True Detective is one of those cultural monoliths that can seemingly only be produced by HBO, Netflix, or AMC. The show was an instant hit, using its semi-spiritual mystery to stay on the tips of everyone's tongues and provide a capstone for the McConaissance. We couldn't get enough of the Yellow King, the weird guy in his underwear, time being a flat circle, the True Detective season two joke pairings, and all the rest.
This scene pretty much sealed its status as an instant classic with staying power. This is masterful.
Then, season two's dead cat bounced onto our small screens with a sickening crunch. The only bright spot was Colin Farrell's legitimately insane Ray Velcoro. The worst part of a terrible show was the line, “Thing is, you ain’t that thing no more. What you used to was.”
We didn't really think it was coming back. I first heard it was last Thursday, when an agent let slip that he had placed someone in the writer's room. Now we know more, and The Hollywood Reporter writes that horse racing enthusiast David Milch will co-write the season alongside showrunner Nic Pizzolatto.
Milch, if you're not excited about him, is a genius. He co-created NYPD Blue and HBO's masterpiece Deadwood. He's also quite the character, maybe one of the only writers with a personality big enough and a resume long enough to tell Pizzolatto he ought to sit down and shut up. Milch has had his share of trouble with HBO in the past, with the Dustin Hoffman horse racing drama Luck cancelled after horses kept dying, but this seems like the perfect re-entry into the HBO family. He'll shepherd a formerly dead show back to glory. If it works he gets all of the credit, if it fails he gets none of the blame.
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Well, it appears The Daily Mail has finally outdone itself. After reporting rumours that First Lady Melania Trump used to be a sex worker (and getting hit with a whopping lawsuit in response), the British tabloid's latest cover reduces the leaders of the U.K. to...a headline about their legs?
It's almost too facepalm-worthy to believe, but alas, here it is. The cover features British Prime Minister Theresa May and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon alongside the headline "Nevermind Brexit, who won Legs-it!" This is a headline that, aside from being astoundingly sexist and objectifying and generally in poor taste both politically and journalistically, is also a question. "Who won Legs-it?" should end in a question mark, dear tabloid reporters. At least punctuate your horrible misogyny correctly next time, please.
For those interested in the actual news story behind the stocking-clad calves of these highly qualified and professional politicians: The ministers held a somewhat tense meeting during May's trip to Scotland, during which they discussed the Brexit timeline and Sturgeon's hope for a new vote on Scottish independence.
"I have said that I want people in Scotland to have an informed choice when the terms of Brexit are clear," Sturgeon said, according to the BBC.
But May wants to keep the U.K. intact: "As Britain leaves the European Union, and we forge a new role for ourselves in the world, the strength and stability of our Union will become even more important," she said.
But oh well never mind all that boring world-changing political nonsense, let's look at some lady legs and vote about them!
We could go on and on about the many unjust and inappropriate ways that women and our bodies are objectified — in politics, in other workplaces, on the street — every day. But, as is so often the case, Twitter really says it best with this one. So here you go.
Breaking news: two women have four legs between them. Forget their brains - utterly immaterial. United by being unwitting pin-ups pic.twitter.com/RY64nVMLyF
It's 2017. Two women's decisions will determine if United Kingdom continues to exist. And front page news is their lower limbs. Obviously pic.twitter.com/AMp0YvtISa
.@EverydaySexism My 16 year old asked if it's real. Yep, hard to believe that this is a national newspaper's political reporting in 2017 https://t.co/63yZDI9vAL
'Legs-it'. The Mail is literally that man on the last train home who leans over stinking of piss and brandy and tells you to cheer up. https://t.co/tBYHRy2abK
Spoiler Alert: This article contains plot details about last night's episode of Bates Motel. Read at your own risk.
It's one of the most famous scenes in the history of cinema, and Rihanna handled it her way.
For months the singer's fans and viewers of Bates Motel have been anticipating her turn as iconic Hitchcock blonde Marion Crane, portrayed by Janet Leigh in the original Psycho. Crane famously checks into the Bates Motel, hops in the shower, and ends up on the receiving end of Norman Bates' blade.
At least, that's what happens in the movie. Last night the A&E drama presented the shower scene with a killer twist: Rihanna's Marion (who rocks a cherry-red bob, not a blonde pixie) steps into the shower... then quickly steps right back out.
“This drip is shit," she curses the motel's plumbing.
Marion's married boyfriend, Sam Loomis (Austin Nichols), isn't so picky about water pressure. When Freddie Highmore's killer Norman/Norma slips into Marion's room, it's Sam, the hero of the original Hitchcock film, who is splashing away. He's the one who ends up being slashed to death, not Marion. She gets away, free of her two-timing lover and with a shitload of her company's cash in her possession.
" Obviously the setup for the shower scene with Marion is very similar to the movie, and since the setting is so familiar, I really didn’t want to make it just an exercise of copying Hitchcock frame for frame," the episode's director, Phil Abraham, explained of the plot twist to Entertainment Weekly.
