Frozen Hearts Thaw, Grow Empowered
How does the evolution of Disney Princesses reflect evolved notions of women? Let’s take a look at “Frozen” sisters, Anna and Elsa. (Spoiler alert!)
We meet the young girls as joyous, inseparable friends. Until the day Elsa discovers a surprising power. In a state of heightened emotion, she unwittingly zaps little sis, freezing her.
Luckily, a magic troll heals Anna and erases the scary memory. Read the rest of this entry
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Women Slut-Shame More Than Men?
Stereotypes and evolutionary psych say men slut-shame because they want to know that their partner’s babies are not some other guy’s.
But women are actually more likely to promote the double-standard. Here’s one study of shaming in action:
McMaster University psychologists told college women that they were studying female friendships. They actually wanted to see how women respond to sexy vs non-sexy women, as pictured above. Read the rest of this entry
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Burqas Don’t Stop Harassment, Rush
Walk up to the woman and say, “Would you please ask your breasts to stop staring at my eyes?”
That’s Rush Limbaugh’s advice after University of Nebraska researchers said it looks like men can control their objectifying behavior as they gain awareness of it. (Btw, objectifying and appreciating that someone is attractive are two different things.)
And that’s a good thing, they say, because objectified women are seen as less friendly, less intelligent and competent, and less moral. That, in turn, leaves women silencing themselves and it undermines their work performance.
Yet Rush insists,
Some of these babes, I’m telling you, like the sexual harassment crowd. They’re out there protesting what they actually wish would happen to them sometimes.
Hmmm. Take a look at a Public Service Ad that puts you in an Egyptian woman’s shoes (where harassment is rampant):
And you know what? Women can’t please Rush whether they look attractive or not. (And most don’t want to please him.) Read the rest of this entry
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Vain, Fashion-Obsessed Women
Women are silly creatures who worry their pretty little heads over fashion and vainly adorn themselves in color, lace and ruffles.
But maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe fashion, lace and ruffles are thought trivial because they are associated with women.
In fact, men were once fashionistas, too.
Many of our serious and revered Founding Fathers wore color, lace, ruffles, embroidered vests, and silk stockings with decorative garters. They also donned wigs, curled their hair and hired tutors to instruct them in the elegance of sitting, standing and gesturing.
Thomas Jefferson was particularly fastidious, his fashion sense costing him a pretty penny. Or, as historians Barbara Clark Smith and Kathy Peiss explain, Read the rest of this entry
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How Sex Gets Better With Age
Sex often improves with age, say a number of recent studies. But why?
Maturing sex-lovers were typically raised in a pretty sex-negative world — especially if they’re female. But most spent years doing the marital sex thing. And since everyone thinks that’s okay, negative messages fade.
But an increasingly sex-positive society must help. Many chalked up their newfound pleasure to sexual liberation and The Pill.
And while you might think women would grow bored with the same guy all the time, women in long-term relationships are the most sexually satisfied of all. Why? Read the rest of this entry
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Criminalizing Abortion Doesn’t Stop It
My born again friend worries about me. I want to keep abortion safe and legal. But she wants me to shout down sinners and demand restrictions. I’ll go straight to Hell, for sure.
Truth is, I don’t really like abortion, and I wish that no woman ever felt a need to get one. At the same time I know that accidents happen, mistakes happen, that women become desperate, and that one third of American women have an abortion at some point in their lives.
I also know that criminalizing abortion doesn’t stop it.
A global study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Guttmacher Institute found that abortion rates are about the same in countries where it is legal and where it is not.
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Hostility, Objectification Go Hand-In-Hand
![Dolce-Gabbana-Ad-Sexist[1]](https://broadblogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/dolce-gabbana-ad-sexist1.jpg)
Funny how objectifying women and hostility toward them so often go hand-in-hand. Well, not funny –ha ha.
Phil is a strip club patron who says that f-ing is all men really want from women, and whose philosophy of life includes “The Four Fs”: Find ‘em. Feel ‘em. F-k ‘em. Forget ‘em.
And then there are men who hate pretty women. These guys constantly lust after the ladies – or at least their body parts. But they hate women, too. As one guy described it: Read the rest of this entry
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Sex Gets Better With Age?
Novelty is the strongest aphrodisiac for both men and women, but much more for women. If a woman has the desire and knows how to use her femininity and sexuality, she can keep her man sexually engaged indefinitely. Men have a much bigger hurdle to jump because there is really nothing we can do to keep a women in that super horny “porn star” state that they are in at the beginning of a relationship.
That’s from a male commenter who told me that all his friends say the same thing: Women lose interest in sex over time. I don’t doubt that he and his fiends have experienced this. Other men have also asked me why women lose interest in sex after marriage. Sex researchers have also addressed the phenomenon.
Yet a slew of studies also say that sex gets better over time. Read the rest of this entry
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An elevator speech for sexual assault
The best way to handle the moment when you feel threatened – or have just been attacked – is to have your reaction prepared in advance, says Jennie Saia.
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Thigh Gap: Worth Starving For?
Is a “thigh gap” worth starving for?
Thigh gap: When a woman’s legs are so thin that her thighs don’t touch. Right now it’s all the rage on social media with Twitterers and Tumblers sharing photos anxiously captioned, “Three inches to go.”
It’s all fueling a mass obsession and deemed a universal “ideal” instead of a crazy trend.
Not so long ago the “perfect woman,” embodied in Miss Universe, was one whose thighs touched. Read the rest of this entry
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