Eye | H&M Jumpsuit -- When Style & War Collide | Amazon Women | Burqa Bans

/

Redtracker

H&M Apologizes

Radical chic? Kurds Say H&M jumpsuits mimic fighter garb Los Angeles Times

AOC has written frequently and is following the dire situation in Kobani, Syri where beleaguered but incredibly brave Kurdish forces — about one-third of them women, says the BBC — are fighting ferociously against ISIS.

Social media broke out in hives yesterday with H&M’s $19.95 khaki jumpsuit drawing comparisons to those worn by these brave women. It doesn’t matter that khaki jumpsuits have been a staple in fashion almost as long as I’ve walked the face of the earth.

We are presently in a fashion cycle of celebrating strong women, warrior goddesses and even feminists. This mood has nothing to do with the Kurdish women fighters — except that we are all inspired beyond our stylish cocoons by their determination, skills at confronting ISIS and courage.

If Karl Lagerfeld, whose never-closed mouth said in 2009 —purporting to be the voice of Coco Chanel said:

I was never a feminist because I was never ugly enough for that

 

— can now end his Spring 2015 ready-to-wear show with a ‘feminist demonstration’, it’s clear that the Kaiser knows that his long-expressed views around strong are suddenly out of step with the global movement to empower women. Lagerfeld is on the wrong end of his walking stick, and he knows it. Not even his precious fur ball Choupette can put him on the right side of this subject.

Karl Lagerfeld’s flimflam feminism won’t hurt the real thing The Guardian

At AOC, we tell women’s stories from fashion to flogging — often finding intersections between the two. An inherent theme of all our channels is the historical, international shakedown of women’s rights for the sake of male advancement and patriarchal power.

Scholarly Evidence of Amazons On Vases | Kurdish Women Fight On In Brutal ISIS Battles | Fashion’s Warrior Woman Moment AOC Salon

Knowing about the H&M fracas, wanting to call out a new book The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World, important new research cementing the reality of Amazon women warriors in the ancient world, an update on the Kurdish women fighters AND show a few fashion editorials acknowledging the women as warriors trend, we pulled it all together in one cohesive statement.

Read More

Eye | UAE Pilot Major Mariam al-Mansouri Leads UAE Air Strikes Against ISIS | Domestic Violence Tab Put At $9.5 Trillion Annually

/

RedTracker

Forbes axed a column and future columns from contributor Bill Frezza, an MIT graduate and alumni president of MIT’s Lambda Chi Alpha chapter, after Frezza’s column Drunk Female Guests Are The Gravest Threat To Fraternities hit the digital airwaves. Forbes quickly pulled the column but not before Gawker Media jumped on it. Jezebel has reprinted the column for posterity.

Frezza, who writes that he chronicles “the decline and fall of entitlement democracy” argued on Forbes last month:

As recriminations against fraternities mount and panicked college administrators search for an easy out, one factor doesn’t seem to be getting sufficient analysis: drunk female guests.

Clearly the threat of drunk coeds is front and center in Frezza’s mind. Last month, his Ban Kegs From Fraternity Parties? Require Them Instead column described the scope of the problem:

I have the privilege of serving as the president of the alumni corporation for my MIT fraternity. This puts me in the role of loco parentis to 40 college boys, a responsibility I take seriously. While MIT undergrads may not be entirely representative of the country’s college students, even the smartest kids are still capable of doing stupid things. And if you think teenage boys can be stupid when it comes to alcohol, the girls seem to work overtime to do them one better. I have witnessed 95-pound, 18-year-old coeds standing in line outside a fraternity party chugging fifths of vodka because they know they won’t be served once inside. (They call it pre-gaming.) Does anyone really believe this is safer than allowing them to sip on a beer?

A small, 2009 study of 500 students on five universitty campuses found that students placed in coed housing are much more likely to binge drink each week than students living in gender-specific housing. 42 percent of students in coed housing reported binge drinking on a weekly basis, while only 8 percent of students in gender-specific housing reported the same.

Read More

Kurdish Women Fighters In Syria Say ISIS Fears Women Soldiers So Much They Shake

/

Kurdish Women Fighters In Syria Say ISIS Fears Women Soldiers So Much They Shake

In a media world assaulted with ISIS videos and threats of yet another beheading, the most fabulous story of heroism has emerged around a group of about 7,000 young Kurdish women in Syria who have armed themselves and joined the Women’s Protection Unit, or YPJ, “which grew out of the wider Kurdish resistance movement.”

I’ve covered this story in small bullet points on Eye, but this NBC News feature of dramatic images by New York-based photographer Erin Trieb are an inspiration for our ISIS media-weary souls.

