“Attention, Wal-Mart customers: All black people, leave the store now.”

This is exactly what happened to shoppers at a Wal-Mart in Washington Township, NJ last Sunday evening.  The store manager immediately gained control of the PA and apologized for the message, but patrons remain disturbed and angry.

Wal-Mart is still currently investigating the incident and has responded: “Whoever did this is just wrong and acted in an inappropriate manner. Clearly, this is completely unacceptable to us and to our customers.”

This is yet another bullet point on a long list of racially-related allegations against the major retailer.  Last year a scuffle that started with a young woman cutting in line at a Minnesota Walmart is said to have been racially-motivated.  In 2009 Walmart also had to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by a group of black truck drivers who claimed they were denied employment due to their race.  And once again, in May 2009, latino employees at a Sam’s Club in Fresno sued the company, saying they had to endure a hostile work environment.

(This blogger hasn’t shopped at a Wal-Mart in years.  Do you need a list of reasons to know why?)

Sound off please. Do these kind of stories make you want to make more thoughtful choices about where you shop or is this just the work of one solitary prankster?

The charge against them for kissing has been temporarily suspended and both await a final hearing on April 4th.  Until then, their passports have been confiscated to keep them from fleeing Dubai. Both people insist it was an innocent peck on the cheek, and there is hope that a witness can come forward and clear their names.

Many chalk this recent incident up to the dual nature of Dubai – on the one hand, it is known for being relatively tourist-friendly, with beautiful beaches and plenty of shopping opportunities. The New York Times even profiled Dubai as a great party destination, with top notch night clubs. Yet, despite all these Western amenities, it is still a devout Islamic country where court rulings are made by one judge and no jury.

Sound off: As a woman, does hearing news like this discourage you from seeing a little more of the Middle East, or were you cowed to begin with?

Photo via timesonline.co.uk

Some universities are giving gender-neutral housing a shot.  According to Jeffrey Chang of the National Student Genderblind Campaign, there are about 50 campuses throughout the country giving mixed-gender housing a change.  This movement initially began to give gay, lesbian and transgendered students a chance to find a roommate they would truly feel comfortable with, which might mean living with someone of the opposite gender.  Now some straight students would like the same freedom to choose as well.

Denise Darrigrand, the dean of students at Clark University, believes the new housing arrangements on her campus are just part of a new generation’s different attitudes toward gender: “It’s a new world, and gender has taken on all kinds of new definitions. It’s about being more inclusive, and it’s about keeping pace with the times.”

At Yale, feedback about the new dorms seems a little mixed.  Some are worried about potential discord between students and their own parents, others think it’s unfair that the choice is only offered to upperclassmen, and quite a few people say it’s just the way the times are moving.

What do you think? Would you like the chance to choose the gender of your roommate?  If you’re out of school, would you have liked that option back then? 

It’s a bit like the unisex stall in Ally McBeal, innit?

Photo via CollegeJolt

We all might have to get used to hearing that a little more often as diva Adam Lambert is planning to launch a makeup line for men, featuring foundation, concealer, eye shadow, mascara, lip-gloss and the aforementioned guyliner.

I found this news to be, well, rather redundant in a certain way. Can’t you just use OUR makeup? Or, do what our drag queen sisters do: hit up a MAC counter? Lambert must clearly believe his name can sell his products, because a man in search of makeup already has plenty of outlets.

La Lambert is not afraid of co-opting female fashion into his own style file though. His un-ironic use of acid wash, fingerless gloves and deep-V necklines is opening a new frontier for men who want a little flair in their lives. “Just as now Lady GaGa is bringing back real glam rock for women, Adam is opening that door up for men,” Barneys’ Simon Doonan tells WWD.

Alright, talking points time, who has a man in their life that wears makeup? Does he only wear it on special occasions? Do you help him with it or is he a pro with the guyliner already? Related: does your guy wear YOUR jeans?

Photo via Hollywood Gossip

As of now, Simpson wears XXXXXXXL dresses, eats excessively, and tries to move as little as possible. (It is VERY hard for me not to think of the actual Simpsons episode in which Homer tries to gain weight on purpose to qualify to work from home.)

