Weekly Feminist Reader

Women still do most of the housework. Somebody, quick, call Linda Hirshman!
A federal judge rules against a small university that violated Title IX, which requires equal funding for women’s and men’s sports.
One of the women who participated in a Catholic ordination ceremony to demand female priests has resigned from her job with the Archdiocese of Boston.
Babytalk’s recent cover featured a baby and (gasp!) a breast, which “incited more than 700 letters to the editor, a record for the magazine.� Via Shakes.
A Zimbabwean political party plans to get older women to strip during forthcoming anti-government protests. According to traditional local culture, it’s highly taboo for men to see elderly women naked– so the older women are to be used as “weapons.” Ugh.
While some of us were surprised to hear that the new Batwoman is a lesbian, comic geeks note that this new character “is on in a long line of lesbian characters in mainstream comics, and the fifth recent lesbian character in the Batman universe alone.”
Now that the Senate has cleared the Teen Endangerment Act, the American Prospect explains the dysfunctional judicial bypass process that’s supposed to allow minors to sidestep parental involvement. (Women’s E-News has more on the Teen Endangerment Act.)
Was “The Odyssey” actually written by a woman?
Women in the developing world who marry young are at increased risk for HIV/AIDS.
Apparently now it’s cool for young women to be smart (nerdy, even), but not young men?
A North Carolina judge ruled against the state’s “fornication and adultery statute.” Now it’s OK for two people to “lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together” without getting married first. Hurrah!
More and more women are going into broadcast news, causing some to fret that the boy crisis now applies to broadcast journalism. But not so fast: “Many observers suggest that [men’s] departure reflects the transformation of TV news from a “glamour” business to a low-wage, no-growth field with limited career potential.” Clearly, once a field becomes female-dominated, it’s only a matter of time before it’s known as a low-wage, no-growth career path.
Surprise! Average, normal women like sex toys. (This is news?)

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