Renting a home can be stressful, frustrating and even kind of frightening – tenants in high-demand areas can sometimes feel as though they're at their landlords' mercy.
So it's encouraging to hear that the government wants to introduce new measures to give tenants greater protection and security. Under proposals due to be published tomorrow, landlords will be obliged to give tenants a minimum three-year contract.
Under the proposals, tenants will still be able to leave the property before the end of the three-year contract if they want to.
At present, around four in five tenancy agreements in England and Wales cover a short rental period of between 6 and 12 months.
"It is deeply unfair when renters are forced to uproot their lives or find new schools for their children at short notice due to the terms of their rental contract," the government's communities secretary James Brokenshire, who is behind the proposals, told the BBC.
"Being able to call your rental property your home is vital to putting down roots and building stronger communities. That’s why I am determined to act, bringing in longer tenancies which will bring benefits to tenants and landlords alike."
Greater protection for tenants is vital in a property market where the odds of owning your own home are increasingly stacked against us. Though recent figures reveal that house prices in London have fallen, they continue to rise across the UK as a whole, and prices in major cities such as Sheffield, Manchester and Glasgow are creeping up especially steeply.
However, Labour's shadow housing secretary John Healey has said that the government's new proposals aren't tough enough to offer proper protection for renters. Healy argues that New York City-style rent control is necessary if tenants are to feel completely secure in their rental home.
"Any fresh help for renters is welcome but this latest promise is meaningless if landlords can still force tenants out by hiking up the rent," he told The Guardian. "That’s why Labour’s new rights for renters includes controls on rents as well as an end to no-fault evictions and protection against substandard rented homes."
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I'm fairly good at keeping my anger down to a simmer, but on the few occasions where I've found myself snapping at people, I can trace the cause back to hot, humid weather. I wish I wasn't cursed to be at the whim of something none of us can control, but the heat takes any small irritation I have and dials it up to 100.
But I'm not alone in this — several studies have shown that while warmth and sunshine can make people more agreeable and happy, that attitude can disappear once it's sweltering outside.
In a study from 2017, researchers looked at retail workers at a chain store, and found that they were 50% less likely to actively engage with customers when it was uncomfortably hot outside.
In a second part of the study, the researchers divided college management course students into two groups. One group was put into a humid, hot classroom, and the other in a cool, air-conditioned room (with a 15% difference in room temperature). The researchers then had the students fill out a survey for an organisation to help underprivileged people in the community, but only 64% of participants in the hot room agreed to answer at least one question, compared to 95% in the cooler room. This led the researchers to conclude that the heat really can affect your perceptions, emotions, and the way you behave towards other people.
Past studies have also linked hot weather to violence and aggression, though if you get more annoyed when temperatures rise, you probably don't need a study to tell you that oppressive heat can make some of us more hostile.
Past studies have also linked hot weather to violence and aggression.
There are a couple of theories about why people get so worked up when it's stiflingly hot. For one thing, you're more likely to get dehydrated when you're hot, and dehydration definitely impacts your mood. A 2012 study that looked at young women found that after losing about 1.5% of their body’s normal water volume, the study's participants were tired and had difficulty concentrating, and they were more tense and anxious.
Plus, being overheated can lead to a heatstroke, symptoms of which include confusion, agitation, and irritability. And more anecdotally, hot weather is harder to escape — when it's cold, you can at least put on more layers and bundle up. When it's hot out, you're basically doomed to be uncomfortable unless you have an air conditioner, or you actually enjoy sweating all your fluids out. The heat can also make it more difficult for you to fall and stay asleep, and we all know what sleep deprivation can do to your mood.
Still, that doesn't mean that you have to be stuck in an uncomfortable, angry rut all summer. As long as you stay hydrated, and avoid being outside during the afternoon heat, you should hopefully be able to stay cool — literally and figuratively.
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Thousands of people across the globe protested on Saturday to demand that the Trump administration reunite families and stop detaining and jailing migrants without due process. Over 780 events were organised in total, with organisers estimating over 60,000 people in Chicago, over 55,000 in Los Angeles, over 35,000 in Washington, D.C., and over 30,000 in New York City.
Women were on the frontlines of the rallies, organising attendees and sharing personal stories that underscore the importance of empathy in these dark times. At the D.C. rally, Diane Guerrero, a 31-year-old actor known for roles on Orange Is the New Black and Jane the Virgin, gave an emotional address in which she spoke of her parents and brothers, who had come from Colombia, being deported when was 14. She was born in the U.S. and stayed behind, having to depend on other families to take care of her. Her family is still in Colombia and she says she misses them every day.
Leah, a 12-year-old girl from Miami who says she is scared of losing her undocumented parents to deportation every day, spoke about recently visiting the border to bring messages to detained children in McAllen, TX.
"I am here today because our government is not only separating and detaining refugee parents and children at the border who are looking for safety, but also continues to separate U.S. citizen children like me from their parents every day. This is evil. It needs to stop," she said in her speech. "I want to be an example to other kids who are going through the same problems as me. I won’t give up fighting for the right to stay with my mom. I am not asking for a favour. It is my right as a child to live in peace with my mother and the rest of my family."
Also on the stage in D.C., America Ferrera and Alicia Keys both read accounts from families that have been separated from their children. Lin-Manuel Miranda sang a lullaby dedicated to immigrant families.
The Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy, the source of the humanitarian crisis at the border, has fired up activists in recent months. Nearly 600 women were arrested last Thursday as part of a sit-in against family separation and detention in a Senate office building. While President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that aims to stop splitting up parents and children, his administration is still detaining families together and plans to do so indefinitely. In addition, over 2,000 children are still separated from their parents and the reunification process is full of bureaucratic issues. The administration has also proposed a rule that would bar people from getting asylum if they crossed into the U.S. between points of entry, which would drastically change the asylum process.
Ahead, read more stories from the Families Belong Together rally in Washington, D.C.
Cecilia Tran, 28 (second from left), came to the rally with her group of friends. Wearing a "Shit's Fucked Up!" shirt, she talked about her personal connection to the current climate.
"My parents are Vietnamese refugees and they mean so much to me," Tran told Refinery29. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for progressive immigration policies, and it's just a pain and terrifying to see what people are doing to other people who should be welcomed in this country... I think America is a place where historically everyone is an immigrant, so it doesn't make sense to me that they would be detaining anyone without due process."
Her friend Ashley Stewart, 24 (first from left), said she showed up as an ally. "My people have been oppressed and so it's only up to me to support my friends and family who also might be oppressed," she said. "There are so many things wrong with our criminal justice system, and we can't just let people trying to look for a better life be imprisoned. As a Black person, I think it's important to point out that people have been trying to imprison us for very low-level crimes and I think it'd be great if we were all tried equally and everyone had the right to an attorney."
Annie Berger, 33, was there with her entire family. As she held her baby nephew — dressed in a onesie that says "Organiser In Training" — she spoke about the importance of showing up for other people.
"I'm the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, so it's not so long ago that my family was ripped apart, and I think it's up to the people who can show up to show up for everyone," she said.
Over 100 organizations participated in the rally.
"Moms are marching today because it’s long past time for President Trump’s human rights abuses in the name of immigration enforcement to end," MomsRising CEO Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner said in a statement. "The current situation is devastating and untenable: toddlers are facing immigration hearings alone, at least 2,500 children are STILL separated from their families, thousands of families are expected to be detained in detention camps on military bases, pregnant women are being denied healthcare, women fleeing brutal domestic violence are unprotected, and asylum-seeking parents and children are still being denied their legally protected rights. All of this must stop."
Trump was at his golf course in Bedminster, NJ, during the rally. Hundreds of protesters met him there, carrying signs including: "Make Bedminster great again and leave" and "I really do care, you should too #begone."
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Charli dropped this video, plus two other tracks, this week. Who needs to drop an album when you can release singles while you're on tour with Taylor Swift? They're all good, but let's get into this video because it's particularly interesting. The song itself is lyrically a bit vapid, concerning itself with the stamina it requires to party with Charli. But the video tells another story. Charli is decked out like a party girl, pretty much dripping in jewels, but she's in an empty warehouse. It's full of everyone who can keep up with her — aka no one. But, to me, this also reads like an indictment of the party lifestyle of the idle rich, be they Gatsby characters or tsars of the Russian empire. That empty warehouse is a reminder that the working class exists, and at about 6 in the morning you can bet princess party is going to have to GTFO. I think Charli is making a pop song that will get played on the radio (though the production is weird, as her production always is), and a video that reminds us about class struggle. Sneaky. This is approved.
070 Shake "I Laugh When I'm With Friends But Sad When I'm Alone"
070 Shake is a real test for the hip-hop community. She's a protege of Kanye West who guested on a few Ye tracks, and fans know this track came out on her EP in March. The video for it is new, and the conversation around her place in music needs to be renewed in a post-XXXTentacion world. I present to you: A woman talking about depression, mental health, loneliness — you know, all the things XXX's fans claimed to connect with in his music. What it doesn't have is misogyny. There aren't violent threats to kill anyone for leaving her; no talk of hoes. If you are looking for music that connects to your feelings, for rhymes that speak with raw power about feelings...here it is.
Bayli "MYOB: Or Whatever"
After watching this video, you will want to be in Bayli's crew, at least for the summer. Or, perhaps you'll spend the summer (rightly) telling people to mind their own business. Either way, this one is going right to the top of my summer jams playlist.
Mitski "Nobody"
Mitski is swinging for the fences with the first track from her forthcoming album. She's skewering the disconnected nature of modern life here, but also considering how it feels for women; when we show emotion, it's perceived as weakness. So, the character she plays/sings as here attempts to control. Oh god, it me. I'll take this up with my therapist. Thanks, Mitski.
Tash Sultana "Salvation"
Here's what you need to know about Tash Sultana, right off the bat: She's a one-woman operation. Every sound you hear on this track is a sound she made. The second thing you need to know is that this is a stunning piece of work. It's light and beautiful, but also confrontational and raw. I've never wanted to hang out in the studio with someone more.
After my first job at MTV working as a music programmer, I can't stop trying to matchmake people with music they might like. So, I wrote a book calledRecord Collecting for Girlsand started interviewing musicians. The Music Concierge is a column where I share music I'm listening to that you might enjoy, with a little context. Follow me on Twitter or Facebook, or leave me a comment below and tell me what you're listening to this week.
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Disgraced former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar has been indicted of sexual assault in yet another case — this time in Walker County, TX, where a grand jury charged Nassar with six counts of sexually abusing a child.