"Rihanna was great," he added of the star. "We had her for a very limited time, and she had a serious amount of heavy lifting in terms of work and page count to do. I think we shot over 38 pages with her being in just about everything in five days. One of the most fun things was to see what a die-hard fan of the show she was — walking her through our main house set was a blast as she was literally freaking out and having a real fan attack. That was a lot of fun to see.”
Indeed. Too soon to pitch a spinoff?
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Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford are television pros. And part of being professionals is knowing how to defuse rumors of a feud before they have chance to detonate into something actual. The speculation started that maybe they weren't best friends when Hoda posted this photo of Kathie Lee visiting Hoda's new adopted daughter Haley Joy.
"My girl met my girl and my face exploded!" Kotb captioned the snap.
She had posted photos of all the other Today luminaries visiting her daughter, adopted on February 21, so why not Kathie Lee until now? Well, it's not because Kathie Lee hadn't been to see her.
"Now, that is the picture of Hoda all the time. Every time you see her," Kathie Lee said on Today on Tuesday morning. "But somehow she's forgetting that I came to see her and the baby two days after she got home with the baby. This is not the first time I'm seeing Haley Joy."
That makes sense. I don't take pictures of my best friends every time I hang out with them. The only people that do that are people with a lot of Twitter followers that want to prove that they exist as something more than text and a computer screen.
"I wanted to say that I've been there. That's the way rumors get I guess. Kathie Lee and Hoda aren't really good friends," Kathie Lee went on. "Sometimes people want to believe that kind of garbage. Not true. Don't even start."
Bam. Feud quashed. Ryan Murphy, stay the heck away. These are pros here, and they won't be sucked into our speculation game.
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Dyslexia gave Octavia Spencer a leg up on her classmates as a kid, as she recalled in an interview with WENN.
The Oscar-winning actress opened up about her experiences as an adult living with the disorder and how her childhood teachers played vital role in how she's handled dyslexia as an adult. For starters, Spencer was informed that dyslexia wasn’t some kind of impairment. It was simply another way of seeing the world.
"I was a dyslexic child and am a dyslexic adult; that doesn't really mean that you're not intelligent — it just means that your brain functions differently," Octavia said to WENN. She then described how she was tested as a gifted student due to her learning abilities being more auditory than visually inclined.
"I just remember thinking differently. I could solve puzzles quicker than the average child. I would start with the mazes at the end and go to the front and be done in, like, 30 seconds. My deductive reasoning was very important," she said.
This isn’t the first time Spencer has discussed growing up with dyslexia. The Alabama native has shared stories about how reading changed her life as a young girl and how the mystery series Encyclopedia Brown pretty much saved her life. Spencer would then go on to study the arts in college.
“You have to allow kids to be kids. You also need to nurture their thirst for knowledge. I don’t know that allowing them to skip grades is good because then they end up in a grade with people who are much more mature than they are. I had great teachers and I think teachers should be paid as much as athletes,” she said.
She continued, “When you think about it they spend the majority of the day with your kids so they should be compensated. They’re also teaching them and shaping their views about themselves. I feel very fortunate that in the public school system in Montgomery, Alabama, I had some wonderful teachers.”
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The number of weekends until summer arrives is slowly ticking down, which means festival season is just around the corner. While we're still shedding a few tears over the fact that we'll be missing Queen Bey at Coachella this year, our level of hype hasn't diminished whatsoever. Music festivals are prime for Instagram content, let's be honest; it's the best time of the year to come in strong when it comes to fashion and beauty. For everything you'll be seeing from Coachella to Gov Ball this year, scroll down to watch our editors give you the lowdown in our Facebook live video.
In beauty's corner, you're going to the need classics to keep the sweat and grime at bay with blotting papers and hand sanitizer. When you need a little hair refresh on the go, skip the travel sized bottles and pick a dry shampoo pen instead (Yes, you heard us; a pen.) Still skeptical? Bad, Baby's shampoo pen holds over 200 sprays, so you'll be set all weekend. But as Refinery29's beauty writer Khalea Underwood pointed out, we didn't pay $300 "to not do the most" in terms of boundary-pushing beauty. She shows exactly how to kick up our beauty routine a notch with all things shimmery: This season, you're going to want to grab an all purpose glitter and artfully apply it a la Pat McGrath to your lips, and your hair roots. If you're looking for something truly original, though, Underwood gives us a peek at Milk Makeup's tattoo stamps (for only $12!). They come in every cute shape you'll need: stars, hearts, happy faces.
For your festival fashion picks, this season is all about upgrading the classics you know and love. We're making simple swaps by trading in a bodysuit for one of the trendy one-piece swimsuits we're seeing this season, specifically from celeb favorite Solid & Striped. They're the perfect way to be ready for an impromptu pool party invite, and best of all, they're totally sweat-proof. Other easy upgrades include grabbing for a graphic baseball gap in lieu of a flower crown, and keeping your feet dry and dust-free in Timberland 's new pastel waterproof boots. And in case you missed it, we had an exclusive reveal of Coachella frequenter Olivia Holt's upcoming collaboration with Perverse sunglasses. They'll be released on April 15, and each pair rings in under $55. We're putting our names on the waitlist for at least a pair or two.
