"Commodity feminism stories": A new trend in ads

By Miglena Sternadori
(July 2, 2014 | Media Diversity Forum) - Speaking of marketing, increasingly proliferating are commodity feminism stories, such as analyses of girlpower ads and entertainment content. But let’s not forget that companies such as Pantene and Verizon are not putting out empowering commercials out of the goodness of their hearts. They are there to sell products in whatever way it takes, including by sneaking prosocial messages into the pitch. And when Disney coins a new strategy to reach female tweens by suggesting they should meet the world rather than a boy, the main concern is to make money and keep abreast of the competition – not to create confident young women.

Related stories:

This Great Ad Reveals All the Ways We Hold Girls Back

We're Wasting Our Best Filmmakers on Tampon Ads

Disney hopes new formula will draw pre-teenage girls

Pantene ad: I’m sorry, but women really need to stop apologizing

Verizon ad: Verizon’s new ad is about how we discourage girls

Patrick Semansky/AP

Female justices issue searing dissent over new contraceptive case

By Irin Carmon
(July 3, 2014 | MSNBC) - The fierce disagreements dividing the Supreme Court over this week’s Hobby Lobby decision were laid bare Thursday in a searing dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said the justices’ decision in a separate contraceptive case “undermines confidence in this institution.” Read more

Initiatives to reduce tech gender gap

(June 29, 2014 | Media Diversity Forum) - Lately we have been hearing discussion on gender gap in IT sector and tech education. This week, our gender editor Miglena Sternadori has identitifed two stories that focus on the initiative/strategies to address 'tech gender gap' - "5 Things To Know about getting girls into coding" and "Google Invests $50 Million to Close the Tech Gender Gap."

Related story:
A lack of leading ladies haunts game industry

Sexists and racists are resorting to online sabotage

(June 18, 2014 | The Guardian) - This week, sexist and racist trolls have borrowed the tactics of the CIA and Scotland Yard and sent in agents provocateurs to spread disharmony among online activists. Read more

Related Story
Fox News buys into the #EndFathersDay hoax (Slate.Com | June 16, 2014)

A Muslim American journalist explains how she became the story at a Texas GOP event

By Heba Said
(June 30, 2014 | The Washington Post) - It is difficult to understand how, in a land that each year honors a man who marched for everyone’s equality, people could not want the same for me, a fellow American. Read more

Eight years of solitude: Susie Cagle on freelancing, journalism, and survival

By Susie Cagle
(July 2, 2014 | Medium) - When people tell me they admire my freelance career, when they tell me it must be nice to sleep in, when they then break eye contact when I tell them how much I am paid, when I am sending a fourth follow-up email to an editor regarding that check . . . Read more

Yang Lan, the ‘Oprah of China,’ expands her reach

By Lily Rothman
(June 23, 2014 | Time) - Last year, MAKERS — the AOL-owned hub for women telling the history of feminism via their personal stories — made news with a PBS documentary. Now it’s going global. Read more

Another story of hope:
Big in Japan: Frozen's feminist rallying cry

Sexual harassment pandemic and a hashtag campaign

By Terrence McCoy
(June 18, 2014 | The Washington Post) - The headlines don’t stop. They speak of the mass abduction of schoolgirls kidnapped by Nigerian terrorists in March, sold off for $12, and never heard from again. They speak of gang-rapes in India, where a woman is sexually assaulted every 20 minutes . . . Read more

Related story
Women in India aren’t safe on Twitter either

When all male editors deal with sexual-assault content . . .

By Erik Wemple
(June 20, 2014 | The Washington Post) - As reported in this space yesterday, the syndication unit of the Washington Post carefully combed through the controversial sexual-assault column by George Will. Read more

Related story:
Terminology concerning the issue of rape: "survivors" vs. "victims"

Does media ignore female sexuality?

By Anna North
(June 17, 2014 | The New York Times) - Much of television may offer not just too many scenes of brutality toward women but also too few designed to make them feel good. Read more

This photo of Kim Kardashian shows why women can’t have it all

Read this intriguing analysis by Charlotte Alter (Juen 17, 2014 | Time)

More stories:

A male rape survivor's account: My own rape shows how much we get wrong about these attacks (The Washington Post | July 1, 2014)

Shannon Jensen Wins the 2014 Inge Morath Award
(Light Box | June 30, 2014)

Natali Morris turns to her smartphone for contraception
(Medium | Feb. 11, 2014)

Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead?
(The Atlantic | June 25, 2014)

Orange Is the New Black's Irresponsible Portrayal of Men
(The Atlantic | June 25, 2014)

Facebook's Nicola Mendelsohn urges media to change labels given to women
(The Guardian | June 24, 2014)

Mormon feminist Kate Kelly’s excommunication lights up The Bloggernacle
(The Washington Post | June 25, 2014)

Station for “grown-up women” to join New York airwaves
(New York Times | June 27, 2014)