Nassar was on trial for several cases of sexual abuse at the Karolyi Ranch in the Sam Houston National Forest, about 50 miles north of Houston. Nassar is accused of abusing gymnasts at the ranch, which also served as the women's national team training centre. USA Gymnastics has since cut ties with the centre, where numerous Olympic medalists have trained.
Nassar has made headlines for being accused and indicted on dozens of similar charges. Members of Team USA came forward with a lawsuit last year alleging Nassar’s abuse of young women and girls, most under 18 years old and some even younger than nine. He pled guilty to the charges, which included accounts from Olympians Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, and Gabby Douglas, as well as accounts from survivors of Nassar’s abuse when he was a sports physician at Michigan State University.
Nassar also faces to up to 60 years in prison for possession of child pornography. The decision was handed down shortly before his federal sentencing, but the 60 years won't begin until after he completes his time for sexual assault.
Nassar’s indictment in Texas on Friday is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, a potential fine of up $10,000, or both — but it’s unclear as of yet if the case will be going to trial. Athletic trainer Debra Van Horn, who faced a lawsuit alongside Nassar, was also indicted on one charge of sexual abuse of a child. Bela and Martha Karolyi, the owners and proprietors of the Karolyi Ranch, were not charged due to a lack of evidence on which to base charges, according to prosecutors.
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In an interview with reporters on Air Force One, President Donald Trump announced that he plans to declare his nominee to replace swing vote Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on July 9.
When asked whether he would be asking candidates about their opinions on abortion rights, Trump stated, “That’s not a question I’ll be asking.” Trump vowed to appoint anti-abortion judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade while campaigning, and his list of nominees was assembled with the help of anti-abortion, conservative legal organisation the Federalist Society. Whether he verbalises the question in an interview is the least concerning part of the process.
Trump has made his intentions and vision for the United States very clear from the beginning. “Well, if we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that’s really what’s going to be – that will happen,” said Trump when asked during a presidential debate whether he wanted to see the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade. “And that’ll happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.”
He’s been transparent about his intentions for the Supreme Court and wanting to overturn Roe v. Wade since he was campaigning. It should come as no surprise that he is inviting the guidance of a conservative organisation to select potential candidates. It doesn’t matter if he asks them about their opinions on abortion rights because by the time a candidate interviews with him, they would have already been asked in the earlier vetting process. When you want your way, you don’t nominate someone who will challenge your opinions. You nominate someone who is like-minded.
In the wise words of Maya Angelou, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
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"Fresh and frozen breast milk! Dairy, alcohol, tobacco-free," reads one advert.
"I’m a healthy, young, organic momma! I have eaten strictly organic foods for about 10 years now!" proclaims another.
And then there’s the depressing caveat that runs at the bottom of most of the ads.
"No adult wet nursing, no pictures, no videos, no checks accepted, and no scams."
The ads above appear on Onlythebreast.com, a website where mothers can sell their breast milk online to other mothers who can’t breastfeed, for whatever reason, and who don’t want to give their babies formula. The milk comes from women who are no longer breastfeeding, or who have spare milk left over after feeding their own child.
Abigail, in Ireland, thought it sounded like a good way to make a bit of extra cash. She had 375oz (10,654 ml – nearly 19 pints) spare after feeding her baby, now 18 months old (for context, on average, a baby drinks around 25oz (750ml) a day in the first six months of their life).
"I produce a lot of milk, and we were struggling financially, so I hoped maybe I could make a little extra to help our family out," she says.
Abigail was looking for €2 an ounce. But things didn’t turn out as planned. The first buyer seemed okay, but then asked Abigail for €200 to pay a 'courier'. She backed away and tried to report them.
Her next potential buyers put her off the website altogether, including one request from a breastfeeding porn website.
"The final straw was about two weeks ago when I got an email from someone saying they were looking for people open to adult wet nursing," she says.
"I just deleted my account after that. I’m still really quite upset over it."
Women trying to buy milk aren’t immune from scams, either. Gabbi Carrillo, in California, was trying to buy milk for her daughter after her own supply dried up when she had to return to work as a security guard, and couldn’t find any locations to pump. Formula gives her daughter, who was three months old at the time, very bad constipation, and she didn’t gain weight on it, either.
She saw someone selling on Facebook, and paid $250 (£189) for 200oz (5,682ml – perhaps a week to 10 days’ worth of food for a baby younger than six months). The milk seemed okay, although it smelled a bit strange, so Gabbi bought a second batch.
"When I went to put it in the freezer, it was water. It wasn’t even white, it was just clear ice water. I was so devastated, because that was $250 that I would have been able to use for formula if I couldn’t find a donor," she says.
"That was the last of the money I had for that pay period – I didn’t even pay my car insurance so I could make sure my daughter was fed."
Luckily, a day or so later, a woman donated 300oz to Gabbi and her daughter for free, but in between, Gabbi had to give her daughter baby food even though she was too young for it. The police could do nothing to help.
The experience has poisoned the whole concept for Gabbi.
"There should be laws saying you’re not allowed to sell breast milk, just like you’re not allowed to sell your blood," she says. Instead, she’d prefer a donor system, like the one which helped her out when she had no other options after being scammed.
While there’s a distinct lack of laws either in the United States or the United Kingdom about this topic, or indeed even a clear chain of who to report scammers to if there is a problem, there are established donation systems. Many of them are communities on Facebook, where women like Gabbi and Abigail can connect and get or donate milk without any money being involved.
It seems like a simpler system, and there are certainly fewer scams in donation-only groups, but it’s more complicated than that. Some campaigners say there’s a feminist argument: why shouldn’t women make money for something that takes time and effort to produce? That’s what Crystal Nelson, in Oregon, thinks. She has three kids of her own, and was recently a surrogate mother, so she has a lot of milk spare. She’s now a prolific seller, with many happy customers – 17 babies in 14 states.
She sells for $1 an ounce, which she says barely covers the costs of shipping, plus the extra food and vitamins and storage equipment she needs. Plus, she pumps eight times a day, around her full-time job, which takes time.
"It’s donating milk regardless if it is compensated or fully donated because it still takes time away from your day, your family, and it takes more food," she says. "And the sense of women coming together, the importance of putting their child’s needs first – you feel like in the big picture, it’s pretty awesome."
She also runs a group dedicated to rooting out scammers in the network, saying the system of women trusting each other will eventually deal with the problems.
The sense of women coming together, the importance of putting their child’s needs first – you feel like in the big picture, it’s pretty awesome.
And while Crystal is particularly active, her positive experiences in selling milk aren’t rare. In many cases, the informal, ad hoc system works – for every scam, there are many happy customers on both sides of the Atlantic (although the selling side of things is much more developed in the United States – Crystal has even sold to one bodybuilder keen to bulk up).
The donation system also works for a lot of people. Kayleigh Robinson, in north Devon, started donating after the birth of her second child. Her first was premature, and her second had sepsis (both are now fine), so she wanted to give something back after all the help she had received in hospital. She’s now donated 30 litres to five or six different mums, all through Facebook.
"I’ve just been doing what I can – it’s my way of giving back. I can help people and babies, and that’s something I can give that’s free. I think it’s one of my biggest achievements," she says.
Gillian Dempster, in Scotland, is on the other side – she found donated milk on Facebook for her son after breastfeeding him herself didn’t work out.
"The lady who helped me continue to give my son breast milk was amazing," she says. "I’ll be eternally grateful for the pumping she did for my son as well as feeding her daughter."
Thanks to both the legitimate scientific evidence of the benefits of breast milk, alongside the pressure some mums feel to give their babies breast milk, these online communities – both for sale and donation – are exploding.
For example, the UK branch of one group set up for milk donation only, Human Milk for Human Babies (HM4HB), now has 19,000 followers. In the US, there are state-by-state groups.
It’s easy to see why: breast milk, or liquid gold, as it’s sometimes known, is hard to obtain any other way. While there are some organised breast milk banks in the US and the UK, the milk donated there is generally reserved for sick and premature babies, and donors face very strict tests before they can donate.
And it’s this lack of testing in the online market, alongside the wider lack of regulations or safeguards across the entire system, which worries some experts.
The Food Standards Agency, for example, does not recommend buying breast milk over the internet at all.
"This is because the source of the milk will not be confirmed as safe and you can’t be sure whether the donor or the milk has been screened for infections," it said in a statement.
This is something that concerns Dr. Natalie Shenker, too. A year or so ago, she set up a new kind of milk bank – operating outside the NHS, it’s a social enterprise with volunteer couriers ferrying the milk from all over the country. The Hearts Milk Bank now provides frozen donated milk to more than 20 NHS hospitals.
The idea came from Dr. Shenker and her business partner’s frustrations at the lack of provision for women and babies across the UK, so they understand why people turn to Facebook. And ultimately, they want all women to be able to access breast milk if they need it for their children. But they remain worried about the existing unregulated system.
"Women have always done this. The Babylonians wrote about wet nursing but it was usually people they knew, sisters, aunties. It wasn’t people meeting in car parks, sharing with strangers they met online," she says.
"Every milk bank fails between 10-20% of the milk that comes in because of bacterial contamination, plus we screen for medications, the caffeine intake, alcohol, smoking and we make sure the milk is stored in bags that are BPA-free. So the question online is – where is that milk coming from?"
She says milk banks should work with the milk-sharing community to introduce more safety considerations.
"It is without doubt risky, and there are ways to make it less risky," she says. "Checklists parents can go through with the donor, or they can learn to do flash pasteurisation at home, there are ways around this which are not rocket science."
The women involved in both the sale and donation communities we spoke to said they already do a lot of checking – Crystal, for example, has references from previous buyers, and other people ask for certificates and medical records.
Research in the US, too, has shown that women take steps to protect themselves and their babies, says Dr. Sally Dowling, a senior lecturer at the University of the West of England who is an expert in breastfeeding and milk donation.
"People talk about risk and there are risks, but I think women do this with an understanding of this and an understanding of how to make judgements," she says.
But she says the most important thing now is to get the conversation out in the open, to make sure that the system is as clear and safe as it can be.
"The way this is portrayed is often either, isn’t it dreadful, or isn’t it wonderful, women supporting each other. And I think it’s somewhere in between," she says.
"And it’s very important to talk about it, because it is happening, and so it’s important that midwives and health visitors know about it. Because otherwise women will do it, and not ask, or ask and not get informed answers."
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Santa Fe. Parkland. Las Vegas. Great Mills High School. Sutherland Springs. Sandy Hook. Virginia Tech. The perpetrators of these shootings all share a common trait: a propensity for violence, threats, and anger toward women.
Jarrod Ramos, who murdered five people at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, MD, in one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in U.S. history, belongs on that list. Staffers Gerald Fischman, Rebecca Smith, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, and Wendi Winters were all killed in the attack.
