Power and Madam Pelosi
Power and Madam Pelosi We watched with interest as Nancy Pelosi fought to regain her role as House Speaker when the Democrats took the House after the November 2018 election. Congresswoman Pelosi is part of a generation of older leaders in government, including Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. No matter what we think of their […]
A Sex Goddess for Older Women
The world is made of stories, not atoms. – Muriel Rukeyser Myths are Ideas and stories and images that shape how we see the world. Celebrating and creating myth is one way to see and be seen. A Sex Goddess for Older Women? Last year I asked a friend who is a mythology buff to […]
Making Women Visible After Midlife
Making Women Visible After Midlife The anthropologist Margaret Mead married a series of men, each one a researcher about to travel to a place she wanted to study. At the end of an assignment, she divorced and married anew. An extreme method, perhaps, and yet it enabled Mead to examine and write about cultures all […]
Dress Like You Have Diamonds at the Meeting of your Thighs
Dress Like You Have Diamonds at the Meeting of your Thighs “Does my sexiness offend you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I have diamonds At the meeting of my thighs?” — Maya Angelou, “And Still I Rise” We have all read those articles, the ones that tell us what not […]
The Grandmother Hypothesis
The Grandmother Hypothesis In the 1980s, American anthropologist Kristen Hawkes observed Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, and realized that the older women spent their time collecting food for their grandchildren. This freed up the mothers to have more children. Hawkes hypothesized that the fittest grandmothers had the most grandchildren, which created selective pressure for longevity well […]
Sexual Agency Beyond Midlife
Sexual Agency Beyond Midlife In her 2016 book, “Girls and Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape,” Peggy Orenstein describes the pressure on American women to perform sexually from an early age, and to please young men while doing so. In many cases, their own pleasure is not the focus of how young women view sex. […]
