This is a European goldfinch, which looks completely different than the ones who hang out in my backyard.
“Goldfinch” by Andrew Morffrew. CC BY-ND
- I’m so disappointed in you, Tim. Great rebuttal by Karen here.
- Nisi Shawl Discusses Everfair, Diversity in Publishing, and Giving a Voice to Those Silenced by History I started reading Everfair this week and so far it’s fabulous.
- Bitch Planet Cosplay as a Woman of Color Love love love.
- Why Do Tourists Visit Ancient Ruins Everywhere Except the United States? Because racism, of course.
- WITNESS: You May Never See a Better Video Than Mad Max: Fury Road Without Special Effects
- A New Gathering Spot at Arlington: Capt. Humayun Khan’s Grave
- Begin as you mean to go on, or why I’m willing to quit
- Why your Facebook feed is filled with women selling essential oils and press-on nails I’ll note that the headline is a bit flip, but the article itself does not condescend to or demean women who sell these things–the writer’s targets are MLMs and structural inequalities that make these businesses appealing to women.
- White House women want to be in the room where it happens
- Off the Cuff, but on the Record NOT COOL. Suki Kim’s account is here–and she points out a phrasing in the NYT article I hadn’t noticed: What Happened in Brisbane.
- When a Crackpot Runs for President I am so frustrated and annoyed by all the false equivalences I’ve been seeing in the media. Rawr.
Reader Submissions
Huzzah, I have a nice collection of reader submitted links for y’all this week. I will note that some folks have been using the form to try to get me to promote their nonsense: cut it out, not cool.
- From Lilysea we have the following:
- Farming Invented Twice in the Middle East, Genomes Study Reveals
- The Macaroni in ‘Yankee Doodle’ is Not What You Think
- Lasting Relationships Rely On two traits (kindness and engagement)
- Margot Robbie on Harley Quinn
- If sirens sang about things other than sex
- 40% of people find happiness again after major depression (supportive relationships help a lot)
- Please never pay a farmer to ask me to marry you
- How fear and anxiety can stop you from creating (not new, but definitely worth the read!)
- Why Do AMC Cinemas Hate Blind People?
- Petrea Mitchell sends this in–and it’s well worth your time; there are descriptions of domestic violence: CTE isn’t just a disease of highly paid athletes: “When Janay Rice was knocked out cold in the elevator, attention was all about how Ray Rice had previous concussions. Nobody mentioned that the woman in the elevator suffered a brain injury right in front of everybody’s eyes.”
I was listening to a thing about London Fashion Week on the radio today, and as always, the conversation turned towards the size of the models. It made me think about what I’d do if I were a designer. I’d like to get one or two models in every size from, say UK6 (US2) up to UK40 (or more) and give every one of them an outfit that would be available in all sizes. I think that would make a fantastic catwalk show and make the point that it’s not about ‘normal’ vs. ‘plus size’ vs. ‘fat’. All women deserve fabulous clothes. Tim Gunn should know better.
Okay, first off, can I just squee for a second that I was added to this list?
SQUEE
All righty, I’m done.
Thanks for spotlighting my post! 🙂
@Ros: Just a few days after the Tim Gunn article hit the interwebs, an article about Christian Siriano using five plus-size models in his show hit my Facebook feed. Granted, the majority of them were the standard “hourglass/thick” shape, and they were about a size 12 through 16, but hey…go ‘head Christian. (Now call me when he puts a size 24 or 26 on that runway and I will be UBER impressed. Hell, Jean-Paul Gaultier did that with Velvet D’Amour back in 2006.)
Anyway, he says this about a fashion house doing a full size run in the article:
“Basically, to have a full size run—let’s say you needed a 0 to a 16—of every style available would be nine units. If the collection was 100 pieces, that’s 900 pieces. Oh my God. With 900 pieces, you could go out of business in one season. That could be $200,000 to $300,000 tied up. The cost comes from the fabrics—some of our fabric orders are $50,000—production, and sampling. It’s the logistics.”
Now, to his credit, he did say that this year they are taking a risk and doing the full size run. Now let’s hope people BUY it. If that happens, then other designers might see it as less of a risk and offer larger sizes. Of course, I’m still sized out of it at a 16, but hopefully one day?
You can read the article here, if you like: http://www.glamour.com/story/5-plus-size-models-just-walked-in-christian-sirianos-fashion-show
Looks like Lionel Shriver pulled a Truesdale at that literary conference, except she just stomped all over the (keynote) audience instead of co-panelists and audience. Bleah.
That Dancing in the Streets vid cracked me up, not least b/c of the contrast with my mind overlaying the full song.