Happy-To-Be-Nappy Barbie
December 22, 2011 by Martha Pitts · 7 Comments
This week, a group of black women in Columbus, Ga., started a campaign to donate 40 black Barbie dolls to young black girls. And here’s the twist: Before gifting the Barbies, the women used boiling water and pipe cleaners to transform them into curly-haired “beauties.” In my 32 years on this earth, I’ve owned a [...]
Ryan Gosling, Feminist Scholar
October 14, 2011 by Michele Kort · 11 Comments
We didn’t think we could love Ryan Thomas Gosling more than we already do here at the Ms. Blog. He’s so talented, so darn good-looking, so noble–and so willing to call out the patriarchy! I mean, the guy is quoted as saying, It’s misogynistic in nature to try and control a woman’s sexual presentation of self. [...]
Ms. Readers’ 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time: The Top 10 and the Complete List!
October 10, 2011 by Ms. · 36 Comments
Scholar, activist, provocateur, teacher, community-builder, inspiration: No one word can span the career of bell hooks or capture how much we love her work. According to Ms. readers’ selections of the best feminist non-fiction of all time, she’s your favorite writer, with three books in our top ten–including number one–and a total of seven books [...]
Top 100 Feminist Non-Fiction Countdown: 50-41
October 5, 2011 by Ms. · Leave a Comment
Within books 50 to 41, you’ll find several controversial takes on motherhood and many a memoir, including a reflection on the personal impact of breast cancer, a graphic autobiography from a dyke to watch out for and some gutsy revelations from a Nation columnist. You’ll also see a satire of how the patriarchy tries to dampen [...]
Top 100 Feminist Non-Fiction Countdown: 60-51
The next 10 books picked by Ms. readers take us on a journey through history, from 20,000-year-old goddess worship to the 3,500-year-old origins of patriarchy to 400 years of U.S. women’s history all the way up to the 2008 presidential bid of Hillary Clinton. Next, bell hooks and Gloria Steinem get personal by looking at [...]
Top 100 Feminist Non-Fiction Countdown: 70-61
October 3, 2011 by Ms. · 5 Comments
Books 70 to 61 take a darker turn, looking at some of the harsh realities of sexism, homophobia and racism. Here, writers take on rape, colonialism, wage disparities, racist reproductive injustice, and the hidden pre-Roe stories of women who gave up their children for adoption. But to start, two works by heavyweight feminist theorists that [...]
Imagine There’s No Gender: It’s Not Easy, But We Can Try
September 30, 2011 by Jessica Holden Sherwood · 9 Comments
“Imagine a world without gender.” That’s the directive in the email signature of Judith Lorber, author of Breaking the Bowls: Degendering and Feminist Change. It’s one I find deeply inspiring, but I can already hear the chorus of feminist objections. Let me address some of those from my perspective as a feminist sociologist. Without gender, [...]
bell hooks speaks!
May 3, 2011 by Jennifer Williams · Leave a Comment
Last fall, after blogger Gina Ulysse lamented the public silence of acclaimed scholar and feminist icon bell hooks, the Ms. Blog hosted “bell hooks week,” inviting writers to reflect on hooks’ contributions and apply her trenchant theories to current cultural phenomena. Not surprisingly, bell hooks week was a huge success. We featured writing by Janell [...]
Don’t Ms.: Feminist Coming Out Day, International Women’s Day, the Ms. Blog Birthday Party and More!
March 7, 2011 by Dahlia Grossman-Heinze · 1 Comment
With FOUR feminist holidays–plus the soon-to-be-globally-recognized Ms. Blog Birthday–we’ve got a jam-packed week of feminist events ahead! Everywhere: Tomorrow is International Women’s Day. It’s customary in many countries to give flowers to the women in your life. Attend events around the world and stay tuned for Ms. International Women’s Day posts from every continent. March 8 [...]
Top Ten Ways to be a Feminist in 2010
November 15, 2010 by Amy Klein · 14 Comments
We at the Ms. Blog were charmed and inspired by Amy Klein’s heartfelt post on how to be a feminist, and she graciously agreed to let us reprint it. What would you add to the list? 1. Stop making rape jokes. These jokes are becoming really popular right now and they are not funny. The [...]
