A queer feminist anthropologist exploring the realities of culture, gender, and sexuality in contemporary Asia
I’d like to call you in to this conversation by inviting you to check your privilege (or, analyse the injustices you’ve been spared). Educate yourself: don’t expect marginalised people to explain their oppression to you. Downloadable quiz: check your privilege
Guest Post | Alexandra Sieh Looking up from my book, I scanned the crowded subway car, eager for some good people-watching. But as a new group of folks clambered on, I cringed at some of the actions and attitudes I saw. Boyfriends pushing (excuse me, “guiding”) their girlfriend onto the train, or speaking to them [...]
There are a bunch of ways to measure gender equality. While some believe that giving women the right to vote solved that problem long ago, women are still a long way from equal representation in politics. Why's equal representation important? Women politicians are far more likely to hold women's best interests at heart. Without women's participation in [...]
International Women's Day began as a day of women's protest in Europe and the United States. Celebrating this socialist holiday largely died out in the US, while communists in China have been commemorating Women's Day annually since 1922. The tables have turned this year. Women in the US are striking today, while working women in China are enjoying a half-day off work.
British actor and pioneer of the UN’s HeForShe campaign, Emma Watson has faced criticism for the publication of a photo in which her breasts are partially exposed. The image is one of a series taken by acclaimed fashion photographer Tim Walker, with styling by Jessica Diehl. It accompanied Watson’s recent cover story interview for Vanity [...]
Don't wait for the system to correct itself for you. Ask for what you want, what your people want, and fight for it.
At a time when feminism is growing in China and yet the movement remains largely underground, the need for women’s empowerment is routinely ignored in China. As stated by one of these women: ‘not getting married is like the biggest sign of disrespect’ to her parents, and society as a whole. The film taps into that need directly.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of my favourite authors. She's certainly my favourite African author and I believe she is the best female writer of our time. Her fiction is poetic and hugely powerful. She weaves enchanting and wonderfully moving stories about the reality of Nigerian life. Adichie was named one of the twenty most important fiction writers [...]
What’s wrong with 6-year-old F-Bomb Princesses? There’s been a LOT of controversy around the FCKH8 video since its release last week. Personally, I was amazed and delighted by 95% of my initial viewing of the video. I loved the way stereotypes were being challenged, that young women were given the agency of freely using one [...]
Zhēn de Gender 