And speaking of special rules for women – a conversation among some feminists on Twitter brought up the familiar issue of Why is it always women who have to wear the torture shoes or tight lacing or tiny dress in freezing cold?

Jennifer Lawrence has criticized “sexist” media coverage of her fashion choices in a new Facebook post.

The Oscar-winning actor, currently on a press tour for thriller Red Sparrow, responded to comments suggesting that the sleeveless Versace outfit worn during a photocall in London implied that she was being mistreated alongside her coat-wearing male co-stars.

“Wow. I don’t really know where to get started on this ‘Jennifer Lawrence wearing a revealing dress in the cold’ controversy,” she wrote. “This is not only utterly ridiculous, I am extremely offended. That Versace dress was fabulous, you think I’m going to cover that gorgeous dress up with a coat and a scarf? I was outside for five minutes. I would have stood in the snow for that dress because I love fashion and that was my choice.”

An article in Jezebel had the headline, Please Give Jennifer Lawrence a Dang Coat, showing the actor’s co-stars, Joel Edgerton and Jeremy Irons among them, wearing large coats and scarves.

John Phillips/Getty Images

Oh hey, you know what, there’s something else to notice about that photograph. See the tidy symmetry? Two men, then Jennifer Lawrence, then two more men. Oh hey guess what this is yet another movie with a man, a man, a man, a man, and a woman. Any hope it passes the Bechdel test?

But to her point. It’s her choice, she says – but is it, really? On a superficial level maybe it is, maybe nobody told her to wear a glam dress and glam shoes, but realistically, could she have shown up for a photocall dressed exactly the way the men are? Could the men have shown up dressed the way she is?

Come on. There are conventions about these things, and they’re not all that relaxed. Lawrence can dress the way the men are on her own time, but not when she’s doing glam duty on the job. The men cannot dress the way Lawrence is unless they decide to “transition.” It’s not a mere coincidence that the way the men are dressed leaves them able to run if they need to while Lawrence is quite literally hobbled by what she’s wearing. No doubt she does love fashion, but that doesn’t mean we can’t question the norms of what both sexes are allowed or pressured to wear.

cazz pointed out this Harvard Business Review article.

Susan Fiske and her colleagues have shown that people seem to universally use two dimensions to judge others: competence and warmth. We decided to test for both of those in addition to confidence. As a proxy for the likelihood of being promoted, we also tested for influence, on the theory that people who are seen as influential are more likely to be promoted to leadership roles.

We conducted a study analyzing the judgments that colleagues made regarding the competence and warmth of 236 engineers working in project teams at a multinational software development company. As part of their performance evaluation, the engineers were evaluated online by their supervisor, peers, and collaborators on competence and warmth.

A total of 810 raters provided this confidential evaluation. A year later, we collected a second wave of data on the same 236 engineers about their apparent confidence at work and their influence in the organization. This time, a total of 1,236 raters provided information.

Our study, which has been accepted for presentation at the Academy of Management’s conference in August, shows that men are seen as confident if they are seen as competent, but women are seen as confident only if they come across as both competent and warm. Women must be seen as warm in order to capitalize on their competence and be seen as confident and influential at work; competent men are seen as confident and influential whether they are warm or not.

Sigh. Of course they are, of course they must. It doesn’t surprise, but it does depress. It doesn’t depress any less – quite the contrary – when we remember we all do it.

Personal experience and empirical research suggest that it’s not enough for women to be merely as gregarious, easygoing, sociable, and helpful as men. To get credit for being warm — and to have their other strengths recognized — they might need to be even more so.

I still remember my first performance evaluation as an assistant lecturer: I was told to be more “nurturing.” I had gone to just as many social events as the men had, had been just as gregarious with my students. But women simply are expected to show more warmth. Studies show, for example, that women’s performance reviews contain nearly twice as much language about being warm, empathetic, helpful, and dedicated to others.

Yeah. Remember Bettelheim’s calumny about the “refrigerator mother”?

Well, I guess women at work don’t need to see.

Wearing glasses at work has become an emotive topic in Japan following reports that some firms have told female employees to remove them.

