Vanessa Ortiz

Crazy is a word ‘normal’ people throw around when they either don’t understand something, they’re totally disconnected, or wish to absolve themselves of responsibility.More

Women’s broad and persistent participation in the ongoing revolution in Egypt has brought a gruesome new tactic to light—virginity testing. More

Last Friday marked the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. It is easy to be motivated by the idea of a 16 day dedication to combating violence against women, but I float between enthusiasm, doubt, and the occasional eye-roll as I read through some of the websites of major organizations that are promoting the campaign, like Say NO – UniTE, which is led by UN Women.More

This Thursday, the United States and its citizens around the world will celebrate our day of thanks, known as Thanksgiving. The tradition’s origins are often disputed.More

Did I get your attention? While titles that draw attention to women’s physical features may summon most of the male population, a title like, Women, War and Peace was probably written off as a women-only television series.More

Anyone who wants accurate news saturated with humor, irony and “truthiness” tunes in to the Colbert Report each night.More

Bits and pieces of information about the growing uprising in Syria are coming our way through mainstream media sources like Al Jazeera.More

A fascinating yet rarely discussed feature of the DC-based Occupations in Washington, DC is the food tent. Over several evenings last week I talked with the incredibly motivated and dedicated managers/servers at Freedom Plaza.More

Well, the last I’ve checked, they’re pretty much in the front lines of civil resistance struggles in Bahrain and Yemen.More