The scarlet A on my chest is for the girl I was at 25—and for every other person who has felt ashamed of their desires. A few weeks ago, I tattooed a scarlet A onto my chest, a reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. The novel’s protagonist, Hester Prynne is forced to wear a red A […]
I often wonder about all the things I could have accomplished as a young woman, if only all my energy and attention had been focused on something worthwhile, rather than trying to grab the attention of the boys I looked to for validation. Fortunately, when I look back at my childhood, it was mostly happy. I […]
But I didn’t change my last name either. My husband and I have been married for almost 18 months. I think that means we’re still newlyweds. I know we still have a lot to learn about married life. It’s not easy blending two big personalities together into one harmonious couple…but we make it work. Much […]
Virginity is a social construction that came about because of the commodification of women. Virginity: It’s something we all know of, something we’ve all talked about. It’s something we, as a culture, obsess over. It’s a very valuable thing to have, if you’re a woman, and a very perplexing thing to have if you’re a man. Female […]
Not once did it occur to me that my aversion to sex was anything other than godliness. I’m not normally a person who watches TED talks. I want to be, but the idea of committing myself to something educational when I could be watching videos of dogs is a hard sell. When a Facebook friend […]
The average mom is terrified that her daughter’s sexual activity will deem her a “slut,” and the average dad knows that she could be objectified by boys and men, just as he was programmed to do. The most panicked calls and emails that I receive from parents are the ones that go something like this: […]
A version of this originally appeared on The Huffington Post. Republished here with permission. Don’t believe them when they teach you in hundreds of ways that you are inherently more sinful, corrupt, less worthy, and in need of constant male guidance. Reject them. Dear Girls, You are powerful beyond words, because you threaten to unravel the control […]
