Amy Coney Barrett Shows Once and for All White Women in Power Aren’t Inherently Feminist

With the Senate poised to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett days before Election Day, the future of reproductive health and other issues disproportionately impacting women and LGBTQ folks has become alarmingly uncertain. As if Barrett’s record of devout opposition to abortion and reproductive rights, marriage equality, and other basic human rights weren’t devastating enough, throughout her confirmation hearings, we’ve repeatedly been treated to patronizing assertions that because Barrett is a woman and a mother, her confirmation would somehow be a feminist victory. Ultimately, treatment of Barrett reflects a broader trend of oversimplifying the politics of powerful women across the ideological spectrum on the basis of their gender.

From the start of the hearings, conservatives — and even Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee — have showered praises on Barrett for her sizeable, interracial family. Barrett’s supporters have deflected from criticisms of her harmful impact on women by pointing to her womanhood and motherhood, and even deflected from criticisms of the racist impacts of her stances by pointing to her adopted Black children. Of course, the suggestion that white people’s proximity to people of color make it impossible for them to perpetuate racism reduces people of color to tokens, and framing Barrett as a feminist entirely undermines what feminism really is — a political ideology that calls for equity and justice for those who are victimized by the same white supremacist patriarchy that Barrett works to uphold.

Barrett’s record includes signing onto a letter in support of overturning Roe v. Wade, serving as a trustee on a radically anti-LGBTQ Christian private school, and even voting against a district court ruling that found a Wisconsin county “liable for millions in damages to a woman who alleged she had been repeatedly raped by a jail guard.” Her views and decisions on policing pregnant people’s bodies, dehumanizing LGBTQ folks, and justice for victims of sexual abuse are all connected, and all reflect her opposition to bodily autonomy for people without power, privilege, and whiteness.

Conservatives glorify and frame Barrett’s status as a traditionally successful woman in the male-dominated legal field, all while being a mother of seven, as the epitome of feminism. But this narrative rings desperately hollow when Barrett’s record shows she would deny others — especially women, parents and LGBTQ folks of color — access to the same rights and resources that allowed for her success, and allowed for her to create a family on her own terms.

Women in politics can often either face scrutiny for not being “real” progressives by relying on what some on both the left and right call “identity politics,” and speaking about their lived experience. They’re scrutinized as if straight, white men don’t rely on the politics of whiteness, maleness, and heteronormativity, and as if lived experience doesn’t guide crucial policies on reproductive health, civil rights, economic justice and more. But in other cases, women who support inhumane, harmful policies can weaponize their gender to divert attention from their stances, and harm those with less power while facing no accountability.

Senator Feinstein’s expressed support for Barrett last week seemed to shock many people, but it shouldn’t have. Powerful white women supporting powerful white women at the expense of people with less privilege should surprise no one — we’ve seen it throughout history, from the white supremacist roots of suffrage, to white women at the helm of eugenics efforts. In expecting Feinstein to act and advocate in a feminist way because of her gender, we rely on the false notion that women having power is inherently feminism, and womanhood is a political ideology rather than a wide-ranging identity. Feinstein and Barrett both show us how devastating women having power can be for other women, and changing the identities of the oppressors doesn’t change who the victims are or negate the oppression.

But it’s not just Feinstein and Barrett. We owe it to women and people who lack power and privilege to critique and hold everyone accountable — including even progressive women in power. The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg offers a key example of this, as her legacy continues to spark passionate debate about whether she was a trailblazer for gender equality, or an imperialist who supported oil pipelines and Indigenous land theft. She reminds us women in politics and positions of power are just as complex and capable of both progress and harm as men.

It’s also crucially important to consider Barrett’s whiteness, and how it lends to perceptions of her life and her family as empowering. Barrett’s motherhood is celebrated in the same breath that we shame and police women of color, and especially Black and Brown women, for the families they build. The people who celebrate Barrett’s big family are often the same people who actively work to deny public assistance, health care, maternal care, child care, and other essential resources to help women of color parent and raise families. They’re the same people who support welfare caps that punish poor people of color for having bigger families like Barrett’s, and they’re the same people who perpetuate racist stereotypes of Black and Brown mothers as “welfare queens,” or castigate immigrant families for having “anchor babies.” Barrett’s motherhood and family aren’t a feminist aspirational tale — they’re a reflection of white supremacy in our politics and culture.

By holding stances that would deny women and pregnant-capable people abortion care, contraception, IVF, and other essential sexual and reproductive care, Barrett denies people without her privilege the power to choose parenthood on their own terms, and upholds white supremacist, patriarchal barriers that also prevent them from achieving traditional success. And even if Barrett hadn’t signed on to a letter blatantly calling for the end of legal abortion, her demonstrated hostility to abortion rights would be enough to uphold myriad state and federal restrictions that already make reproductive care wildly difficult to access for poor people and people of color, even with legal abortion in place.

