Emma Watson Talks #HeForShe UN Role, Lensed By Josh Olins For Vogue UK September 2015

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Emma Watson Talks #HeForShe UN Role, Lensed By Josh Olins For Vogue UK September 2015

Emma’s extensive interview positions her as the ‘Voice of a Generation’. Watson stepped onto the world stage last September, launching her work as a UN Goodwill Ambassador and HeForShe Campaign. Hear Emma’s terrific speech, one that got her a significant number of death threats online.

The Harry Potter actor also opens up around her “horrendous” split from boyfriend Matt Hanney in December. People solve breakups in different ways. Emma Watson reveals that she travelled to the Canadian Rockies on a silent retreat that helped her come to terms with breakup. “I felt really uncomfortable, even before my relationship ended. I went on a silent retreat because I wanted to figure out how to be at home with myself.”

Emma Watson will soon return to acting as Belle in the live-action adaptation of ‘Beauty and the Beast’. She is also signed up with Tom Hanks for thriller ‘The Circle’.

Related: Emma Watson Is Feminist Book Fairy In New York As She Redefines Belle's Character For 'Beauty and the Beast'

Lupita Nyong'o Joins NYC Public Theater's 'Eclipsed' In September 2015

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Lupita Nyong’o Joins NYC Public Theater’s ‘Eclipsed’ In September 2015Women

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o will make her New York stage debut in September.

The Oscar winner for ‘12 Years A Slave’, who is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. will star in ‘Eclipsed’, described as a story of survival and resilience as a woman suffering through the Liberian civil war in post-colonial Africa. The play was written by ‘Walking Dead’ actress Danai Gurira and will be directed by South Africa Liesl Tommy.She is a native of Cape Town, South Africa and a graduate of Newton North High School and Trinity Repertory Conservatory. Read on.

 

Gisele Bundchen Burqa Disguise Comes As More Burqa Bans Take Effect

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Gisele’s Burqa Disquise Busted

Did Gisele Bundchen really think she and her sister would remain unknown, scurrying into Paris’ International Clinique du Parc Monceau in open-toed shoes On July 15? Worse yet, the two femmes rode in a car driven by the supermodel’s regular chauffeur.

For real women who must wear burqas or die, open-toed shoes are not permitted.

Gisele reportedly was seeking a nip and tuck on her eyes and her breasts, after having breast-fed two children. The next day her driver picked up the supermodel and sister Rafaela at the Bristol Hotel and drove them to the exclusive Les Sources de Caudalie spa, where the former Victoria’s Secret Angel, who reportedly made $47 million last year as the top model in the world, recovered for five days.

Burqa or not, Gisele was silly to think she could keep her plastic surgery visit under wraps.

On the subject of women wearing burqas, the French are quite sensitive, having banned the burqa on the streets of Paris in 2010.The fact the Gisele pulled the stunt during the month of Ramadan, causing strict Muslims to be offended over her disrespectful act. Her action came at a time when several African countries have instituted new burqa bans, now that the disguise is being used by terrorists.

Then there is the minor matter of Gisele telling her adoring fans that there is “no way” she’d ever have plastic surgery.

Note that there are a few naysayers who insist that the story isn’t true. There have been no denials from the supermodel or members of her staff.

Global Burqa Ban News July 2015

The Dutch debate the burqa — and ban it Politico

The areas covered by the ban — schools, transportation, hospitals and government buildings — are those places where concerns for interpersonal communication and safety are especially critical, said Afshin Ellian, a professor of jurisprudence at the University of Leiden and an expert on multiculturalism, citizenship, and human rights. “People have to be recognizable in such areas,” he said. “And anywhere in a free society, it is crucial that people are able literally to look each other in the face.” In a statement to the press, Plasterk echoed that importance, noting that “in schools you have to be able to look one another in the eyes. If a mother comes to pick her child up at school you need to be able to see if it really is the mother.” (Indeed, in January, 2013, a woman wearing a niqab kidnapped a Muslim child from a local school; the five-year-old girl, who could not see her abductor’s face, thought the kidnapper was her own mother, who also wears a niqab.)

Niger Bans Full Islamic Veil In Diffa After Suspected Boko Haram Bombings International Business Times

Niger banned the full Islamic veil in the country’s southeast border region of Diffa following a spate of suicide bombings by women dressed in the religious garment, an official told Agence France-Presse Wednesday. The attacks have been blamed on the Nigeria-based Boko Haram terror group, which Niger’s army has been battling since February.

