Using Tobacco to Prevent Cancer: Kentucky researchers are looking to the tobacco plant to develop a low-cost vaccine against the virus that causes cervical cancer. “The tobacco-based vaccine still in the works would cost an estimated $3 for three doses, compared with $360 for three doses of Gardasil. This would make it affordable for developing countries like India, where the disease is the most common malignancy among women,” writes Laura Ungar at the Courier-Journal.

Family Leave Values: There’s a fantastic article in The New York Times Sunday Magazine from last weekend about the increase of workplace discrimination lawsuits because of family care-giving obligations.

“Since the mid-1990s, the number of workers who have sued their employers for supposed mistreatment on account of family responsibilities — becoming pregnant, needing to care for a sick child or relative — has increased by more than 300 percent,” writes Eyal Press. “More than 1,150 such lawsuits have been filed in federal and state courts, a trend that has not gone unnoticed in the business world, not only because companies are well aware of the negative publicity lawsuits can generate but also because numerous plaintiffs have walked away with hefty damage awards.”

How Much Jail Time?: Anna Quindlen writes in Newsweek: “Buried among prairie dogs and amateur animation shorts on YouTube is a curious little mini-documentary shot in front of an abortion clinic in Libertyville, Ill. The man behind the camera is asking demonstrators who want abortion criminalized what the penalty should be for a woman who has one nonetheless. You have rarely seen people look more gobsmacked. It’s as though the guy has asked them to solve quadratic equations.” Heh.

Organization Spotlight: “As the political debate about women’s private health decisions focuses on finding common ground among women in the mainstream, some organizations work against incredible odds to make sure marginalized women do not fall through the cracks in the system,” reports RH Reality Check, which spotlights the work of a number of organizations here.

Proposal for Federal Registry of Drug Firms Paying Doctors: “An influential Republican senator says he will propose legislation requiring drug makers to disclose the payments they make to doctors for services like consulting, lectures and attendance at seminars,” writes Gardiner Harris in The New York Times. “The lawmaker, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, cited as an example the case of a prominent child psychiatrist, who he said made $180,000 over just two years from the maker of an antipsychotic drug now widely prescribed for children.”

Using information gleaned from the few states that already require registries of this sort, Harris and other reporters at the NYT have done some excellent reporting this year on the relationship between doctors and drug companies. See here, here and here.

Global Peace Index Fails to Account for Violence Against Women and Children: Describing the Global Peace Index, a ranking of countries according to their level of peacefulness published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Riane Eisler, author of “The Real Wealth of Nations,” writes in the Christian Science Monitor: “Sensibly, its basic premise is that ‘peace isn’t just the absence of war; it’s the absence of violence.’ The index uses 24 indicators such as how many soldiers are killed, the level of violent crimes, and relations with neighboring countries. Yet it fails to include the most prevalent form of global violence: violence against women and children, often in their own families. To put it mildly, this blind spot makes the index very inaccurate.”

The omission prompted a moving response from Feminist Peace Network.

Sisterhood Interrupted: In a review of Debora Siegel’s “Sisterhood Interrupted: From Radical Women to Girls Gone Wild,” Eryn Loeb at Bookslut.com writes, “The history of feminism has been written many times, and from various points of view, but none until now has paid specific attention to the conflicts — both within and across generations — that divided the movement, and have the most to teach us. Siegel deftly illustrates how these internal struggles have led to the difficulties still plaguing feminism.”

Drop the Cute, Urges Writer: Danica McKellar, 32, who played Winnie Cooper on the 1990s TV show “The Wonder Years” and later drew attention as a UCLA undergrad for co-authoring a paper proving a theorem in mathematical physics, has written a book to promote the pursuit of math and science to young girls –”Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail.”

Palladium-Item (Ind.) news reporter Michelle Manchir writes that while McKellar’s intent is admirable, by telling girls that “cute and smart” is better than “cute and dumb,” she ultimately sends a mixed message: “McKellar’s emphasis on girls’ appearance trivializes her promotion of academic ambitions and contributing to society in a meaningful way.”

Making women into sex objects is one thing, but making violence against women attractive and titillating is another.

That’s just what the marketers of the recently released thriller “Captivity” have done, however. The film chronicles the abduction and torture of a young model. We’ll let the the synopsis from the official film website take over from there:

Everyone wants her. But someone out there has been watching and waiting. Someone wants her in the worst way. Out alone at a charity event in Soho, Jennifer is drugged and taken. Held captive in a cell, Jennifer is subjected to a series of terrifying, life-threatening tortures that could only be conceived by a twisted, sadistic mind.

“Captivity narratives” actually have a long history in American culture, originating with tales of “proper” white women being kidnapped by Native Americans. So it’s unfortunate but not surprising that we see Hollywood once again perpetuating the cheap thrill that this scenario provides.

What is surprising though is the shameless way the film is being promoted. As Ann at Feministing described last week, the original, jaw-dropping billboard for the film prompted a number of critiques, including this piece in The Nation by Annabelle Gurwitch and Jill Soloway’s commentary at the Huffington Post. Both women happened to be driving in cars with young children when they saw the billboards.

“I was driving a carpool of third graders to school when my son pointed at a large looming advertisement and asked, ‘What’s that, mom?’” writes Gurwitch. She continues:

I craned my neck — it was pretty high up, but still visible from the car — and glimpsed some extremely violent and disturbing images. What was being depicted exactly was hard to make out …. A woman crying, maybe; someone encased in a mask with tubes inserted in the nasal passages; and finally what looked like a female body lying inert, her body draped over a bed. The poster read: “Abduction, confinement, torture, termination.” Naturally, as a left-wing liberal, I assumed it was detailing abuses at Abu Ghraib and the anguish this has inflicted on the spouses of the prisoners. But no, it was advertising a movie.

