When Chick Flicks Get Knocked Up: “Eventually, your female friends — the ones who married late and retained youthful obsessions with Yo La Tengo and graphic art books until forty — may shock you by having children,” writes Alissa Quart at Mother Jones. “This year, at least, they have cinematic alter egos; those millennium Mary Tyler Moores Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt have left their cosmos and canned laughter behind and gotten knocked up onscreen too. In the process, they have created a new genre: The Fertility Film. But are the new fertility film stars actually feminists?” (via Feministing)

Silicone Gel Implants May Lose Approval: From our enlightened neighbor to the north … “Health Canada may have to reverse its controversial 2006 decision to allow women to get silicone gel-filled breast implants if it proceeds with a plan to declare key chemicals found in them to be toxic, experts say,” reports The Ottawa Citizen. (via Beauty and the Breast)

South Carolina Supreme Court Overturns Conviction: “A South Carolina woman convicted of homicide by child abuse after her stillborn baby tested positive for cocaine should get a new trial because of several mistakes her attorneys made, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday,” reports the Associated Press. “Attorneys for Regina McKnight did not introduce the baby’s autopsy report into evidence and failed to rebut the prosecution’s medical expert, the court said in the unanimous decision.”

Prosecutors have 15 days to decide whether to appeal. From the Myrtle Beach Online:

Attorneys for the National Advocates for Pregnant Women and the S.C. Civil Liberties Union became involved in McKnight’s case when she asked for post-conviction relief.

“The groups got involved because there is complete consensus that prosecuting pregnant women is bad for mothers and babies,” said Lynn Paltrow, with the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. “Regina McKnight was convicted on junk science and was not fairly represented at trial.”

A Place to Pump: “Washington area women have hooked up electric or manual versions in parked cars, restrooms, a telephone booth and the basement storage room of the National Zoo visitors center, where a box of panda costumes doubled this spring as a table on which one woman set her pump, bottles and other equipment,” writes Rebecca Adams at the Washington Post.

“Not perhaps what the D.C. Council had in mind when it passed a law in December requiring employers to provide female workers a private, clean space, outside a restroom, to express milk. The Child’s Right to Nurse Act also gives a woman the right to breast-feed, covered or not, in any place, public or private, where she has a right to be.”

Maternal Exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants Linked to Urologic Conditions in Boys: This release from the American Urological Association summarizes studies that confirm existing hypotheses that maternal exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals – including total polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, such as Arochlor) and organochlorinated pesticides (such as dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane, or DDT) may contribute to an increased incidences of congenital anomalies.

Mammograms Coupled with Ultrasounds: Deborah Katz of U.S. News & World Report looks at new research on combining mammography and ultrasounds, which may be better for finding cancers in some women, but it also greatly increases the rate of false-positive results. Plus: Check out our analysis on routine mammograms for premenopausal women.

The Business of Bacteria: The L.A. Times reports on the popularity of probioitics, live "friendly" bacteria that is showing up in more foods, like Dannon’s Activia yogurt. “Companies claim that the daily consumption of probiotics can provide consumers with benefits such as a boost to the immune system and relief from intestinal distress — and researchers think that certain probiotic strains hold promise in a number of areas,” writes Brendan Borrell. “But how significant these benefits are is a matter of debate. And it can be tough to decipher which products offer verifiable health claims and which are piggybacking on the hype of the booming industry.

Doctors Start to Say “I’m Sorry” Long Before “See You in Court”: The New York Times reports on a change in hospital policy: full disclosure when a doctor makes a mistake. Kevin Sack writes:

For decades, malpractice lawyers and insurers have counseled doctors and hospitals to “deny and defend.” Many still warn clients that any admission of fault, or even expression of regret, is likely to invite litigation and imperil careers.

But with providers choking on malpractice costs and consumers demanding action against medical errors, a handful of prominent academic medical centers, like Johns Hopkins and Stanford, are trying a disarming approach.

By promptly disclosing medical errors and offering earnest apologies and fair compensation, they hope to restore integrity to dealings with patients, make it easier to learn from mistakes and dilute anger that often fuels lawsuits.

Malpractice lawyers say that what often transforms a reasonable patient into an indignant plaintiff is less an error than its concealment, and the victim’s concern that it will happen again.

Culture Affects How Teen Girls See Harassment: “Teenage girls of all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds still experience sexism and sexual harassment – but cultural factors may control whether they perceive sexism as an environmental problem or as evidence of their own shortcomings,” according to this release from the University of Kentucky summarizing a study of 600 girls, ages 12 to 18, in California and Georgia.

