This month's Vanity Fair cover story is about Tina Fey (maybe you've heard of her). The profile, written by Maureen Dowd (maybe you've heard of her?), features such headline grabbers as the backstory behind Fey's mysterious chin scar -- according to her husband, she was cut in her front yard by a stranger when she was five -- and the fact that she was a virgin till she was 25. More interesting than those details, however, is Fey's development from writer's room puritan with a "chord of anger running through her comedy," as her one-time colleague Adam McKay put it, into a va-va-voom leading lady.

"You're a very attractive woman," Alec Baldwin told her at one point. "You've got to pop one more button on that blouse."

Much like Virginia Heffernan's 2003 New Yorker profile, Dowd's piece depicts Fey as a sober, hard-driven, deeply principled woman who is a galaxy removed from the pill-popping icons who came before her on "Saturday Night Live." When Dowd asks Fey what's the wildest thing she's ever done, she replies, "Nothing." This is, after all, the woman Colin Quinn nicknamed "Herman the German." Lorne Michaels compares her to Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. Fey's husband discloses the story of the worst trouble he ever got into with her: He went to a strip club.

"I feel like we all need to be better than that," Fey says of the incident. "That industry needs to die, by all of us being a little bit better than that."

But despite her disdain for  hedonism, she has gone from a "mousy," "goofy-looking" comedy writer who never seemed to put much of a premium on her looks into television's most unexpected bombshell. (Pictures accompanying the article show Fey in five-alarm sexy librarian mode, seductively biting the frame of her glasses and wearing red stilettos.) Fey seems conflicted about her sexuality in a way that might feel familiar to any woman who has found herself choosing between muumuus and fishnets.

“I only have two speeds," she says, "either matronly or a little too slutty. I have to be steered away from cheetah print.”

Alec Baldwin remembers suggesting that Fey tart it up a bit on "30 Rock," where her character, Liz Lemon, has been known to wear a low-cut shirt or three. "You're a very attractive woman and you've got to work that," he told her at one point. "You've got to pop one more button on that blouse … Glamour it up!"

Maybe you find this depressing (a brilliant comic mind inevitably reduced shaking her cleavage). Maybe you find this empowering (a brilliant comic mind finally shaking her cleavage!). Either way, it only confirms what many of us have known for a long time: Tina Fey is one of the most fascinating celebrities out there right now. No wonder she landed a six million dollar book deal. 

Not long ago, I was watching the Emmys with a male friend. Tina Fey took the stage to accept an award, one of several she took home that night. She was stunning but looked out of place, unaccustomed to the designer duds and the solo spotlight. I felt certain she would wrap herself up in a hoodie if she could. And the thing about Tina Fey is that she must have a deep and unshakeable faith in herself to have accomplished so much. She must have the courage of a champion fighter. And yet, standing there in the spotlight, she still seemed weirdly vulnerable, twitchy.

"Tina Fey is a beautiful woman who looks uncomfortable in her own skin," I told my friend.

"Yes," he said. "It's very appealing about her."

Within the purity movement, definitions of abstinence are like virginity rings: Everyone has their very own. Some purity pledges engage in everything, and I mean everything, short of vaginal intercourse. Others limit themselves to fully clothed smooch fests. Then there are those, like Claudaniel Fabien, 30, and Melody LaLuzen, 28, of Chicago, who abstained from kissing until they hit the altar.

"When they watched movies on the couch, they snuggled sitting straight up, never lying down"

On Saturday, the two abstinence educators practiced what they teach: They married, and then kissed each other for the very first time. The delayed consummation -- not to mention commencement -- came after a yearlong chaperoned courtship: "They made sure they were never alone with each other in a house," reports the Chicago Tribune. "When they watched movies on the couch, they snuggled sitting straight up, never lying down." (Take note, kiddies: Stay vertical, stay virginal.) What's more, the pair met in 2006, but had to delay dating until a year later, when LaLuzen ended her vow to abstain from  romance of any sort for seven years.

"It really tested us and encouraged us to grow closer in our hearts and our minds, just expressing things verbally," Fabien said. LaLuzen said it was "magical" when they finally rounded first base, with all of their family and friends watching. (The magic was preceded by Fabien theatrically spraying breath freshener in his mouth.) "When you value a kiss, it becomes something of worth," she said.