But he targeted another person who deserves our attention, one who is still alive: his high school classmate, a woman whom he tormented for years.
"He was as angry an individual as I have ever seen," her lawyer Brennan McCarthy told CBS News. "She lost her job because of this individual… He is malevolent. He forwarded a letter to her employer, basically stating that she was bipolar and a drunkard, which is ridiculous."
McCarthy said that after Thursday's shooting, his client told him she is still scared for her life even though her harasser has been locked away.
Ramos started harassing and stalking her around 2009, after the two became friends on Facebook. In 2011 she took him to court, where he pleaded guilty to criminal harassment and received 18 months of probation. The judge initially imposed a 90-day jail sentence, but then suspended it.
Five days after that, the Capital Gazette wrote a story called, "Jarrod wants to be your friend," which detailed Ramos' abuse. This article would become the source of his vendetta against the paper; he sued the Gazette for defamation but the case was thrown out — the judge said there was nothing to prove that anything in the article false.
According to court documents that quote the article in full, the woman's "yearlong nightmare" began when he wrote to her out of the blue, thanking her for being the only person to say hello or be nice to him in high school. He told her he had some problems and she tried to help by suggesting a counselling centre. She said she thought she was just being friendly.
When he became abusive, she stopped writing him back, but he continued. She blocked him on Facebook, but he continued harassing her through email. After she called police, he stopped for a while but then started again. "But when it seemed to me that it was turning into something that gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, that he seems to think there's some sort of relationship here that does not exist... I tried to slowly back away from it, and he just started getting angry and vulgar to the point I had to tell him to stop," she told a judge.
The woman was put on probation at her job — a supervisor told her it was because Ramos urged the company to fire her — and was later laid off. She said that although she can't prove his harassment was the reason, she believes it was.
Her nightmare story is yet another example of the close connection between abusing women and murder. Because no one acted to prevent him from doing so, he was able to buy a gun and go on a rampage. It's also yet another reminder that law enforcement and courts must stop dismissing harassment and stalking of women.
"There is a high correlation between stalking and homicide, and gender-based violence and mass shootings," Cindy Southworth, executive vice president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, told Refinery29. She said that while this case was unique — it's rarer for perpetrators to go after those who intervene, which in this case was the newspaper — stalking and violence against women are highly correlated.
In 54% of mass shootings, the shooter killed their partner or family members, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 45% of American women who are murdered are killed by their intimate partners. And, American women are 16 times more likely to be killed by a gun than women in other developed countries.
"We tell everyone to do this: Please intervene — name it, call it out as violence and harassment," said Southworth. "We have to call out gender-based violence, because if we're not, we're condoning it."
Southworth said entitlement is a common thread among men who turn violent. "They had never dated, but he felt the same level of entitlement because in his mind he had a 'right to her.' This is his toxic masculinity playing out." She added that she's not surprised he emphasised that she was the only person who was kind to him in high school. "Most perpetrators of violence see themselves as victims," she said. "But it's on you to feel like a complete individual. It's not anyone else's responsibility for you to feel complete and whole."
Gun safety advocates have long fought for laws that keep guns out of the hands of those with a history of stalking and domestic violence, and Maryland has some of the strictest gun policies on the books, including an assault weapons ban and background checks on almost all firearms. Still, they weren't enough in this case.
Maryland's firearm prohibitions for domestic violence-related misdemeanours chiefly apply to handguns, not rifles or shotguns. And a misdemeanour harassment charge does not count as a "disqualifying crime" under the state's law, according to Lindsay Nichols, federal policy director at the Giffords Law Centre to Prevent Gun Violence.
"Harassment is a separate crime than stalking. Stalking would likely have qualified him, but a harassment charge does not," Nichols told Refinery29.
Andrew Karwoski, a counsel at Everytown for Gun Safety, added that Maryland recently signed onto a "red-flag law," which goes into effect in October. Passed in several states in the wake of the Parkland shooting, red-flag laws allow family members or friends to petition a judge for a temporary restraining order which would let law enforcement officers temporarily seize all firearms from a person they believe poses a threat either to themselves or others.
"I think in the context of this shooting, a red-flag law could have gone a long way," especially after the death threats the shooter sent to the Capital Gazette, Karwoski told Refinery29. He added that Maryland law has a loophole when it comes to background checks for shotgun purchases — not all sales require them — which is part of a larger problem nationwide, and could be the reason he was able to get his hands on one.
Once again, the solution comes down to: Believe women. Stop playing hot potato with women's allegations, hoping it will all turn out okay. Do not give stalkers and harassers lenient sentences when it's clear that they pose a threat. Pass. Stricter. Gun laws. Everywhere. Or risk more lives being taken away in shooting after shooting while Republicans continue to belittle us with thoughts and prayers.
"The call for action to everyone is: We need to believe victims and take harassment and gender-based violence seriously. Period. Full stop," said Southworth.
We've reached out to the harassment and stalking survivor's attorney Brennan McCarthy and will update this post when we hear back.
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The inimitable Charlotte Tilbury, renowned makeup artist, creator of glow-giving products, and the woman responsible for some of the best skin on the red carpet, has collaborated with the recently relaunched London club Annabel's to create the perfect ladies' powder room.
Annabel's, which originally opened in 1963, has a rich and rebellious history, hosting everyone from countesses to rock stars via models and designers. The opulent revamp, designed by Martin Brudnizki, sees every room take on a different grandiose theme. With the city's swankiest eateries fighting for grid space with ever more Instagrammable bathrooms, Annabel's has set a whole new 'pics or it didn't happen' standard.
For the powder room – think Marie Antoinette on acid – Tilbury has created a lighting dial to capture the perfect light while topping up your lipstick, and a dedicated playlist; she's also designed makeup looks for the staff on each floor of the club.
We chatted to the beauty maestro about dancing into the night with Grace Jones and Kate Moss, the most luxurious products in her makeup bag, and how she'll be expanding her empire in the near future.
Hi Charlotte! What made you want to work with Annabel's?
It’s an iconic institution that has a truly legendary history. When they showed me the plans – from the interiors, to the architecture, to the outdoor areas – I knew it was going to be incredible! I loved the vision. And I was so excited to be invited to sit on a creative council that was shaping the future innovations of the club; I look forward to welcoming in this wild and wonderful era!
What's on your powder room playlist, and what kind of atmosphere do you want the space to have?
I can’t live without music! It makes me feel good. Dancing and having lots of fun nights with my friends is my magic fuel. I’ve had some incredible nights at Annabel’s from watching Lady Gaga at a private concert to seeing the amazing Grace Jones perform – Kate Moss and I even got up and danced with her! I’ve included some of my favourite artists on the playlists, from Prince, Madonna and George Michael to Luther Vandross, David Bowie and Candi Staton; they are all such amazing artists and always get the party started.
Talk me through the looks you've designed for Annabel's staff...
I have created two gorgeous makeup looks for the staff at Annabel’s, a sophisticated daytime eye with a pop of nude pink on the lips using K.I.S.S.I.N.G in Bitch Perfect or Hot Lips in Super Cindy and for the evening, a golden-bronze smoky eye with a modern statement bold red lip using Matte Revolution in Red Carpet Red or Hollywood Lips in Screen Siren.
If you had just five minutes to get ready, what would you do and use?
I would definitely use my Hollywood Flawless Filter which creates the ultimate superstar-lit glow in seconds. It's a customisable hybrid complexion booster, it has the versatility of a primer, the megawatt glow of a highlighter, and the perfecting properties of your favourite digital filter. It’s my secret recipe to give a filter to celebrities' complexions on the red carpet before all the camera tricks.
I then would also use my bestselling and celebrity favourite Instant Look in a Palette collection which is the perfect five-minute face on the go, an all-in-one, beauty palette that every woman has in her beauty kit for day to evening makeup. It includes seven of my best makeup secrets for a natural, glowing look that enhances what nature naturally blessed you with. My current favourite is the Smokey Eye Beauty one.
What does your hair routine look like?
I love Sam McKnight’s Cool Girl texturising spray. I’ve worked with Sam on many shoots and runways over the years and we are now both contributing editors for British Vogue. This spray is ideal for throwing into my bag when I’m on the go between appointments and parties for an instant volume boost.
Can you remember the first beauty product you bought in your teens?
I remember the first time I wore mascara, it changed my life. When I was 13 I went away to boarding school and I started wearing mascara. Overnight, I felt instantly more empowered, magnetic and mesmerising – I felt enriched with confidence.
When did you realise you wanted to pursue beauty professionally?
My ambition and journey as a makeup artist started back when I was growing up in Ibiza; it is such a magical, bohemian place. I was constantly surrounded by a melting pot of creatives and visionaries who sparked my own creativity and I was therefore always walking a path towards makeup artistry. My talented father, Lance, as a painter in Ibiza, gave me an amazing root in colours, tonality and contrasts. I always knew I wanted to create my own brand. I started dreaming it up at school as a young girl. I would always give my friends makeovers, advise them on what clothes to wear, the colours that suited their hair colour, and eye colour… How to make themselves the most beautiful versions of themselves!!
What’s the one product that you have repurchased the most over the years?
I always have my Mason Pearson hairbrush, I love how genius it is. I like to make sure I have plenty of volume in my hair, especially at the crown. I am never without my Magic Cream, too – I am always fully stocked.
What’s the most luxury beauty product you own?
Darling, beauty is always worth the investment if it’s good quality. I always try to have regular facials with an amazing facialist; good skincare is something I never scrimp on. I combined all my skincare know-how with the anti-ageing expertise of the world’s leading laboratories to create my Magic Night Cream – a revolutionary beauty sleep cream-elixir that will give you the best-looking skin of your life. It’s packed full of a powerhouse of eight 'magic' youth-boosting ingredients including Winter Daphne stem cell extract for a more youthful-looking, firmer-feeling complexion; time-released retinol to boost rejuvenation; Red Algae Marigel, rich in calcium and magnesium, for smooth, soft skin creating a barrier against environmental damage; and the powerful antioxidant vitamin E, known to condition and soothe for a model-like complexion. The cream-elixir has a gorgeously luminous, velvety texture and works to give you smooth, retexturised-looking skin.
Who are your beauty icons and why?
From a young age, I had posters on my walls and bought loads of reference books of silver screen sirens like Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot and Marlene Dietrich. I was fascinated by their faces – I used to spend hours studying them and thinking 'How can I steal a bit of their DNA and bottle it?' Today, my entire collection is centred around past and present icons who inspire me, that’s where the idea for my '10 looks' wardrobe came about. From Kate Moss and Brigitte Bardot for The Rock Chick to Penélope Cruz and Sophia Loren for The Dolce Vita, they are iconic because they are trend leaders who know what works for them – they have a signature style that people want to emulate – but they can also embody several looks.
