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Mom Enters Fetus In A Beauty Pageant

Pageant Moms Vs. Media
Who's to blame for sexualizing little girls? Read More »
We Love T&T
10 reasons you should be watching this train wreck. Read More »
Tiny Hooker
Toddlers & Tiaras
"Toddlers & Tiaras" mom dressed her daughter as a hooker. Read More »

It’s never too early to start prepping your child to be a beauty queen. At least, that’s what mom-to-be Jenny Oliver thinks. At seven months pregnant, she’s already entered her unborn daughter, tentatively named Ella, into her first Bonnie Baby pageant.

“With my dance skills and her sister Jess’s knowledge of pageants, there’s no way she won’t win the prize for bonniest baby … It was only a tenner to enter her and I believe you should start them young. Ella will do so much better in life with all that experience under her belt … She’s only going to be three months old but she’ll have a bit of fun on the day … Walking down that catwalk with my gorgeous baby will make me feel a million dollars — even though I’ll still be carrying my baby weight and wearing daggy clothes. I hope she wins — it would be fab to have a baby sash and crown to add to the collection. I have so much planned for her.”

Keep reading »

Women Don ’60s “Mad Men” Costumes To Protest North Carolina Birth Control Refusal Bill

NC Wants Parental Consent
frustrated woman
... for STD testing? Are you serious? Read More »
NC Vaginal Probe
Today's Lady News
North Carolina's ultrasound-before-abortion law challenged. Read More »
Abortion Provider Threat
abortion photo
NC politician calls for public hanging of abortion providers. Read More »
North Carolina Mad Men protest
  • North Carolina’s state house is set to debate a bill that would allow employers to refuse coverage of employees’ birth control. In protest, a bunch of women dressed up in ’60s-era “Mad Men” garb and sat in the audience! [RH Reality Check, Huffington Post]
  • A bakery in Oregon is refusing to provide a cake to lesbian brides. Oh this again?. [Raw Story]
  • The White House is taking proactive steps to lower the wage gap between male and female federal workers. [AL.com]
  • The director of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office said that sexism needs to be taken as seriously as racism within the military. Hear, hear! [USA Today]
  • Meanwhile, a soldier who was to set up a sexual assault prevention program in Texas has been arrested for “abusive sexual contact.” Facepalm. [Talking Points Memo] Keep reading »

Predictably, Punks Are Protesting The Met’s Chaos Into Couture Show

Punk Met Ball

The Met Costume Institute’s Ball last week was clearly just a harbinger to come — the tone deaf outfits and embarrassing displays of total non-punkness were simply pre-cursors to fairly scathing critiques of the exhibit itself. But even — and especially — those outside of the establishment are expressing their disdain for the collection.

Gerry Visco, a self-professed punk who at 58 is old enough to actually live through punk’s inception and first wave, came down to protest Punk: Chaos Into Couture, and led a group of about a dozen punks in making a statement outside the museum.  I was a real punk,” said Visco. “We like the fact that they’re doing this show but it’s not as authentic as it could have been.” Keep reading »

Don’t Want To Get Raped? Drink Less, Hong Kong Official Suggests

After Sexual Assault
woman sad in bed
Tips for reclaiming your sex life after being sexually assaulted. Read More »
Date Rape PSA
date rape poster
This date rape PSA has been accused of blaming the victim. Read More »
Teach Boys Not To Rape
On Steubenville High School and teaching boys not to rape. Read More »

Gee, don’t you just love that in the battle to train men to not rape, you have the security secretary of Hong Kong, Lai Tung-kwok, stomping on all our efforts by suggesting women just drink less? I do. It’s my favorite. Having the government permit men to not taking responsibility for their actions and place the onus of avoiding sexually assaul on women is just fabulous. Especially when this was the knee-jerk reaction to a 60 percent rise in reported rapes and an 18 percent rise in reported sexual assaults.  As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the director of the Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centers responded, “There’s a lot of stigma that’s given to the victims.  The remarks he made are proof of a culture that blames victims for doing something ‘wrong,’ like drinking.” The fear is that women won’t report abuse because they fear being blamed and shamed.  Rape culture, it’s great.

