2012 December Archive

Mormon women protest in pants

On Sunday, Mormon women around the world wore pants to church. With this seemingly simple act, some think, these activists have opened up a new era for Mormon feminism.

As the New York Times reports, “Wear Pants to Church” was first publicized on Facebook by the event’s originator, 26-year-old Stephanie Lauritzen and quickly spread around the globe. Women are not officially forbidden from wearing pants to church, but many report an expectation to stick to traditionally feminine garb nonetheless, confirmed by the widespread online fury in the days leading up to the event. Yet despite threats of violence against women who dared to arrive at church without their usual dresses, thousands opted for pants in what one Mormon professor called ...

On Sunday, Mormon women around the world wore pants to church. With this seemingly simple act, some think, these activists have opened up a new era for Mormon feminism.

As the New York Times reports, “Wear Pants ...

By Alexandra Brodsky • 11 years ago

Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah: Alice Nkom is Woman of the Year

While TIME did pick some pretty awesome ladies for their Person of the Year shortlist, it’s astounding that the magazine hasn’t chosen an individual woman for the grand title since the selection of President Corazon Aquino of the Phillipines in 1986. So Africa is a Country, “the media blog that is not about famine, Bono, or Barack Obama,” has gone ahead and named Alice Nkom the 2012 Woman of the Year. What an inspiring pick. AIAC writes:

Alice Nkom was the first woman to become a lawyer in Cameroon. That was in 1969, and she was 24 years old, and she’s been kicking through ever since. Over the last four decades, Nkom has been a ...

By Chloe Angyal • 11 years ago

Merry Christmas from the Pope! Oh, not you, gay people.

I’d like to be scratched of Pope Benedict’s Christmas list, please. I don’t really want to be included in his Christmas wishes if he’s going to use them to degrade and insult LGBT people. Which is exactly what he did this year! Merry Christmas, everyone, except not really because some of you are manipulating nature and he deplores you. Via ThinkProgress:

People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.

The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment ...

By Chloe Angyal • 11 years ago

Australian troops to march in Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in uniform

The Sydney Mardi Gras is one of the biggest LGBTQI pride events in the world. It’s been around since 1978, when it sprung up in reaction to the Stonewall Riots in New York City. Now, it’s a Sydney institution, and one of my favourite things about my fair city.

Next year is the 35th anniversary, and for the first time, members of the Australian Defence Force will be allowed to march in the parade in uniform. The ABC reports:

The Australian Defence Force has cleared gay members to march in uniform in next year’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The move comes 20 years after the ADF lifted a ban on homosexuals in the armed forces.

A ...

The Sydney Mardi Gras is one of the biggest LGBTQI pride events in the world. It’s been around since 1978, when it sprung up in reaction to the Stonewall Riots in New York City. Now, it’s a ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

We should be talking about masculinity and violence after the Sandy Hook shooting and every day

Let’s talk about violence and masculinity. In a post earlier this week, Amy argued that since women are sometimes perpetrators, focusing on masculinity can only take us so far in understanding violence, gun violence, and mass shootings in particular. But, in my opinion, a deeper analysis of masculinity would take us farther than basically anything else–and it’s a conversation that’s not happening.

The fact that “women are perpetrators of gun violence, too” is undeniably true. And certainly, “masculinity”–as a loosely defined and incredibly broad concept–can’t adequately “explain” mass shootings, or violence more generally, any more than anything else can.

Which is really what the entire country is desperately hoping to do in the aftermath of a tragedy like ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

Sojourner Truth: “A woman in control of her image”

Holiday movie-viewing season probably means that you undoubtedly will catch one of the most talked about films of the year, Spielberg’s “Lincoln.” I saw the movie a few weeks back and it’s pretty grand. Yet, I had a healthy amount of skepticism going in, because it is a Spielberg jawn, which would mean there would be a douse of self-righteous audience pandering hoakieness, but muted by the powerful script from screenwriter and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner. “Lincoln” as a title is kind of a misnomer: it’s a legislative drama, watching white men wrest, insult and struggle with each other over the legality and morality of human bondage while the Civil War dragged on.

I’m a descendant from all of ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

What We Missed

The end of the recorded Mayan calendar is upon us! The Scientific American wonders what’s up with our obsession with the end and dystopia.

Charlotte Allen blames the Sandy Hook massacre on a lack of men at the school. Yes, really.

Katie on Donald Trump suing someone for the grand crime of shittalking, Donald Trump.

Cory Booker is running for the US Senate.

The French believe in free birth control for teenagers.

Out of 17 developed countries, single parents in the US have it the hardest.

The end of the recorded Mayan calendar is upon us! The Scientific American wonders what’s up with our obsession with the end and dystopia.

Charlotte Allen blames the Sandy Hook massacre on a lack of men ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Quick Hit: The Nice Guys of OKCupid

Surely even the most brilliant parody of Nice Guy syndrome can’t compete with the real things said by self-proclaimed “nice guys.” And OkCupid is clearly the best environment to watch them in action. Check out the new Tumblr “Nice Guys” of Okcupid to see their utter lack of self-awareness on full display. (Spoiler: Being “friendzoned” is apparently the worst thing in the whole world.)