That bi-sexuality article is extremely interesting and well-written. But one of the quotes doesn't make sense.

"There is less taboo now in intimacy between the sexes,' said Sklar. 'But it's puzzling to me if it was always going on, or if it's now part of a post-feminist revolution."

A quick look into a history book will tell you that this isn't exactly a recent development.

The so-called "Mommy Wars" ignore low-income mothers.

No kidding. Interestingly, in Maureen Honey's "Creating Rosie The Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda
during World War II" (1984, University of Massachusetts Press) demonstrates that the image of women's triumphant return to the home post-WWII was largely manufactured by the Office of War Information through advertising campaigns and articles placed in women's magazines. In fact, the Department of Labor's reports from the same time period demonstrated that the women that held relatively high-paying war work were(previously) low-income working class women who actually needed their jobs to support their families. Many were single mothers.

The purpose of the OWI propaganda campaign was to convince women to quit their jobs to make way for returning vets. The actual consequence of the OWI propaganda campaign was to normalize the notion that women were "better off at home" among employers who could then use this to rationalize actually firing women in order to hire less experienced men--typically at higher wages, and usually after having the more experienced women train their replacements. But the women that were "let go" actually needed jobs, so they had to go out and find less rewarding employment. Usually secretarial work, after getting some typing training. Compare the hourly wage of a welder to a secretary even today, to comprehend the difference this might make to a family's nutritional quality, for one thing.

The similarity of the post-WWII OWI campaign to get women back into the home and the "Mommy Wars" propaganda is striking: the actual needs of actual working women (and, incidentally, the health, education and welfare of their children) are completely ignored, while a media-driven myth is created that justifies gender discriminatory practices and policies as being "good for women" (they're better off at home) when in fact these practices and policies actually hurt women and their children -- sometimes very, very deeply.

My grandmother found herself a single mother of 10 soon after WWII and had to work two nursing shifts to support them. Only four were able to eventually put themselves through college. Two went to Southeast Asia, and one did not come back.

The movie "Lars.." about that guy with is real doll, seems interesting..In that 2minute clip Bianca has more of a life than Lars and also more of a life than the real dolls we with the "real" men we saw in the idolators short docu.

The bi srticle was very even handed- not even one quote from someone who thinks that all the bis get sent into a lake o fire.

Judy Blume- I have so much love for her and her books. They helped me through childhood. It really pisses me off when i see her books on banned books lists.

I am so not shocked on the Mommy Wars. But then, its not interesting for the media if they have to admit that mothers aren't just sitting around arguing about this all day. Of course they are going to pretend not see that there are mothers who have to work.

Re: "The 17th century version of Cosmo"...

Check out the comment written by "Crystal, USA":

"Brilliant! Absolutely hilarious! But just watch out, here comes the feminists to moan that it's "so wrong, how horrible" blah blah blah."

Of course.
Because us feminists still have beef with things that happened in the 1600s.

It's not a case of "Who cares anymore?" but more gee, it happened 400+ years ago. We have bones to pick, but maybe with yesterday, today and tomorrow. Maybe with our current government and the state of the future. We can't change what happened in the 17th century, but we can change archaic attitudes in hopes of a revolutionary future.

Re: the "Mommy Wars":

I am so conflicted on this one. It is refreshing to see someone copping to how the "Mommy Wars" hype ignores class and disserves many groups of women who need to work.

However, I am incensed to see "third-wave feminism" scapegoated. Correct me if I am wrong, but "third wave feminism" did not invent the mommy wars, is not out to perpetuate them, and is usually one of the few sources of actual critical discourse about the "wars" instead of the same-ol' same-ol' alarmist shaming rhetoric.

I shake my tiny fists with rage.

(Re: Plastic Surgery article) Wait, in Australia a men's magazine offered to give away free boob jobs to the readers' girlfriends as a prize? Screwed up. If that were my boyfriend, the relationship would be over so fast.

Plea to feministing readers: A young woman in Kansas City needs immediate help accessing medical care. Anyone who can either drop Plan B off at her house or drive her to a clinic tomorrow afternoon would be greatly appreciated. Details are at my blog: http://drconfused.blogspot.com/2007/08/call-for-help-from-blogosphere-help-17.html

When I saw "Abstinence-only programs don't decrease HIV infection rates" my first thought was "no shit, sherlock."

myfreeimplants.com?

CREEPY!

I was sorry to see the morons at F4J are now headed to the US.

Great lineup of articles this week, Ann.

Not that they aren't usually. Just sayin'.

My mom bought me Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret when I was eight or something. But then I guess she figured I was still too young to read the book, so she hid it in a drawer in the kitchen. I found it and read it anyway, and I thought it was the best thing ever (even though I knew that belted pads were a thing of the past). Aside from the updated 2006 edition of the book, are there any current novels out there that deal with sex and puberty in such frank, honest ways?

Mizza you are right - the third wave is the modern generation - there is no such thing as "still in the second wave" just because they didn't everything they could have achieved - the second wave was not merely a movement but a specific generation and point in time, just like the first wave.

Doesn't it say in the Gardasil commercial that it's NOT a treatment?

I have fond memories of asking my mum to explain the whole belt thing. I'm not sure how you could update the book without at entire rewrite. I mean, the 'I must, I must, I must increase my bust' thing is pretty date too.

My very uptight grade six teacher decided to read this book to our class, but skipped over all teh parts having to do with menstruation.

Peepers -- I could be wrong, but I think you misread what Rupert was saying about third-wave feminism.

"Third-wave feminism rejected the idea of any universal "woman's experience," like motherhood, and views the acknowledgment of race, socioeconomic class, religion, sexuality and other differences among women as necessary considerations to understand the experience."

To me, this says that third-wavers are finally putting out the message that race, class, and sexuality need to be important factors in how we talk about women's issues, instead of lumping all women together, which has the effect of white-washing the conversation. Essentially: the author thinks the 3rd wave feminists have the right way of thinking of things, and the rich moms who think that the only way to be a "good" mom is to quit her career are out of touch with the class and race issues involved. Maybe I'm the one misreading the article, but the author's a pretty cool lady, so maybe give it another read.

There has actually already been a movie about Real Dolls - Love Object - it was really violent and very disturbing: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328077/

BTW, I just found another very interesting article:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0821/p01s02-woaf.html

"...His inspiration came from his childhood: He was sent to the fields instead of to school and beaten for eating meat at his Christian neighbor's home.His mother had to work much more than his father.

"'It made me sad,' says Mr. Nuru. 'When I asked my parents about it ... they acted as if I were foolish.'

"In the 1980s, Nuru finally launched the egalitarian society he dreamed of with 19 other people who adopted his vision.

"Today Awra Amba has some 400 members and is lauded as a model to alleviate poverty and promote gender equality in a country where women generally hold a subservient status to men..."