NOW (National Organization for Women) warns that the Senate will vote on an amendment similar to Stupak-Pitts that would prevent millions of women from obtaining insurance coverage for abortion under their version of health care reform, S1796. Is that the bill number or the year they intend to regress to?
This comes on the heals of the passed house Stupak-Pitts, anti-abortion amendment and the more recent mammogram media blitz tactic that blamed the White House for an independent private sector task force recommendation. It appears the health care insurance industry and their friends in Congress are out to target women in an all out effort to discredit health care reform. http://lafilmonline.com/oitsf/?p=74
NOW posted the following to it members on their website:
______________________________________________________
Reportedly, Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Bob Casey (R-Penn.) may offer a version of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to be attached to the Senate bill. That means, in all likelihood, if the Senate adopts this harmful amendment, it will remain in the final Senate-House conference bill and become law. Alternatively, a modified variation of Stupak-Pitts could be incorporated into the bill. Either way, millions of women lose -- big time.
Please Take Action NOW!
The Stupak-Pitts amendment explained:
* The ban on abortion coverage in insurance would apply to both the proposed public option and to private health insurance plans sold in the new regional health insurance exchanges. It is estimated that some 36 million uninsured persons would be purchasing insurance policies through new exchanges and would be eligible for federal affordability subsidies.
* Health insurers may not sell plans that cover abortion to customers who are paying without a subsidy, if even just one person who is receiving the federal affordability credits (the subsidy) were to purchase a plan. In other words, even if you are paying 100 percent of your insurance costs, abortion coverage would not be available in your plan if anyone with affordability credits joins the same plan.
* Women may purchase a separate abortion "rider" for coverage, though many doubt that these riders would be offered by the insurance companies.
* Small companies (fewer than 100 employees) would also likely purchase health insurance through the exchange, but if any of their employees received affordability credits no abortion coverage could be included.
* Eighty-seven percent of employer-based insurance plans now cover abortion services, but if employers withdraw coverage and send their employees to the health insurance exchanges, those employees would likely lose abortion coverage under these new prohibitions.
There may be a modified version of this harmful amendment that is included in the Senate health care reform bill that will be debated next week. We want to make sure that Stupak-Pitts language is not used and that no variation of this harmful amendment is passed. Please send a message to your senators that you oppose any restrictions on insurance coverage of abortion. Thank you for all the work you do for women's rights.
________________________________________________________NOW (National Organization for Women) warns that the Senate will vote on an amendment... more
There is a lingering suspicion among girls (as the unpopularity of science subjects demonstrates) that boys don’t value cleverness as an essential quality in a life partner. Given a choice between gorgeous or brainy, there is no guarantee they’ll do the right thing, because men think they’re clever enough for two. Well, it turns out they’re wrong. Swedish scientists have discovered that long life and good health have nothing to do with a man’s education and everything to do with his wife’s. Men married to smart women live longer — simple.
However, before you ring up your girlfriend to tell her that the man who left her for a bimbo will drop dead of brain atrophy, this is not a victory for women’s intelligence in general. It would be nice if our stimulating observations about FlashForward and the Tory agenda were keeping our men alert and full of life. Unfortunately, it’s simply our skill at processing advice about healthy lifestyles, and passing it on. All it boils down to is that “educated” married women have long since banned their men from eating pork pies at every other meal. They instinctively know about the importance of breakfast, the downside of dips (men think hummus is a diet aid) and the virtues of Green & Black’s 85% (the chocolate that doesn’t count). The Carla effect, in other words, is alive and well beyond the boundaries of the Elysée Palace.
"Today's first base is kissing ... plus fondling this and that. Second base is oral sex. Third base is going all the way. Home plate is learning each other's names."
So wrote Tom Wolfe in his 2000 book "Hooking Up" -- a term that describes a wide range of coupling from making out to intercourse.
For more than a decade, the "hookup" has been an integral part of the American college experience -- a result of the increased permissiveness that came with the sexual revolution of the 1970s.
