Alana Glazer & Abbi Jacobsen Get Ready For HIllary Clinton In FLARE Magazine February 2016

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Alana Glazer & Abbi Jacobsen Get Ready For HIllary Clinton In FLARE Magazine February 2016

'Broad City' stars Alana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson cover the February 2016 issue of FLARE Magazine. The duo is styled by Kemal and Karla in images by Danielle Levitt. The duo is set to launch the third season of the Comedy Central show written by Amy Poehler. 

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, aka Hillz, will make a guest appearance in 'Broad City', but when is a big unknown. Sooner is better than later, as the campaign courts the millennial vote. 

SNL alumna star Amy Poehler revisited her Hillary character last Saturday night post-Democratic debate. The result is hilarious!!

UN Delegation Visits Alabama, Texas & Oregon, Leaves 'Appalled' At Gender Inequality In America

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UN Delegation Visits Alabama, Texas & Oregon, Leaves 'Appalled' At Gender Inequality In America

American Women Have No Idea How Far Behind We Are Our Pursuit of Gender Equality and Women's Rights

The lack of awareness among American women about our falling status made the greatest impression on the UN experts. "So many people really believe that U.S. women are way better off with respect to rights than any woman in the world," Raday said.

Interviewed about her 2011 book 'Flipside', Phyllis Schlafly, who led the crusade to derail the Equal Rights Amendment by tapping into conservative fears about liberating women with equal rights, said:

It is self evident that American women are the most fortunate women who ever lived and enjoy more freedoms and opportunities than are available in any other country. Armed with the right attitude, they have every opportunity for happiness and achievement. Women should stop feeling they are victims of the patriarchy, reject feminist myths, and follow the roadmap to success and happiness spelled out in ‘Flipside.’

In reality, US women have sunk to 28th place in the world, sandwiched between Mozambique and Cuba, in the latest 2015 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report. In the area of political empowerment, America ranks a pathetic 72 in the world, with extensive research confirming that the reason we are an even worse 81 on women in parliament -- our Congress -- (as opposed to women in managerial government position) is that we refuse to believe that women can legislate as effectively as men.

EYE | Alicia Vikender Sky Dives Into Vogue US January 2016 As Caitlyn Jenner Says 'I'm Sorry' For Women & Appearances TIME Comments

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Alicia Vikender Sky Dives Into David Sims Images For Vogue US January 2016

Swedish actor Alicia Vikander is styled in a spring 2016 print frenzy by Tonne Goodman.  Alicia is riding a high wave after being nominated for two Golden Globes for her performances in 'Ex Machina' and 'The Danish Girl'.

Alicia plays Gerda, wife to artist Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne) as s(he) prepares to undergo one of the earliest sex-change operations. 

Eddie Redmayne (l) and Alicia Vikander (r) in 'The Danish Girl'

Reviews include:

'The Danish Girl': Venice Review David Rooney for The Hollywood Reporter

Review: 'The Danish Girl', About a Transgender Pioneer AO Scott for New York Times

The Danish Girl -- An Opportunity Lost Erica Koppler for Huffington Post

Related French Roast News . . . Anne is reading . . . 

Caitlyn Jenner on Privilege, Reality TV and Deciding to Come Out TIME

To you, what does it mean to be a woman and how have your ideas about that evolved?

Ohhh, that is something. I got to the point where every day I was living authentically, but what does all this mean? What does this thing that you have had in your head for so many years, mean? It’s more than makeup and clothes and all that other stuff. And what is that? I’m working on that. There’s still a lot to learn about being a woman. Honestly, I started getting books, started reading on all that kind of stuff. Have I come up with an answer? Not even close.

Caitlyn Jenner talks 'feminine presentation,' upsets trans community in the process Zap2it.com

Caitlyn Jenner Blogs About Her Time Interview and Sets the Record Straight on Appearance Comments EONLINE

What Is a Woman? Michelle Goldberg for The New Yorker Aug. 4, 2014

The dispute began more than forty years ago, at the height of the second-wave feminist movement. In one early skirmish, in 1973, the West Coast Lesbian Conference, in Los Angeles, furiously split over a scheduled performance by the folksinger Beth Elliott, who is what was then called a transsexual. Robin Morgan, the keynote speaker, said:

I will not call a male “she”; thirty-two years of suffering in this androcentric society, and of surviving, have earned me the title “woman”; one walk down the street by a male transvestite, five minutes of his being hassled (which he may enjoy), and then he dares, he dares to think he understands our pain? No, in our mothers’ names and in our own, we must not call him sister.