Simpson already holds the world record for world’s heaviest mother, when she gave birth to her daughter in 2007 via a high-risk Caesarean delivery. To reach her goal, she will have to consume 12,000 calories a day. For some perspective, women between the ages 19-30 should consume about 2,000 calories a day, with that amount dropping to 1,800 for women ages 31-50.

It costs about $750 a week for Donna to eat at this staggering caloric level. Guess how she earns that income? She runs a website where food and fat fetishists pay to watch her eat junk food.

Donna clearly developed her attitudes toward nutrition during her childhood:

“Food was (our mother’s) way of showing she loved us, she wanted us to eat, and she was very protective of us. She wouldn’t let anyone say anything bad to us about our weight. She would argue with doctors who said it was dangerous.”

A quick set of facts on obesity:

Obesity can lead to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, and certain forms of cancer, and the complications can range from osteoarthritis to depression to premature death.

All of this can be rather alarming when you remind yourself that Simpson has a child to take care of. Is her daughter inheriting some warped ideas about food and well-being, along with her mother’s potentially staggering medical bills?

Photo via James Ambler/Barcroft

“I would love to make a full-on, no bullshit Western,” he declared. “I’d love to make a romantic comedy, and take it out of the ghetto it’s been exiled to.”

He continues, (because he’s awesome):

“True Romance’s title was not ironic. Sure, James Gandolfini almost beats Patricia Arquette to death and she has to blow him away with a shotgun, but that doesn’t mean it’s not romantic. It just has to be done my way, and I think people want me to do it my way.”

Tarantino does have a way with romance. If you saw Jackie Brown, there is a breathtaking moment when Max Cherry (Robert Forster) gets his first glimpse of the inimitable Pam Grier as Jackie. The world seems to slow down as she approaches him and suddenly the jaded bail bondsman is reborn as a young man in love.

He also knows when actors have great chemistry together, so he’d avoid any miscasting — a huge flaw in most Hollywood rom-coms. Tarantino knew, for example, Uma Thurman and John Travolta would look good dancing together, long before we did.

Well. I’ll say this much. This movie doesn’t even exist yet and I’m more excited for it (the rom-com) than I will ever be over some Gerard Butler-Aniston pairing, or a Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz outing. NEXT! I shout into the cinema heavens.

Photo via Tarantino.com

CNN’s Fredericka Whitfield had said on air: “It’s so strong, so suggestive, so sexual, so violent as well, that MTV has said, ‘We’re not even going to air this, so it has banned the airing of this video.’” All of this was stated without citing a source.

People seem to have been pretty touchy since this same cable channel removed the “music television” part of its famous logo not that long ago, thereby deeming it irrelevant by many in both the music industry and in the music blogosphere. So MTV has dodged the “I” word, for a little while longer.

Michel Gondry will have nothing of it anyhow. When asked if he would ever direct a Lady Gaga video, he brought intelligent discourse to the pop cultural table:

“I’m not interested,” Gondry said. “To me it’s like a form of Marilyn Manson. It’s hard for me to talk about it; I’ve seen a couple of videos of hers, and not for very long. I stop watching them each time because I don’t think there’s melodies.”

He ended with: “But maybe it’s considered high art just because of the way she dresses?”

Quentin Tarantino famously lent his Pussy Wagon from the Kill Bill franchise to Lady Gaga for this video.The video comes off as a Tarantino-esque revenge tale, but with no Tarantino. One can’t help but ponder if Gaga’s music was better, she would attract more top-notch directing talent.

Now that I’ve irritated you for the day, sound off. Do you still watch MTV for the videos? Will I ever stop detesting Lady Gaga’s music? Or am I just secretly angry that Lady Gaga brought back the giant shoulder pad look?

“My son is who I need to look out for and when you put it in perspective it is only a material item and although I still have emotional ties with it it really comes down to what is more important.”

Some women hang on to the rings for as long as they can, until they have no choice:

“I’ve mainly been selling appliances to help with rent and utility bills. I just listed the ring last week for the first time, because I need to have surgery on my back.”