Just recently at Harvard University -- sometimes pegged as "godless and liberal" -- the hookup culture came under fire, mostly from a small but growing abstinence group called True Love Revolution.
They argue that women who invoke a new kind of feminism -- the right to have sex whenever and with whomever they choose -- is demeaning to women.
"A popular thing to say among this intellectual crowd, in the ivies and in feminism in general, is to say that sex is empowering and a real woman uses her sexuality in any way she pleases," said Rachel Wagley, a 20-year-old sociology student who is TLR's co-president. "It's blatantly false and a lie that this culture tells to girls for their own benefit." Silpa Kovvali, a 21-year-old computer science concentrator, argued in a Harvard Crimson editorial that there is nothing "inherently degrading" about engaging in casual sex -- in fact, she said, it can be "empowering."
But chastity groups seem to be on to something -- a growing unease that although hooking up can be liberating, it can also be annoying and sometimes destructive.
"It's a huge part of life here," said Maariya Bajwa, a senior at the University of Florida. "When I used to take the bus I'd hear random people having conversations about random hook ups they had. I was like, 'Uh guys, we're on a bus. I don't need to hear about your one-night stands.'"
By the end of senior year, the average college student has had 6.9 hookups, mostly after a "good bit of drinking," according to a survey of 4,000 students at five universities by Stanford University sociology professor Paula England.
Her work revealed that while 24 percent of the respondents had reported never having hooked up, 28 percent had more than 10 such casual sexual encounters.
England, who set out to explore the dating habits of college students, found they were kissing, having oral sex and sometimes intercourse with "no expectation that either party has an interest in moving toward a relationship."
"There's a lot of degrading treatment of some women and it is empoweringly free for other women," she told ABCNews.com."Today's first base is kissing ... plus fondling this and that. Second base is oral... more
A group of students, both past and present, of the all-male St. Paul's College at Sydney University, decided to create a pro-rape Facebook page called "Define Statutory" that reportedly was allowed to stay up on the site for several months.
The question that remains, however, is why Facebook allowed a pro-rape group to exist on the service to begin with. This is a social networking site that refuses to let women post pictures of themselves breastfeeding, mind you, but it's okay to make a "hilarious" pro-rape group in the "Sports and Recreation" category? The group was public, by the way, accessible to anyone and visible to all. Interesting, isn't it, that in the eyes of Facebook, a woman shouldn't be allowed to show her breasts while feeding her child, but it's perfectly acceptable for men to make a highly public "sport" out of rape.A group of students, both past and present, of the all-male St. Paul's College at... more
"In the plaid-draped mid-’90s, Angela Chase squirmed through her so-called life and Daria Morgendorffer weathered suburbia under an armor of sublime snark. At the turn of the century, Freaks and Geeks’ Lindsay Weir picked up Daria’s mantle, that trademark army coat. But the 2000s have seen a peculiar shift: Teenagers on TV, especially girls, are suddenly cool. Even aspirational.
In years past, shows about high schoolers served a dual purpose, allowing their peers to sympathize while offering post-grads a weekly nostalgia trip. But it’s difficult to imagine Angela Chase hawking flip phones, or Lindsay Weir inspiring ready-to-wear lines at Target, as their modern counterparts on CW’s 90210 and Gossip Girl have done (indeed, as their franchise success has demanded). The alternagirl is basically unsaleable—most of us already know one, were one, or are one.
She’s a dying breed, but not yet extinct. You just need to know where to look—namely, the big screen, which has become a haven for alternagirls cruelly ousted from TV land. Zooey Deschanel reigns as Hollywood’s queen of quirk, though Ellen Page is on the rise after Juno (a film with a hyper-referential script that featured at least one My So-Called Life nod). Actresses Kat Dennings, Emma Stone and Charlyne Yi add a bit of alt-weirdness to anything they touch—and with the increasing crossover between indie and mainstream cinema, their reach is widening.""In the plaid-draped mid-’90s, Angela Chase squirmed through her so-called life and... more
Men walking about in Langley should be wary after a woman viciously kicked a man in the groin, causing him to lose a testicle.