To the children, however, I replied, “That person has just found out she’s very ill. She goes to the hospital and is placed in a full-body cast, and when she gets home she sees her medical bills, which are so exorbitantly high that she passes out.” Were they convinced, confused, politically indoctrinated? I’m not certain, but the rest of the ride to school was very, very quiet.

Gurwitch is obviously trying to bring a little bit of levity to the situation here, but her responses inspires Ann to pose a serious question directly to her readers — “How do you talk to your kids (and others’) about sexist images in the media, particularly disturbing or violent ones like the Captivity ads?” The extended discussion that ensues is valuable.

Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer” and other feminist narratives, called out the same posters as well as the trailer for the film back in May. While he doesn’t discuss its effect on children specifically, he does see the marketing campaign as insidiously playing upon embedded sexist attitudes in American culture.

Interestingly, Vanessa at Feministing had already written — several weeks before Ann — about how disturbed she was by the film’s marketing campaign. But she was criticizing the revised version of the film’s advertising — not knowing anything about the original billboard campaign.

The marketers of the film apparently got the message, but they didn’t learn the lesson.

Heather Stephenson, in a commentary for Women’s eNews, has some good words of advice — and a plan for activism — as we enter the primetime of the summer sun-tanning season.

She believes “a middle path between worshipping the sun and staying indoors altogether does exist” — and she gives plenty of practical advice for negotiating the pros and cons of sunscreens.

But Stephenson also realizes that what prevents women from enjoying this time of year has as much to do with body image as with health concerns. With this in mind, she praises the work of the Dressing Room Project, through which young women offer encouragement to other women “when most women need it: as they’re trying on clothes.”

Stephenson explains:

Female teens involved in the project write messages of affirmation on colorful small cards and post them around the edges of dressing-room mirrors. My favorite says, “Worry about the size of your heart, not the size of your body.”

Like missives from a secret sisterhood, these positive messages catch your eye with their perky colors and interrupt negative self-talk before it starts.

The project’s website includes cards you can view download and other resources — just in time for the hottest days of the year.

Viva La BlogHer: Great posts from the BlogHer ’07 conference up at Viva La Feminista. And Women in Media & News points to video of closing keynote speaker Elizabeth Edwards discussing media reform.

Welcome NYC Unrated and Unfiltered: Planned Parenthood of New York City just launched a new blog with a snazzy name. Check it out.

A Super-Size Troupe Attracts Super-Size Praise: “Formed a decade ago by Juan Miguel Mas, this company of obese dancers has become a cultural phenomenon in Cuba, breaking stereotypes here of dance, redefining the aesthetics of beauty and, along the way, raising the self-esteem of heavyset people,” writes James C. McKinley Jr. in The New York Times. “While the troupe is not the first to employ larger dancers, its popularity comes as a surprise in a country known for its muscular, lean dancers in every genre from classical ballet to salsa.”

Recommended Reading: “Reading ‘The Invisible Cure’ is like traveling into remote and hard-to-comprehend territory with an unblinking and sure-footed guide,” writes John Donnelly, in a remarkably enticing review of Helen Epstein’s book about the fight against AIDS in Africa. “Epstein had unearthed a rare copy of a detailed study on the sexual behavior of Ugandans in the late 1980s and early ’90s, a period that coincided with the country’s historic drop in H.I.V. rates. In short, Epstein knew, the research done by Maxine Ankrah, an African-American academic, would give invaluable insights into what had halted the epidemic — insights that could then be applied to other countries with high rates of H.I.V. and AIDS.”

Read the review here, or skip right to chapter one.

Speaking Terms: The Guardian reports on language lessons in the UK — sex workers in London are teaching English to migrants working in the sex industry. “I do not do anything without a condom” is required learning. “Our aim is to give women the skills to get out of certain situations they may not want to be in. So much of sex work involves language, and not having language stops people from negotiating with bosses and clients,” said a founder of the x:talk project, which is supported by the International Union of Sex Workers and is funded by the Feminist Review Trust.

Hey, Elaine!: The Today Sponge contraceptive is back on the market. “The new package is meant to have a more modern look: instead of a pink flower and a conservative-looking typeface, the box has drawings of hip-looking women, playful typography, and colors that Synova officials call ‘fuchsia and wine,’ writes Jane L. Levere at The New York Times. But keep this in mind:

Lawrence B. Finer, director of domestic research for the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that does research and policy analysis on reproductive health, said Synova’s new campaign will bring its method of birth control “to the attention of a lot of women, and help place it in context along with other methods that have been advertised lately,” like the Ortho Evra contraceptive patch.

But health professionals agree that one of the Today Sponge’s biggest problems is its efficacy: research by Princeton University found that 16 percent of American women who had never given birth and may have used the sponge incorrectly or inconsistently became pregnant within a year, while 32 percent of women who had given birth and used the sponge this way became pregnant. The pregnancy rate for women who relied on condoms for birth control and may have used them incorrectly or inconsistently was 15 percent, while the rate for women using birth control pills in this way was 8 percent.

“For all the sponge’s cultural popularity, it isn’t as effective as many other methods,” said Dr. Katharine O’Connell, an assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and a family planning specialist at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

Why Do Men Kill Their Wives?: A Boston Globe Magazine story wonders if murder is a substitute for divorce.

Potentially Hazardous Home Chemicals: Women’s Voices for the Earth, a Montana-based nonprofit working to eliminate or reduce toxic chemicals in the home, released a report(PDF) last week that highlights health risks associated with cleaning products. Some products contain chemicals that are linked to fertility disorders in lab animals, according to the group. Here’s coverage from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Amnesty International Set to Affirm New Abortion Policy: “Despite an outcry from Roman Catholic and conservative leaders worldwide, Amnesty International seems likely to affirm a new policy supporting greater access to abortion when its top decision-making body meets next month,” reports The AP. Here’s Amnesty’s statement from June, defending access to abortion for women at risk.

