The Spectrum of Sexual Assault and the Limits of the Law

At Feministe, a guest post by Rachel Hills (originally published at her own blog) ignited an acrimonious discussion on rape, gender, and the stereotype that women can’t rape men. Rachel’s post drew on a story that Pluralist recounted on Feministing’s community blog: Since November by best friend has been having relationship problems. She is cis [...]

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Crazy Caturladyday

So I took the Crazy Cat Lady quiz (via the Smirking Cat). Key question for me: Do you bring your boyfriends home so the cats can meet them? That’s past tense for me, but yes, I brought him home, and yes, Grey Kitty approved. Reader, I married him. I scored 67%, well above average. This [...]

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“The Most Important Goal in Managing Labour Pain Is Patient Satisfaction”

That’s the headline of a new study I chanced upon today.** My gut reaction: Excuse me, but I thought the most important goal was the safety of mother and child! This is not a screed against epidurals. I had a planned epidural with both of my babies. The article appears to be touting the benefits [...]

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Feminists Are All Humorless …

… so why, then, did my whole Women’s and Gender Studies faculty laugh ourselves silly over this clip at today’s lunch meeting? Seriously! It’s not just an inside joke, though it’s extra precious for us who recall the era of womyn-identified-womyn. If you’ve ever been involved in leftish politics, or lived in a co-op house [...]

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LOLsnowdaze

The kids got back to school today, after a stretch of nine schooldays that featured two delayed starts and seven outright snow days. And just in time! From ICHC? Actually the kids weren’t on the verge of fratricide, but they have been way too cooped up. The Tiger’s arm is still in a cast that [...]

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Downers from Big Pharma

What if the Senate Finance Committee – Max Baucus’ baby – weren’t obstructing “Obamacare”? What if Obama had instead designated Baucus’ committee as ground zero for crafting the deal – the incubator for the winning legislation? What if Obama’s campaign promise to reform health care was just a prelude to cozy deals with the pharmaceutical [...]

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Life, Death, and Tenure: Murder at UA Huntsville

I have a good friend from my time in Berlin who teaches at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. When I was pregnant for the first time, she helped instigate a baby shower for me. Last fall, she had a baby of her own. When I heard about the murders at UA-Huntsville yesterday, I was nauseated with [...]

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Charging Hard against Dodge’s Dude-ism

So I’m assuming most of you saw the Dodge Superbowl commercial, in all its vile misogyny? If not, watch this steaming pile of stereotypes first … and then proceed to see it cleverly deconstructed. These women clearly have way more humor in their pinkie toes than the men who made the Dodge ad have in [...]

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Why We Should Care When College Women Outnumber Men

And no, it’s not because they can’t get a date. This is total bogosity, and Echnidne nails it. Just anecdotally, despite men outnumbering women 55:45 when I was in college, I only had two dates, both total duds. We didn’t have a dating culture, we had back-of-the-bus hookups on band trips, which resulted in at [...]

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Guest Post: Attack of the Snow Flu!

This comes from a local friend, with permission to print it – on the condition that I not refer to the superintendant as her boyfriend, too. What is the most important part of a child’s education? A.  Piano lessons B.  Choir C.  Going to School D.  Play Practice So which of these things should continue [...]

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I Have a New Boyfriend

He calls me every day, often more than once – and sometimes at odd hours, like 5:30 a.m. I can almost read his mind, by now. Friends are discouraging me. One said, “But he doesn’t even go to work anymore” – as if that would break my connection to him! My husband is unbothered on [...]

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When Sexual Orientation *Is* a Choice

What if being gay is, in fact, a choice? Figleaf, in a spirited attack on heteronormative privilege, wishes it would finally dawn on people: sexual orientation is innate! What I really wish people would get is that heterosexuality is as real and durable an orientation as homosexuality. I mean, it’s a peculiar condition of imagining [...]

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Caturday in Wingnuttia

Not that I needed more reasons to despise Rush Limbaugh, but it turns out that among his many shortcomings, he’s clueless about cats and women. This gem (from last November, but still not stale) comes via figleaf: LIMBAUGH: My cat — here’s how you can get fooled. My cat comes to me when she wants [...]

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Cautious Good News on the Tiger

The Tiger got his fracture rechecked yesterday in Columbus, and it was a good experience all around. They x-rayed him immediately, without any need for me to harass them into doing it. Then we finally met the doctor in charge, who’d been only a distant overseer in the hospital. He was sporting a walrus mustache [...]

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The Cruel and Stupid Politics of Hospital Discharge

Careful readers of my last post – the one on my little Tiger’s accident – might have picked up on one aspect of the night that really messed with my mind: the circumstances under which we were discharged. Here are the bald facts. The Tiger and I were in Columbus. Our home in Athens is an [...]

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