“Women in the region are forbidden from wearing the full veil until further notice, in order to prevent suicide attacks by Boko Haram,” Diffa Mayor Hankouraou Biri-Kassoum told AFP.

 

Read More

Boys Club | New York Magazine Assembles 35 Bill Cosby Accusers As CA Supreme Court Permits 15-Year-Old Girl Molestation Case To Move Forward

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In an extraordinary piece of journalism, New York Magazine’s cover story addresses the stories of 35 individual women, ages 20s-80s, who claim that they were sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby.` Six women are also videotaped. This is the first time that all of the Cosby accusers willing to come forward have told their stories individually but in one centralized place.

Justice Dept Redefined Rape in 2012

It’s generally believed that this female gathering never would have happened without social media and a broadening of the definition of rape, as actioned by the Justice Department in 2012. The act of rape — previously considered only as a violent act of one person — a man — forcing himself sexually on another person — a woman — has been redefined and expanded by gender (women can rape men; men rape other men) and by sexual actions beyond vaginal penetration.

In the words of Susan B. Carbon of the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women, the redefinition of rape meant that “it’s rape even if you’re a man. It’s rape even if you are raped with an object and even if you were too drunk to consent.”

Too Drugged And/Or Drunk To Consent?

Although the criminal statute of limitations has expired on most of the alleged sexual assault incidents among the 35 women interviewed by New York Magazine, they are seeking justice in the court of public opinion. Note that some of the women have filed civil cases against Cosby with multiple lawyers representing them.

Cosby’s recent publicized 2005 admission that he procured at least seven prescriptions for quaaludes for the purpose of having sex with other women not his wife. caused four of the 35 women to come forward just last week.

“The group of women Cosby allegedly assaulted functions almost as a longitudinal study — both for how an individual woman, on her own, deals with such trauma over the decades and for how the culture at large has grappled with rape over the same time period,” writes New York Magazine. “In the ’60s, when the first alleged assault by Cosby occurred, rape was considered to be something violent committed by a stranger … But among younger women, and particularly online, there is a strong sense now that speaking up is the only thing to do, that a woman claiming her own victimhood is more powerful than any other weapon in the fight against rape.”

One Cosby accuser whose story isn’t told in the New York Magazine collection is Andrea Constand, the Temple University administrator and former college basketball player in Philadelphia, who reached a settlement with Cosby. It was the deposition in her case that was released last week by the New York Times.

In the past week Spelman College, a historically black women’s college in Atlanta, cut all ties to Cosby. The foundation was established by Cosby’s wife, Camille, in honor of her mother, as the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported; two of the comedian’s daughters attended Spelman.

In Philadelphia, a mural featuring Bill Cosby has been painted over.

Age 15 Molestation Case Moves Forward

As embarrassing as the Spelman decision is, Cosby’s attorneys lost a significant court battle in California last week when the state Supreme Court declined to hear a petition that would have overturned a case of a now 50’s woman who claims that Cosby molested her at age 15.

Charges of molesting young girls takes the Cosby allegations into new and sickening allegations.

Read More

Boys Club | A New & Nicer Gawker | No Confidence In NYTimes Writer Michael Schmidt & His Hillary Coverage | Condé Nast Board Eyes More Cost Cutting

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Anne is reading …

Condé Nast Eyes More Cost Cutting, Shuttering & Consolidation

Google ‘cost cutting at Condé Nast’ and page one is full of articles from 2009. Change the search criteria to within the last month, and we learn that on Friday both WWD and The New York Post report that both Self and Details are in danger of closing, going digital only or being folded into other CN publications — Allure for Self and GQ for Details. 

Self’s newsstand sales have slumped from almost 105,000 in January to nearly 60,000 in May. That kind of a drop off suggests old readers have abandoned the redesigned, less fitness-oriented, individual woman content without the fashionistas swooping in to read about celebrity beauty must-have strategies and products. Karlie and friends are turnoffs with the Self crowd.

Last August Condé Nast spun off Lucky in a joint-venture with Beachmint, while combining Bon Appetit and Epicurious. Lucky was shuttered as a print magazine and is now digital only. Next up, the digital giant sold Fairchild Fashion Group, parent of WWD, to Penske Media Corp/

Publishers may be asked to take on group roles, with an emphasis of increasing digital readership. Presently, the Condé Nast digital audience is estimated at 86.3 million versus a print audience of 33.7 million.