“I just want to know what her problem is,” Anthony Clark, 22, told The Province Tuesday. “People like her shouldn’t be on the streets.”
Clark was walking along 200th Avenue in the Brookswood area of Langley one afternoon in early September when he passed his assailant on the sidewalk.
“I was looking down and then I took a passing glance and saw her walk up to me,” he said.
That’s when the young woman inexplicably kicked him in the groin hard enough to send one of his testicles into his abdomen.
Clark wasn’t aware of the severity of his injury until later that night when he “noticed something was missing.”
He consulted his doctor and a specialist, both of whom believed his testicle could be brought down again in surgery.
It wasn’t until he woke up afterwards that he discovered the doctors were wrong — the force of the assault had caused his testicle to rupture. It had to be removed and will be replaced by a prosthetic before Christmas.
“My doctors say I will still be able to have children,” Clark said. “But at 22 that’s not something I want a stranger, this woman, to decide.”
Embarrassed by the situation, Clark didn’t go to the police until nearly four weeks after the attack.
Constables have told him there have been three or four similar assaults on other men, Clark said.
Langley RCMP said they would like to speak to other victims, although there have been no official reported incidents, spokeswoman Const. Holly Marks said.
The suspect is described as a Caucasian woman, in her late teens or early 20s. She was between five foot five and five foot seven tall, and 130 pounds with a slim build, and brown hair. http://www.ltcconline.net/lukas/gender/violentwomen/pics/violentwomen6.jpgMen walking about in Langley should be wary after a woman viciously kicked a man in... more
Identical twin Indie duo Tegan and Sara have been busy winning awards and producing work across genres since they first burst onto the scene in Canada back in 1995. Since then, they have been vocal in their support for various causes, including gay rights.
Causecast’s Brandon Deroche recently caught up with the twins to discuss their take on Prop 8, civil marriage in Canada, community service, the Love Unites movement and being out in the music industry.
CC: What are the causes you’re passionate about?
Tegan: Well, obviously most recently, our last American tour kind of fell at the exact same time as the American election. Obviously the election itself was extremely important to us, but the whole Prop 8 thing was very close to home for us as gay artists; we were obviously really hoping that Prop 8 would not pass in California. I was here for a month and a half after that, so I went to all the marches and you know, blogged online and tried to get people to support. Sara and I both did the Love Unites posters. We really tried to get involved and sort of wrap my head around how that happened. Like how California itself wasn’t supportive of gay marriage just didn’t seem to make much sense at the time. It was very anti-climatic to hear that President Obama was President, and then to hear that Prop 8 passed – it was like "ehh, I’m sad and happy all at the same time.” So confusing…so Prop 8 was kind of the last thing that we got involved in. We’re obviously still monitoring all of that and doing what we can to make sure that people know that still needs to change obviously.
“We weren’t a gay band, we were gay people in a band.”
- Sara Quinn
Before that, the last thing we did was a huge fundraiser for an organization back home in Canada, in British Columbia specifically, that raises money for kids from low income or single parent families to do music lessons. They do basically like a certain amount of scholarships a year, so that was the last big thing we were in because obviously being musicians…when we were growing up, we came from a single parent family, my grandparents helped out. They bought us our first piano. We were lucky we had family members to help us out, but lots of kids, there’s no funds for them to get into music now that schools are cutting all their music programs. It’s really sad, so this organization started and approached us because one of our dear friends who was our lawyer, he passed away from cancer, and they started this portion of the charity that was in his name and we were like “Oh my God this is so amazing!” So that’s the last big thing that we did.
CC: Have you had many of your fans share stories?
