Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash In May of 2023, Gender Gazette didn’t begin as a grand vision or a long-term plan. It started as a class assignment. I was taking a Public Relations writing course and was asked to create two blog mockups: one informational and factual, and one rooted in opinion, creativity, and...
Category: Features
Men, Flowers, and the Quiet Violence of Patriarchal Gender Norms
Photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash For many men, the first time they receive flowers is at their own funeral. This oft-repeated phrase isn’t just poetic — it’s sociologically revealing. It exposes how deeply patriarchy polices emotional expression, beauty, care, and softness as feminine territory, while reserving flowers for women or for death. From an...
Micro-Feminism: Small Actions That Quietly Dismantle Patriarchy
Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash When people picture feminism, they often imagine marches, viral hashtags, and sweeping policy change. And while those moments matter, patriarchy doesn’t only live in laws — it lives in everyday habits, language, and social norms. That’s where micro-feminism comes in. Micro-feminism is the daily, often quiet resistance...
Would You Rather Be Alone with a Man or a Bear?
Photo by Luke Miller on Unsplash Folklore, Fear, and Feminist Lessons from Brave and Beyond Recently, the internet has been ablaze with a strange but telling question: If you had to be alone in the woods, would you rather encounter a man or a bear? Overwhelmingly, women are choosing the bear. Why? Because while a...
Mpox, Media, and Misinformation: Why Queer Bodies Always Pay the Price
Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash When the mpox virus (formerly called monkeypox) started spreading in 2022, the headlines came quickly — and so did the stigma. Within weeks, mainstream outlets and social media users alike were calling it a “gay disease,” repeating the same tired script used during the AIDS crisis. Once again, queer...
Toxic Brotherhood: How Masculinity Fuels Right-Wing Extremism
Photo by Ivan Skorovarov on Unsplash When we talk about extremist groups, we often focus on ideology: white supremacy, Christian nationalism, conspiracy theories, or militant patriotism. But underneath these political and religious narratives lies something more insidious: toxic masculinity. The language, rituals, and recruitment strategies of groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three...
Existentialism, Bad Faith, and the Trap of Comfort in Gender and Sexuality
Photo by Teslariu Mihai on Unsplash Existentialist philosophers remind us that human beings often choose comfort over conflict. To live in bad faith, as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir argue, is to surrender freedom for the security of familiarity. Instead of embracing responsibility for our choices, we cling to patterns and roles that feel...
Witches, Women, and the War on Samhain: A Feminist Look at Halloween’s Gendered History
Photo by Ksenia Yakovleva on Unsplash Halloween, for many, is a night of costumes, candy, and carved pumpkins. But before plastic pumpkins and fun-size chocolate bars, there was Samhain—a sacred Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of the darker half of the year. This ancient holiday wasn’t just a seasonal...
How Halloween Costumes Became a Lesson in the Male Gaze
Photo by Daniel Lincoln on Unsplash It’s almost impossible to walk into a Halloween store without stumbling into a wall of sequins, corsets, and miniskirts. Somewhere between the Mean Girls “I’m a mouse, duh” reference and today’s TikTok trends, women’s Halloween costumes became almost exclusively about how much skin they reveal—no matter the character. Nurse?...
The History of Witchcraft and the Invention of the “Subhuman Woman”
Photo by Ksenia Yakovleva on Unsplash “When a woman thinks alone, she thinks evil.” — common proverb in early modern Europe, quoted in Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici Witches have been burned at the stake, cast as villains, glamorized on screen, turned into Halloween costumes, and sold back to us as empowerment merchandise....