The recession has affected women in different ways. Married women, for example, tend to be heavily depended on in their households, for often it is the husband in the family that is unemployed — three out of every four jobs that is lost is lost by a man, after all. These homes are under budgetary strains as well because women still only take home 78 cents for every dollar men earn. The economic downturn has global effects as well. The UN has recently estimated that 22 million women around the world will be plunged into unemployment, the Latin American and the Caribbean regions being hit the hardest.

What about you, readers? Have you been forced to sell something beloved to pay your bills? Please share your experience with us.

Photo via Source

“No longer is my husband the face of my business or managing my career.”

It’s hard to read any hidden meanings into Heidi’s words – or OVERT meanings for that manner – so it’s hard to tell if she was having issues with Spencer’s handling of her burgeoning pop career, especially since her album was better than Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.

“After the incredible experiences I have had healing my life and truly connecting to my dreams with healer intuitive Aiden Chase, I have officially asked him to become my manager. Having an intuitive psychic leading my team gives me an edge no one else has.”

Was it Chase’s idea for Heidi to spoof herself on Funny or Die?  If so, he’s already doing a better job than the husband.

Are we being too harsh in Heidi’s trust in her psychic?  How about this – do you visit or call a psychic?

Photo via People.com

Twenge believes this generation may see time off as necessary because of how hard they saw their parents work during their own upbringings. These unreasonable expectations — big pay with lots of time off — leave Gen Yers feeling less than enthused about their work. The Conference Board, a private research group, said earlier this year that job satisfaction for those under 25 was at a record low in 2009.

Barbara Keats, a management professor at the W. P. Carey School of Business, also points to the early years of these Gen Y employees when it comes to this attitude of entitlement: “Remember all those ‘baby-on-board’ signs on cars? It was a very child-centric culture. The zeitgeist was devotion to children, doing everything for them.”

In turn, the Internet is full of tips for employers about how to deal with Millennials in the workplace. The pieces say things like: “Often, older Baby Boom managers are frustrated with Gen Y, feeling they demand that everyone change to accommodate them,” and “Unlike the Gen-Xers and the Boomers, the Millennials have developed work characteristics and tendencies from doting parents, structured lives, and contact with diverse people,” and “…they tend to see professors and employers as peers, and they act that way. That’s something I think a boss would need to prepare for,” as well as, “In particular, [some managers] resent Millennials for expecting overnight advancement from their entry-level jobs.”

There are lots of assumptions and definitions being thrown about in these pieces, but what do you think will happen eventually? Will the Millennial attitude infuse American business practices and force it to accommodate to their needs, as this passionate, tech-savvy generation floods the marketplace? Or will Baby Boomers and Gen Xers (forced to continue working as retirement age gets older and older) eventually change their ideals?

Photo via ThomasTalksTech

Phoenix House is a national non-profit offering alcohol and drug abuse treatment and prevention services throughout 150 residential and outpatient programs. Beyonce previously met with Phoenix House female patients in preparation for her role as Etta James in 2008’s Cadillac Records. She later donated her entire salary from that film to the charity.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z have been Forbes Magazine’s top-earning couple two years in a row and Sasha Fierce herself is no stranger to giving.  Beyoncé helped found the Survivor Foundation for Hurricane Katrina victims, donated $100K to the Gulf Coast Ike Relief Fund, and recently helped raise money for Haiti along with the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Hit the comment box: we know times are tough right now, and none of us are married to Jay-Z, but do you plan on donating your time or money to charities this year?

Bigelow’s win comes just in time for March 8th’s celebration of International Women’s Day.  IWD started out as a socialist cause in the first decade of the 20th century and has since become a day to commemorate the “economic, political and social achievements” of womanhood. The U.N. has set this year’s theme as “Equal rights, Equal opportunities: Progress for all.”

For this year’s IWD, the International Committee of the Red Cross also asks the world to remember the struggles of women displaced by war and violent conflict. Nadine Puechguirbal, the ICRC adviser on women and war explains:

Women are not totally helpless. Our idea is to move away from assumptions and stereotypes and instead call attention to women’s specific needs, vulnerabilities in wartime, and indeed the remarkable strength they show in protecting and supporting their families and finding ingenuous ways of coping with their ordeal.

