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By Marisa Ragonese I had a baby three summers ago, and she’s been hanging around me a lot ever since. One of the best parts about this whole kid thing, at least for me, is the radical shift from how men used to look at and treat me, and the way they do now. Most notably, the dudes I encounter in the day-to-day have generally stopped ogling my body, complimenting my body, insulting my body or otherwise harassing me. NOW they either look me in the eye when they talk to me or, i

By Marisa Ragonese *From the SPARK Research! Blog Archive: This blog was originally written for SPARK, a girl-fueled organization working to ignite an anti-racist gender justice movement Halloween—obviously the best holiday in the history of the world—is coming our way. Let’s talk about some recent heart-racing research, which is almost as fun as peeking under that thinned-out curtain between the living and the dead, or, let’s be real, trick-or-treating (My guess is most of u

#teengirlsy Jenn Chmielewski *From the SPARK Research! Blog Archive: This blog was originally written for SPARK, a girl-fueled organization working to ignite an anti-racist gender justice movement Illustration by Calvin Sprague I didn’t know what the ‘thigh gap’ was until very recently (you’re supposed to have space between your thighs?!). But I can honestly say that I have always been aware of the fact that my thighs don’t fit the standards of perfection according to the med

By Marisa Ragonese Illustration by Neil Webb I had a baby three summers ago, and she’s been hanging around me a lot ever since. One of the best parts about this whole kid thing, at least for me, is the radical shift from how men used to look at and treat me, and the way they do now. Most notably, the dudes I encounter in the day-to-day have generally stopped ogling my body, complimenting my body, insulting my body or otherwise harassing me. NOW they either look me in the eye

By Christin Bowman *From the SPARK Research! Blog Archive: This blog was originally written for SPARK, a girl-fueled organization working to ignite an anti-racist gender justice movement Music videos may be one of the most degrading pieces of media out there. I, for one, can’t remember the last time I watched a music video that didn’t incorporate women of the lip-licking, hip-humping, nearly-naked variety. Some experts suggest that almost 90% of music videos incorporate objec

By Christin Bowman *From the SPARK Research! Blog Archive: This blog was originally written for SPARK, a girl-fueled organization working to ignite an anti-racist gender justice movement Here at SPARK, if there’s one thing we all love, it’s activism. We protest and picket and petition for change. We struggle to take sexy back with a fiery passion that burns deep within all of us – a SPARK that ignites us (pun very much intended). Being an activist isn’t always easy. In fact,

By Christin Bowman *From the SPARK Research! Blog Archive: This blog was originally written for SPARK, a girl-fueled organization working to ignite an anti-racist gender justice movement Women get sexually objectified all over the place. As recent installments of this blog have made clear, music videos and advertisements are prime examples of the sexualization of women in the media. This constant sexualization of girls and women makes me super-skeptical when I hear people arg

By Jenn Chmielewski *From the SPARK Research! Blog Archive: This blog was originally written for SPARK, a girl-fueled organization working to ignite an anti-racist gender justice movement Like many women, I have put up with my share of sexual harassment, subway groping, and just dealing with plain old creepy dudes. This issue is so commonplace (women have been speaking up about it for ages) that the NYC MTA actually announces now that “a crowded subway is no excuse for unlawf

By Maria Owen James Bond, Tony Stark, Chuck Bass – all these characters have one big thing in common: they are playboys. Not only do they represent the desirable bad boy that all women are supposed to want, but they are idolized by many men too. These guys have confidence, good looks, money, and power. And of course, as you may have guessed, they have sex with a lot of different women. I grew up in the age of Gossip Girl, and Chuck Bass was all my friends’ crush. He was styli