As the highest honour in indie filmmaking, the Spirit Awards are a good barometer of which films will make it into the broader awards conversation. In 2018, Lady Bird, Get Out, Call Me By Your Name and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri led the nominations and wins there first before becoming major Oscar contenders down the line. Moonlight, Birdman,12 Years a Slave and The Artist, all won best feature at the Spirit Awards before scooping up Best Picture.
The 2019 nominees were announced by Molly Shannon and Gemma Chan during a press conference at the Los Angeles W Hotel, and there was a welcome surprise: For the first time, there are more women than men represented in the race for Best Director, setting the bar high for the notoriously male-centric category.
In 2018, only one woman — Chloe Zhao for The Rider— was nominated in that category. (She lost to Jordan Peele.) Only two women have won Best Director since the first ceremony was held over thirty years ago: Martha Coolidge for Ramblin' Rose (1991) and Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003).
Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade, Schrader's First Reformed and Granik's You Were Never Really Here lead the pack with 4 nominations each, followed By Leave No Trace, and If Beale Street Could Talk. ( You can read the full list of nominations here. )
The Film Independent Spirit Awards will be on 23rd February (the day before the Oscars).
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Julia Davis' new series Sally4Ever was never going to be subtle with sex scenes. They announced their full frontal approach at the premier and they absolutely delivered. You know, the episode where the black comedy introduced itself with a toe-in-the-butt, tampon-flying, full frontal nudity-having hookup between titular leading lady Sally (Catherine Shepherd) and now live-in girlfriend, Emma (creator Julia Davis).
Well, the second episode proved Sally4Ever, about its heroine figuring out her romantic future, isn’t slowing down anytime soon when it comes to love scenes. This time, Sally and Emma end up scissoring in the home of David’s (Alex Macqueen) mother… and accidentally leave the wide door open. So, David’s mom, who believes up until that moment Sally is going to marry her son, ends up seeing the very explicit liaison. Repeatedly. Mere hours after her husband's death.
While this episode ender is relentlessly funny in the darkest way possible, it also reflects writer/director/star Davis’ growing outlook on sexuality through the years.
“What I like about it was the idea [the mom] had to keep going to look again. She goes three times to look. Which I feel is a very human thing,” Davis explained. David’s unnamed mother, clad in her conservative “little nightdress,” as Davis described it, does certainly keep returning to the hallway to make sure she’s actually seeing two women in the midst of vigorous sex in the middle of her home.
Like the final girl in a horror movie, the newly widowed woman creeps down the hall after hearing a strange noise. But, instead of a serial killer lurking in the shadows, David’s mother is hearing Sally and Emma’s moans, which only get louder throughout the scene. That is when she sees Sally and Emma locked in a very complicated and nude embrace. First, the older woman’s jaw drops and she tenses up in shock. She tries to leave but turns around once more. The second time, she fully recoils and attempts to flee. But, she needs to look one more time.
“It’s also in a way saying, ‘Just because she’s an old lady, why should she not [be curious]?’” Davis explained of the older woman’s conflicted reaction.
The writer, who also created the original UK version of Camping, feels especially connected to that question as she has now entered her 50s. “As I get older, I feel it more and more: you’re exactly the same person you always were, except your body is getting older,” Davis said. “You’re always going to be the same person. We just put all these [restrictive] things on old people.”
Although David’s mom does have the freedom to investigate any publicly visible, extremely loud sex going on in her home, the episode-closer does take a turn: the widow ends up collapsing in her bed after witnessing Sally and Emma’s hookup. At first, fans are convinced the late-night encounter actually killed the geriatric woman by inducing a stroke, which is especially sad since David’s father died by suicide just a day earlier. But, the final scene confirms David hasn’t lost yet another parent.
Rather, a doctor explains, his mother was thrown into a state of shock, leaving her barely functioning. “I like that as an approach,” Davis admitted. “I’d feel more guilty [if she actually had a stroke].”
At least the silent widow can close the episode with one of 2018’s funniest sight gags: desperately trying to communicate what exactly struck her the night prior. But, all she can do is unblinking and wordlessly make the hand gesture for scissoring until the credits play, confounding every single person around her.
Never change, Sally4Ever, never change.
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The latest instalment in Louis Theroux's new documentary miniseries aired on BBC Two on Sunday night and it was an intense, emotionally charged watch that divided viewers on social media. In Choosing Death, the second film in the three-part Altered States series, Theroux explores assisted dying in California, where it's legal for terminally ill people to end their lives.
Being such a sensitive and controversial topic, the film was bound to stir debate on social media and it did just that, with viewers debating the issue of assisted dying itself – should we have the right to end our own lives? – and the way in which the BBC told the subjects' stories. Choosing Death is a far cry from the frivolity of last week's Love Without Limits, which saw him delve into the awkward world of polyamory.
California is one of the six US states where it's legal for people to take a lethal overdose if they meet certain conditions: they must be terminally ill, of sound mind and strong enough to administer their own prescribed dose. Theroux visits the family homes of people who want control over ending their own lives, and finds that choosing the right time is far from easy.
Many praised the film for giving a voice to the terminally ill people whose wishes are so often overlooked in the ethical and moral debates about assisted dying, and for handling the issue with such sensitivity.
Louis Theroux's Altered States: Choosing Death documentary last night was thought-provoking, incredibly emotional and a vital watch to understand why choosing when to end your life is an important subject. Beautifully filmed too. @louistheroux#AlteredStates#LouisTheroux
Louis Theroux #alteredstates tonight was a beautifully, sensitively made exploration through 3 personal stories of issues around assisted dying in terminally ill people. He is so skilled you don't realise it. TV documentary making at its very best and so much food for thought
Louis Theroux is just incredible. Compassionate, empathetic, gentle, and yet somehow gets right to the heart of every question, no matter how difficult. And you can see just how comfortable he makes the people that are opening up their souls to him. #AlteredStates@louistheroux
But there was less consensus in the reaction to one particular storyline. Theroux meets the controversial Final Exit Network, a group of volunteers that goes further than the state's existing laws by offering technical advice to people who wish to die but aren't necessarily terminally ill. The group believes people in psychological pain, not just those in physical pain, should be able to take their own lives, and as such they operate in a legal and ethical grey area. They've had a felony conviction and other prosecutions in the past, the film notes.
Theroux meets Debra, who was left with physical ailments after a serious car crash, including dementia-like symptoms, and is heartbroken by her husband's recent death. She wants to end her life long before what would appear to be her natural time, and seeks the Final Exit Network's help. The segment stirred up complex moral and legal questions about how much control we should have over our own deaths.
I find these people a bit sick... Encouraging a women to end her life. She is not pallative and seems to currently have some quality of life and has capacity. She is grieving for her husband .#AlteredStates#LouisTheroux
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of those exit guides, it’s a very tricky line of right and wrong but when he answered Louis’ question of “Will there be any evidence of ‘Final Exit’ at her home?” and he answered “I hope not” slightly suspicious #LouisTheroux#alteredstates
Final Exit Network have a duty to seek help for those who approach them for advice, who are not terminal. They said Deborah had no one to live for, but at the same time mentioned her friend. I'd love to know how much they charge the vulnerable for their "service" #AlteredStates
I found #AlteredStates deeply moving, especially having lost my dad to terminal cancer when he was 59, but I fear lots of people in the US will be driven to end their lives to spare their families from huge medical bills. This is the health system the Tories want for us.
Perhaps the most moving moment in Choosing Death, though, is when the life of Gus, a retired respiratory therapist with stage four pancreatic cancer, ends on screen. Gus has a full life by anyone's standards, with a wife, twin daughters and a new grandson, and he wants to end it himself before the disease does it for him. He dies with his family, Theroux and the film crew by his side.
The BBC's decision to show his death on screen caused a schism between viewers on Twitter, with many arguing that the BBC's editorial choice felt "intrusive" and "like a step too far".
But the overwhelming reaction to his story was heartbreak. Countless viewers said how moved they were by Gus' story, with many describing themselves as grieving. Regardless of whether or not it was ethical for Theroux to be present as he died (although presumably Gus' family will have consented), there's no doubt that airing his story helped to humanise the issue of euthanasia.
Absolutely broken into pieces after watching #AlteredStates@louistheroux had tremendous sensitivity and compassion. I loved Lori's attitude to it all, such strength. Deborah admitting it was a decision through heartbreak 💔 Gus & his family tipped me over the edge 😢 #lovetoall
Watching #alteredstates 😭😭😭@louistheroux I don’t know how you filmed it, particularly the Gus story, without totally losing it (or maybe you did?!). I’m in bits.