Today, consider making a donation to the ICRC to help women displaced by war, or by supporting any number of charitable events and causes around the world.

And now, we can close out with these soon to be immortal words: TEAM BIGELOW.

Sound off in the comments: how will you commemorate International’s Women’s Day today?

Photo via Source

But you can’t go throughout life never being near a computer, going into a hot tub, or walking on carpet again, right? What you can do, though, is avoid bromine in certain food items. For example, you might notice the ingredient “dough conditioner” on some processed-bread nutritional labels. If so, run from it! Not just in the grocery store, but at fast food restaurants too, this time in the form of hamburger and hot dog buns. 

From Dr. Joseph Mercola, “The use of potassium bromate as an additive to commercial breads and baked goods has been a huge contributor to bromide overload in Western cultures.”

Even guiltier on Mercola’s list, however, is Mountain Dew and its BVO of which he says, Mountain Dew, one of the worst beverages you can drink, uses brominated vegetable oil (BVO) as an emulsifier. Not only that, it contains high fructose corn syrup, sodium benzoate, more than 55 mg of caffeine per 12 ounce can, and Yellow Dye #5 (tartrazine, which has been banned in Norway, Austria and Germany.) — A weapon of mass destruction — in a can.”

I pretty much will never drink another Mountain Dew after researching this. There’s vegetable oil in a soda drink!? Oh wait, brominated vegetable oil is also in Gatorade, Fanta, and Fresca — basically other highly-processed drinks that are citrus flavored. For the record, BVO has not been banned by the FDA (yet), but it has been in India.

Two good bets:

1. Stay away from dough conditioners by buying fresher, tastier organic bread. Or you can go the DIY route and make your own loaf. You will be delighted when that lump of yeast, flour, salt and water turns into hot bread. Sure it takes effort, but it’s your accomplishment and you get to have the first delicious slice. Further, Baker Jim Lahey has written a book about not even needing to knead the dough, so now you have no excuses!

2. Just say no to more citrus-flavored, mass-produced fizzy drinks or sports drinks. Instead, have some actual orange juice! Whoa, it comes from a fruit? Why yes, yes it does. Get thee to a farmer’s market, immediately!

Photo via MountainDew.com

But that’s not the point here, for once. Jessica Simpson has been working on a VH1 TV reality show called The Price of Beauty, in which she travels the world looking at what different cultures perceive is feminine beauty. She visits countries like Thailand, France, Mumbai, Uganda, Morocco, Japan and Brazil in pursuit of these many contradictory, complicated and sometimes downright-harmful beliefs.

When Jessica Simpson appeared on Oprah recently, she brought a clip of the show with her, that reduced her to tears afterward. In the clip, Simpson and her friends talk to a former French model, Isabelle Caro, who suffers from a serious case of anorexia nervosa that put her in a coma three years ago. Caro fearlessly posed nude on anti-anorexia billboards, which were disturbing enough to be banned in Italy (click to see campaign, but it is NSFW).

Simpson was clearly affected by re-watching the interview:

“It makes me very emotional because just the pressure that women feel to be thin or to be beautiful, the pressure that the media puts on women, is so unfair and so disgusting. And if I can do something to make it better for people that’s the reason I did this show.”

This will sound mean, but I was surprised to see Simpson so articulate and I’m interested in seeing more of this show, and I’m one to normally loathe reality television.

She can’t be as ditzy as Bridget Marquardt, can she? Nah.

Will you tune in on March 15? (Or at least DVR it?) One episode even features Jessica Simpson in geisha makeup. Then I will have seen everything.

Photo via VH1

A few sobering facts:
California is one of 10 states that saw double-digit increases in average public university tuition between the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years, with more coming this year. Tuition at the University of Arizona could rise 31 percent, at Florida colleges by 15 percent and in Washington state by 14 percent.

