Let’s talk about it: Halloween 2021. A “post-mortem,” if you will. What did you see this year as far as costumes representing women and girls*, racially diverse characters, etc.? Good? Bad? Ugly? Is anything getting better for representation during Halloween? Please comment below, and let us know your city and state/province, what you saw, and… Continue Reading →
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 →
Nicki Minaj: so much more than her body
Nicki Minaj’s body is (regrettably) the media’s sole focus whenever she’s in the spotlight, but an ABC family sitcom based on her family’s immigration from Trinidad in the early 1990s is about to change all of that. Young Nicki, written by Kate Angelo and produced by Minaj herself, will focus on Minaj’s life growing up in Queens, New York,… Continue Reading →
The day I fell in love with Amy Schumer
The day I fell in love with Amy Schumer, I was preparing my Intro to Psychology lecture about gender. I was searching YouTube for clever clips that I could use, when I came across a video called “Inside Amy Schumer – Last F**kable Day”. The main character, Amy Schumer, comes across her “heroes” — Julia Louis-Dreyfus,… Continue Reading →
Does sex really sell?
Today, more than ever, sex is rampant in marketing, bolstered by the notion that “Sex Sells”, but a new study reveals that this may not in fact be the case. Since the beginning of modern advertising, sexual themes and imagery have been used to sell products. Some of the earliest sexual ads were created by tobacco companies in the late 1800s…. Continue Reading →
Why women athletes deserve your support
If you’re a female athlete like me, you know the drill when it comes to wanting people to take you seriously (For everyone else: people tend to not take us seriously). That’s why, when the U.S. women’s national soccer team won the World Cup this summer, I was over the moon about the amount of… 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 →
Fury Road? More Like Furiosa Road!
I went to the movies over Memorial Day, and now all I can think about is Mad Max, Mad Max, MAD MAX! That is, of course, only the title of the movie. Because if I was going to jump up and down excitedly screaming the name of the main character, I would be saying, “FURIOSA!”… Continue Reading →