Three things you should read today

1. On Being an Object, And Then Not Being an Object, from Finslippy, by Wellesley Alum Alice Bradley:

"To be a young woman in our culture means that you exist, from an alarmingly young age, for the appreciation of others. Therefore, your every feature is fair game for public appraisal. 

It means you become accustomed to a certain kind of gaze: a cold survey of your merits and deficits. 

It means you tense up when you walk past a group, any group, of men, because you know they're going to say something, it may or may not be positive, and either way it's not going to leave you feeling good about yourself. 

It means you can't look sad or even neutral in public because a stranger, a man, will inevitably order you to smile. 

It means you automatically flinch when a guy looking at you passes a little too closely, because you know he's going to murmur something in your ear. You know it. And then he does, he murmurs damply into your ear, and you feel like you need to disinfect that entire side of your head and you turn and shout, "WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME," but by then you're invisible. He's done. He doesn't bother to acknowledge you. No one does. "

2. A High-Profile Executive Job as Defense Against Mental Ills, from The New York Times, by Benedict Carey:

"'For years, we as psychiatrists have been telling people with a diagnosis what to expect; we’ve been telling them who they are, how to change their lives — and it was bad information' for many people.

No more so, perhaps, than for Ms. Myrick, who after years of devastating mental trials learned that she needed a high-profile position, not a low-key one, to face down her spells of paranoia and despair. Her treatment regimen, like most others’ in the study, is a combination of medication as needed and personal supports, including an intuitive pet dog, the occasional weekend stay at a luxury hotel — and, not least, a strong alliance with a local psychiatrist.

'I feel my brain is damaged; I don’t know any other way to say it,' Ms. Myrick said. “I don’t know if it’s from the illness, the medications, all those side effects or what. I only know that I do need certain things in my life, and for a long time — well, I had to get to know myself first.'"

3. The Girl Effect, via Hilarity In Shoes

More than 600 million girls live in the developing world, and approximately a quarter do not attend school. "In Nicaragua, 45 percent of girls with no schooling are married before age 18 versus only 16 percent of their educated counterparts. In Mozambique, the figures are 60 percent versus 10; in Senegal, 41 percent versus 6." Additionally, when women earn income, they reinvest around three times more of it in their families as compared to men.