The shining star in June was Vanity Fair with a more than 100 percent traffic increase, thanks to the tightly controlled Caitlyn Jenner cover story online. The Post quotes comScore as counting 15.4 million unique visitors in June (when summer typically takes a hit on uniques) vs 7.3 million in May — across all platforms.

Vogue, by comparison, clocked 2.4 million uniques in June, down from 4.1 million in May. Style.com slumped to 714,000 in June from 1 million in May. Self’s more robust, redesigned website held better, with 3.6 million in June from 3.8 million in May. Details also had an increase to 2.4 million, from 2.1 million.

Upheaval at Gawker

Is Gawker Media going to charm school? It’s been a hell of a week for founder Nick Denton and infuriated Gawker employees. Reading Gawker articles tempts one to think that she is on The Onion, but Crain’s Capital New York also writes that come next Monday, Gawker will be 20% nicer… or maybe just 10-15% nicer.

The more moonbeam attitude at Gawker was explained by Gawker CEO Nick Denton at a staff meeting at the Crown Victoria bar in Williamsburg.

Denton told the Gawker.com staff that if any of them were unhappy with the new direction of the site, they could quit next week and collect full severance pay. This severance policy is consistent with Denton’s announcement earlier this week that Tommy Craggs and Max Read, who resigned in protest of the company’s decision to remove a controversial post, would be entitled to full severance.

The new and improved rainbow mood at Gawker comes with the company’s move to new office space at 114 Fifth Ave next Monday and Tuesday. As we previously reported, Denton has been considering a new branding for Gawker, one that may include a new name. Capital also prints a letter that went to Gawker employees detailing the severance policy.

Any eligible employee will be paid through July 31, 2015, and will receive two months of severance after that date. Benefits will continue through the end of September. Payments will be contingent on signing a standard release.

The recent, controversial Gawker article that was pulled involved the outing of a married, high-ranking media exec in New York who sought the services of a gay porn star and appeared to fall victim to extortion.

Mother Jones writes that Gawker invested a single day investigating the article, written by 27-year-old staff writer Jordan Sargent, which was based on texts from the man who allegedly tried to blackmail the publishing executive.

Nick Denton, the site’s founder and publisher, has written that the publication of the article was “a close call around which there were more internal disagreements than usual.” He later wrote, “We believe we were within our legal right to publish.”

Denton provides further perspective:

… the media environment has changed, our readers have changed, and I have changed. Not only is criticism of yesterday’s piece from readers intense, but much of what they’ve said has resonated. Some of our own writers, proud to work at one of the only independent media companies, are equally appalled.

I believe this public mood reflects a growing recognition that we all have secrets, and they are not all equally worthy of exposure. I can’t defend yesterday’s story as I can our coverage of Bill O’Reilly, Hillary Clinton or Hulk Hogan.

We are proud of running stories that others shy away from, often to preserve relationships or access. But the line has moved. And Gawker has an influence and audience that demands greater editorial restraint.

Gawker is no longer the insolent blog that began in 2003. It does important and interesting journalism about politicians, celebrities and other major public figures. This story about the former Treasury Secretary’s brother does not rise to the level that our flagship site should be publishing.

The furor at Gawker Media over the pulling of the article was so intense that both Gawker and Jezebel shut down for a time last Monday. When asked for a comment The New York Times reported that Jezebel’s managing editor Erin Gloria Ryan said on Tuesday that the editorial staff had decided not to comment on the situation. By that time, Gawker and Jezebel were back online. “Back to blogging as ujsual,” Leah Beckmann, Gawker.com’s interim editor-in-chief, said in an email.

New York Times Has Its Own Problems With Vetting Stories — Is Michael Schmidt Trying To Can Clinton?

The New York Times Has A very Serious Hillary Clinton Problem Hillary Men

(Note: Pater Daou and Tom Watson founded #HillaryMen to provide actionable analysis of the campaign focusing on the gender barrier in US politics. Peter is a former senior digital adviser to Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative. He is a veteran of two presidential campaigns (Kerry ‘04 and Clinton ‘08). Tom is an author and Columbia University lecturer who advises companies and non-profits on social activism.)

Anne here, speaking directly about my own impression of The New York Times’ coverage of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. I no longer trust their reporting and haven’t since they broke the Clinton email story a few months ago.The Times has been my truth Bible for decades, but no longer.

