Author: Kari Lerum

Kari Lerum is a researcher, scholar, educator and social justice advocate. She is an associate professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at University of Washington Bothell, an adjunct professor in gender, women and sexuality studies at University of Washington Seattle. For more information about her work, see: www.karilerum.com
White Lotus's Lessons on Black Lives Matter, Reparations and Queer Liberation

The White Lotus: Lessons on Black Lives Matter, Reparations and Queer Liberation

This summer’s finale of The White Lotus (TWL) garnered 1.9 million viewers and has been renewed by HBO for a second season. Overall, critics cast the first season of TWL as an entertaining, if bleak, satire of wealthy whiteness. In the words of one headline, “Nothing changes on The White Lotus. That’s the point.”

What’s missing from previous critical reviews is how TWL explores themes related to Black Lives Matter, reparations and queer liberation—or how TWL offers useful lessons for white progressives.

Feminist Burlesque, in Theory AND Practice

In my Ms. review of Burlesque, the musical film starring Christina Aguilera and Cher, I argued that it contained certain pro-feminist and queer qualities. At the same time, the thin legs, arms and waists of its stars are quite dissimilar from the curvy bodies of most burlesque performers, both historically and in the contemporary neo-burlesque […]

For Sex Workers, Recommendation #86 Will Go Down in History

Recently I blogged about how the United Nations’ Human Rights Council flagged sex worker rights in its periodic review of the United States’ human-rights record. Member state Uruguay recommended that the U.S. “ensure access to public services paying attention to the special vulnerability of sexual workers [sex workers] to violence and human rights abuses.” Within […]