Social Commentary

Back in the day, infants of all genders wore white frocks—white, because it could be bleached of any infant spewage, and frocks, because it's easier to wriggle a baby into a dress than into britches. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1884 toddler photo depicts our dignified to-be president sitting primly in a white skirt and patent leather shoes.  

Eventually, parents began dressing their infants in "the colors of springtime," but it wasn't until World War I that those colors became gender signifiers. In June 1918, the Earshaw Infants' Department instructed parents, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” 

When a rape victim went public with her story earlier this year, Jim Foley, Vice President of the University of Montana, sent an email asking if she could be punished under the Student Code of Conduct.

Be friends with the other women (unless they really suck), learn some sports, avoid businesses that promote boys clubby tendencies, and other ways to deal if you can't play golf (I am awful at it, not that I was invited) and you don't smoke cigars.

If the Supreme Court signs off on Obamacare next month, queer and transgender people will take another step towards affordably and comfortably getting the plumbing checked.

But in order to reap the benefits of healthcare reform, we have to buck up and go to the doctor first.

At the height of attending my friends' baby showers, more than one feminist writer urged me to forego having children. Remaining childless is tempting in a world where the costs of raising kids and taking time off to help raise them are getting higher and higher.

When the Washington Post featured a story about a transgender five-year-old last week, online commenters accused the parents of overreacting to harmless "tomboyishness." But parents who listen to their kids, allow their kids to live as their preferred gender, and guide them through consensual medical decisions are choosing life for their children when the alternative could be far more serious than a temper tantrum.

A study published last week by Loyola professor Kendall J. Eskine in Social Psychological and Personality Science reports that people who eat organic food are self-righteous assholes. My main question is: What in the ridiculous research hell kind of study is this?

The Pew Research Center offers startling, groundbreaking numbers on "Today's Woman" who "often balances her career with her husband and children." (Yes, this is a study from 2012, not 1975.) It is called "A Gender Reversal on Career Aspirations: Young Women Now Top Young Men in Valuing A High Paying Career." Hide your kids, people.

There's been a lot of discussion about the gender pay gap. But there are some jobs that pay women many more pennies than 77 cents to the dollar. Among them: Shoe Shiner, Butler, Secretary, and Computer Repair Technician.

Dear HBO,

I've been watching your miniseries, Weight of the Nation, and though you have some good information, I am largely disappointed. Not that I’m all that surprised—the title alone employs the same old fat-shaming rhetoric. "Look at these fat people!" your show says. Yeah yeah, health problems, diabetes, etc., blah blah. LOOK THEY’RE FAT.