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Biurny Gonzalez testified in 2006 that a man named William McCaffrey
raped her after taking her for a drive late one night. McCaffrey was
convicted and sent to prison for 20 years. The drive happened but the
rape didn't. Gonzalez pleaded guilty to perjury Monday.
She faces a prison sentence of two to seven years. She could also be
deported to the Dominican Republic where she was born, though she is a
legal resident in the United States.
What prompted the lie? Gonzalez says that friends she'd gone out
with that night got angry with her—a fight among them broke a car
window—and that "she wanted the group to feel badly."
Then "the lie became too big for her to back out of." But the guilt,
apparently, became too big, too. McCaffrey has been incredibly gracious
in commending Gonzalez for coming forward to tell the truth. Should
Gonzalez have to do every day of prison time that McCaffrey did? Will
this story help deter other women who might be tempted to make up a
rape story, or will the harsh penalty scare the ones who falsely cry
rape (a minority, to be sure) from coming forward?
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A post from DoubleX writer KJ Dell'Antonia:
I'm 100 percent with you, Jessica—Walters'
list is beyond lame, it's shameful. Now, if she'd called it "2009's
Most Fascinating People Willing to Appear on My Television Special," it
might make more sense, but even so, we're not "fascinated" by Kate
Gosselin or Jenny Sanford for reasons that ought to make anyone proud.
We can't look away from either of them precisely because they're NOT
particularly accomplished or talented, and yet they are famous ANYWAY.
Whether you aspire to fame or not, Jenny Sanford suggests that it could
somehow descend upon you, and prompts us to wonder how we would appear
in her stead. Kate Gosselin stands for the proposition that a gimmick
(in her case, fertility treatment and a willingness to take a twist of
fate all the way) rather than hard work or talent could rocket you to
stardom. Maybe we should ask ourselves why the women we click on aren't
women we aspire to be, but women we imagine we could be ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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A post from DoubleX writer Amanda Marcotte:
Dana Goldstein's article about the few feminist groups
that came out in support of a long-term occupation in Afghanistan sure
has tongues wagging, as is inevitable every time a perceived gap
between liberal and feminist interests opens up. Eleanor Smeal and a
few other feminists object to President Obama's plan to leave
Afghanistan in 18 months because they correctly believe that leaving
will cause reactionary forces to swoop in and eagerly oppress women to
the fullest extent possible. But the few feminists Dana covers hardly
represent majority feminist opinion on this front. Many of us believe
that we should leave Afghanistan sooner rather than later, even as we
sympathize with Smeal's concerns.
How can I, as a good feminist, believe that we should just get out
of Afghanistan, knowing full well what will happen to women when we do?
It's a good question. On one level, the answer is actually quite
simple: I don't buy the idea that you can shove good values such as
feminism down people's throats with violence ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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A post from DoubleX writer KJ Dell'Antonia:
Oxfam reporter Emily Gertz talked to Christina Ora, who described the effect a changing climate is already having on the Solomon Islands:
Residents of the low-lying Reef Islands are being forced
to move inland to higher ground, she says, because their croplands are
being inundated by seawater, their homes battered by fiercer storms and
tides, and their supply of fresh water vanishing. Moving is a
complicated matter, Christina says, because it puts communities into
conflict for scarce and valued resources. “Back home, land is your
identity,” she explains. “You are tied to that land, and your ancestors
have been on that land for a long time ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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One of Tiger Woods’ paramours is claiming
the two of them took Ambien before sex because, “You know you have
crazier sex on Ambien. You get into that Ambien haze.” My husband and I
have a bottle of Ambien, and while I’ve heard of the dangers
of Ambien sex, I also know that anyone’s marriage could use
improvement, so we considered being inspired by Tiger. But we realized
this is what would happen: We would pop our pills, get into bed, and he
would say to me, “Hey, baby, you are turning me
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.” At least in the morning we would be very
well rested.
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A post from DoubleX intern Jessica Dweck:
Claire, I'd love to join you in indicting those limp pastries—and
the ineffectual bureaucratic dithering they inspire—for the shameful
silence surrounding sexual assaults on campus. But there is a bigger
factor at play than the fractured reporting system. While loopholes in
the current framework certainly assist universities in saving face and
steering clear of the U.S. News & World Report's “Best
Colleges for Vicious Sexual Predators” list, these permissive policies
are primarily a response to the evolution of rape law over the last
several decades ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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Divorce is officially a casualty of the Great Recession. Rates are down
for the first time in five years, according to the newly released study
of the National Marriage Project.
Michael Gerson has called this shift a kind of “cultural renewal”; the
idea is that when times are tough, people connect with their cherished
values. The reality is, however, that divorce is just expensive.
Marriage rates are down as well; they can’t afford that luxury either ... (Read the rest of the article in DoubleX).
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A post from DoubleX writer Amanda Marcotte:
I've rolled it over and over in my head, and I cannot avoid the conclusion that this New York Times article on White House social secretary Desirée Rogers
is irresponsible at best and inexcusable pandering at worst. I fail to
see what her larger-than-life personality, strong self-esteem, and love
of fashion has to do with this story. When taken in along with the
shaming of Rogers for falling down on the job, this kind of coverage
stinks of smacking down a black woman for the crime of being "uppity." ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX).
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A post from DoubleX writer Lauren Bans:
This year, conservatives have their Xmas stockings in a bunch over the new Dragon Age game, which features, gasp, the possibility of gay romance and homosexual relations between a man and an elf ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX).
