Although most people that choose to go through the public gender transition (which generally precedes surgical reassignment, if they choose to do it), a small percentage of people return to their original gender identities, reports USA Today.

"It's unfortunate and it's relatively uncommon but certainly not unheard of," says Denise Leclair, executive director of the International Foundation for Gender Education, a Waltham, Mass.-based transgender advocacy group. "The simplest way to think about it is being trans is something that never goes away. ... There's just a fairly constant social pressure to just go back. You don't have to be a genius to understand that society doesn't really accept this."

Most of the people cited in the article seem to agree that a person doesn't stop being transgender, they just seem to succumb to social pressures not to be.

Donna Rose, a male-to-female postoperative transsexual in Rochester, N.Y. [says] "The thing that people have to understand is that even though Mike decided to retransition, that doesn't mean he's not trans. It's not like you go all of a sudden, 'Uh, I'm better.' Going back doesn't automatically clear the conundrum that causes you to get there in the first place."

Rose reversed course on her own transition at first because her then-wife became so distraught and co-workers were insensitive. Six months later, she went through with it and ended the marriage.

Rose and Leclair also make mention that one also becomes a "visible minority" because even though you have chosen to live as the other gender, secondary sex characteristics, like size, remain visible to others.

One doctor, however, says that transgenderism is a choice, not a condition.

"You can live any way you want, but don't come to us and ask us to give medical resources to this proposal of yours, because we think it's a social construct and not a condition of nature," [Paul McHugh, director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine] says.

"No one has demonstrated any physical mechanism or physical problem that causes this. The burden of proof is on them to prove that."

Right, because obviously this is something people would just opt into (or out of) willy-nilly. Kind of like being gay!

For Some, Shadow Of Regret Cast Over Gender Switch [USA Today]

While Clinton's oft-proclaimed "bitchiness" was certainly not a positive development, Fortini argues that "It was far more destructive, we would learn, for a woman to be labeled a fool." However, Fortini's premise made me wonder if, as Barack Obama defied the negative stereotypes applied to African Americans, a woman would have to defy all negative stereotypes of powerful females to get elected. Or, to put it another way: if Sarah Palin had been brilliant, we would have been in a lot of trouble.

"Here was a woman who—even if you didn’t agree with her politics—seemed to have achieved what so many of us were struggling for: an enviable balance between career and family," Fortini says. And indeed, Sarah Palin is poised and pretty and appropriately "female" in a way that is not threatening — nothing like Hillary Clinton. She defies the stereotype that women who seek power are ball breakers. However, Palin also defies notions of prissiness and weakness with her searing, borderline-cruel rhetoric and her much-touted moose killing.

Thank goodness for those of us who like our abortions legal, Palin's "blithe ignorance extended from foreign policy to the symbolic value of her candidacy. By stepping into the spotlight unprepared, Palin reinforced some of the most damaging and sexist ideas of all: that women are undisciplined in their thinking; that we are distracted by domestic concerns or frivolous pursuits like shopping; that we are not smart enough, or not serious enough, for the important jobs," Fortini explains.

However, I'm not convinced that Palin's inadequacy has set women back. Fortini quotes a study that said 69% percent of people think men and women are equally able to lead, and then follows up by noting that 60% of people thought Palin wasn't qualified to be President. To think that one woman has dismantled all the progress other women have made gives her too much credit. But, like all non-white, non-Christian males running for office, at first one must transcend stereotypes to become electable. As many have said before, if Barack Obama had been divorced, or Michelle had been a pill-popper like Cindy McCain, or if a teenage Malia Obama had turned up pregnant out of wedlock, you can be sure he would not have made it anywhere near the Oval Office. For a woman to get to break that ol' glass ceiling, she's going to have to do the same.

The 'Bitch' And The 'Ditz' [NYM]

Target Women: Chick Flicks [Current]
Sarah Haskins On Chick Flicks [Salon]

Forbes reports (via MSNBC) that when calculating the cash pulled in by male CEOs of America's largest companies, the average take, including salary and bonuses, for all 500 CEOs was $12.8 million — double the female average of $6.5 million. But one of the most interesting things about Ms. Nooyi and some of the other top-earning female CEOs — Andrea Jung (Avon), Anne Mulcahy (Xerox), Christina Gold (Western Union) — is that you never really hear a damn thing about them.

Or maybe you do. Maybe you read the business section and the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. But maybe there just aren't as many stories about Ms. Nooyi and other female CEOs? A Google search turns up 93,100 results for Indra Nooyi; Larry Ellison returns 1,280,000. Lauren Conrad? 2,520,000 (Even Audrina Patridge gets 599,000. Six times Ms. Nooyi's number.) It's not that a Google search proves your worth, or that all those hits make Lauren Conrad a worthwhile person. It's just a way of asking: Why, in our escapist, entertainment-addicted society, do we place so much importance on certain women, when there are other hard-working ladies struggling to keep up with men in global business, where it really counts?

America’s Highest Paid Female CEOs [MSNBC]
Top-Returning Female CEOs (Slideshow) [Forbes]

The testing was originally instituted in the 60s because communist countries were accused of trying to pass men off as women in order to dominate the Olympics, but as the website Feministe points out, "Note how Soundarajan is not identified as a male [in the New York Times]. The article uses feminine pronouns, for goodness’ sake. Her only crime was being intersexed, having one of those genetic abnormalities that can cause the test to yield false results. In fact, it doesn’t appear that there are any cases of this kind of screening revealing men cheating by pretending to be women at this level of competition at all."

