Tag Archive for "Gender"

Posts Tagged Gender

The One In Which I Share My Entry Point To Feminist Thought

I want to tell you an old story. During my first year at Columbia, it occurred to me during a brief reverie that something was odd about the literature we were reading and how it represented women. In the margins of my notebook, I began making a branch of every book we read in Literature Humanities (aka Lit Hum), and I noted how each author in the western canon defined women over time– from St. Augustine, Boccaccio, Apuleius, Dante, to Goethe.

I remember some vague controversy my first year among instructors and administration about whether or not A Vindication of The Rights of Women should be mandated in the curriculum’s reading list. I think a mild concession was reached which allowed ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

These are the names of Nigeria’s kidnapped girls

Update #2: Upon further reflection and having read Jina Moore’s piece exploring the internal Nigerian politics of releasing the names and the specific concerns brought up by the governor of Borno state, we’ve decided to adjust this list to include the first names of the girls only.

Update #1: Some readers have expressed concern that posting these names may put the girls at further risk. We take that concern seriously, but given that the list has been released by a Nigerian organization and has been reported on by both the Nigerian and US media, we feel comfortable keeping it up here. We hope that the good that comes from putting names to this injustice outweighs any potential harm caused by their ...

By Jos Truitt • 9 years ago

Watch: bell hooks and Salamishah Tillet on the welfare of Black girls

bell hooks is currently a scholar-in-residence at The New School. Last night, hooks had a conversation with Salamishah Tillet about the cultural devaluation of Black girls. It’s a topic that’s certainly being discussed around these parts. The entire conversation was livestreamed, and you can watch the full video below:

By Suzanna Bobadilla • 9 years ago

The Feministing Five: Smith Q & A

Continuing Feministing’s coverage of Smith College’s severe refusal to allow trans women to enroll, we were thrilled to speak with two members of Smith Q&A — a collective that has been organizing to make the college more accessible to young trans women.

Two weeks ago Smith students held a large protest outside of a campus main office, which was sparked when the administration refused to further negotiate with students regarding policy reform. According to current undergraduate Raven Fowlkes-Witten, “The rally was a big win in itself and we were able to show support for trans women everywhere. Even though we are just allies, we support them in any way that we can.” This ...

Continuing Feministing’s coverage of Smith College’s severe refusal to allow trans women to enroll, we were thrilled to speak with two members of Smith Q&A — a collective ...

By Katie Halper • 9 years ago

Meet the conservatives who think Donald Sterling is the real victim

So, Clippers owner Donald Sterling may have told his girlfriend to stop posting photos of herself with Black people. And he may have been accused of sexual harassment. And as a real estate mogul, Sterling may have been so racist that the Justice Department sued him for bias. But in the scheme of things, this guy is the victim. And the real culprit is his so-called “girlfriend from hell.” At least that’s what people ranging from Donald Trump to Fox News hosts and viewers are saying.

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

Why the gender gap in children’s allowances matters

I figured the gender wage gap in babysitting had to be the earliest wage gap out there. But Bryce Covert has uncovered an even earlier one:

Nearly 70 percent of boys say they get an allowance, compared to just under 60 percent of girls, according to a new survey from Junior Achievement.

But unfortunately, it’s not likely because boys do more chores. One study found that girls do two more hours of housework a week than boys, while boys spend twice as much time playing. The same study confirmed that boys are still more likely to get paid for what they do: they are 15 percent more likely to get an allowance for doing chores than girls. A 2009 survey of ...

I figured the gender wage gap in babysitting had to be the earliest wage gap out there. But Bryce Covert has uncovered an even earlier one:

Nearly 70 percent of boys say they get an allowance, ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

“You can’t self-help away deeply-ingrained structural discrimination.”

Jessica has a good piece in The Guardian today on the gender confidence gap and the new book The Confidence Code which “argues that what’s truly holding women back is their own self-doubt.” As Amanda Hess has noted, this book is part of a genre that’s enjoying popularity right now — one that she describes as teaching women how “you, too, can become a successful blowhard.”

As Amanda notes, it’s worth questioning if we really want to be imitating the attributes of overconfident high-achievers. And it’s also debatable if that’ll even work. The confidence gap, Jessica argues, is a reflection of a culture that gives women no reason to feel self-assured.” So you can “fake it ’til you make ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 9 years ago

Student kicked out of her prom for wearing pants

Ah, the prom. That awkward night of teenagers dressing up and pretending to be adults remains one of our most long-standing and universal rites of passage. As such, it often seems to reveal a lot about how far we have — and haven’t — come in breaking down traditional norms around gender and sexuality. For every trailblazing trans teen who runs for prom king, or cross-dressing boy who wins prom king, or gay boy who wins prom queen, you’ve got teachers lobbying for LGBTQ-free proms and lesbian couples prohibited from attending or sent to a fake prom instead.

The latest tale of gender policing at prom comes from Cherryville High School in North ...