The truck has become an enduring symbol of rural life, but sometimes a truck is just a truck, no matter what conservatives think.
Notes from the urban/rural divide: Trucks

stillness is a lie, my dear
The truck has become an enduring symbol of rural life, but sometimes a truck is just a truck, no matter what conservatives think.
Ellen Page is being hailed for her travel series Gaycation, which purports to show a window into gay lives around the world. Really, though, it’s just another example of colonial attitudes.
Alex Gino is a fat genderqueer glitter liberationist who attracted considerable media attention earlier this year with the release of their chapter book George, about a transgender fourth grader. The book joins the growing canon of books expanding trans representation in media and pop culture, but it also hits a critical age range, as children’s books with trans […]
When I was first introduced to various schools of philosophy, there was one I was almost instantaneously and inevitably drawn to. It’s perhaps not a surprise to learn that it was utilitarianism, focusing on the greatest good for the greatest number of people and creating a society that operates at maximum efficiency. Some people seem […]
It might seem odd to compare a constantly-mocked social group with a 15th century ‘explorer,’ but the similarities are closer than you think: Both seemed to specialise in charging rampantly into territories they boldly claimed were unchartered, stumbling around in the woods a while when they hit land, and then declaring that they had discovered […]
Few things irk me more than seeing a man receive accolades for saying or doing something that women have been saying and doing for years. Which basically means that I am irked all the time, because this happens continually — even in ‘progressive’ circles that should know better — and I’m thus endlessly frustrated. It’s […]
We know. You love hating on millennials, that shiftless, whiny, useless generation overrunning the streets with their brunch and their black-rimmed glasses. We never had it as hard as you — oh, except for how many of us have endured war for over half our lives, along with multiple economic downturns, skyrocketing costs of living, […]
One thing that fascinates me about WisCon is a key difference between moderators that might seem subtle to someone who isn’t paying attention. During Q&As or audience commentaries, they handle picking people in two very different ways. Let’s say, theoretically, that a person with a red dress stands up or raises a hand to ask a […]
We’re at a wedding, doing toasts, and I don’t raise my glass with everyone else, although I do clap and smile warmly at the couple at the head of the tent. ‘Why aren’t you toasting,’ a friend asks, pointing at my glass. ‘I’m drinking water,’ I explain, an explanation sufficient enough to me, but she […]
I sometimes say that as a tattooed person, I am never truly naked. I bear ink on my skin that goes with me wherever and whenever I go; when I was in surgery recently, the people in the operating room commented on my chest piece, noting that it was quite a dramatic and interesting statement. […]