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In theory, it's a good fall season for ladies on television — there are a considerable crop of new shows that are centered on women. The shows may not be good but at least they exist, we guess (must! stay! optimistic!). However, television's latest offerings haven't completely forgotten about the menfolk, and the fall lineup suggests some major male insecurity, manifested in a degree of contempt for and belittlement of women. More »
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Ships, cars, countries — people ascribe gender to all these things, even though none of them have genitals. But a new study reveals an even weirder mental habit — people apparently think of odd numbers as male, while even ones are female. More »
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Ladies, don't make your men do womanly tasks. Performing women's work will threaten their manhood and fill them with rage and anxiety, which can only be alleviated by punching things. This is science. More »
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When I was young, my mother told me it was more important to be smart than feminine. More »
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Although women make up half of the nation's workforce, they hold only 16.4% of corporate offices in the Fortune 500, 14.7% of Fortune 500 board seats and 1.6% of Fortune 500 CEO positions (Catalyst 2007). So what's new here? More »
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"'We live in more of a pussy generation now,' Clint Eastwood told Esquire magazine last year." So begins Katherine Miller's rant on — you guessed it — the decline of manhood. Did you know that guys wear scarves now? More »
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If you're not getting ahead in your career, it's probably because your crotch stinks. More »
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You may know that Angelina's part in Salt was written for Tom Cruise. But as As Jay A. Fernandez writes: "No actress in Hollywood history has been able to chisel out the supremacy Jolie has in a male-dominated genre." More »
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My first reaction to Jessica Floeh's line of insulin pump accessories — cleverly named Hanky Pancreas — was clear and uncomplicated: those are so pretty and I want them. More »
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According to a new study, women in countries with poor national health prefer men with more masculine faces. Masculinity is supposed to correlate with genetic fitness, which would make Darwin proud. But is it really that simple? More »
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Researchers report that facial expressions play a major role in gender identification. Faces showing happiness or fear are seen as feminine, while scowling faces are read as masculine. Apparently, angry female faces "took the longest to identify." [UPI] More »
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I'm not sure how to read this Tina Brown article about Hillary Clinton (and "The Woman Thing"). It's like Brown wants to compliment the Secretary of State, but she only knows how to express that via negging. More »
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Artist Chad States has taken a series of photos of "Men At Their Most Masculine," and the results are actually both charming and thought-provoking. More »
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The Washington Post's Robin Givhan is rather disappointed in Judge Sonia Sotomayor's latest sartorial decisions, deeming her choice of professional attire at last week's historic confirmation hearings not nearly feminine enough. What? More »
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The latest Photoshop challenge at Worth 1000 is called "Celebrity Steroids: Juicing the Rich and Famous." Participants have given stars like Angelina Jolie, Amy Winehouse and Gisele Bundchen rippling abs, bulging biceps and thunderous thighs. The effect is supposed to be hilarious, or, at least, jarring. But consider this: More »
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My mom never appreciated Madonna, and I'm sure everyone can imagine why she wasn't keen to see her child singing "like a virgin, touched for the very first time" into a hairbrush in front of the mirror at the tender age of 7. By the time I was blasting "Human Nature" after our senior year fights, there was no doubt that the rift between my mother and Madonna was pretty permanent. On the other hand, for all my mother's anti-Madonna-ness (and dislike of the word "feminist"), she would never, ever think to go on about Madonna's looks the way Germane Greer or Camille Paglia have this year or rip her the way Miranda Devine does in The Sydney Morning Herald for daring to exercise a lot and trying to be unwrinkled. Do not come between me and my childhood icons. More »
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As previously mentioned, the marvelous Rebecca Traister of Salon and I were invited to talk for Bloggingheads.tv last week. While you can click here to watch the entire 69 minutes, you can click the picture at left to watch a couple of excerpts of us talking about Sarah Palin and accessible femininity and us liberally stealing Rachel Maddow's steez by me talking Rebecca down on liking Sarah Palin on gay rights.

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Men all like one kind of woman — soft, cuddly, girly, pink and oh-so-feminine! They want to be needed, have their egos stoked, feel in charge, be in charge and look at exotic, well-made-up creatures who flirt and bat their eyelashes and don't challenge them intellectually and are incapable or passive/submissive. Thus, us hard-charging ladies need to better strike that balance between being intelligent, capable human beings and being girly-girls so that we can find husbands. Or so says the Daily Mail's Anna Pasternak, whose journey to feminine self-discovery started in her closet, passed through a few Botox injections and some psychobabbly life coach claptrap, and ended with her out to dinner with a male friend who already liked and appreciated her company. Sounds like fun! More »
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