Rebecca L. Davis
@historydavis.bsky.social
Author of FIERCE DESIRES: A NEW HISTORY OF SEX AND SEXUALITY IN AMERICA, publisher of the Carnal Knowledge newsletter, and co-host of This Is Probably a Really Weird Question, a podcast about sexual health and history.
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
My dad’s last book made it to Jeopardy! tonight. Apparently these contestants are a bunch of philistines 😂. I’m sure that @kenjennings.bsky.social knew the answer.
May 3, 2025 at 12:31 AM
My dad’s last book made it to Jeopardy! tonight. Apparently these contestants are a bunch of philistines 😂. I’m sure that @kenjennings.bsky.social knew the answer.
I'm attending Indivisible's event, “NO KINGS Peaceful Rally” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/indivisible/...
NO KINGS Peaceful Rally · Indivisible
Donald Trump's attempts to claim the powers of an absolute monarch must be stopped.
The Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse, but Trump is ignoring Congress' budgets, levying new tax...
www.mobilize.us
April 18, 2025 at 12:22 PM
I'm attending Indivisible's event, “NO KINGS Peaceful Rally” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/indivisible/...
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
Hey! If you like what Cory Booker is doing right now, call your senators and ask them to do the same (now and in the future). Find their info at ☎️ reps.fyi!
This pointless stunt by Cory Booker is accomplishing nothing but drawing attention to the Trump administration’s wrongdoing and delaying the work of the Senate and energizing the Democratic base and, wait, hang on, let me come in again
April 1, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Hey! If you like what Cory Booker is doing right now, call your senators and ask them to do the same (now and in the future). Find their info at ☎️ reps.fyi!
Hey @fetterman.senate.gov, where are you? What are you doing about the assault on democracy? How come no one can get through to an actual human at your office and instead gets your voicemail?
April 1, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Hey @fetterman.senate.gov, where are you? What are you doing about the assault on democracy? How come no one can get through to an actual human at your office and instead gets your voicemail?
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
“Western civilization isn’t just worth preserving. It’s worth fighting for. This is a war, & natalism is our sword & shield, & we will not abandon the front line.”
@kieraevebutler.bsky.social on what pronatalists really want (...& it ain't just more babies):
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
@kieraevebutler.bsky.social on what pronatalists really want (...& it ain't just more babies):
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
“This is a war, and natalism is our sword and shield”—My weekend with the pronatalists
Is it really just more babies that this movement wants?
www.motherjones.com
March 31, 2025 at 3:13 PM
“Western civilization isn’t just worth preserving. It’s worth fighting for. This is a war, & natalism is our sword & shield, & we will not abandon the front line.”
@kieraevebutler.bsky.social on what pronatalists really want (...& it ain't just more babies):
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
@kieraevebutler.bsky.social on what pronatalists really want (...& it ain't just more babies):
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
They were chosen because they are shameless and incompetent, and their shameless incompetence is why they will remain.
The clown show continues - Private Data and Passwords of Senior U.S. Security Officials Found Online
www.spiegel.de/internationa...
www.spiegel.de/internationa...
Hegseth, Waltz, Gabbard: Private Data and Passwords of Senior U.S. Security Officials Found Online
Donald Trump's most important security advisers used Signal to discuss an imminent military strike. Now, reporting by DER SPIEGEL has found that the contact data of some of those officials, including ...
www.spiegel.de
March 27, 2025 at 5:47 PM
They were chosen because they are shameless and incompetent, and their shameless incompetence is why they will remain.
To all the university administrators out there: what are we doing, NOW, right this minute, to protect our international faculty, staff, and students?
We heard and read about the "first they came for" era and all were so confident about what we'd do if we ever found ourselves in that situation, but a lot of people seem to have decided that saying nothing is the right solution. Bullshit.
"A terrified young student, snatched off the street by a masked police force taken thousands of miles across the country without anyone knowing. It is as flatly authoritarian as anything we have ever seen in this country," says Chris Hayes on Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk's detention.