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Apparently, if you are married to Tiger Woods and he cheats on you frequently then you get a “Kobe special,” Tiger’s reference to the house-sized, $4 million ring Kobe Bryant
bought for his wife, Vanessa, when he was cheating. So now all women of
a certain class understand that the sudden appearance of 8-carats out
of the blue means he is definitely cheating. But what about the rest of
us? ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX).
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So mom, we have a daughter who writes a revenge piece, a son who
unfriends you, and what do you do? Well, of course, at 56, you adopt
two Ethiopian girls!
Now I understand that adoption and fostering are unequivocally God’s
work. And in all such acts of charity there is a balance between glory
to others and glory to self, a subject much studied by places like the
Templeton Foundation. That said, when a particular good work becomes
trendy—Save Mumia, Feed the World, or, lately, Adopt a Child from an
Exotic Country—that balance is likely to be off ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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Dear Sarah,
I’ve written about my mixed feelings for you since you joined the
McCain ticket. I’ve always liked your energy and your toughness. I
liked that you rose from small-town mayor to the national stage. The
Katie Couric interview? That bizarre whirlwind tour-slash-photo op
where you met all the foreign leaders? Not so much. I won’t go through
the laundry list of my ups and downs here. Not enough time ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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In an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, James Franco ‘breaks his silence" about what on earth he’s been doing on General Hospital
for the past few weeks. He confirms that his appearance on the soap is,
as was predicted, performance art—or, at least, it was intended to be ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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A post from DoubleX and Washington Post Magazine contributors:
For me, women's colleges are something I associate with feminism
past—grandma's nostalgic recollections, Mary McCarthy's scorn. I know
they are supposed to be provide a safe haven for women, free of
flirting, free of social pressure, free of the need to primp and preen.
And I'm sure that's true for many women. But my only personal
experience of the all-women's institution are Condé Nast-style women's
magazine offices, and they are the least relaxing, most competitive
places I've ever spent time in ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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A post from DoubleX writer KJ Dell'Antonia:
I wrote this delicate and thoughtful response to Amy, much of which is below. But I really wanted to let go of the politically correct dance I was doing and shout, along with commenter Jewellya:
Maybe it's time to change course. If you're a college-educated, driven
woman who puts a lot of pressure on herself and you're putting all your
energy into being a self-described stay-at-home-mom—AND you're unhappy,
maybe the problem isn't your marriage or your city. Maybe you're just
freakin' bored, and freaking out ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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A post from DoubleX writer Amanda Marcotte:
I can't tell if the Mikulski amendment covers contraception from the
first news reports, but it's clear to me that the anti-choice lobby
fears that it does. Of course, you have to speak right-wing-nut-ese to
see this. The LifeNews article simply expresses concern that the bill
will mandate abortion coverage, which is a ridiculous fear on its face.
Ridiculous if you assume that by "abortion," LifeNews means
abortion—ending a pregnancy through drugs or surgery. But often in
anti-choice literature, "abortion" is treated as a catch-all phrase
that means both abortion and hormonal contraception, and nonhormonal
contraception is considered a form of Abortion Lite, because any kind
of fertility control encourages the "abortion/contraception mentality" ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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Sexting paranoia has bubbled up again, with news of 13-year-old Hope Witsell,
who hanged herself after she was tortured by her peers for sending a
nude photo to a boy she liked. Certainly, this is a cautionary tale for
teen girls looking to woo lunkheaded boys. But I still don't understand
how it's different from old-fashioned bullying. It's the same awful
teen behavior, just in a different medium. I could not find statistics
that said that teen suicide has markedly increased since cell phones
came into wide use among the under-18 set, nor could I find evidence
that bullying was on the rise overall ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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A post from DoubleX writer Veronica Belmont:
The holidays have leapt upon us once again, and that means your digital
camera is going to get a workout. It doesn’t matter if you’re a casual
photographer with a small point-and-shoot or a major shutterbug with
the latest dSLR: You need a good way to store and back up your images
for safekeeping. Plus, since HD pocket camcorders like the Flip Mino HD
are topping many wish lists this year, you also need to consider where
you’re going to put all that video content after you upload the good
bits to YouTube. What’s the point of taking pictures and movies if in
10 years you can’t look back at Aunt Gretchen’s eggnog-buzz-induced
dance moves or the kids’ sugar-buzz-induced unwrapping frenzy? ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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After our debate on this site about Sandra Tsing Loh's Atlantic piece about her liberating divorce and Christina Nehring's book about the death of passion in the modern marriage, I kept waiting for someone to write about the other side. Now Elizabeth Weil has finally done it in her upcoming New York Times Magazine story,
taking us deep inside her relatively happy, companionate union. This is
a truly fascinating piece about what you discover when you put a
perfectly good thing through the test ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX).
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Hanna,
given that he’s one of the most famous people in the world, Tiger
really has guarded his privacy better than most public figures, so he
actually does have some standing to invoke that privacy now that it’s
come out he had a mistress, two mistresses, three mistresses—all of
whom work in the nightclub industry and all of whom apparently took a
photograph of Angelina Jolie to their plastic surgeons and said, “That
nose, those lips, and also throw in a set of DD breast implants.”
However, since the girlfriend revelations of once-squeaky-clean Tiger
have now reached critical mass and he is having thermonuclear bimbo
eruptions, whether he wants or deserves privacy, he has to face that
it’s gone ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX).
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