Ninety percent of the girls reported experiencing at least one incident of sexual harassment, the researchers from University of Kentucky and University of California Santa Cruz found.

Specifically, 67 percent of girls reported receiving unwanted romantic attention, 62 percent were exposed to demeaning gender-related comments, 58 percent were teased because of their appearance, 52 percent received unwanted physical contact and 25 percent were bullied or threatened with harm by a male. 52 percent of girls also reported receiving discouraging gender-based comments on the math, science and computer abilities, usually from male peers, and 76 percent of girls reported sexist comments on their athletic abilities, again
predominantly from male peers.

The researchers found that girls have different levels of understanding of sexism and sexual harassment, which may affect reporting data. Older girls and those from a lower socioeconomic background reported more sexism than did their peers. Latin and Asian American girls reported less sexual harassment than did girls of other ethnic groups. Girls who had been exposed to feminist ideas, either through the media or an adult such as a mother or teacher, were more likely to identify and report sexist behavior than were girls who had no information about feminism. Girls who reported feeling pressure from their parents to conform to gender stereotypes were also more likely to perceive sexism. Girls who felt atypical for their gender and/or were unhappy with stereotypical gender roles were most likely to report sexism and harassment.

The study appears in the May/June issue of Child Development.

The California Supreme Court has overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, by a vote of 4-3.

From The New York Times:

The court’s 4-to-3 decision striking down state laws that had limited marriages to unions between a man and a woman makes California only the second state, after Massachusetts, to allow same-sex marriages. The decision, which becomes effective in 30 days, is certain to play a role in the presidential campaign.

“In view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship,” Chief Justice Ronald M. George wrote of marriage for the majority, “the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples.”

Of course, it’s not all smooth sailing from here, as the L.A. Times notes:

The state high court’s 4-3 ruling was unlikely to end the debate over gay matrimony in California. A group has circulated petitions for a November ballot initiative that would amend the state Constitution to block same-sex marriage, while the Legislature has twice passed bills to authorize gay marriage. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed both.

Here’s a PDF of the court ruling and reactions in California. Our reaction: w00t!

There are a number of interesting stories in The New York Times, so let’s do a mini-double dose …

Pain as an Art Form: Well’s Tara Parker-Pope does a nice job describing how art is used to communicate physical pain, from some of Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits (now on exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art) to a new online gallery called the Pain Exhibit.

The gallery is the brainchild of Mark Collen, 47, a former insurance salesman who struggled to explain his chronic back pain to a new doctor.

“It was only when I started doing art about pain, and physicians saw the art, that they understood what I was going through,” Collen said. “Words are limiting, but art elicits an emotional response.”

Taking it a step further, Collen started soliciting art from pain patients around the world. He teamed up with James Gregory, a 21-year-old college student who suffers from chronic pain following a car accident, and together they created the Pain Exhibit.

Parker-Pope writes:

Finding ways to communicate pain is essential to patients who are suffering, many of whom don’t receive adequate treatment from doctors. In January, Virtual Mentor, the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics, reported that certain groups are less likely to receive adequate pain care. Hispanics are half as likely as whites to receive pain medications in emergency rooms for the same injuries; older women of color have the highest likelihood of being undertreated for cancer pain; and being uneducated is a risk factor for poor pain care in AIDS patients, the journal reported.

Some of the images from the Pain Exhibit, like “Broken People” by Robert S. Beal of Tulsa, Okla., depict the physical side of pain. Others, such as “Against the Barrier to Life,” convey the emotional challenges of chronic pain. “I feel like I am constantly fighting against a tidal wave of pain in order to achieve some quality of life,” wrote the work’s creator, Judith Ann Seabrook of Happy Valley in South Australia. “I am in danger of losing the fight and giving up.”

The art is connecting with medical professionals. The journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain features an image from the exhibit on the cover of its November issue, which focuses on women and pain.

Quieting the Demons and Giving Art a Voice: Like sculpture and painting, writing is also a form of expression and release. This review looks at “Madness: A Bipolar Life,” a new memoir by Marya Hornbacher, whom writer Abigail Zuger, MD, describes as “a virtuoso writer: humorous, articulate and self-aware. She is also, as she has now documented in two books, incurably mentally ill.”

Zuger continues:

For scientists trying to parse the mystery of brain and mind, she is one more case of the possible link between mental illness and artistic creativity. With all our scans and neurotransmitters, we are not much closer to figuring out that relationship than was Lord Byron, who announced that poets are “all crazy” and left it at that. But effective drugs make the question more urgent now: would Virginia Woolf, medicated, have survived to write her final masterpiece, or would she have spent her extra years happily shopping?

