What Would Judge Judy Do?

Every so often I jump over to Jezebel to take a look at what's happening there. Jezebel promises "Celebrity Sex, Fashion for Women" but that's just a ruse for hefty doses of wit and incisive debunking regarding the daily news ("without airbrushing," sez the Jez).

You'll also find a slew of very clever Judge Judy Comic Confrontations ("What Would Judge Judy Do?") where the good Judge takes on Minnesota's own Michele Bachmann, among others. Click here for the latest, where Judy addresses feminism – from the id-ish excesses of Courtney Love to the crazy provocations of Camille Paglia (and yes, Camille still has a crush on Sarah Palin):

Feminists love bickering about feminism. And as more women join the conversation, it gets nastier…and better! But it's time Judge Judy kept some order. (Continued from Part 1.)

Judge Judy for Supreme Court, perhaps?

Pink 'R' Us Grrrrls

As we all know, girls of all ages prefer pink to any other color, from the minute they are born – or before, when they signal to their mothers the need for pink nurseries. So thank goodness we can now get classic board games in pink: from Scrabble to Monopoly to the Ouija board. Gender-specific versions of these games can be found "only at Toys 'R' Us." Mystery Date and LIFE also come in pink editions.

Eeeew, as Summer would say on The O.C. How many points for g-r-o-s-s?

The "Designer's Edition" of Scrabble spells out the words "fashion" (natch) and "fun game" on its cover: "Every word's a winner!" in this perverse beauty contest for words. Here is the official product description:

A timeless classic with a modern makeover, this pink SCRABBLE Deluxe Designer's Edition has style, taste and elegant accessories like a pastel rotating gameboard, pearlescent letter tiles and embroidered fabric pouch. All the fashionable game pieces are designed with a woman in mind, but with the same SCRABBLE challenge you know and love. Just choose 7 of the unique locking letter tiles, and start spelling - this Designer's Edition has a flair for F-U-N! Includes rotating gameboard with textured frame and raised letter grid, molded letter tiles that fit in place, 4 matching tile racks, zippered storage pouch, scorepad, pencil and instructions.

The Monopoly game comes packaged like a jewelry box. Meanwhile, at a more aesthetically progressive Target store, a temporary price cut on "Boys' Toys," also known as the Lego corner.

Thanks to Gwen and Abby over at Sociological Images: Seeing is Believing, where there is an interesting comment thread for this post. As one person observes, the pink Ouija board box looks at first glance like packaging for "feminine hygiene products." And yes, that spinner on the game of LIFE does look like a packet of birth control pills.

Eeeew again. I just found yet another version of pink Scrabble, this time as a "worthy partnership" for the cure for breast cancer. "Every word counts towards breast cancer awareness." I won't even comment on that.

I couldn't recall playing the disturbin' game "Mystery Date" as a kid, so I did a little search and came up with this Special 2008 Election edition of its 1960s television ad. (Kind of ironic that the first door should open to reveal John Edwards.)