Cranky Pants and the Girl Ghetto

Something struck me  as I clicked on the salon.com daily newsletter in my inbox Wednesday and it totally pissed me off. Now before I go on, let me assure you that I love salon.com, that I’ve been reading it ever since Dave Talbot started it before the idea of digital journalism had even hit the [...]

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The Trouble with Girlfriends: Quarterlife Crisis, redux

I came across this story in the Philadelphia Enquirer the other day about the new angst of quarterlifers. (I’ve buried the lead once again. But stay with me here.) The story revisited the book, Quarterlife Crisis, written back in 2001, and then went on to enumerate the ways in which the Crisis, thanks to the [...]

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New Year’s Resolution: Kill the Clock

Partially fueled by good champagne, we had some silly chitchat with good friends on New Year’s Eve regarding stupid celebrity “news” stories. My husband won the “top this” prize with a rumor that made the rounds a while back about Morgan Freeman planning to marry his step granddaughter. Huh? Apart from the very obvious yuck [...]

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Ideology vs. Identity: Of Burning Bras, Sarah Palin, and Health Care Reform

Given the –well, the shitstorm that’s erupted over the attempt to saddle health care reform with the cynical, sabotaging, decidedly anti-choice Stupak-Pitts amendment, it’s fitting to revisit an issue that simply will not go away. Us versus Them. But first. There’s some awesome, mandatory reading currently waiting for you over at the New Yorker‘s website, [...]

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You Say Out, I Say In. Let’s Call the Whole Thing Opt.

As in option. Or, sometimes, the lack of same. Surely you have been tuned in to the continuing controversy as to whether the “opt-out revolution”, reported by Lisa Belkin in the New York Times Magazine back in 2003, ever really existed. In her story, Belkin reported on a group of fast-track women who’d “opted out” [...]

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Oh, the irony: what’s hot and what’s not

Apparently, pot bellies are the new cool. If you happen to be a young male hipster. Stay with me here: This is all about the way the media treat women as opposed to men, and why it appears that women can’t win. According to The New York Times Style section, the Ralph Kramden look is [...]

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As in sit-coms, so in life?

The newest “Are You A ….” game to pop up here in cyberspace involves Peggy and Joan, the two female stars of Mad Men, the spot-on series set in an advertising agency in the early 60′s. It starts its third season on Sunday. Full disclosure: I can’t wait. For those new to the series, Peggy [...]

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HBO tackles the F-word: But please don’t call it feminism!

Really, women’s work is never done. At a time when we’re told that work-life balance is the great mirage; at a time when women are still punching the clock on the “second shift”; at a time when kickass young women are still stuck trying to decide how and where they fit into the world of [...]

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