Sometimes stupidly sexist comments only come to my attention months after their occurrence. Luckily, I believe that there is no statue of limitations on directing attention back to the perpetuator of bigotry.
The January/February issue of Business 2.0 featured a section called 101 Dumbest Moments in Business. Some of the 101 examples cited are truly dumb but #74 should really be ranked #1. Formula One chief exec Bernie Ecclestone shared his opinion on Danica Patrick’s
4th place finish in the Indy 500, “Women should be dressed in white, like all other domestic appliances.‘ Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Not only does Ecclestone’s comment have absolutely nothing to do with racing or Danica Patrick’s superb race but it is a classic example of the ‘good old boy’ thinking that perpetuates traditionally male institutions like car racing or golf. Ecclestone’s comments are reprehensible.
Calling Eccelstone a chauvinist pig is really too generous. Pigs are incredibly intelligent creatures while also being pink, perpetuating power and possibility. Perhaps a new simile could be crafted for chauvinistic comments, one that underscores the vile nature inherent in such an attitude. Tick, scab of the earth, Lord Voldemort, hmmmm…..
I was interviewed a few weeks ago by a fabulous reporter at The Litchfield County Times. Soon afterwards, I was photographed. I felt like a movie star. Now, I really feel like a movie star with the featured article out in last Friday’s issue. Check it out!
The January/February issue of Health magazine spotlighted four new advances in the battle against breast cancer…
1. Breast-cancer fighting drug, Herceptin, from bioresearch firm Genentech cut the risk of breast cancer recurrence by more than half after 3 years in a clinical trial of the drug. The trials was halted last year because the results were so striking that scientists decided to give all the volunteers involved a chance to switch over to the drug.
2. While there are many reasons to cut the fat from our diets, there is one more now. Women in a low-fat eating group with a specific form of breast cancer cut their risk of recurrence by 42%. Follow-up studies will be done but more than ever, we see reasons for cutting out the extra fat in our diets. This possible new evidence is just one more motivation to do so.
3. Digital mammography is not as pervasive yet but studies show that the digital technology picked up 15-28% more cancers than traditional equipment. Apparently only 8% of mammography units are digital but this new evidence should do wonders to encourage future purchases.
4. A genetic screening test called Oncotype DX analyzes 21 breast cancer-related genes by looking at cells taken from a tumor. Last May researchers said that Oncotype DX could predict “how likely individual women are to experience a breast cancer recurrence, based on the genetic profile of the tumor,”. 
Dr. Susan Love, author of Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book, says “With breast cancer in the past, everyone got the same treatment. Now we know there are different forms of the disease that respond to different kinds of treatment. With this test, for the first time, we have a way to begin to sort out who should get which therapy.”
For complete details, run out and grab Health yourself.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, liposuction is the top cosmetic surgical procedure in the US with rhinoplasty (nose reshaping) a close 2nd. 
While I cannot really imagine getting either procedure done , I really had a hard time simply reading about vaginal plastic surgery, one of the field’s fastest growing sectors according to Daphne Merkin’s article, Our Vaginas, Our Selves in a recent Sunday’s New York Times Magazine.
Even more disturbing than reading the particulars of this article (if that’s possible) are the alarming implications that surgery of this nature. The woman who decides to embark on a procedure of this nature is likely post age 40 (my guess) and looking for some way to feel young and sexy again. However, feelings of youth and sexiness are more a product of our minds than our bodies. I can reconstruct every part of this body of mine from my ass to my breasts and those changes won’t necessarily make me feel sexier or more beautiful. They may help my self-esteem but they don’t make it or break it.
It’s another depressing commentary on the level of women’s self-esteem in today’s society that many of us feel inclined to alter the most personal part of ourselves to seize something we feel is lost. The good news is that this internal damage can be mended…and at a much lower, less painful cost. You won’t feel like a virgin again but you will feel something even better and more long-lasting. Ever heard of Uncommon Confidence?
