In a previous post I’ve argued against framing a preference for boy children as “culturally ‘Asian.’” New data from Gallup, sent in by Kari B., shows that this preference is alive and well among Americans, at least among men. While women are most likely to have no opinion and are about equally likely to prefer a girl [...]
Yesterday marked the day that gay and lesbian couples across New York were finally legally able to marry. According to The New York Times, 659 marriage licenses were issued on Sunday alone. The anti-gay National Organization for Marriage held their rallies in protest, of course. The Associated Press claimed that thousands showed up. NOM tried [...]
When my father was honored for his 32-year career in the CIA–a career that spanned the Cuban Missile Crisis to the fall of the Berlin Wall–he invited me to the ceremony. At 23, I didn’t know what to say. Not because his being in the CIA was new information–it wasn’t–but because we were so different. [...]
Judge Nancy Gordon of North Carolina ruled last month that Sofia, 11, and Bud, 5, should be raised by their father, Kane Snyder, rather than their mother, Alaina Giordano. The main reason? Giordano has stage four breast cancer that, though currently stable, has metastasized in her bones. Giordiano’s breast cancer was not the only concern–Giordano [...]
Crack open issue number 47 of Hip Mama—The Body Issue—and here’s what you get: a photograph of a pregnant woman in the desert, posed like a warrior, belly full and exposed; a piece about the physical changes birthing can bring, complete with a photograph of the author’s sagging bum and loose tummy skin; “99 reasons to [...]
On Mother’s Day, it’s easy to get caught up in the Hallmark image of Mom. Even in the 21st century, the idealized mother often appears as straight, married and, if not stately or stodgy, at least mature in years. But how many mothers actually fit that stereotype? The Strong Families Initiative (led by Asian Communities for [...]
In Part 1, I figured out how to be both a good mother and a good professor. Even though being out of the mom closet seems to be more acceptable in academia these days, there are nevertheless those higher up–deans, provosts, presidents–who one hesitates to tell. While society seems to believe a male can do [...]
I did not expect that being a mother would make me more of a feminist. In fact, I feared quite the opposite, worrying that my feminist convictions would wane under the weight of overfilled diaper bags and the expansive responsibilities of caring for an infant. When I had my first child, a son, just after [...]
A “Yes on Prop 8” sticker on a neighbor’s house led Jaime Jenett, a non-biological lesbian mother who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, to write this letter: Hello, You don’t know me but I walk past your house three to four days a week on my break from work. Every time, [...]
A few months ago I was scrolling through audio files of interviews on my computer when I was startled to hear the recorded cooing of my daughter when she was a baby. I had been hiking through dry arroyos in the desert west of Albuquerque with a biologist who was studying the decline of burrowing [...]
