Feminist Camps Brawl Over Sex and Booze

So much for girl power, writes Ruth Marcus

(NEWSER) - Just when Ruth Marcus was feeling good about the women in the 2010 race, Carly Fiorina had to make that catty comment about Barbara Boxer’s hair. Fiorina tried to laugh it off—“It sort of goes with the territory,” she told Greta Van Susteren. “No no no no no!” writes Marcus in the Washington Post . Attacking your opponent’s appearance never “goes with the territory,” no matter your gender. More»

Believe it or not, baby boys used to wear pink, too

(NEWSER) - If ever there was a color that stereotypically symbolized the feminine, it’s pink. But the history of the girly shade hasn’t always been so ladylike. Slate takes a look back:

• Financial Times: Its salmon-pink pages have turned “salmon press” into British shorthand for any newspaper business section.
• Boys' rowing: Teams at Eton and Westminster competed for the right to claim pink as their school color in the 19th century.
• Nantucket Red: The shade, which looks a lot like pink, became popular for preppy men and women in 1945.

Nancy Gibbs reflects on women's freedom to choose title

(NEWSER) - Not so long ago, feminism and convention waged a battle over titles—Miss, Mrs., and the young upstart, Ms. Though seemingly trivial, the question of whether a woman should have to specify her marital status in stating her name cut to the core of women’s place in society—and was never fully resolved, observes Nancy Gibbs. Twenty years after the New York Times, a staunch holdout, accepted "Ms," women continue to use all three. More»

Next reincarnation of the Buddha ought to be a woman

(NEWSER) - The Dalai Lama’s work for peace has been so widely praised that it’s almost obscured his wonderful work as a feminist. He has worked tirelessly for women, seeking to raise their position in Tibetan society, writes Amy Yee for Double X. He even suggested, scandalously, that his next reincarnation ought to be female. “Woman is more compassionate,” he reasoned, “and has more power to understand and feel the needs of others.” More»

Drunken sexual encounters trivialize the problem of real rape

(NEWSER) - It’s clear now that the alleged Hofstra gang rape in a campus bathroom—in which a young woman said 5 guys tied her to a stall and attacked her—was not rape, by any legal definition. Confronted with a cell phone video, the woman recanted within 72 hours, admitting that the sex was consensual. So what was it, Emily Bazelon asks on Double X. Feminists have tried to make sense of alcohol-fueled college sex gone bad with the discredited "date rape," and now “gray rape”—encounters in which no one is quite sure the next day who agreed to what. More»