Sarah Seltzer is freelance writer based in New York City. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Bitch Magazine and on the websites of The New York Times, The Nation, The Christian Science Monitor, The Wall Street Journal and Jezebel. She once taught English in a Bronx public school, and has an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Find her on twitter at @sarahmseltzer
Hermione, an always-wonderful sidekick, has moved onto center stage. Her emotions and choices, classically heroic, anchored a piece of the epic story that would have felt muddled and rootless without her.
A new documentary explores the “purity” movement and the consequences of abstinence-only policies and purity myths for the women involved.
“Rallying for sanity” with no direct political purpose, especially at a time when our opponents are relentlessly attacking our rights and our democracy, seems a little…well….insane.
Maddow’s documentary showed us the thoughts and faces of the two groups facing off over the life and legacy of Dr. Tiller. On the one side were brave, stoic providers. On the other, frenzied, angry demagogues motivated by hatred.
Why do viewers buy the idea that Joan didn’t “go through with it”? The answer lies in our preconceived notions about what happens in clinic waiting rooms.
Banned Books Week is always fascinating because it turns our attention to what actually is banned and challenged by school boards and parents and religious groups–and it’s almost never the truly offensive stuff.
The film isn’t a feminist rallying cry, and it certainly manages to have it both ways by making lots of jokes about sex and sluttiness without actually featuring a single female teenager who has lost her virginity.
In Mad Men, the tough women are branded sexless wet blankets, while those who use their wiles and sexuality to advance themselves can have those qualities turned against them. Meanwhile, a sense of sisterhood is hard to find.
It would be nice if Cannon could treat all women the way he’d like his own wife, sisters and daughters to be treated; with respect and privacy to make their own reproductive decisions.
An abortion storyline in True Blood echos a loving parody of small town life and the conflicted psyche of the modern American woman fed on both feminism and sexism.
