As to item 2: you know, even if all the cultural theory stuff is intended for Cultural Theorists Only — that is, if it’s published as a university press book, or in an academic journal — I still get a special kind of cranky at the dense thickets of obtusity, seemingly laid out for obtusity’s sake, rather than clarity or precision’s. (had to look up “obtusity”: b-low me down, it’s an actual word!) Of course, I defected from academe, and am now on the outside, so I am the last one to be objective about it all. Economics? Yahooie! Advanced algebra and trig were dizzying to me! BOTH times I took ‘em in high school! Hats off to you.

As to item 3: what a great story. That the Young Peoples in your classes take the notion of the gender continuum as obvious is another of the many signs that give me hope for the future. Thank you, too, for not ridiculing the notoriously humanities-ish liberties I take with the art form of the graph. Of course I love Edward Tufte, but kind of like how I enjoy Nina Simone singing in French or something. A whole lot of it blows by me, but I still think it’s fascinating &/or beautiful and enjoy it nonetheless.

I have read raves of Alison Bechtel’s memoir, and you’ve now inspired me to up and get it. Thank you for the kind words about my dad. He’s 85 now, and I am keenly aware of the increasing value of the remaining time we have. If it were graphed, it’d be an exponential line for sure.

Back in the day, I used to fancy myself something of a gender theorist, but the link to Genders instantly reminded me why I dropped out of academic grad school instead of law school. My brain still hurts! But the “samish-sex” marriage essay was a treat.

2. I’m an economist, so ALL of this stuff is extra reading to me (I JUST got Halberstam’s book on recommendation from a cultural theorist friend and am quickly flying into that anti-intellectual tizzy fit you describe. I’ll take the dizzying math of econ over those $0.25 words you describe any day. It is sitting NEXT to the much simpler Making Globalization Work by Stiglitz on the bedstand.).

3. I loved your depiction of the gender continuum. I regularly draw something similar on the white board to my “women in the US economy course” — except I have two “normal curves” (my math background shows through) that overlap in the middle (I expect my students to take my living example of a more masculine woman among all of the scantily-clad college coeds in the room) with the extreme-masculine men and the extreme-feminine women in the opposite tails of the two overlapping curves. This leads to a great economic discussion of ‘women’s jobs’ and ‘mens’ jobs’. . . . Should women be banned from becoming prison guards? Fascinating stuff. Interestingly, the students are either sleeping, or they take the notion of the gender continuum as obvious. As they should (in either case).

Your dad sounds amazing and your ‘knowing’ him so intimately is a testament. Have you read Alison Bechtel’s new memoir?