What Michael Jackson Sold Us
At first, it felt like something was being taken away from us. Upon the announcement of Leaving Neverland’s premiere at…
The Madwoman in the Newsroom
The stereotype of the incompetent, irrational woman journalist is resurgent. She is familiar and she’s bad news: she’s…
Revolution in a Minor Key
Reprinted from Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman. Copyright © 2019 by Saidiya Hartman. Used with…
The Steamy, Throbbing History of Romance Novel Covers
“We’ve got some books here I want to show you,” Johnny Carson told a Tonight Show audience in March 1990. He turned to…
Introducing Our Maybe Future Ambassador to the United Nations of Fox & Friends
Former Fox & Friends host and current haunted doll Heather Nauert is Donald Trump’s nominee to be America’s next…
'We Dissent' and the Making of Feminist Memory
About a month ago, or maybe more, I went to The Cooper Union to meet the two curators of “We Dissent: Design of the…
Meet the Woman Who 'Went Viral' for Supposedly Breaking the NBA’s Locker-Room Reporting Barrier
When Jane Gross became the first woman reporter to enter an NBA locker room in February of 1975, it merited a mere…
Something Is Wrong in This House: How Bluebeard Became the Definitive Fairy Tale of Our Era
A door that locks without anyone touching it, rendering escape impossible. A large man who overpowers, beast-like. A…
On This Day, The Little Rock Nine Started School
Today in 1957, nine African American students were escorted by federal troops through a screaming white crowd into…
'Norms Are Being Challenged All the Time': Joanne Freeman on Civility and the History of Congressional Brawls
A famous act of political violence is often used to illustrate the utter collapse of civic norms in the run-up to the…
Read Fanny Burney's Vivid Account of Her Own Mastectomy in the Early 19th Century
Two hundred and seven years ago this September, novelist Fanny Burney—whose works include Evelina and Cecilia—had a…
Life Before Roe: The Story of a 'Back-Alley Abortionist'
Last summer, I received the first of a string of emails from Joseph Blaine, a man who wanted to share his story with…
How to Dress For the End of the World
The shearling jacket is the iconic fashion staple of the apocalypse. It’s protected Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead,…
How a Woman Disappears from the History Books
The New York Times Magazine recently published a lengthy cover story on “The Unlikely Activists Who Took On Silicon…
King Donald
As Donald Trump arrived in the United Kingdom for his fawning Tory tour of monuments to power—tea at Windsor with the…
By Sheer Perseverance, Tiffany Haddish May Make Leonardo DiCaprio Bang-Worthy Yet
Tiffany Haddish’s ever-growing Fuck List, a roster bounded only by how far you can dream while defying sexual…
Historians Will Be Studying Sex and the City Long After We're Gone
For the 20th anniversary of Sex and the City—which premiered on HBO on June 6, 1998 and went on to become iconic…
Researchers Find Dirty Jokes, Musings on Menstruation Covered Up in Anne Frank's Diary
Anne Frank’s diary was particularly powerful in that she wrote about the mundanities of her life as a typical…
Canada to Honor a Black Woman on New $10 Notes as an Apology for the Country's Racist Past
The so-called “Canadian Rosa Parks” will be immortalized on Canadian currency in Canada’s attempt to apologize for…
The Very White History of Feminist Organizing
When we’re taught about the history of the feminist movement in the United States, it often highlights icons like Susan…