Lately, with all that's wrong in the world, I've been looking for the comfort of crime. All right, fine -- what I actually mean are detective shows and book series, where the comfort lies not in the crime but in the solving. It's a quick fix for seeing bad and messy untangled and set right. …
Continue reading Anatomy of a Murder Show: Diagnosing “My Life is Murder”
Because you can't think about sourdough starter and so many subscription services all the time: Here is a list of the things you can't get out of your mind when you teach Intro to Women's and Gender Studies during a global pandemic. You think about essential workers -- grocery employees, cleaners, nursing home and hospital …
Continue reading The Pandemic and the Patriarchy: a Grudge List
A few days after refusing a proposal from the man who would eventually become her husband, Charlotte Perkins Gilman -- turn-of-the-20th-century writer and social reformer -- wrote a document in her private diary that she titled “An Anchor to Windward.” It details her reasons for wishing to remain single. A little context: Walter Stetson proposed …
Continue reading “I Am Cool, Fearless, and Strong”: Reasons for Living Single
One pleasurable challenge of my job is getting to teach interdisciplinary courses. To expedite students through their general education requirements in History, English, and Philosophy, our college offers hybrid courses combining two or three disciplines. But, lacking hybrid professors to go with them, these courses are taught by folks like me -- stretching, consulting, and …
The new trailer for Greta Gerwig's film adaptation of Little Women has gone live, and book lovers have gone into a delighted tizzy (except diehard fans of the Winona Ryder-Christian Bale film, of course). One unusual thing about Gerwig's new version, which surprisingly has gotten little press, is that these March sisters are distinctly less American. …
Continue reading If Louisa Met Saoirse: On Bigotry and Casting Little Women
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