Tag Archives: science

Microblogs: What it means when we say sex is a social construction

Since J.K. Rowling’s (yes, that J.K. Rowling) transphobic tweet last week, conversations on Twitter around topics of sex, gender, and trans individuals have been going on nonstop. Far too many of these conversations are transphobic and show stubborn disregard for any kind of accuracy or learning.  This blog post is simply a compilation of the microblogsContinue reading “Microblogs: What it means when we say sex is a social construction”

Notes on: “They” as a Gender

Just as with countless other words in English and in other languages, the word “they” does not have any one meaning, nor is its meaning fixed in time. The dictionary defines they as follows:  And as will be clear to more and more queer-versed people, this definition omits the uses of the word “they” when itContinue reading “Notes on: “They” as a Gender”

Retraction: Brains, Politics, and Essentialism

In three previous blogs (here, here, and here), I made statements I can no longer stand by. (I should have made this post a long time ago, but until a conversation in the past few weeks, I had forgotten I made these statements, and I got a bit too excited about the “easy” explanation. IContinue reading “Retraction: Brains, Politics, and Essentialism”

Book Review–“Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know About the Emerging Science of Sex Differences”

Last night I read Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know About the Emerging Science of Sex Differences published by Penguin Books. The author–Leonard Sax–has a Ph.D. and a M.D., so I expected a monograph of quality. However, I’ve never read an academic book more offensive, problematic, inaccurate, queerphobic, transphobic, sexist, hateful, opinionated. I’m stillContinue reading “Book Review–“Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know About the Emerging Science of Sex Differences””

Difference, Intelligence, and Life

Crows, scientists say, are as smart as the typical five-to-seven year-old. Any comment about the “intelligence” any kind of “life” has or does not have is immediately problematic–and human-centric. The more we learn about other forms of life, the more we realize how much more they know than previously acknowledged and how much more weContinue reading “Difference, Intelligence, and Life”

Book Review–“The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated”

I read James Emery White’s The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated (2014) this morning in preparation for a new specific topics course I am teaching this spring–Atheists, Other “Heathens,” and 20th C. United States. White writes from the perspective of a long time pastor and a follower of Protestant Christian theology and forContinue reading “Book Review–“The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated””

Bachmann: Archeology Proves the Bible is True

GOP politician Michele Bachmann recently commented: …You know the remarkable thing–when you read the Bible, every archeology find that’s ever come forward has only proved the authenticity of the Bible… Such a statement is both interesting and very problematic because Bachmann’s words are false, and because correctness is found much more in the exact opposite. ThatContinue reading “Bachmann: Archeology Proves the Bible is True”

More Gender and Race Perception Experiments

This serves as a kind of followup to this post where I described an experiment I did with a group of students. I recently did a similar version of this experiment but with some modifications based on suggestions I received here! The results are most interesting and for sure show aspects of our hidden sexismContinue reading “More Gender and Race Perception Experiments”