Charity

savedbythe-bellhooks:

Source: Bone Black by bell hooks

SIDESHOW: Sometimes there are other ideas that I think would be awesome. So think of these as guest blog entries from other sections of my brain.

This is from a Tumblr that doesn’t exist called RuPaul Rand Paul. All captions are quotes from drag performer RuPaul, and all pictures are of presidential hopeful Republican senator of Kentucky, Rand Paul.

happy new year! may it be a prosperous one (whatever that means to you) 

xo liz

SIDESHOW: Sometimes there are other ideas that I think would be awesome. So think of these as guest blog entries from other sections of my brain.

This is from a Tumblr that doesn’t exist called When Harry Met Sally Mae. All captions are stats as reported by US News, Forbes, and Info Wars.   I know. I’m sad too. 

merry christmas/happy holidays everyone! have fun/be safe. xo liz

Jill Lepore's new book about Wonder Woman reveals the unconventional life of her creator, William Moulton Marston, who invented the lie detector, championed feminism, and lived with two women at once.

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It's Baltimore, 1999. Hae Min Lee, a popular high-school senior, disappears after school one day. Six weeks later detectives arrest her classmate and ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, for her murder. He says he's innocent - though he can't exactly remember what he was doing on that January afternoon. But someone can. A classmate at Woodlawn High School says she knows where Adnan was. The trouble is, she’s nowhere to be found.
 

"You're never going to be completely comfortable with it," says mortician and author Caitlin Doughty. "But it's an important process." Smoke Gets In Your Eyes is her new memoir.

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By Judy Gradwohl, the MacMillan Associate Director for Education and Public Engagement

It was like Christmas morning in 1968 when our Suzy Homemaker toy refrigerator arrived at the museum (new in box, with original staples!). It was Teaching Collection Object #1 for the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation Object Project, a new hands-on exhibition slated to open in July 2015. Object Project is about everyday things that changed everything, and in it we'll be inviting everyone to take a closer look at some things we take for granted, like electric refrigeration, which was introduced in the late 1920s. The Suzy Homemaker refrigerator "stores food like a real one" and its contents, a "complete set of plastic food items," will help showcase the rise of frozen food in the 1960s.

Although today Suzy Homemaker is an entry in Webster's dictionary, and either a pejorative or a point of pride depending on one's view of household work, in the 1960s it was a very desirable line of Topper Toys. "She's every little girl who wants to be just like her mother," exclaimed a 1966 advertisement. When the Suzy Homemaker line of toy appliances was introduced in 1966, it included miniature working versions of household equipment that helped girls practice homemaking skills. If a girl was lucky enough to collect them all she might have owned a working blender, mixer, oven, dishwasher, iron and ironing board, vacuum cleaner with multiple accessories, and clothes washer. The Suzy Homemaker line also included a girl-sized vanity. A television commercial summed it up by saying "With Suzy Homemaker you can entertain, wash dishes, clean house, launder, iron, bake… and always look lovely."

In ironic and somewhat unfortunate timing for Suzy Homemaker, the 1960s and 1970s also saw the rise of the women's rights movement and a focus on women working outside the home. The National Organization of Women was formed in 1966, and by 1968 feminists were organizing protests, with a major demonstration at the Miss America Pageant.

By the late 1960s, Suzy Homemaker ads started to sound a little defensive about the domesticity the toys promoted. In 1968 a print advertisement led with "Suzy Homemaker is a square" and continued "She doesn't wear love beads. She wears shoes. She even washes regularly. She gets more fun out of being a cook than a kook. She'd rather broil a hamburger or hot dogs on her Suzy Homemaker Super Grill or even cook a steak dinner for the family… Yes, your Suzy Homemaker is a square. And aren't you glad."

By the 1970s the Suzy Homemaker line was available in a range of vibrant colors and included sheets of flower stickers that could be used to make the appliances less "square." In 1981, Newsweek published an article about Future Homemakers of America entitled "So long, Suzy Homemaker."

Our teaching collection will be an important part of Object Project because it will put authentic objects in the hands of our visitors. Objects on view in the rest of the museum are from our National Collections, and because we need to preserve them forever, the objects need to be protected from excessive light and handling. Our staff wears gloves to shield the objects from the oils in our skin and carefully monitors light levels in exhibition areas. The teaching collection is intended to be handled and to withstand prolonged periods under brighter lights.

