2007-2019 Daily excerpts of new fashion, culture, lifestyle, activism and women's news posts. Continues on current AOC Daily.
Redtracker | Women & Subway Safety | Bishop Abby Lane @ Church of England | Banned In Belarus
On average 65% of the 6300 women surveyed believed no one would help them if they were attacked. in Seoul, 90% of respondents believed no one would help them. Paris was in third place at 85%. In London, the ‘no help’ reponse was 74%. via Madame LeFigaro
Anne is reading …
Best Wishes For Wall Street
Eight Things I Wish for Wall Street Bloomberg View
BoingBoing directed me to Michael Lewis’ new prescription list for Wall Street, along with this priceless view of Arturo Di Modica’s ‘Charging Bull’, located in front of the New York Stock Exchange.
3. Women will henceforth make all Wall Street trading decisions.
Men are more prone to financial risk-taking, and overconfidence, and so will be banned from even secondary roles on Wall Street trading desks — though they will be permitted to do whatever damage they would like in their private investment accounts. Trading is a bit like pornography: Women may like it, but they don’t like it nearly as much as men, and they certainly don’t like it in ways that create difficulties for society. Put them in charge of all financial decision-making and the decisions will be more boring, but more sociable. Of course, this raises a practical question: How will our society find enough women older than 35, with no special intellectual ability, to fill all of Wall Street’s trading jobs? Well …
4. Wall Street will take the resources it once hurled at Harvard and Yale universities, to recruit their students, and invest in America’s leading retirement communities, to recruit their swelling population of elderly women, most of whom are currently wasting valuable trading hours.
Lenman Sisters Wouldn’t Have Failed Big Think
Writer John Cookson explains why women are probably better constituted biochemically to work on Wall Street as traders and fund managers. You see, men tend to go all hormonal!
Men’s cortisol levels respond very powerfully from competitive situations, and women not so much. Women’s cortisol responses and stress responses seem more powerful from social stressors.” According to this theory, which (John) Coates has begun testing, a male’s cortisol-fueled stress response might exacerbate a bear or middling market by responding with skewed memories and anxiety to events, whereas a female risk response would be more stable across a variety of circumstances.
The numbers don’t lie, says Coates. “Women have been found over a long period of time to outperform men by up to two percent return—which is a lot,” he says. According to BusinessWeek, hedge funds run by women turned an annual rate of return of 9% between 2000 and 2009—versus 5.82% from funds run by men over the same period. A study by U.C. Davis researchers also found that men in the financial industry make 45 percent more trades than their female counterparts do—a gap that reduces their net returns by 2.65 percentage points per year compared with the 1.72 percentage points women lose on their trading fees.
The truth behind testosterone: why men risk it all Wired UK
CTPartners
In wake of controversy, CTPartners loses a client New York Post
Embattled Wall Street recruiter CTPartners may have ‘mommy issues’ New York Post
After ‘boozy romp’ claims, firm’s stock takes a dive New York Post
Phallic shadows, naked scrums, and a very bad day for CTPartners MarketWatch
It all started early Monday when the New York Post reported some colorful claims of discrimination against women. Not only did female workers “routinely” have profitable accounts taken away and given to their male counterparts, they were also subjected to some inappropriate “booze-fueled” behavior, according to the complaint.
One exec called himself “daddy” and offered a spanking. Four others formed a naked rugby-like scrum in front of a mixed crowd of coworkers and ran into the ocean. Another would call women into his office to talk about how the shadows on the buildings outside looked like “penises.” All told, there were more than a dozen different sexual-harassment complaints brought internally in the New York office in 2012, according to the Post.
Have Wall Street’s Gay and Female Diversity Policies Gone Too Far or Not Far Enough Vault
Uber News
Uber’s Delhi Rape Incident Has Opened A Hidden Entrepreneurial Door Forbes
Delhi is not unlike most major metropolises in the world – safety is a matter of concern in the same way as it is in New York or London or Paris. Being street-wise and conscious of one’s movements and actions is just as pertinent here as it is anywhere.