While students decry rising tuition costs and teachers face an uncertain professional future, others bemoan what could await America on the national stage. John Aubrey Douglass, has written a research paper for Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education on this topic:

“One might postulate that the decisions made today and in reaction to the Great Recession … will likely accelerate global shifts in the race to develop human capital, with the U.S. losing ground.”

In other words, it will be harder to chant U! S! A! at the drop of a hat as other countries like China, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, France and Brazil outpace us in technological and economic development. These countries are currently spending more on education despite the economic downturn.

The March 4th organizers ask a plaintive question, “But if there’s money for wars, bank bailouts, and prisons, why is there no money for public education?

Twirlites, line up. Do you know anyone affected by these budget cuts? Did you participate in any of the March 4 rallies? Share your story with us.

Photo via Chronicle/Lea Suzuki

Following closely in the well-heeled, high-heeled footsteps of her fellow skinny minny, Rachel Zoe, Mrs. David Beckham was seen over this previous weekend looking extremely gaunt. Just like Zoe, one can put one’s eye out on how pointy her clavicle is seeming nowadays, and one can only assume that her breasts have pretty much disappeared under her blazer.

Perhaps the weight loss makes walking in her 5 1/2 inch tall Louboutins a little easier? Less weight, less pressure on the ankles and toes? If this is the rationale, then this means cranes and egrets are the best customers for these precarious shoes.

Supposedly V. Beckham keeps her diet to raw fish and berries, with an occasional glass of wine as an indulgence. Being a fashion designer and ambassador for her own line, she wants to stay as model-thin as possible — which is ironic, since I’m pretty sure bears also stick to a diet of berries and raw fish.

If you weren’t sickened down to your core by now, you should also know that Victoria Beckham is a role model in the pro-anorexia movement. That’s right. There are girls online touting and celebrating their eating disorders. They love the ribcage look, and use it as a banner in their blogs. The Wikipedia page on these Pro-ana types will give you the shivers. Pro-ana websites often “give tips on hiding weight loss from parents and doctors” and “advise on how to best induce vomiting, and on using laxatives and emetics.”

Do me a favor, eat a healthy, balanced meal after reading this. Have that glass of wine because you want to, and not because it’s a reward. And if you have a friend dropping the word “thinspiration” into discussions, realize you might have a problem on your hands.

(Photos Via: Daily Mail)

Bunning has been stamping his little foot since last Thursday over the extension, citing concern over the federal budget. The 79-year-old Senator and former Hall of Fame baseball pitcher wanted the bill to identify how its cost would be offset, but his amendment involving the end of tax credits for paper business failed nonetheless.

His stubbornness was depicted as cold-hearted by the Democrats, while fellow Republicans wondered if this was further cementing their reputation as irrational obstructionists.

Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from the state of Maine, said this in an interview, “The present stalemate is unacceptable. This has real-life consequences for people in this country.”

House Democrat John Yarmuth of Kentucky was “embarrassed that a senator from Kentucky is holding our government hostage.”

Now that the impasse has, well, passed, unemployment benefits and COBRA benefits will be extended for another 30 days for eligible citizens, and the Highway Trust Fund will be replenished, putting thousands of furloughed federal employees back to work on road and bridge projects throughout the country.

Twirlites, sound off.
Are you receiving unemployment benefits right now? Are you getting by on what the feds are giving you?

Photo via Salon.com

In case you have forgotten, Shatner is a classically-trained Shakespearean actor, an Emmy award-winning TV veteran, sci-fi novelist, Priceline.com pitchman, and the world’s most famous interpreter of Elton John’s pop song “Rocket Man.” His renditions of Sarah Palin’s gubernatorial resignation speech and her novel Going Rogue on Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show were truly in the stratosphere of his lifetime of work.

Shatner was most recently seen in the closing ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, along with such Canadian luminaries as Michael J. Fox, Catherine O’ Hara, Neil Young, Michael Buble and Inward Eye. Shatner, a native of Montreal, proudly told the world last night, “We are a people who know how to make love in a canoe.”

Photo via Source

Rife wracked up quite a few eye-rolling moments on the show, as he was unable to keep up on a variety of everyday White Castle tasks, including surviving a punishing late-night shift at the drive-thru window.

