Femonomics reads the internet so you don't have to: homophobia, evolving lab rats, and the politics of pretty

Mike Huckabee is homophobic, but you knew that already. (He compared gay marriage to incest and drug use, and said gay couples shouldn't be allowed to adopt because children aren't puppies.) In other terrible person news, Ben Roethlisberger...oh man.  I really hope he is disciplined for his behavior by the NFL, and that his team and his sport support the ongoing criminal investigation.

Olivia Judson reports that laboratory animals are evolving in ways that could jeopardize experimental validity--in as little as ten generations!  You hear that, people who love to speak of how there's no way evolution could come up with an eye?  I love Judson, and her book Sex Advice to All Creation is a great, witty primer on the endless mysteries of evolution.

I Blame the Patriarchy says we can't be pretty and be feminists.  It's an important thing to think about--the way focusing on physical attractiveness buys into norms about feminine-ness and appropriate female behavior, but I must say I respectfully disagree.  I think the key thing is to be conscious of the way we pursue physical attractiveness and our reasons for doing so (i.e., not couching our gym obsession in "health"), and be judicious about how much time and effort to devote to these things.  But to say that doing them is anti-feminist?  That's both judgmental and unrealistic.

Since we talked about the IUD as one of the few reliable non-hormonal methods, I thought you might be interested in a writer at Jezebel's experience with getting one.  Painful but worth it, she reports.

This long article detailing police and medical personnel misconduct in a rape case is an important, heartbreaking read.  Imagine not being able to get a rape kit because no one will take you seriously, and then having no way to pursue your attacker.

This really upsets me: apparently sex offender laws designed to keep victims safe are having the unintended consequence of inmates serving parole in prison, and therefore having no supervised transition period before being unleashed on society, unrestricted, to offend again.  The state needs to come up with a solution for designated sex offender parole housing near a parole officer, separate from other offenders, and away from schools.  Surely they can subsidize beds in group homes for this purpose (instead of paying for prison housing, which must cost more)?

And last, Tina Fey made an only-sometimes-funny visit to Saturday Night Live, where she broke out her Palin impression and reported on "women's news."  I wasn't so much a fan of her use of the word "whore," though, to describe the women famous men have cheated with. Really, the women are to blame here? Even when Tiger Woods has cheated with like, 17 of them? Check it out below, and tell me what you think.