Adele is up for six well-deserved Grammy awards going into Sunday night’s ceremonies, but she deserves kudos from women everywhere.  The 23-year-old Briton is a vocal powerhouse, and her retro-soul has ruled the music charts for most of 2011. Her second album, 21, topped the music charts for most of last year, and it’s still number one this week, smashing Madonna’s record for the most consecutive weeks spent at number one by a female artist.
Adele is also a proud and gutsy woman who refuses to apologize for her appearance.  When …

Hardly a week goes by without a Facebook friend posting one of those messages about the love they have for their daughters.  While I’m typically not one to repost these updates, they now strike me less as genuine – if somewhat sentimental – proclamations than as unwitting political statements.  They assert that regardless of what we read, what we hear, or how many times we are forced to listen to some ridiculous riposte about “mean girls”, we love our daughters. And we want to let the world – or at least our Facebook …

The parents of slain Yale student Annie Le – who filed suit this week against the University for failing to adequately protect their daughter — don’t have a legal leg to stand on.  That’s the assessment of some bloggers – and Yale — who contend that as horrible a crime as this was, the University cannot be held accountable.
The parents contend – among other charges — that the University fostered an atmosphere of misogyny that “emboldened” Annie’s killer. The suit references a Title IX sexual discrimination complaint filed by students …

The horrifying murder of an 8-year old boy in a protective Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn has sent parents in the tri-state area reeling.  Allowed to walk home from a nearby day camp for the first time, Leiby Kletzky got lost.  He asked a man for help – a man that looked like most of the other men in his neighborhood.
 Leiby never made it home.  The police found his butchered remains in the refrigerator of the alleged murderer.  The community’s grief and disbelief have spread to all of us that …

Although academic leaders will always publicly insist that their institutions are committed to creating a ‘welcoming environment for all students’, their actions show that they are far more focused on protecting their reputations.  Plagiarism at many colleges will get you expelled, but rape or sexually abuse a woman and you’ll likely be back in no time after a brief suspension.  
A group of 16 students and alumna – 12 women and four men – at Yale University have had enough.  They recently filed a Title IX complaint with the Department …

There’s been a firestorm of comments in response to the news about post-partum depression in dads – and most of the sparks are from women.  One New York Times blog prompted a ‘you’ve-got-to- be-kidding-me’ chorus peppered with sharp words for men who don’t ‘suck it up’ and come to terms with the very unlovely aspects of having children.  Men fired back with exasperated comments that women will “complain about anything.”
And so it goes.  It’s a familiar fight about sleep deprivation, domestic responsibility and fairness.  It’s about gender roles and expectations …

When I posted The New Agenda’s recent video on eating disorders to my Facebook page, something unusual happened.  I got comments.  Similar posts to my wall typically generate digital silence, but this time, parents thanked me for sharing on a topic that not only doesn’t get enough attention, but when it does, manages to be completely off the mark.
Ask why the rates of eating disorders and depression in young females are escalating and you’ll get a bunch of quick and facile expert explanations that either blame the victim, her hormones …

Based on my admittedly informal survey, a lot of entertainment bloggers really liked Robert Downey Jr’s. riff about sex with actresses at last night’s Golden Globes, calling it the funniest moment in a largely unfunny evening.  I agree the broadcast was a train wreck, but casting Downey as the evening’s savior?
Call me a sad and sorry, sexless, you-know-what – and roll you’re eyes and tell me to lighten up, if you must — the “naughty and hilarious” Downey got the predictable cheap laugh you always get when you sexualize women who …

A quick thought:  What if all the men in Congress took a long weekend – just a few days off —  and left the women to do the people’s business without them?   True, there wouldn’t be very many left roaming the halls of Congress, given the paucity of women in either the House or the Senate.  But, would there be less partisanship?
Given the times, women are far from immune to partisanship, whether or not they hold office.  But, women in Congress are acutely aware of their minority status and how hard …

For years, I’ve watched the National Organization for Women (NOW) sit out some of the major fights around sexism (or worse, take the wrong side of the fight).  But this time, they are spot-on gutsy.
A California chapter of the organization has filed a complaint against the Hooters restaurant chain for being an inappropriate dining establishment for children.  The complaint argues that the restaurant violates the state’s sexual entertainment laws and, as such, should bar anyone under the age of 18 from entering.  In short, NOW contends that Hooters is a …