March 2011
I can never tell if the cops in San Francisco ...
… are real cops or just in costume.
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Slut-Shaming, Truth-telling, & Why Getting Real Is... →
Rather than summarize the entire debate, I’m going to quote directly from Maya Dusenbery’s post about the controversial “Why The Fuck Should I Use Emergency Contraception?” website:
I helped create the “Why The Fuck Should I Use Emergency Contraception?” website which is part of this year’s Back Up Your Birth Control campaign. While most folks seem to like it, some have criticized...
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Tell me I'm not the only person ....
… who does weird shit like spray my partner’s cologne all over a clothing item of his so that I can transport it thousands of miles away and sniff at leisure.
Yeah, I’m creepy. I know.
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Join Walk For Choice This Saturday! →
I won’t be able to make it because I’m in California, but I wanted to let everyone know that the second Walk For Choice is happening this Saturday at multiple cities in the U.S., including Boston.
Walk for Choice 2011 was created directly in response to the events in Congress surrounding the anti-choice bills H.R. 3 and H.R. 358, eliminating Title X bill defunding Planned...
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Young, Broke, & Uninsured: One Year After The...
This post is written for the National Women’s Law Center and MomsRising.org’s Women’s Health blog-a-thon in commemoration of the Affordable Care Act’s one-year anniversary.
I’ve been young, broke, and uninsured. Have you? If you’re under 30 in America, you’re among the group of people most likely to not have health insurance.
Thanks to the Affordable...
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On Preaching To The Choir
So I got a great note from a reader last night regarding my post on what not to pitch to a sex blogging feminist writer. (Spoiler: the offending party was a dating site for Ivy Leaguers.) She wondered whether I’m starting to preach too much to the feminist crowd, at the expense of alienating regular folks who don’t identify strongly with the gender equality movement. She considers...
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What Not To Pitch A Sex-Blogging Feminist Writer
As I promised in yesterday’s entry (about how to approach a speaker for an event), I’m going to post an example of how NOT to pitch someone an idea/brand/partnership/etc. Most of the time, the PR people who want me to write about their client on my blog are from the publishing industry or from web companies. I do not respond to 99% of these requests. (If the sender is a social justice...
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How To Get A Sex-Blogging Feminist To Visit Your...
I just read Susie Bright’s piece for The Huffington Post (“How To Get Your Favorite Author To Visit Your Hometown”) and totally got the tingles (no, not down there). The sex-positive author and speaker does such a great job of outlining all the ways that one can get cool speakers to visit even totally obscure places. And since I’m on a bit of a travel spree these few weeks, I thought I’d add ...
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Tomorrow: Speaking at Brown Sex Week →
If you live in the Providence area, come check out my talk at Brown University’s Sex Week 2011. It’s a condensed version of the Rethinking Virginity conference I organized at Harvard last year, and after bringing it to students at Rutgers University and Stanford University, I’ve polished it and made it into a workshop I’m really proud of:
“Am I A Virgin If …”:...
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Anonymous asked: Hi Lena,
I'm sure you've heard about it already, but there's a rally to support Planned Parenthood this Saturday from 12-1 in the Boston Common. I don't work for Planned Parenthood or in any way aligned with them, I'm just a concerned twenty-something who wants to be healthy and informed. I thought you might fall in the same category and was wondering if...
I'm sure you've heard about it already, but there's a rally to support Planned Parenthood this Saturday from 12-1 in the Boston Common. I don't work for Planned Parenthood or in any way aligned with them, I'm just a concerned twenty-something who wants to be healthy and informed. I thought you might fall in the same category and was wondering if...
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In loco parentis
My mother does not want me to stay with my ex-boyfriend with I visit San Francisco at the end of the month. She thinks it’s improper given that we’ve previously fucked. Backstory: this is the dude I dated for a summer in LA when I was 19. For three months. Nearly five years ago. And while I am not always great at making clean breaks (and have a reputation for recycling hook-ups), this...
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Anonymous asked: What do you do when you're not preaching the Gospel of Feminism? The blog is one dimensional, but I know you're not, and I'm curious.
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Elizabethan Era Cited as the Ideal Model for...
Do women truly desire equality in dating, or do they yearn for the days of old-fashioned courtship? The latest poll at [redacted site that I refuse to promote], conducted on both single and committed women, indicated that the majority of female readers believed they were most likely to find the men of their dreams during the Elizabethan era, where male suitors would go to lengths to court...
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Feminist Bloggers Convene at Harvard | The Harvard... →
Last night’s “Activism & the Feminist Blogosphere” panel (in honor of Feminist Coming Out Day) led to great discussions about the rewards and pitfalls of feminist blogging. Some takeaways:
Blogging is much more democratic than mainstream media, since it allows marginalized groups and those without the power of capital (like the teenage contributors to The FBomb) to establish a platform...
“The current model of “class-mobility” reinforces separatism and a...”
– Megan Lee: “Maybe I’m Not Class-Mobile; Maybe I’m Class-Queer”, from the anthology Feminism For Real: Deconstructing The Academic Industrial Complex of Feminism. Quoted at Racialicious, March 8, 2011.
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MTV Staying Alive Campaign | International Women’s... →
I just started writing for MTV’s Staying Alive campaign, the world’s largest youth focused HIV and AIDS prevention campaign. I love the project’s use of multimedia and its global outreach. Most of my freelance clients are American and focus on issues affecting populations in English-speaking developed countries, so I’m excited for the opportunity to explore how gender inequality...
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Patrick says, "Aua!"
From germanheit, a handy Tumblr teaching German:
Pain. Sucks. And yep, sometimes it’s so bad you cannot shut up. Here’s what you’d say when you get hurt:
1. Au!
2. Aua!
3. Autsch! (pronounced just like the English “ouch”)
Of course you can curse, too ;)
To English ears, it sounds like “Owwa!” Now imagine a grown man saying that. Adorable, right?
And this concludes Embarrassing...
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Things That Bring Me Far More Joy Than They Should
Convincing my German boyfriend (who speaks perfect English) to say in an accent “I am a nihilist. I believe in nothing.”
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“[People] find themselves surrounded by hideous poverty, by hideous ugliness, by...”
– Oscar Wilde
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CollegeCandy | Women's History Month: 9 Inspiring... →
Never thought I’d be appearing in a list that includes Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga (who I’m seeing in concert on Tuesday!). Thanks for the shout-out, CollegeCandy. Click here to read the full piece.
Also listed are fellow Harvard alum Natalie Portman (who rocked my favorite movie of the year), my friend and fierce feminist organizer Shelby Knox, and other awesome gals.
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playoninfiniterepeat asked: It's only now that I read your Valentine's Grinch post and I'd just felt the need to tell you how much I loved that entry. As far as I can remember, I never liked Valentine's day as well... I find it just as pointless as celebrating your first month of being a couple (a year I understand but a month?). I don't like the idea of people putting so much effort into this day...
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Lessons In Being An Ally
In between stuffing envelopes and doing online publicity, one of the things I’ve been trying to address in regard to Feminist Coming Out Day are the claims of appropriation from the queer community. The following is a good summary of the concerns voiced so far and is written by melancolyscholar, whose post was reblogged on The Feminist Hub:
For some reason the use of the phrase “coming...
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