Looking Back on Feminism in 2016 — Some Positive Signs from Popular Culture

A recent New York Times opinion piece by Susan Chira was titled “Feminism Lost, Now What?”  Chira underscored the despair many feminists have felt over dashed expectations. Leaders of feminist causes who had believed that 2016 would be a triumphant year for women’s advancement have instead seen a country that is not only sharply divided but appears to be sliding backward when it comes to gender equality and other social justice issues.

If you’re feeling similarly discouraged, you might feel at least a little bit better after reading a report by Janell Hobson, an associate professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY).  Dr. Hobson has compiled and annotated a list of positive signs from popular culture, showing that feminism is by no means dead or on life support. It’s very much alive and showing up in multiple ways and places.

Read our Link of the Day, “The Top 10 Feminist Moments in Pop Culture from 2016,” from the Ms. Magazine Blog.

 

Letha Dawson Scanzoni is an independent scholar, writer, and editor, and is the author or coauthor of nine books. In 1978, she and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott wrote Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, one of the earliest books urging evangelical Christians to rethink their views on homosexuality (updated edition, 1994, HarperOne). More recently, Letha coauthored (with social psychologist David G. Myers) What God Has Joined Together: The Christian Case for Gay Marriage (HarperOne, 2005 and 2006). Another of Letha’s most well-known books is All We’re Meant to Be: Biblical Feminism for Today, coauthored with Nancy A. Hardesty (Word Books, 1974; revised edition, Abingdon, 1986; updated and expanded edition, Eerdmans, 1992). Letha served as editor of Christian Feminism Today in both its former print edition (EEWC Update) and its website for 19 years until her retirement in December 2013.

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