Part of the reason the Kavanaugh news cycle has been such a flashpoint—part of the reason that so many conservatives have fanatically defended his right to have hypothetically committed the crime he’s been accused of, and that so many women have been spending the last two weeks in a haze of resurfaced trauma—is that it illuminates the centrality of sexual assault in the matrix of male power in America. In high schools, in colleges, at law schools, and in the halls of Washington, men perform for one another and ascend to positions of power. Watching it happen is a deadening reminder, for victims of sexual assault and harassment, that, in many cases, you were about as meaningful as a chess piece, one of a long procession of objects in the lifelong game that men play with other men.
“I think it’s giving courage just to other women to speak about their stories in general. It’s been very triggering for women, triggering for some of us who are not ready to share, so being here today for us is very important, we feel like we’ve created a movement of people who see what’s at stake here and are willing to put it all on the line.”
The engagement ring consists of 14 solitaire diamonds surrounding a 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire set in 18-karat white gold. It was created by jeweler Garrard and cost at the time, 28,000 pounds sterling. Diana’s selection of this ring was unusual. It was neither custom-made nor unique and was, at the time of her engagement to Charles, featured in Garrard’s jewelry collection and available to anyone for purchase.
Don’t lose a woman that has seen your flaws and still loves you.
An increasing number of South Korean women are choosing not to marry, not to have children, and not even to have relationships with men. With the lowest fertility rate in the world, the country’s population will start shrinking unless something changes.
“I have no plans to have children, ever,” says 24-year-old Jang Yun-hwa, as we chat in a hipsterish cafe in the middle of Seoul.
“I don’t want the physical pain of childbirth. And it would be detrimental to my career.”
Like many young adults in South Korea’s hyper-competitive job market, Yun-hwa, a web comic artist, has worked hard to get where she is and isn’t ready to let all that hard graft go to waste.
“Rather than be part of a family, I’d like to be independent and live alone and achieve my dreams,” she says.
…
When I put it to her that if she and her contemporaries don’t have children her country’s culture will die, she tells me that it’s time for the male-dominated culture to go.
“Must die,” she says, breaking into English. “Must die!”
Must die.
Must die!
Off topic but I’ve always found it weird how people freak out when they hear that birth rates are dropping. Our population can’t increase exponentially so why are you acting like this is a bad thing? It’s not like there’s a shortage of humans. If we found out the cat population was shrinking I’d be pissed but we could do with less humans
South Korea has a population of 51 million plus and a population density of 507 people per square kilometer. I think South Korea and the rest of the world will be just fine with a decreasing birth rate.
“After battling PPD of my own I spoke to other mothers about their experiences. Since I got the courage to speak about it, I found that others where relieved to find out it’s likewise for a lot of mothers. The Duchess’ initiative (‘Heads together’) made me aware of the ‘communication is key’-part and I felt al lot more normal and not so guilty. I wonder if Kate feels/felt the same with any birth and so she started all this.“ – Submitted by Anonymous
–In 1530, Anne Boleyn briefly adopted this phrase as her motto in response to criticism of her rising influence at court and her status as Queen in all but name
“…Kavanaugh was setting a tone. Embedded in the histrionics were the unmistakable notes of fury and bullying. Kavanaugh shouted over Dianne Feinstein to complain about the “outrage” of not being allowed to testify earlier; when asked about his drinking, by Sheldon Whitehouse, he replied, “I like beer. You like beer? What do you like to drink, Senator?” with a note of aggressive petulance that is hard to square with his preferred self-image of judicious impartiality and pious Sunday churchgoing. Lindsey Graham eagerly took up the angry-man mantle, using his allotted five minutes of questioning to furiously shout at his Democratic colleagues. What we are seeing is a model of American conservative masculinity that has become popular in the past few years, one that is directly tied to the loutish, aggressive frat-boy persona that Kavanaugh is purportedly seeking to dissociate himself from. Gone are the days of a terse John Wayne-style stoicism. Now we have Trump, ranting and raving at his rallies; we have Alex Jones, whose habit of screaming and floridly weeping as he spouts his conspiracy theories is a key part of his appeal to his audience. When Kavanaugh is not crying or shouting, he uses a distinctly adolescent tone that might best be described as “talking back.” He does not respond to senators. He negs them. His response, when he is asked about his drinking, is to flip the question and ask the senators how they like their alcohol; his refusal to say whether he would coöperate with an F.B.I. investigation brings to mind a teen-ager stonewalling his parents. If Kavanaugh is trying to convince the public that he could never have been capable, as a teen-ager, of aggression or peer pressure, this is an odd way to go about it.”
►Film Facts ➛ Wonder Woman ღ ⁃ As incredibly difficult as it is to believe, director Patty Jenkins has to fight for this now-iconic scene to make it into the movie. Others working on the film were “confused” by what the point of the scene actually was. “It’s my favorite scene in the movie and it’s the most important scene in the movie,” said Jenkins during an interview with Fandango. “It’s also the scene that made the least sense to other people going in, which is why it’s a wonderful victory for me.”
Dance With Me “I like to dance with the water. The undertow and the waves. The water is mischievous, ha! I like how it misbehaves. The village may think I’m crazy or say that I drift too far. But once you know what you like, well, there you are. You are your father’s daughter. Stubbornness and pride. Mind what he says but remember you may hear a voice inside and if the voice starts to whisper to follow the farthest star. Moana, that voice inside is who you are.”
In the autumn of 1929, Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her husband Charles flew across the Yucatán Peninsula. With Charles at the controls, Anne snapped photographs of the jungles just below. She wrote in her journal of Maya structures obscured by large humps of vegetation. A bright stone wall peeked through the leaves, “unspeakably alone and majestic and desolate — the mark of a great civilization gone.“
Nearly a century later, surveyors once again took flight over the ancient Maya empire, and mapped the Guatemala forests with lasers. The 2016 survey, whose first results were published this week in the journal Science, comprises a dozen plots covering 830 square miles, an area larger than the island of Maui. It is the largest such survey of the Maya region, ever.
The study authors describe the results as a revelation. “It’s like putting glasses on when your eyesight is blurry,” said study author Mary Jane Acuña, director of El Tintal Archaeological Project in Guatemala. Read more.
“We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on.” Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) dir. David Yates
The Duchess of Cambridge laughs as she prepares to convene a round-table discussion on the themes of addiction, intervention, family and mental health on her trip to the Netherlands.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) dir. Christopher McQuarrie
“There cannot be peace without first, a great suffering. The greater the suffering, the greater the peace. The end you’ve always feared is coming. It’s coming, and the blood will be on your hands.”
29th August 2018 // Crown Princess Victoria talks about her and her family’s shared love of nature at the Stockholm Water Prize during World Water Week
One of the most beautiful things about being in Grand Staircase is that, out in the deep middle of it, with all of prehistory underfoot and twelve-billion-year-old starlight overhead, the world feels enduring and eternal. But that is, of course, an illusion. All things change. The only question is whether they change for the better.
Women come forward about past sexual assault and are asked why didn’t they come forward sooner, yet there are thousands of such instances involving boys molested by the church and their “motives” for coming forward years later are never questioned
House of Brat 