Barrett is supposedly the right fit to replace Ginsburg, who was a pioneering champion for gender equality throughout her life, because she’s a woman, per conservative thinking. But contrary to Republican T-shirts and merch, Barrett isn’t the “Notorious ACB” just because Ginsburg, a woman, was the “Notorious RBG.” Women aren’t interchangeable and carry a wide range of ideologies and experiences.

Ultimately, feminism isn’t Barrett becoming the fifth woman to join the Supreme Court bench, or Barrett capitalizing on white privilege and economic privilege to be a working mother of seven, or Feinstein being one of the most powerful Democrats in the Senate. Feminism calls for dignity and justice for women and people with the least resources, who have the most to lose from people like Feinstein and Barrett having power — and it calls for us to hold all women in power to account.

Absolutely Not: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies at 87

Three years ago Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a surprise special guest at Rosh Hashannah services at Temple Emanu-El in Washington D.C.. She did a short set, speaking specifically to the many ways her work in the courts had been guided by her Jewish values and experiences. “If you are a member of a minority group, particularly a minority group that has been picked on, you have empathy for others who are similarly situated,” she told congregants. “The Jewish religion is an ethical religion. That is, we are taught to do right, to love mercy, do justice, not because there’s gonna be any reward in heaven or punishment in hell. We live righteously because that’s how people should live and not anticipating any award in the hereafter.”

This Rosh Hashannah, at the age of 87, Ginsburg left us for whatever the hereafter turns out to be and if it does turn out that they’re giving out awards there, I think she’ll snag whatever the biggest award is there. The Nobel Peace Prize of the afterlife.

This Rosh Hashannah, in the year 2020, we texted our friends and family Shana Tova! (meaning “Happy New Year” in Hebrew), which felt a bit performative considering the realistic prognosis for this upcoming year, and then 20 minutes later we texted those same friends and famiy: fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.

Today we mourn the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and we take stock of our fear around what her death means for the future of the Supreme Court. We are holding both of those feelings at once, somehow slippery and sticky at the same time.

We are honoring her legacy, noting her influence, celebrating her achievements. Ginsburg was born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York; studied at Cornell and Harvard and graduated at the top of her class from Columbia Law School. 33 years after her application to be a Supreme Court Clerk was rejected “on the basis of sex,” she became the second-ever woman justice to join the U.S. Supreme Court, appointed by President Bill Clinton. Her record of achievements is extensive and well-known. Her passionate dissents are legendary. She paved the way for gender justice and equality through her example and also through her unquantifiable influential work. She was a champion for LGBTQ equality, joining majority opinion on landmark cases including Romer v. Evans in 1996, Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, Windsor v. U.S. in 2013 and Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015. She was the first Supreme Court justice to conduct a same-sex wedding.

She was a mother, a grandmother, a friend. Her husband, lawyer and professor Martin David Ginsburg, died in 2010. Her daughter Jane is an attorney. Her son James is a music producer.

She was one of the most consequential human beings to ever set their feet upon this wretched planet and she fought so hard to stay alive to protect the work that has protected so many of us. Barack Obama wrote a brief tribute to Ginsburg on medium, ending with his recollection of the Republicans blocking the appointment of his nominee, Merrick Garland, inventing the principle that an open seat on the Supreme Court shouldn’t be filled prior to the swearing in of a new President. “A basic principle of the law — and of everyday fairness — is that we apply rules with consistency, and not based on what’s convenient or advantageous in the moment,” he added.

A few days before her death, she dictated her last words to her granddaughter: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new President is installed.” On Rosh Hashannah, you tell God that it’d be great if it could be His Will for this to be “a good and sweet year for us.” I think in most respects, the “good and sweet year” train has already left the station, but I do hope that this one woman’s wish comes true. She did all of the things, after all. She did right, she loved mercy, she did justice. She lived, righteously.

Rebel Girls: The True Stories of 10 Women Breaking Barriers in Contemporary American Politics

Header by Rory Midhani

I’ve spent the last few months talking to y’all about women in politics because it seems pivotal, at this precise moment in history, to examine how gender influences our political system and how women fighting to be represented within it are changing it forever. By now, you hopefully understand the ways in which sexism defines the political lives of women, how women’s leadership transforms politics, how women transform elections, and why Donald Trump is the antithesis of everything good in this world.

I’m not done exploring the intersections of political work and womanhood. But I’d like to take a step back this week and let some of the women who have straddled that line tell their own stories. That’s why I’m here to showcase, for you, ten of the American women who fundamentally altered history simply by showing up and working like hell – from Hillary Clinton herself to America’s women Supreme Court Justices and all the way through the lives of the women who serve and have served in Congress – in their own words.