What's your favourite lip product?
My mother always says "lipstick is instant glamour" and no makeup look would be complete without it! I’m obsessed with my iconic, bestselling Matte Revolution Pillowtalk lipstick and Pillowtalk Lip Cheat lip liner. They are the perfect pair for a gorgeous pillowy pout in seconds. It’s a gorgeous nude pink shade that compliments my fair skin tone beautifully.
Photographed by James McDonald
Is there a particular person whose face you enjoy making up the most?
It's impossible to choose! Throughout my career I have been lucky enough to work with countless beautiful women that are gorgeous in so many different ways. From working with Kate Moss when I was starting out in the industry at 19, to kickstarting my career during the amazing supermodel era of the '80s and '90s and working with all the biggest names – Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista – it was such a dream! Since then, I’ve worked with so many iconic actresses, models, and powerhouses – from Amal Clooney, Salma Hayek, Kim Kardashian-West, Sienna Miller, Penélope Cruz, Gigi Hadid, to Jennifer Aniston, J.K. Rowling, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner – the list is endless.
I am incredibly proud of my Hot Lips lipstick collection which is inspired by some of the world’s most mesmerising women and during the launch it helped support the amazing charity Women for Women International. The charity and each of the incredible celebrities involved inspire me in so many ways. It’s the ultimate all-female collaboration with 12 incredible women: Miranda Kerr, Nicole Kidman, Salma Hayek, Kate Bosworth, Laura Bailey, Cindy Crawford, Helena Bonham-Carter, Liv Tyler, Emily Ratajkowski, Carina Lau, Poppy Delevingne and Kim Kardashian-West. I really admire each of the women that inspired Hot Lips and with them I want to spread the powerful feelgood factor a gorgeous new lipstick shade gives. I have extracted their beauty DNA, mixing colours that really embody their style and personality, encapsulated it and am now giving it to everyone!
Makeup aside, what else makes you feel beautiful?
Spending time with my gorgeous husband George and my two wonderful boys Flynn and Valentine – we’ve actually just come back from a fabulous week away on a skiing holiday, I loved spending time all together. I’m lucky to have a very close family and I always make time for them and my friends. I really value the time spent with them, it means everything to me.
How will your beauty empire expand this year?
I see the brand continuing to totally revolutionise and disrupt the beauty industry... I want to make sure we sustain and build on the momentum we have with further expansions in the UK and launching even further afield following the incredible success from launching our first counters in Hong Kong. I have always challenged the status quo and broken rules – goes with being a redhead! I am determined to be a disrupter in the industry and I want my company to be known for groundbreaking innovation across all that we do. I couldn't be more excited about what's happening next at Charlotte Tilbury – stay tuned darlings!
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In the second golden era of television, composing memorable original scores might seem like a lucrative gig. Ramin Djawadi ’s (a Hans Zimmer protégé) Game of Thrones score has become a concert experience that is touring the world under the slogan “music is coming.” The score for Stranger Things, created by Austin synth band S U R V I V E, was popular enough to debut at no. 3 on Billboard’s Alternative Album chart and inspire a performance at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles staged by Goldenvoice. Bear McCreary has created a cottage industry as the “composer king of Comic-Con,” landing jobs composing for The Walking Dead, Outlander, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Blake Neely has cornered the market on The CW’s D.C. universe of series, scoring Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow. All these high-profile composers working on some of the most well-respected TV shows of the era have something in common: they’re all men. Women composers simply aren’t getting the same opportunities, even though they have the same training, the same capacity to create, and the same passion for writing music.
“We are trying to get to the bottom of [gender disparity in composers],” says Lolita Ritmanis, the current president of the Alliance for Women Film Composers. “The main thing is a lack of awareness. People may think there are no problems with gender parity, or that people have to just keep trying [to break in to composing]. Or there are no women trying to do it. That is not the case.”
Of 117 scripted primetime network TV shows airing in the 2017-2018 season with an original score, a total of seven list a woman as their composer. That gives women authorship of only 6% of television scores. Things aren’t much better on cable, premium channels, or streaming services: out of 201 series produced or co-produced in the U.S., 11 feature a woman composer, or 5.5%. On the majority of shows from this television season, women shared their credit with a man — along with a portion of the fee for the job.
Invite women composers to submit. It is not okay anymore to put all women in one kind of box. You can’t just put men in positions of power and tell women to be their assistants.
Numerous critically acclaimed shows in the 2017-2018 season focus on themes of feminism or hinge on strong women characters: The Handmaid’s Tale, Westworld, GLOW, Jessica Jones, Insecure, grown-ish, UnReal, Orange Is the New Black, SMILF, Big Little Lies, and Dietland, just to name a few on-air this season. While women composers should not be stuck in a ghetto of writing music for female characters, are we missing out on something by not seeking out the input of women in shows like these? We’ve staffed the writers’ rooms with women to work out the nuance of female characters and better represent a woman’s point of view. Shouldn’t working with women composers come to mind when commissioning music to go along with a scene that hinges on the reaction, thoughts, and experiences of a woman?
This problem is not exclusive to the current season of TV. Since 1966, when the first Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (there is a second award for limited series, movies, and specials) was awarded, no woman or team with a woman on it has won an Emmy for composing music for a TV series. In the last 10 years, only three women have been nominated. Two of those women worked on Victoria, a co-production between the BBC and Masterpiece, along with a man. The other is Ritmanis, who was nominated for the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold along with four men.
The discretion to find someone the showrunner or music supervisor is comfortable with can be seen in male composers who get hired for multiple projects. Atli Örvarsson works on many of the shows in Dick Wolf’s Chicago universe, while electronic collective Photek score a pair of Shondaland shows. Mac Quayle is the go-to on multiple productions by Ryan Murphy. They are all talented composers, but this industry-wide proclivity towards using the same person repeatedly finds men working on multiple shows per season, while equally adept women wait on the sidelines. In the 2017-18 television season, the only woman with multiple credits on a show is Sherri Chung, who works on Riverdale and Blindspot.
Composers are paid a negotiated fee per show that comes from the production’s music budget. Berklee College of Music estimates that composers earn $1,500 to $7,500 per episode for a half-hour show and $2,000 to $15,000 for an hour-long show. There is also a fee from their performing rights organisation (PRO) with each airing — pay cheques that add up if a show airs in syndication or in foreign markets. In short: the more shows you have a composing credit on, the more money you can make in a year. If you share credit with another composer, your fee is split in half and shared between the two of you, as well as the writing credit. Only four female composers in the 2017-18 season had their own, unshared credit. Composers who also produce, perform, or conduct the orchestra on a score get an additional fee. There aren’t a lot of orchestras on TV these days; bedroom producers with home studios are in demand.
Meshell Ndegeocello is a veteran Grammy-nominated musician and social activist who has scored all three seasons of OWN’s Queen Sugar. Even before joining the show, her musical pedigree was impressive. When asked if she’s been approached to work on multiple shows, like many male composers are, she just laughs. “I would love to have another show. I’m a musician and a creative person, first and foremost,” Ndegeocello says. “If it wasn’t for the diligence of [ Queen Sugar creator] Ava DuVernay, I don’t think I would have a show.” Ndegeocello says being hired to compose is as much about the rapport one has with a show’s director, producers, or showrunner as it is about talent. “I haven’t quite figured out my Hollywood dance, to make myself seem friendlier,” she notes with a chuckle.
Women composing in TV have it a little bit better than women in film, who in 2017 comprised only 3% of composers, with 98% of films featuring no female composers according to statistics compiled by Women and Hollywood. Their plight is also slightly less dire than that of women hoping to hear their work performed in symphonies across the country; NPR found that the among major orchestras across the country, pieces by women are vastly underrepresented.
If everybody invested just a little bit of their time in cultivating the careers of women composers, wouldn’t we see a difference?
Jamie Jackson, who co-composed the music on The CW's now-cancelled Life Sentence, got her start in music working in the very analog legendary Electric Lady studio in New York City, which was created and designed by Jimi Hendrix. “I got so used to being the only female in the room,” she says — a sentiment echoed by several of the women Refinery29 spoke to. “If everybody invested just a little bit of their time in cultivating the careers of women composers, wouldn’t we see a difference? It’s really about getting your foot in the door and then letting their work speak for itself. Let us get the job not because we’re women, but because we’re talented.”
Erica Weis, co-composer on ABC’s American Housewife, started her career in music editing and music supervision, working on the female-centric Ghostbusters reboot and Step Brothers. Weis studied composition in college and made the transition to composing for television after producer Jason Wiener ( Modern Family, Life In Pieces) asked her to give it a shot. She thinks the notoriously hectic, last-minute schedule that plagues work in episodic television might be part of what is so off-putting about the job to so many, regardless of sex.
“The schedules are so crazy, especially in TV. They shoot and edit during the day, but in music we get those cuts turned over at the end of the day or right before the weekend,” Weis says. In post-production, editors have to wait until producers are available to step away from a 12- to 14-hour shoot to review their work, with music getting placed in a show after that. Jackson explains the importance of a composer’s process by saying, “Once the picture comes in, we really understand the tone...and start developing the sound from there. You have to work around the actor’s dialog. Until you get picture, you’re really guessing.”
The craziness of the schedule and the tight turn-around times was something nearly every woman Refinery29 spoke to mentioned. “With women acting as overseers for their families, it doesn’t always integrate well into a normal schedule,” Weiss says. “Composing is not really a 9 to 5 job. You need a really good support system set up.”
If women are not hired or are systematically underpaid, on the front or back end, then it is harder for them afford the support system they need. Weis wasn’t alone among women we spoke to in mentioning that the work schedule on episodic TV is a struggle. Finding a balance between career and home life is a struggle for most working women, but it shouldn’t disqualify women from an entire category of work.
The decision of who to hire, promote, and spend their time and effort cultivating is very much in the hands of studios, agents, and showrunners.
Sherri Chung, who works on Riverdale and Blindspot, credits composer Blake Neely for bringing her on to work with him. He was her advisor in graduate school, and afterwards she kept in touch and began working for him, then with him. Chung insists she’s never felt held back by sexism in her career. She expressed a knowledge of how low the numbers were for working women composers, but was surprised to hear they are this low.
“It’s a difficult industry for everybody. There are less women composing, but I don’t know if that’s the result of us being specifically kept out, or if less women want to go into this industry,” Chung says. “I went to graduate school for composing, and there were two women. So, if only two women go up for jobs, [the lower numbers of women] are not going to be surprising when you look at it across the board. There aren’t 50% women versus men going up for jobs, so what the statistics are showing is the reality that there are less women in the industry.”
