• After being passed over for a promotion at McDonald's because of her pregnancy, Rhonda Floyd started a support group of sorts to benefit women in the hospitality industry. "McDonald's is very male-dominated," she said, as are many businesses in the leisure and hospitality sector. • British cops recently caught three woman and a man who were trying to pimp six girls aged 14-23 at a West London hotel. They were also offering a 12-year-old virgin for up to £50,000. All four have been arrested and are facing criminal charges. • According to Nicola Pease, the very same laws designed to protect women in the workplace are actually holding us back. Pease says there is no more sexism in the finance sector, except that which the ladies bring upon themselves by having babies and demanding maternity leave and other unreasonable things. • Author and women's activist Malalai Joya on Obama: "He must criticize how the United States helped turn Afghanistan into a safe haven for fundamentalist terrorists and now helps prop up a corrupt regime and a powerful drug mafia... If I ever do have the chance to meet President Obama, I will try to convey to him these points and tell him very clearly that U.S governments have betrayed the Afghan people enough." • Ximena Hartstock is the acting director of D.C.'s Department of Parks and Recreation, but she may be forced out because of her race and gender. She claims that at a recent city council meeting, Councilmember Marion Barry raised questions as to whether Hartstock could relate to African Americans or if she could do the job as well as a man. •  Kim Ng may become the first female General Manager in baseball. She was spotted having lunch with Padres owner Jeff Moorad, and has previously interviewed for GM positions with the Dodgers and the Mariners. •  As part of a charity event a group of men from New York state put on some pumps and walked a mile in women's shoes. The money raised by the walk has been donated to Alternatives for Battered Women, which operates a shelter for victims of domestic violence. •  A television show/internet competition that has been described as a "cross between Sports Illustrated and Next Top Model" has come under attack from feminists, who think the bathing suit-based contest is sexist. • Researchers have found that new mothers spend 20% more time awake than they did before giving birth. The resulting "postnatal insomnia" can often lead to depression and anxiety problems for stressed parents. Doctors advise that women suffering from postnatal insomnia seek help as soon as possible. • Quinceañeras — lavish parties given by Latino families to celebrate a girl's 15th birthday and transition into womanhood — are gaining popularity in America. Michele Salcedo, author of a book on the practice, says, "It's a way to push back a lot of the negativity that a lot of Latinos feel is directed at Latinos. It is a way for people who have recently arrived, or maybe not so recently arrived, to say 'I have done well here.'" • In a speech at Morehead State University, author bell hooks said, "God is a feminist because if we accept that God is a god of love then we know that God fully intends for females and males to be self-actualized, self-empowered and full of self esteem." • Just one of many problems for working moms is the fact that many of them continue to see child care as coming out of their paycheck alone, not their family's overall income. Nora Bredes, director of the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Leadership, says, "Our belief as a society is that mothers are responsible for the care of children, not the couple. We give lip service on how it's a family priority, but it really is all on her." • Québec's fashion industry has adopted a charter to help promote healthy body image, including resolutions to "encourage healthy eating and weight-control habits" and "discourage excessive weight-control practices or appearance modification." • The success of New York police and prosecutors in using DNA to catch rapists in cold cases has lead to a greater push to use DNA evidence in the investigation of other crimes. "It is a tremendously powerful tool that allows us to protect the rights of victims," said California District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert. • 

The Times tackles the Eternal Question, soliciting opinions on why, for women, impractical (and in cases, wildly impractical) shoes not merely persist but thrive. Of course, there are the sociological explications, the design perspective, the killjoy podiatrist listing a mind-numbing range of foot injuries. We all know the drill: to Greer, it's servitude. To Bradshaw, it's self-indulgence. To many, it's inexplicable. Fashionista versus frump, under all flags.

The range of comments following the article is equally representative, from those who just think they're beautiful, to those who feel empowered, to the superior woman who declares, "Never have and never will wear high heals. Happily married with no lack of lovers previously. Why would anyone want to wear high heals? If you need these to get attention maybe you need to look at the kind of attention you seek." (Sexual healing, maybe?) Others invoke the irresponsibility, given the health-care debate, of courting avoidable injury. And someone else declares that high heels

make women appear to walk like helpless little girls who can't walk or run away ( i.e. make choices) from men...These women look like they need a man to carry them because they certainly can't circumnavigate the world on their own. Run for a cab in those? Teach class in those? Take the stairs in those? Fight for your client in those?

And so the debate rages on: the sensible versus the defiant. Because there's no justifying heels; it's like smoking, only moderately less hazardous to those around you. And people wear them because they don't have to, in defiance of sense and economy. Now, we're primarily talking "fashion heels" here - although, come on, the McQueen shoes and their ilk are hardly representative any more than is a full-body lace suit sans undies. It's the runway.

