On June 27, 2018, at the end of Pride month, I was visiting my family in my childhood home. My […]
Women’s Liberation, Beauty Contests, and the 1920s: Swimsuit Edition
For several years, I’ve had a wall decoration in my office: a panoramic photo of a 1920s beauty contest. I […]
The Dangers of the Damaged Hero: Gender and Suffering in Romance Novels
I unabashedly love romance novels. As a reader, I find that a well-crafted happy ending is a wonderful antidote to […]
Joan Scott, Liberalism, and Abortion Rights
Recently, the University of Edinburgh awarded Joan Scott an honorary doctorate in social science. The hooding ceremony seemed more like […]
Taking Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy Seriously: Little Women on PBS
Spoilers ahead for plot points of Little Women — but you’ve had 150 years to read the book! Growing up, […]
Why It’s Bad When It’s “Not That Bad”
When then-Senator Al Franken was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women this past November, I braced myself for the […]
“Weaponized Babies”; or, Damn, Why Didn’t I Think of Using That Term?
News that Senator Tammy Duckworth brought her baby to the Senate floor for a vote thrilled some and infuriated others. […]
Pornography on the Playground
When I was 19, I had a summer job supervising a playground. It was a pretty lame job. It paid […]
The Enigmatic Spinster
Judging from the number of books, blogs, news articles and interviews focused on the lives of single women, it seems […]
“A Basic Issue of Women’s Liberation”: The Feminist Campaign to Legalize Contraception in 1970s Ireland
On May 22, 1971, forty-seven members of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement (IWLM) boarded the 8am train from Dublin to […]
