Let’s say there’s only one person in a given audience who is bothered by “guys,” is that person’s opinion worth me selecting another word? You bet it is. It costs me nothing and I made the space incrementally safer for one person. Yesterday at work, I did 30 push-ups while wearing a dress. Yes, I am […]
In my attempts to define myself as different from those around me—people I assumed were less educated, full of prejudice, and generally less interesting—I became the one full of prejudice. My one-word question sounded as if the “y” had been turned over on its side, stretching the sharp “eye” sound into a lower, longer “ah” […]
Think for a moment about a blank slate character in any medium with no gendered attributes. Do you assume it is male unless you are given clear markers of femininity? As a feminist, and father of two girls, I am hyper-vigilant about how gender and sexism pervade everything, and I try to correct, or at […]
Men interrupt women, speak over them, and discount their contributions to a discussion with surprising regularity. Here’s how women should respond. “Stop interrupting me.” “I just said that.” “No explanation needed.” In fifth grade, I won the school courtesy prize. In other words, I won for being polite. My brother, on the other hand, was […]
