GaGa

Okay, I am back.

Things have been pretty weird and hectic in my personal life. Lots of pressure, and  matters over which I have no control.

Did manage to catch bits and pieces of last night's Grammys.Yes, it was about spectacle, but it was also spectacular.

About halfway through it hit me hard. Women were stealing the show. Not just Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, but also the wonderfully talented Lady GaGa.

And, as for Pink, I ask you: Has there ever been a Grammy performance to match hers?

And in high heels yet. 

There's a video of her headspinning rendition of Glitter in the Air here. But it may not last long due to copyright issues.

If ratings were up 35 per cent over last year's telecast, cherchez les femme

Click here for a Star slideshow of highlights.

Breast-beating

It's no secret that male and female brains are hard-wired differently. 

Years ago, I saw a documentary that showed a couple having sex in an MRI or similar scanning machine.

While the man's brain was red hot in one segment of his brain, the woman's brain was various densities of pink all over. This was interpreted to mean that men's brains are more specialized -- ie. with different sections responsible for different neuro- or motor functions -- while women used more of their brains, or at least greater parts of them.

I joke to my friends that, during sex, guys are focused on the deed while women are thinking stuff like ''Oh God, look at my stomach jiggling''' and/or ''I hope the kids stay asleep'' and/or ''Better remember to pick up the dry cleaning tomorrow'' and/or ''Geez, how did I miss those cobwebs on the ceiling?''

Whatever. These basic differences, the doc explained, could be why women have a better chance of recovering normal verbal or movement abilities after a stroke. Other sections of their brain would take over those functions -- while men were left with gaping neurological deficits because a pertinent part of their brain was wiped out.

I don't know if subsequent research has proven all this or not -- although the fact that there are gender-specific differences has been confirmed. 

I suppose you could explain this all with evolution. Women are generally better multi-taskers because they have to be. Through the ages, they minded the kids, tended the fires, gathered the nuts and berries, made the clothes, and all that other ''work is never done'' work. They also had to, as the weaker sex (at while least pregnant or nursing), be better able to get along with others in order to survive.

Men had to be more single-minded in order to seek and hunt down dinner -- or to fend off the neighbouring marauding tribes.

Following this logic, it would explain why men are more aggressive and/or assertive than women. Survival of the fittest, the biggest, the loudest, the most confident ...

Which brings us to new media wiz Clay Shirky's much-talked "Rant about women'' of last Friday. In a one line summation, to borrow from Chrystal, women ''need to learn to act like jerks.''

[W]omen in general, and the women whose educations I am responsible for in particular, ... aren't just bad at behaving like arrogant self-aggrandizing jerks. They are bad at behaving like self-promoting narcissists, anti-social obsessives, or pompous blowhards, even a little bit, even temporarily, even when it would be in their best interests to do so. Whatever bad things you can say about those behaviors, you can't say they are underrepresented among people who have changed the world.

<SNIP>

Now I don't know what to do about this problem. (The essence of a rant, in fact, is that the ranter has no idea how to fix the thing being ranted about.) What I do know is this: it would be good if more women see interesting opportunities that they might not be qualified for, opportunities which they might in fact f**k up if they try to take them on, and then try to take them on. It would be good if more women got in the habit of raising their hands and saying "I can do that. Sign me up. My work is awesome," no matter how many people that behavior upsets.

<AND>

Now this is asking women to behave more like men, but so what? We ask people to cross gender lines all the time. We’re in the middle of a generations-long project to encourage men to be better listeners and more sensitive partners, to take more account of others’ feelings and to let out our own feelings more. Similarly, I see colleges spending time and effort teaching women strategies for self-defense, including direct physical aggression. I sometimes wonder what would happen, though, if my college spent as much effort teaching women self-advancement as self-defense.

Gotta say, there's something to that. Instead of women spending so much time on Oprah admonitions to self-improve, maybe they'd be better off acting like it's everybody and everything else that needs fixing -- and they are just the -- irony alert! -- man for the job.

Bet that wage gap (PDF) would narrow really fast.

Fun multi-media extras! Click here for a 1950 CBC Radio forum on pay equity. The struggle continues.

