Op-Eds & Essays
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How I Got Lucky, First-Gen Philosophers, 2024
I worry that some people love rags-to-riches tales of first-generation academics because they feed the lie of meritocracy and the false promise of class mobility. I refuse to let my narrative be co-opted for such regressive purposes. So, I’ll talk about how I got lucky until I’m blue in the face. How I learned to stop worrying and love the doll – a feminist philosopher’s journey back to Barbie, The Conversation, 2023 (reprinted as “Barbie used to be everything wrong with patriarchal beauty ideals, feminist professor says. Now she’s closer to ‘queer camp’,” Fortune Magazine; reprinted as “A feminist philosopher comes full circle to embrace Barbie again,” Scroll (India); Spanish translation: “Cómo aprendí a amar a Barbie desde la filosofía del feminism,” The Conversation; French translation: “Comment j'ai appris à ne plus avoir peur des poupées: le retour à Barbie d'une philosophe féministe,” Atlantico; Portuguese translation: “Como aprendi a deixar de me preocupar e passei a amar a boneca – o retorno de uma filósofa feminista à Barbie,” Interesse Nacional) Wherein my hot pink hot flashes of nostalgia intermingle with musings on femmephobia, and why Barbie is basically a drag queen now. Richard Fierro: Real American Hero, Liberal Currents, 2023 Richard Fierro--one of the men responsible for stopping the gunman at a LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs--represents a new, distinctively American form of masculinity, one that puts to rest the criticism that paints progressives as bent on emasculating the American male. Porn & the Sexual Imagination, IAI News, 2021 We should admit that mainstream porn’s casual loathing of women is cause for serious concern, and that the medium is not merely a mirror of reality but also wields some amorphous but real power to shape it. Feminist porn has the radically redemptive potential to address these issues. Who Counts as a Woman?, The New York Times, 2019 (winner of the American Philosophical Association's Public Philosophy Op-Ed prize; reprinted in Question Everything: A Stone Reader) When a TERF complains that trans women haven’t had the same experiences as “real” women who were assigned female at birth, what she’s really saying is, “Trans women haven’t had the same experiences as women like me.” If 30-plus years of intersectional feminism has taught us anything, it’s that this is precisely the move that feminists need to stop making. |
Ethical Dilemma, Boston Globe, 2018
The fourth estate is crumbling under the pressures of corporatization, the compression of the news cycle, & an audience with the attention span of a goldfish & an apparent inability to tell the difference between real & ‘fake’ news. When students discriminate against their (female) professors, Boston Globe, 2018 Most oppressive harms aren’t the result of the intentional actions of an individual person, but are more often the unintentional result of an interrelated system of social norms & institutions. Ethical Dilemma, Boston Globe, 2018 Plenty of Olympic Games have had incompetent athletes serve as media darlings but there hasn’t been a single woman permitted to occupy this role. Ethical Dilemma, Boston Globe, 2018 A compromise between protecting privacy and ensuring a nonverbal student's safety and his parents’ peace of mind. Enabling the Sociopathy No More, Daily Nous, 2017 Is it ok to enjoy art that’s made by sexist assholes? Immigrating to Trump's America? Philosophers Need Not Apply, The New York Times, 2017 Among the other harms the proposed immigration bill would cause, it would devastate the humanities. Ethical Dilemma, Boston Globe, 2017 Institutions have to rectify the immoral provenance of their holdings. Silence on Hate Speech Construes Consent, Philadelphia Inquirer, 2016 If we're going to treat hate speech differently than most other countries, we must also denounce the hate crimes that inevitably result. The Alluring Distraction of Trump's Many Sideshows, Boston Globe, 2016 Trump knows exactly what he's doing with his outrageous antics. We've been duped, and we need to stop falling for it. |
To Lean In, Find Someone Who'll Lean Out, Boston Globe, 2016
Much has been said about the importance of women “leaning in.” But what’s generally overlooked in these conversations is that if a woman leans in to her professional opportunities, another party — typically a man — is going to have to lean out. (co-authored with John Kaag) Girlfriend, Mother, Professor? The New York Times, 2016 (reprinted in Modern Ethics in 64 Arguments: A Stone Reader) Our culture lacks the scripts to know how to deal with women in positions of authority. Female professors have a particularly difficult time establishing a rapport with students that doesn’t revolve around the tired tropes of saintly mother or sexual plaything. Welcome to UMass Lowell, Mr. Trump, Boston Globe, 2016 Donald Trump's rhetoric is sexist, racist, ableist, and xenophobic. But when you let jerks like him onto your campus to speak, their true colors show themselves pretty quickly. (co-authored with John Kaag) Philosophers on Prostitution's Decriminalization, Daily Nous, 2015 An invited contribution to a group post discussing the decriminalization of sex work. Shit Happens at the Semester Finish Line, Times Higher Education, 2015 To wrap up our classes, we divert most of our energies to a select number of tasks. More often than not, we make a mess of the rest. (co-authored with John Kaag) Gross Violations, Aeon Magazine, 2014 Disgust is often used as a tool of persuasion. But are gut feelings ever a reliable guide in questions of right and wrong? A Feminist Kant, The New York Times, 2013 (reprinted in The Stone Reader: Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments, and Modern Ethics in 64 Arguments: A Stone Reader; translated in Von Kung-Fu bis Ladypower. 33 Übungen in moderner Philosophie and Filosofia, ara! Revista per a pensar) Are victims of oppression obligated to resist their oppression? In short, yes. And the philosophical resources for this claim can be found in a somewhat surprising place: in the moral philosophy of the 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. |