Comment 'o the Week: Cake, Envy, and Obama

This week's winner is Lindsay, who writes, "oh my god tell me there's cake. or at least beer." Lindsay, you are right - there should always be cake and beer. You have won the answer to a question that has long haunted humanity, "Just what is the best kind of cake?" It is Devil's Food Cake. It should be washed-down with an Adventinus, which has a nice banana note that perfectly compliments any chocolate cake.

In the Other Amazing Comments category, I'd like to point to UnFit's response to my question about how people cope with objectification:

And funnily, being bisexual and all: with women who I personally find beautiful or sexy, there is no envy, I just find them attractive and that’s that, and I don’t feel the need to measure myself against them.

It’s women who are *conventionally* beautiful, whom I might not even be atracted to, who give me those “wish I was like her” moments. Which makes it even more nonsensical, because logically wouldn’t I prefer to look like someone *I* find attractive, not Vogue and Cosmo?

UnFit - you are really on to something here. Why is it so easy to envy people with corporately-defined good looks, even if that is not the type of beauty that we personally consider most attractive?

And finally, an honorable mention to Barack Obama, who said this week:

But let's be clear: these issues - equal pay, work/family balance, childcare - these are by no means just women's issues. When a job doesn't offer family leave, that also hurts men who want to help care for a new baby or an ailing parent. When there's no affordable childcare or afterschool programs, that hurts children who wind up in second rate care, or spending afternoons alone in front of the TV. When women still make just 77 cents for every dollar men make - black and Latina women even less - that doesn't just hurt women, it hurts families who find themselves with less income, and have to work even harder just to get by.

So you'd think solving these problems would be one of our highest national priorities. But while some politicians in Washington make a lot of noise about family values, when it comes to what people actually need to support their families, and care for their families, and spend time with their families - they get awfully quiet, don't they? And year after year, it just gets harder for working parents - especially working women - to make a living while raising their kids.

Hat tip to Ann from Feministing and Dana from The American Prospect for reminding me just why I like Obama so much.