Dr. Rebecca Hains

Category: society


Dear fellow white people: Here’s what to do when you’re called racist.

If you are a white person and someone calls you racist, and the charge perplexes you, what should you do? Here’s some advice.

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On Jim Acosta, the intern, and inappropriate internship expectations: A professor’s perspective

As a Media and Communication professor who regularly supervises undergraduate interns, I have been thinking about the situation with Jim Acosta and the intern who attempted to remove the microphone from his hands, as well as the White House’s suggestion that Acosta assaulted her and therefore deserved to have his White House press “hard pass” access revoked. I have a few thoughts to share.

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HomeGoods’ Thanksgiving figurine looks okay…until you really see it. 

I saw this figurine for sale in my local HomeGoods today, and for some reason it caught my eye. But when I inspected it up close, my reaction was one of horror. I thought, “What an apt symbol of the…

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#Pussygate and Trump’s serial sexual assault 

This election cycle has so desensitized us to hateful rhetoric that I feel compelled to clarify something. When Trump described how he could approach random women and “grab them by the pussy” and claimed they’d “let him” because of his…

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All Rapists are Legitimate Rapists. #EndRapeCulture #BrockTurner

The trial of Stanford rapist Brock Turner offers us insight on what we should do next to fight rape culture.

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This is rape culture. 

Here’s a thread from my latest blog post that exemplifies what rape culture looks like. It begins when a commenter asserts that girls who are “physically adult” can consent to sex. This seems reasonable enough when applied to the girls…

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Reconciling David Bowie’s genius with rape 

Today, on the day of David Bowie’s death, people have been discussing an upsetting issue: Early in his career, David Bowie statutorily raped young teen girls—the underage “baby groupies” who were an open secret in the rock scene of the 1970s….

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Princess Leia is a general now. But why isn’t she in more toy stores?

Children’s products still underrepresent heroic women like Leia.

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Why boys should play with dolls

No one is surprised about seeing dads with strollers anymore, yet biases with toys persist.

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Target will stop labeling toys for boys or girls. Good.

Yes, your daughter can play with blocks, and your son can play with dolls.

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