Renegade for Peace and Justice: Congresswoman Barbara Lee Speaks for Me

Barbara Lee is a feminist powerhouse, and her story is powerful, too: A woman of color growing up in Texas finds the Black Panther Party and eventually lands herself in Congress, where she has been a relentless advocate for people of color and women and girls. Talking bluntly about the issues is Barbara’s bread and butter, and in the latest edition of her memoir includes an assesment of what’s ahead in the contemporary political landscape and how far we’ve all come in American politics since she started out.

Open Wide The Freedom Gates: A Memoir

By the time Dorothy Height arrived in Congress, she had seen and done what one could only refer to as “it all.” A civil rights veteran, she recalls in this memoir how she charted a course from the Harlem Renaissance and MLK’s March on Washington to becoming a political powerhouse standing, often alone, in her fight for racial and gender justice on the Hill.

Then Comes Marriage: United States V. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA

In which Roberta Kaplan, the litigator who brought down DOMA, tells the story of how she and Edith Windsor let a spirited battle for gay marriage that will surely one day be remembered as a sea change moment in the lives of gay and bisexual people across the country under the law.

Fire in My Soul: The Life of Eleanor Holmes Norton

The politics of Washington, DC are intense and full of fire – and only someone hailing from the district truly knows it. In my years there, I learned not only how government functions on the national level, but also how local politics leave DC’s residents unrepresented. DC is not a state. We lack the power to authoritatively make our own laws, and we’re subject to the whims of congress. And our one member of Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, is a feisty firecracker who fights like hell – even though she doesn’t even hold voting power. She’s got an activist spirit, a strong inner sense of her own power, and a drive that’s made her a mainstay in the gritty, fast-paced world of DC politics. And she’s not done fighting yet. Read at your own risk of incredible inspiration.

Hard Choices

Hard Choices is not an easy read. I mean, Hillary Clinton has literally written the book on foreign policy. It’s a complex, wonky tome detailing the minutia of Hillary Clinton’s work as Secretary of State during Obama’s first term, in which she made women’s rights a priority of U.S. foreign policy that will remain one of her most powerful legacies. It’s an insider’s look at how foreign policy can be a tool for change, as well as the complicated discussions that make the matters of that type impossible to simplify into “right” and “wrong.” What Hillary did in the State Department was work tirelessly in an attempt to make America’s image abroad — and the policies it implemented around the world — better. That’s not an easy task, but for someone as driven as she is, it’s a possible one. I’m still working on finishing this book, which comes in at 500+ pages in hardcover, but so far my favorite part is watching Hillary’s relationship with Barack Obama — a former rival — unfold across continents and the four years she spent taking the lead on his vision for America and the world.

Also, Living History was amazing. Like, if you’ve never read it, read it first. If you’ve never read it, read it now.

Madam Secretary: A Memoir

Before Hillary, before Condoleezza Rice, there was Madeleine Albright: The first-ever female Secretary of State, and a figurehead in the movement for women’s full political and social equality. Albright served two terms in Bill Clinton’s administration, and recounts the details in this memoir that carries us through some high-stakes political drama as well as the events in Albright’s own life that shaped her career and her methodology for approaching issues of foreign policy.

Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters

Nancy Pelosi wasn’t just the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House. She was also one of the most successful Speakers in history, certainly outshining the uncool Republican dudes who would follow her tenure and proceed to destroy our once-functioning government in the course of only a few years. And I can tell you, from personal experience, that she wears some seriously awesome suits over there on the Hill, where she’s going strong in the fight for a more progressive, inclusive America that lifts up every man, woman, child, and family unit in its borders. In this book, she calls on all of the women just like her — American women of all stripes — to rise up and fight like hell, with her guidance and inspiration lighting the way. I am also partial to including this book because I want to let you know that a letter personally addressed to me and signed by Nancy hangs over my desk. That is all. I have peaked and it’s all downhill from here.

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I mean, duh. Truth Time: I was supposed to get a review copy of this book, never did, and am still suffering from how aloof and lost in the world I feel without it. There is no doubt in my mind that this is one of the best political biographies of our time, and I don’t want anyone to go through my own pain. Buy it immediately, read it voraciously, and come out of the experience ready to do as I do daily and worship at the font of Ruth.

My Beloved World

The third woman and first Latina to grace the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor’s appointment as Justice of the nation’s highest court was historic and incredibly important. In her memoir, she recounts how she rose to power out of poverty, overcame hardship on the way to making history, and fought like hell to make it to where she is.

