Danielle Paradis

Bio

Danielle is a writer for the Identities section of Policy Mic. She writes about pop culture and identity politics. She holds a Master of Arts in Learning and Technology. She's Metis. Danielle loves Boston Terriers, long blocks of text, and binge-watching series on Netflix. She's just started running recently and hopes it will stop being so hard soon. Lives and writes in Canada
A Photographer Showcases the 98 Kinds of Real Beauty You Won't See in Magazines
By Danielle Paradis
"She wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her," said Naomi Wolf in The Beauty Myth in 1990. Since then, we haven't seen much of a change in the way women are viewed. Thinness, whiteness, youth and…
9 Photos of Children Bravely Challenging the Definition of Binary Gender Expression
By Danielle Paradis
Imagine living in a world that didn't understand who you were, that called you weird or strange or sick. Now imagine a camp where you could go and hang out with other children who were just like you, a haven where you were safe to be yourself. This…
A Woman Got Back at the Sexist Creeps of Tinder With These Brilliant Images
By Danielle Paradis
When Anna Gensler first downloaded the dating app Tinder in February, she didn't realize that along with your garden-variety single man, the app would bring her face to face — or phone screen to screen — as it were with a whole community of charming…
#RapeCultureIsWhen Is the Perfect Answer to Everyone Who Denies Rape
By Danielle Paradis
There's nothing like calling a group of women hysterical to undermine their argument. Caroline Kitchens, a research assistant at the right-wing think tank American Enterprise Institute, trotted out the old "feminists be crazy" trope in a scoffing…
You Can #BanBossy, I'd Rather #BanBitch
By Danielle Paradis
Sheryl Sandberg doesn't like girls being called bossy. After her last successful campaign for middle-class ladies to "lean-in," Sandberg's latest project has rallied an all-star group of lady-troops — Condoleezza Rice, Beyoncé and Jennifer Garner —…
In “The Year of the Bush,” This Woman’s Brazilian Is Guilt-Free
By Danielle Paradis
If you're all finished reading about St. Patrick's Day shenanigans, marveling over the sexism that has become a delightful hallmark of this green-tinged holiday, I have a hair situation I would like to discuss with you. It's an age-old question, and…
Katniss Everdeen is My Alter Ego
By Danielle Paradis
Last weekend, I watched Catching Fire, the second movie adaptation of The Hunger Games trilogy. In one standout scene, Haymitch Abernathy looks over at our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, and tells her that one of the men in her budding love triangle,…
I Don't Want My Marriage To Go Viral
By Danielle Paradis
When I was 14, I was going to marry Lance Bass of *NSYNC fame (yes, yes, I know) because he was good-looking and rich and famous. Hi Lance! <3 you.  If I couldn’t marry him, then perhaps the artistic, dark-haired, blue-eyed boy at school would do,…
Let's All Raise Our Selfie Awareness
By Danielle Paradis
Editor's note: This piece has been updated.  You can pry my selfies from my cold dead hands, and then (since I am now dead) admire how good I looked when I was still alive. This week, the internet let out a collective groan when the Oxford…
Lily Allen's New Video Doesn't Empower Me, Or Anyone Else
By Danielle Paradis
"I'll buy you a drink if you show me your tits," a man said to me. It was amateur strip night at the local peeler club. I turned to look at him, surprised that in a place full of women being paid to perform for him, he had to come and bother me. I…
Joss Whedon Redefines Feminism In the Same Way Feminists Have For Years
By Danielle Paradis
Joss Whedon spoke at an Equality Now benefit dinner recently and decided to take that opportunity to redefine the word feminist. That’s nothing new. Every day that ends in "y" involves people declaring feminism dead or in need of a rebrand. It’s…
Disturbing YouTube Trend Has Young Girls Asking the Internet, 'Am I Pretty or Ugly?'
By Danielle Paradis
An alarming new trend on YouTube called "Am I Pretty or Ugly" raises questions about how young women in the digital age are internalizing beauty standards.  In a nutshell: young women title their uploads with that loaded question, and then open…
How to Know If Your Halloween Costume Makes You Look Like a Jerk
By Danielle Paradis
I used to love Halloween but people keep ruining it. I've come to realize that some people are unable to dress up without being bringing cultural appropriation, racism, or sexism into the mix.  I admit it. The endless tirade against sexy costumes…
Will You Be My Internet Friend?
By Danielle Paradis
It was in college that I finally learned to make friends. I am bipolar; I was in a program full of other people who identified as writers, a group with a common predilection towards mental illnesses. While making friends was easier amongst other…
The Truth Behind What Causes Rape
By Danielle Paradis
In the small city that I grew up in, there was a good reason to never walk alone at night: rapists. Whether I was at my house or a friend’s house, the stories told by parents would be similar: whispers of a young girl raped in a local park and left…
Bisexuals: We're Here, We're Queer, We're Not Unicorns
By Danielle Paradis
Although our name certainly suggests otherwise, bisexuals don't have a lot of choices. You could argue we’ve doubled our chances at love, but in pop culture you see straight people, increasingly homosexual couples, and even singlets on television,…
You Don't Know Who Ada Lovelace is On Her Special Day?
By Danielle Paradis
Happy Ada Lovelace Day! You don’t know Ada Lovelace, world's first computer programmer? ? I get it. We live in a society that is quick to erase women’s contributions, either by omission in the history books or in contemporary practices like Google…
'Sex Box': Real Sex is Still Hidden
By Danielle Paradis
Sex Box is a new show debuting on England’s Channel 4 and featuring, as you may infer from the title, sex in a box. Participants are steered into a large off white box to do the deed while a panel discusses sex. The couples then come out and…
Don't Ignore That Chris Brown Was Raped Just Because You Hate Him
By Danielle Paradis
Editorial note: This piece has been updated. A recent interview in The Guardian revealed that Chris Brown lost his virginity at eight years old to a teenage girl. Disturbingly, the mainstream media has largely ignored the fact that what Brown…
Sinéad O'Connor Might Want to Help Miley, But She's Dangerously Out of Touch
By Danielle Paradis
I really wanted to love Sinéad O'Connor’s open letter to Miley Cyrus. In some ways, O'Connor's advice to Cyrus is what I would be tempted to give other young women in my life. She’s right that “many’s the woman who mistook lust for love,” and I…