It’s a good idea to share a family meal with such relatives, but don’t try to understand them. If there are two things you can count on at this time of year, it is that 1) you will get irritated by (and perhaps even shout at) a relative; and 2) you will read articles about […]
Our assessment of power is itself deeply conditioned by all of the power structures that already exist. When I was 22 years old, deep in the psychological and spiritual work of confronting the most blatant instance of sexual abuse in my own life, I confessed to my counselor and spiritual director that I worried that […]
His face, his assault, my destruction has held an unrelenting and vicious grip on my very being every day of my life since then. CN: rape When I was a junior in college in 1967, I was raped by a Students For A Democratic Society (SDS) activist named Ron Bitten on the couch of the […]
Anything with smiling Indians and bright feathers will be critiqued, explained, and unceremoniously thrown in the trash. Every year in the weeks before Thanksgiving, at least one person, often multiple people, cautiously ask me if Native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. At the grocery store, I’ve seen the worried looks of check-out clerks, moments after they’ve automatically […]
Abusers convince these women that they’re the problem or that they deserve the treatment they dish out, and they gaslight them and convince them not to trust their own experiences. Charlie Rose. Roy Moore. Al Franken. Every day, there’s a new name to add to the list of men who have sexually harassed and assaulted […]
Those who consider this a culture shift and not a temporary purging are assuming that what happens in the public eye will automatically spill over into private lives. The reality is that trickle down justice is every bit as much of a myth as trickle down economics. The recent avalanche of sexual harassment and assault […]
Resisting is a marathon, not a sprint. 2017 is the year of anxiety. We’re at the beck and call of our phones’ push alerts, breaking bad news jolting us out of work, sleep and school. Just as one is extinguished (e.g., a Muslim ban defeated in court), another is crackling in the background, another hate […]
Before long, I knew of no higher compliment than, “You’re not like those other girls.” Simone de Beauvoir once said that “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” I think the same is true of feminists, especially after a conversation in my graduate seminar last week. “Can men be feminists too?” a male […]
