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Would you really want to keep up with Kylie Jenner?

Last week on Cosmopolitan.com, assistant fashion and beauty editor Brooke Shunatona published an article  in which she chronicled living like Kylie Jenner for a week (because who else would a successful, apparently functional adult want to live like?). After a week dealing with extraordinarily long nails, walking in extraordinarily high heels, and wearing an extraordinarily painful waist trainer that resembles… Continue Reading →

A sorority girl’s take on the Alpha Phi recruitment video

If you follow women in the media— and, honestly, even if you don’t — you’ve probably seen the recruitment video members of Alpha Phi at the University of Alabama released in August 2015. The video, which quickly went viral and was taken down due to backlash, featured dozens of Barbie-esque women gallivanting through their campus, promising the viewers they, too,… Continue Reading →

The false empowerment of naked dresses

In May 2015, I wrote a blog for About-Face about Taylor Swift’s recently-released video for “Bad Blood.” In the post, I argued that the scantily clad women in the video were “devalued from being strong warriors to being traditionally sexy females with bodies that exist to be objectified.” I posted it to my personal social media pages, and… Continue Reading →

Just “Bad Blood,” or bad body image?

[media url=”youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo/A&W=415″] Nude bodices, come-hither poses, and full body scans of a barely clothed body: Taylor Swift’s latest video, “Bad Blood,” is the culmination of her sexual evolution, which we began to see with the release of her album 1989 in 2014. Sexual, or at least sensual, lyrics trickle through the album (“his hands are… Continue Reading →

Living in an age of celebrity feminism

The Oscars are like prom for Hollywood: a time for glitz, glamour, and celebration of (debatably) the best films of the year. They’ve also steadily gained a reputation as a hub for sexism disguised as admiration, as women on the red carpet are inevitably asked, “Who are you wearing?” and consequently criticized or applauded all… Continue Reading →

The feminist value of Amal Clooney’s beauty and brains

“Some readers may wonder how a woman described by Elle magazine as having ‘stunning looks, flirty dresses, tailored pants, colorful heels, and gorgeous hair’ is involved in such a complex legal matter? … It may be astonishing to most people that Amal Alamuddin, now Mrs. Clooney, is much more than a pretty face! In fact,… Continue Reading →

Pretty Little Liars’ lies about “pretty”

Love it or hate it, ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars is an inescapable staple of current pop culture. The soupy and sartorial mystery/horror show debuted in 2010 and is nearing the end of its fifth season, with its success due to the the mix of guilty pleasure TV and a savvy intelligence of the culture in… Continue Reading →