Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge In Botswana's Okavango Delta Is A Jewel Of Sustainability & Femininity
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Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge In Botswana’s Okavango Delta Is A Jewel Of Sustainability & Femininity
It’s been six years since AOCwrote about Botswana’s lush Okavango Delta. What a pleasure to see these female-centric, goddess-inspired images of Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge, designed by Michaelis Boyd and Nick Plewman, and set adjacent to the wildlife-rich Moremi Game Reserve.
Not only does the building blend in with the local landscape, but its 12 inner suites take on the appearance of weaverbird nests. Indeed the structures are cathedral-like, all designed to inspire and honor our inner nature goddess — for women and men alike.
Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge in part of the & Beyond community. a group of luxury ‘boutique’ safari lodges designed to be in complete harmony with the latest goals of sustainability hotel communities.
In a long list of accomplishments, Botswana has much to celebrate. Thanks to years of political stability and a farsighted conservation policy by the government, Botswana’s ecosystem is stable. More than a third of the country is protected in a luxury tourism model. Higher prices guarantee less wear and tear on the environment. The practice is elitist but working.
Feminism 101 | Geena Davis Launches Arkansas Film Fest For Women & Diversity
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Backed by a roster of corporate sponsors including Walmart and Coca Cola, actor Geena Davis has opened the 1st Annual Bentonville Film Festival running from April 5-9.
Davis explains that it’s not the first film festival to specialize in women and diversity, it’s the first film festival to promise theatrical releases for the winning entries. ‘It’s unheard of in the world, actually’ explained the Oscar-winning Davis. ‘It’s the only festival offering distribution across theatrical, digital and on TV and on DVD … That’s just part of our push to show how commercial diverse films can be.’
About 75 films will be screened over the four-day festival, which will also include panel discussions and a celebratory “A League of Their Own” baseball game, featuring appearances by Rosie O’Donnell and two original members of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League.
As founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2007, the actor plans to expand the festival beyond Bentonville to include educational outreach and events throughout the year.
Research funded by Davis’ institute and conducted by the University of Southern California found that women — who constitute more than half of the US population — typically make up just 17 percent of on-screen crowd scenes. As Davis points out, from Congress to the business world, this 17 percent female factor is unyieldingly consistent.
'India's Daughter' Documentary Of Jyoti Singh Brutal Rape May Be Banned Worldwide
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It was our intention to bring AOC readers the full length documentary ‘India’s Daughter’, previously banned in India and YouTube into India. Yesterday, April 16, India’s Supreme Court refused to lift the ban in India, with the next court date on May 27.
Installing the BBC full video last night, I see that the documentary is now frozen on the BBC Storyville website. This critically important loss of global free speech rights and artistic freedom is nothing less than astonishing, as this acclaimed documentary is now totally caught up in India’s court system, even though it is owned by the BBC/Storyville.
Further research not reported in the Times of India recap of yesterday’s court appearances explains what happened. One of the defense attorneys (who has his own problems if you read further) alleges that the film is ‘outcome of fraud and conspiracy’ hatched by documentary maker Leslee Udwin, BBC and a private news channel with advocate VK Anand.
Catherine Deneuve & Emmanuelle Bercot Open 2015 Cannes Film Festival With 'La Tete Haute'
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Cannes 2015 opener ‘La Tete Haute’ stars Catherine Deneuve (l) and is written and directed by Emmanuelle Bercot(r)
French actress-director Emmanuelle Bercot’s film ‘La Tete Haute’ starring Catherine Deneuve will open the 2015 Cannes Film Festival on May 13.
The last time a female director opened the festival was 1987, when Diane Kury’s ‘A Man in Love’ launched the Cannes event. Bercot also stars in Maiwenn’s ‘Mon Roi’, a French film that’s a strong favorite to premiere in the official selection. Variety writes:
Observers close to the festival noted that, after a run of splashy, star-powered opening entries (“Midnight in Paris,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Grace of Monaco”), festival topper Thierry Fremaux had been looking specifically for a French entry to kick off the festivities, especially in a year when the main competition jury is being presided over by two American directors, Joel and Ethan Coen. The last time a solely French-produced film opened Cannes was in 2005, with Dominik Moll’s “Lemming.”
The French film — whose title translates as “holding one’s head high” — narrates the story of a juvenile delinquent, a committed social worker trying to save him, and a children’s court judge
The Cannes Film Festivval runs May 13-24.
