The primary's a week from tomorrow...
...and I still haven't made up my mind. The other day I was reduced to telling someone that I had thought about voting for Edwards, but now I was leaning toward Obama. Or Clinton. Or Obama. Or Clinton. Or maybe Edwards.
I've never been undecided this close to election day before.
Then again, I'... Read more »
Something of a dilemma...
When a supremely evil corporation takes some steps to mitigate or change its evil ways, does that change the fact that the corporation is evil? Can corporate responsibility ever be anything but a PR-motivated sham? Can we appreciate the actual changes for workers and the environment even as we... Read more »
An "arrghhh!" end to a "gaaaah!" week
Wow, was this a bad week to be in the midst of production on the new issue of Bitch. As we all know, it was Super Super Tuesday, which will now be remembered as the birth of the Crying Jag Heard 'Round the World, and it was impossible to keep up with the avalanche of press necessitated by what was... Read more »
When icons attack
In yesterday's New York Times, Gloria Steinem declared that "Women Are Never Front-Runners," and evoked an image of a female Obama who would never be considered a viable presidential candidate because of her gender.
I'm sorry—what?
Hillary Clinton has been the consistent front-runner right up... Read more »
Abortion: the "shmashmortion" of 2008?
In a tiny bit of synergy, I read this excellent piece by Katha Pollitt only an hour after sitting at my ob-gyn's office next to a pregnant teen gabbing on a hot-pink cellphone. In other news, all the abortion discussion that was nowhere to be found in 2007's trifecta of unplanned-pregnancy films... Read more »
Unionizing 101
Unions today have their share of problems. Among other things, many replicate the same corporations they’re trying to fight—they’re enormous, top heavy, and not responsive enough to workers or the changing political and economic climate. But they still remain one of the best forms of... Read more »
The Nan Show: How Nannies Rewrote the Rules on TV Parenting
In this era of social conservatism, the so-called mommy wars, and renewed cultural clashes about gender, work, and "family values," it's hardly surprising that nanny narratives are making a comeback. Faster than you can say "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," nannies have popped up in movies (... Read more »
Board of Education
Each semester in my American popular culture class, my students and I spend a night playing board games. I start them off with games for small children, like memory cards or Strawberry Shortcake adventure games. They play self-consciously, giggling at the losers who can’t master a game for... Read more »
Laughing All the Way to the Polls: Do Female Politicians need a New Punchline?
Once upon a time, politics was serious business. These days, however, presidential merit is measured as much by frat-house standards as by traditional approval ratings (apparently, American voters would rather have a beer with Bush than with Kerry), and a well-timed joke can sometimes sway public... Read more »
L in a Handbasket: Kate Clinton's Politics of Funny
Kate Clinton has been called the lesbian Jon Stewart. Her fans, however, prefer to think of Stewart as the straight Kate Clinton. Her career as a political humorist spans several White House administrations, but the current regime has offered her, like most liberal comedians, endless material for... Read more »
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