“Get a gun?” Get a clue....

Last week, a man brutally attacked a woman at a New York City bar after she rejected his advances. The woman sustained a broken eye socket, nose and jaw. Police believe the man may have attempted to sexually assault her, but the rape kit found that she had not been raped. According to the woman’s...

Q: What do Jeep, Gloria Steinem, and hor...

I can't even make a joke about this. A:  Toledo, Ohio. Other than Peoria, Illinois, I can’t think of a place more frequently thought of as “typically middle-American” than Ohio.  Which makes the latest report about human trafficking even more disturbing.  And it’s really...

Where do you think “Barefoot and p...

Conventional wisdom holds that when a person is tricked or coerced into reproducing, that person is male and the deceiving party is female. But a study conducted by researchers at UC Davis confirms what far too many women already know: the ones trying to initiate a pregnancy against their parters’...

In memoriam: Haitian women’s right...

A survey of Haitian women and girls conducted by women’s rights organization Kay Fanm revealed that approximately 72 percent had been raped and at least 40 percent were victims of domestic violence. Haitian lawyer and actress Magalie Marcelin founded Kay Famn, which provides legal, health, literacy...

Justice for Ruchika...

Ruchika Girhotra. The two weeks I was in India, I read the Times of India every day. The Times is the world’s largest English-language daily newspaper by circulation, with a readership of 13.3 million. It is of a decidedly progressive bent, and the stories are expressive, opinionated and don’t...

Gender Studies for Kindergarteners (and ...

The Guardian recently published a list of feminist books for five-year-olds.  Being one of those feminists who wasn’t exactly trained from the cradle, this sort of thing doesn’t tend to catch my interest; it seems to me that children either will find their way to right-thinking or they won’t,...

Don’t Carry the Blame: An Overshar...

***TRIGGER WARNING*** This post is by an anonymous friend of the Harpies. We felt her story was important and her message worthwhile, so we agreed to run this guest post. Over Thanksgiving, I caught up with one of my childhood friends. She was clearly distressed and needed to talk, and it was not an...

Men Leaders Notice Lady Problems...

I have eaten my birthweight in pumpkin products and spent an absurd amount of time sleeping these last few days; two lovely things I wish I had occasion to do more often.  I hope you’re all feeling as rested and pleasantly roly-poly. During one of my brief  interludes of conciousness, I came...

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2009...

This November 20 is the 11th annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day of honoring the lives lost due to anti-trans hatred and violence. It is also an opportunity to educate and engage in coalition building. More than 160 trans persons were added to the list of victims this year. The...

You Are What You Eat...

None of us posted on this terrible story last week, but I’m sure many of you have heard or read about it:  A teenage girl was brutally gang-raped for two hours after a school dance in Richmond, CA, as up to 20 bystanders laughed, cheered and shot video of the attack. Some jumped in to participate....

Honorary Harpy: Dr. Marci Bowers...

From Newsweek comes the story of gynecological and pelvic surgeon Dr. Marci Bowers, who performs female circumcision reversals – also known as “clitoralplasties” – on African women. A trans woman herself, she is one of the leading gender-reassignment specialists in the U.S.,...

“Women’s bodies being treate...

*Trigger warning* On September 28, security forces in the West African nation of Guinea cracked down on unarmed civilian protesters in the capital’s national stadium, stripping and raping dozens of women – if not more – in broad daylight. The total number of victims is unknown because...