Oh, Norma McCorvey. In 1973, she was Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade. Thirty years later, she became the plaintiff in McCorvey v. Hill, a second lawsuit filed to take back and reverse Roe. And on Monday she was ejected for her anti-abortion protest from the Sotomayor confirmation hearings. Norma McCorvey stands for all the women whom the argument for reproductive freedom has failed to sway. And perhaps, for the limited emotional scope that traditional feminism has allowed for the abortion experience.

McCorvey wrote in her book, Won By Love, that she changed sides on abortion after staring at a fetal development poster. She says she converted to Christianity in 1995, when the director of Operation Rescue baptized her in a swimming pool. She is "Norma McCorvey, Now 100% Pro-Life!" on the web site of Priests for Life, a group devoted to showing women that their abortions were a tragic error that are at the root of all their unhappiness. The path to atonement lies through persuading other women not to make the same mistake. As McCorvey recounted in an interview with Citizen Magazine,

I was just down in Mississippi not long ago, and I learned that a woman who was sitting on a nearby bench was post-abortive, times four. So, I went over there to her and I put my arms around her and I said, “Let me tell you something, sweetie. You know those children who you've lost to abortion?” She said, “Yes.” And I said, “You know that those children are waiting for you … and they're going to welcome you with open arms. They’re going to say, 'Welcome home, mama. We know that you made a mistake and we forgive you.’ ”

She wept a great deal. And I said, “Now let me see a pretty smile on that pretty face” … She said, “Well, I’m just so sorry.” And I said, “We were all deceived.”

You can question the wisdom of this stance, but don’t doubt its sincerity. I wrote about women who are part of McCorvey’s strand of the pro-life movement, and they are a committed, tight group. They say feminists have closed their ears to sad ambivalent responses to abortion, and while they vastly exaggerate the number of women in their camp, they have a point, historically speaking. But they also go a bridge too far, by swearing to the prevalence of "post-abortion syndrome," which claims a link between abortion and mental illness or suicide that’s not supported by credible research. The American Psychological Association criticized anew last summer the studies claiming to show that abortion is bad for women, citing “severe methodological flaws.” Never mind. Norma McCorvey is still showing up to be dragged out of Sotomayor’s hearing, and I’m still getting hate mail from the women who believe her.

Tags: abortion, norma mccorvey, post-abortion syndrome, roe v. wade, Sonia Sotomayor

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the subject of Teddy: In his Own Words, an HBO documentary debuting tonight, has had a fascinating life. Sadly, aside from the aging senator’s off-camera narration, the 90-minute film doesn’t tell us anything new about it.

As everybody knows, Kennedy is the last of the offspring born to two legendary Massachusetts Irish families. By the 1970s, former prohibition era bootlegger and WWII ambassador to Great Britain, Joseph Kennedy and his wife, Rose Fitzgerald (daughter of Boston political boss, “Honey Fitz,” parents of 9 enormously attractive children) had seen their oldest son shot down in combat, a daughter die soon after in an airplane crash, another son, a president, and then another, a presidential candidate, shot and killed by political assassins. Another daughter suffered from mental illness. The other three daughters married powerful men and their last child, a son named Teddy, was elected to the U.S. Senate at age 30.

Though prone to world-class bodice-ripping drama in his personal life, Ted Kennedy devoted his professional career to supporting the rights of the less fortunate.

Interspersed with predictable sailboats off Hyannis Port, the HBO documentary has lovely archival footage, including a seemingly teenaged Bill Clinton introducing the handsome, dark-haired Kennedy at a 1970s healthcare panel. For me, a lifetime observer of all things Camelot (as a teenager I collected magazine covers of Jackie), the HBO material offered a satisfying meal of Joan Kennedy’s bouffant blonde flip, young Ted’s apologies for leaving the scene of an accident at Chappaquiddick, and countless other images of the sort I remember fondly from the front of Look and Life Magazine.

But the film, produced by HBO documentary doyenne, Sheila Nevins, and Peter Kunhardt, who 2 decades ago made Emmy-winning "JFK: In His Own Words," was unfortunately deadened by hagiography and lacked both humor and passion, qualities its subject possesses in abundance. The predictable compendium of Kennedy adversities and triumphs made me long for a closer look at both the flawed man of enormous appetites who grappled with great personal challenges and the hero of public policy who may well live to see his most dearly held goal, universal healthcare, as his legacy for the next century.

