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E.J. Graff

E.J. Graff writes on social-justice and human-rights issues, particularly discrimination and violence against women and children; marriage and family policy; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lives. She is a resident scholar at the Brandeis Women's Studies Research Center and the author of What Is Marriage For? The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution (Beacon Press, 1999, 2004).

Recent Articles

Blame the Supreme Court

E.J. GraffOct 19, 2011

Dahlia Lithwick explains that "Blaming Congress for the corporate takeover of American democracy is only half the fun; blaming the Supreme Court is almost better." But Occupy Wall Street is lacking in ambition, she suggests, if it only focuses on Citizens United, she explains:

Comings & Goings

E.J. GraffOct 18, 2011

The New York Times has posted a riveting graphic representation showing where Americans are moving to and from, by race. I noodled around this spot for awhile, finding out some surprising things, but you could find more. Manhattan has become 22 percent more white--okay, housing prices have pushed out most people, and whites are richer than everyone else, while the Bronx has become eight percent less so, and has gotten much more Latin. My own county of Middlesex, Massachusetts has become -- at long last -- six percent less white, gaining both blacks and Hispanics.

DADT Repeal Not the End of Discrimination

E.J. GraffOct 17, 2011

Since "don't ask, don't tell" has been repealed, all's peachy for lesbians and gay men in the military, yes? Umm, no. Serving openly has made it much clearer all the more subtle ways that lesbians and gay men are excluded from full participation -- particularly, the fact that the military does not support its gay service members' families in the same way that heterosexual service members' families are supported.

Lost in Detention

E.J. GraffOct 17, 2011

What happens to you when you sneak into the U.S. without papers, hoping for a better life? You might make a living working at jobs that the native-born wouldn't take, supporting your family back home. Or you might end up in indefinite detention. On Tuesday at 9 p.m., PBS's Frontline airs Maria Hinojosa's in-depth, year-long investigation of this system, Lost in Detention. As you may know, Hinojosa's powerful journalistic career has been dedicated to telling the stories of social injustice and exposing the machinery that perpetrates it. I suspect this will be powerful and disturbing. Here's what her production house, Futuro Media Group, says about this show:

Jane Austen Lives!

E.J. GraffOct 14, 2011

Jane Austen lives -- in India. Once upon a time, the course of your life was determined by the status you were born into. As cheeky as Jane Austen could be, she knew perfectly well that each character's income and background determined their marital fates. The young lady of the manor better not run off with the dashing blacksmith, because marrying him would cast her out of all "polite society." You might say that things aren't really so different today; if a Yale Law graduate married a janitor, the rehearsal dinner might be a bit tense. But if the janitor magically put herself through law school -- and it does happen, despite the many barriers -- allowances would be made.

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