I’ve been reading Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, Lillian Faderman’s sweeping social history of lesbians in 20th century America (this is the sort of thing I do for fun). At the beginning of the chapter on World War II, Faderman makes this insight: If there is one major point to be made in a social history …
Tag Archive: sexuality
Feb 27 2013
“We Saw Your Boobs” and Distorted Views of Female Sexuality
I’ll leave it to others to thoroughly excoriate Seth MacFarlane’s performance at the Oscars. What I want to address specifically is his gloating “We Saw Your Boobs” video, and the interestingly skewed notion of sexuality that it presents. If you believe MacFarlane, and others who think like him, sex is a sort of competition between …
Dec 13 2012
How You Know They’ve Run Out Of Arguments
Steven over at WWJTD informed me of this nonsense: The newest argument against homosexuality has arrived. It turns out it prevents straight dudes from being friends. Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition explains: “But there is no such thing as absolute freedom when it comes to sexuality. The moment we celebrate or endorse certain behaviors, we curtail freedom …
Sep 02 2012
"Traditional" Morality and Anti-Porn Arguments That Fail
So the Republicans have added a section to their official party platform that calls for a crackdown on pornography. Whereas previously, the GOP platform had only addressed child pornography, the new language reads: “Current laws on all forms of pornography and obscenity need to be vigorously enforced.” Although this sentence does not technically suggest a …
Sep 02 2012
“Traditional” Morality and Anti-Porn Arguments That Fail
So the Republicans have added a section to their official party platform that calls for a crackdown on pornography. Whereas previously, the GOP platform had only addressed child pornography, the new language reads: “Current laws on all forms of pornography and obscenity need to be vigorously enforced.” Although this sentence does not technically suggest a …
Aug 15 2012
Public Breastfeeding Should Not Be a Big Deal
Breastfeeding has been somewhat of a hot topic lately. On one hand, mothers’ decision to breastfeed or not has been subject to intense moralizing and even actual regulation, which is creepy. On the other hand, public breastfeeding has been under attack, too. Facebook disables/deletes accounts of people who post photos of themselves breastfeeding. Mothers lose …
Feb 21 2012
Why Hookup Culture Sucks
This week’s Daily column. Most people over the age of 35 would probably tell you that the college hookup culture is a terrible thing. To them, the truth is plain to see — casual sex leads to sexual assault, has all sorts of negative psychological consequences, and is usually a sign of low self-esteem. Popular …
Jan 12 2012
Is Homosexuality "Unnatural"?
Spoiler alert: no. First, let’s define “natural.” Here’s what Merriam-Webster has to say: “being in accordance with or determined by nature” “having a specified character by nature” “occurring in conformity with the ordinary course of nature : not marvelous or supernatural” “existing in or produced by nature : not artificial” For something to be “unnatural,” then, …







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