Almost as soon as the Russian government passed its anti-gay legislation in June, there were questions about how the law would impact the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Less than a year to go until the games, international athletes were in training with their eyes on gold; for some it will be their first games…
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**Editor’s Note: Since quitting the internet, Schwyzer underwent a very public manic episode on Twitter, explaining his mental illness and outlining his various transgressions. You can read it in his own words here.** Last week, reviled feminist Hugo Schwyzer announced on his personal website that he was quitting the Internet. In the 30 July post…
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Armed with only books and pencils, the superhero of Pakistan’s first animated television show is the Burka Avenger: a schoolteacher named Jiya who wears a burka to disguise her identity as she fights evil in the fictional city of Halwpur. The 13-episode show (running 22 minutes) aims to send positive messages to its young audience,…
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**Spoiler Alert: Scandal fans, you’ve been warned** It’s unfortunate, but Scandal, Shonda Rhimes’s successful network drama, has mostly come down to one word: Olitz. The show’s protagonist Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and her lover Fitzgerald ‘Fitz’ Grant (Tony Goldwyn) have a romance so extraordinarily dysfunctional that a portmanteau was inevitable. It is a nifty hashtag…
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The United States moved one step closer to marriage equality today. The highest court in the country ruled the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional by a ruling of 5-4. The decision (United States vs. Windsor) will extend rights to legally married same-sex couples, an act that legitimizes the marriages beyond the symbolic union….
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Young women who are or may become victims of female genital mutilation can now find 24-hour support via a helpline, the Independent reported this week. The project, launched by the children’s charity NSPCC, is the first of its kind in the U.K. The procedure, which involves partial or complete removal of the external female…
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Abortion often goes unaddressed in Canada for long stretches until something big happens to provoke the conversation. Last week was one of those times. Dr Henry Morgentaler, an iconic abortionist and polarising Canadian figure died of a heart attack in his Toronto home on 29 May. He was 90. Morgentaler was responsible for almost single-handedly…
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Dutch scientist Adriaan Tuiten is close to perfecting the first successful female desire drug that, if approved by the Food and Drug Association, could be available by 2016. It’s the biggest medical breakthrough in women’s sexual liberation since the birth control pill, writes Daniel Bergner for the New York Times. ‘The promise of Lybrido…is that…
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Opposition leader Tony Abbott was on the receiving end of backlash and mockery online after comments surrounding his proposed parental leave regulations. At a press conference on 7 May, Abbott told reporters the regulations were necessary if educated women were going to pursue careers. ‘If we want women of that calibre to have families, and…
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Before Twitter was as omnipresent as it is now, the concept was regular fodder for the writing of op-ed columnists. Experts, journalists and technophobes started philosophising about what this latest social networking site meant for privacy, intimacy, and communication. Globe and Mail writer Ian Brown even theorised that Twitter’s appeal had something to do with…
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The reaction to President Barack Obama’s apology to Attorney General Kamala Harris has been interesting for exactly one reason: the eye-rolling on both sides. Whether one thought the apology was warranted or that it was mere pandering to reactionary feminists, the general impression surrounding the misstep was, ‘this again?’ At a fundraiser in California, Obama…
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CNN’s coverage of the Steubenville rape trial is drawing the ire of viewers and non-viewers alike. The report on the conviction of Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond, 16, for the rape of a 16-year-old girl last August was sympathetic to the plight of the rapists, wondering what was to become of their once “promising”…
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Former politician turned blogger, Louise Mensch likes to dress up for her husband. Saying so, she writes on her blog Unfashionista, is a feminist ‘mortal sin’. Op-eds jumped on that single comment in an interview with the Guardian. Her twitter feed and inbox were flooded with comments revoking her capital F feminist card. Mensch, who…
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As the trial of five men accused of raping and murdering a 24-year-old woman on a bus in India continues, the headlines turn to South Africa. A 17-year-old girl was found mutilated earlier this month. She had been raped. The Associated Press reports injuries so severe that nurses and doctors who worked to save her…
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