Tags: HBO, Ted Kennedy

I believe that women are other’s greatest supporters and worst enemies. We fight over money and men, we gossip about each other’s foibles and we can’t help but feel safer with schadenfreude than jealousy. It can be a real self-hating mess.
But we also look out for each other, particularly when one of our clan needs help the most. I was struck by the strong will of this female bond when I received an invite for a benefit on July 15.

A group of talented, creative, cool women: Jessica Craig-Martin, Cecily Brown, Yvonne Force, Doreen Remen and Arden Wohl are organizing a benefit for Tara Subkoff, a 36-year-old actress and fashion designer who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. A classic New York character, Tara stared the fashion label Imitation of Christ, became best friends with Chloe Sevigny and dated director Wes Anderson (the short before “Darjeeling Limited” is supposedly based on their relationship; she was played by Natalie Portman).

If not operated on, the tumor will be fatal in about two years. Tara will probably have the operation in August and recovery could take up to a year. She doesn’t have health insurance and won't be able to work while she recovers—every single career girl’s nightmare. The benefit is to help cover the remaining costs of the operation and care needed afterward. They are looking for donations of artwork to be sold in a silent auction, which will include 200 pieces of Imitation of Christ couture from Tara's personal collection, but cash is also welcome. Besides being a good cause, the benefit will also be a great place to buy art. Tara’s tight with some of the city’s best artists whose work usually sells at places like the Gagosian Gallery. Help out!

WHERE: DEITCH PROJECTS (GRAND ST)
WHEN: 5-10PM WEDNESDAY JULY 15TH
ADDRESS: APF, 299 WEST HOUSTON ST, GROUND FLOOR BTWN HUDSON AND GREENWICH STREETS, NY 10014 PHONE: 212-966-0193

Tags: brain tumor, Cecily Brown, Deitch, health care, Jessica Craig-Martin, New York City, Tara Subkoff, Wes Anderson, young artists, Yvonne Force

If I’m reading your question right, Samantha, I think you’re asking me to tell you what I think of Mary Louise Parker’s ass.

I think it is overexposed. I feel about MLP’s tush the same way that I felt after the BBC ran a series of Glenda Jackson movies, and I saw her breasts every Sunday night for an entire oyster season. It/they are lovely, but give me a break already with the flaunting and the taunting.

I like Weeds—even though the show got lost after Season 3 when it shifted from using black folks to school the Botwin family in the ways of the drug business and the nature of privilege to having Latinos fulfill that role—but I do sometimes wish it were set in Minnesota rather than California so that Mary Louise Parker might occasionally don a big down parka over those skimpy little outfits.

Tags: bare bottom, esquire, mary louise parker

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Sotomayor speaks ... for less time than it takes a senator to clear his throat. I think I’m in the minority here, but I wanted more of her. Why not end the day on a bolder note?

OK, OK, the answer is obvious. This way, the sound bites of the afternoon and evening and on through tomorrow’s early mornings shows are of senators on the attack and Sotomayor soaring above them. She may not be a justice yet, but she is already playing the Olympian card. They were windy and overblown; she was gracious and understated. She started by thanking two of them by name (Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, for introducing her) and then the whole lot of 89 who met with her, and in the process gave an "illuminating tour of the 50 states and invaluable insights into the American people." She gave her mother special huge thanks, and pivoted expertly to how her mother studied alongside the judge and her brother, when they were kids, to become a registered nurse. "We worked hard," Sotomayor emphasized, punching out each word. I heard shades of New Haven firefighter Frank Ricci after his victory before the Supreme Court, when he said, "If you work hard, you can succeed in America, and all of these guys worked hard." Rhetoric ripe for reclaiming. Sotomayor’s sweet-looking, white-haired mother teared up, and who could blame her?

Two other lines that stood out to me (nice and short, ready made for TV and radio):

• "My career as an advocate ended—and my career as a judge began—when I was appointed by President George H.W. Bush." Translation: She stopped pushing a cause when she stopped being a lawyer.
• "In the past month, many Senators have asked me about my judicial philosophy. It is simple: fidelity to the law." No translation needed.

