New rules issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services today roll back the Affordable Care Act provisions that required birth control to be covered with no co-pay as a preventive service by an employer. According to the New York Times, many types of employers are now able to stop covering contraceptives under their health insurance plans if they have a "sincerely held religious or moral objection." These regulations will take effect immediately. A statement from Health and Human Services detailed two… Read more

Longing to bring summery, breezy, boho vibes into fall? Keep the spirit of summer alive by adorning your body with beautiful pressed flower temporary tattoos. Follow the instructions from K.L Cao’s DIY Temporary Tattoo Art: Easy Step-by-Step Instructions for Watercolor, Henna, Flash Tattoos, and More! to add some floral art to yourself! Pressed Flower Temporary Tattoo Have you ever pressed flowers? Or maybe you forgot to add water to an arrangement? Either way, this Pressed Flowers tattoo gives these dried-out blooms a… Read more

‘Men who advocate for gender equality behaving badly’ has almost become its own category of news story. In the past 24 hours alone, two powerful white men in the media establishment have been revealed to be ‘fake feminists,’ saying all the right things in public but treating women with disrespect and disdain in private. Firstly, the New York Times published an exposé accusing film and television producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment and impropriety over the past three decades, despite presenting himself as a… Read more

Instagram is a creative and welcoming space, but sometimes it can be hard to find accounts that you truly identify with. With thousands of accounts, how do you know who to follow? Heteronormativity can seep into any domain, but don't worry, because these creative and inspiring queer Instagrammers got your back! Nicolette Mason / @NicoletteMason Via @NicoletteMason Nicolette Mason is a fashionista and the cofounder of PREMME, a fashion line carrying sizes 12-30. She also contributes to a plethora of sites and… Read more

We're bringing you this Q&A; from BUST's Sex section, featuring advice from sexlogist Dr. Carol Queen. Question: I find it difficult to masturbate when I’m not feeling sexy, which is usually relegated to when I’m dating and/or having sex with other people. Porn helps, but I’d like a more mindful experience. And, being mindful can bring about painful feelings about being alone, which bums me out too much to get off! I’m on SSRIs, but I don’t have trouble coming with other people, and I can usually eke out an orgasm or… Read more

Agnès Varda has had a remarkable, 60-year career. As a leader in French New Wave — and one of the only women directors working at the time — Varda placed women’s voices front and center with films like Cléo from 5 to 7 and Vagabond. Now 89 years old, Varda has released a new documentary, in collaboration with 33-year-old French photographer and street artist JR – Faces Places, or Visages Villages as it’s called in French. In the film, we watch Varda and JR as they undertake an artistic project: Travel to villages… Read more

Children might not listen, but they hear everything. And they certainly repeat most of it too. We’ve seen many of the photos online, but now we can see what those conscious kids actually think in this miniature children’s book, “The Little Book of Little Activists.” It’s a curated selection of inspiring photos of children, alongside quotes that explain their understanding of equality, democracy, and other social issues from recent demonstrations across the country. The overall message is clear: you’re never too young… Read more

We’re back with our latest roundup of women-created pop culture! This week, look forward to a new film by Agnes Varda, new music by Kelela, the long-awaited follow-up to Practical Magic, and a new TV series from BUST’s current cover gal, Sarah Silverman. As a reminder, we haven’t seen, read, or listened to all of these ourselves, so if you hate them, don't blame us! But if we have reviewed them, we’ll include a link to the review, or refer to it if it’s in print but not yet online. MOVIES Faces, Places French… Read more

Dating is a torturous process that generally involves discovering just how incompatible two people can be, despite superficial attraction. Zoë Daly, an online fitness coach from Sydney with over 200,000 Instagram followers, found out this out the hard way after paying an almost $5,000 yearly fee to sign up to a private matchmaking service called Elite Introductions. After one terrible date, she sued Elite Introductions for using "misleading and deceptive statements and pressure sales techniques" which promised she… Read more

Between drop offs and pick ups, volunteering, and just generally mucking about, I’m at my kids’ school a lot. Each time I watch as students rush through doors with no regard whatsoever as to whether it might slam in the face of the person behind them. I don’t fault them — they’re kids, I’m glad to see them hurling themselves head-first into life — but during the times I’m responsible for the care of these magical creatures, I’ve been testing my newest principle. It goes a little something like this: If everyone holds… Read more

