I wasn’t compelled to write anything about the No Wedding, No Womb shenanigans but I’ve seen two posts today about marriage, children and Black folks that made me want to share my own point of view. One piece from Clutch Mag focuses on the “single mother syndrome” in the Black community. You can read the piece for yourself but a few assertions therein stuck out for me: (1) More black children are born to unwed mothers because of poverty and lack of access to competitive job market; (2) If women …

Christine O’Donnell opposes comprehensive, evidence-based sex ed. She’s unclear about whether separation of church and state is a cornerstone of the first amendment. She believes in cross-bred mice with human brains. She believes that victims of rape or incest should be forced to carry their attacker’s child to term. She’s also, unfortunately, not a witch. There are SO many reasons to dislike Christine O’Donnell and many more reasons not to vote her into the United States Senate. I find all of Sarah Palin’s “Mama Grizzly” endorsements to be ridiculous but …

The way my mind works, one thought will quickly lead to another and another until I get to a point that is almost unrelated to the original thought. That’s what happened last weekend when the mere mention of C&C Music Factory led to reminiscing about Snap!, Crystal Waters, and Ce Ce Peniston, which set me off thinking about the 90s, the great dance music we jammed to, and the images of sexy, in-charge women.
I was young then – just a 4th grader in 1990 – so when I think of that …

This post is written as part of the “This is What a Young Feminist Looks Like” blog carnival. Check out Fair & Feminist on Friday, August 27th to see which other bloggers are shouting out and being recognized as young, fly and feminist.
Where Have All the Young Feminists Gone?
Did you hear? Young feminists are disappearing at an alarming rate. The only people who care about women and women’s issues are staring menopause in the face. Young people don’t care about anything and we certainly don’t care about reproductive health issues …

This post has two parts: (1) an update on ella™ and (2) barriers to access for men.
Last Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it was approving the sale and use of ulipristal acetate (UPA), a new form of emergency contraception (EC) to be sold under the name ella™.  Already available to and used by women in Europe, UPA has been determined to prevent pregnancy up to 5 days after unprotected intercourse. Emergency contraception has been available in the US, most popularly under the name Plan B. …

So Forever 21 has a new maternity line, Love 21 Maternity, set to arrive in select stores. Maternity clothes don’t usually generate much buzz beyond the mommy set but since Forever 21’s target demographic is young women and teens, the initial reaction from many is shock and judgment. Not to mention the fact that 3 out of the 5 select locations chosen for Love 21’s debut (Arizona, California, and Texas) happen to overlap with the states with the highest percentages of teen pregnancy according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen …

When you’re a young teenaged girl, you love going to the mall with your friends, buying keychains from Spencer’s Gifts and 2 for $20 Aeropostale t-shirts. When you needed staples like bras and
underwear though, you usually called upon mom or some other family member. For me it was my aunt which was annoying because she’s crazy cheap and she wouldn’t buy me anything that she wouldn’t buy for herself. My aunt has always hated underwire bras so for most of my high school years I was blocked from wearing …

It’s an 80+ degree day in New York City. Today I am wearing a dress. The dress is blue and white, reminiscent of that nautical theme that’s been popular lately; it’s got a bubble hem, is sleeveless, and has a cowl-neck. The dress is not tight but not voluminous either and the hem reaches about 3 inches above my knee (I literally just measured it). On most other people in my office, this dress would be simply “cute.” On myself, however, I wonder whether it’s pushing the boundaries of office …

Rozonda Thomas, known to most of us as TLC’s Chilli, has a show on VH1 in which she lets us in on a lot of her most intimate and personal thoughts. See, Chilli’s trying to find a man – a soul mate – and she’s tossed her hat into the reality television ring to do it. According to the show’s site, “‘What Chilli Wants’ features ‘Chilli’ from pop supergroup TLC, as she has decides to take the reins of her romantic situation and launch an all out search for the love …

I really hate to do this, him being a Tar Heel and all, but Lawrence Taylor and everyone riding with him is on some bullshit. Innocent until proven guilty is a concept and rule of law that I value so I’ll try and uphold that idea throughout this post. I’m not here to condemn LT but I am going to judge the hell out of him. Media outlets reporting that LT could be vindicated by a new witness and folks are already discounting the accuser’s story just because of who …