The National Geographic special issue on Gender and the Gender Revolution documentary that airs this month could not have come at a better time. I was thrilled to get to see the documentary last week at a pre-release screening at Nat Geo headquarters here in DC. My post on The DC Moms goes into more detail…
politics
Activist, educator, mother: spin the dial
What words would you use to describe yourself? How do those words change when you become a parent? What do your choices look like with the glasses of parenthood on? This week I felt like some of my many identities came together outside the Federal Triangle Metro station at the Moms Clean Air Force-organized rally…
View from a purple state
This election business poses a challenge for me. Everyone is talking on Facebook about their hopes and fears, but, when I’m standing in my kitchen talking to my 6-year-old, I don’t want to talk too much about politics. My son just doesn’t need too much of the world on his shoulders. I wonder what truly…
On the bookshelf… Women and power
A few weeks ago, I went to a wonderful event with Gloria Feldt. She is one inspiring woman! Once a teen mom, Gloria went on to raise three children and to work for 30 years for Planned Parenthood, serving as its national president until 2005. I’ve only made a dent into her book so far…
The clothes make the man, but do they make the baby?
I don’t understand why people get so defensive when strangers make the wrong assumption about their baby’s gender. Who cares what other people think? Why is it an insult either way? I’ve heard lots of people complain about ignorant commenters, “I mean, she had bows in her hair. She was wearing pink!” Or “He had…
Poetry and motherhood
Last month I attended an amazing session on the politics of writing motherhood at the Split this Rock Poetry Festival. Read more about it here in a piece I wrote for Mothering.com
I could be a gay kid’s mom
And even if I’m not, we all suffer from homophobia and heterosexism. But I’ve been slacking on the activism that isn’t related to health issues. Well, this is. I just let myself put it in a different category. I got a phone bank call last night from GLSEN, the Gay-Lesbian Straight Education Network. I used…
Little Mouth Speaks – a lot! A letter to my loquacious toddler
Today was the first day I’d had any childcare in two weeks. There was snow, then a fever, then my boy’s dad got sick and needed tending. Today’s four hours of babysitting went fast, but when they were over, I had a supremely lovely time with my son. It was a chilly rainy day, and…
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had – a novel for middle school aged readers
A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend Hooray for Books‘ book release party for The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had, a novel for middle grade readers by first-time novelist Kristin Levine. I did, however have with me my son (just a month younger than the author’s daughter), and keeping him from…
Glimpsing history — getting close (or not) to January 20
Today a friend in my writing group sent a link to a contest for essays about “what this inauguration means to you.” I don’t know if I can come up with anything intelligent-sounding by midnight January 8, but I will say that I had a lump in my throat today when we saw part of…
Election ’08: One more take
Everyone and her dog is writing and talking about the election. It’s one of those phenomena we all have to talk through endlessly to process. Did it really happen? Yes, it did. The United States of America elected its first black president. Two weeks ago, a campaign button made the impact of this reality —…
Yard Sign Blues
This post originally appeared on DC Metro Moms on October 10, 2008 Yard Sign Blues This can’t be the right address. I checked my notes from the Freecycler’s email. This was the house. But it can’t be. There’s a John McCain sign in the yard. I looked back at my toddler son and thought, “Baby…
It’s 2008: Does he/she know where his/her children are?
Today it was in the Washington Post Style section that I came across the already-tired backpeddle, “We wouldn’t be asking these questions if Sarah Palin were a man.” I say: Bullshit. Although I concede that DeNeen Brown probably had to reference this position early on in her otherwise interesting and insightful piece on how women…
Show me your breastfeeding!
Breastfeeding is in the news a lot these days, in part because of protests over one woman being asked to cover her baby with a blanket while she nursed him at an Applebee’s. I didn’t make it to one of those protests, and I haven’t read everything under the sun about this. But after I…