A rep responded: "I assure you the model of choice was not meant to slight our petite customers in any way. I stand at a whopping 5'1 so believe me, I feel your pain. Basically our choice to use a standard sized model vs. petite really comes down to logistics... Although we have petite offerings at times... we are not a petite specific site. To cast and book additional models, do model/grooming changes on set would take up more time than we can offer given the shoot schedule." • Collagen-enhanced foods including yogurt, tea, cocktails, and cheesecake are all the rage among Japanese women. They hope eating collagen will help fight wrinkles, but experts say they do nothing. • A poll of 800 self-identified "news watchers" found that Hillary Clinton is now much more popular than Barack Obama. Clinton has a 75 percent approval rating and a 21 percent disapproval rating, while Obama has a 51 percent approval rating and a 45 percent disapproval rating. • Women have a more sensitive touch than men, but Canadian scientists discovered it has nothing to do with sex. "We now understand that this sex difference is not actually a 'sex effect', but rather an effect of finger size," says one researcher, who made the discovery after asking male and female student to detect fine grooves on a surface. • A new study says that a group of teenage girls "at risk" for obesity had more success keeping their BMI from increasing with a year of Interpersonal Psychotherapy than another group of overweight girls that took traditional health education classes. The therapy has been shown to help reduce depression and tackle binge eating. • The "No To Rape" campaign has gathered more than 3,000 signatures on a petition to make raping your wife illegal in Singapore. Currently there is a marital rape immunity law, but the group hopes to change the law when they present the petition to Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the next few days. • Two 10-year-old British boys have been charged with the rape of an 8-year-old girl. "The incident took place in Hayes, in west London, on October 27, that's pretty much all the detail we have," a police spokesman said. • A British woman is suing her gynecologist for sexual harassment because she claims he gave her two "leg buckling" orgasms in under two minutes during an exam, while a nurse was in the room. Bibi Giles said that after Dr. Angus Thomson performed an internal exam in 2006, "... there was no doubt that the conversation and touch was sexual. When I realised he was doing something out of the boundary I didn't want to say anything as I was still under his care." Giles says he talked about having an affair with her on many visits, but she stayed with him because she didn't want to go through the "intrusion" of another gynecologist. •

The film also highlights a program that gets it right, the New York City Gynecological Teach Associates, in which specially trained women talk medical students through a pelvic exam on their own bodies. The independent film still needs to raise money for the editing and distribution process; you can learn more here.


At Your Cervix [Official Site]

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."

There are two typical responses to stressful situations. We either shut down and become completely mute or we prattle on and on. And when odd topics come up, it's because we're grasping at straws.

I suppose that would qualify as the former when I'm in stirrups. Oddly, I find that I often have verbal diarrhea, feeling pressure to fill any silence with the sound of my own voice, but when my legs are wide open, my mouth stays shut. But the same doesn't go for my (former) gyno. Bitch was always asking me about shit I didn't want to talk about, like what exactly I do at my job or if I take my winter coat to be dry-cleaned; you know, the kind of chit-chatty topics that are slightly naggy when coming from my mom or someone inserting forceps in me. Like, just shut up and do your job!

But according to Dr. Kim Alumbaugh, small talk distraction is a common icebreaker technique when doing intimate procedures.

Once the exam starts and they're in the stirrups, I always ask them to slide down another 20 feet. And then we'll talk about shoes or vacations or their kids or exercise or whatever. It's almost like a little cocktail party. You try to keep the conversation flowing.

How 'Bout Those Mets? Stirrups Spur Small Talk[MSNBC]

[Hollywood, CA; July 16. Image via x17.]