Are the all-female wedding and baby showers a necessary evil to rack up on gifts? Or are they painful reminders of our inadequacies? Lyla Cicero explores the tradition. There are few things women feel more ambivalent about than bridal and baby showers. I think it’s in part because in their traditional form, showers are places […]
Much of the media coverage of the recent Secret Service scandal in Colombia has focused on the “boys will be boys” logic and the potential danger to our national security, but Corey Barr says too little attention has been given to what these events say about power relations in military cultures. I have to admit, […]
Ken Miller’s not afraid to admit it: He gives a little extra in the bedroom when he needs a little extra cash from his breadwinner wife. The handling of our family finances has changed a great deal over the past 20 years, as I went from primary breadwinner in a two-income marriage to househusband caring […]
Stephanie Hlywak rejects the claim that Lena Dunham, the 20-something creator and producer of HBO’s new series Girls, has had success because of her famous parents. Did your cultural seismograph register a disturbance in the tectonic plates of society at approximately 10:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time Sunday night? That tremor was the premiere of Lena […]
Are men the more dominant sex? Are they more prone to violence? Clarisse Thorn discusses this in the wake of the hugely successful novel 50 Shades of Grey, which explores S&M erotica and features a strongly dominant lead male character. Much is being made of the highly successful S&M erotica novel 50 Shades of Grey. People […]
Sure, the recession sent more men into the home to take on the role of caregiving father, but was that the trend even before the economic downturn? Al Watts investigates. It’s Tax Week again, an opportunity to assess how the nation is recovering from a recession. The prevailing story is that the recession briefly changed […]
This originally appeared on The Good Men Project. Republished here with permission. CJ Kaplan doesn’t feel less of a man when his wife handles the family finances—she’s the only one qualified to. Lisa stared daggers of death at the oblivious car salesman as he serenaded me with the incomparable features of the minivan he was […]
Versions of this piece have appeared on MegaSAHD.com and The Good Men Project. Republished here with permission. My son is 6. He has a thing he does lately where he puts his wide-open mouth about a tenth of an inch from my nose. Then he just freezes there, panting on my nose. After the 500th […]
Filmmaker Gregory Collins describes the sometimes-dirty job of being a hands-on stay-at-home dad in the world today. There is a turd in the bathtub. Again. I have studied my daughter’s digestive patterns extensively, and I thought I had this sorted. My calculus is off. Or maybe it is the plums. Nevermind the turd. What the […]
People experience jealousy and competitive urges in many different ways, but when it becomes a turn-on, things can get a bit complicated. Clarisse Thorn breaks it down. Last year, I wrote a piece called “In Praise of Monogamy.“ I currently practice polyamory in my relationships, but I spent years dating monogamously. I’ve noticed that when people […]
This week’s roundup of our favorites from across the interwebs to help you make sense of men and women. 1. Must Women ‘Civilize’ Men? by Joan Walsh of Salon.com says that at the root of the conservative war on contraception is a deep-seated anxiety about the traditional family. 2. Life Without Sex: The Third Phase […]
There’s no guide to explaining to young children why their father left, as Katerina Zacharia—the mother of Demitri and Jaya—found out. But she’s going with her gut, and she’s doing just fine. The other day, we were driving home after the daycare pickup when Demitri cocked his head to the side and in the same […]
