Savannah Cunningham, In Center Of Marine Online Misogyny Scandal, Starts Basic Training In April

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Savannah Cunningham, In Center Of Marine Online Misogyny Scandal, Starts Basic Training In April

Savannah Cunningham says that while she's been torn over how to respond to the online harassment, she decided to join the Marines because it was the most selective and demanding. She will work on a crew loading missiles on Cobra helicopters.

As her Twitter pics reveal, Cunningham has been working out intensely in preparation for Marine duty. "I wanted to make sure I could do anything male Marines could," she told the Times. "I didn't want anyone to hold me to a lower standard. "

While horrified by what happened to her and how a former close boyfriend shared a private strip tease video, Sav now dates a Marine sergeant and says the majority of male Marines she knows were totally disgusted by the photo sharing. 

"We have to be positive examples of the change we want to see," she said. "Courage, integrity, honor: I want to live those values."

Is Ivanka Trump As 'Complicit' In Working Against Poor & Average Income Women As SNL Suggests

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Is Ivanka Trump As 'Complicit' In Working Against Poor & Average Income Women As SNL Suggests

Saturday Night Live host Scarlett Johansson played Ivanka Trump in the March 11 episode, introducing us to Ivanka's new perfume Complicit, "the fragrance for the woman who could stop all of this, but won't." The ad continued, showing the First Daughter putting on lipstick in the mirror and seeing the reflection of her father, President Trump. "She doesn't crave the spotlight, but we see her. Oh, how we see her."

Complicit's tag line may be giving Ivanka too much credit for her ability to influence her father, but it's timely in aggressively hitting the role of Ivanka's agency in advancing her father's agenda. 

"She's a woman who knows what she wants—and knows what she's doing," said SNL. Increasingly, large numbers of Independent, Democrat and even educated Republican women realize that Ivanka will remain publicly silent on her father's plan to defend Planned Parenthood.  

Marilyn Minter, Alison Gingeras & KATSU Behind HAG's Trump Misogyny Poster Action

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Artist Marilyn Minter is again in US President Donald Trump's face, teaming up with curator Alison Gingeras and graffiti artist KATSU for a New York City action Tuesday, March 8, International Women's Day in a poster that calls out Trump's on the record statements about women, dubbed Trump's "sexual assault monologue," based on the transcript of the president's hot mic Access Hollywood recording.

AOC posted the viral social media and streets of New York action without knowing who was behind it. We should have known!! Halt Action Group (HAG), the artist-run protest group who previously created the Dear Ivanka campaign 

“We felt that the viral presence of the poster—it was all over Twitter and Instagram, and used by well-respected writers and commentators in their posts on women’s issues yesterday—was a potent tool to refute the normalization of the Trump administration,” HAG co-founder and curator Alison Gingeras told artnet News in an email. The piece hopes to combat, “the collective amnesia that can dangerously set in when it comes to Trump’s history of violence (verbal and sexual) towards women.”

Artist Marilyn Minter designed the image for HAG, and graffiti artist KATSU was enlisted to help install the 1,000 or so posters across Manhattan using wheatpaste. A high-resolution copy is available for download on the HAG website in both black-and-white and color, and the group is encouraging everyone to print and distribute the artwork.

“We’re planning on doing it in other cities,” Minter told artnet News in a phone conversation. “We want to be the propaganda wing of the resistance.”

London's V&A Design Museum Acquires Pussyhat While New York's A Fearless Girl Goes Pink, Too

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London's Victoria & Albert Museum Pussyhat Acquisition

On International Women's Day, a simple pink fashion accessory made of yarn and knitting needles has assumed its place in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Home to the world's largest design and fashion collection, the V&A was called "an important acquisition" by museum curator Corinna Gardner who called it "an immensely recognizable expression of female solidarity and symbol of the power of collective action."

On International Women's Day, AOC introduced you to 'A Fearless Girl' the defiant 4 ft bronze little girl facing off against Wall Street's 'Charging Bull' in Bowling Green lower Manhattan. She is part of a campaign by State Street Global Advisers to insist that corporate boards add more women.  People are clamoring to make 'A Fearless Girl' a permanent fixture as a foil to the Wall Street'Charging Bull' sculpture, and our instincts suggest that we will all get our wish.

Pussyhats were celebrated worldwide yesterday, including in Parliaments honoring International Women's Day. Read on. 

