The radical notion that women are people.
This is a power move. Expressed by even the best of men, the sentiment likely originated to remind human beings of their own mortality. Typical first encounters with it, after all, are when children are warned to curb a vanity yet to develop. If this is true, it has since evolved to remind only women—and …
Continue reading Beauty Fades, and other Ridiculous Things Men Say
When I was four years old, a five-year-old boy chased me around the masjid because I refused to take off my shoes. For those of you who don't know, everyone is expected to remove their shoes prior to entering the prayer area. I did not remove my shoes because I was waiting for my mother …
Continue reading Control your little mansplainers when they’re little.
This email has been brought to you by questions from straight people like yours truly. To "fellow allies" or whatever, I don't know whether I'm an LGBT ally. I don't talk about how much of an ally I am or about being an ally. That is because the decision is not mine. My intention is …
Continue reading LGBT people get to decide whether you are their ally; you don’t.
A few months ago a very, very good friend of mine, at the prospect of having a Mormon for president, revealed a sentiment along the lines of, "I know it doesn't matter to you, Nahida, but it feels kind of sad and strange not to have a president who's not your religion for the first …
Is it already? I meant to write something. (I actually meant to write quite a lot.) But--well, it didn't happen. So here are a number of updates. About halfway through the semester, a woman in one of my English classes had expressed dissatisfaction that she wasn’t able to read a lot of the “classics” she …
The last time I was at the masjid was about six months ago. I was teaching Islamic studies on Sundays, as I had been doing for quite a few years, until just this year, when my mother insisted that, since I would be graduating university in the spring, I ought to focus entirely on my …
Over the past couple of years I've received some messages in my inbox asking for advice. I can't imagine why anyone would ask me, a straight woman, about advice coming out, except out of desperation and having nowhere else to turn. It breaks my heart to know I can't help you because I can't possibly …
the fatal feminist 