Friday, May 22, 2009 - Posts
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The Terminator
movie franchise is notable for its creation of one of the earliest
tough female action-hero characters: Sarah Connor, mother of John
Connor. In the later movies, her son becomes the leader of the
resistance to Skynet, the computer system that launched the war against
humans, but in the first two she plays a crucial role. In a sense,
she’s a Mary figure, the mother of the savior, but rather than cast a
vulnerable softie, James Cameron cast Linda Hamilton, tough girl. Who
can forget her biceps, or her famous chin-up scene? So I went to see Terminator: Salvation hoping to find more of the same gender complexity. Instead, this movie, directed by McG is as conventional as can be... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
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In an effort to answer why so many "lady lawyers, doctors, and MBAs" at their class reunions "were still slaving after forty," authors Elizabeth Ford and Daniela Drake (a lady doctor, herself) have explored "why do bimbos fare better than the smart chicks" in their new sociological study from Perseus publishing: Smart Girls Marry Money. Sadly, the pink-covered book is not a comic novel by Anita Loos, but a... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
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Every day the media attention paid President Obama’s Supreme Court shortlist
gets a little more bogged down in reviving cheesy literary archetypes. Articles
like this one unerringly paint Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the tempestuous
“Fiery Latina” to Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s tender “Den Mother,” and then
contrast both to Diane Wood’s brainy “Bench Balancer.” Why do these three types
seem so eerily familiar?? Hmm. Might it be because... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
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I’ve been mulling the responses I got, via email and comments,
to my question about
why a recent Gallup poll might show a seven point jump in the percentage of
people who define themselves as prolife (from 44 percent last year to 51 percent
this year). Several theories from readers:
The Election.
I think this past year forced me to think about how I really felt. The election
has something to do with it . . . Obama’s mother also set me on a course of
reflection. As an intelligent, curious single mom who struggled to give her son the best, I could relate.
I really want to be liberal, but in my life the most tangible support as a
poor, single mother came from people who looked, acted, and talked just like
Sarah Palin. Other high-status women didn’t give me chances; they were the first
to complain when I needed time off for a sick child. Academics can write about
women’s issues but the evangelicals made sure I could afford to go to work. In
contrast, my university still doesn’t offer onsite child-care.
The Aging Population.
Perhaps when folks pass the age at which their daughters may be faced with
this decision they can more easily be moved...
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On Wednesday, Hanna asked "Is it
normal to be transgender?" On Thursday, Adam Reilly at the
Boston Phoenix asked whether being transgender is newsworthy.
Reilly analyzes the coverage of Aiden Quinn, the 24-year-old subway driver who
crashed a Boston train earlier this month, injuring 50, moments after texting
his girlfriend. And hey, by the way, he used to be a woman. Reilly writes:
Given Quinn's admission that he was, in fact, texting prior to the accident,
there's a general consensus that he's a dumbass. But there's no such agreement
among the Boston media as to whether his switch from identifying as a woman to a
man was...
(To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)