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Grace Brown, "Myanmar's LGBT community find freedom at spirit festival"
"Every summer, this part of central Myanmar hosts the cross between a traditional religious gathering and gay pride festival, which has become a key event for the LGBT community in a country where those who do not conform to traditional gender ideas are often shunned and "homosexual acts" remain illegal."
Phillippa Carnemolla, "Sex, technology and disability—it’s complicated"
"My research into inclusive design explores how design can—intentionally or unintentionally—exclude marginalised or vulnerable people, as well as how design can ensure that everyone is included. "
Sara Clemence, "The Gender Divide in Preschoolers' Closets"
"I buy my daughter boys’ pants because even in an age of female fighter pilots and #MeToo, boys’ clothes are largely designed to be practical, while girls’ are designed to be pretty."
"Documentary about women in science puts gender issues under the microscope"
"For women who have made science their career, there is seemingly no scientific explanation to explain the work challenges they face solely because of their gender."
"Drag Queen Story Hour Sparks Protests in Conservative Towns"
"In Lafayette, Louisiana, west of New Orleans, the president of the local public library board resigned amid debate over plans to hold 'Drag Queen Story Hour'. Mayor Joel Robideaux has indicated he may seek to cancel the Oct. 6 program."
Jeffrey S. Flier, "As a Former Dean of Harvard Medical School, I Question Brown’s Failure to Defend Lisa Littman"
"This week’s controversy surrounding an academic paper on gender dysphoria published by Brown University assistant professor Lisa Littman—brought on by the post-publication questioning of Dr Littman’s scholarship by both the journal that published it, PLOS One, and Brown’s own School of Public Health—raises serious concerns about the ability of all academics to conduct research on controversial topics."
Jason Horowitz, "Pope Francis’ Accuser Turns Up the Pressure With More Accusations"
"The archbishop who accused Pope Francis of covering up a cardinal’s sexual misconduct has escalated his offensive with new, detailed accusations that put increasing pressure on a pontiff who the archbishop and his supporters say has misled the faithful and should resign."
"Nebraska Catholic Diocese Rocked by Old Abuse Allegations"
"As a new wave of abuse scandals rock the Roman Catholic church, critics say the Diocese of Lincoln is now paying the price for its unwillingness to change and lack of transparency."
Shahla Khan Salter, "We're Queer Muslims And Allies Marching At Pride For Those Who Can't"
"For members of a Muslim community where the traditional ulema, or religious leadership, still frowns upon homosexuality, marching at Pride as queer Muslims and their allies have been doing in Ottawa for several years now (and as queer Muslims and their allies have done in other Canadian cities, in the U.K., France, Italy, the U.S. and elsewhere) is an act of religious and political rebellion."
Lauren Sandler, "To Solve America's Sexism, Make Workplaces More Like Iceland's"
"For the past nine years, the World Economic Forum’s gender equality index has deemed Iceland the best place on earth to be a woman. Early this year, it became the first nation to require employers to prove they are paying women equal wages for equal work, fining business that fail to do so."
"Unmarried mother denied widowed parent benefits after partner's death wins landmark Supreme Court case"
"An unmarried mother has won a Supreme Court battle to access widowed parent's allowance for her bereaved children."
"Why are so many teenage girls appearing in gender clinics?"
"The study has attracted heavy criticism. Some is reasonable. Though it is a solid first attempt to describe a recently observed phenomenon, it is qualitative rather than quantitative, and relies solely on interviews with parents, not children."
Article Spotlight
Alison Lefkovitz, "Men in the House: Race, Welfare, and the Regulation of Men's Sexuality in the United States, 1961-1972," Journal of the History of Sexuality 20, no. 3 (2011): 594-614. https://muse.jhu.edu/
"Substitute parent laws, also known as "man in the house" laws, introduced one of the most calculating means of exploiting black men's sexuality to solve the problem of black women's dependence. Before 1961, states were free to make distinctions between the deserving and undeserving poor however they saw fit, based on a suitable home clause in the 1935 Social Security Act establishing Aid to Dependent Children. Aid to Dependent Children, which was renamed Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) in 1962, was a federal program that depended on state governments to distribute welfare funds. In many states, a woman and her children could easily be prevented from being added to or else purged from the welfare rolls on the basis of the mother's sexual immorality. Increasing numbers of states adopted these types of laws to protect themselves from what they perceived as an onslaught of women and children clamoring for aid."
Call for Papers
Suffrage at 100: Women and American Politics Since 1920
Submission Deadline: September 15, 2018
"This collection will map out the last 100 years of this lengthy struggle, focusing on efforts to recognize, appreciate, and cultivate women’s civic engagement since the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Our purpose is not celebratory. Instead, we seek to trace the uneven road to suffrage and public office women of different backgrounds and means experienced after 1920. We also intend to expose the institutional barriers and masculinist conceptions of leadership that women in politics have faced and continue to tackle. Women have exhibited considerable democratic imagination within and outside the traditional channels of electoral politics. Melding gender, social, cultural, and political history, this collection seeks to capture examples of women acting together and on their own within and outside electoral and governmental channels to claim a political presence, enlist state action, and create alternative services and solutions. In doing so, we use this historic centennial to make visible the determined presence of women in politics since 1920, while also calling attention to the ways these women have and continue to be written out of history"
Please send article abstracts of 500 words and a CV by September 15, 2018 to: Stacie at staranto@ramapo.edu or Leandra at lrzarnow@central.uh.edu. We also welcome questions and comments at those email addresses.
Episode Spotlight
In 1973, CBS cancelled the top-rated sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie after one season. The cancellation came after Jewish religious leaders objected to its positive portrayal of an interfaith marriage.
Books