Sara: Yeah. I mean, countless. Especially since we were ‘out’ when we started our career like 10 years ago, so it was always something that the fans have been aware of. So there was obviously in the beginning a lot of kids interested in the band I think for really personal reasons. I don’t think they weren’t interested in us as musicians too, but I think that, I mean I know from even when we were teenagers growing up, people that were even just like queer allies like Kathleen Hanna or Ani DiFranco or whatever…those people, their statements, even just talking about it, using the words, were so important and I think that lots of people don’t even realize that even gay people now who didn’t necessarily grow up in the 80’s or 90’s or whatever where things weren’t spoken about so casually in press or on television, when somebody who you looked up to and respected would talk about it there was a relief, someone you could identify with. So much about culture is about seeing ourselves – on television or in film, in music, in magazines. So often we don’t see people who resemble us. We see the real extremes or the fringe of what represents us, but I remember when we first started just touring and playing music and talking about it in the press. It was like we were kind of the first young people who were in a band, and we weren’t a gay band, we were gay people in a band. I think that was a huge distinction when we first started playing music. So the stories are endless.
It’s not even just kids who are gay, but it’s as heart wrenching as parents, it’s siblings, it’s people in the military, it’s just people in general who maybe were a bit close minded about things and then they meet us and they start talking to us and we sort of push those boundaries. We’re not like a “Oh, we don’t wanna talk about it cause we don’t want our band to be that kind of band.” We are those kind of people. So if that makes our band that kind of band then…it’s not even a question, I just can’t even imagine it. We also really early on realized we were not a political band, but we were super political people and we knew that there was a change coming. We were right at the beginning of that change and I think it was super important for Tegan and I at whatever cost, being out, whatever effect that was going to have on our career, we knew we wanted to be a part of that movement and we didn’t want to be one of the bands that like came out later when it was safe. Like, we wanted to be…we were willing to take that risk.
CC: What’s the difference in laws in Canada regarding gay marriage?
Sara: We’re allowed to get married! (laughs)
Tegan: 2004 was when it was common law. It only became legal to get married. But I think it was actually 2006 that it became legal to actually get married. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that it was a little later…
Sara: The civil marriage act went through in 2004. It was at an interesting time because it was when we still had a liberal government and they were just about to be thrown out and the conservative party, our sort of republican party, was about to come in. It was one of the last things that our prime minister did.
Tegan: Let’s google it!Identical twin Indie duo Tegan and Sara have been busy winning awards and producing... more
NAIROBI, Kenya, Three masked members of a militant Islamist group in Somalia last week shot and killed a Somali Christian who declined to wear a veil as prescribed by Muslim custom, according to a Christian source in Somalia.
Members of the comparatively “moderate” Suna Waljameca group killed Amina Muse Ali, 45, on Oct. 19 at 9:30 p.m. in her home in Galkayo, in Somalia’s autonomous Puntland region, said the source who requested anonymity for security reasons.
Ali had told Christian leaders that she had received several threats from members of Suna Waljameca for not wearing a veil, symbolic of adherence to Islam. She had said members of the group had long monitored her movements because they suspected she was a Christian.
The source said Ali had called him on Oct. 4 saying, “My life is in danger. I am warned of dire consequences if I continue to live without putting on the veil. I need prayers from the fellowship.”
“I was shocked beyond words when I received the news that she had been shot dead,” the source in Somalia told Compass by telephone. “I wished I could have recalled her to my location. We have lost a long-serving Christian.”
Ali had come to Galkayo from Jilib, 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Kismayo, in 2007. She arrived in Puntland at the invitation of a close friend, Saynab Warsame of the Darod clan, when the Islamic extremist group al Shabaab invaded Kismayo, the source said. Warsame was born in Kismayo and had lived in Jilib but moved to Puntland when war broke out in 1991.
The source said it is not known if even Warsame knew of Ali’s conversion from Islam to Christianity.
“She might not have known, because Warsame is not a Christian,” he said.
In 1997 Ali, an orphan and unmarried, joined the Somali Christian Brothers’ Organization, a movement commonly known as the Somali Community-Based Organization. As such she had been an active member of the underground church in the Lower Juba region.
