Teddy’s Favorite Toy by Christian Trimmer has one of my favorite things about a book: It did not get preachy over the fact that Teddy’s favorite toy is a doll (which is a cross between the Rugrat doll and Barbie). Nobody teases him. Nobody mentioned he is a boy. The story is: Teddy’s favorite toy is tossed out and how a real superhero finds it. Teddy has toys that are more traditionally considered “boy” toys and he has this traditionally considered “girl” toy. He has […]
Evolutionary Biology is on notice
3.5 stars I like Cordelia Fine and her work. Part of that, I’m willing to admit, may be confirmation bias — she clearly identifies herself as a feminist and is very upfront that her work is reflective of that viewpoint. But I was also trained as a scientist, and from that perspective my position is that many of her critics and detractors (and I’ll note here that for brevity’s sake I’m not including in this category people who have fundamentally sexist views and who probably […]
9/11 Revisited.
The Terror Dream by Susan Faludi It’s been something like, oh, I don’t know, 5 or 6 weeks since I posted any reviews here. I’m 30 reviews behind and TOTALLY NOT PANICKING AT ALL. I taught a summer class, and then I added another part-time teaching gig on top of the primary and online gigs that I have, so exhaustion is high and time is low. I’m going to try to catch up over the weekend, but if you really want real-time updates, follow me […]
Some patience required, but a worthwhile read.
Some Assembly Required is a memoir by a young transgender man. It’s a quick read that covers his life, from his dawning feelings of male identification as a child to his physical transition. It’s a very fast read, and a decent book considering the age of the author. I would highly recommend it to someone not particularly well-versed in transgender issues who wants to learn, but if you’re more knowledgable about LGBTQIA* issues it doesn’t necessarily add much to the discussion. I’m not saying that […]
The plan, a memory of the future, tries on reality to see if it fits.
This short, deeply smart collection of essays is really important. Seriously, “Men Explain Things to Me” resonated with me on every level. It’s a perfect gut-check… when some (most) men imply that I’m not entitled to articulate my own experience… when some (most) men cut me off in conversation about a topic on which I’m an authority because they have a couple of thoughts about it… when colleges and universities respond to reports of rape by instituting curfews and behavioral guidelines for women… when my […]
Biological imperative, my ass
Delusions of Gender is a truly interesting study of the (mostly flawed) studies in neurological science intended to explain gender differences between men and women that originate in the brain. It got a lot of press when it first came out a few years ago, and deservedly so — with nearly 100 out of 340 pages dedicated to footnotes and the bibliography, it’s impressively researched and satisfyingly comprehensive. Cordelia Fine’s main argument, after definitively surveying the field, is that neurological claims to identify and explain […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- Next Page »