gender equality = better sex

Which is what feminists have been saying all along...

"In 75% of the cases the men report always having an orgasm. With women only 26% say they always have one, although 45% of men believe their partners always have an orgasm."

However, where the two sexes experienced greater equality - essentially in western countries - 60 to 80% of subjects said they had good sex.

Couples in Austria topped the good sex league with 80% of men and 63% of women saying they were enjoying extremely or very satisfying sex.

In second place came Spain, where 73% of men and 68% of women reported high satisfaction rates, the study suggested.

But in "male-centred sexual regimes" like the Middle East, Brazil, Italy and parts of Asia the study suggested satisfaction rates fell to the 40-50% range.

More at the BBC.

It's a mystery

HENSLOWE
Mr. Fennyman, let me explain about the
theatre business.
(they stop)
The natural condition is one of
insurmountable obstacles on the road
to imminent disaster. Believe me, to
be closed by the plague is a bagatelle
in the ups and downs of owning a
theatre.

FENNYMAN
So what do we do?

HENSLOWE
Nothing. Strangely enough , it all
turns out well.

FENNYMAN
How?

HENSLOWE
I don't know. It's a mystery.

From Shakespeare in Love

a-HAH - I always suspected this!

Whether girlie or girlist, girls, because they’re allowed more latitude in their identities, can still be girls: Boys, on the other hand, must be boys — unless no one is watching. In another study of younger children, Cherney and London found that if ushered alone into a room and told they could play with anything, nearly half the boys chose “feminine” toys as often as “masculine” ones, provided they believed nobody, especially their fathers, would find out. That made me question whether any more expansive vision of girlhood can survive without a similar overhaul of boyhood, which, apparently, is not in the offing. Learning to “create an amazing dance routine” (as suggested by “Everything”) is still far more Dangerous for boys than, as their own volume suggests, learning to juggle.

NYTimes Magazine

That's what is known as The Patriarchy at Work.

Kristof on the "Goldberg Paradigm"

And one more reason why female writers might want to consider taking male-sounding pen names ...

In one common experiment, the "Goldberg paradigm," people are asked to evaluate a particular article or speech, supposedly by a man. Others are asked to evaluate the identical presentation, but from a woman. Typically, in countries all over the world, the very same words are rated higher coming from a man.

More at the NYTimes

From now on I will let Gawker do all my blogging

I briefly considered writing yet another post about the clueless Judith Warner and her loathesome husband Max, having foolishly peeked at her NYTimes column yet again (my inner masochist clearly feeling the strain of my new year's resolution to avoid all Daphne Merkin issuances), but then I found this entry at Gawker and knew I was off the hook - they've pretty much got Judith Warner covered. My favorite comment by a true genius called "country wench"

As anyone who has known Judith since her days as an adolescent can attest, the root driver of Judith's "yenta" politics and literary voice is quite simple.
Judith is obsessed with her ass.
Since the age of 15, she has plagued all who know her with daily questions about the appearance of her ass. As in
"Is my ass too big?"
"Do I have a fat ass?"
"Does my ass look good in these jeans?" etc. etc.
Somehow, Judith's obsession with her own ass evolved by her late teens into an obsession with how other human beings (particularly men) feel about her ass, which turned into some form of anger about why the world wasn't sufficiently interested in her ass, or was more intrigued by women with different asses, or why in general her ass was perhaps not rated very highly in the ass-scheme of things, or why her ass never became the center of human kind's ass-focused attention.
This, in turn, became an obsession with criticizing other people's asses, as well as how they care for their asses, or jealousy about why other people are blessed with nicer asses, or more attractive asses, or why government should offer remedial care for those not blessed with asses worthy of attention, or how society was discriminating against certain asses, etc. etc.
A person so obsessed with their own ass rapidly thinks that all the sh*t in their own lives is worth writing about. Hence the uncensored blather of her column.

Now I think that ass is a metaphor. But I'm not 100% sure...

Eyre, Jane Eyre

My adaptation of Bronte's "Jane Eyre" goes up on February 14 - tickets are $18
except for you - Mergatroyd Productions is offering tickets for $10 to everybody who reads this blog - use discount code NBLOG at Theatremania.com

Unless you're Ann Bartow or Gregg Currie - then you get in for free.

:)

The JANE EYRE web site

JANE EYRE tickets at Theatremania.com tickets or call 212-352-3101 or 1-866-811-4111