Tired of the o.b. tampocolypse story yet? We're not. The o.b.s are still missing, and folks are beginning to turn to alternatives (more on that later). That's all good, I think. But what you young folks might not realize, is that once upon a time o.b. WAS the alternative. And in fact, women had to be convinced that it was OK to use them. "What? Put my finger where? Not me!" is what many American women thought when first ...

Well, I was so busy running around to screenings that I did not have time to post every day like planned, so here are my 3 days squished into one report. Sundance is a great festival, it's filled with people passionate about telling stories, and I met so many smart and creative folks, it really was worth driving in a blizzard and white knuckling it down a mountain to be here (more on that later! Saturday started off with an invite to see the premiere of a...

Hoping to illuminate the disparity of women to men in the film industry, the Women's Media Center is sending girl journalists to this year's Sundance FIlm Festival in Park City, UT to report, blog, and tweet about the festival's women filmmakers and the state of women in film. This year, Sundance is showcasing 24 feature films and 25 short films by women. While this may seem like a lot, in the top 250 films of 2009, only 16% had females in leadership roles like directors,...

This weekend I went to a refresher breast exam workshop. A woman with actual medical credentials took out her breasts and demonstrated the correct way to exam them. I was taught this when I was in high school, but to my surprise, after being in this workshop, I realized I’ve been doing it all wrong. Maybe it was because this time I was shown on an actual person, not on an inanimate object. I realized in this workshop (which was part of the Quorum Forum...

By now you probably know about the Great Tampocolypse of 2011 -- the mysterious disappearance of o.b. tampons from drugstore's shelves. But since that post was written, the o.b. peeps have updated their site. Now it reads: "To our valued customers: o.b.® tampons are now shipping. There may be a delay of a few days or weeks to reach your area, but we are working with retailers across the country to restock store shelves as soon as possible. Please refer back here for...

I know periods. I first got mine when I was 11 and get mine every 29 days, for exactly 5 days. I'm a machine! I've been menstruating for half of my life now and have tried just about every option out there: pads, tampons, disposable and reusable menstrual cups, the Pill, sea sponges and just wearing old undies you don't care about. Few things worked for me. Pads and sponges felt too bulky, not doing anything is only something...

Toddlers & Tiaras is at it again! Last week we brought you Mia the Mini Madonna, but this week we bring you something even more horrifying. A five year old having her eyebrows waxed.    … Alright, so, Toddlers & Tiaras does take place in a world where children wear false teeth and spray tan and parade around like dolls, but this clip is enough to make me cry. In it, we see the poor little girl crying and pleading, “No, nooo, no please not my eyebrows! No, don’t do my...

  QuORUM FORUM is a ten-day extravaganza of knowledge, skills, and talents for the purpose of creating and supporting sustainable community projects. It includes workshops, discussions, skillshares, performances, and parties. All events are FREE. Workshops range from topics such as queer sexual health, a drag tutorial, and book-making.  QuORUM (Queers Organizing for Radical Unity and Mobilization) is a network of radical queers and queer collectives in New York City. We believe in community building, resource sharing, economic...

A couple of years ago, whilst browsing in a store, a man suddenly came up to me and put his hands on my shoulders. I was shocked, but managed to say, "What are you doing?" "And he said something like, "Oh, you were in my way," as if that made any sense. I wish I had come up with something more cutting in response, but the experience really rattled me, and I just walked away. Of course, sometimes I actually am in people's way, and, as...

Last week's gushingly reported study, "Researchers Show Women's Tears Turn Men Off!" felt like another nail in the coffin of civilization. Offered up like a cautionary tale in headlines around the world--from The New York Times, "In Women's Tears, a Chemical That Says, 'Not Tonight, Dear'" to Business Week's "Women's Tears Dampen Men's Sexual Arousal"--most reports barely scratched the surface of the study's findings. Why did no one write, "Even Tears Fail to Move Men to Empathy"? This is, after all, what researchers found. The study...