Several local news outlets said some companies had “banned” eyewear for female employees for various reasons.

Among them, some retail chains reportedly said glasses-wearing shop assistants gave a “cold impression”.

If they’re women. Only if they’re women.

I’m going to make a wild guess that it’s not actually a “cold” impression the chains are worrying about, but something more like a “clever” impression. Glasses remind us of reading – so obviously that’s a total turnoff and a waste when it’s a woman. Nobody wants to see clever women. Ew.

The discussion has echoes of a recent workplace controversy in Japan over high heels.

Actor and writer Yumi Ishikawa launched a petition calling for Japan to end dress codes after being made to wear high heels while working at a funeral parlour.

The movement attracted a stream of support and a strong social media following.

Women should look slightly dim and slightly hobbled.

God, it’s almost funny. You know those fundraising ads that political candidates run? Saying donate to my campaign and get a chance to have a beer with the candidate? I’ve seen a lot of them from Warren. Trump must think they’re a cool idea, because he has lots of them too…but in his case it’s a fraud, because nobody ever wins. He cheats even at that. How hard would it be to meet with a fan? Not very, but he doesn’t do it, he just takes their money.

A heavily-promoted contest to win breakfast with President Trump in New York City on September 26 was a fraud. The purported winner of the contest, Joanna Kamis, did not have breakfast with Trump. Instead, she was invited to a breakfast at a New York City restaurant that Trump did not attend. Kamis was later permitted to take a photo with Trump.

The promise of breakfast with Trump was used in hundreds of Facebook ads to entice supporters to donate money. The ads were clear that donors would be entered into a contest to share a meal with Trump. “This is your LAST CHANCE to meet me this quarter, and I really want to discuss our Campaign Strategy for the rest of the year with you over breakfast,” Trump said in a Facebook ad in September.

There were also 20 million mailings, but no breakfast.

The revelation of the fraudulent contest comes two days after Popular Information released the results of an investigation of 15 contests the Trump campaign has held to win meals with Trump. While other campaigns enthusiastically promote photos of candidates dining with low-dollar donors, Popular Information could not find evidence that anyone actually won a meal with Trump.

If there were evidence, would they be sitting on it? Hardly. If the evidence can’t be found that’s because it’s not there.

Richard Painter, a former associate counsel in the Bush White House, told Newsweek that the failure to deliver on the promised meals with Trump could be criminal. “You’re raising campaign cash, you’re lying to people. If you obtain money from people through false pretenses that’s a violation of federal mail fraud and wire fraud statutes,” Painter said.

There’s even a law saying they have to disclose the winners, and they’re even breaking that law. It’s like a compulsion with this guy.

Under numerous state laws, the Trump campaign is required to provide the winner of each contest upon request. That’s why the Trump campaign’s official rules of each contest state it will do so if you send a self-addressed stamped envelope.

REQUESTING RULES, NAME OF WINNER, OR DESCRIPTION OF PRIZE: To receive a written copy of the Promotion rules, the name of the Promotion winner, or a description of the Prize, please send your request and a self-addressed and stamped return envelope to Trump Make America Great Again Committee, 138 Conant Street, 2nd Floor, Beverly, MA 01915.

(Some contests list a different address.)

But a New York Times reporter, Katie Rogers, revealed on Tuesday that she had sent “several letters” via this process but did not receive a response. The Trump campaign’s failure to respond likely violates state law.

Is needing to watch Fox News an alibi?

Giuliani is running the State Department, apparently.

A State Department official told lawmakers that Rudy Giuliani’s attacks were part of a “campaign of lies” against the former Ukraine ambassador, according to a transcript released Thursday.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent testified that President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer’s actions contributed to his decision not to speak out internally about Giuliani in the run up to the July phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian President. Kent, who oversees US policy on Ukraine, told lawmakers that he did not the speak to anyone at State to express his concerns about Giuliani because he had previously been told to “keep my head down” after Giuliani attacked him by name.

Kent is a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State while Giuliani is just some guy (and a very crooked sleazy bad sort of guy at that), but it’s Giuliani shutting Kent up about State Department business. Are there any grownups on the premises?

