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SensualAffairs

By Julia Turner
Updated Friday, Sept. 19, 2003, at 5:36 PM ET
Legal Affairs

Legal Affairs, September-October 2003
The sex issue is a good read, and not just because former madam Heidi Fleiss, arguing for the legalization of prostitution, discusses the size of Charlie Sheen's penis. (It's quite sufficient, she reports.) … For example, is sexual harassment law outta whack? Gabrielle S. Friedman assesses whether efforts to regulate desire in the workplace are misguided. "Banishing anything that smacks of sex or intimacy" may stifle speech and deny "justice to women subjected to abusive and career-wrecking behavior that doesn't involve explicitly sexualized speech or conduct." … Fred Strebeigh compellingly describes how, as a young lawyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg pushed the Supreme Court to "treat gender like race" and almost persuaded it to rule sex discrimination unconstitutional in her second courtroom argument ever. But his attention to details like Ginsburg's jittery nerves—she didn't eat lunch beforehand—is both arresting and ironic; it's hard to imagine similar particulars in a piece about a male justice.

Atlantic Monthly

Atlantic Monthly, October 2003
Attaching wires to a man's scrotum and cranking the electricity is torture. But what about disorienting a man by keeping him cold, wet, awake, and tied in an uncomfortable chair? Amnesty International and the Geneva Conventions would call that torture, too; others would call it coercion, tactics that "leave no permanent marks and do no permanent harm." Some argue that such treatment is justified when used to extract information that could save lives. Mark Bowden's well-reported and open-minded investigation of torture and how it's used concludes that "the Bush administration has adopted exactly the right posture on the matter." Coercion, he argues, "should be banned but also quietly practiced."

New Republic

New Republic, Sept. 29
There, there, Jonathan Chait murmurs, soothing liberals still hiccupping with rage, It's OK to hate President Bush. Pointing out that the media have dismissed prevalent anti-Bush sentiment as a peculiar and deranged hysteria, Chait argues that such ire is actually justified. Bush is a "cheat" who promised a moderate presidency and delivered a radical one, who professes to be a "rough-hewn Texan" but is actually a "pampered frat boy." He angers liberals because his career points up how "American life continues to fall short of the meritocratic ideal." … Ramesh Ponnuru counters that this hostility toward Bush is unproductive. Liberal critics indulge their pique by labeling Bush a "liar" or a conservative "menace," but the "public seems more likely to turn on Bush as a failure."

New York Times Magazine

New York Times Magazine, Sept. 21
When William Safire's away, lexicographers do play. The "On Language" column often makes for interesting reading when its usual proprietor is out of town. This week's pinch-wordsmith details the history of a humorous but underused term: resistentialism, or "seemingly spiteful behavior manifested by inanimate objects." … Preschoolers have game, Margaret Talbot reports, after spending time with the hoop-shooting 3-year-old of Reebok's recent commercial and a 4-year-old skateboarder who's unnervingly accomplished. They also have sponsors, agents, and pushy parents. Seems athletic companies like to be associated with tykes because they embody the spirit of sports "for the fun of it." (Multimillionaire teens will no longer suffice.) … It's no accident that Law & Order reruns entrance viewers nightly. Series creator Dick Wolf designed the show with lucrative syndication in mind, which is why each episode is self-contained and the show's frequent "cast changes are never explained or accounted for in the plot."

Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated, Sept. 22
Soccer's reigning queen is a bit of a head case, at least according to Gary Smith. On the eve of the Women's World Cup, his profile compellingly portrays Mia Hamm as volatile, shy, driven, and tormented by self-consciousness and a fear of standing out. Though occasionally a bit cheese-tastic (Do her feet really not touch the ground when she's with shortstop fiancé Nomar Garciaparra?), Smith does seem to burrow deep into Hamm's psyche. And the profile is especially moving because he suggests that the one place Hamm—who grew up when there was "no such thing as a female spectator team sport"—feels least self-conscious is the playing field. The WUSA, the women's pro soccer league, folded Monday, citing a lack of spectators; it remains to be seen how much attention this year's World Cup will garner.

The New Yorker

The New Yorker, Sept. 22
The ad-zaftig "Style Special" issue has rolled around again. Dior's John Galliano is a colorfully profile-able subject: He says things like, "My goal is very simple: When a man looks at a woman wearing one of my dresses, I would like him basically to be saying to himself, 'I have to fuck her.' " The piece overreaches a bit with sweeping assertions—"More than any other designer working today, Galliano is responsible for the sheer and sexually frank clothing so many women wear," Michael Specter writes, citing only André Leon Talley's opinion as proof—but the scenes with Galliano's semi-sadistic personal trainer more than compensate. … Adam Gopnik writes on the demise of the department store, but he can't seem to muster much enthusiasm for its salad days. … And Paul Rudnick amusingly imagines Queer Eye for George W. Bush, finding his jeans, bomber jackets, and belt buckles a bit too concertedly manly: "The leader of the free world [should be] lemon-cashmere confident."

Weekly Standard

Weekly Standard, Sept. 22
Americans shouldn't be so complacent about Europe's steady integration, the cover story contends: The European Union's ultimate purpose is "to hold American power in check." … John Ashcroft's defense of the Patriot Act has been "evasive and unnecessarily timid." (Also, blockheaded, from the sound of it.) The Bush administration actually has an "eminently defensible" record on civil liberties, Thomas F. Powers argues, but rather than pointing this out to critics, Ashcroft has mulishly asserted instead that defending American security is the same thing as defending civil liberties. … The editorial argues that Yasser Arafat "certainly deserves exile" and that expelling him from Ramallah might be a good idea. Sure, it would "undoubtedly cause a raucous few days in the territories and in Arab capitals, and much disapproval elsewhere," the piece concedes. "But then we would all move on." Ah, yes, moving on. Just what those embroiled in this particular conflict are known for.

Time and Newsweek

Time and Newsweek, Sept. 22
Time features on its cover the legendary Johnny Cash, who died last week; the piece inside presents his musical curriculum vitae and describes his abiding love for wife June Carter Cash, who died in May. It also offers one piece of potentially good news for Cash fans: After June's death, he turned to work for consolation, recording "close to 50 songs." No word on whether they'll ever be released.

On kids, and why they may have allergies: Newsweek woos worrywart parents with a package on "Your Child's Health and Safety," naming allergies as the "leading challenge" in children's health for the next century. Childhood allergies are increasingly common, increasingly severe, and more prevalent in developed countries and urban areas. Some scientists speculate that air pollution may be a culprit; others cite the "hygiene hypothesis." The human immune system, they say, "finds itself uncomfortably idle in the antiseptic confines of the modern suburb" and never properly matures.

On the U.S., and why it can't catch Osama: Time reports that Americans have had trouble finding reliable sources in Waziristan, the region on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan where al-Qaida operatives are said to be hiding. The piece also quotes a Taliban source and a former Pakistani intelligence officer who claim that the CIA has attempted to enlist the aid of former Talib leaders there. A Newsweek piece suggests that the war on Iraq diverted resources that might have helped bring about Osama Bin Laden's capture. There are currently only 9,000 troops in "all of Central Asia," and the Fifth Special Forces Group—after developing strong local contacts—was largely redeployed in the Middle East in early 2002.

On Gephardt, and why he may catch Dean: Joe Klein notes that presidential candidate Dick Gephardt's campaign is slowly shifting into gear. He's become an increasingly vocal critic of Bush and appealed to elderly voters in a recent speech, saying, "Most of us in this room can remember 1950." The same may not be true of front-runner Howard Dean's young fans, Klein notes.

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Julia Turner is Slate's deputy editor. You can e-mail her at .
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