Happy 4th of July weekend! We know that a large portion of this great country is in tune with pop culture in one way or another. And music is a large part of that culture. We also know that last week, the King of Pop died, which has brought things to somewhat of a halt, so to speak. It is safe to say that almost every person in America has contemplated the death of Michael Jackson over the last week. The reactions have been anywhere from grief to apathy to supposed suicide pacts between some of his hardcore fans. Undoubtedly, Jackson's influence was huge, and speculation about what his life was really like into every nitty gritty sordid detail will surely unfold in the coming months. I heard someone say no one this influential in America, hell worldwide, has died since Elvis. And sure, it was too soon. Historically, there are hundreds of musicians that have died before their time, due to things like murder, eating disorders, suicide. So in paying homage to America and some of its ever honored musicians, I've made a mix of songs from artists who died young. Some whose deaths made just as much of an impact on us as their lives.

 

Well it's about damn time! Though physicians and therapists (not just Dan Savage, we're talking mainstream doctors) have been known for decades that vibrator use can be great for sexual health, there's never been a scientific study to back up the common knowledge. Until now!

Trojan funded a national research project to determine the extent and impact of vibrator use and la-di-da, look what they found: not only do a majority of American women use vibrators, they're happier for it!

According to the surveys of 2,056 women and 1,047 men ages 18-60, a whopping 53 percent of women (and 45 percent of men) say they use a vibrator - a quarter of those in the last month. Women who use vibrators were more likely to say they were sexually happy and more likely to get gynecological exams.

Feminism 2.0 is holding a caregiving blog carnival July 13th:

Fem2.0 Blog Carnival: For Women, the Other Side of Work Is NOT Play… It’s Caregiving

Women take care of children, spouses, parents, family members, friends. We dominate the caregiving professions, like nursing or social work. Ask anyone receiving care of any kind and he or she will most likely tell you that the primary caregiver is a woman.

Caregiving is a job for which women usually don’t get or expect monetary compensation. It is a critical aspect of work/life and healthcare issues. How can caregiving be made easier to make our lives easier?

Internet buzz about Michael Bay's (director of landmark crap-tion films like Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, The Island) latest film Transformers 2 has mostly centered around who has the most scathing review, how hot Megan Fox is, and a few murmurs concerning coded racism in two of the robots.

This movie made me wanna barf and yawn at the same time. The following feminist critique of Transformers does contain spoilers, but frankly, there’s nothing I could further ruin about this movie that it doesn’t already do itself....

Summertime means blockbuster movies. After all, what's better on a hot day than heading into an air-conditioned megaplex and watching larger-than-life actors live out unrealistic scenarios with even less realistic conclusions? But while summer blockbusters often bring with them cheesy dialogue and special effects, they shouldn't bring gay bashing. And now, thanks to some last minute editing of the ending of Bruno, they won't (we hope).

Bruno, the latest film by Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Da Ali G Show), is the story of a very openly gay Austrian man who works in the fashion world. Though we are more than a week away from the film's July 11 release date, Bruno has already enjoyed quite a bit of media attention (and speculation) as to its portrayal of the gay community. The latest? The film's ending has been edited for gay bashing.

More (including spoilers!) after the jump

On August 23rd, the New York Times Sunday Magazine will release a "special issue" about women in the developing world.

Friday night I attended an Indigo Girls concert at Ravina. Ravina is an outdoor concert arena but it is mostly lawn seating. People usually come bearing picnic baskets of cheese, wine and other snackables. It really is an experience. Friday night was pretty packed on the lawn as usual. People scout out their own spots and it's normally pretty hard to get back to the path if you are sitting too far in.

There were quite a good number of little girls attending with their moms. One such little girl was being lead, quickly, out of the lawn towards the path. We overhead the mom say loudly, "Come on, you can hold it. Squeeze! Squeeze!" Uh-oh...the potty run!

The mom was taking her daughter away from the best exit path, so one woman yelled out, "Over here!" A collective "whew" could be heard as the mom turned quickly and they were well on their way to the restrooms. "Sisterhood in action!" cried my friend.

I have no idea if the little girl made it, but I hope that the super long line parted ways for one of the littlest fans. Sisterhood indeed.

Animal rights activists aren't typically thought of as being misogynistic, violent perverts, but maybe they should be. Well, at least the geniuses over at Wakker Dier should be. Wakker Dier (which means "Animal Awake" in Dutch) launched a viral video campaign last week, complete with a countdown to the unveiling of this video (Warning: The following video contains graphic violence):



Q: Was that snuff film starring a fetish model supposed to make viewers sympathetic toward fish? A: Yes. WTF???

Two weeks ago the Disarm Domestic Violence Campaign launched worldwide. The first international campaign to protect women from gun violence featured women activists from 28 countries who spoke out against small arms proliferation through art, advocacy, media outreach, and direct action.

Dear Jenny,

We go way back. Back to the days when you and Blake were more than just band mates. Back to the days before "Portions for Foxes" was used in that episode of The O.C. when Marissa skipped school to drive to L.A. with her soon-to-be girlfriend Alex. Even before you sang with the Postal Service on Give Up. I've been there through it all and now I've just got to let you know that I'm really, really disappointed. You can probably guess why, but just in case you need to have you memory jogged, please watch (and listen) to this:

I've been reading Dawn forever and each time I get a chance to mention her as a mom blog I do. This Woman's Work is an amazing blog.

In a nutshell, Dawn has brought us along on her journey as a mom to Noah, wife to Brett, through her & Brett's desire to be parents again and their decision to bring Madison, through adoption, into their family. What sets Dawn's blog a part of other mom blogs is her honesty. The epitome of her honesty is how she is managing the open adoption of Madison.

Hey there all you Brooklyn hipsters! Did you know that the Brooklyn Bridge is not only useful when one wishes to imply quirkiness (I'm talking to you, Gossip Girl), its completion was also overseen by the first ever woman field engineer?

Emily Warren Roebling was born in New York state in 1843, and became the chief engineer on the Brooklyn Bridge by default when her husband, Washington Roebling (the first chief engineer on the project) became ill. Hey, sometimes it takes a man contracting an exotic and fatal illness (Caisson disease, in this case) in order for a talented woman to get an opportunity to do her thing (sorry dudes, but it's true).

"Feminist misinformation is pervasive," Christina Hoff Sommers writes in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education.“Persistent Myths in Feminist Scholarship” is the latest from the author of Who Stole Feminism: How Women Have Betrayed Women and The War on Boys: How Misguided Feminisim is Harming our Young Men, adding to her legacy of anti-feminist feminism and raising a stink over the contemporary feminist movement in academia.