Unlike the Iraqi soldiers who ran from ISIS, the Women’s Protection Unit is fighting to keep their people safe against attacks from Bashar Assad’s government, ISIS militants and the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front.

Eye | Violence Against Women | Scalia & Women's Rights | Matrilineal Mawlynnong

/

RedTracker

Excellent analysis on the topic of violence against women from Anne’s friend Soraya Chemaly:

Change Culture, Not Cabs: Woman-Only Taxis and Commodifying Female Fear Huff Po

SheTaxis (known as SheRides in New York City) is a newly-launched app that will help women-only passengers find women-only taxi drivers. If you are a woman, the creators argue, it makes sense to use this car service, because taking taxis and Ubers driven by men can be dangerous. There is a whole lot of money to be made helping women adapt to this problem.

This approach to “keeping women safe” is based on the sex segregation model of harassment and stranger rape avoidance at the heart of women-only subway cars in Japan and women-only train compartments in India. It’s the car version of a million “don’t get raped” products, the latest of which is drug-sensing nail polish that women can paint onto their fingertips and dip into drinks. Most solutions advocating segregation or self-defense are variations of “shrink it and pink it” consumer product and public space design. Even Women.Com, a new social network designed as a (safe) space for women only, takes this approach — that women have to take themselves out of spaces shared by men or risk the consequences.

‘Ladies Special’ Trains Roll Indian Women Into the 21st Century AOC Archives Anne’s Blog

Evangelical megachurch begins closing branches after pastor calls women ‘penis homes’ Salon

The Washington-based evangelical megachurch Mars Hill has begun closing branches across the Northwest. Church officials are blaming current financial difficulties on “negative media attention” over founder Mark Driscoll’s “well-documented homophobic and sexist remarks”.

The New York Times recently accused Driscoll of inappropriately using church funds and consolidating power so tightly that it is almost impossible to challenge or question him.

For some time the tide has been turning against Driscoll, who has made a spectacle of himself over the years with his anti-LGBT, anti-woman remarks, many of which he has espoused as key elements of his theology. Preaching theological “complementarianism,” in which women are considered men’s followers and subordinates, Driscoll has expressed a belief that women should always be submissive. According to one report, the pastor once instructed a female congregant to get on her knees and apologize to her husband for failing to bend to his will, then give him a blow job.

In Conversation: Antonin Scalia New York Magazine

In his new indepth interview with Jennifer Senior, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia explains his fundamental views about the role of the Supreme Court in interpreting the US Constitution. Speaking generally about the Supreme Court, Scalia explains:

What I do wish is that we were in agreement on the basic question of what we think we’re doing when we interpret the Constitution. I mean, that’s sort of rudimentary. It’s sort of an embarrassment, really, that we’re not. But some people think our job is to keep it up to date, give new meaning to whatever phrases it has. And others think it’s to give it the meaning the people ratified when they adopted it. Those are quite different views.

Within this frame of reference, a punishment of flogging is “immensely stupid, but it is not unconstitutional” says Justice Scalia. While agreeing that the Fourteenth Amendment covers discrimination against women, the Justics says with ambiguity “If there’s a reasonable basis for not letting women do something — like going into combat or whatnot … “

Read on for Justice Scalia’s views on a wide range of cultural topics.

12 Things No One Told Me About Sex After Rape Thought Catalog

Read More

Abigail Disney Defends Meryl Streep's Calling Walt Disney A 'Gender Bigot'

/

Abigail Disney Defends Meryl Streep’s Calling Walt Disney A ‘Gender Bigot

Bravo Meryl Streep, a quintessential Smart Sensuality woman. Of course, a furor from opposing sides ensued after Streep called Walt Disney an anti-Semitic gender bigot. The great-niece of Walt Disney supported the actress. Abigail Disney, 54, an activist and filmmaker wrote that although she has “mixed feelings” about Walt Disney, she “loved” Streep’s comments about her famous relative.

Anti-Semite? Check. Misogynist? OF COURSE!!Racist? C’mon he made a film (‘Jungle Book’) about how you should stay “with your own kind” at the height of the fight over segregation.’King of the Jungle’ number wasn’t proof enough!! How much more information do you need?”

To Be Better Understood, Anne Learned To Do Serious Uptalk

/

To Be Better Understood, Anne Learned To Do Serious Uptalk

Speaking at The Atlantic’s Shriver Report Conference yesterday, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand fielded a question from a conservative male reporter who asked her about the ways women hold themselves back in self-presentation.

Anne chucked when she read the senator’s answer, recalling that she learned to do uptalk as an executive at Victoria’s Secret. Lean In and learn about her experiences in remodulating her own voice.