Muslim extremists have targeted the movement, killing some of its leaders after finding them in possession of Bibles. The organization was started in 1996 by Bishop Abdi Gure Hayo.NAIROBI, Kenya, Three masked members of a militant Islamist group in Somalia last week... more
This diagram informs us how reliant Disney princesses are on men and their own sexuality. The commentator ends with Jasmine from Aladdin, made in 1992. Were the following female leads (Pocahontas, Mulan, e.g.) depicted in a different light?This diagram informs us how reliant Disney princesses are on men and their own... more
This photo gallery shows the limited styles (and limited coverage) of Halloween costumes made for women, marginalizing and sexualizing them whether they like it or not. http://www.stilettorevolt.com/2009/10/go-sexy-go-home/This photo gallery shows the limited styles (and limited coverage) of Halloween... more
The largest growing economic force in the world isn't China or India -- it's women, and this is matched with online usage – says Meettheboss.com study.
The largest growing economic force in the world is not China or India it is Women. The earning power of women globally is expected to reach $18 trillion by 2014, a $5 trillion rise according to World Bank estimates. That is more than twice the estimated 2014 GDP of China and India combined. Although the average women still earns only 77 cents for every dollar men do this is set to grow as more and more women are finding themselves in board rooms.
Such career advancement has brought the female workforce online to share ideas and best business practices. MeettheBoss.com (a world leading online business network) has shown an increase of female sign-ups of 18% from this time last year.
“It is fantastic to see so many women embrace the technology and use it to their advantage, every day I see more and more online” Harlan Davies, MeettheBoss director.
MeettheBoss maintains that the site will not be making any changes for the rush of its new female members “The current way companies appeal to women is to take a male product and paint it pink but this is both patronizing and unnecessary, our members are extremely powerful business people and would not rise to such gimmicks”
The site boasts innovative connectivity amongst peers with an internal Video Conferencing tool as well as Instant Messaging, forums, blogs, tweets and up to the minute news fed individually to each user based on their unique business interests. This sophisticated online aggregation has been popular to the sites members and has seen leading business women such as Isabelle M. Conner Global Head of Marketing ING Group, Dr Anne Phillips, Medicine Development Leader, GlaxoSmithKline and Joanna Young Human, SVP, Liberty Mutual take the limelight and give online presentations to the entire community through MeettheBoss TV on their views of best business practices.The largest growing economic force in the world isn't China or India -- it's women,... more
"To earn her two Oscars, Hilary Swank went mano a mano with Clint Eastwood in a boxing ring and sucked face with Chloë Sevigny. But her toughest test yet might be this weekend, when box office numbers for "Amelia" come in. The historical drama, about the pioneering aviatrix Amelia Earhart, represents a major risk in Hollywood, where studio executives have been increasingly chary of making movies about strong women. If "Amelia" earns respectable receipts, chances are it will be dismissed as a lucky break. If it fails, it will be cited as yet more proof that strong female protagonists are box office poison.
Strong women, for now anyway, are out. Two years ago, when the Jodie Foster vigilante thriller "The Brave One" failed at the box office, industry blogger Nikki Finke reported that a Warner Brothers production executive announced to staffers that the studio would no longer produce movies featuring female leads. This past summer, actress and writer Nia Vardalos blogged on the Huffington Post that when she was pitching a project to a studio executive, he asked that she change the female lead to a man. Why? Because "women don't go to movies," he told her. "When I pointed out the box office successes of 'Sex and The City,' 'Mamma Mia!,' and 'Obsessed,' he called them 'flukes,' " she wrote.
In an era when women in movies fall along a spectrum defined by Hannah Montana and "Twilight" on one end and "Sex and the City" and "Mamma Mia!" on the other, where are the screen heroines of yesteryear, who could be strong, serious and sexy?
