August 8, 2014: The Shoppes at Rose Hall, Montego Bay, Jamaica I was done. I’d arrived at the gated tourist mini-mall about half an hour earlier, and couldn’t take any more of the servile shopkeepers shilling shelf after shelf of schlocky tchotchke of unrivalled...
Gender Issues
Kazoo Magazine Aims to Encourage Girls in Science
A crowdfunding project has helped launch a new magazine, Kazoo, to empower girls and (in part) help steer them toward STEM careers. Kazoo focuses on girls and women, according to its website: “All of our stories are either developed or inspired by top female artists,...
Catching Up With Itinerant Feminist Organizer Shelby Knox
A decade after meeting sex education activist (and documentary subject) Shelby Knox I interviewed her about her life since the film, feminism, and activism. My new CFI blog is out, you can read it HERE. You can find more on me and my work with a search for...
A Closer Look at Media Diversity: Should TV Reflect Reality?
In my recent CFI blog I examined studies on media representation, especially of minorities. Two recent reports have helped describe and quantify the issue, one from GLAAD (formerly the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), and the other from the USC Annenberg...
I’m Quoted in Smithsonian on… Fashion!
I'm quoted in a piece at Smithsonian.com about fashion, and why buttons are on the left side for women's clothing... You can read it HERE! You can find more on me and my work with a search for "Benjamin Radford" (not "Ben Radford") on Vimeo.
The Toronto Star Lambasted for Anti-Vaccination Article
Last month the respected Toronto Star published a prominent and alarmist piece questioning the safety of the HPV vaccine Gardasil, which can help prevent cancer in girls. It didn't sit well with scientists, as my article for Discovery News notes; you can read it...
Eating Disorder Misinformation in the PBS series ‘Nova’
The respected PBS television series "Nova" has won multiple Peabody and Emmy awards. So how did it manage to so badly bungle an episode on anorexia, spreading myths and misinformation about the dangerous disease? Here's a piece of investigative journalism I did,...
‘Witchcraft’ Used to Fight Sex Trafficking in Africa
My article for Discovery News on how the U.K. is using belief in black magic to stem sex trafficking in Africa is now up! I hope you find it as interesting as I do... It's good to see this sort of bottom-up culture-specific effort to end this scourge. You can read it...
Viral Outrage: Did a School Really Digitally Slim a Girl’s Yearbook Photo?
A viral story about how a high school allegedly used Photoshop to change their students’ yearbook photos to make them thinner started on Reddit earlier this month and has appeared on Gawker, Jezebel, Gizmodo, PerezHilton, and elsewhere. As it turns out, the story...
Into the Woods: Chaos, Folklore, and Misogyny
My new CFI blog on the bizarre, misogynistic mess that is Disney's "Into the Woods." You can read it HERE.