The XX Factor

One Quibble About South Dakota and Abortions

2008-07-03T20:36:00Z

Dana , Even though we sit on opposite sides of the abortion debate, I am also uneasy with South Dakota's law compelling abortion doctors to tell women that they are terminating the "the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." There are a million and one better ways to reduce the number of abortions, from better sex education and better access to birth control to charities who work tirelessly to support women who choose to keep their child or keep the pregnancy and give the child up...(read more)

Stalin in South Dakota

2008-07-03T19:36:00Z

But the point, Melinda , of my hypothetical story about the pregnant woman in South Dakota is that neither she nor her doctors necessarily hold the belief that abortion is the taking of a life. The doctors who require her to sign aren't "pointing out" that there's "a person in there" (or "a human being," in the carefully parsed words of the bill). They're being compelled by the state to go through the motions of simulating that belief, which, I'm sorry, is a Stalinesque absurdity that serves no purpose...(read more)

She's Nothing but Trouble

2008-07-03T17:14:00Z

I agree with Will Saletan that it is an abomination that the late Leona Helmsley wished her potentially $8 billion foundation to go entirely to the dogs. Uber-narcissist Helmsley left one of her largest personal bequests, $12 million, to her badly behaved (surprise!) Maltese dog, Trouble, an amount cut to $2 million by the judge overseeing the case. Looking at the photo of Helmsley's taut, rotten face cuddled up to Trouble, the only creature on earth who could bear the sight of her, fills one with...(read more)

Is Bullying Always a Bad Thing?

2008-07-03T16:26:00Z

Actually, Dana , I am a big fan of moral bullying, and wish it had been more effectively used to keep us out of Iraq. I'm hopeful that eventually, through better moral bullying, we will join other civilized nations in outlawing capital punishment. And it is only by building a moral consensus - bullying, if you prefer - that we'll ever see a real reduction in the number of abortions performed in this country every year. I'm not so sure I approve of the particulars of the law Emily wrote about; if...(read more)

Pregnant in Rapid City

2008-07-03T14:58:00Z

Emily’s piece about the new abortion bill set to go into effect in South Dakota has me madder and sadder than anything I’ve read in some time. (Actually, the last thing that got me into this state was also in Slate : In Steven Greenhouse’s story about the scarcity of vacation time in America, he mentions that the United States is one of four countries in the world without required paid maternity leave. The other three are Swaziland, Liberia, and Papua New Guinea.) But back to South Dakota. Imagine...(read more)

All About Eve

2008-07-03T13:24:00Z

Pixar’s latest kiddie masterpiece, Wall-E , did some massive damage at the box office on its opening weekend. As A.O. Scott recently noted in a New York Times essay about Kit Kittredge (watch this space for more on that film), Pixar has yet to build a movie around a girl protagonist. But Wall-E does prominently feature a pretty bad-ass lady: Wall-E’s crush object, Eve, a sleekly minimalist commando-bot with an itchy trigger finger. What kind of girl is Eve? One XX Factor-er wondered whether Pixar...(read more)

“Out of Ashes Growing Lilies”

2008-07-02T22:19:00Z

The whole Yearning for Zion case left me creeped out. The feminist in me finds polygamy in general a little creepy, but even more so when young women—girls even—are married off to more powerful older men. The mother in me hates the way they kick out the boys to make the numbers work, and I'm saddened by stories that the children apparently grow up without toys or anything else that might inspire their imagination. But the civil libertarian in me also gets creeped out when the state oversteps its...(read more)

What's a Girl To Do?

2008-07-02T16:34:00Z

I'm struck by this debate because in many ways it perfectly encapsulates something I've been feeling lately. As a 20-year-old girl (woman?!) who aspires to a career as a conservative journalist, I find myself agonizing over where I'll find my place professionally. I've spent several summers working in journalism, and I've always thought it's better to be a conservative in a liberal pool than to hole myself away with a bunch of neoconservatives. But sometimes I feel like I don't get credit for that....(read more)

Chardonnay or Pinot?

2008-07-01T21:00:00Z

I'm saying, Emily, that it's not acceptable, much less a Fast Pass, to question feminist dogma on choice within the ranks of "mainstream media" — though I'm sure there are no shortage of book contracts to be had at Regnery. Until the Times hired Bill Kristol, weren't such voices almost exclusively consigned to conservative outlets? Maybe you're thinking, "Sure, isn't that where they're supposed to be?' (And maybe you're not, though ah, how much easier to win arguments with myself; I also enjoy solitaire...(read more)

Men Are From Mars, Women From Venus, and We're All on Pluto

2008-07-01T20:00:00Z

Emily, you asked why self-identified feminists like Susan Pinker and LouAnn Brizendine publish books that focus on the differences between men and women. The cynic in me says: The marketplace finds it sexier than more talk about feminist goals that haven't been met yet. (As you pointed out, Brizendine's book was a best-seller.) But to be less simplistic about it: It seems to me that we are at a crux where we think we know more about the brain than ever before. Whether we do or not is perhaps subject...(read more)

Three Fingers, Maybe

2008-07-01T19:53:00Z

Melinda , I think you are tellling me to go have that drink. Actually, I can think of more than two fingers' worth of women journalists who are pro-life, or who I think are, but I'll stipulate that they are relatively few. So what does that prove? That not many pro-life women are drawn to journalism, especially opinion journalism? Or that there are lots of women out there who are being stomped on by the liberal establishment and not enough conservative outlets to house them? I'm not sure I buy the...(read more)

Need More Than Two Fingers? I Didn't Think So.

