The XX Factor

The end of the snarly Barbie?

2008-08-20T15:23:00Z

Props to Rachel Maddow for scoring her own primetime show . And props to MSNBC for recognizing and rewarding monster talent . Maddow is whip-smart, funny, original, and living proof that women needn't spit and hiss to succeed on tv. May the road rise up to meet her....(read more)

More on Sweaty T-Shirts

2008-08-19T17:02:00Z

Meghan , I checked out that T-shirt sniffing study you flagged, and, well, it hardly implies a crisis for pill-users – or a pink slip for novelists. To recap: The researchers asked women to rate the smells of T-shirts worn by different men. For each woman, they chose three men who were more genetically similar (in terms of a specific set of genes) and three men who were less similar. The genes in question were part of the major histocompatibility complex, or MHC, which plays a crucial role in immune...(read more)

Six Cheers for Natalie Coughlin

2008-08-18T20:33:00Z

I admit, I was as enthralled as the next person with Michael Phelps' amazing run for eight golds at the Beijing Olympics, perhaps more so. I watched the races live, yelling at the TV; I rewatched them on the Internet (have you seen the 4 x 100 relay underwater view? Go watch !); and I started letting my 4-year-old stay up until 10:30 p.m. so he could glimpse history for himself. (And now you should see him try to swim butterfly.) But if there was anything that disappointed me about the Olympics swimming...(read more)

Yes They Can

2008-08-18T17:19:00Z

For now, the whole discussion about Hillary supporters and which way they'll jump feels to me like a giant exercise in conjecture. There's Melinda's still-bitter friend , and PUMA ( John Dickerson translation : Party Unity My Ass). And then there's this Friend of Hillary with her "Yes We Can" pin. We'll know something more when we see a good poll of women in Ohio or Virginia, I suppose (though to really answer the question, the poll would have to zero in on Democratic women who voted in the primaries)....(read more)

Five Puppies and a Sex Slave

2008-08-15T19:36:00Z

Meghan, I'm curious about that T-shirt sniffing , too, and am trying to get hold of the actual paper. In the meantime, I confess, I've been riveted by another tale that features some modicum of science but also five puppies, a Mormon sex slave, and (possibly) a three-legged horse. So, turning for a moment from birth control to copious reproduction ... Last week, a woman named Bernann McKinney received five puppies that had been cloned from her dear, departed pit bull, Booger. This was apparently...(read more)

Are Birth Control Pills Ruining Your Love Life?

2008-08-15T17:47:00Z

Has anyone been reading about this new U.K. study examining how the birth control pill affects women's choice of sexual partners? As one CBS headline crudely puts it , women on the pill allegedly choose "the wrong partner." That's because, as the authors of the study argue, women NOT on the pill are generally "attracted to men whose genetic makeup differs from their own" which "increases the chances for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby," as CBS put it. But women on the pill seem to choose partners...(read more)

Sober Reflections on "Closure"

2008-08-15T14:14:00Z

I’m with Melinda on this one Emily . I’ve always believed that "closure" and "catharsis" are pretty much just empty words one generally uses to justify sleeping with ex-boyfriends after the fifth glass of wine. The mere fact that Clinton insists this roll call will be cathartic , just as Obama asserts that’s not the point at all, highlights the deep disconnect here. Not all symbolism is empty. But symbolism is not always enough, either. That said, I found myself longing for a strong shot of Hillary...(read more)

When You Call My Name, It's Like a Little Prayer

2008-08-14T17:29:00Z

Fiddle faddle, Emily ; placing Hillary's name in nomination at the Democratic National Convention will not lead to the "catharsis'' she keeps talking about, and I'm not positive that catharsis is the goal. Long ago and far away, I rode a bus to Tlacotalpan, in Veracruz, Mexico, for their winter Candelaria Festival , primarily to dance all night and see the running of the bulls. But the most memorable thing about the trip was the yearly ritual in which the townspeople carry a crowned and silk-gowned...(read more)

Calling Clinton's Delegates

2008-08-14T15:51:00Z

When the idea of a roll call for Hillary's delegates at the Democratic convention was first raised last spring, I thought it sounded silly—all empty symbolism and no gain. But last weekend, when I read Michelle Cottle's op-ed arguing in favor, I found myself convinced. The threat of revolt is over. Why not recognize Hillary's backers by giving her supporters their moment in Denver to flex her political muscles and demonstrate the support she amassed? Now the NYT is reporting that's the plan. I hope...(read more)

Born in the USA? Prove It.

