I just finished reading The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler, and I have to say I’m impressed. I love reading books that challenge me, that show me something I haven’t seen before. Like a lot of… Continue reading Mothers Forced to Surrender Their Babies
Category: Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality
Re-thinking Christianity and “Homosexuality”
Several years ago, I wrote an essay called A Christian Perspective on “Homosexuality,” in which I tried to put forth what I viewed as a balanced view of Biblical truth and sociological realism and compassionate understanding. I think about 90% of me still believes in that essay’s ideas. There is that 10% that isn’t too… Continue reading Re-thinking Christianity and “Homosexuality”
Why I say she
On several occasions I have been asked why I use she, her, or herself as the third-person singular in a generic situation. I’d say generally, the people who ask me have been male and quite indignant about it. The women who ask me seem quite pleased. And this is the effect I hope to achieve:… Continue reading Why I say she
He wouldn’t do it for you
I get sad when I see women changing their names to their husbands’ names. The rationalization usually goes something like “When we have kids, I want us all to have the same name” or “My last name is just awful, and I’ve been waiting to get rid of the thing.” Of course, just having the… Continue reading He wouldn’t do it for you
Musings on Making a Difference
A few Sundays ago, the pastor at our church gave a sermon about making a difference, examining how there are basically two approaches—institutional and personal. Institutional change seeks to change how society and laws are structured so that it affects the greatest number of individuals. Personal change is what he called the “grunt work” of… Continue reading Musings on Making a Difference
What Good is Science in the Media?
At the time of this writing, there is a “hot” news story about how the myth of women’s intuition is wrong and that men may actually be more intuitive. The media loves to jump on “studies” like these because they’re controversial and have unexpected results (at least as far as what the media calls “results”—these… Continue reading What Good is Science in the Media?
Privilege and Freedom
Particularly in discussions of race and gender (but also almost always), people often confuse privilege with freedom—the two ideas, although often related or overlapping, are quite different, actually. Whites (especially White men) and men (particularly White men) tend to get incredibly defensive when seemingly “accused” of being privileged in any way. They can be quick… Continue reading Privilege and Freedom
How Hollywood is Racist
A number of recent events got me thinking lately about race and Hollywood: an article about the casting of a non-Black/non-white love interest in Hitch; the recent Oscar wins of Morgan Freeman and Jamie Foxx for best supporting actor and best actor, respectively; and a question-and-answer session with Kevin Smith at last week’s Wonder-Con. Hollywood… Continue reading How Hollywood is Racist
Threshold of Pain
I just did a Google search for “threshold of pain men women.” One result was “Women More Sensitive to Pain than Men”; another was Women are the Hardier Sex…. Funnily enough, both results were from the same news site. Those findings confirm what I’ve long suspected, though. When people say (and they often do) that… Continue reading Threshold of Pain
The Whining Rich
One of the popular myths of our time (ever since Reagan) is that the poor steal from the rich, that the government screws the rich through taxes that in turn benefit the poor, that prisons are comfortable places where prisoners live in the lap of luxury. I’ve heard the off-handed complaints. They’re almost always off-handed,… Continue reading The Whining Rich