Sixteen and a half years ago President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, enshrining inequality into federal law. As Clinton tells it, he had to sign it because it was a veto-proof majority and any veto would have been overruled anyway, though I rather suspect that it had more to do with the fact […]
Category Archives: Kathryn’s Musings
If I got a gallery show…
I would put labels on random elements in the room, like the benches and the thermostat. It would be a commentary on whether art is construct.
Lady Gaga, Orientalism, and cultural appropriation
 Ignoring for a moment the fact that this particular outfit looks like Gaga wrapped herself in a bedspread and then got attacked by wild animals, we need to talk about how with her latest burqa-wearing shtick, she’s planted herself smack dab in the middle of a long tradition of Westerners simultaneously hyper-sexualizing, othering, and […]
Double Standards
Why is it that people who are appalled by Beyonce’s Super Bowl halftime show have no problem with guys running around in skintight pants that leave nothing to the imagination? To be sure, football pants are functional as well as being form fitting, but still, it’s not like people don’t notice that the tight end […]
Stream of consciousness
By the time I finish this amicus brief research, I really am not going to want to think about DOMA and Prop 8 ever again. It’ll be worth it if it helps sway the mind of a Supreme Court justice though. Speaking of which, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea […]
2012, A Retrospective
My year, in no particular order. Over this last year I made it through my second and third semesters of law school; worked my tail off to reelect the president; studied in China, and checked off the second leader on my “embalmed communist leaders world tour”; went back to Vietnam, saw old friends, crashed a […]
Guiding Gay Evangelicals Out of the Campus Closet
Guiding Gay Evangelicals Out of the Campus Closet At a number of evangelical Christian colleges, gay alumni are pressuring their alma maters to be more accepting and offering help to the closeted undergraduates there. ——– This article is relevant to the paper I’m trying to finish. It’s also relevant because I feel like there needs […]
Enough
This past summer, I sat in a restaurant in Hanoi trying to explain American gun culture to former students. If any of you are reading this, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think I did a very good job of explaining the the love affair that Americans have with guns. I can speak […]
Musings from a parallel universe
Earlier today I posted a link on facebook about how Michael Farris of Patrick Henry College threatened to sue the the people behind the Queer at Patrick Henry College blog for copyright infringement for using the name “Patrick Henry College”. [Here’s where we pause for a moment while I say, COPYRIGHT LAW DOES NOT WORK LIKE […]
Begin reboot sequence: Brain
I’m at the point where my brain wants to completely crash, and it’s only Monday of the first week of finals. I think my brain BSOD’d itself, but unlike a malfunctioning Windows 95 system, CTL-ALT-DEL won’t work. And so here I sit looking at animated Doctor Who gifs, which is a wholly unproductive use of my time. […]