Ms. Hornbacher brings to the discussion more than the usual pairing of disturbed brain and talented mind. Her talent has created a third self, an appealing, rueful narrator who can look back on three decades of manic-depressive illness, much of it untreated, and spin a story that is almost impossible to put down.

Zuger also considers “Poets on Prozac: Mental Illness, Treatment and the Creative Process,” edited by Richard M. Berlin, M.D. Essays were solicited from published poets with psychiatric illness.

“Most of the 16 contributors are decades older than Ms. Hornbacher, but while they may lack her vivid prose style, they do supply a long-term perspective on the terrain,” writes Zuger.

Genes Explain Race Disparity in Response to a Heart Drug: This is a fascinating story. Researchers at Washington University and the University of Maryland found that patients who are non-responsive to a beta-blockers used in the treatment of heart failure may be making what amounts to their version of the drug, all the time, due to a gene variant.

What’s also surprising is that as many as 40 percent of blacks have this altered gene, compared to 2 percent of whites. The website of the journal Nature Medicine published a paper explaining the study.

“Something that occurs with a 40 percent frequency is not something that was a blip on the radar screen,” said Dr. Gerald W. Dorn, a cardiologist at Washington University and principal investigator for the study. “It must have given a survival advantage.” — Though what that advantage is is still the big unknown.

Gina Kolata writes:

The discovery raises questions about whom to treat with beta blockers and how to decide, researchers say. But, they add, its implications go beyond heart failure.

For example, the gene variant may help explain why some healthy people cannot exercise vigorously — they may be making chemicals that act like beta blockers, making their hearts beat less forcefully. And variations in other genes might explain why some people with different conditions, like depression, do not respond to drugs used to treat it. It is possible that those people are already making their own versions of antidepressant drugs, and that adding more may not help.

But researchers say that people who make their own beta blockers are not protected from developing heart failure. That is because beta blockers are helpful only after the disease is established. And beta blockers can slow the disease’s progress but not cure it.

Through Sickness, Health and Sex Change: Finally, here’s a story from the Sunday paper about a married couple in New Jersey who are concerned about the legal status of their relationship, since the male partner underwent a sex change in 2005. The couple, who have three children, are still very much committed to each other. Tina Kelley writes:

Massachusetts is the only state to have legalized same-sex marriage, and the Brunners are two women married to each other in New Jersey. As this state (along with Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire) confronts challenges over whether its civil unions fulfill the mandate of providing same-sex couples equal rights and benefits, the Brunners offer themselves as Exhibit A on how the nation’s dizzying patchwork of marriage laws, which include the domestic partnerships of California and other states, may be out of step with people’s lives.

And here’s another mind-blowing breakdown of the complexities state by state:

The Brunners were already married when Donald became Denise. Transsexuals who marry after surgery pose a different set of questions, and there have been a number of custody, probate and other cases with decisions all over the legal map.

Urging the United States Supreme Court to tackle the issue in 2000, lawyers for Christie Lee Littleton, a Texas male-to-female transsexual suing her husband’s doctors for wrongful death, noted the confused landscape: “Taking this situation to its logical conclusion, Mrs. Littleton, while in San Antonio, Texas, is a male and has a void marriage; as she travels to Houston, Texas, and enters federal property, she is female and a widow; upon traveling to Kentucky she is female and a widow; but, upon entering Ohio, she is once again male and prohibited from marriage; entering Connecticut, she is again female and may marry; if her travel takes her north to Vermont, she is male and may marry a female; if instead she travels south to New Jersey, she may marry a male.”

The Supreme Court declined to take the case.

The Big Push for Midwives: Great post by Amy G. about the campaign for the regulation and licensure of certified professional midwives. Amy mentions a number of blog posts on the issue, including ours.

Metabolic Syndrome Is Tied to Diet Soda: “This is interesting,” said Lyn M. Steffen, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota and a co-author of the paper, which was posted online in the journal Circulation on Jan. 22. “Why is it happening? Is it some kind of chemical in the diet soda, or something about the behavior of diet soda drinkers?”

I don’t know, but it makes me see red ….

Feeling Bad?: Those susceptible to Seasonal Affective Disorder, take note: Chicago had 11 — count ‘em — 11 minutes of sunshine during the first eight days of February. Chicago Tribune health columnist Julie Deardorff writes that she is going to try a sauna that that “uses infrared energy to warm the body and release toxins.” Readers, if you have suggestions for coping with a long gray winter, please leave them in the comments.

