Spoiler alerts Fans seem to be all over the map on the Mad Men series finale. When I watched it, I was candidly a little disappointed. But reflecting on it, I think that some of that disappointment speaks to the real world. In other words, Matthew Weiner, the show’s creator, seems to have captured the […]

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’ve been thinking quite a bit about the movie Selma and all of the controversy that has swirled around it.  One way you could frame that controversy might be to lay out this series of questions that could be asked: Why wasn’t the movie more historically-accurate when it came to President Johnson’s position regarding the […]

During the last week of October, a video about street harassment made the rounds on the Internet.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you can find Hollaback’s two-minute clip of a woman hiking across New York City in Maya’s post from the same week.  Although the video’s female protagonist remained silent throughout ten hours of […]

“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 […]

  Kelly Sue DeConnick has been garnering attention for her work as the writer of the series Captain Marvel, which now features Carol Danvers as the protagonist of the series.  Air Force Major Carol Danvers first appeared in Marvel comics in 1968.  In her non-powered form, Danvers was an accomplished spy, a pilot, and skilled […]

Most women—no, all women—have had the experience of receiving unsolicited feedback on their physical appearance. Such commentary comes in many forms, from lewd remarks or demands for a “smile” on the street, to irksome discussions with well-meaning relatives about how much “prettier” one might look with a different hairstyle.  Women have long fought against these […]

Growing up I loved watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Nick-at-Nite.  Mary Richards, the show’s protagonist, was a single woman in her early 30s working as the associate producer of a nightly news show in Minneapolis in the early 1970s.  In one episode, she learns that she is making $50 less per week than […]