Forgetting to Be Afraid: A Memoir

Wendy Davis inspired us all in 2013 when she stood tall — quite literally — for abortion rights in Texas by way of a 13-hour filibuster of HB2, the bill that became law and then put Texas women in immediate crisis. Afterward, Davis went on to run for Governor in one of the only recent elections in which a Democrat had a fighting chance of moving in to the Governor’s Mansion in the Lone Star State, and although she lost it’s undeniable that she will bring her hard work and impassioned fighting spirit to many political battles in her future. From her time as daughter to a single mom to her own experience as a poor teenage mother herself, and through the halls of city councils and the Texas state Senate, Davis takes us on a wild and courageous ride through politics and self-empowerment in this book, one in which she comes out even stronger on the other side.

Rebel Girls is a column about women’s studies, the feminist movement, and the historical intersections of both of them. It’s kind of like taking a class, but better – because you don’t have to wear pants. To contact your professor privately, email carmen at autostraddle dot com. Ask questions about the lesson in the comments!

What if Sunday Funday Was Your Girlfriend? Dee Rees, Natalie Portman, and Carrie Brownstein Could Obvs Come Over And Play.

I’m officially no longer a Sunday Funday virgin, y’all. And I’m like so excited to share this monumental occasion with each and every one of you. I wish actually losing my virginity had been this exciting. Also, it’s Mother’s Day so if you like your mom(s) and are still able to call her or go see her or something, maybe go do that now. You can always come back later. Hope you don’t mind if I help myself to what’s in your fridge and hey, do you have twenty bucks for a cab?

Acclaimed Fictional Ballet Dancer & Rapper, Natalie Portman Set to Star as Ruth Bader Ginsberg in Upcoming Biopic

Maybe I’m the only one who remembers that time Natalie Portman rapped on SNL. I don’t think I am though. Anyway, yo, she’s going to play the Notorious RBG and we’re all gonna watch it. Maybe she’ll lay down Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s Ten Supreme Court Justice Commandments for the soundtrack.

image via vulture

Oh Come All Ye Faithful To Gay Religious Things

Daughter of Raúl Castro, Mariela Castro, sponsored a blessings ceremony for gay couples in Cuba on Saturday. Gay marriage is still illegal in Cuba but the ceremony represents shifting attitudes towards LGBTQ folks and Mariela Castro’s commitment to the community. PS- Dozens of homolicious couples held hands and wept while being blessed by various Catholic and Pentecostal Clergy folks.

The Archbishop of Westminster is set to say holy words and give love to the LGBTQ community at mass today at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. So like if that’s something you’re into, go get you’re church on.

Shonda Rhimes and Dee Rees Team Up As World’s Greatest Storytelling Duo

Shonda Rhimes is basically the goddess of mainstream television. See Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder – ICYDK. And Dee Rees wrote and directed one of the greatest girl-on-girl films of all time, Pariah. Together, they’re bringing Isabel Wilkerson’s book The Warmth of Other Suns to FX.

The book chronicles the movement of some 6 million African-Americans from the south into the north and western regions of the country from the period of 1915 to 1970. “Warmth of Other Suns” tells much of the story through the eyes of three characters who made the journey in different decades. Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize winner for her work at the New York Times, earned a host of critical kudos for the book.

image via thehollywoodreporter

But Like For Real Tho, What If Carrie Brownstein Was Your Girlfriend?

I’m like the worst 30something queer on the planet cuz I was like wait, who’s Carrie Brownstein? Feel free to throw Sleater Kinney cds at my head – thank you, Wikipedia. Anyway, Lindsay King-Miller over at the Toast wrote an entire thing dedicated to this v important what if.

If Carrie Brownstein were your girlfriend, your cats wouldn’t just love her, they’d love each other. They’d curl up between you and Carrie Brownstein in bed, no hissing or posturing, just warmth and softness. They’d constantly be head-butting each other out of the way in order to snuggle with her, but they’d never come to blows about it. Somehow she would never get cat hair on her clothes.

Macedonian Protestor Serves Hard Femme Realness Against Police Brutality

The badass woman alert twitter handle posted this last night and I’m so for it. Protests started in Macedonia on Tuesday due to long-stemming tension with the government over police cover-ups of killing a student in 2011 and violations of human rights.

Wentworth Crushes Competition At Australian Logie Awards

Wentworth is the Australian version of OITNB but with more fight scenes and less sing-a-longs. I’m obsessed with Bea Smith’s new undercut and the actress who plays her, Danielle Cormack, won a Logie Award. Wentworth as a whole also won for Outstanding Drama, so yeah! Also, hey Australia, why are your words so weird?

Gay Acrobats Get Engaged On Italian TV

Two members of Les Farfadais, an acrobatics troupe, got all sorts of gay-engaged in front of everyone watching Italia’s Got Talent while wearing the best silver outfits on the planet. And no, same-sex marriage isn’t legal in Italy but maybe these two adorable gayze can bend some political/religious hearts.