HillaryMen writes:

Through the shoddy, over-reaching work of a handful of its many talented reporters and the bad choices of a few editors, the paper seems to be actively running a campaign to prevent the election of the first woman president of the United States.

After running a story that initially - and falsely - described Hillary as the target of a federal criminal probe related to her emails, then having to retract a good portion of it, it’s not hard for readers to conclude that the New York Times opposes Hillary as a matter of policy.

This framing of yesterday’s New York Times headlines on a pending ‘criminal’ investigation of Clinton’s alleged handling of ‘classified’ emails on her private server contained so many inaccuracies that by the days’ end, many people didn’t know what to believe. This confusion wasn’t helped by the reality that the Times online headline continued to carry the word ‘ceiminal’ last night, when multiple entities including the US Justice Dept rejected the story as false.

The Clinton campaign didn’t mince words: “It is now more clear than ever that the New York Times report claiming there is a criminal inquiry sought in Hillary Clinton’s use of email is false. It has now been discredited both by the Justice Department and the Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee. This incident shows the danger of relying on reckless, inaccurate leaks from partisan sources.”

Think Progress outlines the key developments of the day.

The New York Times broke a big story on Thursday night. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the Times reported, could be the subject of a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice because of the personal email account she used as secretary of state. The Times reported that two inspectors general had asked for the criminal probe.

This would be a pretty big deal if true. But as the story unfolded, things became a bit more complicated. Most importantly, the Justice Department has said that it never actually received a request for a criminal probe into Clinton’s email, contradicting the New York Times story. Prior to that announcement, the Times made small but significant changes to its copy, and a high-ranking congressman said the Inspector General’s request was about something entirely different.

Reuters reported that the Justice Department said that it had indeed received a request to look at Clinton’s email, but that it wasn’t a request for a criminal investigation. Instead, the story suggested that the requested investigation may be about how the emails were handled as they were being prepared to be released to the public, alluding to concerns that they may not have adequately censored classified information.

If Cumming’s statements are correct, however, those emails would not have been previously marked as classified, meaning Clinton would not be held responsible. (Note, at this point there is no dispute that the emails in questions had NO classified indicators when they were received by the then Secy of State.)

Newsweek is more blunt, writing “What the hell is happening at The New York Times?”

AOC has zero respect in the journalistic integrity of writer Michael S. Schmidt in his coverage of Hillary Clinton. We’ve been down this road before with the press’ coverage of Hillary Clinton in 2008. They are total crybabies that Clinton doesn’t feel compelled to speak with them right now. I can understand why. When he’s on MSNBC ‘Morning Joe’ from now on, I will now treat him as a Republican, which he may well be.

The New York Times ensured that little was written about Hillary Clinton’s economic speech yesterday, one that called for lower tax rates for investors holding stocks for longer periods of time. One wonders: was that an intentional move? Because the magazine article on Clinton two weeks ago was total nothing, a glass with no water or juice in it.

I must check my stats on women writers at The New York Times. I know there is a huge gender gap. So let me say loudly and clearly, that I have zero confidence in the neutrality of Michael S. Schmidt as a journalist, and I suggest that the newspaper put a thoroughly-vetted, objective woman journalist on coverage of the 2016 election. I don’t care if she’s a Republican woman, as long as she has journalistic integrity and a commitment to fair and accurate reporting. ~ Anne

A Sexy, Strong Gal Gadot Talks 'Wonder Woman' Movie In The World Of Motherhood

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A Sexy, Strong Gal Gadot Talks ‘Wonder Woman’ Movie In The World Of Motherhood

Teddy Wayneinterviews Gadot, known today as Gisele in the Fast & Furious franchise, but preparing to become the world’s next Wonder Woman in ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’. This role is “just a warm-up for the actress”. 

Speaking of this role, Gadot explains: “I didn’t want to do the obvious role that you see in Hollywood most of the time, which is the heartbroken girl who’s waiting to be rescued by the guy, blah, blah, blah. I wanted to do something different. Little did I know that I would land Wonder Woman not long after.”

Land it she did! Gadot will reprise her superhero identity in the “long-gestating” ‘Wonder Woman’ movie, with female director Patty Jenkins at the helm. The film is the first female-centric entry in the superhero genre since 2005’s ‘Elektra’, with Jennifer Garner.

