I walked into the dimly lit auditorium, hearing the chatter of the audience as I found my seat among the other Strong Women, Strong Girls mentors of Simmons College. Women and men of all ages crowded into the auditorium to watch the Simmons College screening of the award-winning documentary, Miss Representation. Walking into the auditorium, I knew very little about what the documentary was about. When I walked out of the auditorium, I was...

Halloween is fast-approaching, and many young women will be attending parties that have a large amount of “sexy (insert noun)s” in attendance. If you’re running late this year, you may notice the requisite prevalence of barely-there costumes in the women’s section as you make your last-minute trip to the party store. And things won’t look that different if you journey through the kids section. “Sexy” costumes are being...

I’m often frustrated with the television characters on shows aimed at adolescents and teenagers – Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, the Kardashians et al – that focus heavily, if not predominantly, on the (highly unattainable) physical female appearance. It caused me to reminisce about one of my favorite shows, Gilmore Girls, which ran from 2000-2007.  The brainchild of Amy Sherman-Palladino (hooray for female writers!), a single...

This summer, women are almost nowhere to be seen on movie screens. Manohla Dargis pointed out their absence several weeks ago in the New York Times, noting that Bridesmaids and Bad Teacher are among the few summer blockbusters with female protagonists in a season filled with masculine action heroes (X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern, Captain America). Significantly, she notes, Cameron Diaz “at one point washes a car in slow motion while...

When I heard the buzz about the performance of Rihanna and Britney Spears the day following the Billboard Music Awards, I was peeved for a couple of reasons.   And I hadn’t even seen it yet. First of all, there was buzz.  The fact that people were talking about it means that the uninspired formula worked.   The two singers sang the “S&M remix” while gyrating around two stripper poles, holding chains, neither wearing pants,...