Photograph of Sonia Sotomayor by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Tags: Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court

Thanks to Rob Walker's "Consumed" column in yesterday's New York Times Magazine, I have been introduced to the awesomeness that is Sheena Matheiken's Uniform Project. For 365 days, the pixie-ish designer has vowed to wear the same little black dress (or, rather, seven identical copies of the LBD) in an attempt to show how creativity can flourish when given heavy constraints. Think of it as fashion Oulipo.

Matheiken was inspired by the uniform-wearing schoolkids she grew up with in Kerala, India, who were always customizing their school-mandated threads. Proceeds from the project (she's accepting donations via her website) go to the Akanksha School's Project, an education non-profit based in India.

You could quibble with the "sustainability" aspect of her argument—after all, the project requires a lot of accessories, which may or may not get re-used much. (It's hard to tell, since the project is only a few months old.) But Matheiken tells Walker that she's thinking of having an auction at the end of the project, and a lot of the belts, hats, and shoes (oh, the shoes!) are sourced secondhand.

And God almighty if I don't love looking at these pictures. (View them by month, rather than by day, for the best effect.) Not only is there something soothingly Warholian about all those repeated boxes, with their slight variations, but it's also totally inspiring me to raid my mom's closet for all her discarded scarves and baubles. If this girl can rock a dickey, then by God, so can I.

Tags: fashion, sheena matheiken, uniform, vintage

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Willa, your question about why I ascribe a "seriousness of purpose" to Bruno's insanity is a good one. I expect Sacha Baron Cohen to be more than just a shock jock for two reasons: because he has been annointed as a cultural genius by some, and because Baron Cohen himself has said he aims to expose prejudice and apathy. There was a Rolling Stone interview with the real Baron Cohen, out of character, around the time that Borat came out. Neil Strauss, who wrote the piece, calls Borat one of the "greatest comedies of the last decade," and asks Baron Cohen about his motivations in creating the film. Here's what he had to say:

I always had faith in the audience that they would realize that this was a fictitious country and the mere purpose of it was to allow people to bring out their own prejudices ... I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist. Borat essentially works as a tool. By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice, whether it's anti-Semitism or an acceptance of anti-Semitism. I remember, when I was in university I studied history, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, "The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference." I know it's not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but I think it's an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic.

There's something else that has been bugging me about Baron Cohen, and it's that he pushes all these boundaries in character, not as himself. I agree with you, Nina—it felt fresher in Borat but now has become stale. Say what you will about Howard Stern and his ilk, but the "characters" they play on air are not in costume with different names. They take more responsibility, ultimately, for their actions. "I've been trying to have my cake and eat it, too—to have my characters be famous yet still live a normal life where I'm not trapped by fame and recognizability," Baron Cohen said in that Rolling Stone interview. Time to take his cake away, I think.

Photograph of a Bruno billboard by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images.

Tags: Borat, Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen

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Abortion hasn't dominated the debate in the run-up to Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court confirmation hearing, but everyone's favorite wedge issue has (briefly) stolen the spotlight today.

Two men wrangled coveted public seats to the hearing, only to be booted when they interrupted Democratic senators by standing up and shouting about abortion.

The first, a sharply-dressed man in his 30s or 40s, jumped in during Sen. Dianne Feinsten's (D-NY) laudatory opening statement with, "Senator, what about the unborn? Abortion is murder!" He got this much out before the Senate police officer standing nearby grabbed him and pulled him outside (it wasn't much of a walk; he was conveniently located within three feet of the door). He wasn't quite out of earshot though, and he managed to yell "Stop the genocide of unborn Latinos!" before the door shut and he was alone with the cops.

It was a little awkward for Feinstein, whose next topic was, unfortunately, Roe v. Wade.

Chairman Patrick Leahy's (D-VT) lecture after the first outburst must not have been stern enough, because about an hour later, another man popped up out of his public seat, shouting "Abortion is murder!" He, too, was shown the door and Leahy gave the crowd another talking-to. After the lunch break, a man and a woman who were already filing out of the public area shouted anit-abortion slogans, one in English, the other in Spanish. Sens. Sessions, Feinstein, Graham, and Coburn went on to reference Roe during their opening statements (and without getting hauled out).