Never grieved a person I don’t know like I feel I am now - Gus on @louistheroux#AlteredStates, what an absolutely heartbreaking story to watch. Glad he fulfilled his wishes surrounded by loved ones, but what a sad thing for the world to lose such a beautiful soul. 💔
It’s making me cry and I’m not an emotional person, Gus seemed great and all the people having a get together reminds me of when my Dad died #alteredstates
I have so much admiration for the love Gus and his wife have for each other, and the love his family have for him. I hope I’m lucky enough to have that kind of love and support around me when I die. #alteredstates
@louistheroux I hope you were able to toast Gus too? He deserved and got a lovely send off. One of his own choosing. Whilst I don't necessarily agree with assisted suicide / euthanasia, I do agree with making the decisions that are best for you. #AlteredStates
Assisted dying is legal for terminally ill people in just a few countries and US states, including Oregon and Washington, Canada and Switzerland. Assisting a suicide remains a crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Winter temperatures call for sensible styling, so it’s no wonder street utility is this season’s biggest trend. But how do you make a utilitarian outfit appear both edgy and effortless? Converse are the ideal base of any outfit. A classic kick, they spark a warm and fuzzy feeling of nostalgia while nodding to our creative future. With durable, organic canvas and thicker rubber cushioning, the Chuck 70 is the perfect update to the iconic silhouette, especially for those looking to balance function with forward-thinking fashion.
To find out how to make this style your own, we came up with some covetable outfit ideas and talked with photographer Ashley Verse, musician Lava La Rue, and multi-hyphenated creative Erin O'Garro about why this trend suits their lifestyles.
Military tones are the new neutrals and the Chuck 70 Base Camp Trainers in olive green pair perfectly with the ASOS Design denim boiler suit, which has a slimmed down but slightly oversized fit and simplified utility pockets, in a stone hue. This outfit is perfect for days when you have a lot going on and want to don a relaxed fit. As photographer Ashley says: "I like to switch back and forth with different styles depending on what I have going on that day." To add another layer of interest, grab the ASOS Design scuba bum bag, which can be worn across the body or around the waist. This is the It bag of the season, updated and elevated with a rose gold zipper pull. Erin says: "As long as you have a good statement bag, you can say a lot of things."
Converse Converse Chuck 70 Base Camp hi suede green trainers, $80, available at ASOS
ASOS ASOS DESIGN denim boilersuit in stone, $58, available at ASOS
ASOS ASOS DESIGN scuba bum bag with rose gold, $12, available at ASOS
Orange high tops add a warm pop to any outfit. Lava La Rue says she always pairs her Converse with statement trousers and a shoelace belt. We suggest wearing these Converse Gore-Tex Chuck 70s with the ASOS Design Bree combat trousers in camo print and a white Converse long-sleeved multicolour graphic tee. As Ashley says: "Streetwear needs to be functional." With a high-rise waist, functional pockets and a straight leg, these cotton twill trousers are not to be missed. "Sometimes I like to pair these sneakers with a smart casual outfit," adds Ashley. If you want to dress it up a bit, we recommend trying a partial or full tuck. Or go untucked on more leisurely days.
Converse Converse Chuck 70, $95, available at ASOS
ASOS ASOS DESIGN bree combat trousers in camo, $30, available at ASOS
Converse Converse Patched Long Sleeve T-Shirt In White , $30, available at ASOSDesigned by Anna Jay.
Ankle-length trousers are ideal for transitional seasons but how do you make them look flattering and contemporary? We suggest trying the lower trainer silhouette of the Chuck 70 with the ASOS Design cargo trousers in khaki. According to Erin, one of the best things about these mustard yellow Chucks is their "wearability". Grab the ASOS white cotton T-shirt with its signature kimono sleeve and oversized silhouette, and a denim hoodie, and you’ll look cool but still feel comfortable on the go. With a warm hood that has borg lining, the extra layer is ideal for autumn temperatures. This is a classic outfit, updated in all the right ways.
Converse Converse Chuck Taylor All Star '70, $52, available at ASOS
ASOS ASOS DESIGN denim jacket with hood with borg lining, $55, available at ASOS
ASOS ASOS DESIGN super oversized t-shirt , $14, available at ASOS
ASOS ASOS DESIGN cargo trousers in khaki, $32, available at ASOSDesigned by Anna Jay.
Black can make any outfit edgy and timeless. To don your best street utility look, Lava La Rue says to wear clothes "that will have you ready and equipped for taking on a concrete city". Highlight the military-inspired details of the black monochrome Converse Gore-Tex Chuck 70 with the ASOS Design wide-leg culottes, which are made in a sporty fabric and have a utility-inspired belt. Erin believes street utility should be "useful and multipurpose". Luckily, the Chuck 70 trainers go perfectly with these trousers, which have plenty of pockets and a relaxed fit – they’re loose but not oversized. The minimal graphic hits on the trainers and tee provide an extra element of ingenuity.
Converse Converse X Gore-tex Chuck 70 hi black waterproof , $95, available at ASOS
Converse Converse Long Sleeve T-Shirt With Arm Print In Yellow, $30, available at ASOS
ASOS ASOS DESIGN wide leg culottes in sporty fabric , $30, available at ASOS
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After passing a bill through the Ohio House of Representatives that would ban abortion at six weeks, Republicans are considering legislation that would ban abortion completely in the state and make the procedure punishable by life in prison or even the death penalty.
House Bill 565 allows for no exceptions for abortion in cases of rape, incest, or danger to a woman's life. Under the law, fetuses would be classified as "unborn humans," making abortion punishable under the Ohio criminal code. This means that a woman who receives an abortion and doctors who perform the procedure could face criminal penalties, ranging from a prison sentence to capital punishment.
State radio station WOSU notes that the bill is being considered by the Ohio House's health committee and that it is unlikely to be voted on this year. HB 565 is just the latest in a string of anti-choice bills drafted by Ohio Republicans. Republicans' "heartbeat" bill — which passed the House last week — was previously vetoed by Gov. John Kasich, who instead signed a 20-week ban into law.
"Ohio just took us one step closer to becoming a forced-birth nation," #VOTERPROCHOICE cofounder Heidi Sieck said in a statement to Refinery29 on Monday. "Legislators in Ohio are banning abortion before women even know they're pregnant — and we must stand up and speak out against this dangerous bill." After Brett Kavanaugh 's contentious confirmation, the U.S. Supreme Court now has a conservative majority, meaning it is possible for Roe v. Wade to be overturned.
Despite the assault on abortion from Republican legislatures, polls show most Americans are in favour of keeping Roe v. Wade. “This November, voters overwhelmingly saw the important role lawmakers serve in stopping attacks on their health and rights," Dr. Leana Wen, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement to Refinery29.
"People in states like Ohio that do not have this critical backstop face a heightened threat to abortion access. We must fight harder than ever to protect every woman’s right to control her own body, life, and future. We know the majority of Americans want access to safe, legal abortion. It’s time politicians listen to us — access to safe, legal abortion is a human right.”
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My hair started falling out in my early 20s. It was sudden and dramatic. One day, my brush resembled, well, a brush, and the next, it looked more like a Lhasa Apso. The shedding itself didn’t bother me. But after a few months, when I noticed my part widening and my ponytail shrinking, panic set in.
The Diagnosis — & What I Tried Next My dermatologist ran blood tests to rule out typical hair-loss culprits, like hypothyroidism and anaemia. When the results came back normal, I was given the diagnosis of mild androgenetic alopecia, or Female Pattern Hair Loss (FPHL). Essentially, this meant my hair follicles were shrinking, causing the hair to fall out faster and grow back finer and shorter in a process called “miniaturisation.” Surprisingly common, the NHS estimates that around 50% of women over the age of 65 experience female-pattern baldness. It can start anytime from your 20s to 60s, and can be caused by hormonal and hereditary factors.
I spent the next few years trying to make my strands stick around. I started using minoxidil, the only hair-loss treatment approved by the FDA for women. I also tried a follicle-stimulating laser comb and spironolactone, a blood-pressure medication believed to help some FPHL suffers. Alas, the only thing the comb “stimulated” was dandruff, and the spironolactone — a diuretic —had me running to the bathroom every five minutes.
By my 30s, I’d all but given up, resigning myself to a life of deep side-parts and mousse. Then, this past summer, I heard about a new hair-loss treatment. It was my dermatologist who clued me in. During a routine mole check, I made a grumbling aside about my scrawny locks. “You should try PRP treatment; it’s really starting to get good results,” she said, giving me the number of local dermatologist and hair specialist Brian Dubow, MD.