Older Women Make Major Progress In 2015 Emmy Award Nominations

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Anne is reading …

Emmy Awar Nominations: Full List of 2015 Emmy NomineesVariety

15 Of The Emmys’ 18 Leading Actress Nominees Are Over 35 Huffington Post

The 2015 Emmy Nominees are noteworthy in the women’s category for age diversity. In the category for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Amy Schumer is the youngest at 34, and Lily Tomlin at 75 replaces Betty White as the oldest nominee in the category. White was nominated at 69 for ‘Golden Girls’ in 1991. Tomlin costars with Jane Fonda in the Netflix show ‘Grace and Frankie’.

Two African American women in their 40s are nominated for lead actress in a drama — Taraji P. Henson and Viola Davis). Davis said in a roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter, “I had never seen a 49-year-old, dark-skinned woman who is not a size two be a sexualized role in TV or film… I’m a sexual woman, but nothing in my career has ever identified me as a sexualized woman. I was the prototype of the ‘mommified’ role.”

Zeba Blay writes for Huff Po:

Hollywood perpetuates the straight male fantasy that every woman who is on screen, no matter her age or station in life, should be “fuckable” (in the eyes of white heterosexual male viewers). But this year’s Emmy nominees prove that pandering to that kind of audience is unnecessary and boring — there’s so much more out there. Davis doesn’t have to play the mom or the “Law & Order” judge just because she’s 49, and conversely Amy Schumer doesn’t have to play the dumb blonde type — instead, she can satirize it.

If substantial progress has been made on age and racial diversity, Variety reminds readers that only three women were nominated out of 23 in top writer-director categories. The Academy promoted this reality as a 60% increase in the number of women nominated, but Variety pans this fact “at a time when the market place for TV series is expanding rapidly.”

Boys Club | Cosby-Funded Smithsonian Art Exhibit Under A Cloud As More Damning Cosby Deposition Details Revealed

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Boys Club | Cosby-Funded Smithsonian Art Exhibit Under A Cloud As More Damning Cosby Deposition Details Revealed

Bill Cosby’s Damaging 2005 Philadelphia Deposition

Bill Cosby, in Deposition, Said He Used Fame and Drugs to Seduce Women New York Times

With the release of Bill Cosby’s 2005 Philadelphia deposition , details about his eventually settled sexual assault case with Andrea Constand — and other young women, too — are jaw- dropping.

Simply stated, there is very little difference between Cosby’s statements in the deposition and the claims of as many as 50 women who allege that Cosby drugged them and assaulted them under the pretense of mentoring and befriending. 

Cosby — and now his wife Camille — insists that all sexual acts were consensual, that the women willingly took the drugs to relax and engaged freely in sex-related activities with him. It’s revealed in the deposition, though, that when asked if Ms. Therese Serignese, who Cosby met at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1976, was able to consent to sex when he gave her quaaludes in 1976, Cosby responded “I don’t know.” Cosby offered Serignese money for good grades.

As we reported a week ago, Bill Cosby acknowledged acquiring seven prescriptions for quaaludes which could be used to drug his targets. The 78-year-old comedian and chief moralizer about good behavior to America’s African American community admitted only to giving Benadryl to Constandin an effort to relax her.

Smithsonian Stands Firm On Cosby-Financed Exhibition

Smithsonian To Post Sign At Exhibition Featuring Bill Cosby-Owned Art NPR

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington has refused to curtail its current exhibition ‘Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue’, posting instead a sign telling visitors that the exhibition including art owned by Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille, is “fundamentally about the artworks and the artists who created them, not Mr. Cosby,” representatives for the Smithsonian Institution say.

The museum acknowledges that it has received $716,000 from the Cosby family — an amount that totally funded the entire exhibition that opened in November 2014 —, and the family’s views are heavily woven into the fabric of the show’s online publicity, wrote The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones.

Helly Luv, The 'Kurdish Shakira' Takes On ISIS With 'Revolution' Video

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The New York Times ‘Women in the World’ (formerly of The Daily Beast) features pop star Helly Luv, dubbed the ‘Kurdish Shakira’. In her new video ‘Revolution’, Luv rallies men and women in a Kurdish war zone.

“People all around the world, round the world don’t be scared. Come together let ‘em know, let ‘em know, we’re right here,” she sings throughout the video that features real people facing the day-to-day threats of Islamic militants.

Vice writes that the redhead is on ISIS’s radar for ‘Revolution’. Her ‘Revolution’ video was shot about two miles away from the front line separating ISIS militants and the Kurdish Peshmerga troops.

