* The new Hillary Clinton, New York Senator-to-be Kirsten Gillibrand, already has jealous Congressional wolves circling her freshly appointed carcass in the hopes of gaining the seat that is not yet officially hers, in 2010 [via Newsday].

* The New gay tells President Obama what to do. TNG was also nice enough to profile the Sexist in last week’s featured blog spot. Thanks!

* Slate reviews Daniel Bergner’s The Other Side of Desire:

He selects four areas: foot fetishism, sadomasochism, pedophilia, and an obsession for amputees. In each case, he finds and follows a devotee. In the process, Bergner does what science cannot: He illuminates peculiar longings. His method is at first descriptive and finally poetic. The message of the book is in the interplay among personal narratives that prove alternately bizarre and mundane.

* The New York Times Magazine piece suggests that a “generation of postfeminist sexologists” are beginning to unlock the mysterious sexual desires of women. But who will unlock the mystery of what a “postfeminist sexologist” is?

Photo by trialsanderrors.

For today’s Dear Prudence, Slate’s advice column, Prudie a.k.a. Emily Yoffe takes on a doozy: A man who carried on a years-long affair with his stepmother and now struggles with how to tell his father. The son, 15 years his stepmother’s junior, began sleeping with her when he was 17 years old, but continued the affair throughout college and beyond. Two years ago, he broke it off; now, as his father prepares to divorce the woman for (unrelated) infidelity, she’s threatening to spill the beans if the son doesn’t help her get what she wants.

Generally, I’m a big Prudie fan. And admittedly, this is a tough nut to crack. But this time, while Prudie’s overall advice—tell Dad, verrrryyy caaarrrefully—is on the mark, her specifics get into victim-blaming territory. Quoth Prudie:

Read More “Slate’s Dear Prudence Misfires on Statutory Rape” »

* Chelsea Schilling of WorldNetDaily—which appears to be some sort of Ann Coulter-9/11-Real America news outfit—reports on former Washington City Paper staffer John Cloud’s condemnation of Barack Obama as a “bigot” and a “problem for gays” following Obama’s Rick Warren nod. A “homosexual” reporter versus our terrorist communist Leader? This is like some sort of fantasy WND morality play! How will it end?

WND sides for Obama! Schilling places scare quotes around the word “homosexual” in her headline, as in “‘Homosexual’ Time reporter: Obama is a ‘bigot,’” then pepper her report on Cloud’s smack-down with this description of Cloud’s work for CP:

In his earlier days as a reporter for the Washington City Paper, Cloud described his first-hand experience and arousal at a Washington, D.C., group-sex party for homosexuals in 1997. His report was sexually graphic and filled with expletives.

Bravo, Schilling, but you left out the link! Read up on Cloud’s arousal here.

* Gender Goggles rants on the use of the term “failure of feminism” to describe shit that happens that’s not great for women. Don’t call it a failure of feminism when you mean “a failure of mainstream society to embrace feminism fully.”

* Great conversations going on at Slate’s XX Factor: Eve Fairbanks on claims that the media turned sexist in 2008; Melinda Henneberger asks, “are traditional Christians necessarily haters?” (Short answer: Mmmm, no).

* Some dude has started a blog of photographs his three-year-old child took with his digital camera that provide “a window into the perspective of a child.” Are we’re supposed to glean from this that a child has the perspective of a lazy, indiscriminate photographer?

* McCain Blogette is back! Meghan McCain jumps back into the blogosphere to wish us a happy new year and update on her post-election “emotional rollercoaster.” This is just a hunch, but I have a feeling there’s a third-wave feminist blogger in Meghan just waiting to rise from the ashes of her aging parents’ cold, political marital agreement (just look at those sassy red shoes!). Come, young Padawan. I will guide you to shed your earnestness and adopt left-leaning positions on women’s health!

Photo via trialsanderrors.

‘

Well, hello, there. Sorry if things have been sparse here as of late. I awoke yesterday with peculiarly large lymph nodes and  inner ears that seem to have gone scuba diving without my permission. But I’m hopping off to one ye olde urgent care center cold & flu mill this morning, where a medical doctor can hopefully inform me how I might go about not sounding like a classic movie nerd post-haste.

* Another guy claiming to be looking for a date to the inauguration is 52, loves “fresh seafood on the grill, roast chicken and fine wines,” looking to take you to “one of the department stores to purchase a gown or gowns—if you would like to attend more than one Gala with me.”

* Other Craigslisters, on the other hand, are advertising their interest in your inaugural gravy train, like this 40-year-old Kensington woman. She’s a charmer:

I have been in the DC/MD area for three years, and up until recently I was completely unimpressed, ney, disappointed with the “energy” of the area. However, like so many others, I have experienced the verve, excitement, and yes, the hope that permeates the air these past few weeks. . . . Therefore, I am very interested in attending the Ball!

* Via Slate: Barack Obama’s Presidency: kids ask, parents answer.

* Also in Slate, Christopher Hitchens completes his yearly curmudgeonly exercise of hating Christmas:

I have just flung aside my copy of the Weekly Standard, a magazine with a generally hardheaded and humorous approach to matters. It contains two seasonal articles that would probably not have made print were it not for the proximity to the said solstice. (To be fair, the same can be said of the article that you are reading, but I claim exemption under the terms of the “to hell with all that” amendment.)

* Evil Slutopia has a guide to how your holiday shopping can help women.

Photo via trialsanderrors.