Danielle Brooks of OITNB Shares Mad Personal Stuff & Implores Young Girls To Love Themselves

And then I fell in love with her all over again. In an essay for Glamour magazine, Brooks shares some deep and dark stuff about her adolescence, including thoughts of suicide and body-hate, and how she overcame it all. She ends the essay with a promise to speak up for little girls who may be bullied or shamed and shares how her body is a source of joy.

I’m making a promise to speak out for that little girl that I used to be. I might not have the power to change what media puts out there, or to single-handedly convince young girls like me that they should love themselves. But what I can do is start with me: living each day, embracing who I am. Embracing who I am by refusing to hide my legs or or cover my arms because they make someone else feel uncomfortable. By realizing that every stretch mark on my body is kissed by the sun, and no longer wishing them away. By no longer operating out of a place of fear. So if you see me on a carpet with my arms and legs out glistening, or my midriff exposed, it’s a reminder to myself and the world that I know I’m beautiful.

Mother’s Day Brunch As An Act Of Feminism

Did you know that once upon a time women eating out in public without men was illegal? And when it was legal, people still thought you were a big old trollop if you did it? I didn’t but NPR put out this piece for Momma’s Day that connects brunch to revolutionary acts of feminism. You should read it.

image via shutterbean

We End With The World’s Cutest Child

According to me and everyone who’s ever watched this video, like this is what your Mom, Dad, parent, sig other, favorite teacher and first cat, see when they look at your beautiful face.

25 Women Who Shook Things Up in 2014

Women. They’re so great! They do so many fucking awesome things! And so often, end-of-the-year recap lists will gloss over their accomplishments or contributions. I say f*ck that, real hard. So here’s my own list of 25 women who shook things up in 2014 – be it in politics, pop culture, or our hearts. (In alphabetical order, because ranking women is tired.)

Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi

When Twitter exploded with dialogues about racism, police brutality, and the widespread killing of unarmed black men by law enforcement officers, they were united by one trending topic: the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, which has become its own movement and a catch-all for organizing around these issues and posting updates on similar stories from around the world. It’s also a call to action, a defiant spit in the face to a culture that devalues the lives of people of color, and a rallying cry.

And it was invented by three black queer women.

Garza told the story of how she and her sisters, Cullors and Tometi, came together to launch the digital revolution (and now, an offline organizing structure) after the death of Trayvon Martin – and how, since its remergence after the death of Mike Brown, it has been stolen and co-opted, at the Feminist Wire:

Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise.  It is an affirmation of Black folks’ contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.

We were humbled when cultural workers, artists, designers and techies offered their labor and love to expand #BlackLivesMatter beyond a social media hashtag. Opal, Patrisse, and I created the infrastructure for this movement project—moving the hashtag from social media to the streets. Our team grew through a very successful Black Lives Matter ride, led and designed by Patrisse Cullors and Darnell L. Moore, organized to support the movement that is growing in St. Louis, MO, after 18-year old Mike Brown was killed at the hands of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. We’ve hosted national conference calls focused on issues of critical importance to Black people working hard for the liberation of our people.  We’ve connected people across the country working to end the various forms of injustice impacting our people.  We’ve created space for the celebration and humanization of Black lives.

Beyoncé

Another year, another surprise album, another round of empowering feminist antics, another year I’m addicted to listening to “Drunk in Love.” Here’s to a brighter and more Bey-filled future. Also, remember when she made us queer couples some matching underthings?

Cheryl Strayed

When Wild became a movie and the “Dear Sugar” column got a podcast this year, everyone’s life and ability to be deeply moved or feel less alone in the world grew exponentially. Also, Cheryl Strayed shared Riese’s deeply moving essay about her dead dad on Facebook this year and pretty much everyone on the team exploded. I’m pouring one out for Cheryl Strayed at midnight for breaking the trope of only men taking journeys in literature, being played by Reese Witherspoon, and also being generally amazing. Join me.

Elizabeth Warren

Senator Elizabeth Warren has never been one to back down. In A Fighting Chance, her book released this year, she told a story about a meeting she had with President Obama’s Chief Economic Advisor, Larry Summers, in 2009. Warren had come out swinging, as she is known to do, against the government’s response to the economic crisis. And, as she often finds herself, she spoke to him when she was in conflict with her own party.

So Larry warned her to stop.

Larry leaned back in his chair and offered me some advice. … He teed it up this way: I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People — powerful people — listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule. They don’t criticize other insiders.

I had been warned.