March 27, 2025 at 3:36 PM
To all the university administrators out there: what are we doing, NOW, right this minute, to protect our international faculty, staff, and students?
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
*OAH Panel Alert*
Board member Lauren Gutterman is a panelist on a discussion of @historydavis.bsky.social's new book Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America. Join five panelists as they discuss the state of the field of the history of sexuality in the United States.
Board member Lauren Gutterman is a panelist on a discussion of @historydavis.bsky.social's new book Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America. Join five panelists as they discuss the state of the field of the history of sexuality in the United States.
March 24, 2025 at 5:21 PM
*OAH Panel Alert*
Board member Lauren Gutterman is a panelist on a discussion of @historydavis.bsky.social's new book Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America. Join five panelists as they discuss the state of the field of the history of sexuality in the United States.
Board member Lauren Gutterman is a panelist on a discussion of @historydavis.bsky.social's new book Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America. Join five panelists as they discuss the state of the field of the history of sexuality in the United States.
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
@historydavis.bsky.social's brilliant writing made me tear up this morning (a deathbed scene in her chapter on HIV/AIDS). If you haven't read Fierce Desires yet, step to it. I assigned it for my history of sexuality students this semester and they absolutely love it wwnorton.com/books/978163...
Fierce Desires
One of the <em>New Yorker's</em> Best Books of 2024 • A <em>Washington Post</em> Notable Book of 2024 • A <em>Kirkus Reviews</em> Best Book of 2024 <br /><br />From an esteemed scholar, a richly textu...
wwnorton.com
March 20, 2025 at 4:37 PM
@historydavis.bsky.social's brilliant writing made me tear up this morning (a deathbed scene in her chapter on HIV/AIDS). If you haven't read Fierce Desires yet, step to it. I assigned it for my history of sexuality students this semester and they absolutely love it wwnorton.com/books/978163...
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
I call bullshit: Jewish safety is pretext. Make no mistake, the Trump administration is using antisemitism as an excuse to obliterate Title VI, undermine civil rights and incapacitate higher education.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | The Trump administration is gutting universities’ best tools to fight antisemitism
The White House has put schools in a “can’t win” situation.
www.msnbc.com
March 9, 2025 at 12:39 PM
I call bullshit: Jewish safety is pretext. Make no mistake, the Trump administration is using antisemitism as an excuse to obliterate Title VI, undermine civil rights and incapacitate higher education.
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
thehill.com
March 11, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
With the full report here: www.safehome.org/data-lgbtq-s...
February 24, 2025 at 1:48 PM
With the full report here: www.safehome.org/data-lgbtq-s...
Each of us can help preserve LGBTQ+ history—and, by doing so, defend LGBTQ+ people.
open.substack.com/pub/rebeccal...
open.substack.com/pub/rebeccal...
LGBTQ+ People and Their History Are Here to Stay
And We Need to Protect Them
open.substack.com
February 20, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Each of us can help preserve LGBTQ+ history—and, by doing so, defend LGBTQ+ people.
open.substack.com/pub/rebeccal...
open.substack.com/pub/rebeccal...
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
Every time I do my little resistance posting, someone always replies that the Right might not allow any resistance to fascism. TBH this is a good point, which is why I suggest we ask permission first and gracefully concede if they say no.
February 8, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Every time I do my little resistance posting, someone always replies that the Right might not allow any resistance to fascism. TBH this is a good point, which is why I suggest we ask permission first and gracefully concede if they say no.
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
When it comes to pornography, what’s the harm in looking? How moral panics about erotica have coursed through America’s history @historydavis.bsky.social
When it comes to pornography, what’s the harm in looking? | Aeon Essays
Moral panics about erotica have coursed through the country’s history. Why do so many Americans think of porn as harm?
buff.ly
February 6, 2025 at 7:00 AM
When it comes to pornography, what’s the harm in looking? How moral panics about erotica have coursed through America’s history @historydavis.bsky.social
FIERCE DESIRES on this list of books that “rewrite history”: open.substack.com/pub/nextbigi...
