“It was supposed to be a show to get people talking about teen suicide, bullying, sexual assault and more. It was supposed to open and encourage dialogue between generations and demystify how insidious cyber- and other kinds of bullying can be in the age of social media. ’13 Reasons Why’ had many ambitious goals. Here are 13 reasons why it fails at every single one of them.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, April 2017.
“It’s been almost a year since my ‘coming out’ as a survivor of rape and sexual assault. The changes I’ve experienced have been remarkable.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, April 2017.
“As if taking an ancient Indian spiritual and meditative practice and turning it into a capitalist and exhibitionist project pre-packaged for western consumption isn’t bad enough, the founder of so-called “hot yoga,” Bikram Choudhury, is a serial sexual predator to boot and has finally lost his entire yoga empire — and his fleet of luxury cars — to one of his victims, former legal counsel Minakshi Jafa-Bodden. While Jafa-Bodden’s $6.7 million lawsuit win was announced in January of 2016, the case has continued to be tied up in the courts, where Choudhury’s appeals have been rejected. At last report, Choudhury fled the United States — some say to his native India but these reports are unconfirmed — and his luxury cars are missing.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, Jan 2017.
“A clear demonstration of its ongoing misogyny problem, HBO still caters to that “perv side of the audience,” who the channel believes enjoys the constant and graphic sexual objectification of women. It’s such a shame, because if they really needed this level of full frontal nudity, the network had the perfect opportunity with Westworld to feature both males and females equally, since both males and females equally fell within that android slave narrative. Instead, they chose to toe their misogynistic party line, and focus on objectifying women to the point where it became a disgusting display of pure unadulterated sexism.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, December 2016.
“After the Stanford rape survivor released her powerful and detailed victim impact statement, I was inspired to write my own open letter in which I discussed my experiences with sexual and partner violence. In the months since my “coming out” as a survivor — a decision that I did not make or take lightly — I’ve been actively reflecting on my myriad emotions and identifying distinct stages to the process. As with the five stages of grief, this isn’t a linear evolution; I found myself cycling through some of these stages multiple times before the emotion passed. Here’s what to expect.” For Wear Your Voice Mag, October 2016.
