2015 Recap: Our favorite Feministing posts of the year

To close out 2015, we’re showcasing our favorite feminist content from the past year, starting with our writers’ favorite posts on Feministing. Check them out and let us know what other posts you think should have made the list!

Dana: I loved Katherine’s piece on Charlie Hebdo and the “necessary proliferation of speech that must follow on from such a tragedy.” And I keep returning to Alexandra’s post on movement roles: “To claim a central place in the ranks requires not just an authentic claim to the collective hurt but a continued claim. So what if you don’t hurt anymore?”

Sesali: I’m really grateful to Reina for her piece on intimate partner violence in queer communities. In the wake of the messy domestic violence incident between Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson, Reina asked a lot of really hard but necessary questions and provided a lot of great resources.

Jos: Katherine’s articles on social justice discourse – on the tone argument, call-out culture, and offense discourse – are the kind of dangerous, important public thinking many of us often avoid because we know it’s going to be misused and thrown back at us. But Katherine went there, beautifully, brilliantly, and clearly (if you’re not intentionally misreading her words), and I am incredibly grateful.

Alexandra: Maybe this is cheating, since it’s more than one article, but I want to shout out Juliana’s “Bearing Witness” series, which highlights indigenous women fighting for climate justice. I’ve learned so much!

Maya: Dana’s bravely personal piece “On Anniversaries” on healing from trauma and how to “make good with the inevitability of hurt in a hurtful world, without succumbing to a politics of hopelessness, or complacency” stuck with me for a long time. Also, all of Reina’s work on sexual ethics.

Katie: I was a huge fan of Alexandra’s piece  “Autoimmunity”, and especially this sentence: “Many things are dangerous, and one of them is confusing metaphor with reality.” I’m still thinking about this piece, and frequently think about the ways in which our consciousness is connected to our bodies and what that all means. 

Lori: I’m unabashedly a fan of Sesali’s “Fucking with Feministing” series. So many advice columns can be shame-y and weird, but this monthly sex advice column, done in consultation with the Center for Sex and Culture, dishes out medically accurate yet surprisingly accessible health and safety information related to sex and sexuality. It’s a lot of what the site does best, and I’m eternally grateful to Sesali and the experts at the CSC for making it happen. Honorable mention: The Holy Trinity explained, which I am still quoting all the way to December.