Vogue France online acknowledges the juxtaposition of this joyful March 2022 cover story featuring French icon Laetitia Casta lensed by Carlijn Jacobs [IG] with the realities of Ukraine.

Moving from Kim Kardashian in Vogue US March to Laetia Casta in Vogue France March is not too shabby, Carlijn. Double congrats this month.

The Vogue France statement is perfect:

Free! A wonderful word on our March cover. It was joyful, in the energy of our new issue. It takes on a serious resonance in the face of the tragic situation we are witnessing. The hindered freedom of a country. Freedom! A powerful and fragile word. The fragile freedom to live in peace. Vogue France supports its colleagues at Vogue Ukraine in the face of the horrific attacks on their country. We also share the sadness of Vogue Russia where many in the team have family and friends in Ukraine and some are Ukrainian themselves. The Vogue community is united, and the blue, white, and red of our issue is united with the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag, the symbol of a country that is defending its freedom right now.

Right Turn Coming

Speaking of freedom, we are about to make a sharp right turn, as I read further into the Vogue France editor’s letter. Hang tight, here we go.

French Women and Feminism is a Tricky Mix

French women do not embrace the concept of #Me Too, in the way that American women do. They have a more “c’est la vie” view of male empowerment, and that includes sexual aggression.

As a second wave feminist, I’ve dealt effectively with sexism my own way — and most French women would approve. But the realities of my experiences were brutal. Utterly, totally brutal. So I don’t blame younger women for refusing to put up with drill.

It is worth noting that in a French Vogue introductory discussion of Putin invading Ukraine, followed by Laetitia Casta’s view about #MeToo — we are back in Putin’s orbit. Voila!

Real life makes people strange bedfellows, and I would not want Laetitia Casta’s Google results for myself. Just sayin’.

C’est La Vie

Granted, the Internet is infamous for taking a sentence out of context and making it a headline. But it’s a fact that many French women are more focused on not being accused of hating men than standing up for women’s rights.

Typically being more philosophical than American women, Laetitia Casta and Vogue France are probably more likely to agree with Kanye West that the #MeToo movement is ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four mind control.”

I note that Kanye West, aka legally known as Ye, fired his fourth lawyer Tuesday, as he tries to prevent Kim Kardashian from divorcing him. KK’s case to be declared legally single is in California court today, March 2.

It’s funny because I’ve never been accused of hating men; any man who knows me well can confirm that fact. And they tend to be strong-willed, often former Republican men with my social views.

My life centers on one now. He totally agrees that men — especially rich white men — are as sexist as they come without the influence of progressive women. He has the French women position — it’s not fair, Anne, but it’s reality. Who said life is fair?

Sorry Laetitia. AOC does not agree with Vogue France that collectively women behave exactly as men, when freed from the yoke of the “virgin-whore” axis. I’m shocked to read the assertion, frankly.

There is no — I repeat zero — research confirming that argument. Women are capable of aggression and astoundingly bad behavior. Citing the rare, deranged, woman murderer to claim parity with men is common in white nationalist, anti-feminism online rants about gender equivalency.

But to argue that social research confirms that men and women (and all versions of those gender constructs in the LGBTIQA+ universe) behave identically is just plain wrong.

With Putin’s forces moving on Ukraine, let me put a big pin in Vogue France’s bubble that this man Putin is not a misogynist to the core, just like his friend Donald Trump.

It’s a pretty complicated state of affairs for women worldwide when Foreign Affairs is on your side, but French Vogue says “Don’t worry; be happy. We’re all equally power-hungry, or passive or self-indulgent. Gender plays no role in our lives. We’re all liberated. Voila!”

Foreign Affairs Current Issue: Why Autocrats Fear Women

As Foreign Affairs reminds us in their out now March/April 2022 cover story Revenge of the Patriarchs: Why Autocrats Fear Women:

The pantheon of autocratic leaders includes a great many sexists, from Napoléon Bonaparte, who decriminalized the murder of unfaithful wives, to Benito Mussolini, who claimed that women “never created anything.” And while the twentieth century saw improvements in women’s equality in most parts of the world, the twenty-first is demonstrating that misogyny and authoritarianism are not just common comorbidities but mutually reinforcing ills. Throughout the last century, women’s movements won the right to vote for women; expanded women’s access to reproductive health care, education, and economic opportunity; and began to enshrine gender equality in domestic and international law—victories that corresponded with unprecedented waves of democratization in the postwar period. Yet in recent years, authoritarian leaders have launched a simultaneous assault on women’s rights and democracy that threatens to roll back decades of progress on both fronts.

Vogue France says this convo is “getting old”.

All we need to do is to call up Trump and Putin and all the white nationalists and we will move forward together as one. Happy reading! Voila! We have a sexism peace treaty.

As she [Casta] says so well, "the woman can be just as frightening as the man. Murderous. Dangerous. She is not just an innocent and fragile little victim. When we recognize the woman in her entity, we will have made a step. Let us move beyond the notion of the virgin and the whore, because it's getting old! We will make this step together, here, today without a filter thanks to you Laetitia. Happy reading!"

Anne says: In America, we call this writing “clueless” and nobody reveres French minds more than I do.