'A Fearless Girl' Takes On Wall Street's 'Golden Bull' Citing Stronger Financial Returns With Women In Leadership

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'A Fearless Girl' Takes On Wall Street's 'Golden Bull' Citing Stronger Financial Returns With Women In Leadership

A four-foot tall bronze sculpture is now eyeball to eyeball with Wall Street's iconic bull sculpture, and she is not backing down. Arriving just in time for International Women's Day March 8, 2017, 'The Fearless Girl' -- created by artist Kristen Visbal -- is on a global mission to increase the participation of women on corporate boards. A plaque laid at the bronze girl's feet reads: "KNOW THE POWER OF WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP/SHE MAKES A DIFFERENCE. 

'The Fearless Girl' arrived in the  middle of the night, compliments of McCann New York and client State Street Global Advisers, the world's third-largest asset manager with a $2.5 trillion portfolio.  The guerrilla art aspect of her landing "is in keeping with the Charging Bull itself, which was installed without permission by artist Arturo Di Modica in 1989. Following the stock market crash of 1987, the sculpture represented strength and power and the promise of prosperity that would return. After the American economy's 2007 meltdown, Charging Bull came to represent a day-trading, short-term results economy running wild. Simply stated, Charging Bull now represents a potentially out-of-control, testosterone-driven American Dow stock-buying spree making a big comeback under President Trump.

'Feud: Bette and Joan' Debuts March 5 On FX With Jessica Lange & Susan Sarandon

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Town & Country dives into one of Hollywood's long-simmering rivalries, brought to life in the FX series 'Feud: Bette and Joan', premiering March 5. (Find your channel here.) Susan Sarandon plays Bette Davis, with Jessica Lange in the role Joan Crawford. 

Neither Bette Davis or Joan Crawford ever publicly admitted to their hardly ladylike rivalry. 

Crawford dismissed gossip about their feud in a 1947 magazine article entitled "Can Women Trust Each Other?" by saying, "Why should there be a feud? I believe there is a place for every actress in this wonderful business. Certainly Bette and I don't fear each other."

It's tempting to dismiss the mind-boggling sexism of that magazine title— especially in today's Hollywood where women do seem to increasingly stand together. But when one Google's the title, it's unclear just how real the changes are. 

Why Don't Women Trust Each Other Anymore? Institute for Feminine Leadership

Should You Trust Other Women? Huffington Post

The Broken Link: Women Trusting Women Psychology Today

T&C writes that Crawford made a significant effort to build bridges with Davis on the set of 'Baby Jane', the only movie the two legends ever made together. Crawford brought her small gifts until Davis sent her a note to please desist -- "I do not have time to go out and shop." Robert Aldrich, director of 'Baby Jane' said about the duo: "They were like two Sherman tanks, despising each other."

In payback for the years of being snubbed and sneered at, Crawford, who discreetly laced her perpetual glasses of Pepsi with vodka, may have decided the time had come for payback. A scene called for Baby Jane to carry her sister Blanche, bound and gagged, out of her bed. After Davis carried the slender Crawford out of bed, she screamed, "My back! My back!" The story goes that Crawford had strapped a special weightlifter's belt lined with lead beneath her costume. As Davis sobbed, in agony, Crawford returned to her dressing room, a tiny smile on her face.

In the 90-second trailer spot, Catherine Zeta-Jones's Olivia de Havilland recounts the tale of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford's unrivaled rivalry, lamenting, "For over half a century they hated each other—and we loved them for it." The 90-second spot introduces 'Baby Jane' director Alfred Molina's Robert Aldrich, a jarringly dramatic Stanley Tucci as Warner Bros. president Jack L. Warner --"You want me to work with her again? Are you crazy?! Never!" -- and Judy Davis as the notorious actress and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Kathy Bates joins the cast as actress Joan Blondell. 

Meryl Streep & Viola Davis Are Fast Friends Since Meeting In 2008 Film 'Doubt'

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Close friends Meryl Streep and Viola Davis

Moving towards the stage to accept her award for best supporting actress at Sunday night's Oscars, Viola Davis stopped to give Meryl Streep an affectionate kiss and hug. Vanity Fair writes that their friendship is one of the most public and vocally supporting relationships in Hollywood. 