Two weeks later (his first available appointment), I was in Dr. Dubow’s Beverly Hills office peppering him with questions.
Enter: PRP So what exactly is PRP? "It stands for 'platelet-rich plasma,'" explained Dr. Dubow. "Platelets, which are found in your blood, are loaded with proteins called growth factors that accelerate wound healing." As it turns out, in high enough concentrations, growth factors are also believed to help battle hair loss. "They stimulate the hair follicle to turn on, if it’s been in a sleeping state, and if it’s already awake, it’s like giving it a vitamin boost, helping the hair grow longer and thicker," said Dr. Dubow.
The pain was…exquisite. I howled and yelped and spoke in whole sentences comprised of the f-word...
The treatment was pretty straightforward. Blood taken from the patient is placed in a special centrifuge and spun to separate the components: red blood cells, plasma, and platelet-rich plasma. The latter is then extracted and spun a second time to achieve an optimal concentration of growth factors (five to 10 times greater than in the bloodstream). Finally, it’s injected into the patient’s scalp wherever they are experiencing thinning.
Done in office, the treatment takes less than 20 minutes and is considered fairly safe, the biggest risk factor being infection at the injection sites. For an optimal outcome, six sessions within a year are recommended. Dr. Dubow started offering PRP less than a year ago, but he has already been seeing positive results. “About 80% of my patients have seen their shedding slow down or stop completely,” he said, noting he recommends doing the therapy in conjunction with other hair-loss treatments, like minoxidil or spironolactone. “A lot also see new growth and tell me their existing hair feels thicker and fuller.” The cost? The average is somewhere in the ballpark of $1,250 (£975) a treatment (or $5,900 (£4,600) if you prepay for your first year). [Ed. note: I ended up paying a bit less than this thanks to a press discount, or, as I like to call it, a (very lucky) beauty-writer-guinea-pig discount.]
Wait, How Much? “There’s a wide range of fees out there,” said Dr. Dubow, noting he’d seen treatments offered for as low as $500 (£390). “But the systems that achieve the highest PRP concentrations are the ones that are more labor-intensive. I also think it’s important to have an actual physician do the injections.”
It definitely wasn’t going to be cheap, even with a press discount. But dammit, I wanted hair! Thick locks like Gigi Hadid’s may be out of reach, but didn’t I at least deserve Bella’s? This didn't feel like going through a bad breakout or having hips that didn't mesh well with fashion's latest trendy silhouettes. Women aren’t supposed to lose their hair. Never mind how common it actually is, in our society, it’s not just unattractive but downright un-female, I thought. (I know, I know, my hair isn't what makes me me, but I want to be honest about the way I felt here...and this is it.)
Dr. Dubow bent down closer to examine my scalp. He counted 18 hairs within a small area that normally houses around 25. “You’re a good candidate,” he concluded. “This treatment doesn’t work on areas with little or no hair. You’re thinning, but you’re not too far gone yet.”
Yet? Oof. I had my credit card ready before I’d reached the receptionist. A week later, I returned for my first treatment, but things didn’t exactly go according to plan.
Illustrated by Mallory Heyer.
Let's Do This The nurse, Manuel, informed me he’d be taking 50 cc's of my blood. For someone who gets queasy at the sight of a paper cut, this was not welcome news. Thankfully, Manuel, an expert conversationalist, chattily steered away my attention until it was all over.
Afterward, Dr. Dubow arrived and offered to anaesthetise the treatment area. “No time,” I said, explaining I was due back at work in an hour for a meeting. Using a coolant roller as a numbing agent, he proceeded to administer 35 injections in a grid formation — five rows, seven injections a row — on the top frontal portion of my scalp.
The pain was… exquisite. I howled and yelped and spoke in whole sentences comprised of the f-word.
When it was over, I was angry I’d put myself through something that, if the other hair-loss treatments I’d tried were any indication, probably wouldn’t work anyway.
But the next night when I washed my hair, something funny happened. I barely shed. Normally, I bid adieu to around 15 to 20 hairs, but this time? Five — max! It stayed at that rate, too. Then, about a month later, I noticed patches of baby hairs had sprouted all over the top of my head. Hundreds of them. I had to slick them down with hair spray. It definitely wasn’t my best look, but I didn’t mind.
At my second appointment, Dr. Dubow observed the new hairs, too. “You’re responding nicely,” he said. However, he was quick to remind me the treatment isn’t a magic bullet — at least not yet. “We’re not at the stage where you can expect to regrow a full head of hair,” he said. “But I think PRP will improve with time. Harnessing the power of the human body is where a lot of the promise of the future of medicine is. Up to this point, we’ve relied mostly on drugs.”
I nodded. I realised I’d given hair loss my best fight. If voluminous locks weren’t in my future, I’d find other ways to feel beautiful. A woman is not the sum of hairs on her head.
“Would you like local anaesthesia this time?” asked Dr. Dubow, picking up a syringe.
"Yes," I said. "Please."
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Have you ever wondered if your favourite celebrities, influencers, or even your friends bought followers on Instagram? You're about to find out. Instagram just announced it will be taking a huge step to eliminate inauthentic followers, likes, and comments.
It's not uncommon for influencers to buy followers or using third-party apps to boost their engagement. Instagram believes this negatively impacts users' experiences. If you see someone follow you or engage with your content, you're likely to check them out and do the same. This reciprocity is how third-party apps boost account popularity. Instagram has made attempts to reduce bot activity in the past. One of the more popular services Instagress was shut down by Instagram last year.
If you've ever received an out of place, emoji-only response to one of your photos or been followed and then unfollowed by someone, there's a chance it was a third-party app attempting to increase engagement for that account. "Recently, we've seen accounts use third-party apps to artificially grow their audience," Instagram said in a statement. "Every day people come to Instagram to have real experiences, including genuine interactions. It is our responsibility to ensure these experiences aren't disrupted by inauthentic activity."
The inauthentic follower and engagement purge begins today. Using machine learning, Instagram aims to identify and remove the fake followers, likes, and comments. Accounts identified as using these services will receive an in-app message alerting them that Instagram has removed any likes, followers, and comments given by their account to others. "These third-party apps often gain likes and follows by inauthentically liking and following other posts and accounts. Therefore, some people who don’t use these apps may also potentially see a change in likes and followers if third-party apps engage with the account," an Instagram spokesperson told Refinery29. "It’s important to note we will start removing inauthentic engagement from Monday afternoon on – past activity will not be affected." So, even if you haven't used a third-party app, you could see your follower count, comments, or likes effected because accounts using third-party services might have engaged with you on Instagram.
Instagram's decision is, in part, influenced by the desire to keep the platform secure. Most third-party apps require that you share your password whether the app is just for analysing your follower base or for helping you increase engagement. The more places you share your password, the less secure your account is. The less secure each individual account is, the less secure Instagram is as a platform.
"We’ve done work in the past to resolve inauthentic interactions on the platform, but this is the first time we are removing inauthentic activity from real accounts and sending an in-app message to the community," explained the Instagram spokesperson. The platform has rid itself of bot accounts in the past, but this more deliberate effort to affect platform interactions in a big way.
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In a small city outside of Atlanta, among over 900 other students at Agnes Scott College, Tyler* lives two very separate lives. With friends and classmates, Tyler, a non-binary student who uses they/them pronouns, is known as an out and proud LGBTQ student leader thriving in an accepting community. But within the larger campus — as a student athlete and in other parts of day-to-day life — they must reckon with a community and a country that often forces them to hide; one that doesn't understand or embrace their identity.
“I come back to my dorm some nights and just think ‘I’m not doing it anymore,’” Tyler says. “The only reason I probably don’t quit [sports] is because I don’t want the trans kids behind me or the trans kids that aren’t out publicly now to have to go through what I’ve had to.”
Tyler will graduate this spring from Agnes Scott, a historically women’s liberal arts college in Decatur, Georgia. But the road to graduation has been bumpy. And their journey is one of many — they are part of a growing number of openly transgender and gender non-conforming students at traditionally women’s colleges across the country. The Princeton Review recently ranked Agnes Scott number four on a list of most LGBTQ friendly colleges, and fellow women’s colleges Bryn Mawr and Mount Holyoke ranked number two and five respectively, but current and former students say women’s colleges have a long way to go in creating more inclusive spaces.
Women's colleges haven't always been welcoming to transgender and gender non-conforming students. In 2013, Calliope Wong made headlines when she was denied admission to the all-female Smith College in Massachusetts because she was born male. Following a petition from students and attention from high profile organisations like GLADD, things began to shift.