Why I am an Abortion Doctor: “I can take an anxious woman, who is in the biggest trouble she has ever experiences in her life, and by performing a five-minute operation, in comfort and dignity, I can give her back her life.” — Canadian abortion doctor Garson Romalis, who has survived being shot and stabbed because of his work.

NYT Op-Ed on Same-Sex Marriage Ruling: “In a decision at once common-sensical and profound, a New York State appeals court ruled Friday that same-sex marriages validly performed in other jurisdictions are entitled to recognition in New York. It was common sense because it simply accorded same-sex marriages the same legal status as other marriages. It was profound because of the way it could transform the lives of gay people.” Continue reading …

A Health Law With Holes: “This idea of an individual mandate absent comprehensive reform – how to say this politely? – is nuts. It makes a social failure the problem of the individual,” writes Robert Kuttner in an op-ed published in the Boston Globe about health care in Massachusetts.

Health Cuts Trigger Crisis in Chicago: In a front-page story on Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported on what doctors are calling “an emerging health crisis” in the city, with “hundreds of women with abnormal Pap smears, unusual bleeding, pelvic masses and other worrisome symptoms are waiting for weeks or months to see gynecologists in the Cook County health system.”

“The longer women wait for care, gynecological experts warn, the more likely it is that untreated medical problems could worsen, exposing the women to severe pain, cancers that are harder to treat or even life-threatening emergencies.”

Breastfeeding and HIV-Infected Mothers: “An antiretroviral drug already in widespread use in the developing world to prevent the transmission of HIV from infected mothers to their newborns during childbirth has also been found to substantially cut the risk of subsequent HIV transmission during breast-feeding,” according to this release from the John Hopkins Center for Clinical Global Health Education. Approximately 150,000 infants are infected through breastfeeding each year.

The findings were made public during the 15th Conference on Retroviruses and and Opportunistic Infections held in Boston this past week.

Another study presented at the conference found that the risk of HIV transmission decreased by 90 percent within couples in which one person is HIV-positive and the other is HIV-negative — if the HIV-positive person took antiretrovirals, which drive down the level of HIV in the blood.

“Getting an early diagnosis, and getting treatment to drive down viral load, is going to be good for prevention,” said Dr. Rebecca Bunnell, a researcher for the CDC in Kampala, Uganda, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

SF Chronicle writer Sabin Russel described the study as “one of the few rays of hope” to come out of the conference, “a meeting that has been dominated by discussions of setbacks, such as the failure of a major AIDS vaccine trial that was abruptly ended in September.”

And The New York Times reports on yet another study that was discussed, one that showed that male circumcision did not result in a lower risk of transmission for female partners. “Although the findings did not reach statistical significance, they still underscore the need for more effective education among men who undergo circumcision and their female partners, the authors of the study said,” reports the Times.

Black Women and Maternal Health: Molly M. Ginty, writing at Women’s eNews, covers the findings of five reports released by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies on black maternal health and racial inequities:

The center’s 19-member Courage to Love: Infant Mortality Commission — funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and partnering with the UCLA School of Public Affairs and the University of Michigan’s NIH Roadmap Disparities Center — says the health problems of black women and black infants stem not just from inadequate medical care but from stress, racism, poverty and other social pressures.

Released during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference from Sept. 26 to 29, the reports also coincide with a meeting organized by the Joint Center and the Washington-based Black Women’s Agenda for 250 representatives of black women’s organizations in Washington, D.C. Attendees will discuss the reports and preview “Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?” an upcoming PBS television series that explores race and health.

In the five reports — one on breastfeeding, one on nutrition, two on infant mortality and one summarizing the others — commission members address the possible reasons for black women’s negative birth outcomes.

Continue reading Ginty’s story here.

For Starters, Try Talking to Women: Laura L. Mays Hoopes, a writer and molecular biology professor at Pomona College, offers 10 suggestions aimed at men who want to help retain women working in the sciences. The Scientist magazine published the suggestions online last week, ahead of publication in the magazine’s January issue, to spark a discussion of gender bias in science. Suggestions and comments are encouraged.

Using a Breast Pump from the Start: Chicago Tribune health columnist Julie Deardorff writes about skipping breastfeeding directly and going straight to using a breast pump. Predictably, debate follows. Earlier entries on breastfeeding, including a history of La Leche League International, are here.

Plus: “Facebook is getting an online scolding after the social networking site deleted pictures of nursing babies it considered “obscene content” and closed the account of at least one Canadian mom,” reports the Toronto Star. (via Aetiology, which has lots more good links and analysis.)

Condom Accusations Spark Anger: The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique, Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio, angered AIDS activists last week after telling the BBC he believes some European-made condoms and some anti-retroviral drugs have been deliberately infected with HIV “in order to finish quickly the African people.”

