Who says breaking news is boring? From awesomely juicy scandals, crazy-weird true stories, to the very latest in women's health and women's issues, The Frisky covers what's real and relevant to you.
If your supply of ground rhino horn has diminished, you might want to go without for a while. Two 19th century horns were stolen from a South African museum, and they could be headed to Asian, where rhino horn is a popular aphrodisiac. This is sad for the museum, but it’s even worse for the person who ingests the stolen rhino horns. The taxidermy mounts were prepared by being soaked in arsenic and applied with DDT. Whoever thought ground rhino horn would improve their sex life has another thing coming. [Reuters]
If you think the mouse squeals you can hear between your walls are gross, just wait until you listen to the ones that are normally (and luckily) inaudible to the human ear. Sure, over hearing a neighbor or roommate having sex can be quite traumatizing, but male mice screech higher than Michael Jackson when they’re getting tail. Researchers at the University of Toronto, have discovered that boy mice actually have feelings and real emotions—it’s in their genes. For example, when a male mouse encounters a female or even simply smells one, it gets so excited that it will chirp in a special way based on its individual genetic make up. Basically, male mice sing sweet ballads to show their softer side—remember Fieval from American Tail? [New Scientist]
Think we have too many lame romantic holidays in the U.S.? Don’t visit South Korea. There, marketers have cooked up even more days to make single people feel bad about themselves. White Day, on March 14, is when men give gifts to women. (Local custom dictates that women give men presents on Valentine’s Day.) Black Day is today, and it’s when singles wear dark colors and commiserate over meals of black food, the favorite being Chinese-style noodles topped with a thick black bean paste sauce. Yum. If Valentine’s Day, White Day, and Black Day aren’t enough for you, there’s Green Day in August, but it hasn’t gotten much traction. Celebrating Green Day involves drinking cheap liquor from green bottles and walking in the woods. [Reuters]
Spain has a female Defense Minister for the first time EVER. Not only is Carme Chacon 37 years old and totally cute, but she’s also pregnant (gasp!). Major props to Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for selecting her and the eight other women who now fill the 17-person cabinet. And shame on the conservative commentator who referred to them as “ZP’s battalion of inexperienced seamstresses.” [The Independent, U.K.]
I’ve always been a little curious about what being a stripper, I mean dancer, involves, exactly. If you’re at all interested, you should read Ruth Fowler’s account of how she came to New York from the U.K. and began stripping because she wasn’t making enough to survive as a waitress (plus she was in the States illegally and didn’t have many options, job-wise). She wore clear plastic heals, learned that dancers love their dogs, and even dated a guy she met at work—it didn’t work out, though. He didn’t want her to take off her intense stage makeup. [The Observer, U.K.]
In the past I have said that if I was going to hook up with a woman, she would need to be busty and very womanly because, otherwise, what would be the point? But over the years, the true girl crushes I’ve had (not the “oh my god, isn’t she cool”-girl crushes we write about on The Frisky) have been a lot more masculine than I thought they would be. Like Ellen DeGeneres, who I find very attractive. And the chick who briefly hosted “Queer Eye For The Straight Girl”—I think her name was Honey Labrador or something. Anyway, apparently, I am not alone. The New York Times had an interested article this weekend about how women—from city gals to suburban moms—are totally obsessed with the host of Bravo’s Work Out, Jackie Warner, who’s gay. This makes me happy, mostly because the most mainstream acceptance of lesbianism has been when it’s pornified in Girls Gone Wild videos or at your local bar, where girls make out with each other for the viewing pleasure of men. [New York Times]
One movie The Frisky will not be reviewing in our “We See Chick Flicks” column? Made Of Honor. Why? Because you’ve already seen it. It was released in 1997, under a different title, My Best Friend’s Wedding, and it starred Julia Roberts, not Patrick Dempsey. It was a terrible movie. Pretty sure this new version is going to be just as bad.
