture.

Enter Tyler.


Anti-choicers are practically drooling over the testimony of Julia Holcomb, Steven Tyler’s ex-girlfriend from her teenage years, who this week is speaking out about her choice to abort after becoming pregnant by ...
By Lori Adelman • 12 years ago

A WOLF in sheep’s clothing: Maya and Lori take on Naomi’s latest misguided speakout

In an article entitled “A tale of two rape charges” Naomi Wolf, most famously known as the author of “The Beauty Myth” and more recently known as the feminist defender of Julian Assange, says that the way the charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn have been treated so far are “worrisome” to her. What precisely is so worrisome? Well, in large part the simple fact that the charges have been treated fairly seriously with not as much of the usual apathy and victim-blaming seen in, well, every other rape case ever. Maya and Lori report.

Maya: Lori, I am so happy we are taking this on together. After we closely followed Wolf’s first foray ...

In an article entitled “A tale of two rape charges” Naomi Wolf, most famously known as the author of “The Beauty Myth” and more recently known as the feminist defender of Julian Assange, says ...
By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Elizabeth Warren does not take any shit from anyone

Yesterday during a subcommittee hearing, a Congressman accused Elizabeth Warren, special adviser to the President and front-runner to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, of lying.

Elizabeth Warren (on whom I have a documented lady brain crush) was having none of that.

Check out the look on Warren’s face when Rep. Patrick McHenry accuses her of lying and breaking her agreement on how much time she would spend testifying before this particular subcommittee.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news,

Yesterday during a subcommittee hearing, a Congressman accused Elizabeth Warren, special adviser to the President and front-runner to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, of lying.

Elizabeth Warren (on whom I have a documented lady ...

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