According to the BBC, it is estimated that 16.2 percent of Mozambique’s 19 million inhabitants are HIV positive. The Catholic Church’s official doctrines oppose condoms.

Plus: Broadsheet did a wrap-up Friday of other condom-related news …

Rural Mothers Have Higher Employment Rate: A new study by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire shows that rural mothers with children under age 6 have higher employment rates than their urban counterparts, but have higher poverty rates, lower wages, and lower family income.

The Happiness Gap: Is there a growing “happiness gap” between men and women? Researchers seem to think so, reports The New York Times.

What’s Missing on TV: “Your chances of seeing a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender character on the broadcast networks in prime time this new TV season are about the same as your chances of seeing a talking fish or caveman,” writes Washington Post TV critic Lisa de Moraes.

The latest “Where We Are on TV” report, created by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, found that there are only seven regular LGBT television characters this season, out of 650 regular lead or supporting characters, featured in just five scripted programs.

“On the new prime-time schedules, LGBT characters represent just 1.1 percent of those 650 characters,” adds de Moreas. “In real life, based on U.S. Census projections, LGBT marketing companies estimate 15.3 million adults identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, which would be about 6.8 percent of the population.”

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.

“Few issues symbolize India’s contrasts and divisions more than the debate over public displays of affection, which touches on issues related to family values, politics and just how much and how fast India should mirror the West,” writes Emily Wax, in an interesting Washington Post story published a week ago Sunday.

A decade after the once-chaste Bollywood film industry got away with its first on-screen kiss on the lips, the proliferation of sexual displays in music videos, film and literature has angered a small but vociferous minority of Hindu conservatives, who say they want to preserve India’s vaunted and ancient heritage from what they see as the vapid values that come with globalization. [...]

“Moral police,” sometimes organized by regional Hindu nationalist parties and sometimes just vigilantes with a point of view, have been increasingly on the prowl recently. Last month, Hindu extremist mobs attacked Star TV offices in Mumbai, the cultural capital of the country, for airing a story on an interfaith couple who had eloped.

In the past year, members of a conservative Hindu nationalist party have attacked stores carrying Valentine’s Day cards, and a government-appointed committee has banned a channel called Fashion TV. Sex education books have been blacklisted in some state schools.

At the same time, notes Wax, there has been some criticism that the commotion over kissing is distracting from real issues:

“Where’s the outrage when a woman is raped by her brother-in-law or when thousands of daughters of India are killed every year for an unpaid dowry?” asked Girija Vyas, chairwoman of the National Commission for Women, who sat in her Delhi government office last week fielding calls from girls trying to escape abusive arranged marriages. “These protesters should come out when someone is raped.”

“Domestic violence, bride burning and sex-selective abortion . . . are all still there in many Indian lives,” Vyas said. “We should be opening the sky for Indian women and for India, not wasting energy when someone kisses a woman versus rapes her. These extremists are dividing society.”

New York’s governor seems ready to put New York at the center of the same-sex marriage debate.

According to The New York Times, Gov. Eliot Spitzer will introduce a bill in the coming weeks to legalize same-sex marriage in New York. Though the bill is unlikely to muster enough support in the state Legislature this year, gay rights activists are enthusiastic about it being part of the governor’s agenda.

Gary Parker, the founder of Greater Voices, a coalition of gay-oriented political clubs in New York City, said the fact that every statewide elected official now supports gay marriage had heartened advocates.

“During the Pataki administration, there was a lot of frustration,” Mr. Parker said. “We felt extremely stagnant and stifled. Now there is movement. And the fact that there is discussion is progress.”

Maybe, just maybe, this legislation will propel Spitzer to the ranks of People Allowed to Ask American Idol Cast-Off Sanjaya Malakar for an Autograph.

The American Prospect has outdone itself with a massive issue that is, quite literally, the Mother Load.

“Why Can’t America Have a Family-Friendly Workplace?” the cover asks. Inside you’ll find a special report on work/family politics that grew out of a 2006 conference titled “Who Cares: Dilemmas of Work and Family in the 21st Century,” sponsored by the Council on Contemporary Families.

The American Prospect website includes almost every article in full, along with related reports and advocacy, research and blog links. Web-only stories on work/family issues will be posted throughout the month, so keep checking back for new content. This is a must-save resource for current and future discussions.

One small note: Currently, the only aspect addressed by a male writer deals specifically with the role of fathers. There’s no shortage of male bylines in general, of course, but there always seems to be a paucity when the coverage is about work/family issues — even though both sexes are affected by the lack of institutional support and by damaging gender and cultural stereotypes.