“I did not, in part because after Giuliani attacked me, as well as (then-US ambassador to Ukraine Marie) Yovanovitch and the entire embassy, in his late May interview, I was told to keep my head down and lower my profile in Ukraine,” Kent testified in October.

Because they wouldn’t want to do anything to annoy rando friend of Trump’s, now would they.

Via Louise Moody on Twitter: a woman writes to the Liberal Democrats:

I am gender critical – that means that whilst I believe transgender people should not face and discrimination or abuse for their transgender status, I do not believe people can change biological sex.

The reply is not very inclooosiv.

By the sounds of your email it appears that your values are not aligned with ours so we are probably not the right the party for you.

That’s not telling her she can’t join, which parties probably can’t do at the membership level, but it sure as hell is giving her reason not to. “If you don’t believe that people can change their biological sex your values are not aligned with ours” – so they’re the monster raving loony party now? A view on a material question of fact=non-alignment with all liberal democratic values?

People have lost their damn minds.

Oh no, an academic – at Goldsmiths no less! – pretended to be non-binary. Pretended! Would you believe it?!

A university academic has sparked outrage after claiming to be transgender and asking students to call her ‘Mx Tippy Rampage’ before admitting it was a satirical character for a book.

Dawn Mellor, who was ‘the preferred tutor for transgender and non-binary students’ at Goldsmiths University in south-east London, inhabited the ‘toxic and unpleasant’ character online for several years.

Mellor, who demanded the use of gender neutral pronouns, has now been blasted by the LGBTQ+ community for ‘treating transgender lives as a… performance piece.’

A performance piece – how could nonbinary identity possibly be seen as a performance piece?!

An LGBT+ officer at fellow London university Queen Mary blasted Mellor on Twitter.

Florence, of QMUL Labour Society, said: ‘A lecturer at Goldsmiths has been pretending to be non binary for four years for a f****** book she’s been writing… Dawn Mellor you should be ashamed.’

The university officer added: ‘Dawn Mellor has been going by “Tippy Rampage”, who has presented as non-binary with they/them pronouns for YEARS, and had become the preferred tutor choice for trans/nb students, and it’s all turned out to be writing material.’

Another said: ‘This is such a disgusting breach of trust and I’m offended and so hurt on behalf of the trans/nb community who must’ve trusted her.’

How could they not have trusted her? How could anyone? It’s absolutely forbidden to doubt anyone’s Idenniny, remember?

Age won’t save you, political office won’t save you, time at Auschwitz won’t save you.

An 89-year-old Holocaust survivor in Italy has been assigned police guards for protection after receiving hundreds of threats on social media.

Liliana Segre, who was sent to the notorious Auschwitz death camp at 13, has been subjected to a barrage of anti-Semitic messages in recent days.

Auschwitz was a work camp as well as a death camp. She necessarily must have been sent to the work camp, because if she hadn’t she wouldn’t be alive now. There was no waiting period: it was straight from the train to the Zyklon B room. Anne and Margot Frank were also in the work camp, where they died of typhus days before the Russians reached Auschwitz.

It comes after Ms Segre, an Italian life senator, called for parliament to establish a committee to combat hate.

The motion passed despite a lack of support by Italy’s right-wing parties.

Members of the nationalist League party, led by Matteo Salvini, the centre-right Forza Italia and the far-right Brothers of Italy all abstained from the vote in Milan last week.

The pro-hate alliance.

The motion called for the establishment of an extraordinary commission in Italy to combat all forms of racism, anti-Semitism, incitement to hatred and violence on ethnic and religious grounds.

Well naturally racists and anti-Semites and people who enjoy inciting hatred and violence aren’t going to like that.

Segre said she felt like a Martian after all the abstentions.

Since then, she has reported receiving as many as 200 hate messages a day.

Some of the threats have been so serious that the prefect of Milan, Renato Saccone, held a meeting on Wednesday with the committee for security and public order, where it was agreed that Ms Segre needed police protection.

May she live long and prosper.

The Star Vancouver reported that protesters showed up outside Meghan Murphy’s talk on Saturday despite the last minute announcement of the location.