[NYMag.com]

[Wall Street Journal]

Is There A Penalty For Powerful Women Admitting Mental Illness?

I Have Depression
Jessica has struggled with depression all her adult life. Read More »
Hyberbole & A Half
Webcomic finds the funny moments in the darkest depression. Read More »
Explaining Depression
What does it really feel like to suffer from depression? Read More »
Feminist Blogger's ED
Chloe Angyal
Feministing blogger Chloe Angyal reveals eating disorder, apologizes. Read More »
sad woman

Is there a penalty for a woman who breaks through the glass ceiling and, then, from her position of power, admits that she struggled with mental illness in her past?

Yesterday New York City’s Speaker of the City Council and the Democratic candidate for mayor Christine Quinn revealed in the New York Times that she had suffered from bulimia and alcoholism for a good portion of her life. Quinn explained how her mom suffered through breast cancer throughout Quinn’s childhood and after her mom died, binge eating and purging gave her a brief feeling of relief. It was also in college that Quinn binge drank to the point of developing alcoholism. She checked into a rehab center at age 26 and got control of her eating disorder and her problematic drinking; it wasn’t until three years ago that Quinn, who is also the first mayoral candidate to be openly gay, went entirely dry.

Christine Quinn’s admission echoed another powerful woman’s recent decision to go public about a private struggle: “Morning Joe” cohost Mika Brzezinski revealed in MORE magazine that she has suffered from exercise bulimia for many years, meaning that she binges on food and then over-exercises to burn off the calories.

Brzezinski and Quinn aren’t the only two well-known women to admit to mental illness: Carrie Fisher and Catherine Zeta-Jones have both been public about their struggles with bipolar disorder, Lena Dunham talks about her OCD, and plenty of other celebs have been open about their mental health struggles, too. But I suppose that Christine Quinn and Mika Brzezinski fascinate me in particular because they both work in fairly male-dominated fields — the mainstream media and politics — that aren’t known for being warm and fuzzy.   Keep reading »

Worst Nightmare: Couple Finds 80,000 Bees In The Wall Of Their Master Bedroom

Sex with a hornets nest?!
One guy did it, and it didn't end well. Read More »
Scared Of Bees
4 dumb things Winona has done because she's scared of bees. Read More »
Lady Loves Bee Stings
bee sting my strange addiction
"My Strange Addiction" lady stings herself with venom 15x a day. Read More »

OK, so no bee horror story can ever compare to the guy who had sex with a hornets’ nest and died, but this one might qualify as a distant runner-up. A couple in Utah recently bought a house, and every once in awhile thought they heard the sound of bees buzzing while they were eating dinner or watching TV. Last weekend, the couple finally had an “It’s coming from inside the house!” moment and called a bee keeper to come check it out. He cut a hole in the wall of their master bedroom and found a gigantic beehive housing an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 bees. Apparently the bees had actually been removing insulation from the wall to make room for their ever expanding hive (clever little freeloaders, aren’t they?). The bees and their hive were safely relocated, and as long as everyone avoids having sex with it, this scary story will have a happy ending. [Huffpo]

[Bee photo via Shutterstock]

Who Is A “Grown A$$ Woman,” Anyway?

5 Cleaning Tips
Tricks and techniques for people who hate cleaning! Read More »
Working With Women
Here's what Ami has learned from working with other women. Read More »
Dating Don'ts: Nothing
Ami makes a case for doing nothing when it comes to meeting someone. Read More »

This past Monday night, women and quite a few men brought their most honest queries to WNYC  hoping to glean some wisdom on “How to be a Grown A$$ Women.”  Lindy West, of Jezebel, fielded the questions (and threw in some of her own), and the panel included the expertise of bloggers Twanna A. Hines, Jolie Kerr and Logan Sachon talking about relationships, cleanliness and money, respectively.