Helly Luv and her Peshmerga mother fled Iran for Turkey, days after she was born. They lived homeless in Turkey for several years before moving to Finland as refugees. At age 18 Helly moved to LA and made contacts in the music business before returning to the Middle East to create music and videos that combat terrorism with messages of pride, unity and peace.

In her own words, Luv reveals her determination to stand up to ISIS.

‘Revolution’ is not only the story of Kurds. It’s the story of us all, because ISIS is not just the enemy of Kurds; they’re the enemy of the whole world. It’s our own responsibility to come together, unite, and fight against them. If we don’t, then tomorrow they will expand; they will get more powerful. I went to Los Angeles and created “Revolution” with the same producer and the same staff who did “Risk It All,” and it was the most difficult song to record; I was basically crying the whole time. Violence and terrorism is everywhere. Yesterday, it was in Germany, before that it was Tunis, and before that it was Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Update Kurdish Women Fighters

AOC has followed the incredible story of the Kurdish Women Fighters who are taking on ISIS.

RT.com filmed a documentary ‘Her War: Women VS. ISIS’, telling the story of young Kurdish women in Syria who are defending their country while advancing their hopes of self-government. The Kurds are an ethnic group that is culturally and linguistically related to Iran. The Kurdistan region spans adjoining parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

A new article at Muftah centers on Western media’s romancing of the Kurdish women fighters, promoting them as seekers of democracy.

Read More

Boys Club | Obama Weighs In On Rape | Petition To Take Back Cosby's Medal of Honor | How Complicit Is Camille Cosby In The Alleged Rapes of Women?

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The facts of comedian and Presidential Medal of Honor winner Bill Cosby’s rape allegations by countless — nearly 50 in some reports — women who continue to emerge from the shadows have not been adjudicated in a court of law.

The closest the public has come to learning of any admission of guilt from the nationally-beloved Cosby is a recently published Associated Press story revealing court documents from 2005 in which Cosby admitted under oath that years prior he gave quaaludes, a powerful relaxing and mood-altering drug, to women with whom he sought sex.

President Obama Comments Indirectly About Bill Cosby & Rape

This admission fueled growing demands that Cosby be stripped of his 2002 medal awarded him by then president George W. Bush. African American White House Correspondent and Washington Bureau Chief for American Urban Radio Networks April Ryan posed the question about President Obama’s possible revocation of Cosby’s medal.

President Obama responded:

“If you give a woman — or a man, for that matter — without his or her knowledge a drug and then have sex with that person without consent, that’s rape… . I think this country, any civilized country should have no tolerance for rape.”

Sens. Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY) & Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) Sign Petition

Angela Rose, executive director of Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment, insists that the president could issue an executive order rescinding the medal, make a personal statement that it should be rescinded, or simply ask Cosby for the medal back.

Two senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) have signed Rose’s petition. Last week, a spokeswoman for Gillbrand, who is known — like McCaskill — for pushing for reform in how sexual assault allegations are handled in the military and on college and university campuses, told Politico that the senator supported a drive to strip Cosby of his medal “because we need to set a clear example that sexual assault will not be tolerated in this country, and someone who admitted using drugs for sex no longer deserves the nation’s highest honor.”

Camille Cosby Blames the Women     Read on in Women-In-Deoth

 

95% Of Women Are Positive About Their Abortions 3 Years Later | Hobby Lobby Contraception Objections Update | Colorado Republicans Shoot Down Successful IUD Program For Teens

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Women’s Health News, Abortion & Contraception

1. An important new study that tracked 667 women over a three year period reports that 95 percent of participants reported that ending the pregnancy was the right decision for them.

2. University of California think tank ANSIRH, Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, conducted the study as part of a larger ‘Turnaway Study’, which is following about 1,000 women who sought abortions in 21 different states.

3. Three Senate Republicans — Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mark Kirk (Illinois) who is challenged in his 2016 re-election race by Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill) — joined all Democrats on the Appropriations Committee in advancing a repeal of the “so-called global gag rule that restricts US funding to humanitarian organizations that provide abortions,” reports Politico. (Note, abortion restrictions would remain but contraception funds would be fine.)

4. On Friday, July 10, the Obama Administration released final rules for employers citing religious objections to supporting birth control for women under the Affordable Care Act.

5. Despite being one of the most effective efforts in reducing teen pregnancy in America, Republicans in Colorado declined to keep it going.