The Skate Girls Of Kabul Are High Flying Into London's Saatchi Gallery In April 2015
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The Skate Girls Of Kabul Are High Flying Into London’s Saatchi Gallery In April 2015
Young women make up about 45% of Skateistan’s members. These girls are forbidden to ride bicycles and they must wear restrictive clothing for many sport-related activities.
For these girls, this skateboarding initiative not only gives them the chance to go to school, it also allows them to feel a sense of freedom, strength, and that they have a safe haven away from the dangers that they face on a daily basis. Even with their confining clothes, they are able to successfully skateboard, which would explain why this activity is becoming the nation’s #1 sport for women.
Enter now British photographer Jessica Fulford Dobson, who heard about Skateistan and begged to photograph the liberated, airborn girls.
The Skate Girls of Kabul exhibition opens at London’t Saatchi Gallery from April 15th-28th. Read a wonderful article by Andrea Alessi for Artslant ‘Afghanistan’s Skater Girls Roll Into the Saatchi Gallery’.
Frida Kahlo Photographs By Gisèle Freund
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Frida Kahlo Photographs By Gisèle Freund See images from the book. 4-2015
In 1950, photographer Gisèle Freund embarked on a two-week trip to Mexico, but she wouldn’t leave until two years later. There she met the legendary couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Welcomed into their home, she immersed herself in their private lives and the cultural and artistic diversity of the country, taking hundreds of photographs. These powerful photographs, among the last taken before Kahlo’s death, bear poignant witness to Frida’s beauty and talent.
Showcasing more than 100 of these rare images, many of which have never been published before, the book also includes previously unpublished commentary by Gisèle Freund about Frida Kahlo, texts by Kahlo’s biographer Gérard de Cortanze and art historian Lorraine Audric, as well as a link to a previously unreleased color film, shot by Freund, showing Diego Rivera at work.
US Ranks Poor 16th In 2015 Social Progress Index
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US Ranks Poor 16th In 2015 Social Progress Index
Writing for the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof cites key measures that matter to AOC readers.
The index ranks the United States 30th in life expectancy, 38th in saving children’s lives, and a humiliating 55th in women surviving childbirth. O.K., we know that we have a high homicide rate, but we’re at risk in other ways as well. We have higher traffic fatality rates than 37 other countries, and higher suicide rates than 80.
We also rank 32nd in preventing early marriage, 38th in the equality of our education system, 49th in high school enrollment rates and 87th in cellphone use.
#KodeWithKarlie Kloss | Girls Only Win 20 Scholarships To NYC Flatiron School In Summer 2015
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Flatiron School is partnering with Karlie Kloss to create the Kode with Karlie Scholarship. The scholarship will give 20 girls across the country free tuition to Flatiron Pre-College Academy’s Introduction to Software Engineering course.
Boys Club | Ben & Jerry's Male-Only Flavors | No Death Threats Yet For Amanda McCall | National Review Likes Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard's Exotic Beauty
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Amanda McCall Illustrates The Ben & Jerry’s Obvious Ice Cream Gender Gap AOC Sensual Rebel
Amanda McCall used Buzzfeed’s community forum to launch a tongue-in-cheek critical observation that Ben & Jerry’s prides itself on being a progressive company except not on the subject of honoring women with its celebrity flavors. About 8% or 2 of Ben & Jerry’s more than 20 special flavors have honored women.
So Amanda McCall decided to give the boys club a hand. Clever as it is, McCall’s ingenuity hasn’t gotten the traction it deserves. Surely the cult-figure, bad-ass reputation that Justice Ginsberg enjoys warrants her being honored with proof that Ben & Jerry’s understands that ‘Mad Men’ happened 50 years ago.
So Far No Death Threats For Amanda McCall
As Michelle Goldberg reminds readers recently, a simple and clever boys club challenge like ideas for ice cream can get a feminist writer death threats in today’s toxic, woman-hating culture. Goldberg wrote Feminist writers are so beseiged by online abuse that some have begun to retire.
On the other hand, while digital media has amplified feminist voices, it has also extracted a steep psychic price. Women, urged to tell their stories, are being ferociously punished when they do. Some — particularly women who have the audacity to criticize sexism in the video-game world — have been driven from their homes or forced to cancel public appearances. Fake ads soliciting rough sex have been placed in their names. And, of course, the Twitter harassment never stops. “Being insulted and threatened online is part of my job,” Lindy West, formerly of Jezebel, recently said on “This American Life.” Adds Jamia Wilson, executive director of the feminist advocacy group Women, Action and the Media, “It really can affect the way that people feel about themselves.”
