Jezebel: blue monday

Debbie Downers Rejoice! Today Is A Most Depressing Day

Intern Katy — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:40:00 EST

In case you need a reason to stay in bed: January 19, 2009, is supposedly going to be the most depressing day in history, according to British experts. It has been dubbed "Blue Monday."

Psychologists used a formula that takes into account six factors to determine exactly when we are most likely to feel down. The factors they chose include weather, debt, time since Christmas, time since failing our New Year’s resolutions, low motivation levels and the feeling of a need to take action. They say this year will be particularly bad because of the economic downturn. Separate research has shown that 22% of workers are likely to call in sick today as seasonal illness hits a peak, and other research has shown that today is the day most likely for accidents. [Daily Mail & BBC]

Image via exploding dog.

Clitoral Circumcision Will Make This Baby "More Beautiful In The Eyes Of Her Husband"

Anna — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:30:00 EST

"When a girl is taken — usually by her mother — to a free circumcision event held each spring in Bandung, Indonesia, she is handed over to a small group of women who, swiftly and yet with apparent affection, cut off a small piece of her genitals."

That sentence comprises the first 45 of over a thousand words devoted to female circumcision in Sunday's NY Times. (Sorry guys, this is the last of our Blue Monday-type stories for today.) According to Lukman Hakim, a (male) chairman of an Indonesian foundation that sponsors mass circumcisions, the benefits include the "stabilization" of a female's libido and balancing "her psychology".

The article, written by Sara Corbett, also features a series of upsetting photographs by Stephanie Sinclair (a slideshow, including the newly-circumcised, teary 9-month old girl pictured above, can be found here). Asks Jezebel reader Elizabeth: "What kind of person can stand there and photograph little girls screaming while parts of their genitalia are removed? This isn't a question of religion, or yearning to understand another culture more — it's recording barbarity with an objective lens, which somehow makes it okay."

A Cutting Tradition [NY Times]
Inside A Female Circumcision Ceremony [NY Times]

Unlike Alveda King, I Am Neither "Reformed" Nor A Murderer

Anna — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 12:00:00 EST

Not only is today Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, tomorrow marks the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade. (Erica Jong weighs in here.) And did you know that one of the most vocal abortion opponents is Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece, self-described "reformed murderer" Alveda King? (King, seen above left, had two abortions when she was younger, and offers up this gem: "We give free sex education, free condoms, free birth control. That's almost like permission to have free sex.") Yup, less than a week after the news broke that the abortion rate in the U.S. is at its lowest in 45 years, the media is coming out with its inevitable "the women behind the abortions" stories, and the (not-so-surprising) news is that the majority of abortions are being performed on women who have already had kids, many of them college-educated. In fact, in the 35 years since Roe vs. Wade, there have been roughly 50 million abortions in the United States, with more than 1/3 of adult women estimated to have had one (a disproportionate number of those women are black or Hispanic). And on this, the eve of the anniversary of Roe V. Wade, I'll say it: I am one of those women.

I had my first abortion at the age of 18, while in the early throes of a love affair that eventually turned emotionally abusive. Fresh off my first year of college, I fell pregnant through a combination of raging hormones, high fertility, and, most notably, sheer recklessness. Four weeks later, hunched over and damp with tears after undergoing a D&C at my local Planned Parenthood, I vowed I'd never behave that stupidly again.

Talk about famous last words: Six years later, I did just that.

I could go on and on about my unwillingness to have a child, about the unsuitability of my romantic partners, or the precariousness of my financial situation as a young women in the big city without a trust-fund or even a savings account. I could talk about the dreams I had for my future, dreams that did not include a changing diapers, nursery school and single motherhood. I could express my belief that the embryos that existed inside me for four weeks were not fully-formed, functioning human beings. And I could converse for hours about my terror at the thought of disappointing my parents, or the long-held conviction (as a young girl I had walked hand-in-hand with my mother at many an abortion-rights march) that it was my right to control over what happened to my body, and that, when push came to shove, if I was going to talk the talk, I was sure as hell going to walk the walk.

But eventually I'd have to come back to the simple fact that, no matter how educated and "aware" I was, when I got pregnant I was young, stupid, and yes, "selfish". (Tracie, who's been through it too, disagrees: "It's not selfish. Having a baby and then not being a good mother would be selfish.") There was nothing comedic, heartwarming or cinematic (a la Juno and Knocked Up) about my getting pregnant (except for the time I was heating up soup in the kitchen and realized I was both barefoot and pregnant), or my choice to end a pregnancy. But most importantly, I was simply not willing or ready to have a child; I was just a baby myself. And although I can't speak of the reasons and realities behind the other third of American women who've undergone abortions over the past three and a half decades, perhaps some of you can?

Who's Getting Abortions? Not Who You'd Think [MSNBC, via AP]
If Men Could Get Pregnant, Abortion Would Be A Sacrament [Huffington Post]
Pregnancy Films Like 'Juno' Skip Message, Go For The Humor [USA Today]

Earlier: Experts Don't Understand Why Fewer American Women Are Getting Abortions
•Do You Care How Dudes Feel About Their Abortions?
•How Much Time Should Women Spend In Prison For Having Abortions?
•How Old Is Too Old To Have An Abortion?

Some Moms In Troubled Marriages Are Starving Themselves To Death

Anna — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 11:00:00 EST

On Friday night, ABC newsmagazine 20/20 profiled 47-year-old Sue Harootunian, a 47-year-old mom of three who, like an increasing number of women, began succumbing to a long-dormant eating disorder well into adulthood (at her lowest, she carried a mere 80 pounds on her 5-foot, 4-inch frame.) According to 20/20, women over the age of 35 are falling victim to eating disorders like never before (20% of the patients at the rehab center in which Sue got well were over 35). The reasons are many, but if the stories of women like Sue and Meg Cramer — Cramer's husband penned a piece in the new Glamour about his wife's illness and how he "simulated" anorexia for a week in order to understand her illness better — are any indication, emotionally-empty, passionless marriages are a large part of the problem. But what no one really talks about? How a mother's eating disorder affects her children, particularly her daughters. A clip of Sue and her doctor, above.

Letting Go Of An Eating Disorder In Midlife [ABC News]
Conquering An Eating Disorder [ABC News]
Anorexia Nearly Killed My Wife [Glamour]