Women Affairs

JANE E. BRODY To women who were taught that it is unladylike to express anger, the presumably therapeutic yelling and cursing of the current let-it-all-hang-out generation is often shocking. But now a major new study has strongly suggested that both the old style of keeping anger in and the newer tendency to release it explosively are equally poor ways of expressing this fundamental human emotion. Both responses can catch women in a vicious cycle of low self-esteem and depression and can worsen anger because the issues that provoke it are never resolved, the study findings indicate. Far more effective, the researchers found, is to calm anger through physical or mental activities and to discuss angry feelings, preferably with the person who touched them off. The study involved 14 researchers and 535 women from 25 to 66 years old, most of them white married mothers who work full time outside the home. The women, who chose to participate, were recruited from work sites, educational...

David Wygant How can you charm a woman? Do they like a daily check-in phone call? Does she secretly wish you'd text her in the middle of the day for no reason but to make her smile? Do they prefer expensive dinners to home-cooked meals? Rock-hard abs? Flowers for no reason? Identifying women's turn-ons is complicated, because they all react differently. Some women you wish came with owner's manuals so you knew exactly how they were wired. Luckily, I've done most of the legwork for you and am happy to pass this knowledge on to you. 1. Be aware. This means cracking open more than the sports section on the daily paper. Be up on current events and learn the difference between feelings, emotions and thoughts. Women are emotional beings and tend to think things through. They are attracted to men who are as smart or smarter than them, and your knowledge of worldly matters will demonstrate your intelligence. 2. Demonstrate humor. Women love a man who can make them laugh. ...

Officials in the US state of Massachusetts are investigating how 17 teenage girls from the same school have become pregnant. The number is four times as high as the year before at Gloucester High School. There are reports that some of the girls - none of whom is older than 16 - entered into a pact to have their babies together. The girls and their families have so far made no comment. Officials are also investigating the ages of the fathers. Some are believed to be in their twenties and could face the possibility of being charged with having sex with minors. It is illegal to have sex with anyone younger than 16 in Massachusetts. Disturbing Some of the school's own staff believe the sharp increase in the number of pregnancies was no accident. Don't try to get pregnant - people say they know what it's but they really have no idea Amanda Ireland Gloucester teenage mother "Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Gloucester Hi...

Nigeria's porous border with its northern neighbor Niger is being exploited by traffickers smuggling teenage girls to Europe where they will work as prostitutes, immigration officials told IRIN. "Our 910 kilometer boundary with Niger is too much for us to police which provides human traffickers an advantage to conduct their trade of smuggling young girls to Europe for prostitution," Oemi Bio Ockiya, head of the Nigerian immigration department in Kano told IRIN. Ockiya said girls are transported from the southern part of Nigeria to Kano from where they are driven to Libya through Niger and then shipped to Europe, their final destination, for prostitution. The traffickers convince the girls and their parents that lucrative jobs await their victims, but force them into prostitution once in Europe by holding on to their passports. The trafficking of young women to Europe through Kano has been a common occurrence. Hitherto the traffickers would smuggle their victims through Ka...

HOPING YOUR MAN IS A MIND-READER It may be a feminine game, but it won’t get you what you want. Men just don’t think that way, and it’s disrespectful to later blame them for something they could never figure out from such indirect communication. Drop the games and be direct. Effective communication is what will hold you in good stead. If you’re embarrassed to ask what you want, use language which makes your meaning clear. Though you may find it difficult to express your emotions, he’ll need feedback to make sure he carries on enthusiastically. Losing your self in your bliss and not saying anything will make him wonder if you’re asleep, dead or uninterested, at which point he is most likely to stop. RESENTING HIM WHEN HE DOESN’T GET IT RIGHT If you want more foreplay, then you need to say so. If he charges straight into your erogenous zones after a few minutes’ of petting and kissing, then you need to educate him about what you want. Men are much more quickly aroused than women on the w...

