I was about to do a knee-jerk “But not everyone’s straight” response to you—a woman could name her daughter after “the one that got away,” too. But then I realized that (I hope) no self-respecting lesbian would do that. So I’m gonna let the straight folks have this one.

That’s exactly where my mind went, too—EL James has now out-twilighted Twilight.

That may be so (which was kind of my point) - I’m not sure whether the more creative, less conservative style is about the school culture or about these being two famous, wealthy teens who feel freer (and more financially able) to experiment with different styles. Either way, it’s pretty refreshing.

I think both of them do.

I think prom, for lots of kids, represents a chance to show how conventionally attractive they can be. If my prom is in any way typical, most kids were less worried about being fashionable or unique than they were about being hot (usually by doing a kind of grown-up hyper-masculine or feminine style). I love that…

I know a woman who worked as a correctional officer in a maximum security prison while pregnant. Her supervisors kept her on regular duties, until at last she was able to request a desk posting in her later months of pregnancy (when, I believe, she made the case that the standard-issue belt with radio/restraints/etc.…

I did my PhD research (in part) at a California aid agency, so I had some time to figure out all of the acronyms :). And - if I may say so - thanks for the important work you’re doing!

No prob - I know far too many of these welfare acronyms for my own good :) And what makes it even more complicated is that different states often have their own names for their state’s version of TANF (or Medicaid, or other welfare programs). So in California, for example, it’s CalWORKS.

TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) is what most people call welfare - it’s cash assistance for low-income mothers and children (or other caregivers with kids, but most of the time moms). The program formerly known as Food Stamps is now called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). And that’s a different…

The issue—and I’m not accusing you of holding this belief, to be clear!—is that people may use this as a way to reinforce racist beliefs about Asians and Asian Americans (as cheap, as unlawful, etc.). If there’s a correlation between ethnicity and the sorts of unlawful working conditions you describe, I suspect it’s…

I guess I’d say that Kang’s study, which focuses (I believe) on Asian American-owned businesses, finds a pretty wide range of working conditions and pay scales in the different sites she examines. The stereotypical nail salon—and, I’d argue, the nail salons portrayed as harmful in the NY Times piece—is imagined as…

Unfortunately I’m fairly useless when it comes to answering stuff like this. I’m a sociologist, I’m a fan of Miliann Kang’s work, and I don’t think that boycotting Asian American small business owners is the best solution (because honestly, they wouldn’t be filling that economic niche unless there was a demand for…

Not really my takeaway. Yes, lots of the nice affordable things we have in our lives are the result of exploitation, but: when we actually know about the awful, dangerous conditions that folks are working under to provide us with a service, there are some things we can do to help. It’s not all or nothing—it may not be…

Kang points out that not all nail salons are equally dangerous or exploitative, and that customers' search for the cheapest manicures is a contributing problem—you can do your own nails, or you could also search for a salon that might cost you a little more, but where you think there are better working conditions and…

As a counterpart to (or maybe in coordination with) the NY Times reporting on this, I highly recommend that folks check out UMass sociologist Miliann Kang's award-winning work on race, gender, and inequality in nail salons. I think part of what she'd argue is that this problem is about customers—not whether or not…

Yeah, I don’t love her acting style either, but that wording felt a little too close to “Why isn’t she back at home being a wife and mother [where she belongs]?” Call me an oversensitive feminist grouch if you like, but it seems to me that there are better ways to complain about a casting choice than suggesting that…

Agreed—I missed the part about the age of the intern, and the whole abuse-of-power aspect of this is indeed creepy and gross. (Also: I think it’s interesting that Diehl uses the word “woman” here to talk about someone who’s likely an 18- or 19-year-old, perhaps to emphasize her adulthood and maturity—and, perhaps,…

His statement seems to basically say, “Sorry not sorry, nothing to see here, let’s move on.” I personally don’t think that having an affair or flirting while married has anything to do with a person’s ability to do their job—and I disagree with the consensus that anyone without a sparkling clean personal history can’t…

Other folks have already taken you (rightly) to task for equating the societal stigma faced by fat women and fat men (tl;dr version: society doesn’t idolize fat men, but it also doesn’t hit them with financial and representational penalties to the same extent that it does with fat women).

There’s also a Change.org petition in support of Saida (note, it’s #ISupportSaida, not Siada): https://www.change.org/p/robert-a-bro…