And go here to see if your brain is more male or more female.

Brand X Chromosome

Just a quick blogging of today's treeware, with some linkage for the record:

Feminism is back in the news, south of the border anyway.

As for sexism, that never really went away – not if you monitor how women, left and right, are treated by the media.

Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin? Both still get "bitch-slapped'' around in the most virulent sexist terms. Women's looks, their clothing, even their voices – all are not-so-fair game, no matter how accomplished they may be.

Still, somehow, "the feminists'' remain the enemy in the endless battle to protect women's rights.

That's what's happening in seven states, where there are attempts to define personhood as beginning at conception. In Oklahoma, the legislature recently approved a move that would compel doctors to fill out 10-page forms on each abortion they perform – complete with questions about the woman's relationship with the sperminator – and then post all the details on a public website.

This vociferous anti-choice push is growing both in the U.S. and in Canada, where groups that would limit women's rights have a direct line to the Conservative government.

Also putting feminism in the spotlight are two new publications. There's Maria Shriver's report, A Woman's Nation Changes Everything, co-written with the liberal Center for American Progress. And there's When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present, a book by Gail Collins, the first female editor of The New York Times' editorial page.

The Shriver report is a 400-plus page effort that examines how far women have come in a society that has yet to catch up with the changes the second wave, '60s and '70s feminists, fought to bring about.

Know that, here in the Great Pink North, where we have socialized health care and legally mandated maternity leaves, we are ahead of our U.S. sisters. That said, despite our greater numbers in the workforce and halls of academia, Canadian women still lag behind on everything from how many seats we fill in Parliament to how many corner offices we occupy.

And, of course, there's the persistent wage gap which is not just because "women's work" is undervalued but also because women bear the greater burden of child-rearing, elder care and housework. That means our paycheques and pensions are lower and more of us, especially in our "golden'' years, end up impoverished.

As for Collins' book, well, it is a masterpiece of little stories of huge significance. The woman who couldn't get a lease unless it was signed by her institutionalized mental patient husband. The woman who was shouted out of traffic court by the judge for showing up in slacks.

Oh yes, it really was like that. Mad Men is not made up, not at all.

As Collins writes in an open letter to young women on CNN's website, "Back then, if you wanted a career that involved travel, you'd have to have become a flight attendant ...''

"Coffee, tea ... or me?'' was the line for "stewardesses."

In fact, the back of the line is where you usually found women.

Now, despite the efforts of some hard-fighting young feminists with websites such as feministing.com and shamelessmag.com, many young women reject the F-word because it's been stigmatized as representing a hairy-legs-and- Birkenstocks pack of man-haters.

What a way to keep women in their place: with the "feminazi" lie. And, as we all know, young people are oh so label-conscious.

As my Twitter pal Cristina Simonetto – an ad copywriter, so she's the expert – wrote the other day, "Feminism needs to rebrand.''

Trouble is, too many misogynists control both the media and the message.

So, while feminism may be back in the news, women still have yet to move closer to the head of the lines.

These boots are made for talking

Noah Cyrus, 9, younger sister of Miley Cyrus, at a Halloween party over the weekend.

Slut or princess. These are your Disney-sanctioned career options, girls.

Work it, Baby!

StatsCan released its Changes in Parental Work Time and Earnings study today. 

Not surprisingly, it reports:

Between 1980 and 2005, the time parents spent on the job rose substantially for families with children, mostly because of the rising labour market participation of mothers.

During this period, the proportion of families with two parents working on a full-time, full-year basis more than doubled from 15% to 32%.

Single-parent families, particularly single mothers, also increased their work time by substantial margins. Over that period, the proportion of single mothers with a full-time and full-year schedule rose from 43% to 51%.

<SNIP>

Two-parent families in all earnings groups saw increases in their work time but increases were greatest in the low and middle earnings groups. For example, the proportion of parents working full year and full time in the middle earnings group (comprising families who earned between $46,700 and $93,400 in 2005) tripled over the period, from 11% to 32%.