One of Rife’s proposals after his experiences includes a wellness program for employees (after talking to one who had suffered a serious heart attack). He also doled out a $5,000 culinary scholarship to another hard-working employee who developed a tasty salsa to put on the little Slyders. Rife’s main takeaway from his appearance is that White Castle needs to better communicate with its star employees, who offer the company their motivation and talent.

While the show’s main objective seems to be putting a CEO or corporate leader into the trenches of their own company, it always seems to love a good disaster as well. While he was in the bakery and packaging facility, for example, Rife managed to ruin 4800 buns. Somewhere in the cosmos, Harold and Kumar were weeping.

Go on Twirlites, tell us which executive leader you would like to see descend his or her own corporate ladder?

Photo via CBS

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet sent 10,000 national troops into the streets of Santiago most affected by the disaster, both to control looting and to speed the aid effort. Aftershocks continue to rumble, hampering search and rescue efforts, and an emergency curfew has been imposed after looters targeted markets throughout the city.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is currently on a tour of South America and was scheduled to visit Chile this week. She intends to continue with her visit, despite the quake, meeting with both Bachelet and President-elect Sebastián Piñera.

This South American disaster comes only months after the world rallied to help the impoverished country of Haiti after Port Au Prince suffered a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. The Mobile Giving Foundation helped raise $40 million in aid for Haiti via text messages, and the same service is being set up again for Santiago. You can send free texts to a number of aid organizations, such as World Vision, the Salvation Army and the Save the Children Federation.

Photo via i.telegraph.co.uk

The question of intellectual property, creative plagiarism and idea theft is not just one for writers and musicians anymore, it seems to now be a topic du jour in the fashion world too.

It looks like Kate Spade might be in a bit of a pickle with her book clutches that look exactly like the work of Olympia Le-Tan. The design on both is intrinsically the same, a book that opens up to reveal a clutch interior.

In the fall of last year Alexander McQueen and Steve Madden squared off with each other over McQueen’s design for the popular Faithful bootie, a favorite of Rihanna and a bevy of other young starlets. There have been no updates on this lawsuit, however, as of this blog post.

Another high profile je’accuse involved Lindsay Lohan, whose conceptual drawings for her Sevin fashion line started to look exactly like the work of another tights designer, James Lillis, and a dress designer, Jennifer Kao — whose very dresses she even wore once! Neither designer took legal action against Lohan, but their stories and opinions did gain a little traction in the fashion blogosphere.

Recently Marc Jacobs (generally loved) went after Christian Audigier/Ed Hardy (generally loathed) for selling a bag that looks just like a bag from his line, only with ugly douche illustrations attached to it.

When big designer names like Kate Spade and Audigier (both designers whose items are in turn completely ripped off for in the counterfeit market) emerge with work strongly reminiscent of others’, what do you think that means? Is it intentional? Is it a sign they’re out of ideas? Does it make you feel differently about their brands?

(If it’s any consolation to anyone, I’m pretty sure a zombie J.D. Salinger wouldn’t want well-to-do ladies using his book as a purse, no matter who designed it. I believe the word “phony” might come up in that conversation.)

Photo via Vanity Fair/Olympia LeTan

Yes indeed, Lady Starlight, a New York City-based DJ & go-go dancer, has been reminiscing about her days with Stefanie Germanotta before the Fame Monster hit.  She claims it was under her tutelage that Gaga took her pants off and cultivated her current taste for strange attire.

Lady Starlight bears no grudge:

“My style, performance art and DJing inspired her persona. Now she’s gone on to become a global phenomenon and I’m so proud.”

A Google image search for Lady Starlight does reveal a similar flair for edgy, tight sexual apparel.

I wish all these chicas would stop acting like they invented dressing sexy/weird.  Here are a few other weird women I can think of right off the bat!

Icelandic diva Bjork

Electroclash veteran Peaches

Artist Yayoi Kusama

Megadiva Grace Jones

Who are your other favorite crazy ladies?  Or is Lady Gaga the be-all end-all of your crazy lady existence?