To fully round out your packing list, R29 video producers Emily Curl and Serena Kerrigan show us the extra fun accessories you'll need. Body Bauble has an exclusive festival pack of stick-on jewels to add some drama to your look. Another helpful addition: a cute graphic disposable camera and a novelty towel to feel road-trip ready. To see all of the products you'll need this festival season, check out our Facebook live video below, and let us know in the comments which ones you'll be wearing!
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We've often wondered what goes on behind closed doors on Fixer Upper. We know that Chip and Joanna Gaines are wizards at re-envisioning a house in ways we didn't think were possible. We also know that they're likely using some standard reality television tricks and are apparently devout megachurch Christians.
Sure, they don't really help the people house-hunt, but the miracles they work are still real. There's no faking design instinct.
Still, we wonder: What about the rooms we don't see? Are they fixed up? Or is the house in sterling condition except for a couple dank dungeons that are, I don't know, ruled by a malevolent bug king who's slowly trying to annex the rest of the house. (Just spitballing.)
Joanna Gaines has answered at least one of those questions in a clip from her upcoming show Fixer Upper: Behind the Design provided exclusively to People. Essentially, the rooms that aren't on TV are the Gaines' staging areas. The clip shows a space filled by buckets, bins, tools, candles, rugs, and various miscellany.
“Most of the time when it’s the reveal, people wonder, what about the other bedrooms? Well, this is one of the bedrooms,” she says. “It’s finished, we’ve got a new light fixture in here, we’ve got all new trim and paint. It’s really pretty, except all of my stuff is in here. So typically two to three of the rooms you don’t see in the reveal look just like this.”
That answers that, we suppose.
Watch the clip below.
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People say that learning something's true name robs it of power. That's the basis of myths like Rumplestiltskin, and of movie exorcisms.
"The name is the thing, and the true name is the true thing," legendary sci-fi writer Ursula K. LeGuin wrote in her short story "The Rule of Names." "To speak the name is to control the thing."
French post-structuralist philosopher Jacques Derrida theorized that by naming something, we both preserve its essence in history and annihilate its uniqueness by obliterating inscribing it in the imperfect world of representative language.
"The name: What does one call thus?" he wrote in his "On the Name." "What does one understand under the name of name? And what occurs when one gives a name? What does one give then? One does not offer a thing, one delivers nothing, and still something comes to be, which comes down to giving that which one does not have, as Plotinus said of the Good. What happens, above all, when it is necessary to sur-name, renaming there where, precisely, the name comes to be found lacking? What makes the proper name into a sort of sur-name, pseudonym, or cryptonym at once singular and singularly untranslatable?"
All this to say, we just learned Schmidt's name on New Girl and we're having trouble coping. That's because, drumroll, it's Winston. Winston is Schmidt. Schmidt is Winston. We're all everybody else, all at once. It's like a Terrence Malick movie.
There you go.
Twitter went pretty nuts.
I was doing so well before I learned Schmidt's real name was Winston
The latest to get the multicolor treatment isn't a trendy latte or sugary snack. Instead, Real Simple shared a recipe for Unicorn Summer Rolls that has zero artificial colors and definitely won't give you a one-way ticket to the dentist's chair. You can't say that about many unicorn-themed treats.
Real Simple reports that a food blogger from the Netherlands created rainbow noodle bowls by cooking rice noodles in cabbage and vegetable-infused water. But the problem with that is those vibrant noodles don't taste very good without a sauce or broth. We don't have to tell you that those things definitely don't make for good #foodporn.
That's where these summer rolls come in. Using the same technique, Grace Elkus, the magazine's digital food editor, created a rainbow food that looks great in photos and tastes great, too, because all the flavor comes from the other ingredients in the roll: the fresh vegetables and green herbs.
To get the purple rice noodles, all you have to do is cook a few cups of purple cabbage in water. The longer you cook it, the deeper the color will be. The magazine recommends five minutes for the perfect purple hue. After removing the shredded vegetable matter from the water, drop in the noodles. The natural dyes will imbue the rice noodles with color. After they're cooked, just squirt on some lime juice and you'll see the color brighten even more.
And if you want your rolls to boast even more color, you can use that water to dip the rice paper. It'll lend a more subtle shade, but you can rest assured that it'll show up, even with #nofilter. Roll the chopped red and yellow peppers, bright green lettuce leaves, and fresh herbs along with the rice noodles in the blush-colored rice paper and you've got an Insta-ready meal that looks great and tastes fresh, too.
While all those vibrant flavors don't need much else, Real Simple says that a peanut sauce can't hurt — and it won't mess with any of your snapshots, either.
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Flashy window displays, celebrity campaigns, and even experiential experiments aren't enough to get shoppers to actually come into stores. After all, it takes a lot to pry people away from online shopping in their pajamas. But a new study by First Insight showed that there's one thing that stores can do that'll bring customers in by the droves — and it's pretty simple: Have a sale. Quartz reports that "45% of American women need to see a markdown of 41% or more to even enter a store."
