Author Archives: Richard Jeffrey Newman

“How Do You Get a Jewish Girl’s Number? Lift Up Her Sleeve:” Antisemitism in Orange County, NY

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

Update: Governor Cuomo orders an investigation. According to an article by Benjamin Weiser in today’s New York Times, “Swastikas, Slurs and Torments in Town’s Schools,” that was just one of the antisemitic jokes to which Jewish students in the Pine … Continue reading →

Posted in Anti-Semitism | 8 Comments

Rereading the Book Proposal for “Evolving Manhood”

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

So I am gearing up to write a book proposal for work that is connected to my Persian translations (about which more in subsequent posts). I’m using as my reference the same book that I used when I wrote the … Continue reading →

Posted in Men and masculinity, Writing | 3 Comments

A Good Conversation Starter: “A Machiavellian Guide to Destroying Public Universities in 12 Easy Steps”

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

From The Chronicle of Higher Education, here are the first four steps: Denigrate public education, and public institutions in general, as drains on private wealth and “job makers” to the point that no one would dare ask for increased support. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | 41 Comments

John Whitbeck, GOP Candidate for Congress, Makes an Anti-Semitic Joke

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

This is almost a week old, but someone posted it to Facebook today. The joke is one on which a representative of the Jewish people presents the new pope with a bill for the last supper, something–according to the joke–that … Continue reading →

Posted in Anti-Semitism | 28 Comments

What’s So Often Missing from Debates about Routine Infant Penile Circumcision

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

Over at Feministe, Jill has written a post called “How Intactivists Are Ruining the Debate on Circumcision” in which she complains, quite reasonably, that “Every time female genital cutting is mentioned on Feministe — every time — someone from the ‘intactivist’ community … Continue reading →

Posted in Gender and the Body | 11 Comments

Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut – Ruth’s Story

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

Trigger warning: These lines describe the sexual exploitation of a young woman. Ruth’s Story It wasn’t like I showed him anything he hadn’t seen before. Besides, he took the ones with clothes, the good ones, only if I did a … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, sexism, etc, Sex work, porn, etc | Comments Off

Trying To Be an Ally: Thinking About Hejab, Muslim Invisibility, and the Casual Hatred that is Cultural Appropriation (2)

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

I was inspired to write this series of posts–part 1 is here–after reading The Hijabinist’s post, “Here’s what’s wrong with hijab tourism and your cutesy ‘modesty experiments.’” The post takes note of and criticizes a pattern that the author traces … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, sexism, etc, Gender and the Body, Islamaphobia | 83 Comments

One of My Poems is Up at The New Verse News

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

The New Verse News, a website that publishes “politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues” has just today published the first part of a long poem I have been working on called “Because Fear Now is Never Foreign … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Comments Off

Trying To Be an Ally: Thinking About Hejab, Muslim Invisibility, and the Casual Hatred that is Cultural Appropriation (1)

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

In 2008, when my family and I traveled to Iran for my brother-in-law’s wedding, the day after we left Tehran to visit my sister-in-law and her family in Isfahan, the Iranian morality police drove a paddy wagon into Tajrish, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, sexism, etc, Gender and the Body, Iran | 28 Comments