Pioneer Feminist Theologian Dies: The Rev. Letty Russell, considered “a foremother of feminist theology,” and one of the first women hired to the faculty of Yale Divinity School, died July 12 at her home in Guilford, Conn. The cause was cancer, reports the L.A. Times. Nancy Richardson, a senior lecturer at Harvard Divinity School and a longtime friend, said, “She was teaching [feminist theology] before it had a name.”

“Feminist scholarship was not looked on as scholarship in seminaries,” Richardson said. “To be in academia and be a feminist at the same time wasn’t easy.”

A Slow Recovery, Slowed Down Even More: Part four of a NYT series on the recovery of New Orleans two years after Hurricane Katrina looks at the impact of closed hospitals. “Doctors’ offices sit empty behind five-foot-high water marks, and nearby clinics wait to be demolished. In back of one medical building, a gaping refrigerator still holds jars of mayonnaise and Mt. Olive Dill Relish,” writes Leslie Eaton. “Harder to see, but just as tangible, people here say, are the other ripple effects of the flood and the closed hospital: workers displaced, houses for sale and, of course, patients forced to seek health care many miles away. If they have returned to New Orleans at all, that is, given the grave wounds to the health care system.”

Before the steam iron, before the vacuum cleaner, we had vibrators. They debuted in the early 1880s as a medical treatment for “hysteria.” They were subsequently introduced as a home medical appliance in 1899 and appeared in magazine advertisements as early as 1904.

A $5.95 model had made the Sears catalog by 1918.

This fascinating but hidden history is the subject of the a new documentary, “Passion & Power: The Technology of Orgasm,” which premieres this Saturday at Lincoln Center in New York. It will have its West Coast debut at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October.

Filmmakers Wendy Slick and Emiko Omori based their work on a critically-acclaimed book-length study by Rachel Maines, who stumbled upon the early advertisements while researching the history of needlework.

As Natalie Angier writes in her review of the book “The Technology of Orgasm” for the New York Times, Maines learned that the history of vibrators — especially their invention as a medical tool — was tied into the entire social history of women’s health:

Her investigations led her to conclude that doctors became the keepers of the female orgasm for several related reasons. To begin with, women have been presumed since Hippocrates’ day, if not earlier, to suffer from some sort of ”womb furie” — the word ”hysteria,” after all, derives from uterus. The result was thought to be a spectacular assortment of symptoms, including lassitude, irritability, depression, confusion, palpitations of the heart, headaches, forgetfulness, insomnia, muscle spasms, stomach upsets, writing cramps, ticklishness and weepiness.

Who better to treat the wayward female plaint than a physician, and where better to address his ministrations than toward the general area of her rebellious female parts?

Of course, this history has its colorful side as well — which would seem to make it a very marketable, if offbeat, subject for a documentary. After winning a fairly competitive process the get the rights to the book, though, Slick and Omori had difficulty securing funding, according to Patricia Yollin, who writes in the San Francisco Chronicle about their struggle and their unflagging desire to make the film.

“Wendy and I both came out of the sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll generation,” Omori said. “We thought we knew it all. We hardly knew anything.”

The photographs that accompany the article are a must-see. (Here’s one example of an antique vibrator.)

With a budget of less than $150,000, they still were able to interview many well-know and not-so-well-known characters in this expansive narrative. Betty Dodson, “the godmother of the masturbation movement” shook up the establishment in the 1970s with her simple feminist message: “Independent orgasm, I guarantee, will lead to independent thoughts.”

Texas housewife Joanna Webb was arrested in the 2004 for selling vibrators at Tupperware-like parties — a felony offense. Her life fell apart as a result of the case.

Obviously, this history continues to be written.

Chronic Fatigue No Longer Seen as “Yuppie Flu”: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in 1999 acknowledged that it had diverted millions of dollars allocated by Congress for chronic fatigue syndrome research to other programs, has released studies that linked the condition to genetic mutations and abnormalities in gene expression involved in key physiological processes,” reports The New York Times. “People with C.F.S. are as sick and as functionally impaired as someone with AIDS, with breast cancer, with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,’ said Dr. William Reeves, the lead expert on the illness at the C.D.C., who helped expose the centers’ misuse of chronic fatigue financing.”

What’s a Working Mother Worth?: “What mothers do — and what mothers want — appears to have a limited impact on public values and societal norms. At the very least, the two-fold increase in maternal employment over the last 30 years has yet to result in a dramatic reversal of cultural attitudes that safeguard male privilege in the public and private sphere,” writes Judith Stadtman Tucker, editor of the Mothers Movement Online, in this piece at The American Prospect on attitudes toward the value of maternal employment.

More on Summer Films and the Missing A-Word: Ann Hornaday’s Washington Post story is a late-but-worthy addition to the recent spate of stories about “Waitress” and “Knocked Up.” The omission of abortion as even a discussion point “undermines anyone’s claim that Hollywood has a liberal agenda,” says says New York Press film writer Jennifer Merin, who is also president of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.

Plus: Gloria Steinem: “In Defense of the ‘Chick Flick,’” via AlterNet.

Pro-Choice, Pro-Midwife: “If you care about a ‘woman’s right to choose,’ then you need to know about a little situation ongoing in Missouri,” writes Jennifer Block at the Huffington Post. “Yes, abortion is still legal there. It’s not that situation (not today, anyway). This is about a woman’s right to choose a midwife.”

Woman Sues County Over Giving Birth in Jail: A Seattle-area mentally ill woman who was arrested for trespassing is suing correction officials for not providing medical attention for her pregnancy until after she gave birth in her cell, reports the Seattle-Post Intelligencer.

The incident took place 10 years ago; her lawyer said she has been receiving mental health treatment in the decade since and has “come a long way.” The comments on this story, however, demonstrate that the public understanding still has a long way to go.

