Boxed In: Small Screen Is Small World for Women

Martha M. Lauzen has done it again. The executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film does gender audits of the entertainment industry each year, releasing stats on women’s employment behind and in front of the camera. Unfortunately, industry execs don’t seem to have gotten the message yet. Lauzen’s [...]

Betty White Isn’t a Feminist, But…

At 89, Betty White is going strong. She’s been “working steadily for the past 63 years,” and she continues to take on new challenges. At a time of life known as the twilight years–when people are supposed to relax and step away from the fray–she’s garnered a blurb for her new book from Twilight star Robert [...]

My Little NON-Homophobic, NON-Racist, NON-Smart-Shaming Pony: A Rebuttal

I have been a lifelong feminist, and as an artist working in the animation industry for more than 16 years I have striven to do right by women and girls in the animated projects I have been part of. I try to bring sincerity and depth to the female characters I’ve animated and have fought in development [...]

Dexter: Feminist Serial Killer?

(SPOILER ALERT: Proceed with caution if you’re not caught up!) Dexter’s eye-for-an-eye vigilantism came to a gripping fifth-season finale this week with Jordan Chase (Jonny Lee Miller), serial rapist and murderer, brought to a bloody end by one of his victims, Lumen (Julia Stiles). If you are not familiar with the show, go here for [...]

The Rape Survivors “SVU” Doesn’t Show

Three men are savagely sodomized and an insulting name burned onto their chests. Their attacker? The woman they raped years before, now out for revenge. … A teenage girl is raped by a stranger. He returns years later and rapes her again. She moves across country and goes into hiding, but the same stranger finds [...]

Reviving “Reviving Ophelia”

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, the breakaway bestseller first published in 1994 was possibly the one book that touched off the notion of a self-esteem “crisis” in pre-adolescent girls. Its author, Mary Pipher, based it on her experience as a psychologist working with adolescent girls in Lincoln, Neb., indicting American culture as [...]

Gays on TV, Women in The Men’s Room and Bad Behavior at Goldman Sachs: Editors’ Picks, 9/12-9/18

CNN is the most trusted name in news. So it’s no surprise that they devoted an entire segment to covering the big debate going on in America over whether or not gay characters on TV shows are “bad for society”. Now if only they would address the question of whether or not Jesus votes Republican. [...]

Nikita: Fourth Time’s Still Not the Charm

CW’s new TV series, Nikita, is actually the fourth time this tired plot is getting told. First there was the French movie, La Femme Nikita, and then, American writers went on a repackaging spree, turning it into a TV show twice (and now, a third time). A mere nine minutes into the first episode of [...]

90210 on 9/02/10

When I think about growing up in the 90s, I always return to one particular place: Beverly Hills, California. I never actually stepped foot in the zip code (until recently, when I came to work as an intern for Ms.), but I watched Beverly Hills 90210 every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. I followed the [...]

Serious Laughs: Laura Linney in “The Big C”

In the opening scene of The Big C, a new series that premiered this week on Showtime, suburban schoolteacher and mom Cathy Jamison (played by Laura Linney) wears a bright, strained smile. It’s the people-pleasing, trying-to-be-nice smile that many women put on when they try to negotiate for what they want. In this case, Cathy [...]

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