I couldn’t speak up then, but I have to now. In my imagination, the first question the police ask me is, what was I was doing at a party where I didn’t know anyone? My answer sounds like an indictment: I was there because cute guys invited me, and because I was lonely. I was […]
Year after year, we introduce poisoned boys into the cauldron of adulthood and watch them wreak havoc. The outrage has reached a fever pitch over the Stanford swimmer’s convicted rapist’s unusually light sentence—six months in county jail, or as few as three with good behavior—for the brutal rape of an unconscious young woman behind a dumpster. […]
The message of the book isn’t—as the author claims—that every person has a right to die with dignity, but that the only logical response to becoming disabled is to choose to kill yourself. Rain Man. Boys Don’t Cry. Philadelphia. To Kill A Mockingbird. Books and movies have the power to change society and how we view […]
This expansion should be beneficial to parents everywhere. When I first heard how President Obama wanted to modify America’s antiquated overtime laws, I was overjoyed. I work hard at my job to provide for my family, and it would be a blessing to get fair compensation for all the overtime I put in. But then […]
It costs you nothing to bare your chest to the sun. Your body does not stand for anything other than itself. I heard four of you in less than a mile radius once on my way to buy milk. The day was sweltering, but I wanted to walk to the corner grocer up the street. […]
The very presence of men calls attention to the various kinds of vulnerability women carry with them—in their bodies, their careers, and their relationships. There’s a section midway through Claire Vaye Watkins’ seminal Tin House essay “On Pandering” that always opens a cache of memories from my own adolescence: As a young woman I had one […]
I know, just by virtue of being black, that if anything should happen to me, there are plenty of people ready to defend my would-be killer. A few days ago, yet another one of Freddie Gray’s killers got away with his murder. But when I think of Freddie Gray, for some reason, I don’t first […]
They are well past child-bearing age, they are divorced, and they are no longer desirable to the mainstream male gaze. And yet Grace and Frankie seem to be having the best time of their lives. When Grace and Frankie first came out in 2015, the show was thought to be a one-trick pony appealing only […]