Eating Sushi While Pregnant: Writing in The New York Times, Steven A. Shaw, author of “Turning the Tables on Asian Restaurants: The Insider’s Guide to Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Korean and Southeast Asian Dining,” argues that fears about eating raw fish while pregnant are unfounded.

No Threat Here: “I remember hearing [former GOP Sen. Rick] Santorum ranting about how homosexual marriage threatens heterosexual marriage. I could be wrong, but I think heterosexual marriage is threatened more by heterosexuals. I don’t know why gay marriage challenges my marriage in any way” — Elizabeth Edwards talks with Salon.

Newsflash: Sen. Hillary Clinton Has Breasts: Two of ‘em! Thanks, Katha.

India Selects First Female President: Emily Wax writes in the Washington Post that the vote was “seen as a step forward for hundreds of millions of Indian women and girls who face bitter discrimination in everyday life. The position is largely ceremonial. But observers said the selection of Pratibha Patil, 72, in a vote by the national Parliament and state politicians, will widen the role of women in the country’s often male-dominated political scene.”

Patil also gets to be head of her family.

Empowered Female Characters on TV: Add to this round-up of representations of women on television Lisa de Moreas’ hilarious report from the Summer TV Press Tour about feminist-torch bearer Joseph McGinty Nichol. “McG,” as he is known, is behind the reality TV series “Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll” and the new NBC dramedy “Chuck.”

The first comment on the story pretty much sums it up: “[Joseph McGinty Nichol] seems to have just learned to say ‘empowered women’ when he’s thinking ‘hot chicks.’”

Me thinks Nichol and restaurant owner Dennis Riese would make a great team.

Suppressing periods isn’t new news — it’s just new marketing.

For years, women have known that taking the birth control pill continuously will prevent monthly periods. A good fact sheet about this is available from the National Women’s Health Network.

But the FDA’s approval this spring of Lybrel — the first contraceptive specifically designed to eliminate periods for as long as it’s used — brought the issue out of the gynecologists’ office and into the public eye.

To be honest, I haven’t been that worked up over it. I hardly think a woman’s identity is defined by having (or choosing not to have) a period (biology is not destiny and all that.).

And I don’t necessarily accept that with Lybrel’s roll-out this month, “war has been declared on menstruation” — as Karen Houppert argues in an op-ed published in Tuesday’s New York Times: “Final Period.”

But I have to say I did find Houppert’s piece quite interesting. Not only does she reveal the tactics pharmaceutical companies are using to sell women on the idea of menstrual suppression, but she offers a fascinating historical perspective:

It seems every time women start demanding access to this or that, there is a rash of studies “proving” that menstrual cycles render them unsuitable. In the 1870s and 1880s, when Americans were debating the value of higher education for women, a flurry of research asserted that women’s cycling constitutions made them unfit for sustained mental and physical labor. Henry Maudsley, a British doctor, reflected popular opinion — dressed up as “scientific truth” — when he observed that menstruation doomed girls to failure in college.

Comparing boys and girls, Maudsley insisted in an article, was “not a question of two bodies and minds that are in equal physical condition, but of one body and mind capable of sustained and regular hard labor, and of another body and mind which one quarter of each month, during the best years of life, is more or less sick and unfit for hard work.” Maudsley’s definition of “hard work” was unclear: no one worried that the fragile cook, servant girl or farmer’s wife was being overtaxed during any time of the month.

After women pressed ahead, attended college and excelled in the halls of learning, the debate about menstrual cycles shifted from their suitability for higher education to their suitability for public life in general. When the suffragists asked to participate in the political process, experts retaliated with more research proving that women belonged in the domestic sphere; menstruation figured prominently among the reasons.

Once women won the right to vote in 1920, the menstruation-equals-inadequacy debate ebbed for a while. In fact, two decades later, new proof arrived that women were perfectly fit and capable — even when bleeding — and therefore should step right up and join the war effort. When Rosie the Riveter was needed in American factories and recruits in the Women’s Army Corps, the War Department produced films telling women of the abundance of scientific evidence proving periods are no big deal.

A 1942 American propaganda film, “Strictly Personal,” for example, coached novice Wacs on nutrition, rest and exercise. In one scene, a soldier lies listlessly on her cot — “I can’t drill today, I feel unwell,” she whines — but a fellow Wac tells her to buck up. And a voiceover “doctor” explains: “That’s Victorian stuff. And so is that trash about nerves and sensibility during this period.” Menstruation, he says, “is no excuse for absenteeism and self-coddling.”

But then the war ended, and Rosie and the Wacs were retired — and shown a fresh batch of studies proving that children need their moms at home, that the workplace is potentially hazardous to women’s unborn children and that women’s cycles make them less efficient workers than men. By 1953, the affliction premenstrual syndrome turned up in the medical literature.

Someone cynical might suggest that research highlighting menstruation’s distressing consequences bubbles to the surface every time the public feels anxious over women’s expanding roles. (Say, the possibility that there might be a menopausal woman in the White House — and yes, you can’t win for losing here, given that our periods allegedly drive us to distraction and their cessation does the same.) So take today’s hoopla over menstrual suppression with a grain of ibuprofen.

Though I’m usually fairly cynical, I think it’s great that women have access to a full range of birth control options that allow us more control over our periods. But I can also see how the line between our own choices and cultural pressure can easily be blurred.

The Popularity of Plan B: “The popularity of the morning-after pill Plan B has surged in the year since the federal government approved the sale of the controversial emergency contraceptive without a prescription,” reports the Washington Post. But advocates for women’s health are quick to note that teenagers under age 18 still do not have access.

“There’s no medical basis for restricting teenagers’ access to emergency contraception,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York, which is suing the FDA to remove the age restriction. “This not about morality, it’s about public health and cutting America’s alarmingly high teenage pregnancy rates.”

