AOC Daily is updated all day, logging in one place (url) all articles written across our websites. From fashion to flogging, we exist to tell women’s stories.

Smile

Break dancin’ boys!

A concerned reader told Anne that while he knows that she holds many men in high regard, new readers might get confused about her aggressive stance with the global boys club. To set the record straight, we share Tony Kelley’s great new video for American Apparel (that brand of dubious male integrity repute) because it’s totally irresistable and possesses a humongous smile factor!

Boys Club

Not So Democratic Honor Killings

Indian Village Councils Challenge Laws of the Land NYTimes

Members of an unelected village council of male elders gathered for a meeting recently in Sisana, India. Graham Crouch for The New York Times.Unelected councils of male elders have dominated life in Indian villages for generations. Especially in northern India, unelected men govern everything from marriage to property disputes. Today the councils are coming under growing national and international scrutiny, as practices of honor killings and bride burnings challenge India’s national legal system.

Khap panchayats are determined to keep control of a younger generation of women who are more independent.

“It’s all about social control and control of the girl,” said Kirti Singh, a lawyer who argues cases before the Supreme Court.

Ms. Singh, the Supreme Court lawyer, has drafted legislation that would categorize the khaps’ extrajudicial edicts, including those demanding social boycotts, as crimes of harassment, with punishments of up to 10 years in prison. The bill is expected to be considered by the Parliament in July. “We want to reiterate the right of people in India to enter into a marriage of their choice,” she said.

Last month India’s top court recommended the death penalty for perpetrators of ‘honor killings’ in India.

As for the khap panchayats, accused by India’s Supreme Court of being products of a ‘feudal mentality’, they say it’s a fight to the finish against India’s 1955 Hindu Marriage Act, the national law that allows marriage within gotras, subgroups of the Jats caste that dominates Haryana. They are demanding that the law be amended to proibit such marriages.

More Women | India

Daily Smarts

Linda McCartney | Beatles’ LOVE | India’s Elephants | Chelsea Flower Show Verticle Garden

Officials in India argue that while the white tiger faces extinction, elephant populations aren’t declining. India has over 27,000 elephants, an increase from over 21,000 in 2005, that live in 26 elephant reserves spread over an area larger than the Congo.

The challenge in India (and also large parts of Africa) is how humans and elephants live together, Over the last 20 years, elephants in India have lost 20% of their habitat, causing an increase in human-elephant conflict.

Green Beings

June 5 is World Environment Day, a celebration of the need to protect Mother Earth which began in 1972. Gisele Bundchen is the UNEP’s Goodwill ambassador. The top-earning model in the world, Gisele Bundchen has pledged to plant a tree for every activity registered in her name.

For more information on how you and your community can participate and show your awareness with this event visit unep.org.

In honor of World Environment Day, Anne of Carversville shares one of the most important videos we’ve ever watched about the connections among people, design and our planet. Janine Benyus’ video is embedded in more than one story in the website.

Janine Benyus: 12 Sustainable Design Ideas

People

Katie Seals A Deal

Katie Couric’s New Talk Show Deal Likely to Be Announced Monday The Hollywood Reporter

Disney/ABC will announce as soon as tomorrow that Katie Couric will host a new talk show beginning in September 2012. It’s expected that Couric will help fill a void left by the end of the Oprah Winfrey Show, after 25 years on ABC stations.

Couric’s deal is expected to give her an ownership position in the new show, which will be produced by former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Zucker.

Read on for excellent media article at The Hollywood Reporter.

Barbara Walters Viewpoint

Barbara Walters Would Take Meredith Viera Back on ‘The View’ AOC News

Act 2 for Women

The Second Half of Your Life Telegraph UK

Rather than apeing the young, (Jill Shaw) Ruddock wants women to view the menopause as a cause for celebration, not regret…

“Oestrogen gives us the mummy brain. From puberty to menopause it makes us want to look after people, put them first. When the oestrogen goes, a woman can redefine her life, be who she’s always wanted to be. We cannot give birth any more, but we can give birth to ourselves.”