In 2014 Mills College in California became one of the first women’s colleges to formally change it’s admissions policy stating that: “students who self-identify as female are eligible to apply for undergraduate admission. This includes students who were not assigned to the female sex at birth but live and identify as women at the time of application. It also includes students who are legally assigned to the female sex, but who identify as transgender or gender fluid.”
A 2017 analysis by Vox found that about 26 of the nations approximately 40 women’s colleges say they admit at least some transgender or gender non-conforming students. The Common Application used by most major institutions and the FAFSA used for financial aid both ask applicants for their sex assigned at birth or legal gender. Students are able to elaborate on their gender identity in a free response section or supplemental parts of the application.
Still, admission is just one piece of a complex puzzle. It provides some recourse for students who are comfortable with how they identify when entering college but, many students, including Tyler, are just beginning to explore their gender identity in their early college years.
Tyler admits they never imagined going to a women’s college. “ Over my dead body,” they remember thinking. At home in rural Georgia, their family still uses their dead name and thinks of them as “the cute little gay kid.” So when searching for colleges, Tyler says it was important to be somewhere with a vibrant LGBTQ community, even if it doesn’t extend to all aspects of campus life. And as a student athlete, one of Tyler’s biggest challenges has been feeling at home on the softball team.
In 2010, The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) released guidelines for transgender college athletes. The majority of the guidelines concern students who wish to take hormones and aim to address the potentially unfair athletic advantages of doing so. Students who wish to take hormones, the guidelines say, must also receive a diagnosis of “Gender Identity Disorder or gender dysphoria and/or Transsexualism.” Many consider these diagnosis outdated. The guidelines also state that a trans male athlete receiving treatment with testosterone may only compete on a mens team or mixed team. A trans female athlete may not compete on a women’s team without completing one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment.
But, Z Nicolazzo, an Assistant Professor of Trans Studies in Education at the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona, who identifies as trans says the guidelines for transgender athletes are rooted in more than just stigma.
“Conversations that focus on hormone levels and certain athletes needing to sit out a year...all of this stuff tends to focus largely on notions of femininity,” Nicolazzo says. “These arguments really trade in a pretty regular form of sexism and thinking about how we need to focus more on ‘women’s bodies.’ It comes from this ‘lets protect women’ mentality.”
Additionally, these stipulations do not address the holistic needs of trans and non-binary students. When Tyler decided to use they/them pronouns they informed the athletic director who reminded Tyler that if they were to go on testosterone the entire team would automatically be disqualified from any NCAA championship or title. But for Tyler, being accepted wasn’t about hormone therapy.
Though Tyler says Agnes Scott has its own transgender athlete policy that allows students to wear clothes they feel appropriate and dress in the locker room of their choosing, the guidelines didn’t automatically equip administrators to handle their student’s needs. In addition to being misgendered, and treated like their needs were identical to other transgender athletes, Tyler says the athletic director held a meeting about them with their teammates — without inviting Tyler to attend.
Though Tyler hopes that they can blaze a path to make it easier for future transgender and non-binary athletes and students alike, it’s a heavy burden to bare and can often take a toll.
Abbie Goldberg, a professor of psychology and director of women and gender studies at Clark University in Massachusetts has conducted extensive academic research into how transgender students are treated at the college level.
“It’s too often that I see people who are vulnerable and uncompensated being asked to provide their personal stories and information and educate other people. That should be coming from the people in power,” says Goldberg, who recently studied 507 trans and gender-nonconforming students across the US to see how they are treated and perceived on campus.
For Tyler this was all happening at a time they felt especially vulnerable. In the weeks leading up to the contentious conversations with the athletic department, Scout Schultz, a student at nearby Georgia Tech who identified as non-binary and intersex, was fatally shot by campus police. For Tyler, Schultz’s murder was yet another reminder of the dangers that transgender students face.
“I was like ‘I don’t think you understand the importance of the fact that a trans person was just murdered on a college campus down the road...someone I knew. So, please don’t email me about being a trans athlete right now, I cant handle it’,” Tyler remembers thinking.
“It’s something that I don’t enjoy at all anymore,” Tyler says of playing softball. “It is really frustrating since I’ve played it since I was three years old. Once I leave college and I’m in the workforce, maybe I can revive this love that I have for the sport.”
Tyler says that, beyond the struggles of being on the team, the difficulties they faced led them to consider dropping out of school at one point. Goldberg says many of her research participants who did in fact drop out said it was because of a confluence of academic, mental health and financial factors.
“These things are intertwined,” Goldberg says. “A transgender student is uniquely at risk because of the very gendered nature of college. Some of them lost scholarships because of the gendered nature of the aid or chose to drop out because, mental health services were not equipped to support them or because they were lacking trans specific or LGBTQ support on campus.” Other students she says became functionally homeless after coming out to their parents.
Spelman College, a historically Black women’s college in Atlanta used to have a decorum guide that stipulated that some events required all white dress: a skirt and shirt, closed toed black pumps and flesh tone stockings. After students raised concerns about some classmates feeling uncomfortable or excluded the requirements were eventually changed. But, the concept of sisterhood remains. Classmates and alum are often referred to as “Spelman Sisters.”
It’s an example of one of the many deeply gendered aspects of historically women’s colleges that can make it difficult for transgender and gender nonconforming students to feel open and accepted.
In May, Keo Chaad O’Neal became the first openly trans man to graduate from Spelman College. O’Neal, who had attended Spelman his freshman year, transferred to a predominantly white institution for a time before deciding to come back to Spelman, reported HuffPost.
“Lots of people believed that because I was trans, I didn’t belong at Spelman but there was nowhere else I would rather be,” O’Neal told HuffPost at the time of his graduation. “People still have their own opinions of me attending Spelman, but it’s because of Spelman why I am who I am.”
Colleges commonly aim to foster a deep sense of community and loyalty among students and alumni. This can be especially prevalent at small liberal arts colleges and HBCUs, alums say. For transgender and gender nonconforming students this can add yet another complicated layer.
“This whole idea of being a “Spelman sister” or “Spelman woman” for a really long time I didn’t want to lose that,” says K. Richardson, who graduated from Spelman in the mid 2000s and came out as transgender four years ago. “Regardless of how I present or how I identify, it was still a part of me. The biggest part about coming out as a trans masculine or genderqueer person for me was fear of losing all of these relationships that I had developed, including my partner.”
Richardson says letting go of the fear of losing sisterhood was essential to moving forward. Still, they say they recognise that some students who identify as transgender won’t be comfortable with the term “sisters.”
The concept of “sisterhood” is common at women’s colleges says Kristian Contreras, who began in 2014 as Agnes Scott’s Assistant Director for Intercultural Engagement. During her four years as a staff member at Agnes Scott, Contreras led Trans 101 workshops and helped teach students, faculty and alums about the importance of creating inclusive spaces. For example, she asked students to think about who they might be excluding with the homecoming chant: “We love our Scotty sisters.”
“If you spent your first three years at homecoming chanting ‘we love our sisters,’ what if you say ‘we love our siblings’? Does that then dilute your experience at a women’s college?” The answer can be yes, Contreras admits but, she believes resistance often comes from a lack of exposure.
The opportunity to dispel some of these notions is precisely what makes women’s colleges a unique environment for transgender students. Both Tyler and Richardson credit a gender studies course in college — at different schools and almost a decade apart — with allowing them to begin articulating different concepts of identity.
“What it meant to be a woman drastically changed once I did get to Agnes Scott because I saw women being empowered, speaking in the classroom and it was an environment that allowed for expressions like ‘I don’t know’,” Tyler says. “I finally had a language to describe the way I felt.”
Transgender students at women’s colleges are nothing new. Both Richardson and Contreras were adamant that they don’t know when the first transgender student attended their schools, but both felt that no school should wait until there are five, ten or fifteen transgender students to create spaces where the students feel welcome and accepted.
“There have always been trans students at Spelman and there will always be trans students at Spelman,” says Richardson, who now works as the Coordinator of Campus Engagement and Prevention at the Anti-violence Project. “It’s whether or not they’ll feel safe enough to be able to come out and live out or live authentically as their true self that’s the difference.”
When Spelman was formulating its revised admissions policies they formed a committee which included transgender alum to advise on the policy. But many are still resistant to the idea that educating transgender men and non-binary people should be part of the mission of a women’s college.
Women’s colleges — much like historically Black colleges and universities — were founded on the idea that previously marginalised communities deserve a place to get an education. In some ways at least there is a notable change on campuses of women’s colleges. Richardson says during their time at Spelman, though gender nonconformity existed it still wasn’t openly talked about outside of spaces like the women’s center.