When Chung goes back to her university to visit, she says she is seeing more women in composing classes. She advises women to go to school and start changing the dynamic, with the advice that there is more to the job than simply writing music. “Get the writing skills, the people skills, and networking skills, because 80% of this job is not about writing music.”
Weis doesn’t recall a big gender difference in her classes at Berklee. “It’s hard to understand why exactly [the number of women composers] is so low, other than it being embedded in how things are for so long that it’s become a pattern.”
In conversation with these composers, everyone acknowledged that the idea of a male maestro who was allowed to be obsessed with his work and ill-tempered was something that once existed for composers, especially those who conduct — be it their own music or that of the masters. Nevertheless, it would be shocking on a modern-day television set to see that sort of behaviour from either sex. What might linger, Ritmanis says, is the idea that composing and conducting, which some of the composers behind television’s more epic and orchestral scores do, is a man’s job.
“If you want to understand why this is a problem, everyone needs to evaluate their feelings about [who can be a composer and conductor]. If you see a woman conducting something, do you think, Oh, how is she dressed, how did she do her hair, should her arms be showing or should she be wearing a jacket? Are these the same things we think about male conductors? It is antiquated and unacceptable. It's similar to choosing a person of colour to handle your jazz score. Why shouldn't an African-American composer be chosen for the epic symphonic project?"
If the idea that men will be freer to explore their creative impulses or more capable of weird working hours is a myth that persists, then it could be influencing the decision-makers who are hiring a surplus of men in composing jobs.
Jackson shares, anecdotally, that her agent has been getting more calls from networks and showrunners who specifically want to find a woman composer. Ritmanis concurs, telling a story about an unnamed network exec who told an entire agency their composers would no longer be considered for any jobs unless they started submitting woman composers for work as well.
On behalf of the women composers in her alliance, Ritmanis suggests a solution to showrunners, music supervisors, producers, and directors: “Invite women composers to submit. It is not okay anymore to put all women in one kind of box. You can’t just put men in positions of power and tell women to be their assistants.”
Indeed, the Time’s Up movement is pushing for inclusivity throughout Hollywood in below-the-line production roles. The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative advocates through education for diversity clauses to increase not only visible women in production but inclusion for below the line roles that historically have gone to men. Women and Hollywood is tracking the gender disparity in film and TV, finding jobs that have historically been overwhelmingly staffed by men are now, at least sometimes, going to women. The reaction from women showrunners, stars, and writers has been overwhelmingly one of relief at no longer being outnumbered by men. For many, it has removed the pressure of being “the woman” on set and allowed them to just be themselves.
The decision of who to hire, promote, and spend their time and effort cultivating is very much in the hands of studios, agents, and showrunners. For these gatekeepers, it is imperative that they remain aware about diversifying who writes the music for their productions as well as who gets credit on their shows, in order to affect real change in representation.
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A friend of mine always tells me that I have the kind of face that makes people, even complete strangers, feel really comfortable talking to me (his exact words are "unload their emotional baggage on you," but I wouldn't go that far). It's probably a good quality to have as a journalist, and it genuinely feels good that some people trust me enough to tell me their secrets.
At the same time, as someone who also tends to take other people's problems on as my own, it does take a toll on my own mental health.
"When a friend comes to you with their problems, you feel like you want to lessen their burden and suffering and give some helpful advice," says Kristin Zeising, PsyD, a clinical psychologist and couples therapist in San Diego. "However, it can feel burdensome, especially for people who have a caretaker type personality. They may feel like it’s their job to alleviate peoples burdens and have a hard time saying no."
As much as you may love your friends and love helping them talk through their problems, it's okay to sometimes feel overloaded if you're the person everyone goes to for support. Vera Eck, MFT, an Imago relationship therapist in Los Angeles, says that there are healthy boundaries in relationships, and it's important to be aware of when you've hit that cutoff point.
As Dr. Zeising puts it, "We all have limits in how much we can handle."
If you find yourself starting to tune out other people when they start opening up about their problems, or getting frustrated that you're not getting a word in edgewise, you may have hit your limit.
"If life is particularly stressful it may be that you have less interest and ability to hear other peoples problems," she adds. "You have to assess what you're available for. And ultimately, if it is not something that you’re equipped to handle then you don’t have to feel guilty and criticise yourself."
You might be able to get away with making your excuses to more casual acquaintances (like telling the grocery clerk you're in a hurry and can't stay to make conversation), but setting boundaries with people you're close to without coming off as insensitive can be tricky, and Eck says that outright telling someone that you're overwhelmed by them might make them feel criticised.
"Instead, it would be better to try to position oneself to receive support, to stop the giving and to share something," she says. "You have to make yourself vulnerable. Talk about things that are painful or that you’re worried about, and wait for someone to give some kind of support, and see how interested they are — if they ask questions, express concern, if they have empathy."
We all have limits in how much we can handle.
Eck says that if they don't seem receptive to listening to you or if they interrupt you, you might have to interrupt them back to let them know that you weren't finished talking.
"It’s going to have to be a conversation in the moment because otherwise that person generally is not aware of how narcissistic they are," she says.
But no matter what, Dr. Zeising says that you should definitely avoid letting the situation get to a point where you're so overwhelmed that you feel like you can't talk to someone about it, and you cut off all communication.
"[Communication] offers the other person an opportunity to fully understand what’s going on with you, and they may be able to offer support," she says. "When you just cut off communication with other people they may feel hurt or disrespected, or concerned about how you’re doing. It can cause more problems than just simply communicating that you’re going through a lot and you may be limited in how much time you can give to the relationship or spend with the person."
If there's a particular person in your life who always seems to be unloading on you without any reciprocity or even talking over you, Dr. Zeising suggests gently letting them know that you don't feel equipped to support them all the time. You might start by saying something like, "I've noticed you've been a little stressed, and I'd love to be there for you, but there's only so much support I know how to give."
If you're not quite ready to have that conversation, though, there are still ways to keep yourself from feeling overloaded.
"It’s important to look at self-care and look at the things you’re doing to replenish yourself," Eck says.
Whether you initiate time slots where you shut off your phone, or you find someone you can talk to about your own problems (without overloading them, of course), it's important to take care of yourself, too.
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Yet for AW18, creative director Alessandro Michele has spun his magic once more, this time inviting us into a world of obsessive collectors of art and artefacts.
The campaign, simply called 'Gucci Collectors', launching the Italian house's Autumn/Winter 2018 line, celebrates the oddballs and misfits, those outcast by society because of their unconventional habits or hobbies.
Gucci
Training the lens on the passionate collators and curators of paintings, antiques, vintage collectibles and other rare memorabilia, Gucci takes its well-documented penchant for eccentrics to the next level by photographing characters in rooms dedicated to their obsession.
Sat among their possessions – from collapsing piles of chintzy china to walls covered in framed butterfly taxidermy – we're invited to explore their private worlds.
The campaign "champions the notion that those who the mainstream often considers to be oddballs are frequently the most interesting and creative people," a statement from the brand reads, "and that true individuality is a badge of pride."
Gucci
Shot by British fashion photographer Glen Luchford – the man who has helped Michele redefine Gucci's aesthetic since the designer's first campaign for the brand – we see a pair of legs clad in black lace tights and gold-embellished loafers atop stacks of teapots and dog figurines, and a woman in a knitted hat surrounded by mannequin heads and voluminous wigs.
Alongside shots of the 'Collectors' are scenes resembling a dinner party hosted by Marie Antoinette, with women dressed in bubblegum pink and lime green satin bodice dresses with beauty spots drawn on their cheeks, and sickly sweet iced cakes and fruit piled high upon the table – next to a pair of saccharine Gucci mules, of course.
Gucci
Michele's preference for the bizarre shows no sign of waning – this house of collectors proves that Gucci is here for the weirdos of the world.
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On January 1, 2018, the women of Hollywood came together to launch Time's Up in reaction to the stories of #MeToo that came in waves after the initial allegations of sexual misconduct against producer Harvey Weinstein were reported by the New York Times. The movement included demonstrations at award shows like the Golden Globes, legislation for the workplace, and a legal defence fund aimed at helping women across all industries secure justice when reporting sexual misconduct. From the start, the fund was backed with £10 million in donations. Today, that number has reached over £16 million, and now the organisation has released a powerful PSA about the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund exclusively on Refinery29 to emphasise the hard work they've been doing these past six months.
Starring women like Gloria Steinem and Amber Tamblyn, the PSA reminds us that it's time — for equality, for equal pay, for safety across all workplaces.
Since its launch, the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund has connected over 2,600 women to legal resources and completed more than 3,000 intakes. Instances include a 15-year-old cashier at a McDonald’s restaurant in St. Louis, who reported sexual harassment to her manager and was told that she would "never win that battle." Last month, sexual harassment charges were filed on her behalf, as well as on behalf of nine other women working at McDonald’s restaurants in nine cities across the country. All legal costs are covered by the fund.
In addition to supporting women in individual cases, the fund has made broader moves as well. It's launched a new grant programme to support harassment-related outreach and prevention programs at nonprofit organisations that serve low-wage workers. They've also partnered with Press Forward to combat sexual harassment in newsrooms.
This is a movement that's not losing momentum, and it's thanks both to the women who stepped up to launch to program, as well as the continued support of people across the country who have donated, demonstrated, and spread the word to ensure the safety of women. You can donate to the fund here.
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At the top of 2018, Drake, known to his mum as Aubrey Graham, shared two new singles with fans: “Diplomatic Immunity” and “God’s Plan. ” The latter would become the lead single for his highly anticipated fifth studio album Scorpion, released on Friday. By mid-April, fans knew there was a new project coming from the the 31-year-old rapper, but he didn’t confirm the release date until two weeks before it dropped. But Drake — who is always calculating when it comes to crafting his own narrative — built up hype around the record. Amid gossip, he gave people something else to talk about: a Degrassi reunion-inspired music video for single “I’m Upset” and a reminder of his sensitivity with the generous video for “God’s Plan” (in which he unforgettably raps, “I only love my bed and my momma”).
When it comes to the Scorpion narrative, Pusha T's announcement that Drake had a son that no one knew about became the central focus. Everyone wondered whether or not he would take aim at Pusha T for his public slight or if the allegation was true. It created a flurry of anticipation around Scorpion, as fans wondered if Drake would respond. His admission that he does have a son, who he’s only seen once, has been the focus of conversation. Because of Drake's "softer" side, it's been easy for fans to give him a free pass when it comes to punching down at others in his music. But, something that has been weaved throughout Drake's music over the years is his misogynistic way of talking about women.