The intimidation of uppidity women hasn’t changed much in the 50 years since Mad Men. I myself was in police protection for a year after the Roe vs Wade decision. Speaking at a panel after the Roe decision, I was asked if I supported it. In a single sentence ‘Yes, I do’, my life became hell as I was stalked at work and in my home by a deranged man assuring me that he would kill me.
In February 2014, Goldberg wrote an even more in-depth piece for The Nation, Feminism’s Toxic Twitter Wars.
National Review calls Hawaii House member Tulsi Gabbard Hip, Beautiful & Exotic. Ooh La La
A new article in the National Review is supposed to focus on the foreign policy stances of Hawaii House member Tulsi Gabbard. But let’s keep our priorities straight. Both the article and lead sentence focus on Gabbard’s physical looks and charisma.I don’t believe they called her sexy.
The Left’s jump on the article — which is short — is a bit jaded, but I fail to see the relevance of her ‘exotic background — she was born in American Samoa and is Hindu as relating to her foreign policy credentials.
FYI National Review, generally-speaking in the grand scheme of things women of color are high-offended by white male privilege use of the word ‘exotic’ to describe them. It doesn’t matter how you feel about it gentlemen; they are offended by the adjective.
Here, this article might help from Psychology Today. What Is ‘Exotic’ Beauty? Where is the line drawn between admiration and discrimination? by Goal Auzeen Saedi Ph D
Breaking News! Clinton Signs Lease
Politico reports that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign headquarters will be at 1 Pierrepont Plaza in Brooklyn Heights New York. The two full floors of the office building are close to 12 subway lines and a dozen bus lines and will be delivered as is.
Clinton’s chief of staff, Huma Abedin, weeks ago toured the building and took a walking tour of the neighborhood to check out its amenities. The campaign now has 15 days from the date of signing to announce a formal candidacy.
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Angelina Jolie Has Second Surgery | Jolie's Impact On BRCA Screening Is Huge
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Angelina Jolie shared one more reason why she is among the world’s most admired women, writing an op ed in The New York Times about her latest preventive surgery. Two years ago the world star had a double mastectomy after learning that she carries the BRCA1 gene. Angelina Jolie Pitt, the name she used in today’s op ed, had an 87% risk of getting breast cancer and a 50% risk of ovarian cancer and lost her mother, grandmother and aunt to cancer.
Jolie’s recent surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes was always part of her health management plan, but a recent blood test and follow-up medical treatment prompted her to act now.
At the time of her double mastectomy, Jolie wrote: ‘I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.’
In today’s piece, Jolie reached out to women, saying ‘I feel feminine and grounded in the choices I am making for myself and my family. I know my children will never have to say ‘Mom died of ovarian cancer”.
High Impact on Women’s Health
2. In 2014 Dr. Harold Burstein from the Harvard Medical School shared news of Angelina’s impact on women getting checked for BRCA mutations. Calling her first op-ed ‘a model of medical writing’, Dr. Burstein referred to a study at the University of Toronto that examined both an increase in medical screenings and whether the subjects were medically appropriate candidates or just nervous nellies.
Focusing on their own populations in Toronto, the doctors concluded that the number of BRCA! and BRCA2 screenings doubled as a result of her op ed. The candidates for the screenings were ABSOLUTELY women who should be screened. A secondary effect was a strong increase in physician referrals by doctors influenced by the Jolie effect, health workers who probed more deeply into women’s medical histories.
Shailene Woodley Can Stand For Women's Rights Without Being A Feminist, But Does She?
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Shailene Woodley Can Stand For Women’s Rights Without Being A Feminist, But Does She?
Rather than jump on Shailene Woodley words and make headlines of her comments to Elle Magazine that she’s not a ‘feminist’, I want to learn more about her — what are her actions.
Does she do anything to help women, or is the plight of the world’s women and children just not on her radar. Her actions will determine what I say next on this exploding topic of whether a young woman in any country considers herself to be a ‘feminist’. This seems to be the new interview question — which just may be divisive in itself.
American women, in particularly have been notoriously absent from international actions for poor women. We have gotten better since 2009, when we were conspicuously absent from the issue except for then Secretary of State Clinton’s total change out of State Department policies on the plight of women globally.
In the coming months we will be tracking this issue with our original focus on Smart Sensuality women: sexy, smart and with great heart. And we will have two lists of women — those who live with a feminist mindset and who don’t, with both lists inspired more by actions than labels. ~ Anne