Lena Chen

is a reluctant sexpert, a feminist and queer advocate, and a walking case study on bad publicity. As a Harvard undergrad, she authored the blog Sex and the Ivy about her college sexcapades and misadventures. Her reputation has never quite recovered. Want to give her a book deal, send her hate mail, or misquote her in an article? Read her daily musings at The Ch!cktionary and check out her full bio.

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Posts tagged press

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Shoe selection at the Marie Claire shoot I’m doing today. This afternoon, I met the fab Carlin Ross, the business partner of the grandmama of the sexual revolution, Betty Dodson. The topic of the feature we’re both in? Destigmatizing women’s “number”. Yes, THAT number. (Even though both Carlin and I agree that it’s impossible and heteronormative to try to keep count of sexual partners). And yes, I’ll be revealing what my number is — something that I’ve never done online, surprisingly enough. Issue comes out in February!

Shoe selection at the Marie Claire shoot I’m doing today. This afternoon, I met the fab Carlin Ross, the business partner of the grandmama of the sexual revolution, Betty Dodson. The topic of the feature we’re both in? Destigmatizing women’s “number”. Yes, THAT number. (Even though both Carlin and I agree that it’s impossible and heteronormative to try to keep count of sexual partners). And yes, I’ll be revealing what my number is — something that I’ve never done online, surprisingly enough. Issue comes out in February!

(Source: lenachen)

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Lip Magazine | lena chen on coming out as a feminist

Check out Erin Stewart’s interview with me, now up on Lip Magazine’s website! I talk about how the fight for gender equality intersects with the queer movement and dish on Feminist Coming Out Day, a national awareness campaign I’m planning for March 8, 2011. We’ll be hosting a charity t-shirt sale (to benefit an awesome women’s organization — stay tuned for news on the recipient!), planning events at campuses across the country, and soliciting “feminist coming out” stories for our online Feminist Portrait Project.

Want to join in? Email us at join@feministcomingoutday.com with your name, age, location, photo, and a one-liner (or story, if you have the time to tell it) about why you’re a feminist.

(Source: lenachen)

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The HPV Vaccine: Risks vs. Rewards I was quoted in the November issue of Women’s Health on my experience with Gardasil, the vaccine that prevents the two strains of HPV which cause the majority of cervical cancer. (As the article notes, there are more than 100 strains of HPV.) Some quick facts about HPV: HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States, with infection rate estimates ranging from over 50 percent to nearly 80 percent of the sexually active population There is no “cure” for HPV in the traditional sense, but most strains of HPV are harmless, non-cancerous, and clear up on their own. Condoms may reduce but do NOT prevent the transmission of HPV, which is spread through skin-to-skin contact. There are usually no physical signs of HPV, though some people experience genital warts, which are easily treatable (but they are harder to detect in women than in men, because of their appearance in the vaginal canal) There are no HPV tests for men, but Gardasil has been approved for males 9-26 in hopes of preventing the spread of cancerous strains among women. In very rare instances, men may be at risk for anal or penile cancer, but typically, the disease is riskier for women. Cervical cancer is nearly 100% preventable as long as you get regular, annual pap smears to catch early precancerous cells Can anyone prevent HPV completely? Since it’s spread through skin-to-skin contact, anything — from oral sex to manual stimulation — could potentially lead to infection. Because the majority of Americans engage in premarital sexual activity, we need to be especially vigilant about our reproductive health, talk openly with our partners about our sexual history, and destigmatize the discussion of STIs. At the point where over 50 percent of Americans are dealing with HPV, it’s time to stop pointing fingers at other people and to start looking at what each of us can do individually to protect ourselves and our partners. Related posts on HPV and sexual health:Let’s Talk About (Unprotected) SexCollegeCandy: Condoms And Commitment“I thought no one would ever want me because I have/had a STD”

The HPV Vaccine: Risks vs. Rewards

I was quoted in the November issue of Women’s Health on my experience with Gardasil, the vaccine that prevents the two strains of HPV which cause the majority of cervical cancer. (As the article notes, there are more than 100 strains of HPV.)

Some quick facts about HPV:

  • HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States, with infection rate estimates ranging from over 50 percent to nearly 80 percent of the sexually active population
  • There is no “cure” for HPV in the traditional sense, but most strains of HPV are harmless, non-cancerous, and clear up on their own.
  • Condoms may reduce but do NOT prevent the transmission of HPV, which is spread through skin-to-skin contact.
  • There are usually no physical signs of HPV, though some people experience genital warts, which are easily treatable (but they are harder to detect in women than in men, because of their appearance in the vaginal canal)
  • There are no HPV tests for men, but Gardasil has been approved for males 9-26 in hopes of preventing the spread of cancerous strains among women. In very rare instances, men may be at risk for anal or penile cancer, but typically, the disease is riskier for women.
  • Cervical cancer is nearly 100% preventable as long as you get regular, annual pap smears to catch early precancerous cells

Can anyone prevent HPV completely? Since it’s spread through skin-to-skin contact, anything — from oral sex to manual stimulation — could potentially lead to infection. Because the majority of Americans engage in premarital sexual activity, we need to be especially vigilant about our reproductive health, talk openly with our partners about our sexual history, and destigmatize the discussion of STIs. At the point where over 50 percent of Americans are dealing with HPV, it’s time to stop pointing fingers at other people and to start looking at what each of us can do individually to protect ourselves and our partners.