The difference is this: the average male in a population of a billion is raised to believe that he is better than the average female, and can therefore live his life in any way he chooses, while the females are told they must remain in fear.
Uber Driver Charged With Kidnapping, Sexual Assault Boston.com
Let Uber Operate With Less Regulation And Riders Can Make Their Own Choice Forbes
Uber says it will toughen background checks CNN
He said Uber is developing biometric and voice verification to enhance driver screening, and building ways for passengers to communicate with the company immediately in case of emergency. It will also start working with partners with expertise in issues like women’s safety, conflict resolution and road safety to provide additional training to the company, he said.
After a spate of bad press for Uber, some turn back to traditional taxis NY Daily News
Anne is reading …
House of Lords mends its own caterer because Parliament’s Champagne isn’t good enough BoingBoing
Britain’s Parliament website estimates that about 20% of members of the House of Lords — the upper chamber of Britain’s governing body. Today Lord Fowler will handle oral questions on the Number of NHS medical staff trained in Africa. Earl of Clancarty will lead discussion on the devolution of arts and culture within the UK. Lord Sharkey will be talking about the Higher Education Commission’s report Too Good to Fail. And Lord Marks on Henley-on-Thames will be speaking on the appointment of a chairman for the independent panel inquiry into child abuse.
Lord Faulks will report on legislation concerning the Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Bill. And Lord Boswell of Aynho will lead debate around the Report of the European Union Committee on The Role of National Parliaments in the European Union.
Champagne is nowhere on the agenda, but in real life the unelected House of Lords is having a bubbly meltdown over plans to merge its catering service with those of the House of Commons.
NPR radio took up this tragic national problem a few days ago and now BoingBloing guarantees that we are all part of the pending national tragedy. During this government (whatever that means) the Lords have drunk 17,000 bittles of champagne — about five bottles each) at a cost of £265,770 to British taxpayers.
There are other problems say the Lords, refusing to agree that they are having an elitist temper tantrum. There are mice in Parliament’s kitchens and problems with pay negotiations, argue the Lords. And they will have none of it — as long as the sun never sets on British soil.
(Image: champagne tower, kenichi nobusue, CC-BY)
Can Curry Make You Manly?
Why liking hot curries really does make you the alpha male: Men who enjoy spicy food have higher testosterone levels Daily Mail UK
Researchers at the University of Grenoble in France confirm that men with a preference for spicy foods tend to have higher levels of testosterone.
Curry Cult Catches Fire in the East Village WSJ Metropolis (2010)
On busy weekends, the dining room teems with post-collegiate frat boys high-fiving each other, brave gourmands shooting YouTube videos and ruddy-cheeked culinary tourists posing for photos alongside empty bowls.
Phaal, which contains ten different chilies and emits so much heat that chefs wear a protective mask while making it, first appeared on Brick Lane’s menu in 2002, but an appearance on the Travel Channel’s sleeper stunt-food hit “Man Vs. Food” in 2008 put it on the map for local stunt diners.
Stunt Dining Reaches New Heights
Restaurant Features 180-Foot-High Dinners in the Sky Vegas Eater (2013)
Where do men go when they want to get away from it all? How about a dangling, 180-foot-high dining experience over Las Vegas. Diners are strapped to tables for an hour-long dinner, hanging via a crane over the world-famous Las Vegas Strip.
Beverly Johnson was a top model during the 70s and 80s and was the first African American woman to appear on the cover of American Vogue in 1974
Bill Cosby Drugged Me. This Is My Story Vanity Fair
Model Beverly Johnson beat back her own demons, ignoring finally the voices in her head saying: “Black men have enough enemies out there already, they certainly don’t need someone like you, an African American with a familiar face and a famous name, fanning the flames.”
