Let’s Talk About Sex

Everyone else seems to be. They’re talking about women and sex and “Girls” and sex and feminism and sex and HBO and sex and the sexual revolution as failure and the sexual revolution as success. It feels a little weird to be writing this, honestly, being that it’s 2012 and all. But with whom and […]

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You’ll Never Have Sex Again, You’ll Be Alone Forever, and Other Best Sellers

Oy. You’ve surely seen the headlines by now: Women in charge have less sex! Too bossy to make love: Women who make all the decisions at home pay the price in passion! The message is clear: The stronger the lady, the less likely she is to get laid. The thing is, though, that’s not exactly the […]

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Affirmatively Screwed: The Trick Question on College Applications May Be Sex

To pick up where Shannon’s post from Tuesday left off:   Here’s more evidence that the news of men’s untimely demise has been greatly exaggerated.  To wit: If you happen to be a high school senior, live with one, or ever were one, you know what this coming week is all about:  Waiting by the […]

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The next new reality show? Mail-order sexism

So according to Bloomberg News, the newest brides on the block (I use that metaphor intentionally) are Eastern European.  Really.  As we read in the story that appeared all over the interwebs this week: Fourteen years ago, Weiner, 73, founded Hand-In-Hand, a London-based matchmaking agency that charges male customers up to $2,000 for a “supervised […]

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Fly Away Home, Or Eat, Crazy, Sexy, Pray Redux

Oh, contentment. Fulfillment. Happiness. So slippery, so elusive. And yet, we never stop looking for it, do we? A generation ago, women–stuck in the home and driven apeshit by a never-ending list of mindless chores–ran screaming out of those homes (and, sometimes, away from their families), certain fulfillment was waiting for them in the world […]

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Of Sexism and Censorship

Last week was Banned Books Week, and in its honor, I’m bringing up the case of Laurie Halse Anderson’s young-adult book Speak, in which the female protagonist is raped–which a Missouri college professor apparently believes amounts to “soft pornography.” In an Op-Ed piece that ran in Springfield, Missouri’s News-Leader entitled “Filthy books demeaning to Republic […]

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Sexy Katie

Amid all this talk about whether women need to be more like men to make it in a man’s world, along comes Katie Couric in a sexy fashion shoot for the March issue of Harper’s Bazaar, due out Feb. 16. Guts ball — or career poison? Does it diminish her credibility or, in an unexpected […]

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Eat Crazy Sexy Pray: Seeking is the New Black

There’s a movement afoot in Manhattan, according to NYT reporter Allen Salkin, in his recent piece “Seeing Yourself in Their Light”…and those feet doing the moving? They’re more likely to be bare than stiletto-clad. The article (which, not incidentally, appeared in the Style section) chronicles women in their late 20s to late 30s who’ve ditched […]

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Making the Personal Political

The Feminine Mystique is 50 years old; do you know where your equality is? Here’s a hint: if you’re a woman living in America, it’s still pretty far out of reach. Because for as far as women have come in the ol’ US of A, the fact is that the state of affairs here–compared to […]

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From Delhi to D.C.: What We Can Do in the Fight Against Gender Violence

It’s easy to be appalled by things that happen elsewhere: the brutal, horrifying rape of the 23 year-old Indian student, so violent that she died of her injuries. Malala Yousufzai, the 15 year-old Pakistani schoolgirl/activist who was shot in the head by the Taliban. It’s easy to feel a sort of removed pity in the […]

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