Why Authoritarians Always Come for Gender Studies First

We all know that Trump and the Republican Party are coming for higher education. But, what many don’t know is that in this century, authoritarians come for gender studies first.

I would be nearly hopeless about the future of gender studies in the U.S. if not for a valuable lesson I learned teaching gender studies in Russia: Critical thinking is difficult to destroy. It will fester in the cracks and fissures left behind by the regime. And, when the regime collapses—as all authoritarian regimes eventually do—gender studies will return with the skills and courage to teach about how the world really is, not how many on the far right wish it would be.

Pro-War Rhetoric Around Ukraine Perpetuates the Patriarchy and Plays Right Into Putin’s Hands

Ukraine Putin

Watching cable news coverage of the tragic events in Ukraine, I hear again and again how brave the Ukrainian men who are staying to fight are. But we should be very careful about who we worship because fetishizing the masculinist and militarist response of war will hurt women and LGBTQ people for decades to come.

Putin is a madman, but his regime depends on these century-old notions of binary gender and “normal” sexuality. The way the U.S. mainstream media is covering the illegal invasion of Ukraine is doing similar cultural work.

The Men Are Not Alright

The problem is not mental illness. The problem is not violent video games. The problem is a social pathology of aggrieved entitlement and misogyny mixed with white supremacy, aided and abetted by 8Chan and Fox News and Donald Trump and corrupted lawmakers.

Radical Romance: Examining Our Disruptive Affection for AOC

I felt a heart-warming spark of hope as I stamped my frozen feet this January in New York City, awaiting my beloved Ocasio Cortez at the 2019 Women’s March. Maybe we have finally wiped the fairy dust out of our eyes. Maybe we have started building a future that is not about our own individual love stories, but our love for humanity and our love for the Earth.