Marlene says: I work with a woman who goes by the name of Jenner Davis. She spends her day processing and sterilizing glassware for a biotech company, but that’s not what she really does. Really, she’s a writer and a photographer. She’s also so incredibly cool that she goes by Jenner even though her legal [...]

Laurie and Debbie say: When a blatantly silly or misogynist evolutionary psychology study turns out to have a sample size of 16 or 30, it’s easy to discard not only the study but the whole idea. For once, however, we’ve run into a study with too small a sample size (25 people) that we would [...]

Laurie says: I talked about the idea that one of the things the photos might be about is memory, when I last posted about them.  I’m realizing that it’s true.  Their size and imagery is strongly reminiscent of the way my visual memory flashes intense internal images.  And I just realized something that probably should [...]

Debbie says: Donna Simpson has, to say the least, an odd ambition. She wants to become the fattest woman in the world, and she’s (please pardon the pun) busting her ass to get there. A 42-year-old New Jersey mom is on track to weigh in as the world’s fattest woman. Donna Simpson is determined to [...]

Debbie says: As an informed body-image activist, I’m a lot more skeptical about the connection between eating too much sugar and diabetes than most folks. I’m aware of the research regarding Bisphenol A (which is in everyday plastic) and DDE, which is in most human bodies. Somehow, that skepticism doesn’t make me feel good about [...]

Laurie and Debbie say: The Olympics (summer and winter) are, of course, gender-essentialist events, with virtually every sport and competition being men-only or women-only. And yes, there are some good reasons for sports events to be gendered, though the truths of different abilities are a lot more subtle and complex than they are generally presented [...]

Laurie says: It is 100 years today since the German feminist Clara Zetkin’s idea of International Women’s Day was born. So do something good for a woman today or tomorrow…. Here are some images for celebration. .. .. .. ..

Laurie says: I was thinking about memory today. Mine is pretty non-linear. Rather like the medieval christian god’s view of time, i.e. it’s all happening in one total timeless view.   My memories tend to be small vivid flashes unless I”m consciously trying to remember. Then they can be far more complex, detailed and linear [...]

Debbie says: I just got back from watching the Oscars with a gaggle of teenage girls (and another adult). I could do a complex critique of gender and ethnicity politics (those critiques always run in my head). But I just wanted to say that the camera went frequently to Gabourey Sidibe (nominated for Best Actress), [...]

Laurie and Debbie say: Some of our friends are up in arms about “vajazzling.” If you haven’t heard the word, it refers to having tiny Swarovski crystals heat-sealed onto your waxed (or super-shaved) vagina (which here at Body Impolitic we do not call the “vajayjay”). Jennifer Love Hewitt does it and (sadly) she says she [...]