Objectify This

Recently I was listening to this episode of This American Life (Act Two, to be precise) and realized that the American Muslim community is experiencing a frightening witch hunt. In short, Masan Azbahi  was an Obama campaign liaison to Chicago’s Muslim community until he was accused of being a terrorist. Why? Because he had once [...]

According to the New York Times,  a federal judge ruled yesterday that Plan B (levonorgestrel), will be made available over the counter to women who are seventeen or older. The judge, Edward R. Korman, a Reagan-appointee, stated that there had been “political considerations, delays and implausible justifications” on the part of the F.D.A. The NYT [...]

Are women’s magazines bad for women? It might seem like a stupid question. But when, as the New York Times reports, a University of Missouri study “found that looking at women’s magazines for 1-3 minutes had a negative impact on women’s self esteem. So imagine what happens if we’re bombarded by these images every day.” [...]

Recently my girl Ashley pointed me to a post at Jack and Jill Politics. In my browsing there, I came upon yesterday’s post, “The Field Negro Smacks Down Shelby Steele’s Self-Hating BS.” While the post makes important points about the natural alignment of the black power movement and liberal politics’ focus on the government’s commitment [...]

III. The Myth of the Broken Glass Ceiling in the Sciences In 2005, Larry Summers  suggested that women might not enter scientific fields as often as men because of “innate differences,” according to this article from the Boston Globe. This infuriated the female scientific community, because scientific studies indicate that women don’t enter male-dominated fields [...]

Are spicy things sexy? Well, it’s hard to say, really. Not here in America Latina, por lo menos. There are separate words for hot (caliente) and spicy (picante) and while caliente has overt sexual overtones, picante generally does not. . . at least in the places where I’ve lived. Then again, Colombia and Costa Rica [...]

II. The Myth of  the Feminine Mystique Conservative economists like Chapman argue that women generally have chosen to enter fields that pay less, but that’s another way of saying that we don’t regard female-dominated fields such as teaching, nursing, psychology, and social work as professional domains worthy of significant compensation. These fields are often dismissed [...]