We’ve all had that moment of realization, walking through a lonely parking lot or waiting at a dimly lit subway station at night: “I’m extremely vulnerable right now.”  And while some of us are certified bad-asses, most of us rely on little more than our wits, common sense and perhaps a can of pepper spray.

We want to take advantage of all the conveniences and environmental benefits of public transit, but we often don’t feel safe doing so. What gives? To find out, Planetizen spoke to UCLA’s Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, author of …

Tags: public transit , public transportation , safety , women

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It often feels as if I’m unwittingly caught in a Jane Austen novel when it comes to family wranglings surrounding love and money. In this all too passe yet wrenching scenario, my 81-year-old mother is Lady Allen, the one controlling the purse strings, and I, John Willoughby, a hopeless romantic seeking a kindred spirit but warned since childhood that not to marry well would be to squander my inheritance.

In 1811 Britain, busybody Mrs. Jennings opined Maryann should hook up with the single Colonel …

Tags: culture , environmentalism , feminism , marriage , men , relationships , sex , society , women

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Reasonable people can differ on beauty contests. Like the military, some ardent supporters argue pageants build confidence and open doors for young people. I don’t buy the argument in either case, because of the dangers involved in putting yourself on the line in the name of defense. In the case of the military, it’s to defend our country. In the case of the pageants, it’s the egos of the mothers behind the scenes who are exposing their kids to chemicals and the …

Tags: beauty standards , child abuse , children's rights , entertainment , feminism , Little Miss Perfect , reality show , television , Western beauty , women

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We all continue to be somewhat baffled over how often to get mammograms and whom to trust as the last word on this critical issue for women. Hey, we all want to grow up to be old women, right?

Weeks after the release of the report on new recommendations for mammograms by the 16-member U.S. Preventative Task Force, the firestorm rages on, even splitting parties as Republicans argue that the recommendations could be used to ration healthcare under reform legislation before Congress, a charge Democrats denied.

According to Reuters, Republican Representative …

Tags: ABC News , breast cancer , health , health and women , health costs , Health insurance , health savings , insurance debate , Kaiser Permanente , mammograms , middle age women , prevention , screenings , seniors , treatment , U.S. Preventative Task Force , women , Yale University

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They chow down the same foods we healthy middle-aged women eat: Quinoa, lean proteins, fresh organic produce, water from chic reusable Sigg bottles. They drive hybrids and raise funds for good causes, shun the direct sun, and sometimes even wear secondhand fashion (couture, of course).

But tinsel town celebrities my age, like Demi Moore, who is featured on the cover of W Magazine this month, are not like me or any of my healthy, naturally beautiful women friends. No, unlike …

Tags: age , Daryl Hannah , Demi Moore , diet , exercise , fashion , fitness , health , Hollywood celebs , Kelly Clarkson , Kim Kardashian , Magazines , media , Meg Ryan , Meryl Streep , middle age , natural beauty , photography , photoshopping , plastic surgery , seniors , sun damage , women , youth

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What’s even scarier than the scariest of Halloween costumes? How about the labor abuses suffered by women and children in third world countries?

This year, little Hannah Montanas and Harry Potters can have a treat up their sleeves as they get out the word about beneficial Fair Trade sales to the homes they visit on October 31st.

It’s called Reverse Trick-or-Treating and allows participants in the U.S. and Canada not just to receive candy from neighbors but also distribute Fair Trade certified chocolate donated by companies. The participants are …

Tags: children , Chocolage , fair trade , Halloween , labor , Third World , women

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Imagine a world without women. No, it’s not the tagline for some gloomy successor to Atwood’s feminist dystopia in The Handmaid’s Tale – it’s about us. We live in a world where women are dying, frequently, at ages above and beyond expected natural mortality rates. Women live longer and often healthier lives than men but only in Western societies. Elsewhere, that’s simply not the case. Throughout Asia and North Africa, women are in need of our help.

Indian economist Amartya Sen, writing in The New York Review of Books …

Tags: developing countries , gender discrimination , missing women , mortality rates , women

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Osteoporosis is a big deal for women. But there’s more involved in keeping your bones strong and healthy than just eating plenty of calcium. Weight-bearing activity (exercise on your feet that works your bones and muscles against gravity) is crucial to building and maintaining optimal bone mass. Here’s why:

Bone density refers to your reserve of stored calcium. This is what determines the strength and health of your bones.
Bones are living tissue and need to be used to be strengthened….

Tags: care , fitness , guide , health , personal , wellness , women

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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) does not see fit to extend the same moral courtesy to human animals, specifically the female kind. In the organization’s latest sexist campaign for vegetarianism, an overweight woman in a bikini is faced with the emboldened slogan: “Save the Whales”. Beneath the words runs a helpful tagline: “Lose the blubber: go vegetarian.”

Come on gals, take a joke. What’s a little fat-shaming in pursuit of a good time?

There’s no shortage of adjectives (or profanities) that come to mind to describe such a …

Tags: animal rights , marketing , misogyny , peta , sexism , vegetarianism , women

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