Some protesters carried signs proclaiming that “Trans rights are human rights” and “Trans women are women.”

The event was originally scheduled to take place at Simon Fraser University, but was moved after the senior director of campus security said there was a high safety concern.

The talk included Meghan Murphy, a freelance writer who opposes trans rights, saying they threaten the rights of cisgender women.

Oh but that’s wrong – she doesn’t “oppose trans rights” – not the ones that comport with everyone else’s rights. She opposes special, new, invented “rights” like the “right” to be affirmed and validated and hugged and squeezed as whatever gender one “identities as.” She doesn’t oppose the human rights of trans people, but “trans rights” that cancel the human rights of other people.

Here they are, the darlings:

The pink sign on the right says “your identity is valid EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT ENTIRELY SURE WHAT IT IS”

Define “valid”…

Well now here’s a turnup for the books: Scottish Labour has deselected a candidate for tweeting an image that calls Joanna Cherry a TERF and implies she should be shot.

The Scottish Labour candidate who posted a controversial image on Twitter involving her SNP rival has been dropped by the party.

Frances Hoole, a care and support worker, had been chosen to stand as the Labour candidate in the General Election in the Edinburgh South West constituency, attempting to unseat incumbent MP Joanna Cherry.

However last week Ms Hoole, who has been part of Labour’s Jo Cox leadership programme, posted an image on Twitter in which she and Ms Cherry had been photo-shopped, with the caption “Bang! And the terf is gone”.

Hoole deleted the tweet but here is the image:

Says it all, doesn’t it.

Joanna Cherry shared the image, tweeting: “Earlier this year I received a death threat & a storm of misogynistic abuse for defending #womensrights. The @scottishlabour candidate standing against me in #EdinburghSouthWest thinks it’s funny. I hope she will apologise & engage in respectful debate #GE19.”

Hoole, a graduate of Labour Jo Cox leadership programme, then claimed she didn’t “perceive” the image as a threat.

Nicely done, mentioning Jo Cox again – to remind us that in Jo Cox’s case “BANG!” meant she was dead, murdered by an angry man with a gun.

We may hate him but the Russians don’t.

Russian experts, government officials, and prominent talking heads often deride the American president for his Twitter clangor, haphazard approach to foreign policy, clownish lack of decorum, and unfiltered stream of verbalized consciousness. But all the reasons they believe Trump “isn’t a very good president” for America are precisely their reasons for thinking he is so great for Russia.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Russian client whose regime teetered on the brink of collapse only to be saved definitively by Trump’s chaotic approach to the Middle East, recently said that “President Trump is the best type of president for a foe.” The Russians heartily agree. The Trump presidency has been wildly successful for Russia, which is eagerly stepping into every vacuum created by the retreat of the United States on the world stage.

Glad we could help.

“They say Trump is making Russia great. That’s basically accurate,” pointed out Karen Shakhnazarov, CEO of Mosfilm Studio and a prominent fixture on Russian state television. “The chaos brought by Trump into the American system of government is weakening the United States. America is getting weaker and now Russia is taking its place in the Middle East. Suddenly, Russia is starting to seriously penetrate Africa… So when they say that Trump is weakening the United States—yes, he is. And that’s why we love him… The more problems they have, the better it is for us.”

MAGA!

Some months back “Jessica” Yaniv was Twitter-promoting a municipal pool party for teenagers and making it creepily obvious he was being creepy and pervy about it, and then he got suspended from Twitter for awhile and was preoccupied with losing his suit against the women who didn’t want to pull the hairs out of his scrotum. But now! It’s all happening all over again.

Yaniv:

THANK YOU to the @CityofSurrey for putting on an All Bodies Youth Swim Pool Party for #LGBTQ youth ages 13-18. Taking place at the Newton Recreation Centre on Nov 10th! All my LGBTQ2 allies please call (604) 501-5540 to show your support! So happy! https://surrey.ca/culture-recreation/30270.aspx #Surrey

So I follow the link, and: he’s not making it up.