Single parents with low earnings also recorded significant increases in their work hours, especially lone mothers. Between 1980 and 2005, the proportion of single mothers with low earnings working on a full-year and full-time basis rose from 8% to 20%.

The study also examines the extent to which the rise in parental work time translated into higher annual earnings for families. Increases in earnings were divided into two parts: the part due to increases in parental work time, and the part due to increases in rates of pay.

Among two-parent families, increases in parental work time accounted for nearly one-half (45%) of the overall growth in earnings, with low and middle earnings families contributing more than two-thirds.

The rest of the growth (55%) was due to an increase in rates of pay, in large part because of rising wages among top earnings families. This helps explain the growing gap between top and bottom earnings families documented in other studies.

Among single mothers, increasing work hours contributed to one-third of the overall increase in annual earnings. These gains were mostly associated with the rising work hours of single mothers with low earnings.

Conversely, because single fathers increased their work time by much smaller amounts, most of the changes in their annual earnings were driven by changing rates of pay.

Right off the bat, that tells us several things.

First, the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer.

While lower-income single parents are struggling, single mothers have it especially tough -- and, indeed, other studies reveal that these families are among the poorest in the country.

More women work outside the home for pay. Ergo, there is a real need for affordable daycare spaces.

(Doesn't anybody question what the Harper government's $100 a month -- taxable -- pay-off has injected into the underground economy, and the lost tax revenues as a result? And how many of those under-the-table caretakers are struggling single mothers as well?)

Finally, this confirms that men make more -- since they didn't have to increase their hours as much to gain earnings.

And all that just from the news release.

Much more in the actual report, if you're interested.

Mr. Big Stuff

Shelly Nickason Friesen posted this on our Facebook ''Proud to be a member of that 'left-wing fringe group' called 'Women'" page. Felt I had to re-post it here:

Just a couple of caveats though.

It's just a little too partisan for me. I'm all for voting the Conservatives out for their anti-women (plus anti-gay, anti-minority, anti-war resister etc.) agenda but I can't forget how the Liberals lollygagged on bringing in a national daycare program plus, last year, a whole whack of them voted on that bill that was not about curtailing abortion rights until it became about curtailing abortion rights.

Speaking for myself, I find the NDP and Bloc Quebecois have much more women-friendly politics.

But I still like the video.

Plus you can dance to it.

Oh -- and the Facebook group is up to 2,166 members -- in less than a week.

We should have t-shirt info firmed up by tomorrow.

Not such a rosy picture

Ever wonder why cut flowers are so plentiful and so much cheaper than they used to be?

Via my friend MatttBastard, I learned of the AFL-CIO's campaign to show some true love to mothers on Mothers' Day.

The American labour umbrella group is urging sons and daughters to think about where those floral bouquets they may be sending might have come from before they order them:

Mother’s Day, May 10, is one of the biggest days in the year for flower sales. Yet thousands of women who pick most of the flowers, many of them mothers themselves, will be working in egregious conditions for poverty wages.

More than 60 percent of the flowers sold in the United States come from Colombia. Two-thirds of the nearly 100,000 flower workers in Colombia are women, many working mothers. They often are required to work 12-to-15-hour days with few breaks, especially in the weeks before holidays like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day. As a result, many have been injured on the job and suffer health problems related to overexposure to pesticides and humiliating and degrading treatment by management. All for poverty-level wages.

You can help by going here:

In low season, workers at the plantation regularly work about 50 hours per week. The high season workweek is often 70-80 hours. Men report waking up around 5 a.m.; for women it is often as early as 3 a.m. in order to finish housework, feed their children and prepare them for school. The bus arrives between 5 and 5:30.

Once at the plantation, they put on their work clothes, and must be in position when the bell rings at 6:15 a.m. The post-harvest section, in which flowers are sorted by quality and color,  employs only women, while the cultivation and packing sections mostly employ men.

The number of hours worked daily depends on the worker’s department, but a typical worker will stay at work during the low season from 6:15 a.m. until 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 6:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. They are allowed 30 minutes for lunch and at least one 15-minute break. During the high season, workers report working 14 or 15-hour days. They begin work at 6:15 a.m. and often stay until 10 or 11 p.m. At the end of the day the workers return home in buses, then start all over again the next day.