Just as Dove launched ads which feature a variety of different body types and colors, other industries are turning over a similar leaf. It will be sweet relief to see older faces in ads whose theme is still breathtaking beauty. Yes, I said older. Dior Beauty 
has signedfilm star Sharon Stone — age 47–to be the face of their new line . Stone will be featured in ads hyping Dior’s new Capture Totale-a wrinkle cream which promises (yes, another) to do it all. Stone, at an age which she actually might use wrinkle cream, unlike the women in most such ads who appear all of about 25 years old, with no real need for such a product….yet.
As journalist Mary Tannen points out in her piece on ‘Appearances’ in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, Stone and others like fellow actress Kim Basinger who is shown in Miuccia Prada’s new Miu Miu ad campaign, are part of the baby boomer generation who, as we know, like to shop. And, they do they shop! Tannen tells us that boomers between ‘50-60 years old control over $1 trillion in spending power each year’. That’s a lot of skin cream, movie tickets, leather furniture and more on an annual basis.
What savvy companies are finally getting (huge sigh of relief) is the fact that buyers like to see people who look like them hawking the products that they shop for, especially when it comes to beauty products and fashion. So, it just makes good business sense for companies to feature models who help market their products based on a perceived sense of similarity. Not that we look at Kim Basinger and are reminded of our own face but what does come to mind is a certain connection, a sense of familiarity which reassures and empowers us.
Joan Root, animal lover and conservationist was shot to death as she slept last Friday. Root was murdered in the middle of the night while at her lakefront home. Two men were arrested but the motive is unclear, The New York Times reported in her obituary yesterday.
Root, the daughter of a Kenyan coffee planter, was a conservationist who combated illegal fishing and whose 88-acre property was a refuge for orphaned animals. 
In the early part of her career, Root and her husband worked together on a number of wildlife films about Africa, one of which was nominated for an Oscar in 1978. Root and her husband allowed the young Dian Fossey to come along on one of their guided jungle hikes. Fossey’s biographer later reported that she had trouble keeping up with the two speedy leaders.
Root’s death is the latest in a string of attacks on farmers and white settlers in the Naivasha area. This killing is an abomination. Where would the animals of Africa be without pioneers like Joan Root whose exploration into their lives provided bridges of education for all of us? Both Root and Fossey died too soon, murdered as if their lives had no worth. Root was 69, Fossey 52. The loss is tremendous.
Michelle Bachelet, female agnostic physician, was elected President of Chile Sunday with more than 53% of the vote. Chile, a male-dominated Catholic country, is one of only a few countries in the Americas that has elected a woman leader. 
Here in the United States, we aren’t that advanced.
Bachelet is a survivor of the evil Pinochet regime whose torturous dictatorship was responsible for the death of her father. She herself was brutally tortured, and at one particularly hideous point was asked by her torturer for tips on how to get into med school. Bachelet, divorced and the mother of three children, became a familiar face once again, in a famous rather than infamous way, when she was elected to lead the Ministry of Defense two years ago. Bachelet is seen as a bridge between the murdering ways of the Pinochet regime and the new movement for social change in Chile. Bravo to Chileans for proving that women can be political leaders, “imperfect” women like Bachelet—with children, divorced, agnostic, Clearly, Bachelet is a player of her own Authentic Self rules.
The death yesterday of 7 year old Nixzmary Brown in Brooklyn is certainly a tragedy. Chained to her bed and isolated from her five siblings who range in age from 6 months to 9 years, little Nixzmary died of a brain hemorrhage caused by a blow to her head but also had other injuries. The most disturbing part of the story is that her family had been investigated by the city’s child welfare agency in May 2005 for neglect and as recently as last month after the agency received a tip that she was being abused. As troubling for me is the fact that at least one neighbor noticed signs that of abuse. Perry Robinson whose 11 year old cousin would play with Nixzmary noticed “welts on her arms and limping as she was walking”. Nixzmary explained away the injuries at least once but other times told Robinson that her mother’s companion hit her, threatening to kill her if she told anyone.
