On the Map

Kitchen Sisters Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva debut The Hidden World of Girls on NPR with an interesting tale about Jamaican women obtaining beauty from an unlikely source.

Favianna Rodriguez's work bridges the gap between social justice movements and the marginalized individuals with which community organizers work. "I use art to transform global politics," she says.

Artwork by Favianna Rodriguez

"Really? No! I mean, is this story for real?" This was my reaction to finding out that, after four centuries (yes, centuries), Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London will hold its first-ever play penned by a woman. Nell Leyshon's Bedlam will begin showing in September, and "it's about damned time" doesn't begin to cover it!

Photo credit: Claire McNamee

Tower Block of Commons is a four-episode reality TV series in the UK that features five Members of Parliament (MP) who have agreed to live for eight days in British housing projects, or, as they're called across the pond, "tower block estates." Each MP was given £64.30 (appx $100 USD) to cover their expenses for the week. (The amount is the average weekly allowance provided to a job seeker receiving public assistance.) The point of the experiment was to pull the privileged MPs out of their posh lifestyle bubble and sensitize them to the struggles of working class people. But (surprise!) less than 24-hours into the experiment, one of them was caught cheating.

The New York Times and BBC report that eight women-only trains were recently introduced in urban Indian cities. Some may question this form of sex-segretation as a sign of progress, but to female riders, these trains are a space where they can feel free. Humor me while my mind meanders.

What does it mean for this spiritual leader of millions to call himself a feminist?

In Mumbai and Delhi, several fashion designers are making their radical politics known on the runway, and in fashion capital New York City, one Indian woman is drawing attention to the need for quality education for children living in the slums of her homeland with one little black dress.

I’m vegan. I think cruelty to animals is unnecessary and unjust. I don’t eat animals. I don’t wear them. And I don’t kill them for sport. However, Ella Es el Matador isn’t a film about animal rights, and treating it as such does it an enormous injustice. I don’t believe in prioritizing a conversation about cruelty enacted on bulls over one about cruelty enacted on women while discussing a beautiful and melancholy film exploring the world of bullfighting through the eyes of female matadors—so I won't.

The New York Times Sunday Magazine this weekend is a "special issue" about women in the developing world. So, how'd they do?

It wasn’t until moving to India that I realized just how much I’d been taking toilets for granted, and it wasn’t until coming across the newly published Ladies and Gents: Public Toilets and Gender that I realized the extent of what I’d been missing. So, naturally, I decided it was time to dive head first into the loo… metaphorically, of course.

After interviewing Olga Gershenson and Barbara Penner, the authors of the book, I needed some visual to accompany my article—no small feat for a piece on toilets—so I turned to Google to see what was available in the way of tasteful toilet art. Instead I found gender reification and male sexual anxiety.