What It is Like for a Woman Reporter Covering Trump

My Crazy Year with Trump (Katy Tur) from Marie Claire Magazine
"The presidential hopeful has insulted reporter Katy Tur on national TV, called her names during interviews, and made his campaign seemingly impossible to cover. Here, her no-holds-barred account of trailing the most unlikely candidate in GOP history."

Trump Moving Women to Clinton More than People Realize

Donald Trump’s Problems With Women Voters Are Worse Than You Think (Tierney Sneed) from Talking Points Memo
"Current polling shows Trump is turning off the subset of women voters who are typically up for grabs in elections and who in other cycles have swung races towards Republicans. He is even alienating the type of dependable Republican female voters who turned out for Romney the last time around. To make matters worse for him, Trump’s deficit among women are blunting some of the vulnerabilities Clinton would be facing if pitted against a less controversial Republican."

Sexism and Racism are Nothing -- even if the Victims are Republicans

Why Fox News' Defense Of Megyn Kelly Is Going To Backfire (Amanda Marcotte) from Talking Points Memo
"Conservative media and Fox News in particular have spent years - decades, if you count talk radio - training their audiences to believe that exhortations against sexism and racism are nothing but the “political correctness” police trying to kill your good time. Indeed, one reason that Trump was able to get so much attention for his presidential run in the first place is that Fox has spent years building him up, knowing that their audience enjoys vicariously needling imagined liberals and feminists with his loud-mouthed insult comic act."

So now they care about sexism?

The ugly hypocrisy of the right’s reaction to Trump’s Kelly slur (Joan Walsh) from Salon
"Within days of Obama’s inauguration, I had former House Majority Leader Dick Armey tell me on “Hardball,” after I’d criticized Rush Limbaugh, “I’m so damn glad you can never be my wife, because I surely wouldn’t have to listen to that prattle from you every day.” A lot of folks on the left were outraged; on the right, they laughed and cheered Armey. ... What Republican insiders fear about Donald Trump isn't his own ugly misogyny, it's that he is revealing their own."

Insights into the Gay Marriage Opposition

The Real Reason Why Conservatives Like Ross Douthat Oppose The Gay Marriage Ruling (Amanda Marcotte) from Talking Points Memo
"It’s not because straight people won’t want to get married if gays are doing it, too. It’s because it redefines marriage as an institution of love instead of oppression. But it’s also telling that even though Douthat is willing to get closer to the real argument, he still pulls back from stating it bluntly. That’s because he knows and we all know that this isn’t even really a debate anymore. Liberals and feminists have already won this round. The longing for traditional gender roles and female submission has to be communicated covertly, because blunt statements in favor of it are treated, in mainstream America, like fringe right wing craziness."

BOOK REVIEW NUGGET!!

Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America (Linda Tirado) from Kirkus Review
"To live, Tirado embarked on a physically exhaustive, “soul-killing” three-job routine requiring her to shuttle (for miles on foot) from one low-wage, part-time job to the next. The jobs she did qualify for were undercompensated and harmful: a fry cook at a fast-food restaurant or tending bar for a boss who expected sexual favors in exchange for prime shifts. As someone who has lived in the trenches of desperation, Tirado explains that being poor is difficult not just in attempting to scrape by, but also in processing the cultural perception and resultant condescension and degradation from unsympathetic onlookers."
This looks like a GREAT, insightful book!!

The GOP's New "Birth Control Platform"

Republicans' New Birth Control Platform Not Finding Any Fans in Religious Right (Joan McCarter) from Daily Kos
"What an inconvenience for the religious right that women who prioritize self-determination vote, and so candidates—even Republican ones—have to at least recognize that fact."

On Women, GOP "Stuck in the Past"

GOP Poll of Women: Party 'Stuck in Past' from Politico
"A detailed report commissioned by two major Republican groups — including one backed by Karl Rove — paints a dismal picture for Republicans, concluding female voters view the party as “intolerant,” “lacking in compassion” and “stuck in the past.” Women are “barely receptive” to Republicans’ policies, and the party does “especially poorly” with women in the Northeast and Midwest, according to an internal Crossroads GPS and American Action Network report obtained by POLITICO."

GENDER/WORLD CULTURE NUGGET!!

What Happened When One Woman Had Her Picture Photoshopped In 25 Different Countries from the Huffington Post
""Make me look beautiful.” That's what Esther Honig asked 40 photo editors to do -- in over 25 countries. Using the service-sharing site Fiverr, Honig, a human interest reporter, sent a picture of herself to be photoshopped around the world to see just how much cultural values are applied to standards of beauty. The results throw the idea of "the perfect woman" into sharp relief."

How Gun Extremists Target Women

Spitting, Stalking, Rape Threats (Mark Follman) from Mother Jones Magazine
"Welcome to the dark side of America's war over guns."

Mobilizing Moms for Gun Control

The NRA Meets Its Potent New Foe: Moms (Mark Follman) from Mother Jones Magazine
"Watch as parents and survivors brandish a new weapon: the gun lobby’s own words."

Research: More Mothers Staying Home

After Decades of Decline, A Rise in Stay-at-Home Mothers from the Pew Center for Social Research
"The recent turnaround appears to be driven by a mix of demographic, economic and societal factors, including rising immigration as well as a downturn in women’s labor force participation, and is set against a backdrop of continued public ambivalence about the impact of working mothers on young children."

Why Are Workers Stressed Out. It's a Deep Mystery

America's Workers: Stressed Out, Overwhelmed, Totally Exhausted (Rebecca Rosen) from the Atlantic
"... you’re beginning to see the conversation change—even conservatives now are looking at birth-rate declines and work like Stewart D. Friedman’s Baby Bust showing that more young people don’t see a way to combine work and family in a rational way, so are choosing not to have families. That’s huge. That’s when work-life issues become the problem of society, especially one that purports to value families and that wants to survive into the future. ... when they ask CEOs and top managers at companies around the world who they think the best employees are, more than three-fourths have said: the worker without any family or caregiving responsibilities."
It takes the interviewee a while -- but eventually she gets to the heart of it: it's the economy.  For most young couples, to simply tread water economically, they both need to work full time jobs, those jobs routinely demand more than 40 hours a week, the costs of key middle-class amenities and needs, everything as mundane as utility bills to college education for the kids has rocketed up even as wages have remained flat.  And if that wasn't enough, the Great Recession has showcased for most people that falling out of the middle class can happen really fast.  

WOMEN'S HISTORY NUGGET!!

A Women’s History Museum, at Last? from the Editorial Board of the New York Times
"An long-foiled proposal for a national institution suddenly gains traction."

ANOTHER WOMEN'S HISTORY NUGGET!!

Beaten, Starved and Threatened with a Gun: Harrowing Story of a 17th Century Battered Wife Uncovered in 1684 Pamphlet from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Mary Hampson's harrowing story appears in a pamphlet published in 1684.  Charts abuse at hands of her husband, including beatings and starvation.  It has been turned into a book called The Case of Mistress Mary Hampson."