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The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...
November 2007 - Posts
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On Monday, I wrote about the legal policy advisers for the major presidential campaigns. The Edwards campaign sent me six names, one of which was Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren. After the piece posted, I got this e-mail from Warren: I noted that Read More...
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Does anyone remember that ubiquitous ad from the ‘70s: "If they would just stay little till their Carters wore out"? I'm humming that refrain today as my oldest gets ever closer to kindergarten and my fears about the state of public education increase. Read More...
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Courtesy of Feminist Law Professors , a grain-of-salt study that suggests something pretty interesting : Little girls may want to play with boy toys more than Bratz or Barbies. Yeah, yeah the focus group was funded by Bob the Builder and his bosses . Read More...
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The study Ann mentioned , which suggests that power erodes empathy, explains all those celebrity interviews that make you cringe for the person and think, "Doesn't he know how that sounds?'' No, he doesn't. Which might be an argument against political Read More...
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Via Think Progress, we learn that at a speech last night at the University of Colorado, former Attorney General John Ashcroft answered a question about his willingness to undergo waterboarding . He told his audience, “ the things that I can survive, if Read More...
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Thanks, Ann, for pointing out that great study on the inverse correlation between empathy and power . I agree the methodology sounds kooky, but it does seem to illuminate some fundamental human need to disassociate oneself from the powerless as one clambers Read More...
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I'm a fan of Shankar Vedantam's "Department of Human Behavior" column in the Washington Post, which reported yesterday on some recent social psychology research that perhaps sheds new light on tough Hillary, and the spectacle of the candidates in general. Read More...
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Three cheers for Stephanie Coontz's piece in the New York Times today in defense of taking marriage private . She asks: Why do people—gay or straight—need the state’s permission to marry? For most of Western history, they didn’t, because marriage was Read More...
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I am feeling all Republican today, after receiving a surprise holiday note from the IRS. Now, theoretically, I am all for paying taxes; I like what that Martin O'Malley is up to here in Maryland, pushing through a tax hike that according to the Washington Read More...
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In Meghan's wonderful piece on Susan Faludi's new book, she argues that while all bias against women in our country has not been eradicated, "Faludi tells us that the sky is falling when the debris coming down, in some cases, is just another glass ceiling Read More...
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But, Rachael , that's exactly how my blond hair evolved! OK, I was 37 at the time, but still ... Given the appalling lack of basic scientific knowledge in this country, I guess it's hardly surprising to see even science writers and researchers wandering Read More...
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Our evolutionary psychology discussion has had me on the lookout for stories that seem particularly ridiculous. And on Fox News today, the morning hosts mentioned a study that purports to show that gentlemen preferred blondes as far back as the Ice Age. Read More...
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Melinda, I think your instinct about the deterrent effect of the death penalty is about the same as mine. The Liptak article is incredibly interesting but makes the same point I learned in law school: Deterrence works if there is a reasonable chance the Read More...
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I really don't know what to make of the study Morgan posted about on Friday. More maternal stress, fewer male babies—it's one of those findings that seems too funny to be true, and enormously entertaining. Meanwhile, EMILY's List is off to Iowa, to stump Read More...
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I am totally riveted by today's Washington Post story about the Baltimore cop convicted of killing his young mistress a dozen years ago—based on a discredited method of bullet-matching and the testimony of an "expert'' who faked his credentials, misrepresented Read More...
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If a woman's stressed during pregnancy will she not have a son? A piece in the new issue of the Economist suggests a connection between maternal stress and a baby's gender. Here's the theory: First World women are 5 percent more likely to have a male Read More...
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Dahlia, I might not be the best person to answer your question , since I can't picture myself supporting Hillary regardless of what she's calling herself, but I agree that it's hard to imagine how dropping "Rodham" can help her. Jill is right that feminists Read More...
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I can't imagine Clinton's name change really made a difference, Dahlia , though older opinion polls guessing whether it would seem to show otherwise . I suppose Clinton's thinking could be as follows: Feminists who find it backward for a woman to take Read More...
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I think my husband would rather have a CD, Dahlia, though he would certainly appreciate the cost of a symbolic gift. (Think of the savings!) Rodham or Clinton, Hillary's been called worse , right? And that was just this week. Heckuvan answer she gave Read More...
