Politics
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“The Death of Fun”
“It has been nicknamed “the death of fun” — the idea that a once-playful (San Francisco) populace has in recent years turned into a phalanx of Gladys Kravitz-style meddling, whining neighbors.” It’s with a lot of trepidation that I even…
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VIDA: On Commotion
The recent chick lit writers versus Franzen conversation, while not without its own tedium, has brought to light some serious concerns about the utterly transparent gender disparity in the literary (and we do mean literary) world.
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Mind the Gap
From a tiff that begun on Twitter to the calling out of the New York Times Book Review, literary circles are questioning the how gender affects not just authorship, but how it may change the very genre of a given…
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Happy Labor Day!
Poor Labor Day. Gets no respect. It’s the Rodney Dangerfield of celebrations. The runt of the holiday litter.
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The Gender Gap Gully
“In 2008, single, childless women between ages 22 and 30 were earning more than their male counterparts in most U.S. cities.” Some new census data is showing that the gender gap has not only slowed but reversed in this very…
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On Sexual Assault in the Military
“The person I was at that time died.” — Maricela Guzman, an activist and rape survivor who is working to stop the plague of sexual assaults against women in the U.S. military. At Guernica, she is profiled by Courtney E.…
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The Rumpus Interview with Chinaka Hodge
The shooting of Oscar Grant showed that Oakland is in serious need of a discussion on race. The poet and playwright Chinaka Hodge provided such a discussion in her groundbreaking play Mirrors in Every Corner
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Very Scary and Very Out of Hand
On AOL News, Glynnis MacNicol writes a nice article about her thoughts on the recent outrage over the proposed mosque a few blocks away from ground zero. MacNicol imagined that the Muslim community center would be a non-issue for New…
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Reddit Sticks It to The Man
“Incredibly popular Internet linkdump Reddit was informed by its corporate parent, Conde Nast, that it could not sell ads supporting Proposition 19, California’s marijuana legalization ballot initiative. So Reddit figured out how to preserve its soul and screw Conde, too.”…
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“One of My Muses—Ex-Pro-Choice Republican Arlen Specter—Was Defeated in the Democratic Primary…”
In recognition of Sen. Arlen Specter (D) — who switched to the Republican party in 1965 and then back to the Democratic party last year — losing his bid for reelection on Tuesday we give you the beautiful art of…
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Love in the Time of Terror Babies
“My parents, with admirable foresight, had their first child while they were on fellowships in the United States. My mother was in public health, and my father in a library-science program. Having an American baby was, my mother once said,…
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Find Myself a City to Live In: Jonathan Lethem’s Imagined Metropolis
The principle urban conversation today seems to revolve around authenticity. The relationship many white urbanites have to their city depends on the story they tell about their neighborhoods. Are they authentic, i.e. did they move in before gentrification, and therefore…