Related posts on HPV and sexual health:
Let’s Talk About (Unprotected) Sex
CollegeCandy: Condoms And Commitment
“I thought no one would ever want me because I have/had a STD”

(via lenachen)

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My lecture in one minute | This week in New York - Time Out New York

“The idea is to bring together the two generations of feminists and show that they actually have a lot in common. [The idea for the article] came out of two lunches we had, one for Jenny Sanford and one for Naomi Wolf. Inevitably the conversation drifted over to the older feminists on one side of the table saying, ‘Why aren’t you guys grateful to us for what we did for you?’ and the young feminists on the other side of the table saying, ‘What are you talking about, we are grateful and we’re carrying the water and you don’t get it.’ If you listen, it happens all the time.

The way I look at it is funny; it’s much like what’s happening in publishing today. You’ve got all these people who grew up in print saying, ‘Woe is me, we’re going out of business, it’s horrible, print is dying,’ but media’s not dying. It’s just different. And I feel like these girls are the same kind of thing. They’re just doing [feminism] in a different way, they’re presenting it in a different way. They have different issues, and its not that they’re not grateful [to the older generation], it’s just that the issues they’re picking up start at a different level, so they cannot possibly look at it the same way. And that’s okay.”

–Lesley Jane Seymour, More Magazine Editor In Chief, in Time Out New York on why she’s hosting a panel discussion on young feminism with Naomi Wolf

INTERESTED IN COMING? 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St at Canal St (212-601-1000, 92ytribeca.org). Wed 10 at 7pm; $12.

(Source: lenachen)

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As Chen also points out, a lot of “rules” like the first-date sex thing are based on the idea that if you do a certain set of things in a certain way, you’ll get everything you want in love. This is the premise of most dating books, and it’s not just inaccurate, it’s pretty judgmental — if you’re not happily coupled up (with your one true soulmate, of course), you must be doing something wrong.

–-Anna North, summing up my stance on dating in a post on Jezebel today (“Social Minefield: How To Have A Great First Date”)

She also interviewed the fab Jaclyn Friedman and Tasha Fierce. The basic gist of the message? Chill out. Be safe. Don’t determine who pays based on gender. Also, if you think “dating” and “husband hunting” are synonyms, you’re doing it wrong.

(via lenachen)

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This Is What A Feminist Looks Like Without Airbrushing In case you wanted to buy my outfit from the MORE shoot, here’s the totally reasonable brand and pricing info: Burberry London cotton silk blend dress, $850; burberry.com. Ralph Lauren Collection suede heels, $595; 212-434-8000. [Disclaimer: Since someone was confused, I will clarify that the outfit came from More magazine, NOT my own closet ;) ] I’m spending my afternoon penning my response to Tracy Clark-Flory’s piece in Salon about “the irony of [her] feminist photoshoot”. Tracy, who was profiled for the awesome writing she does at Broadsheet, wrote: “In the two-page photo spread (part of which you can see above), we look like a bunch of aspiring first ladies. We seem a group selected for mild variety and good-girl respectability. It’s a stately tableau that says: The kids are all right. We look like 20-somethings who do tea, not the binge-drinking, casual-sex-having “female chauvinist pigs” that get so much ink these days.” A commenter wrote recently that I looked a little airbrushed in my More magazine photo. While I don’t know how little or how much photo-shopping went on behind the scenes, here’s a picture I snapped of myself a few days ago in Harvard Square. For reference, I didn’t shower that morning, hadn’t (and still haven’t) shaved my legs in weeks, wore no make-up, and didn’t brush my hair. Pretty, uh, natural. My outfit was also a far cry from the $1,445 wardrobe More provided me for the shoot. This is a feminist in the wild. Compare and contrast away!

This Is What A Feminist Looks Like Without Airbrushing

In case you wanted to buy my outfit from the MORE shoot, here’s the totally reasonable brand and pricing info: Burberry London cotton silk blend dress, $850; burberry.com. Ralph Lauren Collection suede heels, $595; 212-434-8000.

[Disclaimer: Since someone was confused, I will clarify that the outfit came from More magazine, NOT my own closet ;) ]

I’m spending my afternoon penning my response to Tracy Clark-Flory’s piece in Salon about “the irony of [her] feminist photoshoot”. Tracy, who was profiled for the awesome writing she does at Broadsheet, wrote:

“In the two-page photo spread (part of which you can see above), we look like a bunch of aspiring first ladies. We seem a group selected for mild variety and good-girl respectability. It’s a stately tableau that says: The kids are all right. We look like 20-somethings who do tea, not the binge-drinking, casual-sex-having “female chauvinist pigs” that get so much ink these days.”

A commenter wrote recently that I looked a little airbrushed in my More magazine photo. While I don’t know how little or how much photo-shopping went on behind the scenes, here’s a picture I snapped of myself a few days ago in Harvard Square. For reference, I didn’t shower that morning, hadn’t (and still haven’t) shaved my legs in weeks, wore no make-up, and didn’t brush my hair. Pretty, uh, natural. My outfit was also a far cry from the $1,445 wardrobe More provided me for the shoot.

This is a feminist in the wild. Compare and contrast away!