My Art
I always envied artists who were so committed to their expression they could tell the rest of the world to go to hell. Two years ago, I proudly joined them.
Read MoreMen Missed the Memo
One of the biggest lessons that the women's rights movements struggled to convey was that women didn't need to look to men for approval, affirmation, or a right to exist. These feminists believed that relationships with men could be founded on mutual respect, appreciation, attraction, interests, and fun, instead of the need for power or a sense of self-worth. Today, I realized that a lot of men missed the memo.
Read MoreBlack Men and White Women. Towards a Peaceable Alliance.
It's easy to say that white women need to work on their racism, and black men need to work on their misogyny. But white women need to mend their internalized misogyny: their need to in-fight, to abuse sexuality as a pure commodity, to establish a hierarchy based on false notions of beauty and transient symbols of power. And black men can stop perpetuating the same falseness of "Beyonce" beauty myth, and avoid taking on the white man's power structure as a paragon of control.
Read MoreThe Myth of the Absent Mother
When you read a lot of fairy tales, the question tends to arise, "Where the hell is this girl's mother?!" The trope of the absent mother has became so integrated into modern fairy tales that is rarely even explained. Mother figures are fraught with symbolism for all genders, but particularly for women. But why? What is compelling about having an absent mother to these princess-driven stories? But why? What is compelling about having an absent mother to these princess-driven stories?
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