I have acne, my knees are round, my left breast is bigger than the right one, my abs are not flat (and never will be), but surprisingly enough, I’m OK with all of these things. Two years ago, though, I would not have been. I am a girl who has gone from being obese to weighing [...]

At the V to the 10th in New Orleans, activism is the word of the weekend. Playwright and founder of V-Day, Eve Ensler, informed us that “Our destiny will not be changed by the people on top.” In other words, this weekend was all about the grassroots movement. We can no longer rely on elected [...]

We followed a line of women (and a few scattered men) into the Superdome early Friday morning. After being thoroughly searched and promising never to turn on our video camera, we were allowed admittance. The entrance was decorated with a selection of feminist art pieces such as poster board sized pages of a graphic novel entitled, [...]

Since this will be my last post at Feministing, I would like to give a quick thanks to everyone who made it such a great experience. A big thanks to all of the Feministing women for asking me to guest-blog, to all of them and Miriam for being such great co-bloggers, and a special thanks [...]

Who remembers the case of the man who was arrested and tried for a 1984 rape, after using his AA program to write a letter of confession and apology to his victim? I remember it well. I loved the bravery of the victim, Liz Seccuro, who shamelessly went public with her story. She refused to accept [...]

Do you remember in High School, when your friends would compare the length of their index fingers and their ring fingers to see who was gay? Well now scientists are researching these traits as well. A New York Magazine article , written by a self-identified gay male author, delves into the research behind supposedly “gay” traits–hair whorls, [...]

Last week, a Federal court ruled that, despite Illinois law, pharmacists in Illinois can refuse to dispense emergency contraception . The state passed a law in 2005 that requires all pharmacies to dispense EC. As a result, Wal-Mart (and other companies) have disciplined pharmacists that refused to follow the rule. Then came the lawsuits and the bad [...]

I missed the AFL-CIO’s Democratic presidential forum the other night, but while reading a short write-up of the debate , I came across a quote from Senator Clinton that made me do a double-take:

“For 15 years, I have stood up against the right-wing machine. And I’ve come out stronger. If you want a winner who knows how to [...]

Are you a vegetarian? Maybe you just don’t like the taste of red meat? Well careful ladies, cause you might not be able to snag a man! The NYTimes today reports that eating red meat (particularly steak) and ordering it on a first date is a surefire way to hook the man of your dreams. The [...]

New legislation that will lower contraception costs went into effect this week in Minnesota.

Since 2003, the cost of contraceptives has skyrocketed for family-planning clinics, forcing them to pass those costs on to their clients. In turn, higher prices have decreased the number of family-planning clinic patients — and, presumably, the number of women using effective birth-control [...]

An article in both Women’s eNews and AlterNet discusses the reasons why many women don’t vote . In actuality, more women vote than men. And that’s great news! The problem is that significantly lower numbers of unmarried women vote, compared to married women.

Unmarried women are the fastest growing major demographic group and represent the largest potential group [...]

Nope, this isn’t about a revival of the early 90s Whoopie Goldberg hit movie, this is about what Bust Magazine is reporting this month is a new trend of young, feminist minded women choosing to become nuns. Bust reports that young women are being drawn into the nun’s life, something that even in Whoopie’s movie is [...]

This news item made my stomach turn: Cassandra Hernandez, a female Air Force airman was raped, reported her attack and then subsequently became a court-martial defendant, herself . The story goes down like this: Hernandez was at a party, where she was drinking. She says that three male airman raped her. She went to the hospital and filed [...]

An article in the Washington Post covers the increasing “sexuality” of the 2008 presidential candidates . The problem is that in almost all cases, the sexuality of the candidate is not the one actually in question– it’s that of his wife.

In this long, hot campaign season, intimations of sexuality are sprouting like wildflowers along the road to the [...]

The New York Times reports today that the New York City Council is considering a proposal to ban the word bitch. This proposal follows a similar ruling which banned the use of the n-word last February.

The term is hateful and deeply sexist, said Councilwoman Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn, who has introduced a measure against the word, [...]

Dr. George Tiller, one of the few late-term abortion providers in the U.S., has pleaded not guilty to 19 misdemeanor charges brought upon him by the state of Kansas. Dr. Tiller has a long history of being harassed by anti-abortion activists. He has faced protests at his clinic incredibly frequently, other trumped-up criminal charges, physical threats and [...]

This week’s New York Times magazine included a piece from the idea lab about research that is being done ways to prevent obesity in newborns. The piece explains that the study of obesity ( a disease that affects almost a third of the US population ) focuses on lifestyle and genetic causes, but researchers are beginning to look [...]

This advertisement ( larger image with full text ) for QSOL.com appeared in the August issue of the Linux Journal . Let’s tick off the most offensive points. The misogyny is obvious, since the ad treats women explicitly and entirely like sexual objects. The themes of objectification and comparing women to machines continue throughout the smaller print with lines like “We’ve [...]

If you haven’t read this report, Hidden in Plain Sight: Sexual Harassment and Assault on the New York City Subway , you should. It documents what most of you probably already know, that a large majority of people (particularly women) face significant sexual harassment while riding the New York city subway. The report, written from a online [...]

View image Pro-Choice/Pro-Fashion, a fashion show to raise money and awareness for pro-choice organizations, will have its second edition (remix!) on Saturday, August 19 at 7 p.m. in the outgoing location of Columbia, MO’s Maude Vintage, 801 N. Broadway. The show will feature local designers and their fashions as well as some marvelous tunes brought by [...]