The Arsenic Dress: How Poisonous Green Pigments Terrorized Victorian Fashion
Clothing in nineteenth-century Europe and America was so thoroughly dangerous, it’s amazing anyone survived.
'Marty Was Always My Best Friend': Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Love Story
Wives—and until 1981, they were always wives—of Supreme Court justices have historically had roles not unlike a gaggle of First Ladies: sitting for photographs in Good Housekeeping, sitting in a special reserved section of the court even after their husbands retired, gathering for lunch three times a year in what used…
A Day in the Life of a Teen Mom in Feminist Utopia
The excerpt below comes from The Feminist Utopia Project, an anthology of essays and art that imagines what a feminist world could look like, featuring contributions by Melissa Harris-Perry and Sheila Heti. Writer Gloria Malone lays out a fictional schedule for a young parent, with a simplicity that makes a radically…
How Harry Houdini and Scientific American Fought the Fake Mediums of the 1920s
The 1920s are associated with illicit booze and unsustainable stock market returns, but the decade was marked by another craze, as well—a fad for Spiritualism.
What It Took to Hide in Nazi Germany: An Excerpt from Underground in Berlin
Marie Jalowicz Simon spent the Holocaust hiding from the Nazis—living underground in Berlin, keeping to the fringes of society, using an assumed name, dodging the authorities and anyone who might denounce her.
Wherein I Learn Bulimia Doesn’t Work, Is More Expensive Than Suspected
The following is excerpted from Mary H.K. Choi's new Kindle Single, Oh, Never Mind.
Attended 20+ Nuptials, Never Been Married: I'm a Serial Wedding Guest.
While one might assume a wedding is about them—the couple getting married— a wedding is about everyone. It's a means through which we guests can identify and reidentify our friends, our enemies, our lovers, and those we no longer love.
Theater Geeks & Anorexic Alpha Bitches: Summer at Performing Arts Camp
Julie Klausner's first YA novel, Art Girls Are Easy, is being released as an original e-book on May 7th; the paperback hits on June 1. Set in the exclusive world of an upscale fine and performing arts camp, Art Girls Are Easy features Indigo Hamlisch, a fifteen-year-old art prodigy. She looks forward to her last…
The Trouble With 'It Just Happened'
How many times have you said or heard some version of this: "I don't know. One minute we were dancing, and then the next thing I knew we had just had sex. It kind of just happened." "We woke up together, and she was like, ‘So, when can I see you again?' And now I guess we're in a relationship? It just happened."
The Clair Huxtable Code
Clair Huxtable is the perfect professional black mom. Actually, Clair Huxtable transcends race: She's the perfect professional mom, period. She also transcends generations: While June Cleaver, Carol Brady, and Edith Bunker may lose potency over time, if you go back to the archives, you'll find Clair Huxtable still…
Why Single Ladies Need Their Coupled Friends
Single as a "choice" is the holy grail of feminist self-preservation while single but "looking for love" puts you in the position of nonstop speculation as to why you can't find love. On an interpersonal level, when you are single, no one believes that you can be happy even when you say you are.
What Formspring Means For Friendship And Female Aggression
The parasites of the social media world are websites and applications that let users post anonymous messages about others. Formspring.me has been leading the pack. Untold thousands of teenagers have accounts on the site, which allows your audience –- almost always your classmates –- to write anything on your personal…
A Family Comes Together In Joy And Grieving
The Long Goodbye is Meghan O'Rourke's memoir about her mother's death from colorectal cancer and her own grieving process. In this excerpt, O'Rourke, her brothers Liam and Eamon, and family friend Diana have an emotional encounter with O'Rourke's mom, who is beginning to suffer confusion as a result of her illness.
How To Raise A Sexually Healthy Teen
My daughter is capable and caring — I bask in her virtuous light quite unfairly. She is her own doing.
The Sex Strike That Changed A Town Forever
Meg Wolitzer's new novel The Uncoupling imagines what would happen if a sex strike like the one in Lysistrata took place in modern-day suburbia. In the excerpt below, teacher Dory Lang is stricken by the no-sex spell, beginning a time of crisis and reevaluation that will affect the entire town.
The Day I Faced My Rapist In Court
The morning I was to read the statement in the courtroom would be the second time that the man who raped me and I were going to be in the same room. But unlike that day, we were in a room open to the public, and I could say what I felt and what I thought.
The Harrowing Date-Rape Scene From Snooki's Book
Amidst the pages of boozing, fist-pumping, and partying in Snooki's first novel—A Shore Thing—is an alarming scene involving Bella (cousin of the main character Gia) and some preppy assholes. Check out the excerpt after the jump.
The Exquisite Sadism Of America’s Next Top Model
In hyping an industry that has long gotten rich promulgating "sexy torture," America's Next Top Model is a perfect case study of how violent imagery plays out in the reality TV landscape. Sadism has been a recurring theme.
Gender Is Not Just A Performance
If one more person tells me that "all gender is performance," I think I am going to strangle them.
