An Austrian businessman announced Thursday that he would get rid of urinals shaped like a woman's mouth from a public toilet near Vienna's national opera, after facing pressure from politicians who demanded their removal.

The urinals, which are located in the "Opera Toilet," a lavishly decorated public restroom, feature thick, lipsticked lips, a set of teeth and a bright red tongue. "We think that it's tasteless, misogynistic and offensive," Marianne Lackner, media spokeswoman for the Vienna Department of Women's Affairs told The Associated Press.

The department, headed by Social Democrat Sonja Wehsely, said it was appealing to the owner's good will, but was also exploring the possibility of legal action.

Monika Vana, the Green Party's spokeswoman for women's affairs, also denounced the toilets, telling the Austria Press Agency that they are "sexist and inappropriate."

Report from local6.com

Toilets | Women | Urinals | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Recent Census Bureau data shows that family life, however you describe it, is changing.

A New York Times article today relates that 49.7 percent, or 55.2 million, of the nation’s 111.1 million households in 2005 were made up of married couples — with and without children. That's down from 52 percent in 2000.

That means that 50.3 of American households are not a traditional family, but consist of unmarried adults, either alone or living together as partners or roommates.

The census survey estimated that 5.2 million couples, a little more than 5 percent of households, were unmarried opposite-sex partners. An additional 413,000 households were male couples, and 363,000 were female couples. In all, nearly one in 10 couples were unmarried. One in 20 households consisted of people living alone.

Living together without being married is on the rise. Since 2000, those identifying themselves as unmarried opposite-sex couples rose by about 14 percent, male couples by 24 percent and female couples by 12 percent. The survey did not ask about sexual orientation, but the question defined "partner [as] an adult who is unrelated to the householder, but shares living quarters and has a close personal relationship with the householder," which it is assumed served to keep platonic roommates in a separate category.

There has been a 77 percent increase in the number of male-partner households in the rural Midwest. That change in demographics will certainly give the old joke about the farmer's daughter a new twist.

Only 26 percent of Manhattan households were made up of married partners, while in Utah County, Utah, 69 percent of households were married. We assume the Utah families were a one-man, one-woman marriage, but who knows how deep polygamy really runs in Utah....

And what area holds the record for the most people living in sin? That would be Mendocino Country, Cal., with 11 percent of households made up of unmarried, opposite-sex couples.

San Francisco, Cal., had the most unmarried, same-sex households.

Census | Family | Household Statistics | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Want to join the Association of Consecrated Virgins?

"There are people who think I'm nuts," Lori Rose Cannizzaro said. In a recent ceremony at a Catholic altar, wearing a white gown and veil, the 42-year-old dedicated her virginity to Jesus.

Yesterday's rare Catholic ceremony in a Buffalo, New York suburb, a ceremony her own pastor didn't know existed, turned Cannizzaro into a "consecrated virgin." Fewer than 200 women in the United States and 2,000 worldwide have declared their perpetual virginity this way, according to U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins.

After the ceremony, these women wear a band on their left ring finger. They "really" marry Christ, though they are not nuns.

"It is a good and holy thing to want to be in a virginal state," she said.

The idea of consecrated virgins faded in the Middle Ages, but Pope Paul VI restored the rite in 1970. Only a bishop can perform the special Mass. Bishop Edward Kmiec led Cannizzaro's ceremony at her home parish, Immaculate Conception.

"Dating wasn't working. I wasn't connecting," she said. "Not that I never wanted to be married or never wanted children."

Read the story.

There's even a website devoted to telling you how to do this yourself. I hope I'm not the only one who sees the bizarre irony in the site's headline of "Behold! The Bridegroom Comes!"

Virgin | Virginity | Sexual Abstinence | Christianity | Catholic | Jesus Christ | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

Ms. magazine is releasing its fall issue next week with a cover story titled "We Had Abortions," accompanied by the names of thousands of women nationwide who signed a petition making that declaration.

Abortion rights have come under fire recently, with the U.S. Supreme Court's stance uncertain. South Dakotans go to the polls on Nov. 7 to decide whether to virtually ban all abortions in the state.

"All this seems very dire," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, which publishes Ms. "We have to get away from what the politicians are saying," she said, "and get women's lives back in the picture."

Read more.

Abortion | Ms. Magazine | Women's Rights | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com

This morning the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the constitutionality of a Texas law that makes it a crime to promote sex toys shaped like sexual organs, the AP reported.

Ignacio Sergio Acostam, who works in a store in El Paso, Texas, sued the state after his arrest for showing two undercover officers such a device. Acosta contended the law against the manufacture, marketing or dissemination of an "obscene device" is unconstitutional because it prevents individuals from using such devices. He said that violates their right to sexual privacy.

The El Paso County court agreed with Acosta, dismissing the case, but the State appealed and a higher court reinstated the case, saying the law didn't infringe on private sexual behavior.

Supreme Court | Sex Toys | Dildo | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com