CNN's Showbiz tonight presents a piece calling networks FOX and ABC right onto the carpet for running Victoria's Secret ads without issue during prime time, but pulling the plug on a recent Lane Bryant commercial featuring a woman who happens to be attractive and curvaceous.  I smell a rat!  What do you think, BUST blog pals?  Watch this piece and share your comments.  ...

In a move that would make their state one of the most abortion-restricting in the union, the Oklahoma senate passed several new anti-abortion bills on Monday. The most shocking of the bills would require doctors performing ultrasounds on women seeking abortions to use vaginal probes if the picture would be clearer—and then for the doctor to describe the image in detail to the patient. According to the Huffington Post, “The other abortion measures would require women to complete a lengthy questionnaire before receiving an abortion, mandate...

Artistic expression requires a certain kind of bravery.  But “courageous performance” takes on weightier meaning in today’s Iran, where young people, with access to the internet, Vans sneakers, and their own wells of energy are by religious law prohibited from (among other things) starting their own rock band.  You think it’s hard to make it as an indie band?  Try it in Tehran.  That city, and it’s earnest, defiant, and illegal underground music scene, is the focus of Kurdish-Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi’s latest film, No...

Last night I spoke on a panel at the 92nd street Y. As a way to promote the event, I was asked by the organizers to write a piece for Flavorwire on who I thought were the ten most influential women in pop culture. Since we're on deadline here at BUST and I didn't have much time to devote to this, I whipped up a list of only 7, which they published yesterday, and which I am reposting below. There's a lot more to say...

Last week Kathy Griffin held a pool-side press conference to bring awareness to cervical cancer. To make sure she'd get the press to pay attention, she had a pap smear done in public. While the up-close-and-personal details were kept under a drape, the chair and stirrups were there for all to see. She dressed for the occasion in a blue spangled bikini—something I'd never think to wear to the gynecologist–a matching vajazzle dipping into her bathing suit bottom, rhinestones sparkling in the sunlight. On one...

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the release of their book, Manifesta, authors Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards have convened a panel of women to discuss what the feminist third wave is up to today.  From the event description: "During the 1990s, new expressions of feminism were popping up: riot grrls were starting bands and making zines; activist/writers like Rebecca Walker and Naomi Wolf were writing best-sellers and starting organizations; and cultural critics were making new magazines like Bust and reclaiming all...

Today, April 20th, marks the time it would take the average woman to earn the same as her male counterpart did in the 2009 calendar year. Almost four months to get the same paycheck! Well personally, I find that ridiculous, and so do the ladies of Claim Change. Earlier today, Claim Change and the Women and Girls Foundation gathered to rally in Mellon Square, jingling the spare change in their purses as a symbol of the money women are still missing out on. Whether in...

PSST! The mommy 'n me paradigm is under attack. Finally. Maybe the most interesting thing about Elizabeth Badinter's new book Le Conflit, La Femme et La Mère (The Conflict, The Woman and The Mother) is the ruckus it's causing. In stating the obvious—that women have imposed a new  tyranny on themselves through perfectionist childraising—she's drawn wide-ranging contempt. Everyone from conservative Christians to ecologists and pediatricians have found something to hate. Naturally, I'm a little bit in love. According...

How do you teach kids to eat healthy without giving them a weight complex?  Especially when we live in a society in which one-third of kids are overweight but nearly 50 per cent of girls report engaging in some form of disordered eating.  Michelle Obama, warrior princess against childhood obesity, got some heat for disclosing that her daughters' doctor mentioned that their weight was off-balance and for telling the public that she decided to cut down on her children's portion sizes, encourage fruit for snacks...

  If you've never seen this clip before, you need to watch it now. This Fergie Oliver guy makes any Bob Packwood or Bob Barker look like a kitten. Crack all the Catholic priest jokes you want (except that they tend toward little boys), but I'm rooting for the little girls. Check these chicks OUT. They aren't having any of it. Especially (and by this time I hope you've clicked on the clip and disinfected yourself) the one who isn't willing to kiss him even if...