Must-Read Links: Bye-Bye Thongs, Non-Breeders Breeding + More

Young Women Say No to Thongs

We’ve been waiting years to hear the sweet, sweet notes of the thong’s swan song. We’re pretty sure this New York Times pieces is the uncomfortable undies’ death knell.

 

The World Needs Female Rock Critics

Male rock critics are considered geniuses; female rock critics are just groupies. As Anwen Crawford writes in The New Yorker, this has got to change.

 

On #YesAllWomen, One Year Later

In the wake of Eliot Rodger’s misogynist rampage in Santa Barbara, Twitter user @gildedspine created the hashtag #YesAllWomen. On the Toast she recounts the hateful aftermath, and what’s happened in the year since.

 

The Insults of Age

Australian writer Helen Garner may be 71, but she’ll be damned if society makes her invisible. Her essay—“a one-woman assault on condescension”—at The Monthly is full of hilarious and blood-boiling truthbombs.

 

The Worst Kind of Groundhog Day: Let’s Talk (Again) About Diversity in Publishing

In the wake of the New York Times recommended summer reading list, Roxane Gay lays down the law over at NPR about the whitey whiteness of mainstream media.

 

Suicide Is Now the Biggest Killer of Teenage Girls Worldwide. Here’s Why

Here’s today’s depressing news of the day, especially since “logical despair” as opposed to mental illness is cited as a reason.

 

Why Do All the Superheroes Have to Be White, and All the Thugs Black?

There is no one better to address the asinine backlash to Michael B. Jordan’s casting as the Fantastic Four’s Johnny Storm than DAME contrib Kirsten West Savali.

 

Confessions of Moms Around the World

Okay, yes, this is a video and not a read, but its look at motherhood around the world is so worth the five minutes.

 

The Babayagas’ House, a Feminist Alternative to Old People’s Homes, Opens in Paris

Independent communal living? Sounds like our last days could be heaven on earth.

 

Setting the Record Straight on Measuring Fetal Age and the ‘20-Week Abortion’ 

As if abortion restrictions weren’t murky enough, the shifting definition of a fetus’s gestational age makes the new 20-week ban even more confusing. This explainer at The Washington Post helps define the different ways lawmakers and researchers consider viability.

 

I Was a Proud Non-Breeder. Then I Changed My Mind.

Michelle Goldberg was adamant about not wanting children. Until she wasn’t. Her moving essay for The Cut about her change of heart is an important read regardless of which camp you fall into.

 

Teen’s Clever Yearbook Quote Has Won the Internet for 2015

Senior Caitlyn Cannon is killing in the yearbook quote department. And giving us hope for the future.

 

Photo credit: Isak Tiner for the New York Times