Luckily, there are many ways to value a kiss, as well as all manner of canoodling, and they don't all involve abstaining until marriage -- but, you know, to each his or her own. I just wonder if kissing represents the purity movement's next target -- and, if so, will abstinence thongs be replaced by "true love waits" braces and retainers?

I'm not a big fan of the "Men do traditional women's work; are shocked to learn it's hard" genre of human interest story, but John Leland's article in Friday's New York Times about men caring for elderly parents is actually pretty good. It acknowledges some of the unique problems men face with taking on this traditionally female role, without the usual implication that this means women are somehow "naturally" better suited to it, and thus the status quo is best for everyone. In fact, I'd say this article is a great argument for why men need feminism as much as women do.

For instance, Leland points out that men are less likely to use employee-assistance programs for caregivers because, as one man who looks after his mother puts it, "I think it would be looked at like, when they hire a male, they expect him to be 100-percent focused. I don't want to appear to be someone who has distractions that detract from performance." The idea that any employee should be "100-percent focused" on his or her job, to the exclusion of fully participating in domestic life, is something women have been working against for decades -- it's just that employers have too often taken that to mean women are lousy employees, not that everyone needs a decent work-life balance. The sexist assumption that men are more committed to their jobs and women are more easily "distracted" by petty concerns like ailing parents (or children) hurts both genders.

Similarly, the expectation that female children should be their parents' caregivers -- and men with no sisters, presumably, will hire help -- stands in the way of some men being as involved as they'd like to be. Amy Torres, helpline director at Fria, says, "Nursing homes have a very difficult time dealing with male caregivers. It's unusual for them. The male caregiver is made to feel their interest in their relative is inappropriate." As a woman, I can't imagine being told that my interest in my elderly father's health is "inappropriate," which goes to the root problem here -- the sexist assumption that women are "natural" caregivers, ergo men are not.

I think it's scandalous that a grown man being compassionate, nurturing and responsible is considered such an unusual sight that nursing home employees will be suspicious of his motives. But then, a couple of weeks ago, I listened to a friend of my boyfriend's talking about how his 5-year-old daughter just cries about everything -- due to "some kind of girl logic" -- while his son "naturally" understands that crying is to be reserved for especially devastating occasions. When people are still teaching their kids that only girls are supposed to have and express feelings, is it any wonder that middle-aged male caregivers are seen as weirdos?

Attention bargain shoppers! According to the New York Times, this season’s holiday steals include diamond earrings for $249 and a Marc Jacobs bag for $248.45. But if you didn’t stay up all night for the privilege to elbow fellow shoppers at the electronics table, don’t worry – the deals will stick around well past the holiday season. As Dan de Grandpre, editor-in-chief of Dealnews.com, puts it: “This kind of heavy discounting will continue until we see some retailers start to fail, until they start to go out of business.” Happy holidays! But I never planned to leave home today anyway. At our house, we tend to spend most weekends with circular saws and circular knitting needles. So even before the economy tanked, we planned to make most of our holiday gifts at home. While we at Broadsheet aren’t big on inundating our readers with helpful household hints, it is that time of year, and well, I happen to know a thing or two about crafting on the cheap (I swear, it’s some sort of requirement for every Brooklyn woman of a certain age). Be warned: It’s entirely possible to spend way more on say, Japanese imported fabric, or hand-dyed silks and cashmere than you ever would on a sweater or a bag in a boutique. But if you stick to basic materials, you can make bags and jewelry for all your friends for that $250 or way less.

»Continued

Here's a pre-Thanksgiving smile: the new first girls, Malia and Sasha Obama, got a little schooling from Barbara and Jenna Bush on ways to have fun at the White House on their recent visit there, according to first lady Laura Bush.

In an interview on "Good Morning America" Wednesday, the outgoing first lady revealed that Barbara and Jenna showed Malia and Sasha how to whoop it up White House-style: "It was fun for the girls to get to show them not only (their rooms), but the way the big cross hall can be an obstacle course for little kids to run up and down, and the solarium ramp that you can slide down on your bottom. So they showed them all the special tricks," she said, according to the Associated Press.

The Bush twins also encouraged the younger Obama girls to jump on a tall bed: "We usually put a step out for people to step into when they stay in that room. But instead the little girls did the running jump, and Barbara and Jenna of course aided and abetted that jumping," Laura Bush said.

