All artists pursue their calling at a price, but for women artistic creativity sometimes comes with intense sacrifice, guilt, ambivalence, and personal challenge. A compelling documentary film on women artists explores the barriers to the creative process and how art ultimately transforms women’s lives and those around them.

 I was at the grocery store not that long ago and overheard a young boy, maybe 3-years-old, say to his mother, "look mom, that man's face is brown." To me, the color of the face of the boy's mother was far more noteworthy. If she were a crayola crayon, she would have been I Just Saw A Ghost Pale. She looked horrified. She actually couldn't even muster the speech to shush her son, but rather sped away like a bank robber fleeing the scene.

"A Mighty Heart" does not just trivialize friendship; it erases it. It does so, in the myth-addled logic of movie-making, to make the relationship between husband Danny and wife Mariane all the more romantic, and the ending of Danny's life that much more tragic. 

"I now pronounce you man and wife," the minister quietly intones. Applause erupts as Michael kisses Eve2114D, his robot bride. Forget about genetically engineering the perfect woman; robots that sufficiently resemble humans will appear in the next 10 years according to computer expert David Levy in his book Love and Sex with Robots (Harper Collins). When these androids get human-like skin and sufficient emotional depth, there is no doubt that humans will not only keep them in our houses, some of us will fall in love with them. Men desperate for female companionship will likely be first, particularly after some creative entrepreneur adds a robotic female sex organ.

Speaking the truth about domestic violence is a step toward healing for all survivors. But when talking about violence brings shame, ambivalence, and fear, art therapy not only gives survivors a voice, but also is a way to raise consciousness about the profound effects of battering and all forms of abuse between partners.

Join me for a lunchtime walk I took down K Street in Washington DC about ten years ago. Half a block ahead of me was a well-dressed woman in standard DC garb: jacket, skirt, and heels. Suddenly she tumbled to the ground and hit it with an audible thud. She stayed down and was writhing in obvious pain. Within seconds a crowd gathered.

When we look around the world, we see signs of competition everywhere. The Presidential election is hotly contested, and there is a bitter rivalry between Democrats and Republicans. Stores compete for your business. On a typical weekend day in the Fall, you see thousands of people gathered to watch football games in which teams struggle to win a game, and fans support their team and look for victory over the opponent.

With this backdrop, it is easy to think that competition is a crucial part of humanity. And of course, competition does affect a lot of human life. At the same time, though, it is important to recognize that that cooperation is a big part of what makes humans unique. Nowhere is that more evident than in our ability to communicate with language.

 

Q: “I haven’t seen the new guy at the office yet. Do you know what he looks like?”

 

A: “Oh, he’s about my height, broad-shouldered, mid-30’s, dresses really well, always smiling... also he’s... (voice lowered to a whisper) Black...”

There is a growing trend in America today, especially among White Americans, to embrace the idea of literal colorblindness when it comes to race relations...

What it means to live single has changed dramatically over the past half-century, but our perceptions have been left in the dust. Bogus stereotypes rule, and they need to be dethroned. 

In my last column I made a distinction between ingesting and digesting critical feedback. Ingesting is taking it in. Digesting is deciding what part is nutritious and what part is waste by-product.

I argued that these two activities are best separated because ingesting feedback often hurts and makes us want to reject it ALL as waste by-product:

Last month I posted an entry regarding children and gender stereotypes from the perspective of the father of two young daughters.  Several people emailed to share their own stories and observations.  Some asked whether I thought such concerns about gender stereotypes also applied to males.  My answer?  An absolute and unqualified yes.  And all these questions actually got me thinking even more about the one domain in my own life when I feel that I am often viewed negatively (or at least skeptically) because of my gender: parenting.

Americans now spend more years of their adult lives unmarried than married. To many people who are single (and to a good number of married people as well), the loved ones in their lives include friends.  

Studying politics and history, I keep seeing this one character popping up and making trouble. Here are his essential characteristics:

1. He believes he knows what everyone should do.
2. He believes it is his mission to get everyone to do it.
3. He is 100% confident in this belief and mission.

It has been often said, or implied, that people with Asperger's don't feel emotion.  Anyone who's known me through the years can testify that that is absolutely not true.  As with many others with Asperger's, I feel emotion, and feel them intensely, sometimes more so than a person who did not have Asperger's.

A few months back I experimented with writing songs instead of essays. This song was inspired by an argument I couldn’t get started with someone who only wanted to talk about how the media was to blame for youth culture’s slide into jaded promiscuity.

I have been receiving a number of thoughtful comments in previous blog entries and I thought I would address one of the subjects that I myself have questioned while watching the political debates - are some of the comments sexist or fair game?

Just like in the workplace, these elections have raised many issues around race, gender, and age bias.

The nation's eyes have turned to Louisiana once again as the gulf coast starts the recovery from yet another natural disaster. I was originally supposed to travel to New Orleans this week to play a role, albeit minor, in addressing a different, troubling development in the region, one that predates the devastation of Hurricane Katrina three years ago. I was scheduled to testify as an expert in a post-trial hearing regarding racial bias in the legal system, yet another problem with which Louisiana appears all too familiar.

I was reading this mystery as a break from pondering the serious matter of the place of friendship in the law, and I suddenly realized that I was absorbed in a dramatic fictional rendering of that very issue.

This past week I participated in a panel discussion as part of a training workshop for new graduate TAs. I was asked to speak briefly about how to juggle the many responsibilities of a new graduate student, specifically those of research, teaching, and classwork. So while it'll be a bit of a departure from this blog's typical focus, I thought I'd share some of these thoughts I prepared for the workshop for any interested readers who are also beginning (or thinking of beginning) graduate study.  So there's good news and bad news when it comes to balancing the responsibilities of grad school...

Today I actually saw the root of all evil with my very own eyes. I was with my wife and daughters at the local playground. The girls were off playing in the sand together, entertaining themselves and affording us a rare peaceful moment on the park bench. This quiet was interrupted, however, by the rumbling sounds of a 6-year-old peeling around the corner while driving (that's right, driving) a motorized four-wheeler. A battery-operated, ride-on car that kids can drive at the park instead of getting any semblance of physical exercise? Corporations and parents of America, you can't be serious?