The all-black issue of Vogue in Italy really was amazing. This is a great interview with Bethann Hardison, who's basically responsible for signing some of the most famous black models in the U.S.

Quoted: An interview with legendary modeling agent Bethann Hardison who signed models like Iman and Naomi Campbell.

It's absurd that day care workers are paid so little when it costs so much. I still think that subsidized day care (and incentivizing companies to provide day care) needs to be a much higher priority than it is in political discussions. But that's not likely to happen until we see more women in politics...

Quoted: Can I cut it as a day care worker, one of the most exhausting, worst paid, and smelliest jobs in America?

Wow, it's amazing how much thought Michelle Obama had to put into every detail of this appearance on The View.

Quoted: Obama had approached the appearance, to quote Barbara Walters' on-air reading of the morning's New York Times, "with an eye toward softening her reputation." To this end, she did not do her hair in the Jackie Kennedy flip that André Leon Talley—the Vogue editor who Page Six alleges to be her style guru—pegs as central to her "image strategy."

Neat idea, actually. I really think the attitude of "oh, we have a black girl already" that's called out in the article still persists.

Quoted: The July issue of Italian Vogue calls attention to prejudice by using only women of color.

I never realized HPV could cause cancer in men. But I think vaccinating men for HPV will be treated a lot like birth control by legislators - in other words, it's a "woman problem."

Quoted: The virus that causes cervical cancer also leads to throat cancer in males. Now researchers are looking into whether the vaccine should be given to boys, both to prevent the spread of HPV, and to prevent the rarer, but no less deadly, cancers that can occur in men from the virus.

Amen! Meanwhile, that's a great bumper sticker: "A woman's place is in the House."

Quoted: As we keep our collective eye on November, the media's sexist attacks against Clinton should not be allowed to stand.

This writer makes some good points that I agree with (for example, the notion that a lot of Hillary's "bitterness" comes from unduly harsh treatment of her). But I disagree with the idea that Hillary should've dwelled more on potentially being the first female president - she would've been slammed as manipulative and weak. Plus, it's very telling that there aren't any alternative models...

Quoted: In the coming days, as Hillary Clinton moves to the sidelines and Barack Obama takes the stage alone, many people will suggest that America just wasn't ready for a female president. This may be true. But we'll never entirely know, because her problem wasn't that she was a feminist. Her problem was that she wasn't feminist enough.

Good point. I think this happens with Latino actresses as well - they end up playing the sassy best friend who 'tells it like it is.'

Quoted: As the black best friend in Sex and the City: The Movie, Jennifer Hudson plays a tired role.

Fascinating! Makes sense, though...

Quoted: When the women of Sex and the City find themselves outside NY, they aren't happy about it—until Samantha spots a hunky, half-naked farmer and seduces him out of his overalls. And thus the show discovers what researchers have been documenting over the last decade or more: It's the country, rather than the city, where more of the sex is.