Some well-meaning but uptight folks over at change.org started a petition to ban the use of Flibanserin as a female sexual enhancement drug, stating that a low sex drive in women is not a disease. So, does the fact that there's a male sexual enhancement drug on the market mean that low sex drive in men is a disease? Or is their thinking that since Viagara works on bloodflow, whereas Flibanserin stimulates serotonin production, it's only a ... Read More

My first impression of Louise Bourgeois was this picture. What I didn't know about her then was myriad, but I immediately hung the image by my desk at the Columbus Museum of Art. At the time it was more about supporting Robert Mapplethorpe who was having a pretty rough time in Ohio, but I was taken by this old lady in a feathered jacket tickling a roughly-hewn penis sculpture. Later that year I got myself a Desert Storm air fare and headed ... Read More

  Emily Rems has already done the job here of explaining why all the Sex and the City haters need to get a grip, but that’s not what swayed me to go see this. Maybe because I was expecting to hate it, or maybe because I was in an opening night audience full of women shouting things at the screen like, “damn, girl, work that dress.” Or, “oh no she dih-n’t!” But when the credits rolled, I wasn’t ... Read More

Julia Sweeney has come a long way since the days of "Pat," the ambiguously gendered character she played on Saturday Night Live. Her personal tales of overcoming cancer, denouncing God, and adopting a child from China have been the substance of her material since 1995. Her recent TED talk, however, brought Pat back to mind. Sweeney is totally adorable, so the video is worth watching in and of itself. [video: 425x344] Yet I ... Read More

It’s official—the French government is run by a douchebag. This week, Nicholas Sarkozy sent legislation off to parliament intending to impose a $185 fine on women who wear a full-face Islamic veil. Has he forgotten who started the whole cover your head thing?  Let's review. (Photo by André Durst for Vogue, November 1938) Getting women to cover their heads started long before the Muslims came along. Sarkozy is of ... Read More