One can learn a lot by taking a closer look at the Suzy Homemaker refrigerator. It features a cornucopia of food very similar to the abundance seen in period advertisements for household refrigerators, like this 1960 Hotpoint ad.

Apparently there was a ham in every refrigerator and there truly was always room for Jello. Things like the ad and the Suzy Homemaker refrigerator help us think about how our diets have changed over time, who was preparing food for the family (and did she really cook in that outfit?), and even household size—who was going to eat all that food before it spoiled? This section of Object Project will also explore the explosion of frozen—"better-than-fresh"—foods, the introduction of frozen food convenience products and specialty fare for a newly-recognized African American market; and the paradox of hunger in a land of plenty.

Toys have always helped children prepare for aspects of adult life, and the Suzy Homemaker line of appliances provides an important slice of life from the 1960s. So our new Suzy Homemaker refrigerator is a lot more than a somewhat campy nostalgic toy. As it is joined by many more objects from the national and teaching collections, our refrigerator will encourage everyone to think differently about our everyday things and the interplay between innovation and society. Until then it is delighting visitors to my office.

Judy Gradwohl is the MacMillan Associate Director for Education and Public Engagement and the project director for Object Project. Her younger self would be quite embarrassed about her current enthusiasm for the Suzy Homemaker line of toys.

As objects representing Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning history enter the museum's collection today, Curator Katherine Ott reflects on collecting and interpreting LBGTQ material culture.

Can an object be gay? A queer question and one that is endlessly interesting for museums.

Objects are not gay any more than they can be Klingon, a Free-Soil Party member, or jealous. However, most museums have materials created by LGBTQ people and the range of historical versions of that identity, whether they know it or not. When it comes to groups that have been stigmatized and targeted for discrimination and violence, historians and curators have a predicament around how to interpret behavior and language in the past. People did not want to be known, so objects reflect that invisibility.

Terminology used to describe those who were gender non-conforming—who might be understood today as LGBTQ—leaves a lot of ambiguity around what actually happened behind closed doors. For example, Jane Addams, social worker and founder of Chicago's Hull House, lived in a Boston Marriage with her companion Mary Rozet Smith. Poet and "confirmed bachelor" W.H. Auden was also lovers with novelist Christopher Isherwood. Spinster (as unmarried women were called at the time) poet Amy Lowell smoked cigars and traveled with actress Ada Dwyer Russell. We'wha, a two-spirited Zuni tribal member, lived a mixed-gender life in New Mexico. The terms used to acknowledge dissent from dominant gender structures result in uncertainty for those of us who crave historical clarity.

Some of our museum staff have been working on both retrieving histories such as these and documenting contemporary LGBTQ life. The many things we’ve collected since stigma and persecution have diminished are easy to identify as LGBTQ-related because the donors or owners are out and open about it. The Mattachine Review and The Ladder, although sent through the mail in plain brown wrappers, explicitly sought a gay and lesbian readership in the 1950s and 1960s. The difficulty is with objects already in the collections. Retrospective recognition is nearly impossible with people who lived in a time when it was dangerous to go against gender norms or a place where this kind of difference could not even be imagined.

Nor does the question of when gender or sexual orientation is relevant for describing or categorizing an object have an easy answer. Heterosexuality, homosexuality, transgender, and other identities were certainly not issues of interest in decades past—when most of our collections arrived and curators recorded them. In 1973, when Billie Jean King wore the tennis dress now in the museum's sports collection, she was a top athlete and married to a man. Her private love life was with a woman and that was no one else's business. She was outed in 1981 and her life became known better, unlike the majority of people behind the millions of objects in our store rooms. The politics of identity are like shifting and reconfiguring quick sand. When gender and sexuality are murky, the record is murky and good curatorial practice is to leave it murky. Objects carry the associations that we attach to them, based on personal experience and collective agreement. The associational nature of objects is partly what makes it foolhardy to make timeless, definitive statements about collections. "Boston Marriage" describes a common sort of anti-assimilationist gender behavior at the turn of the 20th century and that may be as specific as it is possible to be.

However, at least for now, there is temporarily solid ground under the museum's recent LGBTQ acquisitions. Scripts and publicity material from the late 1990s NBC sit-com Will and Grace, that featured the friendship of two gay men; the personal objects of tennis player Renee Richards, who was first known as Richard Raskin; Pride-related photographs by Patsy Lynch and Silvia Ros; the transgender pride flag designed by rights activist Monica Helms; and the diplomatic passports of Ambassador David Huebner and his husband are unquestionably part of LGBTQ history as well as larger narratives about life in the United States.

