The reinvention of girl power: new Lara Croft is still a bad-ass, with a new bra

Since Tomb Raider’s debut in 1996, the game’s hero, Lara Croft, has been most every adolescent boy’s dream and every grown woman’s nightmare. Despite her bad-ass moves, Lara’s body—most notably a pair of laughably enormous breasts—has always been overtly objectified and sexualized. But in the most recent iteration of the Tomb Raider franchise, Tomb Raider: Continue reading

Smart girl shares science (and scoops brains) on YouTube

Emily Graslie is into dead things, and she’s not afraid to talk about it. Emily is the Volunteer Curatorial Assistant at the Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum at the University of Montana. She shares her knowledge of and passion for taxidermy, natural history, and animal specimen preparation (dead things) with me and other viewers worldwide Continue reading

Pinning for a better you: What’s your Pinspiration?

Isn’t Pinterest great? It’s one of the fastest growing social networks in America. For many people, it is literally their life. They gather recipes, projects, articles, and other informational websites together in an easy to navigate and organized package. It is a place to learn, gain talents, and be entertained. However, there is a trend that Continue reading

Why can’t we stop talking about Kim Kardashian’s pregnancy weight gain?

It can’t be easy being Kim Kardashian. First, there’s her mom. Then there’s the whole world scrutinizing her pregnant body daily—and using it as an opportunity to engage in more blatant body snarking and policing than I’ve seen in a while. Despite the fact that Kim is in the early stages of her pregnancy and Continue reading

Girls suck at math and boys shouldn’t wear princess crowns

Gendered advertising sucks. Seriously. Just last weekend, I was in the grocery store with my partner when we stumbled upon some energy drinks marketed specifically toward women, called Her, which were so uniquely (sarcasm) colored bright pink. Because apparently, all other energy drinks weren’t “feminine” enough, we needed one just for women. Just like we need Continue reading

Drop everything you’re doing and watch these films!

Media clearly has something against women. There just aren’t enough women making movies about women, and those movies that do exist don’t get the attention they deserve. Documentaries are unfortunately in the same situation when it comes to gender equality. Luckily, there are organizations and women out there making a difference that deserve to be Continue reading

The numbers don’t lie: racial diversity among models falls short

Recently, Jezebel put out their annual report on the racial diversity among models at New York Fashion Week. The findings were not surprising, with Caucasian models being an overwhelming majority of the models. We are well aware of the harmful messages that modeling and fashion sends out about body image. However, I feel there is little Continue reading

Female celebs compared to aliens while men are harmless muppets

I watch the Academy Awards with a bit of skepticism every year. My favorite part is generally the live performances, and this year was no exception. Leave it to Facebook to totally dampen my joyful viewing experience. I was scrolling through my news feed while watching Barbra Streisand sing and all of a sudden I Continue reading

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

Reading pretty much anything about girls and pop culture today, you would be forgiven for despairing over the incessant bombardment of messages about conforming to ideal body standards. But I’m here to tell you that there are some alternative messages filtering through to impressionable young girls. Exhibit A: Yep, some people actually want girls to Continue reading

Target’s “Everyday Collection”: sexualizing saltines and soup

A few months ago, in my Sunday newspaper, a Target flyer arrived featuring a brunette beauty fixed with a seductive stare, cocking her head back against a box of saltines, while gripping a Campbell’s microwave soup bowl in her other hand. Unneeded sexualization anyone? I immediately removed the page from the pile of sales ads, Continue reading