The pain we cause
Gang rape, pulling a train, gang bang, serial sex.  These painful words that hurt, following or preceding or completely apart and separate from the acts they describe. And then that one word that looms so large: SLUT. And the smaller ones words that follow: she wanted it, she asked for it, dresses like a whore, I knew a girl once and she totally wanted it with all those guys in one night and I can prove it to you because her name is… And this one: If a prostitute is made to have sex, is that rape or is it shop lifting? I have heard all of these statements in my classes, and so I stand up in front of my students and read first person accounts from rape v

Negotiating about social media
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, blogs, blogs, and more blogs - so much online space, so many questions! I am delighted to announce that I will be moderating a panel called Negotiating The Parent/Teen Divide Over Social Networking at SXSW Interactive 2010. I’m very excited about this panel as an opportunity for parents and teenagers to speak direct

Mama Who Bore Me
I had the pleasure of seeing Spring Awakening on Tuesday.  I had never seen it, nor had I read a full plot description.  So while I knew it was one of those things I needed to see, I didn’t have any preconceptions or really any details at all. What I found in Spring Awakening was a portrayal of a deep understanding of the emotional lives of teenagers. There are many points I could talk about from Spring Awakening, and I might go into all of these over time, but

On the Glamour parade
I wrote a reaction over on The Belly Project about Glamour magazine’s article and accompanying photo spread with “plus-sized” models. Glamour’s rather self-righteous tone and the plethora of too-excited, suppos

The seductive allure of the music…
Tonight I am preparing for a class tomorrow morning on gender.  I start all my college classes with a song that is relevant to the topic, and my dear partner and I were playing around with music for tomorrow, including The Kink’s Lola, Vitamin C’s Girls Against Boys, Beyonce’s If I Were a Boy, and John Lennon’s