But I prefer you filtered, Vogue France . . . and with your fine minds informed about about the global regression of women’s rights going on before your eyes. This is not a top secret problem.

I can’t tell you how far America fell in our rankings in four years of Trump. Are American white women complicit in women’s fall? YES! Do numerous white women want white men in charge of everything? YES! But they do not believe in women’s rights either. They embrace sexism as God’s plan in action.

You, Vogue France, are not taking this position. You are making a different argument — that sexism is not real. Men and women are equal now, so cut the drama. Whatever power men seek, women seek it also and are just ruthless in wielding it. AOC disagrees with you Vogue France. So get out your research and prove your words, NOW.

Could We Talk? How About Dialogue, Vogue France?

Rather than Vogue France jumping on Casta’s bandwagon philosophically — which they do — I would love to read Anja Rubik and Laetitia Casta in conversation on this exact subject. And bring in the authors of this Foreign Affairs article as well.

Does Laetitia Casta even agree with Foreign Affairs that women’s rights are under assault worldwide? Or is she just uber-privileged to the max? Let me look.

Google page 1 sandwiches Anne of Carversville between RT and Sputnik News on a Laetitia Casta and women’s rights search.

Sorry Madame Casta. I’m your best ticket out of the white nationalism soup. LOL AOC has 032.com for company, although their post is 2021 and mine is 2017.

Does Casta even believe misogyny exists?

I have no idea where she stands, because in 2017 in this AOC post in Google page 1, she was wearing the Dior ‘we’re all feminists’ t-shirt, and I flipped the writing over to LVMH and Rihanna to praise RiRi for activism.

If you read AOC carefully, I use the deflection technique frequently to avoid being critical. Not today.

Anja Rubik covers Vogue Poland in a confrontation over abortion rights.

Laetitia Casta’s PR person might study Anja Rubik and see how she manages to be so damn sexy, talking her clothes off right and left — and yet the woman is Amazonian when the topic is misogyny, women’s rights and authoritarianism.

I do need to verify that Vogue Paris [then] was among the Vogue’s who published Anja’s call to action in December 2020.

Many did, but the lessons of history have told me to assume nothing. Verify; verify; verify.

It’s funny, because I’ve been debating whether or not to take up the topic of luxury brands who failed to stand against Hitler in WWII.

Trust me; AOC gets tired of being the troublemaker, believing brands should be judged by today’s actions and not those from 80-90 years ago. Vogue France has just put my women’s rights radar on full alert with this post-feminism nonsense, so you can blame your beloved French fashion bible, should AOC let it rip on luxury brands and Hitler.

Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri — who is featured in the Google Casta/AOC article on page one — leaves no doubt where she stands on the topic of women’s rights and feminism. Casta was wearing Dior in the sensual fashion story.

On a 10-pt scale, Chiuri, Rubik, Rihanna and I are #10-10-10-10; Casta is about a #6. My estimate after further study this evening may rise, but no way can it go over #7, based on her influence with people trying to destroy the world.

Words have consequences, and I would not want Casta’s Google’s rap sheet on women’s rights — French icon or no French icon.

Zip It, Anne. Don’t Be Running Your Mouth . . .

FYI, there is a reason why comments are not allowed on AOC since 2012. My standing up for women IS the reason. It’s also why I am not on Twitter, although I keep threatening to go back.

I’ve been in police protection for a year over my support for abortion rights. And this crazy white-man dude did try to kill me one dark night back in the post-Roe days. He made my life hell for a year.

So don’t be telling me that women are just as crazed as white nationalist men. We are NOT! Even the majority of Trump-loving white women who support authoritarianism — would not try to shoot me.

Speaking of guns, now I will have the Russian NRA all over AOC, because their love girl — Laeitia Casta — is under verbal assault. I imagine 200 a day will show up starting tomorrow and 1000 by Saturday, out of the NRA Russia portal. Oh well, I’ll just put on my best Anja Rubik routine and face the music.

PS: I trust you know the NRA is a joke in Russia, but Trumpers are so in love with Putin that they treat him like God and adore him for his anti-gay rights, anti-feminist, anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish, anti-Blacks views.

The American NRA holds conferences in Russia — as if ordinary Russians have any gun rights. They DON’T. But when did facts ever matter in the crazy world in which we are living. Not on RT; not on Vogue France.

No worries — I love LVMH and the Macrons. But I don’t know what the heck you French ladies were smoking in positioning this Vogue France issue around post-feminist freedom, at a time when autocrats are stripping away women’s rights worldwide. It’s spelled PRIVILEGE. ~ Anne

Wednesday March 2 update: Cleaning up a few grammar errors in last night’s writing I noted Casta’s feathered woman photo. Readers should know that my mind channels symbolism intuitively. This process is neither rational or strategic in intention.

A daughter of Oya — as confirmed in 2019 by a priestess in Brazil in a truly incredible life event — my inner Oya is out there on her own, and Anne is just along for the ride. Oya was a ferocious Yoruba orisha of social justice — a real hurricane who has made my life quite difficult at times.

Closing the laptop window just now, I noted Laeitia Casta’s feathers-rich fashion photo and said to myself: ”Did Mother Goose work for the Nazis? Is this why poor Big Bird is under attack by right-wingers for getting a vaccination?” Clearly I have more reading to do.