Plus: The teen birth rate hits a record low. Here’s the government study on which the data is based.

Think This Would Fly in U.S. Schools?: The award-winning Romanian film about abortion, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” will be shown in French schools, “following a u-turn by government officials who had initially vetoed plans to show it,” reports The Guardian. “As well as winning the top prize at Cannes, Cristian Mungiu’s film was the recipient of the National Education Prize, which is awarded to a Cannes-selected film with the relevant artistic, aesthetic and educational values each year. The chosen film then receives government funding to allow a special educational DVD to be produced for upper-secondary schools, which teach children between the ages of 15 and 18.”

OBOB previously covered abortion in movies and “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” here.

Going for the Gold: “If hypocrisy were an Olympic event, Senator Vitter would get the gold medal,” writes James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth. Sen. David Vitter, a Republican from Louisiana, apologized after his name appeared on the client list of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the “D.C. Madam.” Vitter is also chief backer of a bill to reauthorize funding for abstinence education.

But Viiter “wouldn’t be the only ‘family values’ champion lining up for the gold,” adds Wagoner, who goes on to name a few other contenders.

Reality Bites: Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona testified before Congress this week that his term was compromised by political pressure to weaken or suppress important public health information. The accusations would seem surreal if we haven’t all been reminded in so many ways how backward this administration has been:

The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. Top officials delayed for years and tried to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand smoke, he said. Released last year, the report concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.

Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. He also said he was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings.

Trading Shots Over a Vaccine: The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the competition between Merck and GlaxoSmithKline to develop the world’s top cervical-cancer immunization.

That Pew Survey on Mothers And Work: Good analysis from Echidne of the Snakes on Pew’s latest survey.

Bridal Media Send “I-Do” Message on Overspending: “Where once a bride could design a memorable day using an etiquette guide and a good caterer, the specialized wedding media of today feed a $161 billion per year industry enriched at the expense of many of the people it purports to serve,” writes Sheila Gibbons at Women’s eNews.

Is Soap Clean?: This was an ongoing debate one year in my college dorm … The New York Times answers the burning question about sharing individual bars of soap.

Emma Watson is; Hillary Duff is not. Because that would be, like, icky.

If you’re in New York this summer, you can visit the incredible Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. And if you’re in L.A., there’s the well-reviewed WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibit at MOCA. But if you’re summer travels are taking you to other parts of the country, you can still enjoy feminist art. You just need to know where to look.

And for that I recommend the Feminist Art Project, which promotes art events and publications through its website calendar.

Now celebrating its one-year anniversary, this collaborative initiative is administered by the Institute for Women and Art at Rutgers. Besides the events calendar, the website includes a timeline of historic moments in feminist history and other events that had an impact on feminist art. It also works with curators, researchers and artists to promote the study of women and art.

The site is off to a great start, and if you know of events and exhibitions you can submit them here. *A note about the calender — read the exhibition dates closely, as I noticed that a submission can contain multiple dates and locations for one exhibit, and an extra “http://” prefix keeps some sites from opening correctly.

Plus: For anyone visiting Chicago this summer, you might want to consider heading over to the Hull-House Museum to learn more about Jane Addams and other Hull-House pioneers.

But even if you can’t get there, the museum has instituted a new program, Hull-House History on Call, that allows visitors to hear, via their own cell phones, “a changing roster of social activists and humanities scholars” discuss a variety of topics related to the Hull-House mission of social justice.

All you have to do is call (703) 637-9317 and enter a number posted on an exhibit or, if you’re calling from the comfort of your air-conditioned home, use the exhibit numbers on the museum’s website.

Some of the selections available include Bill Ayers, distinguished professor of education at UIC and 1960s antiwar activist, talking about “why Jane Addams was so dangerous,” as evidenced by her FBI file at the museum; and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Helen Caldicott on science, social change and the work of occupational safety pioneer Alice Hamilton, whose photo and biography are on exhibit.

Talk This Up: A study published Friday in the journal Science debunks the myth that women talk more than men. In fact, the researchers concluded that each sex uses an average 16,000 words per day after studying the conversational habits of 396 men and women (college students) for six years.

“I was a little surprised there wasn’t any gender influence, because this stereotype of women talking more is such a powerful, popular idea,” said Richard Slatcher, a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of Texas and one of the authors of the study. “But we were able to directly test the notion, and it’s totally unfounded.”

We’ve covered this language issue before, in response to the statistic published in Louann Brizendine 2006 book, “The Female Brain,” which stated that women use an average of 20,000 words a day, while men use only 7,000 words a day. Mark Liberman wrote a masterful critique of that number’s origin, and the statistic was in fact removed from the book after the first printing. This week, Liberman discussed Brizendine’s amended claim.

“Die Hard’s” Message for the Ages: I saw both the bombastic “Live Free or Die Hard” last weekend and the quiet, intimate “Once.” The second comes with a hearty recommendation. As for the first, well, Mark Blankenship does a great job analyzing the construction of masculinity and the persistence of patriarchy in the “Die Hard” franchise, while this addendum picks up on the sexist and racial stereotypes that left me speechless during the film.

13 Million African Women: “According to the 2004 UNAIDS report Women and HIV/AIDS: Confronting the Crisis, for every 10 African men infected with HIV, there are 13 African women. In sub-Saharan Africa, 13.1 million women are infected,” writes Florence Machio at RH Reality Check. This week, a women-only HIV/AIDS conference, organized by the Young Women Christian Association, is taking place in Nairobi, Kenya.

“For the first time, women are talking amongst themselves to deal with the pandemic and find out women-friendly strategies that work for them,” adds Machio. Also see Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich’s excellent commentary at Women’s eNews on the conference and media coverage of women with HIV/AIDS.

