Ever since I was in high school, I’ve spent a significant amount of my free time reading.  I read in a range of subjects, including novels, history, and cultural criticism, but my favorite category is biography. This lifelong hobby made Chloe Angyal’s recent article, “Why Don’t Men Read Books By Women,” all the more unsettling.  […]

As most everyone knows by now, Patricia Arquette issued a very blunt call for equal pay and gender equality during her recent Oscar acceptance speech.  After thanking her family, friends, colleagues, and others who have helped her along the way, Arquette stated that she wanted to say thank you “To every woman who gave birth […]

Last week saw the close of New York Fashion Week, a magical time when Manhattanites come together with global taste-makers to encourage women of all stripes to display their inner beauty and outer style.  Sort of.  As much as NYFW is a salute to New York’s diverse population and global mindset, it also pays homage […]

Earlier this week, news broke that Jeb Bush’s recently-hired Chief Technology Officer, Ethan Czahor, had been purging his Twitter account. What was he trying to delete? Around forty-five sexist, homophobic, and otherwise offensive tweets. Buzzfeed has a good sampling of the deleted tweets, but I’ve pasted two below for your reading pleasure: “When I burp […]

The summer after my senior year of high school, I volunteered for my local NPR station—my assignment was to do a piece on the water quality of Lake Erie (it’s absolutely fine… maybe stick to the pool).  I traveled around town collecting sound, conducting interviews; I was thrilled to use the editing equipment to put […]

This Sunday we will watch advertisements. We will see ads from an Official Pizza Sponsor (Papa John’s); an Official Dip Sponsor (Sabra Humus), an Official Chip and Dip Sponsor (Tostitos), and of course, an Official Beer Sponsor (Anheuser Busch). But among the gimmicks and cameos filling million-dollar ad slots, at least one ad will grab […]

Think fast: Can you name three pictures in which the actor Jeremy Renner has appeared? I ask this question because: (1) I wonder if I am uniquely out-of-step with pop culture; and (2) Renner is at the center of a growing conversation about Hollywood’s gendered pay gap. Due to the recent Sony leaks, we learned […]

I am a huge “Daily Show” fan (and cried myself to sleep when “The Colbert Report” went off the air).  Last night, Jessica Williams had an AMAZING segment on a new Alabama law authorizing judges to appoint attorneys for fetuses still in utero.  Yes, that’s right: Alabama won’t appoint an attorney to help a woman […]

Like many children of the 1980s, I grew up on The Cosby Show. Amid the jokes and physical comedy, the show painted a legendarily wholesome portrait not only of an admirable and loving African-American family, but also of Cosby himself as a male obstetrician who loyally supported and was adored by his female patients and […]

“I want us all to fulfill our greatest potential.  To find our calling, and summon the courage to live it.” Oprah. When most people think of Oprah, they think of her as an African-American talk show host, actress, producer, billionaire, and philanthropist.  What people don’t know is that she was born in rural Mississippi to […]