Before the age of Facebook and parenting blogs, how did women exchange knowledge and beliefs about reproduction? Without What to […]
Sex on the Border: Policing Women in Red Light Districts
In 2001, a Dallas Observer reporter stepped into a shadowy, smoke-filled room and narrowed his eyes to see through the […]
Let’s Question All Versions of the Myth of Perfect Motherhood
I would call it a “pet peeve,” but the stakes are higher: I can’t stand policy arguments based on inaccurate […]
Fleas, Fleas, Fleas
In September, I turned on Democracy Now! and came into a story about the mass extinction of a third of […]
VD in the Archives
For something that played such a prevalent role in life at the front, sex and venereal disease (or VD) have […]
The Cultural Logic of Calories and Body Types
We were promised calorie labels. New York City has required them in chain restaurants since 2008 and California since 2009, […]
Civil War Soldiers’ Wet Dreams
The American Civil War is arguably the most written about topic in American history. Yet for all that has been […]
Race, Sex Education, and the Age of Consent in South Africa
One of the best and most unexpected perks of researching the history of sex education in South Africa is receiving […]
“I Would Rather Have My Own Mind”: The Medicalization of Women’s Behavior in Ireland, 1914-1920
When he brought her to the asylum, twenty-four-year old Katie’s father was asked to describe what behaviors or actions had […]
To “Serve this Long Term at Home”: Robert Buffum, Mental Illness, and the Prison Trap
Just over a year after having the third-ever Medal of Honor pinned on his uniform for surviving months of retributive […]