Warren has never backed down, and she’s become known as a populist hero for decrying policies from both sides of the aisle that attack the middle and lower classes in America. Recently, she gained even more notoriety for a pointed speech on the floor condemning the now-passed spending bill package, in which Wall Street got first priority and women’s rights and human rights got the shaft:

“Mr. President, Democrats don’t like Wall Street bailouts,” Warren said. “Republicans don’t like Wall Street bailouts. The American people are disgusted by Wall Street bailouts. And yet here we are five years after Dodd-Frank with Congress on the verge of ramming through a provision that would do nothing for the middle class, do nothing for community banks, do nothing but raise the risk that taxpayers will have to bail out the biggest banks once again…

“You know, there is a lot of talk lately about how Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. There is a lot of talk coming from CitiGroup about how Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect,” Warren continued. “So let me say this to anyone listening at Citi —I agree with you. Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect. It should have broken you into pieces. If this Congress is going to open up Dodd-Frank in the months ahead then let’s open it up to get tougher, not to create more bailout opportunities.”

Ellen Page

It was the coming out heard ’round the world, and especially around the Internet. It was also the moment where all of our dirtiest dreams became a little more possible. For that, Ellen Page deserves everything.

Emma Sulkowicz

The movement to end campus sexual assault has been gaining momentum for years, but no act of resistance against institutions of higher education that fail survivors captured America’s interest quite like “Carry That Weight,” Columbia University art student and survivor Emma Sulkowicz’s performance piece. As part of her final project in the program, Sulcowicz carried a mattress everywhere she went on campus in order to raise awareness and provoke dialogue around the 1 in 5 women there and at colleges around the nation who will survive sexual assault or rape while they’re pursuing higher education.

The piece ultimately launched a national day of action in which activists around the country carried mattresses or pillowcases to school, work, or the local coffee shop with them emblazoned with messages of support for survivors.

Erica Garner, Lesley McSpadden, Maria Hamilton, Samaria Rice, Sylvia Palmer, et al.

The women who now live without their fathers and sons due to police brutality have banded together across the nation to launch a movement for justice. And together, they are unstoppable.

Lesley McSpadden, mother to unarmed black teen Mike Brown from Ferguson, Missouri, has been supportive of protests nationwide in her son’s name and is pushing for the Mike Brown Law, which would mandate that all police wear body cameras in the United States. Maria Hamilton, whose son Dontre Hamilton was gunned down by a now-fired Chicago police officer while running away in fear, has not stopped fighting for justice for him and all victims of a racist and violent police state. Sylvia Palmer, mother to Akai Gurley – who was shot on sight by a patrolling officer in his public housing unit while walking up the stairs – has voiced support for activists on the ground while pushing for better leadership in the movement to end lethal police force and racist policing. Erica Garner, whose father Eric Garner was killed by police in Staten Island after being held in an illegal chokehold (despite repeating, multiple times, that he couldn’t breathe), has consistently participated in die-ins and marches in the area, sometimes even lying in the spot on the sidewalk where her father died. Samaria Rice, mother to the 12-year old boy, Tamir Rice, who was shot within seconds by Cleveland police for wielding a toy gun at a park, joined the families of Garner, Brown, Trayvon Martin, and John Crawford III in Washington, DC to demand federal action to end excessive force in policing and its disproportionate impact on the black community.

Since Mike Brown’s death, one black person has been murdered by police every single week. That’s why the fight isn’t over, and it’s why these women aren’t backing down.

Issa Rae

Remember that time one spectacular human being launched ColorCreative.TV and gave Brittani Nichols a platform to do her thing and turn former Autostraddle webseries “Words With Girls” into a bonafide show on the small screen? Yeah, that was Issa Rae of “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl” and that sh*t all went down this year. Did you watch the WWG trailer yet, PS? Do it before midnight and you won’t turn into a pumpkin!

Janet Mock

Janet Mock truly outdid herself this year. In between publishing Redefining Realness and launching its corresponding social media movement, taking number-one douchebag Piers Morgan to hell and back, and redefining trans activism through only sheer glamour, she landed herself on the Root 100 and the Trans 100, asked us what it’s like to be cis, and encouraged our love for the words of women of color. Also, she spoke words to us right here on Autostraddle dot com in January! Basically, she’s everything and I’m completely okay with it.

Jacqueline Woodson

Author Jacqueline Woodson should have spent her night at the National Book Awards this November celebrating her victory in the Young People’s Literature category for her book Brown Girl Dreaming. Instead, total prick Lemony Snicket made a racist watermelon joke about her on stage and basically made everyone there uncomfortable and highly aware of what a series of unfortunate events actually looks like.

Luckily, she took him down. And with her words, no less:

I would have written “Brown Girl Dreaming” if no one had ever wanted to buy it, if it went nowhere but inside a desk drawer that my own children pulled out one day to find a tool for survival, a symbol of how strong we are and how much we’ve come through. Their great-great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War. Their great-grandfather, Hope, and great-grandmother, Grace, raised one of the few black families in Nelsonville, Ohio, and saw five children through college. Their grandmother’s school in Greenville, Sterling High, was set on fire and burned to the ground.