Prior to the event I was trying to pinpoint when I felt like a grown-up.  Was it when I got my first post-college job working for a U.S. Senator?  Was it when I moved into a new apartment, actually washed my dishes and cleaned my toilet? I think it was when I built my own bookshelf.  I certainly felt empowered as I stared at the squat, three-shelved product of my sweat and blood.

What I do know is that since going back to school, I stopped feeling like a badass independent working woman.  It slipped away when I turned in my Senate I.D., and when I moved into student housing.  It has been a slow decline ever since student loans instead of paychecks populated my bank account.  I joke that I’m “not a real person” anymore.

Keep reading »

Lesbian College Student Protests Anti-Gay Senator’s Honorary Degree

Anti-Gay Prom
Special ed teacher joins students to create straights-only prom. Read More »
Francis I Is Anti-Gay
Today's Lady News photo
But is this really a surprise? Read More »
Obama Backs Gay Marriage
Barack Obama photo
The president comes out in support of same-sex unions! Read More »
Erin Page and Kelly Ayotte

Erin Faith Page was chosen to represent students at New England College’s commencement this year. The school also chose Senator Kelly Ayotte as a keynote speaker at the event, offering her an honorary degree. The problem? Erin is an out lesbian who believes that Ayotte’s conservative politics make her a terrible choice for the honor.

But New England College, a small, private liberal arts college with around 1,800 students is sticking by its choice. ”The College is pleased to have Senator Ayotte speak at our Commencement Ceremony as we have a rich tradition of welcoming differing viewpoints and celebrating freedom of speech,” NEC’s Vice President for Academic Affairs Mark Watman told The Frisky. In case you’re not familiar with Ayotte, she is staunchly anti-gay marriage, supports the Defense of Marriage Act, and most recently voted against the gun control bill. In a petition created by Page, she writes that Ayotte: Keep reading »

Minnesota Town Elects Youngest, Most Adorable Mayor Ever

Cute Celeb Kids
Blue Ivy and 14 other cute celeb kids who set our ovaries aflutter. Read More »
"Howdy pardner!"

You know how Adam Scott’s character Ben Wyatt on “Park & Rec” is a failed teenage mayor? Well, there’s a new mayor in town, and he’s got Wyatt beat by at least 14 years (FYI, Ben’s character was at least partially based on these kids). Meet Robert Tufts, the current mayor of Dorset, Minnesota, who was elected to office at just four-years-old.

Are the people of Dorset crazy? Perhaps. The town has only 22 people, and chooses its mayor by picking a name out of a hat. What’s on Robert’s political agenda? Based on the above video, holding sticks, riding coin operated horses, and going fishing. Sounds pretty good to us. And just in case you were wondering, Dorset previously elected in a 5-year-old. [Metro]

 

Comedian Takes On Douchebag Abercrombie & Fitch Practices By Being A Douchebag

Abercrombie and Fitch douchebaggery
Watch Video

It’s pretty clear that Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries is a raging douchebag. Aside from the sexist and elitist (oh and we forgot, ableist) practices the company’s been found guilty, Jeffries most recently came under fire for his absolutely ridiculous sizing policies. You see, A&F only produces women’s clothing up to a size 10, because, as Jeffries so pleasantly notes, “In every school, there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. We go after the popular kids.” Okay, first off, it’s embarrassing that a 60-year-old man would use a high school analogy to describe his business model. Nevermind that A&F’s heyday was, like, 2006 or something, Jeffries is pretty blatantly King of the D-bags, yes?  Keep reading »

Abercrombie OFfends
With a series of T-shirts Read More »
Abercrombie's Mike Jeffries
Abercrombie & Fitch Ad, An Open Letter To Mike Jeffries
An open letter to the offensive CEO. Read More »
Abercrombie Model Fired
For eating a croissant. Really. Read More »