All that for pennies a day.

Which is better than nothing but simply wrong. It's complete exploitation.

So, even better, seek out florists that deal with fair trade growers.

Last year, my Star colleague Lisa Wright reported on this Toronto outfit which operates ethically.

Bob and Doug Hatcher aren't your typical petal pushers.

Planted in a North York flower shop that's remarkably been in the family for nearly a century, they care enough to dig up the floral facts on exactly where your pretty Valentine's Day roses and bouquets came from and the conditions in which they were grown.

On top of that they're one of the few known retailers in the Toronto area – and one of only about a dozen in Ontario – that offer certified, Earth-friendly flowers on request at the charming Hatcher Florist shop on Yonge St. near Finch Ave.

"More and more people are searching out these eco-products," said Doug Hatcher, noting it's a small but blossoming segment of the business that's been in his family since 1909.

<SNIP>

"Randomly ask 10 florists, `Do you specifically look for Ontario flowers?' and if they didn't say `I don't care' I'd be surprised," Patel joked.

Eco Flora is another Canadian online floral retailer based in Toronto that specializes in organic and so-called fair-trade flowers.

"This is our small way of helping the planet. We're trying to change the world one flower at a time," brother Bob added.

More here from colleague Stuart Laidlaw:

Stores such as Grassroots or Ten Thousand Villages also offer dozens of fair-trade gift ideas, while companies such as Botanical PaperWorks of Winnipeg make Valentine cards that can be planted in the garden come spring. With the cards themselves acting as the compost, the wild flower seeds implanted in the paper will soon begin to sprout – giving perhaps the ultimate in locally grown flowers.

"There's six different flowers in there," says Petra McGowan of Botanical PaperWorks, whose home garden is full of her company's wild flowers.

"I don't have time to garden, so I just plant paper."

The thing is, you can't just stop buying flowers from Colombia because these women will starve.

What you have to do is tell florists you will be happy to deal with them if they buy fair trade flowers from ethical growers/importers.

Don't hurt one mother to make yours feel loved.

Hair waves

Newsweek has a huge take out this week on the cosmetic business and how the beauty hawkers are snagging their suckers at earlier ages than ever. Lots of multi-media sidebars too, slide shows of gonzo gadgets and funky old ads.

Reared on reality TV and celebrity makeovers, girls as young as Marleigh are using beauty products earlier, spending more and still feeling worse about themselves. Four years ago, a survey by the NPD Group showed that, on average, women began using beauty products at 17. Today, the average is 13—and that's got to be an overstatement. According to market-research firm Experian, 43 percent of 6- to 9-year-olds are already using lipstick or lip gloss; 38 percent use hairstyling products; and 12 percent use other cosmetics. And the level of interest is making the girls of "Toddlers & Tiaras" look ordinary. "My daughter is 8, and she's like, so into this stuff it's unbelievable," says Anna Solomon, a Brooklyn social worker. "From the clothes to the hair to the nails, school is like No. 10 on the list of priorities."

Much has been made of the oversexualization of today's tweens. But what hasn't been discussed is what we might call their "diva-ization"—before they even hit the tween years. Consider this: according to a NEWSWEEK examination of the most common beauty trends, by the time your 10-year-old is 50, she'll have spent nearly $300,000 on just her hair and face. It's not that women haven't always been slaves to their appearance; as Yeats wrote, "To be born woman is to know … that we must labour to be beautiful." But today's girls are getting caught up in the beauty maintenance game at ages when they should be learning how to read—and long before their beauty needs enhancing. Twenty years ago, a second grader might have played clumsily with her mother's lipstick, but she probably didn't insist on carrying her own lip gloss to school.