Freedom Writers Let’s Go Postal makes bombarding your reps easy If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past year, it’s that constant resistance is exhausting. Which is why anything that infuses it with a little fun is totally welcome. Like Let’s Go Postal (letsgopostal.com), a one-stop shop for all your postcard-protest-party needs, founded by BFFs Isadora Connor and Emma Shannon. Their “Host Kit” ($25, plus more if you want to add extra postcards or stamps) includes 100 colorful postcards (with slogans like… Read more

On Tuesday, October 3rd, 2017, 234 House Republicans voted “aye” and passed the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act” which, if passed by the Senate, would ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation because they claim that the unborn fetus can feel pain. Everyone can agree that to not inflict pain onto others is the ultimate goal — but, who is this bill really protecting from pain? As explained by Live Science, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has been clear that “the science shows… Read more

Hey baby, what's your sign? Check out our astrological advice for ladies looking to get laid from the back pages (wink wink) of our October/November 2017 issue, by astrologist Sonia Ortiz (and illustrated by Ada Buchholc). Libra Sept. 23 to Oct. 22Venus enters Libra on October 15, so get ready for some major flirting and fast luck in the dating department. Expect romances to heat up by the 22 when Mars slides into Libra’s DMs, but things slow down and get serious by November 2 when Saturn squares Chiron. Secrets may be… Read more

Latinx artists have always been an integral part of the broader culture of the United States of America. From the influence of Shakira and Sandra Cisneros, to Gina Rodriguez and Lin-Manuel Miranda, the cultural diversity of musicians, authors, actors and visual artists with Latin heritage is staggering and often underappreciated. Of course, Latin culture is as amorphorous and dynamic as the people within it, and the New Latin Wave festival in Brooklyn is aiming to bring contemporary Latinx creativity to a wider… Read more

Another day, another 93 Americans shot dead. I didn’t get the numbers wrong, I’m talking about today. Because 93 is just the average number of people who are killed by gun violence on an average day in the United States. Sunday will be marked as an above-average day when it comes to numbers and statistics, because 58 people in the same place were shot and killed in a matter of sickeningly smattering seconds while attending a concert in Las Vegas. They were all innocent, helpless victims who lost their lives because a… Read more

Of course the Queen of Country dishes out sound advice! After so many years in the spotlight, Dolly Parton has bestowed a lot of wise words upon us. From her marriage of 50 years to her countless wigs, Dolly is an open book. Here are some of her frank and fearless takes on life. On her appearance: "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap!" "I’m gaudy and flashy and I’m probably gonna always be that.” "I like all that frilly stuff. Like I've always said, it's a good thing I was a girl, or I'd definitely have been a… Read more

“Am I allowed to pick my life? Do I have to justify it for you?” asks journalist Chanel Dubofsky in a scene from Therese Shechter’s upcoming documentary, My So-Called Selfish Life. Shechter, friend of BUST, explores the choice of non-motherhood in a society, as Shechter describes, “where motherhood feels mandatory.” Taking the viewer through the history, politics, and popular culture of motherhood, the documentary visits a variety of people with all types of reasons for making the conscious decision to forgo having… Read more

Wear your love for cats on your...ears...with these adorable DIY cat face hoop earrings. Follow the instructions below from Crafting For Cat Ladies: 35 Purr-fect Feline Projects by Kat Roberts to make them yourself. Hoop Earrings Give a simple pair of hoop earrings a major style upgrade by adding your favorite decorative paper and some cat embellishments. What You Need:PencilRulerScrap paper, slightly larger than the hoop earringsHoop earrings, 11⁄2 inches (4 cm) in diameterScissorsDecorative paper, 5 x 6 inches (12.5… Read more

Growing up, my days were spent immersed in books and comic books. And my favorite comic book character was Wonder Woman. I was inspired by characters like Hermione Granger, but Wonder Woman always represented a dual side of feminity that I rarely saw. She was kind, empathetic, powerful and ferocious, two sides of the coin in a time when girls are taught they can be feminine or ferocious, but never both. As a girl who cried when she read a sad story but also punched a boy in the face when he grabbed the zipper of my… Read more

In his 1836 book On the Mental Illumination and Moral Improvement of Mankind, Reverend Thomas Dick calls the peacock “the most beautiful bird in the world.” There are few that would dispute this description; however, throughout history, there has always been more to the peacock than its dazzling plumage. At various times and in various cultures, it has served as a symbol of good and evil, death and resurrection, and of sinful pride and overweening vanity. And much like its avian brethren, the crow and the raven, the… Read more