Katherine Ott is a curator in the Division of Medicine and Science. She has also blogged about the Lawrence v. Texas case.

According to the New Zealand Herald, Academy Award-nominated actress Keisha Castle-Hughes is rumored to be the newest addition to season five of Game of Thrones.

The Herald reports that the actress, best known for starring in Whale Rider, is telling friends she’s landed the part of a Sand Snake in the upcoming season. The specific Snake is unknown at this time, as three of Oberyn Martell’s daughters will be turning up in season five.

The newspaper cites Castle-Hughes’s Twitter activity as another possible hint at casting, with her traveling to London and Belfast recently and frequently expressing enthusiasm for the show.

We have reached out to HBO for official confirmation of a casting.

Ours is the Fury: This is an unconfirmed rumor at the moment, but I’d love it if it turns out to be true. She’s a terrific actress and would be a good fit for any of the Sand Snakes. We’ll keep you posted on any official confirmation or denial of Castle-Hughes joining the show.

SOURCE

Warner Bros. has dated J.K. Rowling’s first installment in the Harry Potter spinoff trilogy “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” for Nov. 18, 2016.

“Fantastic Beasts” becomes the first title on the date — two days before Lionsgate opens “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2″ as the final film in that franchise.

Warner Bros. topper Kevin Tsujihara revealed in March that the studio was following in the footsteps of “The Hobbit” franchise with three “megamovies” for “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

Tsujihara persuaded Rowling last year to revive the Harry Potter movie magic by adapting her Hogwarts textbook “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” for the big screen. Rowling wrote the 54-page book in 2001 between publication of the fourth and fifth Potter books.

Set initially in New York about seven decades before the start of the Harry Potter story, the films will follow magizoologist Newt Scamander. They’re not prequels or sequels, but an “extension of the wizarding world.”

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Older generations might have left behind physical letters, photographs and journals. But much of that is digital now. Saving and organizing it all is a new challenge for librarians and writers alike.

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Big Red is headed to the big screen.

The girl with the flaming curls (and not-so-flattering nickname) from Eleanor & Park and her soft-spoken, comic-book-loving crush will soon be getting the cinematic treatment, with DreamWorks Studios picking up film rights to Rainbow Rowell’s bestselling novel.
“Every girl who has read it says, ‘That was me in high school, or that was me in 7th grade,’” Holly Bario, DreamWorks president of production, tells EW. “It reminded all of us of our own sort of awkwardness, or family dysfunction.”

The studio was drawn to the teenage love story for the same reason as its legions of fans. “It’s not the typical story where the ugly duckling is in love with the hot guy,” Bario says. “They’re both trying to find their way. They’re both outcasts.”
Set in 1986, and following one school year in Omaha, the novel follows the tentative romance of two 16-year-olds: Eleanor, a somewhat heavy girl overwhelmed by insecurities and trying to survive an abusive household, and Park, the quiet, half-Korean kid who also doesn’t feel like he fits in, but finds refuge in music and comic books.
After its publication in February 2013, the book spent 12 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and has inspired a passionate, devoted following.

“The book is uniquely structured in that one chapter is told by Eleanor and one chapter is told from Park’s perspective, and they alternate,” Bario points out. “So we’re trying to figure out how to do that in a movie. There are all sorts of groovy stylistic things you could do with voice over, or words on the screen, but we want something that’s real Rainbow.”

With that in mind, Rowell – who is repped by UTA — has also been hired to write the screenplay. “She’s in the middle of writing another book, so we’re patiently waiting for her,” Bario said.
Already on board the project are producer Carla Hacken, who as a studio executive oversaw Walk the Line and The Devil Wears Prada, and executive producer Matt Kennedy (the upcoming Predestination.)
Once the script is in, a director and cast will be attached. DreamWorks hopes to start shooting in 2015.

But fans don’t need to wait for that … Who would YOU cast in the two main roles? Better to go with unknowns, or find a pair of young actors already on the rise?

source.

Book post? I love this sweet little love story so much and I have some hope that DreamWorks will do the novel justice, especially with Rainbow on board to write the script. She has already tweeted that she refuses to have Park be played by a non-Asian actor or Eleanor to be played by a skinny teen.