Silence = Wellness?: “In most hospitals, quiet surroundings are considered vital to recuperation. In reality, hospital hallways are often the source of a cacophony of seemingly unavoidable noises: beeping monitors, squeaky medication and meal carts, blaring intercoms, late-night conversations between nurses and patients,” writes Dalton Walker at The New York Times. “But at least one hospital has found a way to dial down the volume on the usual din through a fairly simple noise-reducing program. Now when someone walks down a fifth floor hallway at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, it is not uncommon to hear, well, hardly anything.”

Feminist Book Notes: Courtney Martin, author of “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters,” is going to write a weekly book column for Feministing. Visit on Thursdays for nerdy fun; recommendations welcomed.

Groping Toward Gender Equality. Carol Lloyd at Broadsheet discusses subway gropers in Japan in response to the news that the bodyguard of Japan’s gender equality ministry was arrested on suspicion of molesting a college student on a train. “In a country where men still dominate the business world, schoolgirls are insanely sexualized, and wives are expected to step and fetch it, any minister of gender equity has her work cut out for her without wondering about the intentions of her bodyguard,” writes Lloyd.

Cracks in the Uber Image: The status of women in Finland looks pretty good if you’re looking at, say, the representation of women in politics. Diane Saarinen, writing at Women’s eNews, reflects on the more complicated reality. “Finnish women face the challenge of being superwomen responsible for both private and professional life,” Liesl Yamaguchi, a Fulbright fellow currently studying women in Finnish politics, tells Saarinen. “The advances of Finnish women in the public sphere have not been matched by advances by men into the private one.”

Profiles in Science: This week’s Scout Report points to Profiles in Science: The Mary Lasker Papers: “Jonas Salk referred to the late Mary Lasker as ‘a matchmaker between science and society.’ Lasker passed away in 1994, but her influence is still felt today, as she was a major player in the struggle to expand the National Institutes of Health after World War II. During the post-war period, Lasker successfully entered the largely male-dominated world of policy making and scientific research. On this site created by the National Library of Medicine, visitors can read primary documents related to Lasker’s life and career.”

Looking through it, the section on Lasker’s efforts on behalf of cancer research are particularly interesting.

N.H. Becomes First State to Repeal Parental Notification Law: New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch signed legislation last week repealing a law requiring that a parent be notified before a minor has an abortion. “The 2003 law never took effect because of a court challenge, and the repeal took effect immediately,” reports the Washington Post. “I strongly believe parents should be involved in these decisions, providing important support and guidance. Unfortunately that is not possible in every case,” Lynch said.

HIV Testing and More: RH Reality Check has published a package of stories about HIV testing. Plus, The Choice of Sex Selection marks the first post in a series looking at sex selection in India.

Sing it Loud: More than 1,000 activists attended SisterSong’s national conference in Chicago last month on women of color, sexuality and safety. “At a time when HIV and other sexually transmitted infections disproportionately affect African American and Latina women, the gathering stressed the importance of talking openly about sex instead of allowing societal taboos to prevent conversations about risks and safety,” writes Jeff Fleischer at Women’s eNews.

“Everyone is telling us what not to do, but who’s telling us what to do?” says Loretta Ross, the national coordinator for Atlanta-based SisterSong, a collective of some 80 organizations focused on reproductive health for women of color. “‘Just say no’ ain’t worked for drugs, sex or politicians.”

My Mother’s Symptoms: The American Cancer Society and other groups recently identified a set of symptoms that might point to ovarian cancer. The symptoms were all too familiar to Agnes Krup, who writes at Women’s Voices for Change about losing her mother to ovarian cancer 20 years ago.

Sick Children, Working Moms: “Guilt-ridden mothers share stories of sending ailing kids to day care or school out of fear that staying home with them would result in discipline on the job,” writes Ellen Bravo at The Nation. “These stories don’t surprise me. But what was startling was hearing how many kids drag themselves to school sick to keep a parent from losing pay or getting fired.”

How to Pee Standing Up: Rachel at Women’s Health News does it so we don’t have to. Here’s her review of the P-Mate, a portable urinating device.

OUCH: Tara C. Smith of Aetiology reports on an article in the August issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases about what can happen when a bikini wax goes bad — and, as Smith notes, “it’s every bit as bad as you think.” it’s quite a revealing piece (no pun intended). “The paper,” writes Smith, “is as much about the psychology of beauty and the lengths one will put themself through as it is a report of the infection.”

Walk With Your Work: I’m pretty much tethered to my computer desk/laptop, so this walk-and-work set-up, as reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, sounds kind of cool. Or it’s a reminder I should really get outside more. (Via Spine-Health)

And Another Thing: That would be the name of Katha Pollitt’s new blog at The Nation. Good times ahead …

Legislature Defeats Amendment Defining Marriage as Between a Man and a Woman: “The Legislature, in a vote as swift as it was historic, reaffirmed the state’s first-in-the-nation same-sex marriage ruling yesterday, unequivocally protecting the rights of gays and lesbians to wed in Massachusetts until at least 2012,” reports the Boston Globe. “In Massachusetts today, the freedom to marry is secure,” Gov. Deval Patrick said after the vote.

The Boston Globe has lots of coverage, including reactions from politicians, advocacy organizations and religious groups.

Identifying Symptoms of the “Silent Killer”: The Gynecological Cancer Foundation, the Society of Gynecologist Oncologists and the American Cancer Society have released a consensus statement that identifies a set of symptoms for early stage ovarian cancer. The tricky part is that the symptoms — bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency) — can often be confused with far less dangerous ailments.

“The majority of the time this won’t be ovarian cancer, but it’s just something that should be considered,” Dr. Barbara Goff, the director of gynecologic oncology at the University of Washington in Seattle and an author of several studies that helped identify the relevant symptoms, told The New York Times.

She emphasized that relatively new and persistent problems were the most important ones. So, the transient bloating that often accompanies menstrual periods would not qualify, nor would a lifelong history of indigestion.

