Reading Time: 3 minutes Not since Madalyn Murray O’Hair has the image of non-religiosity been defined by a woman. That may change with Generation Z. A new analysis of data by sociologist Ryan P. Burge finds that, among people born after the year 2000, known as Gen Z, more women than men identify with no organized religion. The Zoomer […]
Sex & Gender
Exploring sex and gender from the secular perspective.
Posted inSex & Gender
Celebrating the sex-positive power of the pussy
Reading Time: 3 minutes OnlySky · Celebrating the sex-positive power of the pussy with Eleanor O’Brien | Becky Garrison While the current “talk” about female sexuality may come off as sounding “sex-positive,” corporate media remains stuck in the era of Mad Men. Taboo topics remain taboo with sites such as OnlySky getting demonetized by their ad server for penning […]
Posted inSex & Gender
Female pastor’s pro-LGBTQ views censored in book about female pastors
Reading Time: 5 minutes The suggestion that female pastors might be accepting of LGBTQ people has created an absurd controversy in a small Christian sect after a passage from a new book was censored. It involved a book published last month called On Holy Ground: Stories By and About Women in Ministry Leadership in the Mennonite Brethren Church. The […]
Posted inFilm/TV
‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ sends a terrible message about motherhood
Reading Time: 3 minutes Like any good nerd, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was at the top of my watchlist. And while it was an okay enough superhero film, the gender politics of it—especially given the current climate—were incredibly off-putting. You’ve been warned: Spoiler alerts ahead. Within minutes of the movie’s start, I whispered to my viewing […]
Posted inLGBTQ
The transgender swimming ban is not about sports
Reading Time: 6 minutes FINA, the international swimming federation, has banned trans women from competing in women’s categories for the sports it governs. Within days of this announcement, a raft of other sporting bodies had announced reviews of their policies for transgender inclusion, and the International Rugby League banned trans women from competition, pending “further research.” The decision has […]
Posted inReproductive rights
Women are livestock
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Supreme Court has now made it clear. Women have the same rights as farm animals. If a cow is impregnated by a bull, does she have a right to say whether she should carry the fetus to term? Of course not! The farmer who owns her, and has invested in her, providing food and […]
Posted inSex & Gender
Drag Queen Story Hour: Getting past the knee-jerk
Reading Time: 6 minutes Culture is fashion, and fashion is arbitrary; or, why a man isn’t less of a man if he’s wearing a dress.
Posted inSex & Gender
When men’s mental health becomes a political weapon, everyone loses
Reading Time: 8 minutes When I was a kid, comedians and pundits still felt comfortable joking about how terrible women would be in political office because they menstruate. Hormones, get it? As if only half the population has them, and testosterone has no complex interactions for human bodies. As a child, I absorbed all kinds of reductive claims about […]
Posted inLeaving Religion
Her ex
Reading Time: 4 minutes When I was a young woman, tending house for the first time after leaving my community of origin, I would surprise myself while washing dishes in the sink, as the water turned playfully pink, and I didn’t know why. Sometimes I would see bright droplets of blood on the floor and follow them like breadcrumbs, […]
Posted inLGBTQ
To bi or not to bi?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Growing up in Orange County California, where money was king, Reagan was God, and Rush Limbaugh his prophet, that was the question. Homosexuality was not an appropriate discussion topic. Ever. Gays were icky, and we should just pretend they don’t exist at all. Especially if you’re Catholic, or pretending to be. By the time I […]