Beverly Johnson says that the world can add her name to the list of women drugged but NOT successfully raped by Bill Cosby because by the time she called him a motherfucker for the fifth time, he yanked her down his brownstone stairs and threw her into a cab.
For a long time I thought it was something that only happened to me, and that I was somehow responsible. So I kept my secret to myself, believing this truth needed to remain in the darkness. But the last four weeks have changed everything, as so many women have shared similar stories, of which the press have belatedly taken heed.
Beverly Johnson concludes her story, saying that she has agreed to serve on the board of the Barbara Sinatra Center for Abused Children, where many of the young children have been sexually abused.
Rape Drugs
When a Rapist’s Weapon Is A Drug New York Times
Today’s events cause people to ask: why do date-rape drugs exist when it seems quite easy for men and women to engage in consensual sex.
Anne is reading …
Is Playboy At All Relevent Anymore?
Playboy CEO: Nudity Could Completely Vanish From the Playboy Brand Entrepreneur
Kim Lachance Shandrow interviews Scott Flanders, the first Playboy Enterprises Inc. CEO not to be a family member. AOC has questioned more than once the relevance of Playboy in today’s world and not only because free nudity is rampant in our Internet world. but because the media space is full up with talented writers, photographers, bloggers and the sexually-opinionated. Playboy is forever associated with Hugh Hefner and Hefner brings a whole lotta baggage to today’s sexy media world.
Now boys will be boys … that reality may just be an eternal truth, based on just how many guy fashion bloggers find the one nudie shot in a fashion editorial and lead with it as an invite to page views. Women’s bodies have always been commodities in the world of men, and that won’t change. Plus, AOC joins a long list of women who enjoy a well-written, well-designed sexy magazine. To think that Playboy will ever compete with GQ or Esquire or Treats! or even a totally frat-boy cleaned-up Maxim is increasingly a tall order.
Hugh Hefner is stuck in a moment in time. This moment!
Bill Cosby Sued For Alleged Assault at Playboy Mansion NPR
Woman Claims Bill Cosby raped her and 12 Playboy bunnies Philadelphia Inquirer
Nick Denton Announces Collective Leadership for Gawker Media New York Observer
The inner circle of Gawker leadership will consist of seven managing partners, including Mr. Denton, who will assume the title of CEO. Heather Dietrick has been promoted from general counsel of Gawker Media to president, where she will act as Mr. Denton’s deputy. VP of business development Erin Pettrgrew, who Digiday labeled “the most important person at Gawker you’ve never heard of” in October, will take the position of chief strategy officer. As Mr. Denton announced earlier this month, Deadspin editor Tommy Craggs will be promoted to the newly created position of executive editor. Andrew Gorenstein will be promoted to president of Gawker Advertising, Scott Kidder will be chief operating officer and Tom Plunkett will be chief technology officer.
The newly installed team of managing partners will make decisions by consensus or majority vote.
A New Man in Town
Anne is reading …
Navy investigating taping of female officers in submarine showers The Florida Times Union
Lt. leslie Hubbell has confirmed that a joint command and Navy Criminal investigation has commenced to investigate claims that a 2nd class petty officer secretly videotaped women officers showering aboard the USS Wyoming, a submarine ported at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base.
Ballistic missile subs typically carry a crew of up to 15 officers and 140 enlisted personnel. Officers share bathing facililities with a sign system indicating when a woman is using the facilities.
The Navy Times reports that videos are believed to show at least three female officers while showering or undressed. It possible that men were also videotaped, but their videos were apparently not distributed.
A retired female supply officer of lieutenant rank, formerly tasked with acting as a mentor to female serving on the submarines “recalled her first day on a sub when a young male sailor came into her stateroom and asked, “Where are the females?”
“I looked at him and said, ‘All right, let’s get one thing straight: They’re not females, they’re junior officers on this boat, they’re division officers, and you will address them as Ensign So-and-So, and you can tell everybody else on the boat,’ ” she said.