Dr. Goff also acknowledged that the urinary problems on the list were classic symptoms of bladder infections, which is common in women. But it still makes sense to consult a doctor, she said, because bladder infections should be treated. Urinary trouble that persists despite treatment is a particular cause for concern, she said.

Goff was also interviewed on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Rachel at Women’s Health News has a great post about the new advice and the rate at which women are often told the problem is “all in their heads.”

Democrats Not Down for the Fight?: “On Wednesday, May 16, advocates were optimistic that legislation requiring emergency contraception to be stocked on all military bases would pass in the House,” writes Beccah Golubock Watson at In These Times. “But then, something mysterious happened.”

Weekend Arts Update: “Martin Puchner, a theater professor at Columbia University, said that more than 100 plays, beginning in the 17th century, have featured Socrates as a character. But Target Margin’s latest offering, he said, may well be the first one in which a young African-American woman plays the part,” reports The New York Times.

A Cinderella Story: Here’s a Rags to Riches tale that isn’t just for the story books — Laura Sillerman provides a feminist analysis of the first filly to win the Belmont Stakes since 1905.

Happy Father’s Day: “While a father may not be entitled to take the same pride in his sperm as he does in his kids, it’s fair to celebrate the single-minded cellular commas that helped give those children their start,” writes Natalie Angier, who writes clinically (and humorously) about the cells that make dad dad.

Meanwhile, Canadian Institutes of Health Research experts are exploring “the biological forces that forge the father-child bond” — specifically that “dads-to-be have showed higher levels of estrogen and prolactin and lower levels of testosterone than non-expectant men.” And Peggy Drexler writes at Women’s eNews about the evolution of father-daughter relationships.

Plus, Broadsheet points to a conservative blogger’s hilarious take on a study by a Yale researcher that found male congressmen who have daughters are more likely to vote in favor of legislation concerning women’s issues than those without daughters. The study was covered by USA Today.

The Sicko Truth: And, for your viewing pleasure … here’s Michael Moore on “Oprah.” (The “Oprah” video was pulled from YouTube; I’ve switched it with Moore’s interview on “Nightline.”) Moore’s new film, “Sicko,” a critique of the U.S. healthcare system, is due out June 29. Read more here. And here’s part two of the video below.

The Kid’s All Right — But Those Grandparents …: Writing about the birth of Samuel David Cheney, the son of Mary Cheney and Heather Poe, Robert-Jay Green, executive director of the Rockway Institute, a national center for LGBT research and public policy, looks at recent studies that show children of lesbian and gay parents are just as emotionally well-adjusted as children who grow up within a traditional mom-and-dad family structure.

No comment, however, on the dysfunctional and maladjusted White House PR machine, which left both mommies out of the official new-baby photograph, instead releasing a photo of the grandparents — Dick and Liz Cheney — with the infant. Props to Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post who wrote, “I can’t bring myself to wield Mary Cheney’s newborn son as a weapon in the culture wars, but it’s tempting.”

Website Pays for Breast Implants: Well, not the website exactly, although that’s the title of this NBC story — the payments actually come from men who can go through women’s online profiles and choose who to donate to. “It works similar to any other social networking Web site like Facebook or Myspace. A guy signs up and a girl signs up they each create their own profile. They got their own bio. They got photos and basically you start trying to meet people on the Web site,” Jason Grunstra, founder of MyFreeImpants.com, said. After-photos are optional. Eck.

Plus: Bigger is not better.

Liberating Iraqi Women: Andrea Lynch at RH Reality Check has a great post on an article penned by “veteran feminist Lt. Col. Oliver North,” who argues that “if Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi were really interested in promoting women’s rights, she would be vigorously promoting the U.S. occupation of Iraq, since ‘the principal protectors of Muslim women today [are] the Armed Forces of the United States.’”

North asserts: “Thanks to young Americans wearing flak jackets and helmets, hundreds of schools have been built for Muslim girls, millions of women have the right to vote, scores of female health care clinics have been opened, and hundreds of thousands of women now work, have their own bank accounts, use cell-phones — even serve in elected office.” But this New York Times story paints a less-rosy picture.

Good News, Bad News: Ann at Feministing neatly sums up the House’s attitude toward family planning programs and abstinence-only education.

Ethnic Plastic Surgery: Describing Washington’s Cultura Medical Spa, which bills itself as “a place where it’s appropriate to treat people based on the color of their skin,” Sandra G. Boodman of the Washington Post writes: “Two-thirds of the center’s patients are nonwhite, many of them black women who in increasing numbers are seeking such procedures as nose jobs and laser hair removal that until recently were largely the province of well-heeled white women. Many of these patients, doctors say, are also seeking treatments that seek to enhance — not obscure — their racial or ethnic characteristics.”

Show Us the Money: Susan E. Reed argues in a New York Times op-ed that “Congress should pass legislation mandating that all workplaces create this kind of transparency by requiring companies to post salaries. It makes sense, especially in light of the court’s decision last week requiring employees to file pay discrimination complaints under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act within 180 days of the last pay adjustment.”

The 5-4 decision came in a case involving a female supervisor at a Goodyear Tire plant in Gadsden, Ala., who was paid less than any of her male colleagues but didn’t learn about the difference until late in her almost 20-year career.

Life as a Feminist: The Asbury Park Press recently profiled former area resident Mary Vasiliades, a 76-year-old novelist, playwright and former journalist who is featured in Barbara’s Love’s “Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975.” Vasiliades was part of a group of women who sneaked onto the Statue of Liberty on Aug. 10, 1970 and unfurled a banner that read, “Women of the World Unite.”

Love said of Vasiliades: “She organized groups and events all over New York City so it was impossible not to know her. She was everywhere. Mary fit the same criteria that all women needed to be mentioned in the book: She was a change-maker. She did things that affected the landscape of the country for women and girls.”

