Friday femmes fatales No 2

"Where are all the female bloggers?" HERE, in my weekly "top ten". Why "femmes fatales"? Because these are killer posts, selected for great ideas and great writing, general interest and variety.

* Pinko Feminist Hellcat suggests that while the religious Right complained about Bill Clinton's narrow definition of "sexual intercourse", their own much-loved abstinence education programmes are producing the same ideas in their offspring. (Warning: not for the easily offended.)

* On Blogcritics Yvonne DeVita commemorates Women's History Month with a post on the Women's Rights National Historical Park that focuses on Amelia Bloomer and her courage in standing up against one of the most painful human weapons - ridicule - in promoting the garment that bears her name.

* Would you like a cup of tea? Shaula Evans, writing on the Canadian group blog Tsuredzuregusa, explores the complexity of that question in Japan, Korea, the United States, Canada, and that special, and she thinks unattractive, state of Starbucks.

* Personal political takes a quick skip across the British election campaign (the vote hasn't been called yet, but the campaign is on) before settling in to ponder how Britons expect children as young as four years and two months to cope with a formal classroom setting.

* Media girl defines, bluntly and angrily, why "women's issues" are majority issues.

* Petite Anglais celebrates the joys of a Paris spring, including white blossom, cheerful birds, sunlight filtering through the shutters and a toddler learning to count.

* Dawn Olsen concludes that the Right might be right, as she calls for "zero tolerance" for crimes against children.

* Give me spirit fingers finds some Chinese leopard "porn" (safe for the office; they really are animals) and muses how it relates to aging men, aphrodisiacs and young mistresses.

* If you think you're snowed under with work, study or life, consider the task facing Molecular Revolution, who before an April 8 exam plans to relearn Old English and read Vanity Fair, among scores of other texts.

* All accounts I've read of high schools in the United States, and the horrific events that so often seem to happen in them - as again this week - suggest they can be terrible places for those who can't or won't "fit in". I am Dr Laura's worst nightmare reports on how such attitudes most usually work out, however, with the "odd one out" harming themselves - in this case a 14-year-old girl who killed herself. Read it and weep for a wasted life.
(This post dates from early March, but I've only just found it and thought it worthy of as wide an audience as possible.)

If you missed last week's inaugural edition, it's here.

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Please: In the next week if you read, or write, a post by a woman blogger and think "that deserves a wider audience", send me an email (natalieben at gmail dot com) or drop a comment here.

Disclaimer: the views here might not reflect my own. I'm trying to choose from as wide a range of female bloggers as possible.