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet the U.S. Navy’s first contingent of women submariners to be assigned to the Navy’s operational submarine force, in the Blue Room of the White House, May 28, 2012. The 24 women were accepted into the Navy’s nuclear submarine program after completing an intensive training program and serve on ballistic and guided missile submarines throughout the Navy. Also attending were ADM Mark Ferguson, left, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, right. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) May 28, 2012. Navy Revokes Bill Cosby’s Honorary Title WSJ
The US Navy has revoked comedian Bill Cosby’s honorary title as chief petty officer, as sexual abuse and sexual assault charges — including numerous charges of rape — mount against the 77-year-old comedian.
Navy officials said they were stripping Mr. Cosby of the honorary title because the allegations “conflict with the Navy’s core values of honor, courage and commitment.”
The decision comes the day after three of Cosby’s accusers have launched a drive with lawyer Gloria Allred, who told the comedian to create a $100 million fund for his victims or face new lawsuits.
Mr. Cosby was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1960 as a 3rd Class Petty Officer after serving four years as a hospital corpsman. In 2011, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus made Mr. Cosby an honorary chief petty officer.
Comedian Bill Cosby, center, is recognized as an Honorary Chief Petty Officer by Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Rick West, left, and Navy Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, in 2011. Associated Press
Science Proves It: Men Really Do Find High Heels Sexier TIME
There are truths about the Boys Club that probably can’t be changed — at least if they are French. Men like women wearing high heels.
Anne is reading …
Stop Blaming Women for Holding Themselves Back at Work New York Magazine
The Harvard Business School surveyed three generations of 25,000 MBA graduates of Harvard Business School, in a serious effort to understand why there aren’t more women in the corner office. Their exhaustive study concludes that the problem isn’t that ambitious women are insufficiently tough, savvy or competitive at work. At least among the Harvard grads, the problem isn’t that the women are diverted during their 30s and 40s by wanting to breast-feed when they should be test prepping. The women are not ‘opting out’ or failing to ‘lean in’, deciding instead to ‘ratchet back’.
The authors found no correlation at all between career success and decisions an individual makes to accommodate family, by limiting travel, choosing more flexible hours, or moving laterally within a company.
It is true that women were more likely than men to have made such decisions. But men at the top often made demands that accommodated their family lives.
Very few commentators in all the recent bloviating about female success have come out and said what the HBR authors have: that the problem lies with the culture in the workplace itself. Most women work full-time through their child-rearing years, and yet they achieve less than men at work (measured by numbers of direct reports, bottom-line responsibility, and senior-management status) because, well, they’re women. There are wide gaps between the way women envision their futures (professionally, as well as domestically) and the way those futures evolve over time not because of the choices they make, necessarily, but because the systems within which they live are entrenched and fundamentally sexist.
The Harvard Business School concludes that women should stop blaming themselves or saying they must try harder.
… as the HBS study reminds us, when there’s a whole lot of trying without commensurate succeeding, then you have to start to consider that the game is rigged.
Amazon Employs 18 Women Among 120 Senior Managers The Guardian
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has made a ton of money selling books to women on how to succeed in business. Within his own Amazon business model, it seems the few women are able to work their way up the Amazon ladder. Bezos employs only 18 women among his 120 most serior managers, and has no direct female reports.
An all-male group of 12 men — known internally as the S Team — runs Amazon. Of the 18 women in senior management, 13 are executive assistants.
Amazon may consider itself to be a great innovator, but when the topic is promoting and developing the careers of women in the company, it reads like ‘Mad Men’ to me.
Secrets of Silicon Valley (That Only Women Know) Glamour
Women comprise only 26 percent of the computing workforce. It gets worse, today only 18 percent of undergraduate computer science degress go to women — a number that has dropped in half from a high of 37 percent in 1985.
