Romney

If you think Romney’s economic plan is complicated (I’m looking at you, Herman Cain), just wait until you get to female anatomy. Romney recently emphasized that he would fully support a Constitutional amendment defining conception as the beginning of life. However, the distinction between conception (i.e. sperm meets egg) and implantation (zygote attaches to uterine wall) is key: not only would the proposed amendment unequivocally ban abortion, it would also ban hormonal birth control which prevents pregnancy by inhibiting implantation, not conception. Given that the Pope only condones condoms for male prostitutes, it looks like the 10 million American women who use hormonal birth control are SOL.

OWS

This female protestor has her priorities right.

Occupy Wall Street hit even greater heights of visibility this week with the launch of hotchicksofoccupywallstreet.tumblr.com. Apparently feminism is not among OWS’s pastiche of progressive pet projects (many things about the movement draw my ire, but alliteration is not one of them). Obviously, the sexualization of protestors is not a new phenomenon; even Gloria Steinem freely admits that being conventionally attractive was helpful in spreading her message. However, the site itself fluctuates wildly from respectful and empowering to full-on objectifying, typically depending upon the hotness of the chick in question.

 

Phil Mitsch

Mr. Mitsch, you clearly did not understand that only this man can further propagate gender roles and get away with it.

Sounding strangely like an Usher/Ludacris collaboration, New Jersey state senate candidate Phil Mitsch decided to offer some unsolicited advice via Twitter to women looking to maintain their relationship status: “Women, you increase your odds of keeping your men by being faithful, a lady in the living room and a whore in the bedroom.” In his defense, he also urges men to be “a gentleman in the living room and a stud in the bedroom,” so maybe the real issue is just our lack of derogatory sexual epithets for men.

After Wienergate, we were all left wondering what it is about the legislative branch made wildly inappropriate sexual use of Twitter seem acceptable. Now it appears that this trait is predictive of electoral success, rather than a product thereof.