Our attitude of shock and awe toward Nationwide’s commercial proves we still live in a culture that sanitizes or avoids death. Despite a final-hour upset over the Seahawks in the Patriots favor, and Katy Perry’s flaming dress, which garnered an instant Buzzfeed comparison list, the most talked about element of the 2015 Superbowl online is the Nationwide […]
Sure, we got the hot girl eating a burger and Kim Kardashian selfies, but these “dad ads” were what really struck a chord. Every year around the Super Bowl, there’s a lot of talk about the teams, the snacks, the betting pools, and the halftime show. One of the biggest dialogues though, both during the […]
What we learn from the media frenzy surrounding Bruce Jenner’s gender transition is not that trans lives matter, but that Jenner himself is a public spectacle whose body and identity are reasonably subject to our collective gaze. I should start with a confession: The endless speculation around the gender identity of Bruce Jenner, Keeping Up with the […]
It involves a nervous breakdown, and trying to come to terms with open vulnerability. We are obsessed with it, and we obsess over why we’re so obsessed with it. “There is something undeniably totalitarian about the combination of mass media, Web, and social media,” that great social networking grouch Jonathan Franzen once (or twenty times) […]
Don’t tell me your high-end prostitution business is empowering because that completely trivializes the experience of other women who were forced into the industry. Investigating the increasingly hot topic of whether or not high-end sex work is an empowering choice for women has left me feeling rather unsettled. Not only are various individuals attempting to […]
It’s 2015, and I’d like to know why we still believe that a woman can’t be both smart and desirable. It’s late January and while navigating a sea of new course syllabi, doctoral applications, and conference research, I haven’t been the best at keeping up with recent news. What little media trickles through the stacks […]
The President included transgender people in his address, but took a lackluster stance on abortion rights. The majority of last night’s State of the Union address was predictably refreshing. Who wouldn’t want free access to community college? And no one could argue with a middle-class economy. While some folks could, and do, argue with climate […]
I refuse to accept that this is the best we can do for each other. Even when the sun hits its apex, the Januarys around here are brutally cold. The cold’s only half of it, though. Despite the oppressive winter, it’s the only outside I have to go to, and so I bundle up and […]