Even as colleges gradually become more open, Nicolazzo says her research drives home the importance of having what she calls “queer bubbles” for students on campus.
“It’s a place where they can exist and not feel the outward pressures of having to conform or having to cover their identity,” Nicolazzo explains. “Those different bubbles created basically a network around campus places they could go to be themselves and be seen as themselves.”
For Contreras, who left her position as Director of Institutional Diversity and Inclusive Education at Agnes Scott at the end of the 2018 school year to pursue a PHD, small efforts were important in leading to larger acceptance. She made a point to always state her pronouns when introducing herself and start each meeting with a gender-inclusive greeting. But, she concedes that the current American education system is not set up to address the needs of transgender students.
“The shift happens organically,” she says. “But, there will be some who need more time.”
While Tyler says they are thankful for the progress Agnes Scott is making, they believe the struggles they’ve faced extend far beyond campus grounds.
“The school isn’t ready for gender nonconforming people because the world isn't ready for gender nonconforming people in regards to healthcare or work or livelihood,” Tyler says.
Tyler’s assertion isn’t unfounded — Georgia has a right to work law which prohibits agreements between companies and labor unions meaning jobs lack certain protections for minorities that might be present in Union contracts. Tyler says they are more likely to face discriminatory hiring practices as a result. This summer, they worked with children, and they say that if their coworkers knew they identified as transgender they would’ve been fired. The 2015 US transgender survey reported a 15% unemployment rate among respondents—three times higher than the unemployment rate in the US population at the time of the survey.
For Tyler time is running out. As they prepare to graduate in a few months, the realities and challenges of being a non-binary person continue to weigh heavily on them. Tyler’s sister had a baby as a teenager and Tyler hopes to be able to take custody of the child after graduation. Beyond the need to find steady employment, this means they likely won’t take any steps to legally change their gender, because they worry it could jeopardise their chances at gaining custody.
“This is another really big grow up moment where I figure out what I have to do,” Tyler says of life after graduation. “I want to be somewhere that has a vibrant LGBTQ community, somewhere that I feel safe but ..my future is a question mark.”
*Names have been changed.
If you are a young person and you don’t identify with the gender you were given at birth, Mermaids can help. Give them a call on 0844 334 0550.
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Cheating, in all its forms, can be an extremely complex and personal issue for any couple. But that doesn't mean there aren't general trends we can identify about infidelity. And a new survey, conducted by the aptly named, married-dating site IllicitEncounters, has found some consistencies around where cheating is most likely to happen.
In a poll of 1,000 of its users, IllicitEncounters found that one in three people have gone to the gym to meet a potential cheating partner. Social events for work were the next most popular setting, with 26% of respondents saying that they have met someone with whom they cheated at such functions. The survey noted that affairs that begin at office parties tend to have "greater longevity," while cheating relationships that start at the gym are usually on the shorter side.
Of course, social media was another popular place for "cheats," as IllicitEncounters calls people who have cheated, to connect with new partners — 17% of users said they'd met a partner online. And it isn't just through dating apps or sites that someone could meet someone with whom to cheat. It's actually just as likely that people are reconnecting with exes or people from their past over Facebook, for instance, and thus rekindling old flames in the process.
This doesn't mean that you should automatically assume that your partner is cheating if they happen to go out for a pint with their colleagues after work. Rather, if you notice that something feels off in your relationship, ask your partner about it gently. Doing so will give your partner space to answer truthfully, which will then give the two of you ample opportunity to determine your what to do next.
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The internet just shared a collective eureka moment after discovering an iPhone keyboard hack, and people don't know how they survived before they came into this knowledge. If you've ever felt the frustration of trying to move the cursor exactly where you want it when texting or writing an email on your iPhone, this little tip will make your day.
Rejoicing iPhone users have Krissy Brierre-Davis, a food blogger, to thank for sharing her discovery. "How come you guys never told me this iPhone trick? I feel duped," she tweeted with a screenshot of her revelation. She explained her discovery in the accompanying screenshot writing, "If you click and hold the space bar, you can move the cursor instead of trying to drag the cursor itself with your fat thumb lol." What followed was the collective awakening of the internet as iPhone users' lives just got a whole lot easier.
"This just changed my entire life," one newly enlightened user tweeted. "OMG. This is like gliding your scissors across wrapping paper," commented another. Over 60,000 people shared their appreciation for Brierre-Davis bestowing her discovery upon the internet. Other users chimed in with their own keyboard hacks. "Not only can you do that but while dragging the cursor, you can press down a little harder and can highlight a word or a sentence," shared another iPhone tip angel.
Even though these feature have been around for three years, it seems to have gone largely unnoticed by iPhone users. It was first released with the iPhone 6S in 2015 and can actually be done by holding down anywhere on the keyboard, reports The Independent.
It's probably somewhere in the instructions, but let's be honest, who has sat down and read the entire user's manual after getting a new iPhone? It looks like Twitter has become our go-to way to discover the inner workings of our phones.
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It’s been seven short years since Little Mix were put together as a band, thanks to their appearance on The X-Factor. Together, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall, Perrie Edwards, and Jesy Nelson have been one of the hardest working girl groups in the business. They’re not just a collection of singers; they write and produce on their songs. And they’ve sold 45 million records worldwide. With LM5, they have decided to take a stand in favour of feminism, in favour of body positivity, in favour of equality — in favour of women’s rights.
Pinnock and Thirlwall spoke to Refinery29 about the process of writing this album, the pushback they got from the (heavily male) music industry, and why they think it’s important to speak to their fans about equality and self-love.
Refinery29: LM5 is your fifth album and you’ve made a lot of strides forward in terms of your message and what you’re allowed to do. “Strip” and “Joan of Arc ” are big statement songs. What made you want to speak out on so many issues?
Leigh-Anne Pinnock: “As we’ve gotten older, we’ve had so many more experiences in life and much more to write about. This is the album where we have felt like we didn’t have to hold back. We were as ballsy as we could be with this album. Part of it was being more confident as writers and feeling like we’re more likely to be listened to now than we were a few years ago. We’ve grown as women and feel more empowered than ever so we wanted to make sure we used to platform to write songs that mean something and encourage and raise awareness in our fans — especially our younger fans — to feel good about themselves and educate themselves. We have experienced sexism within the music industry as well as just from being in the public eye and having people comment on the way we look instead of on our music. For us, it felt like the right time. We made a conscious decisions to refocus on female empowerment and issues about women.”
Do you feel like we’re in the kind of landscape where you can’t make pop music unless its political? Or are politics just such a big part of the conversation for everyone that it makes sense to address it in your music now where maybe it didn’t before?
Leigh-Anne: “Probably a bit of both. Five years ago, songs like ‘Joan of Arc’ or ‘Woman’s World’ might not have been needed as much. But now, they are. We’re passionate about it ourselves and we have younger fans who are passionate about what’s going on. Now’s the time to talk about body image and how women are mistreated.”
Jade Thirlwall: “I feel like it’s impossible to ignore these issues and not talk about them. You can’t just keep singing about — we’ve always been a band who sing about things that mean something, we’ve always wanted to make people feel good about themselves. Speaking about female empowerment, that’s always been something that we have sung about along with boys and sex.”
Leigh-Anne: “And you can’t underestimate the power that we have. We have millions of followers and a lot of fans. A lot of pop artists know that and are aware that their influence can help their fans to make good decisions.”
What kind of reaction have you gotten to those songs?
Jade: “Our fans did not expect to hear it, especially ‘Joan of Arc.’ I don’t think they were ready for it. It’s so different for us, it’s a completely new sound. We decided that this album would be something we’d never done before, that we had to change things up, go to the next level. The reaction has been incredible, though.”
How did you decide that songs with this message of empowerment would be the next level for you?
Leigh-Anne: “It came naturally. We listened to our fans and what they wanted to hear us sing and write about. In the last year or so we’ve seen this surge of women speaking out and being heard, so that’s reflected in our music...At the beginning we had to work harder to be found credible when it’s so much easier for boys to make it in the industry. We were always told that girl bands don’t work, it was one of the first things we heard as a group when we were put together [on TheX-Factor]. We proved so many people wrong. Our mentor on the show at the time had to fight to keep us in the competition because the producers wanted to get rid of us. Look at us now, seven years on.”
Do you still get pushback from people in the industry about your message? Or do you have enough autonomy at this point in your career to do what you want?