Cherry and Kay Kay walk into room Number Two of a Rangoon karaoke bar, where a man waits alone for them on a brown leather sofa. "Come on, girls. Sing, please," he says, as they flick the karaoke machine to a Burma folk song they hope he likes. The scene may not be uncommon in many parts of Asia, but was until recently rare here in isolated Burma, where economic desperation is increasingly pushing young women into a sex trade that hides behind the facade of karaoke bars and massage parlours. At the bars, known locally as KTVs for "karaoke television," young women in their late teens and early 20s entertain clients in private air-conditioned rooms furnished with sofas and karaoke equipment. Waiters enter only when customers order food and drinks, or if the women ring a bell to alert the management that a client is getting out of hand. Workers at KTVs say sex is not necessarily on offer, but they add that in the private rooms boundaries can be vague. "It's ha...

Changing attitudes about love and marriage in rich Asian countries such as Taiwan, Japan and South Korea are pushing many desperate bachelors to seek out brides in other, poorer nations around the region. Many Asian men, particularly those in rural areas, tend to seek traditional wives who will stay home, doing chores and raising children, says Mika Toyota, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore's Asia Research Institute, and other experts who study the region. An economic boom in recent decades means women have options their mothers didn't. Better educated, they can have careers - and opt to stay single until Prince Charming shows up, if he ever does. "Most Japanese women would prefer to live and work in the city," says Jeff Kingston, author of Japan's Quiet Transformation. "A guy out there in the boonies . has a tough job selling the wonders of being a farmer's wife." Instead, the men increasingly seek women from countries such a...

Two Iranian sisters convicted of adultery face being stoned to death after the supreme court upheld the death sentences against them, the Etemad newspaper Monday quoted their lawyer as saying. The two were found guilty of adultery -- a capital crime in Islamic Iran -- after the husband of one sister presented video evidence showing them in the company of other men while he was away. "Branch 23 of the supreme court has confirmed the stoning sentence," said their lawyer, Jabbar Solati. The penal court of Tehran province had already sentenced the sisters identified only as Zohreh, 27, and Azar (no age given) to stoning, the daily said. Solati explained that the two sisters had initially been tried for "illegal relations" and received 99 lashes. However in a second trial they were convicted of "adultery." The pair admitted they were in the video presented by the husband but argued that there was no adultery as none of the footage showed them engaged in a sexua...

Pierre Coda Bobby from Gainesville, Florida, writes, "I am pretty sure that I am a victim of my wife's adultery. I haven't made an effort to catch her. I have tried to talk to her about it and she denies it. Despite the fact that I'm not perfect, I feel I give her the things that she needs emotionally and physically. She has also admitted that I completely satisfy her. How can I find out why she is committing adultery and what should I do about it?" Adultery can have disastrous consequences on the relationship, particularly the impact it will have on your children, if you were to get a divorce. Thus, you are doing the right thing by trying to find what the reasons are so that something can be done about it. While you feel that you are doing everything that a good husband is supposed to do, there are still several reasons why a woman might resort to adultery: 1. She lacks moral values 2. While you feel that you provide her with what is needed, she feels otherwi...

More than 20 girls between 13 and 15 become pregnant every day, figures show. Among these teenagers, pregnancies rose by 4 per cent in 2005 from the previous year, to 7,462. And more than half end in abortion. England and Wales has the worst teenage pregnancy rates in Western Europe - six times higher than Holland and three times that of France. And last month, ministers admitted they would not meet the 2010 target to halve teenage pregnancy rates. There has been a reduction of only 11 per cent since 1998. Critics blame the Government for increasing access to sex education and making contraception more freely available. Underage girls can already get the morning-after pill from school nurses without their parents knowing. Ministers also want it to be made available to under-16s in pharmacies. Professor David Paton, who analysed the figures from the Department of Health, said the Government's teenage pregnancy strategy is counterproductive. "The underlying social depriva...

