Jezebel: push presents

Loose Lips

Jessica — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:40:00 EDT

Anne Hathaway's shady bf, Raffaelo Follieri, was reportedly just arrested for bouncing a $250,000 check. In addition, Follieri was just ordered to pay another $250,000 to a PR firm he stiffed. It sounds like he's really gonna need that PR right about now.• A poll of porn stars at a Bulgarian "erotic fair" shows that David Beckham is the star they would most like to bone. Should he change his last name to Feckham? • Did Marc Anthony buy J. Lo $2.6 million earrings as a push present? Rumor has it the expensive baubles have the letters "M" and "E" for their children Max and Emme engraved on them. [TMZ, The Sun, Dlisted]

Would "Push Presents" Be So Obnoxious If They Weren't Called "Push Presents"?

Moe — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:00:00 EST

You know how sometimes, a man will give his wife a nice piece of jewelry or whatevs when she gives birth to a baby, just to be like, "Hey, sweetie, I know you feel a million kinds of gross right now and can barely focus on something as inanimate and utterly pointless — not to mention earlobe-depleting! — as earrings, but like, maybe if we make it through the next few years okay you'll be able to put these on at night and think about the guy who, when you were in pain, gave you something sparkly and grinned sheepishly until you popped out his spawn"? Well now this thing is called a "push present," according to the New York Times, and boyyyyyy were Anna and Jessica and a half gazillion of you tipsters offended by passages like this:

Chris Beggini, a 43-year-old mutual fund manager in Radnor, Pa., didn't know about the practice until his wife, Jennifer, straightened him out. "We talked about how she had nine months of difficulty, and 'Aren't I the good soldier?' blah blah blah," he recalled. So when the Begginis begat Abigail in 1999, Ellie in 2002, and Julia last year, Mr. Beggini responded with earrings, a bracelet and what he jokingly calls a "suffer ring."

Said Anna:

I have a theory about these: that they emerged primarily in upper class milieus in which having a baby/gaining weight/etc. is considered some sort of SACRIFICE of one's precious shopping/socializing time and taut young body. Maybe I'm being unfair/judgmental/overly broad but in my mind, only a superficial, wealthy woman would think she should get DIAMONDS for having a goddamn baby. (I make this judgment probably because one of the women I know who got such presents is a millionaire Upper East Sider.) Women give birth every day ALL OVER THE WORLD in much worse conditions than those found in, say, Columbia Presbyterian, and honestly, if I had a baby and wanted a "gift" in return for having one — isn't a baby gift enough?? — I'd ask my husband to give some money to a mother(s) who actually NEEDED IT.

Added Jessica:

One could argue a baby isn't a "gift" in the first place!! It's a GODDAMN LIFE!

And concluded a tipster:

Rather than a natural occurrence, rich white woman consider having a baby a major inconvenience.

Yeah, okay, but here's the thing: having a baby is a major inconvenience. Buying a ring is not. These are facts of life, as natural and time worn as the fact that nothing is fair, and once upon a time a ring could simply be a token that a husband was capable of stepping outside himself and seeing the situation for what it is: 10 months that he can drink, dress and go about his daily routine like normal while she's getting all gross and sweaty and shit, and yeah, aw, maybe i should get her something special. But no; now it's just another gross harbinger of end times brought to you by the luxury goods industry on the backs of African slave labor. Thanks, late capitalism!

A Bundle Of Joy Isn't Enough? [NY Times]
Related: Get Your Rocks Off [Philadelphia Weekly]

Panic-Stricken Kim Basinger's Maybe Not-So-Healthy Heart

amparry — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:30:00 EDT

A recent study suggests that women who suffer from panic/anxiety attacks [That would be me! -Ed.] have a higher chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke later in life. [USA Today]
Can consensual sex become rape midway during the act? A Maryland court is trying to determine that in the case of a 18-year old woman who allowed a 16-year old boy to have sex with her so long as he stopped when she told him to. She claims she told him to stop and he continued for 5 to 10 more seconds. We know what Cosmo would say! [Baltimore Sun]
Salon's Rebecca Traister reviews Susan Faludi's new book and contrasts it with Springsteen's new album. Just go read it. It's that good. [Salon]

Did you hear? There's no better way to thank a baby momma for delivering that little bundle of taint-tearing joy than a "push present" in the form of a hideous charm bracelet. [MSNBC]
Researchers claim that romantic partners copy one another's health habits, from quitting smoking to increasing exercise. Until our boyfriend flushes his pack of Parliament Lights down the toilet and does a downward dog, we call bullshit. [Live Science]
A woman gave birth to two babies on the same day, but they aren't twins. Seems that she got pregnant twice over the course of two weeks. Mother Nature, you fucking creep us out. [Babble]
Hooray, the Aurora, IL Planned Parenthood finally opened! [MSNBC]
Women are more likely to suffer concussions than men playing the same sports, mainly because the way girls "play" is different. Also, helmets fuck up our hair. [ABC News]
A bunch of breast cancer survivors strutted down the runway for a UK fashion show drawing attention to the disease and the search for a cure. Fierce! [Daily Mail]
According to a recent poll, women are more afraid of getting Alzheimer's than cancer — umm, maybe because every study contradicts the next and it seems like there's nothing you can do about getting breast cancer... wait, sorry, what we're we saying? [Science Daily]