In case you don’t know who she is, Erin Andrews is a sports reporter for ESPN. In July of last year, a video was released on the Internet showcasing a nude Erin Andrews. Nope, she was not just another pretty girl with a sex tape that was “accidentally” released—this video (and others like it) was taken through a peephole in Erin’s hotel rooms by a sick pervert and stalker named Michael David Barrett who was later arrested and just sentenced to 30 months in prison yesterday. (He also stalked and videotaped up to 16 other unsuspecting women as well).

Erin Andrews was understandably mortified when these videos emerged and has taken to various press outlets to talk about it and has, to our absolute approval, called out some of the assholes who have made comments that she somehow brought this upon herself.

One such asshole is Christine Brennan, a USA Today sports columnist who offered this lovely unwarranted douche-y advice to Erin:

She doesn’t deserve what happened to her, but part of the shtick, seems to me, is being a little bit out there in a way that then are you encouraging the complete nutcase to drill a hole in a room….I also would suggest to her … that she rely on her talent and brains and not succumb to the lowest common denominator in sports media by playing to the frat house.

Hey! Thanks for contributing to that “she deserved to get raped” mentality, Christine! Are you fucking kidding me with this? And of course, as Erin has admitted in various interviews, many other people (and women!) have expressed the same sentiments to her. Will this bullshit ever end??

Is Erin Andrews pretty? Of course she is. Is her career in front of a camera? Yes it is. Was there, at some point, a marketing team behind the decision to place an attractive girl in a sports reporter role on an network mainly watched by men? We’d be naive if we didn’t say yes.

But newsflash Christine Brennan (and the rest of the idiots out there who agree with her), almost every single woman who appears on television is attractive. I know, shocking, right? We can go on for days about how the media sells sex and that a woman needs not only talent but looks to succeed in the entertainment world, but honestly everyone with half a brain should realize this already.

It doesn’t matter that Erin Andrews is pretty or that she’s marketed as such for her role on TV. SHE DOESN’T DESERVE TO GET STALKED! We can’t even believe that this is actually a discussion. When a young starlet’s sex tape comes out, the world condemns her—and while that may not be fair either, you can understand a public’s lack of sympathy for that certain predicament. Erin Andrews was videotaped in her hotel room bathroom through a peephole. We can’t even imagine how violated she, and every other woman who has been a victim of a crime like this, feels and we commend the honesty and grace she’s exhibited throughout this whole nightmare.

Christine Brennan can suck it.

Because this cover is just too annoying to ignore.

OMG, Shiloh (beautiful child of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt) has a short haircut! And are those…pants??? THE HORROR! Get Suri Cruise’s stylists over here immediately and give this little girl a lesson in inappropriate-for-the-weather sleeveless dresses, no outerwear, and kitten heels for 3-year-olds.

Let’s be honest here—I think everyone in the world has that inner moment of “Awww” when we see an adorable little girl in a cute little dress with pigtails. Some of these tiny clothes made for baby and toddler girls are too cute to even describe in words. And I should know—between my boyfriend and myself, we have 5 nieces (and 3 nephews) and more on the way. I’ve spent more time in children’s clothing stores in the last couple of years than any other person I know in my age bracket and I’ve squealed and giggled like the best of them at the doll-sized raincoats, satin dresses, and bathing suits.

And there is generally a pretty specific set of standards when it comes to clothing for little boys and girls. The girls get the dresses and skirts and leggings and ruffly sweaters. The boys get the argyle, button-up shirts, and corduroy pants. Even when you see jeans for little girls, they generally have flower decals on them or some sort of pink racing stripe down the sides that ease our minds and hearts as it assures us that “Yes, these pair of pants are definitely for your little girl.”

It’s not as though little boys and girls choose to wear these specific outfits when they’re 1 and 2 years old. You think your 1-year-old son really wants to wear a button-up? All of these outfits merely satisfy our desire to see our kids as miniature versions of ourselves. I’m a woman and I wear dresses so naturally I want to see my little girl in adorable little dresses as well.