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God, what did we do before there was Feministing ? Today they point the way to funny little item about Sarah Michelle Gellar taking the last name of her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., as a five-year wedding gift. Yikes. Within minutes, I stumbled onto this Read More...
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In answer to your question, Torie , I don't think the Democrats need to worry about the Jewish vote, because as far as I'm concerned there's no such thing as the Jewish vote. Saying "Jewish" these days is about as descriptive as saying "Christian." Sure, Read More...
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It seems like much longer than three years ago that Howard Dean was hailed as the great hope for Web political organizing. Now, Ron Paul has replaced him as the no-chance-in-hell candidate to best harness the misdirected money and idealism of the Internet Read More...
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We interrupt our regularly scheduled blogging to let you know that Emily Bazelon and Melinda Henneberger will be chatting live on washingtonpost.com Thursday at 11 a.m. Check out Emily's writings on Hillary Clinton, breast-feeding, Sandra Day O'Connor Read More...
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I'm with Emily . Despite my irrational and - until now, at least -- enduring soft spot for John McCain , laughing one's senatorial socks off when a colleague is called the B word is no less objectionable than if he had indulged a (theoretical) Obama hater Read More...
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Usually, Meghan , I'd agree with you entirely that gaffes get more attention than they deserve, at the expense of the substance that should matter more. But I hope this McCain embarassment gets it due in this news cycle, because of the link I drew earlier Read More...
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I agree with Dahlia and Emily that gender is a big part of it for many of the Hillary hatas out there. A while back I mentioned a study that suggests we see "manly women" as "pretenders," which does seem to suggest that lots of us murkily associate not Read More...
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Thank you, Madam ; the potty-mouth McCain supporter (or was she another plant ?) who called Hillary the B word just handed Clinton five points minimum -- and the kind of gender-based martyrdom she so benefited from when Rick Lazio looked like he was zooming Read More...
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Dahlia , here's why I think you're right that Hillary hatred is tied up with gender: People who froth at the mouth about her are often neutral to postive about Bill. Even when the substantive reasons they give for hating Hillary are easily and equally Read More...
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Courtesy of Talking Points Memo , a clip of John McCain warmly responding to the apparently self-evident campaign question, " How do we beat the bitch ?" with laughter, hearty affirmation ("excellent question") and the polling numbers about his lead over Read More...
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I just had to join in with a "hear, hear" for stamping out evolutionary psychology (at least in its pop-science incarnation.). Now that I have a child of my own, I'm constantly eavesdropping on playground conversations about which behaviors are "hard-wired" Read More...
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Meghan , Anne , Here's another recent study to add to the pile of questionable evolutionary psychology findings about women's sexual signaling—the evo psychs are obsessed with proving that women on their fertile days actually do experience estrus like Read More...
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It's taken a long time, but at last— thank you for contributing , Meghan!—evolutionary psychology is being revealed as the psuedoscience it usually is, at least by the time it reaches the newspaper columns and the conversations around the water cooler. Read More...
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The trouble with evolutionary psychology is that there are no (or few) ways of testing its theorems. With enough ingenuity on the part of the researcher, nearly any finding about gender can be twisted to suit the evolutionary lens. Prime example, from Read More...
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More frivolously occupied than Dahlia or Emily have been, I spent a bit of my weekend flipping through The Daring Book for Girls . I picked it up after my daughter had written about it for her high-school newspaper—and after The New York Times had mocked Read More...
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Rachael, here's a partial answer to your good question: Breast-feeding rates vary in this country by income and race and maternal education. According to this from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog, which cites CDC stats, in 2005 "women living below the Read More...
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Anyone else following the lawsuit filed by two women at Yale law school against AutoAdmit -- the law school discussion board that makes the men's room wall at your local bus station read like the collected works of John Donne? Via the Wall Street Journal' Read More...
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Rachael, isn’t part of the issue that white-collar jobs tend to accommodate pumping and breastfeeding more than blue-collar or service industry jobs do? This piece , for instance, paints a stark contrast between female Starbucks execs who get to use a Read More...
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Emily, I noticed while reading your piece on breast-feeding and IQ that you touched on a point that has always been mind-boggling for me: Previous studies have also linked breast-feeding to higher IQ, but they generally haven't ruled out the fact that Read More...
