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Sexual Politics

American Feminists Have Two Enemies

Big Betrayal | Erica Jong Daughters Ice Sex & Women’s Rights AOC Sexual Politics

Disappointment, confusion, disagreement and lack of sensual arousal was the prevailing response by six eager listeners, initially jazzed by the idea of hearing feminist icon and erotic writer Erica Jong at Philadelphia’s Free Library last Thursday evening.

Four of us — Susana, Charlotte, Beverly and myself —  are Erica’s younger, female contemporaries, with married couple Dvora and Paul aging a generation younger.

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Is the Chris Matthews 'Hardball' Audience Really 50% Women?

I was prompted to pursue an understanding of gender composition in TV audiences the other evening when Chris Matthews said that women comprise half the audience of Hardball.

Given how many educated women can’t stand Chris Matthews, this assertion surprised me. His egocentric, me-me-me approach to commentary, and especially his relentless beating the same dead horse every night with Palin and Bachmann failing American history and also the birthers issue,  I was surprised to hear Matthews say his audience is half women.

So I went looking for the neutral research facts and they didn’t surprise me.

If the Hardball audience is half women, then the show has enjoyed a mighty big swing since the Pew Research Center issued a major analysis in September 2011. We wrote previously that Rachel Maddow has been hot, hot, hot for MSNBC, but not Matthews.

I do believe that especially under new owners, and perhaps because AOC has been very vocal and consistent in calling Chris out, more moderation is part of his new approach. It seems that Chris is doing a better job of letting people finish their sentences and not talking over all his ‘experts’. To date, these changes have lasted a few days at a time, and then the old Chris takes over again. We’re hoping for more permanent progress.

News Show Audiences By Gender

Who is Listening, Watching, Reading — and Why Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

According to Pew Research’s exhaustive look at audience demographics for key TV shows, issued on Sept. 12, 2010, Hardball’s audience was only 42% women and 58% male. I don’t call that audience split ‘half women’, and I don’t like commentators making rounding errors of this magnitude.

For someone who calls Sarah Palin ‘profoundly stupid’, Matthews must check his math.

What made the biggest impression on me is that fact that the three shows I dislike the most are Rush Limbaugh, the departed Keith Obermann’s Countdown and Hardball. There is no comparison between the information I learn from Rachel Maddow vs Hardball, where I learn nohting.

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Planned Parenthood-Government Shutdown Update

RedTracker | The future of Planned Parenthood, an organization 90 years old, is held in the hands of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Mormon who personally opposes abortion and has previously run ads expressing his anti-abortion stance.

“On 97 percent of our work, Sen. Reid and Planned Parenthood are completely together,” Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told POLITICO.

House Republican said this afternoon that the fight is not over abortion, without using the abortion word.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, calling herself “a pro-choice Republican from California,” said the shutdown fight is “about three things: spending, more spending and too much spending.”

Fox News women agree that there would be no shutdown if more women were in Congress.

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RedTracker News | Attorney General to Investigate Yale Aggression Against Women | In Britain, Report Concludes Feminsm Is Bad for Working Class Men

RedTracker| Pushup Bras for Little Girls With No Boobies

75-year old Ethel Bolton of Santa Ana, Ca was issued a trespassing citation, now rescinded, for staging a protest against the Abercrombie & Fitch ‘Ashley’ push up triangle bra bikini for seven year olds.

Abercrombie first responded to last week’s litany of protest by re-categorizing the pushup bra for little girls with no boobies as best suited for girls age 12 and older. The decision didn’t quell the disgust from people like Ethel Bolton, and as of Wednesday night, the Ashley bikini top was no longer sold on the Abercrombie Kids web site. via The Orange Country Register

Yale Women’s Center Files Title IX Complaint

As the Conservative Republicans and some Democrats across America declare on women’s reproductive and health rights, seeking to end cancer screenings, access to birth control and a host of other health services for poor and lower-middle class women, 16 Yale students and alumni released a statement recognizing that women are also under attack on the Yale campus and asking the federal government to intervene.

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