Over Christmas I had the opportunity to interact with and observe my 11- and 10-year-old nieces. Both, as far as either mother could tell, still believed in Santa Claus. The 10-year-old had slipped a letter in a sealed envelope onto the Christmas tree without telling her parents. Addressed to "Santa...

On November 28th a Walmart employee was killed when a crowd of Black Friday shoppers first busted through the doors and then trampled him. In light of this, I offer you the picture below. I took it at the JCPenney in Glendale, CA, last Wednesday:

As a 34 year-old woman with no discernible desire to have children, I've had it up to here with this ticking clock nonsense. Oh I may change my mind about having kids, but I may not. And if I do, I am not going to suddenly decide that my life...

TheSockObama Co. 's recent release and revocation of their Barack Obama sock monkey is a window into contemporary American race relations. After receiving a barrage of negative emails, phone calls, and publicity claiming that the toy was racist, they canceled production, issued refunds, and offered what appeared...

The city of Los Angeles is trying to get rid of Taco Trucks: Those awesome little trucks on every corner smelling dreamily of blackened meat 'till the wee hours of the morning. Apparently the "stationary restaurants" have a difficult time competing and feel that the competition is "unfair."

Bowing to...

The choice in 2008 may not be between a historic vote for a "black" or a woman candidate and a vote for another white guy, it may be between symbolic and concrete progress. Electing Obama or Clinton would be an amazing symbolic triumph, but putting a black or female face...

I find the deafening silence about class in this country infuriating.

On Wednesday, The New York Times celebrated the fact that girls came home from the prestigious Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology with 1st place ribbons and hefty scholarships. Girls were 11 of the 20 finalists, outnumbering...

I am very uncomfortable with the enthusiasm I hear regarding male circumcision as a strategy for reducing AIDS transmission in Africa.

Recent studies suggest that male circumcision offers some protection from the transmission of HIV, but does this mean that we should start amputating healthy tissue? Not necessarily. We don't,...

In today's Baltimore Sun, I am quoted saying that "Halloween costumes are an excellent measure of who it's still okay to hate or belittle." Let's explore:

Due largely to the civil rights movement, Black Americans have managed to politicize their representation. It is now largely unacceptable (in most circles)...

Representative Barney Frank's comment in Friday's New York Times reveals something very disturbing about the state of our democracy. Regarding his decision to exclude transsexuals from a bill forbidding discrimination against gays and lesbians, he says:

There is a tendency in American politics for the people who feel most passionately...

The recent appearance of Ugly Betty actress, America Ferrera, on the covers of fashion magazines -- Cosmopolitan (February 2007), W (May 2007) and, most recently, Glamour (October 2007) -- makes my brain hurt.

The show revolves around the hypocrisy of the fashion industry. Betty is (relatively speaking) ugly and lovable....

These days, the pit bull is a symbol of hypermasculinity: an ideal that includes physical strength and agility, endurance, resistance to pain, and aggression. This is well-illustrated by the rapper DMX, who uses the reputation of the pit bill to suggest that he is powerfully and unpredictably violent. Nick-named "Pit...

Last week an MSN poll found that 83 percent of Americans think there should be more research on birth control, even though "[m]odern science has given Americans a wide range of birth control options."

How presumptuous of MSN to suggest that Americans wrongly feel a need for more research...

by Lisa Wade with Brett Wheeler

In Knocked Up, a one-night stand and an unplanned pregnancy are the fodder for an astoundingly, catastrophically tragic comedy. What's so funny?

An innocent child is forced into an experiment to see if a pot-bellied, pot-smoking, porn-peddler can get his shit together and become...

Thursday in the Los Angeles Times, Staff Writer Stephanie Simon writes that Democratic efforts to reduce the number of abortions are a sign of the growing conservatism among the left. Because these measures could "encourage women who... conceive to carry to term," she argues, they "have a ring of...

After decades resisting pressure from Western nations to stop female genital mutilation, the Egyptian Health Ministry has forbid "doctors, nurses, or any other person to carry out any cut of, flattening or modification of any natural part of the female reproductive system, either in government hospitals, nongovernment hospitals or...

Paris Hilton got out of jail today. Whether you care about Paris or not, the uproar over her stint in jail is telling. Like Hillary Clinton, Paris is a divider. She inspires both great admiration and great animosity. It is the animosity in which I am interested.

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I would like to make a startling claim: There is not enough sex in American media. We need to put more sex on the screen... and we need to do it for the children.

Consider the icon of sex: The supermodel. She is about as sexy as a sports car....