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When I saw the Jezebel headline "The Newest American Girl Doll Has A Secret" I couldn't help but click through. It turns out the Gwen Thompson, a "companion" doll to Girl-of-the-Year doll Chrissa, is the first American Girl Doll to be living in a homeless shelter. From her American Girl Wiki page:

Gwen and her mother Janine fell on hard times when her father lost his job; they later lost the house as they were unable to keep up payments. Soon after, Gwen's father left them and they became homeless...

Job loss? Homeownership kaput? Sounds like what a sizeable chunk of America experienced this past year! Looks like American Girl is very up to date with contemporary issues that girls (and their parents) can relate to, or at least recognize (see also: Chrissa vs. the cyber-bullies!). Color me cynical, but I can't help but feel this is just a marketing strategy by the Mattel-owned company.

Hang onto your hats because there is a freight of douchebags in this post! We've got no-bit bloggers, a conservative take on Sarah Palin, THis week the douchebags around the internet really started to mount up! We've got Baywatch on the bigscreen, a feminist (?!) playmate, a clueless congressman, and more!

The folks at ABC World News released the second segment last night in a series they're calling "The New Gender Rules." Apparently, men are being hit harder by the recession than women (though many sources say otherwise) because male-dominated fields like engineering and finance are where the majority of jobs are being lost. This, according to "The New Gender Rules," is causing a wacky shift in traditional gender roles. Guess what? Gender inequality is gone because of the recession! Goodbye sexism! Helllooo postfeminism!

Check out the first segment in the series:



The second segment, and the reasons why this series might not indicate a complete erasure of gender roles (insert sarcastic eye roll here), after the jump!