A Brand New Yesterday: 5 Surprising Books That Rewrite History
New releases that redefine the past.
open.substack.com
January 29, 2025 at 2:36 PM
FIERCE DESIRES on this list of books that “rewrite history”: open.substack.com/pub/nextbigi...
In a country where access to both contraception & abortion are declining, a declaration of immutable binary biological sex “protects” women while simultaneously taking away their rights. open.substack.com/pub/rebeccal...
We're All "Women" Now
Newly inaugurated president Donald Trump signed a slew of executive orders on Monday, including one, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Gover...
open.substack.com
January 27, 2025 at 3:35 AM
In a country where access to both contraception & abortion are declining, a declaration of immutable binary biological sex “protects” women while simultaneously taking away their rights. open.substack.com/pub/rebeccal...
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
In November, after the election results led to a wave of shock and despair in the trans community that overwhelmed hotlines and stunned therapists, Assigned put together the Stay With Us package.
www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...
www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...
Stay With Us — Assigned
Assigned Media wants you to live! And, what keeps us steadfast and ready to meet the moment is the example of other members of our community who refuse to let fear or hopelessness keep them from their...
www.assignedmedia.org
January 21, 2025 at 12:25 PM
In November, after the election results led to a wave of shock and despair in the trans community that overwhelmed hotlines and stunned therapists, Assigned put together the Stay With Us package.
www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...
www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...
My beloved colleague Peter Kolchin has died. May his memory be a blessing. 💔📚
Very sad news today that the great Peter Kolchin, author of _Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom (1987)_ and more recently _Emancipation: The Abolition and Aftermath of American Slavery and Russian Serfdom_ has passed away. RIP to one of the greats. 🗃️
January 15, 2025 at 5:17 PM
My beloved colleague Peter Kolchin has died. May his memory be a blessing. 💔📚
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
“So often, sexuality is a story.” Fascinating lecture by @historydavis.bsky.social. I’m ordering her book, “Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America”!
Easily the most fun I've had promoting my new book was an evening on stage at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater in NYC, part of the House of SpeakEasy's series of author events. Wildly outside of my comfort zone -- & it was a blast. My 10 minutes and 40 seconds of fame: www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1aE...
Seriously Entertaining: Rebecca L. Davis on "Moments of Clarity"
YouTube video by House of SpeakEasy
www.youtube.com
December 24, 2024 at 5:04 PM
“So often, sexuality is a story.” Fascinating lecture by @historydavis.bsky.social. I’m ordering her book, “Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex and Sexuality in America”!
Reposted by Rebecca L. Davis
“make the yuletide gay”? you mean
queering the yuletide: a post-structural analysis of heteronormative seasonal paradigms
queering the yuletide: a post-structural analysis of heteronormative seasonal paradigms
December 23, 2024 at 9:41 PM
“make the yuletide gay”? you mean
queering the yuletide: a post-structural analysis of heteronormative seasonal paradigms
queering the yuletide: a post-structural analysis of heteronormative seasonal paradigms
We need better stories. …Stories about justice and repentance. Stories about what it means to stand over the gaping pits of hell and see suffering and reach until your arms ache, until, finally, your daughter returns to you, whole, and it is spring again.
20 Years
Readers, thank you for joining me for the first year of Carnal Knowledge!
open.substack.com
December 20, 2024 at 1:00 PM
We need better stories. …Stories about justice and repentance. Stories about what it means to stand over the gaping pits of hell and see suffering and reach until your arms ache, until, finally, your daughter returns to you, whole, and it is spring again.
We need better stories. Ones in which an abuser’s story is not the narrative arc. I am exhausted by television shows that rely on rape as a way to advance female characters’ story lines, as if nothing else of substance ever happens to women.
20 Years
Readers, thank you for joining me for the first year of Carnal Knowledge!
open.substack.com
December 20, 2024 at 3:19 AM
We need better stories. Ones in which an abuser’s story is not the narrative arc. I am exhausted by television shows that rely on rape as a way to advance female characters’ story lines, as if nothing else of substance ever happens to women.