The XX Factor

Only Caitlin Flanagan Could Make Mark Sanford Look Good

Samantha Henig — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:18:00 GMT

A guest post from Linda Hirshman: With a cover story by working mother scourge Caitlin Flanagan, next week’s Time Magazine takes the occasion of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s staggeringly banal adultery to tell America that “Marriage Matters.”...(read more)

Hello, Young Lovers

Emily Yoffe — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:42:00 GMT

Jessica, my husband and I have been married for 15 years. Last weekend, we drove from Maryland to New Jersey and during the many hours of crawling in traffic we wrote a rap song together about the Delaware Toll Plaza. We stay up too late talking to each...(read more)

The Rise of the Empty Nesters

Liza Mundy — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:15:00 GMT

Speaking of being bummed out, I felt oddly blue after reading Mimi Swartz’s excellent piece in The Daily Beast about empty-nesters in the Obama administration. Swartz, who also writes for Double X about being an empty nester herself, talks about (and...(read more)

Questionable Dataset of the Day

Kerry Howley — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:39:00 GMT

Yes, I understand that Internet surveys are hopeless, and yes, I understand that 448,000 lonely hearts do not a random sample make, but still I ask: What is the deal with this OK Cupid map of debauchery by state? ... (Read more at DoubleX.com .) Read...(read more)

Caitlin Flanagan's Defense of Marriage Bums Me Out

Jessica Grose — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:54:00 GMT

It's been a rough couple of weeks for marriage. First, Sandra Tsing Loh came out swinging against the institution in the Atlantic (and we discussed it ad nauseam ), and simultaneously Mark Sanford and John Ensign and the Gosselins paraded their broken...(read more)

Take a Coffee Break with Jimmy McNulty

Nina Shen Rastogi — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:39:00 GMT

Carte Noire, a British coffee brand, has a new online video campaign directed smack at cubicle-dwelling, former English majors (i.e., me). Every week, a hottie actor of the Anglo persuasion reads a love scene from a new or classic novel. Here's Dominic...(read more)

A New Day for New Delhi's Gays

Nina Shen Rastogi — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:02:00 GMT

Good news to wake up to: New Delhi's highest court has decriminalized homosexuality —for New Delhians, at least. The law overturns Section 377 of India's penal code, a colonial-era statute that prohibits "carnal intercourse against the order of nature...(read more)

Heath Ledger Profile Shows How Fame Can Destroy the Psyche

Jessica Grose — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:38:00 GMT

Sara, you said that childhood stardom was such a destructive force for Michael Jackson , and you were right. But the current issue of Vanity Fair has a cover story on Heath Ledger that shows for a sensitive adult, stardom ain't all its cracked up to be,...(read more)

The Car Seat Taboo

Emily Bazelon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:17:00 GMT

Palin is back among us not only as a God-loving runner (is that a strange shot with the flag , or what?) but also as a hard-charging mama bear. In Todd Purdham's Vanity Fair profile, which Dayo and Jess dissected earlier this week, are new tidbits about...(read more)

Can This Marriage Be Saved?

Marjorie Valbrun — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:45:00 GMT

Emily , I agree with you that Jenny Sanford should stop talking to the media. When a husband describes his affair with another woman not as a regrettable indiscretion but as “a love story” and refers to said woman as his “soul mate” and to his wife as...(read more)

Sarah Palin: A Woman of Many Rocks and Few Skills

Samantha Henig — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:27:00 GMT

I too got a huge kick out of the Sarah Palin interview in Runner’s World , Jess. I’ll give her a break on the cheeseball factor, since I’ve found that it really is hard to talk about running without sounding totally boring and preachy. But you’re right,...(read more)

Sarah Palin on God and her "Throbbing" Thighs

Jessica Grose — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:29:00 GMT

Anyone who still thinks Sarah Palin isn't trying to use her enviable physique to her political advantage should read this Runner's World profile in which Palin says, "I knew my thighs were going to just throb."... (Read more at DoubleX.com .)...(read more)

Jenny and Silda, Coming to a TV Near You

Willa Paskin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:23:00 GMT

The moment when the political wife stands (or doesn’t stand) on stage while her husband soberly confesses that he could not, try as he might, keep it in his pants, has proven time and time again to be a moment of high drama. This fall, it will also be...(read more)

Honey, Can I Please See My Mistress

Emily Yoffe — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:01:00 GMT

Hanna , perhaps the most enduring lesson of the Mark Sanford unraveling is that when your marriage falls apart, don't call in the AP reporters. I generally side with Ruth Marcus and have been pro-Jenny Sanford. But the danger in claiming the moral high...(read more)

Is Jenny Sanford a Model or a Disaster?

Hanna Rosin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:23:00 GMT

The Op-Ed Divas have a showdown today about Jenny Sanford ... (Read more at DoubleX.com .)...(read more)

Waking Up in Honduras

Kerry Howley — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:28:00 GMT

I don’t know that it gives me any special insight into the situation, but I was in Copan, Honduras, the night one head of state was replaced with another. The military had apparently cut the power and water supply, and walking to breakfast, a friend and...(read more)

The Sarah Palin Saga: Why Doesn't She Get it?

Dayo Olopade — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:22:00 GMT

Like Jessica, I devoured Todd Purdum's blistering report in the current issue of Vanity Fair about Sarah Palin that draws on sniping from former John McCain aides, shrugging statements of disownment from acquaintances in Wasilla, and sorrowful head-shaking...(read more)

White Men and Asian "Babes"

Nina Shen Rastogi — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:01:00 GMT

Over at Slate , Johann Hari has a fascinating essay on The East, the West, and Sex , the "strange new book"—Hari's words—by journalist Richard Bernstein, which details the centuries-old history of Western men seeking out a little strange in the East ......(read more)

Sarah Palin's Uneasy Relationship with the Truth

Jessica Grose — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:24:00 GMT

There are many things that I find deeply upsetting about Sarah Palin. But in the new Vanity Fair assessment of Palin 's current place in the political universe, the most disturbing thing Todd Purdum reveals is her inability to discern or care about the...(read more)

Julia Childs' Height Was Not a Handicap

Jessica Grose — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:38:00 GMT

A guest post from Arianne Cohen , author of The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life From On High . At every public appearance I make, someone raises his hand and says something like, “It’s much harder to be a tall woman than a tall man, right?” This point...(read more)