Blog Archives

Trans-racial is Trans-tastic, Rachel Dolezal!

Rachel Dolezal

Rachel Dolezal

By Karl Muonio

We’ve become more accepting of transgender people. But why aren’t transracial people okay?

The media has been storming over Rachel Dolezal of late because she was born in a white body but she feels black.

In fact, she has adopted black children, she is a professor of African-American Studies, and until recently she was a branch president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Apparently, a black woman who feels trapped in a white body is a major problem that all of society must obsess over and condemn. Read the rest of this entry

Your Privates Are Public

Privates are public if we're in public?

Privates are public if we’re in public?

A 61-year-old man takes a picture up the skirt of a 13-year-old girl while she shops at Target. And gets away with it.

Yes, it’s lewd and appalling, but the girl was in a public place so it’s not against the law,

Read the rest of this entry

Why Fight Against Your Interests?

False consciousness: any belief or view that prevents a person from being able to understand the true nature of a situation.

False consciousness: a belief that prevents understanding the true nature of a situation.

Why would anyone fight against their own interests?

Some folks have filed suit because it is soooo horrible that they are being offered a tax subsidy that would make health insurance affordable for them. (Supreme Court decision due this month).

?????!!!!!!!!!

But wait, There’s more:

  • I saw a Tea Partier get on a bus to push legislation that would help the billionaire Koch brothers, but hurt his middle-class family. He forlornly said that it had to be done.

Read the rest of this entry

Sexual Satisfaction Tied to Gender Equality

Gender equality = sexual equality

Gender equality = sexual equality

When I ask my students how many of them have heard of girls being slut-shamed in high school, they all have.

Meanwhile, as I’ve mentioned before, around half of American women have experienced sexual dysfunction: low desire, no desire, painful sex and difficulty climaxing.

Women enjoy sexuality much more in places where women and men have greater equality. Read the rest of this entry

Caitlyn Jenner: More Than Sexy?

Caitlyn Jenner

Caitlyn Jenner

We rejoice at Caitlyn Jenner’s courage and happiness as she transitions, bodily, to womanhood.

But as she “came out” so did some disturbing truths about how we value women, says Rhonda Garelick in a New York Times piece. In a Vanity Fair spread,

Ms. Jenner poses in skintight dresses, a cinched black lace corset and two different gold evening gowns … She lounges on a sofa, peers into mirrors or reclines with her head thrown back, eyes closed… (appearing) languid and glamorous, her body still and on display rather than performing any activity…

This seems less the liberation of a true self than a reminder of the straitjacket requirements of acceptable, desirable womanhood.

Read the rest of this entry

Why Endure Excruciating Hookups? 

Bad sex

Bad sex

Some women enjoy hooking up when it’s “friends with benefits.” Or if not friends, at least sex without malevolence.

Other times ya gotta wonder why they do it.

Women having bad sex

Like women who have sex with 13 men (at different times) but without pleasure. Because it’s about his pleasure and not hers. Or women who feel reduced to sex toys. Or women who “just want to get it over with.”  Or women who say, Read the rest of this entry

Mocked because my name ends in “SHE”

"He" is better than "she"?

“He” is better than “she”?

By Mahi Chitti

I grew up being mocked by both my peers and my elders because my name ends in “SHE.”

Maharshi.

The shaming pushed me to invent a nickname, Mahi, so that my name would end with “HE.”

At the time I thought it was pretty cool. And having a name that ended in “he” made me feel a lot better about myself. Read the rest of this entry

Women Must Be Fit; Men Can Be Flabby

Can men be valued even if their bodies appear flabby and “gross”? What about women? Can they be? Maybe. But men may have more leeway.

While looking thru the archives at Sociological Images, I ran into this. The pictures are from a few years back but they’re still relevant. Dr. Lisa Wade makes some interesting points here.

***

By Lisa Wade @ Sociological Images

Mercedes DeM. sent in this Vanity Fair cover (for April 2009)…

pu1p3ehapkkz1o5pwwcpbyn5o1_5001

…spoofing this previous coverRead the rest of this entry

Feminists Like Men More Than Non-Feminists Do

Feminism promotes the notion that Women and men are of equal worth and dignity.

Feminism: women and men are of equal worth and dignity.

Feminists hate men?

Some people think so.

But a University of Houston study found that feminists like men more than non-feminists do.

That was true regardless of gender. Feminist men and women felt less hostility toward men than non-feminists of either sex did.

Maybe it’s not so surprising. Read the rest of this entry

Hooking Up Is Fun. Or Dull. Or Painful 

Hooking up can be dull or painful. If it's about male superiority.

Hooking up can be dull or painful. If it’s about male superiority.

Some people like hooking up.

But it can be dull, or even painful – when it’s used to create male superiority.

Hooking up is painful

Kristy was making out with a guy, debating how far she wanted to go, when he stood up and ordered, “Get down on your knees.”

She froze. Read the rest of this entry