Who, if not other adults, can be advocates for these children? I find it hard to believe in a crowded three-story apartment building, no other neighbors heard or saw anything that would lead them to question the safety of the children in the Brown home. It was simply safer and easier (although not on their collective conscience, I would imagine) to keep their mouths shut. And, what a colossal tragedy that a life could have been saved if more people had voiced concerns themselves about the little girl. For some people, the failure to advocate for their own needs leads to a failure to speak on behalf of others. We must learn to speak up for ourselves and feel confident in our words to voice them to others. The death of little Nixzmary might have been avoided had more people been moved to voice concern and take action.
While I enjoy Yoga Journal immensely, I find that the feature articles are often much longer than the subject demands. Who is editing these pieces, I often wonder? So, I was pleasantly surprised by the Sally Kempton’s article, Take Heart, in the February issue of YJ. Its theme of difficult people being the best teachers hits home for many of us post-holiday stress. 
Kempton’s thoughtful, albeit still a little wordy, piece focuses on acceptance, attraction and visualization of desired outcomes. A little airy fairy perhaps in places but the grounding of the lessons in our spirit is quite strong.
Recall that our Authentic Self feels at its most full and satisfied when we are honoring its essential parts. In the case of dealing with difficult people, the honoring of our personal values would be the integral piece which speaks to our Authentic Self. The YJ article is a gentle introduction to a subject that most of us would rather just avoid.
Have you ever noticed how adults are much more comfortable smiling in a friendly way at children than atother adults? Interestingly, this seems to be equally true for men and women. As a careful observer of humans as they interact with other humans, I have definitely found this to be true for myself as well. My instinct tells me that this is basically a self-esteem issue. As adults, we are much more wary about ‘putting ourself out there’ i.e. by smiling with other adults than we are with children. Other adults might give us a dirty look or even look at us blankly while a child will often smile back.
As adults, we hate to feel uncomfortable. So, it is infinitely easier to settle into blank gazes instead of real smiles. Smiling is risky. But it is risk-taking that builds self-esteem and allows us to develop a more confident attitude. I’ll try it :–)
Quirks in WordPress keep merging my posts together!!!
Most of us, I believe, really are secret candy freaks. Men admit to this more than women, of course. My brother unabashedly discloses his candy obsession: Twizzlers, Skittles, chocolate bars, gummies. As a way to honor my Authentic Self and encourage other women to own up to their candy desires, I admit here publicly for the first time to my own zeal for sugared concoctions with absolutely no nutritional value: dark-chocolate covered espresso beans, gummy peaches, peanut butter M&M’s, toffees and grapefruit-flavored hard candies. So, it was with much glee that I read the cover article in the Sunday Styles section of the NYT about Dylan Lauren and her dreamy candy bar.
I haven’t been, actually. Just like many women defer owning their anger for fear that it would unleash an relentless torrent of wild and unrepressed behavior, I panic about the debt that would result from my visit to Dylan’s Candy Bar. I’d fall into a vat of lollipops a la Augustus Gloop and never be heard from again, only to be cursed by my family when they received the final correspondence from me, my VISA bill with the Dylan’s charge on it.
Dylan Lauren’s endeavor is all her own, admirably so. Her famous father has helped finance the famous candy store but the ideas are exclusively Dylan. The article is a wonderful chronicling of Dylan’s adventure into the realm of good candy. Lauren is a woman who clearly follows her passion and maintains a real Authentic path in her life. “It’s not about the money to me,” she says “I believe that I am here to do something, to create something that makes people happy and expresses myself.” She has done just that.
PS. If you want a truly mouth-watering, candy-packed experience, pick up Candy Freak by Steve Almond (yes, that’s his real name). A yummy delightful candy journey packed with tastes of nostalgia and excellent humor. Yum.