Category: GENDER/SEXUALITY

The UnMute Podcast: Episode 002 w/ Justin Clardy on Love

Our next episode is up. Go ahead and check it out. Here I chat with Justin Clardy about the nature of love, polyamory, and so much more. Press Play below and also head to the www.unmutepodcast.co for show notes and resources.

My Latest Piece at HuffPost: The Police and Their Masculinity Problem

  In this article I examine the role masculinity plays in police brutality and in civilian deaths at the hands of police. It is easy to confuse asserting your humanity and defending your life with asserting and defending your manhood. But it’s necessary to figure out the difference. It’s a matter of life and death. […]

Presentation on Django and Masculinity

  Recently I had the opportunity to present a paper at the American Society for Aesthetics. The panel I sat on was on Slavery and Cinema. My paper was entitled “Man Up, Man Down: Django Unchained and Black Masculinity.” In the paper, I explore hegemonic masculinity in the Old South and explained how Django, in […]

My Latest Piece at HuffPost: “What’s So Bad About Being Good”

My Latest Piece at HuffPost Examines what’s so bad about “acting like a man” and “acting like a Lady” from an Aristotelean and feminist perspective. You can check out the article Here. Excerpt is below. Please share with others. Gendered virtues also perpetuate patriarchy. To have “feminine virtues” like chastity, modesty and obedience is what […]

HuffPost Live Interview: Violence on Queer Black Women

I joined an important discussion about violence against Black Queer Women on HuffPost Live today. The episode was hosted by Marc Lamont Hill and guests included myself, Darnell Morre, Eboni Rafus, and Irene Monroe.  

My SAAP Talk

This past weekend, I attended and presented a paper at the 41st meeting of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy in Denver, Colorado. My paper was “Acting Mean: Queering Hegemonic Masculinity through the Cultivation of Virtues.” It’s a shorter version of a larger project I am working on. The audience was gracious and […]

Glenn Burke, Not Jason Collins, Was The First Openly Gay Athlete in Major Sports

  This pass Sunday, Jason Collins, became the first actively openly gay athlete in the four major sports in the United States when he played for the Brooklyn Nets against the Lakers. However, our limited view of history may have us all wrong about what the historical moment we thought was occurring. In 1976, a […]

Inside “Masculinities”: A Free Online Journal

Does Masculinities studies sound strange to you? As a feminist I think it’s important that I see not only women as victims of patriarchy but men as well. Masculinities studies aim to examine the latter and so much more. There is a new journal covering work in Masculinity studies. You can visit the PDF version […]

Dare To Use The F-Word

Barnard College has a new podcast series called “Dare To Use The F-Word.” Of course F-Word stands for “Feminism”. Podcast titles such as “Perfection”, “Image and Media”, and “Street Harassment” is available for your listening pleasure. More from their website: Dare to Use the F-Word tells the stories of today’s feminists through the art, the […]

Russia Thanks Us for Our Intolerance

We would like to think that we are not like our once cold war enemy, Russia. “They” are intolerant and oppressive. And “they” are presently doing an injustice to gay people. But before we start throwing stones from our red, white, and blue glass house, we need to take a look at our own intolerance. […]

Dale Hansen On Micheal Sam

Michael Sam is a NFL prospect who just came out as gay to the public. If he is drafted, and he will be, this will make him the first openly gay man in the NFL. Questions have been raised, “Is the NFL ready for an openly gay player.” We’ve heard some strange answers to that […]

Oppressed Majority: (clever short film on sexism)

    On what seems to be just another ordinary day, a man is exposed to sexism and sexual violence in a society ruled by women… (10 minutes) With Pierre Benezit, Marie-Lorna Vaconsin, Marie Favasuli, Céline Menville…    

Anita Hill Documentary Trailer

Against a backdrop of sex, politics, and race, ANITA reveals the intimate story of a woman who spoke truth to power. Directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Freida Mock, the film is both a celebration of Anita Hill’s legacy and a rare glimpse into her private life with friends and family, many of whom were by […]

Jennifer Saul and Implicit Bias

On Philosophy Bites, philosopher Jennifer Saul, discusses the range of ways in which we are prone to implicit bias and the philosophical implications of these biases. Jennifer Saul is the executive director of the implicit bias project. To find out more about implicit bias, visit biasproject.org.  Awesome resources there. Take a LISTEN to her interview about […]

Gender, Sexuality, & Hip-Hop Conference (A look Back)

Words can not explain the wonderful and inspiring time I had at the Gender, Sexuality, and Hip Hop conference at Tulane University last weekend. I learned so much and met some awesome people. You can read the paper I presented here entitled, “Nicki Minaj and the Permissibility of Feminine Bisexuality in Homophobic Hiphop”, as well […]

My New Article: Why Women Are Not Taken Seriously In Sports Conversations

I have a new article up on HuffPost called “Why Women are Not Taken Seriously In Sports Conversations”. To answer the question, I rely on Miranda Fricker’s concept of “epistemic injustice” and also offer up some solutions to end this type of bias treatment. You can view the full article here. Thanks to FeministPhilosophers.com for […]

My articles on Privilege and Sex Scandals

I published two articles in the last few days. There is an article up at Salon.com in which I analyze why privilege is so hard to give up. I also have another one at the Huffpost on the reasons we are obsessed with sex scandals. Check, Check, Check it out.