"Dramas are dead," says producer Lynda Obst ("Contact," "The Invention of Lying"). "Some of the greatest parts for women -- the Academy Award parts for women -- are often in dramas, and this is the worst time for dramas since I've been in the business for the last 10,000 years." More than ever, Obst adds, the movie business is geared toward the young men who go to movies most frequently. "And by and large that's a comedy audience and an action audience. To get a project greenlit now, studios are requiring more and more what we call 'unaided awareness,' which is where you get this addiction to toys and comics and old titles. And dramas don't live there."
To understand the situation of women in Hollywood right now, one need look no further than Drew Barrymore, whose career over the past year perfectly crystallizes the good-news/bad-news dichotomy. The ensemble romantic comedy she produced and starred in, "He's Just Not That Into You," was a hit. "Whip It," the girl-centric action comedy that marked her feature directorial debut, was not -- even though it put Barrymore in the company of a remarkable crop of female directors with movies out this year: Kathryn Bigelow, Jane Campion, Nora Ephron, Karyn Kusama, Lynn Shelton and Lone Scherfig (whose effervescent coming-of-age film, "An Education," opens Friday), to name just a few.
But Barrymore also delivered a stunning dramatic screen performance in 2009. Not in a major motion picture, but on HBO, in "Grey Gardens" opposite Jessica Lange. "Dramas are still alive in television," says Obst, "which is why we see some of our greatest actresses emigrating to TV, everyone from Mary-Louise Parker to Glenn Close to Holly Hunter."
To cries of "I call sexism!" most insiders agree that it's more complicated than that. "I don't think it's sexism," says writer-director Rod Lurie, whose films "The Contender" and "Nothing but the Truth," as well as the television series "Commander in Chief," all featured strong female leads. "Because Hollywood will do whatever it takes to make money. They are not taking a principled stance against women. They just don't see the audience as going there.""To earn her two Oscars, Hilary Swank went mano a mano with Clint Eastwood in a boxing... more
IN TIME, historians are sure to devote much time and space to the figure of media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi. But could it be that they will attribute to the Italian prime minister the merit of having, however inadvertently, sparked the renaissance of Italian feminism?
The prime minister would appear to have disturbed the slumbering dragon of Italian feminism which, for all that it was radical and outspoken in the Sixties and Seventies, has almost disappeared from the stage of public life in the last 20 years.
Rome daily La Repubblica reported yesterday that more than 98,000 women have signed an online petition deploring the 73-year-old Berlusconi’s “offensive”, male-chauvinist attitudes.
The incident that sparked the protest came, as so often in modern Italian politics, in the context of a TV current affairs programme. Speaking via telephone to RAI 1 talk show Porta A Porta on the evening two weeks ago that the constitutional court stripped him of his immunity from prosecution, the prime minister had an altercation with one of the studio guests, Rosy Bindi (58), the former health minister in Romano Prodi’s government.
“You are increasingly more beautiful than you are intelligent,” said Berlusconi in a remark Italians immediately understood to be both sarcastic and offensive.
A visibly offended Ms Bindi replied she was not “a woman at your disposal” in an obvious reference to allegations that Berlusconi last winter held orgies involving prostitutes in his private residences in Rome and Sardinia. Last April, Berlusconi’s wife Veronica Lario announced she was seeking a divorce, saying she did not want to live with a man who “consorts with minors”, a reference to the fact that her husband turned up at the 18th birthday party of Neapolitan Noemi Letizia, an aspiring actress/model who refers to Berlusconi as “Papi” (Daddykins)...
(Rest of article on link)IN TIME, historians are sure to devote much time and space to the figure of media... more
Our #12 Halloween Hero is an alien vampire from the planet Drakulon. "An alien vampire from the planet Drakulon." Oh well, I suppose it's not any less ridiculous than an alien who can pass for human just by putting on glasses.Our #12 Halloween Hero is an alien vampire from the planet Drakulon. "An alien vampire... more
A Fox NFL Sunday skit made vicious fun of Jessica Simpson’s weight. The skit was ironically sponsored by Burger King. Also, Ralph Lauren drew criticism for doctoring a photograph of a model to make her head look double the size of her pelvis. Then Ralph Lauren fired the size 4, 120-pound, 5-foot-10 model, Filippa Hamilton, that appeared in the doctored photo for being “too fat.” Meghan McCain says cheap shots like that are harmful to women of all shapes and sizes.
