Use for general womens’ issues
Beyonce and Solange at Coachella, 2014 (Global Music Tribune)
Solange performed a set at Coachella in 2014. While singing “Losing You,” off her EP “True,” Beyonce joined her little sister onstage to dance to the song.
Beyonce will be headlining Coachella on Saturday, Apr. 15th and 22nd.
Ultrasound of fetus at 20 weeks (The Times in Plain English)
Another blow for women’s health: Ohio Governor John Kasich (yes, the former Republican presidential hopeful) signed a bill to approve banning abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. (To put this in context, most pregnancies are around 40 weeks long.)
The Senate Bill 127, signed December 2016, does not allow for exceptions in rape and incest cases. Supporters of the bill claim that the fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks. (I’m curious how they know this; did they ask the fetus through the ultrasound?) The only exception will be for women whose pregnancy puts their health at risk.
Providers caught performing abortions after 20 weeks will charged with a “fourth-degree felony.”
Earlier that month, Kasich tried to sign a “heartbeat” bill, which would ban abortion after six weeks. A heartbeat pulse can generally be found around that time, though women may not know they’re pregnant. He eventually vetoed it due to overwhelming public pressure.
Around 1% of abortions occur after 20 weeks. The new law takes effect Mar. 14, 2017.
Sonequa Martin-Green (Audrey Can)
Once again, science fiction imagines a more inclusive world for all of us. This time, “Star Trek” is adding on to its storied universe, and creating its first new franchise in a decade. Sonequa Martin-Green, actress on “The Walking Dead,” will lead the cast as a lieutenant commander in “Star Trek: Discovery.”
Martin-Green’s lead character Rainsford is a first for the series: She’s the first Black woman to star in a “Star Trek” series. In-universe, the lieutenant commander is also a first. Previous to the new series, all the lead characters had been captains. Executive Producer Bryan Fuller has spoken on the need for context and a new perspective, as well as his desire to have a Black woman lead the series.
Martin-Green will lead an inclusive cast, which includes Asian actress Michelle Yeoh playing another starship’s captain and Anthony Rapp as the series’ first gay character on TV.
Women’s Strike for Peace-And Equality, Women’s Strike for Equality, Fifth Avenue, New York, New York, August 26, 1970. (Photo by Eugene Gordon/The New York Historical Society/Getty Images)Women’s Strike For Peace And Equality March, 1970 (Time)
Friday, January 20th is Inauguration Day for the president-elect. The Women’s March takes place the next day. (Who’s going? I am!) D.C. can already tell the event is sure to be huge, judging by the number of bus permits secured. And the March might overshadow the previous day’s activities.
According to D.C. Council member Charles Allen, 1,200 buses have secured parking permits for the day of the March in RFK Stadium. (RFK Stadium has a capacity of 1,300 buses.) By contrast, just 200 buses have registered for parking permits for Inauguration Day. For every bus that has registered for the inauguration, six buses have registered for the March.
For President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2009, 3K buses registered for permits. Bus registrations for the current president-elect comprised 6.67% of that total.
Attendees for the March are expected to number as many as 200K.
Hopefully, this detail begins getting the message to the president-elect loud and clear that we will not be ignored.
Tracee Ellis Ross with her Golden Globe award, 2017 (Wbli)
At the 2017 Golden Globe Awards, actress Tracee Ellis Ross won the Best Actress Television Series Musical or Comedy (BATSMC) for her role of Bow Johnson on the ABC comedy “Blackish.” Ross is only the second Black woman to win in this particular category.
If that doesn’t impress you enough, here are some numbers that put Ross’s win in the larger context (with Best Actress Television Series Musical or Comedy noted as BATSMC):
Number of total Black nominees for BATSMC: 14
Number of unique* Black nominees for BATSMC: 7
*I’m defining unique as actresses who’ve been nominated at least once.
Total nominees for BATSMC, 1963-2017: 54
Percentage of total Black nominees to total overall nominees, 1963-2017: 25.96%
Percentage of total Black winners to total overall winners, 1963-2017: 3.70%
Number of Black actresses who’ve won BTMSC: 2
Number of Years between the first Black winner and second Black winner: 34
Year of the first Black nominee: 1970
Number of TV Shows with more than one Black actress nominations:
Highest number of Black nominees in a single year: 3
Number of Black nominees, 2017: 2
*Sources: Wikipedia’s list of black Golden Globe Award winners and nominees and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress page.