Conscious Uncoupling

It is with hearts full of sadness that we have decided to separate. We have been working hard for well over a year, some of it together, some of it separated, to see what might have been possible between us, and we have come to the conclusion that while we love each other very much we will remain separate. We are, however, and always will be a family, and in many ways we are closer than we have ever been. We are parents first and foremost, to two incredibly wonderful children and we ask for their and our space and privacy to be respected at this difficult time. We have always conducted our relationship privately, and we hope that as we consciously uncouple and coparent, we will be able to continue in the same manner.

Love,
Gwyneth & Chris

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Colossal coffee shop chain Starbucks is looking to add some turn-up to its nighttime rush by enacting a new wave of beer and wine sales. Dubbed "Starbucks Evenings," chains in the Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Portland and Seattle areas will begin selling alcoholic beverages after 4 p.m. A new evening menu will also include an appetizer and dessert menu, including chicken skewers, macaroni and cheese and chocolate fondue. Wines and beers will vary based on location.

According Starbucks' website, "Starbucks Evenings" is an effort to substitute a loud bar for a more intimate happy hour meet-up.

"We’ve always been your neighborhood spot where you can take a moment to unwind, grab a well-deserved treat, and meet up with friends," the site reads. "But sometimes, you just want a glass of wine and a delicious bite to eat without going to a bar or making a restaurant reservation."

And while "Starbucks Evenings" includes new items for purchase, the barista setup will remain intact. The chain's regular coffee and tea menus will also still be available to order. And in case you were wondering if you could get that glass of wine with you lunch or have a cold brew with your breakfast, the answer is no. Starbucks will make the alcoholic beverages available after 4 p.m. only.

No word on whether "Starbucks Evenings" will expand to other areas, but if all goes well it would be safe to assume so.

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Minutes before Beyoncé takes the stage at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, three teenage girls spot an actress in the audience. “That’s Laverne Cox!” “Who?” “She’s from Orange Is the New Black!” With their iPhones at the ready for selfies, the trio of fans makes its way toward her to say hello. It’s Dec. 22, 2013, the same week as the launch of Beyoncé’s surprise album and five months since the Netflix series catapulted Cox into a whole new sphere of visibility. The black kid in Mobile, Ala., who became a fast runner in order to avoid bullies hurling the word “sissy” like a stone is now the woman strangers point at in public just before asking for autographs and pictures. A striking figure in her coral dress, Cox greets the girls with the kind of warmth I heard in her voice a few days earlier.

“Oh, so we’re going in!” she chuckled when I asked her about leaving Alabama. It was 8 a.m. in Los Angeles where Cox was filming, but after months of waking up at 5 or 6 a.m. to be on set, an early morning phone interview about her life and career was, apparently, not a problem. “Well, OK! Let’s go in.”

People, even the kind of people we crown as breakout stars, don’t come out of nowhere. So, how did Laverne Cox, actress, writer and transgender advocate, happen? “I just knew I had to get out of Alabama. And this isn’t to disparage the South, but for me and my journey. I needed to be away to figure out who I was.” That journey — from a preteen delivering speeches at Bethel African Episcopal Church in Mobile, to a regular on the ’90s club scene in New York, to the first black trans woman on a reality television show, to a role on one of Netflix’s hit shows — is not all that different from the twists and turns countless actors take on the road to stardom with one crucial exception: “The system isn’t really set up to have these conversations about intersectionality and social justice when you’re an actress. I always feel like someone is going to come along and say, ‘OK, this has gone on for too long. We need to get rid of this girl.’” Laverne laughs at herself then, but it’s not false humility I hear so much as a woman very aware of just how high the stakes are for her.

After years of bullying, culminating in a suicide attempt at age 11, Cox begged her mother to put her in a performing arts school. Her mother, a teacher, eventually agreed. That change, Cox says, saved her life. When I ask her about the bullying, she admits, “I’ve been talking about that so much lately.” In an interview with I’m From Driftwood she elaborated: “Whenever something would happen [at school] and my mother would find out, she would yell at me and say ‘Well, why didn’t you fight back? […] What are you doing to make them treat you like that?’” There isn’t pain in her voice this morning so much as a clear interest in moving on. Instead of going into particulars, she simply tells me, “If you have something you love, that will get you through.” For Cox, that love was about dance and theater.

