Audrey Bilger

In a new essay, President Audrey Bilger makes the case that feminist scholars have a responsibility to expand their writing beyond academic venues and engage with the public in accessible ways. The piece appears in ‘Public Feminisms,’ an open-access book published in April by Lever Press.

In the early 1960s, when Sally Ride was a child, her parents gave her a chemistry set and a subscription to Scientific American. They got her a microscope and a telescope, too, and so, from an early age, she learned to ask questions about the universe and her place within it.

It may have started as a joke. Or maybe a form of break-up therapy. Whatever led alt-rock singer-songwriter Ryan Adams to record his own track-by-track version of Taylor Swift’s mega-hit album 1989, it’s turning out to be a big win for the two artists on many fronts.

The Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality is, as President Obama declared in his remarks following the ruling, “a victory for America.” It’s also a major win for feminism.

When astronaut/physicist Sally Ride passed away in 2012, her obituary revealed for the first time publicly that she was a lesbian. In the recently published biography, Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space, Lynn Sherr fills out the story of this American hero, who worked tirelessly during her lifetime to encourage girls and boys to stick with their interests in science and to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Ride also fiercely guarded her privacy, because she worried that coming out would jeopardize her ability to do good in the world.

If The New York Times—or any other publication—wants to include more women as writers and sources, here’s simply what it has to do: Pay attention. As the Ms. Blog reported in early August, a recently launched website, Who Writes for the New York Times, keeps track of gender imbalances in a way that could help the Times’ editors achieve gender parity.

Best-of lists are always controversy magnets. By definition, they elevate some at the expense of others. Earlier this week, when Fast Company published a list, compiled by Ann Charles, of “25 of the Smartest Women on Twitter” that failed to include a single woman of color, the Twittersphere responded immediately. Within a day, the hashtag #SmartBlackWomenofTwitter, created by @FeministaJones, trended, and additional hashtags sprung up in its wake.

2012 has been a huge year for marriage equality. In May, President Barack Obama declared support for the right of lesbians and gay men to marry–and then he resoundingly won re-election. Three new states approved gay marriage rights in ballot initiatives, and another defeated a constitutional ban. As December marches on, so, too, does the course of LGBT rights history.

At LGBT Pride parades around the country, the queer community always puts on a show. Rainbows, glitter, big hair, fabulous costumes, leather, dykes on bikes and partial nudity—pretty much anything goes, as participants let their freak flags fly. But the most beloved contingent of Pride marchers is seldom flamboyant. In fact, they often stand out by looking so completely ordinary, like central casting’s view of middle America. Members of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), carry signs that say things like, “I Love My Lesbian Daughter” and “My Pride is My Gay Child.” When they march by, people along the parade route cheer, applaud and openly weep.

Progressive online journalists and politicians will gather this weekend in Providence, R.I., for the seventh annual Netroots Nation conference. With sessions on blogging, social networking and strategizing, Netroots is the politics geek’s equivalent of Comic-Con—minus the crazy costumes. Leftist luminaries are always in attendance; among this year’s main attractions are Paul Krugman, Elizabeth Warren and Van Jones.

Lizz Winstead is a household name for millions who’ve never even heard of her. At the end of each episode of The Daily Show, right after the “Moment of Zen” and at the conclusion of the credits, her name flashes by, like a subliminal advertisement for women’s genius: In her new book, Lizz Free or Die, Winstead recounts the beginnings of the show that Jon Stewart would make famous, telling how she found her calling as a political satirist in the 24-hour news/reality TV world of the 1990s and early 2000s

If you’ve been following the case of Texas cheerleader Hillaire S., who was assaulted at a party by star athlete Rakheem Bolton and then kicked off the cheerleading squad for refusing to chant, “two, four, six, eight, ten, come on Rakheem, put it in” (see the Ms. Blog coverage of the case here, here, here, and here), then you’re probably outraged by the way this story evolved. After Hillaire’s parents lost the lawsuit they brought against the school for insisting that their daughter cheer for the man who assaulted her, they were ordered to pay $35,000 to the school to cover the legal expenses of the trial.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum has a reputation for being a boys club. Since 1986, when its first annual list of inductees consisted of men only, women have been snubbed three additional times (1992, 2003, 2004). But now that the Cleveland museum has a new exhibit, “Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power” (May 13, 2011 through February 26, 2012), we can stop calling them sexist and start celebrating, right?

This election season marks an important anniversary in the history of women and politics: the term gender gap turns 30. And since women voters as a group have tended to be more progressive [PDF] when it comes to issues like reproductive freedom, social welfare spending, and gay and lesbian rights, this seems an apt moment to consider the term–on the day of an election in the “year of the conservative woman.”

There’s been so much sad LGBT news in the past weeks, it can be hard to find reasons to celebrate National Coming Out Day. Another gay teen, Zach Harrington, of Norman, OK., killed himself this past weekend–the fifth gay teen suicide reported in the past two months–after being subjected to what family members described as a “toxic” anti-gay environment at a local City Council meeting.

At the dawn of this new millennium, bell hooks published Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics, a slim, bright-yellow book with a powerful goal: to introduce feminist politics in an accessible format in order to reach the widest possible audience. She begins with a story of how proud she is to talk to everyone she meets about feminism and how surprised people are when they hear what it’s all about. “They are quick to tell me I am different,” she writes, “not like the ‘real’ feminists who hate men, who are angry.”

The word “feminism” does not appear anywhere in Judge Vaughn Walker’s 136-page ruling that California’s ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8, is unconstitutional. However, this impressive document draws heavily upon feminism’s contributions to our society. Judge Walker’s sweeping condemnation of Prop. 8 relies on feminist ideas about the roles of men and women within marriage and, more broadly, about gender itself.

Shopping for Father’s Day cards this year, I was struck by the limited range of familiar stereotypes about Dad: fisherman, golfer, grill-master, handyman, beer-guzzler, remote-control hog, king of the castle, and, of course, the sentimental dear old Dad. As far as I could tell from my informal survey of this domain, the only thing that might distinguish the present-day offerings from those of a few decades ago is that now there are cards with guitars for Rocker Dad.

Young people are always being told they should be seen and not heard. On April 16, hundreds of thousands will choose silence as a way to “speak out” for a good cause. Around the country, students from middle schools, junior highs, high schools, colleges and universities will take part in the 15th Annual Day of Silence, sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). By remaining silent for all or part of the day, participating students will symbolically call attention to to the silence surrounding anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools.

If you told me two years ago that I would soon be watching a cable news show hosted by an out butch lesbian, I would have expected you to follow up with “April Fool’s!” But today, the charismatic Rachel Maddow–whose birthday is April 1st, no fooling!–has become a fixture on the nighttime political commentary scene. Like the pundit herself, The Rachel Maddow Show is smart, witty, frequently geeky and unabashedly feminist–something virtually unheard of on mainstream TV.