Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has shared her daily make-up routine with Vogue magazine. “The key to beauty is feeling beautiful, and no amount of money or makeup can really compensate for loving yourself,” the congresswoman said. “Femininity has power, and, in politics, there is so much criticism and nitpicking about how women and femme people present ourselves,” AOC said. “Just being a woman is quite politicised […]
Feminism
One hundred years to the day after women first won the right to vote in America, and the country is in a weird, dark place. There’s a kind of brutal symmetry between 1920, when the mass exodus of women from the home and into the workforce supercharged the movement, and 2020, as the pandemic forces working women back into the home. It’s all so retro. Even […]
Citing health concerns, the president of the National Organization for Women stepped down Sunday, amid a flurry of allegations of racism at the nation’s oldest and largest feminist organization. In an email to the NOW board, state presidents, and staff on Sunday night, President Toni Van Pelt announced she would be stepping down with two weeks’ notice effective Aug. 28. Vice President Christian Nunes will take […]
It’s clear enough that Ben Shapiro and Republican candidate James P. Bradley’s puritanical pearl clutching over Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s (censored!) music video “WAP,” which stands for Wet-Ass Pussy, is largely irrelevant. Shapiro’s and Bradley’s statements decrying the explicit message of the song and the (un)dress in the video constitute the kind of performative moral panics that are so baldly opportunistic as to render […]
The federal judge whose son was shot dead two weeks ago has, for the first time, spoken about the horrific moment her only child was killed on their doorstep by a “madman” posing as a FedEx courier. In a painfully emotional video statement, Judge Esther Salas said she is certain her family was targeted because of her job. Her husband, Mark Anderl, was also shot three […]
Members of the so-called “men’s rights” movement want to get one thing straight: while a prominent member allegedly killed a judge’s son, seriously wounded her husband, and was implicated in the killing of another activist, it should not reflect badly on their community. In fact, the most deranged strand of the insular crowd’s alternately panicked and dismissive reaction to a bizarre internal beef spilling out into […]
Paul Feig will not let a once-in-a-century pandemic slow him down. He’s balancing far too many plates. There’s the two features in pre-production that he’s planning to direct—This Country, a U.S. remake of the famed U.K. mockumentary about rural life at the margins, and an adaptation of the bestselling novel The School for Good and Evil, a potential Harry Potter-esque franchise. Or how about the projects […]
Furious that the National Organization for Women has yet to remove President Toni Van Pelt over allegations of racism, a group of state chapter leaders have started a social media campaign to push her out of office. Over the month of July, the California NOW chapter is hosting Facebook live streams with 20 other state chapter leaders who will demand Van Pelt’s resignation and discuss their […]
This week, the Supreme Court upheld Trump’s exceptions to the Affordable Care Act, which will allow universities and employers to deny insurers free birth control due to moral objections. The outcry from women’s rights advocates was swift. Many insisted that contraception is an imperative part of health care for women. On Twitter, former California congresswoman Katie Hill was quick to note that birth control does more […]
I was on my path very young, 5-and-a-half going on 6, watching The Ed Sullivan Show, essential Sunday viewing for all American families. He would always have “something for the youngsters” at the end, and on this episode, out came Elvis Presley doing “Don’t Be Cruel.” My eldest sister by 9 years started screaming. I stared at her and wondered, why? Then I turned and watched the […]
Two National Organization for Women board members say the group is retaliating against them and seven others for speaking up about racism within the iconic organization. The nine board members—including all four women of color on the board—previously called for President Toni Van Pelt’s resignation after a Daily Beast investigation revealed widespread allegations of racism in the group’s chapters and national headquarters. Now, according to board […]
Could someone please, for the love of God, teach J.K. Rowling how to read the room? Over the weekend, as protests calling for the protection of black lives spread across the world, the Harry Potter author took a moment to fire off a transphobic tweetstorm mocking the use of non-gendered language and insisting that “erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully […]
Nine national board members of the National Organization for Women are calling on the president, Toni Van Pelt, to resign after a Daily Beast investigation revealed a pattern of racism at the storied women rights group. The revolt comes as the organization’s black vice president says she has also been the subject of discrimination and tokenism—and was not even personally consulted before NOW sent out a […]
Monica Weeks knew she was taking a risk when she ran for vice president of the National Organization for Women. She was young—29 years old—and campaigning on the first all-women-of-color ticket in the organization’s 50-year history. Her friends thought the group was old-fashioned, and her mother, an immigrant from Cuba, was anxious about her taking on such a high-profile role. But recent family events, coupled with […]