Sexism

• Australia's kick-ass PM Julia Gillard gives a speech on sexism — HuffPost Women
• What does his text mean? This website helps you figure it out — Glamour
• 12 impossible sex positions — The Frisky
• How to get involved during Breast Cancer Awareness Month — CollegeCandy
• Dating vs. a relationship, according to men — YourTango
• Study finds the startup world is just as sexist as the corporate world — The Jane Dough
• Obama on the debate: "I was just too polite" — Newser
• Lady Gaga and more supporters of Julian Assange — The Daily Beast
• Celebrate Halloween on a budget with ideas on Instagram — SavvySugar

While some women — celebrities and otherwise — may not be able to find the right words to fight back against mean-spirited comments about their appearance, when Ashley Judd was hit with remarks that attacked her "puffy" face and weight gain, she had a great response. During the last month or so, Ashley has been in the public eye for her swollen-looking face that some have concluded must mean she's getting plastic surgery done. But the sad reality is it's really a side effect from the steroid medications she's been taking for illness. Ashley Judd wrote a piece on The Daily Beast that took the rebuttal to a whole new, feminist — and empowered — level. In the smart essay, she takes on the naysayers by pointing out how our culture's obsession with women's outer looks are a misogynistic attack on our sex. Here are some of our favorite points:

• For women, it's all about the outward appearance: "We are described and detailed, our faces and bodies analyzed and picked apart, our worth ascertained and ascribed based on the reduction of personhood to simple physical objectification. Our voices, our personhood, our potential, and our accomplishments are regularly minimized and muted."
• Sexism against women comes from both sexes: "Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it."
• Striving for beauty is a lose-lose situation: "I ask especially how we can leverage strong female-to-female alliances to confront and change that there is no winning here as women. It doesn't actually matter if we are aging naturally, or resorting to surgical assistance. We experience brutal criticism. "
• This constant critique of women's appearance affects more than we realize: "It affects each and every one of us, in multiple and nefarious ways: our self-image, how we show up in our relationships and at work, our sense of our worth, value, and potential as human beings."

Ask GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum why women shouldn't be allowed to serve in combat roles, and he will give you various reasons. First off, a man's emotions. Santorum believes men will try to save their fellow female soldiers, explaining this weekend: "instead of focused on the mission, they may be more concerned about protecting someone who may be in a vulnerable position, a woman in a vulnerable position." In addition to chivalry, Rick says "You throw on top of that just simply physical strength and capabilities," and women simply can't handle the job. Fortunately, the military, which recently opened 14,000 combat jobs up to women including tank mechanic and front-line intelligence, doesn't completely agree with Rick, and experts say "sexist" attitudes are responsible for a policy against trained female soldiers serving in combat positions.

Sociologist Ryan Kelty, who specializes in studying the military, tells LiveScience that the old-fashioned belief that women must be protected is not a good enough reason to exclude women who want to and are capable of serving their country. In other words, chivalry is not a legitimate basis to deny a woman employment, especially when there is no evidence that professional and highly trained male and female soldiers are incapable of carrying out their missions. Kelty explains the military should employ gender-neutral, objective requirements. For example, a soldier should be able to carry 100 pounds for eight hours, regardless of gender.

There may be back and forth, but the truth is that women already serve in these combat roles. In Iraq and Afghanistan, 144 women have lost their lives, 60 of them in combat, while 865 have been wounded. And countries including Canada, Israel, and Australia already allow women in close-combat roles. Despite the slow evolution of American rules on women serving, it can be said that the US military doesn't have the most retro policy. In China, women recruits must display a talent like singing or dancing and Russia holds a Miss Russian Army beauty pageant.