Leora Tanenbaum

On the face of it, "Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders" (just out from University of Wisconsin Press) is the story of how Jay Ladin, the author and an English professor at Yeshiva University in New York City, transitioned into living as...

I wrote the book on sluts -- literally. Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation was first published in 1999 and has since become a required text in many gender and women's studies courses. So when I planned to attend New York City's SlutWalk, I...

Each day, seven thousand people wait for hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan to look at women's high-fashion clothes designed by Alexander McQueen. The exhibit, Savage Beauty, on view through August 7, showcases highlights of the career of the British fashion designer who committed suicide...

In liberal Jewish synagogues across the country, women have achieved feminist success. They wear ritual garments. They read from the Torah. They are rabbis. But when you enter an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, you enter a gender time warp. Here, women do not count in a prayer quorum. They are not...

Ladies, with all the snow and ice on the ground, it's time to get serious about wearing stable shoes. High-heeled platforms may transform you into a gorgeous goddess, but can you take the risk of wobbling around in them? You know how easy it is to lose your balance and...

When I saw that the September issue of Harper's Bazaar contains an article on "The Return to Kitten Heels," I was ready to purr. I routinely recommend kitten heels as the perfect compromise for women who want to look elegant and sexy without the pain of four-inch dominatrix...

"Refugees are normal people, like you and me," says Rose Mapendo, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, often described as the worst war zone on earth. In Pushing the Elephant, an extraordinary documentary just released from Arts Engine, we learn that Rose, her husband, and...

A day at the beach -- what could be better? You grab your sunscreen, a towel, a cheesy novel... and flip-flops or slides you can easily kick off the moment your toes hit the sand.

Flip-flops or slides are perfect for walking from the boardwalk to...

This is the final post of a three-part series, based on Bad Shoes & The Women Who Love Them, on using your head when choosing your shoes.

The other day, I popped into Intermix, the über-trendy, boho luxe boutique chain that sells grown women jumpshorts and sequined...

This is the second post of a three-part series, based on Bad Shoes & The Women Who Love Them, on using your head when choosing your shoes.

Dominatrix heels studded with spikes. Stilettos with bondage-inspired ankle straps. Over-the-knee, skin-tight boots with five-inch heels.

No, this...

This is the first of a three-part series, based on Bad Shoes & The Women Who Love Them, on using your head when choosing your shoes.

Ladies, it's time to wake up and smell the nail polish. The fashion industry is selling us shoes agonizing to walk...

In recent months, two high school girls were relentlessly harassed as "sluts" by their peers in school and committed suicide as a result -- Hope Witsell in rural Florida and now Phoebe Prince in South Hadley, Massachusetts. The Prince case has led to criminal charges and tremendous international media attention....

When it comes to the topic of slut-bashing--when a girl is harassed by classmates because she is believed to be a "slut"--there always has been a lot of harsh judgment. Ten years ago, when I wrote a book about it, I noticed that most people have a compulsive urge to...

I've been asking devout Muslim American women how they feel about the status of women in Islam. Over and over, they give me the romantic apologist point of view: "Islam is a feminist paradise! I wouldn't change a thing."

But then again, many others offer me -- a Jewish...

Last month, a woman named Sara Hurwitz was honored in a ceremony at a prestigious modern Orthodox synagogue in the Bronx, the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. There was a lot to celebrate: Hurwitz had completed eight years of intensive learning -- the same curriculum completed by male Orthodox rabbinical...

When I saw last week that The New York Times had published an op-ed by Muammar el-Qaddafi, leader of Libya, it got me thinking. I've been submitting opinion pieces to the Times for years without success. I've sent in punchy, timely essays on sexual harassment, cosmetic surgery, women and...

Most of us have a presidential fantasy. Some of us long to transform the health care system. Some imagine the possibilities in humanitarian aid. Others daydream about the presidential lifestyle -- the private chef, the bowling alley in the White House basement, Air Force One.

My fantasy centers on the...

When Orthodox Jewish families light Hanukkah candles this evening, will the women light too? More than how many jelly doughnuts and chocolate coins can my kids eat before they feel sick (answer: more than you can imagine), I wonder how many stringently observant Jewish women will take advantage of the...

Two weeks ago at Yeshiva University, English professor Joy Ladin, Ph.D., returned to work after a two-year leave. Ladin is transgender -- she was formerly Jay Ladin -- making Y.U. the first religiously conservative university in the United States with a transgender faculty member, according to Mara Keisling, executive director...

In Sex and the City, Carrie and her friends pound the Manhattan pavement in stilettos. For me, the mystery isn't if they live happily ever after but whether or not they have bunions and hammertoes.

Many real-life Manhattan women walk around the city in rubber flip-flops,...