The XX Factor

Is PMS All in Our Heads?

Amanda Marcotte — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:14:00 GMT

In all the controversy over the new DSM-5, it was inevitable that a long-standing fight over premenstrual syndrome would be revived. Eighty-five percent of women claim to have suffered from this disorder, but repeated research shows there's actually no relationship between daily moods and shifting monthly hormone levels. The debate is nothing new. In her classic 1993 feminist text The Mismeasure of Woman, Carol Tavris argued that the idea of PMS persists because it gives women an excuse to express anger and irritation in a culture that expects them to be unendingly cheerful and pleasant. (It also panders to the belief that women are irrational victims of their own hormones.) Being able to blame your socially incorrect emotions on chemical shifts is intoxicating: Tavris showed that even when confronted with evidence that menstruation doesn't affect mood, "Many women are highly resistant to the evidence that their beliefs and expectations about PMS might be influencing their symptoms."

I Should Have Frozen My Eggs

Amy Klein — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:43:00 GMT

Sarah Elizabeth Richards makes a great case for why a stigma against egg freezing shouldn’t exist and why women who freeze their eggs are happier for doing so. I know about these fears because I did not freeze my eggs. Yes, I repeat, I did not freeze my eggs. That’s why at 42 years old, I’m involved in the long, painful process of in vitro fertilization.

Presented By:

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:43:00 GMT

Old Spice Man. Kraft Zesty Guy. Have We Reached Peak Ad Hunk?

Amanda Hess — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:49:00 GMT

Have we reached Peak Hunk? USA Today examines the trend of “sexy guys—not gals—featured in racy TV spots” since a shirtless Isaiah Mustafa first mounted a horse to promote Old Spice in 2010. In a recent ad for Kraft salad dressing, a hunk’s T-shirt spontaneously combusts when his kitchen preparation gets too “zesty” (Kraft is selling him as "The Zesty Guy"). A pair of Liquid-Plumr hunks arrive at a woman’s home to “snake her drain.” For Diet Dr Pepper, hunk Josh Button rolls around shirtless on a beach; in a Zoolandery voiceover, he announces that he is "really, really, really, really, really good looking."

Forced Abortion Is About Domestic Violence, Not Embryonic Life

Amanda Marcotte — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:03:00 GMT

This strange and awful story out of Tampa, Fla., about a man who tricked a woman into aborting her pregnancy is another instance of the politicization of women's reproductive health care confusing what should be straightforward issues. John Andrew Welden is accused of slipping Cytotec, an ulcer medication that can induce labor, to his then-girlfriend Remee Jo Lee. He allegedly told her the pills were antibiotics. Her pregnancy started to fail and she was forced to get a D&C to remove the embryo. Considering that Welden is accused of drugging a woman against her will and causing injuries she needed medical attention for, it seems the appropriate charges would be centered around assault, poisoning, and domestic violence.

Five Women We're Excited to See on Network TV This Fall

Alyssa Rosenberg — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:20:35 GMT

Now that the upfronts—the events at which television networks announce their schedules for the coming season and then try to sell advertising slots to advertisers—are over, we've got a good sense of what's hot and what's not in TV right now. Hot includes cop shows, throwbacks like Michael J. Fox and James Spader, and characters with disabilities (at least on NBC), while after the booms of the last two years, comedies created by women have cooled off. But even if there are fewer female-driven projects on the roster this year, there are a still a lot of women we're excited to have on our television schedules, including these five favorites.

Jimmy Connors Is Woefully out of Line on Chris Evert’s Abortion

Amanda Marcotte — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:19:00 GMT

Seventies-era tennis star Jimmy Connors has a new autobiography out, and he's using it to take some nasty jabs at his former girlfriend and fellow tennis champion Chris Evert. Jessica Luther of the Atlantic explains:

Game of Thrones Lady Power Rankings: Week Eight

Alyssa Rosenberg — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:41:15 GMT

Our Creepy Fascination With Celebrity Pregnancies

Jessica Grose — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:52:00 GMT

I’ve never felt more scrutinized by strangers than when I was pregnant. During my third trimester my body felt like public property. Sometimes this was pleasant—older women on the subway would chat me up about my impending arrival. Often it was less so. People I passed on the street wouldn’t meet my eye, they’d stare right at my stomach. Once, a man leered at me, which felt much more invasive than cat calls did before I was with child. I suppose it’s because I had no control over the way my body looked, and I felt much more vulnerable than usual because I had a helpless baby I was supposed to be protecting.

Salvadoran Woman’s Story Is a Powerful Argument for Legal Abortion

Gillian Kane — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:13:37 GMT

Proponents of legal abortion could not make up a more heartbreaking scenario to prove their point. Beatriz (not her real name) is 22 years old with a one-year-old son. She has both lupus and kidney failure.

