Jessica Cutler's TV deal

And lucky me, I can call this "research." I am working on but won't get to finish before I leave a huge book roundup, so many ideas percolating in the world of late about women and sex and it's fascinating how ideological it can get from multiple angles, and Cutler's at the center of a lot of these debates, if not by name, between the lines at least.

I'm gonna just say congratulations to Jessica Cutler for her recently-inked TV deal (via Wonkette, via New York):

HBO has acquired the rights to Jessica Cutler’s The Washingtonienne, a book based on the salacious blog she wrote while working as an intern on Capitol Hill; Sarah Jessica Parker will co-produce

Also:

My interview with Jessica Cutler at Gothamist



Washington Post article "Kiss and Blog" by April Witt

The messages warning Jessica that her private little joke had just gone very public came from a girlfriend over on the House side. Reading it, Jessica says, she was too stunned to wonder how Wonkette had discovered her blog. Instead, the portion of Jessica's brain that had evolved to help humans survive marauding mastodons screamed: Kill the blog! Kill the blog!

Washington Post chat chanscript with April Witt, where she starts with the following:

April Witt:
Good afternoon. There has been a huge outpouring of response to this story, and I don't think it's just because sex sells. I think Jessica's tale touches on a lot of issues of gender, sexuality and power that the culture is still trying to work through. When Brandi Chastain ripped off her jersey after she scored the decisive penalty kick against China to give the U.S. victory in the Women's World Cup final, it sparked a national debate about women's empowerment and body image. Now we have female Olympians posing nude - or scantily clad - in men's magazines and nobody is much complaining. That surprises me. Personally, I cringe at the notion of female Olympians posing in Playboy. Why would women who have real power and accomplishment in their lives want to pose for the sexual gratification of strangers? To me that is undercutting your power. Yet in yesterday's New York Times swimmer and sportscaster Diana Nyad opined that these women are redefining what it means to be sexy "They are both athletic and sexy - the new sexy," Nyad writes. Granted, Jessica's chosen sport seems to be an event we can't name in The Washington Post, but I do think the reaction to her touches on some of the same questions about what it means for women to be sexually empowered. I doubt we'll come up with any answers today. But I suspect the conversation won't' be boring.