Of Spike Heels and Headscarves
Since I seem to be taking the unpopular, counter-intuitive stance lately, I thought I'd chime in on our burqa debate with a nice holiday story in support of them. (Well, in support of those opposing a ban, at least.) It's entirely apolitical and completely self-sourced, but nonetheless an illustration of Delia's excellent point, which I'll reproduce in its entirety: one of the reasons burqas are such a bugaboo for some American women is that they don't encounter them all that frequently. ...
Saint or Monster, Elizabeth Edwards Isn't the Issue
With all due respect, I could not disagree more with the notion that Elizabeth Edwards has her priorities straight. It's not that I'm not sympathetic to her situation. (If you're not up on the particulars, swing by Barnes & Noble -- she wrote a handy guide.) As the globe knows, the past few years have been particularly unkind to her: she got terminal cancer, learned of her husband's affair, and then got the shattering news that he'd fathered a child with the other woman. But the idea that Edwards is trapped -- that she can't leave her husband lest her children's image of their father be ...
Three's Allowed: Orszag and Co. Do Co-Parenting Proud
Like the rest of you UPpity women, I, too, was fascinated by our Budget Director Peter Orszag's story -- though not because I was mystified at how such a high king of nerdery gets so many ladies. (I'd take Food Network chem-whiz Alton Brown over George Clooney with a nice bottle of wine any day -- and not only because Alton would lay out the molecular rationale for letting it breathe first.) ...
'Staying True'? Most Marriage Memoirs Do Anything But
Mary, I was interested to see your post about the release of Jenny Sanford's memoir being pushed up to February. (Who knew she was writing a memoir?) I'd prefer that it be pushed back a few years, or that it were never written at all. Although you can't make assumptions about what leads anyone to put pen to paper -- perhaps Sanford is a secret memoirist who's been itching to blow the lid off her marriage since the honeymoon -- it seems far more likely that this is yet another contribution to the scorned-wives genre, where the spouse offers insta-insights for the benefit of an enthusiastic ...
Pile-up in Aisle 3: What's With the Mom-on-Mom Violence?
Once, the opportunity to be judgy about another's parenting skills came only when the person's child had a meltdown, and you happened to be inside the blast radius. But in an online age where ratings and commenters rule, it's hard to tell who's throwing the tantrum. Because somewhere in the land between Jean Kerr's witty dispatches on pabulum and Sandra Tsing Loh's baroque exegesis on being a newly single mom, we've gone from trading tips on sore nipples to a kind of world-wide Motherholics Anonymous meeting -- albeit one in which your fellow attendees stand up and hurl judgments your way the ...
With Health Insurance, It's Always Your Fault
This particular case really is not the insurance company's fault, or the doctor's . . . it's yours. For not looking into things beforehand. That was a reader comment left on the first health care post I ever did for Politics Daily, and ever since, I've wondered how many health insurers have profited from the power of that sentiment. Because while intellectually, I have always been able to see that my insurer relies on an ever-fresh blend of confusing responses, reversing what it said the last time, saying it will do things it won't, and transferring me to others schooled in the same methods, ...
I'm Team Tsing Loh: Whither Germaine Greer, Indeed?
Melinda, Lynn – I was frankly surprised to hear the n-word (narcissist) used to describe Sandra Tsing Loh, an essayist whose works on parenting culture I have adored for years. Like Delia, I'd like to put forth that often, her tongue is practically poking through her cheek. (She's not suggesting everyone leave their husbands any more than that everyone eat their babies -- although I bet they'd be delicious.) But I think it's telling that one apparently has to evoke the travails of the homeless and mothers who deal drugs to make Tsing Loh's issues, by comparison, seem unworthy -- because ...
Are You There, Social Justice? It's Me, Judy
"If only Judy Blume had written a book about a tall Jewish girl who had crushes on other girls." Thus did emcee comedian and gay author Judy Gold kick off the recent National Coalition Against Censorship's 35th anniversary gala last month at the City Winery in New York City, which feted as its honoree Judy Blume, an author whose name is synonymous with teen angst over menstruation, masturbation and copulation. ...
Same Old Story: Best-Books Lists Snub Women Writers
A few weeks ago, two book critics held a hushed conversation via cell phone under cover of darkness. "They better not do it again," one hissed. "I know," the other sputtered. "If it happens, I will just --" "I know!" said the other. "SCREAM," the first finished. "I WILL SCREAM." The subject was the upcoming season of book awards; "They" was the mass of authors, critics and publishing professions who -- including yours truly -- dispense them. The cover of darkness, cell-phone relay and hissing were mainly due to exigencies of subway travel in New York City. But the "it" -- the hissed "it" -- ...
Carving Up Women to Sell Crime Fiction
By the time I turned 10, prime-time TV had rendered me terrified of many things. I was terrified I was going to get locked in a closet with my two siblings tied up outside, screaming, by a man who'd stalked me for years. I was afraid I was going to get locked in the bathroom of a lonely bus station by a pervert with my best friend left screaming outside, unable to help. I was terrified I'd be felt up by a trusted teacher; felt up by a trusted family friend; raped twice by a perp I'd successfully prosecuted; cornered in a parking garage and raped. I was terrified I'd be raped by my boyfriend, ...
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