The origin of the term. More work on heterosexuality is needed, I suppose.

Such a theoretical lacuna is unsurprising. Heterosexuality has long been a neglected object of study, elbowed out of sexuality studies right after the field emerged by the sexier and cooler project of queer theory. Queer theorists look smugly at heterosexuality over their shoulders as the thing that they have—thank God—left behind. In doing so, they remain outdatedly attached to a moment in which heterosexuality was widely understood to be an idealized form of life.

Yes, universal queerness and the abolition of gender may be the horizon toward which we are eventually moving—but what happens in the meantime?

via: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmutjUfrpQQ

Are the straights okay? In episode 44 of Overthink, Ellie and David dive into “heteropessimism,” the sense of disillusionment or even shame associated with heterosexuality. From viral TikTok videos to studies showing that women are less dissatisfied than men in heterosexual relationships, post #metoo society is reckoning with the everyday sexism of many relationships. Ellie and David explore the reasons for heteropessimism, consider alternatives such as political lesbianism and boys’ education, and ask: how can we be attracted to things that are bad for us, and how can we break out of a heteropessimistic approach to love?

Regarding the feminist concept of sexual objectification, Bauer explains that it was coined as part of a feminist shift in how to understand the world and one’s experience in it. According to the shift in question, in a context in which women experience widespread, systematic, diachronic, and structural disadvantages, certain ways of perceiving and representing women tend to cause them material and psychological harm. Bauer argues that once someone participates in this shift, the term ‘sexual objectification’ will ‘light up’ the relevant phenomena, and the person in question will see objectification everywhere she looks in contemporary culture. This is the case even if she is not in a position to specify exactly its marks and features.

Finally, I have read my first SEP entry in full. This reading has definitely strengthened my understanding of common positions, but no real illumination was had with respect to what to do about this whole thing. Sigh.

ALLAN D. HUNTER lived in New Mexico from 1973 to 1984 before emigrating to New York to become a gender activist. He received a degree in Women’s Studies and graduate degrees in Sociology and Social Work and worked with psychiatric patients’ rights groups and gender identity support groups. He later served as elder abuse case worker in the Bronx. His truncated academic career included publication of a short but groundbreaking theory piece, “Same Door Different Closet: A Heterosexual Sissy’s Coming-Out Party” in a peer-reviewed journal, Feminism & Psychology.

Should religion be able to answer the problem at the heart of the second wave?

What feminists have to ask is, are we responding to this threat in the direction of greater meaning and deeper human flourishing for everyone? Or are we shutting down the articulation of meaning out of fear that we might be excluded from it? The right way to respond to this situation is to rediscover our ability to advocate positively for our own complex human nature, our own search for meaning, our own need for purpose in life.

via: https://thingofthings.substack.com/p/linkpost-for-may-3ac

When Amia Srinivasan published The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century in 2021, it sparked widespread debate about the politics of desire, consent, and sexual justice.

In this episode of The Exchange, the Oxford academic joins Tanjil Rashid to discuss how philosophy can illuminate some of the most contentious questions in contemporary culture: from incels and pornography to whether our desires are shaped by society.

Never so quickly has an article made me transition from confusion to laughter to rage so quickly. Conservatives are weird. Everything’s here: pseudoscience, denial of the existence of racism and sexism, bio— and gender essentialism, and so many false dichotomies. The point of this article is to get a conservative white man’s dick wet. Furthermore, it’s one of those frustrating unfalsifiable “theories”: if I disagree with the author on the merits of what they’re written, then they can just claim I’ve been “feminized.” Utter bull crap.

via: https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net/p/are-women-unsuited-for-the-pursuit

This month we learned that the linguist Robin Lakoff had died at the age of 82. If you’ve heard of Lakoff you will probably know her as the author of Language and Woman’s Place (LWP), an early and very influential contribution to the field of language and gender studies.

The discourse around Harry Styles, former One Direction member and one of the stars of “Don’t Worry Darling”, has taken an interesting turn. Perhaps it’s time someone… said something. Watch to find out whether Billie Eilish, Charlie Puth, Nick Jonas, and Shawn Mendes need to be… CANCELLED!?? In light of the recent heartbreaking tweet from Kit Connor, it’s seems like something should be said. Along the way, we’ll make friends with Judith Butler and weird gay sociologists and philosophers. Don’t you just love Twitter?

This video is such a great deconstruction of queerbaiting, from both the perspective of cinema and celebrity. It does well to ask both if common conceptions of queerbaiting are internally consistent and actually useful for working towards liberation.

I have many guy friends. Why don’t we hang out more?

Beautiful essay. Makes me very scared for my own future.

Being trans is not a controversial idea but a lived reality. A new zine released today collects 22 first-personal accounts of what it is actually like to be trans or have trans kids as a philosopher.

Very much pulled at my heartstrings. So much to learn and do.