A sex tape featuring Marilyn Monroe giving an unidentified man a blow job has been sold to a New York businessman for $1.5 million. Back in the ‘60s, then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had agents spend weeks attempting to figure out who the man was—if it was John F. Kennedy or Robert F. Kennedy—to no avail. Whoever he is, he obviously knew he was being taped and kept his mug out of the shot. [NY Post]
Last week we wrote about Jamie Lee Curtis strippin’ down for the cover of AARP. On Saturday Night Live this weekend, Kristen Wiig spoofed the actress doing an ad for Activia. Activia is that yogurt that’s all the rage cause it makes your bowels regular or something (side note: my soon-to-be-sister-in-law Lauren says that getting regular ol’ live culture yogurt from Whole Foods does the same thing, only better). Anyway, the skit was hysterical, not just because it mocked the ridiculousness of a yogurt that makes your insides rumbly, but also because it pokes fun at Jamie Lee Curtis’ whole “I’m 50, I’m fabulous, I’m naked, I just don’t give a &%$*”-schpiel, which, while probably totally genuine, is getting a little silly and predictable. So what happens when a hyped up Jamie inhales over a dozen Activia yogurts in one day? Check the clip above.
30 Rock was finally back on TV last night, after the long hiatus during the writer’s strike. We’re thrilled! And so must be the media, because Frisky fave Tina Fey is on two major magazine covers this month, Marie Claire and Entertainment Weekly. (She’s also got the comedy Baby Mama coming out soon, alongside Amy Poehler.) Oh, and on last night’s episode of 30 Rock, Liz Lemon was disgusted by the network’s latest hit, MILF Island. See what it’s all about, after the jump.
Not sure if that mystery hottie messaging you on MySpace is really a cute guy or an old lonely woman with 50 cats that just likes to role-play? A new website program called the Gender Genie claims it can tell whether someone is a man or woman by their writing. Using algorithms developed by Moshe Koppel at Bar Ilan University and Shlomo Argamon from Illinois Institute of Technology, the site decodes any passage by any author and makes its determination instantly. Although I’ve always wanted a penis of my very own, when I checked my last blog post about Dick Cheney, it said I was a overwhelmingly a dude. Huh. This just further proves my theory that I’m actually a drag queen trapped in a woman’s body. [Gearlive]
Despite the fact that none of us are teens or from the Midwest (well, except for me! Hooray for Ohio!), we are majorly down with the Midwest Teen Sex Show. These web-isodes are hilarious and educational – we had completely forgotten that learning can be funny! People of all ages should embrace the awkwardness that is talking about sex. For example: “Once you’ve put something into the butt, don’t put it anywhere else unless you’ve thoroughly cleaned it. And don’t use bleach.” Also, don’t forget, “If the thought of pooping grosses you out, you’re not ready for anal sex.” [Midwest Teen Sex Show]
As many as one in five women in the U.S. suffers from postpartum depressive symptoms, according to a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. To tell whether you might have symptoms, answer these questions: 1) Since your baby was born, how often have you felt down, depressed, or hopeless? 2) Since your new baby was born, how often have you had little interest or little pleasure in doing things? If you answered “always” or “often” to either question, you might want to get yourself checked out.
The same ratio of people do not have a landline in their home. [Reuters and Digital Trends]
Last night I went to dinner with a friend and her adorable four-and-a-half year old daughter Eva. I was pleasantly mortified to discover that Eva and I shared the same taste in music—we’re both really into Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana. I swear, as I get older, my taste in music gets more juvenile. Anyway, Eva and I dished for a while about Miley, That’s So Raven, and Zach and Cody (two other shows on the Disney Channel), before her mom and I started discussing the weird values these shows start ingraining in the little ones before they’re even old enough to read. For example, Zach and Cody are twin brothers—one of them is the smart, nerdy, “good” one, while the other is wild, naughty, and a bit of a bad boy—naturally, many, many little girls are known to like the bad boy best. Isn’t it weird how pop culture tries to get you to choose between them before you’re even in puberty?