“Feminists Who Changed America” chronicles the achievements of more than 2,000 feminist pioneers, including many of the original founders of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective.

Woman Sues eHarmony for Discrimination: “A Northern California woman sued the online dating service eHarmony on Thursday, alleging it discriminates against gays, lesbians and bisexuals,” according to the AP. “The lawsuit claims that by only offering to find a compatible match for men seeking women or women seeking men, the company was violating state law barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”

Sexual Harassment Training: Sexual harassment training does not invite lawsuits, according to a study by Caren M. Goldberg, a management professor at American University’s Kogod School of Business. “Some organizations have avoided implementing sexual harassment training programs for fear that providing it might increase lawsuits from otherwise unaware victims,” Goldberg said. “But if an employer is sued, proof that sexual harassment training was offered may be one the best defenses. This study indicates that the presumed downside is much ado about nothing.”

Study Finds Less Radiation Effective on Breast Cancer: “Less radiation may be just as good as the standard dose in treating women with early breast cancer, according to a study presented Sunday in Chicago at the world’s biggest cancer meeting,” writes Judy Peres in the Chicago Tribune. “The British study, the biggest to look at the question, found that fewer, larger doses of radiation were as effective at preventing recurrence and did not cause any more side effects. If the results are borne out by similar ongoing studies in the U.S., they could offer a welcome alternative to many American women who now must take six to seven weeks out of their lives to undergo post-surgical radiation.”

Other research presented at the 43rd Annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting:

- According to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, breast cancer survival rates for black women have not improved and the difference in life expectancy between white and black women continues to widen.

- According to researchers at Loyola University Health System, a 21-gene test of a patient’s breast cancer tumor — known as the The Oncotype DX™ Recurrence Score — may change doctor and patient treatment decisions, including the need for chemotherapy.

Human Genome Project Yields Important Results: “In a long-delayed harvest from the human genome project, researchers say they have found six new sites of variation in the genome that increase the risk of breast cancer,” reports The New York Times. “Together with already known genes, the discovery means that a sizable fraction of the overall genetic risk of breast cancer may now have been accounted for, researchers say, and much of the rest could be captured in a few years.”

Nicholas Wade continues: “The findings do not point to any new treatment and are too little understood to serve as the basis of a diagnostic test. But they are a critical step toward understanding the biology of breast cancer, scientists say, from which new treatments should emerge.”

Dairy Council to No Longer Promote Milk’s Link to Weight Loss: Also from the NYT: “A national advertising campaign that associates dairy products with weight loss will be curtailed because research does not support the claim, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The advertisements, conceived by the promotional arm of the dairy industry and overseen by the Agriculture Department, feature slogans like ‘Milk your diet. Lose weight!’ and suggest that three servings of dairy products a day can help people be slim.”

Report Links Discriminatory Beliefs Against Women with Vulnerability to AIDS: A new study released by Physicians for Human Rights connects “widespread discriminatory views against women in Botswana and Swaziland to sexual risk-taking and, in turn, to extremely high HIV prevalence.”

The study, Epidemic of Inequality: Women’s Rights and HIV/AIDS in Botswana & Swaziland: An Evidence-based Report on Gender Inequity, Stigma and Discrimination, reports that 75 percent of HIV-positive 15- to 25-year-olds in sub-Saharan Africa are female.

How Much More “Proof” is Needed?: A California district attorney is under fire for refusing to bring charges against members of the De Anza College baseball team involved in the rape of a 17-year-old girl who was nearly passed out from drinking during the time of the assault. Three young women pushed their way into the room where the girl was being assaulted by one man as seven other men looked on. The women took the victim to the hospital, but could not identify the person assaulting the girl.

California National Organization for Women and the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes have protested in front of the District Attorney Dolores Carr’s office in San Jose, demanding she reconsider, and the girl at the center of the case said this week that she wants her day in court. Carr insists that there’s not enough evidence to bring charges, in part because the team members are not cooperating and witnesses have provided different accounts of what took place. Read more at Broadsheet.

Foreign Correspondents and Sexual Abuse: “Women have risen to the top of war and foreign reportage. They run bureaus in dodgy places and do jobs that are just as dangerous as those that men do. But there is one area where they differ from the boys — sexual harassment and rape,” writes Judith Matloff at Columbia Journalism Review. “Female reporters are targets in lawless places where guns are common and punishment rare. Yet the compulsion to be part of the macho club is so fierce that women often don’t tell their bosses.”

Men Make More Money than Women on Kibbutzim: “Although the communal farms were once thought of as egalitarian communities, the current reality shows a different picture,” according to a study by professors at the University of Haifa’s Institute for Research on the Kibbutz. “Fifty-three percent of male kibbutz members earn more than the NIS 7,300 monthly average gross wage, while only 23% of women members do so. 66% of the men think their work provides a proper livelihood while only 47% of the women do.”

New York’s Schools for Pregnant Girls Will Close: “The schools’ demise, like their origins, may be a sign of changing times,” reports The New York Times. “Pregnancy schools across the country appear to be slowly fading away, partly stemming from the decade-long declining rate of teenage pregnancy and partly because of the idea that the girls should not be segregated from other students.”

Urban Theater Puts Teens Center Stage: “At a time when young women are often the silent subject of a cacophonous public debate — the scandal over radio host Don Imus, sex education in public schools, accusations of misogyny directed toward hip-hop culture — ViBe Theater Experience provides them the chance to speak for themselves,” Courtney Martin writes at Women’s eNews. The 5-year-old theater group has produced 15 full-length plays for more than 4,000 audience members and has worked with more than 100 urban teens between the ages of 13 and 19.

Wish List: “Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks”: I just came across this review, though it looks like “Girls Who Bite Back” was first published a few years ago. Definitely a must for the summer-reading pile!