Streep and Davis first worked together in the 2008 film 'Doubt'. Accepting her 2009 SAG award for best actress in 'Doubt', Streep channeled all her diva powers, calling out "the gigantically gifted Viola Davis." Raising her arms to the heavens, Streep implored the audience, "My God, somebody give her a movie!". Three years later Davis starred in 'The Help' and was nominated for Best Actress, only to lose to . . . Meryl Streep, who won for 'The Iron Lady'. Such an event would dampen the enthusiasm of most friendships, but not these two women.

The next morning Streep donated $20,000 in Davis' name, shared between the Segue Institute for Learning, an in-need charter school in Davis's hometown of Rhode Island and a college-prep program Upward Bound.

When Davis received her Hollywood Walk of Fame star in January 2017, Streep opened the event, with choice comments about her friend. “Viola Davis is possessed. She is possessed to the blazing, incandescent power. She is arguably the most immediate, responsive artist I have ever worked with,” Streep said. She then went on to describe Davis’s ability to be “so alive she glistens” and to “write paragraphs with her eyes.”

Meryl Streep Is Furious With Karl Lagerfeld's Calling Her 'Cheap' & Ruining Her 20th Oscar Nomination Celebration

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The superb actor and feminist Meryl Streep showcased her Elie Saab off-the-shoulder peacock blue fashion statement at the Oscars. Streep is being honored for her 20th nomination for her role in 'Florence Foster Jenkins'. 

The activist actor was not amused at the accusations leveled against her by Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld that Streep commissioned a custom Chanel creation but cancelled it when the House refused to pay her to wear it. 

A representative for Streep fought back that Lagerfeld's statement was false and that it is against her personal ethics to be paid to wear a gown on the red carpet. Lagerfeld, who I personally believe has no time for Meryl Streep's feminist activism, subsequently admitted that the error was his and that he regretted the controversy. But Meryl dismissed Lagerfeld's so-called apology, saying that his comments has eclipsed her celebration-worthy 20th nomination. 

"I do not take this lightly, and Mr. Lagerfeld's generic 'statement' of regret for this 'controversy' was not an apology," her statement read. 

The imperious Karl Lagerfeld is accustomed to having the last word on everything and Streep wasn't having it. Bravo, Meryl! She accused the designer of defaming her -- which he certainly did suggesting that she accepted bribes to wear clothes --, her stylist and the "illustrious designer" (Elie Saab) whose dress she chose to wear. Streep also castigated WWD for printing the "defamation" in the first place. 

The story received global attention, Streep said, and continues "to overwhelm my appearance at the Oscars, on the occasion of my record-breaking 20th nomination, and to eclipse this honour in the eyes of the media, my colleagues and the audience."

The always haughty Lagerfeld told WWD: "“After we gift her a dress that’s €100,000, we found later we had to pay,” he said. “We give them dresses, we make the dresses, but we don’t pay ... A genius actress, but cheapness also, no?”

A spokesperson for Chanel said that they had engaged in conversations with Streep’s stylist to design a dress for her to wear to the Academy Awards, but were well aware that she was considering options from other design houses: “When informed by the stylist that Ms Streep had chosen a dress by another designer there was no mention of the reason. Chanel wishes to express our continued and deep respect for Ms Streep.” 

I suspect that Meryl Streep is up to her nostrils with self-important men. President Trump unleashed a Tweet storm against her earlier in the awards season. Trump & Lagerfeld actually make good company. ~ Anne

Missoni Closes Milan Fashion Week With Sea of Pussyhats

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The global fashion industry has moved on to Paris, but Angela Missoni's grand finale in Milan inspired cheers, tears, and a global femme-power fashion salute, as Planned Parenthood pins at over 40 of the New York shows were replaced by pink Pussyhats in Missoni's exuberant grand finale for Milan. Missoni added her family's signature zig-zagging prints and bold stripes to her must-have fashion accessory, but the pointed ears and bold pink color left no doubt that the hats were inspired by the American-bred, global Women's Marches the day after Donald Trump's inauguration, January 21, 2017. In America the marches are considered to be the biggest ever, and the momentum continues. 

Venice Biennale Explores Female Archetypes, Goddesses & Witches In Iraqi & Irish Pavillions

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Mother goddess, presumed to be a Fertility goddess. Returned from Holland in 2010. 5,000 BCE. Courtesy Iraq Museum; Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities; and Ruya Foundation.

In an interesting juxtaposition of women's history and art and contemporary events, Iraq and Ireland are both channeling feminine archetypes at the 2017 Venice Biennale. 

