Culture - The Persistent

A black and white photograph of a rapturous audience in a packed theater.

Culture

I’m Trying to Embrace Mediocrity. How About You?

Making the case for being OK with just being OK.

Watercolor image of Nancy Borowick, a white woman with long dark hair, brown eyes and colorful earrings.

Culture

‘Let's Be Honest, Moms Are Never In the Photo’

The photographer Nancy Borowick takes on a taboo topic and puts mothers at the center.

Gillian Brett, wearing day-glo overalls, sculpts a two-footgreen wax model of Fanny Wilkinson.

Culture

70 Years After Her Death, Britain’s First Female Landscape Designer Finally Gets Her Due

Fanny Wilkinson designed more 75 public gardens in London during her 20-year career. Now she's being commemorated by the sculptor Gillian Brett.

A watercolor of Rachel Feldman, a white woman with green eyes and short dark hair, wearing a colorful jacket.

Culture

Lilly Ledbetter Has Made It to the Big Screen. It’s About Time.

It took the writer and director Rachel Feldman years of doors being slammed in her face before she got her movie off the ground, but she’s finally done it: LILLY is out May 9.

An illustration of a woman wearing a jumpsuit, with her hands in her pockets, looking at art in a gallery.

Culture

How Everyday Sexism Is Sewn Into Our Clothes

An illustration of the singer Kylie Minogue dressed in a shiny blue dress and pants, holding a microphone.

What Brings You Joy

The Queen of Pop Will Thrill Again. And Again. And Again.

This is Kylie Minogue’s world. We’re so lucky to be in it.

Watercolor of Payal Kapadia, smiling. Her hair is up, she wears a black jacket.

Movies

‘Everybody Should Be a Feminist Filmmaker’

The unassuming story of three working-class Indian women has captured the world’s attention. Here’s why.

A watercolor painting of Jana Smith. She has a big smile and is wearing a scarf around her neck.

Culture

Some Love Stories Start with a Glance. This One Starts with a Movement.

A love story doesn’t just have to be between two people, says Jana Naomi Smith, the creator of Red for Revolution.

Ideas

Coming to a Theatre Near You

Is Hollywood finally catching up with the real world? Maybe, sort of, yes.

Culture

‘The Fantasy Can Be Dirty, But the Values Must Be Clean’

Can porn be beautiful and ethical? Erika Lust says yes—unequivocally.

A black and white photo of Taylor Swift on stage in the final days of the Eras Tour in Vancouver.

Culture

What Taylor Swift Taught Me About Aging

No age is the right age to be a woman. Unless, of course, you're Taylor Swift.

Black and white photo of Maxine Peake and Hayley Standing walking down a lane in Yorkshire. Behind them is a dry-stone wall.

Culture

'Now It's Over, I Don't Feel Any Better At All’

The short film, “Incompatible,” tells the story of a pregnant-working class woman making an all-but-impossible choice.

An illustration of a woman performing standup comedy. She is flanked by two giant men, making the woman look smaller.

Culture

Not Ladylike to Laugh? Oh, Please.

For men to be funny, women don’t have to be unfunny. Both may chuckle.

Deborah Copaken stands outside a store in Cairo in jeans and a utility jacket, with a camera around her neck.

Culture

Lee and Me

I wanted to be the objectifier of men and their wars, quirks, and shortcomings, not the objectified. Why was this so hard?

Culture

The Janice Problem

A rewatch of Friends reveals it isn't the post-feminist masterpiece we thought it was.

Detail from a work by Jessa Fairbrother showing a woman who appears pregnant holding her belly.

Culture

When Words Fail On Infertility, There is Art

Infertility, so long hidden from view, is finally finding a spotlight in various contemporary art forms.