There is a pattern listeners have either chosen to turn a blind eye towards, haven't exactly thought about, or maybe never even realised in the first place: Drake has spent the majority of his career embedding judgmental lyrics about women into his music. There was the slut-shaming of the 2015 single "Hotline Bling " ("Got a reputation for yourself now...Started wearing less and goin' out more / Glasses of champagne out on the dancefloor") and let's not forget his perpetuation of the stereotype that women need saving on 2009's "Houstatlantavegas" ("You go get fucked up and we just show up at your rescue"). But it's been most insulting when the Canadian rapper samples a prominent female artist on his music and then proceeds to diss women.
On Scorpion, he takes it to the next level by using work from some of the world's biggest female artists on songs that aren't kind to women. This isn’t surprising considering misogyny in hip-hop, rap, and R&B has been a consistent problem; it’s even more evident in looking at how few female rappers make it to the top of the charts. Drake may think he’s positioning himself as an advocate by sampling women of colour on his tracks who have been shrouded by history, but he’s more often than not no better than his peers. Frankly, it would be more effective if women just got to have a voice of their own.
With "Emotionless," he samples Mariah Carey's disco-tinged 1991 hit "Emotions" where he heavily examines the controversial way social media increases celebrity for posthumous artists. But while doing so, Drake specifically criticises the way that women use social media. He sings, "I know a girl whose one goal was to visit Rome / Then she finally got to Rome / And all she did was post pictures for people at home / 'Cause all that mattered was impressin' everybody she's known." Even though he's trying to make a point, he ends up creating an unnecessarily gendered observation of social media.
As one of the lead singles on his latest effort, "Nice For What " samples iconic R&B singer Lauryn Hill's 1998 track "Ex-Factor." The video of the song goes one step further, celebrating influential women and friends like Issa Rae, Misty Copeland, Zoe Saldana, Tiffany Haddish, Yara Shahidi, Syd, Rashida Jones, Jourdan Dunn, Tracee Ellis Ross, Olivia Wilde, Elizabeth Lejonhjarta, Victoria Lejonhjarta, Letitia Wright, Bria Vinaite, Michelle Rodriguez, and Emma Roberts. But despite being a "celebratory song" for women, it still oozes undertones of misogyny as Drake manages to degrade women by calling them "hoes" multiple times in the song while trying to praise them. Instead, Drake once again comes off as a fake feminist.
An unexpected sample from Nicki Minaj's 2013 remix of PTAF's "Boss Ass Bitch" surfaces on "That's How You Feel," a song that sees Drake longing for a woman whom he isn't sure reciprocates his feelings. Despite pointing out how he feels for her, Drake makes subtle jabs at her lifestyle, singing, "I know you like to drink 'til the sun up / Grind 'til you come up / Work all winter, shine all summer." While he's sampling the confident words of Minaj, he's simultaneously juxtaposing them with his own self-righteous lyrics that negate the gospel he's trying to preach.
"In My Feelings" sees Drake calling out ex-girlfriends and women who have stood by him throughout his rise to fame while sampling female rap duo City Girls and late bounce rapper Magnolia Shorty. But while appropriating Shorty's music and collaborating with City Girls, "In My Feelings" is a male-centric song masked in Drake's brand of emo-rap that caters to his own ego. As he plays the sensitivity card, he really wants to know how loyal these women are to him: "Kiki, do you love me? Are you riding? / Say you'll never ever leave from beside me / 'Cause I want ya, and I need ya / And I'm down for you always."
As Drake samples other female artists' work as a way to raise their voices, he does a disservice to them by continuing to bring women down with his words. It's counterproductive as he portrays himself as an ally to women — the “good guy” of hip hop — but his efforts result in appropriating and exposing himself as sexist when he judges or objectifies them. By championing artists like Mariah Carey and Lauryn Hill in his music, it seems much more like he’s doing a favour to them than he’s doing a favour to women. Scorpion proves that Drake hasn't changed: he's still lifting women up for his brand all the while bringing them down.
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As everyone orders gose, mead, and low-ABV cocktails this summer, you may want to consider sipping on another buzzy, kind of alcoholic beverage: kombucha. For those not familiar with the effervescent drink, kombucha is tea that's fermented using a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. During this process, the culture turns sugar in the tea into ethanol, a type of alcohol. The bacteria consumes this alcohol and turns into vinegar, which is what gives kombucha its sour taste. However, some of that alcohol gets left in the drink itself. So, the question is, could that make you drunk?
The thing is, bottled kombucha that you'll find in stores has to comply with government requirements for non-alcoholic beverages, says Mascha Davis, MPH, RDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Los Angeles and spokesperson for the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "This means that any kombucha you buy at the store will have less than 0.5% alcohol, [which is] a trace amount," she says. For perspective, a bottle of beer has about 5% alcohol, while a glass of wine contains 12% alcohol. (Some people who are sober choose not to drink kombucha for this reason.) Companies take this rule pretty seriously, and usually have to go through rigorous third-party testing to ensure that their products meet regulatory standards and can be sold.
Some brands, like GTs and Kombrewcha, sell kombucha with a touch more alcohol in it that's sold as an alcoholic beverage, meaning you have to be 18 to buy it. But even that typically isn't enough to give you a buzz. Considering how low the alcohol content is in kombucha, you'd have to drink about eight bottles of kombucha in order to feel anything at all.
On the other hand, home-brewed kombucha can be higher in alcohol, and can have as much as a can of beer, Davis says. While that might sound intriguing, DIY-ing is not recommended. Home-brewed kombucha doesn't have to go through the regulation process like bottled kombucha does, so it can be dangerous. In some cases, you could end up over-fermenting the tea or contaminating it with harmful bacteria or mould. According to the National Capital Poison Control, homemade kombucha has been linked to at least one death, a case of cardiac arrest, several cases of hepatitis, one case of severe muscle weakness and inflammation of the heart muscle, and anthrax.
So, sticking with bottled kombucha sold in a store is the safest way to go. If you're looking to get buzzed, then you'd have to drink a lot of kombucha to feel anything — and that's not really a good idea, either. Some people report stomach problems, yeast infections, allergic reactions, nausea, or vomiting after drinking excessive amounts of kombucha, Davis says.
This information isn't meant to be a total buzzkill. It's pretty normal to feel a little something after drinking kombucha, because it contains caffeine, Davis says. "Depending on how high the caffeine content is, it might energise you," she says. Ultimately, there are a number of reasons to drink kombucha, and some people simply enjoy the taste. But if you're looking for a drink that will make you feel tipsy, you may want to just go for the frosé cocktails after all.
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A boy? It never occurred to me that I’d have a boy.
For nearly my entire 12-year career, as a fashion journalist and former Cosmo editor, I have existed happily in Girl Land. I haven’t been around a large group of men since I surprise-visited my then-future husband in grad school years ago, and he had a horde of them over to watch some kind of sport on TV. I looked on in perplexed silence as one of these men performed an endless routine about the vodka-spiked Slurpee he drank out of a Styrofoam cup, which, I gathered, I was supposed to find hilarious.
Earlier this year, when someone from my obstetrician’s office called and said "it’s a boy," I was stunned. I wasn’t upset – I’m thrilled to be pregnant and on the verge of parenthood – but I was dismayed. I had spent the last two months imagining that I was having a girl. There was no logic to this vision. I could just as soon assume that all the world’s dolphins will turn into mermaids tomorrow.
My friends, however, were excited for me. Many framed creating another man as an opportunity: "You’ll raise a real male feminist! I know you can do it!"
As feminists spending the prime of our lives in a post-Trump values apocalypse, punctuated by other powerful men being felled by the #MeToo movement, the general horribleness of men is more apparent to us than ever. We miraculously managed to find our unicorn husbands and life partners in the age of "Cat Person," when most men in the dating pool are that special breed of awful. The world is obviously in urgent need of more feminists and more good feminist men.
And yet I’ve made a decision about my son that feels like an affront to my feminist values. He will have only my husband’s last name.
I didn’t change my name when we got married four years ago for a few reasons, feminism being an obvious one — why should I have to change my name just because I’m a woman? The second was practicality. I was already established as a writer, and would have to continue using my maiden name professionally anyway. And the third was all the paperwork. I learned that some women contract name changing services to take care of it all for them. This sounded worse than a day of using TurboTax. Why should I subject myself to filling out reams of government forms after marriage, just because of my sex, when my husband wouldn’t have to do a thing? Some things just aren’t right.
When I ask my husband – during a conversation we have every so often – if he wants me to change my name, he says yes. When I ask him if he wants to change his name to mine, he says no. Perhaps this is why he never challenged my decision to keep my last name. Either that or he knows that I’m stubborn and I’m as likely to give up my last name as I am the cat (a beautiful black Siberian named Maddie) I’ve had since before we met.
Women have historically changed their names after marriage to denote that they became property of their husbands. Of course, this probably happened along with the exchange of things like an acre of land and five heads of cattle. My marriage came with no exchange of fields or bales of hay, and I can assure you no cattle graze in my backyard. Plus, I am most certainly not the property of anyone.
But while we came to agreement on a lot of significant questions before we got married — no TV in the bedroom, we would buy a house in the suburbs, he would adopt and co-parent the cat, etc. — one consensus we didn’t reach on was our future children’s last names.
Then I got pregnant, and we had to decide. My husband was adamant about our kids bearing his name because, he argued, people wouldn’t know they’re his kids otherwise. Historically, this is why the kids inherit their father’s name – because paternity is thought not to be as certain as maternity. A man isn’t pushing the kids out of his penis, so how will everyone know they’re his? Or so went the logic of hundreds of years ago.
Now, with reproductive technology, surrogacy, and feminism, ye olde naming conventions feel irrelevant, but, unsurprisingly, society has failed to progress much past the days of dying from dysentery on the Oregon Trail. Studies show that men whose wives keep their maiden names are perceived as more feminine and less powerful in the marriage. Before he read a draft of this essay, my husband may have sensed this instinctively, hence his uncharacteristic stubbornness about naming our children.
My desire to raise a feminist son made it difficult to relent to my husband’s wishes. By giving our baby my husband’s last name, we’d be exposing him to long-held, anti-feminist gender norms, the fight against which has dictated the course of much of my life and my entire career. It’s why I spent four and a half years working at Cosmo.
But, as my son will learn, there is no perfect way to be a feminist, and there is no perfect expression of feminism. Everyone’s feminism consists of a series of choices and actions that will hopefully contribute to one’s overall happiness and sense of life satisfaction. We might march on Washington and order a “skinny” margarita when we’re done, knowing the latter does not diminish the social impact of the former. We might read a political essay on Refinery29, and then click over to the fashion section to buy a sexy date night dress. This doesn’t make us bad people or poor proponents of a movement that, right now, needs as many members as possible.
