“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” ~ Kate Moss, 2009 Or at least that’s Kate Moss’ take on things. In 2009, Kate Moss was highly criticized for publicizing such a dangerous, and detrimental motto. Mainstream media and bloggers alike slammed her for setting such a poor example when it came to the body image …
Category: Women
May 30
Defending Women’s Health in Texas
Think about Planned Parenthood. What are the first things that come to mind? Women’s health? Pro-choice activism? Legal cases? Abortion? All these words apply to the Planned Parenthood organization, but they don’t capture the entire scope of what it does. The organization has existed for more than 90 years but there are still lots of …
May 29
Gender and Media: Breaking Down Beer Commercials
Some people find commercials entertaining. Others find them annoying. However, what everyone can agree on is that they’re everywhere. The average person sees around two million commercials by the time they reach the age of 65. The average child sees around twenty-thousand 30-second long commercials every single year. Commercials are here to stay. And what …
May 24
Gender & Media: Whose Story is Really Being Told in Music Videos?
Music videos have become a staple in our culture since the start of MTV in 1981. There’s been Total Request Live. Vh1’s Top 20 Video Countdown. Nowadays, YouTube is the newest platform for teens and adults alike to view music videos at any time of the day. What do all these platforms have in common? …
May 23
What about the Women? -The Issue of Female Prisoners
When most people think about incarceration, they typically imagine a place filled with men in orange jumpsuits. Though this does represent a large portion of the prison population, it ignores the fastest growing population: women, which has increased by 757% since 1977. With statistics like this you would think that women in the penal system …
May 10
Egypt: Islamic Democracy?
For those of you that don’t know, the Pew Research Center conducts surveys on public opinion (among other things) with the goal of providing information on the issues, attitudes, and trends shaping America and the world. One of their most recent publications as part of their Global Attitudes Project, the branch of the center that …
May 09
Why Haitian Women are Living in Fear
Two years after a devastating earthquake tore Haiti apart, the damage is still widespread. Hundreds of tent communities cover miles of land and the Haitians living in them suffer from the stresses of day to day living. Of the one and a half million people who were displaced by the earthquake, about five hundred thousand …
May 03
Mobile Banking as a Means to Development
According to a recent report by the World Bank, 75 percent of the world’s poor do not have a bank account. Use of formal banking, the system of official bank accounts set up within financial institutions, is pretty rare within the developing world, even for those who actually have the bank accounts. Ten percent of …
Apr 30
Ending Human Trafficking in the Mekong Delta
I recently read a story on CNN about a community in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam that resides in and around a waste dump. Parents and their children spend hours a day, from when they wake to when they finally go to sleep, picking through trash for items that will keep them alive- food, …
Apr 27
Midwives Matter for Maternal Health and More
May 5 is International Day of the Midwife, a globally recognized day to acknowledge the work of midwives around the world. Midwives are an undervalued asset in many countries. But the truth is, midwives could be key to achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4, 5, and 6, to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and …