TresSugar

Do You Still Care About Eliot Spitzer's Call Girl Ashley Dupré?

LibertySugar — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:00:27 -0800

Reformed call girl Ashley "Kristen" Dupré has finally opened up about her experience with "Client No. 9," or as you may know him, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. While involvement with an illegal prostitution ring didn't result in any federal charges for the governor with a tough-on-crime reputation, it did cost Spitzer his job.

Taking us beyond her MySpace page, Ms. Dupré opened up to Diane Sawyer about her painful experience. The now 23-year-old says she didn't know Spitzer was the governor until the scandal broke on TV, that escorts differ from prostitutes because they offer more than sex, and that she felt connected to Eliot Spitzer's wife more than the man she slept with. The full interview airs tonight on ABC's 20/20 at 10 p.m. (EST).

Since the sordid downfall of Governor Spitzer happened way back in March, do you still wonder what his call girl has to say?

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City of Love Issues Manual to Stop Forced Marriages

CitizenSugar — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:00:50 -0800

Paris, the universal capital of love and romance, created a manual on forced marriages this week to help officials spot and prevent cases of young women being forced into matrimony.

An estimated 70,000 young women in France are victims (or potential victims) of forced marriages, according to a government study. City officials who conduct weddings often don't know how to deal with their suspicion - clearly they haven't spent time in Vegas! - so the city created some guidelines.

What are telltale signs? The 32-page book lists clues like when "middlemen fill in the required documents ahead of the wedding, when the woman does not appear at the city hall at any point before the wedding day, or when there is a big age difference between the man and the woman". It also notes signs like bridal distress or submission to relatives, brides that can't answer questions clearly and brides that don't know their fiancé's personal history.

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Women Worry That Obama Is Throwing Them Under the Bus

TresSugar — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:42:32 -0800

Back in January, feminist magazine Ms. hailed Barack Obama as a super feminist. But the president's recent tepid response to protecting abortion rights might mean that the love affair with Obama is about to end for many women. Over at the Daily Beast, women's rights activist Amy Siskind argues that the Stupak amendment, which treats women's rights as a political bargaining chip that can be traded for healthcare reform, is just one more example of how Obama couldn't care less about women . . . except when he's trying to win their votes of course. She writes:

He appointed fewer women into his cabinet than President Bill Clinton. He surrounded himself with czars, more than 90 percent of whom are male. He appointed Larry Summers, of "girls are inferior in math and science" fame, to a key economic post. He played basketball, golfed and fished with men and men only. He had beers with Skip Gates, but ignored it when Rihanna was almost strangled to death. And so on.

Of course it's not all bad. Ms. released a report chronicling the giant strides Obama made for women during his first 100 days in office. These actions included: signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, instituting a new ambassador-at-large for global women's issues, establishing the White House Council on Women and Girls, and overturning the "global gag rule" in order to re-fund global family planning organizations.

Has the Obama administration let you down when it comes to women's rights?

Rhode Island Governor Vetoes Same-Sex Funeral Rights

TresSugar — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

Rhode Island's state legislature thought it would be a good idea to give same-sex partners the right to plan each other's funerals when one partner passes away. It's a right married couples have, of course. But Gov. Don Carcieri said: not so fast! The socially conservative leader vetoed the bill because it's part of a "disturbing trend" threatening heterosexual marriage. I'm confused. How does a gay person planning a loved one's funeral have anything to do with someone else's marriage?

Those who support the veto point out that Rhode Island recognizes neither gay marriage nor civil unions. Still, many people are shocked that the governor would intervene to deny same-sex partners some comfort during a hard time. The state's attorney general has called the veto "cruel and heartless," and lawmakers in the Democratically-controlled legislature said they would work to override the veto. Hopefully they will succeed!

Healthcare Bill Restricts Coverage For Abortions

TresSugar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

If you thought Democrats were pro-choice, you might want to think again. The recently passed healthcare bill coming out of the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives could significantly decrease access to abortion even for Americans on private insurance plans.

After a 290-194 vote, the House passed an amendment Saturday that bans the use of federal funds to cover abortion for anyone using the public healthcare plan. The amendment also prevents private insurers from covering abortions for anyone getting a tax credit to help pay premiums. The amendment is being called the biggest victory in years for abortion opponents.

Under the bill, there will be many more Americans receiving tax credits to help pay for insurance - any family of four making less than $88,000 a year will be eligible for the subsidies, and if they take the credits, they will not be allowed to use them to purchase a plan that covers abortion. Pro-choice advocates argue that the new legislation will lower access to abortion coverage even for those receiving no tax aide because private insurance companies will have an incentive to drop abortion coverage from their plans so they can compete for customers receiving federal subsidies. The implications could be substantial since right now 90 percent of insurers cover abortion to some extent.

Pressure from conservative Democrats and the pro-life lobby helped get the amendment passed. While I'm not surprised abortion isn't being treated like every other legal medical procedure, I am a little shocked that the bill's implications go so far to limit abortion coverage for women who are not receiving any federal funding. Do you think the House did the right thing?

Front Page: Maine Voters Reject Gay Marriage

TresSugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:00:12 -0800

Voters in Maine voted to repeal legislature-approved gay marriage yesterday by 53 to 47 percent. - Politico
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will host the Oscars together this year. - BuzzSugar
Michael Bloomberg has won a third term as New York City's mayor, after spending a record $90 million on the campaign. - New York Times
Convicted rapist Anthony Sowell has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder, as investigators in Cleveland, OH, continue to search for bodies in his home. - CNN
Roman Polanski's defense team will argue for the dismissal of the director's sexual assault case during a hearing to be held in US court on Dec. 10. - LA Times
Judge who disapproved of interracial marriages resigns. - CNN

Source: Flickr User Hodgey

What's Next For Abstinence-Only Sex-Ed Programs?