And nothing’s wrong with that. Little girls have been wearing dresses since the beginning of time and there’s no reason to insist that should change anytime in the near future. However, as I’ve noticed personally, when a little girl hits that 3-ish age, they’ve already developed this amazing personality that’s all their own. They have certain foods they like, colors, TV shows, etc. My 3-year-old niece loves Disney princesses, the color pink, and baking with her aunt (and I’m all-too-happy to oblige), among other things. And to be honest, her mom (my sister) isn’t even entirely sure where those interests came from. In fact, my sister didn’t want to encourage her to like princesses or play dress-up at all—but she didn’t discourage it either.

And that’s really the main point here. Kids are going to like a variety of things and not all of those things are going to be something you necessarily encouraged. So, why is it that when a little girl likes dresses and dolls and princesses we “Aww!” and pat her on the head, but when she likes wearing pants and playing sports, we get concerned?

I don’t know Shiloh personally or her parents nor do I have any clue what their parenting is like. However, I do know that at 3-years-old, Shiloh is perfectly capable of expressing the types of clothing she likes to wear and even how she wants her hair to look. So what if she prefers wearing pants and having a short haircut?? I hated dolls as a little girl (much to my mother’s dismay) and preferred to play with Ninja Turtles and I turned out just fine, if I do say so myself.

I assume we’re not going to give up on our crazy obsession with celebrity children anytime soon but maybe we could stop pushing our pre-conceived notions on tiny children? Just because we’re desperate to see Shiloh grow up into the most gorgeous princess in all of the land because of her two genetically-gifted parents doesn’t mean we have to to turn into villagers with pitchforks when she denies us this by wearing pants and having short hair as a toddler.

We should be encouraging little girls to express themselves and their individuality however it turns out, because this is the age where they can be fully and freely themselves. Three year olds don’t worry about what other people think about them (besides seeking the normal approval from their parents and loved ones, of course). They don’t know how to be self-conscious—but shit like this cover story insinuates that they should be self-conscious. Thank god Shiloh can’t read yet.

This kind of article only succeeds in perpetuating the scrutiny our society places on women—except it’s even worse this time because they’re extending it to toddler aged girls. One can only hope that the dying magazine industry will seek to claim another victim in Life & Style ::Crosses fingers::

Now please excuse me—my other niece Angelina (how appropriate) is running around in pants (for the third day in a row!), short hair, sneakers and playing with a soccer ball. I must put an end to this immediately.

Houston doesn’t want to have only firemen on their force – they want fire women too. Camp Houston Fire is a biannual 2-week long program where participants learn the ins and outs of fighting fires. It’s a new effort to recruit more females to the profession, as currently only 100 of Houston’s 3,900 firefighters are women. The HFD faced discrimination allegations last summer, and hopes to make amends by getting more young women interested. The program is free, and participants get to not only learn more about the job, they get to practice the physical requirements that are often challenging for both genders.

If nothing else, it seems to be a positive self-esteem booster for young Houston women. 18-year-old Andreina Rodriguez told the Houston Chronical:

“I like knowing I can do what men can do. I’m not weak”

We think that’s pretty cool!

According to a study by Catalyst, women with MBAs are still not getting the same pay (or even the same promotions) as their male counterparts. Starting from their first job post-MBA, women made an average of $4,600 less than men even if they had the same amount of previous experience.

Other findings from this study:

• Post-MBA 60% of women start out with entry-level jobs, compared to only 46% of men. So from the start, women are behind.
• Men experience higher salary growth post-MBA despite the differences in starting salary.
• On average, men at managerial levels reported a higher career satisfaction level then women.

So basically women with MBAs start out at lower-level jobs, with lower starting salaries and a slower rate of salary growth over time than men. No wonder the men in this study reported more job satisfaction! The part that really bugs us is these same statistics were true even if the men and women had the same amount of work experience. It’s so incredibly insulting that a perfectly capable woman with an MBA degree will usually make less than a man with the same exact credentials. What is it going to take to break down this barrier?

A new study from Social Psychological and Personality Science finds that women prefer true-crime books (think serial killings and random murders) over other violent reading material (like about wars and gangs). Some of the findings include:

• Looking at Amazon.com user-generated book reviews, 70% of the reviews about true-crime books are written by women. 82% of the reviews of books in the war genre were written by men.
• When presented with the choice of reading a book about “a true account of the murders of two women in Hawaii” versus a true story of two female soldiers killed at war OR of two murdered female gang members, women overwhelmingly chose the account of the murdered women in Hawaii.
• Women were also much more likely than men to choose a book if it included a “clever trick” used by the victim to escape their attacker OR one that included a psychological profile of the attacker.