To know that we African-Americans came here enslaved to work until we died but didn’t die, and instead grew up to become doctors and teachers, architects and presidents — how can these children not carry this history with them for those many moments when someone will attempt to make light of it, or want them to forget the depth and amazingness of their journey?

How could I come from such a past and not know that I am on a mission, too?

This mission is what’s been passed down to me — to write stories that have been historically absent in this country’s body of literature, to create mirrors for the people who so rarely see themselves inside contemporary fiction, and windows for those who think we are no more than the stereotypes they’re so afraid of. To give young people — and all people — a sense of this country’s brilliant and brutal history, so that no one ever thinks they can walk onto a stage one evening and laugh at another’s too often painful past.

Jessica Williams

It was a really important year for conversations around street harassment – specifically, about racism in the movement to end catcalling and about ending a culture in which women and queer people are inundated with invasive and unwelcome accostment on the street every day. But one conversation nobody needs to have or really listen to or even acknowledge exists is the one in which men try as hard as their feeble minds will let them to justify a society in which women’s bodies are objects apparently put here for them to yell creepy and gross things at without our permission! Luckily, Jessica Williams from The Daily Show swooped in and shut that entire motherfucking mess down. Boom. Clap. The sound of patriarchy slowly, slowly dying.

Jill Soloway

Jill Soloway produced this show “Transparent” about a trans woman and her family that had hella queer characters, has a badass trans lady writer in the staff room, and motivated Rachel to recap something for this website. ‘Nuff said.

Kate McKinnon

We’ve loved super-funny and super-gay comedian Kate McKinnon here at Autostraddle for a long, long time – so imagine our excitement when she nabbed an American Comedy Award and appeared in totally great totally not-about-a-dude movie Life Partners this year! Plus, she earned an Emmy nod for her amazing work over the last few years on “Saturday Night Live,” which might give me a reason to start watching it again. All in all, it sounds like it’s been McKinnon’s year to shine on.

Kristin Russo and Dannielle Owens-Reid

First came the book that Maddie read with her amazing family members (This Is A Book for Parents of Gay Kids), then came the hilarious video tour and also the videos for those parents, then came the collaborative ‘zine project with this great place called Autostraddle that, rumors have it, is also a unicorn factory. One thing is for sure: Kristin Russo and Dannielle Owens-Reid of Everyone Is Gay put a lot of amazing shit into the world this year, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Laura Jane Grace

When Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace came out in 2012 as transgender, we were excited to see where it took her career and the punk band so close to our angsty hearts. As it turns out, there was nowhere to go for the rock-n-roll icon than up. This year, Against Me’s new album debuted higher on the Billboard charts than any of their previous work, and Grace also filmed a reality show for AOL. The good news out of 2014 is that we’re gonna be seeing a lot of Laura Jane Grace for years to come, and that can never be a bad thing.

Laverne Cox

In 2014, Laverne Cox got a book deal, deeply moved us when it came to the topic of the revolutionary act of loving trans women, won a GLAAD award, landed the cover of TIME and also the cover of The Advocate, became the first-ever trans Emmy Award nominee, taught Katie Couric a thing or two, and used her power for good to shine the light on trans youth.

I’m guessing the reason Beyoncé gave Cox a Christmas gift is because she realized exactly which girl is truly running the world.

May-Britt Moser

Remember that time May-Britt Moser, psychologist and neuroscientist, won the Nobel Prize for figuring out the cells that make up the brain’s positioning system? I’m worried not enough of us do.

Mo’ne Davis

Mere teenager Mo’ne Davis, who was the first girl to throw a shutout in Little League World Series history and the first little league player on the cover of Sports Illustrated, also became the AP’s 2014 Athlete of the Year this month. This alone might motivate me to begin watching young people play games without the motivation of monetary gain.

Nicki Minaj

I know y’all knew this was coming. I mean, remember when Nicki Minaj taught us everything we needed to know about female sexuality and empowerment and also gave us a reason to listen to that great song about loving big butts and not being able to lie about? And remember when she released “The Pinkprint,” an introspective and multifaceted album that melts genres and also your heart? I will never forget. I will always remember. 2014 is the year Nicki Minaj came back bigger, better, and more bootylicious than ever. Let’s hope she gets a Grammy or two to prove it.

Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay released two completely delicious and amazing reads this year, told Autostraddle some of her queer story, and became the butter to your toast. What more could we, as the collective world, ask for?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I’m of the opinion that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – known more formally as “The Notorious RBG” – shakes up everything every year. But this year, she took on voter suppression, contraception access, and more, all with her usual flair and also her usual absolute perfection in every way. Then, she announced she was pretty much never throwing in her robe. For that, she wins the year once again.

