Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Mention women’s studies and you’re likely to get a mixed reaction. One group may talk about why it’s so important for students of both sexes to learn about women’s historical impact on society. Another may roll their eyes and argue that a men’s studies program would be considered sexist — so why the need for women’s studies in the 21st century?
At age 4, Mary Bryk began to suspect there was something seriously wrong with her mother. As Bryk recalls, her mother would meticulously tie Bryk’s hands together and bind her leg to a high chair. Then, she would strike the child’s foot with a hammer. “My mom was a nurse and would constantly tell me she was doing treatments and that the doctor knew what she was doing,” says Bryk, now 44. “But even at that age I knew something wasn’t right. When she fractured my hip while I was hospitalized, that’s when it hit me that what she was doing wasn’t normal.”
Preaching about how difficult it is to earn money is one thing. Actually putting yourself in the situation to experience it is another.
The average hetero man would say, “Hell, no!” if his wife asked him to go to Chippendales with her. But everyone from Naomi Campbell to Courtney Love to pensive Robin Wright Penn has been to strip clubs like Scores. Oh, wait, I believe they’re referred to as gentlemen’s clubs these days. I keep forgetting how classy these joints are now.
Mark Ruffalo appears nude in “In the Cut.” Sean Penn bares all in “21 Grams.” And Ewan McGregor — Obi-Wan Kenobi himself — shows off his lightsaber in “Young Adam.” “It’s about time that men are stripping down,” Neve Campbell says in the current issue of In Style. “If we have to take it off, they should too.” Hallejuah, sister.
You got reamed at the office. The baby spit up on you. And you just spent the last two hours doing the kids’ chores. All you want to do is go to bed, but your husband wants to do more than sleep. If this situation could be rectified by an herbal supplement, would you snap it up? That’s what the makers of Avlimil are hoping with a flashy ad campaign that has some experts wondering whether there’s any substance to back up the glitz.
If you want to know why it takes a woman so long to get dressed, try going shopping with her. Aesthetics aside, women have to deal with sizes that make no sense. Welcome to the wacky world of women’s clothes, where more has become less when it comes to sizes.
I recently saw a display of vintage mannequins from the turn of the century that shocked me. They were life-size and wearing dresses equivalent to a Size 10 or 12. Fast-forward to a shopping trip to a downtown Chicago department store where the mannequins were roughly the shape of your 12-year-old nephew.
Roman Polanski may never be able to escape the stigma of sexual molestation, even though most grant he is a talented director. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions regarding the infamous case.
“Without a question, Bruce Lee was the uncontested idol for a lot of little black boys growing up in the ’70s. We absolutely accepted him as Soul Brother No. 1.”
Exactly how do you sell a tragedy? A handful of entrepreneurs already has figured it out. The Australian fashion chain Quick Brown Fox carries a line of beaded handbags depicting planes crashing into the World Trade Center. One can be yours for about $87.
A downtown office worker was so offended by the smell of a colleague’s spicy lunch, she called security. Now that’s passive aggressive.
Step aside, Anna Kournikova. You’ve got some tasty competition on the pinup calendar front. More than a baker’s dozen of top Chicago area chefs have struck a pose to help fight hunger. Unlike the beefcake and cheesecake calendars flooding the market, there were no age, sex or physique requirements for these models, who gladly posed for the Northeastern Illinois Area Agency on Aging’s Holiday Meals on Wheels (Out of the Kitchen to Fight Hunger) calendar.
Here’s how Katharine Callard outsmarted the SATs: She chose a college that didn’t require them. That’s right: She didn’t sweat those SAT prep classes, and she got into Hampshire College anyway. Of course, as a straight-A student at the top-notch Latin School of Chicago, Callard had a pretty good idea of her ability to do well in college.
Chicagoans want to hear Ray Charles sing “America the Beautiful.” We are reading up on the Middle East. We are renting movies that celebrate the human spirit, but some of us also are checking out “Armageddon” and “Independence Day”–films where the United States reigns victorious. In different ways, we all are sating our psyches with comfort entertainment–in whatever form we need it–to help us deal with last week’s tragedy.
It is noon Friday. Thirty-six little heads are bowed in honor of the victims of Tuesday’s tragedy. Many of them have miniature American flags perched on their desks. These children-many of whom don’t yet like members of the opposite sex in that way-cling onto each other’s hands in solidarity. They are fifth graders at Arthur Dixon Elementary School on the South Side. Bright and articulate, they are acutely aware of this week’s events. They speak as knowledgeably about the terrorists as they do about pint-sized rap star Lil Bow Wow.
She’s 25 and dissatisfied. Who was she? Why hadn’t life lived up to her expectations? What was the meaning of life? Wasn’t this crisis of extended navel gazing supposed to happen when she turned 50? Not if you’re going through a “quarterlife crisis.”
Get over it isn’t eactly what you want to hear when your mother dies. Neither does heading that your loved one looks good dead. Yet the awkward words from the lips of our friends and family often add up to extreme insensitivity and hurt feelings, when it’s the last thing they mean. In the quiet moments after goodbyes have been said, it’s often hard to avoid dwelling on the hackneyed nature of sympathetic wishes. While we’d liek to think of our well wishers in a positive, warm light, those of us who have grieved can’t help but wonder: “What were they thinking? Are they nuts?”
When is a perfect size 6 not so perfect? When it’s really a size 8. Confused? Join the club. If you’re a woman–or you’ve ever tried shopping for your favorite femme–you already know that judging fit by eyeballing the item or checking the tag is a crapshoot. A size 6 Donna Karan skirt may fit like a charm. But if you try that same size in something like Guess? or BCBG, you may wonder when you managed to pack on an extra five pounds.
“I very rarely see a patient that says she wants to look different than her heritage,” says says Dr. Alan Matarasso. “The goal is to give more definition to the eyelid, but not to make Asian women look Westernized.”