From a Harvard Business Review article stating: “If there’s only one woman in your candidate pool, there’s no statistical chance she’ll be hired.”
genfem
A fair question. Two quick answers:
1. Those of us lucky enough to live in the most progressive parts of the world tend to focus on how good we have it, and yet we still haven’t achieved true gender equality.
2. I’m over trying to pitch women’s magazines. If the story isn’t about slimmer thighs for summer, they’re just not interested.
This stuff is important, I’ll try not to make it too dry.
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I’ve read countless self-help books and watered-down texts on spirituality, personal growth, and learning to accept oneself. Yet these only left me with the impression that self-love could be something spontaneous — like an awakening — and could last forever. I remember reading the Buddhist Pema Chodron on vacation once. I was at the beach in Cape Cod and I read her for hours.
One of the things she said was, “To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.”
I am no longer going to need to control things or obsess about superficial shit.
I was like, yes! OK! I am going to be open to being continually thrown. I am going to bridle that openness and that will be the wellspring from which I garner my power. I am no longer going to need to control things or obsess about superficial shit. I looked at the ocean and its wildness. Everything made sense.
But then a hot woman walked by in a string bikini. Immediately I began comparing my body to her body. Her tits were juicy, her ass was a miracle of youth: biteable like an apple. I felt doughy and pasty compared to her. I tried to figure out what I could do to be better, to be more like her. I needed to fix something and then I would be OK. Then I thought about Pema. My desire for improvement eclipsed Pema. In fact, I kind of felt like fuck Pema. I ended up leaving the book in a public restroom.
Melissa Broder, BuzzfeedKim Kardashian’s Unimpressive Brand of Sexiness
I really liked Jill Filipovic’s article about “How Kim Kardashian Killed the Term Empowerment,” especially this:
The problem, though, is that women and girls receive the persistent message that being beautiful, sexy, and happy with your body depends on other people — men, mostly — thinking you’re hot. It means being an object of sexual appeal for the visual gratification of others, not a sexual creature in your own right. It means your body is a stand-in for sex (when we say “sex sells,” what we actually mean is “women’s mostly naked bodies sell things”). Sexualized images of women are everywhere, but the very things that would actually allow women to have sex for pleasure (easy access to contraception and abortion, sex education in which boys and men were taught that female pleasure and orgasm matter as much as their own) remain politically and socially contentious. That is the pervasive view of female sexuality in the United States: Women should be sexy and attractive to men, but it’s bad, dirty, and shameful for women to actually have sex and enjoy it.
And this:
The bigger question is why the Kim Kardashian model of celebrity, fame primarily for being attractive and not for any particular talent or contribution to the world, is a route for women to become rich and famous in the first place… Girls and women need real power, which means resources on par with those currently in the control of men, an equal hand in political processes, total and unquestioned sovereignty over their bodies, and value placed on their intelligence and skills and good acts rather than their appearance.
But not this:
[Kim] has become wealthy and influential by playing within this system that rewards women for adhering to a narrow hyper-sexy female ideal, and why shouldn’t she? It’s not up to her, or any other woman, to curtail their own earning potential or cultural influence for some hazy idea of the greater feminist good.
I couldn’t disagree with Filipovic more on this one. It is 100% all of our responsibility to not make weak choices for the sake of the very real, unambiguous feminist good. Kim Kardashian deciding not to pose with a face caked in makeup and a surgically modified body in order to objectify herself for “likes” is how you stop the sexism in the media. Deciding not to be a part of the problem is why minority actors like Aziz Ansari and Angela Bassett turn down roles that play up racial stereotypes. It’s the stronger choice, it’s the more difficult choice and it’s the ethical choice. Kim doesn’t get a free pass because, shrug, society is sexist. As Filipovic herself says, “succeeding in sexiness isn’t real power. That’s why you don’t see the richest and most powerful men in the world naked on Instagram.”
This is why I spend all my money on jewelry. Also, it’s my family’s business. (Seriously, if you ever need a good deal on an engagement ring or earrings or anything, just ask for my cousin Jeremy).
I’m on the board of this charity - ARVT (Alliance to Rescue Victims of Sex Trafficking). Our goal is to create two safe houses in each state for child survivors of sex slavery. Currently there are none. The only way to achieve this goal is through donations. Lots of them. Large ones. We’ve tried all of the mainstream ways to raise money (direct appeals, charity benefits, etc.), but the money isn’t coming in. We’re trying to help the most vulnerable, desperate children in our society, but we can’t seem to get anyone’s attention. No one has heard of this organization because none of the money goes to PR, all of the money goes to the victims (college interns made this video). If you’re thinking of donating to charity this year, I highly recommend this one. Also, we could really use some fresh fundraising ideas. Got any?
Actress and comedian Sasheer Zamata, known for her role on the cast of Saturday Night Live, is the ACLU celebrity ambassador for women’s rights.
In her role as an ambassador, Zamata will elevate the ACLU’s work to fight gender inequality and structural discrimination against women in employment, education, healthcare, housing, and criminal justice through advocacy and public education.
Zamata joins Harry Belafonte, Michael K. Williams, Lewis Black, Marlee Matlin, and others, to amplify the ACLU’s work on priority civil liberties issues, including mass incarceration, voting rights, disability rights, and LGBT.
Viola Davis’s Emmy speech in which she elegantly calls out racism in Hollywood.
Nailed it. Looking forward to next season.