By Melissa Campbell As came to light recently, PETA is opening up a porn site. PETA.xxx (for real) is, according to PETA spokespeople, going to help viewers “question the status quo.” Because of course, nothing says “questioning the status quo” quite like making women’s bodies the objects of mass consumption. How brilliantly radical of you,…
By Melissa Campbell The Internet has been blowing up lately with discussion around Jour Apres Lunes, a French company that’s released a lingerie—excuse me, loungerie—line for little girls 4-12 years old. The photo shoot for the line features girls with big pompadours and expertly applied makeup. The reaction, of course, has been largely outrage. It’s…
by Melissa Campbell The media has been abuzz lately with discussion about Bristol Palin’s new memoir and her first sexual experience. What appears to be a clear cut case of sexual assault has been drawing nothing but head-in-the-sand statements from prominent figures on all points of the social spectrum and I can’t understand why. Even…
by Melissa Campbell In the past few years, there’s been a ton of talk about the power of the Internet as a tool of activism—and as someone who grew up on the Internet, I often find that the people who are espousing social media’s activist brilliance actually have no idea how young people are using…
by Melissa Campbell There’s been a lot of talk about a recent New York Times article about a brutal gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in Texas. The article, which described the victim as wearing makeup and clothing more suited to a 20-year-old and quoted a member of the community worrying about the rapists saying “these…
by Melissa Campbell Last month, thousands of people gathered in NYC’s Foley Square to rally against HR 3, the bill that calls for the defunding of Planned Parenthood. HR 3 is not just an attack on Planned Parenthood, but on the health of women and girls across the United States. The crowd was, to say…
by Melissa Campbell Let me tell you a story: I was sitting in my school’s café the other day, dutifully shoveling a Chipotle vegetarian burrito into my face (you gotta get the vegetarian because it comes with free guac!) when I overheard a girl at the end of my table say to her companion, “I…
by Melissa Campbell For a while, I had a serious love/hate relationship with MTV’s Jersey Shore. I don’t own a television, so I would go out of my way to download it the day after it aired, watching it on my laptop curled up under my covers before I got out of bed to start…