Monáe’s pink neon sign that reads “Pussy Power,” represents a reclaiming of the vagina and all the degrading language and laws associated with it. I’ve hated the color pink for most of my life. On some subliminal level, I wonder if this has to do with pink’s longstanding association with hyperfemininity (think princess culture) and […]
While there are broad aspects of male privilege that male children may experience, there is a high price to pay for being bad at being a boy. Recently, in an auto parts store in Columbus, Ohio, I was called a “faggot” for the first time as a newly out, non-binary femme. I am a 600-pound […]
The very presence of men calls attention to the various kinds of vulnerability women carry with them—in their bodies, their careers, and their relationships. There’s a section midway through Claire Vaye Watkins’ seminal Tin House essay “On Pandering” that always opens a cache of memories from my own adolescence: As a young woman I had one […]
A woman, no matter her background, should never be asked to prove she is a woman. It was with nearly flawless timing that, just as the national conversation around Caitlyn Jenner, transgender identities, and the definition of womanhood was building to a screaming crescendo, Netflix released the third season of Orange is the New Black. […]
