“Glamour” Magazine

“Wonder Woman 2” Will Be the First Film to Use New Anti-Sexual Harassment Guidelines

Gal Gadot in ‘Wonder Woman’ (Buzzfeed)

We have another reason to love the next “Wonder Woman” movie! It’s been announced that the film will be the first to implement new anti-sexual harassment guidelines.

Drawn up by the Producers Guild of America (PGA) in response to the wave of sexual harassment coming to light, the guidelines will provide anti-sexual harassment training to those working on the movie and support to those who report harassment. These guidelines will apply across the film and TV industries. The guidelines were created by the PGA’s new Anti-Sexual Harassment Task Force.

It’s great to see the entertainment industry taking action to combat sexual harassment, and I hope these guidelines will be widely adopted.

“Wonder Woman 2” will be released in 2019.

Trends: Genderless Awards Categories

MTV Movie & TV Awards nominees Daniel Kaluuya, Millie Bobby Brown, and Emma Watson (Entertainment Weekly)

Last month, MTV announced that its MTV Movie Awards would be no more. Instead, the show would now involve awards for TV, and be called the MTV Movie & TV Awards. But that wasn’t the only new thing the cable network had in store for its new awards show: Certain major categories will be gender neutral.

This new gender neutrality spans the acting categories: Best Actor in a Movie (which includes Emma Watson from “Beauty and the Beast” and Daniel Kaluuya from “Get Out”) and Best Actor in a TV Show (which includes Donald Glover from “Atlanta” and Millie Bobby Brown from “Stranger Things”). Of course, some categories have always been gender-neutral, inkling Best Kiss, Best Villian and Best Hero.

There’s clearly a sea change happening, as mainstream culture has gotten hip and woke to the nuances of gender identity. And the young generation isn’t averse to asking for what they want, particularly in terms of representation. Actor Asia Kate Dillion, known for their role on Showtime’s “Billions” as a non-binary character (and TV’s first one at that!), wrote to the Television Academy and asked them to reconsider their binary male and female categories. This was a big ask: the Television Academy governs the Emmy Awards. The Television Academy was very receptive to Dillon’s letter, and Dillon decided to submit themselves under Best Supporting Actor

If the Emmys were to do away with gendered categories, the award show would be getting back to its roots. The Emmys enacted separate categories for male and female performers in 1951, its third year.

I hope this new gender consciousness grows until it becomes so commonplace we no longer need to remark on it.

Trends: Updating Classic Films to Be More Inclusive

Emma Watson as Belle in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (The Leaky Cauldron)

Within the last few years, many films have been updates to classic films. While it’s no secret that Hollywood likes to recycle its own ideas, there’s now a push to make the films more inclusive.

The 2016 release of “Ghostbusters” brought one change to the classic film: the ghostbusters were all played by women (the very funny Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones). While some butthurt fanboys cried that the reboot killed their childhood (actually, they usually used a much more brutal, assault-y verb for it), the movie brought in $46M+ on its opening weekend, and grossed $229M+ over its theatrical run.

“Ocean’s 8,” which will be released in (wait for it…) 2018, will also feature all female leads in its remake-of-a-remake. (Seriously, the first version involved Frank Sinatra and his boys’ club Rat Pack and was released in 1960.) But “Ocean’s 8” does one better than “Ghostbusters” in that it’s more diverse. In addition to Anne Hathaway and Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling and rapper Awkwakfina will also star in the ensemble. And that first cast photo looks lit.

This weekend, Disney is releasing a live-action version of “Beauty and the Beast.” This movie has a lot going for it: For starters, Emma Watson as the titular character gives it some feminist cred. Watson had a lot of input on the character, and Belle doesn’t wear a corset and is an inventor. (Remember, in the original 1991 film, Belle’s father was the inventor with the wacky contraptions.)

Updating the characters to reflect modern times also extends to the supporting cast. Le Fou, muscle man Gaston’s main lackey, is now going to be gay. And in love with Gaston. Which puts a lot of things into perspective, actually. Though Le Fou will be the first openly gay character, he’s far from the only gay character that Disney has created.

The movie will also feature the first two interracial kisses in a Disney movie: one between wardrobe Madame de Garderobe (Audra McDonald) and harpsichord Cadenza (Stanley Tucci), and the other between candlestick Lumiere (Ewan McGregor) and feather duster Plumette (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). And Disney is here for it.

I can’t wait to see how Disney movies continue to grow and evolve in terms of representation in the future.

Trends: #NoPhotoshop

Iskra-Lawrence ‘Share Your Spark’ AerieReal campaign (Glamour)

It used to be that brands only used tall, skinny, (mostly) blonde girl in their advertising. This was thought to be aspirational: You wanted to be the girl in the photo, and how best to be that? Buy their clothes (or perfume, or lingerie, or whatever the brand was selling). But the pursuit of one aspirational body type led those who didn’t possess said body type (either by genetic luck-of-the-draw or by carefully-chosen enhancements) to believe themselves unworthy and maybe inferior.

