Category Archives: Gender and the Body

What I’m Reading – Male Lust: Pleasure, Power, and Transformation

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

This book, Male Lust: Pleasure, Power, and Transformation, has been on my shelf since the early 2000s. Back then, it was at the top of my to-read list, but circumstances intervened and so I am only picking it up now. I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in Gender and the Body, Sex | Comments Off  

Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut: Remembering Claudia

Posted on May 9, 2017 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

The revision process leaves every writer with bits and pieces of work that no longer belong to the poem or story or whatever where they first appeared. Sometimes these scraps and fragments grow to become full fledged works on their … Continue reading →

Posted in Gender and the Body, Writing | Comments Off  

Why Feminists Shouldn’t Use “Neckbeard”

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Ampersand

My newest “Everyday Feminism” cartoon. TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON (At the top of the cartoon, large cartoon-style letters spell out “NECKBEARD.” Each letter is growing stubble hairs out of its lowest third.) (Behind all the panels is a large drawing of … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Disabled Rights & Issues, Fat, fat and more fat, Feminism, sexism, etc, Gender and the Body, Men and masculinity, Sexism hurts men | Comments Off  

Thinking about Barbara Walters’ Interview with Vili and Mary Kay Letourneau Fualaau

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

I’m giving two readings over the next few weeks, one on April 21st at the Risk of Discovery Reading Series, and the other on May 2nd as part of the New Masculinities Festival 2015. The details are below, but I’ve been giving … Continue reading →

Posted in Gender and the Body, Men and masculinity, Rape, intimate violence, & related issues | Comments Off  

Red Pills and Ants

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Louise de Rênal's Left Shoulder

Recent events at a blog that rhymes with Shmetal-Moptimized reminded me of the existence of sociobiology and of people who imagine that human beings – and ants and bonobos and every other species — are driven primarily by biological imperatives, … Continue reading →

Posted in Anti-feminists and their pals, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc., Economics and the like, Feminism, sexism, etc, Fiction, Gender and the Body, Homophobic zaniness/more LGBTQ issues, literature, Men and masculinity, Popular (and unpopular) culture, Rape, intimate violence, & related issues, Sex | Comments Off  

Scenes from Trans Policework: Working While Visibly Trans

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Grace Annam

I wrote most of this on Thanksgiving, but then life demanded that I do other things than finish it, until now. All names have been changed, for confidentiality. — There is a woman who lives in my city. Call her … Continue reading →

Posted in Gender and the Body, Transsexual and Transgender related issues | Comments Off  

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 →

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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 | 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 | Comments Off  

Over a hundred thousand sign petition against Disney’s Merida Makeover

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Ampersand

To celebrate Merida of the Pixar film Brave “officially” joining the Disney Princess line, Disney released some new illustrations of her. In the new illustrations, Merida is even thinner than her already-thin movie version (as Alyssa put it, “what appears … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, sexism, etc, Gender and the Body, Popular (and unpopular) culture | Comments Off