Category: General

By Lisa Verberne When Hollywood introduced the Hays Code in 1935, villainy and queerness became closely related in the cultural imagination. The Code consisted of a series of self-imposed regulations that prohibited any positive depictions of homosexuality, for fear that it would ‘corrupt’ their viewers (Kim 2017, 158). Consequently, queercoded characters could only be shown […]

By Lisa International: Around the world, people celebrated and protested during International Women’s Day (March 8th). Israel: During Arab Mother’s Day (March 21st), incarcerated Palestinian mothers protested the conditions in which they are held captive. A highly controversial policy allows Israeli forces to indefinitely imprison people without charges; the policy is mostly used to detain […]

By Lisa Verberne I am only being slightly dramatic when I say that I dread the day my fifteen-year-old Nintendo DS breaks because I know a part of me will die with it. Originally a pristine white, now its colour can only generously be described as grey. Its microphone has been broken for years, there […]

Spain: For the first time in Western Europe, local governments in Gerona, Catalunya, began to provide menstruation leave to employees who were experiencing discomfort during their periods. The new idea was also adopted by other Catalan municipalities. Philippines: A new law bans child marriage which becomes punishable by 12 years of prison. In the Philippines […]

Written by Lisa Verberne In 2020, several transgender and intersex emancipation groups led by a Dutch transgender woman called Willemijn van Kempen, united to seek justice for the people affected by a discriminatory law dubbed the Transgenderwet (Transgender Law). The Transgenderwet described two conditions for transgender and intersex people who wanted to legally change their […]

Poland: The government is planning to install a registration of the pregnancies in the country supposedly to report the number of miscarriages but in reality, it is a big threat to women’s rights because it will enable them to target clandestine abortions. It is a major issue because if clandestine abortions are already very dangerous […]