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E.J. Graff

The Sexism Salon

E.J. GraffSep 30, 2011

Last week I wondered how Elizabeth Warren's rousing sermon espousing core progressive beliefs, which brought so much joy and hope to the left, would affect those on the right. One libertarian parody was posted by Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.com. Here's how it starts:

There is no woman in this country who got hot on her own.... You got to the gym on roads paid for by the rest of us. You hired a plastic surgeon the rest of us paid to educate. You're safe from hotter, foreign women because of INS agents and boarder [sic] security the rest of us paid for. ...

Church for Dissent

E.J. GraffSep 30, 2011

Here's an interesting take on #OccupyWallStreet from Matt Stoler (which I found via @jayrosen):

What these people are doing is building, for lack of a better word, a church of dissent. It's not a march, though marches are spinning off of the campground. It's not even a protest, really. It is a group of people, gathered together, to create a public space seeking meaning in their culture. They are asserting, together, to each other and to themselves, "we matter".

It's a fascinating analysis, worth a quick read. And the pictures are great.

Adoption Fraud in Guatemala

E.J. GraffSep 29, 2011

Last week, I discussed some of the fraud and corruption that haunt international adoption. If you're interested, you should know about Erin Siegal, author of the forthcoming Finding Fernanda, which explores kidnapping, fraud, and endemic corruption in adoptions from Guatemala. For years, that country was one of the top "sending" countries in international adoption -- and the one most widely considered to be riddled with fraud. As I wrote here at the website of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism:

It Doesn't Get Better for Bullies

E.J. GraffSep 28, 2011

Do you know the "It Gets Better" project? In response to last year's spate of gay-teen suicides, writer and editor Dan Savage launched a series of online videos in which adults tell teens: Hang on. High school isn't forever. You will have a good life. Some have been fabulous, burning their way across the Internets; I'm assuming you've seen those. Most are ordinary people, testifying to how much better it got when they waited. Had this been around, it certainly would have eased me through some of the agonizing teenage years when I was fighting the recognition that I might be one of them. You know. Like the girls' gym teacher. That way.

Marry Me

E.J. GraffSep 28, 2011

Yesterday, The Washington Post published a nice summary of the various federal lawsuits underway in the court battles over same-sex marriage, a piece occasioned by a panel at the College of William and Mary Law School's Institute of Bill of Rights Law. The panel, according to reporter Robert Barnes, was debating whether the government's political or judicial branch should decide whether same-sex couples' bonds should be recognized as "marriage" by federal law.

Can Tammy Baldwin Win?

E.J. GraffSep 27, 2011

Over at TheAtlantic.com, I look into the question of whether openly lesbian Tammy Baldwin can become Wisconsin's senator.

Pop quiz: What's the " L-word" that's likely to hurt her most?

Hint: It's not this one.

Here's an excerpt:

More on The Playboy Club

E.J. GraffSep 27, 2011

Here's a follow-up to my mini-review last week of NBC's The Playboy Club: a Daily Beast article, "My Mom's Life as a Playboy Bunny," by Susanna Spier. Spier interviews her mother about what things were really like. Was Hugh Hefner's comment -- that bunnies could be anything they wanted to be -- accurate? Ha.

We had only a handful of options, and being a Bunny was a brand-new one. ... Teacher, nurse, stewardess, secretary. Bunny increased our options by 20 percent. It didn't mean we could be brain surgeons. Hef's dots do not connect.

So why did she do it? Duh: for the money.

A pre-2004 Red Sox Nightmare

E.J. GraffSep 27, 2011

I've only been here in Boston for, oh, a couple of decades. While I enjoyed the region's collective delirium when the Red Sox finally reversed the curse, I'm an October fan, not a real one.

But my wife is a real fan, dating back pre-natally. She lives and dies with each Sox at bat. She would snarl and growl if a Yankees fan came anywhere near our house. As you can imagine, right now, there is no joy in our corner of Mudville.

Last week, our 8-year-old startled us with this phrase: "It's a pre-2004 Red Sox nightmare!," which would have been, oh, before he was born.

But of course, he's right.

In Praise of Hash

E.J. GraffSep 26, 2011

Last year in a New Yorker blog item, Susan Orleans explored some of the joys of the #hashtag, that funny and versatile little Twitter symbol, which can help you track public discussion of a subject—or make fun of yourself and others. Over the weekend, I was at the Online News Association’s annual conference, #ONA11, where some discussed the philosophical gap between what the old guard believes to be objective and proper journalistic behavior (just the facts, ma’am) and what the newer journos believe to be permissible room for attitude -- attitude that can help build audience. I must be immature for my age, because my heart is with the latter.

Dick Cheney Takes a Trip

E.J. GraffSep 26, 2011

Attention Glenn Greenwald, Dahlia Lithwick, Chris Hayes, and others who've been banging this drum: Human Rights Watch (HRW) is asking Canada to bring criminal charges against Dick Cheney, who's visiting there today, for "overwhelming evidence of torture by the Bush administration, including at least two cases involving Canadian citizens."

Friday's Three Cents

E.J. GraffSep 23, 2011

  • Linda Greenhouse, formerly The New York Times' Supreme Court reporter and now teaching at Yale Law School, tapped on the Commonwealth of Virginia's shoulder and reminds it that the civil war is over. Looking at the state laws and lawsuits launched in reaction to the new federal health-care statute, she writes:

Adoption Is Not a Solution for Poor Children

E.J. GraffSep 22, 2011

Dr. Jane Aronson is a beloved and dedicated figure in the world of international adoption. It's a big deal when she weighs in, which she did this week in response to recent coverage of adoption fraud like the exposes in The New York Times about China's system along with extensive coverage by the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, ABC, and other weighty news outfits. (I've reported extensively on the underlying systemic issues; you can find my work and related resources here.)

Very Bunny

E.J. GraffSep 21, 2011

Warning: This post includes two very bad jokes, one of which I'll dispose of right up front. When my wife walked into my study to find me looking at scantily clad Playboy bunnies on the Internet, I did in fact tell her that I was going to watch NBC's latest show, The Playboy Club for the articles -- at least for this one. She refused to watch with me because she didn't think she could handle the attitudes toward women.

DADT Goes Out With a Bang

E.J. GraffSep 21, 2011

I should've known better. Yesterday, I wrote that DADT would die not with a bang but a whimper. Wrong! There was, indeed, a media fanfare, with general agreement that this was a very good thing. Apparently, I'm an anachronism; but after spending my early adulthood in the Jim Crow era of LGBT issues, it still kills me that mainstream America has come to agree that treating lesbians and gay men equally is worth celebrating.

Here, then, are the most interesting DADT pieces I saw:

So You Say You Want a Sexual Revolution, Huh?

E.J. GraffSep 21, 2011

After my post last week on whether "sexual liberation" leads to monogamy, Amanda Marcotte and I twittered briefly about the myth of progress in sexual mores. The progress myth goes like this: Once upon a time, all was repression, imposed by religion/patriarchy/the establishment/your-nominee-here. But that theory is wrong: As with all fashions, libertinism comes and goes, alternating with restriction. Think the wild 1920s, then the marry-young 1950s (whose unexpected procreativity literally gave birth to the baby boom), then the swinging 1970s, then the Just-Say-No 1980s.

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