Premme Power The superstar plus-size line we’ve been waiting for GabiFresh (aka Gabi Gregg) and Nicolette Mason have been crushing the plus-size style scene since the early days of blogging, and now they’ve joined forces to launch Premme (premme.us), the most bangin’ bigger-girl line around. With sizes ranging from 12 to 30, with a price range of $30-$119, the crop tops, mini skirts, bodycon dresses, and “Feminist AF” jackets of their summer collection sold out almost immediately. We can’t wait to see the pieces their… Read more

Photographer Elias Weiss Friedman literally has the best job ever. Having caught “canine nostalgia” upon moving to New York, he needed an excuse to meet other people’s dogs. He decided to create a new account called The Dogist in 2013, inspired by The Sartorialist, a fashion blog that highlights style on the streets of NYC. Four years later with more than 25,000 dogs photographed, Weiss Friedman has garnered 2.7 million followers on his Instagram account, and the recent release of his second book, The Dogist Puppies.… Read more

If you travel in the NYC subway, you may have seen Jilly Ballistic’s work before. Strategically placed black and white images of WWII soldiers or civilians in gas masks pop up behind subway benches or on top of modern advertisements, giving the viewer the uneasy feeling that this historical image is hitting a little too close to our potential reality right now. While Ballistic (not her real name) who remains anonymous has been doing this for over six years, and is featured in the new book Women Street Artists - The… Read more

Katy Perry brought more than her Witness World Tour to New York City's Madison Square Garden last night. Perry brought art, fashion, feminism, joy, humor, and hope to her thousands of fans who came out on a Monday night to see their goddess in person. From the photographer's point of view, as well as someone who attended her Prismatic World Tour in 2014, I knew Perry would bring incredible imagery to her world tour. Yet she brought the unexpected from the moment she entered the stage. In a sea of fog and strobe lights,… Read more

Ever wanted to make your own makeup? It's easier than you might think! Check out this excerpt from Make Your Own Pure Mineral Makeup: 79 Easy Hypoallergenic Recipes For Radiant Beauty, by Heather Anderson How To Make Briar Eyeshadow I don’t usually read fiction, but when I do, I love classic fairy tales that are made modern. Sleeping Beauty and Briar Rose are among my favorites. I love Briar’s kind, loving heart; she is incredibly sweet and makes friends with everyone — even woodland creatures! She is the kind of… Read more

Vic Mensa is a rapper with a message for sexual predators at music festivals: “You’re not welcome here.” The "16 Shots" singer will be join Jay-Z's 4:44 tour in October. Mensa headlined the September 15 night of Chicago's Riot Fest, but before he took the stage, Mensa took some time to sit down with BUST and talk about rap, feminism, and sexual assault. “My artistry is extremely influenced by my experience,” said Mensa, “and feminist women have been some of the biggest catalysts of my growth as a man and as a human.”… Read more

Alive & Kicking Writer/Actor/Activist Danai Gurira does it all Best known for her role as Michonne on AMC’s The Walking Dead, and as the author of the Tony Award-winning play Eclipsed, Danai Guirira is at the vanguard of popular culture and ideas. And now that she’s nabbed roles in two of the biggest films slated for 2018—Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War—the creative powerhouse is cultivating an even larger platform for her impressive array of activist work. Currently, that includes involvement with the ONE… Read more

On Sunday night, a shooting at a Las Vegas concert left 59 dead and over 500 people injured. According to the New York Times, a lone gunman fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort into the crowd. A reported 22,000 people had gathered to watch country singer Jason Aldeans at a three-day country music festival. The shooter, 64-year old Stephen Paddock, committed suicide in his hotel room before police arrived. This tragedy is now the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history — a title that previously… Read more

The other night, I was closing up at the coffee shop that I work at, and as we locked the doors and threw out the hardening croissants, a gentleman in a bowtie approached the counter. He had spent the better part of the evening penning a letter with full-blown amateur calligraphy from a table in the back and began conversing with my male coworker about what he’d been writing about. As I began to sweep up abandoned straw wrappers and half-used Splenda packets, they beckoned for me to come and read the letter. They… Read more

On September 15, 2017, two off-duty Brooklyn South narcotics officers pulled over a car with three teens inside. The officers found Prozac and put one of the teens in handcuffs – and later that night, the young woman who was in that car went to a local hospital and submitted herself for a rape kit, according to the New York Times. The 18-year-old female passenger, unnamed to protect her identity, alleges that the two officers handcuffed her, drove her to a nearby Chipotle parking lot, and sexually assaulted her.… Read more