Serena Williams Is SI Sportsperson of the Year, Tapped For Athletic Dominance, Cultural Importance & Personal Growth

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Serena Williams Is SI Sportsperson of the Year, Tapped For Athletic Dominance, Cultural Importance & Personal Growth

Always mistress of her own ship, tennis superstar Serena Williams chose to sit on a throne, wearing high heels for her Sports Illustrated cover story honor of 'Sportsperson of the Year'. SI managing editor Christian Stone wrote on SI.com that Serena wanted to express her own ideal of femininity, strength and power."

Hillary Clinton Defies Voters' Anti-Woman Bias In Perceived Competency & Strength

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Hillary Clinton Defies Voters' Anti-Woman Bias In Perceived Competency & Strength

Research always confirms that when voters look at equally experienced male and female politicians, “the man will still be seen as more capable on issues of national security and defense,” Meredith Conroy, a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, wrote to Thomas B. Edsall's inquiry about the current election. But “Hillary is able to overcome this and other gender stereotypes. She turns much of the scholarship on voter perceptions of Democratic candidates, and furthermore female politicians, on its head.”
A late November YouGov survey conducted after the attacks in Paris but before San Bernardino found that Hillary Clinton stood apart from all the men:  Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina as the only candidate a majority of voters believe
is ready to be Commander in Chief. She is the only one about whom as many people express confidence in her ability to handle an international crisis as say they are uneasy.
There is a striking dichotomy between voters’ evaluation of the Democratic Party’s ability to deal with terrorism and their belief in Hillary Clinton.

Annie Leibovitz Presents Women of Distinction in Non-Babes 2016 Pirelli Calendar

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Annie Leibovitz Presents Women of Distinction in Non-Babes 2016 Pirelli Calendar

The Pirelli Calendar is noted for its annual issue of female bodies eye candy and also sensual beauty. With few exceptions -- Terry Richardson's calendar, for example -- Pirelli takes the high road in photographing women.

Pirelli's 2016 calendar #43 mines new ground in female imagery, tapping female photographer Annie Leibovitz to shoot 13 inspiring women -- artists, athletes, models, philanthropists and bloggers of every age and skin color. The omission of a Latina woman is noteworthy, unless I have my ethnicities mixed up. This is Leibovitz's second Pirelli calendar, as she shot the 2000 edition.

Leibovitz explains her vision behind this year's calendar, saying:

“I started to think about the roles that women play, women who have achieved something. I wanted to make a classic set of portraits. I thought that the women should look strong but natural, and I decided to keep it a very simple exercise of shooting in the studio,” Leibovitz said in a release. “This calendar is so completely different. It is a departure. The idea was not to have any pretense in these pictures and be very straightforward.” Needless to say, those looking for tropically set nude photos are in for a surprise.

Safa Idriss Nour Is Waris Dirie's 'Desert Flower' In the Fight To End FGM In Somalia

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Safa Idriss Nour Is Waris Dirie's 'Desert Flower' In the Fight To End FGM In Somalia

A simple Facebook share last week elicited more likes than any supermodel has achieved on my page. Meet Safa Idriss Nour, a young girl born in a slum in Dijibouti, Somalia.  Perhaps her gorgeous young-girl face soothed a world under fire in Beirut, Nigeria and Paris. Mali had not blown up yet as my FB friends fell under Safa's spell. 
On Friday I decided to look for information about this young girl, and the truth of her life amazed me. 
 A Young Somali Girl Uncut
An estimated 98% of girls and women in Dijibouti have undergone female genital mutilation, a procedure of varying severity in Somali culture. AOC has a long history of writing about FGM, the cutting off a female's clitoris and some of the labia. The procedure -- executed without anaesthetic -- is designed to protect a girl's purity and represents a sign of commitment to a future husband over a desire for sexual pleasure. In the most severe cases of FGM, a girl's labia is sewn together and only reopened after marriage. The probability of a young woman not being desirable as a bride and commanding no bride price for her family is high. 

 

Star Jones Co-Hosts Hillary Clinton Fundraiser in New York on Dec. 10, 2015

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In 2012, women of color -- and especially Black women -- voted at a higher rate than any other group, representing a key constituency that elected President Obama. Black women voted in historically high numbers, voting Democratic and delivering a victory to the nation's first African American president. 
In the 2008 election, many of these women were split between Senators Clinton and Obama. Now they are united in their commitment to Hillary Clinton. 