She is the Paris Hilton of Vietnam. Hoang Thuy Linh has scandalised the conservative nation after a sex video with her boyfriend was posted on the Internet. Unlike Hilton, however, Hoang Thuy Linh, 19, is unlikely to capitalise from the scandal as her show has been cancelled and she has been forced to make a tearful apology. "I made a mistake, a terrible mistake,'' said the doe-eyed teen, who had cultivated a good-girl image. "I apologise to you, my parents, my teachers and my friends.'' Linh, who stars in the Vietnamese television series Vanh Anh Diaries, is now facing consequences due to the sex tape leaked on the internet. Days after the video leaked, Vietnam Television (VTV) dropped the series, according to BBC News. Police have arrested four students accused of posting the video of the teenage TV soap star having sex with her boyfriend. Authorities this week announced the arrests of the four Hanoi men and women, aged between 21 and 25. They would be held ...

William Sparrow She hails from Udon Thani in Thailand's Northeast, an area known as Isaan, but also known for its poverty, rice farming and beautful women that often constitute the majority of the girls working the bars in tourist haunts of Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket. This particular teenaged Isaan girl has, by choosing to work in pornography over bars and being a mere 134 cm (4'5") tall and weighing only 32.9 kg (72.5 lbs), gained the title of 'world's smallest pornstar'. Some basic research into the subject seems to prove that the appropriately stage named 'Thainee' with stats of 74B-54-70 (28B-21-27) is in fact the world's smallest pornstar - at least of the non-midget variety. Even former adult start and Vivid contract girl Kobe Tai, (a/k/a: Carla Carter, Clara Scott, Blake Young, and Brooke Young), of Taiwanese decent and loved for her petite figure seems statuesque and portly at 81-55-81 (32-22-32), 41 kg (90 lbs) and 160 cm (5'...

Philip Golingai It's been a year since the former Thai prime minister was ousted in a bloodless coup and despite stringent efforts by the military junta to black out news of the former strongman, the media-savvy Thaksin Shinawatra has found novel ways to remain in the Thai public eye. On September 7, I received several urgent phone calls from my editors in Petaling Jaya requesting the photograph of Thai pop singer Saanrat "Lydia" Wisutthithadato. On that day in Bangkok, the 20-year-old Lydia declared she was not ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's gig (a Thai slang for part-time lover). Nothing like a sex scandal to rouse the news instinct of my editors, I thought. For The Nation senior political writer Weerayut Chokchaimadon, Lydia's press conference allowed Thaksin to slip through the Thai media barricade that the junta installed to prevent the self-exiled politician from telling his side of the story to his compatriots. The next day, The Nation fro...

The issue of sexual harassment in the workplace may be new for many people in this country or may not even be an issue for them, but anecdotal evidence would suggest that its frequency is increasing as a greater number of women enter the workplace. A seminar was told recently by a number of working women and women rights advocates that sexual harassment, especially in the workplace, has not only grown in Pakistan but has adopted new forms. It has emerged that the new tools being used include the computer through which offensive e-mails are sent to women and the mobile phone which is used for SMS messages of the same nature. What is more interesting here is that unlike other forms of harassment where the perpetrator leaves no trace of his misdeeds, in this instance the proof is there for all to see. Granted that emails can be sent from fictitious addresses and SMS from phones which cannot be traced, the fact that this form of abuse is taking place indicates that not enough is being done...

Reuter Madonna and disco queen Donna Summer are among nine acts nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the hall embraces more musical genres. Other nominees include US rock singer John Mellencamp, Canadian poet-singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, 1960s English band The Dave Clark Five and instrumental rock band The Ventures. Also nominated are New York-based funk group Chic, rap pioneer Afrika Bambaataa and hip-hop group The Beastie Boys, reflecting the Hall of Fame's willingness to accept a diversity of genres. Five-hundred music industry professionals will choose five of the nominees to be inducted at a ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel next March. Last year, rap group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were the first hip-hop artists to be inducted. Chic, the Dave Clark Five and Mellencamp have been nominated previously. Artists become eligible for Hall of Fame induction 25 years after the release of their first record and are represented at a permanent exhibition a...