Meghan McCain is no stranger to this. She have been mocked for her weight as well. And Meghan has always hit back. Her most infamous moment was telling Laura Ingraham to “kiss my fat ass” on 'The View' a few months ago. Kelly Clarkson recently said that she doesn’t have a problem with her weight—the media does.
Above is a Funny or Die video starring former BayWatch star Nicole Eggert who was also made fun of by the media because she gain a little weight.A Fox NFL Sunday skit made vicious fun of Jessica Simpson’s weight. The skit was... more
Blood made of berries, flowers made of porn. Artists tackle women's rights in creative and innovative ways (SFW) http://bit.ly/2ILGsVBlood made of berries, flowers made of porn. Artists tackle women's rights in creative... more
Us women are more egocentric and narcissistic than we ever used to be, according to extensive research by two leading psychologists.
More of us have huge expectations of ourselves, our lives and everyone in them. We think the universe resolves around us, with a deluded sense of our own fabulousness, and believe we are cleverer, more talented and more attractive than we actually are.
We have trouble accepting criticism and extending empathy because we are so preoccupied with ourselves.
Actresses Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis on location for the new movie 'Sex and the City 2'
Got it all: Actresses Kim Cattrall (left to right), Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis on location for the new movie 'Sex and the City 2'
Am I making you angry by telling you this? It figures. Narcissistic or egotistical women do have an overwhelming sense of entitlement and arrogance.
Of course, I joke, but researchers say there is growing evidence of an epidemic of ego-itis everywhere.
Once a traditionally male syndrome, narcissism generally begins at home and in schools, where children are praised excessively, often spoiled rotten and given the relentless message that they are 'special'.
Psychology professors Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell analysed studies on 37,000 college students in 2006.
In a survey, 30 per cent of them said they believed they should get good grades simply for turning up.
And it's not just about how intelligent they think they are. In the workplace, in friendships, even in motherhood, the pervading culture seems to have become one of competitiveness, superiority and one-upmanship.
But the sphere in which the signs of self-obsession are perhaps most obvious, and the consequences most immediately felt, is the dating one.
In a recent magazine article, four women in their late 20s and 30s shared their thoughts about why they were still single. A 39-year-old beauty director claimed to be too independent for a relationship.
A 38-year-old music agent attributed her single status to the fact she was an alpha female - independent, feisty, strong-minded, high-achieving and intimidating.
Graphic of a woman looking at her reflection in a heart-shaped pond
She pointed out that she owned a gorgeous flat with gorgeous things in it, had a nice car, was a member of a fancy gym and wore designer dresses. 'I do what I like, when I like,' she said.
She'd been told, and appears to believe, that she's too successful and too well-educated for most men.
The third woman, a 30-year- old arts writer and curator, has been having too much fun to settle down.
Another, a 29-year-old, said she was too picky. She was looking for a guy who is (just) tall enough. And (just about) good-looking enough (but not too good-looking so that she'd play second fiddle).
He needs to be successful, solvent and driven. He must also be long on genuinely good jokes, with a decent sideline in bad ones that only she finds funny.
He needs to 'speak good restaurant', to have no special dietary requirements and to always be discerning without ever being fussy.
A businesswoman sits on a chair with a sheet of paper in her hand
He needs to be clever without ever making her feel stupid. He needs to 'get' but not 'know' fashion...and so the list went on.
She concluded that she would rather eat wasps than share her Sunday with anyone who fails to measure up to her idea of Mr Perfect.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with having high expectations. But being delusional and having a totally unrealistic blueprint are an altogether different matter.
And they often go hand in hand with acute ego-itis. AUs women are more egocentric and narcissistic than we ever used to be, according to... more
