Shira Tarrant's Posts

It’s a Dress, Not a Yes

“It’s a dress, not a yes,” is a rallying cry at the SlutWalk marches, which demand an end to rape and victim blaming. The movement started in January 2011, when a Toronto constable warned students that to avoid getting raped they shouldn’t dress like sluts. Within months, anti-rape activists began taking to the streets in [...]

Misogynist T-Shirt Removed Thanks to Online Activism!

In December 2010, Ms. Blogger Caroline Heldman reported on a galling T-shirt sold by Tilly’s, the popular surf and skate clothing chain. The LRG-brand T-shirt, as Heldman explained, features a woman, nude from the shoulders up, with tape over her mouth, captioned “enjoy the silence,” and, below in parentheses, “drawing of girl with tape on [...]

Silence and Sexual Assault on College Campuses

Last spring I was hired by Drake University to provide recommendations about their campus sexual assault prevention and response policies. Today I face a moral dilemma. In August 2010, Drake University student Anthony Bertolone was charged with third-degree felony sexual abuse for assaulting a Sigma Chi fraternity brother. According to police reports, the victim was [...]

Own Your Power To Make Change: Ms. Interviews Gloria Feldt

Women must be fearless in wielding power. This is the point of Gloria Feldt’s new book, No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change the Way We think About Power and Leadership (Seal Press). “The most confounding problem facing women today,” Feldt writes, is that doors of opportunity are open, but “not enough women are walking [...]

Is Pornography Racist?

In her new book Pornland (Beacon Press) author Gail Dines argues that our sexuality is hijacked by the multi-billion-dollar-a-year porn industry. (See my three-part interview with Gail here, here, and here.) Dines also argues that pornography is racist. But not everyone agrees. In the Pornland chapter titled “Racy Sex, Sexy Racism!” Dines writes that women [...]

Porn: Pleasure or Profit? Ms. Interviews Gail Dines, Part III

This third installment of Ms.’s interview series with Gail Dines continues the conversation with the Wheelock College professor of sociology and women’s studies and chair of the American Studies Department. Dines recently briefed members of Congress on the harms of pornography, arguing for greater enforcement of existing obscenity laws. Staunchly anti-porn, she argues that this [...]

Porn: Pleasure or Profit? Ms. Interviews Gail Dines, Part II

In Part I of my interview with Gail Dines, the self-described anti-porn feminist discussed sexual freedom, coercion, safety and harm. Part II continues the conversation. And this time, porn actors respond. Shira Tarrant/Ms.: Your new book, PORNLAND: How Porn Has Hijacked our Sexuality (Beacon Press), is out this month. When readers pick up this book, [...]

Porn: Pleasure or Profit? An Interview With Gail Dines, Part I

Move over dot-com, dot-org, and dot-gov. There’s a new domain on the block: dot-xxx. With 370 million sites and $3,000 spent for online porn every second, the industry’s revenues surpass earnings by Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix combined. This is author Gail Dines’s point: Porn is about profit, not pleasure. Some people [...]

Wheaties Fuels a Breakfast of Stereotypes

How about some stereotypes with that morning bowl of cereal? After 80-plus years on the market, Wheaties has put more muscle in its brand by launching Wheaties Fuel. Billed as a cereal “By Champions. For Champions,” the re-branded carbfest  has the distinction of being the first cereal aimed intentionally at men. Each serving contains 210 calories and [...]

Getting Down About Hooking Up

The days are finally longer. Birds are chirping and green leaves are starting to bud. This can only mean one thing. Spring Break! And with Spring Break comes hook ups. Some folks are freaking out about this “new phenomenon” of hooking up, but I’d argue it’s hardly new–check the lyrics from those 1975 disco heroes, [...]

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