Women expect more from their husbands than ever before. The days of us husbands putting our feet up or refusing to share our feelings are long gone. Though we acknowledge this shift, we struggle to adapt to these new expectations since we lack role models for doing so. When I talk to other young married […]
This post was originally published on the Good Men Project. Republished with permission. Mark D. White wrote a post today that gives an honest look at a guy struggling to understand a woman’s relationship to beauty, and how he, as a guy, should talk to her about it. Compliment her looks? Her intelligence? But why—when the […]
This post originally appeared on the Good Men Project. Republished with permission. Once upon a time, I was in a relationship with a woman who was the most brilliant, creative, and driven person I’d ever known. I told her these things often because she didn’t see herself this way, despite achieving tremendous success and acclaim […]
This post was originally published on the Good Men Project. Republished with permission. Last month, Mark D. White made some good points about how a professional woman may view, judge, and even castigate a man who does not share the same professional status, particularly when she makes more money than he does. Though it seemed over-simplified and […]
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Bridesmaids and how it could change the landscape for female-oriented programming in the theaters. I also mentioned how it indicates this country’s thirst for well-made studio fare by and about women. This past week The Help, a film about and targeted toward women, hit screens. The film […]
A new study by University of Buffalo sociologists suggests the answer is yes, indeed. This may be well-tread territory, but we think we need to go there anyway. One reason is what we call the “tyranny of the shoulds.” The study, entitled “Equal Opportunity Objectification? The Sexualization of Men and Women on the Cover of […]
This post originally appeared on the Good Men Project. Republished with the author’s permission. My father and I never seemed to have much to say to one another. When I was growing up, he spoke and I listened. He had been raised by the clichéd-but -honored dictum that children should be seen and not heard—a […]
I’ll admit it up front: what I’m about to say is probably going to sound defensive. But to give you some background, I’m a little tapped out these days and not at my most generous. As a parent to 4-year-old twins, a senior director at a small non-profit, and the wife of a workaholic, I’m […]
This post was originally published at the Good Men Project. Republished with permission of the author. Fact: women are too often judged solely on their appearance and treated differently based on how they measure up to men’s ideas of what they should look like. This much is obvious, and I’m sure the majority of us […]
Have you ever witnessed this scene? Two women meet for the first time. A few minutes later, they’re engrossed in conversation, effortlessly discussing the intimate details of their lives. By the end, they’ve often formed a meaningful bond. A little later, their male partners join them. They stand around chatting with each other, having what […]
I have always disliked being approached by men in bars. Cheesy pick-up lines that I might otherwise find marginally amusing somehow become creepy in the low light, screamed over the deep pulse of bass-heavy music. I don’t appreciate that a night out dancing inevitably means that some dude is going to come up behind me […]
Yesterday, I was running late for a meeting in downtown Washington DC when I saw a homeless man lying on the street with his hands down his pants, appearing to do things that should be done in private. I found a female police officer and mentioned the man to her, also noting that he needed […]
