Dear women,
We can’t say that it's been a good week for us. Yet, we’ve still found some reasons for optimism. Let us catch you up below.
Good news:In the wake of Rose McGowan’s much-contested temporary ban, Twitter has announced a new set of policies designed to fight sexual harassment and threats of physical violence on the platform. According to CEO Jack Dorsey, the regulations will address “unwanted sexual advances, nonconsensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorif[y] violence,” and will be rolled out in the coming weeks. He didn’t mention that the platform’s most famous user is President Trump, who has boasted about sexual assault, condoned physical violence by hate groups, and glorified violence against Hillary Clinton in an infamous meme.
Boy Scouts of America announced on Wednesday that the organization will now start accepting girls. But, does this mean that Girl Scouts will also accept boys?
In a battle against child marriage, India’s supreme court is now abolishing a law that allowed men to have sex with underage girls if they were married to them.
Bad news:Following the exposés on Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual harassment, women in other industries have started to speak up, too. Model Cameron Russell, for example, has started collecting stories of abuse among models.
Also, Blake Lively spoke out about her experience of harassment. According to an interview Lively gave to the Los Angeles Times, a male makeup artist insisted on putting on lipstick with his fingers and was caught filming her while she was asleep.
Also, the media industry saw its own string of assault allegations, as on Wednesday afternoon, an anonymous Google Doc titled “Shitty Media Men” started circling around. Women started added names of staffers working at big publications ranging from Mother Jones and BuzzFeed to The New York Times, though the document was taken down by the end of the evening.
Also, Amazon’s programming chief, Roy Price, went on a leave of absence after a sexual harassment allegation.
Tinder launched a “Menprovement” anti-harassment feature, which includes a series of virtual animations that women can send to men, including a sarcastic eye-roll and a virtual martini that can be thrown to the harasser. While it’s about time that Tinder took some action to fight the abuse that’s said to lace the platform, it’s not certain whether an elevated emoji will make the difference.
Months after the Bureau of Prisons made it their policy to start providing female inmates with free tampons, pads, and panty liners, Vice News reports that facilities around the country are still charging women for their period needs.
Female inmates are fighting California’s wildfires on a salary that starts at $2 a day, with an additional dollar for every hour of work on the fire line.
In case you missed it:Meryl Streep called the women who spoke out about Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual assault “heroes.”
Following the latest string of allegations against Weinstein, we question whether simply “believing women” is enough.
One solution that some have offered following the Weinstein exposés is that women should simply never spend time with their male colleagues—also known as the “Mike Pence Rule.”
Weinstein checked himself into rehab in Arizona, but is that the same “get out of jail free” card that many famous men have used?
Is Senator Kirsten Gillibrand gearing up for 2020?
Twitter suspended Rose McGowan following tweets claiming Ben Affleck knew about Weinstein’s abuse. This then led to a string of famous women boycotting the platform.
Yup, we speak out against sex abusers in Hollywood, but live in a country that promoted one to President.
Gloria Steinem told us what advice she’d give to feminists of the next generation.
In Naomi Alderman’s latest novel, the roles have been reversed, and women gain all the power.
Pamela Adlon’s Better Things proves there’s still hope for women in Hollywood.