Beauty salon owner Ann May has shattered the female code of silence into a hundred pieces. Ann has revealed the simple steps you must take to meet, attract, date and bed stunning women in record time. Never before has a woman dared to expose these secrets and in such detail the contents should be triple x-rated. Listen, the simple fact is: women are just not like us guys. They think different, look different, sound different, have a different aroma and handle their relationships different. And you love 'em for it right...? Errr... well, most of the time... ...But have you ever tried to understand a woman or get her to tell you what she wants when she gets upset with you? It's tough, right? She expects you to read her mind and just "know". Have you ever found that with women? And if you cannot read her mind, have you noticed how she likes to be upset for a long, long time? Yes? Have you sometimes wondered if women are a different species? The simple truth is this; only...

ANUBHA SAWHNEY Priya and Dhiraj have been living together for almost two years. And three months before their December wedding, they've decided to abstain from sex. "Of course we've been doing it all this while. But we wanted to keep it special for our big day, so Dhiraj suggested we abstain till then," reveals Priya. "There's nothing that's going to change in our relationship after we're married. So I thought this would be a special something," explains Dhiraj. Popularly known as 'revirginisation', this trend has its roots somewhere in the US where more and more couples are attempting to be born-again virgins. "Couples, who have already engaged in hanky-panky, abstain from sex for a period of weeks or even months before their marriage. People who opt for periods of secondary virginity — something more and more couples are doing — find that they restore self-worth and regain feelings of control, and that's empowering. The key is ...

Wendy Ellis, a former New Orleans prostitute who will be featured in Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine appeared at his office Tuesday to accuse Sen. David Vitter of having a sexual relationship with her in 1999. Wendy Ellis told reporters that Vitter visited her two to three times a week for sexual relations between July and November 1999. Flynt produced parts of an Aug. 22 polygraph test that he said confirmed her account, but Ellis could provide no financial records, photographs or other evidence to support her assertion that the Louisiana Republican was a client during that time. Vitter has denied those claims. "I want the truth to be known," Ellis said. "It was a pure sexual relationship. He would come in and do his business." Story Continues Below Ellis declined to comment when asked if she was being paid or reimbursed for her statement regarding Vitter, but she later said she would appear in Hustler magazine in January. She would not say if she is bein...

Police have arrested scores of men and women who engaged in group sex encounters arranged through a commercial website. They include a substantial number of social leaders such as professors, doctors, civil servants, middle school workers and senior executives of a large corporation. Married couples and lovers engaged in partner swapping through the website, police said. Police on Tuesday booked a 42-year-old website operator identified as Kim who they say arranged the group sex parties and collected participation fees. They also booked 53 male members who had group sex and 11 females who prostituted themselves through Kim's website. According to police, Kim opened the website in November and gathered 4,000 members through May. He also arranged 20 group sex parties at hotels in and around Seoul. Police say about a thousand of the 4,000 members participated in the encounters. Men paid W100,000 to W1.5 million (USD $1=W939) to join in the illegal sex parties. Each was found to have e...

Foreigners continue to swarm the alley behind Jalan Petaling in Kuala Lumpur seeking the services of prostitutes. Harian Metro reported recently that it was a normal occurrence for hundreds of foreigners to gather in the alley like they were having a "sex party" there. It said that the 200m-stretch of prostitute dens, believed to be the oldest in Kuala Lumpur, was filled with Myanmars, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indonesians and Nepalese. Story Continues Below In a three-hour check by the tabloid, it found that charges were as low as RM40, which caused some foreigners to be willing to queue in long lines for their turn. They were seen crowding the area from as early as 8am. The area became busier at 11am, when they entered the dens in groups. The tabloid said that while the customers were made up of foreigners, the prostitutes were locals. It added that customers came from as far as Hulu Selangor, Malacca, Perak and Seremban for "entertainment," and to meet up with...