Photograph of an anti-abortion activist praying for Sotomayor in front of the Supreme Court by Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images.

Tags: Sonia Sotomayor; Supreme Court; judges

After last week’s video of was-it-or-wasn’t-it booty ogling, I’d love to watch Sarkozy flip through these bare-assed Mary Louise Parker photos in Esquire with that same unashamed delight. And then I’d like to watch someone else, someone who was part of the feminist movement, perhaps, take it all in. The glossy photos of Mary, butt peeking out from her floral apron, pie poised over her shoulder or kneading dough in black lacy underwear, the red of exposed areola balanced by the single cherry on the counter. I’d like to watch that woman’s face crumple as she reads Mary’s ode to men who "can fix my front door, my sink, and open most jars," or Esquire’s returned affection for what Mary delivered in this photo spread: "That pie. The crust, so flaky. The fruit, so sweet. The little apron."

What is this, exactly? Do we not get to call it sexist, because Parker is clearly such a willing participant? My friend and colleague Tony Dokoupil (on the “man beat” for Newsweek), who alerted me to the spread, argues in an e-mail that the entire package is "a giant leap back for man and woman kind ... Isn’t this a classic example of, er, tit-for-tat sexual harassment? It belongs in a law school textbook."

What do others think? A reason to cry harassment, or "if you’ve got it, flaunt it"?

Tags: esquire, mary louise parker

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If her past is any indication, newly selected surgeon general Dr. Regina Benjamin will bring dramatic firsthand experience with the uninsured to the evolving health care debate in Washington. Benjamin has been defined by her dedication to the small clinic she runs in Bayou La Batre, Ala., a battered seaside community of poor whites and Vietnamese and Laotian immigrants for whom reliable health care—let alone health insurance—is an unjustifiable luxury. Benjamin says she returned to work in Alabama because doing so was required by the National Health Service Corps, the federal program that funded her medical education and that aims to bring doctors to underserved communities. But she needn’t have committed to a place as destitute and hurting as Bayou La Batre, where hauling nets full of shrimp and mackerel onto boat decks have made back injuries and fractures the norm, and where a significant number of residents don’t speak English.

To say that Bayou La Batre is poor would be an understatement. According to the 2000 census, the per capita income in this town of 2,500 was $9,928, less than half the national average. When I visited Bayou La Batre some months after Hurricane Katrina, Benjamin’s clinic, which had been destroyed in the storm, had recently burned. (She subsequently rebuilt it with donations and public funds.) At the local elementary school, which was 91 percent poor, one fourth-grade girl mentioned offhandedly that her family hadn’t had Christmas in three years.

Along the town’s main drag, I met Frank Morse, a longtime shad-runner, shrimp worker, and fisherman who had recently started his own barbecue joint. Counting his son and grandson, Morse could trace his family back six generations in Bayou La Batre. “Mostly, it’s a town of poor people, generational fishermen, their father done it and their grandfather,” Morse told me. “They’re poor and they don’t hold their money well.” He was 42, and had been fishing professionally since he was 15. “You got to pull lines 'til you wince when you gotta pick the shrimp up. Then you got to dump the net on the deck and bend over like this and it kinda gets you here,” he said, tapping the small of his back. He was going in for shoulder surgery on bone spurs soon, he said, and was lucky that his wife worked at a local hospital, because fishing was one of those jobs that didn’t come with health insurance.

In the Rose Garden today, Benjamin sidestepped the contentious aspects of the debate over healthcare reform, acknowledging simply that “our health care system simply cannot continue on the path that we’re on.” But in her online biography at the National Institutes of Health, she notes: “Career-wise I still have a lot to do. We still have a lot of problems with our health care system, the high number of uninsured and underinsured, the need for improved access to healthcare services ...” Here’s hoping that Benjamin’s experience in Bayou La Batre will help ground the debate going forward, and that she can be a powerful voice for the many among us who are forced to put off health care until it’s astronomically expensive, or to forego it altogether.

Photograph of Regina Benjamin by Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images.

Tags: Bayou La Batre, Obama, Regina Benjamin, surgeon general