2008-07-01T19:04:00Z

Emily : Ha! Here's a question in answer to your question about whether women who take on feminist orthodoxy are making a wily career move: How many pro-life female journalists do you know?...(read more)

Mars and Venus Walk Among Us

2008-07-01T15:23:00Z

Yes, I think it's safe to say that Clark Hoyt doesn't get Maureen Dowd, despite her efforts to explain herself to him (what a fun interview that must have been). Dowd said that she's playing with sexist gender constructs, not aping them. She also defended herself as an equal opportunity offender—she questions Obambi's masculinity as well as Hillary's womanliness, and this makes it all more OK. That works for me, most of the time. It does drive me crazy, though, when women writers or TV commentators,...(read more)

The Last Thing Newspapers Need ...

2008-07-01T03:15:00Z

I don't know how this escaped my notice, unless maybe it's because I never read anything newspaper ombudsmen (or ombudswomen) have to say, and not only because they are so boring. (With the business model failing, the industry in apparent freefall, staffs shrinking so fast the survivors have to scurry just to keep up on government disinformation, and left and right uniting against the lazy, dull-witted, and otherwise very bad people without whom we would know nothing—nothing!—that is going on in...(read more)

Successful Enough for You, Dear?

2008-06-30T20:28:00Z

The Sunday New York Times chronicled the trials and tribulations of women who run businesses and employ their husbands. The piece profiled women who sell backpacks and run temp-services agencies, women who run companies that deliver meals or set up trade-show displays. But somehow they missed my favorite female CEO, Patty Brisben, who runs a sex-toy company in a suburb of Cincinnati. Brisben's story is your classic Horatio Alger tale. As this Cincinnati Magazine article explains , she married at...(read more)

But a Boob Job IS an Investment

2008-06-26T01:57:00Z

In his " Human Nature " blog, Slate 's Will Saletan rejoices over the recession's toll on the cosmetic surgery business and expresses horror at the idea that some suckers (social parasites?) still refinance their homes to get cosmetic surgery during economic downturns. Then these vain people justify their ill-gotten boobs and rhinoplasties on the grounds that their plastic surgery was " an investment ." Saletan cries foul: "When you can't pay the mortgage, we're supposed to bail you out? And your...(read more)

Moving Up the Ranks

2008-06-24T18:58:00Z

I'm encouraged by the announcement from the Department of Defense yesterday about the nomination of Army Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody to the position of four-star general. If the Senate confirms her nomination, Dunwoody will be the first woman to attain a status that historically has been achieved through combat jobs, which women are not allowed to hold. What's especially promising about her nomination is the fact that the government lifted its own barrier to recognize her achievements and capabilities...(read more)

No Math. Just TV.

2008-06-20T21:22:00Z

Kara, go forth and absorb Picasso and Bernini (and then enlighten the rest of us). For my part, I'm sorry I didn't take art history in college. Or music history. In fact I think I'm a cretin. But I also regret, just as much, that I took zero math and as little science as I could get away with. I thought I was following my passions, too, and maybe I was, but now I think of the puzzle-solving part of math, which I like, and wonder if I dropped it for the wrong ie gendered reasons. Melinda, I should...(read more)

Do I Have to Be an Astrophysicist?

2008-06-20T15:09:00Z

While I can't answer Melinda's question of whether the bar for mothers-who-do-it-all was always set so high, as a young twentysomething just starting out in my career, I can see that bar vaulting upward among the women of my own generation. With few glass ceilings remaining, the limits to our professional ambitions seem next to nonexistent. But along with our heightened career expectations comes the decision to try to balance both work and family life. For all the inspirational value of Hillary Clinton's...(read more)

Phyllis and Del—A Lifetime of Lesbian Activism

2008-06-18T21:53:00Z

Dana, I love that you were moved by that picture of Del and Phyllis . They're revered as foremothers of the LGBT movement. In 1955, at a time when people were arrested and lost their jobs (and lives) for being gay, when police would rape women arrested for being lesbian (honest, I'm not making this up), this couple launched the Daughters of Bilitis , the first American lesbian activist organization, and founded The Ladder , a samizdat publication that was passed from hand to hand. They risked their...(read more)