When I researched Native American ‘plastic shamans’, I made sure the authors didn’t get paid Image by Adina Voicu from Pixabay He was a self-styled New Age Native American religion ‘shaman’ and a big-name author. Adored by thousands, his charms were many to his loyal fans and groupies: Learned, spiritual, and drop-dead gorgeous with those high Native American cheekbones. The heroine in my planned novel would fall hard for him, only to discover his fallibility and phoniness. H

It felt like chopping up my baby. CC0 public domain image from Pixy.com I met Miss Snark’s words with growing dismay. Was she out of her mind? The anonymous New York literary agent’s blog offered near-sacred advice for aspiring novelists — i.e., struggling, largely crappy newbie writers. (Well, those others anyway. Not me.) I’d finished my novel, planned to check for typos, tighten up a few lines here and there, and schlep it off to New York, post haste. But here was Miss Sna

Public domain photo from Pixabay via Nappy How much stems from historical Knowledge? And does it make you hate the wrong people? Trigger warning: A few descriptions of historical tortures. The dreams of medieval tortures began when I was around seven or eight. I can’t remember the brutal details, but generally — men coming after me, wanting to torture me for some damn thing. They petered out, then flared up many years later, as an adult. I remember those a little better. Burn

If you want to add some class to your racism, you can dress like a head waiter while espousing black superiority and look more credible than your badly-dressed distant cousins, the Klan. Black supremacist trainees Nation of Islam photo by Nancy Wong on Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons 4.0 International License Call me racist, an ally, a conservative, a libtard, or whatever makes your little ideological heart go pitter-patter-ker-PLOTZ, but don’t call me a Karen. Not if you

Public domain photo courtesy of the Executive Office of the White House, 2010 Feminist epic success story J.K. Rowling is a former abuse victim who escaped and never let it happen again, and is now a not-so-fantastic beast to a small tranche of the trans community. Rowling is the most visible face in the list of people attacked or cancel-bullied by extremist transgender activists — a case study in how vicious a certain segment of the trans community is, aided by natal women l

FKA Twigs’s story demonstrates the uselessness of #MeToo if we refuse to learn from it, and act more intelligently By Bobo Boom on Wikimedia Commons — FKA Twigs, CC BY 2.0 Singer, songwriter, dancer, and this week’s #MeToo cover girl FKA Twigs, the woman whose initials don’t stand for anything, who ‘just wanted a selection of letters that sounded quite kind of masculine and strong,’ filed a lawsuit against career violent bad boy Shia LaBoeuf for sexual assault, battery, and e

Neil Giraldo and Pat Benatar in 2009 by Terwilliger911 on Wikimedia Commons — CC BY 2.0 ’80s feminist power icon Pat Benatar fought real misogyny but never whined Neil Giraldo and Pat Benatar in 2009 by Terwilliger911 on Wikimedia Commons — CC BY 2.0“Railing against the constraints of male-dominated rock, Pat Benatar sings her lungs out with the kind of sentiments that the rock boize might address if only they had the balls.” — Tim Holmes, Rolling Stone magazine I have fallen