Ms. SUMMER 2008 ISSUE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Letters	Keeping Score
National	Global
What's on Your Ballot? A Global Family Plan Something to Sing About 100 Years of Sisterhood Viva Dolores! Firing Back Tracking the Abusers Calendar	Three Pillars of Maternal Health Taking on Taboos What Are Irish Women Now? Survival Sex Short Takes
FEATURES
Cover Story Fall Girls The "D.C. Madam" took a prostitution rap, then took her own life. But her alleged johns - including sanctimonious U.S. senator David Vitter - walked away uncensured and unscathed. See update- Available only online Carson Prison Blues | Betty Brink Behind the nation's razor-wire fences, egregious medical neglect has been the norm for decades. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy | Andrea Moore-Emmett What's life for the women and children in the Texas fundamentalist cult like? Ask the women who have escaped similar communities. In Praise of Baadasssss Supermamas | Stephane Dunn Black women action stars like Pam Grier thrilled us in the '70s; will we be inspired again by such heroes? Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated | Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney Women still struggle in the workplace; can we close the wage gap?
DEPARTMENTS
Money Why a Food Crisis? | Martha Burk Unpacking the real reasons behind hunger and shortages - and why women feel the brunt Women's Studies Academic Freedom | Martha McCaughey Their right-wing campaign against women's studies turns a treasured ideal on its head Health Pathologizing Your Period | Paula J. Caplan Despite a lack of evidence, the psychiatric establishment has made extreme premenstrual distress a recognized disorder - and a boon to Big Pharma. At Stake, the Body | CS Lakshmi Sex workers in India reveal the secrets of their lives. Bookmarks Great reads for Summer 2008	Book Reviews Nisi Shawl on Sarah Hall's Daughters of the North Linda Carty on Claudia Jones' Left of Karl Marx R. Dianne Bartlow on Linda G. Mills' Violent Partners: A Breakthrough Plan for Ending the Cycle of Abuse and Kristin Bumiller's In an Abusive State: How Neoliberalism Appropriated the Feminist Movement against Sexual Violence Michele Serros on Stella Pope Duarte's If I Die in Juarez Jennifer Cognard-Black on Dagmar Herzog ’s Sex in Crisis: The New Sexual Revolution and the Future of American Politics DVD watch: Feminist films available for home viewing Backtalk Sexual Healing | M. Joycelyn Elders No Comment