I’m still riding high from last week’s awesome, inspiring conference about the writings of Ellen Willis, co-organized by her daughter, Nona Willis Aronowitz. Nona has put together an anthology of Ellen’s rock criticism, which comes out this month and is a must-read for music lovers and cultural critics (I still can’t get over the brilliance of her Janis Joplin essay, reprinted here by Salon.com). I wrote a short review of Out of the Vinyl Deeps for the May issue of Elle, which just happens to be the music issue.
by Corrie on April 26, 2011
For those of us who aren’t lucky enough to “just know,” how is a person to decide if he or she wants to have a child?
Over at The Rumpus, a 41-year-old baby-ambivalent man asks the burning question, and receives a really touching and thoughtful answer. The advice columnist’s response echoes a lot of what I heard from psychologists when I was researching baby lust for Elle, but in a more lyrical and heartfelt way. This part really struck me:
You wrote to me because you want clarity about which course to take, but perhaps you should let that go…there will likely be no clarity, at least at the outset; there will only be the choice you make and the sure knowledge that either one will contain some loss.
I suppose it comes down to the acceptance and prioritization of different types of loss…a very daunting concept.
by Corrie on March 25, 2011
New research finds that measurements of a man’s nether regions really does correlate to his ability to get a woman pregnant, Time reports. The area of interest is located slightly south of where you’re probably thinking: it’s actually the distance between the anus to underneath the scrotum, known as anogenital distance, or AGD. According to a study published in this month’s Environmental Health Perspectives, AGD is associated with semen volume and sperm count. As Time reports:
The median AGD length is about 2 inches; men with a shorter measurement stand a seven-times greater risk of having fertility problems as opposed to men with a longer AGD. They are more likely to be sub-fertile, which generally indicates a sperm count of less than 20 million per milliliter. Men with sperm counts in this range are only half as likely to succeed in getting a partner pregnant as men with more typical sperm counts in the range of 50 to 60 million sperm per milliliter.
The study authors believe the AGD could be a “reliable marker” of potential infertility, especially when combined with additional tests like sperm count analysis.
This information presents yet another good reason why
baby-lusting single ladies should invest in their own
tool kits.
by Corrie on March 23, 2011
This month, as we honor influential women of the past and present, we say goodbye to two unique talents: Hazel Rowley, the brilliant biographer of charismatic, complex people and their complicated relationships; and Elizabeth Taylor, the dynamic actress whose complicated relationships were the subject of at least three biographies.
These two women may not have much in common, but they are responsible for two of my favorite cultural works about relationships. In Tête-à-Tête: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Rowley chronicles one of the messiest and most passionate relationships of all time; and in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Taylor brought to fiery life one half of the fiercest, most intense couples we’ve ever seen onscreen. Both women seemed fascinated by the push-pull effect of passion, of its irresistible allure and its terrible destructive power.
Tonight, I’m going to break some wine bottles in their honor.
Ellen Willis rocked. Read why in the new anthology of her music writing.
by Corrie on May 8, 2011
I’m still riding high from last week’s awesome, inspiring conference about the writings of Ellen Willis, co-organized by her daughter, Nona Willis Aronowitz. Nona has put together an anthology of Ellen’s rock criticism, which comes out this month and is a must-read for music lovers and cultural critics (I still can’t get over the brilliance of her Janis Joplin essay, reprinted here by Salon.com). I wrote a short review of Out of the Vinyl Deeps for the May issue of Elle, which just happens to be the music issue.
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