The XX Factor: What women really think.

Title IX Has A Birthday!

Yesterday, the Obama administration held a roundtable at the White House campus celebrating the 37th aniversary of Title IX. Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, and Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to the president, hosted "an all-star line-up of women athletes and scientists," per the White House release. That included Billie Jean King and Dominique Dawes (rapidly becoming an administration favorite), and a slew of representatives from women's groups like the Feminist Majority, NOW, the Women's Sports Foundation, and the National Women's Law Center... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Why the Stink Over Pink?

Via Ann Althouse comes word of an annoyingly frivolous potential lawsuit. Outraged over the fact that the University of Iowa outfits the visitor's locker room at its football stadium entirely in pink, a former law professor at the university is threatening to sue the school under Title IX.

Some background: Decades ago, then Iowa football coach Hayden Fry, a psychology major in his undergrad days, had the visitor's locker room painted pink "because it had a calming and passive effect" on people. It always seemed like more of a stunt to me, something to make the boosters chuckle as they make out those five-figure checks to the university, or to distract opposing teams.

But professor Jill Gaulding complained about the locker room in 2005. She was rebuffed and cites the issue as a reason she left the school. Now Iowa has a new president--a woman, incidentally--so Gaulding has renewed her efforts, thus far to no success, and so is threatening a suit.

Title IX has been a boon to women for more than 30 years: More than 55 percent of college students are women. Before Title IX passed, about 16,000 women played college sports every year; now the number is more than 150,000. I hate to see an instrument of so much good abused because someone has an ax to grind. But even worse, to me, is the single-minded devotion to victimization. It's these kinds of stories that make me reluctant to indentify as a feminist. Aren't we strong enough to laugh at something like this, even if it bothers us?