I’m still not sure to this day why I chose to get my head shaved bald in Midwest winter weather. Nothing, absolutely nothing, feels colder than below zero wind ripping into a freshly shaven scalp for the first time in your young adult life. No, I wasn’t having a quarter life crisis (well…not completely). I […]
The evening after I heard the verdict in Kesha’s lawsuit against Dr, Luke, I found myself traversing some familiar mental territory. How many women did I know who had been abused, assaulted, or raped? The number is staggeringly high. Even as high as that number is, it can only really come from accounts of those […]
Writer, feminist pornographer, and sex worker advocate Tina Horn is a perverted polymath. Cutting her teeth in a woman owned and run domme house in San Francisco, Horn harnessed her experiences as a sex worker and porn performer and director to become, in the words of Jiz Lee, “the Neil deGrasse Tyson of a sexual cosmos.” She’s the force behind […]
I was casually scrolling through the internet the other evening when I came upon a post that was emblazoned with the warning, “LOCAL RAPIST.” It was an eye-catching post, and upon further examination I realized that the picture of the dangerous local rapist was someone that I knew peripherally through bars here in Oakland. It […]
Last week, a draft proposal by Amnesty International, which called for the global decriminalization of sex work, leaked. It was met with immediate opposition by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, in a letter signed by many celebrities and public figures, including Lena Dunham, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and, perhaps most disturbing, Gloria Steinem. CATW […]
This Sunday, my band Azar Swan will be playing Slutist’s Legacy of the Witch festival. Various logistics have made it impossible for me to join the live lineup, but I’m excited the band is participating, and I wanted to say a few things about the witches’ legacy since I can’t attend. By now it’s old […]
I know I might get shunned by theocrats and conservatives for writing this, but I honestly do not care. The streets of Paris will never feel the same to me after the unfortunate murders at Charlie Hebdo’s headquarters. A grim shadow has been cast over the Eiffel Tower and continues to spread like an infectious […]
A 14-year-old British student recently presented a speech on slut-shaming and sexual double standards which caused multiple boys in her class to walk out. Although what she said is nothing we haven’t heard before, that’s precisely the problem. Sexual bullying continues to go unchecked in schools around the world, and in too many cases leads […]
We couldn’t resist a silly title, but that shouldn’t diminish how seriously you take mid-term elections, especially since so many of our rights are up for grabs across the United States. It’s crucial to get out there and cast your vote for (or against) the reproductive health measures that impact what it’s like to inhabit […]
As the world’s only fair trade, vegan, chemical-free condom company that donates 10% of their profits to women in need, Sustain sells sex with a radical twist. The founders of the company are equally unique: father-daughter team Jeffrey and Meika Hollender started Sustain with more than money in mind. As their website declares: “We believe […]
