Yesterday I was locking up my bike when a policeman barked at me. He was fifty metres away. He started walking towards me, and yelled again. No words, just sounds. Then he whistled. A high piercing tone designed to scare me off. He clapped his hands three times, loudly, and shouted again, a sound equivalent [...]
Tag: Equality
Identity, Breast Implants, and Wanting More from Life: Lijia Zhang on her Debut Novel Lotus (interview: part I)
Inspired by her grandmother’s deathbed confession of being sold to a brothel, Lijia Zhang injects her cutting social criticism into her first novel, Lotus. The book delves deep into the sex industry in contemporary Shenzhen, following a young migrant woman, Lotus, who is eager to escape her life as a prostitute. A strong believer in [...]
Words and Women: Adrienne Rich
The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet. Adrienne Rich was an American poet, essayist and radical feminist. She was credited with bringing "the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse" (Flood). Responsibility to yourself means refusing to [...]
Dating in China [part 5]
Date says more attractive with clothes on. Does an open relationship translate to open dates? Getting an I.O.U. for accepting a drink. Women tell true stories of their dating experiences in China. Part five in a five part series of interviews. All stories shared by the women who experienced them in their own words.
Words and Women: Louisa May Alcott
The emerging woman ... will be strong-minded, strong-hearted, strong-souled, and strong-bodied ... strength and beauty must go together. ― Louisa May Alcott, from her 1869 novel An Old-Fashioned Girl. Alcott is best-known for her novel Little Women, which was published in 1868. Some of Alcott's works were published under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard. If she were still alive, [...]
May Thant on gender roles in sex and marriage in contemporary Burma (interview: part 2)
If I got pregnant or had children before I got married? I would get shame, and my parents wouldn’t call me their daughter.
Words and Women: Ursula K. Le Guin
You can’t crush ideas by suppressing them. You can only crush them by ignoring them. By refusing to think, refusing to change. Downloadable copy of Le Guin's 1974 novel The Dispossessed.
Ms Foreign Friend
There's no need for a name when you're 'Ms Foreign Friend' in China.
Words and Women: Gloria Steinem
What would happen if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not? Downloadable copy of Steinem's 1978 essay If Men Could Menstruate.
May Thant on Facebook trolls, gender inequality and Burma’s first woman President (interview: part 1)
Some people love her because she’s Aung San’s daughter. Most people love her because of what she’s done. I don’t care about who she is; it depends on what she’s done.
Zhēn de Gender 