Category Archives: Sex and Gender

On the Dobbs Decision: It Can Happen, It Is Happening, Here

I’ve never liked the term unenumerated rights because the point is not whether they are numbered but whether they are expressed, so until now, I have avoided it in my comments on this decision. But that’s the standard legal term … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Religion, Sex and Gender, Trump (Don the Con) | 17 Comments

Thank You Sonnet | Bob Shepherd

after Edna St. Vincent Millay Yes, it’s true, as you said, that after good sexthe world is heightened, clearer, a cineplex—as if a summer shower’s intercession washed clean the muddied, muddled doors of perception,but lest there be any misconstruction of … Continue reading

Posted in Love, Poetry, Sex and Gender | 1 Comment

A Government That Looks like America

My Latina granddaughter, watching Kamala Harris being sworn in as Vice President of the United States.

Posted in Sex and Gender, Trump (Don the Con), Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Are We Failing Our Boys?

We are making admirable strides toward redressing millennia of gender inequities, toward FINALLY not shutting women out of government, business, universities, the arts, and so on. Of course, we’re far from there yet, as a glance at the sea of … Continue reading

Posted in Sex and Gender | 2 Comments

The Most Astonishing Anthropological Fact That I Know

At one point about 7,000 years ago, and for a period of about 2,000 years thereafter, the percentage of human males having offspring was reduced to 1 in 20 in Europe, Asia, and Africa, while female reproducers remained at previous … Continue reading

Posted in Sex and Gender, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Casey

In my neighborhood, when I was a little, there was another kid, a gentle, kind kid whom I’ll call Casey, who was born, biologically, a boy but always wanted to dress as a girl and to cook and sew and … Continue reading

Posted in Love, Sex and Gender | Leave a comment

Wooing, Dating, Hooking Up

Choose one and be immediately teleported to that time. Wooing 1880s: Boy walks to girl’s house, carrying bouquet of wildflowers. Boy and girl sit in the parlor across from her parents. She serves him tea and little cakes and plays … Continue reading

Posted in Love, Sex and Gender, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Grrls Aren’t Like Us | A Short Story | Bob Shepherd

“Hi. We haven’t met. I’m Shiela, Malcolm’s Mom.” “Oh. OK. I’m Renee. Jason said you were going to call.” “So, you’re letting your son go to this thing?” “Sure. Why not?” “Well, I don’t know. I worry. This kind of … Continue reading

Posted in Sex and Gender, Short Stories | Leave a comment

MONOGAMY: A One-Act Screenplay | Bob Shepherd

A holographic virtual classroom meeting on a lawn on Kizhi Island in Lake Onega, Russia, 2059 CE, the onion-shaped domes of the Transfiguration Church in the background. Thirteen students, attending via remote presence avatars, sit in a circle, their professor’s … Continue reading

Posted in Film, Philosophy, Sex and Gender | Leave a comment

Is Sexual Orientation Innate?

The stench of racism wafting from the speech of Donald trump has brought a lot of racists scurrying out of the woodwork and into our newsfeeds. Consequently, a lot of us have been wondering about what we can do to … Continue reading

Posted in Sex and Gender | 2 Comments