Photo via Wikipedia Commons Images

I happened to be watching NBC that night and was also a little taken aback by the fact that the Canadians did a Spanish-themed number whilst the Americans did an Indian-themed number. Last time I checked the Canadians don’t consider flamenco the national dance and America does not celebrate the 4th of July with Bollywood dance numbers. Somehow their lack of cultural disconnect has not ruffled any feathers though. Isn’t what they did the exact same kind of cultural co-opting? Or am I just being persnickety?

Part of me thinks Domnina and Shabalin did not directly intend to be offensive, they just had no idea how … stupid they looked. It feels like such an old school “the native with the bone through their nose” stereotype, which I know doesn’t justify their choice. That’s just my theory. They were just stupid, not racist, perhaps. Either way, they should sit down and watch Rabbit Proof Fence a few dozen times for their crimes against the world’s eyeballs.

The Canadians ended up winning the ice dancing gold, with the Americans taking the silver. Which makes you wonder if the judges felt their costumes insensitive too. After all, this is only the third time in Winter Olympic history that a Russian couple has not taken home the gold.

Sound off: Do you think the costume controversy threw them off their game? And isn’t ice dancing boring to begin with? Who’s been watching curling!?

Photo via NBC Olympics

Well, this wasn’t any old story about the doll with the impossible measurements and permanent high-heeded foot, it also points to a more sobering matter:

“Indeed, only about 17 percent of girls take advanced placement tests in computer science while in high school, the lowest level of females among all such exams, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology. And in 2008, women earned only 18 percent of computer science degrees compared to 37 percent in 1985.”

Girls seem to be turned off by science, informed by societal images that cast the scientist as a dorky man in a white lab coat (often crazy too), whilst being quietly fed the idea that science is hard.

“Asked in a recent survey of what comes to mind when seeing or hearing the word “computing,” boys said “design,” “games” and “video” while girls responded with “boring,” “hard” and “nerd.” Only 10 percent of the girls surveyed rated computing as a very good choice for study.”

Hey, only a few years ago the then-president of Harvard University, Lawrence Summer, seemed to suggest that women’s “intrinsic aptitude” held them back in the STEM professions (science, technology, engineering and math). And this guy was the president of Harvard? Young women hear this kind of stuff–and not just from the president of Harvard, but from lots of adults–and it sinks in.

Personally? My father was constantly pushing me to enter the sciences, he holds a Ph.D. in Entomology and had no prejudices about a daughter becoming a computer engineer of some sort. (Instead I went to film school. Grrreeaaat.)

What’s the solution?  Get girls some science mentors and role models. Develop a strategy to speak positively about STEM careers to girls, their teachers, and parents, over and over again.  Show them that one episode of the Simpsons in which Lisa develops her own toy after a talking Malibu Stacy doll tells her “math is hard”!  That’s a good one.

Sound off: Do you feel you were discouraged from being interested in science as a young girl?

Photo via FlandersToday

Howes’ initial vision for the little ovens came from street vendors selling roasted chestnuts on the streets of New York City. He was inspired to create a safe toy that would allow kids to bake their own items. Since its introduction, about 20 million Easy-Bake Ovens have been sold, introducing generations of little boys and girls to the joys of baking–well, mostly girls.

More recently though, the Easy-Bake Oven has become a bit more gender neutral. The newest incarnation of the toy is now called the Easy Bake Real Meal Oven, and it comes in appropriate-for-girls-AND-boys silver. The Easy Bake Oven and Snack Center feels a bit more like the original design, and apparently you can bake nachos in it too. That feels a little wrong to me, but baking is baking right? I’m personally holding out for the Nancy Silverton Easy Bake Wood-Burning Artisan Bread Baking Oven for my nonexistent daughter.

Howes is also responsible for the development and refinement of other beloved childhood toys, like the Spirograph.

Thank you again, Ronald Howes, for filling our childhoods with little light bulb-warmed cakes, cookies and other delights.

Twirlites, let us know: did you have one, did you love it, what’d you bake in it, and do you still love baking today?

Photo via ACimages