Just as we crave women’s voices in traditionally male journalistic and political realms, we also need men to represent themselves on what traditionally have been considered “women’s issues.” This is essential not only to demonstrate that men have a real stake in these public policy debates, but also as a reference to male readers that this is an important political conversation.

As of 12:01 a.m. Monday, New Jersey became the third state in the country to offer civil unions for same-sex couples. From The New York Times:

The Legislature modeled its civil union law on those of Vermont and Connecticut, which allow for same-sex couples to take another’s surname without a court hearing, be able to jointly adopt and be entitled to inheritances. California also allows civil unions, Hawaii and Maine offer limited rights to same-sex couples and Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay marriage. [...]

Stuart J. Rabner, the state attorney general, said last week that couples who exchanged vows in states that have existing civil union laws were automatically entitled to the same rights in the Garden State. In addition, Mr. Rabner said that gay couples married in Massachusetts, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa and Spain would also receive civil union rights in the state.

“The name of the relationship selected by other jurisdictions, however, will not control its treatment under New Jersey law,” Mr. Rabner said in a statement.

The first couple to be granted all the legal rights of marriage under the new law had already had a civil union in Vermont in 2002, but they wanted to be sure there was no doubt about their status in New Jersey.

“We’re scared that if there’s an emergency, and someone looks up whether we are civil unionized in New Jersey, who wants to go into an explanation that New Jersey automatically recognizes Vermont unions?” Garden State Equality Chair Steven Goldstein said. “It just seems safer to have the piece of paper from New Jersey.”

Unlike their first civil union, which was a lavish affair, this time the couple kept it simple — and political. According to the Bergen Record:

The ceremony took place above a Blockbuster Video, in the non-descript office of state Senator Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), who co-authored the civil union law and served as their witness.

And instead of reading wedding vows, the couple pledged to press on with their campaign to lobby for same-sex couples’ equal access to marriage.

“Do you, Daniel, vow to continue fighting for true marriage equality, so that couples like you can legally marry in the state of New Jersey one day soon?” Rabbi Elliott Tepperman asked, in a twist that was not written by Trenton legislators.

“I do,” said Daniel Gross, as did Goldstein.

Here’s more close-up coverage from BlueJersey.com.

Now, about those public displays of affection …

Abstinence Only Sex Ed Finds Few Scientific Fans: “There is no good scientific evidence that teaching abstinence to teenagers will by itself prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, say the authors of a recent study. Yet they found that comprehensive sex education is declining and that more youngsters are being taught nothing more than abstinence,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

States Fund Anti-Abortion Advice: “At least eight states — including Florida, Missouri and Pennsylvania — use public funds to subsidize crisis pregnancy centers, Christian homes for unwed mothers and other programs explicitly designed to steer women away from abortion. As a condition of the grants, counselors are often barred from referring women to any clinic that provides abortions; in some cases, they may not discuss contraception either,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

Love Marriages in India Break Usual Arrangements: “When Shilpa Shetty, a Bollywood star, won the ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ reality television show in Britain recently, her mother’s first piece of advice was predictable: Seize the moment! Land yourself a husband!,” writes Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent Laurie Goering. “Parents just about everywhere are notorious for urging their offspring to settle down and produce grandchildren. But in India, where family-negotiated marriages remain the norm, ensuring that their children marry well is an obsession.”

The good news is that as women gain education and financial independence, they “are financially empowered to move away from the doormat status they had in marriage in earlier times,” said Shobha De, a Mumbai writer of racy novels, authority on love and author of “Spouse: The Truth About Marriage.”

But at this point, newspapers are still filled with matrimonial ads written by parents seeking suitable matches for their children — the most desirable brides (and grooms) must come from high-status families and have fair-skin. Which leads us to …

Who’s the Fairest of Them All?: Over at Feministing, Ann points to an Indian commercial for Fair & Lovely skin whitener. She writes:

High-end whiteners are also sold by Chanel and Shiseido in the U.S. But they’re huge in countries like China, India and Malaysia, where they help perpetuate the idea that whiter skin = more respect = success in life. They also pose health risks.

As Salon points out, the popularity of Fair & Lovely (the best-selling whitening cream in the world) provides fodder for a debate about whether marketing to lower-income populations helps or hurts them. [...]

But Fair & Lovely isn’t a step up or solution; it only enforces the prejudices that contribute to economic and social inequality.

Skin Color and Salary: Legal immigrants in the United States with a lighter skin tone made more money than those with darker skin, according to a new study by Vanderbilt University professor of law and economics. Using data from 2,084 men and women who participated in the 2003 New Immigrant Survey, Joni Hersch found that immigrants with the lightest skin color earned, on average, 8 percent to 15 percent more than immigrants with the darkest skin tone. After accounting for other factors, discrimination, said Hersch, was the strongest explanation for the salary difference.

