Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, was the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It should just be another day, because abortion has been legal for almost 40 years in America. Seriously, it’s been decided—legally—by a group of highly qualified Supreme Court justices. It’s done; the legal right to privacy has been cemented, so let’s go tackle the next big issue: world hunger. Or…

What’s wrong with a sheer shirt and lipstick? Several weeks ago, The New York Times published an article detailing the disparity between women’s recent academic and professional strides and their continued objectification in various social situations. This is not a new debate.

While perusing Facebook today, I came across a group that a number of my friends “like.” The page presents a query more or less on par with the questions of God’s existence and what happens to the light in the fridge when you close the door. If the question “Why do women buy watches when there’s a clock on the oven?

Student Life’s Kat Zhao sat down with renowned feminist Gloria Steinem to discuss the female experience in modern-day America. Student Life: What are some of the biggest challenges facing women today? Gloria Steinem: You can call it, in general, a sexual caste system.

The f-word is being thrown around in the supposedly peaceful campus co-op. No, not that f-word. Feminism. Tucked away in the Washington University Cooperative is a group that hosts Goddess Gatherings to discuss issues of femininity and women’s rights.

I am a feminist. If you’re still reading, that’s something. You’ve gotten past a pretty vocal, villainous set of caricatures—and, trust me, I know they can be an intimidating bunch. But I’ve invited them into my column on purpose, because it is Feminism Awareness Week, and I need them here—loud, angry, whining, stigmatized and exaggerated.

I was sitting at the laundromat the other day, reading Gayle Rubin’s “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex.” I could barely read because of the blare of televisions, and I couldn’t go outside, because it was too cold for my fingers to be able to annotate the text. The Loop Laundromat, if you haven’t been there, has three televisions, each in a corner of the square room, each tuned to a different channel.

In his column on Wednesday, staff writer Gabe Cralley painted a picture that we all, perhaps, know a little too well: a drunk girl stumbling into a freshman dorm, saying, “How do I get out of here? I can’t find my way out of here.”

During high school, if someone had asked me if I was a feminist, I would have conjured an image of a girl with chopped, untamed hair, baggy clothes and an angry disposition, ready to chew anyone out for being content with the world. And then I would have definitively replied NO. I knew girls who [...]