She studied theater at Indiana University briefly before transferring to Marymount College in Manhattan. She has refined the art of laughing off questions about her age, so let’s just say she landed in New York in the 1990s. “I had this idea of moving to New York and, like, within a year, I’d be a star. [laughs] That was my naïveté. I thought I was going to take the city by storm. And that did not happen.” [more laughter] What did happen was an introduction to the city’s club scene — no drinking, no drugs, she interjects — which allowed her to do her “gender thing.”



“I mean, 10 years ago, I could go to Lot 61 [the now-defunct Chelsea nightclub]. I wasn’t famous. I wasn’t anybody really. I was just doing me. And they’d let me in because I had my own look and I was doing my own thing. I met a lot of people who kind of introduced me to myself.” Cox points out that nightclubs have traditionally been a space where queer people, trans women in particular, can explore gender with relative safety.

In the 1970s, Candy Darling, a trans model and Warhol muse, considered this very scene her stomping grounds. The same goes for the 1990s for trans icon Amanda Lepore, who is credited with inspiring a great deal of photographer David LaChapelle’s work. As Lepore writes about going to nightclubs after her gender reassignment surgery, “I started going out all the time and became a star overnight — the girl of the minute. It felt so good to finally be appreciated.”

Cox says it’s not a coincidence that trans women become underground “muses.” “There’s this freak factor where you become this thing for people to gawk at. And I feel like it started with Andy Warhol and Candy Darling. There’s this interview where Warhol is talking with her and he says ‘Candy is a man.’ And I’m like — I didn’t know Candy Darling, obviously — but I’m pretty sure she didn’t think of herself as a man.” Cox observes. “Andy Warhol was very much exploiting her trans identity and you see that in the New York clubs still. And I’ve been a part of that.”

That trans women are often conflated as being drag queens certainly doesn’t help, nor does the insistence of many drag queens, RuPaul among them, referring to other queens as “trannies.”

“I’ve worked in clubs where I know now I was being exploited. But I needed to make a living. And, like, look: The unemployment rate for trans people of color is four times the national average. We often find ourselves doing what we have to do to survive and I’ve certainly found myself doing what I have to do to survive in New York. But I guess that’s capitalism.”

The balancing act between opportunity and exploitation is something Cox has had to negotiate throughout her career. (“I’ve literally played a prostitute seven times,” Cox told BuzzFeed last July in an interview timed with the premiere of Orange Is the New Black.) Which brings us to Laverne Cox’s best known role prior to Orange Is the New Black, her appearance as a contestant on the VH1’s I Want to Work for Diddy in 2008.

“I never wanted to do a reality television show.” Cox admits. “But, at the same time, for years I wondered what it would be like for a trans person to be on a show like MTV’s The Real World. I just never imagined I’d be that person.” [laughs] The show, a hip-hop take on Donald Trump’s The Apprentice, featured 13 people vying to become P. Diddy’s personal assistant. A short film challenge in Episode 4 features Cox chasing down and tackling an overweight man dressed in a purple hat and cape known as “The Applesauce Bandit.”

Cox says she knew what she was getting into as well as her limits: “I remember being really conscious of not wanting to fight with another black woman on camera. I did an interview and the producers were like, “Well, this [other black woman on the show] said this about you. What do you have to say about that?” And I said I’m not fighting with another black woman on TV. Even during my elimination episode, when it came down to myself and another black woman, my mother — after watching — said, “Why didn’t you defend yourself?” And I just didn’t want to give television the satisfaction of seeing two black women going at it. We see that so much.”



Her concern wasn’t unfounded. The first name of Omarosa Manigault, a black woman who competed on The Apprentice in 2004, is still reality TV shorthand for “angry black woman.” And few mediums have seized upon the trope of the entertainingly enraged black woman quite like reality television. Combine that tendency with the way television and film continue to depict trans women as pariahs (or worse), and Cox’s experience on the show is nothing short of a marvel. Though the actress admits, “Being known as the first black trans woman to appear on a reality TV show is a dubious distinction in a lot of ways.”

Her appearance on I Want to Work for Diddy came at a time when Cox says her career was all but nonexistent. “I’d done some off-Broadway theater, independent films, student films, but I hadn’t had a breakthrough. So a lot of it was about advancing my career professionally. And I just thought it was so powerful, you know. Diddy, a black mogul, embracing me, a black trans woman, on national television.” The overwhelmingly positive experience on the show, as well as the emails she received from trans women inspired by seeing one of their sisters on television, convinced Cox to take an even bolder step: producing and starring in a reality television show of her own.