Leigh-Anne: “We still face sexism in the industry. We’ve been told what we should and shouldn’t do. We learned to put our foot down and make sure we are taken seriously as four strong women who have opinions. It’s been a struggle. There are still not enough powerful women in the industry compared to men and that needs to change. We’ve had our fair share of arguments with powerful men over what we want to do and how things should be done. I guess this album shows that we’re winning. There still is a lot that needs to be done in the music industry, but in terms of our careers we are in the driver’s seat more than ever because we speak up for ourselves, we stick together, and [we] make sure our opinions are treated as validly as any man’s. It’s very frustrating. It would be amazing to sit in a conference room and have the boss at the head of the room be a woman. Unfortunately, we’re yet to see it.”
I think it wasn’t taken seriously at the time but that idea back when the Spice Girls did it and talked about “girl power,” had a huge impact. Out in the mainstream, that message meant a lot to women who are now millennials and Gen Z. They take it very seriously.
Jade: “Yeah, and I feel like as well when the Spice Girls were out there wasn’t anyone flying the flag in that empowered female role for women. Knowing what we’re doing even with songs like ‘Salute’ [from our 2013 album], they’re so empowering. We’ve taken that rein in a way, I think. And it’s always been something we wanted to do. I hope that when our fans get older, they can say we were the ones who flew that flag for them.”
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
LIttle Mix's latest album, LM5, is out now.
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Our obsession with Korean skincare shows no sign of slowing down. If we aren't following 10-step routines, using products packed with ingredients like snail slime and succulents, we're jumping on the skip-care bandwagon – eschewing countless, unnecessary products for a select few that really work.
While a handful of said products from big name Korean brands such as Glow Recipe and J.One are available to buy from places like Boots and Cult Beauty, many of us look to other, lesser known sites to get a slice of luxury brands such as Huxley (which you've no doubt seen all over Instagram thanks to its picture-perfect packaging) and MAKE P:REM – a brilliant choice for those with skin issues like acne, rosacea or eczema.
The only problem? Shopping K-Beauty online can often mean paying over the odds. We're talking extortionate shipping costs, custom charges and other tax (if you've been stung once before, you aren't alone), not to mention an extremely long wait. But there's a new K-Beauty hub on our radar, and it bypasses all of that because it operates right here in the UK. Enter: Tonic15.
The website, which only launched in August, is home to Aromatica, The Lotus and Klairs to name a few brilliant Korean skincare brands serving up everything from essences to sheet masks, moisturisers and exfoliators. The website sources each skincare product directly from Korea and imports it to their London warehouse, so when you make a purchase, you get to avoid all the fluff. In fact, delivery is free on orders over £15. Our products took the usual five days to arrive (not five weeks) but there's also an express delivery option if you're running low on skincare staples.
And because getting your head around Korean skincare can be a bit of a minefield, Tonic15 allows you to filter products depending on your skin type, whether it's dry, oily, sensitive, blemish-prone, or you're battling more specific concerns like pigmentation and fine lines.
For easily aggravated skin, R29 recommends MAKE P:REM's Safe-Me Relief Moisture Cleansing Foam, £15. It's formulated at a respectful pH of 5.5 so won't strip the good stuff. For acne-prone skin, Aromatica's Tea Tree Green Oil, £27, is potent on spots without being irritating or contributing to flare-ups (you can read more about the wonders of tea tree oil for acne here), while Huxley's Oil & Extract sheet masks, £20 x 3, are probably the most luxe buys we tried. The prickly pear seed oil is housed in a separate, ingredient-preserving pouch, which you need to fold and pop to saturate the mask.
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According to Esther Perel, the Belgian/American psychotherapist, there is an inherent tension between security and desire that has to be bridged for any successful sexual relationship. Careful retirement planning spiced up with sex toys or lingerie cannot bridge that gap, she explains, because the things that nurture love are the very same things that stifle desire. Love comes from selflessness and desire grows from selfishness.
In the 1980s I was as selfish as any 20-something-year-old today, with a lot less opportunity and information. No one had imagined a world where you had access to sex in your pocket 24/7 and yet we felt as if we were on the verge of a new frontier. We did the walk of shame home from ill-advised sleepovers after too much Blue Nun wine. We had the pill and we were financially independent – not true for our mothers. With no internet, our collective information about life, relationships and sex was gleaned from friends, music, films and the books we read. We were open and talked as honestly as we knew how, but in truth no one talked as honestly and openly as we all do today. Quite simply we didn’t have the vocabulary.
The talking stopped for most of us somewhere in our late 20s or early 30s as one by one we put on bouffant wedding gowns and paired off. At that point, it felt like a betrayal to discuss intimate details with outsiders. We circled the wagons. There was too much at stake. We had responsibilities, financial and emotional, we had jobs, we had children. That was enough, or so we told ourselves. The sexiest thing your partner could do, we’d say to each other, was take the children to the park and let us sleep in on a Sunday morning. What was there to say to your friends about sex when you could get tips on how your child could ace the 11 plus?
Of course, sex sometimes did come up. After the birth of a baby you might agree with a close girlfriend that there wasn’t much going on 'down there' or suggest that your partner was feeling a bit left out. Conventional wisdom had us believe that men were 'up for it' all the time and women were not, even if we also suspected this wasn’t quite the truth.
Eventually the children got into their chosen schools, we’d all remodelled our kitchens, secured the promotions or just given up worrying about things like that. That was when the divorces started in earnest: first a trickle, then thick and fast. Friends huddled together over coffee or glasses of wine in book clubs as lurid details bubbled out of sexual indiscretions or marriages with no sex at all. Recounting other people's disasters felt talismanic, as if chanting them in hushed female voices might somehow stop the spirits from turning their evil eyes back onto us.
Then one day, our children had grown and many more of us were on our own, widowed or divorced. We read in The Economist that worldwide almost 200 million people are now on dating apps looking for love and sex. That’s like the population of Brazil swiping left and right. There had to be something in it. We’d always prided ourselves on being on trend so maybe we’d give it a try. With less oestrogen in our bodies and fed up with years of looking after everyone else, we could afford to be selfish again. Only this time, maybe our demands were a little more straightforward – someone to go to the theatre with or to finally have some cracking good sex. We understood what we wanted and if we didn’t, we knew how to find out. We were less willing to put up with second best. And the newly single men we met were thinking that too. They were spending a lot of time in the gym. They’d bought the Viagra. They also suspected that things had moved on from the marital bed and they had the desire and the interest to find out what they could do about that too.
Eventually our happily married friends were curious too. Through single friends on the front line, they had an insight into a world they couldn’t safely access without the very real risk of financial and emotional ruin. They wanted to know more. They relayed stories to their husbands and feeling a bit competitive, some of their husbands started to suspect they might need to update their skills too. Was everyone else practising tantric sex? What was the deal with genital piercings?
Suddenly we felt like trailblazers again. We had the desire to make the best of a long marriage or to search in pastures new. We felt like we did in our 20s, without the Blue Nun and with an Uber home. We’d reopened the conversation with each other and ourselves and even if we weren’t as graphic as our children and their friends, we were talking again. It wasn’t only politics, retirement plans and children’s achievements around dinner party tables. We were talking about how to bridge that gap between love and desire.
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I can’t be the only one who didn’t want Annie and Helen to make friends at the end of Bridesmaids. Not only because their wild attempts to sabotage each other’s good standing with mutual BFF Lillian were hilarious (drunk Annie trying to sneak into first class on their flight remains a personal highlight and a continually relatable meme). It’s also because their two characters served as a rare, welcome reminder that female leads don’t have to be best friends for a story about women to work.
Narratives that showcase the reality of womanhood in a complete, multifaceted way are wonderful. But they remain rare. Sure, we’ve seen a broader spectrum of female characters on screen recently; however, the way we’re positioned in relation to other women tends to be pretty formulaic.
We’re definitely not here for the way we’re pitted against each other as competition (yes, often for the attention of men). But on the other side of the Hollywood lady coin is our apparent fixation on a core group of female friends, and the bullshit myth that affection between women magically materialises the moment you throw a few of us in a room. We know that great friendships (should they materialise at all, for that matter) take time, effort, and aren't as superficial as they often seem on screen. So no, it isn't the most helpful stereotype for female ensemble films to rely on either.
It's one of the many reasons I'm thankful for Widows. 12 Years A Slave director Steve McQueen's new film was co-written with Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn and is based on a British TV series from the 1980s. The film follows a group of women in Chicago who, under the leadership of Viola Davis' character, Veronica, attempt an epic robbery to recover the money that their late husbands owed some very bad guys. Beyond the fact that three of their partners were secretly involved in criminal activity which ultimately left them in debt when they died on a job, Veronica, Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) have nothing in common except for grief and a need to survive.