Activists & Masai Warriors Join Forces To End Female Genital Mutilation
3. The famous Masai men are acclaimed for being feared and accomplished warriors. Pictured here, Ole Lelein Kanunga, the leader of young Masai tribal warriors in Entasopia, “a lush oasis of trees and pasture in the otherwise desert flats of this part of southern Kenya”, says that in the month of December, circumcisions will end.You see, December is the month when girls are cut in Kenya, a rite of passage that often results in their not returning to the classroom and marrying instead, with babies on the way.
This article is unique in articulating the primary reason for FGM/FGC — which is NOT prescribed in Islam, although most people believe it is. Experts in the field know that it is a tribal custom — one advocated by men to keep women from ‘straying’.
Masai warriors believe it keeps their wives “off heat” and uninterested in sex, therefore faithful while they are off in the bush for months on end hunting, raiding and fighting.
Anne is reading …
Crowdfunding To Narrow The Gender Gap in Venture Capital Forbes
Of the 6,793 companies funded by VCs between 2011 and 2013, women CEOS led only 2.7% of those companies – according to the recent Babson College study titled “Women Entrepreneurs and Bridging the Gap in Venture Capital” (PDF).
Over the same period, 85% of all businesses funded by VCs had not a single woman on the management team. This reality reflects the gender gap among VC investors themselves, with women making up only 11% of the group, based on a 2011 survey by the National Venture Capital Association.
The problem, concludes Forbes, is tha men invest in men and women invest in women.
Rebecca Kaden at Maveron, a consumer-focused VC fund, said:
“I am extremely fortunate to work with a team of consumer-centric men who have deep appreciation for the value that comes from diversity in opinion. 80% of household spending is dictated by women—so any VC investing in consumer that doesn’t have this is severely mistaken. I try to focus on what it takes to be a world class investor—not a world class female investor—while remembering that’s a relatively unique perspective, even if I wish it wasn’t so unique in my industry, allows me to differentiate and bring something unique to the table.”
Is Crowdfunding the Answer?
Forbes contributor Chance Barnett, CEO of crowdfunder.com explains crowdfunding on an investor level, including the bundling of smaller investors in special funds. He also ranks known fundraising sites like Kickstarter, GoFundMe and Indie GoGo.
California Cops Snoop For Nudies
California Cops Steal Naked Photos of Women in Custody, Send Them to Other Cops, Call It A ‘Game’ Slate
California cops have admitted to searching the cell phones of arrested women in hopes of finding nude photos. When they do, images from the women’s confiscated cell phones are shared along with ‘disgusting’ commentary and details of their arrest for drunk driving and other violations. Apparently officers often include civilians in their circle of prying eyes.
Writer Matthais Gafni has detailed similar incidents in other US police stations from Houston to New York.
Calendar Girls Love Potatoes
Sara Sampaio Graciously Fires Back At Jezebel's Erin Gloria Ryan
Addressing Erin Gloria Ryan directly, Sampaio also writes:
Dear Erin from Jezebel, I don’t hate myself! I was actually taught by my family to respect and love myself and indeed others! I feel sorry that you were not able to see beyond your own self-serving interest to sensationalise a story, by creating a negative spin on a positive message and making a foregone conclusion about a young ‘model’ you have never met before!
Anne is reading …
Uber Scandal Highlights Silicon Valley’s Grown-Up Problem NY Times
A writer for San Francisco Magazine said this week that sources inside the company warned her that the company might monitor her rides. A Buzzfeed reporter wrote that when she attended a meeting with an Uber executive in New York, he was monitoring her arrival in one of the company’s cars. Add in an account by the author Peter Sims that his personal travel information was apparently shown on a wall at an Uber launch party, and the anecdotal evidence that the company has played fast and loose with its customers’ data is pretty compelling.
Big Daddy Is Watching You Uber Exec
With Anita Sarkeesian’s Reputation Under Assault, Sarah Lacy’s May Be Saved Due To Uber’s Dinner Gaffe AOC Anne’s Sensual Rebel Blog
Shailene Woodley Heats Up GQ
Crush of the Year: Shailene Woodley GQ
She is part sunlight, part rainbow, part child actor, part TED talk, part ICM agent. This is the Shailene Woodley who told a reporter she enjoys sunbathing naked to “give my vagina a little vitamin D.” People went nuts about that; it topped the lists of crazy shit that Shailene Woodley said that seemed to proliferate as 2014 went on.
