Last week, New York Times theater reviewer Charles McGrath penned a piece on Sienna Miller’s Broadway debut. The piece has been roundly criticized for overstating Miller’s affairs with famous men. The story begins by reviewing Miller’s “long and well-documented romantic history,” which includes “flings” with “Jude Law, Daniel Craig, James Franco and most recently the married oil heir Balthazar Getty, with whom she was photographed topless and in a sailor hat.”

Originally, McGrath had grouped Heath Ledger and Puff Daddy in with the bunch. A correction appended to the story later clarified that the”misstates the nature of the relationships that she had with Heath Ledger and Sean Combs. She was friends with both of them; she did not have romantic flings with either of them.” But the problems with McGrath’s piece go far beyond the inflated slut-shaming.
Read More “New York Times Sienna Miller Profile Doesn’t Like Girls” »

The danger of swine flu in pregnant women has received a great deal of press attention recently. As concerns over the health of pregnant women rise, the abortion debate has slyly emerged as a a central influence in the dialogue.

Yesterday, the New York Times told the story of Aubrey Opdyke, a 27-year-old woman who was pregnant when she contracted swine flu last June. What began as mild symptoms of aches and fatigue turned into a harrowing four month ordeal. Writes reporter John McNeil:
Read More “Swine Flu and the Abortion Debate” »

In today’s New York Times, Stephanie Saul detailed one of the most difficult decisions facing women who are desperate to become pregnant: whether or not to have an abortion. Women who undergo intrauterine insemination in order to conceive, Saul writes, are at a high risk of producing “quadruplets, quintuplets and sextuplets—the most dangerous pregnancies for both mother and children.” Women carrying “multiples” are often encouraged by their doctors to undergo “selective reduction”—the purposeful “elimination” of some fetuses in order to increase the likelihood that the remaining fetuses—and the mother—will survive.

“Reducing.” “Eliminating.” Saul doesn’t use the word “abortion” until page three, when she notes that “many opponents criticize selective reduction as a form of abortion.” It is abortion. So why don’t we call it that?

Read More “Why Some Fetuses Are “Reduced” Instead of “Aborted”” »

Newspaper stories from the good old days say the darndest things. So every week on the Sexist, let’s take a ride on journalism’s way-back machine, to a time when recently decapitated Arabian women competed for ink with adorably mischievous train-track terriers!

This Week In Sexist History, a double billing:

followed by:

Read More “This Week In Sexist History: Decapitated Women Vs. Mischievous Terriers Edition” »

Newspaper stories from the good old days say the darndest things. So every week on the Sexist, let’s take a ride on journalism’s way-back machine, to a time when male reporters did not prefer their women to be dripping wet from head to toe. I know—it was a crazy, crazy, time kids. This week, our intrepid NYT columnist goes on—and on, and on, and on—about “what the fair sex wears in the surf,” insulting everyone. Pages upon pages of beach-bound misogyny, footnoted for modern readers, below.

This Week In Sexist History:

Read More “This Week In Sexist History: Swimming Makes You Ugly Edition” »

Yesterday, the New York Times‘ Cahterine Rampell detailed how the current recession has nearly achieved a “bittersweet” parity between the genders in the workforce—because men are more likely to lose their jobs than women in hard times. Rampell accompanies her analysis with this graph:

Read More ““Mancession” Acheives Phallic Gender Parity” »

Newspaper stories from the good old days say the darndest things. So every week on the Sexist, let’s take a ride on journalism’s way-back machine, to a time when men were publicly embarrassed for actin’ slutty, because women were too weak to be responsible for their own actions.

This Week in Sexist History:

Read More “This Week In Sexist History: Male Slut-Shaming Edition!” »

Newspaper stories from the good old days say the darndest things. So every week on the Sexist, let’s take a ride on journalism’s way-back machine, to a time when beach-bound girls were sexy, confident, and refreshingly childlike!

This Week In Sexist History:

Read More “This Week In Sexist History: Bathing Beauties Edition” »

Newspaper stories from the good old days say the darndest things. So every week on the Sexist, let’s take a ride on journalism’s way-back machine, to a time when women were either too fat or too thin, but never just right. Yeah, they did that shit 100 years ago, too.

This Week in Sexist History:

Read More “This Week In Sexist History: Too Fat! Too Thin! Edition” »

Hopefully the above photo, published on the cover of the New York Times today, has some sort of innocuous explanation whereby Sarah Palin has not kicked off her resignation victory tour with a bizarre twist on the sexy rock star pastime: Signing the chest of a crying child, what the fuck. Okay, she actually appears to be signing the area of the onesie covering the child’s chest. Better?