Here's what you missed while you were live-tweeting the debates (and watching OITNB).
Weekly Digest | August 3, 2019
Letter From an Editor
It's been a busy week—but we've been keeping up with the news cycle at msmagazine.com, and digging into the feminist stories and perspectives that are often missing in mainstream media.
While pundits talked about the debates this week like a sporting event, we explored the economic issues motivating moms in making decisions down the ballot, took a harder look at "likability" and recapped the pre-debate panel hosted by Mothering Justice in Detroit about the issues facing mothers of color.
While reporters examined the impact of OITNB as it enters into its final season, we celebrated the IRL Poussey Washington Fund extending its legacy in the justice system. And while Lizzo performed for NPR's Tiny Desk, we opined on her important efforts to tell women and girls that they're enough—despite the world that tells them they're not. While Planned Parenthood's new acting president, Alexis McGill Johnson, assumed her seat, we amplified the voices of Black women standing in solidarity with her. While the federal government moves to resume executions, we revisited the powerful work of Sister Helen Prejean—who hasn't stopped fighting, for over 30 years, to end them.
We also talked about topics that weren't trending—like a new database of racist Facebook posts from police officers and a recent study on women's persistent under-representation in film, how Brazilian trans women are fighting back against Jair Bolsonaro and even what the #MeToo movement looks like in Bollywood. Since it's a new month, we also published a new reading list up for the Rest Of Us, and if you're looking for something to watch this weekend, we've got you covered, too.
There's no shortage of issues to cover, and no end in sight to the fight for gender equality. But no matter how fast the news unfolds, we won't be deterred at Ms. from our mission of reporting back from the front lines—whenever and wherever we can.
Onward,
Carmen Rios
Managing Digital Editor, Ms.
More Must-Reads from Ms.
When "Going Back" Means Staying Put
Like many children of immigrants, there is a seed planted deep within me that sprouts hesitation when it comes to fully claiming to be an American. Watching the President tell "the squad" to “go back to their countries” reminded me why. My Brown skin can always be seen by others as inherently un-American. That reality haunts me.
Our Unalienable Rights Include Freedom of—and from—Religion
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s goal for the Trump administration's new Commission on Unalienable Rights is for the group is to provide "fresh thinking" about human rights with a focus on “natural law” and "natural rights"—but by narrowing rights to natural law and natural rights, the Commission can remake the official view of human rights into a contracted reflection of a particular conservative religious stance.
'Never Again' Means Holding the Trump Administration Accountable
At times it seems hopeless—like the Trump administration gets away with anything and everything while people suffer and human rights are ignored. We ask over and over, how can the United States actually be held accountable? But the U.S. is not above international law, and we must continue to call attention to these issues.
What Happens When (Feminist) Women Win
Why do we imagine women will be as awful as men? What actual evidence do we have for that? Men have had centuries to hone their badness and perfect their blasé privilege. Maybe we women could learn that—maybe we could rise to the occasion if given centuries of unfettered power. Who knows?
The idea that women’s voices and policy initiatives—and sports team ethos—don’t have a substantive impact on just about everything from government to corporations to universities is just patriarchal “fake news.”
Layla (who prefers we use only her first name to protect her identity) knew her decision to flee would cost her everything. By the time she landed in Germany, her family had reported her to the police, triggering a criminal case against her. By traveling without her father’s permission, she’d violated Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship laws, and the authorities’ response was swift. They froze her bank account, which contained her life savings, and suspended her Saudi National Identification account, rendering her effectively stateless.
Within 24 hours of escaping her abusive family home, Layla found herself broke, disowned and alone. “I lost everything in one day,” she says a few months later outside a refugee settlement in Germany. Her voice trembles with still-raw fear. “But only one thing mattered: For the first time, I was free.”
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