Fantastic campaign alert! Stop what you're doing and look at these photos from the MADE UP Experiment. Makeup is a HUGE part of gender performance - it's tied to femininity like blonde on a Barbie. We're taught to follow certain customs in order to be read as feminine, while men are taught to perform masculinity.  These rigid gender roles limit self-expression and individuality, and lots of people are fed up with that. MADE ... Read More

  Who IS that girl?  We know all about how kids’ toys are divided by gender in really icky ways. Why can’t a boy use an Easy Bake Oven? Why aren’t girls playing with those trucks in the commercials? And the issue goes far beyond surface advertising – “boy products” often encourage building, activity, and adventure, while “girl products” usually emphasize appearance and foster skills like nurturing and cooking. ... Read More

Mental illness is a major issue in both the health care community and society. Chances are, you know people who have either depression or anxiety, and of those people you know, it is probable that they are women. At least, that's what a new study coming out of Oxford University says. According to the results, which looked at 12 major studies done throughout the world in the last 20+ years, women are 40% more likely to develop mental illness ... Read More

"Rapunzel"  When I first saw these gender-swapped illustrations of some of my favorite fairy tales, I had to laugh. I love the little faces of these dudes! Artist Yudi Chen, who studies illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design, flips the gender roles of beloved fairy tales such as Rapunzel and Cinderella (Cinderfella, if you will) in her illustration series Gender Reversed Fairy Tales. I think my favorite is the bearded ... Read More

I've heard it said that "ask and you shall receive", but I guess in this case it's more like petition and you shall get heard. After starting a petition asking Hasbro to make their Easy-Bake Oven a more gender-neutral toy, McKenna Pope got her wish and more. If you haven’t heard of McKenna Pope, she's the 13-year-old girl from New Jersey who questioned Hasbro on why they don't make a gender-neutral Easy-Bake oven. It all started after ... Read More

A study at Northwestern University looks at the way we judge politicians to help explain the gender gap in politics. The study denies that people rationally consider candidates, and instead states, “research indicates that people use shallow decision heuristics, such as impressions of competence made solely from facial appearance when deciding whom to vote for.”  73 students (38 women and 35 men) looked at facial photos of ... Read More

It’s about time that Hasbro began marketing their famous Easy-Bake Oven, which has been aimed towards preteen girls since its conception in the 1960s, in a more gender-neutral manner. Inspired by her little brother, one 13-year-old New Jersey girl has started a petition on Change.org to get the company to make the toy oven more boy-friendly. McKenna Pope of Garfield, N.J. wants the company to drop its all-girl advertising ... Read More

                    “I bet when you’re 10 you’ll love pink, and you’ll love princesses,” said Pippa Middleton to a 6 year old who said she was a sort of tomboy and liked things that “boys like.” Sigh.  The event was a promotion for Pippa’s new party-planning book “Celebrate.”  (I wonder if it’s got gender specific ... Read More

Once upon a time, there was a snack made out of dried meat. This snack was magical, because it prevented spoilage, and therefore prevented the people of the kingdom from getting sick or hungry in times of trouble. The people rejoiced! Over time, however, a bunch of people decided that this snack needed to take over the world. The only way to do this, in the small minds of these puny people, was to appeal to both men and women, separately ... Read More

Now that you've watched Barack Obama get down with the music stylings of Carly Rae Jepsen, it's time to get back down to serious political business. Or not so serious, depending on how much you believe the democratic party's attempt to pass a bill in the senate that would help close the wage gap between men and women in the US.   The paycheck bill would ban companies from responding against any workers who inquire about pay ... Read More