A woman removes debris in the aftermath of the 1985 Mexican earthquake The number of women killed by the earthquake in Mexico City on September 19, 2017 is almost double that of men. Of the 198 deaths in the capital, only 71 are men, while 127 are women, according to the latest figures provided by the city government. Researchers hypothesize that this disparity is largely due to the fact that the quake occurred around 1pm in the afternoon and affected mostly private homes, with women inside. In fact, women have… Read more

I sit cross-legged on my daughter’s bed, breathing in the scent of her. The palm trees rustle gently in the wind while the warm sun shines through the single pane window in our Manila home. I close my eyes and I’m transported to the outdoor staircase in Tokyo where, ten years ago, I would perch myself in the morning sun and struggle to find some semblance of self-worth. I return to the present moment, feeling reassured by the very essence of my daughter, which proves to me that I have come so far from those doubtful… Read more

From bedding kings to fleeing countries dressed as a pistol-wielding man; to duelling her lovers; to drinking, dancing, and above all, fighting for her independence, the life of Hortense Mancini was, to be blunt, fucking insane…so let's get to it: Born into nobility on the June 6, 1646 in Rome, Hortense Mancini was the fourth of five sisters. Their mother a great beauty, their father an aristocrat who practiced black magic (specializing in necromancy), and their uncle was Cardinal Mazarin, both Cardinal and Chief… Read more

Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman in the ‘70s TV series, is speaking out against James Cameron’s criticisms of the 2017 film version of Wonder Woman. ICYMI, last month, Cameron told the Guardian: All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood’s been doing over Wonder Woman has been so misguided. She’s an objectified icon, and it’s just male Hollywood doing the same old thing! I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie but, to me, it’s a step backwards. Sarah Connor [from Cameron’s movie Terminator] was not a… Read more

The Hotness, aka BUST's Best Bets, is back! Editor Emily Rems chooses our pop culture picks for October and November 2017, including the return of Stranger Things and Lady Dynamite, a new Star Trek, and the New Orleans rapper Delish. 1. Stranger Things Season 2 Photo credit: NetflixLight a votive candle for Barb and summon your D&D; posse down to the basement on October 27 for Season Two of the creepiest show on Netflix. Will Byers may have been rescued, but a sinister entity is still stalking all the survivors of the… Read more

Romanian photographer Mihaela Noroc has spent the past four years traveling around the world with a backpack and a camera, searching for beauty in unexpected places. She has collected striking photographs of women from over 55 countries, which she documents on her Instagram account, and has now released a book titled The Atlas of Beauty. Noroc’s photos are a testament to the many definitions and perceptions of beauty, and give a brief insight into women’s lives all over the globe. Her project started when she escaped… Read more

The Future is (Black) Femme is a new exhibition at ATYPE, a creative hub and popular event space in the Lower East Side. It was curated by photographers Jessica Pettway, Josette Roberts, and Miranda Barnes, who sought to celebrate the visual identity of brilliant black femmes. The show represents multiple mediums, from Francena Ottley’s natural portraits to Jade Purple Browns’ colorful silhouettes. All of the artists who are featured express their unique experiences within the African diaspora. Every piece in the… Read more

In every issue of BUST Magazine, we bring you reviews of the latest and greatest albums on our radar. Check out the most recent releases from our October/November 2017 issue right here, featuring new music from the Blow, Kim Boekbinder, Cold Specks, and more. We also made you a Spotify playlist where you can listen to all these tunes, which you can find below. THE BLOW Brand New Abyss (Self-Released) Khaela Maricich and Melissa Dyne have been dishing out electro bedroom-pop since 2001 (aka before everyone was doing it)… Read more

OUR President is doing all she can to help a storm torn Puerto Rico, and this time, she’s using her music. This Thursday, Beyonce surprised fans with a new single and music video, announcing that proceeds of the song would be donated to Puerto Rican hurricane relief. "I am donating my proceeds from this song to hurricane relief charities for Puerto Rico, Mexico and the other affected Caribbean islands," she wrote on Instagram. “To help go to Beyonce.com/reliefefforts.” I am donating my proceeds from this song to… Read more

I’ve never really adored taking pictures of myself. Something is always “off” and not quite profile pic worthy. My smile is crooked. A glob of food is lodged between my front teeth. (Eww.) "Bedhead" is a generous term for what my hair displays more days. And my skin. Oh, let’s not even go there… Then, one late night while visiting my hometown of Defiance, Ohio for the filming of a television show about my late mother, I sat cross-legged on the bed in the guest room of my aunt’s house swiping through Tinder as everyone… Read more