Memory Banda TED Talks Against Child Marriage & Malawi's Sexual Initiation Camps

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Memory Banda TED Talks Against Child Marriage & Malawi’s Sexual Initiation Camps

Watching several TED Talks yesterday, the subject of Malawi’s child brides surfaced again in the passionate TED Woman2015 talk given by Malawi’s Memory Banda. Memory became an organizer in support of the new law against child marriage, and she also introduced me to the topic of ‘initiation camps’. Banda’s sister, who has three children and two failed marriages at age 16, was sent to an ‘initiation camp’ at age 11.

Watch more TEDWoman 2015 presentations.

Hillary Clinton's CNN Brianna Keilar Interview | Women Leaders At Aspen Institute | Women's Soccer $$$ Discriminate | 300 Child Brides Freed In Malawi

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Hillary Clinton’s CNN Brianna Keilar Interview | Women Leaders At Aspen Institute |
Women’s Soccer $$$ Discriminate | 300 Child Brides Freed In Malawi  AOC Sensual Rebel

Anne is reading …

1. After a disastrous Independence Day photo op gone wrong, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will give her first national TV interview since announcing her presidential candidacy in April.

CNN will air the interview conducted by Brianna Keilar today Tuesday July 7th. Relations between Hillary Clinton and the national press have always been strained, but they reached new levels of strain on Saturday, when Clinton aides literally herded reporters through the streets of Gorham, NH’s Fourth of July parade.

2. America’s women’s soccer team returned home from Vancouver victorious as world champions but seriously underpaid.

3. The Aspen Institute shares great ideas from women who lead, in an exciting presentation of 3-4 minute personal challenges from their recent Aspen Ideas Festival.

4. In Malawi, senior Chief Inkosi Kachindamoto, a woman, annulled over 300 child marriages, saying that for both boys and girls, children should be in school.

5. Writing for Forbes, Carrie Rich of YEC Women, says that ‘Creating Change For Female Leaders Starts With Individual Support’.

Eye | Meryl Streep Launches ERA Campaign | Michelle Obama Guest Edits More | Arianna Huffington In The Spotlight

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Anne is reading …

Arianna at the Huff Post Helm

Arianna Huffington’s Improbable, Insatiable Content MachineNYTimes Magazine

Today, The Huffington Post employs an armada of young editors, writers and video producers: 850 in all, many toiling at an exhausting pace. It publishes 13 editions across the globe, including sites in India, Germany and Brazil. Its properties collectively push out about 1,900 posts per day. In 2013, Digiday estimated that BuzzFeed, by contrast, was putting out 373 posts per day, The Times 350 per day and Slate 60 per day. (At the time, The Huffington Post was publishing 1,200 posts per day.) Four more editions are in the works — The Huffington Post China among them — and a franchising model will soon take the brand to small and midsize markets, according to an internal memo Huffington sent in late May.

Since its founding, Huff Po has depended on free labor, understanding that if you give bloggers a big enough platform, you don’t need to pay them.

Audrey Hepburn in London

Audrey Hepburn photographed wearing Givenchy by Norman Parkinson, 1955. © Norman Parkinson Ltd./Courtesy of Norman Parkinson Archive.This Audrey Hepburn Exhibition Is Like Pinterest In Real LifeVanity Fair

Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon’ is now open through October 18 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Some of the biggest names in photography lensed Audrey Hepburn: Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Angus McBean, Irving Penn and Norman Parkinson. Mark Shaw was asked to shoot a photo essay about Hepburn for Life Magazine in 1953, was granted unprecedented access to Hepburn, who was filming Sabrina at the time. Exhibition portraits show her in many of her most famous roles – another cover for Life magazine, swathed in Givenchy as Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon

While Hepburn took up humanitarian work during the 1950s, she became a global ambassador for UNICEF in the 80s. Naturally bilingual in English and Dutch, Hepburn also spoke fluent French, Italian, Spanish, and German as she travelled to the poorest and most disadvantaged areas of the world to support aid projects. Hepburn was one of the first mega celebrities to leverage her fame and following on behalf of the UN.

Meryl Streep Petitions Congress for ERA

Meryl Streep receiving Medal of Freedom award from President Barack Obama in 2014.Hollywood mega actor Meryl Streep sent letters to all 535 members of Congress in late June, petitioning them to revive the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

“I am writing to ask you to stand up for equality – for your mother, your daughter, your sister, your wife or yourself – by actively supporting the Equal Rights Amendment,” Streep wrote in the letter.

