Hi there blogosphere…. I seem to have taken an inadvertent hiatus from blogging for a while … it’s the kind of thing like forgetting to write your grandmother: the longer you wait, the more it becomes A THING and the more it becomes A THING the harder it is to write. So today, I am metaphorically writing my grandmother (may she rest in peace) and alerting you to my column …
Tag:
Gender
happy birthday, gloria steinem. I wish you didn’t matter.
Gloria Steinem spoke at my college graduation back in 1986. At the time, as a graduate of a woman’s college, I thought to myself “oh good lord, her. Couldn’t they find someone more relevant?” It was the era of “divest now” and “free Mandela;” we’d just spent four years at a single-sex college where “gender issues” were as pervasive as the scent of the clove cigarettes many of us smoked. Yes, …
PDA at the mall
Teen-age boys. You know the stereotype: rambunctious, loud, gangly, hands and feet too big for their bodies. They push and shove with their friends; they throw their arms around one another’s necks to show their affection, even though to the non-initiated, it looks like they’re trying to kill each other or at least cause grievous bodily injury. When I’m in the mall, or any other public space, the Emirati boys …
beyond the bricks to the beauty shop: lego goes girlie
A friend circulated this ad on facebook. Maybe you saw it as it made the rounds? The ad is from 1981, not a year particularly celebrated for female achievement (although it was the year Britney Spears was born, so I suppose that counts for something). I love legos and this ad only stoked my lego-love. My kids are lego freaks and over the years, my only consolation for finding those …
Snow White and Sparkle(s) Plenty: Boys Will Be…Boys?
Watching Liam and Caleb trying to pummel a snowbank into submission with their feet has started me thinking (again, still) about how we do—or do not—teach our kids about gender roles. Swivelheader wrote a lovely post wondering what her twins—a girl and a boy—would think about a sparkly princess dress that had been given to the little girl, which leads to the question: what do little boys think about the …