Clinton and Sanders Camps Enter New Fight In Nomination Battle

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Why Bernie Sanders Is Calling Out Hillary Clinton on Paid Family Leave

It seems that all hell has broken out with the Sanders campaign this week in two major areas: paid family leave and the cost of Bernie's single-payer health care plan. Bernie's proposed middle-class tax increases for both items are being rejected by the Clinton campaign.
Re the paid family leave, both candidates agree on 12 weeks of paid leave. Bernie supports the Gillibrand bill that would increase the payroll tax by .2% or $1.38 a week for the median wage. Clinton believes she has another way to pay for the bill.
The Sanders campaign is calling Hillary out on not supporting Gillibrand, except that not only has the New York Senator endorsed Hillary but she was sitting in the front row in Iowa Sat night AND Hillary acknowledged her. So OBVIOUSLY Gillibrand knows what Hillary has in mind -- and SHE doesn't feel that Hillary has flip-flopped at all.

Is Equal Pay Really About 'Sticking It To The Man'? Variety Talks Jennifer Lawrence & the Demand For Equal Pay In Hollywood

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'Sticking It to the Man' is an interesting title for an article about female actors asking for equal pay -- based on credentials, audience draw and awards -- from male-dominated Hollywood. Thanks to Patricia Arquette using her Oscar speech to lobby for equal pay and then Jennifer Lawrence setting a bonfire with her essay indicting a system that paid her 'American Hustle' co-stars more than her.As a consequence of last year's Sony Hack, Lawrence understands just how underpaid she was. 

Talking about her essay published in Lenny Letter, Lawrence said her 'hunger Games' character Katniss Everdeen inspired her to take action.

Kate Winslet Stuns In Vogue Italy, Talks Social Media & Anorexia, & Vulgarity Of Talking Hollywood Pay Gap

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Kate Winslet In Moody Solitary Images By Peter Lindbergh For Vogue Italia November 2015

It's a Kate Winslet morning on AOC as the actor stuns in Peter Lindbergh's Vogue Italy photos, talks no photoshop in her L'Oreal Lancome contract, social media and self-esteem in young women, and the vulgarity of talking about pay scales in Hollywood. 

Kate Winslet Says No Photoshop With Lancome, Talking Hollywood Pay Gap Is Vulgar & Social Media Promotes Anorexia In Young Women

Gender Gap Volume Rises As Bernie Bros Tell Progressive Women How To Vote

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Throughout the summer, Sanders and Clinton supporters engaged in a soft glove battle of the sexes with Bernie Sanders'  primarily white male supporters sparring with Hillary supporters of every skin color and white women. The so-called Bernie Bros are focused on Clinton supporters like myself, the so-called spoiled, bourgeoise, white woman. 
We's Not Shouting, But We ARE Digging In
No self-respecting feminist will go to the wall over Bernie's comment about shouting -- although given his role as the shouter-in-chief, his commentary about others is downright amusing. Surely he didn't mean to minimize his opponent in any way. 
That is not the case with the white progressive men Peter Daou and Tom Watson write about over at Hillary Men. The genie is out of the bottle in political gender relations in the Democratic party, with a strong dose of misogyny running wild -- not among Southern Democrats, who barely exist anymore -- but among white male progressives.  
Feminists of a certain age are well aware that many leftist men were frequently sexist as hell. Among Latinos, African Americans, American Indians -- really any group of people except middle-class white women -- a desire for self-determination is embraced by white male progressives as legitimate. Among white women not on welfare or living among the working poor -- women who are typically able to speak and write or run for political office -- a desire for fairness and equity in political representation is considered to be bourgeoise and without a strong political foundation.

Blue Menu Politics: Nancy Pelosi's Sinfully Rich Chocolate Mousse Recipe

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Blue Menu Politics: Nancy Pelosi's Sinfully Rich Chocolate Mousse Recipe

CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM FOR BREAKFAST

You won't hear this on Chris Matthews Hardball -- you know, Chris is trying to butter up the ladies lately -- but the secret to Nancy Pelosi's iron-clad grip on vote counting and controlling her spirited group of Democratic DC change agents is chocolate ice cream for breakfast.

Pelosi spilled the coffee beans to Food and Wine last year, admitting "I’ve been eating dark chocolate ice cream for breakfast for as long as I can remember. I don’t see it as different from having a cup of coffee. The flavors keep getting darker and darker, which I love. Double Rainbow has one called Ultra Chocolate; you can just imagine how delicious that is. And Three Twins, I like their Bittersweet Chocolate. Sugar cones are my thing.'

NANCY PELOSI'S FAVORITE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE RECIPE