Trans/Parents on Father’s Day

Mother’s Day. Father’s Day. Two days when there is a frenzy of gilt- and guilt-giving in the U.S. for parenting well done or aspiring to be. Thinking about the ways my American Mexican family’s traditions and cultural influences affected mainstream celebrations, I arrived this year at a decidedly 21st-century question: “How do families celebrate these [...]

Reflecting on the Gores: Marriage as a Political Litmus Test

Last week, Al and Tipper Gore announced that they are getting a divorce after 40 years of marriage. It’s a “mutual and mutually supportive decision,” according to an email the Gores sent to friends and family. Since their announcement, the internet has been a-twitter with a fair degree of disappointment and confusion. To many, the [...]

A Pre-Father’s Day Welcome to Good Men Project Magazine

Shopping for Father’s Day cards this year, I was struck by the limited range of familiar stereotypes about Dad: fisherman, golfer, grill-master, handyman, beer-guzzler, remote-control hog, king of the castle, and, of course, the sentimental dear old Dad. As far as I could tell from my informal survey of this domain, the only thing that [...]

Yes, Men Can Raise Kids

As feminists, we are keenly aware of the ways women are victimized and/or targeted by their surrounding cultures. We are often accused of having too many “politically correct” antennae up at one time. Donald Unger, in his new book Men Can: The Changing Image and Reality of Fatherhood in America (Temple University Press) would like [...]

Want To Make Money in the Stock Market? Take Testosterone!

My high school science textbook taught me that aggressive sperm “penetrate” those docile eggs that float around in unassuming uteruses. Larry Summers told me that women lack a natural aptitude for the sciences. Now, Jack van Honk, a psychologist of Utrecht University in the Netherlands would have me believe that a healthy dose of testosterone [...]

Blond Joke?

I chose to dye my hair platinum blond about a decade ago when I realized that, for most of my feminist life, I had been bowing to the golden cow of masculinity.

Gender 101 From Iron Man 2

It’s right there in the title: Iron MAN, not meaning “human” but male. As I sat watching the movie with my 13-year-old son (and cringing at the overt sexualization of females), I realized that Iron Man 2 is about the glory of males, the fact they are indeed “iron” and that, with their strength and ingenuity, [...]

Esquire Tells How to Make Pretty Women Laugh

For anyone who has a hard time understanding women, Esquire has devoted their entire May issue to helping readers figure them out. The issue includes “1,000 Things You Don’t Know About Women” and “The Esquire Survey of the American Woman,” as well as “A Man’s Guide to Women,” with advice on how to slow dance, [...]

From the Stacks: He Plays With Dolls

This Ann Landers column was featured in the No Comment section of Ms. in December 1974. It may be OK for girls to act outside of their stereotypical gender roles, but boys who do need psychological help. Gee, thanks, Ann. Fun Fact: Ann Landers (Esther Lederer) believed in 1973 that homosexual behavior was unnatural: “I [...]

Meet the New Kid on the Block: Male Studies

Men’s studies, one of the newest academic disciplines, now has some competition. Get ready for …. male studies? According to Rutgers University professor Lionel Tiger, who cochaired with anti-feminist author Christian Hoff Sommers a symposium at Wagner College in New York to announce the creation of the Foundation for Male Studies, male studies bases its ideas [...]

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