First Insight pulled data from a range of stores, including Dick's Sporting Goods, Pier 1, and even the Home Shopping Network. The company surveyed over 1,300 American consumers via game-like surveys that looked at how shoppers reacted to different markdowns. The research team collected data from men and women during a period between January 2013 to January 2016. The results? Average consumers are willing to pay 76% of the full price when it comes to women's clothing. And even though more and more shopping is being done online, two-thirds of consumers said that they'd rather shop in brick-and-mortar stores after seeing markdowns online. Armed with smartphones, shoppers are checking other stores and comparing prices while they're out shopping, so retailers all feel the pressure to put things on sale.
Researchers also noted that brands can take most of the blame for this behavior. Shoppers just aren't seeing the value in paying full price, especially since so many have grown accustomed to waiting for things to go on sale. First Insight's CCO, Jim Shea, told Quartz that shoppers might even be getting tired of that waiting game. "Ultimately, brands and retailers need to get out of this discounting spiral," Shea said. "I think that it's a sort of drug that the consumers are becoming somewhat numb to and the retailers are going to have to find other ways to get people to buy."
Shea adds that to get shoppers in stores, retailers should concentrate more on what's actually on shelves, not the stores themselves. By offering things that aren't available online or at other stores, shoppers will feel a greater urgency to get out of those pajamas and step into those fancy shops. That way, not only will customers be more interested in shopping, they'll be more likely to pay full price.
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Kevin Hart has taken on a lot in his career: the Rock; David Beckham; that huge stand-up special, What Now?; and about a zillion movies a year. Through it all, he handles it like a pro — you don't even see him sweat unless you follow him on Instagram, where he documents his intense fitness routine. But one thing he's not prepared to handle? His daughter, 12-year-old Heaven Hart, is growing up and starting to develop crushes. Oh, how time flies.
In an interview with E! News, Hart told host Maria Menounos that he wishes that he could implement some sort of No Boys policy, but understands that it's just not realistic. He explained that while he's willing to give his little girl anything she wants, he's not ready to handle her growing up and starting to explore the scary world of romance. In fact, he say's he's totally scared of it.
"This is the first time I'm dealing with this, so it's not like I have a ton of experience," Hart told Menounos. "My mom had two boys. It was me and my brothers, so this is me dealing with a girl at a different level. I mean this is my heart. I don't want to prohibit things, but she is a child, so you make sure she understands the parameters that she can and can't do."
Hart went on to say that his daughter actually talks to him about the boys she likes. (Enjoy that while it lasts, Hart.) And while he appreciates the open and honest conversations, it makes him mad and nervous to realize that he's not going to be able to control everything in his life. What does he have control over? The soccer-themed party that's on the calendar for Heaven's next birthday. Hart is set to play the goalie. We're not sure what that role entails, but we'll be patiently waiting for our invites.
The comedian added that since we're all living in the age of the internet, it's vastly different from what he experienced as a kid growing up. Throughout the interview, Hart's love for his daughter is clear — so while we'd love to hang out with him, any boys looking to capture Heaven's heart better prepare to deal with an overprotective pop.
"We're living in different times, so the way you could prohibit things back in the day, it's different now," he added. "The internet gives kids access to anything and everything. I laugh a lot at stuff at first, but then I give my dad speech, but you can't let them see you laugh."
Watch Hart gush over his daughter in the interview, below.
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It’s always cute to watch kids play together, but one dad got super emotional watching his daughter play with a little girl she didn’t know. The anonymous father, who shared the story on Reddit, took his sons and 12-year-old daughter, Arwen, to the park like usual. Arwen has autism and tends to keep to herself — and she’s extremely shy around strangers.
When a little girl named Ava approached the man to ask if she could play with his daughter, he explained that Arwen may not want to socialize and that Ava shouldn’t take it personally.
"I told the girl that Arwen doesn't talk, and that if she didn't want to play it wasn't the girl's fault... 'It's not that she doesn't like you, she just isn't comfortable with new people,’” he wrote on Reddit.
He figured Ava would ignore his daughter, but she was undeterred by his words and asked Arwen to play anyway. The dad was surprised and thrilled to see his daughter warm up to Ava immediately. She followed her new friend to the climbing wall and, when the girls played on the slides, Arwen looked back to make sure her new friend was right behind her.
“You have to understand that Arwen is 12 years old, and this is the first time she has ever interacted with a child that she doesn't see every day," he continued. "She even ignores most of her classmates. This was a huge deal for her."
When it was time to head home, Arwen didn’t just say goodbye to Ava — she gave her new friend a hug. The touching gesture made Arwen’s parents and even the teacher on the playground tear up immediately. (I’m not crying — there’s something in my eye.)
Watching his child form a bond with a stranger was incredibly touching, and he thanked Ava for her kindness. He said the girl’s look of surprise and confusion was what moved him most.
"It was obvious that it never occurred to her to treat Arwen differently than any other kid. I think that was what got me the most. I never thought I'd get to see her make a friend,” he explained.
Ava’s parents weren’t at the playground that day, but he wants them to know their daughter’s actions were more impactful than she realized. He concluded his post by praising her mom and dad for raising such an amazing child.