2008-08-13T19:51:00Z

Summer tourists complaining of passport troubles can gain some perspective by reading a recent article in the Wall Street Journal on the legal challenges currently facing thousands of Texans. Because they were issued by midwives, these people's birth certificates have recently been rejected as proof of U.S. citizenship. In the 1990s, a number of Texan midwives were convicted of selling up to 15,000 fraudulent birth certificates dating back as far as the 1960s. The State Department now doubts the...(read more)

Cover-Up Accounting

2008-08-13T16:36:00Z

I agree with Rachael and think that unequal hush installments were not only sexist, the distributions were too small. Don't you think $15,000 and $20,000 a month seems measley for the sacrifice Hunter and Young's family were making in their personal lives? Were the payments to go on indefinitely, one wonders, or simply until Hunter would be eligible to become the second Mrs. de Winter ?...(read more)

Well, That's Sexist

2008-08-13T15:50:00Z

Rielle Hunter had to spend nine months pregnant and an unreported number of hours in labor before she could milk John Edwards' supporters for $15,000 a month (allegedly). If the New York Post is to be believed (and why not, at this point?), all Andrew Young had to do before he could milk John Edwards' supporters was claim he fathered little Frances Quinn. And he's getting $20,000 (allegedly). Ladies, what do we have to do to break the political-scandal glass ceiling? (hat tip: InstaPundit)...(read more)

How To Spot a Cheater With His Clothes On

2008-08-12T15:36:00Z

Go, Ruth ! In her column in the Post this morning, she says there isn't a wife in the world who doesn't want to slap "99 percent'' Honest John Edwards silly right about now. And on account of the senator's perfidy, are husbands across the land enduring conversations about what kind of dumb you'd have to be to fall for that "in my eyes, you are Gandhi '' silliness? But here's a question: Do we really know anything about John Edwards' vanity, hubris, and self-indulgence now that we didn't know after...(read more)

I Can't Turn Away Just Yet!

2008-08-11T20:02:00Z

Meghan, maybe you're right that we should turn away—but not quite yet! First we get to trounce him a bit. Here's Kerry Howell of Reason magazine and me agreeing with Mickey about covering the story. And now I agree with Hanna that Elizabeth doesn't get to call off the bloodhounds when she feels like it. I know, this is six shades of awful for her. But she knew about the affair and went along with him continuing to run for president. That was a lot of potential risk loading onto the Democratic Party...(read more)

Riellity TV

2008-08-11T19:21:00Z

Meghan , I couldn’t agree more about how depressing the “I’m suffering!” political apology has become. Elizabeth Edwards has terminal cancer; John Edwards has terminal narcissism. Let’s call it a tie? But the more we pick at the threads of rampant narcissism here, the sadder the whole story gets. Melinda points to the weird Newsweek account by Jonathan Darman in which Rielle Hunter emerges as a patchwork of reality show clichés: part actress, part “spiritual adviser,” “New York party girl,” screenwriter...(read more)

Chat With Melinda Henneberger

2008-08-11T17:03:00Z

XX Factor blogger Melinda Henneberger will be chatting online at Washingtonpost.com today at 2 p.m. Send her a question . We'll post a link to the transcript here when she's done. Melinda wrote about the Edwardses' marriage for Slate back in December, in advance of the primaries. (Also the Obamas , the Huckabees , and, yep, the Clintons .) She's a frequent contributor here at the XX Factor, and you can read a previous chat transcript here ....(read more)

Hillary's Spokesman Only Wishes Edwards Had Been Outed Sooner

2008-08-11T16:57:00Z

This is rich: Now Hillary Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson, who might as well have an "Is it 2012 yet?'' bumper sticker, is undermining Obama's candidacy by complaining to ABCNews.com that if only John Edwards' affair had come out sooner, Clinton woulda been the nominee. Only, is he really so sure that had that happened, nobody woulda then jumped out of Bill Clinton's post-presidential closet? Guess what this quote from Wolfson really means is that his boss has been told we're not going to get a...(read more)

How To Cure John Edwards' Narcissism

2008-08-11T15:01:00Z

It's been hard to feel much shock about John Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter: Every other month, it seems, we receive the revelation that a powerful politician has risked his career to get a bit on the side. Edwards would almost seem to be the norm rather than the radical exception. But the literary critic in me is interested by one new-ish element: the plea of "narcissism." Whereas political mea culpas have often been cast in the language of sin and redemption, this one was explicitly cast in...(read more)

Paging Henry Cisneros ...

2008-08-11T02:54:00Z

John Edwards is reminding me more and more of poor Henry Cisneros , who was on his way to becoming the Latino Obama before he cheated on his saintly wife, Mary Alice, while she was pregnant with their third child, a son born with no spleen and a malformed heart and stomach. Bill Clinton asked Cisneros to serve as his housing secretary anyway, a few years later, and by then, the affair was such old news that it never even came up during his confirmation hearings. Yet in the course of his background...(read more)

Why We Care

2008-08-09T03:09:00Z

I find this Elizabeth Edwards post on Daily Kos excruciating. We are supposed to ride with this couple through her cancer diagnosis and relapse, through their son's death, their fertility treatments, and the rededication of their marriage, but then we are supposed to butt the hell out when the story line veers from the tragedy and heroics. If you believe in a system, you have to live and die by it. Elizabeth Edwards buys into the culture of overconfession. She is an obsessive blogger, for God's sake....(read more)