This may come across as shocking to some, but not Girl C and I! We have had many a conversation discussing this very notion. We are always drawn to books about real-life violence, and not just in place of war & gang genres like this study suggests. We just love reading about violent crimes! The above study speculates why so many other women love it too:

The researchers suspected that women prefer true crime stories in part because such stories provide information that the readers feel could help them avoid or escape from a potential attacker.

Interesting. We always thought we just have a morbid curiosity about death and that’s why we enjoy reading about the gruesome ways in which it can occur. But we’d like to think that all this scary stuff we’re reading will help us escape a potential future attacker, (*knock on wood* of course) it sounds a little smarter of us!

The first dealt with gender roles. 89 students (all 11 and 12 years of age) were asked questions such as whether a woman deserves to be punched by her partner if he discovered she had an affair. Almost all of the children thought she deserved to get hit. Oh, and 80% of them also said a man had cause to slap a woman if she didn’t have dinner ready on time.

It’s like a crazy, Twilight Zone version of a Lifetime movie.

The other study found that a majority of women believe that rape victims should take some form of responsibility for what happened to them. Yes, you actually read that.

Almost three quarters of the women who believed this said if a victim got into bed with the assailant before an attack they should accept some responsibility.

One-third blamed victims who had dressed provocatively or gone back to the attacker’s house for a drink.

The study found that women were less forgiving of the victim than men. Of the women who believed some victims should take responsibility, 71% thought a person should accept responsibility when getting into bed with someone, compared with 57% of men.

This is one of those moments where we’re simply at a loss. It’s so incredibly disheartening to read these things and even more disheartening because you can almost see a cycle emerging that connects those two studies. The young boys and girls who believe it’s OK to hit a woman with “just cause” now are probably many of the same who believe rape victims should shoulder some of the blame later in life.

We can’t even begin to understand where this kind of thinking comes from. For the children, perhaps it’s indicative of gender roles they are seeing play out in their own homes every day. As for the adult women, we can only hope that their opinions have less to do with actually blaming the victim and more to do with a subconscious desire to distance yourself from them. “If the rape victim has clearly done something wrong that triggered this, then certainly I would never find myself in such a predicament”—because the horror of the reality that rape can’t be predicted and can happen to women of all different races, ages, and situations in life for absolutely no reason can be too great to bear.

But looking away from that horror isn’t helping anyone. Instead it’s helping to create a society of women who would rather blame the victim in cases of abuse and rape than risk seeing themselves in their faces.

Not everybody has the income to give to charities as much as they would like, so it’s great to find programs that allow you to give back with things you already have. The Bra Recyclers will take your used good condition bras and distribute them to women and girls who really need them. From their About Us Page:

Shelters and transitional housing facilities receive request on a daily basis for basic clothing items, but there is a special need for bras. Think about a woman who is forced to leave an abusive situation in the middle of the night with just the clothes on her back. The last thing on her mind is to grab a bra, her primary concern is getting to a safe place.

The Bra Recyclers® would like to do our part to assist deserving women with a recycled bra. A portion of all bras will be distributed to women’s shelters, transitional housing and to support groups for breast cancer support survivors.

All you have to do is wash the bras you’d like to donate, fill out a form, and mail them to the address provided. Or if you live in Arizona, Dallas, TX or Sacramento, CA, you can just drop your bras off at these locations.

I’m already going through my bra drawers. I have so many bras that are in perfect condition but I just don’t wear them anymore. Instead of having them continue to collect dust, I’m happy to donate them and put them in the hands of women who need them much more than I do.

As you may already know,  tomorrow is National Wear Red Day (according to GoRedForWomen.org.) Heart disease is the number 1 killer of women in the U.S and this organization is striving to reduce that statistic. We really like that this campaign has specific goals that they’re working towards every day. Short term, they hope to see a 25% reduction in coronary heard disease and stroke by the end of the year. That’s pretty ambitious and we applaud them for it.