Shonda Rhimes

Shonda Rhimes gave us an amazing gift this year with the release of “How to Get Away With Murder,” a totally and unapologetically homosexy drama that pairs well with her first totally amazing drama, “Scandal.” Afterward, she gave us this forever powerful and incomparably on-point series of thoughts on the glass ceiling:

“Do they know I haven’t broken through any glass ceilings,” I asked my publicist. He assures me that I have. I assure him that I have not. I have not broken through any glass ceilings. If I had broken through any glass ceilings, I would know. If I had broken through a glass ceiling, I would have felt some cuts, I would have some bruises, there’d be shards of glass in my hair… If I’d broken the glass ceiling, that would mean I made it through to the other side, where the air is rare. I would feel the wind on my face.

Sleater-Kinney

I don’t think I need to explain how a band that probably made a really big impact on your younger, queer riot grrl self reuniting (and it feels so good) made 2014 kick ass. But in case you needed a reminder, THE SLEATER-KINNEY INDEFINITE HIATUS IS OFFICIALLY OVER. Put a bird on that and tweet it, bitches.

St. Vincent

There’s not much more to say here.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

Artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh’s response to street harassment – posters telling folks to “stop asking women to smile” and reminding them that, like, women are people, too – was perfect from the start late in 2013, but this year it made waves within the feminist community as it spread across the Internet and tattooed itself on our hearts and souls. In the midst of dialogue about women of color and street a harassment, a woman of color stood up and fought street harassment in quite possibly my favorite way ever. For that, I am eternally grateful, and I believe you probably are, too.

Team Pick: A Tumblr Which Brings Sanity to the Internet Like Ginsburg to the SCOTUS

Carmen’s Team Pick:

For the past two weeks, my desire to finally achieve adulthood and get my shit together has been tested in a series of Olympic-like races against the clock to get to work in time for the Supreme Court rulings on everything from the Voting Rights Act to affirmative action; for the past two weeks I then spent the remainder of each work day in deep mourning for our country’s ideals of Making Sense and Not Being Total Fuckers.

I printed each decision to acquaint myself with the law and create a barrier between my head and the desk I was repeatedly banging it on; among the voices in each, whispering not-so-quietly from the back and typically under a small header reading “dissent,” was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, ready to affirm my belief in humanity and make me cry a single tear for feminism, rational thought, and general badassery. I wasn’t alone in needing Ginsburg’s wisdom to carry me through the day.

And thus, enter Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s final steps into Internet fame: The Notorious RBG. She deserves it.

The Notorious RBG is a new Tumblr dedicated to promoting the life and work of the Supreme Court’s second female justice of all time. Her appointment came at the tail-end of Sandra Day O’Connor’s often interactive legal presentation called Women Can Do This, Too, which ended in 2006. Ginsburg is joined now by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, but was the only woman in the court for over three years.

The Notorious RBG tumblr gives Ginsburg her due Idol Worship for holding up the fort of sanity in the SCOTUS. It’s a trove of videos, images, memes, and quotes from The One And Only Chief Justice of My Heart right there on the Internet ready and willing to be “liked.” IT’S LIKE A DREAM WORLD.

People ask me, “If you could be whatever you wanted to be, what would you be?” My first answer is not “a great lawyer.” It is, “I would be a great diva.” But I totally lacked that talent, so the next best thing is the law.

— Radio interview, New York Public Radio station WQXR’s “Operavore” program (Feb. 2, 2013) (In Italian, a diva is a celebrated opera singer.)

In case you didn’t know already from that time in 2009, Ginsburg likes to speak sharply about human rights and the law, often employing devices of humor in her written and oral arguments that make people with brains large enough to comprehend the basic equality of all people smile out of the corner of their mouths.

You are really diminishing what the state has said is marriage … There’s two kinds of marriage, there’s full marriage and then there’s sort of skim milk marriage.

— Oral Argument, United States v. Windsor (2013)

Ginsburg also often speaks out about her gender and feminist values at large when she appears on television or whatever (she’s sort of a big deal). This is a space where those appearances and the amazing observations she makes about women during them can be memorialized forever. As GIFs, nonetheless.

What I’m really saying is, you need this Tumblr. In your dashboard, probably, but mostly as a part of your daily balanced Internet consumption. Maybe you can read it in the morning with a tear in your eye, remembering last time Ginsburg spoke your life in a crowd of zillions of white dudes. Or maybe you want to read it at night by candlelight while compiling your next zine, “Ruth’s Truths.”

Either way you should read it.

Like now.

And maybe buy one of the shirts.