In other Malia and Sasha news, their mother reportedly instructed the White House staff that the girls will still have to make their own beds, when they're living on Pennsylvania Avenue, just like they did back home.

Have a great Thanksgiving! 

Britain's Women's Institute, which is infamous for offering classes on burlesque dancing and sex therapy, and having members pose naked in a charity calendar, has a new controversial campaign: attacking ads for escorts and massage parlors.

Minister for Women Harriet Harman, who last week announced plans to criminalize paying for sex with women forced into prostitution, asked the group's 205,000 members to join the government in its war against human trafficking. She asked that the group monitor newspapers and complain to editors who run sex ads that just might be promoting trafficked women; in turn, the organization has asked its members to pass along tips. "Look at the adverts in your local newspaper," Harman said. "They advertise women for sale for sex. Many are young women from eastern Europe, from Africa or Asia, tricked and trafficked into this country and forced into prostitution."

It's unclear, though, what the criteria will be for actionable ads or information worthy of passing along. I highly doubt Harman expects these women to put on their amateur detective caps and investigate suspicious operations before targeting them. So, will they broadly complain about anything mentioning escorts or massage parlors? Since the U.K. does not criminalize prostitution, but does outlaw persistent kerb-crawling and public solicitation, these advertisements are a major avenue for the sale of sex. Attacking all sex ads would almost appear a campaign to eradicate prostitution, not just sex trafficking (which some suspect is Harman's real aim).

It seems the group just might target advertisements featuring foreign women. Cari Mitchell, a spokesperson for the English Collective of Prostitutes, told the Associated Press: "Members of the WI are being asked to assume anyone coming from another country is being trafficked, which is an absolute lie." She added that "most immigrant women working in the sex industry are not being trafficked."

It remains to be seen how the information collected by the institute and complaints sent to newspaper editors will actually help trafficked women. As I said when NOW launched a campaign against massage parlor ads in alt-weeklies, "these ads exist because of a sex industry that exists." Simply making the ads disappear won't make sex trafficking disappear -- but it will purge the public evidence.

We learn all sorts of things about our friends though Facebook. In the past two months, I've heard about two friends' breakups, one friend's new boyfriend and the birth of a co-worker's baby -- all through my Facebook friends feed. But, according to Newsweek, some users are receiving a far more shocking status update, the subtext of which is: Your friend has an eating disorder.

Controversial pro-anorexia (or pro-ana) Web sites, which encourage girls and women with eating disorders to swap tips on extreme weight loss and share "thinspiration" in the form of photos of emaciated models, have spread to the social networking site by way of member groups. Unlike typical pro-ana sites, where users post anonymously, these groups "link users' real-life profiles to their eating disorders," reports Newsweek. Of course, some create anonymous profiles for the purpose of participating in these Facebook groups -- but many use the same profile that connects them to their friends, family and co-workers. Just imagine the following showing up in your feed: "[Insert friend's name] joined the group 'Ana Boot Camp.'"

As the piece points out, Facebook allows for far more intimacy because group members are "able to see people's faces, friends and interests." Kate, a 20-year-old college student in Utah, told Newsweek: "Myspace was more focused on tips and tricks and when to exercise. [On Facebook], there's a lot of really close networking, so you add those people as friends and exchange phone numbers, and when you're having a hard day, you talk on the phone." She describes Facebook as "a lot more of a support group." Of course, most outside of the community fail to see it that way -- or, at least, as positively supportive.

»Continued

At Coolidge High in Washington, D.C., students spent a day of history class completing a decidedly unusual assignment: Provided with glitter, feathers and glue, they were instructed to create pictures of a prostitute and a pimp. That same day, they listened to and analyzed a 50 Cent track called "P-I-M-P," which celebrates the time-honored tradition of men luring women into sex work.

If you're wondering what this has to do with the Revolutionary War, Catherine the Great or pre-colonial Africa, the answer is, not much. The activities are part of a special program administered by the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force, a group that devotes most of its time to combating overseas sex trafficking. Now in its second year, the program interrupts classes in six D.C.-area high schools (selected for their high rates of family and domestic violence) to educate students about the dangers of prostitution, trafficking and abusive relationships. Andrea Powell, executive director of FAIR Fund, the organization that created the curriculum, says that it seeks to "raise all these issues of teen violence, dating violence and homelessness ...  One boy said he was hungry. All of these are risk factors for sexual exploitation." So far, it seems that the task force's efforts have been successful, with organizers receiving 56 notes from male and female students who needed help getting out of difficult -- and sometimes horrific -- relationships and home situations.