VH1’s TRANSform ME featured Cox and a team of trans women giving cisgender women “internal and external” makeovers. Once again aware of the problems with the medium she was stepping into, Cox hoped to give the makeover format a makeover of its own. “What I don’t like about makeover shows is that so often it’s about dictating what women should do and reinforcing really outdated ideas of femininity. And I hate that stuff. I hate that shit. I’ll say it. [laughs] I hate that shit. So, I wanted my show to be different.”

Shot in 2009, the show premiered in March 2010 with Jessica Simpson’s show as the lead-in. Cox says the show was intended to be a kind of “gateway drug” to introducing mainstream audiences to trans women and their stories.

“You know, there hadn’t been a show with trans women on VH1 before. We all felt like we were doing something important, the cast and the crew,” Cox says. “And then when the show premiered, we didn’t have any viewers!” What’s worse, she says, is that many viewers didn’t even realize Cox and her cast members were transgender. The show Cox had hoped would lead to a cultural breakthrough regarding trans issues barely made a blip on the radar, and the attention it did get was often critical.

Trans women, in particular, took issue with the show’s premise. As Cox explains, “The critique was — and now, I think it was right — that the premise of the show presupposes that all trans women are hyper-feminine and that trans people exist for the entertainment of cis people.” Like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy before it, TRANSform Me is certainly part of a “magical queer makeover” genre. In addition to RuPaul’s Drag Race, Logo currently is running episodes of RuPaul’s Drag U, which features drag queens giving women “drag makeovers” to help them get in touch with their self-confidence. In all three reality television shows, LGBT people exist for the sole purpose of helping straight people work out their self-esteem issues. It’s like the “magical negro” trope but with glitter.

Talking about the show’s poor reception brings up insecurities that Cox says she still faces however far she has come. “I still walk down the street and will hear people say ‘That’s a man.’ So, yeah, I’ve been bullied and harassed by cisgender people, but I also have gotten criticism from some trans people because I’m not passable. I look trans.”



The issue of trans people passing has received particular attention in media recently, in no small part due to Grantland’s now infamous “Dr. V” feature, which outed the story’s subject — a trans woman who had been passing for years — and allegedly played a role in her suicide. To people who suggest a trans person not wanting to be outed is deceptive, Cox counters, “Being able to walk down the street and not having strangers recognize you as trans is about survival. We become targets for violence. So, I absolutely understand trans women who want to live under the radar. ” She cites the example of Islan Nettles who died in 2013 after being beaten by a group of men in Harlem who confronted her on the street after realizing she was trans.

In the midst of talking about reality television or more recent projects, Cox weaves in asides about the implications of New York City’s stop-and-frisk policy, the lack of HIV/AIDS research regarding trans women, unemployment rates, and misogyny into our discussion with an ease (and command) you might not expect from an up-and-coming actor.

And OK, I’ll admit it: I caught myself saying “Yaaass!” a few times during our conversation. It’s difficult, frankly, not to be moved by what Laverne Cox says and the ferocity with which she says it. You can hear the experience of someone well versed in both “call and response” and the nuances of advocating for herself in an arguably antagonistic industry.

And though the television and film industry may not be “set up,” as Cox says, for such earnest conversations about trans issues and social justice, her hearty embrace of the “personal as political” ethos is perfect for a show like Orange Is the New Black.

“Because Orange is set in a prison, it’s an inherently political show. You can’t even talk about America without talking about prisons,” says Cox. Her character, Sophia Burset, is a former firefighter who is in prison after committing fraud to pay for her transition. When the prison begins to withhold Sophia’s estrogen pills, she confronts the warden. “This is an emergency,” Sophia says during the scene.

“What’s interesting about Sophia’s storyline,” Cox says, “is that, usually when we see trans people on screen their stories are all about their transition, but this is a health care issue. And just because you’re in prison doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have health care.” Cox says Sophia’s relationship with her wife and son is what she finds most fascinating, and that the topic will be explored more in the show’s second season, which airs this June. I wouldn’t be the first person to point to the irony in a show about a women’s prison becoming a critical darling in large part due the diversity of female characters and stories it examines. Cox says it isn’t a coincidence. “Everything about the prison-industrial complex is designed to dehumanize the women who are incarcerated. So, it means so much to me that our show is about doing the exact opposite.”

