Radical!...

Last night the Discovery Health Channel aired a special on “Radical Parenting,” as part of Baby Week. The schedule says, This one hour special explores several different families extreme forms of parenting. From attachment parenting to raising a child gender neutral to raising child without...

Selling to men by insulting women...

Masculinity is a fragile thing. Even something as seemingly innocuous as foamed milk is capable of destroying it. At least, that’s what many companies and advertisers believe, which is why they appeal to men by tearing down women and anything associated with women (including men who relate to...

Asian-American Women and Suicide...

Asian-Americans as a group have lower rates of contemplating and attempting suicide than the national average. But according to University of Washington research, American born Asian-American women are more likely to think about and attempt suicide than the general population. Almost 16 percent of...

Caster Semenya: Sports, Sex, and Gender...

via dump9x @ flickr The story of Caster Semenya is definitely compelling enough for me to fire up my Harpyness writing during my vacation, partly inspired by a reader who urged us to take this on. Semenya is an 18-year-old South African runner, who is now at the center of a media firestorm following...

More Words About Words...

After my post on words we hate–which yielded an awesome comment thread about not just nit-picky word-hating, but on language itself–I lucked into a fascinating article in Newsweek about how which language we speak may actually shape our perceptions and abilities. Lera Boroditsky, a psychologist...

To Know or Not To Know?...

Via Funky Shapes @ Flickr. Sunday night I held a dinner party for some friends and neighbors, two of whom were pregnant, although not far enough along to know the sex of the fetus. Both of them–and their husbands–agreed that they were going to find out as soon as a sonogram could catch a...

Babies in Bikinis: Do Not Want....

It’s time for another rant about children and gender! Now that it’s summer, even the littlest ladies are showing off their “bikini bodies” at pools and beaches. I find the sight of baby girls in two-pieces unsettling – not because I think the little darlings should be more...

More Than the Sum of Hir Parts...

If I ever become a parent, I’d look to this couple for a bit of inspiration. Judging from the public reaction to the Swedish parents’ story, I’d probably be accused of everything from child abuse to conducting a cruel social experiment… for not revealing the child’s biological...

What’s in a Unisex Name?...

via mercys mama @ flickr May has become one of my favorite months of the year, not only because it marks warmer weather and the end of a semester but also because it’s when the Social Security Administration releases the data on the most popular baby names for the previous year. Is that an odd...

So, yeah, what about the menz?...

Go, Dudes! Via Trois Tetes @ Flickr.I’ve had a Yahoo! email account for a zillion and one years now, and least once a week I tell myself to get rid of it, if only to spare myself the sight of a zillion and one “featured articles” about relationships, gender, and sex roles. Inevitably...