A huge part of what makes my life happy and satisfying is my marriage — to a straight, cisgendered man I’d unquestioningly describe as a feminist — and a marriage isn’t very happy if the people in it aren’t willing to compromise. Either we’d give our son a hyphenated last name, which forces our child to compromise over our disagreement, or he’d just take one of our names. I ultimately chose to compromise on this and give him my husband’s name for two simple reasons: One, I don’t need to use my child to make a political statement. If we raise him to the best of our feminist abilities, he’ll make plenty of political statements of his own. He'll go to the Women's March, donate to Planned Parenthood, and always treat women as well as his dad does. And two, I love my husband, and am willing to make compromises for him because he makes big and little ones for me all the time. We got married in my location of choice, we live in the city and home of my choosing, and he pretends like he loves our cat, who I know he can’t stand. He gets out of bed 20 minutes after we’ve lied down to get me a glass of water, and picks up my prescriptions from the pharmacy because I ask him to, even though he’s just as tired as I am.
I wish we could change Western society by making an unconventional choice about our son’s last name, but we won’t. But I know that one day, when he’s legally old enough to drink his own vodka-spiked Slurpee in his friend’s grad school dorm, I can tell him about why deciding on his last name was such a difficult decision. And I know that he’ll understand why.
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In the fifth episode of GLOW season 2, Ruth (Alison Brie), the earnest and starry-eyed member of the show’s team of wrestlers, enters a hotel room under the assumption that the TV executive with whom she’s meeting wants to further her career. Tom Grant (Paul Fitzgerald) really admires her character, Soviet fighter Zoya the Destroyer. He wants to help her get ahead.
In some way, Ruth's instincts are spot-on. Tom will help her — if she plays along, if she puts him into a signature headlock while they're sitting on the couch, if she bathes with him. Ruth, after realising the terms of Tom's deal, scurries away while he prepares the tub. Her gut decision has major implications for everyone involved with GLOW. As retribution for being abandoned, Grant pushes GLOW to a terrible time slot, ensuring its cancellation.
For anyone who’s paid attention to the news since October, the specifics of Ruth's sexual harassment storyline will strike you as remarkably familiar. As was revealed in the explosive New York Times exposé, powerful producer Harvey Weinstein’s MO had been setting up meetings in his hotel room with rising stars, and using these meetings to leverage their careers or blackball them depending on how they responded to his advances. In GLOW, we see one of the first pop culture responses to the #MeToo movement — but the storyline's initial idea had been outlined even before the Weinstein allegations emerged. We spoke to GLOW 's creators, Carly Mensch and Liz Flahive, on how they devised a sexual harassment storyline to fit the context of GLOW, and how it actually predated the #MeToo movement.
Refinery29: Let’s get right down to it and talk about the scene of Ruth going into the hotel room, not really knowing what is happening to her. When did you first conceive of putting Ruth into this situation, and why?
Liz Flahive: “We definitely started by talking about a storyline involving some sort of sexual harassment.”
Carly Mensch: “We were starting with Ruth’s story. We were in this magical wonderland of female empowerment — she was on this team, and she felt so good. We needed to burst her bubble because she felt a bit naive about the industry. So we started with that. We also always build our seasons thinking about the Ruth and Debbie friendship. It felt like an exciting opportunity to put them on two sides of something and to further deepen their divide. We wrote the couch scene so that we could get the conversation that came after it.”
Had this idea for "the couch scene" come up before all the allegations about Harvey Weinstein emerged, or after?
Mensch: "We had outlined this before. Our writer, Rachel Shukert, outlined this before Weinstein. I think Weinstein happened right as she was about to go off [to write the] draft."
Flahive: "It was all sort of swirling at the same time. The thing that was interesting was the conversation around taking on power dynamics between actresses who didn’t have any, and then suddenly being part of a network with males in entertainment who had power over them, was something we’d talked about a bunch. When the news about Harvey Weinstein broke, we were emboldened to go further with the story. Our agenda, in terms of the story, was always based on character. Our eye was on what was going to happen to Ruth and Debbie as a result of this. It wasn’t really the event in the hotel. It was the fallout afterwards that we were interested in for our show."
Can you elaborate what you mean by the timeliness of the scene allowing you to take it further?
Flahive: "We weren’t shying away from anything. I don’t think we would’ve shied away from anything, especially in the Ruth/Debbie conversation, but in terms of where we set the scene, how far we took the scene."
Mensch: "Like to a hotel room."
Flahive: "That was informed by what was going on in the world. We wanted to be responsive but we wanted to stay in the show. It can be tough when you feel like you’re responding to something in the world. It pulls you out of the world that you were creating. We take a lot of pains to hold onto people in our story. We were really mindful of that."
So, let’s talk about what you've been referring to — that conversation between Ruth and Debbie. Can you elaborate on the different opinions Debbie and Ruth have on how women in entertainment should deal with lecherous and powerful men?
Mensch: "Debbie’s reaction is grounded in a very different experience than what Ruth would have. This is probably the first time Ruth has ever been invited in the room. Debbie has been in the industry more, she’s had a bit more success. Debbie has experienced this a lot more than Ruth. She’s probably thought about it differently and maybe made certain decisions or sacrifices. Her answer is not so much a global prescription of how women should behave, so much as a defence of how she behaved or how she expects Ruth to."
Flahive: "Or how she rationalised her behaviour. We wanted to root her in the time. She’s a soap opera actress in 1985 L.A.. I don’t think that’s an actress at the height of her powers. Number 12 on the call sheet for a soap in ‘85 is not a place where she was asking a bunch of questions and calling a bunch of shots. We wanted to be really particular to her character’s experience of the industry and the world."
Mensch: "We also wanted her to land punches. She says some things that resonate no matter what side of the argument you’re on. Whether it’s right or wrong, Ruth is taking 20 other people down with her. This line, 'The one time you keep your legs shut,’ which is a great line by Rachel, is true. Out of all the characters, she’s made sexual mistakes in the past, so this is a funny line for her to draw. We didn’t want to be so black-and-white, so that one side is right and one is wrong, or one side is modern and the other side is old-fashioned. We wanted Debbie to land punches and be informed by where they were."
Debbie has one stark reaction. Sam has another. Can you speak to his response in the cinema and why he was able to come down so hard in support of Ruth, whereas Debbie wasn't?
Flahive: “This is a guy struggling with certain elements of his ego and his relationship to power and authority. For the first time in a long time, he’s trying to do a job. He’s trying to get along, and it’s not working. He doesn’t understand why. And then the system is laid bare for him by Ruth. And he’s like, ‘Oh, fuck it, that’s it? Great. Fuck that guy. I see.’ He’s not vulnerable to it in a lot of ways. He’s able to respond in a way that is about him."
Mensch: "Sam definitely has some kind of protectionist impulses in him, like when he smashes [the executive's] car window. He’s going to white knight Ruth a little. First it’s neutral — he doesn’t have the baggage Debbie has, so he can have an organic, ‘Fuck that guy' reaction. But then, just because of who he is, there’s a definitive protectionist quality in him that’s related to his feelings to Ruth and to his ego."
When preparing the scene, did you consult with any actresses about the casting couch or base this scene on stories that you’d heard?
Flahive: “I don’t think we were basing it off of any particular story.”
Mensch: “I mean, we have six women sitting around.”
Flahive: “There are a lot of women in the room. We had information. I think the other thing that we talked about that was very particular to GLOW was this idea that crystallised when we were talking about the story and how it connected to the larger group. When wrestlers are seeing their fans and out in public — and this happens sometimes the actresses on our show — the idea that you take a picture with a fan and put them in a headlock. That’s all well and good. But also, that's a person incredibly close to your breast. I’ve seen pictures with our actresses and thought, ‘That makes me uncomfortable!’ Do we have to do that for this picture? That’s a very small thing, but it started the conversation and made it relevant to our girls and our show."
Debbie and Ruth's conversation shows how complicated this topic is. The scene demonstrates how pop culture at large can further the #MeToo dialogue by situating the topic in context of a larger story, featuring characters that people are attached to and really understand. What are your thoughts on how pop culture might tackle this topic in the future?
Mensch: "There’s definitely power, but something we were excited about was not just to show you what you might expect in headlines. What people weren’t talking about was what it felt like to be in the room when these kind of things happened, and how complicated it is. It's not like there's a villain. We were excited to show how easily a woman can fall into a position like this and how complicated navigating that conversation is. It felt exciting to take the conversation a step further."
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In March, Instagram made a promise to users: After almost two years of seemingly endless complaints about the loss of the chronological feed, the app said it would introduce changes to ensure “the posts you see are timely.” At the time, this seemed like a thinly veiled effort to stall the sudden viral interest in Vero, a short-lived competitor that replicated the chronological feed users missed. In the three months since, Vero has faded into the background and Instagram has continued to make good on its word.
Today, the app is rolling out a small, but important, update that helps clarify which posts are recent and which are older.
When you have scrolled through all the posts from the past two days in your feed, you will see a new “You’re All Caught Up” message. You can continue scrolling past that notification to see posts that went up more than two days ago, as well as posts you’ve already looked at. That means everything above the notification will be "new" posts, in the sense that you will not have seen them yet and they are less than 48 hours old. However, to be clear: That does not mean these newer posts are in chronological order.
Courtesy of Instagram.
This change arrives in addition to another new feature you might have noticed while scrolling through your feed: A "new posts" button towards the top of the screen that you can tap to see everything just posted at the top of your feed, or ignore to stay where you are. This tool was originally launched as a test to prevent a common user issue: A sudden app refresh that pushed you to the top of your feed and caused you to lose your place mid-scroll.
Although Instagram is not bringing back the chronological feed in its entirety, today's update is a welcome compromise. Users will get to see more recent posts and Instagram can stick with the algorithm that prioritises moments from family, friends, and brands you interact with the most.
However, don't be alarmed if you don't see the notification: If you follow 5,000-plus accounts, all of which regularly post every 48 hours, it's unlikely you will ever be "all caught up." But at least you can bid mid-scroll interruptions farewell.
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Warning: Readers may find some images distressing.
There is a city in northern India called Varanasi that sits on the banks of the Ganges River. It’s a holy place – with around 2,000 temples lining its streets – where Hindu pilgrims come from far and wide to bathe in the river’s sacred waters and perform funeral rites on its white sand beaches. Many Hindus even travel to die there. Varanasi is also the central home of the Aghor – a tiny sect of Hinduism that has become known for its practice of eating human flesh. Moving between India and Nepal and living among cremation grounds, the Aghor are known as the nomadic 'cannibal cult' of India, and their notoriety has far outgrown their size.
