harpy week: sisters, mothers, lovers

Continued due to popular demand: The weekly round-up of posts I wrote at The Pursuit of Harpyness. This week I put up three posts on relationships.

• On Monday, I wrote a post ruminating on the sister relationships in Masterpiece Theater's recently-aired "Downton Abbey." I asked readers to share some of their favorite examples of sibling relationships in books, movies, and television series. Check out the comments for thoughtful reflections on sister- and siblinghood.
• Midweek, I put up a book review of Stephanie Coontz' A Strange Stirring, an account of Betty Freidan's famous feminist polemic The Feminine Mystique. Coontz documents readers' reactions to the work when it was first published and places the book within historical context. Even if Mystique is a book you love to hate, I highly recommend checking out Coontz' analysis. Stay tuned next week for the Wednesday review of Judith Warner's Perfect Madness which is, in many ways, a follow-up to Mystique for the 21st century.
• And for the Friday Fun Thread, I shared some of my favorite literary love stories and threw open the floor for readers to share some of their own favorite titles. Feel free, on this Valentine's Day eve, to go add your own suggestions to the list.

In addition, SarahMC prompted a lively discussion about pornography in contemporary culture with a post on teenagers' and young men's relationship to pornography; PhDork ruminated on competitiveness in the classroom; and Marie Anelle described her parenting style (flying by the seat of her pants). We discussed pop culture's obsession with polygamy and on Thursday decided to establish Bradshaw's Law (invoke Sex and the City in a discussion about women these days: you automatically lose the argument).

Have fun!