We may not be able to recall when we first heard the term “shelter in place” but it is being bandied about frequently now that we have shootings and major disasters occurring almost daily. Our understanding of the term means…
Pay Close Attention to Those Behind the Curtain
In the “this isn’t really news” department we have had, this week, Katie Rophe’s ridiculous article about how female sexual fantasies of bondage spell the end of feminism (a Newsweek cover story no less), a fake war between mothers who…
WHY Must We Constantly Re-Invent Ourselves?
I am feeling very inadequate. While I have recently, at the age of 55, moved to a new city and a house, completed a new novel, and said good-bye to my last child as she heads off the college; while…
Michele Bachmann is Not a Feminist but She is Running for President
Michele Bachmann is not a feminist but she is running for President. Michele Bachmann, a congresswoman and a lawyer, is running for president. Michele Bachmann is a mother and a foster mother and a wife and she is running for…
Bad Girls
Are bad girls ruining it for the rest of us?
Who Gets to Call Herself a Feminist Matters More Than We Might Think
Within the past few days, young and famous feminist Jessica Valenti defended her decision not to take part in a panel based on More magazine’s recent list of hip and important young feminists and Nora Ephron all but dismissed the…
On Misogyny: The Happiness Factor
As women, we’ve all had our “aha moments. Mine came when I watched Anita Hill testify at the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings in the early Nineties. I found nothing she said fantastic or unbelievable; in my experience, it all seemed…
The Shriver Report on Women
I don’t think I or any woman I know needs to read “The Shriver Report: A Women’s Nation Changes Everything” by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress. Although the Report is being highly touted as important on several…
Men and the One Thing Thing
I was in Quiznos the other day (the only place I go for what could be called “fast food”) and the owner, who is an acquaintance of mine, introduced me to a new employee and we got onto the subject…