Death is so Hot in Pink!: R.J. Reynolds introduces Camel No. 9, a “light and luscious” cigarette marketed to women. “Of course, advertising like this is nothing new,” writes Elizabeth Hemmerdinger. “Though it does seem even more ridiculous now that we know how deadly cigarette smoking is — and how particularly dangerous it is to women.”

Big, Beautiful and Not White: It’s the third week in a row for linking to a body-image story by the Washington Post’s Robin Givhan. This time around, check out the write-up by Tracy Clark-Flory.

St. Louis Surgeon Transplants Ovary: “A renowned infertility expert in suburban St. Louis transplanted a whole ovary from Lagos’ sister into [Joy] Lagos, a step that could enable her to have children. Dr. Sherman Silber completed the transplant Feb. 5, after performing the same procedure between twins last month,” reports the AP (via the Washington Post). Betsy Taylor writes:

The operations are believed to the first whole-ovary transplants ever done in the United States. Surgeons in China reported a successful transplant earlier this decade, but offered scant details.

The surgery could restore normal hormone function for women going through early menopause, whether because of cancer treatments or other, unexplained causes. It also could mean that one day, a woman with cancer could freeze an ovary, undergo chemotherapy and radiation, and have her own ovary returned later to restore her fertility.

Because the sisters are closely matched biologically, the recipient does not need immune-suppressing drugs to prevent organ rejection. “If they’re not a close match, we’re not ready to tackle that yet,” Silber said.

Jennifer Baumgardner’s story in the February issue of Glamour magazine explains what’s behind “purity balls,” where men exchange rings and vows — with their daughters. If it sounds a little creepy, well, it is. Just consider the title: “Would you pledge your virginity to your father?”

Welcome to Colorado Springs’ Seventh Annual Father-Daughter Purity Ball, held at the five-star Broadmoor Hotel. The event’s purpose is, in part, to celebrate dad-daughter bonding, but the main agenda is for fathers to vow to protect the girls’ chastity until they marry and for the daughters to promise to stay pure. Pastor Randy Wilson, host of the event and cofounder of the ball, strides to the front of the room, takes the microphone and asks the men, “Are you ready to war for your daughters’ purity?”

Wilson’s voice is jovial, yet his message is serious — and spreading like wildfire. Dozens of these lavish events are held every year, mainly in the South and Midwest, from Tucson to Peoria and New Orleans, sponsored by churches, nonprofit groups and crisis pregnancy centers. The balls are all part of the evangelical Christian movement, and they embody one of its key doctrines: abstinence until marriage. Thousands of girls have taken purity vows at these events over the past nine years. While the abstinence movement itself is fairly mainstream — about 10 percent of teen boys and 16 percent of girls in the United States have signed virginity pledges at churches, rallies or programs sponsored by groups such as True Love Waits — purity balls represent its more extreme edge.

Baumgardner does a good job of describing how protecting girls’ virginity has become “a national, not just familial, concern” and covering the commercial and social culture that has built up around the abstinence only movement. She also discusses the importance of fathers playing a role in their daughters lives and treats everyone she interviews with great respect.

“Encouraging girls to avoid sleeping around is, without a doubt, a good thing,” writes Baumgardner. “The same goes for dad-daughter bonding; research shows that girls who have solid relationships with their fathers are more likely to grow up to be confident, self-respecting, successful women and to make wise choices along the way. Question is, is putting girls’ purity on a pedestal the way to achieve these all-important goals?”

The answer, both from a public policy standpoint as well as from a feminist perspective, is a clear “No.” Teen pregnancy rates are on the decline, and experts credit most of the progress to improved contraceptive use, not virginity pledges. And then there’s that pesky patriarchy to deal with.

“In patriarchy, a father owns a girl’s sexuality,” psychologist and feminist author Carol Gilligan tells Glamour. “And like any other property, he guards it, protects it, even loves it.”

Or, as Eve Ensler puts it: “When you sign a pledge to your father to preserve your virginity, your sexuality is basically being taken away from you until you sign yet another contract, a marital one. It makes you feel like you’re the least important person in the whole equation. It makes you feel invisible.”

Some of the girls interviewed aren’t even clear about what the purity pledge means. But they do enjoy getting all dressed up for a special night.

Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican presidential contender and conservative darling, inched ever so slightly toward the center with the announcement that he would no longer discriminate openly against gays and lesbians.

