Author Archives: Adda Birnir

The art world at large has been abuzz over the past few months about the seeming re-emergence of feminist art. Three weeks ago, the Brooklyn Museum of Art inaugurated its Elizabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art, which featured Judy Chicago’s feminist sculpture “The Dinner Party” on permanent installation. The same day, the Brooklyn Museum launched »

I believe that people have to save themselves. In order to enact truly transformative, truly radical, truly productive social reform, we as social reformers have to enable the people who are most affected by systems and structures of inequality to enact the changes they deem most appropriate for their lives. We — the elite, the »

On Friday, The New York Times reviewed Laura Session Stepp’s new book, “Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both.” Stepp reports that “hooking up” has largely replaced dating among women of high school and college age. The phenomenon of “hooking up” has harmful emotional and physical effects on young women, »

Last semester, we were concerned with the way that discussion about women in prominent positions — or the lack thereof — at Yale played out in the campus media and public discourse. The Yale Daily News, the Yale Herald, the Women’s Leadership Initiative and people speaking in general conversation asked why more women don’t seek »

This past Friday, Feb. 2, marked the one-year anniversary of my aunt Ellen’s death. I write now to commemorate her life and death, as well as to recognize the impact of her death on my own life and the lives of my family members. Mourning the death of someone you love is always an incredibly »

In light of a handful of high-profile local and national instances of sexual and racist harassment, I have decided to focus this, my first regular column, on issues of sexism and racism, what causes these ugly expressions of prejudiced behavior and what we as a concerned public can learn from these instances. In December, when »