Reading Time: 3 minutes Nationwide, escalating homophobic and transphobic right-wing attacks are threatening the mental health and wellness of queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming youth. This spring, Women’s Leadership Project 9th and 10th graders led presentations on LGBTQI+ school climate, identity, and allyship in South L.A. classrooms and during WLP’s annual LGBTQI+ Youth of Color Institute. Utilizing GLSEN’s (Gay and […]
gender
Posted inSex & Gender
The secular humanist’s guide to trans advocacy
Reading Time: 16 minutes I really didn’t want to have to write this piece. Amid pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine, along with famines, the ravages of climate change, and other global conflicts, did the U.S. really need to exacerbate human trauma by introducing so much harmful legislation lately? Gosh. Even writing that, it’s hard to pin down which […]
Posted inSex & Gender
If you believe in sex differences, you’re probably sexist
Reading Time: 3 minutes If someone claims to see “sex differences”—apparently concrete and non-varying differences between men and women—I can be reasonably sure that they’re sexist, or that they benefit from sexism, which is basically the same thing. The whole notion of “sex difference” is somewhat outdated, along with “sex role” which we now call “gender role,” but the […]
Posted inSex & Gender
Dr. Phil ambushed trans guests with online troll Matt Walsh
Reading Time: 3 minutes When activists Addison Rose Vincent and Ethan Alexander were invited on “Dr. Phil,” they didn’t expect Matt Walsh to be there too.
Posted inSex & Gender
Gender is a fundamental structure in our lives, so why do some deny its reality?
Reading Time: 4 minutes There are stark differences in the lived realities of men and women, and sometimes, you just need to listen to learn about gender, as I discovered with my students this semester. It was nearing the end of my First Year Seminar, which of course I’d given the theme of fairy tales, on the premise that […]
Posted inMyth & Folklore
My new fairy-tale research: all queer, all the time
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ah, summertime, when academics everywhere finally get to work on our research. Mine, I realize, is focused on queer identities in fairy tales, since that’s the most exciting thing to me right now.
Posted inBooks
My personal science fiction/fantasy canon: ‘Weirdo Feminist’
Reading Time: 4 minutes The spring semester is over but my brain is still melted from it and the rest of me is burnt out too, so here’s a fun little personal essay I’d submitted elsewhere and that had been rejected (yes, that happens to even the great Dr. Jorgensen). Ruminations on identity and SFF (science fiction/fantasy) follow.
Posted inCulture, General, Sex & Gender
Where Gendered and Institutional Care Collide
Reading Time: 7 minutes As with any crisis, the pandemic is revealing various negative things about the social systems we inhabit. One that recently caught my attention is care: gendered care-work, institutions that pretend to care for us, and the omnipresent self-care advice.
Posted inCulture, General, Sex & Gender
If American Belly Dancers Protested Colonialism As Much As Our Dance’s Sexualization…
Reading Time: 5 minutes If you’ve ever chatted with a belly dancer from the U.S., you’ve probably heard some riff on the phrase, “It’s not sexual, it’s sensual.” Americans dancers have done a lot of activist work here…so what might the dance scene look like if we took on colonialism, too?
Posted inEducation, General, Sex & Gender
Why You Should Care About Dr. Jill Biden’s Title Even If You Think Academia Is Elitist
Reading Time: 6 minutes I know the ivory tower can seem insular and out of touch to some people, but I assure you, there are good reasons to care when a woman with a PhD is being publicly demeaned.