Accountability, Transparency, Objectivity—and Victim Shaming When the Epstein victims told their stories of sexual violence—publicly, forcefully, and with documentation—they were met with skepticism, character attacks, and efforts to rewrite their narratives....
The Human Rights Crisis the Headlines Ignore This is the second of a two-part post that forms a call to action to feminists; anti-sexual violence and anti-incest activists; social justice activists; anti-sexists; sexual violence prevention advocates; and all who are...
This is the first of a two-part post that forms a call to action to feminists, anti-sexual violence and anti-incest activists, social justice activists, anti-sexists, sexual violence prevention advocates, feminist journalists, and all who are simply fed up with our...
Pete Hegseth’s call for “male standards” in the military echoes a far older code—one built on domination, denial, and silence. Image: Andrew Geddes in the late 1870s. From Louise Barnett, Ungentlemanly Acts: The Army’s Notorious Incest Trial (Hill and Wang,...
This is the last of a two-part post that forms an appeal to feminists; anti-sexual violence and anti-incest activists; social justice activists; anti-sexists; sexual violence prevention advocates; and all who are simply fed up with our culture’s indifference to sexual...
This is the first of a two-part post that forms an appeal to feminists; anti-sexual violence and anti-incest activists; social justice activists; anti-sexists; sexual violence prevention advocates; and all who are simply fed up with with our culture’s indifference to...
In midlife, I became a beer drinker. This choice approved of by both my health-conscious children and even my gynecologist: “After all, it's fermented!" But after years of pints, I explained to my children that there were some nights when I just didn't want a beer; it...
More than anything, my mother wanted me to be the Breck girl. Blonde, diaphanous, non-threatening, and docile; the epitome of feminine beauty. But I was dark, and so when I showed my first pimple, she rushed me to a dermatologist. He dismissed her concern about...
Here's a fun story you can tell at parties. One gloomy afternoon in the mythological kingdom of Argos, the virgins felt they had just had enough, enough of men's laws and their sexist attitudes, enough of their sexual violence. So they fled to the mountains and hid in...
The book I have just finished, She's Such a Liar, is not just about the institutionalized suppression of incest and patriarchy’s dependence on father-daughter incest. It’s also about our culture and two of our culture’s founding presuppositions, that of gendered...