Remembering the Civil Rights Movement

An interview with poet Cheryl Clarke about the 1963 March on Washington

In August 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington, I had the opportunity to interview African-American feminist and lesbian Cheryl Clarke about her participation in the March on Washington. A poet, essayist and literary critic, Cheryl has been an activist, a teacher and an artist for her entire ...
Read More
Remembering the Civil Rights Movement

Feminism and the Intersectional Politics of Anger

Soraya Chemaly’s Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger

I began reading Soraya Chemaly’s Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger the week of Brett Kavanaugh’s second appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Like so many other feminists, I found Kavanaugh’s bellicose and evasive performance utterly infuriating, and I was incensed by Republicans’ sputtering indignation that he had to address the accusations ...
Read More
Feminism and the Intersectional Politics of Anger

The Moral Reader and the Moral Life

Exploring Timothy Aubry’s essay, ‘Should studying literature be fun?’

Earlier this month, English professor Timothy Aubry published an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education Review with the rather querulous title “Should Studying Literature Be Fun?” The essay was a kind of précis (as far as I can tell) of his new book Guilty Aesthetic Pleasures. I have not been able to read the ...
Read More
The Moral Reader and the Moral Life

The Feminine Revolution of Electronic Music

After years of male domination and overt sexism, DJs and producers grow in number and international impact

In 2015, the German artist Tujamo released the song Booty Bounce , which became one of the hits of the summer. The only sentence of the theme is Let me see that booty bounce (Let me see how that ass moves). The video clip, which is on its way to 18 million views, is three minutes of girls ...
Read More
The Feminine Revolution of Electronic Music

Gender Ideology and the Brazilian Elections

Bolsonaro represents a hegemonic, masculine, and violent form of inhabiting the world

Jair Bolsonaro, the recently elected Brazilian president, is now well known, both nationally and internationally, for his misogynistic and homophobic declarations. During a parliamentary debate in 2014, Bolsonaro told one of the few women members of Parliament, Deputy Maria do Rosário, that he would not rape her because she was too ugly ...
Read More
Gender Ideology and the Brazilian Elections

The Majority Finds Its School

The lessons of Gerda Lerner

In the fall of 1962, Gerda Lerner offered a pioneering course in women’s history at the New School, titled “Great Women in American History.” Such a course may have occurred at Radcliffe College in the 1930s, and perhaps at other women’s colleges, but Lerner’s course at the New School was ...
Read More
The Majority Finds Its School

Wearing It On Our Sleeves

A Millennial’s Response to Christine Blasey Ford

Lately I’ve taken to wearing t-shirts, buttons, and pins that clearly identify me. “Dyke,” reads one, succinctly. “Black Lives Matter,” reads another, a gift from my girlfriend. “Fesbian Leminist” I include for an element of humor. It isn’t enough, I convince myself in the wake of the 2016 election, to merely ...
Read More
Wearing It On Our Sleeves

The Portable Phallus

An excerpt from Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings

In Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings: The Emotional Cost of Everyday Life Mari Ruti interweaves theoretical insight, cultural critique, feminist politics, and personal experience to lift the lid on the prevalence of bad feelings in contemporary everyday life. Emanating from a playful engagement with Freud’s idea of penis envy, Ruti’s autotheoretical ...
Read More
The Portable Phallus

An Interview with Mari Ruti

Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings

In Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings: The Emotional Cost of Everyday Life Mari Ruti interweaves theoretical insight, cultural critique, feminist politics, and personal experience to lift the lid on the prevalence of bad feelings in contemporary everyday life. Emanating from a playful engagement with Freud’s idea of penis envy, Ruti’s autotheoretical ...
Read More
An Interview with Mari Ruti

With Outrage and Injustice for All

Itinerary of a thought about the Kavanaugh controversy and the public significance of a fair hearing

“I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues.” -Duke Ellington As readers of this column know, I believe that Trumpism -- the Trump administration, the Republican Congress, and the Trumpist Republican party -- represents a profound threat to liberal democracy, human rights, social justice, and public decency. ...
Read More
With Outrage and Injustice for All

I Believe Christine Blasey Ford

Republicans have no plausible argument about why Brett Kavanaugh is innocent

What will come of the allegation by Christine Blasey Ford, a clinical psychologist and professor at Palo Alto University, that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when he was seventeen and she was fifteen? As of today, it is not clear that Ford will testify before the Senate ...
Read More
I Believe Christine Blasey Ford

Heroes but Not Saints

How should we judge reformers and radicals who were also racists?

In 2020, America will be commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Feminists and others are starting to plan the celebrations, which will include conferences, books, postage stamps, and new monuments honoring the women who fought and won that major battle. In anticipation, New York ...
Read More
Heroes but Not Saints