It looks like this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Internet boyfriends are hard to find and even harder to keep. And today, Twitter finally crossed one name off of its Imaginary Hubby List. That name was Oscar Isaac. ( Okay, maybe we crossed him off our list too.)
While there has been no official news announced, several news outlets are reporting that Isaac and his girlfriend, documentary filmmaker Elvira Lind, are indeed expecting.
The couple were spotted out and about recently in New York’s East Village, walking and holding hands. In several photos Lind appears in a colorful maxi dress, where she is very visibly pregnant.
While the two have been very private about their relationship, they’re not shy about a good PDA. While making his way to the Golden Globes stage in 2016, Isaac planted a big kiss on Lind, who was seated beside him. Many of Isaac’s fans responded with some pretty strong emotions. Some even responded, well, inappropriately. Alas, this was the first tier of Isaac fans’ hearts breaking 'round the web, as fans wondered just who the hell this mystery woman was kissing their man.
Lind then did what anyone dating one of People’s 2015 Sexiest Men Alive would do. She tweeted out a photo of the Star Wars actor having a lightsaber battle with Jacob Tremblay. Because tweeting out internet proof is modern dating 101.
Isaac has been in New York filming Life Itself, where he plays opposite Olivia Wilde, who is also pregnant. This will be the first child for both Lind and Isaac.
Below check out a few hilarious responses from a few fans...
Oscar Isaac is expecting his first child with his glamazon girlfriend. FML.
congrats to the internet's one time boyfriend, oscar isaac, who is gonna have a baby with his partner, documentarian elvira lind. pic.twitter.com/Mzv9pbnvOa
When I was 20, I was stoked to land a dream internship and single room in the nicest house on my college campus. Life is a little different for triple-threat entertainer and fashion designer Zendaya, who recently purchased her very first home in Northridge, California.
The five bedroom, five bathroom mansion is just as stylish as Zendaya herself. (I would expect nothing less.) According to Trulia, she bought the 4,155 square foot Mediterranean-style starter home for $1.4M — and one look at the photos puts even my Pinterest board to shame.
Zendaya hasn’t always lived in a luxurious home and she certainly doesn’t take it for granted. In fact, she’s still marveling at the fact that she gets to call the mansion her own.
“I’m from Oakland, humble beginnings. I have two parents as teachers, so I’ve never lived in a two-story house or a house with air-conditioning or a house with a pool, so this is crazy,” she said. “I have a staircase; it’s like the Cinderella spiral staircase. I actually have one.”
The Cinderella staircase isn’t the home’s only stunning feature. It also includes a chef-worthy kitchen, a massive swimming pool, an outdoor spa, and an expansive patio. (Something tells me Zendaya’s social gatherings are going to be the stuff of dreams.)
Zendaya’s master suite is fit for a queen, complete with a vanity and powder room, custom fireplace, and private balcony.
As one of the hardest-working young women in show business, Zendaya totally deserves to have a luxurious, beautiful space to come home to after those long days of filming and working on her new fashion line.
Now, if only I can find a way to score an invitation to her housewarming party.
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After some much-deserved time off following her shocking loss to Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton recently announced that she’s “ready to come out of the woods.” Never one to dally, she headed to San Francisco on Tuesday to speak at a conference for professional businesswomen. The former Secretary of State confirmed that she’ll remain in public life for an important reason — she’s not done fighting for the advancement of women's and girl’s rights, an issue that she’s repeatedly described as “the unfinished business of the 21st century.”
Although Clinton was candid about the fact that she’d prefer to be doing this work from the White House (I wish you were, too, Hillary), she maintained an upbeat message and didn’t deign to utter Trump’s name once.
"I’m fighting for a fairer, big-hearted, inclusive America. And the unfinished business of the 21st century can’t wait any longer," Clinton told the crowd of 3,500 women. "Now is the time to demand the progress we want to see…and I’ll be right there with you every step of the way.”
Echoing sentiments that she expressed in her gracious, heartbreaking concession speech, Clinton emphasized that she still believes America’s best days are yet to come.
"Where some see a dark vision of carnage, I see a light shining,” she told the crowd, adding that the country is well-positioned to take on the challenge of achieving economic and social equality for women.
As she addressed the audience of businesswomen, Clinton didn’t shy away from acknowledging the sexism that so many of them face in the workplace. She expressed empathy, but urged them to “get in the arena” anyway. And, if anyone knows about pushing through vicious, sexist attacks, it’s Clinton.
“It’s not like I didn’t know all the nasty things they were saying about me," Clinton said, referencing the historically brutal 2016 campaign. "Some of them were actually quite creative, ones I hadn’t heard before, but you just have to keep going."
Clinton didn’t state the specifics of her future plans, but she made one thing abundantly clear — she’s ready to return to public life and keep fighting for what she believes in.
"Obviously, the outcome of the election wasn’t the one I hoped for, worked for," she said. "But I will never stop speaking out."
Clinton’s not giving up, and neither should we. Personally, I take great comfort in knowing that she’ll be fighting for us and with us as we continue to work towards gender equality and an inclusive America.
