Debra Ollivier

  • Why do women buy so much "merde," period?

    The author of "What French Women Know" responds to Kate Harding's criticisms
  • Mother for hire

    I wanted Marta to love my children like her own. But to see the growing bond between them was to experience the silent confirmation that my role as mother had potentially been usurped.
  • What French girls know

    Young girls in France learn early in life that happiness is not as important as passion.
  • France vs. America: The sex front

    A cross-cultural study finds that Americans go more for one-night stands, the French favor long-term affairs -- and French women over 50 have a lot more sex.
  • Voluptuous curves

    The curator of the "Erotic Picasso" show in Paris talks about why the artist's most ribald work probably won't come to the U.S.
  • Designer vaginas

    Gynecological surgery isn't just for medical reasons anymore; some women say it enhances sexual pleasure.
  • Troubled teens, troubled parents

    "I was a hired thug for tough love" by Sheerly Avni; "Whose crisis is this, anyway?" by Debra Ollivier
  • Whose crisis is this, anyway?

    Teens are getting the blame for their parents' failures.
  • New education gurus

    A booming market emerges for consultants to desperate parents.
  • Letters to the editor

    The global impact of the D.C. protests Plus: Are Benetton death penalty ads art? Should organs be for sale?
  • Letters to the editor

    Homeopathy is quackery, cry experts. Plus: Are liberals wrong about guns? George W. doesn't have what it takes.
  • Homeopathy

    It's not wizardry; in fact, it's based on the same principle as vaccination.
  • Letters to the editor

    Vive Laetitia Casta, busty symbol of France! Plus: Oxygen sucks the intellectual air out of women's television; just say no to the war on drugs.
  • Letters to the editor

    How much blame can the '60s take? Plus: Scantily clad women have replaced Joe Camel; Japanese girls shouldn't encourage panty freaks.
  • Passionate eating

    An American expat discovers why eating very bad things is very good for you.
  • It's a microbe's life

    Land of the free, home of the clean freak -- the latest round of microbial warfare has turned America into a paranoid hot zone.
  • Star quality

    Just as its enigmatic author predicted, nothing in the universe can be the same for those who love 'The Little Prince' -- but why?
  • Why can't a woman be more like a chair?

  • Circumcision in America

    How did a medically pointless procedure become a routine practice performed on a majority of American males?
  • Les birds et les bees

    When it comes to teaching their toddlers about sex, they really do do things differently in France
  • Those loathsome "Barney" kids

    Unlike our own children, we could turn them off when they got really obnoxious.
  • City of Light (and laundry)

    You may think you are what you eat, but the French tell us that you are really the spit-up stain running down the back of your favorite blouse.
  • I'll be home for sushi

    Though she once lambasted the ersatz holiday spirit of her Southern California childhood, expatriate Debra Ollivier thinks again after getting to know the ritual-heavy Christmas tradition in France.

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