MOV Red Tent

08/31/2026

08/30/2026

In 1953, a 78-year-old widow walked into a struggling Massachusetts laboratory and essentially told a scientist: develop the birth control pill. I’ll pay for it.

Her name was Katharine Dexter McCormick.

Decades earlier, McCormick had been one of the few women studying biology at MIT. She even fought the university over its requirement that women wear hats in laboratories, arguing, correctly, that feathers and loose fabric near open flames were dangerous.

Then she married into one of America’s great fortunes.

Her husband, Stanley McCormick, heir to the International Harvester fortune, developed severe mental illness early in their marriage. Katharine decided not to have children, and contraception became intensely personal.

She became a suffragist, joined Margaret Sanger’s birth control movement and did something considerably more daring: she smuggled diaphragms from Europe into the United States, where contraception remained heavily restricted.

But her biggest gamble came later.

Margaret Sanger had spent years dreaming of a contraceptive women could control themselves. Scientist Gregory Pincus believed hormones might make it possible, but his research was running out of money.

McCormick arrived.

After meeting Pincus in 1953, she immediately wrote him a check for $40,000 and promised more. She ultimately supplied nearly all the private funding needed to push the research forward.

This was not passive philanthropy. McCormick monitored the scientists, demanded results and even moved to Boston to stay close to the work.

In 1960, the FDA approved the first oral contraceptive.

The scientists became famous. The Pill changed s*x, marriage, work and women’s ability to control when, or whether, they became mothers.

Katharine McCormick had helped pay for the revolution.

When she died in 1967 at 92, no major newspaper published her obituary.

08/15/2026

On Sunday, the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez uploaded a video to her Instagram stories. On a coffee table in front of her were a series of small vials and swabs. “All right, everyone,” she says. “Day One of freezing my eggs. I’m diving into the process.”

Ocasio-Cortez is not alone in this medical endeavor. The number of U.S. women freezing their eggs has soared in the past decade. In 2014, around 4,000 Americans froze their eggs, according to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology. By 2024, that number had jumped to more than 40,000.

“I think we need to show more depictions of women having full lives in every context and every choice.” She says of her decision to document her egg-freezing journey. “This is a choice that I’m making to feel more in control of my life.” Read more about the importance of A.O.C.’s egg-freezing revelation: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/qf1KbW

05/28/2026

“Muscle and Milk" captures a powerful truth about modern motherhood: strength and caregiving are not opposites, they coexist.

Photographed by husband-and-wife duo Anita Clark and Paul Wenham-Clarke and shortlisted for both the 2025 AOP Open Awards and the Sony World Photography Awards, the image features three rugby players breastfeeding their babies moments after finishing a match. The result is both striking and deeply human. A portrait of women refusing to choose between ambition, athleticism, and motherhood.

05/27/2026

At first glance, Victor Marais-Milton’s L’intrigant (“The Plotter”) seems playful and almost comedic, but the longer I look at it, the more unsettling it becomes.

The scattered objects on the floor, especially the overturned knitting basket and the single red heel, make the scene feel less like harmless flirtation and more like the aftermath of a frantic struggle.

What I find especially disturbing is how the intruder is reduced to little more than a ring covered hand forcing its way into the room. It almost feels symbolic, as if wealth and social status are being used to bypass consent.

The woman pouring the water is the most ambiguous part of the painting. She appears to be smiling, but it is impossible to tell whether the act is playful, mocking, or done out of desperation to ward the intruder off. Even the water itself feels uncertain, whether it is harmless or boiling.

What makes the painting so effective to me is that it never fully commits to either comedy or menace. It constantly shifts between the two, which makes the entire scene feel psychologically uncomfortable in a way that lingers long after looking at it.

05/26/2026

Yes. Sometimes, the kindest thing we can do for our children is leave the abuse. I tried to stay for the kids, but realized my kids might become abusive themselves, or marry someone who was. I wanted better for them. And, sadly, the abusive parent might get some parenting time due to ignorance in the Family court system but spending even some time with you alone will teach them what healthy looks like. https://carolineabbott.com/2019/03/how-the-abuse-you-receive-affects-your-kids/

04/19/2026

A year after this photo was taken, Kahlo would be severely injured in a bus accident, breaking her spine, collar bone, ribs, pelvis and fracturing her right leg in 11 places.

An iron handrail impaled her through her pelvis, piercing “the way a sword pierces a bull.” She spent 3 months in a full body cast before regaining the ability to walk again.

Before the accident, Frida was studying to become a physician. However, she decided to become an artist while she was recovering at the hospital. Frida would go on to have more than 30 surgeries in her life, culminating in the amputation of her right leg due to gangrene in 1953. Her body of work heavily deals with her personal struggles with chronic pain, polio, amputation and infertility, giving us a unique glimpse into the patient’s experience.

“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.” -Frida Kahlo

04/10/2026

Single women aren’t waiting for a plus-one to buy a home. They’re doing it on their own more than ever before.

The number of single women homeowners hit an all-time high last year, surpassing 20 million, and this isn’t one type of buyer, either. It’s women across generations, life stages, and financial backgrounds stepping confidently into home ownership.

Women are more educated than ever, they have greater earning power, and are increasingly recognizing homeownership as powerful tool for long-term wealth. These stats are not only cool to see, but they mark a very clear shift in women’s financial confidence, literacy, and control.