It's clear that this program is filling a huge gap in students' educations by giving them the information necessary to avoid all forms of sexual violence and exploitation. But a few things get to me about this story, too. For one thing, why do these already at-risk students have to give up history classes to participate in the program? Why isn't it already part of their regular health classes (you know, the ones that should also be teaching comprehensive sex ed)? And why weren't teachers and school administrators at these schools already working to ensure that students felt comfortable coming to them with personal problems? There's no doubt that the program is a step in the right direction, but we shouldn't forget that it's also a Band-Aid solution to the boatload of negligence that necessitated it.

UPDATE: FAIR Fund executive director Andrea Powell responds: 

Our program Tell Your Friends, which goes into D.C. public high schools, is a program funded by the Yahoo Employee Foundation. [Broadsheet writer Judy Berman] attributes FAIR Fund's work to the DC Anti Trafficking Task Force, which is incorrect. FAIR Fund is an active and proud member of that DC Anti Trafficking Task Force, but we are not funded by them nor do they have any control over this program. FAIR Fund is a separate 501c3 agency with anti-trafficking programs for youth in five countries with a focus on sexual violence, labor trafficking, and exploitation.

Also, I would like to point out that while it may not appear our program has much to do with history, I believe it does. Our program discusses modern-day slavery. We work with each class across the six schools during four separate sessions and very clearly cover the connections between human trafficking, American slavery, poverty, discrimination, and sex trafficking. We also would truly love to see our curriculum be integrated into health classes. That is our ultimate goal. We are grateful that the D.C. public schools and their teachers have given us a space to reach their students.

OK, take a minute just to stop, stare and gasp with glee. That's what I did when I ran across these swoon-worthy images of Sterling-Cooper's curvilicious head secretary (via Nerve). I don't know what mad genius came up with the idea to immortalize "Mad Men's" Joan Holloway -- played by the divine Christina Hendricks -- in glorious full color, but I can't think of anyone more deserving of the mid-century pinup treatment.  We'll lose the retrograde politics of the show, but we'll take those clothes any day! 

The divine Ms. H and her ladies certainly have plenty to do with the '60s fashion revival  (and, in fact, those with some dressmaking skills might just be able to translate these into patterns). But why stop there? Don Draper's wardrobe may stop at the gray flannel suit, but I'd still pay to dress him up for work each morning.

For some of us, our feminist awakening came in the form of a political rally, a historic election, a movie, a mother, a father. Who knows? And then, there are those of us whose eyes were opened saucer-wide by chicks making music.  June Carter Cash, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, Kate Bush, Cyndi Lauper, Nancy and Ann Wilson, The Go-Gos, Janet Jackson, Le Tigre, Tori Amos, Liz Phair, The Donnas, Destiny's Child, Pink. Hell, we could arguably include Billie Holliday in that list. Basically, if you came of age in the latter half of the century (and maybe before then -- if you know better, school me in the comments), you experienced women writing their own songs, on their own terms, and kicking ass while doing so.

"They cannot perform in public. They cannot pose for album cover photographs. Even their jam sessions are secret"

Now The New York Times brings us word of an all-girl Saudi band made up of four college students placing one well-chosen finger in the face of oppressive tradition:

They cannot perform in public. They cannot pose for album cover photographs. Even their jam sessions are secret, for fear of offending the religious authorities in this ultraconservative kingdom.

But the members of Saudi Arabia’s first all-girl rock band, the Accolade, are clearly not afraid of taboos.

Saudis are downloading their first single, "Pinocchio," from the group's MySpace page. You can listen for yourself here. I hear "Baracuda"-era Heart with a lot of crashing cymbals and some tinkling keyboard. The song is  in English. Maybe you'll dig it; I kind of do.

Regardless, we at Broadsheet -- well, we writing this Broadsheet item -- are seriously bowled over by this kind of dedication to the rock. Because music really is a kind of freedom. And,  like my mama's daddy always warned her, it's a pretty good form of rebellion, too.