But it's still a valid question, and shoes have become absurd. Why do we wear heels? I can only tell you why I do: I'm short. They make me look taller. I went through most of my life looking up to people, with companions having to walk in the gutter. Then I realized I could wear a pair of shoes and look people in the eye. That simple, and I'm sorry but that's a good thing. Men don't have the pressure to torture their feet? They also don't have the option of increasing their height. Well, not without a hefty side of ridicule (and the time poor teenage uncle D bought elevator shoes still looms large in family lore.) But that said, I make no claims to moral superiority, and I'd add to this that wearing heels is like riding a bike: don't do it if you don't know how. It's dangerous and stupid-looking. It's like heavy makeup - you only notice it when it's bad. There are plenty of us striding around comfortably whom you don't notice because someone's teetering by further down the block. I'm not saying you should run in heels - ankles etc. etc. - but I can, most of us can. Of course, I choose my shoes with care - for walking, chunky heels and, whenever possible, good engineering like the estimable Faryl Robin's. "Fashion heels", yes, but not just any! Sure, good ones are pricey, but it's not an area where you want to compromise, and if we're gonna come down hard on anything, surely it should be budget do-mes, with their lack of cushioning and flimsy heels! Caveat emptor, sisters. But for non-heelers: Don't like it? Don't do it. I understand that there's pressure still in some professional environments to don a heel (although surely fewer and fewer) but for most of us, it's a choice. Sometimes, in this world, we want to control our risks for a few hours. The further things move from necessity, the more closely they approach decadence and I suppose for the naysayers, Nero's fiddling as we blithely toss away the gains of our mother's generation. But there's something to be said for reclamation. And you know what? Some of us like the option of riding roller-coasters occasionally. Or, you know, appearing in surrealist operas.

Why We Love The Shoes That Hurt Us [NYT]

The Women Friendly Seoul Project, as detailed tartly by Time's Veronica Zaragovia, was the brainchild of Mayor Oh Se Hoon, and it's as bizarre as it is ambitious. Some of it is great: employment opportunities for women, "safe parks" for women, day-care centers, and women's taxi services and, not incidentally, more ladies' rooms. But apparently considered just as important are the pink parking spots (which, incidentally, rank a woman in heels as on a par with the physically handicapped) and paving streets - for heels. (It's unclear to me whether "improving lighting in public spaces" serves a safety or a cosmetic purpose.) In sum, says the official spearheading the program, they'll be targeting "the inconveniences, anxiety and discomfort that women in Seoul experience on a daily basis."

But while some of these things are big steps, it says a lot about a country that a woman's physical safety is regarded as no more important than her walk to the mall in heels - and that said heels are, implicitly, encouraged. It's too little too late for many Korean feminists: this is, after all, a country where at least 1 in 25 women is thought to work in a sex industry to which the government turns a blind eye, and where until very recently a strict patriarchal system was in place; even today, it's much harder for a woman to obtain a divorce than a man. Only half the country's female population have jobs, and those who do are subject to grueling schedules that make no allowances for children or family. As Zaragovia tells it, most women would rather have more childcare options than pink parking spaces. But others, says Jiyeon Lee of the Global Post, are happy for any quality of life improvements; one worker says approvingly, that because they're not going to change the country in a day, "I think it's so much better to invest in something that helps us in a practical way," like the parking spots.

A list Forbes just put out of "The Best Cities For Working Mothers," which evaluated things like medical care, cost of living, and high salaries, is an interesting counterpoint. While no one would claim that the U.S. is nirvana for the working mom - ideally, you wouldn't need to isolate a few cities - there is, increasingly, a sense of what's expected. Safety and childcare are coming to be considered rights, not privileges. And perhaps what's worrisome about the Seoul initiative is the sense that "women" are an issue separate from "citizens," who will be placated by the chance to wear heels and see more pink. If "happy women" -aka, women who aren't being assaulted in parks? - make for happy Seoul (otherwise, one supposes, the nagging harpies make men's life sitcom-horrible) then maybe they should ask women what would contribute to their well-being. Oh wait, I was just distracted by something pink.

Will High-Heel-Friendly Streets Keep Seoul's Women Happy? [Time]
The Best Cities For Working Mothers [Forbes]
Creating A Women-Friendly Seoul [GlobalPost]
The Best Cities For Working Mothers [Forbes]

Sex Trade Accounts For 1.6% Of GDP [KWDI]
Ex-Prostitutes Say South Korea and U.S. Enabled Sex Trade Near Bases [NY Times]

Korea's 'Crackdown Culture' - Now It's Brothels [Asia Times]

ANA MARIE: Good morning!

MEGAN: Hey there! How are you?

ANA MARIE: A little tie-tie and already tired of the fucking shoe story.

MEGAN: I am actually really impressed with Bush's reflexes. Like, for all those politicians that took cream pies to the faces, Bush was like, nuh-uh. In slow-mo, it's very Matrix-y.