Well, that’s not exactly what he said. Neil A. Lewis writes in the Times:

Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, who blocked the confirmation of a woman to the federal bench because she attended a same-sex commitment ceremony for the daughter of her long-time neighbors, says he will now allow a vote on the nomination.

Mr. Brownback, a possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, said in a recent interview that when the Senate returned in January, he would allow a vote on Janet Neff, a 61-year-old Michigan state judge, who was nominated to a Federal District Court seat.

Mr. Brownback, who has been criticized for blocking the nomination, said he would also no longer press a proposed solution he offered on Dec. 8 that garnered even more criticism: that he would remove his block if Judge Neff agreed to recuse herself from all cases involving same-sex unions.

Continue reading here. My, how far presidential contenders will go so as not to appear too extreme …

Focus on the Family Founder James Dobson stands accused of misrepresenting the research of Carol Gilligan and Dr. Kyle Pruett, who were both cited in Dobson’s recent Time magazine guest column arguing against same-sex parenting, “Two Mommies Is One Too Many.”

Media Matters has a good breakdown of Dobson’s cherry-picked assertions and the response from Giligan and Pruett, the latter of whom has asked Dobson to refrain from quoting from his research in “media campaigns, personal or corporate, without previously securing my permission.”

Dobson began his column by noting that he and other social conservatives were asked to respond to the news that Mary Cheney, daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, is pregnant and will raise the child with her partner, Heather Poe.

To which I have to ask: Why? What does Dobson have to say that we haven’t already heard before?

Was it enlightening for any Time reader to learn that Dobson believes “birth and adoption are the purview of married heterosexual couples”?

Or that “traditional marriage is God’s design for the family and is rooted in biblical truth”?

Dobson writes near the top that implicit to the invitation to comment on Mary Cheney “is an effort to get us to criticize the Bush Administration or the Cheney family,” and he uses that as cover for writing a supposedly non-political response “about what kind of family environment is best for the health and development of children, and, by extension, the nation at large.”

But Dobson’s views on the best family environment are nothing but political — and pathetically over-played. The fact that he’s misrepresenting research to suit his politics is the only newsworthy item. Maybe Time will invite commentary about his truthiness.

E.J. Graff’s betting on the future of same-sex marriage in the United States — with wedding bells ringing from coast to coast within 20 years — and I’m betting she’s right. Graff’s stats on the global state of same-sex marriage are pretty heartwarming:

While you were enjoying November’s tilt away from the far right, there’s some more good news you may have missed: The world is steadily warming toward same-sex couples. Just two days ago, the U.K. celebrated the one-year anniversary of its civil partnership law, which legally recognizes same-sex couples. And in November, both Israel and South Africa (a very odd couple indeed) joined the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and Spain in recognizing marriages between two women or two men. That brings to total number of nations that have done so to six, in as many years, with the Scandinavian countries now jockeying to see which will be next.

And back at home, by any number of measures, it’s clear a seismic shift is underway. “Americans, like others all over the world, are slowly but steadily getting comfortable with their LGBT sisters, uncles, neighbors and coworkers — and becoming more and more willing to have the state recognize their bonds,” writes Graff, ticking off states that either have recently or are on the brink of passing civil union-style laws. Graff’s research also covers gains in opinion polls and the fading support for anti-gay constitutional amendments and statutes, as demonstrated in November.

Of course, it may take some folks a bit longer than others to come around. Paul Cameron, chairman of the Family Research Institute, clearly has some work to do. Cameron not only says very mean things about the vice president’s daughter Mary Cheney, who is gay and pregnant with her first child — “Cheney is cruel to children,” blasts Cameron — but he apparently likes to make up facts to suit his bigotry. How very un-Christian-like!

In the fact-based world, the truth of the matter is that Cheney and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, face a rough road if they choose to raise their child in their home state of Virginia, which isn’t exactly Massachusetts when it comes to supporting the rights of same-sex parents, as the Advocate reminds us:

Unless they move to a handful of less restrictive states, Heather will never be able to have a legal relationship with her child. If something were to happen to Mary and Heather needed to advocate for their child in an emergency room, at school, in the courts, the state of Virginia would not recognize Heather as a parent to their child. If Mary some day chose to deny Heather access to their children in terms of custody or visitation, Heather would have no legal standing to challenge her actions. If Heather chose to walk away from her life with Mary and their family, Mary would have no recourse to pursue child support to help her care for and raise the children that together she and Heather brought into the world.

Now that’s cruel. But thinking back to E.J. Graff’s assessment, I have to believe Virginia will have more in common with progressive states in 20 years than with Paul Cameron’s dark, ugly world.