feminism

Vag Magazine, a new Internet comedy out this week, parodies a group of creative, urban (OK, I'm just going to say it, "hipster") women starting a third-wave feminist magazine. They acquired it after buying out a fictional, and once indomitable, fashion mag with proceeds from their Etsy store. Since we fancy ourselves a feminist publication, I spoke to its creators, comedy writers Leila Cohan-Miccio and Caitlin Tegart, this morning.

The two met at New York's improv theater, Upright Citizen's Brigade. After working together on a sketch comedy about Smith College, they went where all good Smith women go: a feminist magazine.

Read more of what they had to say below.

Cosmo magazine was the guest of honor Monday night when celebrities, the media, and pro-choice people who attend galas gathered to celebrate the pill's 50th birthday. Its magazines covered the walls, and its editor spoke but not before comedienne Samantha Bee took a stab at the old rag. It's the "publisher of all the hard news that other magazines are afraid to touch," she said. "Like, 'The Dumbest Thing You Can Do to Your Boobs.' And 'Are You Enough of a Bad Girl?'"

We've already discussed how Helen Gurley Brown turned Cosmo into feminism for the working girl in the '60s. She advised women to use their looks to get ahead, because that was better than the alternative of depending on men. She had a point, but it's no longer valid.

So what did Cosmo's current editor, Kate White, have to say? Find out below.

I don't know how shopping in pajamas could be such an epidemic that grocery chain Tesco made a policy against it, but it happened. Now the UK activist group Object is fighting back. Not because it supports shopping in PJs, but because it believes it's hypocritical to sell sexed-up magazines, like Maxim, while prohibiting jaunts through produce in fuzzy slippers.

Since March, the group's been staging protests at the store's London locations. Protesters in pajamas dart through aisles and cover up laddy mags with papers that say "Lad mags lie about women." Then to ensure their heard, they start a conga line while chanting "Hey, ho, sexist mags have got to go" until security guards conga them out the door.

I admit, I detested the very idea at first. Public displays of altruism make me uncomfortable. But Object has created meaningful change in the past, making it more difficult for strip clubs to get licenses in England (previously, it was as hard as opening a karaoke bar) and raising awareness about the realities of prostitution.

So what does Object ultimately want? "A society free of sexism," according to its website. It exists to challenge the sex-object culture, and the mainstreaming of porn in men's mags is its ground zero. To see its members in action, see a protest video below.

I cannot figure Don's new secretary Megan out. With her nurturing nature, eager-to-please work ethic, and French extraction method, what is she gunning for? After last night's episode, does she want to be Peggy? Or Betty? Or both?

I love Peggy. She's calculated and weird and you never know what her next move will be. Despite whispers that she climbed her way to copywriter after a roll in Lucky Strike tobacco leaves with Don, it's her talent and tenacity and Don's admiration of it that lifted her from the secretary pool. But hard work and talent wasn't the only way to get a nylon foot in a 1960s door.

Helen Gurley Brown spread the gospel of good looks in the '60s. First in 1962's Sex and the Single Girl and later as editor of Cosmo, she advocated tactics that ranged from flirting to sex. Maybe this is the career advice Megan follows?

Will Peggy have to make room for a new female copywriter, or is Megan just another one of Don's passing dalliances?

Photo courtesy of AMC

"It's a business of sadists and masochists," Miss Blankenship tells Peggy, "and you know which one you are." All the women in last night's episode of Mad Men are a bit of masochists in the context of feminism: they're all unhappy because of choices they made.

Joan chose marriage, which isn't working out as planned; Faye chose her career over marriage and kids, and worries people judge her; and Peggy, who's still making formative choices, chose to channel her creativity into increasing bottom lines. Though, channeling it into art seems a luxury too unrealistic for Peggy to have at this point. Ahead lies Miss Blankenship (spoiler!), face-down dead on the desk after spending her life answering men's phones; behind is Sally Draper, trying to persuade her father to let her move in by caring for him like a wife. All the women except Joyce, Peggy's lesbian friend, are increasingly unhappy with their choices, and the fact they have to choose at all.

Joyce sums up women's auxiliary role in an extended, and confusing, metaphor. Find out what it means below.

On last night's episode of Mad Men, a flashback scene gave us a look at Don's early work, as well as a hint of women's liberation to come. Before moving on to Madison Ave., Don sold furs and made an amateur ad for the shop (starring Betty Draper!) that read: "Why wait for a man to buy you a fur coat?" While Don's copy paid lip service to independent women, the rest of the episode suggested that many men of the time had little desire to abandon sexist attitudes.

Don wins a Clio award for his Glo-Coat ad later in the episode. Although Peggy, our working woman and budding feminist, had a big part in the nominated ad, she doesn't get to attend the awards ceremony. Don isn't capable of recognizing Peggy's work, let alone the women he proceeds to sleep with over the course of the weekend. While Don goes on a bender, Peggy is stuck brainstorming with Rizzo for the Vicks cough drops campaign. Rizzo thinks of himself as liberated, but he's just an old-fashioned male chauvinist. "Are you on the rag?" he snipes at Peggy. And he easily calls her a "smug bitch" for asserting herself.

Second-wave feminism of the 1960s worked to address unofficial inequalities and sexism like we saw last night. To find out more keep reading.

• Nancy Botwin may just be a feminist hero — Double X
• Is he cheating on you financially? — YourTango
• Five celebrity siblings with strange careers — The Frisky
• 10 paper dolls from pop culture — Flavorwire
• Five people you'll meet in a college dorm — College Candy
• Compete with your partner (in a good way) — Glo
• 15 qualities that will impress your boss — SavvySugar