The XX Factor: What women really think.

What Type of Charlatan Is Richard Heene?

A post from DoubleX writer Amanda Marcotte:

I'm a fan of using kooky incidents as a jumping point to ponder the Big Questions of Our Time, but Frank Rich's half-hearted defense of Balloon Boy's dad Richard Heene counts as an overt abuse of the form, on many levels. I simply cannot accept Heene as Rich paints him, a man ground down by our economy and striving for the perceived payoffs of fame to the point of the evil misuse of his family ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX).

"My Husband is Not Secretary of State, I Am."

At an event on Monday in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a young man asked Hillary Clinton what "Mr. Clinton" thought about a potential loan from China to the financially strapped country. She paused, amazed, and replied: "You want me to tell you what my husband thinks? My husband is not secretary of state, I am. If you want my opinion, I will tell you my opinion. I am not going to be channeling my husband.''

My first thought upon seeing the clip of the exchange was, of course, good for you, Mrs. Clinton. But my second thought was: that poor guy ... (Read more in Double X.)

Misogyny or Hilarity?

As of late, some blogs have made a sport out of calling out advertisers for being misogynist, but this one I really don't get. For some reason, Jossip (Jossip?) has deemed this IMO totally hilarious ad for U by Kotex misogynist. In it, a beaver uses a maxipad as a sleeping mask to drive home the point that users can "sleep easy with maximum protection." Of this joke, Jossip opines "this week misogyny ran rampant." Really? Now we're supposed to be offended by animatronic beavers wearing sleeping masks? "Nice to know the ad industry is opening its doors to vulgar 7th grade boys." Ugh, I say. Get over it! It's a beaver! It's a joke! (FYI, the campaign's been around for a while.) Does feminism mean we can't make beaver jokes? Maybe we American ladies could learn something from the Aussies.

Rule Britannia

According to an article published in the London Times today, we Brits are now the most promiscuous nation in the world (of the western industrial nations, that is). In terms of one-night stands, total number of partners, and our "relaxed" attitude to casual sex, we beat Australia, the United States, Italy, and France. France! Where having extra-marital affairs is a favorite national pastime! If nothing else, at least now we might lose our reputation for being frigid and repressed.

In all seriousness though, Britain has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Europe as well as the highest teen STD infection rate in Europe (although both are significantly lower than here in the United States, where abstinence-only sex education doesn't seem to be helping much). Premature sex education in British schools (it can be taught to children as young as 4) has long been blamed for the epidemic, along with the inappropriate sexualization of children by toy manufacturers and the media. But here's a thought. In Britain, we also drink more than any other country in Europe (apart from Ireland and Finland, bizarrely), and our alcohol-related death rate has doubled since 1991. We've also, according to this reasonably insulting story in the New York Times, been causing havoc on summer vacations with our abhorrent, booze-soaked behavior. Could there be a correlation somewhere between the beer goggles and the newfound sluttiness?

Is This the Message: Kick Me, Beat Me, Tie Me Up!?