Thankfully, that trend is on its way out. The current thing (which, I hope, stays) is all about positivity and accepting yourself as you are, because you are enough. For women’s brands, this has translated to, among other things, banning Photoshop.

This month, Glamour released its all-women, no Photoshop issue. The magazine’s staff has gone all-in on banning photo retouching: A quick glance at the “Girls” cast on the cover, and you can see that the cellulite on Lena Dunham’s thigh hasn’t been wiped out. And why should it? It’s just a natural part of life.

In January 2014, American Eagle’s underwear brand Aerie launched its #AerieReal campaign, featuring models of all shapes and sizes and no Photoshopping. The intimates brand is aimed at girls ages 15-22, and the campaign has been used to promote body acceptance, positivity and confidence.

Aerie’s gamble has paid off exponentially: Q2 2014 sales were up 9% from the previous quarter, and continued to grow for the rest of the year. In 2015, sales were up by 20%, with Q4 2015 seeing a 26% increase year-over-year. And sales in Q1 2016 were up 32%.

Body acceptance and positivity has also bled into regular women’s lives, and features prominently on social media. Searching #nophotoshop on Instagram brings up 460K+ posts.It’s clear that this trend isn’t going away anytime soon.

“Glamour” Publishes All-Women, No-Photoshop Issue

‘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.

“Loving” Film Releases Interracial Emoji Couples

Love-Moji (‘Glamour’ en Espanol)

Given our current obsession with all things tech, Focus Features has found a fitting way to promote the company’s upcoming film “Loving:” custom emojis.

The Love-Mojis feature a variety of emojis of interracial couples in about every combination you could think of. So if you’re in an interracial couple, and you haven’t yet felt your coupling properly represented by the Unicode Consortium, your time has finally come!

Why is this important? Let’s start with the film itself: “Loving” follows Richard and Mildred Loving, a Virginia couple who got married in 1958. This wouldn’t be so remarkable except that Richard was white and Mildred was black. Their marriage happened during a time where interracial dating, much less marriage, was frowned upon, to put it lightly. Interracial marriage could bring a charge of miscegenation (race mixing, in plain terms).

The Lovings were arrested after their marriage for the crime of their relationship, and forced to leave Virginia. Once in D.C., they began legal proceedings. The Loving v. Virginia case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, which struck down said laws that were on the books of sixteen states. (All sixteen states were in the South. Shocker.)

Needless to say, this was a landmark case.

But why use emojis to promote it?

Since emojis debuted, the options for emoji couples were pretty stark. They didn’t show the breadth of real-life relationships in terms of race and also sexual preference. The new Love-Moji take this into account, and rectify the oversight.

There’s also the fact that using emojis has become a convenient visual shorthand for emotions we don’t particularly feel like typing out in words.

You can get the Love-Moji via app stores and at VoteLoving.com.

“Loving” comes out on Friday, Nov. 4th.

The FDA Approves New Breast Implants

Silicone gel breast implant (Fox News)

If you’re considering getting breast implants, you now have another option to research.

In late September, Allergan plc announced that it had received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market their Natrelle Inspira cohesive implants. These new implants combine “a high gel fill ratio and Allergan’s highly cohesive gel.”The implants have a “gummy” texture, and are best for women interested in having fuller breasts.

These new implants have more gel than previous ones. This allows the implants to attach more firmly to your body. The new implants will also enhance breast projection, which is how far your chest sticks out from your body.

The new implants will be best for basic breast augmentation and reconstruction.

How Many People Check Their Phones During Sex?

Woman texting in bed (Khurki)

I don’t know about you, but I was taught not to be rude. In any situation (if I can help it). And that respect extends to my bedroom, and whatever partner is lucky enough to occupy it with me for that time.

This includes minimizing distractions so I can concentrate on getting it on and getting off. And in our super-connected state, what could be more distracting than your phone? Turns out others were also curious about that, and now there are, not one, but two, studies that exist on the topic.

A 2013 study done in England surveyed 1.7K+ men and women. The results found that 62% of women and 48% of men had interrupted sex to play with their phone. It broke down into specifics: Answering a call was 34% of the time, answering a text was 24%, and answering an email comprised 22%. Weirdly, the results didn’t break down the specifics by gender.

Oh yeah, and 34% of respondents claimed to be OK with the fact that their partner had turned their attention to their phone during the act. Sure, sounds legit. (I’d be mad as hell, but that’s just me.)

Also, we don’t know the ages of the respondents. I’d be tempted to speculate that the people who can’t leave their phones alone during sex would be of the millennial cohort (since my generation’s phones are practically appendages), but of course I can’t be certain.

But wait, there’s more!

Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Virginia presented findings focused on how our phones are distracting us from everything. Including, yes, sex.

(Side note: the scientists presented said research at the aptly-named Association for Computing Machinery’s Human-Computer Interaction conference. Who knew one existed?!)

Anyway, here’s an interesting discrepancy: only 10% of people admitted picking up their phones during sex. That’s a large gap between the 48-62% that the English study claimed. I don’t know whether this boils down to different social/sexual/technological mores across the pond, but that’s a huge gap in self-reporting.

Either way, it doesn’t matter. Come on, using your phone during sex is just inexcusable. Give your partner your full attention!

If you’re one of those people, do your current/future partners a favor and put that shit on airplane mode when you’re getting down.

How Many Men Fake Orgasms?

Couple in bed (Nairobi Today)

That headline made you do a double-take, right? “But…but only women fake it…right?!” No, apparently it’s not just women. (I’ll let that sink in for a moment now that everything in your world has come crashing down.)

A study published last month in a volume of “Sexual and Relationship Therapy” examines whether faking it, and why, is correlated with sexual and relationship satisfaction. Researchers looked at a sample size of 230 men ages 18-29 years old. Men reported faking it on average about 25% of sexual encounters within their current relationship, and mostly within penetrative (a.k.a. vaginal) sex. (Granted, this is self-reported data, so it’s highly possible some men are lying about their frequency of this act.) It’s unclear as to the sexual orientations of the subjects.

Faking orgasms were found to be related to relationship and sexual satisfaction, but could vary with motivation. Men with lower levels of attraction to their partners indicated that they faked it more frequently. But men who were happy with their partners also faked it “to support a partner’s emotional well-being.” Also, men who faked it when they were drunk correlated to higher levels of sexual satisfaction.

These results parallel a 2010 study published in the “Journal of Sex Research” that also examined rates of faking orgasm (though this one looked at faking for both men and women). And the numbers were near-identical: 25% of men reported faking orgasm, with 28% of men reporting that it occurred during penetrative/vaginal sex.

(Side note: each of these studies referred to faking orgasm as “pretend/pretending orgasm.” I tried to use that phrase in this post, but every time I typed it, I started giggling. Because I’m 12 years old.)

These are interesting stats, and definitely not something I knew before. But does this mean we’ll now have a cultural conversation regarding the faking-orgasm gap?

Women’s DIY Halloween Costumes: By The Numbers

Sexy Rosie the Riveter costume

DIY has been a big trend for a few years now. It makes sense that it’s spread to Halloween costumes, where the major goals are to display creativity and individuality.

With this in mind, I wanted to see how many women’s magazines were touting DIY costumes, and parsing out any trends I could see. I initially wanted to find three lists from three different publications from this year, but had to settle for those from varying years. I looked lists from “Glamour” (published in 2010), “Marie Claire” (2013) and “Cosmopolitan” (2014).

Let’s take a look at what I found:

“Glamour:”

Year Published: 2010

Number of Entries: 21

Number of Movie-Referenced Costumes: 1

Number of TV-Referenced Costumes: 5

Number of Children’s Pop-Culture-Referenced Costumes: 0

Number of Iconic Cultural Figure References: 4

Outliers: includes 1 music-inspired costume, 9 creative* costumes

“Marie Claire:”

Year Published: 2013

Number of Entries: 10

Number of Movie-Referenced Costumes: 4

Number of TV-Referenced Costumes: 2

Number of Children’s Pop-Culture-Referenced Costumes: 0

Number of Iconic Cultural Figure References: 1

Outliers: includes 1 celebrity baby costume, 1 music-inspired costume

“Cosmopolitan:”

Year Published: 2014

Number of Entries: 20

Number of Movie-Referenced Costumes: 10

Number of TV-Referenced Costumes: 3

Number of Children’s Pop-Culture-Referenced Costumes: 5

Number of Iconic Cultural Figure References: 2

Outliers: includes 2 comic-book-referenced costumes, 4 Disney characters, 1 school girl costume

Overlaps:

Sandy from “Grease:” “Marie Claire” and “Cosmopolitan”

Rosie the Riveter: “Marie Claire” and “Cosmopolitan”

Sookie Stackhouse from “True Blood: “Glamour” and “Cosmopolitan”

Conclusions:

These three lists are virtually the same in that they focus heavily on referencing pop culture, mostly through movies and TV (see the overlaps list above). The “Glamour” list was on of the worst offenders here, as many of the ideas should’ve stayed in that year.

But the same “Glamour” list also had the most creative costumes (see asterisk above in said section), in that clever, out-of-the-ordinary costumes were included.

Overall, these DIY Halloween idea lists need a fresh look, and more space given to clever costumes and not ones just blindly referencing popular cultural aspects.

Sex & Stats: Where Numbers Come to Bang

Statistics. Economics. Sex.