Youth All-Bodies Pool Party

All bodies! Like for instance this hairless slender white female one right here. But anyway…

All Genders | All Sexualities | No Judgement
Youth ages 13-18 are invited for a fun, free evening swim. LGBTQ2S+ & allies are welcome. The All-Bodies Swim will include the water slide, waves, hot tub and much more.

Kids of 13 are being invited to an all sexualities pool party? Along with much older kids? Is that really such a brilliant idea, even without Yaniv lurking?

Dress Code
Wear what works for you – but remember clothes must be clean and fresh, not the ones you wear to the event and please no denim or shoes in pool.

Please consider the comfort levels of others.

Important Details
For the safety and privacy of youth attending the event, note that parents, guardians and other adults are not permitted. Parents or guardians can drop youth at the front entrance and Youth Engagement staff will safely welcome them into the facility to participate in the All-Bodies Swim event.

Wtf?

Am I wrong in thinking this is a very bizarre thing for a municipal body to be doing? For older teenagers, go ahead, knock yourselves out, but this?

I wonder if they’ll be teaching the kids how to do “breath play”…

The Democrat seems to have won the governor’s race in Kentucky despite or because of Trump’s rally there on Monday. If so, the Republican has flagrantly disobeyed Trump’s orders.

After all, the President was in Kentucky the day before Tuesday’s election. And he said this to Bevin: “If you lose, they’re going to say Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world. This was the greatest. You can’t let that happen to me!”

His modest self-effacement never ceases to amaze.

Chris Cillizza goes on to compare the charisma-levels of Bevin and Trump.

Trump is an entertainer, with a type of wit, humor and real charisma. Bevin, well, isn’t. Where Trump comes across to his supporters as a hugely successful businessman who can and will tell anyone in the country (or the world!) exactly what he thinks of them, Bevin reads more humorless scold. Trump without the personality isn’t a winner.

I’m not seeing it. I know that’s because I’m of that other political persuasion, and a snob and all the other bullshit, but even so – I think I’m not seeing it because it isn’t there. I’m not seeing “a type of wit, humor and real charisma” – what type would that be exactly? What I see is the windbag who sits next to you on the bus or stands behind you in the queue and seizes the occasion to listen to his own voice. (Yes, his, it’s more of a guy thing.) What I see is the guy who thinks he has a type of wit, humor and real charisma but doesn’t. I’ve known guys like that. I still know guys like that. I assume we all have and do? He has zero wit. He has “humor” in the form of mean jokes. He has negative charisma.

What he does have is a lot of flash and a reputation for being enormously rich. Without that he would be the guy everyone avoids at parties, end of story. As for the “who can and will tell anyone in the country (or the world!) exactly what he thinks of them” – give me a break. He’ll do that to people he perceives as weaker than he is. Now that he’s bullied his way into the presidency that is of course most people, but it’s also still bullying. It’s not telling the truth without fear or favor, it’s bullying. Let’s not confuse the two.

Updating to add: story from 2018. She’s now been promoted to his adviser though, so the information is hotly relevant.

Ah the old “send me money and God will reward you tenfold” scam, this time from Trump’s “spiritual adviser.” Yeah right.

Paula White, who heads up the president’s evangelical advisory committee, suggested making a donation to her ministries to honor the religious principle of “first fruit,” which she said is the idea that all firsts belong to God, including the first harvest and, apparently, the first month of your salary.

“Right now I want you to click on that button, and I want you to honor God with his first fruits offering,” she said in a video shared to her website, in which she encourages her followers to donate to her ministries to get blessings from God.

…

In her newest video, the pastor encourages people to send her money, stating, “Each January, I put God first and honor him with the first of our substance by sowing a first fruits offering of one month’s pay. That is a big sacrifice, but it is a seed for the harvest I am believing for in the coming year. And God always provides!”

Those who send White money, which she suggests belongs to God, will see positive consequences, she claims.

But how do people know sending her money means it’s going to God? (And what does God want with money anyway? It’s not as if God’s short on the rent this month.)

“When you sow a First Fruits Offering of $75 or more, I will rush to you the book, the devotional and also a Paula White 2018 wall calendar! Track throughout the entire year prioritizing God with me!” her website says.

Oooh a book and a calendar for 75 bucks! Plus salvation!