Academy Award-winning actress Geena Davis (of Thelma and Louise and Beetlejuice fame) founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media to advocate for diverse portrayals and equal representation of female characters in the media. The Institute and its program, See Jane, promote gender equality in media representation through research, education, and advocacy. The… Continue Reading →
Biased blox: the real heroes of the gendered toy war
Recently, the internet has blown up in praise of GoldieBlox — a construction toy designed to improve spatial skills and encourage a different kind of play in girls. Why is such a toy necessary? According to the Kickstarter page that made the project possible, only 11% of engineers are women and according to a study… Continue Reading →
How the world has turned our grocery lists into our body types
Pears, apples, string beans, rulers: not just inanimate objects anymore! Put these items on your grocery list nowadays, and you’re bound to come home with a bag full of diversely-shaped women instead of food or measuring tools. But why? I recently searched “body shapes” on Google, and the results were pretty interesting. Nearly all of… Continue Reading →
An open (love) letter to Jennifer Lawrence
Hey, J. Law (I can call you J. Law, right?), How are you doing? You’re probably busy getting ready for your upcoming Catching Fire premieres (all of which you will probably look fabulous in), so I just wanted to take a moment and tell you how totally awesome you are. Recently, the Internet has been… Continue Reading →
Let’s see those tummies: stretch marks, scars, fat rolls, and all!
Google image search “belly” and you will find: 1) Perfectly flat, bikini-clad bellies and model men with six-packs. 2) People woefully grasping at or measuring their belly fat. 3) Pregnant bellies. It’s no wonder that when I found a stretch mark on my belly (after a particularly delicious summer feasting on Afghan food at family… Continue Reading →
What the French ban on beauty pageants can teach us
Anyone else totally caught off guard by France’s impressive new legislation banning child beauty pageants? Yeah, me, too. Because as I much as I adore the country and its people (I lived there for two years in my late twenties and also worked for the French company Club Med), its contemporary pop culture has never… Continue Reading →
Bravo, Bloomberg: NYC Girl’s Project tackles low self-esteem and poor body image
I smiled when I read about the recently launched NYC Girl’s Project campaign with the tagline, “I’m a girl. I’m beautiful the way I am”. I couldn’t help but think: what better place to launch such a campaign than a city notorious for fashion shows and modeling? NYC Girl’s Project has partnered with SPARK Movement… Continue Reading →
New documentary profiles the first female surfer in Bangladesh
Recently, I saw a work-in-progress trailer for the new documentary film, The Most Fearless. This extraordinary film tells the true story of Nasima, a sixteen-year-old Bangladeshi girl who dreams of becoming a pro surfer. Nasima has fought against all odds, including being called a “whore” by Bangladeshi men for going in the water, to pursue… Continue Reading →
Pssst… your t-shirt is saying something
Girls Will Be, a clothing brand founded and operated by Sharon Choksi from Austin, Texas, is very clear about what they are not, and that is, exclusively “girly.” Instead, the clothing line aims to let girls decide what they are: dog-lovers, bold and fearless, unafraid of bugs, and undaunted by robots. Free of the color… Continue Reading →