A Military Parent’s Homecoming Should Not Be a Surprise

Emily Yoffe — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:35:16 GMT

Last night at the Tampa Bay Rays stadium, 9-year-old Alayna Adams, whose father has been deployed in Afghanistan for the past year, threw out the first pitch only to discover the man in the catcher’s mask was actually her father, Lt. Col. Will Adams. I’m still wiping my eyes at the sight of this long-legged sprite rushing in joy and shock to his arms. But I wish I’d never seen the video, and that the people in the stadium had not been allowed to be voyeurs. Though I know these reunions are staged for the best motives, a parent’s return should not come as a shock to the kids.

Counterpoint: Please Don't Leave Your Stupid Kid at the Park

Drew Magary — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:03:31 GMT

Yesterday, Lenore Skenazy wrote this article about why it's important to take young children outside and then leave them unsupervised.

Inside Ten Days on a Lesbian Porn Set

Amanda Hess — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:32:26 GMT

Whenever a new acquaintance learns that I report on porn sets, I end up fielding a similar line of questioning about What It’s Like. Are the performers trapped? Are they hurt? Coerced? On drugs? Do they have no other options? Are they dumb?

Presented By:

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:32:26 GMT

Are Boys More Competitive Than Girls Because They Play in Groups?

Jessica Grose — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:53:13 GMT

When I was doing research for a piece about the uber-successful Emanuel Brothers and what their parents did to encourage them to be so competitive, I ended up talking to Ashley Merryman, the co-author of Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing. According to Merryman and her co-author Po Bronson, part of what might have made the Emanuel brothers so ambitious from childhood is that they were all boys, and that there were three of them. Girls tend to play in pairs, while boys arrange themselves in groups, and group play breeds the competitive spirit. So what’s behind this, and why does playing in groups make boys more aggressive?

Enough With Star Trek Into Darkness's Boring Bromance. Give Us More Uhura!

Alyssa Rosenberg — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:39:00 GMT

Of all the changes J.J. Abrams made to the Star Trek universe when he re-launched it in 2009, one of the sharpest was the decision to make half-human, half-Vulcan Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana) not just colleagues, but a couple with great sexual chemistry and some crackling dialogue.

Mindy Kaling's The Mindy Project May Be Subversive, But It's Not Good

Amanda Hess — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:40:21 GMT

The season finale of FOX’s The Mindy Project aired on Tuesday, and it was a deeply emotional episode for me. The primary emotion I am feeling is relief. After following Mindy Kaling's impressive writing and acting at NBC's The Office, I’ve spent the 2012-2013 television season desperately trying to like The Mindy Project. I have failed. How did one of the most subversive figures on network television end up making such a bad show?

In Which I Explain to My Conservative Relatives That the IRS Won’t Take Away Their Health Care

Amanda Marcotte — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:07:00 GMT

Rep. Michele Bachmann is always happy to spread whatever garbled rightwing conspiracy theory is trending. Her ravings are often a wall of meaningless paranoid noise, better ignored than engaged with. Still, her latest rant, reported by Atlantic Wire, deserves a little attention, because she's inadvertently hurting conservatives in her stampede to paint all Democrats as genocidal hell beasts.

Why You Should Leave Your Kids at the Park

Lenore Skenazy — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:41:00 GMT

This Saturday is the fourth annual "Take Our Children to the Park...and Leave Them There Day."

Stop Saying Women Don't Like Game of Thrones Already

Alyssa Rosenberg — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:42:03 GMT

Game of Thrones is one of the most outrageously enjoyable shows on television right now, not least because of its incredible roster of female characters, from medieval Girl Scout Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) to court manipulator Lady Olenna Redwyne (Diana Rigg). But what's incredibly not-fun is how much stupid writing the show has inspired about female television watchers, and what we like or don't like.

Why I Chose Not to Get Tested for BRCA Genes

Florence Williams — Tue, 14 May 2013 22:05:59 GMT

From a healthcare perspective, Angelina’s Jolie’s case is pretty clearcut, even if her personal decisions were fraught and complex. Her insurance presumably paid for her breast-cancer gene tests because her mother died of ovarian cancer.* When women like Jolie appear to be at higher than usual risk for breast cancer, their risk factors are punched into a mathematical model and out comes a magic number that helps us make health care decisions. A first-degree relative with breast cancer is pretty much a slam-dunk, and most insurance companies will pony up the cost for Myriad’s monopoly-priced diagnostic panel.

Don’t Be a Skintern. What Not to Wear to Your Summer Internship.

Katherine Goldstein — Tue, 14 May 2013 21:28:00 GMT

It’s that time of year, folks. Winter coats are being stored away, blossoms are dappling the trees, and before long, the annual summer parade of skinterns will begin.