ANA MARIE: I think this should put to rest the rumors that he's drinking again. You know what's really going to suck about this, right?

MEGAN: Other than everything?

ANA MARIE: Journalists no longer be allowed to wear shoes. We're living in a post 12/14 world. And in that world, shoes just aren't worth the risk.

MEGAN: Dude, no one is taking my shoes. I stop with the pedicures in, like, November. I can't afford otherwise.

ANA MARIE: I doubt if you're alone. Lynn Sweet does not seem like a regular pedicure girl.

MEGAN: Plus, not to be mean to the White House press corps, but I'm betting some of those dudes have some gnarly, smelly feet. I really think a room full of unshod reporters' stank feet is probably more of a risk to the President than a shoe.

ANA MARIE: (And I just want to note that I had to cycle through a few names before I got to a WH correspondent that might not get regular pedicures. But I suspect Jake Tapper does!) Yeah, see that is where we disagree! I think many WH correspondents take VERY good care of their tootsies. It's not like they're out there pounding the pavement. Very little reporting involved in covering the White House.

MEGAN: I don't know, it's not like Maureen Dowd is there and can go all Elvira, Mistress of the Dark on him. [Ed: For those with better taste in movies than me, Elvira dispatches the villain at the end with a stiletto to the forehead, killing him. ]

ANA MARIE: I had forgotten that Elvira had her own movie. Thanks. You will not be shocked to know that right now on Morning Joe Pat Buchanan is showing a rather... uhm... exhaustive knowledge of Nazi history. Seriously, though: Pat Buchanan showing up to out-Nazi-trivia Bryan Singer about his own Nazi movie.

MEGAN: Yeah, completely NOT surprised. At least I can blame my Hitler trivia knowledge on the fact that I was a German history minor.

ANA MARIE: FWIW, I sense that Pat, like the heroes of Valkyrie, thinks that Hitler totally ruined Nazism.

MEGAN: Is is strange that I'm surprised that Bryan Singer is kind of hot?

ANA MARIE: I'm a little surprised at how young he seems, but not that he's hot. Usual Suspects was, fuck, over a decade ago?

MEGAN: Directors are so rarely attractive, though.

ANA MARIE: I have not made enough of a study of that. But speaking of studying: Trying to make sense of this Kristol op-ed. Have you read?

MEGAN: I find it hard to read while his grinning pumpkin head stares at me. It's already hard enough to decipher.

ANA MARIE: He and Jim Webb should hire themselves out for Halloween.

MEGAN: Is there enough orange paint in the world for that?

ANA MARIE: I think he wants a bail out? Or he's knocking the GOP for something?

MEGAN: Actually, I am a little horrified that I'm agreeing with some of the things he's saying about Republicans. He's still a reflexive idiot about liberals.

ANA MARIE: He has been kind of an idiot about Republicans!

MEGAN:

But despite the fact that the government is partly responsible for the Big Three’s problems, the right hasn’t really been stirred to enthusiastically promote a deregulatory agenda to help the auto companies. What excites it is mobilizing to oppose bailouts for unionized workers.

Last week, Senate Republicans picked a fight with the U.A.W. on union pay scales — despite the fact that it’s the legacy benefits for retirees, not pay for current workers, that’s really hurting Detroit, and despite the additional fact that, in any case, labor amounts to only about 10 percent of the cost of a car. But the Republicans were fighting Big Labor! They were standing firm against bailouts!

ANA MARIE: I'm not convinced he's always writing this column himself. Not that he's farming it out, but just engaging in automatic writing or something. Letting the spirits speak through him. And this spirit happens to be different than the "I HEART SARAH" one.

MEGAN: It's definitely written through his "all liberals are hypocritical" filter, though.

ANA MARIE: I think he's saying that they should do MORE to deregulate unions besides take on labor. Like, the problems of regulation go beyond unions. By saying that GOP shouldn't have gone after labor, he's NOT saying unions are good. And even though he likes the idea of the "car czar," isn't the car czar idea inherently anti-anti-regulation? My head hurts now. Let's move on

MEGAN: Well, I think he main point actually comes through at the end.

The bill would have allowed President Bush to name a car czar, who could have begun to force concessions from all sides. It also would have averted for now a collapse of the auto industry, and shifted difficult decisions to the Obama administration.

It's all about trying to make his Republican compatriots understand their role is to make Obama look bad.

ANA MARIE: AH! Ain't unity grand?

MEGAN: But let's talk cute: an Obama daughter-Chris Rock daughter playdate. That's a unity of cuteness.

ANA MARIE: But not BIDEN PUPPY CUTE!

MEGAN: Okay, the puppy is very cute, but: he used a breeder. Pound puppies, people, the nation is crying out for change.