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Last August, the internet went collectively bananas over a blog post titled, “How To Talk To A Woman Who Is Wearing Headphones. ” It was just as dumb and infuriating as it sounds. The blogger (a pick-up artist who claims to teach men, “how to make women feel INTENSE attraction for you”) offers a number of terrible tips on how to most effectively interrupt a woman’s day and force her into a conversation. It was one of those viral moments that uncomfortably underscores not only the casual misogyny women deal with every day, but also just how many men don’t even notice. In fact, I’d argue most women don’t notice it either — or at least don’t acknowledge it.
For one thing, when something happens every day, you treat it like...well, an everyday occurrence. You brush your teeth, buy a coffee, and turn away from the guy who briefly glances down your blouse at the milk station. If we had to feel and process and rage over each of these encounters every day, there wouldn’t be time for much else. Plus, it’s not our job to wake every un-woke dude who doesn’t get it; we have actual jobs to do. But sometimes, an idiotic blog posts comes along and we all have to point out the obvious.
That’s what The Americans did tonight. And I had to watch it twice before I realized it.
This week, Elizabeth and Philip get a new (but quite familiar) assignment. Gabriel ships them off to Kansas, where they’ll separately seduce two people involved in the on-going wheat investigation. Sexual espionage is their bread and butter, so this should be a breeze. But for some reason, they pause, look at each other, then ask Gabriel if anyone else can handle this one. They’ve got a lot on their plate.
“Why are they being so weird about this all of a sudden?” I ask my boyfriend, beside me on the couch. He shrugged and I shrugged back. Gabriel asks Elizabeth and Philip the same thing, because, obviously, the answer is no. They can’t get out of this; it’s their job.
Normally, they’re very good at it. Thus far, there hasn’t been a single mark they couldn’t bait and hook in a matter of minutes. Forget bloggers, these two are world-class, government-trained pick-up artists, but they’re also our protagonists — our “good guys.” The show has conditioned us to be on their side, even when Philip was luring a 15-year-old (something he struggled with, but never protested). That’s why it’s so confusing, and incredibly satisfying, to watch him falter.
Off we go to Kansas, where Philip finds his assignment, Deirdre, working out at the gym. She is, of course, wearing headphones, and Philip begins this bungled seduction by touching her arm and mouthing for her to take them off. (Way to be up on your pop culture references, writers! I see you!) The conversation that follows is a textbook example of why there is no right way to talk to a woman wearing headphones. You don’t. She put them on so she could listen to music, and not to random strangers who touch her at the gym.
“Are you a local?” Philip asks. “I’m gonna be coming back a bunch. I know nothing about Topeka. What should I do, like, when I’m not working?”
That’s the painful brilliance of the scene: It’s ridiculous, asking a stranger who’s minding her own business to drop that and take care of yours. But it’s also utterly typical. Women are fully accustomed to men confidently, carelessly approaching them out of the blue. Sometimes it’s a lewd remark on the street, and other times, it’s just a guy who has no problem barging into your time and space to claim some of it for his own. Like all women, Deirdre is used to this, and like most of us, she’s used to just going along to get along.
“I” — a pause, a deflated shrug — “spend time with my family.”
“Oh, you have kids?” Philip quickly replies before she can get her headphones back on.
And so on and so forth. Deirdre doesn’t warm up to him, but she can’t seem to be entirely impolite. The deadened familiarity of this exchange stands out all the more because it’s a first on The Americans. Deirdre is the only conquest who doesn’t instantly melt under Philip’s charm. I fucking love her for it, and I hate watching her sit there, riding it out: listening to him talk about himself, offering monosyllabic answers to his uninvited questions. I wish she would just tell him to leave her alone instead of simply not encouraging him. But then I remind myself to wish he’d have left her alone in the first place. And I remember that this is what I would do (have done, will likely do again) myself.
At first, it seems that Philip hates exploiting this ugly reality too, and that allows us, as the viewer, to hate him less for doing it. But then, he and Elizabeth regroup.
“Is it promising?” she asks.
“Maybe. If I don’t die of boredom first.”
Nope, never mind. Philip isn’t wringing his hands over having to harass his way into this woman’s life. He doesn’t seem concerned with why he’s doing it either (reminder: Deirdre may be complicit in causing a famine). He’s just sulking over being rejected. It can’t be him, surely. It’s that he got stuck with a dud.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth nabs her guy, Ben, with ease. She pulls a damsel-in-distress move in a health food store, spilling carob balls everywhere so he can swoop in and help. And also explain what carob is. Elizabeth mentions that she plans to go hiking, and oh, and he knows all about hiking too, so he can teach her how! (This is how guys who pick up women at gyms and health food stores must think the interaction is going to go, huh?) Elizabeth responds to his interest with glee, plays dumb about carob, and laughs and laughs at his half-assed jokes.
“How was your guy,” Philip asks her, back at home.
“I don’t know. Full of himself,” she answers, her tone unremarkable in reporting this unremarkable news. “We’re going hiking this weekend.”
