I’ve chosen to only use the category “thoughts and perspectives” for two reasons. One, having a hierarchy of categories would get overly complex, as everything I write about could fit a variety of categories and having multiple categories per post would too confusing. Two, everything I write about is summed up with the words “thoughts and perspectives.”
Had such a wonderful semester, one full of great conversations and learning! Taught six classes: Introduction to Queer Studies (three sections); Introduction to Women’s Studies; Religions and the United States; and First Year Writing I–Identity, Meaning, & Film. And the… Read More ›
Clichés about “funerals being for the living” abound. Funerals assist with grieving and with accepting one’s own mortality, popular mores say. Funerals can also hinder this grieving process: Without realizing it, people sometimes talk about the deceased in ways that… Read More ›
On this Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 2018: Please try to remember those who might not have anything to be “thankful” for, where thankful means “conscious of benefit received” and “expressing gratitude and relief.” Saying everyone has “something” to be grateful for… Read More ›
According to written artifacts, Baptist women faced degrees of formal silence for the first time in 2000. Church leaders decreed: While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men… Read More ›
How To Get Away With Murder’s 2018-2019 mid-season finale overpowers and undermines its recent comments about flaws in the judicial system, especially when it comes to perceptions of and treatments of Black men. Nate Lahey (Billy Brown) receives unstable, developing word… Read More ›
According to Southern mores, “bless your heart” is typically a veiled insult, despite its sympathetic denotation. “Think for yourself” has a similar, contradictory function. Think-for-yourself phraseology appears in my inbox regularly, but only when I have publicly expressed my most… Read More ›
Suggestions that something is classist, racist, or sexist, for example, are often met with dismissively hostile words. People say, “you’re thinking too hard,” “you’re looking to cause trouble,” “you can find [fill in the blank] anywhere if you look hard… Read More ›
