Katha Pollitt's recent column on the Susan Estrich/Michael Kinsley exchange about, as Katha puts it, "the lack of female talent on his op-ed pages," is causing a stir; she writes:

Come April, the Times will have seven male op-ed columnists, plus Maureen Dowd. Not to worry though, Dowd writes, there are "plenty of brilliant women.... We just need to find and nurture them."

Oh, nurture my eye.

That's what I admire about Katha—she doesn't buy into the thankfully fading nicey-nicey, flirt-and-obey school of female journalism. She goes on:

The tiny universe of political-opinion writers includes plenty of women who hold their own with men, who do not wilt at the prospect of an angry e-mail, who have written cover stories and bestsellers and won prizes—and whose phone numbers are likely already in the Rolodexes of the editors who wonder where the women are. How hard could it be to "find" Barbara Ehrenreich, who filled in for Thomas Friedman for one month last summer and wrote nine of the best columns the Times has seen in a decade? Or Dahlia Lithwick, legal correspondent for Slate, another Friedman fill-in, who actually possesses a deep grasp of the field she covers—which cannot always be said for John Tierney, who begins his Times column in April? What about Susan Faludi? The Village Voice's Sharon Lerner? Debra Dickerson? Wendy Kaminer? The Progressive's Ruth Conniff? Laura Flanders? Debbie Nathan? Ruth Rosen, veteran of the LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle?...Natalie Angier, bestselling author and top New York Times science writer, would be a fabulous op-ed columnist. And, not to be one of those shrinking violets everyone's suddenly so down on, What about me? Am I a potted plant?

You'll note I've mostly named liberals and feminists—I'm sure there are good women writers on the right out there, too, and their job prospects are probably a lot rosier. A conservative woman who endlessly attacks feminists, like The New Yorker's Caitlin Flanagan or the Los Angeles Times's departed Norah Vincent or the Boston Globe's Cathy Young—what could be hotter than that?

On the liberal side, I'd add Laurie Garrett, who's a loudmouth in the best sense of the word. Enough with shrinking violets, potted plants, and delicate orchids—without endorsing (in full) the S.C.U.M. Manifesto, I say bring on the Venus Flytraps. Stay on the course of truth and justice, and nobody has to get hurt.

Media Bubble: Teen Spirit [Gawker]
Webstalker [New Yorker, via Wes Jones]