ANA MARIE: And, seriously, who DOESN'T want a play date with Sasha and Malia. I mean, I want a playdate with them. I know, I would feel better about a rescue pup. BUT LOOK AT HIS EYES. The puppy's, not Biden's. Though I think that the national had a similar reaction when Obama picked Biden: "We would have preferred HRC BUT LOOK AT HIS EYES."

MEGAN: It is an extremely cute puppy, and the Biden granddaughters will, naturally, get to name him.

Originally, Brown said she was to bring two puppies to Biden, but Biden called and said he wanted to see all the dogs.

"He was very gracious," Brown said. "He hugged and kissed all of the shepherds."

There are also totally women in the world today wishing they were puppies.

ANA MARIE: I LOVE that detail.

MEGAN: Well, how do you not let puppies lick your face?

ANA MARIE: "He hugged and kissed all of the shepherds." Of course he did. That's the only part of the Vice President's job that Biden's not planning on eliminating.

MEGAN: I'm sure that's in the Constitution.

ANA MARIE: I am so glad I'm not in Chicago, btw. You can hear the chattering of teeth in the voices of reporters covering Blago/PEBO (PEBO = "President-Elect Barack Obama" I learned that very recently! Like, journo slang.)

MEGAN: I sort of love how more and more people are like, dude was craaaazzeee when he's obviously just sort of always been an asshole.

ANA MARIE: But you can't "plead asshole" in court.

MEGAN: Actually, I think that should be a legitimate defense. "But, Your Honor, I'm an asshole." I want to hear defendants say that, give 'em 30 days off their sentence or something.

ANA MARIE: I think that was Scooter Libby's first try.

MEGAN: Scooter left out the "stupid" part. Everyone already knows lawyers are assholes. That's the real meaning of "Esquire." Speaking of, I found Shep Smith's interview in Esquire kind of endearing but difficult to read in the absence of questions. Even writing that made me feel like I'd bought into something very bougie about writing.

ANA MARIE: Well it was like hearing one side of a phone conversation. A fascinating conversation! But still, a little disjointed. Maybe they're saving money by not printing the reporter's questions! Something that maybe places like the Tribune Co. and Newsweek should look into!

MEGAN: Less ink, less layoffs? Maybe they should look into this Internet thingie, where there's no ink and no layo... Oh, wait, never mind.

ANA MARIE: I was thinking more, like, how they don't have to pay extras in movies if they don't have lines. If you don't print the reporters' questions, you don't have to pay them.

MEGAN: Maybe we could just let all the people in the news write in the first person about what they're doing and just call it a day. The press is just like this unnecessary middleman in this day and age.

ANA MARIE: EXCEPT THEY'RE NOT, right? I was a conference last week and this guy from Google was all, "we hate it that the MSM is going under, because without them we're not going have quality information to index for people to search." So I was like, "You'll need to start hiring journalists then."

MEGAN: Oh, God, stop. I'm laughing so hard I'm crying. Or crying so hard I'm laughing, I can't really tell.

• Two women have been charged in the murder of a British couple honeymooning in Antigua and Barbuda. • The Maricopa County Sheriff in Arizona has violated a ruling that he is not allowed to require female inmates to receive a court order before they are granted an abortion. • In (somewhat) related news, there is a new program at the Ohio Reformatory for Women that allows inmates to raise their children in their cells and in in-house prisons to keep the bond between mother and child tight. • More than 80% of women in the Air Force in Iraq reported persistent fatigue, difficulty concentrating and nearly 20% reported one symptom of PTSD. • Meanwhile in the region, a man has been arrested in Jerusalem for helping beat, threaten, and rob a divorced Israeli woman under the self-proclaimed title of "chastity guards." •

Are heels this season so high because the economy is so low? There's power in height, in the instant and literal lift one gets from heels. Some say they feel sexier, and there's no doubt that wearing heels changes the posture of a woman — pushing out the chest, tensing the calf muscle, elongating (actually hyperextending) the leg and putting stress on the lower back, causing hips to work harder and therefore "sway." But where is the true power when you can't really walk? Where is the power when most of the popular shoes were designed by men who don't wear them? Ever notice how ladies who wear sneakers all the time have smooth and un-callused feet, and women with a "sexy" heel habit have stressed out and jacked up feet? Why, after thousands of years and a sexual revolution, do we continue to do this to ourselves? Is it because there's a thrill in being a woman, in claiming all of the chicks-only, "feminine" accoutrements that go with being decidedly female? While you ponder these questions, I'm going to see if I can find a price for those black Giambattista Valli numbers on the lower left. What? Just curious!

Skyscraper Heels: They May Be Painful And Expensive But We've Seen Nothing Yet [Independent]
Posh Spike needs a head for heights as she steps out in five-inch heels [Daily Mail]

Earlier: Fashion Victims
Fashion Writer Wears Fashionable Shoes, Loses Will To Live

[Images from Style.com via Flora's Box]