* Daily Intel has some answers on why Alex Kuczynski’s New York Times spread on her experience with a surrogate mother made her out to be a “vain,” “self-centered” “Lady of the Manor” (really, check out the photo that ran with the story, it’s a doozy). From NYT Public Editor Clark Hoyt’s column:

Kuczynski, who said she disagreed with her editors over the photographs before publication, said she felt they were “incendiary” and distracted from the story. Hilling, clearly portrayed in the article as middle class, described the porch as “the ugliest part” of her renovated, 135-year-old home. She said she felt the photo of her was “contrived.” Gerald Marzorati, the editor of the magazine, acknowledged the “upstairs, downstairs” quality of the photos but said they were not set up to be that way.

So, did the NYT distort the situation, or can Kuczynski just not admit to her own insufferable personality?

* Feministe debuts a new feature: Blame feminism! This time, blame feminism for women drinking.

* Via Ars Technica: Everyone’s favorite cartoon siblings, Bart and Lisa, get exploited in a “child porn” scandal.

* Feministing highlights a douchy commercial

* Slate’s Bonnie Goldstein gives employers advice on how to spin holiday layoffs. Hey, Goldstein, don’t give them any ideas!

Photo via trialsanderrors.

Kelly McEvers, who wrote a great series for Slate about her attempts—and failures—at finding pirates in the Strait of Malacca, chatted online today at the Washington Post about her experience getting the story. She had an interesting comment about the gender politics of reporting from the sea. Who has the advantage in locating swashbucklers—men or women?

Downtown DC: Hi Kelly, Interesting assignment—I love how you capture both the boredom and the rush of being on an assignment like this. Sure, I am curious why the chat is before the final segment of the story, but I guess everyone else is too. Ready for Part 5, I guess.

Sounds to me that based on your experience, a male (western) journalist wouldn’t have a chance of meeting these contacts (at least in Malaysia/Indonesia). How scared were you, really, when taken into the hold with all these guys? I am assuming it would have been different if they were in their 20s and not 50s…

Kelly McEvers: I’m not so sure that a male journalist would have had problems. See Peter Gwin’s recent piece in National Geographic about the same subject, in the same region. The pirate I eventually met was younger—not in his 50s.

But the gender question is an interesting one: I admit that being a woman makes it easier to my job sometimes. But other times it makes it hard. Especially in Muslim countries.

Arrr—it’s, a tie?

Photo by Oakley Originals.

* The New Gay reveals an “an exciting new way to internalize homophobia“: It’s not gay, it’s g0y! G0ys (pictured) hate anal sex, femininity, and gay dudes, but love God and casually bro-ing out with other dudes and blowing them. And they spell their sexuality with a zero. Sign up here!

* Slate tapes an interview with a MILF.

* Fashion Fuel D.C. wonders if men will save us from recession, because “while women tend to shop out of frivolity, men tend to shop out of necessity.” But women shop for others, too.

* Bay Windows rates the LGBT friendliness of Obama appointments.

* From Feministing: New Zealand dude thinks abortions lead men to beat women, because their “maleness is under threat.” Kind of sweet and old-fashioned, no?

Photo from g0ys.org

Slate’s year-old female blog, the wonderful XX Factor, will come of age this spring when it blossoms into a beautiful full-fledged Web ‘zine. The project shall be known henceforth as Double X, and those who want to offer up ideas, writers, or a managing editor can make their case at doublex.slate@gmail.com. A full description of Slate’s “post-election adventure,” after the jump.

Read More “Female Blogs March Boldly Toward Web Domination” »

Slate’s Bonnie Goldstein has an essay about the middle-aged career woman who’s financed her own life but still wishes that she could inherit a little somethin’ somethin’ from her fathers when he dies. I found the piece pretty alien for a few reasons:

- By wishing they would fork over the cash at their death bed, you essentially wish your poor, loving parents to a premature death. Not cool!

- Hasn’t the lack of sizable inheritance always been the fate of lower-to-middle-class individuals, female or otherwise? Is anyone really still holding out Dickensian-style for that olde tyme benefactor who will lift them above their lowly station*?

- While I generally like Slate’s female-specific stuff, I find the framing of this piece creepy. Goldstein may be speaking from experience when she hopes for her “daddy” to leave her the money he earned when he expires, but why the extension of the two gender roles, male bequeathing to female? This a) gives me the heebie jeebies, and b) totally cuts off a potential revenue stream: Mom.

* currently accepting applications

Photo by Jessica Shannon

* New Columbia Heights reports on a rash of violence that hit an underground Petworth brothel this month. According to an Examiner piece on one incident, wherein a robber lost his thumb to a machete-wielding victim after trying to lift cash from the bordello and gambling house. Earlier, two men were shot inside the brothel, located near the intersection of 14th St. and Quincy.

* Slate asks you to break off your long-distance relationship for the sake of the environment. Advises Barron YoungSmith:

You’re sitting in the airport terminal, rolling your copy of the Economist into a sweaty tube and waiting to see a significant other who lives far away. You’re excited. You’re aroused. But there’s something else, a nagging feeling that gurgles in your stomach and won’t go away. Is it pangs of guilt? It should be: The planet is about to suffer for your love.

* Listen up, cynical ladies: Roissy in D.C. finds sarcasm sooo unfeminine:

Sarcasm is a leading indicator of low self esteem in a woman. It is a masculine manifestation driven by the ego that cannot coexist with the inner feminine driven by the heart. A girl who leans on the crutch of sarcasm to thrash her way through a conversation is hiding insecurities behind a phony facade of gritty toughness.

Yep, and we all just secretly want a dick. Your dick.

* Feministing and Jezebel sound off on Chantilly’s new pro-life pharmacy.

* Via Daily Intel: Upcoming Gossip Girl guest star Nastia Lukin hints at (maybe) GG’s next plot twist: threesome, anyone?

Photo by PetroleumJelliffe