** While the following doesn't represent the views of all Republican or Conservative constituents, it does represent the actions (or lack of) taken by Republicans in Congress based on their voting records. ** Women: "Can I have birth control?" Republicans: "No!" Women: "I couldn't get birth control so I…
Slut-shaming is one of the many tools used by American society to embarrass women who are sexually active and have the nerve to actually enjoy sex. Whether by choice or force, women who have sex are ridiculed in cruel and demeaning ways. Example: Cassidy Goodson. Cassidy is a young…
Authored by: Shiri Eisner * Trigger warning: explicit discussion of sexual harassment and sexual violence. Imagine a 14-year-old girl, just beginning her 9th grade. Her classmates know that she's bisexual – she's told them about it, assuming that (like her) everyone else is also accepting. But when she walks…
“As a society, we encourage girls and women to be emotionally accessible, and in touch with their feelings; we say that it’s an innately feminine trait. We say it, that is, until they have feelings that make us uncomfortable, at which point we recast them as melodramatic harpies, shrieking…
If I were an illustrator, I would create cartoons to represent people like me (Obama voters) before and after Tuesday’s historic election. Since I cannot draw to save my soul, however, I shall try to describe what my pictures would look like. THE “BEFORE ” CARTOON. Group A—several wealthy,…
It wasn’t until 1920 (the year of my 92-year-old mother’s birth) that we even had the right to vote. Certainly this is no time for us to squander that hard-won power. Did you see Gloria Steinem’s recent email (October 2, 2012), laying it out flat why women not only…
Marriage is more than a piece of paper. It confers numerous benefits, such as health, disability and life insurance, pension funds and tax refunds for spouses. Many gay couples desire to marry and partake in these benefits but have been denied this right because of their sexuality and that…
Any foreigner in Britain in 2012 must think the country was going through another world war. The amount of jingoism, flag-waving, anthem singing and hyperbole spilling out of the national media has gone into overdrive, suddenly proclaiming this country to be the 'greatest country ever', a claim that hasn't been…
Every day I sit out of the workforce, the harder it will be for me to find a job because of the stigma that is currently swirling in our society: unemployed folks are a bunch of deadbeat, lazy, trifling individuals looking for a handout.
Thirty years has passed since I read "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret" by Judy Blume and I am still enthralled by Margaret’s dilemma because I have the same problem. The book is about a girl in sixth grade that grew up without a religious affiliation. Her mother…