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Today's Washington Post review of the new Robert Redford movie Lions for Lambs calls it "strangely inert'' and says its take of the war on terror "plays too often like a college colloquium, with one extended scene of a classroom debate suffering from Read More...
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A nice point, Emily, about the dangers of looking at Sandra Day O’Connor through pink-colored glasses. You’re right to say that there are heaps of women judges who don’t employ O’Connor’s Miz Fixit hospital-corners jurisprudential style. Ruth Bader Ginsburg Read More...
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Dahlia , Emily —Do you really believe there is a female style of judging—pragmatic and non-ideological—and that O'Connor embodies it? Doesn't Ginsburg operate from a clear set of principals—do you constantly wonder where she'll come down before an opinion Read More...
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The man is a nut magnet, as we can tell in just a glance at today's front page of The New York Times. Above the fold: the former mayor with his new best friend Pat Robertson , who is not taken seriously by any evangelicals I'm aware of. Below: Former Read More...
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Another thought: If O'Connor's pragmatic, this-case-only approach to judging is particularly female, then maybe that helps explain why male commentators tended to excoriate her for it. I don't think this explains all the frustration with her jurisprudence Read More...
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I miss Sandra Day O’Connor. I always forget how much I miss her until I see her talk , as I did yesterday, at a conference at the Law Library of Congress on the need for competent counsel. The conference was co-sponsored by the Constitution Project. The Read More...
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Geez, Juliet , I hope you don't believe that Republicans are all cold-hearted greedmeisters while Democrats are all selfless philanthropists! I bet I can think of a few greedy Democrats and, if I try hard enough, a generous Republican or two. I can see Read More...
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The Times ' Sewell Chan wrote a good blog post yesterday on Lauren Bush, a fashion model and niece of the president who's promoting the FEED bag: "[A] reusable cloth bag that costs $60 and enables the food program to feed a child for one full school year." Read More...
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Emily, I’m so glad you offered Paula Radcliffe as a model by which to understand Hillary Clinton, because after years of struggling to comprehend why such a lot of people seem to dislike Hillary so , I finally get it. (She strikes me as more likable than Read More...
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How inopportune for the Democrats that the face of their fund-raising efforts in the Senate is New York's Chuck Schumer, of Michael Mukasey fame . "Slightly better on water-boarding,'' is not much of a rallying cry, and liberal activists are urging those Read More...
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I've been thinking about Hillary's dilemma, if that's what it is, through the prism of Paula Radcliffe. Radcliffe won the New York City Marathon last weekend after running up to the day before she gave birth to her 10-month-old daughter, and then taking Read More...
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I guess not. But I had the same question as you did, Meghan , regarding to what extent Hillary Clinton's camp had actually played the gender card. The best I could figure was that the press release ended by calling Sen. Clinton "One strong woman," and Read More...
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Previously, on XX Factor... Hillary Can't Win ? I know you mean as in can't catch a break, Dahlia. But until last week, you'd swear from reading the coverage that she'd already been elected. Whenever I mention her high, deep and not-going-anywhere negatives, Read More...
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I missed out on some of the analysis of the Clinton campaign's "pile on" video last week. Now that I've caught up, t here is something I don't understand about all the fuss over Hillary supposedly playing the gender card/"victim card." As far as I can Read More...
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I'll be very curious to see if this dust-up affects Hillary's poll numbers—and my hunch is that it won't. It's pretty minor, so perhaps not much of a test, but my bet is that she'll maintain her huge edge among women voters. In the personal realm, we're Read More...
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Ruth Marcus has a smart piece in today’s Washington Post about Hillary’s decision to play the gender card. I think she is spot-on. Hillary is so far above this sort of gender-grousing, it actually diminishes her to retreat to it. Barack Obama called her Read More...
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In response to your perceptive comments , Emily: I agree that Hillary can seem to lack empathy, and that's what might make her seem a "pretender" to many Americans. But what the paper I cited starts to get at--and what I'm really wondering about--are Read More...
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In the NYT this morning, Gail Collins' column is all about Hillary's toughness. Collins reams Clinton for the substantive answers she gave during Tuesday's debates, but gives her style points for holding her own while "being yelled at by six men." "They Read More...
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Melinda and Rachael, your recent posts about knee-jerk political assumptions and the trend toward only listening to people we agree with really resonated for me. In years past, I had no trouble finding my political tribe. As a lefty lesbian, I might occasionally Read More...
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