Instead of forcing these women into one of those "unlikely friendship" storylines, they're allowed to operate together on a purely functional level. They're presented not as enemies, nor the BFFs whose circle you're desperate to jump into. Instead we understand them as allies, a crucial but underplayed middle ground in the vast arena of authentic female dynamics.
We’re given a brief snapshot of Veronica and her husband Harry (Liam Neeson) before his last exploit and their love for one another is heart-achingly clear. They're well off, live in a lavish apartment and seem intrinsically connected to one another. But outside of their relationship, we quickly learn that Veronica isn’t one to let her guard down with other people. After Harry’s death, her affection is saved only for her dog, Olivia, and we’ll be damned for assuming that the women with whom she’s thrust into cahoots are there to fulfil any companionship she may be missing.
Photo: courtesy of Fox
Veronica recruits fellow widows Linda (who discovered her husband had been gambling away the money for the rent on her clothing store) and Alice (whose husband used to relentlessly abuse her) for practical reasons only – they’re also under threat from the men their husbands stole from and are drowning in financial difficulty. Belle (babysitter to Linda’s kids) only comes on board when the person they had hoped to use as a getaway driver is no longer available and, much like the others, she could really do with the cash.
As soon as we meet these women we know that Widows is no Ocean’s 8- style caper; a jolly robbery of an outlandish $30 million for shits, giggles and an easier life. Veronica’s team are after a relatively modest $3 million to fulfil an obligation they didn’t ask for and, incidentally, with that comes the type of agency that men are afforded whenever they star in one of these big budget action films – an initial indifference towards one another and a learned selfishness, without which the entire operation would be jeopardised.
Interestingly, the film focuses on their difficulties gelling with each other rather than using their incompatibility as a neatly packaged teaching point on how you can find friends anywhere. Respect for one another isn't immediate and each of these women is quick to throw judgement and aggression towards the others. Veronica and Alice actively grate against one another, eventually coming to blows after their differences – race, class, wealth – supersede the automatic empathy that's normally attached to female characters. Veronica and Belle, a black woman who is way down the social scale, also struggle to identify with one another; their disparity is evident the moment they're put in a room together.
While female friendship will forever be one of the strongest, most crucial bonds a woman will have throughout her life, it's neither a given nor implied with every circumstance in which women are forced into a shared scenario. Would it have been nice if the leading ladies of Widows all got along and ended the film sipping cocktails in a bar and laughing about the trauma that brought them together? Maybe. But it wouldn't have been a realistic depiction of what that level of closeness among women looks like in real life. It's wonderfully varied, it's hard-earned and it's incredibly special. However there's so much to be said for the function, strength and respect that comes from female allies – the space between enemies and inseparability – and as the space in which so many of our relationships operate, shouldn't we be seeing it depicted more on screen, too?
Widows is in cinemas now.
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Finding the perfect pair of trousers can be a mission for tall women. After all, 'tall' represents a multitude of body shapes and for the many of us who aren't sample size, with long torsos or legs, or plus bodies, shopping can be incredibly trying.
At 5'10", R29 UK's entertainment editor Jaz knows this all too well: "A few years ago, when the fashion overlords decided that bare ankles were 'in', I felt both relieved and cheated. My misfortune (I had to rock pedal pushers for a very long time growing up) was suddenly cool and, in my mind, it gave all the shops that don’t stock trousers in a variety of leg lengths an excuse not to bother. To this day, my heart weeps every time I stumble across a pair of high-waisted velvet trousers (don’t @ me) that I know won’t fit my 33.5 inch inside leg."
Another long-legged R29er, Natasha (5'11") says Swedish, Italian and French brands are a good shout for tall women, as they often come up a bit longer, while others swear by the tall sections of ASOS and Topshop. We've scoured the web to find trousers, jeans and joggers that have been lovingly made for women 5'9" and over. You're welcome!
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We may associate skin flare-ups with our teenage years but as many women know, these bugbears can last well beyond the days of GCSEs and WKD-fuelled house parties. Although a solid skincare routine is crucial, there are additional steps you can take to help keep your skin in check.
From choosing the right makeup and skincare products to switching up your pillowcase and incorporating facial massage into your nighttime routine, here are five R29-approved clear skin tips worth trying.
Switch to non-comedogenic makeup
Some of the makeup we use could be making our skin worse. Yep, unfortunately various foundations or concealers can actually block pores and increase the chance of blemishes. There is a solution, though. Enter: non-comedogenic makeup. These are smart products that are much less likely to clog pores, making them ideal for those prone to breakouts. While there are a number of ingredients classified as comedogenic, the easiest way to sort the wheat from the chaff is by looking for products specifically advertised as non-comedogenic. We love NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation, £35, Vichy Dermablend Fluid Corrective Foundation, £20, and Clinique Anti-Blemish Solutions Liquid Makeup, £28.50.
Clean your tools
Makeup brushes and sponges are a breeding ground for bacteria. Every single time you apply your makeup with one of these tools they pick up oil, dead skin cells, bacteria and dust, which is then spread on to your face the next time you use them – pretty gross, right? Unsurprisingly, this increases the chances of blocked pores and spots. To avoid this, make sure to wash your makeup brushes and sponges with warm water and shampoo or liquid soap at least once a week. While you’re at it, don’t forget about your smartphone, too. Research suggests smartphones carry three times more germs than a toilet seat, so make sure you’re cleaning your device with a phone-friendly wipe.
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Cleanse both morning and evening
Cleansing is the cornerstone of any good skincare regime but it’s even more important if you have combination skin or are prone to breakouts. Look for formulas containing tea tree oil and skin-calming witch hazel, such as Boots' Tea Tree & Witch Hazel Foaming Face Wash, £4.19. When these two powerhouse ingredients are combined, they’re a force to be reckoned with. Gentle enough to use every day, this cleanser leaves skin satisfyingly clean without over-drying it, ready for the next steps in your regime.
Invest in a silk pillowcase
'Beauty sleep' isn’t reserved for fairy tales. Thanks to circadian rhythm (our body's internal clock), experts argue that nighttime is generally when our skin is in active repair mode. To give your skin the best possible chance of recovery, sleep with a silk pillowcase. Unlike cotton, which is highly absorbent, silk actually helps control sebum production. In the same vein, a silk pillowcase is much less likely to soak up the products you’ve put on your face, meaning they will work even more productively.
Make time for a facial massage
Chances are, you’ve probably spotted the Instagram-worthy jade roller in countless #shelfies already. But they are worth so much more than their flat-lay potential, because the ancient Chinese tool packs a serious skincare punch. Offering a cool and smooth surface that produces a more effective massage than simply using your hands, it encourages fluid tissue circulation, reducing puffiness. The result? Brighter, clearer and more glowy skin. Use every evening for 2-3 minutes after you’ve applied your nighttime skincare regime, rolling outwards and upwards.
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We also have The Handmaid’s Tale ’s Madeline Brewer, who stars as Alice, to credit for giving viewers a vulnerable, funny and well-rounded protagonist to root for.
Yes, rooting for Alice’s success means rooting for her to reach the number one spot on her camming site — it’s her great ambition, and one completely threatened by this mysterious digital clone.
In conversation with Brewer, the actress reveals what she shares with her new Netflix character, how she was inspired by the "Meryl Streeps" of the cam world, and the most difficult aspect of filming a movie set in the digital age.
You’ve played characters who have gone to very dark places. Is that challenging, to get into that headspace?
I find [playing those characters] to be the most fun because it’s never what it seems. If a character looks like they’re just scary or crazy or whatever, there’s so much more happening than just someone going about their day. You don’t play just creepy or scary. [Sometimes, there is] trauma in their past, [like] Janine [from The Handmaid’s Tale ’s case]. In Alice’s case, her throughline throughout the whole film is 'I want to get my show back, I want to go back to work'.
Cam depicts sex workers in a very different light from what we usually see. What were your thoughts on how your character Alice was portrayed when you first read the script?
I always understood that [sex work] is a job, and [that] you can’t tell a woman that she [shouldn’t] make money using her body. I wanted to tell this story honestly, and I wanted to project that. I needed a cam girl watching [this film] to be like 'Oh my god, she could totally be one of us, she understands what camming is'.
But, simultaneous to that, I recognise the fact that I am not a cam girl, and I am not as comfortable with the sexually explicit nature of some camming. I’m comfortable watching it and hearing about it, but I myself am not comfortable performing it. Cam girls get to choose how much they do or do not show, so [the director Daniel Goldhaber] and I wanted [ Cam] to have that same feeling, that [I had] the same power and control.
