This post was coauthored by Erin Murphy. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT) just released a statement condemning the medical profession’s nonconsensual treatment of intersexuality. Although intersexuality—which surfaces as “ambiguous” external genitalia, sexual organs and/or as sex chromosomes that deviate from normative expectations—rarely poses a health threat, the medical profession continues to perform [...]
After decades of controversy, the Boy Scouts of America may finally stop discriminating against gay scouts and scoutmasters. A new policy that will be considered by BSA’s national board next week in Texas would allow each scouting unit to decide independently whether to allow gay members and leaders, rather than having the national organization set [...]
Here’s some great news. The vast majority of young people–about 80 percent of women and 70 percent of men across all races, classes and family backgrounds–desire an egalitarian marriage in which both partners share breadwinning, housekeeping and child rearing. The data come from Kathleen Gerson‘s fabulous 2010 book, The Unfinished Revolution. In practice, however, egalitarian [...]
With Obama’s second inauguration approaching, it’s time to hold him to his campaign promises–especially those he made to women. There’s been a lot of discussion about Obama winning reelection because of women; now we need to start discussing specific actions Obama can take to create the future he imagined. The Obama campaign began focusing on women long [...]
Why do women want to be shooters? As a former New Yorker who has spent a decade in Weston, Conn., not far from Newtown, I am in shock. My daughter was a member of a premier soccer league based in Newtown, and I spent many hours in that pastoral, quiet town. I drive past the [...]
When a group of Mormon women began promoting “Wear Pants to Church Day” this month as a way to encourage a stronger voice for women in church affairs, they received an abundance of attention, ranging from encouraging support to bitter outrage. Apparently, some people were so threatened by the idea of women wearing pants to [...]
Dress-up wedding collections for your little “bride-to-be.” Pretty LEGOs to help her build beauty shops. Dolls skinnier than Barbie and sexier than Bratz. Pink vacuum cleaners and cleaning trolleys, makeup kits and kitchen sets. I spoke with Jennifer Pozner, founder and executive director of Women in Media and News, about the effects of toy gendering [...]
I loathe to weigh in on the “war on men” conversation, but … alas. While one can use both logic and data to poke gaping holes in Suzanne Venker’s argument that women need to surrender to their femininity and let men think that they’re in charge if they ever want to get married, I just want [...]
A report from England … Walking around one of Manchester’s most prominent fancy dress shops recently I was horrified at the outfits it had to offer. It’s not that the stock was scarce or anything, its just that with all the lycra nurse outfits that look as though they would only just fit a child, [...]
What if the federal government decided to require fertility tests for married couples and declared that only couples capable of having children could marry and receive the marriage benefits? Or, what if a powerful coalition of Christian or Jewish or Buddhist (why not?) congresspeople decided that the government would only recognize marriages between people of [...]
