Weekly Feminist Reader

Characters from Super Mario brothers are re-imagined as a different gender

Fun with gender and superheroes! Last week male superheroes posed like Wonder Woman; this week, the characters from Super Mario swapped genders (pictured above).

Cuba celebrated its first transgender wedding on Saturday.

Thursday was the 91st birthday of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

I enjoyed watching Texas Gov. Rick Perry squirm and struggle while trying to explain why he supports abstinence-only education in a state with soaring rates of teen pregnancy.

Sady Doyle takes on Naffissatou Diallo’s ugly choice.

A Lancet editorial urges South Africa to heed recommendations on maternal health. And over at Mother Jones, Jen Quirashi interprets a sharp new infographic by the Maternal Health Task Force on annual maternal deaths globally.

If watching the new HBO documentary Gloria: In Her Own Words left you eager to hear about some of the other women who helped launch the contemporary feminist movement, check out this article on the Ms. blog by Gloria Steineim, originally published in 1973, on the verbal witticisms of Flo Kennedy.

While I don’t agree entirely with his characterization of today’s young people (see: Do It Anyway), Bruce Levine gives 8 persuasive reasons that young Americans are systematically de-incentivized from resistance.

Elisa Ringholm uses The Help as a springboard to talk about the circumstances of today’s domestic workers (as does a campaign launched by the National Domestic Workers Alliance). Over at Racialicious, Arturo R. García writes about the other group of people we always see playing “the help”.

Charlotte Cooper on gender and the “Rotis not Riots” campaign developed in response to the London riots.

“Gender is a lens, not a conclusion.” Roxanne Krystalli reflects on her work with women in areas of conflict and post-conflict.

Juliet E. McKenna asks what the problem is with representations of women in fantasy.

What have you been reading/writing this week?

Brooklyn, NY

Lori Adelman started blogging with Feministing in 2008, and now runs partnerships and strategy as a co-Executive Director. She is also the Director of Youth Engagement at Women Deliver, where she promotes meaningful youth engagement in international development efforts, including through running the award-winning Women Deliver Young Leaders Program. Lori was formerly the Director of Global Communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and has also worked at the United Nations Foundation on the Secretary-General's flagship Every Woman Every Child initiative, and at the International Women’s Health Coalition and Human Rights Watch. As a leading voice on women’s rights issues, Lori frequently consults, speaks and publishes on feminism, activism and movement-building. A graduate of Harvard University, Lori has been named to The Root 100 list of the most influential African Americans in the United States, and to Forbes Magazine‘s list of the “30 Under 30” successful mediamakers. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Lori Adelman is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Partnerships.

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