“Mansplaining” and Political Voice

Guest author Ben White worked for WomanStats at BYU as an intern in 2016, and graduated in 2018 with a BA in Political Science. Now, as a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, his research explores how gender shapes our interactions with American politics. In recent years, "mansplaining", the phenomenon of a …

Waist Trainers and The Controversial Revival of the Corset

Beauty practices around the world rise and fall as time goes, each one meaning something different for women. The fall of corsets led to girdles, and then to Spanx; now, "waist trainers" are being promoted by popular celebrities across social media, leading to a revival of the corset in mainstream fashion under a different name.      …

Writing a Woman: The Minefield of Breaking Down Gendered Stereotypes in Media

Women have been featured in entertainment media for centuries. When it comes to storytelling, I would be hard-pressed to find a story that didn’t feature women in some way.  However, in an age where representation is critical in the fight for equality, the problem does not lie in the amount of representation, but in the …

Reconsider Retouching: How Photoshop Hurts Girls

The holiday season, having just recently ended, descended upon us like a thick layer of melted marshmallows on a piping mug of hot chocolate – it was sweet, but it was a lot. It’s easy to become numb to the barrage of advertisements we encountered as we shopped for loved ones, urging us that Victoria …

The Internet: Creating a Safe Space

Access to the internet is a basic right that allows women to learn, promote themselves professionally, band together, and obtain help. One law student in Pakistan used the internet to publicize her stab wounds, helping her to win a legal case against her assaulter.[1] However, the internet can also provide an additional space for women …

A Series of Unfortunate Marriage Practices

In January, Netflix released its televised adaption of the hit children’s books A Series of Unfortunate Events. As an avid fan of the books, I eagerly watched the entire show in just a couple of days. The story begins with orphans Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire going to live with their evil guardian Count Olaf …

On Women and the Academy Awards Infographic

The last time a film won Best Picture with an actress nominated for Best Actress (not Best Supporting Actress) was 2005 with Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby. The majority of films nominated for Best Picture mostly tell stories about men and for men. This disproportionate representation is not new to anyone interested in feminism …

The America We Are and the America We Want to Be

It’s Wednesday morning, November 9th at around 11:30 am, and I’m sitting on my couch still in my pajamas, with puffy, red, tear-filled eyes. I’m exhausted and sad and deflated and confused. My eyes are at a level of red and puffy you get after hearing the faint sound of the flute start to play …

Star Wars: Changing Definitions of Manhood

I want to preface this blog post with an admission that this is for WomanStats, and this blog post will contain no hard data. But, as you can see in our codebook, we do collect data about definitions of manhood & womanhood (DMW-PRACTICE-1) & media (WAM-PRACTICE-1) so that is my justification for this blogpost: The …

Violence against Women: Marital Rape

I remember the first time I was introduced to marital rape. I was in my early teenage years, and I was watching Gone with the Wind for the first time. I wasn’t particularly interested in or impressed by the film, but one scene stuck with me. You know, that scene. The one where Rhett rapes …