The thing about heart disease, is that it’s often preventable. There are many life style changes women can make to reduce their risk of getting it. The earlier you start being mindful of your heart health, the less likely you’ll be to fall victim to this disease.

Here are a few key ways the organization lists to help you can start protecting your heart:

• Physical Activity. Think walking, jogging, cycling or dancing with someone you love
• Healthy Diet. Think whole grains, delicious fresh fruits and more
• Reduce Stress. Think of taking time for your favorite hobby or celebrating your “unbirthday” with your best friend.
• Quit Smoking. Think about saving the money you’re spending on tobacco for a fun family trip.

So wear red tomorrow if you have it. If not, it doesn’t really matter – how about we all just pledge to take care of our hearts now and for the future?

The debate over this commercial should have nothing to do with beliefs. If you are pro-life, great. If you are pro-choice, super. The problem with this commercial is two-fold: 1) It insinuates that the opposite of Pam Tebow’s belief is pro-abortion. NOBODY is ever PRO abortion and it’s unfair to even hint at that; 2) Both sides are not presented in this argument. And despite what anyone says about the decision to air this commercial, it IS an argument with two opposing sides. Such a delicate and critical debate requires opportunities for both sides to be heard in the media, not just one.

Fortunately, the Internet has come to save the day once again in the form of this video response sponsored by Planned Parenthood and featuring football player Sean James and gold medalist Al Joyner.

This should have been the other commercial aired during the Superbowl in addition to the Tebow one—to show that if such a serious topic is going to be discussed during a time usually reserved for beer commercials and half-naked girls, then at least we’ll showcase both sides of it in an effort to promote healthy discussion on the matter. Personally, we think CBS should have had the foresight to go after an opposing side commercial after OK’ing the Tebow ad.

But ultimately, it’s the type of argument that’s being presented by the pro-life side in the Tebow commercial that bothers us the most. It’s messages like this that harbor the resentment held by both sides against one another. By presenting these individual stories, like Pam’s, it makes anyone who rails against them look like a person who suggests that these women SHOULD have had an abortion (that damn pro-abortion crap again). It’s such an unfair and unbalanced portrayal of the pro-choice argument, when all that we are asking for is the same courtesy granted to women like Pam Tebow—choice. We want all women to have the opportunity to choose for themselves what they do with their bodies and lives, no matter what the outcome.

As though we needed another reason to skip out on watching the Super Bowl…

We should look to Ireland for ideas on this discussion. The Guardian reports that the Irish government is catching major heat lately to overturn their current abortion ban because of accusations that it was exposing women to major lies and falsehoods about the procedure.

Some interesting points from the article:

According to Human Rights Watch, Irish legislation – under which women who have an abortion in Ireland face a life sentence in prison if prosecuted – is putting women’s health at risk and exposing them to deliberate misinformation from rogue pro-life agencies.

Women have been told they may become infertile, require a hysterectomy or possibly need a colostomy bag after an abortion by agencies that target women seeking advice about unwanted pregnancies, says the report.

Furthermore, the country is awaiting a “landmark ruling from the European court of human rights on the case of three women who accuse the government of putting their health at risk by forcing them to travel abroad for terminations.”

What does this teach us, folks? Well, here are our thoughts. We don’t criticize anyone’s beliefs. If you believe that abortion is wrong for religious reasons or personal ones, that is YOUR choice and we respect that. We only ask that, in return, the people who feel that way respect other women whose choices don’t match their own. And that is what this debate always comes down to—respect. No one is forcing every woman in United States to get an abortion once in their lives or get one if something is determined to be wrong with the unborn fetus. And as such, no one should be pushing their beliefs on other women and forcing them to keep their unborn child no matter what.

And, as Ireland teaches us, banning abortions doesn’t work from a rational or practical standpoint either. Women don’t stop getting abortions—they just travel to other countries to get them or risk their lives going to renegade doctors that may not have the proper skills or equipment. Banning abortions also doesn’t make the world a happier or more moral place either—as seen by the hideous tactics used to scare women into being pro-life.

Unless things change soon, cross Ireland off the list of place we’d move to if the good ole’ US of A ever decides to take us back 40 years and overturn Roe v. Wade. Canada is looking better and better to us every day…