The XX Factor

Cult of Death

Emily Yoffe — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:04:00 GMT

In 1979 Samir Kuntar entered Israel on a boat from Lebanon and kidnapped a young father and his 4-year-old daughter. He shot the father, Danny Haran, to death in front of his daughter, Einat, then killed her by smashing her skull against a rock with a...(read more)

What's So Funny About Pretty Panties?

E.J. Graff — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:15:00 GMT

Nayeli , I'm with you in favor of adorable underthings. Definitely worth the money for the personal confidence and the occasional zing in the eyes of one's date. (Someone I dated briefly liked to call me a "smartypanties.") And yet at the same time, like...(read more)

More on Sisters, Panties

Nayeli Rodriguez — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:48:00 GMT

I once tried to rationalize spending more than $40 on a set of unmentionables to my mother and less-fashion-inclined little sister. "Look, if I don't have quality underwear, what else do I have?" I recall saying. My sister told me I was being ridiculous,...(read more)

Growing Up Victoria

Lucy Morrow Caldwell — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:25:00 GMT

I once walked into a Victoria's Secret when they were running some campaign or another, and a saleswoman waltzed right over to me and purred: "Hi there. Can I help you find some sexy little things?" I was tempted to tell her that what I would like were...(read more)

The Advertising You Can't Live Without. Period.

Amaka Maduka — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:38:00 GMT

The latest development in Victoria Secret's inspiring e-mail solicitation campaign comes in the form of a subject line: "The Bras You Can't Live Without. Period." My sister forwarded it to me with the accompanying note: "After reflecting on this subject...(read more)

The Right Not To Do Your Job?

Emily Bazelon — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:50:00 GMT

Most of the time, the Constitution doesn't let employers refuse to hire people on the basis of religious conviction. This has the comforting ring of a bedrock American freedom. But lately, it's being manipulated. First by pharmacists who say they refuse...(read more)

OK, I Can Recycle It Now

Melinda Henneberger — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:12:00 GMT

By the time The New Yorker landed in my mail slot today, I'd seen the cover so many times already it was like, "You, finally!'' As if it had stopped off for a couple of drinks on the way over here and lost all track of time. So, allow me to be the last...(read more)

Young Women Acting Unbecomingly

Bonnie Goldstein — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:49:00 GMT

Emily wonders whether what would once be seen as merely "youthful error" is far more perilous to a girl’s reputation in the Internet age than it was a decade ago when Emily was in her 20s. Lizz Winstead’s video interview with Jezebel's two founders, Tracy...(read more)

Sex, Race, and Stereotypes

E.J. Graff — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:32:00 GMT

I can't help myself: I have to weigh in on the the New Yorker cover in which the Obamas are drawn as terrorists (one homegrown, one international). Yes, the cover was a veeeery feeble attempt to satire the right-wing response to the Obama's televised...(read more)

Rubbernecking at Jezebel

Emily Bazelon — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:33:00 GMT

While we're in Jezebel land, who can resist a little rubbernecking? Tracie and Moe of the site recently made a spectacle of themselves onstage in Manhattan at the Thinking and Drinking series put together by Lizz Winstead of The Daily Show , all captured...(read more)

What IS the Age of Consent?

E.J. Graff — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:18:00 GMT

Juliet, you're right that what's most offensive about the Jezebels' discussion of Polanski's rape of a 13-year-old is its glibness; the very title of their post, suggesting that exploiting a child might not be as bad as making a movie about that exploitation,...(read more)

Polanski, Jezebel, and the Age of Consent

Juliet Lapidos — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:28:00 GMT

The Jezebel team posted a conversation recently about the new HBO documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired . I haven't seen the doc, but I know the bare bones of the Polanski story — the director sodomized a 13-year-old girl, was charged with statutory...(read more)

Go Jesse!

Melinda Henneberger — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:03:00 GMT

If Obama is really lucky, Jesse Jackson will curse him every day from now until November—and keep right on apologizing. The candidate himself shouldn't issue any more needless apologies, though, as he sort of did in second-guessing his decision to let...(read more)

The Gray Area

Maureen Sullivan — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:55:00 GMT

Dahlia, you ask , "Why do we want to cast our marriages in such cartoonish extremes?" I think the gray area — where a marriage is neither deliriously euphoric for years on end, nor a bastion of bitterness, infighting, and "divorce dreams" — may not be...(read more)

He’s Good at Apologies

Emily Yoffe — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:28:00 GMT

Jesse Jackson says he wanted to "cut off" Barack Obama's "nuts" because the presidential contender has been saying black men have to take more responsibility for their behavior, stop acting "like boys," and not father and abandon children. Jackson said...(read more)

Competitive Complaining, and Other Strategies for a Happy Life

Melinda Henneberger — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:18:00 GMT

Like Emily Y., I did not exactly grow up planning my wedding—or picking out baby names, for that matter. In fact, the whole time I was single, I had this recurring nightmare that it was my wedding day and there was nothing I could do about it. Even as...(read more)

Only in My Dreams

Hanna Rosin — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:08:00 GMT

Well, what confused me is that Tien does not describe her marriage as a bad marriage, or her predicament as particular. "Don't misunderstand. I would not, could not disparage my marriage," she writes, after spending 500 words describing her husband as...(read more)

My Funny Valentine

Emily Yoffe — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:43:00 GMT

It seems we are having two discussions here: writing about a rotten marriage, and having one. I agree with Hanna , I don’t know how you write a piece that begins, “I contemplate divorce every day” and not end up writing the sequel, “How I Chose My Divorce...(read more)

The Mommy Wars, Repurposed?

Dahlia Lithwick — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:57:00 GMT

Forgive me for wondering whether the whole “women-who-crave-divorce-in-print” boomlet we’re contemplating here is yet another manifestation of the “mommy wars” phenomenon. That is the media-created dustup wherein approximately 18 women (all of them upper-middle-class...(read more)

Better Than the Train Tracks

Hanna Rosin — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:05:00 GMT

Well, I suppose that through a certain feminist lens everything looks like progress (From Anna Karenina to Ellen Tien). There was a time when any literary heroine who attempted some escape from the confines of a dull, loveless marriage wound up dead or...(read more)