Like Candace Cane before her, Cox bears the burden of having to succeed on Orange not just as an actress, but as a living breakthrough. It is still the norm for transgender characters in movies and television shows to be played by people who are not trans. Notably, when Jean-Marc Vallée, the director of Dallas Buyers Club, was asked if he ever considered casting a trans person in the role that ultimately earned Jared Leto a Golden Globe and Oscar, he said, “Never. [Are] there any transgender actors? I’m not aiming for the real thing. I’m aiming for an experienced actor who wants to portray the real thing.” The sentiment is as unfortunate as it is typical.

However far we’ve come, there’s still so much work to do. And Laverne Cox, for one, is busy, sometimes to the point of near exhaustion. “Being overwhelmed is a blessing because it means you have things going on!” she says with a hearty laugh when I ask about her most recent film Musical Chairs, in which she plays a disabled trans woman. The film, set in the world of wheelchair ballroom dancing, was released in select cities nationwide and is available on HBO.

And, if it’s even possible, Cox becomes even more animated when asked about Free CeCe! — the documentary she is currently co-producing about CeCe McDonald. In 2012, McDonald, a trans woman, was sentenced to 41 months in a men’s prison after stabbing the man who attacked her during a hate crime. McDonald was eventually released after serving 19 months of her sentence and Cox was there at the prison gates to greet her. The film, Cox says, will explore McDonald’s story but also examine the frequency of violence against trans women of color. As she begins to reflect on McDonald’s case, as well as the death of Islan Nettles, Cox stops herself and sighs. “I’m kind of tired of talking about trans women being killed at a disproportionate rate, but it just keeps happening. And we’re not doing enough about it.”

When Laverne Cox talks about trans women of color, she calls them her “sisters.” “I want to say their names because they’re my sisters and I love them,” she tells me. The dissonance between her personal success and what she calls “a state of emergency for trans people” is something Cox is still figuring out. In what she considers one of the best professional years of her life, Cox has seen two of her sisters die. She laughs a bit to herself as she shares stories about them. It’s a hard-earned kind of laughter, the sound of a woman who knows that breaking through is the only option.



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When the 4.4-magnitude temblor struck Monday morning, KTLA-TV anchors Chris Schauble and Megan Henderson were live on the air. They did what the experts recommend: "Drop, cover and hold on."

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The last question you should be asking yourself when you're cruising Target's website and looking at pictures of the models showcasing the clothes is: "Where is her vagina?"

And yet, that's almost definitely what ran through people's minds when they stumbled across this horribly (and that's an understatement) photoshopped pic of a model wearing a Junior's bikini. Obviously they were going for that whole thigh gap look that people disturbingly crave, but they forgot to make sure that her uterus remained intact.

Young women, to be clear, you do not want your undercarriage to be this skinny. Because a huge chunk of it is missing, and you need that to reproduce, among other things.

Oh, but wait. That's not the only part of the photo that's embarrassingly hacked up. Take a look at Target's attempt to make her arms and waist a bit skinnier:


Girl, there are spikes coming out of your skin! Get that checked out. What's the prognosis for jagged edges popping out of your body?

Jezebel even found photoshops very similar to these on other swimsuit models on the site. Parents, please let your young daughters know that boxy spaces in between your legs and spikes popping out from your body are not a symbol of real beauty.

The Target fail (which has since been smartly removed from their site) was first noticed by blogilates.com, and they have a pretty cool conspiracy theory that whoever was assigned to photoshop these models did a horrible job on purpose as an act of rebellion against being forced to make skinny girls even skinnier. Let's hope that's what actually happened, because that's awesome.

Either that or a fourth-grader got ahold of these photos and Target just said "meh" and ran with them.

We're expecting a public apology from Target in 3…2…1…

Source

This is embarrassing. I wasn't aware that Miranda Kerr was a freelance graphic designer

Mariska Hargitay plays a sex crimes detective on Law and Order: SVU, but now the actress is taking her support for victims to another level by producing an upcoming documentary about rape kit backlog.

The documentary, Shelved, will focus on the many rape kits Detroit has failed to analyze and what can be done to stop the backlog from continuing. Rape kits are procedurally given to rape victims immediately after the reported crime and, when analyzed, often lead to identifying the DNA of the alleged attacker and then to the ultimate conviction of that individual. But according to The Detroit News, under-staffing and high costs have led to thousands of rape tests going unanalyzed in Detroit — among many other places. Hargitay wants to fix this.

