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Npr
”What Does Buffy Have To Do With Baghdad? An NPR Reporter Explains
NPR reporter Jamie Tarabay witnessed and experienced awful and frightening things while she was in Baghdad. So she turned to her heroine: Buffy Summers. From Buffy The Vampire Slayer. "Buffy always managed to remind me that in the end, she was just a girl, like me," Tarabay declares. It's been eleven years since The Slayer first hit American televisions, but she remains not only one of the most popular characters, but — unlike so many of the sitcom moms and lovelorn teens on other shows — a young woman that other young women actually relate to. So what does Buffy have to do with Baghdad? More »Parents Of Transgender Boys Take Different, Provocative Paths
There is a fascinating story up on NPR's website about two little boys who wish they were girls, and the different approaches their parents are taking in dealing with their gender confusion. Basically from birth, both Bradley and Jonah favored girl things. Bradley wanted to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz for Halloween when he was 2 1/2, and insisted on wearing his Dorothy hair (made out of a tea towel) for months after; Jonah, according to NPR, "was 2 when his father, Joel, first realized that no amount of enthusiasm could persuade his child to play with balls." (Heh, balls.) But seriously, folks. Both these boys wanted to be little girls pretty much from the moment they could express the desire, and while Bradley's parents have tried to force him out of it — by taking away his Polly Pockets and Barbies and encouraging interaction with other boys — Jonah's parents have allowed him to embrace his desires. At this point, Jonah's parents refer to him as "she", and she herself tells people her name is Jona. More »Isn't It Way Cute When Your Baby Says "Fuck" For The First Time?
On NPR's Morning Edition today, there was a piece about why kids start cussin'. Mostly, reporter Allison Aubrey concludes, they are mimicking phrases heard from their parents and their peers. Aubrey interviewed Julia Gordon, a lawyer and mom of a 4-year-old, who said "He totally screwed me," in front of her daughter when she was cut off in a parking lot. A few minutes later, her daughter repeated, "he totally screwed me," and Gordon laughed at first, because seriously, how cute is it when a four-year-old says shit like that? My parents definitely giggled when I cursed, and that has made me into the regularly profane individual I am today. I had an older brother, so I remember cursing at a pretty young age. When did you start getting your mouth washed out with soap? More »
clips
Samantha Bee On Silda: "Does This Skirt Make My Ass Look Humiliated?
On the Daily Show last night ,correspondent Samantha Bee decided to come clean about her involvement with a prostitution ring. Bee discussed the first rule of political press conference admissions: bring a date. She trotted out her husband, fellow Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones, to accompany her while she exposed her own transgressions. Watching this clip along with this NPR gallery of disgraced politicians and their wives makes us wonder: has a female official ever stood in front of her constituents, flanked by her main man, and admitted to wrongdoing? More »
the open road
Safe Driving Is A Rare Luxury For Many Iraqi Women
When I think of Iraq, I tend to think of the "obvious" tragedies: unwarranted deaths, the fate of children growing up in a violence-torn community, the increasingly tyrannical insurgents. I never ponder the quotidian liberties that have fallen by the wayside, like the freedom to joyride down a sun-dappled street, a mild wind wafting through an open car window. According to this NPR report from today's "Morning Edition" program, driving is not something most Iraqi women have the luxury to do safely anymore, and most of them miss it deeply. College student Samar Nihad, who lives in South Baghdad, tells NPR that insurgents "have stopped women in the streets and warned them not to drive again, because as far as they were concerned, it was forbidden in the Koran. We are afraid." Ahlam al-Wakeel, an Iraqi doctor, says she stopped driving after she was shot at by American servicemen for getting too close to their convoy. More »
gender benders









