Salon.com’s Broadsheet comments on news stories from a feminist perspective. Today’s Broadsheet has three really thought-provoking, well-written short pieces:

1. Washington Post reporter plagued by PMS

‘”It’s pretty clear that what you’ve created here is a candy bar that gives women license to pig out to their hearts’ content,” he concludes. Segal winks to the guys: “If your wife or your girlfriend is on her fifth bar of the day and gobbling her way to a couple saddlebags’ worth of extra poundage, she can say, ‘Honey, I’m doing this for you. Either I eat another Wonder Bar or I berate you irrationally and then burst into tears. Take your pick.’”

2. Slut studies

“Today’s New York Times Styles section offers a kind of lexigographic study of a word shunned and embraced by women across the nation: Slut.”

And my favorite, 3. A transgender perspective on the Larry Summers fracas, in which a transgendered scientist finds out about the other side of life.

“After Barres’ sex change, a clueless colleague remarked on the high quality of his work, noting that it was “much better than his sister’s.” Post-sex change, Barres has also found that he receives much more respect (from those who do not know his transgender status) and can “even complete a whole sentence without being interrupted by a man,” according to the Washington Post. Those ignorant of his sex change have given him an interesting peek into the boys club: “I had a conversation with a male surgeon and he told me he had never met a woman surgeon who was as good as a man,” Barres said.”