Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

Is It Wrong to Comment on the Appearance of Professional Women?

June 14, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Earlier this year President Obama described California Attorney General Kamala Harris as “the best-looking attorney general in the country.” Even though the crowd reportedly laughed at the comment, Obama was criticized for making sexist remarks and quickly apologized to Harris. But some people claimed to be confused: Why was Obama wrong to compliment a woman on her looks? From the Washington Times: Please, give us a chance to learn the rules. Give us a minute to catch our breath.... We were taught (most of us were) that girls and women were to be given flowers for their beauty of ... Read More

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In Praise of Younger Men

June 13, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Attention ladies: Want to be more of a woman? Act more like a man. Date and mate with younger partners—and remain fertile for a lifetime. OK, we may not yet be able to pull off the latter, but the findings of biologists at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, just published in PLOS Computational Biology, suggest it might be possible. Led by evolutionary geneticist Rama Singh, the team concluded that menopause—in nature a phenomenon unique to humans and two whale species, the function of which has long stumped scientists—has little if anything to do with natural selection. Rather, ... Read More

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Application for Employment (Women)

June 10, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Weight: 120. Height: 5’6 ½”. “Married? How long?” The options on the “Application for Employment (Women),” are: “Single, Engaged, Separated, Widowed, Divorced.” Another question asks “Number of Dependents and Relationship?” On this line, on Lynn Ferrin’s 1961 application to be an editor at a magazine published by the automobile club, someone in the employment office wrote, in red pencil, “No steady.” On the “Supplement to the Application for Employment,” under the line for “Appearance: Posture, Dress, Neatness, Cleanliness, Physique” someone has described ... Read More

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That Tattoo Makes You Look Promiscuous

June 7, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Does your tattoo make a statement about you? If you’re an attractive woman, it apparently does, regardless of your intention. And that statement is: “I’m easy!” That’s the implication of new research from France, which found men are more likely to approach a woman lying on the beach if she has a butterfly tattoo on her lower back. The guys in this study didn’t think the body art made her more attractive. But they believed it increased the likelihood of her being receptive to their romantic overtures. The “stereotype of promiscuousness associated with tattoos” may or ... Read More

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Should Moms Hate Childless Women?

June 6, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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In a wonderfully provocative article titled “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” (PDF), writer and poet Adrienne Rich argues, among other things, that the assumption of heterosexuality in the context of patriarchy alternatively erases and stigmatizes woman-to-woman bonds. Pop culture naturalizes the idea that women should turn to men, and not women, to reinforce their value. Though the title specifies lesbianism, she means intense and meaningful relationships between women more generally. In other words, an overbearing heterosexuality orients women toward men not just as ... Read More

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UPDATE: Women Like Sex

June 4, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Early last month we wrote about a decidedly not-fascinating study, which said: Women like sex. It was stupid—but stupid because the study only exists since it's predicated on ideas of what women should do rather than what they actually do. Over at Slate, Amanda Hess has a great piece on the topic, stemming from spending some time at a Playboy party—in which the editor-in-chief tells her, "We used to have a pickle shot now and again. Not anymore.”—and a book (Daniel Bergner’s What Do Women Want?) that's out today. Bergner's book, Hess writes, breaks down all the modern ... Read More

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Who Gets to Control Women’s Bodies?

May 15, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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We’ve always had much to be thankful for in regard to Angelina Jolie’s body parts, but never more so than when they go missing. Breast cancer has many high-profile activists, but the BRCA genes themselves? Not so much. These genes are vital tumor suppressors when they work correctly. As Jolie rightly points out in her New York Times op-ed, women who inherit mutations to their BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene have, on average, a 45 to 65 percent lifetime risk for breast cancer and an 11-39 percent risk of ovarian cancer. (Incidentally, men who inherit the variants are at higher risk for breast, ... Read More

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Captive Labor Markets and Migration

May 13, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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I cultivated an interest in talent migration via human rights advocacy. How could I get American voters to support the ratification of United Nations conventions? I settled on matters of citizenship. Non-citizens didn't enjoy the same constitutional protections as citizens. In fact, I learned that where you are located determines the force of international treaties. Geography and sovereignty impact international human rights law. Places, not people, have rights. Not all migrants fall into legal spatial loopholes such as Guantanamo. Cosmopolities above the fray hop from global city to global ... Read More

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Swimsuit Issue Aside, ‘Sports Illustrated’ Cover Is a Female-Free Zone

May 9, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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That recent Sports Illustrated cover featuring Jason Collins was, in one obvious respect, a landmark. But in another way, it was business as usual for the venerable weekly. The openly gay Collins is, after all, a man—and men are featured on the cover of SI about 95 percent of the time. That’s the conclusion of recently published research, which finds that, from 2000 through 2011, women appeared on just 4.9 percent of Sports Illustrated covers. "SI covers have both reflected and swayed their audiences toward corporate sport, particularly lucrative football, basketball, baseball, and ... Read More

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Groundbreaking News: Women Like Sex

May 8, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Hold onto your codpieces, y'all. You're not gonna believe the news coming out of Australia. I am currently shivering in a corner, feebly pecking away at a keyboard with my mouth, trying to finish up this post while I attempt to process all of this. Here is the lede: It's a myth that men want sex and women want relationships, says a Sydney professor, as a long-simmering gender spat reaches Australia. I am dead—and there's still more: It is not true that men are focused only on sex and women only want relationships, she says. But. But. But. But. But how could she know? Richters, an ... Read More

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