It’s hard to read Philip’s stony face. Is he jealous of this man taking his wife on a hike? Is he envious, imagining this assignment being so much easier for her? It is, of course, in two important ways: A woman who wants to get hit on doesn’t have to do much but sit around and wait. (As if to underscore this point, she gives Philip a mini bottle of booze, explaining that a man on the plane bought it for her. “I made a big deal of telling him I’d give it to my husband.” Haha!) And while Philip seems more and more disillusioned with his homeland, Elizabeth has an unshakeable loyalty to the Soviet Union. The means and motivation are easier for her.
But when it comes time to seal the deal, she balks as well. And finally, we begin to understand why the Jennings’ are suddenly uncomfortable with this part of their job.
Paige goes over to Pastor Tim and Alice’s house to babysit. (There’s a great moment where the Pastor reveals his own condescending underbelly, but there’s so much gender stuff buried in this episode that I’d need 8,000 words and a PhD to cover it all properly.) After they leave, Paige begins to snoop, and it’s a touch more thorough than the routine babysitter snooping.
This scene is intercut with shots of Elizabeth and Ben, in a post-hike, pre-coital make-out session on his couch. You know things are getting serious because he stops to sensually remove her glasses (Jesus, writers, DO YOU FEEL SEEN YET?). Just as Ben reaches to unzip her jeans, Elizabeth stops him. It doesn’t appear to be a calculated move either; the excuse she makes is thin. She gets out of there, assuring him she likes him.
“You like him,” Philip pouts, when she reports back in their bed that night. This too is strange behavior for them. His sulking, her hesitancy, everything about their professional sex lives seems to have shifted now that Paige has entered the picture. No one has said it yet, but if she is following in their footsteps — as she seemed to be tonight — then this is what she’s headed for. The more they fill her in on, the more training she receives, the closer she comes toward this inevitability. For months, Elizabeth and Philip have been struggling to find the balance between raising their child and grooming her. They’ll have to pull the trigger soon.
All of this throws a stark relief on the reality of their situation — but also on reality, period. Even if Paige does not become a spy, she will one day be a woman, out there in the world. She will be subject to eyes on her body and hands fumbling with her zipper. She will be backed into conversations with men she doesn’t want to talk to, and she will likely be polite. She will shrug off their audacity and wait until they’re finished, rather than offend. She will accept drinks from strangers who don’t ask first, and make a joke about it. She will leave the house with headphones on, the volume turned up, loud.
Rapper, mogul, fashion designer, shade-throwing, tea-spilling talent Nicki Minaj has plenty on her pink plate, but the newest addition to the star's résumé is going to put her in the public eye in a whole new way.
People reports that Minaj, fresh off her beef with fellow rapper Remy Ma, has signed with Wilhelmina Models' celebrity division. That means that the undisputed queen of rap (her words!) will be on the same model boards as celebrity spawn Ellar Coltrane and Levi Dylan as well as fellow musicians Nick Jonas and Machine Gun Kelly.
Minaj announced the news on Instagram, writing, "I love the synergy between my music and how it inspires my fashion. My message is always about celebrating your own style. I’m thrilled and honored to have signed with Wilhelmina. They get me."
But what really cemented Minaj's status in the fashion sphere? Vogue profiled her following the big news. If that's not a solid-gold seal of approval, we don't know what is.
Minaj is no stranger to the fashion world. She's starred in campaigns for big names like Roberto Cavalli and has for legendary fashion photographers such as Mario Testino and Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. She's also a designer favorite. She attended the 2016 Met Gala alongside Jeremy Scott and often name-drops designer labels in her rhymes. "Bought me Alexander McQueen / He was keeping my stylish," she says in "Anaconda," before adding, "And when we done, I make him buy me Balmain."
Wilhelmina CEO Bill Wackermann praised Minaj's singular style in an announcement: "We’re thrilled to work alongside Nicki Minaj and her team. She is a style pioneer and icon."
The new contract isn't the only reason to celebrate. Minaj recently reached a major music milestone: she's the only female artist to ever have 76 entries on Billboard 's Top 100 chart. That bests Aretha Franklin's previous record of 73, which she held for over 40 years. We're guessing "multitasking" and "clapping back" go under the Special Skills section of Minaj's résumé, right under the mile-long list of achievements she's earned.
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Today was a day. Earlier this morning, many of us sat in disgust while Fox News’ Bill O'Reilly, an alleged professional adult, made ugly remarks about U.S. Representative Maxine Waters. During a segment on Fox & Friends, a clip of Waters giving an impassioned speech addressing Trump voters was shown. Instead of O'Reilly assuming his role as an anchor, and providing a sound rebuttal concerning Waters’ speech, he instead made childish comments about her hair.
“I didn't hear a word she said. I was looking at the James Brown wig," he said. Then, to further dispel the notion that maybe what audiences just heard was a mistake, he continued by asking the producers to pull up an image of James Brown.
This was how the day began.
Soon after, White House press secretary Sean Spicer lost his cool during a press meeting after reporter April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks, asked him questions about Russia. She disagreed with responses. He then rudely responded to her while asking she NOT to shake her head at him.
After an onslaught of anger and criticism on Twitter towards both instances, a hashtag was born.
