The XX Factor

-As the rest of the industrialized world gets fatter, Japanese women bully each other into getting skinnier. [ Washington Post ]

-How do we build better teachers ? [ NYT Magazine ]

-A study in Britain reveals that 73 percent of young people believe frank discussion of sexual disease is key to a long relationship. [ BBC News ]

-Students, parents, and educators in California protest cuts in the state education budget. [ New York Times ]

-Americans know nothing about birth control. [ Feministe ]

-Utah lawmakers remove "reckless" terminology from new abortion bill. [ Salon ]

Photograph of woman by Junko Kimura/Getty Images News.