Today is June 19, or Juneteenth. While the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, slaves in Texas didn’t find out slavery was over until June 19, 1865, hence commemorating this date as the end of legal slavery in the US. As Phillipe Copeland points out , the prison system was quickly positioned to take the place [...]

Activists Verónica Bayetti Flores, long time friend of the blog and recent writer here, and Marco Galaviz on being arrested today protesting for the New York State Dream Act. A study finds female politicians are stereotyped , but in different ways than the stereotypes of women as a group. More on E3′s sexism: Anita Sarkeesian tweeted that none of [...]

I’ve taken some time away from blogging while I’ve been in grad school, and it’s given me an opportunity for some perspective on the feminist blogosphere. I started working at Feministing in 2009 with a goal of centering trans issues within feminism. I think the oppression trans folks face, particularly the extreme marginalization and violence aimed at  trans [...]

Trevor, who is really good at flirting, likes to get women’s attention by flashing them: The woman Trevor texted this time was not having it, though. Trevor doesn’t see the big deal, and starts insulting this woman he’s apparently trying to hit on. The conclusion of their conversation is after the jump – for the full [...]

Apple and Microsoft are both currently throwing big conferences, one for tech industry developers and one to sell video games. The conferences of these two giant companies are giving us an eye into some common-place sexism. Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is currently taking place in San Francisco. Yesterday Dan Ackerman tweeted this photo from the conference, which [...]

Zerlina was on MSBNC talking about the military sexual assault hearings and the always classy Senator Chambliss. A federal appeals court judge said , “Racial groups like African-Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to crime.” A new report highlights police hostility towards trans women of color. So this thing with Michelle Obama and a GetEqual heckler  happened. We’ll have more on this story [...]

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals today granted the Obama administration a stay on access to one-pill forms of emergency contraception. But the court also ruled that two-pill variants should be available over the counter immediately and without harsh age restrictions. So Judge Korman’s important ruling that EC should be available over the counter should at [...]

This animated short tells the story of a young trans girl who other people won’t let be a girl, and her journey to living on her own terms. A warning that it’s a tear jerker – Ellie Krnich’s picture book animation style brings me right back to childhood. The short is a personal, intimate story that [...]

This animated short tells the story of a young trans girl who other people won’t let be a girl, and her journey to living on her own terms. A warning that it’s a tear jerker – Ellie Krnich’s picture book animation style brings me right back to childhood. The short is a personal, intimate story that [...]

Hero and her father Leonato having fun at a party, before he wishes her dead I’m a nerd for both Shakespeare and Joss Whedon’s writing, so I’ve been super excited for Whedon’s adaptation of  Much Ado About Nothing , which opens this weekend in New York, LA, and San Francisco. I’m a big fan of the play, [...]

Image via “Smith Q&A” Facebook page. Design by jack laxson. On Saturday, Gina de Vries, Elena Rose, and myself brought Girl Talk: A Trans and Cis Woman Dialogue to Smith College. Girl Talk is a multi-media performance show promoting dialogue about relationships of all kinds between queer trans women, queer cis women, and genderqueer people. We were [...]

In December, when controversy about the rape apologist org the Good Men Project was all over the feminist internets, I wrote about problems with the juvenile way of thinking about people in terms like “good” and “bad.” In that post, I briefly mentioned that to address the reality of sexual violence we need a more [...]

Today the White House announced their set of proposals intended to curb gun violence. A Somali journalist has been under arrest for almost a week because he interviewed a woman who claimed she had been raped by members of the Somali army. The criminalization of pregnancy has led to too many people being denied constitutional rights . The Wall Street Journal [...]

Cover art by Olivier Coipel, who will be drawing the book. Marvel is relaunching X-Men in April, to join the 2 ½ other X-Men titles they’re currently publishing. This one will be notable, though, for featuring an all female X-Men team . The comic will star Jubilee, who’s basically the early 90s in character form (I’m the perfect [...]

This graph, put together by the Enliven Project using Department of Justice  and FBI data, is super depressing. But it puts in stark visuals something a lot of us know: it’s way more likely for a rapist to walk free than for the rape to be reported or for someone to be falsely accused of rape. So can [...]

Editor’s note: OK, I’ll admit it. When I was in college there was a secret underground society of lefty organizers bent on taking over the world. It was basically exactly like the Skull and Bones, except we were a bunch of pinko queers who wanted to smash patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism, and the state. Today you [...]

I appreciate the New York Times pointing out that women hold multiple higher offices in New Hampshire , but I don’t know why they had to keep mentioning the color pink. Speaking of the New York Times , what is this should women wear makeup Room for Debate bull ? And why the hell does the founder of the rape apologist org The [...]

The Feministing crew is currently in the third year of our speaking tour, Feministing: Offline and Unfiltered . We travel to colleges and community centers, bringing you our own snarky, passionate brand of feminism in person. And now is a great time to begin setting up a spring event for your campus! The keynote panel features a group [...]

Late last night the House of Representatives passed the Senate’s final version of the deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. Incredibly, we’ve reached the point where getting House Republicans to actually do their damn job almost looks like a victory. After behaving like petulant, tea partying children to keep the legislation from passing just to [...]

Despite being a bunch of godless heathen feminists, we’re taking the next couple days off from blogging. We’ll be back Wednesday with our end of the year content. In the mean time, if the holidays are a difficult time of year for you, here are a couple resources I’ve found: The December Project , to help members [...]