The XX Factor

We’re Talking About: May 25, 2010

-The White House announced Obama’s support of Congress and the Pentagon’s compromise on repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell .” It’s still not clear whether the deal will actually pass in both the House and the Senate. [ Washington Post ]

- Pro-life organizations in the U.K. are protesting a TV commercial for Marie Stopes International , an organization that provides contraception and abortions worldwide, though the ad doesn’t mention abortion. Do opponents find the commercial more threatening because it is so innocuous? [ The Guardian ]

-In a new survey from iVillage, only 48 percent of women said their husbands were the best lovers they’d ever had , and most described their sex lives as highly predictable. Yet only 16 percent reported being “not at all happy ” with this state of affairs. [ Lemondrop , PR Newswire ]

-In a rare open letter to the faithful, Australian archbishop Mark Coleridge described priestly pedophilia as a result of the Catholic Church’s cultural emphasis on “sin and forgiveness rather than crime and punishment.” Too little, too late? [ Washington Post ]

-Last weekend the Duchess of York was caught on tape selling access to her ex-husband . Diana biographer and media maven Tina Brown still finds Fergie “a sympathetic figure.” [ The Daily Beast ]