The XX Factor: What women really think.

A Woman Speaks Up for Injured NFL Players

A post from DoubleX writer Meredith Simons:

Congressional committee hearings are usually the domain of dark-suited men speaking in carefully-modulated tones. So Gay Culverhouse, who showed up to a House Judiciary Committee meeting in an unapologetically purple suit and spoke with both intelligence and anger, was startling. Culverhouse, a former president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, wasn’t a breath of fresh air; she was a bracing gust of wind as she outlined the ways in which (in her view) the NFL abuses and then abandons its players ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)

Defending Lingerie Football

A post from Double X writer Greg Beato: 

It didn’t take long for the Lingerie Football League to live up to the low expectations of its critics. All spring long, LFL personnel had been promising serious hard-hitting action among skilled players who just happened to be sexy women. But in early September, when the Chicago Bliss kicked off the season against the Miami Caliente, the highlight was a new contribution to gridiron strategy: stripping the passer. “Our QB, Anonka Dixon, had her bra top ripped off,” Caliente running back Michelle Stevens exclaimed in a postgame interview. “Three girls from Chicago jumped on her after the play was already over and shredded her top to pieces. There she sat, topless on the field, and for no other reason than she is an unbelievable player and a huge threat to Chicago’s defense,  they wanted to take her out of the game” ... (Read more in DoubleX.)

Department of Feminist Outrage: Women, Dogs, and Michael Vick

Michael Vick trotted back onto the preseason field for the Philadelphia Eagles last night to a partial standing ovation in his first game since he got out of federal prison after serving a 19-month sentence for his infamous dogfighting crimes. The NFL is handling Vick's return gingerly, though, giving him game-by-game conditional approval to play rather than reinstating him for the regular season. What bothers me is the contrast between the care the NFL is taking about Vick because he hurt dogs compared to its relative indifference when football players commit crimes against women ... (Read more in DoubleX.)