It’s been ten years since the most problematic and loveable teen drama of the 2000s graced our screens for the first time. When it premiered in 2007, Gossip Girl was a revelation. Thanks to the internet, it was popular in a way that hadn’t been seen in television before, and its portrayal of the way social media affected its characters' lives was eerily prescient. The series, created by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, who also made The O.C., originally ran on The CW for six seasons and finished in 2012. Gossip Girl… Read more

When I popped my headphones in for a first listen of Atlanta singer Mattiel’s debut single “Whites of Their Eyes," I’m pretty sure I held my head higher and puffed out my chest almost immediately. This is the kind of song I would listen to before an important meeting to trick myself into a state of badass confidence. Then I watched the video for the single and the aesthetic is absorbing. It’s crisp, clean, vibrant, and never stops being gorgeous. Narrative takes a backseat to style, but Mattiel’s soul piercing vocals… Read more

Princess Nokia is a green line chick. She grew up between Spanish Harlem and the Lower East Side of New York City, and her new music video explores how these places and their communities have become a part of who she is. Never one to do things by halves, Princess Nokia, aka Destiny Frasqueri, has released an eight-minute double feature video for both “Bart Simpson” and “Green Line,” two songs from her breakout album 1992 Deluxe. Directed by Milah Libin, Frasqueri’s friend and fellow co-founder of arts collective Smart… Read more

Amber Rose’s Slutwalk started in 2015 – and only two years later it is killin the game and inspiring thousands. Slutwalk is all about equality – equality for all bodies and genders – while combating sexual assault/harassment. Rose is no stranger to this kind of harassment; as a very public female figure, she has received a hundred-too-many lude comments over the course of her career, which is why she explained she wanted to do the Slutwalk for “women who have been through shit.” Now, the #Amberroseslutwalk has inspired… Read more

Poptarts is a twice-monthly podcast hosted by BUST Magazine editors Emily Rems and Callie Watts that celebrates women in pop culture. The first half of each episode is devoted to a hot topic in entertainment, and in the second half, a segment called "Whatcha Watchin'?," Callie and Emily dig into all the shows, movies, books, music, videos, and podcasts they've enjoyed since the last episode, and either praise or pan each experience. In the latest episode, Callie and Emily dive into Season 4 of Broad City. Yas Kween! We… Read more

While it’s still 80-something degrees here in Brooklyn, this upcoming week brings the start of the year’s spookiest month — and a new batch of entertainment created by women. This week's edition of Week of Women features an intriguing new horror film called The Sound and the release of Order of the Good Death founder Caitlin Doughty’s latest book. As a reminder, we haven’t seen, read, or listened to all of these ourselves, so if you hate them, don't blame us! But if we have reviewed them, we’ll include a link to the… Read more

This week, Broad City returns with “Just the Tips,” and the episode really is all about them: Nails, genitalia, and even amatuer relationship advice. Additionally, a previous character is reintroduced, and an…accident…is thrown abruptly into the mix. Check out our reactions this week! On the opening scene: Danielle: Is he Donald Trump? Lindsay: No, he’s too fashionable. Danielle: IT’S DONALD TRUMP! Lindsay: No! … Maybe Eric at best. When Ilana has a ton of cash money: Danielle: She puts her money in her bed? Why?… Read more

Now that Battle of the Sexes has premiered, sexism is over, amiright? Oh wait, no it's not: Natalie Morales is the newest celebrity victim of upskirt shots. In case you’re unfamiliar, or just too innocent for this wicked world, “upskirt shots” is a term used when paparazzi or any shmuck takes a picture or video up a women’s skirt, without her consent or knowledge. It is a disgusting, invasive, and misogynistic act that is unfortunately all too common. On Saturday, September 16th, while walking the red carpet for the… Read more

Right now, millions of Americans in Puerto Rico are without access to water, power, or cell service because of Hurricane Maria. This Tuesday, the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz told CNN: “Just yesterday, we have been canvassing one by one all of our elderly homes, finding our elderly ― and I’m not kidding ― we [had] to transfer 11 of them in near-death conditions, no food, no water, no electricity and really the sanitary conditions were deplorable.” While those in Puerto Rico are in need of aid, Mexico needs… Read more

OK Ladies, Now Let’s Get Information Beyoncé’s Formation Scholarships Give Women The Green To Follow Their Dreams Earlier this year, Beyoncé commemorated the one-year anniversary of her game-changing album Lemonade by creating four $25,000 scholarships for female students pursuing creative arts, music, literature, or African-American studies at Berklee College of Music, Howard University, Parsons School of Design, and Spelman College. And now that fall is here, the first winners of her Formation Scholars Award are… Read more