By Viola
When I was in college and stuck in the middle of writing a paper, I would take a shower. I liked showering in the elegant bathrooms in the dorms – the stalls themselves were beautiful, white and gray marble that echoed the splattering of water, the black and white basket-weave tile carefully preserved on the floor. Each shower-head had a plastic card hanging from it with instructions on how to perform a breast self-exam.
Sex and gender are often used synonymously. However, they mean far from the same thing. Sex refers to your biological makeup as being a male or female that is determined by your external genitalia, gonads and chromosomes. Gender refers to the social meaning and identity that is formed and is complimentary (most often) to your […]
In a previous article, I touched on how our culture tells us that fashion is a female thing and while men can still be interested in it, it’s almost always coming from a female perspective (i.e. women’s fashions). There’s really a lot more to be said on this subject, especially when it comes to how […]
Being a male at this time on the planet, it is somewhat disappointing to see the lack of concern among my fellow men to work on internal issues. We have been taught to deal with everything externally, instead of dealing with our inner emotions and blockages that hold us back from evolving. For most of […]
It seems that fashion in the United States is made for the thin….at least when it comes to women. Sizes that most stores carry and sizes women actually wear are quite disproportionate. The average woman in this country wears a size 14, while Hollister, Abercrombie and Fitch, Wet Seal, Urban Outfitters and Zara don’t even […]
All-or-nothing…compromise…all-or-nothing…compromise. So beat the political drum for decades, with both parties electing theirs on all-or-nothing platforms, but most legislation happening as a result of compromise. But you cannot help but notice that talk of compromise is at an all-time low, at least on the national stage. In Massachusetts on the other hand, if you look […]
Any discussion of fashion usually revolves around women. Specifically, fashions only women are supposed to wear, be interested in or care about. Even if men are the ones leading the discussion, it is almost always centered on women’s wear. During Fashion Week we only see or hear about shows that depict women’s wear. Fashion seems […]
In 1994, Pat Califia committed her thoughts on gender, sexuality, censorship, kink, prostitution, safer sex, and leather to print in a book titled Public Sex: The Culture of Radical Sex. As an outspoken, self-identified leather dyke, Califia took on laymen and academics alike for “white-washing” and “sanitizing” sex and its transformative and radical abilities. She […]
Today is Halloween, which means eating candy until you puke, prank calling everyone you know and dressing up in fabulous costumes. Speaking of costumes, Have you noticed how Halloween costumes seem to be…designed differently for men and women? Costumes seem to always be gendered and clearly “belong” to one gender or another. And not just […]
By Shanna Katz This month, Tracy discusses their genderqueer identity, and all of the complex processes surrounding this identity. This interview is about your Gender Fluid identity…What are some other identities of yours? Lesbian (although I prefer to the term “gay”), white/caucasian, atheist, middle class, liberal democrat, English-speaking, athlete, partner. Define your Gender Fluid identity […]