TresSugar — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:30:00 -0700

When Obama decided not to renew the Title V grant program that funds abstinence-only sex education programs in his 2010 budget, places like McLennan County in Texas found their coffers, already depleted when their $800,000 grant ran out in 2007, dwindle from $1 million to zero.

Since 1997, $1.9 billion in government funding ($1.5 billion of it federal money) has gone to abstinence-only education, turning it into an industry unto itself. Although the Senate Finance Committee voted to restore the funding 12-11 last month, the measure needs to pass the full Congress, which is unlikely. At this point, it looks like private donors will have to cough up the funding if these programs want to survive.

Abstinence ed flourished in the late '90s and early 2000s and federal funding doubled from $80 million in 2001 to $200 million during the Bush years in spite of research that showed sexual behavior didn't change among those who had received the education.

So what's the future of abstinence-only education? Its advocates like Director Tracy Cousins of the McLennan County Collaborative Abstinence Program (MCCAP) in Texas considered tweaking their programs in order to get some funding. But they decided in the end that showing students, for example, how to put a condom on compromised their message of abstinence only. "We believe," says Tracy Cousins,"the best approach [for students] is they should not engage in sexual activity."

Some Doctors Object to the Pill on Moral Grounds

TresSugar — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:00:00 -0700

In the very first episode of Mad Men, Peggy Olson goes to the gynecologist seeking a prescription for the pill. Watching the scene, I cringed as the doctor grills Peggy about why she would want the contraceptive pills if she were not married. He says: "As a doctor we'd like to think that putting a woman in this situation isn't going to turn her into some sort of strumpet." Although he gave her the prescription, he tells Peggy he will take her off the medicine if she "abuses" it.

If you're thinking: thank goodness I don't live in the 1960s when doctors were allowed to pass judgment on our sex lives, think again! A recent USA Today story explains how doctors are using conscience clauses to object to the pill as well as to abortion. One doctor in San Antonio told the paper that the pill would not protect her patient from the "emotional trauma from multiple partners" or sexually transmitted diseases. She said: "I could not ethically give that type of medication to a single woman." Wow. This modern doctor goes even further than the one featured on Mad Men!

The Bush administration enacted an ambitious conscience clause that says that hospitals receiving federal money cannot refuse to hire nurses or doctors who morally object to abortion or even certain forms of birth control. These regulations, which could limit access to contraception for women who rely on public clinics or those who live in rural areas, have yet to be rolled back by President Obama as promised. What do you think about doctors who withhold contraception from women because of moral objections?

The Dark Side of Cute

TresSugar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0800

Kittens in casts. Babies nudged to laugh every five seconds. Stuffed teddy bears left at killing-spree sites. We are so surrounded by the tyranny of cute that even multibillion-dollar corporations have cute names like "Google" and "Twitter," and the uncute business of insurance is represented in ads by a cute lizard with an English accent. (And yes, I too am guilty of spreading cuteness.)

What's up with the cute? Writer Jim Windolf has had enough and decided to try to get to the bottom of what he calls the "self-infantalization" of Americans. His conclusion? There's a dark, manipulative side to cute. If you want to know what it is, read more.

In Daniel Harris's book Cute, Quaint, Hungry, and Romantic, he says that there's a hidden sadism to our love of cute, citing the barrage of images of cats falling, puppies slamming into mirrors, and even babies trapped in high chairs being prodded to laugh.

"The process of conveying cuteness to the viewer disempowers its objects," he writes, "forcing them into ridiculous situations and making them appear more ignorant and vulnerable than they really are. Adorable things are often most adorable in the middle of a pratfall or a blunder." In other words, they are cute insofar as they are helpless, and we, conferrers of cute, are all-powerful.

Becoming cute, conversely, is one way of disarming opponents or critics. It's not incidental, argues Windolf, that the cult of cute in the US emerged during the Bush years, when "the American image went from that of protector to invader, from defender of human rights to aggressor on the lookout for loopholes in the Geneva Conventions." Cuteness then, according to this theory, "came about as some sort of correction, as a way for us to convince ourselves and our friends that we're not as bad as our recent national actions have made us seem." (It reminds me of smiley emoticons at the end of passive-aggressive email messages and instant messages. In this case, American cute is like a ginormous cultural smiley face emoticon tacked on the end of dubious actions telling our allies we're not all that bad.)

Windolf traces American cute back to Japan's kawaii culture, which got huge 10 years ago but actually emerged at the end of WWII after it was "humiliated and emasculated." If you're interested in political and cultural psychoanalysis, I suggest reading this long essay. But whatever you do, remember - ~~sometimes a cigar is just a cigar~~ sometimes a cute kitten isn't just a cute kitten.

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Heather Graham Races For Public Option - Love It or Leave It?

TresSugar — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:30:00 -0700

In a new commercial called "Track Meet," actress Heather Graham flashes her toned bod and a bit of cleavage to make the case that America needs a healthy public healthcare option. The spot, sponsored by MoveOn, claims that insurance companies have gotten lazy and bloated from the profits - but a little competition from a fit and lean public option should get the system back in shape. With a new poll showing that the majority of Americans want a government-run health insurance plan that will compete with private insurance, this ad might convince the rest of Americans who oppose it. Do you find it persuasive?