Here’s a fun little exercise: try to think of female movie and TV characters whose gender is an afterthought. Characters who matter-of-factly defy gender boundaries, whose sexuality is not a focus, who will be praised as “strong” rather than “strong for a female character.”
It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be. We spent […]

A friend emailed me a while back because she had received a Facebook invitation that was riddled with sexist notions. She had tried to explain the problems to the male who had written it, but found it difficult to express herself to him when she was so frustrated and the whole thing was written half-jokingly. […]

It was a lot more innocent than in this picture. He was telling a story about an old restaurant job and how people would always grab his butt. And then he demonstrated on my female coworker. It wasn’t aggressive or predatory, he just cupped her cheek to enhance his story.
He walked away and I said, […]