[It would be something like,] 'We’ve written a character filming nude here, how do you feel?' And I’d say, 'No, I get that you’re trying to say something metaphorically, but [I don’t think Alice should be nude.]' Sometimes we would end up saying, 'You know, Alice is really vulnerable here, and I think that it should be fully nude'. We wanted to figure it out artistically.
You and Alice are both performers, did you connect with the character on that level?
Absolutely. Alice’s relentless ambition to get her show back and to fight for control of her own life, her career, and her creative space, I put those same feelings into my own career. I mean, the two things are parallel. They are two creative, complex, difficult, sometimes really frustrating and horrible careers to choose, just because of what everybody else thinks about it. Everyone else [has] opinions of you [in acting and camming].
Photo: Courtesy of IMDb.
Did you find it difficult to act opposite a webcam, instead of a real person?
There was a lot of me staring at a screen with tracking marks, and it did become very frustrating, because so often my scene partner was whoever was on the screen, and if they weren’t actually there I was literally just talking at myself, talking at a wall. Which is not easy. But so much of camming is interacting with a screen. Our [writer Isa Mazzei] created almost an entire other script of just cam shows, of just comments and tokens and things for me to react to. We would have it queued up so I could respond to it, and I could get that very natural feeling of a cam show. You watch any cam show, and those girls are [always interacting with the commenters.]
I must have watched hundreds of hours of cam, just over and over and over. I had my cam girls that I would return to for Alice, and my cam girls that were for Lola [Alice’s cam girl alter-ego], and my cam girls that were for 'Lola 2', [the copy of Alice’s cam girl image that gets uploaded online.] I would try to embody these cam girls, or note the tricks that they do. I mean, it’s the same thing I would do if I was watching Meryl Streep in a movie and I was like, 'God, that scene was good, I want to try to bring that out in my next performance'. [These women] are the Meryl Streeps of camming — I might as well learn from them.
You are returning to season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale — what can you tease about Janine?
Janine is still in Gilead. The major thing this season is that [the Handmaids are] kind of pushing boundaries and pushing back. That is really all I can say, [other than that] Janine and Aunt Lydia have such a wonderful relationship.
On the heels of historic election victories for Danica Roem and Christine Hallquist, it's important to remember where we came from — and how far we still have to go. Transgender Day of Remembrance was created to honour those members of the transgender community who were victims of violence in the past year, but also to inspire action towards a safer future.
The US-based Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation released A National Epidemic: Fatal Anti-Transgender Violence in America in 2018, an annual report that details the brutality suffered by the transgender community in this past year. At least 22 transgender people were killed in 2018, with 82% of them being women of colour. 64% were younger than 35 years old and 55% lived in the South.
This year, we mourn Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, Viccky Gutierrez, Celine Walker, Tonya “Kita” Harvey, Zakaria Fry, Phylicia Mitchell, Amia Tyrae Berryman, Sasha Wall, Karla Patricia Flores-Pavón, Nino Fortson, Gigi Pierce, Antash’a English, Diamond Stephens, Keisha Wells, Cathalina Christina James, Sasha Garden, Dejanay Stanton, Vontashia Bell, Shantee Tucker, Londonn Moore, Nikki Enriquez and Ciara Minaj Carter Frazier.
Members of the transgender community in the UK also continue to face violence. In the last year, the number of hate crimes recorded by the police on the grounds of sexual orientation and being transgender increased by 27% (from 7,194 in 2015-16 to 9,157 in 2016-17) and 45% (from 858 in 2015-16 to 1,248 in 2016-17) respectively.
The HRC report also addresses the main factors that contribute to ongoing transgender violence, like the "systemic discrimination" that can make it hard for them to find employment and housing, leading to dangerous living and working conditions. The HRC also offers solutions like gun reform and non-discrimination protections to help the transgender community.
"Even as we pursue these immediate and largely reactive solutions, we must simultaneously address the root causes of violence to make our communities safer for everyone," said Chad Griffin, president of HRC. "It is unacceptable that transgender and gender-expansive people are killed simply because of who they are."
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Global fashion search platform Lyst today released its Year in Fashion Report 2018, charting its findings from 80 million shoppers in 120 countries and revealing the most buzz-worthy brands, influencers, trends and items of the year.
Tracking more than 100 million searches, it analysed the page views, Insta likes and sales figures that produced 2018's most coveted designers and cult products.
While the report covers everything from the most influential celebrities in fashion – the top two spots were taken by Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian West – to the most-worn logos – think Supreme and Champion – we're most taken by the top 10 Insta-brands of the year.
"To name and rank the most wanted brands of Instagram, we monitored the spikes in search demand correlating to Instagram mentions and brand tags during the course of 2018," the report states.
From the sustainable stars to the breakout brands, click through to see the names worth knowing – and following – right now.
Sustainable trainer brand Veja aims to make the most ethical footwear in the world. The sleek brand has become a street style staple and, according to Lyst, searches have increased 113% year on year.
Reformation uses offcuts and more sustainable materials like linen and cotton to create influencer favourites. Lyst reports that the brand's Thelma dress was in the top 10 most viewed dresses of the year.
Founded by Giorgia Tordini and Gilda Ambrosio – influencers in their own right – Attico gets sumptuous fabrics like velvet and animal print just so. It's your go-to for party season.
Remember the Naomi, the leopard print midi skirt that sent Instagram into a frenzy and sold out every time it came back in stock? Realisation Par is the brand behind the cult hit, which dominated summer – and our feeds.
According to Lyst, global searches for the brand are up 52% year on year, and with good reason. Ganni leads the charge of super cool Danish brands flooding our Insta feeds (and wardrobes). Search the hashtag #GanniGirls for easy breezy Danish style.
Staud 's The Shirley bag was a summer sellout, and its Moreau Macramé inspired many a knockoff. Think statement-making bags around the £100 price point.
Budapest-based Nanushka is another sustainably minded brand we've been adding to our wardrobe. Its denim and jumpsuits have been most popular among Instagram's influential, but any of its minimal, earthy-toned pieces is an instant classic.
Searches are up 12% year on year for Faithfull The Brand, a favourite with jet-setting influencers like Lucy Williams. Think ruffled blouses and bleached denim for beachside cool.
There were over 9,000 searches a week for Rouje 's Gabin dress from July to September, Lyst notes, which explains why everyone and their mother was traipsing around in a floral vintage-inspired tea dress. Thought the French-girl-cool trope was dead? Take one look at Jeanne Damas and think again.
Stine Goya is another Danish brand we're investing in. Her dreamy occasion wear pieces are wedding guest staples; according to Lyst, searches for the Copenhagen-based brand peaked in June.
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A Washington Post report on Tuesday found that Ivanka Trump used her personal email account for White House business, which is in violation of federal records rules. Now, a watchdog group is asking Congress to investigate.
A White House review of her correspondence found that in 2017, she regularly discussed government affairs using a private email account with the domain "ijkfamily.com," which she shares with her husband Jared Kushner.
People "with knowledge of her reaction" told the Post that she didn't know the details of the rules.
The watchdog group, American Oversight, wrote a letter on Tuesday to members of the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The parallels between Ms. Trump's conduct and that of Secretary Clinton are inescapable," executive director Austin Evers wrote. "In both her use of personal email and post-discovery preservation efforts, Ms. Trump appears to have done exactly what Secretary Clinton did — conduct over which President Trump and many members of Congress regularly lambasted Secretary Clinton and which, they asserted, demonstrated her unfitness for office."
Peter Mirijanian, a spokesperson for Ivanka's attorney Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that she occasionally used her personal email before she was briefed on the rules, but never to convey classified information.
"While transitioning into government, after she was given an official account but until the White House provided her the same guidance they had given others who started before she did, Ms. Trump sometimes used her personal account, almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family," he said, adding that she turned over her government-related emails to be permanently stored with other White House records.
But the review showed that Ivanka used her personal account to discuss government policies, her official work schedule, and travel details, which could be in violation of the Presidential Records Act.
If all of this sounds familiar, it's because, as Evers pointed out, it is. Ivanka's father called for Hillary Clinton to be imprisoned for her own email conduct, leading chants of "Lock her up!" at his rallies. Mirijanian said in his statement that Ivanka's use of a private server is different: "Ms. Trump did not create a private server in her house or office, no classified information was ever included, the account was never transferred at Trump Organization, and no emails were ever deleted."
Still, Evers said, "the extensive use of personal email by a senior public official raises important questions that merit investigation."
Refinery29 has reached out to Ivanka Trump's attorney Abbe Lowell and will update this story when we hear back.
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