Reading Time: 4 minutes If you’ve ever gone inside a large supermarket or pharmacy in the U.S., no doubt you’ve seen products labeled “feminine hygiene.” But have you stopped to ask what is supposedly unhygienic about women’s reproductive parts? It turns out, there are a lot of misunderstandings about vaginas and vulvas. Even the terms can be confusing: vagina […]
stigma
Posted inEthics and Morality
You’re a what!? Stripper and Atheist: Two very dirty words
Reading Time: 3 minutes At eighteen, I became an adult entertainer. Fed up with my stuffy office cubicle and hopelessly unfashionable telephone headset, I wanted something a little more liberating. I found it as a stripper. Never one to be all that shy about nudity, and while maybe not outgoing per se, I was unapologetic about my choice. I […]
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 inCulture, General, Sex & Gender
Social Distancing Is Like Monogamy: It Only Works If You Observe It Perfectly
Reading Time: 9 minutes Learning to assess and communicate about risk in relationships is something that many Americans don’t learn how to do, and I think it might be connected to our culture’s default setting of monogamy (or at the very least, that there’s a useful parallel to draw).
Posted inCulture, General, Sex & Gender
The Impact of the American Plan
Reading Time: 7 minutes The anti-sex-worker bias seen in the American Plan dovetails with forced sterilization and medical experimentation, as well as straight-up misogyny. It was enforced until the 1960s and 70s, if you can believe it. Here’s a rundown of the American Plan’s impact.
Posted inCulture, General, Sex & Gender
The American Plan and World War I
Reading Time: 5 minutes We can blame war for a lot of things; among them is America’s decision to lock up women suspected of being sex workers, and to do so indefinitely while forcing dangerous medical treatments on them.
Posted inBooks, General, Psychology
Don’t Not Read This: William Styron’s ‘Darkness Visible’
Reading Time: 4 minutes A new New York Times article revisits a groundbreaking 1990 book on depression and suicide by late American novelist William Styron.
Posted inCulture, General, Sex & Gender
Why I’m Cool with Pair-Bonding But Not Enforced Monogamy
Reading Time: 5 minutes Speaking out against enforced monogamy doesn’t mean you’re anti-monogamy; it’s entirely possible that many people benefit from monogamy, because a lot of humans are driven to pair-bond. However, making the conversation about reducing violence raises problems and often misses nuances.
Posted inCulture, General, Sex & Gender
Sometimes We Commodify Intimacy, and That’s Okay
Reading Time: 4 minutes Is intimacy inherently better when it doesn’t have a dollar amount attached to it? I don’t necessarily think that has to be the case.
Posted inEducation, General
Thoughts on The Plight of the Independent Scholar
Reading Time: 2 minutes Even if you’re active in publishing and presenting your research, being an independent scholar can function like a stigma at conferences.