The female gaze

This just in: Women being sexually harrassed online

Tommorrow's WP article headlined, "Sexual Threats Stifle Some Female Bloggers" says women bloggers, more than men, are targets of sexual harrassment online:

A female freelance writer who blogged about the pornography industry was threatened with rape. A single mother who blogged about "the daily ins and outs of being a mom" was threatened by a cyber-stalker who claimed that she beat her son and that he had her under surveillance. Kathy Sierra, who won a large following by blogging about designing software that makes people happy, became a target of anonymous online attacks that included photos of her with a noose around her neck and a muzzle over her mouth.

Umm, is this any different than in the real world?

Latest on 'Amazing'

Washington Post's On Balance columnist responds to NY Times recent story on "Amazing Girls." Totally digging what she has to say about these "Alpha Girls" as she calls them: 

I'm not accusing the Times of getting this story wrong, or mocking these golden girls for their perfectionism. (Although I would like to see an article about high achievement among boys -- a seriously neglected media topic with long-term ramifications.) I believe the Times' portrait of these girls is accurate; in some ways, I was one of these girls myself 25 years ago, and I've seen today's version among the Washington, D.C. babysitter pool. I can predict their futures: They will all go to well-known colleges, excel there, head off to top business, law and medical schools, maybe a few to the Peace Corps or divinity school or Teach for America.

What I fear is the fate of these alpha girls once they have children. Years of hard work, prizes and promotions can't prepare them for the only true enemy to female ambition in America today: love for their children. For those who think the solution lies in not having children, another kind of torture awaits them.

Torture. I am actually glad she used that word.

'Amazing' AND 'articulate'

            If you are free to be everything, you are also expected to be everything.

This quote from the number-one read New York Times article, "For Girls, It's Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too.," hit home. Now we girls can do everything that boys can do. While that's great, it's not easy. In fact, it's hard as hell.

Glam and glitz on the third-world roller coaster

I live in a city that is losing its young couples, young couples with families, by the dozens. People are tired of the crime, the inside-politics, the slow wheels of federal government to trickle down to their flooded-out doorstep. But things keep people here, strangely. Like the Saints. They are winning. They may be going to the Super Bowl. Divine intervention for a team aptly named. And there are other signs. Like the news of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt deciding to move here and to, "send their kids to school in New Orleans." But wait, that's not a sign for the good. These are the celebutantes that hand out Christmas gifts in Cambodia--in front of the pandering press. To me this only solidifies that fact that New Orleans is in the third-world realm. Our public education system is in complete disrepair.

Before Katrina struck the Orleans Parish school system was in the process of being taken over by a national financial turn-around firm and was being investigated by the FBI for wrong-doing and mismanagement of about $20 million dollars. The storm was a chance to clean house. Well, don't hold your breath. And our racially divided private school system is not helping matters. No one is invested in our public system because no one goes there. Except to urban gems such as Lusher Elementary. A public magnet school that is now a charter of the public school system and is ranked as the state's top public offering. Haves and have nots. Maybe Jolie would like to talk to me about how to get into Lusher. Or maybe they'll just charter a school themselves.

I don't mean to be cynical. It's just that every one around me is leaving this place and I can't deny that I am not thinking of it myself. My husband and I are such tormented souls. We decided last Saturday night after the Saints won that if they did indeed win the Super Bowl we would stay. We would fight for what we love and consider Sean Payton our messiah. And if they lose, well, we're outta here. So for a family that has never, ever watched a football game it is now the prime focus of our lives. This is pure insanity. So is New Orleans. And so is the idea that Jolie and Pitt would really want to move here and raise their family. But you know, they may just fit right in with the rest of us.