Iraq

The Ruya Foundation, organizer of the Iraqi pavilion at Venice, is sending a total of 40 ancient Iraqi artifacts, some of them looted and now returned. The antiquities will reside alongside works by eight modern and contemporary Iraqi artists and a new commission by Francis Alÿs, who held art workshops at an Iraqi refugee camp last year.

The ambitious exhibition, titled “Archaic,” will inspire a dialogue between the modern and contemporary works and antiquities loaned by the Iraq Museum spanning six millennia, from the Neolithic Age to the Neo-Babylonian Period.

Ireland

Artist Jesse Jones will represent Ireland at the May 57th Venice Biennale, with her presentation 'Tremble Tremble', curated by Tessa Giblin. The 1970s chant was sung by women in the Italian Wages for Housework movement: “Tremate, tremate, le streghe sono tornate!” (tremble, tremble, the witches have returned!).

Even though the Catholic Church remains dominant in Ireland, there is a rising social movement demanding change between church and state. In 'Tremble, Tremble', the artist calls for a return of the witch as a "feminist archetype and disrupter" with an inherent ability to affect change. 

The artwork envisions a different legal order, "one in which the multitude are brought together in a symbolic, gigantic body, to proclaim a new law, that of 'In Utera Gigantae' writes ArtNet. 

Jones has researched the ways in which the law transmits memory over time, with a research combining an archeological dig of 3.5 million-year-old female specimen, the oppression of women during the 16th century witch trials, the symphysiotomy (a brutal form of caesarean) trials, and the legalisation of abortion in Ireland.

The film work takes testimony, statements, and written lyrics, blending them into a powerful incantation. The artist is collaborating with theatrical artist Olwen Fouéré and sound artist Susan Stenger to make an “expanded form of cinema.”

Jesse Jones, Tremble Tremble (2017) production image. Photo Ros Kavanagh.

Sheryl Sandberg & Elaine Wynn Each Donate $1 Million to Planned Parenthood | Dems Introduce HER Act Bill

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Sheryl Sandberg & Elaine Wynn Each Donate $1 Million to Planned Parenthood | Dems Introduce HER Act Bill

Two powerhouse -- Sheryl Sandberg and Elaine Wynn -- women have each made $1 million donations to Planned Parenthood. Sandberg has been criticized for not speaking out forcefully enough on core women's issues, especially issues that impact poor women.  The Facebook COO has apologized for not speaking out about the women's marches on January 21, 2017.

Ivanka Jumps In Dad's Oval Office Driver's Seat On Behalf of Women | Will She Succeed?

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Ivanka Jumps In Dad's Oval Office Driver's Seat On Behalf of Women | Will She Succeed?

Women attending the Monday Trump-Trudeau meeting included General Electric Canada CEO Elyse Allan, TransAlta Corp. CEO Dawn Farrell, Accenture North America CEO Julie Sweet, and Monique Leroux, chair of the board of directors for Investissement Québec, according to the AP. GM CEO Mary Barra was represented by Carol Stephenson of GM's board of directors. 

Katie Telford, Trudeau's chief of staff, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, and Dina Powell, an assistant to President Trump and a senior counselor for economic initiatives, attended. The trio is responsible for setting up the new council and recruiting participants like Barra, GE vice chair Beth Comstock, and Catalyst CEO Deborah Gillis.

The week prior Ivanka Trump hosted a small dinner party at the New York apartment of Wendi Murdoch, ex-wife of Fox News media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Attending the private dinner were IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbert, Xerox chairman Ursula Burns, designer Tory Burch, and television host Mika Brzezinski. Ivanka Trump explained to the women that she wanted to learn about what the leaders were doing in areas like entrepreneurship, equal pay, paid leave, and education.

Planned Parenthood, Birth Control, Abortion Rights

Yes, Ivanka Trump champions the idea of gender equality -- although she refuses to openly support Planned Parenthood. This is relevant because controlling her fertility is the top tool a woman employs to advance her family's welfare and her own career.  

Designer Tory Burch, builder of one of America's most successful fashion brands and an attendee at Wendi Murdoch's private dinner, not only supports a woman's right to control her fertility, but she co-organized with designers Tracy Reese and Diane von Furstenberg New York Fashion Week's campaign to support Planned Parenthood, now under vicious attack by her father's administration. 

