So this next week is Carnaval here in Brasil! Since my girlfriend is somewhere in Europe right now, to me this means I get a week off to try to read and study and sleep as much as I never have time to during working weeks, but for most Brazilians it means one week of a partying – some of it involving a lot of particular cultural elements (and I think it maybe even has some religious background?), ... »
Two things prompted me to post this article. The first was episode 2.7 of the Godless Bitches podcast (I highly recommend this podcast!), where Beth, Jen, Tracie, and Tanya Smith from Atheist Alliance International discussed the banning of the burqa, and an interesting back-and-forth between Tracie and Tanya ensued. The second was Yessenia’s recent posts (see here and here) about women who claim t... »
Ophelia Benson of Butterflies and Wheels and Kausik Datta of Oh, The Humanity of It All point to yet another article (almost a carbon copy of the last one I poked with a stick)where a woman equates wearing the hijab with somehow being liberated from the constraints of patriarchy. The problem, of course, is that the game is rigged; whatever we do, we can’t win. It’s a feature, not a bu... »
Welcome to the first installment of Perspectives, an on-going series of articles that will explore gender and sexuality through a cross-cultural lens. The goal of this series is to broaden our understandings of queer genders and sexualities across time and space. Before I begin the series, though, allow me to go a bit anthropological on you. That is, after all, what I do! One of the things I love ... »