This isn’t the first time Hargitay has shown interest in fighting sexual abuse. In 2004, Hargitay founded the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization that supports victims of sexual crimes, such as child abuse or domestic violence.

News of Hargitay’s involvement with the film comes on the heels of last week’s White House announcement of an initiative that would put $35 million toward analyzing untested rape kits and other efforts to reduce sexual crime and support victims.

No date for Shelved is set yet. Others involved in the project include director Marc Levin, producer Trish Adlesic, and Joyful Heart Foundation CEO Maile Zambuto.

EW

When men force unwanted sexual attention on women in bars, the problem isn't that the guy is drunk. Instead, a study finds, men target women who have been drinking and may be seen as more vulnerable.

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Michelle Obama is heading to Pawnee.The first lady will guest star on the season finale of Parks and Recreation, NBC announced Thursday. The one-hour season-six closer is slated to air Thursday, April 24 at 8 p.m.source

The attorney general has ordered "full and equal protection" for such couples, a move that has far-reaching repercussions for how they're treated in federal proceedings.

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George Clooney is planning "downright dirty" payback for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's Golden Globes gag about him, already humorously swiping at the women via his "Monuments Men" costar Matt Damon.

Clooney, whose "Gravity" role played nicely into their joke about him rarely dating women his own age, put the women on notice last month following the memorable jape. More recently, he benevolently derided the hosts with stationery that he had made to impersonate Damon.

"I've already started the ball rolling. I used Matt, sorry," Clooney said in a town-hall-style interview for Entertainment Weekly Radio with his "Monuments Men" costars. The interview will air on Friday.

It turns out that Clooney, 52, obtained stationery in Damon's name and sent a letter to Fey as his costar calling them out for the jokes they also made about Damon during the hosting gig. The women, who have long-running rapport with Damon, infamously dubbed him a "garbage" man among the A-listers in attendance. (Incidentally, Clooney did not attend this year's award show.)

"I send her a letter going, 'Dear Tina, Listen..." Clooney said, laughing. "It's 'from' Matt and it says, 'Look, it sounds hypocritical because I laughed about jokes about George and Leo, but that's sort of what people think about them.... But when you call me a garbage man it just seems like low-hanging fruit. It seems like an easy joke. I don't want an apology or anything else. I just want you to know that my kid now calls me 'the garbage man.'"

Following the letter, Damon received an enormous delivery of two fruit baskets last week, with each one bearing a letter signed from Fey and Poehler.

Damon, 43, ever the innocent bystander, recalled the first letter -- marked "1" -- as a long apology letter, saying the women said, "I thought you of all people could take a joke and listen we're both really sorry."

However, the "30 Rock" and "Parks & Recreation" stars, who will be hosting the Golden Globes again next year, were already a step ahead of the guys.

According to Damon, the second letter said, "If by chance you didn't send us that letter and it was from George Clooney, please let him know that you've got to get up a little earlier in the day to fool a couple of girls like this. We're grown-ass comedians."

With that, they told Clooney to step up his game, and he happily obliged.

"She said step it up," Clooney said, "That's the appetizer and what's coming now, the main course, is pretty brutal."

The "main course," so to speak, has already gotten underway, though Clooney didn't elaborate on what the prank will consist of.

"This one is one that I have it in my hotel room set -- taking pictures and stuff -- I'm sitting there like, 'If I do this, this is downright dirty.' I have to think if I'm actually going to do it or not," he said and laughed.

Oh, we hope he does...

SOURCE

Bill Nye, "the science guy," and Creation Museum founder Ken Ham will challenge each other's views. Their conversation will be webcast live from Kentucky. The idea for the debate arose after Nye posted a video warning against teaching creationism to kids and Ham responded with a video of his own.

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The number of bodies found by university researchers represents 24 more remains than official records say should be there. Researchers used ground-penetrating radar to locate the bodies over the course of three months.

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Like many cities nationwide, Cleveland is sending thousands of decades-old rape kits for testing. Investigators expect to reopen as many overlooked rape cases, but for some, justice comes too late.

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Citing definite gains in cost and efficiency, a Wisconsin county used 38,000 gallons of liquid cheese brine on its icy roads last winter. The homegrown product is a "win-win" for a nearby dairy and the county, a transportation official says.

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Massachusetts authorities pulled over a suspicious vehicle only to find 1,250 of the packets, some of them that were also stamped "Kurt Cobain."

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