“Today, we were told a Black woman's hair matters more than her voice, and our choices are under the control of others, tweeted educator and activist Brittany Packnett. “This happens to black women everyday at work. Share your Maxine and April moments, so people don't think this is rare. Use #BlackWomenAtWork,” she continued.
Today, we were told a Black woman's hair matters more than her voice, and our choices are under the control of others.
The hashtag was soon the number one trending topic on Twitter as Black women shared stories affirming what Packnett stated.
Packnett then sent out a series of tweets about her own personal Spicer and O'Reilly moments.“Every black woman meets at least 3 @oreillyfactor's and 5 @seanspicer's a day...,” she said. “When I started #BlackWomenAtWork today I sadly knew it would trend. Not because I'm special. Because I know how we get treated.”
Soon after Waters herself tweeted a message using the hashtag. “I am a strong black woman. I cannot be intimidated, and I'm not going anywhere.#BlackWomenAtWork.”
I'm 5 feet tall. 90 pounds. Former cheerleader. Told I was intimidating and off-putting by colleague on third day. #BlackWomenAtWork
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah is finding its footing in a major way. It's finally found its foil in the current president, who you may have heard is named Donald Trump.
Just as Jon Stewart made his bones making the Bush laugh face, Noah is having a nice time playing tee-ball with whatever fresh scandal Trump lays out over home plate. Their latest venture is to open a Presidential Twitter Library in His honor.
"Every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has been honored with a meticulously curated memorial library commemorating the documents of historical value crafted during his time as leader of the free world," the press release reads. "Continuing this hallowed tradition, and seeing no need to wait for him to leave office, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah will honor our current president with The Daily Show Presents: The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library, the first of its kind, showcasing our Commander in Chief’s preferred vessel for communicating with the public, his Twitter feed. This actual library will be located in New York City and will be free and open to the public."
So, this is a pretty good idea. The twist to have interactive exhibits is especially a good one. But will this spell trouble for Trump? Um, no. Cute little insults don't work against the guy. The Daily Show has also seen its star become a red dwarf since the departure of its ex-host. So it's fitting that they're trying some underdog strategies to return to the forefront of political conversation.
Mainly they're hamstrung by the fact that many liberals have seemingly gone into permanent conspiracy theory land, a place which does not brook irony easily. The continued fascination with a silver-bullet solution to the Trump presidency stands in stark contrast to the Bush years, when American liberals made books making fun of a guy we all generally thought of as a genial dumbass who happened to be the worst president in history.
Now, we're all running around with our hair on fire assuming that if we begin enough tweets with "Sir," and @ Trump, he'll magically resign. Not gonna happen. Anyways, the library opens in June and sounds pretty fun.
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The Trump administration submitted a report to Congress today that may trouble members of the LGBTQ community.
This morning, the list of types of data the administration plans to collect for the 2020 Census and the American Community Survey (ACS) included “sexual orientation and gender identity” as new additions, according to The Washington Times. However, the Census released an updated list hours later that didn’t include the sexual orientation addition.
A representative from the bureau told the Times members of Congress requested the questions be added, but later decided there isn’t a “federal need” for the data.
“The Subjects Planned for the 2020 Census and American Community Survey report released today inadvertently listed sexual orientation and gender identity as a proposed topic in the appendix. This topic is not being proposed to Congress for the 2020 Census or American Community Survey,” the bureau said in a statement provided by the Times.
Why is this so troubling? Lawmakers and activists say that having detailed data on the LGBTQ community would help them create laws that improve the lives of the community.
One example is poverty. The LGBTQ community is more likely to struggle with economic hardships, according to The Advocate. The Williams Institute, an LGBT research organization based at the UCLA School of Law, compiled as many national surveys as it could find to estimate of the LGBT poverty rate. However, the Census Bureau could find out these figures and help shape the public debate.
“When we can’t say things about who LGBT people are and what they need, we’re unable to develop public policies that serve them appropriately,” senior director at the Center for American Progress Laura Durso told The Daily Beast. “It really kills me that we’re having these consequential policy debates and I can’t put a number on how many people are affected.”
Criminal and Economic Justice Project Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force Meghan Maury said in a statement that the Trump administration’s removal of the questions “deny LGBTQ people freedom, justice, and equity.”
“Information from these surveys helps the government to enforce federal laws like the Violence Against Women Act and the Fair Housing Act and to determine how to allocate resources like housing supports and food stamps,” Maury said. “If the government doesn’t know how many LGBTQ people live in a community, how can it do its job to ensure we’re getting fair and adequate access to the rights, protections and services we need?”
Although this recent development is troubling, we do have some data for the LGBTQ community. A large-scale U.S. government survey to measure sexual orientation was released in 2014, as The Washington Post reported. Additionally, the Census began collecting information on cohabiting same-sex couples in 1999. In 2013, it started counting same-sex spouses as family units.
But it is worth mentioning that Vice President Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Act into law in Indiana, which many experts claimed denied rights to the LGBTQ community. Trump's Supreme Court pick Judge Neil Gorsuch also stated that he opposed same-sex marriage in his Oxford University dissertation. All of these suggest the administration isn’t going to extend a helping hand to the community.
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