Babble’s Strollerderby posed an interesting idea today: what if the Pill could be sold over-the-counter, no doctor’s visit or prescription necessary? On initial thought, this sounds amazing, especially for all the teens out there who would NOT end up pregnant and in poverty, or worse, in abstinence-only PSAs or poorly-acted TV shows. According to this Newsweek article, members of the Oral Contraceptive Over-the-Counter Working Group, a women’s health clinical and research institution, are pushing the FDA for  the over-the-counter Pill because they believe “prescription-only access to birth...

Lady blog Jezebel has really gone off the rails on this one. After writing a piece about the supposed female oppression in the workplace at The Daily Show, bloggers and finally the women of the Daily Show themselves disagreed. But it was an article in Slate that set off this headline: Jealous Bitches Start Face-Clawing Catfight! This could've been funny if the rest of the article was, but it wasn't. Instead it was a litany of whiny complaints written by a writer with hurt feelings....

  Ok, I’ll admit this blog post is about three months overdue. Although, I’d argue that it’s really never too late to draw attention to a good movie or an awesome young female character.   So I’m just going to proceed.    Last night I ended up watching the movie Kick-Ass on bootleg. I had dismissed the film when it came out back in April due to its seemingly lame premise (high school comic-book nerd wants to be a superhero and get laid, blah, blah, blah).  It turned out to...

What seems to be all the rage these days? Burning money. That's right. In protest to the wage gap between men and women, Sweden's feminist group set fire to what amounted to $13,000 - a number which symbolizes the money women miss out on every minute. While Sweden is known internationally for its progressive moves towards gender equality and substantial family support (including paid maternity AND paternity leave) it still has a long way to go to support women in the workforce. According to the...

Toni Stone is one hell of a woman. She's also one of the best baseball players you've never heard of. Since women's leagues refused her eligibility due to the color of her skin, Stone ended up playing alongside men in the Negro League. She became the first woman to play professionally in the league against big-shots like Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Buck O’Neil, and Satchel Paige. Today she's often referred to as 'the female Jackie Robinson'. Author Martha Ackmann has written a new book called...

RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) and Music Box Films are getting together for the DVD release of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and the theatrical releases of the next two in the trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. Being that the main character of the Millenium Trilogy deals with sexual abuse and its aftermath, this co-opted social action campaign destined for over 1,000 colleges, universities, and crisis centers aims to highlight the importance...

Hearing Sarah Palin talk about why women can be anti-choice feminists has been pretty terrifying. Her message, that women can and should be expected to be have children they don't actually want, is totes ridic. But her supporting argument, suggesting that it's anti-feminist to accuse women of being unable to handle this load, is a bit trickier. Answering is like trying to respond to the "when did you stop beating your wife" question. Meanwhile, daughter Bristol recently launched, "Pause before you play," public service announcement, brought...

Women make up the majority of the workforce these days, and have even been breaking into the boys clubs, also known as politics and comedy. Olivia Munn and (gasp!) Elena Kagan have proven to be the ladies of the week who combined both politics and comedy. One of our favorite new columnists at Salon keeps it real with some sassy advice for dudes who are too distracted by co-workers’ boobiliciousness, and we can’t help but think about that Debrahlee again, so here’s Modern Lady’s coverage,...

  Thanks go to Feministing for bringing this awesome little documentary that a bunch of school-age kids did on gender stereotyping! Way to go mini Judith Butlers— you've restored our faith in future generations. Also, a special thanks to brilliant parents and teachers who encourage their kids to question social norms! [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fPTEJ-gyf0&feature=player_embedded 425x344] Image: Shiloh ...

This new Old Spice ad cannot be ignored any longer. Besides being hilarious, ridiculous, and featuring the eye-candy that is Isaiah Mustafa, there seems to be a change in tone for the better in terms of gender. Personally, I think it's more sensitive to gender roles, but still keeping with the sensitive manly-man ideal. We know that Old Spice is going for the ridiculous— "Swan dive!"... genius— and our favorite Old Spice Man gracefully lands in a hot tub which falls apart revealing him sitting...