In late 2016, photographer Tamara Merino spent a month with the Aghor, documenting their rites and rituals, as well as their quieter, everyday moments. Intrigued by their reputation as the 'most feared cannibal in all of India and Nepal' she sought them out while travelling through India. "After some time," she says, "I got the chance to meet Aghor guru Baba Ram Mahesh and it was through him that I gained my chance to document the intimate daily life of the cult. I made relationships with other Aghor and they allowed me to make my work securely and spend a few weeks with them in Varanasi."
Baba Ram Mahesh, on the left, shares an intimate moment with Baba Vijay Nund. They are both holy men from the Hindu religion, but differ in philosophy, practices, lifestyle and rituals. Varanasi, India. 2017.Photo: Tamara Merino
Merino’s images of the cult are dramatic and beautiful – the theatre of their fire-filled ceremonies unfurling against deep pink sunset skies as night draws in. Some images are shocking; in one photograph we see a corpse swathed in fabrics slowly being engulfed by flames, and in others, we observe quiet, meditative moments. "It was an intense but beautiful experience," Merino remembers. "The Aghor live and perform their rituals during the night, so in order to document the cult I regularly had to stay awake all night in the cremation grounds with them."
Since the 5th century BC, the Aghor have followed the path of Shiva, the god of destruction in Hinduism, who resides in the cremation ground. "This is why," Merino explains, "they immerse themselves in environments where death surrounds them as a part of their daily routine. They eat human flesh for specific rituals and use human skulls and bones for ceremonies and jewellery. An Aghor is also a master of many spiritual powers, able to cure and save people’s lives from mental and physical illnesses." Aghor rituals are based largely around chanting mantras and offering alcohol and cannabis to the fire, a sacred element, as their god Shiva is believed to have done.
A statue of Kali, one of the goddesses of the Hindu religion and protector of the cremation grounds, in Varanasi, India. Kali is responsible for liberation, or cutting the link between life and death and ending the cycle of reincarnation. Varanasi, India. 2017. Photo: Tamara MerinoA body is carried into the Ganges River in Varanasi, India, to be washed and purified by its holy power. The body is then placed on a wood pyre for the cremation ceremony. The Aghor live and perform their rituals and ceremonies in this place.Photo: Tamara MerinoThe body of a Hindu man is burned at the Harishchandra ghat cremation ground. This ghat, home of the Aghor, is one of the two cremation grounds in Varanasi, which runs 24/7 year-round, and burns around 100 bodies a day. Varanasi, India. 2017.Photo: Tamara Merino
Merino explains that due to their controversial practices, the Aghor have faced extensive criticism and are regarded with grave suspicion, even in their own country. The reverence and honour with which they deal with their dead, she says, is ignored in favour of more sceptical analogies, with many documentaries and TV shows sensationalising their practices in order to sell a corrupt, demonised image of them to the world. In direct contrast, Merino wanted to spend her time getting to know the people behind the stories, and understanding their complex practices, which reach far beyond being a 'cannibal cult'. "I made this project to show how much misconception persists about the Aghor," she says. And what she found along the way was so far from what she had expected.
"The Aghor see beauty and light in everything, and they don’t feel fear, hate or disgust. They follow a path of non-discrimination," she says. "With the consumption of human flesh, they affirm that nothing is profane or separate from God, because for them a corpse lacks the soul it once had. Despite their extreme practices and lifestyle, a true Aghor will keep himself away from killing, and will never hurt or damage anybody." Merino says the most important part of the project was the opportunity to share mind-opening thoughts, philosophies and ideas about lifestyle with the people she encountered. "The Aghor are feared, but while documenting their daily life and rituals I discovered that, despite their extreme practices and beliefs, they are the furthest thing from terrifying. Instead I was struck by how very human it all was. They are people full of endless love and respect."
To become an Aghor, each member of the sect has to spend at least 12 years learning and practising from his personal guru. Baba Ram Mahesh, on the left, is the guru of Pandi, who has been learning from him for almost five years. Varanasi, India. 2017.Photo: Tamara MerinoBaba Bambam is performing an exorcism on a man possessed by an evil spirit. An Aghor is said to be a master of many spiritual powers, able to cure and save people from mental and physical illnesses. Varanasi, India. 2017.Photo: Tamara Merino
Merino was born and raised in Colombia to a German mother and a Chilean father. She bought her first camera in 2010 and began photographing life on the streets of Santiago. The idea that photography could be a way to access different groups of people was endlessly alluring, the camera allowing her a new proximity to strangers which she hadn’t had before. Early on, she says, "I realised I wanted to tell other people’s stories and I wanted to do it for the rest of my life."
In the years since, Merino has followed her nose deep into communities and countercultures all around the world, and has photographed issues such as female migration in Chile, an LGBT community in Mexico, and an underground commune of opal miners living deep beneath the desert of south Australia, which she only happened across after getting a flat tyre on a road trip. Anywhere she can find stories related to the human condition, identity, women’s issues and migration, Merino will travel. "My work is always related to intimacy and the human being, and the way in which different people live and coexist with their peers and their surroundings."
Aghor adherents are more active during the nighttime, when they perform their rituals and ceremonies. Here Pandi looks at the funeral pyres at 3am in Varanasi, India, after a ritual in a temple of Kali, the protector goddess of the cremation ground. Varanasi, India. 2017.Photo: Tamara Merino
On the challenges she faces as a woman immersing herself in these environments, Merino says, "Endless stories have been told and documented for many years, but mostly through the eyes of men, leaving less room for women photographers in the field." Photography – specifically of the photojournalistic or social documentary ilk – has long been a boys’ club. As a result, Merino says, it’s incredibly important to carve out a space and a voice for yourself as a female photographer – to approach stories in your own way, and tell them differently. This means knowing when to use your position as a woman to your advantage. "Being a woman has perhaps allowed me to gain the trust of people more easily with the perception that I will approach stories in a more intimate and sensitive way, which I absolutely always try to do. For me it is extremely important to establish bonds of trust with the people I want to photograph and to be able to tell their testimonies with respect and honesty."
Of course, Merino attests, being a woman in some of the environments she has entered does carry an undeniable threat, the biggest being sexual aggression or assault. This is something she says she is "always aware of, but never lets the fear take over." As long as she stays attentive and keeps taking the emotional temperature of her environment, she feels in control, and able to make meaningful work without compromise.
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Travelling alone on a round-the-world trip when I'd just turned 22 was definitely not my original intention. Yet after years of rising up the education system, I found myself seduced by glossy images of secluded palm-fringed beaches and exotic temples in STA brochures, so I decided to make my dreams of flinging everything in a backpack and seeing the world into a reality. Friends quickly jumped on the idea, but when it came to booking the trip, their eagerness retreated, citing money and timing constraints.
Then another thought occurred to me. Could I do it alone? I'd never travelled further than around 100 miles on my own, and that was just hopping on a train to see friends in Manchester or Leeds. How could I cope with navigating my way through faraway lands like Laos, Australia and Fiji when I still somehow managed to get lost in my home town of Middlesbrough? Still, instinct screamed that I had to go and so, armed with my Karrimor backpack filled with items that have since disappeared from the backpacker scene (think paper plane tickets, Nokia phone, CD walkman and travellers cheques), I waved off my anxious parents at Teesside Airport, feeling both nervous and exhilarated, unsure where this newfound sense of adventure and courage had come from.
But as soon as I landed in Bangkok, although jetlagged and totally disorientated, I felt completely alive as I unfolded a map the size of my upper body and explored the chaotic yet mesmerising city. I took the overnight train to Chiang Mai, where I trekked in the mountains and tried a Thai cookery course, and island-hopped across Koh Tao, Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Lanta, picking up friends on buses and boats, at beach bungalows and bars. I travelled overland to Malaysia and Singapore, before living and working in Sydney – first in a houseshare in Bondi with a smart and beautiful blonde German woman I ached to be like, and then in an apartment block with Harbour Bridge views (if you craned your neck out of the window, that is) with five other travellers. Christmas was spent wearing silly Santa hats with my new pals on Bondi Beach while on New Year's Eve we crammed together on a patch of grass to watch the spectacular fireworks over the bridge with thousands of others.
Although I worked to fund my travels, the freedom I felt was incredible. When I caught a note on a pinboard in my hostel in Perth asking if anyone fancied a road trip around southwest Australia, I didn't need to check in with anyone – I jumped at the chance, and spent 10 glorious days camping with four other solo travellers. I took a last-minute flight to Melbourne to hang out with an Irish girl I'd met in New Zealand; then we thought, 'F**k it, shall we hire a car and venture up to Adelaide for a few days?' When I was having the best time of my life in Australia, and certainly wasn't ready to move on, I ripped up the US leg of my ticket, instead deciding to extend my trip by another three months and return via Asia, visiting Laos and Cambodia. My plans, often last-minute, could – and would – change in a heartbeat.
Far from being a once-in-a-lifetime trip, that 15-month adventure cemented a lasting love affair with solo travel: three weeks travelling around eastern Europe, a four-month spell in South America, stints in New York, Berlin and Lisbon, and earlier this year, three months in Asia, travelling and working in Vietnam, Myanmar and Bali. Whether a day trip to Durham or taking an overnight train to Krakow, travelling on my own is a completely different experience from when I'm with others. I feel more immersed in my experiences, and it's led to soul-stirring moments like long conversations with strangers on buses, and locals inviting me to their home for dinner.
If I crave company, most of the time it's there – a snorkelling trip in the Gili Islands with a couple of hippy Americans turned into dinner and sunset cocktails; in a café in Yangon, I offered a piece of cake to the woman sat beside me – a traveller from Kyrgyzstan – which led to us spending the next two hours discussing our travel plans (we're still in touch, months later). Many of my good friends are people I met when sharing a dorm on the east coast of Australia or at a bar on a Thai island.
Before my first adventure, when I told people I was about to go travelling on my own, I'd often hear words such as 'you're so brave' and 'oh, I could never do that', but today more of us are choosing to travel alone. According to new research from TravelZoo, more than three-quarters of Brits have travelled solo or plan to in the future.
Banging on about how utterly brilliant it is on my own isn't to say I don't jump at the chance to holiday with boyfriends or friends – whether it's a week in Ibiza, festivals, or roadtripping around Sicily, I absolutely adore exploring with others (plus there's the build-up of anticipation before a trip that perhaps doesn't happen as much on my own). But for me, there is no happiness like swinging that backpack over my shoulder and heading off into the unknown, feeling utterly free and with no one to please but myself.
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