Debbie Allen at the Golden Globes, 1983 (YouTube)
Way back in 1983 (34 years ago!), actress-choreographer Debbie Allen won the Golden Globe Award for Best Musical or Comedy Actress. Allen starred in “Fame,” the TV series based off the 1980 movie.
She was the only Black woman to win this award until “Blackish” actress Tracee Ellis Ross (yes, Diana Ross’s daughter) won earlier this week during the
‘Glamour ‘magazine, February 2017 (Refinery29)
Fashion magazines are becoming woke as never before: “Glamour” magazine’s February 2017 will be feature no Photoshopping within its pages. If you’ve every picked up a women’s fashion magazine in the history of ever, you know this is no small feat.
Another thing: the issue will feature all women. Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive breaks down what exactly this means:
We’ve decided to support women in the most meaningful way we can: by hiring them.From first page to our last every photo we commissioned for the February issue was created by women: photographers, stylists, hair, makeup, everything.
Clearly, “Glamour” puts its money where its mouth is. In her letter for readers, Leive declares that this issue’s changes were born of changing the norm. Even for a women’s magazine, women contributors were few and far between. For last fall’s content, Leive notes that only 37% of the print photographers who were used were women, and only 32% of the hairstylists were women.
Tracee Ellis Ross, Golden Globes 2017 (Elle)
Last night at the Golden Globe Awards, the always amazeballs Tracee Ellis Ross won the award for Best Actress — Television Series Musical or Comedy. Ross plays Bow Johnson, badass doctor and matriarch of the Johnson family in the ABC comedy “Blackish.”
Ross is also the first Black woman to win that category in 34 years. The last Black woman to win in that category was Debbie Allen for “Fame.”
In her historic moment, Ross’s acceptance speech celebrated inclusion, especially for women of color:
This is for all the women, women of color, and colorful people whose stories, ideas, thoughts are not always considered worthy and valid and important. But I want you to know that I see you. We see you.
Congratulations, Tracee, and keep being you!
Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman (CNet2)
DC Comics superhero/feminist icon Wonder Woman has been ousted as the United Nations (U.N.)’s Honorary Ambassador for female empowerment. The character was officially unveiled as the ambassador on Oct. 21. The unveiling tied into the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal #5, which “seeks to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030.’
Her last day as ambassador was Dec. 16. Girlfriend didn’t even have the job a whole two months.
The reason for the end of Wonder Woman’s ambassadorship is slightly unclear. Around 45K+ people showed their displeasure with the iconic character’s new role by singing a petition. But the U.N. claims they made the end date soon after the character’s debut in the role, and not as a result of the protests.
Emmy Rossum in ‘Shameless’ (TV By The Numbers)
“Shameless” actress Emmy Rossum must’ve heard of Levo League’s negotiating slogan #Ask4More, which encourages women to ask for raises and/or equal pay. Earlier this week, Rossum was negotiating to earn equal pay, if not more, than William H. Macy, her co-star on the Showtime series. (And Macy was all for that.) Her reasoning is that her character features significantly in every episode.
Yesterday, Rossum decided to settle her negotiation with a new contract. Though there’s no word on the terms of her new contract, The Hollywood Reporter mentions the following:
Sources say Rossum had an offer of equal pay on the table. It’s unclear if she received more than Macy.
(I, for one, hope she achieved equal or greater pay.)
Actresses speaking up about, and publicly negotiating for, payment parity on par with their male co-stars has become a trend as of late. Robin Wright, the lead actress in Netflix’s “House of Cards,” threatened to take her fight for fair pay public when she realized she was getting paid less than the series’ lead actor Kevin Spacey:
“I was looking at the statistics and Claire Underwood’s character was more popular than [Frank’s] for a period of time. So I capitalized on it. I was like, ‘You better pay me or I’m going to go public.’ And they did.”
Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence most notably spoke out on the issue of pay parity in 2015 when she penned an essay for Lenny. Lawrence acknowledged that she and fellow co-star Amy Adams got shortchanged with their pay for “American Hustle:” The two women each got 7% of the overall profits, which the leading men received 9% each. This information became public knowledge during the Sony Pictures Entertainment server hack in late 2014.
Let’s hope that more and more women start speaking up and asking demanding for equal pay. As Lawrence recalls, she “failed as a negotiator because [she] gave up too early.” Don’t give up!!
Sex & Stats: Where Numbers Come to Bang 