My New Article: “Gays and the Myth Of The Christian Minority”

I have a new article at the Huffington Post called “Gays and the Myth of The Christian Minority”. In it I argue that the so-called persecution of Christians who oppose homosexuality is a myth. Not only do I critique this claim but I also offer up reasons for why this is a good time for […]

Bell Hooks and Gay Marriage: My Response

My Response: Let me just say I love bell hooks. I think she is an excellent writer and a brilliant thinker. It’s nice to hear her voice once again in the public debate. It does appear that she has her criticisms about marriage. Sentence one had me very much intrigued. I wish she would of […]

New York City and Activism

“Every revolution requires its thinkers. Every movement is grounded in a philosophy”- Dr. Anthony Monteiro. The Museum of the City of New York has a wonderful exhibit called “Activist New York”. It is a well informed exhibit that chronologically takes a look at activism since New York City’s inception. It begins with the Quakers fight […]

Race and Gender In The Philosophy Field: A Free Collection of Essays

Hypatia has just released a free online collection of essays that focuses on gender and race issues in the field of philosophy. The Purpose of the collection is to … bring together essays published by Hypatia over a twenty year timespan that address the question of women’s place in the profession of philosophy. It includes […]

Religion and Sex

It seems that all religions have something to say about sex. The Torah tells with whom and when not to have sex. Other religions have integrated their beliefs into law and therefore one can be killed for their sexual encounters. Some suggest that religions attempt to prohibit sexual practices has to do with a focus […]

How Men Are Trained to Hate Women

This Article by David Wong at cracked.com is simply Brilliant. It’s a humorous yet solid argument of how men are trained to hate women. He provides five reasons how that happens: 1) men are taught they are owed a beautiful woman, 2) men are trained at birth to see women as decorations, 3) men are […]

Your Brain in Love, Lust, and Breakup Mode

I love the philosophy of love and sex. Love and sex is what makes the world go round,( I think), so reflecting and theorizing about it is something I truly adore. And I mean intellectually reflecting and theorizing about it!!!! It is also something that the world is extremely scared of talking about, engaging in, […]

Must Read Links on Race, Sex, & Politics

Well its Monday. There is no better way to start the week off than with some intellectual goodies about race, sex, and politics. In the Guardian there is a good chunk of a chapter of Faramerz Dabhoiwala’s book on the first sexual revolution. It gives a historical account on how sexual liberation began. The Human Rights Campaign […]

A Philosopher Responds to Rick Santorum’s Gay Marriage Argument

In 2005, then U.S. Senator Rick Santorum compared gay marrage to “man on child, man on dog or whatever the case may be.” It seems that Santorum is still on a roll with his logic that suggest that the acceptance of gay marriage will lead us to also accept incest, bestility, or pologaymy. Is his […]

Eddie Glaude and Mignon Moore on Left of Black

I really enoyed this episode of Left of Black!!! Here Mark Anthony Neil talks to Eddie Glaude Professor of Religion and African American Stides and chair of the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University about the state of Black Studies and the unique challenges of Black academics in balancing their roles as activists, […]

I’m Feminist Enough to…

I’m loving these videos from I’m Feminist Enough, a project created by Shannon Washington. In it, black women who consider themselves feminists, give us their mantras and their life codes. To me, feminism is realizing that women have value and worth as much as men. It’s the willingness to speak up and out about sexist […]

Rihanna, Arab Women, & Male-Chauvinistic Religions

These last few weeks so much has happened among women and it is nothing to celebrate. From the Egyptian woman getting beaten by the military to Rihanna being called a racist and sexist epithet, women are catching hell and have been for a while. In my new article in the Huffington Post, I take a […]

The Purity Myth

Feminist Jessica Valenti takes a look at what she calls the virginity movement: an effort to keep young girls dedicated to abstinence. Sounds alright doesn’t it? Well according to Valenti this purity movement is doing several things: 1) brainwashing young girls into thinking that their worth is found in their sexuality and 2)that virginity movement […]