How cool is it that there are transgender actors playing transgender characters on mainstream TV shows—and not in an exploitative way? Much press has been given to Laverne Cox of Orange is the New Black, a Netflix show about inmates in a women’s prison. As Sophia, Cox is a transgender woman incarcerated for credit card fraud after she went into debt paying for her physical transition. She is terri...
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We’re expecting a baby boy in a few months and we can’t decide whether to circumcise him. Our religion does not require that we do so, but my husband is circumcised and most of the men we know are. However, I’ve noticed that some of my friends are not circumcising their sons. Are there health reasons we should consider? My husband is concerned that since our son’s penis won’t look like his father’...
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As the NFL draft drew to a close last week, we received news of this heartwarming tale out of Corona Del Mar High School in Newport Beach, CA, of “prom-date drafting.” Yes, it turns out that some boys in Newport Beach are not content simply to participate in one of the many fantasy leagues to fulfill their apparently deep desire to experience the excitement, tension, and feeling of something akin ...
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Although in some ways I have probably become less radical in my thinking as I have gotten older, there are other ways in which I am apparently more so–or maybe just less likely to ignore comments that I consider offensive. If you pay attention at all, some form of “slut-shaming” is pervasive, even among those who very likely would not see themselves as doing so. Two recent examples involved ...
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I was quite gratified as I was listening in the car on April 29th to Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, as he announced the punitive measures against Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, who was recorded making bizarre and racist comments. I know there are those who argue that Sterling was taped in a private moment revealing private thoughts and that if we were all subject to su...
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The April 15th abduction of over 200 Nigerian girls who were trying to take their school exams is terrifying and horrifying. While all of those who follow the news on any level are confronted with a myriad of horrific stories on any given day, this one has taken hold in my psyche. I can’t let go of the image of the Nigerian schoolchildren who were abducted from their school by Boko Haram. These Is...
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My 10th grade son has a nice group of kids he hangs with—they’re boys and girls, and still pretty innocent. I like them all and know their parents. He wants to have a sleepover with them and swears nothing will happen. I think at this age, this is true, but I’m concerned this becomes a slippery slope and that if I say yes this time, it makes it harder to say no in the future when they&...
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I decided to start writing this blog as an attempt to save my relationships with family and friends. While my children no doubt find my constant deconstruction of popular culture to be highly valuable and insightful, and while my significant other very likely revels in my diatribes over coffee at the breakfast table, I’m thinking that there is a very small, almost microscopic chance, that they mig...
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I’ve been thinking a lot about Beyoncé lately. She doesn’t put out the kind of music I generally listen to, but she’s hard to avoid these days—not only in the popular media and on the radio, but on the feminist blogs I read. So I decided to look a bit more closely and see what she’s all about, particularly because she’s generally received a lot of praise from those feminist blogs, which initially ...
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I have a fourth grade boy and it’s only a matter of time before he will find online porn videos. My feeling is that kids exposed to porn video at an early age develop false expectations of what relationships between older people are in reality, and especially what women are like. I’ve been thinking that it might be a good idea to have my husband tuck some Playboy magazines in my son’s room, accomp...
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