<SNIP>

A combination of new technology and the Web, is responsible—at least in part—for this transformation in attitudes. Ads for the latest fashions, makeup tips and grooming products are circulated with a speed and fury unique to this millennium—on millions of ads, message boards and Facebook pages. Digital cameras come complete with retouching options, and anyone can learn how to use Photoshop to blend and tighten and thin. It's been estimated that girls 11 to 14 are subjected to some 500 advertisements a day—the majority of them nipped, tucked and airbrushed to perfection. And, according to a University of Minnesota study, staring at those airbrushed images from just one to three minutes can have a negative impact on girls' self-esteem. "None of this existed when I was growing up, and now it's just like, in your face," says Solomon, 30. "Kids aren't exempt just because they're young."

<SNIP>

''Which can lead to very real consequences—and a hefty debt. A lifetime of manis and pedis could cover four years at a public university; hair and face treatments would pay for a private college. "

Consider: I have naturally wavy/frizzy hair. It was my bad luck to be a teenager in an era when long, straight London look hair was in style. I wasted so many hours every day, every week, fighting nature. It was exhausting, and it sapped energy that would have been better spent on my studies.

But it didn't cost much except a few jars of Dippity-do. And at least I could so some of my homework while under that hideous bonnet dryer.

What's happening now is insane.

No wonder so many young women are caught with massive credit card debt problems.

Yes, of course parents should put their feet down. But if their daughters are earning their own cash while babysitting or slinging burgers, how much can a parent accomplish, especially against the powerful media forces which are so influential in children's lives?

Lapdance of luxury

Yesterday, a friend and I drove by what is probably Toronto's landmark ''gentlemen's club'' and got into a debate over whether the financial meltdown is good or bad for the business. We've seen conflicting reports.

My theory is, a beer or two at a strip joint, especially those that offer cheap meals to bring in the customers, has got to be a lower-cost way of, um, getting that loving feeling than hitting the ''massage'' parlours or hiring ''escorts.''

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the sex trade, as long as sex workers have the right to ply their trade safely. Too many don't, risking rape, robbery, exploitation, eviction and worse. Of course, this is not exactly what I would like to see women doing but I can't deny that many are in the game because they actually enjoy it.If there's a market for it, and everybody involved is a consenting adult, well, why not?

Especially since this is an area where there is no gender pay gap.

But I digress.

Today frequent commenter MensRightsNow drew this story to my attention:

The tough job market is prompting a growing number of women across the country to dance in strip clubs, appear in adult movies or pose for magazines like Hustler.

Employers across the adult entertainment industry say they're seeing an influx of applications from women who, like Brown, are attracted by the promise of flexible schedules and fast cash. Many have college degrees and held white-collar jobs until the economy soured.

"You're seeing a lot more beautiful women who are eligible to do so many other things," said Gus Poulos, general manager of New York City's Sin City gentleman's club. He said he got 85 responses in just one day to a recent job posting on Craigslist.

It's too bad women who might otherwise never dream of going into a peeler palace feel they have to strip to make ends meet. But, since women are already poorly paid, and with so many in the tanking retail sector, I suppose they need to supplement their income in some way.

I just wonder how long the customers will have the cold hard cash to make it worthwhile.

 In this economy, "desperate measures are becoming far more acceptable," said Jonathan Alpert, a New York City-based psychotherapist who's had clients who worked in adult entertainment.

For some, dancing is temporary, a way to pay for college loans or other bills. Others say they've found their niche.

Dancers at the upscale Rick's Caberet clubs in New York City and Miami can make $100,000 to $300,000 a year – in cash – even with the economic downturn, club spokesman Allan Priaulx said.

Priaulx said 20 to 30 women a week are applying for jobs at the New York club, double the number of a year ago.

Still, analysts say, the industry isn't immune to the economic recession. Business is down an estimated 30 percent across all segments, including adult films, gentleman's clubs, magazines and novelty shops, said Paul Fishbein, president of AVN Media Network, an adult entertainment company that has a widely distributed trade publication and an award show.

"In the past, people have said this industry is recession-proof," said Eric Wold, director of research for financial services firm Merriman Curhan Ford. "I definitely don't see that; maybe recession-resistant."

Young women financing their education this way is not new.

What is new is the reported competition for these jobs.

Looks like a buyers' market.

Border collies without borders

Absolutely no reason for this post except that it lefty left me open-mouthed. Enjoy.