Woodley uses the word ‘vagina’ a lot — which got us to wondering if the word is still banned on TV.
1. Gamergate dishes out death threats. Significant numbers of white, heterosexual males are in revolt as women enter the online gaming space in record numbers. Calling these men trolls is an understatement — say women gamers, led by media critic and Feminist Frequency creator Anita Sarkeesian.
2. Within the context of Anita Sarkeesian’s experiences, the bombshell news story by Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith about Uber’s SVP of business Emil Michael suggesting a $million strategy to personally attack journalists who oppose Uber’s business policies. In particular, Michael was talking about discrediting one journalist, Sarah Lacy, the editor of Silicon Valley website PandoDaily.
2014 Variety Power of Women Luncheon Winners & Their Activist Projects
AOC Smart Sensuality readers want more substance in their celebrity news — who cares that Jennifer Lopez and Reese Whitherspoon wore complementary dresses to the 2014 Variety Power of Women Luncheon Winners.
Co-hosted with Lifetime TV, the October 10 luncheon paid tribute to Viola Davis and Donna Langley in addition to Fonda, Lopez and Witherspoon. We share details about these five women and the important philanthropy projects motivate them, because — for the most part — fashion bloggers don’t dig below the surface of who wore what.
Egyptian rapper Mayam Mahmoud
Women of Egypt
Egypt’s Artivists Rally To Combat Increased Sexual Harassment Against Women AOC Sensual Rebel
Kurdish Women Soldiers
Kurdish Women Soldiers Inspire New Rights For Kurdish Women AOC Sensual Rebel
JUST IN from NBC’s Richard Engel on MSNBC Andrea Mitchell November 10, talking about ISIS in Kobani. Richard got into the country — a very difficult feat — and to paraphrase his report, “Most of the FRONT LINE positions in Kobani are held by WOMEN!!! They are holding slightly more than half of the city.
This was the first time I’ve heard a TV reporter fully acknowledge the truth of the Kurdish women fighters and the decisive role they are playing against ISIS. We’ve been following the story for two months now with major exposure of the Kurdish women and their fierce refusal to turn over their land and towns, their parents and children to ISIS (ISIL). Read our largest story about the Kurdish women fighters: Kurdish Women Fighters In Syria Say ISIS Fears Women Soldiers So Much They Shake. AOC Salon
Richard Engel continues to send the positive message around the Kurdish Women soldiers over the last 24 hours in his NBC/MSNBC broadcasts. Engel will present a more comprehensive overview of the Kurdish fight against ISIS Friday night on MSNBC in the Rachel Maddow 9pm time slot.
Meanwhile Kurdish leaders have issued a sweeping list of reforms dedicated to giving Kurdish women equal rights to men in the region. (Note, without being a formal country, implementation remains to be seen.) The Kurds hope to present a high contrast of women’s evolving role in their society versus the deeply dark vision for women presented by ISIS. Read the details in my Sensual Rebel blog. ~ Anne
Glamour magazine’s December cover girl Lupita Nyong’o is sharing Glamour Magazine’s Woman of the Year 2014. Other notable women being honored Monday night, November 9 include Chelsea Clinton, Robin Roberts, Sylvia Earle, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Burton, Natalia Vodianova, Samantha Power and Lavern Cox as Glamour Women of the Year 2014.
The most important news coming out of Monday night’s Glamour magazine Women of the Year awards dinner is the creation of The Girl Project, a collaboration between Glamour readers and supporters and four organizations devoted to keeping girls in school.
Anne of Carversile is an influential fashion, design and culture news resource for creatives, brands and lifestye businesses since 2007.
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