Another reason this testing is fishy: the Olympic organizers aren't testing men for genetic abnormalities. Men with Klinefelter syndrome have two X chromosomes and Y, so are genetically more similar to women than the average man. Since scientists have already proved that these genetic differences give athletes no advantage, is there any way to call this situation anything other than outright discrimination?

Gender Testing For Female Olympians [Feministe]
Lab Ready for Sex Tests for Female Athletes [NYT]

These girls better get used to the sting anyway, since reports from last fall show that Gardasil might not be permanently effective, and some researchers are suggesting a vaccine booster after the ten year mark. As my mom would say: if you think Gardasil stings, try childbirth. There's never really any good comeback to that one.

Ouch! Cervical Cancer Shots Painful [Associated Press]

Earlier: Gardasil For Men? New Study Of The Drug Focuses On Gay Men, Ass Cancer
On Women: What To Do About HPV?
Female Trouble

One friend, who works in advertising, says she makes a point not to shave for the gynecologist ("I don't want to send anyone the wrong message!"), but she seems to be in the minority. All my other girlfriends, however, whip out the razor before changing into the robe. [Robe? You mean that cold, itchy paper shit? -Ed.] Another friend, a working mom, sayas she never steps foot into the doc's office without running a razor over her legs and her "down there." "It's not about trying to impress anyone," she explains, "It's just a hygiene/ease thing. I just want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to make sure my doctor can get the best look possible of what's going on down there." Adds a friend who works in fundraising: "Yes, I do. But not for the physical therapist, who massages my inner knee." Hmm!

Another friend, a writer, says she doesn't make a point of shaving, although it has nothing to do with women's lib and everything to do with, well, the pretty: "I shave my legs for the bikini waxer but not necessarily the gyno. I guess i figure that she's there for health reasons while the waxer is for aesthetics so i want to impress her more?" Says a lawyer: "I shave everything for the gyno. She's my favorite doctor and if I can make her job (which I would NEVER want) a little better, I think that's nice. If you shave for a boy who tells you you're pretty, don't you owe at least that to a woman who tells you that you don't have chlamydia?" Lastly, a smarty-pants grad student mused with following: "Since I'm not going to get waxed for the gynecologist, I figure shaving my legs is the least i can do. Like tipping the mailman. You can't make the job of delivering mail on icy Boston streets less shitty, but you can at least make a small gesture."

Furthermore, the study reports that women, more than men, understand that having a baby isn't all fun and games: "Other studies have documented that men tend to experience pretty strong economic and social rewards from being a dad, whereas women experience more of the pressures and more of the demands of the immediate day-to-day reality of parenting and juggling work." Or as Dr. Irene Goldenberg, a psychologist at UCLA, puts it: "People [used to] say that women care more [about children]" whereas the reality is just that women know the costs more. [T]he smarter you are, the more you know about the costs."
Adds psychologist Barry Ginsberg: "For a man, the loss of having a family and carrying on the gene pool makes men helpless, because they can't give birth. [From an] evolutionary standpoint, men would go around impregnating all the women they could find." Conclusion? Women: Smart. Men: Horny.

Childlessness Bothers Men More Than Women [HealthScout]

I have been shoving garlic up my vagina for the past 24 hours — a home remedy that I'm hoping will kill whatever is making my crotch froth. This infection could be the result of a number of things. I recently got off antibiotics for a gnarly bug bite on my leg. Everyone knows antibiotics are one of the leading causes for the yeast beast.

I also let a dude with some unsavory-smelling grillz go down on me last week. Probably not the cleanest thing I could let near my cooch. On Friday night, my band played at a house party. I woke up the next day on the couch, still in my nude suits: Layers of full-body pantyhose, all of which were drenched in beer. After all the boozin', antibiotics, and general dirty play, it really came as no surprise that things got stanky in my panties by Sunday.

To counteract that, I wrapped a garlic clove in cheesecloth and wedged in my vagina. I was sure I had arrived in Yeast Infection City. But then Slut Machine told me about this study on Science Daily, about how women are commonly misdiagnosing themselves with yeast infections. She suggested I try out this Vagisil Screening Kit to see if it really was a yeast infection after all.

The test is fast and easy — you just wash your hands, insert the smaller end of the swab (with the pH paper on it), and press it against your vaginal wall for five seconds, then take out the stick and match it to a level on the color chart pH guide the test provides. Mine came out looking like the color of baby poop. It was what I feared: Definitely not a yeast infection. Either I'm battling Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) or Trichomoniasis (Trich). BV is a bacterial infection, where as a yeast infection is a fungal one. Trich is the same thing that Charlotte got on Sex in the City when her vagina had to go on antidepressants. It is caused by a parasite and that is totally nast. If it is the Trich, I blame it all on stink teeth. Either way, I need to get my legs in the stirrups and take care of this mess for good. Good thing I was too broke to buy Monistat, because apparently if you have BV and you treat it with an over-the-counter yeast infection medication, you can aggravate the condition. I can, however, still slather plain yogurt all over the place to ease the burn and plug it up with garlic to keep up the fight until I can get a doctor to look at my flaming lips.

Common Misdiagnosis: Most Women Believe They Have A Yeast Infection When They Don't [Science Daily]

So here's a question: Obviously there is a thing called schadenfreude. And when comes to these trainwreck trollops, we can't get enough. But this is an era in which we might actually be able to elect a female president of the United States. Aside from Hilary Clinton, where are the women (in the public eye) who are positive role models? And why isn't it as much fun to pay attention to them?

The Insider [Telegraph]