Some of my friends, fellow parents, felt I was overreacting when I got angry at my daughter receiving a “best dressed” award from her pre-school. She’s a pretty girl; she dresses in fun ways; they were celebrating that. Some girls are just girly and there’s no problem there. I replied by talking about the overwhelming…
The full essay is here. It was written (by request of CNN) in response to Pope Francis’ announcement that he would canonize both Pope John-Paul II and John XXIII this year in one ceremony. The latter one caught most people by surprise (including me). So what’s going on in Rome? I turn back to the…
WARNING: OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE The most damning moment about race in the Paula Deen transcript took place during a long discussion about her brother’s wedding plans. Deen had been to a restaurant in “Tennessee or North Carolina or somewhere” that had an extremely professional wait-staff of middle-aged black men, dressed in white jackets, black trousers, and…
Fascinating article taking a long view on obesity around the world. The final paragraph reads: Today’s priests of obesity prevention proclaim with confidence and authority that they have the answer. So did Bruno Bettelheim in the 1950s, when he blamed autism on mothers with cold personalities. So, for that matter, did the clerics of 18th-century…
From Slovakia (and the NYTimes) Late last year, the National Bank of Slovakia announced that the European Commission, the union’s executive arm, had ordered it to remove halos and crosses from special commemorative euro coins due to be minted this summer The coins, designed by a local artist, were intended to celebrate the 1,150th anniversary…
All these essays are saying more or less the same thing as mine. Gendered language, clothes, toys, media, etc. are all part of the pernicious and pervasive influence of patriarchy on our culture. ‘Girlie’ pajamas Boys underwear (for the author’s daughter) Boys will be Boys (and its perils) There’s lots more, especially on father’s day,…
After my latest CNN piece, a few of my friends noted that they thought I was going to talk about the Nika riots and Justinian, then compare them to today’s unrest in Istanbul. I considered it. Civil unrest in Constantinople has, in fact, brought down many an emperor over history, though in this light Constantinople…
I have a new essay up on CNN. I started public writing for two reasons – 1. To write about parenting (especially disability, though gender has now emerged as a major theme). 2. To try and insert historical context into contemporary stories. The name, How Did We Get Into This Mess, reflects that latter goal,…
In a recent New Yorker piece on the late SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, Nicholas Schmidle writes, Like many soldiers, Kyle was deeply religious and saw the Iraq War through that prism. He tattooed one of his arms with a red crusader’s cross, wanting “everyone to know I was a Christian.” When he learned that insurgents…
Several people (including my mother) have noted that (kindly) there was nothing new in my piece on CNN. Feminists have known these things for a long time. And sure, the neuroscience is more specific now, but what I was doing was illustrating a specific, recent, form of a long-recognized problem. I absolutely agree. What’s startling…