Women | Mockingbird

Over the Hill and Under the Law: Girls, Math and the “Prime” of Life

by David Zahl on Nov 26, 2012 • 1 Comment

In The NY Times Magazine a couple of weeks ago, Carina Chocano launched another one of her missiles of insight, this time at the double standards about age for men and women in a column entitled “Girls Love Math. We Never Stop Doing It.” Her jumping off points being the pilot of Mindy Kaling’s new show, The Mindy Project (in which a 31-year old Mindy expresses more than a little angst about being ‘over the hill’, marriage-potential-wise), and a recent debate about the guidelines for runway models, i.e. that they must be at least 16 years old. But as worthy…

America / Books / Children / Conferences / Education / Film / Grace in Practice / Law / Music / Social Science / Testimony / Theology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Spoiled Kids, Harvard Perfectionism, KKKlan Grace, Lonergan’s Lament, Negative Thinking, Mormonism, Golf Ethics, Sorkinisms, and Fall Conference Update

by David Zahl on Jun 29, 2012 • 8 Comments

1. Over at The New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert surveyed the latest swath of parenting books, asking the question “Why Are American Kids So Spoiled?” Much of the article reiterates what we’ve been hearing with alarming frequency the past couple years, namely that the current “helicopter/snowplow” culture of control is backfiring, royally. It’s an honest if also fairly depressing analysis: the “performancism” epidemic being perpetuated (somewhat out of necessity) by US colleges has filtered down to the preschool level, which, combined with the hangover from the self-esteem movement and incredible advances in technology has created this weird situation where kids grow…

Children / Identity / Law

Have It All, Ladies (and Gents)… Or Else!

by David Zahl on Jun 27, 2012 • 7 Comments

A lot has already been said about Anne Marie Slaughter’s controversial cover story for The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”. Naturally, I hesitated to comment at first–do we really need another male point of view?–but as the debate raging around the article has shifted to somewhat more universal questions, e.g. what constitutes success and value in our society, indeed what constitutes a meaningful life, period, the resistance melted away. She’s clearly touched a nerve! If you haven’t read the piece, it is packed with vulnerability and smarts (if not, perhaps, an overflow of wisdom), very much worth…

Gender / Law / Psychology / Suffering

Ease My Worried Mind: Insomnia, Control and Mother’s New Little Helper

by David Zahl on Nov 30, 2011 • 2 Comments

A few weeks ago, The NY Times published a worthy rejoinder to all the recent hubbub about the Mancession with a look into what has become something of an epidemic of sleeplessness among American women, “Sleep Medication: Mother’s New Little Helper.” We’re fond on this site of using 3am mental traffic as a barometer of what’s really going on inside a person – what keeps you up, in other words – mainly because sleep (and dreaming!), as an area of our lives not subject to control, is a window into reality, who we actually are as opposed to who we…