Each letter was accompanied by a copy of ‘Equal Means Equal’, a book by president of the ERA Coalition Jessica Neuwirth.

The essence of the ERA is simple, written in 1920, is simple: “Equality rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

It took over 50 years for Congress to finally ratify the ERA in 1972. As the amendment moved towards final passage — passing in 35 of the required 38 states, the infamous Phyllis Schlafly hit the road to stop its final passage.

The actress also noted that the United States has encouraged countries like Afghanistan to include women’s rights into their constitutions, yet America doesn’t “have it in our own,” according to The Washington Post

“For the first time, we have the expectation that we can have a broad array of choices, that we could lead in almost any part of society,” said Streep, who we spotted in DC last February. “And yet we face resistance. … How can we lift and defuse it, how do we make it so our equality is not so threatening?”

First Lady Michelle Obama is interviewed by Meryl Streep in the July/August issue of More magazine. Streep is attached to an in development anti-NRA movie with producer Harvey Weinstein called ‘The Senators’ Wife’ — a clear reason for the actor to be in DC.

It’s equally likely that she was in town to interview First Lady Michelle Obama for the July/August issue of MORE Magazine, with FLOTUS serving as guest editor.

MORE highlights the critical role that mothering played in unleashing the skills of both women by reminding them constantly that they could be whatever they chose to be in life.

AOC has long stood for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Read on:

Sign Our Petition in Support of an Equal Rights Amendment AOC Salon

Surveys suggest that the vast majority of Americans aren’t refusing to accept the ERA — no matter what right-wing zealots tell us. If reality, most United States citizens believe that women do have equal protection under the law. Boy are they wrong!!! Not only do women NOT have equal protection under the law, but Republicans in Congress are hell-bent on turning back the rights that women have won in the last 40 years.

Nomi Leasure On Why America Needs An Equal Rights AmendmentAOC Salon

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, Women's Rights Advocate, Will Donate $32 Billion Fortune To Activist Philanthropy

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Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, Women’s Rights Advocate, Will Donate $32 Billion Fortune To Activist Philanthropy

AOCfirst wrote about Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in 2009, focusing on his unusual commitment — not only to women’s rights — but to hiring and advancing Saudi women in in his businesses and foundation. Women make up 65 percent of positions in his companies, where he discourages them from wearing the veil.

The Prince employs Hanadi Al Hindi, the first Saudi woman to gain a commercial pilot’s license, to fly his personal jet around the world.

The Prince’s fourth wife Princess Ameerah (divorced in 2013) has become one of the strongest voices for women’s empowerment in Saudi Arabia.

Chelsea Clinton says of the Princess: “Ameerah’s advocacy on behalf of Saudi women has provided a tremendous contribution to how we think about the rights of girls and women around the world.”

Texas Abortion Clinics Remain Open For Now | New Male Contraceptive By 2018 | Solid Link Between Teen Pregnancy & Obesity

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Texas Abortion Clinics Remain Open For Now | New Male Contraceptive By 2018 | Solid Link Between Teen Pregnancy & Obesity

Women’s Health News, Abortion & Contraception

1. At the end of its term, the US Supreme Court issued a stay in litigation around the state of Texas’ new laws that would close 10 more women’s health clinics that provide abortion services.

2. Mississippi’s sole abortion clinic in Jackson will remain open, with the US Supreme Court taking no action on a federals appeal ruling that left the clinic open.

3. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed notice of appeal on Wednesday that he will appeal a court ruling that overturned a Kansas law using an abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation.

4. Sources of post-abortion counseling that aren’t connected with right to lifers are hard to find.

5. In Oregon, lawmakers approved a bill that allows women to get birth control prescriptions from a pharmacist instead of a physician.  Read on in AOC Women

Lizzy Caplan Of 'Masters of Sex' Talks Feminism With Playboy July/August 2015

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Lizzy Caplan Of ‘Masters of Sex’ Talks Feminism With Playboy July/August 2015

David Rensin asks Lizzy Caplan 20 questions about ‘Masters of Sex’ and by Q4, the duo is talking feminism. Indeed … feminism.

‘Masters of Sex’ takes place during the late 1950s and early 1960s, an era when women ramped up their struggle for liberation. Virginia Johnson keeps pushing the envelope, but you can feel her frustration at almost every turn. Things have changed, but have they changed enough?

The tough pills that women are expected to swallow have gotten better, but it’s naive to think we’ve come that far from the 1950s. Read on.