Melinda & Bill Gates were more confrontational than ever before in their annual letters and interviews this week, as they aggressively confronted the devastating impacts of now President Trump's expansion of restrictions around the Mexico City policy, governing USAID dollars supporting women's health initiatives worldwide. 

Pro Planned Parenthood Counter Protests Dwarf Anti-Forces | New York State Moves To Codify Roe v. Wade In State Constitution

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Pro Planned Parenthood Counter Protests Dwarf Anti-Forces | New York State Moves To Codify Roe v. Wade In State Constitution

Abortion rights are front and center on Saturday as pro-life activists launch protests across America. Waiting for them were supporters of Planned Parenthood -- and it seems the pro-Planned Parenthood forces dominated. 

In St. Paul, Minnesota, a "dozen feet of empty street separated a police-estimated 6,000 pro-Planned Parenthood protesters from an opposing, defund PP group of 250-500 people. 

New York Fashion Industry Women Heavyweights Launch Major Campaign For Planned Parenthood

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New York Fashion Industry Women Heavyweights Launch Major Campaign For Planned Parenthood

Vogue US editor Anna Wintour set the pace for the New York Fashion industry's support for Planned Parenthood. Sitting in the front row at the Brock Collection's New York Fashion Week presentation. Thursday February 9. The brand, headed by Laura Vassar and Kristopher Brock, won the CFDA Fashion Fund Award in 2016. The coveted prize was presented to by creative and romantic partners by Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. 

In a spectacular announcement that will benefit countless poor women across America, CFDA -- which organizes New York Fashion Week -- announced a partnership with Planned Parenthood, which is in the crosshairs of the Trump administration anyway they can defund it. With their domination of Congress and the Presidency, President Trump will sign the legislation that President Clinton would have vetoed. 

Read on to learn more about the campaign for Planned Parenthood, the significantly increased threats of domestic terrorism against women entering Planned Parenthood clinics and my own history of being hunted for a year by one of this white male terrorists, who threatened to kill me.

My crime was saying on TV that I supported the Roe v. Wade decision, an admission that put me in police protection for a year. One cold fall night, my stalker flew across the windshield of my car in an nightmare confrontation in which I truly didn't care if I killed him. ~ Anne

ANNA WINTOUR (C) ATTENDS THE BROCK COLLECTION FASHION SHOW DURING, NEW YORK FASHION WEEK: THE SHOWS AT GALLERY 3, SKYLIGHT CLARKSON SQ ON FEBRUARY 9, 2017 IN NEW YORK CITY. (PHOTO BY NICHOLAS HUNT/GETTY IMAGES FOR IMG)

Amal & George Clooney Are Pregnant With Twins! | Meet Amal's Client Nadia Murad

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Human rights lawyer Amal and actor George Clooney have twin babies in their future. The well-dressed duo prefers to champion causes they care deeply about, not their glam lifestyle. Most notably, writes Vogue, Amal Clooney appeared at the UN in New York with client Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman enslaved by ISIS. In an act of feminist poetic justice, Murad is now suing her former captives. 

Last week, it was twins for Beyonce and Jay Z. What is going on here!!!

Related: Nadia Murad Is Taking On ISIS With the Help of Amal Clooney Vogue

Motherless, displaced, traumatized, grief-stricken, and the ongoing recipient of ISIS death threats, Murad counts herself among the lucky: Of the 6,000 Yazidi women and children taken during ISIS raids, she estimated that more than 3,200 are still being held in captivity. The activist highlighted one person in particular: Lemya, a neighbor and the little sister of close friends, who was only 14 when she was taken and held in the Iraqi city of Mosul by a 34-year-old man, who both raped her and told her, confusingly, that she remained a virgin. “That always sticks in my mind,” Murad explained. “That this happened to her, and she never knew what had happened to her.”

Lemya, like so many other Yazidis, remains missing. And it’s largely for their sake that Murad has sought the help of London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. Together they’re attempting to remind the world that the organized killing and enslavement of Yazidis constitutes genocide. Their goal is to wrangle the assistance of the U.N. in hopes of holding ISIS accountable in international court.

“It is a genocide, and it needs to be recognized,” Murad told me through her interpreter, Murad Ismael, executive director of the Yazidi-supporting nonprofit Yazda. “That must be acknowledged, not just for Yazidis, but for any community that suffers through this. When genocide is committed, it must be seen. People must look at it with open eyes, not minimize its impact.”