I’m done. These two words have become a sort of mantra for Billy Porter. Done with toxic masculinity, done with the denigration of femme men, done with subduing his fabulousness for the sake of employment. Porter, whose velvet tuxedo dress became of the talk of the 2019 Oscar’s red carpet, is an actor, dancer, and…
As Angela Y. Davis told us in 1979, “In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.” The former is a passive existence that enables oppression, while the latter is an active identity of resistance to the status quo. In a sexist and patriarchal society, it is not enough to…
It should not come as a surprise that some of the best resources I have found for parents to discuss seemingly tough topics with their young children comes from Planned Parenthood. Discussing bodies and bodily autonomy is a topic covered in a variety of ways on The Bridges We Burn as we believe it is…
Culturally, I understand why sex is still the first topic of conversation when we find out a friend or loved one is expecting a baby. But also, why are we not beyond this? When we ask, “What gender is your baby?” or “Boy or girl?” we are actually asking, “What genitals does your child have?”…
Comedy can be an incredible tool for furthering social justice by challenging seats of power and shining light on uncomfortable truths. Alternatively, comedy is often wielded by those with power—straight white men—to perpetuate oppression and discrimination by picking on people marginalized by society; by punching down. In Hannah Gadsby’s Netflix special, “Nanette,” the Tasmanian comic squares her…
Masculine identities can be presented in as many ways as there are people who identify as masculine. The beauty of gender identity and presentation is that in a world free from the gender binary, in which toxic masculinity does not dictate how someone has to look or behave, individuals who identify as men or masculine, can…
We still have far to go in our understanding and discussion of the violences of men in the United States and abroad. Domestically, there has been increasing recognition in the wake of acts of mass violence in schools that a common trait in each of the perpetrators–who are predominantly young white men–is a history of violence…
Patriarchy limits the range of acceptable emotions that real men are allowed to express. And the means for expressing those emotions are equally small. What this means is that we–collectively, as a society, even well meaning liberals and feminists–often misinterpret, or project our internalized patriarchy upon men and boys. Here are a few examples of what…
